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Americans approve of Obama’s jobs bill

2011-10-13T03:42:00.000-07:00

Senate Republicans Tuesday may have blocked President Obama's jobs bill, but a new poll suggests that's not what a majority of Americans want.

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents to a survey from NBC/Wall Street Journal voiced their approval when pollsters were told them the details of the president's "American Jobs Act"-- including that it would cut payroll taxes, fund new road construction, and extend unemployment benefits. NBC reports that 63 percent of respondents said they favored the bill, with just 32 percent opposing it.

But the numbers for the bill only spike when Americans learn about its provisions in some detail. When NBC pollsters asked for a simple up-or-down appraisal of the bill, minus any policy details, the same group of respondents expressed less than half the level of support that they later showed. "When asked simply if Congress should pass the legislation or not, 30 percent of respondents answer yes, while 22 percent say no; 44 percent have no opinion," according to NBC.

One element of the bill in particular enjoyed wide support--Obama's proposal to remove tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans. Sixty-four percent of respondents said it is a "good idea" to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Thirty-one percent said it was a bad idea.

The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points is set for release Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

On Tuesday evening, senate Republicans joined together to filibuster the president's jobs bill--denying efforts to begin formal debate on the legislation even though a majority of senators had already voted to advance the bill in a 50-49 vote.

In time of need, Jordan silent in labor talks

2011-10-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Michael Jordan won six NBA championships and delivered several of the league’s most iconic moments during his remarkable career. The greater the pressure, the greater he played. Even now, more than eight years after his retirement – and more than 11 years after his unforgettable shot over Bryon Russell gave the Chicago Bullsthe last of those six titles – Jordan’s legacy remains as vibrant as ever. This generation’s players still wear his No. 23 jersey, and, yes, his shoes remain among the most popular in the world. He’s gone from the court to the owner’s suite, and somehow he makes more in endorsement money now than he did as a player.

All of which makes it distressing that Jordan has been largely invisible in the NBA’s ongoing labor standoff. He fought in this battle as a player and now he’s on the opposite side as owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. He can offer a unique perspective at the negotiating table – if only he’d take a seat at the table.

The awkwardness of Jordan’s position – many of the same star players his ownership peers are negotiating against are part of his Jordan Brand stable – might have contributed to him distancing himself from the talks. But with NBA commissioner David Stern just cancelling the first two weeks of the season and putting the rest of the 2011-12 schedule on notice, the league would benefit from having Jordan’s presence at any future negotiations. Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said he and Stern will meet with a federal mediator next week – a positive step – but if there’s any one person within the league who can coax the two sides closer toward a middle ground, it’s likely Jordan.

In simpler terms: The NBA once again needs its greatest player to come through in the clutch.

Jordan’s background in the league is as diverse as anyone’s: He’s gone from star player to general manager to owner. He played (and worked) in big markets in Chicago and Washington, and is now trying to make the small-market Bobcats relevant in Charlotte. He entered the league making $630,000 as a rookie and earned as much as $33 million for a single season. He’s the only African-American majority owner in a league predominantly made up of African-Americans.

Royal wedding captivates tiny kingdom

2011-10-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

PUNAKHA, Bhutan (AP) — The beloved king of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan married his commoner bride Thursday in an ancient Buddhist ceremony at the country's most sacred monastery fortress.

King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, wearing the raven crown, came down from his golden throne in front of a huge statue of Buddha to place a smaller, silk brocade crown upon the head of his bride, Jetsun Pema. Monks chanted in celebration as she took her seat beside him as the new queen of the country.

The wedding has captivated the nation, which had grown impatient with their 31-year-old bachelor king's lack of urgency to find a bride and start a family of his own since his father retired and handed power to him five years ago.

Children composed poems, flight attendants practiced celebratory dances and posters of the couple were nearly ubiquitous.

The celebrations began at 8:20 a.m. — a time set by royal astrologers — when the king, wearing the royal yellow sash, walked into the courtyard of the 17th century monastery in the old capital of Punakha and proceeded up the high staircase inside. A few minutes later, his 21-year-old bride arrived at the end of a procession of red-robed monks and flag bearers across a wooden footbridge over the wide, blue river beside the fort and followed him inside.

Singers chanted songs of celebration amid the clanging of drums and the drone of long dhung trumpets. She wore a traditional wraparound skirt with a gold jacket with deep red cuffs.

Inside, the nation's top cleric, who presided over the wedding, performed a purification ceremony for the couple in front of a massive 100-foot Thongdal tapestry of Bhutan's 17th century founder, the monk-king Zhabdrung.

The pair then proceeded to the temple for a ceremony broadcast live on national television, save for a few minutes when the king, his father and the cleric, known as the Je Khenpo, entered the sacred tomb of Zhabdrung, where only they are allowed.

The king's father then gave the bride an array of five colored scarves representing blessings from the tomb. Hesitantly, she then approached the king's throne with a golden chalice filled with the ambrosia of eternal life. They held it together for several seconds and then he drank.

The king, wearing his red Raven Crown, with an image of the protector bird rising from the top, came down from the throne and placed a smaller crown on her head. After she took her place as queen, the newly married couple was feted by monks playing deep tones on traditional trumpets and pounding drums.

The Je Khenpo presented them a series of gifts — a mirror, curd, grass, a conch — representing blessings for longevity, wisdom, purity and other well wishes.

Unlike this year's other royal wedding — that of Britain's William and Kate — there were no foreign princes, no visiting heads of state, no global celebrities. Just the royal family, thousands of nearby villagers gathered at a nearby field waiting for the royal couple to celebrate with them and the rest of the country's 700,000 people watching live on TV.

"The whole theme of the wedding was to keep it a simple family affair, that is the Bhutanese family," said Kinley Dorji, Bhutan's secretary of information.

The Oxford-educated king is adored for pushing development and ushering in democratic reforms that established a constitutional monarchy and legislature in 2008. His teen-idol looks — slicked back hair, long sideburns — his penchant for evening bike rides through the streets and his reputation as a laid-back, accessible leader, also make him the rare monarch whose picture adorns the bedroom walls of teenage girls.

His bride, the daughter of a pilot, has been on an introductory tour of the remote villages of the nation since the king told Parliament in May, "It's now time for me to marry."

The remote nation began slowly opening up to the rest of the world in the 1960s. Foreigners and the international media were first admitted in 1974. Television finally arrived in 1999.

The country has not had a royal wedding since the fourth king held a mass ceremony in 1988 with his four wives — four sisters whom he had informally married years earlier. The current king says he will take only one wife, so the country is unlikely to see another such celebration for a long time.

China's soaring new skyscraper

2011-10-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

REFILE - CLARIFYING CAPTION The newly inaugurated skyscraper tower of Huaxi village is seen in Huaxi village, Jiangsu province, October 7, 2011. Huaxi, also know as China's richest village, celebrates its 50th anniversary with the inauguration of a massive 328-meters (1,076 feet) high skyscraper that screams for attention from its lowly skyline. A solid gold bull weighing a tonne also greets visitors at a viewing area on the 60th-floor of the tower, a testament to the wealth of the village. In Huaxi, those from the original 2,000 residents have at least a house, a car, and $250,000 in the bank and enjoy universal health care and free education. Officials from elsewhere in China tour Huaxi to find out how this once sleepy village, with just 576 residents in the 1950s, is now so rich and why non-local businessmen would donate million-dollar factories to buy the privilege of a local residence permit. Picture take on October 7, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (CHINA - Tags: ANNIVERSARY BUSINESS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY WEALTH)

Sea Monster Possibly Discovered

2011-10-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

A giant sea monster, the likes of the mythological kraken, may have swum Earth's ancient oceans, snagging what was thought to be the sea's top predators — school bus-size ichthyosaurs with fearsome teeth.

The kraken, which would've been nearly 100 feet (30 meters) long, or twice the size of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis, likely drowned or broke the necks of the ichthyosaurs before dragging the corpses to its lair, akin to an octopus's midden, according to study researcher Mark McMenamin, a paleontologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. [Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology]

There is no direct evidence for the beast, though McMenamin suggests that's because it was soft-bodied and didn't stand the test of time; even so, to make a firm case for its existence one would want to find more direct evidence.

