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Sunday, 20 February 2011

US Taxpayers Give $150 Million to Post-Revolutionary Egypt -

As if the US did not have its hands full with convincing the rest of the world it does not support corrupt dictatorial regimes, not to mention providing trillions in backstop capital to insolvent continents, it has once again decided to offer US taxpayer funds in an attempt to buy the love and admiration of a society in transition. According to AFP, "The United States gave Egypt $150 million in crucial economic assistance on Thursday to help the key US ally transition towards democracy following the overthrow of longtime president Hosni Mubarak." We are not sure if this falls under the definition of throwing good money after bad, especially since nobody knows where the "bad" money (according to some estimates up to $30 trillion of it) that had been collected by the Mubarak regime for three decades is. But it is refreshing that with tens of trillions in our own budget deficits, the US once again harbors an illusion that it is its, or rather its taxpayers', sworn duty to encourage the creation of "open societies" no matter just how insolvent this country itself is.

From AFP:

"I am pleased to announce today that we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support the transition there and assist with their economic recovery," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The chief US diplomat added that William Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, and David Lipton, a senior White House adviser on international economics, would travel to Egypt next week.

The pair will "consult with Egyptian counterparts on how we can most effectively deploy our assistance in line with their priorities," Clinton told reporters after a closed-door briefing with senators about Middle East unrest.

"We also discussed the lessons of the recent events in Egypt and the broader Middle East," she said.

And here is the pants-wearing Clinton confirming that nothing has been learned at all.

"These events demonstrate why the United States must remain fully engaged around the world," she said, before repeating her warning that planned Republican cuts in foreign aid would harm US national security.

Perhaps one should ask whether what is happening in North Africa is reminiscent of events in Eastern Europe in 1989. That set of revolutions was catalyzed by the fall of the old Soviet Regime. Is it time to ask whether the current roster of toppling and very US-friendly regimes in Africa and the middle east is nothing short of a harbinger that that last superpower, the US, is also on its last throes...

Ron Paul PAC ‘money bomb’ fundraiser set for Washington’s Birthday will help determine what course he will take in 2012 -

While recent signs — a presidential straw poll win, visits to Iowa, references to other key national primary states — may indicate that U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Clute) is thinking White House in 2012, a spokesperson confirmed that the libertarian Republican hasn’t ruled out a second attempt at the U.S. Senate.

“Dr. Paul is weighing all of his political options and will make a decision in the next few months. Both options are on the table,” Paul’s political director Jesse Benton said in an email late Thursday night.

First elected to the U.S. House in a 1976 special election, Paul was defeated by Democrat Bob Gammage in the general a few months later but bested Gammage in a rematch in 1978. After U.S. Sen. John Tower announced his retirement, Paul made a try for the U.S. Senate, losing in the 1984 GOP Primary to Phil Gramm. Paul’s congressional seat was taken over by future U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Paul made his first run for president in 1988 as the Libertarian Party candidate, and eventually returned to Congress with a victory in the 1996 general election. He ran for President in 2008 but did not prevail in the GOP primary.

As the Texas Independent reported Thursday, word of a ‘money bomb’ fundraiser set for Washington’s Birthday has swept through the Paul-oriented online community. Paul has said that the level of donations to his Liberty PAC in the near-term will help determine what course he will take in 2012.

While the organizers of the Facebook page for Monday’s money bomb do not have an official connection with Paul or his campaign — at least, they don’t have official titles, nor do they appear as paid staff in campaign finance reports for Paul or his PAC — a money bomb banner and link to a donation form recently appeared on the Liberty PAC website.

Benton would not comment on the money bomb or the relationship (or lack thereof) between online supporters and Paul’s PAC.

“Sorry, we don’t discuss our fundraising strategy. Nothing personal, just our policy,” he said.

However, Benton did comment on Fox News’ mix-up of footage from Paul’s 2010 and 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll wins, and subsequent on-air correction and apology.

“FOX has apologized and we’ll have to take them at their word that it was an oversight,” Benton said.

