Category: News

The City of Aurora Public Library has acquired the site for its new downtown main library.

The Aurora Public Library announced today that it completed the acquisition of property in downtown Aurora from The Vanstrand Group for its new central library.

The new main library site is at the intersection of Benton Street and River Street, just a block west of the site of its current downtown main branch.

“We are very excited about this site for our new library because it will accomplish all of our long-range goals for both expansion and modernization of the main downtown library,” said Library Director, Eva Luckinbill.

“We now have the site where we can develop a modern facility to efficiently and effectively serve Aurora’s fast-growing need for information and vital library services,” she said.

The Aurora Public Library chose this site for its proximity to downtown, its size and the ability to serve as both an administrative hub as well as a central library service center for the many residents of the populous Aurora downtown.

The site is one block from the new Waubonsee Community College main downtown campus which is set to open in early 2011. It is also adjacent to the new River Street Plaza mixed-use development which features 96 new riverside condominiums and 50,000 square feet of retail shops along the Fox River.

The Vanstrand Group, developer of River Street Plaza, was instrumental in the sale of the new library site.

“After almost a year of working with the library staff and board members during the thorough site selection process we are extremely pleased that the library chose this site for its new central library development,” said Joseph Vantreese, president of The Vanstrand Group.

He added, “We were one of four possible sites being considered and through our mutual work, analysis and meetings, the library board has selected the optimum site.”

“We welcome the intellectual and economic progress which this will bring to downtown Aurora,” said Robert Allan of The Vanstrand Group.

“We know that new library developments are excellent additions to communities and have the added benefit of being tremendous economic engines for downtown locations,” he said.

The new site acquisition culminates the Library Board’s thorough site selection process. The Mayor of the City of Aurora, Thomas Weisner, said “For decades, the downtown library has provided a central location for residents throughout our community to gather, read and exchange ideas.”

He added, “I am happy that the Library Board chooses to remain downtown. Along with Waubonsee Community College and our private sector partners, the library will be a major factor in our downtown’s bright future.”

Preliminary plans are for the new library building to be a state-of-the-art facility that will feature not only additional space for the library collections but also provide for modern educational space, cultural exhibit and programming space and advanced technology services for the community.

“I’m happy to see the City of Aurora taking the next step towards realizing its new central library branch downtown,” said Gov. Pat Quinn.

“I look forward to working with the people of Aurora to make sure the central library is a model of service and community education”, he added.

The new library design and development will now enter the planning phase. Acquisition of the site was the first step in the process.

“We will continue our process of careful planning as we move forward to the next steps of the new central library’s development,” said Ms. Luckinbill.

Finally! We’re getting word that the Facebook 3.1 iPhone app now has push notifications and contact syncing, something that was a shortcoming of previous versions. You should be able to download the update through the App store soon. [Thanks, Shawn!]

African chimpanzees know how to handle wildfire, as DISCOVER noted last month. But lava is a different deal. Nyamulagira, a volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, began to erupt over the weekend and threatened not only the people nearby, but also the endangered primates that live in the area. The southerly lava flow appears to have spared most human settlements and the mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park, but the native chimps haven’t been so lucky.

The 40 eastern chimpanzees that live on Nyamulagira itself could still be at risk if they are surrounded by lava, and as the plants they rely on for food become coated by abrasive volcanic ash. Park officials hope animals in the lava’s path will simply move away from it [New Scientist]. United Nations peacekeepers, who are in the Congo to protect civilians from the seemingly unending war there, have offered the country’s leaders the use of UN planes and helicopters to monitor the situation.

Innocent Mburanumwe, a warden of the nature reserve, didn’t even recognize the disaster at first. “I thought there was fighting again near our park station,” he said, referring to the conflicts which have wracked eastern DR Congo. “Then I saw the mountain was on fire with sparks flying” [BBC News]. Due in large part to that Congolese warfare, the chimp population was already in decline before this eruption. The so-called “Tonga group” of chimps most directly affected by the eruption is estimated to have been reduced to as few as 40 animals prior to the latest threat [The Independent]. No official count is available, though, because it’s simply too dangerous for conservationists to work in the area.

Virunga National Park is Africa’s oldest, and its mountain gorillas account for 200 of the 720 remaining in the world. But this has always been a precarious area. Nyamulagira tends to erupt every three or four years; its last explosion came in 2006.

In happier volcano news, the lingering threat to the Philippines seems to be waning. For weeks Mt. Mayon threatened to erupt, sending many people scrambling to get away. But the government says that volcanic earthquakes have diminished in number, and officials reduced the alert level for Mayon. Still, the volcano may yet emit many tons of sulfur dioxide as it degases.