McMenamin presented his work Monday (Oct. 10) at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis.

Cause of death

Evidence for the kraken and its gruesome attacks comes from markings on the bones of the remains of nine 45-foot (14 meter) ichthyosaurs of the species Shonisaurus popularis, which lived during the Triassic, a period that lasted from 248 million to 206 million years ago. The beasts were the Triassic version of today's predatory giant squid-eating sperm whales.

McMenamin was interested in solving a long-standing puzzle over the cause of death of the S. popularis individuals at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada. An expert on the site, Charles Lewis Camp of U.C. Berkeley, suggested in the 1950s that the ichthyosaurs succumbed to an accidental stranding or a toxic plankton bloom. However, nobody has been able to prove the beasts died in shallow water, with more recent work on the rocks around the fossils by Jennifer Hogler, then at the University of California Museum of Paleontoloy, suggesting they died in a deepwater environment. [See image of kraken's lair]

"I was aware that anytime there is controversy about depth, there is probably something interesting going on," McMenamin said. And when he and his daughter arrived at the park, they were struck by the remains' strangeness, particularly "a very odd configuration of bones."

The etching on the bones suggested the shonisaurs were not all killed and buried at the same time, he said. It also looked like the bones had been purposefully rearranged, likely carried to the "kraken's lair" after they had been killed. A similar behavior has been seen in modern octopus.

The markings and rearrangement of the S. popularis bones suggests an octopus-like creature (like a kraken) either drowned the ichthyosaurs or broke their necks, according to McMenamin.

The arranged vertebrae also seemed to resemble the pattern of sucker disks on a cephalopod's tentacle, with each vertebra strongly resembling a sucker made by a member of the Coleoidea, which includes octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and their relatives. The researchers suggest this pattern reveals a self-portrait of the mysterious beast.

The perfect crime?

Next, McMenamin wondered if an octopus-like creature could realistically have taken out the huge swimming predatory reptiles. Evidence is in their favor, it seems. Video taken by staff at the Seattle Aquarium showed that a large octopus in one of their large tanks had been killing the sharks. [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]

"We think that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same thing," McMenamin said. More supporting evidence: There were many more broken ribs seen in the shonisaur fossils than would seem accidental, as well as evidence of twisted necks.

"It was either drowning them or breaking their necks," McMenamin said.

So where did this kraken go? Since octopuses are mostly soft-bodied they don't fossilize well and scientists wouldn't expect to find their remains from so long ago. Only their beaks, or mouthparts, are hard and the chances of those being preserved nearby are very low, according to the researchers.

With such circumstanial evidence of "the crime," McMenamin expects his interpretation will draw skeptics. And, in fact, it has. Brian Switek, a research associate at the New Jersey State Museum, writing for Wired.com, is extremely skeptical, writing, "The McMenamins' entire case is based on peculiar inferences about the site. It is a case of reading the scattered bones as if they were tea leaves able to tell someone’s fortune. Rather than being distributed through the bonebed by natural processes related to decay and preservation, the McMenamins argue that the Shonisaurus bones were intentionally arrayed in a 'midden' by a huge cephalopod nearly 100 feet long" (McMenamin worked with his wife, Dianna Schulte McMenamin on the study.)

As for how McMenamin would respond to critics: "We're ready for this. We have a very good case," he said.

Champ defends belt against nemesis

2011-10-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

Edgar then dove on top and brutally finished Maynard with a series of ground strikes – which Maynard couldn’t do to him in the first round of either of their two championship fights – to retain the belt. Referee Josh Rosenthal jumped in to stop it at 3:54 as Edgar won the final fight of their trilogy to keep the lightweight belt.

It was a dramatic turnaround for Edgar, who looked like he was on the verge of being finished early. Edgar ended the fight with his left eye virtually closed and blood pouring from his nose and mouth.

The main event was one of two title fights on a stacked card that featured some of the UFC’s biggest names.

The co-main event, a featherweight title bout between Jose Aldo Jr. and Kenny Florian, didn’t bring anyone out of their seats. Aldo wasn’t spectacular and he did not have any devastating strikes. But he did enough to hold on to his belt in a grueling unanimous decision victory over Florian.

Domestic abuse no longer a crime?

2011-10-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

A bitter argument over money in Topeka, Kan., means that city and county authorities have neglected to prosecute or charge people suspected of domestic battery since Sept. 8.

In other words, the local justice system has spent a month effectively sending the message that misdemeanor domestic assault will go unpunished--at least for now.

The dispute started last month, when Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced that a 10 percent budget cut to his office in 2012 meant he would no longer be prosecuting any of the city's misdemeanors, effective immediately. Topeka city council members say they can't afford the estimated $800,000 yearly cost of prosecuting those misdemeanors and jailing offenders--and that they want the county to continue carrying out misdemeanor prosecutions as it has for the past 25 years. The county continues to insist that the jurisdiction for these prosecutions should shift to city prosecutors, but the Topeka City Council says that none of the city's five attorneys has any recent experience prosecuting domestic violence cases.

Next week, the council will vote on a measure that will strip domestic battery from a list of crimes that are illegal in the city. The vote is a tactical bid to force the county to take those cases on again.

City Council member Larry Wolgast told The Lookout he's opposed to that tactic, since there's no guarantee that the county will actually prosecute domestic battery cases just because the city decriminalizes the offense. But Wolgast also says the city cannot find the money to prosecute the cases themselves. "If we could just solve this by taking them over, that would be great to do. But the people aren't there," he said. He added that the most severe cases of domestic battery would be written up as felonies, which are still prosecuted by the county.

Karen Hiller, another City Council member, tells The Lookout that the county already has the resources needed to prosecute these kind of cases, while the city--which doesn't even have its own jail--would have to build from the ground up. Taylor would need an extra $200,000 to continue prosecuting them, while the city would have to spend nearly $1 million.

"How could we possibly do this on 10 minutes notice?" she said.

A domestic abuse survivor and activist, Claudine Dombrowski, told Fox4 that the city is sending the message that it's OK to beat your wife or husband.

"They need to invest in headstones, because these women are going to end up in cemeteries," Dombrowski told the station. She said she was hit with a crowbar in a domestic violence incident classified as a misdemeanor 16 years ago.

Wolgast says he's not sure when the jurisdictional dispute will end. When asked to address potential victims of domestic abuse whose perpetrators are not being prosecuted, he said: "We're working to solve the situation. I don't know what more I can say at this point."

According to James Anderson at the Topeka Police Department, city authorities have arrested 20 people on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery since Sept. 8. Anderson said he doesn't know how many were charged, but Shawnee County court data suggests that all of the suspected offenders were released and not charged. One man was arrested twice over the month, both times on suspected domestic battery, and released both times. Their cases will be brought up for prosecution again once the city and county resolve their dispute, according to Hiller.

In Kansas, domestic battery is defined as "intentionally or recklessly causing bodily harm by a family or household member against a family or household member," or intentionally physically contacting a family member in a "rude, insulting or angry manner." The third time someone is convicted of domestic battery within five years, the offense becomes a felony.

Should you wait for the iPhone 5?

2011-10-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Apple has unleashed all the juicy details on the newest member of the iPhone family, the iPhone 4S — and with it, a torrent of consumer angst over whether or not to buy the latest and greatest Apple smartphone when it launches October 14, or hold out for the inevitable iPhone 5.

Whether or not an iPhone 4S purchase makes sense for you will depend on a number of factors: are you currently under contract with an earlier iPhone model or other smartphone? Do you have the now last-generation iPhone 4, or the even older iPhone 3GS model? Are you hankering to switch cell carriers?

Read on for some advice on whether or not the iPhone 4S would be a good purchase, depending on which of the following camps you're currently in. The ultimate decision is all yours, and of course a very personal one: let us know what your gameplan is in the comments!

Current iPhone 3GS or earlier owners

If you bought the iPhone 3GS when it first came out back in June of 2009, or are still rocking either the iPhone 3G or the original iPhone, you should be clear of the 2-year contract you signed then, making the iPhone 4S a very sensible upgrade for you. In fact, Apple knows full well it needs to craft its phone hardware strategy around this typical 2-year cycle, and the arguably less than earth-shattering upgrades between the iPhone 3G and 3GS, and now the 4 and 4S, were actively designed to appeal to consumers two generations behind (you can check out a feature comparison of the latter three devices here).

