Category: News

An Air National Guard award campaign that has honored thousands of Citizen-Airmen,
families and civilians this year will continue into 2010, officials said here
today…

Four National Guard infantry divisions were involved in repelling a German
counterattack on the western front in what became known as the “Battle of the
Bulge” in mid-December of 1944…

Air Force, Army and community officials celebrated the opening of a new cargo plane
schoolhouse here Dec. 9…

U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program bobsledders Sgt. John Napier and 2nd Lt. Chris
Fogt are on track to make Team USA for the 2010 Winter Olympic
Games…

The pre-mission brief concluded, combat engineer Sgt. Darrin Lewno called together
the assembled route clearance crew, all members of the 211th Engineer Company of the
South Dakota Army National Guard…

For an Alaska Air National Guard chaplain, a deployment to the Air Force Mortuary
Affairs Operations Center here hits close to home…

Facebook is without a doubt one of the most popular sites online at the moment; yet, it continues to grow at an increasing rate even as it enters a very select crowd of just a handful of sites with comparable audiences. The latest US numbers from comScore show that Facebook has managed to get pass the 100 million unique visitors in the US last month and that the social network’s growth shows no sign of stopping.

The analytics firm also moved Facebook up a place in its top of the biggest online proprieties in the US, now becoming the fourth largest site in the country after just Google sites, Yahoo sites and Microsoft sites. This is the highest ranking position the site has held in comScore’s top and it also means that AOL sites now slip to the fifth place.

Facebook managed to attract 102.9 million unique visitors in the US in November, from 97.4 million in the previous month, a 5.6 percent jump. AOL, on the other hand, managed just 99.7 million visitors last month, an actual increase in audience as it gained almost 1 million new visitors, but nothing like Facebook’s continued rise.

The growth is even more impressive when you take into account the fact that last year Facebook’s audience was half the size it is now, with 50.5 million unique visitors in November 2008. At the same time, AOL los… (read more)

Pasta is by far one of my favorite dishes because of it’s versatility and heartiness. Many people avoid pasta because of the carb and calorie intake but what they don’t realize is that several pasta dishes can be healthy and great for the waste line.

Of course everything in moderation. With that said the Holidays are a time when we over indulge, eat way too much, drink ’til our hearts content, and make resolutions we hope we can keep. I have a great recipe idea for your Turkey leftovers which is fairly low on the calorie scale.

Tuxedo Pasta w/ Turkey

Prep/Total Time 20 min.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked bow tie pasta

2 cups cubed cooked turkey (or chicken)

1 medium zucchini, sliced

1-1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper

3 tablespoons butter, divided

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine or chicken broth

3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the chicken, zucchini, mushrooms and red pepper in 2 tablespoons butter for 4-5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add the lemon juice and wine or broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until heated through.

2. Drain the pasta; add to the skillet. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, basil and remaining butter.

Yield. 6 servings.

***

If you want to make this pasta even more lean then leave out the butter and substitute with olive oil. You also don’t need the Parmesan but it adds some lovely flavor.

Buon Appetito & Happy Holidays!

Follow Me on Twitter for Up-To-Date Recipe Ideas @missbrittanydow or @blisstree

Recipe Source: Tuxedo Pasta by Jackie Hannahs in The Taste of Home Cookbook

Image Credit: iStockPhoto

Post from: Blisstree

Holiday Leftovers: Tuxedo Pasta w/ Turkey

Being a carnivore is philosophically untenable

From a philosophical perspective, Washington University in St. Louis graduate student Adam Shriver says we humans need to do all we can to eliminate the suffering of animals we eat. He thinks the solution ought to be that we all become vegetarians so we have no more need for the feedlot, but that’s not exactly realistic.

He suggests it might be possible to genetically alter animals so that they don’t feel the pain caused by factory farming conditions and our current methods of slaughter, but of course the pain animals feel isn’t the only problem caused by large-scale meat production, and knocking out animals’ ability to feel pain would probably set them up for even greater horrors than they now experience.

Factory farming of animals is very resource intensive, using a lot of water and feed, producing a lot of waste and greenhouse gasses. The working conditions aren’t great for the people who take part in the system, and food-borne illness is more rampant now than ever because of the close quarters animals share and the way meat is produced.

Could meat from a test tube save the planet?

For all those reasons, it’s not too surprising that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering a million dollar prize to the first person or company that develops a way to make meat in a test tube that doesn’t harm any animals in the process.

That goal is at least 10 years away, experts say, but the science behind it — the same ideas that go into the study of tissue regeneration — is already out there. Oxford University has estimated that lab-grown meat would result in 80 percent fewer greenhouse gasses being emitted compared to the current factory farming system, would use 90 percent less land and water and ultimately cost about the same amount (though development of the process will be expensive, of course).

