The New York Independent

Why Are Lightning Deaths Declining?

2012-10-10T09:42:00.000-04:00

photo: civicsolar.com

(lifeslittlemysteries.com) An 11-year-old Florida boy died yesterday (Oct. 7) after being struck by a bolt of lightning on his way to football practice on Wednesday (Oct. 4). His manner of death is perhaps all the more tragic for how unusual it's becoming in America.

Jesse Watlington, of Fort Myers, is the fifth person to die from a lightning strike in Florida this year, and he was hit only two days after another Floridian, Falk Weltzien, 39, of St. Augustine, was knocked unconscious by a bolt while kiteboarding with his son. Weltzien survived the ordeal with no major injuries, according to ABC News.

Despite the apparent surge in news reports of people being struck by lightning, deaths from lightning strikes so far in 2012 appear to be continuing a steady, decades-long slide.

As usual, Florida, America's lightning capital, is leading the nation in lightning deaths, but the current nationwide total of 28 is still on track to make 2012 one of the safest years on record and continue the downward trend of yearly lightning deaths that stretches back to at least 1940, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data. Read full story...

Also see:

How Ligntning Works - Howstuffworks.com - Lightning is one of the most beautiful displays in nature. It is also one of the most deadly natural phenomena known to man. With bolt temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and shockwaves beaming out in all directions, lightning is a lesson in physical science and humility....

Google to Become a Bank?

2012-10-08T10:25:00.002-04:00

photo: siliconbeachtraining.co.uk

(The Atlantic Wire) By Adam Clark Estes - Google, the search engine company that also happens to do 35 other things, is expanding its horizons once again with a new financial services division. On Monday, the multi-billion dollar corporation is set to launch a new credit business in the United Kingdom with plans to expand to other countries in the next few weeks, according to the Financial Times.

Based on what we know so far, the program will let businesses take out a line of credit -- between $200 and $10,000 -- to spend on Google's money-making AdWords program. Google's treasurer Brent Callinicos told the FT that businesses just "weren't buying Adwords as much as they need to," and a pilot program in the United States last year showed that offering loans made customers advertise more. Callinicos admitted that the company is "not doing this to lose money" and they're also "not trying to run the financing business as a profit centre." Starting in the U.S. and then spreading to other countries, however, Google will issue credit cards as part of the new financing program, with initial interest rates for small- to medium-sized businesses at a competitive 8.99 percent. Read full story...

Also see:

10 Ways Google Is Working Towards World Domination - Google started out with a simple goal -- to deliver the best search engine in the business -- and since achieving that has expanded into, well, just about everything.. From advertising to mobile operating systems to even desktop operating systems, Google is pushing for a leadership position in each and every market...

Why Would Google Become A Bank? - Search Engine Watch - What might motivate Google to branch out into banking down the road? There's a long list of advantages for the Bank of Google, but we'll stick...

12-Year-Old Girl with Higher IQ Than Einstein

2012-10-05T10:27:00.005-04:00

Photo: xtremeministries.com

(dailymail.co.uk) A 12-year-old schoolgirl has been accepted into Mensa after discovering she is brainier than both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Olivia Manning, from Liverpool, managed to get a whopping score in an IQ test of 162 - well above the 100 average.

Her score is not only two points better than genius German physicist Einstein and Professor Stephen Hawking, but puts her in the top one per cent of intelligent people in the world.

Olivia Manning, 12, from Liverpool, has been accepted into Mensa after scoring 162 on her IQ test.

She has now been given the honour of being welcomed into Mensa - meaning she will join a network of brains from across the globe.

As a confirmed genius, Olivia is now getting celebrity status at her school - the North Liverpool Academy in Everton.

She has now achieved celebrity status at school - with fellow pupils asking her to do their homework.

She said: ‘A lot more people are coming up to me asking for help with their homework. I just like challenges and making my mind think.’

Olivia, who lives on the Norris Green housing estate, admits to having a knack for quickly absorbing and remembering new information - but confessed to being ‘speechless’ when she discovered her score.

But despite outdoing the likes of TV mathematician Carol Vorderman, who could only muster 154, Olivia is set to put the stage before sums. Read full story...

Also see:

How Geniuses Work - Howstuffworks.com - In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of special relativity. He also proved that atoms exist and figured out that light behaves as both a particle and a wave. To top it all off, he developed his famous equation E = mc², which describes the relationship between matter and energy, the same year. He was only 26 years old.

Take a free IQ Test - iqtestcom - Our original IQ test is the most scientifically valid IQ test available on the web today. Previously offered only to corporations, schools, and in certified professional applications, it is now available to you. In addition to measuring your general IQ...

Credit Card Delinquencies Lowest in 11 Years

2012-10-04T10:16:00.001-04:00

Photo: christianfinanceblog.com

(CNN Money) By Blake Ellis - Credit card customers are more responsible than they've been in over a decade.
Delinquencies on credit cards issued by banks dropped to the lowest level since 2001 during the second quarter, according to a report from the American Bankers Association released Thursday.

Only 2.93% of all bank card accounts were considered delinquent, meaning they were 30 days or more overdue. That's down from 3.08% in the first quarter and significantly lower than the 15-year average of 3.91%.