Apple tribute logo a Web hit

2011-10-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

When Steve Jobs resigned from Apple in August, 7,000 miles away in Hong Kong, graphic design student Jonathan Mak Long, "shocked" by the CEO's departure, did what he knew best: He created a design to honor the Apple co-founder.

The 19-year-old posted the image, the Apple logo with the bite changed to a profile of Jobs, to hisTumblr blog. Known as Jonathan Mak, he initially received about 80 notes on the image. Then word came this past Wednesday that Jobs had died, after a long battle with cancer. Mak reposted the homage, which this time caught fire on the Web, attracting an almost immediate response of 10,000 likes and reblogs on his Tumblr site and surging to 180,000 -- in one day. Comments included "awesome invention like steve jobs." One thought it should be the "new Apple logo." Another wanted to "use it as a tattoo."

Speaking in fluent English (which he said he learned from watching the TV show "Friends"), thePolytechnic University School of Design student told Yahoo! in a Skype interview that the image was a tribute to Jobs's contributions to the world: "I wanted to commemorate him. He's such an integral part of Apple. I thought it would be fitting to include him in the Apple logo." Long added, "With Jobs gone, Apple is literally missing a piece."

The artist was inspired by the uncompromising personality of the creative genius. He said of Jobs: "He had this vision that he was not afraid to commit to. That's how he broke new ground. His commitment and belief in himself is what inspire me." The designer's vision for his own work is an aesthetic that joins a simple graphic element with a richer meaning, giving the viewer, as he put it, an "a-ha moment."

The cyber tribute that became a hit, and along with attracting media attention, the logo found itself as the preferred profile pic on Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account and on merchandise featured on eBay. While the design prodigy has received several job offers, but he hasn't acted on them; "I'm still a student," he said. The artist has a portfolio of minimalist design, but don't call him an Apple fanboy. "I just got my first MacBook Pro a year ago," he admitted -- and he still doesn't own an iPhone.

Asked whether he'd gotten any response from Apple, Mak said he had emailed CEO Tim Cook but so far hadn't heard back.

Bold Mansion Owners Are Raising Prices

2011-10-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Trying to unload a mega-mansion in today’s market? Instead of making it seem like a fire sale, join the contrarians playing hardball. Rather than lowering the listing price when the manse doesn’t sell, buck conventional wisdom and hike up the asking price. After all, if they really want your trophy home, what’s another million or two?

Using data from listing sites Trulia.com, Zillow.com and Realtor.com, along with help from the folks at Sotheby’s International Realty, Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group, we tracked upscale homes where the ante’s been upped. The hike sometimes occurs with a change in brokers and strategy, when the furniture’s tossed in to sweeten the deal, or when construction is finally finished.

For prospective buyers, a raised price on a luxury residence may make the home “even more special or desirable than he or she first considered and worth the extra dollars,” explained Dr. Barry Farber, a psychology professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. While spiking the price tag may deter buyers on a shoestring budget, “it may intrigue those for whom a higher price reflects their own sense of worth and success in the world.”

“If it’s one of a kind, if you really want that house, you are going to get it” said Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman. “If you can afford $3 million, you can afford $4 million.”

Here are five mega-homes

Alpine, N.J.

Behind the gates of this 30,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom palace, a heated driveway leads to a motor court with an 11-car garage. The grand reception rooms, including a ballroom, have 12-foot ceilings. For fun, there’s an indoor basketball court, an 18-seat home movie theater, a 4,000-bottle wine cellar, a 65-foot saltwater pool and separate pool house with kitchen and two baths, and a tennis court. Demonstrating how serious he was about the price, the owner raised it without losing multiple bidders.

East Hampton, N.Y.

It's all about location and the views at this cedar shingle-sided home, where the price was recently jacked upon completion. Situated “south of the highway” in East Hampton, the .85 acre property abuts Further Lane Farm, a 40-acre reserve and has views of the ocean from the second floor. Outdoor amenities include a heated Gunite pool and spa, three showers and a fireplace and a separate pool house has a full bath and kitchenette.

Boca Raton, Fla.

Like a private resort, this contemporary seven-bedroom home on 2.32 acres has its own dock on 600 feet of lakefront within a gated community. Other splashy amenities include a front courtyard fountain, a central atrium with a waterfall, a backyard pool, tennis court and guest house. The price was hiked because the owners decided to sell the home fully furnished.

Bel Air, Calif.

A touch of Tuscany with a stone and stucco façade imbued with a contemporary flair and walls that open for indoor/outdoor living set high in the hills in the gated community of Bel Air Crest with golf course views. Finished last year, the owner/builder is selling the three-level mega-home fully furnished and stocked with over-the-top amenities from a dine-in wine cellar, game room, elevator and three bar areas to a luxe spa with whirlpool, sauna, steam room and massage area. An appraiser was apparently wowed, jacking the price up $2.3 million.

Yonkers, N.Y.

A one-of-a-kind historical home, it was difficult to appraise this 14,000-square-foot historical castle with Tiffany and John La Farge windows and a copper-clad conservatory sitting on the Hudson River in Westchester County. After showing it over the summer, the owner, a well-known museum curator who spent a decade restoring the fantasy manse, decided that buying a castle isn’t usually a logical decision -- therefore hiking the price by $1.3 million wouldn’t deter buyers. Besides, a million-dollar-plus new slate roof, installed two years ago, cost nearly the difference, a private chapel still has its original three-story-high organ, a sitting room fireplace is embellished with semi-precious stones and the octagonal-shaped ballroom sports a hand-carved 17th-century ceiling. Priceless.

2011-10-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

For the past two years, Herman Cain has written a weekly column for WorldNetDaily, a website that is the online hub for people who believe that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Not one of Cain's 113 columns broaches the topic of Obama's birth. He has used his WorldNetDaily column to build support for his presidential candidacy, outline his policy ideas on health care and economics and clarify his positions on the campaign trail.

Cain, a Georgia businessman who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has catapulted in recent polls into the field's top tier, following his victory last month at the Florida straw poll. His decision to associate himself with the birther movement's flagship publication could hinder his attempt to shift from a tea party star into a leading Republican presidential candidate.

Best New-Car Deals For October

2011-10-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

Automakers seem to have missed the news that the nation was still suffering from a recession last month, as new-car sales continued to swell, with some brands posting record numbers. Concurrently, incentives on some vehicles are becoming slimmer and in many cases nonexistent, particularly among smaller and more fuel-efficient models that continue to be in demand among fuel-price-sensitive shoppers.

This month we’re seeing the first real round of model-year 2012 sales incentives, particularly on larger cars and SUVs that have fallen off many consumers’ shopping lists. Even better bargains can be found on closeout 2011 models that sit like ticking time bombs on dealer lots racking up financing costs while current model-year rides usurp their positions on showroom floors. As an example, the richest incentive we could find this month was a $10,000 additional dealer discount on the limited production 2011 BMW Alpina B7, which is the ultimate expression of the full-size 7 Series luxury sedan at a whopping $128,900.

Normally we wouldn’t necessarily recommend choosing one of what are now last year’s models to save an extra thousand dollars or two, especially since they would be subject to an additional year’s depreciation. But residual/used-car values have skyrocketed in recent years, which flatten out the depreciation curve considerably and make these year-end closeouts better deals. According to Kelley Blue Book, given a shrinking supply of used models in recent years from slow new-car sales and other factors, the average price of a pre-owned vehicle has risen from $15,000 in 2008 to more than $23,000 in 2011, which amounts to an increase of 15.8 percent per year.

With incentives tending to be the richest on larger and more practically minded vehicles this month, and with football season in full swing, we’re focusing on models that are not only offering the deepest discounts but also happen to be best suited for tailgating. These include models featuring direct-to-consumer cash rebates, discounted financing promotions and so-called marketing-support incentives, which we call additional dealer discounts. Typically favored by luxury automakers, the latter are cash allowances given to dealers to lower the prices on select models without seeming to cheapen the brand by offering cash rebates. The only catch is that a dealer may or may not automatically pass them on without some hard-nosed negotiations.