Unexpectedly, Navy’s Superlaser Blasts Away a Record - up to the 500-kV mark -

NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia — Walking into a control station at Jefferson Labs, Quentin Saulter started horsing around with his colleague, Carlos Hernandez. Saulter had spent the morning showing two reporters his baby: the laboratory version of the Navy’s death ray of the future, known as the free-electron laser, or FEL. He asked Hernandez, the head of injector- and electron-gun systems for the project, to power a mock-up electron gun — the pressure-pumping heart of this energy weapon — to 500 kilovolts. No one has ever cranked the gun that high before.

Smiling through his glasses and goatee, Hernandez motioned for Saulter to click and drag a line on his computer terminal up to the 500-kV mark. He had actually been running the electron injector at that kilovoltage for the past eight hours. It’s a goal that eluded him for six years.

Saulter, the program manager for the free-electron laser, was momentarily stunned. Then he realized what just happened. “This is very significant,” he says, still a bit shocked. Now, the Navy “can speed up the transition of FEL-weapons-system technology” from a Virginia lab to the high seas.

Translated from the Nerd: Thanks to Hernandez, the Navy will now have a more powerful death rayaboard a future ship sooner than expected, in order to burn incoming missiles out of the sky or zap through an enemy vessel’s hull.

“Five hundred [kilovolts] has been the project goal for a long time,” says George Neil, the FEL associate director at Jefferson Labs, whose Rav 4 license plate reads LASRMAN. “The injector area is one of the critical areas” of the whole project.

The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest-priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic rail gun.

Say goodbye to an adversary’s antiship missiles, and prepare to fire bullets from 200 miles away, far from shoreline defenses. No wonder the Navy asked Congress to double its budget for directed-energy weapons this week to $60 million, most of which will go to the free-electron laser.

It won’t be until the 2020s, Carr estimates, that a free-electron laser will be mounted on a ship. (Same goes for the rail gun.) Right now, the free-electron laser produces a 14-kilowatt beam. It needs to get to 100 kilowatts to be viable to defend a ship, the Navy thinks. But what happened at Jefferson Labs Friday shrinks the time necessary to get to 100 kilowatts and expands the lethality of the laser. Here’s why.

All lasers start off as atoms that get agitated into becoming photons, light that’s focused through some kind of medium, like chemicals or crystals, into a beam operating on a particular wavelength. But the free-electron laser is unique: It doesn’t use a medium, just supercharged electrons run through a racetrack of superconductors and magnets — an accelerator, to be technical — until it produces a beam that can operate on multiple wavelengths.

That means the beam from the free-electron laser won’t lose potency as it runs through all the crud in ocean air, because its operators will be able to adjust its wavelengths to compensate. And if you want to make it more powerful, all you need to do is add electrons.

But to add electrons, you need to inject pressure into your power source, so the electrons shake out and run through the racetrack. That’s done through a gun called an injector. In the basement of a building in Jefferson Labs, a 240-foot racetrack uses a 300-kilovolt injector to pressurize the electrons out of 200 kilowatts of power and send them shooting through the accelerator.

Currently, the free-electron laser project produces the most-powerful beam in the world, able to cut through 20 feet of steel per second. If it gets up to its ultimate goal, of generating a megawatt’s worth of laser power, it’ll be able to burn through 2,000 feet of steel per second. Just add electrons.

And that’s why Hernandez’s achievement is so important. He shrugs, concealing his pride. A powerful accelerator at Cornell University is “stuck at 250″ kilovolts, he grins. And he’s on a roll. Hernandez’s team fired up the injector in December with enough pressure to prove the FEL will ultimately reach megawatt class. Steel: Beware

Wendy’s slogan for the next few months will have burger-loving Americans asking “Where’s the tomato?” -

Remember Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef?” slogan from the 1980s? Well, for the next few months burger-loving Americans will be asking “Where’s the tomato?”

“The nasty winter in Florida and Mexico has had a severe impact on our ability to get quality tomatoes,” said Wendy’s spokeswoman Kitty Munger. Because of the shortage, the world’s third-largest hamburger chain will add the tomatoes to chicken sandwiches or burgers “by request only,” Munger says.