"Consumers are saving more and borrowing less as they work to pay down debt at a faster rate," said James Chessen, a chief economist at the American Bankers Association. "Economic uncertainty has made consumers hesitant to take on new debt, and building a stronger financial base has become a priority." Read full story...

Also see:

JP Morgan Loves Your Crushing Credit Card Debt - TheStreet.com - Year to date, JPMorgan has sold nearly $8 billion worth of bonds backed by credit card debt--more than any other issuer, and almost eight times the amount it had sold at this time last year, according to...

Tool For Saving Interest on Credit Card Debt - Nytimes Blog - We all know it’s best not to carry a balance on a credit card. But let’s say you encountered some unexpected expenses and ran up some debt. A Web site, CardHub.com, has introduced some...

Marijuana Closer to Legalization?

2012-10-03T09:57:00.006-04:00

Photo: bravoretailing.wordpress.com

(The Daily Beast) By Tony Dokoupil - Marijuana’s moment finally seems to be here. At Hempfest in Seattle last month more than 100,000 fans rallied for the one-time evil weed. The governor of New York State and the mayor of Chicago recently supported the repeal of criminal penalties against a personal stash. And next month, if current polls hold, voters in Colorado and Washington will approve historic measures that make the pot nearly as legal as heirloom tomatoes. “This is clearly the tipping point,” says Keith Stroup, the grand old soul of the legalization movement. “We are in the process of ending marijuana prohibition in America,” he tells me.

But hold on a minute. The last time the movement was this cocky it was dead within six months, murdered by some of its own best friends. These included Jimmy Carter’s reform-minded drug czar, staffers at High Times magazine, and, yes, Keith Stroup himself, who did more than most to bring pot smokers into the mainstream—and more than most to send them back to the wings.

To find out if it could all go sideways again, I asked Stroup to do something he’s never done before: revisit the scene of the wildest, saddest chapter in the long fight for more liberal drug laws. That meant trying to find the house where the forces of change last came together—almost exactly 35 years ago—only to vanish up someone’s nose. To his immense credit, Keith Stroup was game.

“I want to say it’s the next block,” he says, striding down S Street in Washington, D.C. At 68 years old, and an almost daily marijuana user for decades, Stroup and his trademark energy has yet to flag. Block after block, we’re still walking, until finally he stops in front of a four-story cream-colored townhouse. “That would be the one,” he says, running a hand through his collar-length gray hair, although it’s clear he isn’t totally sure. “It’s awfully big.”

It had to be big. In the late 1970s, the movement itself was big, growing from a disorganized band of freaks into an upright national coalition for smokers’ rights—with Stroup as Pied Piper. Raised by God-fearing squirrel-hunting conservatives in southern Illinois in the 1950s, he jumped from the University of Illinois to Georgetown Law School to Ralph Nader’s Product Safety Commission, discovering pot and politics in the process. In 1970 he launched the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML—perhaps the world’s first lobby for the openly criminal. Read full story...

Also see:

Why We Should Not Legalize Marijuana - CNBC.com - Contrary to the beliefs of those who advocate the legalization of marijuana, the current balanced, restrictive, and bipartisan drug policies of the United States are working reasonably well and they have contributed to reductions in the rate of marijuana use in our nation.

How Marijuana Works - Howstuffworks.com - Although banned by the U.S. federal government in 1937, it is estimated that 14.8 million Americans use marijuana, which is roughly the population of Calcutta, India. The United States drug market is one of the world's most commercially viable and attracts drug traffickers from every corner of the globe. On American soil, marijuana costs between $400 and $2000 per pound. A pound of higher quality marijuana, known as sinsemilla, costs between $900 and $6,000.

Signs of Marijuana Addiction: Do I Have A Problems? - Lifeworkscommunity.com - Understanding the signs and symptoms of cannabis addiction is the first step towards finding appropriate treatment and getting your life back. This is, in itself, an important milestone, and we understand how difficult it can be.

Classifying 'Internet Addiction' as Mental Illness

2012-10-02T10:11:00.002-04:00

Photo: techaddiction.ca

(RT.com) By Luke Macgregor/Reuters - Think twice the next time you play a videogame or surf the Net: ‘Internet-use disorder’ is set to be added to the list of mental illnesses in the worldwide psychiatric manual. Kids are identified as being especially at risk.

The international mental health encyclopedia known as the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ (DSM-IV) will include Internet-use disorder as a condition “recommended for further study” in its forthcoming May 2013 edition.

Psychologists believe that Internet addiction should be categorized like other addiction disorders as it has similar symptoms, including emotional shutdown, lack of concentration and withdrawal.
Parents have noted their children becoming angry and violent when their electronic gadgets are taken away from them, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. In other instances, kids preferred to play a videogame over eating or social interaction.

One step closer to mental illness

The listing is another step towards classifying Internet addiction as a mental illness: The DSM-IV’s new inclusion demonstrates that there are risks posed by overusing technology and that more research is required, which could lead to formal diagnoses of the disorder in the future.
Psychologists are pushing to broaden the diagnoses of Internet-use disorder to include more than just gaming addictions, which could expand the age group of those affected by the illness. Read full story...