But there’s still a bit of an ick factor that will have to be overcome (though arguably less than with cloned meat), and some argue that people don’t need to eat as much meat as they currently do, and if everyone enjoyed meat more sensibly it could be sustainably produced by small farmers.

What’s more, it turns meat into a highly processed food and takes people one step further away from an understanding of where their food comes from.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Eating meat isn’t sweet, could meat from a tube save the world?

Portsmouth, Rhode Island | Extraordinary Flora

Long before Steven King included topiary animals in his novel The Shining, plants rendered in unconventional forms have held an enchanting and, at times, disconcerting appeal to outsiders. As America’s oldest and northernmost example, Green Gardens has remained a destination for botanical enthusiasts across three centuries.

The seven-acre estate perched on the edge of the Narragansett Bay was originally purchased in 1872 by Joseph Brayton. Shortly thereafter, Brayton commissioned a well-regarded Portuguese gardener by the name of Joseph Carreiro to turn the landscape surrounding his home into an otherworldly art garden. Carreiro set to work laying the foundation for what can be seen at Green Gardens to this day, focusing much of his efforts on creating live vegetation sculptures.

Topiariy animals made by Carreiro’s kin in the 1940s were crafted from California privet and ewe, heartier plants that are more suited to the sometimes extreme climate of Rhode Island than the boxwood used in more traditional landscape sculptures. Fantastic imaginary figures such as unicorns and a Don Quixote stand along side exotic replicas of camels, elephants and giraffes. In addition to the eponymous animals, flowers and ponds saturate the landscape, and more than 60 topiary trees carved into elaborate geometric shapes guide visitors on winding paths through the grounds.

After the passing of Alice Brayton, who had inherited her father’s gardens, Green Animals was left in the care of the current operators, the Preservation Society of Newport County. Please note that the garden is open during the warm seasons only, due to maintenance of the plant life.

San Francisco, California | Outsider Art

In the heart of the Mission District lies the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco. Renowned for their political import and reverential maintenance, Balmy Alley has become a destination for appreciators of street art and political culture alike.

Springing from an area of the city with a well-founded history of political activism, the murals were first painted in 1972 by a two-woman mural team who referred to themselves as the Mujeres Muralistas. Their original murals formed the foundation for Balmy Alley’s present-day incarnation, including referencing multiple Latin American countries and cultures within a single, unified visual aesthetic.

In the mid-1980s, the Balmy Alley murals morphed into a more organized and actively managed purpose. Ray Patlan convened a troupe of mural activists in 1984 to cover all the garage doors and fences running the length of the block with visual meditations on two interconnected themes: praise of indigenous Central American cultural heritage, and protest against the United States’ intervention in Central American affairs.

The group of muralists set about convincing (the mainly Latino) property owners of the viability of the idea, seeking permission to paint on pieces of their private property. After a few residents conceded the use of their back fences and gates allowing the community to experience what the finished project would resemble, Balmy Alley quickly gained momentum in the summer of 1985, during which time 27 murals were completed.

The experience of engaging with the murals in Balmy Alley is emblematic of their greater political purpose; as each mural seems more powerful for its proximity to the others than it would in isolation, the murals have the effect of mirroring a successful force of community activists.

These days Balmy Alley is a constant work in progress, with repairs from weather-related damages taking place at the same time as fresh murals are being painted atop the old. Further diversification of the topics represented in the murals has taken place, making any politicized subject fair game in addition to the original tropes of Latin American human rights.

Analyst Dave Rosenberg is going into hibernation for a few weeks as the holidays approach, but before doing so, he took one last moment to address two growing concerns: The growing amount of U.S. debt and sovereign risk:

Breakfast With Dave: We are not sure if this is a well known “fact”, but the U.S. government has a record$2.5 trillion of its debt, including bills, bonds and notes, rolling over in 2010. That,my friends, is 35% of the outstanding level of Uncle Sam’s marketable obligations having to be refinanced in one single year. One has to wonder how the Fed is going to be able to raise interest rates in such a backdrop of massive rollovers;and if it doesn’t and the economy manages to exceed expectations or we get some inflation, how it is that the near-record steepness in the yield curve doesn’t continue in the coming year.

But very clearly, sovereign risk globally has taken over as the major potential flare-up for the coming year. Looking at the official projections for 2010, we have Japan’s government debt-to-GDP ratio hitting 227%; Italy at 120%; the U.S. and the U.K. both at 94%; Germany and France at 83%, and Canada at 79% (all levels of government). Rarely, if ever, has Canada been the one-eyed man to this extent in the land of the blind.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Rosenberg: If The Banks Don’t Extend Credit Soon, The Market Is Toast
• Rosenberg: We’ve Barely Begun The Deleveraging Process
• Look How Quickly The U.K.’s Deficit Exploded

Capcom has scratched that “TBA” off of the second new episode in Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition. A recent feature in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has confirmed it to be

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Ford

There have been rallies and skateboards and drag races and tattoos, among other things. Now, the tenth and final film of the 2010 pony car festival that is Mustang Unleashed has gone out in smoky style, with a big Las Vegas number filmed on the strip. This time Vaughn Gittin, Jr. plays a support role to Hard Rock’s illusionist Steve Wyrick, who pulls off a little sleight-of-car-and-body that channels Houdini and almost any Nicholas Cage stunt scene that has a car in it.