And just to prove that you can park a suitable tailgating vehicle that’s small enough to leave enough room in the allotted slot for a table and chairs, we include the diminutive and fuel-efficient Suzuki SX4 Crossover hatchback.

Read on for the 6 new car deals that can help make even a losing season enjoyable.

The Fine Print: Additional incentives may apply, such as those often offered to recent college graduates and members of the military and/or owners or lessees trading in same-brand or competing models. Offers may vary by region and are subject to subsequent modification or termination by the manufacturer; cited financing rates are typically open only to qualified buyers with top credit ratings and may vary based on eligibility. And no matter how great a rebate deal you may be offered, keep in mind that the final transaction price is always open to negotiation. We expect dealer discounts on any of these vehicles will be substantial for hard-nosed hagglers.

2011 Dodge RAM 1500
Deal: $4,250 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 72 months. With its big and bold styling, the full-size Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck is easy to spot, even in a crowded parking lot. Offered in a choice of three cab styles, with rear- or four-wheel-drive and a choice of V6 and V8 engines, the Ram 1500 can please a wide variety of pickup aficionados. It offers a full assortment of tailgating features, including an optional “RamBox” cargo system with lockable, illuminated and drainable storage bins built into the cargo bed rails that can hold up to 10 cases of 12-ounce beverages. Crew Cab versions feature two floor-mounted storage bins with removable liners that are large enough for ten 12-ounce cans and ice. An available cargo rail system can help secure the grill, folding table and other essentials. Also on the options list is a fan-friendly rear entertainment system with hard-drive media storage for digital music, and a dealer-installed Wi-Fi system that turns the Ram 1500 into a rolling Internet hot spot for checking sports scores and highlights.

2011 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo
Deal: $3,500 additional dealer discount and 2.9 percent financing to 36 months, 3.9 to 72 months. Essentially longer and taller versions of the BMW 5 Series sedans, the 535 and 550 Gran Turismo models sport a sleekly curved roofline and a rear hatchback for a unique combination of coupe-like stylishness and wagon-like convenience. Best of all, both retain the sedan’s adept ride and handling characteristics with a choice of a 300-horsepower six-cylinder engine or a V-8 with 400 horses and rear- or all-wheel-drive. The Gran Turismo caters to affluent technology mavens with a wealth of advanced gadgetry that includes a Night Vision with Pedestrian Detection system that uses an infrared camera to display the reflected image of the road ahead on the instrument panel’s monitor, which should at least be good for a few laughs in the stadium parking lot once the sun sets.

2011 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon
Deal: $3,000 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 60 months, 1.9 to 72 months. The station wagon rendition of the popular midsize Cadillac CTS delivers a winning combination of luxury, sportiness and practicality. It comes with rear- or all-wheel-drive, automatic or manual transmissions and offers a choice of V6 engines. The top CTS-V wagon version is costly at around $63,000, but is a true guilty pleasure with a 556-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8 engine that blows away every car in this list. Entertaining options include a rear seat DVD array and a navigation system with real-time traffic and weather reports, a hard-drive for digital media storage and a TiVo-like function that allows users to pause and rewind live radio broadcasts for instant replays or to put the action on hold while answering a phone call.

2011 Chrysler Town & Country/Dodge Grand Caravan
Deal: $2,500 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 72 months. Arguably among the top tailgating and road-tripping vehicles at any price, the near-twin Town & Country and Grand Caravan minivans were updated for 2011 with a higher-quality interior treatment and a new 3.6-liter V6 engine. Both come with a unique “Stow ‘n Go” arrangement that can store second and third row seats within the floor or provide large storage bins with the seats upright. Anti-stain/anti-odor upholstery is standard. Other available tailgate friendly features include a built-in AC power inverter, a dual DVD system with available Sirius Backseat TV to keep the kids occupied before the game, hard-drive media storage for digital music and a system that turns either vehicle a rolling Wi-Fi hot spot for connecting to the Internet via laptop computers, iPads and the like.

2012 Dodge Journey
Deal: Up to $1,500 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 36 months, 1.9 to 48 months, 2.9 to 60 months, 4.9 to 72 months. 2011 models: $2,500 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 72 months. Like the Chrysler/Dodge minivans, the Journey received a welcome makeover for 2011 that featured a nicely revamped cabin design and a 3.6-liter V-6 engine offering that’s both powerful and efficient. A newly optional “Uconnect Touch” infotainment system incorporates a Garmin-based navigation system and features a touch-screen video interface for the audio system and other functions. Two removable rear-seat bins in the floor can hold a dozen 12-ounce cans plus ice or can stow gear out of sight for added security. Tech-heads can connect their portable devices to the Internet via a dealer-installed Wi-Fi accessory.

2011 Suzuki SX4 Crossover
Deal: $1,000 cash or 0.0 percent financing to 48 months, 1.9 to 60 months, 2.9 to 72 months. Getting the best fuel economy of any model in our top tailgaters list at 23/30 mpg, the bargain-priced SX4 Crossover is a four-door hatchback that proves practicality need not be boring. Packing a peppy 150-horsepower four-cylinder engine, it rides on a sporty suspension that delivers entertaining handling qualities, with all-wheel-drive standard for top foul-weather traction. It’s a tight fit inside, but a 60/40-split back seat can be folded flat and tumbled forward to create maximum cargo room. Best of all the SX4 can nimbly weave its way around gargantuan RVs and SUVs toward the parking lot exits post-game to get a head start home.

America's Best Family Hotels

2011-10-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

Disney’s Boardwalk Inn & Villas,Orlando

Don’t be fooled by its name: Colorado’s Bachelor Gulch is well suited for families, with wide-open spaces and tons of activities. And if you stay at the Ritz-Carlton here, you’ll find enough amenities (and nannies) to ensure that parents get a vacation, too.

Family-friendly activities, attentive service, and beautiful landscapes are hallmarks of America’s Best Hotels for Families, as voted by readers in T+L’s annual World’s Best Awards survey. The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch is a prime example.

Connecting kids to the outdoors is a priority for many parents, so it’s no surprise that America’s Best Hotels for Families includes plenty of properties in natural settings. But even if the call of the wild is getting louder, Walt Disney World remains an indisputable kid-pleaser. This year, six resorts at the Happiest Place on Earth made the list. Here are some of the best family-friendly hotels:

The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch

Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch

The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch,
Beaver Creek, CO

Winter heaven, this hotel has something for every family member: air hockey and video games in the teen lounge; a 21,000-square-foot spa with claw-foot copper tubs; and access to Vail Valley’s numerous golf courses. There's also an affordable ski-nanny program, doggie spa treatments, and fire pits. Doubles from $549.

Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa

Courtesy of Terra Resort Group

Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa,Jackson Hole, WY

Tall-timber resort abutting the entrance to Grand Teton National Park; the new 16,000-square-foot spa has a rooftop yoga studio that offers kids’ classes. Doubles from $389.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge

The Walt Disney Corporation

Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge,Orlando

Next to the theme park, a little piece of Africa: spot free-roaming zebras and antelope from your private balcony overlooking 33 acres of savanna. Doubles from $350.

The Sagamore Resort

Courtesy of The Sagamore

The Sagamore Resort, Adirondacks, NY

Storied 1883 hotel on the shores of shimmering Lake George, where cruises take place on a handsome replica of a 19th-century wooden boat. Doubles from $189.

Trapp Family Lodge

Courtesy of Trapp Family Lodge

Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT

Yes, it’s owned by that von Trapp family—thus the Austrian-style décor and the weekly Sound of Musicsing-alongs. Doubles from $325.

Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, SC

Kiawah Island Golf Resort

Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, SC

Barrier-island resort that has wide-ranging activities: tie-dye lessons, all-ages golf, and Surf Kayak Rodeo.Doubles from $460.

The Greenbrier

Courtesy of The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, WV

Recently renovated 1913 property with a Cold War-era bunker that’s open for tours. Doubles from $359.

Four Seasons Resort Hualalai

Susan Seubert

Four Seasons Resort Hualalai,
Kailua Kona, HI

Inspired by the golden age of Hawaii; keikis get to make kiddie-size leis and snorkel Kealakekua Bay. Doubles from $795.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

The Walt Disney Corporation

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Anaheim, CA

Takes its cues from California’s Yosemite National Park, down to an Ahwahnee-like lodge and a redwood waterslide. Doubles from $265.