Also see:

Internet Addiction Test - netaddiction.com - How do you know if you're already addicted or rapidly tumbling toward trouble? The Internet Addiction Test is the first validated and reliable measure of addictive...

Could Internet Addiction Be Genetic? - U.S. News & World Report - Not only is Internet addiction a legitimate compulsion, it may have the same genetic component as nicotine addiction...

How to Fight Your Online Addiction and Regain Control of Your Attention - Lifehacker.com - How much time do you spend each day responding to email, checking Facebook, sending and reading Tweets, aimlessly surfing your favorite websites and buying things you don't need? How much time, in other words, do you spend doing stuff online that doesn't...

Lindsay Lohan Claims 'Assault' at NYC Hotel

2012-09-30T22:46:00.001-04:00

photo: inquisitr.com

(nbcnewyork.com) By - Lindsay Lohan told police she was assaulted in her Manhattan hotel room early Sunday morning by a man she met at a night club, police sources said.

According to law enforcement officials, Lohan told police she got into an argument with a 25-year-old man she brought to her room after meeting him at 1 Oak in Chelsea.

The argument was allegedly over photos the man took of Lohan on his cell phone while they were in her 15th floor room at the W Hotel near Union Square with some of Lohan's friends.

Police have identified the man as Christian LaBella of California.

Lohan told detectives that at around 4:30 a.m. she saw photos of herself on LaBella's phone, confronted him about the them and took his phone. LaBella then threw her on the bed causing scratches on her hands, police sources said. Lohan ran out of the room and down the stairs of the hotel, but at some point decided to head back upstairs to her room. When LaBella saw her again, Lohan told police he attacked her, choking her, throwing her to the ground and climbing on top of her.

A friend of Lohan's who was with her at the time was able to pull LaBella off her, and Lohan then pulled the fire alarm for help. LaBella took off down the stairs, but police arrived before he was able to leave the hotel and took him into custody.

Lohan refused medical attention and did not go to a hospital. Read full story...

France Sets 75% Tax Rate

2012-09-28T18:11:00.001-04:00

Photo: Themoralliberal.com

Reuters - By Daniel Flynn and Julien Toyer - France unveiled an austerity budget that would tax business and the super rich, but a report showing Spain's banks needed a manageable 59 billion euros in new funds bought time for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he seeks to avoid a bailout.

Socialist President Francois Hollande's 2013 budget amounts to France's toughest belt-tightening for 30 years as the debt crisis takes its toll on the euro zone.

The package aims to narrow France's deficit to 3.0 percent of national output next year from 4.5 percent this year, bringing in 30 billion euros ($39 billion) for the treasury.

But the budget dismayed business by opting for tax hikes -- including a 75 percent tax on those earning over one million euros a year -- by holding public spending and not cutting government jobs.

With Hollande facing record unemployment and economic stagnation, there were also fears the deficit target will slip as France falls short of the modest 0.8 percent economic growth rate on which it is banking for next year.

"This is a fighting budget to get the country back on the rails," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, adding that the 0.8 percent growth target was "realistic and ambitious".

In Spain, an independent audit of the country's banks confirmed that a manageable 59.3 billion euros in extra capital is needed for them to ride out a serious economic downturn, buying time for Rajoy who faces intense pressure to seek an international bailout.

The audit is a condition of getting European funds to patch up Spanish banks that have been damaged by a prolonged real estate crash. Read full story...

Texting Woman Falls Off Cliff

2012-09-27T10:29:00.001-04:00

Photo: gettingsmart.com

(Adn.com) Fire officials faced a double challenge during a recent rescue: A woman fell 60 feet down a cliff to rocks as the tide crept in along a Kodiak beach.

The home of the woman, Maria Pestrikoff, sits on the cliff. While texting on Sept. 17, she walked close to the edge to discard a cigarette butt. She slipped on wet grass and fell, her friend Anthony Burke told the Kodiak Daily Mirror in a story Wednesday.

"She was in the rocks between the boulders and she was calling for help," Burke said. "She was screaming in agony."

Bayside Fire Department received the first call for help. Chief Bob Himes said the Kodiak Fire Department was quickly summoned for its expertise in rope rescues.

"It's a very hard rescue," Himes said. "It's very technical, and it doesn't happen that often. We rely on the city and the Coast Guard fire departments who have the manpower to do the training."

Two Bayside volunteer first responders used an aluminum ladder to descend and reach Pestrikoff. Kodiak firefighters followed, Chief Rome Kamai said in an email. Read full story...

Also see:

Texting While Driving Accident Statistics - edgarsnyder.com - Data regarding car accidents involving cell phone use and/or texting while driving has been limited in the past, but it’s slowly becoming available to the public...

The Problem with Texting - CNN Tech - You do not want to talk to me on the phone. How do I know? Because I don't want to talk to you on the phone. Nothing personal, I just can't stand the thing.I find it intrusive and somehow presumptuous. It sounds off insolently whenever it chooses and...