And it may not be a problem only for Wendy’s. The unusually bitter winter has restaurant suppliers across the nation seeking other sources for tomatoes.

According to Munger, all 6,500 Wendy’s outlets will have signs posted alerting customers. How long will this last? “We are hoping we can get back to normal by mid-April,” Munger said. “But it really depends on Mother Nature.”

The shortage does not include salad menu items because the chain uses smaller grape tomatoes. Oh, and don’t worry french fry fans. Ketchup supplies won’t be affected.

Apple admits toxic chemical hexane disabled employees of Chinese suppliers -

Apple iPad and iPhone are hot products in China, but the health of 137 employees of Apple's Chinese suppliers was adversely affected because of exposure to hexane in their working environment, according to a new company report.

Apple released its 2010 report on supply chain management, which publicly acknowledged for the first time that employees from Apple's Chinese supply chain were disabled from toxic hazards in the workplace.

The progress report on supplier responsibility devotes an entire chapter 25 pages long to explain the use of hexane: "In 2010, we learned that in Apple's suppliers Wintek Suzhou plant, 137 workers’ health was adversely affected due to their exposure to a hexane environment... ... We asked Wintek to stop using hexane, and provided evidence to prove that the chemical has been removed from the production line and also asked them to restore the ventilation system. Since taking the above measures, no workers were damaged due to exposure to the chemical. "

Hexane is a chemical used to clean the components in some of the manufacturing process. It is volatile but fast-acting so some suppliers ask staff members to use it to clean the Apple logo on Apple products. But this kind of chemical has strong toxicity.

At the same time, Apple Inc. said they had verified that all of the affected employees have been successfully treated: "We will continue to check the medical records of the workers until they have fully recovered. Wintek has paid the medical expenses and board wages and also reissued the wages in accordance with the requirements of Chinese law. Among the 137 workers, most of them have returned to working in the factory. "

However, reporters have learned some of the employees are being pressured to leave the company and were told "they can not get compensation if they do not leave the company."

Read more - http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7291502.html

Computer Nerd Conned U.S. Military - more than $20 million for software he claimed could stop al Qaeda’s next attack -

So much for military intelligence. For eight years the U.S. government paid Dennis Montgomery, a California computer programmer, more than $20 million for software he claimed could stop al Qaeda’s next attack by detecting secret messages in Al-Jazeera broadcasts, identify terrorists from predator drones, and detect noise from enemy submarines. But the software didn’t work, and the government is invoking national security to keep the details secret. The CIA was so excited about the technology at first, one former agency official says, people called it “the most important, most sensitive” program they had. But when it was used in 2003, it set off a false alarm that led President George W. Bush to order airlines over the Atlantic Ocean to turn around. French officials, annoyed that the U.S. had grounded their planes, launched their own investigation into the program and determined it was a hoax. However, the U.S. kept turning to Montgomery, and in 2008, reacted to another false alarm—this time, Somali pirates plotting to disrupt President Obama’s inauguration. Not only did the government not look into Montgomery, it was determined that no one else should either. In the last few months, the Justice Department has issued protective orders to keep details of his software in court, some, like Montgomery’s former lawyer, say it is to save itself the embarrassment. Montgomery is currently in bankruptcy in Palm Springs, Calif, and facing charges of passing $1.8 million in bad checks at Vegas casinos.

» Read it at The New York Times

Jumping castle flies off with girl, 9 - got caught in a high wind gust and dropped her on a neighbor's roof -

A 9-year-old girl suffered serious injuries Saturday when the jumping castle she was in got caught in a high wind gust and dropped her on a neighbor's roof.

Alissa Baray was attending a birthday party at a home in the 7900 block of Ironwood Reserve Way, near North Silverbell and West Twin Peaks roads in Marana, said Capt. Adam Goldberg, a Northwest Fire District spokesman.

She and her 11-year-old sister, Jessica, were in the jumping castle when a sudden, intense gust of wind - witnesses described it as similar to a microburst - sent it airborne, Goldberg said. The jumping castle was tied down, but the force of the wind broke the ties, he said.

