Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Eeyore's News and View

How To Raise A Brat!
By Pastor Art Kohl
So many today have been successful at raising brats. Here's some of the finest advice you'll ever receive on how to raise a brat:
1. WHEN A BABY, DON'T LET HIM CRY IN BED Do not allow YOUR baby to suffer any hardships, especially in infancy. Run to his aid as soon as he cries. He'll soon know how to control you, rather than you controlling him. This way, they'll expect to be pampered all of their lives.
2. LET HIM SAY "NO" It's so cute. Let that be his favorite word. Sure, it's rebellion verbalized, but he should be allowed to have a mind of his own.
3. DO NOT GIVE ANY DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES Do it all for them. Then they'll think this world owes them a living. They'll quickly join the crowd of grown up babies shouting, "I've got my rights," rather than those who are men and women enough to fulfill their responsibilities.
4. NEVER SPANK THEM When the senior citizens today speak of spanking as being "the way we used to do it," remember, grandma and grandpa were "child abusers." Don't ever discipline your child. Wait till they're in trouble, and let the penal system (prisons and jails) discipline them. Listen to Dr. Spock (who never raised a child in his life) and the other child psychologists, not the old timers who raised 5 or 10 children successfully! Throw out the Bible and its admonitions like: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (early in life)" Proverbs 13:24. "The rod AND reproof (teaching that exposes wrong) give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame," Proverbs 29:15. You can only develop a true brat if you won't properly discipline them.
5. DEFEND THEM IN SCHOOL Always take the child's side. Teachers and principals have got it "in" for the little angel. Understand that your child can do no wrong. Expect teachers and principals to know that too!
6. CRITICIZE LEADERS AND PREACHERS You can't trust them. Tear down authority in front of them. Make sure they hear you. They'll live in insecurity not knowing who to trust. They will be totally prepared for a life of rebellion. They will not learn to properly fear anyone and will probably lose their jobs when the boss asks them to do something. Don't tell them that 99% of those in leadership positions are good people who are sincere and have never been indicted for anything. Leave them with the impression that they are all bad.
7. DON'T EVER SAY "I LOVE YOU" They can figure that out! After all, you've given them everything they've ever wanted. What more can a parent do (of course, don't give them yourself!)
8. GIVE THEM EVERYTHING THEY WANT Buy something for them every time you go into a store. Never say "no" to them. When properly trained this way, they will be used to having every appetite of theirs fulfilled immediately. When they grow older and develop natural sexual appetites, they will have been trained by you to seek immediate fulfillment. Teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases shouldn't really surprise the parent then. Sooo... give them everything they ask for while they are kids.
9. NEVER TEACH THEM THE BIBLE Teach them math, science, history, art, music, reading, physical education, sex education, etc. but don't teach them the Bible. Let them decide for themselves. Make them go to school 5 days a week for all day, but don't take them to church for 1 hour on Sunday.
10. ALWAYS TRUST YOUR CHILD He's a little angel. He wouldn't dare do anything behind your back. Did you ever ask a young person whom you catch smoking, "Do you smoke at home?" Usually the answer is, "You've got to be kidding my parents would kill me." Remember, that's the other kids in town, yours would never do that.
11. SCREAM AT YOUR CHILDREN This is the only type of communication necessary to raise a brat. Time spent answering their questions and instructing them is wasted time. The only training really required of parents is potty-training. After that, it is the obligation of day cares preschools and schools. Scream constantly, and the fond memories your children have of home life will assure you as a parent that your kids will never take care of you when you're old.
12. LET YOUR CHILD COME AND GO AS THEY WILL Don't set any boundaries. This will lead to a life of insecurity. Brats don't need guidelines.
13. MAKE SURE THEY ARE POPULAR They must be in with the crowd, their peers! Don't let them be an oddball. If they follow the crowd, the crowd will become the greatest influence in their lives. Nothing to fear there, right?
14. LET THEM WATCH TV CONSTANTLY Keep them away from reality. Let them live in fantasy all of their lives. Brats need entertainment! A life of comfort and ease produces high-class brats. They won't know how to deal with reality or real people, but maybe they'll just go into seclusion rather than becoming contentious or hostile. It's usually one or the other. CONCLUSION Brats are produced, not born. It takes effort to obey the above principles. Parents should prepare themselves for a life of heartbreak for it is sure to come.

http://www.biblebelievers.com/how_to_raise_a_brat.html

Obama's 'war against churches and charities'
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President Obama's plan to raise taxes on upper-income earners is designed to create bigger government and a more secular America.
Author and political commentator Newt Gingrich of American Solutions calls President Obama's tax program a "war against churches and charities." Gingrich
accuses President Obama of "deliberately" trying to take away the charitable deduction for successful people so they will not give as much money to churches or charities. "I think there's a clear to desire to replace the church with a bureaucracy, and to replace people's right to worship together with a government-dominated system," he contends. The former House Speaker says the Obama administration is talking seriously about taking away the right of conscience in terms of performing abortions. "This is most aggressive, militant, secular program I can remember," Gingrich admits. "And I think you have to be really clearly aware that they want an America which is radically different than the country which was created by those pioneers who first landed back in 1607 at Cape Henry and erected a cross to thank God for having allowed them to cross the Atlantic Ocean." Gingrich believes people often forget that the first act of the first successful American colony was to "erect a cross at Cape Henry, to thank God for their survival and their salvation, and then to go up to Jamestown to found the colony."
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=473430

Senate Rejects Obama Plan to Cut Tax Breaks on Charitable Gifts
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate rejected a proposal by President Barack Obama to finance an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system by limiting the ability of the well-to-do to take tax deductions for charitable contributions.
The chamber unanimously approved an amendment to a pending budget plan that rejects the proposal to limit the size of itemized deductions that can be taken by those earning more than $250,000.
Obama proposed using the estimated $318 billion such a change would generate to help finance a health-care overhaul, which he says will cost at least $630 billion. Lawmakers said they feared the effect of such a tax change on charities.
“The Senate sent a clear message to the president,” said Senator Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican who sponsored the amendment. “Charities benefit greatly from the donations made by individuals in this income bracket, and raising taxes on these contributions would be a disservice to Americans and the millions of charities across the country.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKl4RpzgwpY&refer=worldwide

Alarm raised about religion defamation ban
Associated Press - 3/29/2009 4:00:00 AM
There are concerns being raised about a U.N. religion defamation proposal which could actually suppress religious free speech rights. The U.N.'s top human rights body has approved a proposal by Muslim nations urging the passage of laws protecting religion from criticism. Members of the Human Rights Council voted 23-11 in favor of a resolution to combat "defamation of religion." Opposing the resolution were mostly Western nations. Thirteen countries abstained. The resolution was proposed by Pakistan. Muslim countries have cited Western criticism of Islamic law, as well as the inflammatory effect of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, as examples of unacceptable free speech.Christian, Jewish, and secular groups say the non-binding resolution restricts freedom of speech and will worsen relations between faiths. Bennett Graham of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty argues that religious discrimination can be prevented with existing human rights laws. Graham says there should not be an international ban on defamation of religion. "It sounds like it's for respect and for tolerance and about religious harmony, and unfortunately it actually creates religious disharmony and shuts down any sort of discourse in the public square," Graham contends. Members of the U.S. Congress voiced opposition to the defamation ban, including Congressman Trent Franks (R-Arizona). "This notion of outlawing the defamation of religions is a very, very dangerous one. As a Christian, it hurts me when maybe someone says something negative about my faith or my Savior, but if they don’t have the right to do that, then their religious freedom is gone," he notes. "And so as a Christian, I'm very, very committed to religious freedom. When people have the right to express their faith and express dissent, it gives us all maybe a better chance at arriving at the truth."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=467812