Muslim-led Nations Seeking Global Ban on Insults of Muhammad

2012-09-25T12:49:00.002-04:00

Photo: scoop.it

(Washington Times) By Guy Taylor - As the U.N. General Assembly convenes this week in New York, several leaders of mostly Muslim nations are suggesting that the world body consider sanctions on blasphemy, amid widespread protests against an amateur movie that denigrates Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will focus at least part of his remarks on the film when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

“I am the prime minister of a nation, of which most are Muslims, that has declared anti-Semitism a crime against humanity. But the West hasn’t recognized Islamophobia as a crime against humanity. It has encouraged it,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters last week.

Turkey heads the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a body of 57 nations, which has long pushed for a U.N. resolution condemning the “defamation of religion.”

Nonbinding versions of the resolution have been adopted, but the effort was crushed last year by religious groups and human rights activists who argued that it represented a dangerous step toward an international law against free speech.

The debate has been reignited by “Innocence of Muslims,” a crudely produced film made in the United States that has sparked fury in the Muslim world. Protesters have breached the walls at U.S. embassies and desecrated American flags in sometimes violent demonstrations. A protest in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi ended with the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Read full story...

Also see:

Muhammad film causes deadly riots in Pakistan - Pakistan's “Day of Love for the Prophet” turned into a deadly day of gunfire, tear gas and arson. Thousands angered by...

Lewd Muhammad Cartoons Force France to Shut Down Embassies - usnews.com - The cartoons, which variously portray Muhammad as naked or in a wheelchair, are expected to provoke the Muslim world, where riots were...

Florida May Bring Back Paddling to Schools

2012-09-25T11:04:00.001-04:00

Photo: billfelty.blogspot.com

(ClickOrlando.com) By Evan Lambert - The idea of corporal punishment in schools may seem like something out of another era, but school officials in Marion County may bring the practice of paddling back.

Incoming school board member Carol Ely supports paddling as a form of discipline, and she may have the support to influence the school board to vote in the affirmative.

Ely was the principal at Ocala's Shady Hill Elementary for 14 years, where she administered corporal punishment. She said it worked, and she wants to bring it back.

"It was very effective the way we implemented it. We only did it on very small occasions, but it was for children who were chronic [misbehavers]," Ely said.

During her experience as principal, Ely said she saw firsthand that paddling was more effective than other forms of punishment, like suspension.

"The return rate of children for corporal punishment has been almost zero," she said.

If the Marion County School Board brings the paddling initiative up for a vote this fall, Ely said it would only be used as a last resort with parent permission.

Some parents said they would sign off on the practice if their child acted out. Read full story...

Also see:

Male Texas School Official Spanks Teen Girl - New York Daily News‎ - A Texas school district voted to change its corporal punishment policy after the story of a teen girl who was paddled by a male vice principal...

Is Corporal Punishment an Effective Means of Discipline? - apa.org - Authors Elizabeth Gershoff and Robert Larzelere analyzed 62 years worth of collected data from 88 studies on corporal punishment to...

Which States Have Corporal Punishment in Schools? - Family Education - Is spanking a child for breaking school rules a useful or destructive practice? Parents and educators are sharply divided. Twenty-one states allow some form of corporal punishment while twenty-nine have banned the practice...

Obama Downgrades US-Israeli Alliance

2012-09-24T13:54:00.001-04:00

Photo: jpost

(Washington Beacon) Asked who is the closest ally of the United States in the Middle East after the president’s comments, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Israel is the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East during a Monday press briefing.

As the United Nations General Assembly gets underway and leaders from around the world begin to congregate in New York City, President Obama seemingly downgraded Israel’s traditional status as the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East. In a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday night, Obama simply called Israel “one of” America’s closest allies in the region.

Responding to a question about Israel’s request that he explain his “red lines” on the Iranian nuclear program, Obama said, “I am going to block out any noise that’s out there.” He continued, saying that despite the “noise,” he is “in close consultation with the Israelis” because “they’re one of our closest allies in the region.”

Obama did not elaborate on the other countries he considers close allies in a region that includes Syria, Egypt, and Turkey, among others.

In the past, Obama has identified Turkey’s Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as the Middle East leader to whom he feels closest, and media reports have said that Obama has placed calls to Erdogan more than any other world leader except British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Obama will not have an opportunity to discuss Israel’s status as a U.S. ally with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be in New York this week, because Obama declined a request from Netanyahu for a meeting. Read full story...

Also see:

What Would A Starship Look Like?

2012-09-24T11:33:00.004-04:00

Photo: spacefeelings.com

(Popular Mechnics) By Erik Sofge - Imagine a starship—a vessel capable of ferrying human beings from one solar system to another. Would it have wings and a cockpit? Or would it look like an aircraft carrier hauled out into the void and fitted with flame-belching rockets and glowing ion drives?

Science fiction has offered us all sorts of visions of interstellar spacecraft, from avian-inspired Klingon birds of prey to hulking masses such as the Borg cube. In general, sci-fi leans toward sleek designs with lines borrowed from planes or cars, since those are the kinds of looks we’ve been conditioned to think of as "fast." But if there’s no air in space, why make things aerodynamic? Does it matter what a spacecraft looks like?

Yes, it turns out, and it depends upon what kind of space travel you’re looking to undertake. The reality of starship design is more complex than anything Hollywood has dreamed up and implanted in our collective unconsciousness.

