Category: News

Attention rich people (and poor people too) be very afraid – Many See the VAT Option as a Cure for Runaway Deficits – Runaway federal deficits have thrust a politically unsavory savior into the spotlight: a nationwide tax on goods and services. – (I guess this means that the 45% of people that pay no federal taxes will have to start paying) too – BC) – NY Times

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The Overstimulated Economy – Bruce Bartlett – Additional stimulus spending could do more harm than good. – Forbes

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Salary boom for federal workers – For feds, more get 6-figure salaries – Average pay $30,000 over private sector – By Dennis Cauchon – The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.  Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.  Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector. – USA TODAY 

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IRS hires “hundreds” for new wealth unit – Kim Dixon – … The IRS high wealth unit, part of a broader effort to combat international tax evasion, is focusing on “the entire web of business entities controlled by a high wealth individual,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told a tax conference this week. … The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $387 million boost for the IRS … – Reuters

U.S. Rep Frank says Fed audit may send wrong signal – … But he said a House financial regulatory overhaul bill that passed on a 223-202 vote overreached.  “I think the amendment that was adopted went too far,” Frank said. “I think it could give the perception that monetary policy is not going to be independent and that would have an inflationary effect in and of itself.” – Reuters

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BARCLAY’S: TREASURY’S COME A LONG WAY IN ALTERING THE AUCTION CALENDAR – BY CHRISTINE NIELSEN – Barclay’s strategist Anshul Pradhan … Pradhan concludes that auction sizes in the front end should remain unchanged and those at the intermediate and long end should gradually increase through the 2010 fiscal year as the average maturity increases to 60 months from the current 53 months. … – JLN Interest Rates

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Kucinich To Introduce Legislation To Mirror UK Banker Bonuses – Submitted by Tyler Durden – … It will be useful to see if the vote goes once again along party lines, in which case the banana republic nature of America will truly shine, as republicans and democrats finally confirm they have terminally flip-flopped on all issues pertaining to Wall Street, even as Main Street anger over banker compensation continues rising.  … – Zero Hedge

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Tullett Prebon Will Help Brokers to Move Out of U.K. –  By Ambereen Choudhury and Gavin Finch – Tullett Prebon Plc, the inter-dealer broker led by Terry Smith, said it will help employees to leave the U.K. following the government’s decision to put a 50 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses. – Bloomberg
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Obama’s capital gains tax cut would create tax shelters – Howard Richman – quite interesting – Trade and Taxes Blog

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It’s Not Too Late For Congress To Fix The Derivatives Market – Mark Sunshine – The financial reform legislation that passed the House last week doesn’t fix the derivatives market but there is still time to make it right. The Senate hasn’t passed its version of the bill and all Senators need to do is include a provision stopping the Federal government from preventing enforcement of state and local criminal gaming and bucket shop laws. With this simple legislative change bookies that run illegal derivatives casinos will face criminal prosecution rather than become millionaires who benefit from government bailouts and guarantees. – The Sunshine Report

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Support Grows for Fan-Fred Plan – Proposals to Reshape Mortgage Firms Call for Retaining  – By NICK TIMIRAOS – … The latest, to be released at a private meeting on Monday, is from a group assembled by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the administration. It calls for explicit federal guarantees on certain mortgage-backed securities and robust federal regulation to ensure that mortgages offered to the public are safe. … – Wall Street Journal

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Financial Regulatory Reform Overlooks the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
Posted by Larry Doyle – Only in Washington could the promotion and passage of a piece of legislation known as Financial Regulatory Reform overlook the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). – Sense on Cents

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FDIC alleges BankUnited staff hurt bank – by Brian Bandell – … The letter says the bank officials engaged in “unsafe and unsound” banking practices and breached their fiduciary duties. Its criticism centered around the bank’s payment option adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), … The FDIC alleged that the bank’s former officials altered its mortgage broker compensation and incentives that took away the incentive to sell any products besides option ARMs. …the FDIC alleged. … The FDIC faulted the underwriting practices at BankUnited FSB, saying that 82.6 percent of the bank’s loans were done with reduced documentation or no documentation. … – South Florida Business Journal