In times like these, more people are going to church for help
Pleas for help — spiritual and financial — are flooding U.S. churches, from tiny congregations to megachurches, as recession woes seep into the pews, a new survey finds.
Pastors say they're giving out benevolent funds in record numbers, increasing ministries to the unemployed and the financially fearful, even reaching into their own pockets more to help.
Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.
The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.)
The Rev. Bill Ankerberg has seen it all at his Whittier Area Community Church, east of Los Angeles. The church gave more financial aid to folks in one month, $26,000 from the benevolent fund, than it was asked to give in all of 1996, the year he came to Whittier, he says.
Like 27% of pastors in the survey, Ankerberg has given personally, too.
Last weekend, 1,100 of the Whittier Area church's 1,800 adult members were signed up to help with more than 112 service projects in area schools, hospitals, homeless shelters and other public sites.
First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan., called all 5,000 members to tell them about a special February Sunday worship service where people who had lost their jobs could come to be anointed with oil by senior pastor Jerry Johnston and his son, Jeremy, the executive pastor.
"We had 2,000 people, the largest worship service turnout of the year," says the Rev. Jeremy Johnston. "The worship team led the prayers while my dad and I stood in the aisles, and one after another people came forward to be anointed and for prayer. It brought me to tears."
First Family also has added ministries to support the unemployed, and next month will hold a baby shower for new mothers from 17 shelters in Kansas City.
"We're going through money a lot faster in terms of helping people with utility bills and shut-offs, and we're seeing people we have never seen before seek help," says the Rev. Larry Klinker of historic Zion Lutheran Church in New Middletown, Ohio, where nearly 140 worship on Sundays.
Zion is a distribution site for the Salvation Army, which once gave Zion $5,000 to distribute each year but now has cut back to $3,500.
"I spend more time on counseling now. The difference I see between now and other hard times," says Klinker, who has spent 27 years at Zion, "is that it's more pervasive, and there's a sense of no end in sight."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-29-churches-helping_N.htm

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Eeyore's News and View

Asian markets fall on outlook for China, U.S.
SEOUL (AP) — Most Asian stock markets fell Monday on signs that the U.S. holiday shopping season got off to a tepid start over the key Thanksgiving weekend. Major European markets opened lower.
Investors seemed to want a breather to reassess after rallies in global markets last week, including the first five-day advance for Wall Street since July 2007. Some traders wanted to hold back ahead of the Institute for Supply Management's November manufacturing survey due later Monday for further clues about the strength of the U.S. economy, a vital export market.
Investors are bracing for more bad news about the U.S. economy, said Tsuyoshi Nomaguchi, a strategist for Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
"They aren't sure what they're supposed to do at this point," he said.
India's benchmark Sensex index reversed early gains, falling 2.9% to 8,829.76 in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 172 people dead.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average lost 115.05 points, or 1.4%, to close at 8,397.22 after advancing 7.6% last week. Investors sold exporters as the yen strengthened, which erodes their overseas earnings.
Markets in South Korea, Australia and Singapore also fell.
Bucking the trend were Hong Kong and mainland China, where key indices rose on expectations of further measures by the Chinese government to boost the economy after last month's big interest rate cut and anouncement of a multibillion dollar stimulus package.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up 220.60 points, or 1.6%, to 14,108.84, continuing its rally from last week, when it rose nearly 10%. China's Shanghai Composite index gained 1.3% to 1,894.61.
"These are the appetizers of a full meal," said Winson Fong, managing director at SG Asset Management in Hong Kong, which overseas about $3 billion in equities in Asia, referring to those earlier measures. "It's not the end."
Early reports from the U.S. showed modest gains in retail sales on Black Friday — the traditional start of the American holiday shopping season — but business appeared to fall off during the rest of the weekend, at least according to some accounts, and analysts said crowds were thinner than last year. Also, sales gains seemed to come at the expense of profits as companies slashed prices to lure shoppers.
Investors around the world are paying close attention to the weekend sales figures for clues on the strength of the American economy, a vital export market.
According to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT, a research firm that tracks total retail sales at more than 50,000 outlets, sales rose 3% to $10.6 billion on Friday from the same day a year ago. A more complete sales picture of how the Thanksgiving shopping weekend fared won't be known until Thursday when the nation's retailers report November same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year.
"We don't know if it's driven by sales or if U.S. consumers are getting their confidence back," said SG Asset Management's Fong.
As trading opened in Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 1.5% at 4,225.49. Germany's DAX was 1.8% lower at 4,584.37 and France's CAC-40 slipped 1.4% to 3,216.44.
Stocks in Thailand reversed early gains as investors weighed prospects that the country's political crisis will be resolved soon. Anti-government protesters have occupied Bangkok's two main airports for nearly a week, cutting off air freight, stranding tourists and crippling the economy. The benchmark SET index was down 1.7% at 394.80.
U.S. stock futures were down, suggesting Wall Street would open lower Monday. Dow futures were down 142 points, or 1.6%, to 8,678, and S&P futures were down 17.7 points, or 2%, to 878.1.
Oil prices fell to below $52 a barrel after OPEC declined to cut production at an informal meeting in Cairo on Saturday. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $2.54 to $51.89 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in mid-afternoon in Singapore.
In currencies, the dollar declined to 94.21 yen from 95.48 in New York late Friday. The euro fell to $1.2645.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2008-12-01-global-markets-monday_N.htm

Britain thinking of joining euro: Barroso
Britain is considering joining the eurozone as a direct consequence of global financial turmoil, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday.
"We are now closer than ever before. I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'," Barroso told a weekly French news programme, referring to the fall in the pound's value since markets and liquidity meltdown earlier this year.
"The British have an enormous quality, one of many, that is they are pragmatic," he said on the panel of a joint RTL-LCI radio and television broadcast. "This crisis has emphasised the importance of the euro, and also of Britain," he added.
"I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it," the former Portuguese prime minister said.
Barroso pointed to the case of Denmark, another EU state which has so far refused to accept the euro but is now planning another referendum on the single currency. The Danish voted against joining in 2000.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081130204959.yq2a770m&show_article=1

Iran proposes nuclear plants with Arab countries

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's official news agency says Tehran has proposed building joint light-water nuclear power plants with neighboring Arab countries.
Sunday's IRNA report quotes the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh. He says Iran is ready to offer a proposal to Arab countries if they are interested.
Iran's Arab neighbors have been suspicious of the Persian country's controversal nuclear program, and several Arab countries have announced plans to develop their own nuclear programs.
The U.S. and some of its allies claim Iran is secretly seeking to develop nuclear weapons — a charge Tehran denies.
Iran is building its first nuclear power plant with Russia's help. It is slated to open in 2009.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jG7bnyWWJfgaYD-JwcqmImlpRujwD94P5OBG0