While a manned interstellar mission isn’t exactly on NASA’s upcoming schedule, researchers haven’t abandoned the topic to science fiction. In fact, the 100 Year Starship initiative—which began as a DARPA-funded contest to lay the foundations for a flight across the stars, gathering physicists, entrepreneurs, and anyone seriously interested in long-distance space travel—just finished its annual symposium this past weekend.

One of the participants of the 100 Year Starship project is Marc G. Millis, founder of the Tau Zero Foundation. The foundation has proposed candidate technologies and designs, including the Icarus unmanned fusion-powered probe, which would accelerate (theoretically, of course) to one-tenth or one-fifth the speed of light. Icarus, as it’s currently envisioned, isn’t the sleekest space ride. The skyscraper-size behemoth is comprised almost entirely of rows and clusters of spherical fuel tanks. But according to Millis, Icarus isn’t a definitive, catch-all prediction of what an interstellar craft might look like. It’s simply the design that might make sense to build first.

We asked Millis, who once led NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, to take us through the basics of starship design. Read full story...

The School Ranking List Harvard Doesn't Top

2012-09-23T21:51:00.002-04:00

Photo: harvard.edu

(Time Magazine) By Nick Carbone - Think you’ll be making top dollar with that Harvard diploma hanging on your wall? Sure, the Cambridge, Mass. university topped U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the best colleges in the nation (again), and is third best in the world according to the QS World University Rankings. But no matter how many accolades Harvard rakes in or how much praise it garners, its graduates are paling in comparison to their peers at lesser institutions in one crucial field: starting salary. It’s a list on which Harvard ranks #37.

If money is your object, skip the liberal arts degree from the country’s oldest college and instead look toward a degree from a specialty university. Though the career options might not thrill you, the salaries certainly will. Take, for example, under-the-radar institutions like Loma Linda University near San Bernardino, Calif., or the South Dakota School of Mining and Technology (SDSMT) in Rapid City, S.D. According to a survey by PayScale, Loma Linda grads average salary after graduation is $64,600, thanks to a smattering of degrees in lucrative medical fields including dental and nursing assistants. The 2,300 students graduating with a SDSMT diploma this year will earn an average of $56,700. That highly coveted Harvard degree, on the other hand, will net new grads a median salary of $54,100. Though their Cambridge peers scored nearly double on the SATs, the SDSMT students score bigger paychecks thanks to far more opportunities available in computer science or engineering fields that the school caters to. Read full story

Also see:

College Rankings - The Princeton Review - Check out the lists to see the top schools in 62 categories based on surveys of 122,000 students.

Best Colleges of 2013 - US News & World Report - It's really a list of lists. Get rankings of 1,600 schools. Use their tools to search for your perfect fit. And find details on scholarships, loans, and grants.

Made in USA. Sold in China

2012-09-22T20:33:00.003-04:00

Photo: franceenchine.org

(NYTimes.com) By Jim Dwyer - Standing over a small tank of water in a Brooklyn factory, Zbigniew Solecki plunged a gleaming faucet into the water, then shot air at 60 pounds per square inch into it. He watched for rising bubbles, a sign that an unseen fissure had, unacceptably, let the air stream out. It is a rite of passage that Mr. Solecki performs dozens of times a day.

The company exports parts to luxury hotels overseas.

“Every last piece is pressure-tested before it goes out the door to China,” said Jack Abel, the engineer who built the factory. “Or anywhere else.”

Yes, he did say China.

Mr. Abel’s company, Watermark Designs in Brooklyn, is standing history on its head: it is making plumbing parts and shipping them to China.

After generations of manufacturers in New York and across the United States folded because they were unable to compete with imports, Watermark, with its only factory in the East New York section of Brooklyn, has managed to crack the code. Instead of trying to make Watermark’s products cheaper, Mr. Abel has prospered by first making them more expensive — offering custom-made fixtures unique to each building — and then figuring out how to do that at lower cost. The company has supplied thousands of fixtures to six new luxury hotels and condominiums being built in Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong.

“The days of mass producing in New York City are gone,” Mr. Abel said. “If you were producing nuts and bolts by the tens of thousands 50 years ago, you’re not going to do it today. But creativity, or uniqueness or design is definitely something that can flourish in New York.” Read full story...

Also see:

US Exports Surge Could Add 5 Million Jobs by 2020 - Huffington Post - Rising U.S. factory productivity, spurred by falling natural gas prices, could help the nation boost exports of products such as locomotives and factory machinery and add as many as 5 million manufacturing and support jobs by the decade's end, a new analysis found...

What Export Oriented America Means - The American Interest - In his State of the Union address two years ago, President Obama promised to double American exports over the next five years. At the time critics called this an unrealistic political promise, one that voters would forget by the 2012 election. But America is currently on track to meet that goal...

Official Source US Export and Import Statistics: Foreign Trade - census.gov - official source for U.S. export and import statistics and responsible for issuing regulations governing the reporting of all export shipments from the United States. If you're searching for import or export statistics, information on export regulations, commodity classifications, or a host of other trade related topics, this is the place to get the information you need.