Tourists on Florida scuba dive left behind

2011-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

The US Coast Guard said Tuesday it was investigating a Florida tourism company that left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving.

The tourists -- Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta -- were rescued by a private yacht which found them clinging to a buoy in shark-infested waters.

"The incident is under investigation," Coast Guard spokeswomanSabrina Elgammal told AFP.

"We got a call that the two people were picked up in the sea and there was no medical harm and they went back to port," she said.

RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Beach took a group of 30 people, including Kline and Garcia, in a boat to scuba dive in the open ocean, the Miami Herald reported.

When Kline and Garcia surfaced, however, they found that the boat had gone.

"We were in shock," Kline, 44, told the newspaper. "We could easily have died."

RJ Diving Ventures did not respond to requests for comment.

The two said they clung to a fishing buoy and around 6:00 pm as it was getting dark they were spotted by passengers on a yacht.

"We could see two divers with all their equipment and an inflated red tube," the yacht's capitan Elie Trichet told the Herald.

"You could notice a strong feeling of relief" Trichet said. "They had been clinging to that buoy for two hours hoping somebody would rescue them."

America's Most Dangerous Cities, 2011

2011-10-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

A city where murder is nearly a daily occurance stands a good shot of being named the most violent, crime-prone area in the country. And last year there were 345 murders reported in the Detroit metropolitan area - altogether 1,111 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

To compile our list of America’s most dangerous cities, we used the FBI’s uniform crime report for 2010, which tallies crime data for each of the country’s metropolitan statistical areas, regions that usually consist of a large city and its suburbs or nearby cities. Because small fluctuations in crime numbers can produce outsize jumps in rates in smaller metropolitan areas, we looked at MSAs with a population of 200,000 or more. We used the FBI’s numbers for four categories of violent crimes: murder and non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; robbery; and aggravated assault.

It’s commonly expected that crime will rise as economic conditions worsen, but that hasn’t been the case in the U.S. – violent crime has fallen for the past four years. In 2010, murder was down 4%, rape fell 5%, robbery dropped 10%, and aggravated assault fell 4%, according to the FBI. “There’s a complex series of forces at work behind these rates,” says Tom Blomberg, dean of the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State Univeristy. “The state of the economy, demographics, the number of young males at any given time, the rate of imprisonment and the number of police all factor in.”

The nationwide drop in crime extends to several of our most dangerous cities, including the Memphis, Tenn., area, which comes in at No. 2 with 1,006 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, down from 1,146 the year before. “Many of [the bottom-most cities] are actually improving, it’s just that so are other cities at a higher rate,” says Wolfram, an intelligence analyst at iJET.

Chronic poverty likely plays a role in Memphis’ high crime rate – 19.1% of the residents of the metropolitan area were below the poverty line in 2010, making it the most impoverished large metro area in the country, according to Census Bureau data. But detailed record keeping also plays a part in why Memphis ranks so highly on our list: the city’s police department adopted a data-driven approach to policing in 2006 that relies on exhaustive and meticulous incident tracking. As a result, it may be recording crimes that in other cities would go unreported to the FBI.

The Springfield, Ill., metropolitan area ranks third on our list with 855 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2010. The Illinois state capital confounds analysts who try to interpret its relatively high crime rate. The unemployment rate was lower than the national average at 7% as of July so the economy wouldn’t seem to play a major role in crime. The area’s relatively young population – 66% of the city is under the age of 44 – may be a factor, as younger areas generally have higher rates of crime.

Despite a foundering economy and a stubborn unemployment rate, crime in the United States continues the general downward trend that began in the 1990s. Is it because incarceration rates remain high? Because it takes time for crime trends to change? Or because there are more police on the streets using more sophisticated, data-driven methods? Experts can’t say, but the trend extends even to Detroit, which saw a decrease in murders from 398 in 2009 to 345 in 2010.

Here are America's five most dangerous cities, according to government statistics:

Anchorage, AK no.5

With 813 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, Anchorage has a somewhat higher crime rate than cities of comparable size, and a rate that is double the size of Alaska as a whole. It is the largest city in the state, but it also has the largest rate of forcible rape, which contributes to Anchorage’s high crime statistics. Property crime, while not factored into our survey, is also double Alaska’s rate. Methamphetamine use has been a perennial problem in Anchorage and elsewhere in the state, and although laws have been passed to limit access to the pharmaceuticals necessary to manufacture meth in the state, a steady supply of the drug is still flowing in from Mexico.

Flint, MI no.4

With 827 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, Flint is an example of a city where a lousy local economy and a high unemployment rate have fueled crime. The area has lost thousands of auto manufacturing jobs, and as with Detroit, there’s been a drop in population. “People don’t have jobs, they don’t have money for food, so they become a lot more desperate, and these trends take a long time to reverse,” says Megan Wolfram, an intelligence analyst at the risk assessment firm iJET.

Springfield, IL no.3

The capital city of Illinois, Springfield ranks third on our list because it had 855 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2010. The city also confounds analysts who try to interpret its relatively high crime rate. The unemployment rate was lower than the national average at 7% as of July, so the economy wouldn’t seem to play a major role in crime. And although meth usage saw a small spike in the mid-2000s, a law passed a few years ago making the necessary pharmaceutical ingredients harder to buy seems to have cut down on abuse. There are also poorer neighborhoods – literally on the other side of the railroad tracks – that tend to have higher rates of poverty and the higher rates of crime that accompany that, which contributes to the city’s overall higher rate of crime. Another factor could be Springfield’s relatively young population – 66% of the city is under the age of 44 – and relatively younger populations are historically correlated with higher rates of crime.

Memphis, TN no.2

The Memphis metropolitan area logged 1,006 violent crimes per 100,000 residents last year, down from 1,146 in 2009. Chronic poverty likely plays a role – 19.1% of the residents of the were below the poverty line in 2010, making it the most impoverished large metro area in the country, according to Census Bureau data. But detailed record keeping also plays a part in why Memphis ranks so highly on our list: the city's police department adopted a data-driven approach to policing in 2006 called Blue Crush that relies on accurate incident tracking, for which it adopted the FBI’s meticulous crime reporting method known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System. As a result, it may be recording crimes that in other cities would go unreported to the FBI. Though the crime rate remains comparatively high, the Memphis Police Department says that serious crime has dropped more than 25% since it began the Blue Crush program in 2006.

Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan District no.1

Detroit consistently ranks as one of America’s most crime-ridden cities, and it comes in first on our list for 2010 with 1,111 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. A precipitous drop in population and employment rates due to suburbanization and the struggles of the Big Three automakers is a big factor, leaving the city strapped of funds to devote to basic services like education and public safety. “Year in, year out, and decade after decade, there’s been a very large population loss,” says Brian Stults, an assistant professor of criminology at Florida State University. “A large section of the population is gone, and they’re not the people doing crime to begin with.”

Light paintings of prehistoric animals

2011-10-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

By day, Darren Pearson is a graphic designer who creates T-shirts for the company True Religion. By night, the artist can be found on the rooftops of L.A., in Balboa Park in San Diego, or in the forest at Lake Arrowhead, creating images of dinosaurs out of light.

Pearson makes "light art" in the dark, using a digital camera placed on a tripod. Instead of snapping a quick shot, the shutter remains open for 5 to 10 minutes while Pearson points a flashlight beam at the lens and waves the light into a shape. He then checks the display on the back of the camera to see whether what he envisioned came out in the photo.

With four years of experience making such images, Pearson now succeeds in only two or three takes.

After learning about long-exposure photography from a photo in Life magazine of Pablo Picasso sketching a bull from light, Pearson, a digital media and film graduate, made his first attempt: a light-art stick figure. "That changed the game for me," Pearson recalled over the phone from L.A. "It produced a hybrid art form. It combines illustration and photography." Pearson was hooked.

Dinosaurs seemed a natural theme, touching on his childhood obsession with the extinct species. Darren has a system: "I break it down into parts." So a complex skeleton of a dinosaur will be painted skull first, then the spine, then the legs, ribcage and tail. The other part of the process -- choosing a setting for the subject -- is part of the fun. Pearson, who's from San Diego, explained, "The environment brings out something for the images to interact with."