Choice for U.N. Backs Strong Action Against Mass Killings
CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan E. Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of “dramatic action” against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said Sunday.
Mr. Obama intends to announce Ms. Rice’s selection at a news conference here Monday along with his previously reported decisions to nominate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, keep Robert M. Gates as defense secretary and appoint Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant, his national security adviser, the Democrats said.
The choice of Ms. Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Mrs. Clinton. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.
To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President Bush’s tenure, Mr. Obama plans to restore the ambassador’s post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.
While the cabinet consists of 15 department heads, a president can give other positions the same rank for the duration of his administration.
“She’s obviously one of Obama’s closest advisers, so it underscores how much of a priority he’s making the position,” said Nancy Soderberg, a senior United States diplomat at the United Nations under Mr. Clinton. “If you look at the last eight years, we obviously need to be more engaged at the U.N. and realistic about what the U.N. can do.”
At Monday’s announcement, the president-elect will also formally unveil his nominations of Eric H. Holder Jr. to be attorney general and Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona to be secretary of homeland security, the Democrats said. He will not announce any of the top intelligence appointments on Monday, but the Democrats said they expected him soon to name Adm. Dennis C. Blair, a retired Pacific Fleet commander, as director of national intelligence.
If confirmed, Ms. Rice at 44 would be the second-youngest ambassador to the United Nations. A Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University, she joined Mr. Clinton’s National Security Council staff in 1993 before rising to assistant secretary of state for African affairs at age 32. When Mr. Obama decided to run for president, she signed up as one of his top advisers, much to the consternation of the Clinton camp, which resented what it saw as a defection.
As the ambassador at the United Nations, Ms. Rice will have to coordinate with Mrs. Clinton, but will not be in the White House or at State Department headquarters on a daily basis as major policies are formulated. One person close to Mrs. Clinton said the senator did not object to Ms. Rice serving at the United Nations.
Some colleagues from her Clinton and Obama days said Ms. Rice can be blunt and unafraid to “mix it up,” as one put it, on behalf of issues she cares about. Ms. Rice herself acknowledges a certain impatience at times.
Admirers said she is a good listener and able to stand up to strong personalities, including foreign autocrats and militants in volatile regions of the world.
“Susan certainly is tough, and she’s tough in exactly the right way,” said Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state and now president of the Brookings Institution, where Ms. Rice has worked in recent years. “She’s intellectually tough, she’s tough in her approach to how the policymaking process should work and she will be very effective as a diplomat.”
John R. Bolton, who was one of Mr. Bush’s ambassadors at the United Nations, would not discuss Ms. Rice’s selection, but said it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again.
“One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Bolton said. “Second, you shouldn’t have two secretaries in the same department.”
During her first run at the State Department, Ms. Rice was a point person in responding to Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombing of United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But her most searing experience was visiting Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when she was still on the N.S.C. staff.
As she later described the scene, the hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing, hacked up bodies that she saw haunted her and fueled a desire to never let it happen again.
“I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” she told The Atlantic Monthly in 2001. She eventually became a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the Darfur killings and last year testified before Congress on behalf of an American-led bombing campaign or naval blockade to force a recalcitrant Sudanese government to stop the slaughter.
Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, praised the pending Rice nomination on Sunday, calling it a powerful sign of the new president’s interest in the issue. The coalition is urging Mr. Obama to begin a “peace surge” of sustained diplomacy to address the continuing problems in Sudan.
“It sends a very strong signal about his approach to the issue of Sudan and Africa in general,” Mr. Fowler said. Ms. Rice will be joining a high-powered team on stage with Mr. Obama on Monday, most notably Mrs. Clinton.
The two rivals from the polarizing battle for the Democratic presidential nomination will seal their reconciliation with Mrs. Clinton’s nomination to head the State Department.
At a time when the country remains engaged in two wars and still faces the threat of international terrorism, Mrs. Clinton will anchor a national security team with more of a centrist character than some of Mr. Obama’s liberal supporters once hoped to see.
Some critics have pointed out that the team represents experience rather than the change Mr. Obama promised. But it also drew praise from across the aisle.
“The triumvirate of Gates, Clinton and Jones to lead Obama’s national security team instills great confidence at home and abroad and further strengthens the growing respect for the president-elect’s courage and ability to exercise sound judgment in selecting the best and the brightest to implement our nation’s security policies,” said Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, a former chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/politics/01rice.html?ref=us

The Donald in trouble? The following two articles give an indication that he might be
Trump Sued Over Chicago Tower Top lender accuses developer of missing loan deadline
Ring the bell. Looks like Donald Trump and his lenders will go another round in their financing fight at the Chicago high-rise.
The lead lender on the Trump International Hotel & Tower is suing Donald Trump, seeking to collect on a $40-million personal guarantee the developer made on the 92-story structure, according to Crain's.
Citing chicagorealestatedaily.com, Crain's said Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas filed the suit Friday in Manhattan's New York state court, alleging Trump didn't pay off a remaining $334.2 million loan due on Nov. 7 to Deutsche Bank and its syndicate of lenders.
Earlier this month, Trump filed his own suit against Deutsche Bank and its syndicate, accusing them on not allowing an extention of a Nov. 7 deadline of the $640-million loan for the project.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/around_town/real_estate/Trump-Sued-Over-Chicago-Tower.html
Trump Entertainment to miss interest payment
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Facing tough competition and sliding revenue amid the economic meltdown, Trump Entertainment Resorts will have to skip a $53.1 million interest payment scheduled for Monday on its 8.5% senior secured notes due 2015 in order to maintain sufficient liquidity.
The Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator, with about $1.25 billion worth of the notes outstanding, said late Friday that it has a 30-day grace period to pay up and will meanwhile seek talks with its lenders to revamp its capital structure and improve its liquidity.
A panel of independent directors will oversee the talks, the company said.
If it doesn't make the payment in the 30-day grace period, Trump Entertainment said, holders of a quarter of the notes and lenders under a $490 million senior secured loan to a company subsidiary will be able to accelerate the maturities of those obligations.
Donald Trump, the television personality and New York real estate investor, is non-executive chairman and the largest shareholder of Trump Entertainment (TRMP:
trump entmt resorts inc com
News, chart, profile, more
Last: 0.31+0.02+6.86%12:59pm 11/28/2008Delayed quote data
Add to portfolioAnalyst Create alert
InsiderDiscussFinancials
Sponsored by:
TRMP 0.31, +0.02, +6.9%) , which operates three Atlantic City casinos: The Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Plaza on the Boardwalk and the Trump Marina in the Marina district. The last is being sold to Coastal Development for $270 million in a deal that has seen the price lowered and the closing deadline delayed.
Trump Entertainment "is separate and distinct from Mr. Trump's privately held real estate and other holdings, which the company understands encompasses substantially all of his net worth," the company said.
After his casinos twice ran into bankruptcy, Trump was removed from having any operating role in them as part of the deal that brought the company out of Chapter 11 the last time around.
And it could happen again: Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings warned that after the company drew a remaining $25 million available on its credit facility this quarter to help fund an expansion, "it will have little to no access to committed external funds."
The ratings agency also said that "given Trump's heavy debt load and the expected operating pressure in Atlantic City over the next 12 months, it is crucial for Trump to close the Trump Marina sale in order to avoid a restructuring, in the absence of another transaction."
On Nov. 7, Trump Entertainment reported that it swung to a third-quarter loss of $139.1 million, or $4.39 a share, from a profit of $6.6 million, or 21 cents, in the year-earlier period. Continuing operations produced a loss of $3.49 a share against profit of 7 cents. Revenue fell 8.4% to $198.3 million.
The company cited slower consumer spending, competition from Pennsylvania, and a smoking ban as the primary factors in the latest results. The number of customers was relatively stable, but spending per person declined, the company said.
The company said then that it was controlling its costs and that its 21 top-paid executives had agreed to a 5% salary cut.
Shares of Trump closed at 31 cents Friday, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $10 million. The stock price scraped as low as 25 cents earlier this month after trading near $6 this time last year.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7B7C187DC9%2DF04B%2D4225%2DA202%2D648889E4413E%7D&siteid=rss (also more on his Chicago deal)

Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'
The American military is planning to build robot soldiers that will not be able to commit war crimes like their human comrades in arms.

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University's has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?"

Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that show high proportions of frontline troops supporting torture and retribution against enemy combatants.

Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the US Army has written a report which concludes robots, while not "perfectly ethical in the battlefield" can "perform more ethically than human soldiers."

He says that robots "do not need to protect themselves" and "they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events".

Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes against militant targets and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

Last month the US Army took delivery of a new robot built by an American subsidiary of the British defence company QinetiQ, which can fire everything from bean bags and pepper spray to high-explosive grenades and a 7.62mm machine gun.

But this generation of robots are all remotely operated by humans. Researchers are now working on "soldier bots" which would be able to identify targets, weapons and distinguish between enemy forces like tanks or armed men and soft targets like ambulances or civilians.

Their software would be embedded with rules of engagement conforming with the Geneva Conventions to tell the robot when to open fire.

Dr Allen applauded the decision to tackle the ethical dilemmas at an early stage. "It's time we started thinking about the issues of how to take ethical theory and build it into the software that will ensure robots act correctly rather than wait until it's too late," he said.

"We already have computers out there that are making decisions that affect people's lives but they do it in an ethically blind way. Computers decide on credit card approvals without any human involvement and we're seeing it in some situations regarding medical care for the elderly," a reference to hospitals in the US that use computer programmes to help decide which patients should not be resuscitated if they fall unconscious.

Dr Allen said the US military wants fully autonomous robots because they currently use highly trained manpower to operate them. "The really expensive robots are under the most human control because they can't afford to lose them," he said.

"It takes six people to operate a Predator drone round the clock. I know the Air Force has developed software, which they claim is to train Predator operators. But if the computer can train the human it could also ultimately fly the drone itself."

Some are concerned that it will be impossible to devise robots that avoid mistakes, conjuring up visions of machines killing indiscriminately when they malfunction, like the robot in the film Robocop.

Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist at Sheffield University, best known for his involvement with the cult television show Robot Wars, is the leading critic of the US plans.

He says: "It sends a cold shiver down my spine. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rimes.html

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Eeyore's News and view

Here is an article about the comparison between the first depression and this one, pretty interesting stuff.



The 1929 & 2007 Bear Market Race To The Bottom Week 54 of 149
Mark J. Lundeen



Week 54 in the Dow Jones’ Race to the Bottom between 1929 and 2007 bear markets are as follows:
1929 : -36.59% from its all time weekly closing high price of 380.33
2007 : -40.55% from its all time weekly closing high price of 14,093.08
For the third week in a row, the 2007 bear leads the 1929 bear.
I anticipate a bounce sometime soon. But I said that two weeks ago and it hasn’t happed yet. We know that Treasury Secretary Paulson has $700,000,000,000 to spend on managing our “free markets.” On what and how much has he spent so far? I don’t know. If he has devoted most of his resources on the stock market and this is all we get, then 2007 is really going after 1929 for the record. It is likely that the stock market is not priority #1 for the US Treasury.
“Gotta save the banks.”
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan testified before Congress this week. Under oath he confessed he never knew much of anything about economics or money. As usual, the Congress believed every word Greenspan said.
The table below is not intended to be a prediction on my part. I’m simply supplying the various mile stones the DJIA 2007 bear must pass to exceed past bear markets. Cut it out and keep it as a handy guide for the specific Dow Levels needed for the 2007 to pass the other eight historic -40% bear markets.
Before this is all over I suspect that the 2007 bear market will be moving up from its current #9 position on the table below.




As per the table above, for the 2007 bear to rise up from #9 to the #8 spot, the weekly closing price of the Dow Jones Industrials must fall below 7799.61. If Dow takes out 7799.61, it is only 439.68 point away from becoming #4 on the above list. In the current market, the Dow has had hourly swings as large as that. I think making the #4 spot will prove to be an easy thing for the 2007 DJIA Bear to do.
After that things will start to get harder. Since 1885 the Dow has closed 50% below its previous all time highs only 3 times before and has not done so since 1942. But then maybe be we are due for a -50% bear market as we have not had one since 1942. Until the 2007 bear takes out the -50% lows of 1896 and 1942, one must assume that the current bear market will be a bad bear, but nothing catastrophic.
Note For the Record: Mark Lundeen does not want a devastating bear market in the next two years. However, in full view of Congressional Market Oversight Committees and under the supervision of Government Regulatory Agencies, things were done that I believe will make a historic bear market inevitable. If you have a problem with this bear market, contact
Washington, not Mark Lundeen.
Dow Jones -40% Declines From 1885 to 2008 is the article that inspired this race of 1929 & 2007 Bear Markets. You may want to read that article to understand my “BEV Chart” Above.
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/lundeen102508.html