Like the best tricks, it isn’t long but will have you wondering how it was done. If you get any ideas, the video warns you not to try this at home – not even driving – without the use of magic. Follow the jump to see it for yourself.

[Source: Mustang Unleashed]

Continue reading VIDEO: Last Mustang Unleashed short combines magic and Las Vegas strip

VIDEO: Last Mustang Unleashed short combines magic and Las Vegas strip originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I always did like the Grinch a lot better before those meddling Whoville residents swelled up his heart.

In tribute to that (ig)noble creature, I offer Bad Investment Ideas for 2010. Unlike all those sappy happy Best Investment Ideas pieces from my fellow Morningstar analysts that congest your inbox and befoul your spirits, this article delivers recommendations that would warm the Grinch’s soul, if he had one. Ideas that, if implemented, would lead to wonderfully empty space under next year’s Christmas trees.

Opening the Bad Investment Ideas menu are the highly leveraged exchange-traded funds–the funds that carry 100% leverage or greater. When it comes to causing misery, these funds are irreplaceable. Heads you lose, tails you might lose. Who could wish for more? These funds lose pots of money when the market moves against them, and they can also lose money when the market moves with them. Beautiful! Bull fund, bear fund, no matter what the animal fund, if you hold a highly leveraged ETF for a prolonged period, there’s a high probability that you’ll bleed red. The Grinch is giggling.

The bulk of our meal, however, will not come from bioengineered food, but instead from a distinctly old-fashioned source: hot money. My hunting ground consists of the fund categories that attracted the most new investor assets in 2009. These choices are nowhere near as reliable as the highly leveraged ETFs for faring poorly. Some of these categories will perform well in 2010, perhaps even spectacularly well. But as a general rule, loading up on one year’s most popular fund types is a fine way to shed tears the next year.

No need to be pedantic; matching up the exact categories is less important than seeing the overall trend. For 2009, the sales trend was quite simple: bond funds were a big yes. A Very Big Yes. Nine of the top 10 selling U.S. mutual fund categories during 2009 have been bond funds, with the lone exception being diversified emerging-markets stocks. At $120 billion in net new cash flow, intermediate-term bond funds alone have gobbled up as much cash as all ETFs and target-date mutual funds–combined.

Some of these purchases, to be sure, have proven savvy. The bond market produced some extraordinarily awful performances in 2008, with many lower-quality and less-liquid securities ending the year trading at deep discounts and sporting abnormally high yields relative to Treasuries. Those who got in early, and many did, enjoyed a terrific rebound. But that party is largely over.

And what’s left, I believe, is an unduly large preference for bonds. A decade ago, the everyday investor expected that stocks would return about 15% annually over the long term (there were a host of polls to prove it). Today, that same investor is locking into a bond market that pays 2% per year on Treasuries over the next five years, and 4.5% per annum for the next 30 years. Were investors too cheery about stocks in 1999? You betcha. However, the pendulum has most definitely swung in the other direction.

So the main course of Bad Investment Ideas for 2010 consists largely of bond funds. Treasuries are a natural. The astute folks at FPA New Income (FPNIX) wrote flatly in September that “Treasury yields” were “devoid of investment merit.” (As bad ideas go, ones that are devoid of merit tend to rate highly.) As part of this analysis, they pointed out that if Treasury yields revert to the normal level that they’ve held over the past half century, then the holders of a 30-year Treasury would be in the red for the next six years. Now, I don’t see 30-year yields hitting 6.3% anytime soon, but the point remains that low yields + a long time horizon = sharp pain from a modest rise in prevailing interest rates. When it comes to bad, pain is good.

Treasuries are not alone in their potential to cause suffering. In some ways, GNMA mortgages are worse. The Federal Reserve has done a terrific job of boosting Ginnie Mae securities prices through its massive agency mortgage purchase program. So terrific that at times this year, after adjusting for the optionality of mortgages (i.e., mentally adjusting the yield of Ginnies to account for the unfortunate fact that mortgage securities get longer when interest rates rise, and shorten when they decline), Ginnies have sometimes traded at higher prices than Treasuries. Low underlying yields made even lower by an artificial and temporary market stimulus … just the prescription for bad fun.