Jessica dropped out shortly after the castle took off, but her younger sister was trapped inside, he said. It flew about 110 feet before it dropped her on a neighbor's roof, he said.

Paramedics rescued the child and took both girls to University Medical Center. Jessica had only minor injuries, but Alissa suffered a minor concussion, said the girls' grandmother, Marianne Lucero.

She was alert at the hospital Saturday night. "She opened her eyes and said, 'I love you grandma'," Lucero said.

The girls' father hurt his ankle as he tried to chase the jumping castle, she said.

Tanya Carroll was at home Saturday when she heard a loud crash on her roof. When she went outside, she saw a man climbing onto her roof to reach the younger girl. Another man, the girl's father, told her to call 911.

With the girl out of the jumping castle, it again took flight.

Tonya Rerecich saw it carrying a pair of oversized boxing gloves and dragging its motor as it flew over the neighborhood.

"It was fully inflated," she said.

After about a minute it crashed into the side of her house. She said it moved with such force she was grateful the little girl was out of it by then.

"It hit the side of my house so hard," Rerecich said. "It would've killed her."

Gusts reached up to 30 mph in Marana Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported.

Guidelines for jumping castles vary by manufacturer, and each situation is different, said Jake Towne, owner of All About Parties, which rents jumping castles, obstacle courses and carnival games for parties.

All About Parties did not provide the jumping castle for the party in Marana Saturday.

Towne's jumping castles can handle wind speeds of up to 25 mph, he said. But even in high winds, jumping castles sometimes still can be used safely, he said.

"It depends on where they're set up," he said. "Some areas are shielded from the wind."

Saturday, 19 February 2011

Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short - thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases -

The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight.

The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.

The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal. Even counting Social Security and any pensions or other savings, most 401(k) participants appear to have insufficient savings. Data from other sources also show big gaps between savings and what people need, and the financial crisis has made things worse.

This analysis uses estimates of 401(k) balances from the end of 2010 and of salaries from 2009. It assumes people need 85% of their working income after they retire in order to maintain their standard of living, a common yardstick.

Facing shortfalls, many people are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined.

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"Inevitably, we find that, for the average person, there is not enough there," says financial adviser Paul Merritt of NTrust Wealth Management in Virginia Beach, Va., who has found himself advising many retirement-age people with too little savings. "The discussion turns out to be: What kind of part-time work do you want to do after you retire?"

He has clients contemplating part-time work into their 70s, he says.

Tax-deferred 401(k) retirement accounts came into wide use in the 1980s, making baby boomers trying to retire now among the first to rely heavily on them.

The problems are widespread, especially among middle-income earners. About 60% of households nearing retirement age have 401(k)-type accounts, according to government data, and those represent the majority of most people's savings. The situation is less dire for those in a higher income bracket, who tend to save more outside their 401(k) accounts and who have more margin for error if their retirement returns fall below the recommended 85% figure.

Steven Rutschmann, 60 years old, manages the buildings and grounds at a Midwest research facility. His employer recently offered him a bonus if he retired early.

Mr. Rutschmann's 401(k) is well into six figures. His wife has a 401(k) and expects a small pension from her nursing job. An outdoorsman, he dreams of spending time hunting, fishing and hiking.

So he consulted a financial planner at Ernst & Young and learned that even with the bonus, his savings could run out before he turns 85. Now he expects to work for several more years.

"I was disappointed," says Mr. Rutschmann, whose 401(k) balance was damaged by the financial crisis and who still has a large mortgage.

In general, people facing problems today got too little advice, or bad advice. They didn't realize that a 6% annual contribution, with a 3% company match, might not be enough.

Some started saving too late or suspended contributions when they or their spouses lost jobs. Others borrowed against 401(k) accounts for medical emergencies or ran up debts too close to their planned retirement dates.

In the stock-market collapses of 2000-2002 and 2007-2009, many people were over-invested in stocks. Some bailed out after the market collapse, suffering on the way down and then missing the rebound.

Initially envisioned as a way for management-level people to put aside extra retirement money, the 401(k) was embraced by big companies in the 1980s as a replacement for costly pension funds. Suddenly, they were able to transfer the burden of funding employees' retirement to the employees themselves. Employees had control over their savings, and were able carry them to new jobs.