The slideshow of his ghostly fossil images show a Tyrannosaurus rex on Pearson's coffee table. A flying reptile with a wide wingspan glows eerily above a blue-lit night road. An apatosaurus overlooks an L.A. freeway.

Comments on his Flickr set noted the photographer's eye-popping skill. Photographybyaandm wrote, "Amazing work, the mind boggles at the amount of imagination, prep and work that goes into each of these!"

Pearson says he has gradually built up to the "intricate freehand style" he employs, which started, in a sort of evolution in reverse, with the stick man, progressing to a horse skeleton and then a T. rex. Pearson said discovering he could do a dino skeleton was "awesome," adding, "I'm going to continue with these dinosaurs. Now it's like how many dinosaurs, how many different locations."

Lessons gleaned from 18 years of marriage

2011-10-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

My husband, Rael, and I have just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.

I’m pretty sentimental about a lot of things, but anniversaries aren’t one of them. Ours are usually simple occasions: maybe a card and a nice dinner out and a few jokes about buying matching walkers.
Somehow, this year felt different.

This year, I felt like we had scaled something…like we had survived something…like we had accomplished something. This year wasn’t just another 365 days gone by and “isn’t that nice,” it was a year to be grateful. A year to be proud.

This was the year my son regained his confidence and his smile. The year we lived the grand experiment of home schooling. The year my daughter grew strong. The year we “cleaned house” in many more ways than one.

So, in honor of our 18th year, I humbly offer five things I’ve learned so far about marriage.

1. A strong marriage is built of tiny actions.

“It’s the little things.” Such a cliche! Such bad sentence construction! And such truth.

Each time you discuss instead of demand, you strengthen your marriage. Same goes for speaking with respect instead of sarcasm, and listening instead of dismissing, and engaging instead of eye-rolling.

Each action is like a brick. You choose whether to use it to build a foundation or a wall.

2. But don’t forget the grand gesture.

Buying flowers or surprising your spouse with a vacation, an iPad, or a day off from dishwashing won’t make your marriage. But it will cause your partner to snap out of the day-to-day routine and take notice. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get the ball rolling in a very pleasant direction.

3. Never underestimate the importance of a good laugh.

Sometimes life as a grownup can be hard, boring, and downright drudgery. Another cliche fits here: “If I didn’t laugh, I’d probably cry.” So laugh. A lot.

What do you both find funny? Comedies? Jon Stewart? Silly t-shirts? Private jokes? Sneezing pandas? Write a “funny” list, then commit yourself to experiencing at least one of these things together every day. You’ll thank me.

4. All good marriages have a supporting cast.

There’s an odd fallacy about marriage (middle-class, American marriage, perhaps) that it should somehow stand on its own. If two people love each other, have shared values, a little chemistry, a decent job, maybe a kid or two…that they should be able to figure it out. That a good marriage can withstand life’s slings and arrows, if not unscathed, then at least intact.

Guess what? Life’s a lot bigger than two people. Sooner or later, a sneaker wave will knock you down, and you’ll need a hand to find your balance again. Perhaps it will be something small, like a messy house or a bad habit. Or something big: job loss, a health crisis. It may be something good: starting a new business, or winning the lottery. Or something bad: a death in the family, or an affair.

Whatever it is, there are people who can help.

Everyone’s supporting cast looks different. Some include a housecleaner or a babysitter. Others include a marriage counselor or a psychiatrist. Some need a financial advisor. Some just need their extended family or their friends. But everyone needs someone.

5. Treat your spouse as you hope your children will treat theirs.

Little eyes are watching. Little ears are listening. And little minds and hearts are learning about partnership and marriage from your example.

I say this not to promote guilt, paranoia or dishonesty. The worst thing we could do is to project a facade of shiny perfection to our kids. They’re smarter than that, and such playacting hurts and confuses them.

But it’s worth remembering that kids really do follow our lead, and we owe it to them to be mindful about what we’re teaching. And we owe it to ourselves to dig deep for the good stuff. We’re worth it.

I’d love to hear your pithy marriage wisdom. What have you learned so far?

In Chile desert, huge telescope begins galaxy probe

2011-10-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

A powerful telescope that offer a view of the universe can not be beaten by most ground-based observatories looking at distant galaxies for the first time on Monday deep in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

The Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array, a joint project between Canada, Chile, the European Union, Japan, Taiwan and the United States, opened its doors for astronomers after a decade of planning and construction.

The world's largest project in astronomy, ALMA is described as the most powerful telescope Millimeter / submillimeter wavelength of the history and complex ground-based observatory.

The images came first in the mega-site in northern Chile of 12 of the 66 radio telescopes.
"Today is the recognition of the successful coalition of thousands of people around the world all working for the same purpose: to build the world's most advanced telescope to see the universe's coldest, darkest places, where galaxies and stars and maybe the basic elements of life are created, "said Thijs de Graauw ALMA Director.

ALMA telescopes differ from visible and infrared light using an array of antennas connected to act as a single giant telescope, and detects wavelengths much longer than visible light, the representation of images as opposed to most others in the cosmos.
Although similar instruments used in other places, ALMA are 10 to 100 times more powerful than others currently in operation, the scientist said Lars Nyman ALMA.

ALMA location also offers a unique advantage due to the extremely arid Atacama Desert and the altitude of 5,000 meters (16,400 feet). It is in the same region as the European Extremely Large Telescope, due to start operating in 2018.

The first images were of the Antennae Galaxies, a pair of colliding galaxies with radically distorted forms about 70 million light-years away in the constellation of the Raven.
ALMA Viewpoint ", is something that can not be seen in visible light: cold clouds of dense gas from which new stars form," according to ALMA. "This is the best submillimeter wavelength image ever made of the Antennae Galaxies."

Images such as "will be vital in helping us understand how galaxy collisions can trigger the birth of new stars," said Alma.

The scientist Richard Hills told AFP that the results were "better than expected."
"They're really very clear, there is nothing that messes up the data ... which really shows us what is going on inside their galaxies had been looking for," added the former scientist at the University of Cambridge.

"We've been waiting a long time to get to the point where ALMA is really capable of doing science. Some people have been working on this project for over 20 years. Therefore, it has been a long road, but all the bits and pieces we need to do this job telescope, now join. "
One of the projects selected for ALMA observations was that of David Wilner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"My team hunting the building blocks of solar systems, and ALMA is specially designed to detect," said Wilner.

Its aim is Microscopii AU, a star 33 light years away that is only one percent of the age of the sun.

"We will use the image SOUL 'ring of light" of the planetesimals we believe that the orbits of the young star, "he said. "We hope to find groups in these asteroid belts dust, which can be markers for the planets are not seen."

Masami Ouchi, University of Tokyo used to observe ALMA Himiko, a very distant galaxy producing a minimum of 100 soles "of the stars of each year and surrounded by a giant nebula, bright.

"Other telescopes can not demonstrate why it is so bright Himiko and how it has developed as a large hazy and hot when the early universe around you is so quiet and dark," Ouchi said.

Where to Live Like the Wealthy Do for Less

2011-10-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

Real estate's Champagne wishes and caviar dreams are waking to a stingy, jobless reality of metropolitan moochers posing as the wealthy.

The U.S. is at 9.2% unemployment and conspicuous housing consumption is constricted by tightening loan requirements, while the average home has fallen 4.6% in price from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. In neighborhoods where housing prices have remained high, properties are increasingly out of reach.

"Even with recent economic softness, this is a disappointing performance with home sales being held back by overly restrictive loan underwriting standards," says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. "There's been a pendulum swing from very loose standards, which led to the housing boom, to unnecessarily restrictive practices as an overreaction to the housing correction."

But why break your back paying close to seven figures for a closet in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S. when there's cheaper property nearby? The zip code's cache is nice and all, but even television and Hollywood helped America realize that Alan Arkin's family in Slums of Beverly Hills could get by on the fringes and that Gabrielle Carteris' Andrea Zuckerman character didn't have to be born or have parents in Beverly Hills: 90210 to get into fictional West Beverly High School.