Europe on the brink of currency crisis meltdown
The crisis in Hungary recalls the heady days of the UK’s expulsion from the ERM.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The financial crisis spreading like wildfire across the former Soviet bloc threatens to set off a second and more dangerous banking crisis in Western Europe, tipping the whole Continent into a fully-fledged economic slump.
Currency pegs are being tested to destruction on the fringes of Europe’s monetary union in a traumatic upheaval that recalls the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
“This is the biggest currency crisis the world has ever seen,” said Neil Mellor, a strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.
Experts fear the mayhem may soon trigger a chain reaction within the eurozone itself. The risk is a surge in capital flight from Austria – the country, as it happens, that set off the global banking collapse of May 1931 when Credit-Anstalt went down – and from a string of Club Med countries that rely on foreign funding to cover huge current account deficits.
The latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that Western European banks hold almost all the exposure to the emerging market bubble, now busting with spectacular effect.
They account for three-quarters of the total $4.7 trillion £2.96 trillion) in cross-border bank loans to Eastern Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia extended during the global credit boom – a sum that vastly exceeds the scale of both the US sub-prime and Alt-A debacles.
Europe has already had its first foretaste of what this may mean. Iceland’s demise has left them nursing likely losses of $74bn (£47bn). The Germans have lost $22bn.
Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, says the emerging market crash is a vastly underestimated risk. It threatens to become “the second epicentre of the global financial crisis”, this time unfolding in Europe rather than America.
Austria’s bank exposure to emerging markets is equal to 85pc of GDP – with a heavy concentration in Hungary, Ukraine, and Serbia – all now queuing up (with Belarus) for rescue packages from the International Monetary Fund.
Exposure is 50pc of GDP for Switzerland, 25pc for Sweden, 24pc for the UK, and 23pc for Spain. The US figure is just 4pc. America is the staid old lady in this drama.
Amazingly, Spanish banks alone have lent $316bn to Latin America, almost twice the lending by all US banks combined ($172bn) to what was once the US backyard. Hence the growing doubts about the health of Spain’s financial system – already under stress from its own property crash – as Argentina spirals towards another default, and Brazil’s currency, bonds and stocks all go into freefall.
Broadly speaking, the US and Japan sat out the emerging market credit boom. The lending spree has been a European play – often using dollar balance sheets, adding another ugly twist as global “deleveraging” causes the dollar to rocket. Nowhere has this been more extreme than in the ex-Soviet bloc.
The region has borrowed $1.6 trillion in dollars, euros, and Swiss francs. A few dare-devil homeowners in Hungary and Latvia took out mortgages in Japanese yen. They have just suffered a 40pc rise in their debt since July. Nobody warned them what happens when the Japanese carry trade goes into brutal reverse, as it does when the cycle turns.
The IMF’s experts drafted a report two years ago – Asia 1996 and Eastern Europe 2006 – Déjà vu all over again? – warning that the region exhibited the most dangerous excesses in the world.
Inexplicably, the text was never published, though underground copies circulated. Little was done to cool credit growth, or to halt the fatal reliance on foreign capital. Last week, the silent authors had their moment of vindication as Eastern Europe went haywire.
Hungary stunned the markets by raising rates 3pc to 11.5pc in a last-ditch attempt to defend the forint’s currency peg in the ERM.
It is just blood in the water for hedge funds sharks, eyeing a long line of currency kills. “The economy is not strong enough to take it, so you know it is unsustainable,” said Simon Derrick, currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon.
Romania raised its overnight lending to 900pc to stem capital flight, recalling the near-crazed gestures by Scandinavia’s central banks in the final days of the 1992 ERM crisis – political moves that turned the Nordic banking crisis into a disaster.
Russia too is in the eye of the storm, despite its energy wealth – or because of it. The cost of insuring Russian sovereign debt through credit default swaps (CDS) surged to 1,200 basis points last week, higher than Iceland’s debt before Götterdammerung struck Reykjavik.
The markets no longer believe that the spending structure of the Russian state is viable as oil threatens to plunge below $60 a barrel. The foreign debt of the oligarchs ($530bn) has surpassed the country’s foreign reserves. Some $47bn has to be repaid over the next two months.
Traders are paying close attention as contagion moves from the periphery of the eurozone into the core. They are tracking the yield spreads between Italian and German 10-year bonds, the stress barometer of monetary union.
The spreads reached a post-EMU high of 93 last week. Nobody knows where the snapping point is, but anything above 100 would be viewed as a red alarm. The market took careful note on Friday that Portugal’s biggest banks, Millenium, BPI, and Banco Espirito Santo are preparing to take up the state’s emergency credit guarantees.
Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas, says there is an imminent danger that East Europe’s currency pegs will be smashed unless the EU authorities wake up to the full gravity of the threat, and that in turn will trigger a dangerous crisis for EMU itself.
“The system is paralysed, and it is starting to look like Black Wednesday in 1992. I’m afraid this is going to have a very deflationary effect on the economy of Western Europe. It is almost guaranteed that euroland money supply is about to implode,” he said.
A grain of comfort for British readers: UK banks have almost no exposure to the ex-Communist bloc, except in Poland – one of the less vulnerable states.
The threat to Britain lies in emerging Asia, where banks have lent $329bn, almost as much as the Americans and Japanese combined. Whether you realise it or not, your pension fund is sunk in Vietnamese bonds and loans to Indian steel magnates. Didn’t they tell you?
I wonder what ever happened to the idea of abstinence? Then you would not have to notify all your partners about giving them a possible incurable disease.
You've Got Mail! You've Got Herpes!
By
Meredith F. Small, LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist
posted: 24 October 2008 10:35
Email has enhanced our lives by making communication faster and cheaper, and more available to a wide network of others. Email can also get us into a lot of trouble. Hasn’t everyone blithely sent a personal, intimate email off across cyberspace only to realize it was headed down the electronic superhighway to the wrong person, usually the exact wrong person? Hasn't everyone had some embarrassing email sent to one person who then, without permission, forwarded it to one or more people? An e-postcard program developed by the Internet Sexuality Information Service of Oakland, Calif., has introduced another kind of embarrassing email — notification of exposure to a sexually transmitted disease — that just might be showing up in your email soon, depending where you've been lately. The program, accessed at http://www.inspot.org/gateway.aspx, will allow you, if you have an STD such as syphilis, gonorrhea or Chlamydia, or are HIV positive, to notify by email anyone you have had sex with, that is, if you have their email address. Of course, notifying other partners is nothing new. Making a list of partners and checking it twice and then contacting everyone by phone, letter or in person has been the bastion of the Public Health Service since 1930s. The difference is that a public health official was keeping track, butnow it can be done with less confrontation, as long as you use your computer at home alone. It's no surprise that the public health service has decided to work over the Internet to reach the widest circle of people. They, more than anyone, know the compelling nature of human sexuality because they have to deal with the aftermath. Nineteen million cases of STDs are reported each year and the idea is to treat everyone who has been exposed to stave off their spread. But what these statistics also underscore is how often people have unprotected sex. Faced with the possibility of pregnancy for heterosexual mating, and the possibility of disease, including the deadly HIV virus, for everyone, how can people not use condoms? I suppose we can blame evolution for making the human sex drive so compelling that in the heat of the action we all make stupid mistakes. The drive is there in the first place, or course, so that we are compelled to have sex and pass on genes. But didn’t evolution also bring us big brains and thought processes that are supposed to keep us out of trouble? Apparently not. Since sex education and all the notification on Earth doesn't really stop people from having unprotected sex, maybe the other compelling urge that health officials might consider is the seduction, for some at least, of courting danger. Danger is part of fear, and fear physiologically ramps up all the biological systems, putting the body on high alert. Coupled with the urge for sex, that makes for a dangerous mental and physical cocktail, one that often ends in disaster. But we never stop, and chances are that although an e-card reminder might be a wake-up call for some, for others it might unfortunately be a reminder of the high that comes with sex with the wrong people.
Thousands of protesters attacking UN in east Congo October 27, 2008 - 8:17am
By MICHELLE FAUL Associated Press Writer
GOMA, Congo (AP) - Thousands of protesters attacked the
United Nations' eastern Congo headquarters on Monday, expressing anger that a U.N. peacekeeping force has been unable to protect them from a rebel attack that has forced tens of thousands to flee.
Protesters lobbied stones and rocks over the wall surrounding the U.N. offices in the provincial capital of Goma. U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg said cars were being damaged and windows were being shattered.
Meanwhile, soldiers fled fighting in what appeared to be a major retreat of government forces being attacked by rebels of renegade
Gen. Laurent Nkunda.
Reporters watched the soldiers struggle to make a way through thousands of refugees also fleeing along the main road south from a major army base seized by rebels toward Goma.
Back-to-back wars in Congo spilled into half a dozen neighboring countries and destroyed much of Congo itself by 2002. But fighting has continued in the east, where several militias operate.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Stock down almost 50 points and oil drops 5 bucks to around 121 a barrel. I guess the market could not over come the articles i will post tomorrow. The biggest bank in England is having trouble becaus eof the sub prime mess here, another bank is taken over by the FDIC (it is the eigth) and we are going to see another wave of defaults on mortages, this wave are not the sub prime ones but these are ones that are next step up.

The following article sounds like it was written about future scientist. Scientist now a days make stuff up as the go along. Add a pig and man bones together, then make up a picture of what it might look like and magically you have a missing link. If your missing something make it our of plaster a paris. No one will know for years.