Related Content:
80beats: Chimps Don’t Run From Fire—They Dance with It
80beats: Do Hot, Dry Conditions Cause More African Civil Wars?
80beats: Drilling Into a Stirring Volcano Is (Probably) Safe
DISCOVER: 20 Species We Might Lose, including mountain gorillas
DISCOVER: Gorillas Learn to Keep the Peace

Image: iStockphoto

Redistribution des cartes sur le marché automobile allemand, avec une hausse globale de 23% sur 2009, mais des fortunes diverses pour les constructeurs…

–> Retrouvez également les autres bilans déjà publiés: Etats-Unis, Italie, Espagne

Comme un peu partout en Europe, les primes diverses ont fait leur effet en Allemagne. Mais d’une part, elles étaient ici très élevées et d’autre part, ce marché était jusqu’à elles très orienté haut de gamme.

Résultat, les ténors allemands du premium sont à la traine, tels Mercedes, Audi ou BMW. Sur ce créneau, seule Alfa Romeo progresse (+ 57,86%), grâce à la MiTo, et Volvo limite un peu la casse grâce au XC60 (- 6,86%).

Les plus grosses baisses vont à Saab, logiquement, ainsi qu’à Chrysler et Land Rover.

Les meilleures performances sont pour Fiat, Hyundai, Kia et Suzuki. Contrairement aux spécialistes, les généralistes allemands se tiennent également très bien, voir Ford, Opel et VW.

Au bilan, les étrangères augmentent leur pénétration de 5,5 points, à 40,39%.

Nouveau: pour profiter facilement et rapidement des notifications de nouveautés sur le site, pensez à vous abonner via Twitter. Chaque modification, nouvel article ou nouvelle vidéo sur notre chaîne Youtube, fait l’objet d’un Tweet immédiat!

Mercedes-Benz may very well become the first automaker to produce and sell a diesel-electric hybrid. According to CEO and chairman of Daimler, Dieter Zetsche, the E-Class is in-line to get a diesel-electric hybrid system in 2011.

Known as the E300 Hybrid, the model will use the company’s modified twin-turbocharged 2.2L 4-cylinder diesel engine from the E250 CDI. The engine will be mated to an electric-motor and a lithium-ion battery pack similar to the one seen in the S400 Hybrid.

Don’t expect to get an electric-only driving range out of the E300 Hybrid since it will only be a mild hybrid, meaning the electric-motor will assist the engine rather than helping the E-Class drive on its own.

The Mercedes-Benz E300 Hybrid is expected to average more than 47 mpg.

No word on market availability yet. The diesel-electric drivetrain will also make its way into the M, GL, R, and GLK in the future.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoCar

its in my genes ! I mean .. I got it from dad .. He have the same hair loss problem .. And i dont want 2 end up looking like him now ! .. And for the recored .. Im “still” 15 years old .. And i really need your advice ..

We may have gotten a hint or two of what Palm will be announcing tomorrow, but we get the feeling that new carriers aren’t all that we’ll be seeing. With that in mind, our very own Dieter has made the trek out to Las Vegas (which oddly is warmer than Florida right now) to drop in on the unsuspecting Consumer Electronics Show 2010.

It’s all going down at 2 PM Eastern (11 AM Pacific), and we’ll be giving you some hot live blogging action to get the news to you as it breaks. So tune back here tomorrow and as soon as we know what’s happening, you’ll know.

Regardless of what you feel about her music, there’s something really appealing about Lily Allen’s mixture of cuteness and talent. Since creeping her way inside the fashion door, Lily Allen has transformed into more of a model type. We do miss her sneakers and tulip skirt ways, but if this is what Lily wants for herself right now, then we can’t argue. Plus her being nude is an absolute plus.

More images after the jump.

Source: Fashionising

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO: Micro eco-farmers can become sustainable beekeepers far easier and sometimes for free by using an alternative simple and natural beehive called the top-bar beehive (see video below).

The top-bar honeybee hive’s benefits to small scale farming:

– Build this uncomplicated hive with simple tools, free downloadable plans and recycled materials, possibly building a hive for nearly no cost. Free plans available here. These plans come through the online publisher “LuLu.” We have no affiliate with them but to get the free plans you first “register” with them for free. I always like to have a secondary e-mail address for situations like this, such as a free yahoo e-mail address.

– There’s no heavy lifting when beekeepers harvest honey and work with this hive so you can more easily add a small honey crop to your small scale farming crop menu.