TheStreet took a look at five of the tonier neighborhoods in America and found five more on the outskirts that gave residents deep discounts while dropping them directly adjacent to all the stores, restaurants, theaters, museums, parks and other amenities that command premium prices from the rich neighbors:

Wealthy: New York's Upper West Side
Cheaper: Inwood

Want to grab a morning bagel with Harvey Keitel at Barney Greengrass, catch the Akira Kurosawa retrospective at Symphony Space, grab some cheese and a baguette at Zabar's and head over to Central Park for the summer concert series? There are two vastly different ways for homebuyers to approach this.

The first is to actually live on the Upper West Side and pay the median $933,400 that Zillow says neighborhood residents are shelling out for their homes. The other is to look just a few clicks up the Hudson in Inwood, which offers Riverside Drive-quality views of the Hudson and the palisades, tree-lined streets and well-kept homes on the neighborhood's west side and stops along the A and 1 subway lines that take residents to any Upper West Side stop within minutes.

While Inwood residents aren't exactly a skip away from the Columbus Avenue Shake Shack or the fossil room at the American Museum of Natural History, they're paying an average of only $356,000 to be pretty darn close without having to cross a river or live in another city. Inwood may as well be called "Where?" during dinner-party discussions, but its proximity to the best of the West Side and the small-town look of some of its blocks despite being situated squarely in Manhattan make it a place worth knowing.

Wealthy: San Francisco's Presidio Heights
Cheaper: Western Addition

So you've heard all about San Francisco and would love a place near a lot of parkland with a really great view of the water and Golden Gate Bridge? OK, that'll be $2.8 million, please.

Presidio Heights and "cheap" almost never appear in the same sentence. With a plot adjacent to the sprawling Presidio of San Francisco National Park and the former military installation's fields, historic architecture and views, Presidio Heights is easily the most expensive neighborhood in the city.

The adjacent Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods are similarly sought after and sport $1.16 million and $1.05 million median home prices, respectively. There is, however, a neighborhood south of California Street and east of Presidio Avenue that lets its residents live close by for roughly 20% of the cost.

Western Addition is home to two of the city's hospitals, the city's University of California campus, Japantown, the Fillmore district and a number of parks, but is just five blocks away from the Presidio at its closest point and even closer to Presidio and Laurel heights' shops, restaurants, specialty grocers and coffee bars along Sacramento and California streets.

That's if homeowners want them. Western Addition's jazz clubs, farmers markets, Fillmore Auditorium and restaurants like Yoshi's do just fine for themselves without bankrupting the surrounding gentry. This all still needs a bit of perspective, as Western Addition's $576,700 median price tag on homes is on the lower end of San Francisco's offerings, but would easily make it the most expensive neighborhood in Chicago.

Wealthy: Chicago's North Center/Lake View
Cheaper: Albany Park

When you live in either of these Chicago neighborhoods, gentrification isn't something that's happening, but what the guy who owned your condo two owners ago heard he was responsible for just before shrugging it off and heading out for post-game beers at the L&L Tavern.

Lake View and its Wrigleyville and Boystown neighborhoods are among some of the most sought-after in the city, especially for those who like the idea of living in a doorman building on North Lakeshore, catching the Brown, Red or Purple lines to work, making a dinner comprising items purchased at Whole Foods and then heading out for a show at Metro, a game at Wrigley or a few drinks on Lakeview or North Clark. They're paying a median of $300,000 to do so, which is considerable in a town where the high-end median is $446,000 for properties on West DePaul.

The same can be said for nearby North Center, which hikes up the premium to $346,000 while adding bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and movie theaters while subtracting the lake and the Wrigley Field-adjacent nightlife. Is there any way to take part without paying some of the highest buy-in prices in the city?

The answer's found a few paces west in Albany Park, where a neighborhood dotted with green space like Ravenswood Manor Park and Ronan Park right on the river also has three brown-line stations just a few stops away from both North Center, Lake View and even Wrigleyville, where the Southport stop provides Albany Park residents a more favorable ride home than what their more monied neighbors are taking when they jam the red line's Addison station after the ninth inning.

Albany Park does just fine on its own, too, as Koreatown's restaurants, the mix of hookah and dart bars at West Lawrence Avenue and North Pulaski Road and the proliferation of bicycle, gadget, tobacco and other shops scattered throughout the neighborhood give the place the type of character that doesn't come one mixed-use residential development at a time. For all this, homebuyers pay about $189,000 on average, which is less than more remote but well-tread gems like the artistically inclined Pilsen neighborhood ($199,000) and little more than still-developing neighborhoods like Humbolt Park ($174,100).

Wealthy: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Cheaper: Hollywood

There was a time when they would let any hillbilly with poor marksmanship, a pickup truck piled high with personal belongings and a little oil money into Beverly Hills with a smile. Now anything less than the $1.9 million median home price wouldn't even secure you a parking spot.

Perhaps there's the stray "dingbat" apartment here or there, but the overwhelming majority of Beverly Hills and the area surrounding have prices that have been star-quality for a good, long time. Beverly Hills is ringed by the Hollywood Hills ($971,200 median home price), Bel Air ($1.74 million), Westwood ($655,700), Century City ($642,600), West Los Angeles ($760,300), Pico-Robertson ($667,600) and Mid-City West ($800,500) neighborhoods, which are all well above the city's $375,900 median.

The only neighborhood directly adjacent to Beverly Hills that even remotely meets that city's median is Hollywood, where a $417,200 price tag has led to increasing gentrification in West Hollywood and throughout the rest of the neighborhood in general. High-end restaurants, coffee shops and bars are open, celebrities and paparazzi are back and home prices were on the rise until the recent dip in the housing market. The lingering memories of drug dealers and 24-hour pizza places may buy a homebuyer some time in snatching up some rich-folk-adjacent property here, but considering it's the one piece of the Beverly Hills ring that isn't ridiculously high-priced as of yet, Hollywood's rebound shouldn't be bogged down much longer.

Wealthy: Aspen, Colo.
Cheaper: Basalt

It's a little early to be thinking about ski season, but not if your options are plunking down a median $1.99 million for a place or spending a quarter of that to take a one- to two-hour drive at the height of winter.

Aspen and neighboring Snowmass really want skiers to commit when considering property in either area. That $1.99 million isn't great, but it's a deep discount in Aspen after the housing crisis and recession knocked the frosty wind out of home sales and continued to send prices downhill well afterward. The median cost of a home in Aspen was 25% more at this time last year.

It's a similar story in Snowmass, where the $1.25 million median is almost 22% less than it was in summer 2010. Homebuyers can bet against a comeback and wait for prices to plummet to the six-figure mark, but that kind of self-destructive cynicism isn't necessary when there's already a more budget-friendly option down the road.

Basalt, Colo., isn't exactly bargain basement with its $575,000 median home price, but has more to offer than Aspen and Snowmass. Basalt's roughly 27 minutes from the slopes at Aspen and six minutes from Snowmass, but its position on the Frying Pan River and Ruedi Reservior make it a great trout-fishing and boating spot as well. If so inclined, a homeowner can take some of that savings, invest in a decent mountain bike and spend the summer pedaling through Roaring Fork Valley. It's in the middle of the action without being amid the throngs of tourists, which in itself justifies the commute.

Tesla Model S "Will Be Faster Than A Porsche 911"

2011-10-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

FREMONT, Calif.— Five years after shocking the automotive world by unveiling a battery-powered Lotus Elise, Elon Musk, CEO and founder of Tesla Motors, announced that his electric car company "will build a high-performance version of the Model S that will go zero to 60 (mph) in 4.5 seconds. That's faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera."

The crowd, naturally, went wild. Hundreds of deposit-paying customers had already taken quick rides around the parking lot at speeds over 70 mph when Musk drove a red pre-production Tesla Model S show car — albeit somewhat less quickly — up the ramp and onto a stage inside Tesla's U.S. factory (formerly known as NUMMI, the facility Tesla purchased from Toyota just last year and revamped for a fraction of what a new car factory normally costs to build). Production versions of the Model S will start rolling out of here in mid-2012.

"The oil companies said electric cars can't work, but the truth is, they don't want them to work," Musk said.