How Facebook is trying to get you to snitch on your friends

2012-09-22T16:41:00.001-04:00

Photo: tuvpn.com

Thenextweb.com - By Emil Protalinski - Facebook’s ongoing war on pseudonyms is well-documented. The company wants everyone to use their real name on the social network, and ideally this would be their only identity on the Internet. Menlo Park often bans users that use fake names (most are spammers, but many are just using pseudonyms), but it recently went further than that: the company is now asking you to snitch on your friends if they are not using their real name. Read full story

Also see:

Facebook Party Invite Sparks Riot - BBC News - A party invitation which went viral on Facebook ended in rioting and injury after thousands of revellers descended on a small town in the Netherlands...

Why I'm Shorting Facebook - The New York Independent - This is a classic case of a great company, but a poor investment. Meaning that I am impressed by what they have built and think it is another great American success story.

Armed Man Updates Facebook Status While Holding Hostage - NBC News.com - A man who took an office worker as a hostage in Pittsburgh Friday was making comments on his Facebook page during negotiations with police, which the police chief says was...

Hapless Sailors Saved Twice in 24 Hours

2012-09-21T21:55:00.000-04:00

Photo: myfacewhen.net

(The Telegraph) Bungling sailors had to be rescued twice in 24 hours after taking to the sea with no charts, radios or flares. The trio set sail from Canvey Island in Essex at 3pm on Wednesday this week in a boat called Dolphin, but came a cropper after running aground on rocks just 15 miles into their journey on Foulness Sands.

They called 999 to say they were stuck and had "no idea where they were" and an RAF helicopter and flotilla of lifeboats were called out to search for them.

When they were found at 6pm on Wednesday, however, the crew refused to be winched to safety, saying they were sailing to Harwich - around 40 miles from where they started at Canvey Island.
They admitted they had no charts, radio or flares, but insisted on continuing their journey.
Then, at 3.15pm on Thursday, 24 hours after they set off from Canvey Island, the dozy trio ran aground again, this time on rocks at Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea. They were still 10 miles from their destination and just 30 miles from where they set off. Read full story

How James Bond Films Begain

2012-09-21T14:14:00.000-04:00

Photo: English-Online.at

(Vanity Fair) By David Kamp - Fifty years ago, at the dawn of the commercial-jet age, James Bond strode into movie history, to show audiences how stylish and thrilling life could be. But creating the cinematic Bond was fraught with peril, as best-selling author Ian Fleming discovered when he first tried to take his hero to the screen. David Kamp recalls the unlikely team—two small-time producers, a journeyman director, and a “rough diamond” of a star—behind 007’s film debut, Dr. No, the beginning of a $5 billion franchise.

Enter Sean Connery, dark hair slicked with pomade, eyes locking hungrily upon a beautiful green-eyed girl. Her return glance leaves no doubt—the feeling is mutual. His slouch and casual banter exude languor and nonchalance, but there’s an undercurrent of coiled menace to this man, as though he might, at any moment, spring into table-overturning, crockery-shattering action.

Except nothing of the sort happens. Instead, the other fellow in the scene cuts the tension by taking out his fiddle and favoring the room with a jaunty tune learned, he says in a stagy brogue, “in the old ruins on the top of Knocknasheega!”

This isn’t a James Bond picture. It is 1959, and Connery is putting in time in a cornball live-action Disney feature called Darby O’Gill and the Little People. He’s the second male lead, billed beneath not only Albert Sharpe, the elderly Irish character actor in the title role—a kindly farmhand who sees leprechauns—but also the green-eyed girl, the ingénue Janet Munro. Though verily pump-misting pheromonal musk into the air, to a degree unmatched before or since by any actor in a Disney family movie, Connery is still a jobbing scuffler, not a star. He has no idea of what lies in store for him.

The seventh of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels, Goldfinger, has recently reached the shops. But there are no Bond pictures yet. In London, a Long Island–born film producer named Albert R. Broccoli, known as Cubby, is still lamenting that he blew his chance with Fleming. The previous year, Broccoli had set up a meeting with the English author and his representatives to talk about securing movie rights to the Bond series, only to miss the meeting to tend to his wife, who had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In Broccoli’s absence, his business partner, Irving Allen, let Fleming know that he didn’t share his colleague’s ardor. “In my opinion,” Allen told Bond’s creator, “these books are not even good enough for television.” Read full story

See also:

The Official James Bond 007 Website - 007.com - Features breaking news on the 23rd James Bond movie, SKYFALL, including first looks at images and other exclusive...

The James Bond Film list - klast.net - The "official" James Bond films have been produced by Eon Productions and producer Cubby Broccoli (1909-1996), later succeeded by producers Michael Wilson and...

Oceans May Be Running Out of Fish

2012-09-21T12:02:00.001-04:00

Photo: thefisheriesblog.blogspot.com

(BBC News) By Gaia Vince - It has been some time since most humans lived as hunter-gatherers – with one important exception. Fish are the last wild animal that we hunt in large numbers. And yet, we may be the last generation to do so.

Entire species of marine life will never be seen in the Anthropocene (the Age of Man), let alone tasted, if we do not curb our insatiable voracity for fish. Last year, global fish consumption hit a record high of 17 kg (37 pounds) per person per year, even though global fish stocks have continued to decline. On average, people eat four times as much fish now than they did in 1950.