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Fannie Mae Losses May Exceed $200Bn: BarCap – By DIANA GOLOBAY – Eventual losses at mortgage giant Fannie Mae could exceed $200bn, posing a risk of receivership after year-end when limitations on the Treasury Department’s authority to support the agencies return, according to research Friday by Barclays Capital (BarCap) … – HousingWire

Wells Fargo joined the other large banks in announcing plans to pay back our TARP money. Banks are complaining that they can’t attract top talent with their compensation structures capped. This is good news, since Wells called me the other day to offer me a high paying job (they said I could spel good) but I turned them down since their pay was capped. Who needs that?

TARP: Troubled Asset Relief Program – maybe that is one acronym that we can forget. Wells Fargo may avoid the label of being the biggest bank still holding bailout money when it announced that it plans to pay back its $25 billion in government loans. For those keeping track at home, yesterday they followed Citigroup, and Bank of America last week, in making that announcement. Wells will raise $10.4 billion from the markets, another $1.5 billion by selling certain assets next year, with approval from the Federal Reserve, and another $1.35 billion by issuing stock to employee retirement plans and giving stock awards instead of cash to “certain Wells Fargo team members.” Wells, and the other banks, expects this to help 2010 earnings but that it will hurt fourth-quarter financial results, reducing income available to common shareholders.

Count your blessing that you don’t work for some company like Optimal Blue or Del Mar Data Trac. Not that they are bad companies by any stretch of the imagination, but the underwriting and program changes are fast and furious – it is difficult to keep up! Smaller companies continue to outsource this task. And, unless I am missing something, there is little in the way of loosening or good news. As a partial list, recently SunTrust suspended their Agency Plus Permanent product lines, Bank of America updated their Conforming Fixed DU Version 8.0 products and discontinued their Conforming 5-yr balloon, Conforming 7-yr balloon, Expanded Approval Level II, and Expanded Approval Level III product lines, Franklin American tweaked products (their Bulletin 2009-40), Flagstar has discontinued their Fannie Mae HomeStyle Renovation product line. SunTrust updated their Conforming & Key Loan Products product lines, and of course Fannie Mae updated their Conforming Temporary High Balance product lines and began using DU 8.0 products and guidelines. Citi has suspended their Flex with 18% MI product lines. Whew!

more news on Fannie Mae and HAMP, Freddie and HAMP, Flagstar, Yield curve, ARMS, Economy, and joke of the day … <<< CLICK HERE

Earlier this year, we wrote about the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which has a bit of a cult-like following among fans of the show. As we wrote, the show was doing a cool thing to connect with fans, by doing a live tour and screening a new episode in theaters around the country. It was a cool idea, and we were surprised other TV shows didn’t do things like that. But, of course, the rest of our favorite “CwF + RtB” business model equation is beyond connecting with fans, you also have to give them a reason to buy. And reader Jeff alerts us to something else that the show recently did. In an episode last month that involved the various characters in the show discussing their new product ideas, at least one of them, the Dick Towel (um… NSFW) was turned into a real product (again, NSFW) and offered for sale for $20. According to Jeff, in an email he recently received from the site, so many people have ordered that they’re a little late in shipping, and it looked like over 4,000 towels had been sold. Connect with fans and giving them a reason to buy appears to work with television shows as well… Of course, others have tried similar things as well, and there’s even an entire company, Omni Consumer Products, that tries to license brands from movies to turn them into real products…

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WMExperts have weighed in with their, well, expert opinion on the HP Glisten and seem to like it.

They found the device very similar in size to other Windows Mobile smartphones with front-facing keyboards, that the device had a good screen and great battery life, and was very stable, but that some of HTC’s enhancements were missed.

They concluded:

I have to admit, I like the Glisten.