– Multiply your crop yields with the pollination that comes with owning your own beehive.

– Experiment safely before going deeper into becoming a beekeeper. This low-cost, low-tech hive for honeybees allows you to experiment with whether you like working with bees and honey without a large loss of time and expense. You can then later add more top-bar hives or attempt to operate conventional hives in a natural way. The conventional hives take more honey from the bees, and therefore produce more honey for humans if you can keep the colony healthy. Here’s an affiliate instant downloadable book for conventional beehives and beekeeping with a natural twist – Beekeeping for Beginners. We especially like it because it discusses watering the bee colony, urban beekeeping, best nectar plants and other tidbits sometimes underused even by long-time apiaries. But it does focus on conventional hives. And one warning: When you go the page, it talks out loud for a few seconds. I’m still not quite used to that happening when I go to a web site.

– Have another environmental attribute to brand your farm. Many people know the honeybee population is suffering. If your small scale farming operation provides a natural and healthy home and habitat for honeybees, let your customers know, even if you’re not selling the honey to them yet.

– Create an agritourism draw. Micro farms often like to use agritourism – attracting customers directly to the farm – as a way to add revenue, attract direct on-farm purchases, and promote the farm’s name. An unusual and accessible “backyard beehive” can be a very attractive agritourism draw, either as a quick tour and discussion on natural beekeeping, or by putting on a longer workshop on building this type of beehive. Here’s an affiliate link to The Barefoot Beekeeper book, a downloadable, illustrated, latest edition written by the guy who offers the free beehive plans mentioned above, which really gets into sustainable beekeeping, top-bar hives, how to harvest honey and care for the colony in a natural way. –www.MicroEcoFarming.com

Los Angeles Police detectives investigating the death of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson want to speak with the socialite’s fiancee, unstable reality star Tila Tequila, about statements she made on the social networking site Twitter.com, claiming Casey, 30, may have died of a prescription drug overdose.

Johnson was found dead by a housekeeper in her Los Angeles home on Monday. She had likely been there for days, police say. While officials don’t suspect foul play, they’ve begun interviewing Casey’s friends and family members and plan to talk to Tila about her alleged “fears” that her lover was an addict, FOX News has learned.

Warren Buffett is a large influential shareholder of Kraft and recently voted no against a potential takeover bid by Kraft (KFT) for Cadbury.

Conspiracy theories abound… does he really mean ‘No’, or is this a negotiation tactic to drive down Cadbury’s final acquisition price?

Telegraph: As befitting the Sage of Omaha, Berkshire Hathaway’s statement is canny indeed. First, it uses tough language in voting against Kraft’s proposal to issue 370m shares to facilitate the Cadbury bid. To vote yes, it argues, would be to give Kraft management a blank cheque in a bid process where they can still change the terms.

This is undoubtedly true and gives the impression that Kraft’s biggest shareholder is queasy about the deal, helping Kraft’s shares go up on the view that its chances of winning Cadbury have diminished while Cadbury’s shares go down as expectations of a bid premium also falter. But this is exactly what Rosenfeld wants over the next few weeks, and it’s what Buffett wants too. The value of Kraft’s currency goes up while Cadbury’s falls, helping the Kraft board structure a deal that eventually minimises the use of shares and maximises cash. Buffett’s and Rosenfeld’s interests are entirely aligned – he is, after all, the company’s biggest shareholder and he’s never questioned the industrial logic of the Cadbury approach.

Thing is, A) There is nothing wrong with a shareholder’s interests being aligned with a company managements interests (that’s the ideal after all) and B) there’s nothing wrong with hiding your ultimate intentions, and how badly you want to make a deal, during a negotiation process. Even if Cadbury shares get slammed. If you think he’s truly bluffing, well then here’s an opportunity:

(Via FTAlphaville)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Whitney Tilson: Relax, Warren Buffett Didn’t Screw Up The Kraft-Cadbury Deal
• Warren Buffett Just Delivered A Death Blow To Cadbury
• Teflon Buffett Has Fired 21,000 People This Year

It’s a classic case of bolting the barn door after the horses are gone. Politicians are angry that the “crotch bomber” (who tried to blow up an airplane of Christmas day) got through airport security with his explosives undetected, and have demanded that full-body scanners be placed in all airports. So far, 19 U.S. airports are using the scanners, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hopes to put hundreds more in airports across the country.