Monkey from Mars: a Ga. crime lab's museum oddity By WALTER PUTNAM DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - Other museums might have more or flashier items to display. But only the mini-museum of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation can boast of possessing such an other-world oddity as the monkey from Mars.
The bureau's state crime lab lobby has its requisite displays on forensic science, including an illegal moonshine still and the microscopic fibers that solved the 1981-82 Atlanta child murders. But tucked away in a glass cylinder are the preserved remains of a monkey that three pranksters passed off as an alien 55 years ago in a UFO hoax that drew headlines worldwide.
At the height of UFO hysteria then sweeping the nation, two young barbers and a butcher took a dead monkey in 1953, lopped off its tail and applied a liberal dose of hair remover and some green coloring to the carcass.
Then they left the primate on an isolated road north of Atlanta in the pre-dawn hours of July 8, 1953, burning a circle into the pavement with a blowtorch before a police officer came around the curve in his patrol car.
"If we had been five minutes earlier, we would have caught 'em in the act," said Sherley Brown, the officer who happened on the scene.
The barbers, Edward Watters and Tom Wilson, and the butcher, Arnold "Buddy" Payne, told the policeman they came upon a red, saucer-shaped object in the road that night. They said several 2-foot-tall creatures were scurrying about and the trio hit one with their pickup before the others jumped back in the saucer and blasted skyward _ leaving the highway scorched.
Brown took down the strange account and filed a report at police headquarters before going home.
Soon after his shift ended, he said, "the phone started ringing off the hook."
"They had the Air Force and everybody else trying to find out about it," said Brown, since retired in 1985.
Word of the discovery spread like wildfire.
Just the night before, some Atlanta area residents had reported seeing a large, multicolored object flying in the sky. A veterinarian who examined the corpse said it looked "like something out of this world." A newspaper put out an artist's drawing of the saucer that the men described.
But within hours the monkey business unraveled.
Dr. Herman D. Jones, the founder and director of the GBI lab, and Dr. Marion Hines, an anatomy professor at Emory University, examined the creature that evening and proclaimed it to be a hoax.
"If it came from Mars, they have monkeys on Mars," Hines was quoted as saying in an article at the time by The Associated Press that is set beside the monkey in the appointment-only museum.
Where the men got the monkey is not clear. Watters, Wilson and Payne eventually admitted to the hoax and Watters paid a $40 fine for obstructing a highway.
As for Jones, his name is now on the GBI crime lab as the man who introduced modern forensic science to the state.


The United Nations is a joke and has not helped to stop any wars, or stopped any suffering at all. It is useless and just wastes a lot of money and could be done alot more effectily by others. It needs to out of the US.

U.N. didn't notice $10 million disappearingOfficial confesses world body 'arguably a bit slow to recognize' relief scamPosted: July 29, 20089:36 pm Eastern

Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000NEW YORK – As much as $10 million of UNITED NATIONS relief funds designated for Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis have been siphoned off by "private money exchangers" and the military government, according to a U.N. official.The U.N. called for an initial $200 million in emergency aid in response to the storm, which killed more than 140,000 people, but not all the promised funds are reaching the intended destination admitted John Holmes, under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, at a news conference at the agency's New York headquarters.The funds are being siphoned through an exchange-rate scam that forces the U.N. to buy the Burmese currency, the kyat, at above the market rate.Holmes confessed, "We were arguably a bit slow to recognize ... how serious a problem this has become for us."The U.S. government has made a $39 million contribution to the relief effort and is expected to give more.Much of the initial aid consisted of goods supplied directly to the victims of the cyclone, but Holmes estimated as much as $10 million dollars has been lost.

http://www.investorsiraq.com/showthread.php?p=664377


U.N. thermostat to be set higher Taking on hot air for good of the world

UNITED NATIONS Everyone complains about climate change, and the United Nations is finally doing something about it - on Friday, the temperature inside U.N. headquarters in New York will rise by 5 degrees.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations' self-professed environmental secretary-general, ordered the "In-House Climate Change Initiative" to save energy, cut carbon emissions and try to mitigate climate change.
Officials said the monthlong experiment - dubbed "Cool U.N." - also will allow engineers to test energy consumption and utility costs in the notoriously antiquated building.
It also will stretch the comfort and good will of about 4,500 staffers, who work in the glass-walled Secretariat, a veritable 39-story terrarium planted in full sun on the East River.
"It will be like Addis Ababa," said one crestfallen staff member, referring to the tropical capital of Ethiopia. "The air conditioning didn't work too well there, either."
Anwarul Chowdhury, a former U.N. ambassador from Bangladesh, said Tuesday that the Cool U.N. initiative sounds like "tokenism."
Nevertheless, he said, the extra 5 degrees of heat might give diplomats some compassion for the developing world.
"Some of us grow up in a natural environment," said Mr. Chowdhury, whose home country is infamous for its heat and humidity. "We do not have the benefits of air conditioning. It is important to understand the realities of living in various parts of the world."
To make the adjustment easier, Mr. Ban will encourage diplomats and bureaucrats inside headquarters to wear their national dress, which was once the norm.
Suit jackets and ties will be discretionary, said one of Mr. Ban's aides, noting that the secretary-general will lead by example.
"Look for a cool, calm, casual S.G.," said an e-mail from Mr. Ban's office.
In the landmark Secretariat building, thermostat settings will rise from 72 degrees to 77 degrees for August workdays.
The air conditioning is to be switched off during weekends, which some fear could make for sweltering Monday mornings.
Government buildings in Japan and Mr. Ban's native South Korea have long been uncomfortable for employees in the hottest months.
However, the executive floor here thinks this will be the first time that an international organization has courted "hot air" jokes by voluntarily reducing its use of air conditioning.
"The secretary-general is doing everything he can to mobilize unprecedented international action on climate change," said Robert Orr, an adviser to Mr. Ban. "Successful negotiations are necessary, but individual and institutional behavior must also change all over the world if we are to address the climate crisis, and the secretary-general felt that this was one way the U.N. could lead by example."
The effort "isn't about symbolic sweating," he added. "If adopted on a large scale, these types of policies could have a major global impact and will definitely help the participating institutions' bottom line."
The U.N. headquarters will soon be renovated for the first time in more than 50 years, in large part because the building is deteriorating. Its crooked walls and glass windows that don't close properly make it an especially drafty place to work.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/30/un-takes-on-hot-air-for-good-of-the-world/

Very sad that Culture in America is being lost.

What's vanishing from America? July 30, 2008 - 8:19am
UNDATED - What are you going to miss? Or, will you be glad they are gone?
Drive-in theatres, handwritten letters, TVs with antennas, VCRs to play tapes you took of the kids way back when or cameras that use film?
According to a list put together by the
WalletPop blog, these are among the top 25 things vanishing in America.
The mumps and measles, newsmagazines, TV news, incandescent light bulbs and answering machines may soon be just a memory.
Also making the list are honey bees, wild horses, the milkman, and stand-alone bowling alleys. And for all of the fans of crab feasts, Chesapeake Bay blue crabs made the list.
The No. 1 thing vanishing from America - the family farm.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1450655&nid=456



What do I need to do to be ready for the end of analog TV broadcasting?
Because Congress mandated that the last day for full-power television stations to broadcast in analog would be February 17, 2009, over-the-air TV broadcasts will be in digital only after that date. If you have one or more televisions that receive free over-the-air television programming (with a roof-top antenna or “rabbit ears” on the TV), the type of TV you own is very important. A digital television (a TV with an internal digital tuner) will allow you to continue to watch free over-the-air programming after February 17, 2009. However, if you have an analog television, you will need a digital-to-analog converter box to continue to watch broadcast television on that set. This converter box will also enable you to see any additional multicast programming that your local stations are offering.
To help consumers with the DTV transition, the Government established the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a part of the Department of Commerce, administers this program. Every U.S. household is eligible to receive up to two coupons, worth $40 each, toward the purchase of eligible digital-to-analog converter boxes. Beginning in January of 2008, the NTIA has begun accepting applications for coupons. The coupons may only be used for eligible converter boxes sold at participating consumer electronics retailers, and the coupons must be used at the time of purchase. (Please note that these coupons will expire 90 days after mailing). Manufacturers estimate that digital-to-analog converter boxes will sell from $40 to $70 each. This is a one-time cost. For more information on the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program, visit
www.dtv2009.gov, or call 1-888-388-2009 (voice) or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).
Cable and satellite TV subscribers with analog TVs hooked up to their cable or satellite service should not be affected by the February 17, 2009 cut-off date for full-power analog broadcasting.
http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq3

Vinyl on the Rise
With CD sales in a slump, local stores shop vinyl LPs
The production and artwork that vinyl records offer is a driving factor in their popularity.