Finally, there are five-year TIPS. A while back, these securities got so hot that they boasted a negative real yield, meaning that investors agreed to own them in exchange for getting a yield that was absolutely, positively guaranteed to be less than the inflation rate. Such a deal. Today, real yields have risen to 36 basis points. The particularly rotten aspect of these securities is unlike 20-year TIPS (which are a better deal), these securities won’t be around if and when CPI truly spikes, because whatever inflationary pressures are currently building won’t appear in earnest over the next few years. So holding five-year TIPS is like buying fire insurance for the monsoon season.

Although bonds have dominated the hot funds list, they’ve been supplemented by two additional sectors. One is diversified emerging-markets funds, the only non-bond category to crack the Top 10 mutual fund sales list in 2009; meanwhile, several emerging-markets categories have made the ETF best sellers’ chart. Of course, U.S. investors are hardly alone in gobbling on the emerging markets. It’s a global phenomenon, fueled by dinky interest rates and greed. Yes, it’s a bubble.

And when it comes to Bad Investment Ideas, there’s nothing quite like a bubble. The trouble with bubbles as bad ideas, of course, is that they can continue to expand for a long time after being identified. As Mr. Keynes stated, the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. (Or I.) So emerging-markets stocks are a trifle dangerous as a Bad Idea for 2010. But I sure wouldn’t label them a good idea.

In the same spirit should be mentioned that other hot sector, gold. Earlier this year, Morningstar created not one, not two, but six–yes, six!–new fund categories to accommodate all the new commodity funds that have been launched. Chief among the commodities, of course, has been gold, that staple of 1 a.m. infomercials. If my father were still alive, he would be buying gold. When investors like him get in, you should get out. (The man remains the only perfect contrarian indicator I have ever known.)

Speaking of enticements, this investment is so seductively bad that it almost snared me: currency funds. Just last month, I was nosing around the list of short-term currency funds, seeking protection against the declining dollar because I knew that the dollar would continue to fall. Then I realized that what I actually know about the dollar’s future wouldn’t flood a very small thimble. About the dollar, Jim Rogers recently said, “When everybody’s on one side of the boat, it’s time to go to the other side.” Diversification into other currencies is a good idea. Rushing to shed dollars today is a Bad Investment Idea for 2010.

Finally I must, for once, side with the crowd. Nobody is rushing to buy regional bank sector funds, for the simple if not always useful reason that those funds always seem to be going down. They got whacked in 2008 along with everything else, and then got whacked again in ’09. Predictably, this unrelievedly bad news had me scouting for a bargain. Not this time. If I am to buy into an industry with unrelievedly bad news, including being early in the cycle of writing off ever-worsening commercial mortgages, then I want to do so with prices at rock bottom. Yet many of these banks sell at a substantial premium to book value and with price/earnings ratios in the teens. So count me in the majority on this item, and count regional bank stocks as my concluding Bad Idea.

Here’s a truly Grinchlike idea: cut and paste this column, replace all the uses of “bad” with the word “good,” and send along to a mortal enemy, along with your best wishes for 2010. But please leave my name off that effort, OK? Even those of us with itty-bitty hearts have some pride.

John Rekenthaler is Vice President of Research for Morningstar.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Wanna Hedge? Think Silver Not Gold
• How To Bet On Emerging Market Banks
• Soaring I-Bank Profits Are About To Come To An End

There’s been plenty of buzz over the past few days about Google’s alleged plans to offer a phone of its own design (built by HTC, potentially sold both directly and by T-Mobile, if not others), which has been dubbed the “Nexus One.” I didn’t write anything about it, because there didn’t seem much to write about at this point. I’m always happy to see more competition in the market, though, and if the phone is really good, that’s obviously a good thing. But one thing did catch my eye. The NY Times is noting that the name “Nexus One” appears to be a play on how Philip K. Dick named the replicants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was subsequently turned into the still popular movie Blade Runner. In both stories, the replicants are “Nexus-6” devices, being the sixth generation of that type of robots. It’s a fun little homage by Google and an obvious play on the fact that its operating system is called Android.

And yet… the estate of Philip K. Dick is not pleased. The article notes (surprisingly) that Motorola paid George Lucas for the rights to use “Droid” for its Android phone, but no one spoke to the Dick estate, who now claim they are “shocked and dismayed.” Really? Shocked? Isa Dick Hackett, Philip’s daughter is claiming:

“We were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn’t grant any sort of permissions.”

Perhaps that’s because Google doesn’t need permission from you to do such a thing. Of course, since Google hasn’t made any official announcement on this, there’s still a good chance they could change the name, just to avoid having to deal with an angry and misguided family member who doesn’t like the idea of anyone paying tribute to her father without first paying up. You have to imagine there must be some other science fiction author out there who would be thrilled to have Google promoting his or her work, rather than whining about getting permission (i.e., “payment”) for the use of a name.

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