"But here it is," he continued. "They would say this car is the equivalent of a unicorn. Well, tonight you had the opportunity to ride a unicorn."

After driving the Model S onto the stage, Musk exited his seven-passenger sedan along with seven other occupants (and their luggage), three from decidedly unconventional spaces: two children climbed out of optional rear-facing bucket seats and through the rear hatch, and a surprising eighth guy popped out from beneath the hood carrying a backpack. Check out the video:

L.A. Reid Explains Why He Dropped Lady Gaga From Island Def Jam

2011-10-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Lady Gaga's meteoric rise to superstardom can be attributed to her catchy songs, shocking costumes, and wild media antics.

But her perseverance is arguably the personality trait that has benefitted her career the most.

This week, L.A. Reid, "X Factor" judge and former president of Island Def Jam, confirmed reports that he stalled Lady Gaga's music pursuits early in her career. Reid signed the "Born This Way" singer to IDJ but released her from her contract within a few months.

Reid explained his dealings with Gaga during an interview with Access Hollywood. "One day this artist came to my office. She played piano. She had white gogo boots all the way up to here, thigh high boots. She sat down at that piano and she played and she sang and when she was done I said, 'You are an amazing artist, and you will change music.' And I signed her. Her name was Lady Gaga," Reid said.

But when Reid heard Gaga's demos three months later, he had a change of heart. "It was a work in progress, and I was having a bad day," Reid said. "I said, ‘You know, I really don't like it. You know, let her have her freedom. Let her have her career. Let her go find it.' It was the worst thing I've ever done."

Lady Gaga cried for an entire day after receiving the news, the artist said during an interview for the MTV special, "Lady Gaga: Inside The Outside."

But she got over it, ultimately landing a record deal with Interscope Records, a company that supported her artistic vision and helped her become one of pop music's biggest stars.

Lady Gaga is one of many of today's household names that were also rejected by major labels before landing big breaks. 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, and Beyoncé were also met with similar setbacks.

Alicia Keys had been signed to Columbia Records for two years before her recording contract was terminated and she pursued other options.

"Sony (Columbia's parent company) hadn't really figured out what to do with her, lots of changes had taken place at the company, and Alicia wasn't happy there," Peter Edge, the A&R executive who later brought her to Arista Records, told Hitquarters.com. Edge said Alicia and her manager were savvy enough to get out of their deal.

Things were much more traumatic for 50 Cent, who also initially had a deal with Columbia Records. 50's conflict with the label wasn't the creative process -- it was the rapper's personal dramas that created the tension.

According to 50 Cent, Columbia Records abandoned him after he was shot nine times.

In a 2009 interview with U.K.'s "Daily Mail," 50 Cent described the impact the executive decision had on his psyche. "Being dropped by my record label hurt more than being shot," he said. "I was shot in May 2000 when I was sitting in a car. You don't actually feel each bullet hit you. The adrenaline is pumping and you're trying to get out of the way."

50 Cent said the blow to his ego was far more painful. "I had just signed to Columbia Records and they dropped me because of the shooting. I could deal with every bullet wound but I can't take that."

Within two years, however, the rapper born Curtis Jackson had found a better label home on Interscope Records, teamed with both Eminem and Dr. Dre. 50's Interscope / Shady / Aftermath debut, "Get Rich Or Die Trying," released in 2003, definitely lived up to its title, making 50 Cent one of hip hop's most successful rappers to date.

Arguably, the most shocking of all the artist firings is the one that involved mega superstar Beyoncé, who was previously in the girl group Destiny's Child.

Before calling themselves Destiny's Child, the Houston-based group was known as Girls Tyme. In 1990, they actually competed on "Star Search," but lost. Within a few years, they joined Elektra Records.

The group moved to Atlanta to work on an album, but the label decided to cut its losses, and dropped them.

Matthew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and manager of the group, said that when the then quartet lost its recording contract with Elektra, it made them work harder.

"That was the defining moment, when they were dropped by Elektra," Knowles said when speaking to students at the University Of Southern California last January. "I quit my job and everyone thought I was nuts."

Knowles clearly knew what he was doing. Destiny's Child made its debut on the soundtrack for the Will Smith blockbuster "Men In Black," released on Columbia Records, the label they would ultimately join. Alicia Keys also made her debut on that soundtrack.

Not only did Destiny's Child set sales records for girl groups, it also spawned Beyoncé's solo career, which includes a series of multi-platinum albums.

"American Idol," "X Factor," and "America's Got Talent" contestants should find some comfort in knowing that the star grooming process involves massive amounts of rejection. They should learn to take it in stride.

L.A. Reid's explanation for why he let Lady Gaga go was revealed during a week full of shocking admissions as outtakes from the televised Michael Jackson trial circulated throughout the media. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame announced the nominees for its 2012 induction ceremony. Beyoncé admitted that her heightened sense of smell during her pregnancy is causing her to hate her husband's cologne. And the reps for country icon Randy Travis said the singer is recovering after taking a recent fall on stage.d's cologne. And the reps for country icon Randy Travis said the singer is recovering after taking a recent fall on stage.

Team told to take off snazzy jerseys

2011-10-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

South Carolina was forced to change its jerseys prior to today's game against Auburn because the officials were having difficulty reading the numbers.

The Gamecocks were sporting their new Under Armour "Wounded Warrior" camouflage uniforms during warmups when officials raised concerns based on conference rules, according to South Carolina spokesman Steve Fenk. The Gamecocks switched to their home black jerseys but kept their new pants, shoes and other accessories.

The jerseys will still be auctioned off Monday with the funds going to Under Armour's "Believe in Heroes" campaign. Texas Tech and South Florida also will be wearing the "Wounded Warrior" jerseys this year.

Although Under Armour provided a release about the South Carolina jerseys, it did not say whether modifications would have to be made for Texas Tech, which will be wearing its uniforms against Oklahoma State on Oct. 12, or South Florida, which will be wearing their uniforms against Miami on Nov. 19.

Texas drought could last 15 years

2011-09-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

A Texas climatologist says the state may face another 5 to 10 years of the current agriculture-crushing drought.

Texas state climatologist John Nielson-Gammon tells The Lookout that he fears the drought--which has already cost more than $5 billion in damage--may be similar to the one that struck the state in the 1950s. The weather patterns at the source of this drought are likely to continue, Nielson-Gammon said--namely the "La Niña" weather pattern in the Pacific. The drought cycle began in earnest in 2005--though 2007 and 2010 were wet years--and may stick around until 2020. Ninety-five percent of the state is experiencing severe or exceptional drought.

"Many residents remember the drought of the 1950s, and tree ring records show that drought conditions occasionally last for a decade or even longer. I'm concerned because the same ocean conditions that seem to have contributed to the 1950s drought have been back for several years now and may last another five to 15 years," he said in a statement.

The 1950s drought, which lasted seven years, reshaped Texas by spurring a movement away from rural areas and into cities. The state also formed a network of artificial lakes that are still around today.

It's still unclear what the long-term impact of this drought will be. The past year has been the driest year on record in the state, while the past summer was also the hottest on record, according to the National Weather Service. More than 125,000 acres burned in wildfires. Half of the state's cotton crop has been destroyed, even long-time ranchers are selling off their cattle en masse, and millions of trees are withered and dying. The touristy area of Lake Conroe, near Houston, is quickly drying up as well.

In April, Gov. Rick Perry asked Texans to pray for rain in an official proclamation, but those prayers have gone unanswered.

Federal aid will offset most of the drought's damage so far--approximately $5.2 billion in agricultural losses and $250 million in wildfire devastation, reports The Christian Science Monitor. But the drought may cause more long-term damage, according to Hillary Hylton at Time. The price of cotton products is likely to go up soon, while beef prices might go down for a while before rising dramatically in two years or so. That's because Texas farmers who are selling off their cattle now will glut the market, but in a few years there will be fewer cows breeding.

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L.A. Reid Explains Why He Dropped Lady Gaga From Island Def Jam

Lady Gaga's meteoric rise to superstardom can be attributed to her catchy songs, shocking costumes, and wild media antics.

Team told to take off snazzy jerseys

Texas drought could last 15 years

The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch,
Beaver Creek, CO

Four Seasons Resort Hualalai,
Kailua Kona, HI