Proponents of this technology argue that it’s worth sacrificing privacy (and modesty) for safety. But in their rush to do something policymakers be ignoring five big problems with rolling out this technology:

1. Manufacturers aren’t willing to fill orders. According to a spokesperson for Smiths Detection, a manufacturer of millimeter-wave body scanners, the scanner technology has not yet been certified as fit for purpose by national governments – and manufacturers will not invest in mass production until it has [New Scientist]. Until the TSA and the European Union certify the technology, don’t expect manufactures to rush into production, seeing as how the scanners cost around $125,000 each.

2. They won’t actually catch that many threats. According to a spokesperson for QinetiQ, another body scanner manufacturer, airport body scanners would be “unlikely” to detect many of the explosive devices used by terrorist groups [BBC News]. QinetiQ said the technology probably wouldn’t have detected the Christmas day underwear bomb. Neither would the scanners have caught the explosives from the 2006 airliner liquid bomb plot, nor the explosives used in the 2005 London Tube train bombing. The body scanners aren’t very useful for detecting liquids and plastics and can only help spotlight irregularities under a person’s clothes, said the spokesperson. Singling out every irregularity for further screening will place a heavy burden on airport security (read: bring a pillow with you to the airport).

3. The scanners may violate child pornography laws. A trial run of the scanners in Britain was only allowed to proceed after children under 18 were exempt from screening. The decision followed a warning from Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a “pseudo-image” of a child [Guardian]. It’s not clear if children would continue to be exempt from screening should the scanners become widely used, or where the United States stands on screening children. (And then there’s other types of pornography to worry about–imagine the media frenzy that would ensue should a celebrity body scan make its way to the tabloids. The images are not supposed to be stored after their creation, but many critics say the security personnel analyzing the images are poorly monitored to ensure the scans are disposed properly.)

4. Other countries won’t use them. A year ago, Germany said “nein” to the idea of using full body scanners in its airports, saying the technology is little more than security theater. There is some indication that the German government has recently softened its stance, but its new position has a lot of “ifs.” German Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière said he is ready to introduce full body scanners if they are safe and “fully guarantee” the privacy rights of passengers. Wolfgang Bosbach, Bundestag interior committee chief, told Germany’s Tagesspiegel: “If this technology [full body scanners] has demonstrated its usefulness in practice, i.e. it works reliably and is quick, we should use it” [Christian Science Monitor]. See reasons 2 and 3 above.

5. Full body scanners can’t see inside your body. Generally, the machines can’t find items stashed in a body cavity. So the scanners wouldn’t stop at least one common smuggling method used by drug traffickers [New York Daily News]. It’s not hard to imagine terrorists following in drug smugglers’ footsteps–in fact, one already has. In September, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber hid explosives in his rectum in an attempt to kill a Saudi Prince (but because the bomber’s flesh absorbed most of the blast, he died and the prince survived).

The bottom line? Playing catch-up with evildoers probably won’t do much good, which is essentially what the TSA is doing with its embrace of full body scanning technology–along with its current rules about liquids and removing one’s shoes, for that matter.

Related Content:
80beats: Editing Goof Puts TSA Airport Screening Secrets on the Web
80beats: Are Digital Strip Searches Coming Soon To Every Airport Near You?
80beats: TSA Threatens Bloggers Who Published Security Info, Then Backs Off

Image: TSA

As you may have noticed recently on our pages, we’ve launched a new video section, with help from Vodpod. The section pulls together interesting daily videos from third-party sources, our own video interviews, and video from our conference and events. We hope you’ll take a look around and let us know what you think. Recently added videos include the full array of footage of Google’s new Nexus One phone, long interviews with Gerald Levin and Steve Case on the 10th anniversary of the ill-fated AOL-Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) deal, and a PBS report on the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) books controversy.

Advertisers: If you’re interested in video sponsorships on our video page or elsewhere on our sites, please email our advertising team at advertising AT contentnext.com.

It’s kind of surprising that, from time to time, the debate seems to resurface of whether or not it’s a good idea to tax the daylights out of those earning unusually high incomes. Yet, an Angry Bear blog post pointed me to an argument it agrees with calling for a millionaire surtax. I have trouble with the piece’s logic.

The argument comes from a blog written by an anonymous economics graduate student hilariously titled “Economists For Firing Larry Summers.” Presumably, its author must find Dr. Summers far too conservative. In the post I care about, the writer attempts to make the case for taxing millionaires much, much more. It relies on an example featuring football star Peyton Manning:

Peyton Manning makes about $30 million a year — let’s explore his potential behavioral responses to changes in taxes. Let’s raise Peyton’s taxes by 10%. Under the logic of Alan Liard, Greg Mankiw’s student, and under the logic that all economists know to be the truth, people respond to incentives. Peyton Manning is a person, so he responds to this tax hike by working 6% less, and decides now he’s going to sit for the Colts playoff games since he makes less money per game, and he enjoys watching Tom Brady play in the playoffs more than being there himself. Doesn’t really sound likely, does it?