By Lindsey Landfried
Step into a few shops along College Avenue, and it's easy to see a trend toward retro.
With Pac-Man-adorned T-shirts and a subculture of Atari players, the question begs to be asked. What else has gone retro?
The Recording Industry Association of America reported that vinyl LP sales grew from 2000 to 2006 even as overall music sales dropped from $12 billion to $14 billion.
Judging by those numbers, the way people want their music is turning retro.
And, it's not just the classics being picked up in vinyl.
Hip-hop populars such as Jay-Z, Linkin Park and Nas are producing vinyl along with their latest CDs. Priced from $10 to $15 for a quality vinyl, records are more affordable than their compact counterparts.
Jesse Ruegg, record collector and manager of Chronic Town Hookah Lounge, 224 W. College Ave., summed up the trend: It's a "do-it-yourself ethic. [Buying records is] supporting someone doing it for the music, for the passion rather than for selling millions of CDs."
Ruegg pegged vinyl sound above CD and other medium quality, too.
"I would prefer to listen to vinyl than anything else," he added.
The spiked interest in vinyl seems to be moving with the rise in popularity of MP3 players and digital music downloading, Ruegg said.
"With the record industry the way it is today, people aren't buying a whole CD anymore," he said, emphasizing the "tactile experience" of a vinyl.
Chronic Town will begin selling records in-store this fall, Ruegg said.
The store aims to have everything displayed and catalogued by the time students return for the fall.
The store began building its collection by attending record conventions, he added.
The appeal is targeting a "niche" collectors market, he said, and its selection will include garage rock, '60s music and indie records.
Josh Ferko, owner of Stax for Trax, a small business that sells records online and out of Webster's Bookstore Café, 128 S. Allen St., also plans on expanding into new vinyl in the fall.
Ferko started selling "high-quality and rare items" on eBay and more reasonably priced music in the store in September.
Many items are priced as low as $3 to $5. The collection will include re-issues from '60s tunes to soul, garage rock and psychedelic.
Ferko said he has witnessed a similar trend with vinyl records.
"The trend is growing. Record companies tried to kill vinyl when cassettes emerged, but buds in your ears is no comparison to listening to music on a stereo," he said.
Ferko isn't complaining.
"Things have gone really well in my business," he said. "There's definitely a great interest in vinyl that is much deserved."
Ruegg and Ferko aren't the only ones with soft spots for vinyl.
Some aficionados of analog sound quality will pay up to $12,000 for laser turntables.
Mid-quality players are available online at stores such as Circuit City or Best Buy for about $150 and are sold locally at Paul & Tony's Stereo, 1321 S. Atherton St.
"Some real purists," as Ruegg said, like to have their vintage record players despite issues with the quality and maintenance upkeep with used equipment.
Greg Gabbard of City Lights Records, 316 E. College Ave., has a perspective on record sales that spans a little further.
He said sales used to be better and accrued to thousands of record sales each year -- but that trend slowly declined.
However, about eight years ago, the trend turned against CDs, or what music producer Steve Albini called in the '80s, the "rich man's eight-track," Gabbard said.
Gabbard said CDs are more convenient, while records are more fun with better booklets and more substantial artwork.
He added that the production process aimed at producing vinyl is different than the approach some artists take to producing compact discs.
With vinyl, it is important to build an entire side with a beginning, middle and end that crescendos, opposed to piecemeal tracks, Gabbard said.
"[It's] not creating a jingle," he said, "it's a work of art."


You can make your vinyl still or should i say again
Vinyl discs Do you yearn for the days of vinyl? Wish you could plop your CD down on your turntable, drop the needle, and hear the scratch of vinyl? Replicated with black polycarbonate, Disc Makers Vinyl CD will make your CDs look and feel like vinyl – including grooves and an all-black top and bottom surface – but will play like a crisp, high-quality CD. Minimum order 1,000. Add 7 business days to standard turn times. Add just 19¢ per CD to any package price. Not available with rush or priority turn time.

High speed aqua-car takes the plunge
BY PA NEWS
The car is designed to reach speeds of 100mph on land and more than 30mph on water and can switch between the two surfaces at the switch of a button.
According to its designers the Gibbs Aquada is neither a boat with wheels nor just a waterproof car. Gibbs Technologies says that no other road-legal amphibian has managed to exceed 6mph on water.
The vehicle took seven years to reach fruition, with 70 engineers spending one million hours and tens of millions of pounds to create the vehicle.
The company believes that people will pay the £150,000 tag for the “freedom and experience” that the novelty vehicle will allow.
The Aquada is a two-wheel drive which uses unleaded petrol and has an engine of 175hp, not disimilar to a BMW 3-Series.
It has no doors, but the driver climbs over the side to get in. The car uses a tonne of thrust to get out of the water back on the road. The engine is in the middle of the car and it is rear wheel drive, like many larger cars.
It has a range of 50 miles in the water and has been designed to go in the sea or fresh water.
The car would avoid Central London’s congestion charge, as the river vehicles are not subject to the tax. Drivers could go from Chelsea Harbour to London City Airport without being subject to the £5 charge.
Ken Livingstone, the Major of London, is currently trying to encourage greater use of the Thames, and has given speeches encouraging commuters to consider going to work by boat.
Alan Gibbs, the company founder and chairman, said that he had filed 60 patents and compiled with every regulation for cars and boats in the rule book.
He said: “This is new in the way that helicopters were new or Harrier jump jets were new."
Since the invention of the car, there have been many attempts to develop amphibian vehicles, but they have failed because of the vehicle’s inability to climb out of the water and skim along the surface.
Neil Jenkins, managing director of Gibbs Technologies, claimed this engineering breakthrough was a world first.
He said that by licensing the technology a whole new spectrum of vehicles would be born. The company is currently producing a launch series of 100 vehicles due to be available later this year.
Although the makers hope their vehicle could be used for leisure, they say the technology could one day service the military, emergency and rescue services.
“It is in the first instance a recreational vehicle, a sports car and a sports boat,” said Mr Gibbs.
“But it could be a commuter city vehicle which avoids commuter congestion.
Mr Gibbs, an entrepreneur from New Zealand who now lives in London, has funded the project himself along with Mr Jenkins and their families.
Zimbabwe drops 10 zeros from inflated currency July 30, 2008 - 4:41pm
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe announced Wednesday that it is knocking 10 zeros off its hyper-inflated currency _ a move that turns 10 billion dollars into one.
President Robert Mugabe threatened a state of emergency if businesses profiteer from the country's economic crisis, a move that could give him even more sweeping powers to punish opponents in the event that political power-sharing talks fail.
"Entrepreneurs across the board, don't drive us further," Mugabe warned in a nationally televised address after the currency announcement. "If you drive us even more, we will impose emergency measures. ... They can be tough rules."
But in a glimmer of possible rapprochement in Zimbabwe's political turmoil, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai revealed that he met with Mugabe last week for the first time in years and discussed the "pitfalls in any future government" that might emerge from the negotiations.
He didn't indicate their meeting produced any agreement, however.
In a conciliatory gesture, Tsvangirai told Britain's Channel 4 that his longtime rival is as "human as everyone else." However, he added the president is "in denial" about the economic problems and political violence that have swept this once prosperous southern African nation.
Central Bank Gov. Gideon Gono announced he was dropping 10 zeros from Zimbabwe's currency, effective Friday. The move comes a week after the issue of a 100 billion-dollar note _ still not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Gono said the new money would be launched with 500-dollar bills. He also said he was reintroducing coins, which have been obsolete for years, and told people to dig out their old ones.
That could be a boon for Fungai Matambo, a 33-year-old vendor of airtime for cell phones who said she has kept a large milk pail full of old coins.
"I'm very happy now," she laughed. "In the old terms, I'm a multi-trillionaire!"
But, she noted, there is little to buy in the shops amid chronic shortages of food, medicine, power and water.
John Takawira, 28, who works in an Internet cafe, said the latest move would do nothing to improve life in Zimbabwe, where 80 percent of the work force in unemployed.
"The prices of goods have already started shooting up," he complained. "This is not going to make any change to my poor life."
Gono acted because the high rate of inflation was hampering the country's computer systems. Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines at Zimbabwe's banks cannot handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars.
Inflation, the highest in the world, is officially running at 2.2 million percent in Zimbabwe but independent economists say it is closer to 12.5 million percent.
Economist John Robertson said the new bills would soon be worthless since the rate of inflation continues to skyrocket. What costs $1 at the beginning of the month can cost $20 by month's end, he said.
"This is attending only to the symptoms of the problem. The real problem is the scarcity of everything driving up the prices. ... The government has not only caused the scarcities but damaged our ability to fix the problem."
At the root, he said, is the damage to the farming sector, along with government raids on the state pension fund and foreign currency bank accounts of businesses.
Zimbabwe's trials began nearly a decade ago when white farmers who were the driving force of the economy started supporting Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe sent supporters to violently invade white-owned farms, saying he was reclaiming ancestral lands for poor black peasants.
Instead, the land went to Mugabe's Cabinet ministers and generals, who left the fields untended. Hundreds of thousands of farm laborers lost their jobs and homes. Today, a third of Zimbabwe's people depend on foreign food aid in a country that once exported food to its neighbors.
Mugabe blames the economic collapse on profiteers and on sanctions by the United States and the European Union.
The worsening conditions have eroded the popularity of Mugabe, who has ruled for 28 years and was long revered for leading Zimbabwe to independence in 1980. He finished second in a March presidential ballot behind Tsvangirai, but won the June runoff after his rival dropped out after violence killed more than 120 opposition activists. Both men now claim the presidency.
In his interview with Channel 4, Tsvangirai said the two leaders had a 90-minute dinner together last week.
"I am sure that there was a common understanding that there is a need to soft land the crisis through a transitional process," he said
South African President Thabo Mbeki flew in to Zimbabwe on Wednesday in yet another bid to mediate in the crisis.
Power-sharing talks that began last week have deadlocked over Mugabe's insistence that he lead any unity government and over what position Tsvangirai should hold in a new administration, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an agreed media blackout.
"We are still negotiating; we want to succeed," Mugabe said in his broadcast address. "You find room for compromise but sometimes compromise is difficult."
Mbeki told reporters after meeting with Mugabe that talks would resume Sunday in South Africa.
Tsvangirai's party said Wednesday that two more opposition supporters were killed last week, allegedly by Mugabe's followers. "The deaths show that there is no sincerity on the part" of the ruling ZANU-PF party, the opposition said in a statement.
But in his interview, Tsvangirai softened his rhetoric about Mugabe, who the opposition has blamed for the widespread violence.
"He is just as human as every one of us, that he has similar concerns, although, of course, I think he is ignorant, and/or chooses to be in a denial stage as far as violence is concerned," said Tsvangirai, who has been accused of treason, beaten and survived assassination attempts by Mugabe loyalists.