Around 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Only this week, a report suggested there may be fewer than 100 cod over the age of 13 years in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. It’s a worrying sign that we are losing fish old enough to create offspring that replenish populations.

Large areas of seabed in the Mediterranean and North Sea now resemble a desert – the seas have been expunged of fish using increasingly efficient methods such as bottom trawling. And now, these heavily subsidised industrial fleets are cleaning up tropical oceans too. One-quarter of the EU catch is now made outside European waters, much of it in previously rich West African seas, where each trawler can scoop up hundreds of thousands of kilos of fish in a day. All West African fisheries are now over-exploited, coastal fisheries have declined 50% in the past 30 years, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Catches in the tropics are expected to decline a further 40% by 2050, and yet some 400 million people in Africa and Southeast Asia rely on fish caught (mainly through artisanal fishing) to provide their protein and minerals. With climate change expected to impact agricultural production, people are going to rely more than ever on fish for their nutritional needs.

The policy of subsidising vast fishing fleets to catch ever-diminishing stocks is unsustainable. In Spain, for example, one in three fish landed is paid for by subsidy. Governments, concerned with keeping jobs alive in the fishing industry in the short-term, are essentially paying people to extinguish their own long-term job prospects – not to mention the effect on the next generation of fishermen. Artisanal fishing catches half the world’s fish, yet it provides 90% of the sector’s jobs.

Protect depletion

Clearly, industrialised countries are not about to return to traditional methods. However, the disastrous management of the industry needs to be reformed if we are to restore fisheries to a sustainable level. In the EU alone, restoring stocks would result in greater catches of an estimated 3.5 tonnes, worth... Read full story

Also see:

Overfishing: Plenty of sea? Not always - National Geographic - Ocean overfishing is simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves. The earliest overfishing occurred in the early 1800s when humans, seeking blubber for lamp oil, decimated the whale population. Some fish that we eat, including Atlantic cod and herring and California's sardines, were also harvested to the brink of extinction by the mid-1900s...

Saving our Oceans: Code Blue - Time Magazine - One woman's dream to create national parks in the sea. The Sargasso Sea has no shores. The 2 million-sq.-mi. body of water in the middle of the Atlantic is defined by two features: the ocean currents forming the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, which cycles around the sea, and sargassum, the free-floating golden-brown seaweed...

Paris Hilton Said What???

2012-09-21T10:46:00.004-04:00

photo: wallpaperextreme.com

(RadarOnline.com) By Amber Goodhand - Paris Hilton has been caught on tape making homophobic and derogatory statements about gay men who have random sex with strangers even stating "most of them probably have AIDS." RadarOnline.com has obtained the bombshell exclusive audio, which you can listen to below.

When RadarOnline.com reached out to Paris about the explosive audiotape a spokesperson for Hilton said:

"Paris Hilton’s comments were to express that it is dangerous for anyone to have unprotected sex that could lead to a life threatening disease. The conversation became heated, after a close gay friend told her in a cab ride, a story about a gay man who has AIDS and is knowingly having unprotected sex. He also discussed a website that encourages random sex by gay men with strangers. As she was being shown the website her comments were in reference to those people promoting themselves on the site. The cab driver who recorded this, only provided a portion of the conversation. It was not her intent to make any derogatory comments about all gays. Paris Hilton is a huge supporter of the gay community and would never purposefully make any negative statements about anyone’s sexual orientation.”

On the audio Paris says at one point: "Gay guys are the horniest people in the world. They're disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS."

The heiress was in Manhattan for New York Fashion Week and in the early morning hours of Friday, September 7, Paris' remarks were caught on tape by a cab driver, when her pal, who is an openly gay male model, is heard in the audio clip describing Grindr, an app that gay men use to locate other gay men for hookups. Read full story

Also see:

Paris Hilton Apologizes for Calling Gays Disgusting - Entertainment Weekly - Paris Hilton officially apologized one day after a secret recording by a New York taxi driver went viral, capturing her saying gay men are “disgusting” and “most of them probably have AIDS.” In New York attending Fashion Week, she and a gay friend were heard discussing an iPhone app called Grindr, which allows gay men to locate convenient, impromptu romantic encounters. “It tells you all the locations of where they are and you can be like, ‘Yo, you wanna f–k?’ and he might be on like, the sixth floor,” a male voice is heard saying...

Paris Hilton: 'I can't stand black guys' - TheSuperficial.com - In author Neil Strauss’ new book Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead, he shares an anecdote about meeting an 18-year-old Paris Hilton who opens up to him about getting implants at 14 until her mom made her take them out, wanting to pose for Playboy and making out with Vin Diesel before realizing he’s some percent black...

Offshore Tax Havens Saved Microsoft $7 Billion in Taxes

2012-09-20T20:32:00.000-04:00

Photo: IBN Live

(CNN Money) By Jennifer Liberto - Microsoft has saved nearly $7 billion off its U.S. tax bill since 2009 by using loopholes to shift profits offshore, a Senate panel said in a report released Thursday.

Hewlett-Packard also avoided paying taxes through a series of loans, some spanning 30 months, that shifted billions of dollars between two offshore subsidiaries, according to the Senate panel.