Of course, the mistake here is that that the author fails to fully understand how incentive works more broadly. If you don’t believe in incentive, then the logic he’s using probably makes perfect sense. So does socialism.

But if you do believe in incentive, and in capitalism, then you know that incentive can produce innovation, progress and economic growth. What I think the author is trying to get at is — even if you have a surtax on millionaires, they’ll still be motivated to excel if they’re making relatively more money than others. I don’t think the writer is arguing for egalitarianism so much as a much more progressive tax code. But I still think the author is wrong.

First, the question, I think, is how progressive such a tax would have to be to matter. I completely agree that in his example above, a 10% higher tax rate probably wouldn’t hurt incentive all that much. But 10% higher taxes for millionaires also wouldn’t produce all that much more tax revenue, which is presumably why you would tax them more. In order to collect a truly substantial amount more from millionaires, you’d have to raise their taxes by more than a few mere percentage points — there aren’t that many of them.

So, really, the example above might not be a big problem, but it also isn’t a solution. You need much higher marginal rates. Yet, the author doesn’t appear to be entirely comfortable with this, as writer isn’t completely unaware of incentive:

But then, you might object, *nobody* would have an incentive to become CEO if their salaries are capped around $1 million (if I was designing a tax system, I would probably not go over 50% on taxes before $3-4 million, but I would make Peyton Manning’s marginal rate closer to 70%…)

Here’s the problem: a much more progressive tax code still hampers incentive — even without any pure caps. Let’s imagine that millionaires taxes were raised by, say, 30% across the board, as he envisions. You have to go back further in the development of Peyton Manning than the author does in the example to really understand a surtax’s effect on innovation and economic growth. The problem is that there might not be anyone to replace Manning, because from a very early age, young football players might not have had enough motivation to excel.

Let’s generalize the example and ditch the football. Imagine you’re a kid, growing up in a lower- or middle-class family. The higher the tax on millionaires, the less reason you’ll have to work your hardest in school, get into the best college, and eventually get a job that could produce the most economic growth. After all, you might do all that work and still end up in a mediocre job, stuck in the middle class, no matter how hard you work. Natural talent and luck also have something to do with it.

The point is that ambition is a high-risk behavior. When you choose to work hard in school instead of partying, endure tens or hundreds of thousand dollars in loans to go to a top college, and/or sacrifice spending more time with your family to get that promotion, you’re making tough choices. Those easier alternatives look pretty attractive, particularly since you can’t be certain that the harder ones will lead to a better life or one day as a millionaire. Gliding through life is definitely an attractive path, so you’re taking a big risk by being so ambitious. I don’t know of any study to back me up, but I’d hypothesize there’s a strong correlation between ambition and low risk aversion for exactly this reason.

And as the author surely knows by studying economics, you should only take a huge risk if there’s a proportionally large reward that could follow. You wouldn’t invest $50,000 in a company with equally likely possible outcomes of losing all your money or making $2,500 profit. You might if that potential profit was $250,000 Similarly, you aren’t going to work hard throughout your early life and in your career if your earnings can never have the potential justify that sacrifice.

So where’s that line? 40% tax? 70% tax? I’m not sure. But the legitimate fear is that if taxes on income are raised to too high a level, then innovation and progress might suffer. The higher the taxes on the rich, the less reward for living an ambitious life.

This is Part Two of a three part interview with Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors. They recently displayed their Rally Fighter at the 2009 SEMA show and look to change the way cars are designed, and built. Read Part One here.

On Monday we covered how Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors, had a vision for a new kind of car company. He wanted the people to design and vote on the car they wanted. That is how the Rally Fighter came to be.

Of course, drawing a car is a lot easier than building one. This is the same reason concept cars rarely make it into production unscathed. The Rally Fighter evolved substantially from Sangho Kim’s first rendering, though the resemblance to the famous World War II P-51fighter plane (where the Ford Mustang also got its name, before going to the equine imagery) remained intact. What came next was actually building a car, based on Sangho’s design, without the benefit of a factory or an army of robots.

This meant it was time to make some hard decisions. But Jay would get help from his community of designers for that too.

Read more of this story »