The size and slightly contoured edges felt good in the hand. I liked the keyboard but wished the top and side controls were raised just a little to make them easier to manipulate. The Glisten zips along nicely running Windows Mobile 6.5 and while it may not have the flash of other Windows phones, I found it to be a very capable Windows phone.

The AMOLED screen grew on me and it has its advantages over the traditional screen (works well outdoors). I don’t think the AMOLED screen is a deal breaker but does add to the phone.

AT&T is offering the Glisten for $179 after rebates and contractual discounts. Hewlett-Packard will be offering the Glisten without contractual strings for $379.99.  If a front facing QWERTY keyboard styled phone is what you’re looking for, the Glisten should make everyone’s short list.

Read their full review here.

Rockstar’s upcoming wild west epic shooter Red Dead Redemption is looking mighty good. If you still haven’t heard of the game, check out this intorductory trialer.
 
 

Did you know that a separated shoulder really isn’t a separated shoulder? According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, “A shoulder separation is not truly an injury to the shoulder joint. The injury actually involves the acromioclavicular joint (also called the AC joint). The AC joint is where the collarbone (clavicle) meets the highest point of the shoulder blade (acromion).”

Further down the AAOS page, they say that a separated shoulder “can range from a little change in configuration with mild pain, to quite deforming and very painful.” I can testify, whole-heartedly, about the “very painful” part. Without a doubt.

Fifteen years ago, I separated my left shoulder in a tumble, but it was quickly reset and, although I had quite a bit of pain while lying down, it wasn’t too bad. This past Friday, however, I learned what a very painful one feels like.

I slipped on some hard packed snow or ice  (not sure which) and I landed right on my left shoulder. The pain was excruciating. I keep telling people it was worse than childbirth – and I’ve done that three times. The pain was so bad, I couldn’t stand up because any slight movement of my arm would send spasms of pain and waves of nausea.

An ambulance had to be called and they were concerned that I may have hit my head because I couldn’t remember falling, but I’m sure I didn’t hit my head. I think the problem is I fell so fast that I didn’t realize I was falling until I had hit the ground.

Anyway, off to the hospital for x-rays, medications and a “knock-out” dose so they could put my shoulder back. Unfortunately, my shoulder didn’t want to cooperate with the resetting because I damaged the ligaments.

The most common cause for a separation of the AC joint is from a fall directly onto the shoulder. The fall injures the ligaments that surround and stabilize the AC joint.

If the force is severe enough, the ligaments attaching to the underside of the clavicle are torn. This causes the “separation” of the collarbone and wingbone. The wingbone actually moves downward from the weight of the arm. This creates a “bump” or bulge above the shoulder.

I do have to say though – what an odd feeling to be in agony before you go to sleep and then in tolerable pain when you wake up a while later.

I have to wear the special sling that keeps your arm supported and doesn’t allow you to move your arm away from your body. This is particularly frustrating because on Friday, when I fell, I was also in the midst of moving. Yup – moving from a four-bedroom house to a condo. Guess who can’t unpack and do any of the stuff she wanted to get done before Christmas?

According to the AAOS, my shoulder has a good chance of healing properly. I see an ortho surgeon on Thursday to see if all is ok. Surgery is not in my plans, so I’m thinking positively: no surgery, shoulder is healing well.

The thing that worries me though, is that the pain is changing in quality and location. It’s no longer at the back of the shoulder, a bit lower down, but now it’s in the upper arm itself and it’s an intense ache, rather than a sharp pain. Hopefully, that’s all part of the healing process.

So as it stands, regardless of what the surgeon says, there will be physiotherapy in my future. Thank goodness for physical therapists and their magic powers. They are the ones who make sure that successful treatments from doctors are carried through and stay successful.

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Images: iStock.com, PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

Separated Shoulders – They Hurt!

By Andy Haviland, Principal, White Mountain

Julie Mathews, an Anchorage artist, spent a week and a half in White Mountain working with students to create a school entrance sign. The sign depicts the four seasons of the year and shows some of the activities and wildlife the community enjoys.