http://wtop.com/?nid=387&sid=1353343
US farmers put sunscreen on their fruit Farmers in California have begun slathering fruit and vegetables with sunscreen after discovering that it is not just people who can suffer adverse effects from the sun's rays. Last Updated: 10:00PM BST 31 Jul 2008 The vegetable equivalent of a liver spot on an apple can slash its value, relegating it from the fresh produce section of supermarkets to be good only for making juice. Sun-induced blistering and blemishes on other crops such as tomatoes and grapes are also bad news for growers. Farmers in arid or drought-hit regions of the United States are therefore increasingly looking to preserve or increase their profit margins by spraying on a sun block. While farmers have in the past used liquefied clay or net meshing to protect crops, spraying on sunscreen helps to protect against some of the damage, particularly costly cosmetic imperfections, according to a California company that makes such a spray. Purfresh says it has got positive results with its SPF 45 spray Purshade which is engineered to deflect ultraviolet and infrared light while allowing photosynthesis. The sunscreen has also been tested on crops including tomatoes, grapes, kiwis and lychees in Australia and Chile, where UV rays also hamper production. "With the costs of production going up, growers are looking to increase their margins wherever they can," Ed Lagrutta, a farmer and adviser for the agricultural product company Western Farm Service, told the Associated Press. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2481695/US-farmers-put-sunscreen-on-their-fruit.html
White House: BlackBerry Blackout In China Staffers To Switch Off Portable Devices For Fear Of Prying Chinese Eyes At Olympics China celebrates one-year countdown to start of 2008 Olympic Games. (CBS/AP) A senior White House official says staffers accompanying President Bush to China have been told to leave their BlackBerries at home, reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer. The mobile e-mail blackout is the latest sign of U.S. concerns over Chinese cyber-spying. Sensitive presidential communications are always encrypted, but government cyber-security experts are worried about electronic eavesdropping on the BlackBerries, which are difficult to protect from snooping. BlackBerries have been banned on other presidential foreign trips but the order underscores specific concerns about Chinese spying during the Olympics, reports Maer. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., warned last week that foreign-owned hotels in China face the prospect of "severe retaliation" if they refuse to install government software that can spy on Internet use by hotel guests coming to watch the summer Olympic games. Brownback produced a translated version of a document from China's Public Security Bureau that requires hotels to use the monitoring equipment. Mr. Bush embarks Monday on his last venture as president to the Far East, a trip built around the Olympic Games in Beijing. The president will stop en route at an Alaskan Air Force base to speak to military personnel and get his plane refueled, then fly through the night to South Korea. His enthusiastic plans to attend the Olympics are meant to pay respect to the Chinese people in their moment of glory. Yet as hard as Mr. Bush tries to define the games only in the context of sports, there is no escaping the politics of a world event held in a police state. China, trying to ensure the event is clean of controversy, has only intensified its repression of political dissent, religious expression and press coverage. Mr. Bush says he can and will candidly raise concerns about China's human rights record to President Hu Jintao. Before the sports spectacle, President Bush's agenda in Asia this week is front-loaded with trouble on the continent: nuclear worries, political repression, recovery from natural disaster. Given the long travel and time differences, Mr. Bush begins his agenda in earnest on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea. The country is a key partner in the six-country coalition striving to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons. Progress has been stop and start as the world watches to see whether North Korea will come to terms on allowing its nuclear dismantling to be verified. The timing of the president's visit to Seoul is a bit better than just a few weeks ago. Public unrest over U.S. beef imports has receded, and the U.S. has reversed course on a decision that angered South Korea regarding some disputed islands between Japan and South Korea. In Thailand, where a coalition government is enduring rocky times, Bush will spell out his vision for the U.S. presence in the Far East after he leaves office. He will also meet with activists who oppose the repression of the military junta in neighboring Myanmar. That country, also known as Burma, sustained a cyclone in May that killed roughly 80,000 people and put more than 2 million people in need of aid. Mr. Bush will be briefed on recovery efforts during his Thailand visit. The president caps his trip with four days in Beijing, mixing in a dash of diplomacy with plenty of unstructured time to watch Olympic sporting events. Mr. Bush will be joined by members of his family, including his dad, a former president who once served as an envoy to China. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/04/world/main4318339.shtml
Pervious article several months ago
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=251&sid=1345928