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reviewed tax loopholes used by dozens of companies in the high-tech industry to shift profits offshore. But it focused on moves by Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, according to Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who runs the panel.

The Republicans on the panel, including ranking member Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, said they support the report while stressing it found nothing illegal. Coburn said the report shows the need for reforms to the tax code and lower corporate tax rates.

The Senate investigation, which included subpoenas and voluntary correspondence with the companies, provided an in-depth look into how the companies set up and use overseas tax shelters, as well as the impact on government coffers.

Levin acknowledged that Microsoft has broken no laws. But he blamed a loose tax code, Congress and tax officials for allowing the loopholes. Read full story

Underwater Crop Circles Discovered

2012-09-20T16:47:00.001-04:00

Photo: thiscolossal.com

(ThisColossal.com) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration less than five percent of the world’s oceans have been explored, meaning that 95% of what lies deep underwater on Earth has yet to be seen by human eyes.

One person who has dedicated his life to uncovering the mysteries of the deep is Japanese photographer Yoji Ookata who obtained his scuba license at the age of 21 and has since spent the last 50 years exploring and documenting his discoveries off the coast of Japan. Recently while on a dive near Amami Oshima at the southern tip of the country, Ookata spotted something he had never encountered before: rippling geometric sand patterns nearly six feet in diameter almost 80 feet below sea level. He soon returned with colleagues and a television crew from the nature program NHK to document the origins what he dubbed the “mystery circle.” Read full story

Also see:

The Truth About Crop Circles - Ihup.edu - Crop circles have been appearing in grain fields all over the earth during the last few decades. They appear suddenly, usually at night. At first they were simple circles of bent-over grain stalks. Soon a new crop of more elaborate designs evolved—geometric forms reminiscent of profound mathematical theorems...

How Crop Circles Work - HowStuffWorks.com - The sun sets on a field in southern England. When it rises again the following morning, that field has been transformed into an enormous work of art. A large section of the crop has been tamped into a pattern of circles, rings and other intricate geometric shapes. But who created it...

Crop Circles of 2012 - Here's a visual round-up of all the known crop circles of 2012 (so far). You can also see archived crop circles going back to 1994. Lots of cool images!

Is Antarctic Ice Mass Growing, Not Shrinking?

2012-09-20T11:01:00.002-04:00

Photo: wfiles.brothersoft.com

(Forbes) By James Taylor - Antarctic sea ice set another record this past week, with the most amount of ice ever recorded on day 256 of the calendar year (September 12 of this leap year). Please, nobody tell the mainstream media or they might have to retract some stories and admit they are misrepresenting scientific data.

National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on its website last month claiming, “Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica. Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. The events became poster children for the effects of global warming. … There’s no question that unusually warm air triggered the final demise of these huge chunks of ice.”

NPR failed to mention anywhere in its article that Antarctic sea ice has been growing since satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the sea ice has been above the 33-year average throughout 2012. Read full story

Also see:

Is Antarctic Losing or Gaining Ice? - SkepticalScience.com - Skeptic arguments that Antarctica is gaining ice frequently hinge on an error of omission, namely ignoring the difference between land ice and sea ice.

Record-High Antarctic Sea Ice Levels Don't Disprove Global Warming - LiveScience.com - Distracting from the news that Arctic sea-ice extent reached a record low on Sept.16 is a widely circulating blog article claiming that at the opposite end of the Earth, Antarctic sea ice is more than making up for the losses.

Simple Home Burglary Reaps $10 Million

2012-09-20T10:10:00.000-04:00

photo: protectamerica.com

(NBC Los Angelas) Investigators asked for the public’s help on Wednesday to solve an alleged Santa Monica burglary estimated to involve $10 million in art, vehicles and jewelry.

The alleged victim returned home from a trip on Sept. 14 to find that their home had been burglarized, according to Santa Monica police.

"We're looking for the public's help," said Sgt. Richard Lewis of the Santa Monica Police Department. "If they know anything about the crime, anybody trying to fence art, investigators are working any leads they can get while they work the leads they currently have."

Investigators say the alleged crime occurred in the 500 block of 12th Street sometime between 3 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 8 p.m. on Sept. 14.

The following items are suspected stolen, and add up to more than $10 million:

several "high-end paintings";
two wooden box art pieces;
a red 2010 Porsche Carrera 4S, which was parked in the garage;
several expensive watches;
wine;
a "small amount" of cash.

Read full story

Is Bull Market Just About Finished?

2012-09-19T15:38:00.001-04:00

Photo: jayperoni.com

(CNN Money) By Maureen Farrell - The world's top mutual fund managers say the U.S. stock rally is about to come to an end.

More than half, or 58%, of 253 fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch say stocks are the most overvalued investments in the world. That's up from 51% in an August survey.

Many investors and market watchers have been confounded by the U.S. stock market rally of 2012 amid what appears to be slowing global growth. All three major U.S. stock indexes have inked double digit gains in 2012 with the Nasdaq (COMP) jumping 22%.

What keeps fund managers up at night is potential inaction by Congress on the issue of the so-called fiscal cliff.

"Investors now view the U.S. fiscal cliff as a greater threat than the eurozone -- and the upcoming election is putting these fears into sharper focus," said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, in a statement. Read full story