Read more - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959604576152792748707356.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

Borders, the second-largest bookstore in the United States, has filed for bankruptcy and will close 200 of its 642 stores -

Borders, the second-largest bookstore in the United States, hasfiled for bankruptcy and will close 200 of its 642 stores. It may close another 75 if the company can’t get concessions from landlords.

You might think Borders was the first major casualty of the digital book boom, but the store’s problems may actually be tied up in the previous digital revolution. An Engadget commenter who claims to be a former Borders employee makes a good point to that end:

“Borders made a big commitment to selling CDs & DVDs — large sections of the stores were devoted to this content in the 90s and early 00s. new stores were designed and built in an effort to give multimedia a large segment of the store space.
“In the end, Borders has failed because [its] stores got too big and the demand for CDs and DVDs dropped — there was just no way to pay the bills.”

Even Best Buy is cutting back on CD and DVD space these days, but while the electronics retailer has plenty of other hot products to populate its shelves, such as video games, computers, smartphones and tablets, Borders can only fall back on books. And that’s going to get trickier as e-books become more popular.

If Borders wants to survive now, it will need a better digital book strategy than the one it has.The couple stores I visited recently kept their Kobo and Cruz e-readers locked away, with no area for hands-on demos. By comparison, my local Barnes & Noble has a Nook kiosk at the front of the store, with an employee standing by to answer questions. I don’t expect Borders to develop its own e-reader now, but it should at least try harder to sell its partners’ hardware.

Not that it necessarily matters; Kobo, whose digital book store powered Borders’ e-book service, is taking the news in stride. Kobo Chief Executive Michael Serbinis wrote in a blog post that “Kobo is an independent, financially secure company,” and that Borders’ e-book sales represented “a minority of Kobo’s worldwide sales.” I get the sense that Borders needs Kobo a lot more than vice versa.

China to spend $1.3T on new rail, road infrastructure -

A booth for Daqin Railway Co at a railway equipment expo in Beijing. Shares of Daqin Railway may rise as the nation's transport infrastructure is upgraded, according to Morgan Stanley. (Photo / China Daily)

China plans to spend at least $1.3 trillion over the next five years to ease transport and freight bottlenecks, creating a windfall for companies such as Daqin Railway Co and Anhui Expressway Co.

Rising wages and land costs in the coastal provinces that have underpinned China's industrial development for three decades are forcing manufacturers, including Ford Motor Co, Pfizer Inc and Foxconn Technology Group, to move production inland to cut costs. That's strained China's ability to transport goods within the country, prompting a spending program the size of the Swiss economy during the past two years on roads, railways and airports.

"A huge part of China hasn't been part of the global economy," said Brian Jackson, an emerging-markets strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. "As that changes, it's going to have a similar effect to what you saw with coastal China joining the world economy."

The development of inland provinces, such as Shanxi and Anhui, is driving an expansion of rail capacity that may help shares of Datong-based Daqin Railway rise 86 percent to 16.03 yuan ($2.4), according to Morgan Stanley. Hefei-based toll road operator Anhui Expressway may rise 44 percent to HK$9 ($1.2) as inland growth is boosted by companies moving from the east coast, says Macquarie Capital Securities.

China has spent $569 billion on fixed-asset investment in railways and roads over the past two years. That may help to more than double the country's share of world exports to 23 percent in the next decade, according to China International Capital Corp economist Zhang Zhiwei.

Over the next five years China will spend as much as 3.5 trillion yuan on railway construction, 750 billion yuan on rail rolling stock, 3.5 trillion yuan to 4 trillion yuan on highways, 300 billion yuan to 350 billion yuan on airports, and 900 billion yuan on ports, according to Macquarie.

The nation's 2 trillion yuan in spending on a high-speed rail network will give it almost as much track by next year as the entire rest of the world, even before the 16,000-kilometer network is completed in 2020. More than 7,000 kilometers of track have already been laid and another 6,000 kilometers are scheduled to open by 2012.
Read more -http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7293180.html