Julie created all of the individual tiles, glazed and painted the border of the sign before shipping them to White Mountain. The students (k-12) all worked together to design the seasonal pictures in the middle and then paint them before going through the glazing/firing process.

The students also had an opportunity to make their own piece of pottery with Julie’s assistance. Julie trained the White Mountain school staff on the use of our new kiln, so that the school can continue to work with the students in exploring the fine arts.

The small pieces separating the seasons come from the tiles Julie created with us that were destroyed when our school burned in 2006.

Julie Mathews with our finished sign.

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

Found via Slashdot comes the news of some breakthroughs in plastic flash memory. It’s obviously still very early, and there are some limitations on the technology right now, but the potential makes it quite a worthwhile technology to follow. While it may not ever match what silicon flash memory can do in terms of storage and stability, plastic memory could provide some new and fascinating options for implementation, mainly in being a lot more flexible. That means it could be integrated into all sorts of new things — including electronic paper and other offerings. Of course, the trickiest part in understanding new disruptive technologies is often in thinking about what sorts of new products it would allow. So it would be great to hear from folks what they think flexible, plastic memory might allow, and how it might change certain markets.

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The market for solar cells is expected to show positive growth in 2010. …

… "However, these lower prices, diversification of the demand base, and positive incentive movement in multiple regions are now expected to drive substantially higher demand in 2010. " …

Via Semiconductor Today: Solar cell growth forecast

I liked this old concept, (from the first year) and i decided to improve it a bit for the photoshop lesson

The naming ceremony for Havyard Leirvik NB 099 M/V “Havila Venus” takes place in Fosnavåg, Norway on Saturday, Oct. 17th.
AHTS “Havila Venus” is a Havyard design, type Havyard 845.

This vessel is with its state-of-the-art hybrid propulsion system, modern hull lines, clean design class and exhaust catalysts the most environmentally friendly AHTS in the market.

On Sunday the 18th, from 2 to 6 pm Havila Shipping arrange “open vessel” where anyone who is interested may visit the vessel and take a closer look at its advanced systems.

Havyard 845 is a large AHTS with a power station of 18000 kW which via an advanced hybrid propulsion system provides high bollard pull, excellent ability for station keeping and ability to carry out advanced operations in extreme conditions.

The hybrid system is the most advanced and environmentally friendly on the market today and is super economic in all of the vessels operating conditions. In transit from A to B the power requirement is low compared to the vessels total power resource. In dynamic positioning mode for subsea operations in deep water the power requirement will vary, while demanding anchor handling operations will periodically require all available power.

The power station consists of two larger and four smaller diesel generator sets. The hybrid system enables optimising of different combinations of diesel mechanic and diesel electric drive. Advanced systems control the generator sets’ operating conditions for minimising fuel consumption and emissions of NOx and CO2. The advanced hybrid system on a Havyard 845 operates with 10-15 % lower fuel consumption than other solutions in the market today.

Powerful 500 ton AHT winches and equipment for safe anchor handling makes “Havila Venus” a safe working place with superior capacities for anchor handling and towing operations. Launch and recovery system (LARS) for operation of ROV’s over shipside in combination with A-frame on the stern enables the vessel to perform advanced subsea operations down to 3000 m.

A Box Cooler is a cooling system which finds growing application both for inland and sea going ships.

The unique characteristic of box cooling
Cooling water is forced through a U-tube-bundle, which is placed in a sea-chest having inlet- and outlet-grids. The cooling effect is reached by natural circulation of the outboard water in the sea-chest or by a circulation due to the speed of the vessel. The outboard water is heated and rises by its lower density, thus causing a natural upward circulation

Filed under: Etc., Videos

OnStar has provided nothing but good press lately for General Motors, and the automaker is going to ride that pony all the way to the finish. The next person in line to take advantage of OnStar’s benefits is that Arctic gadget freak himself, Santa Claus. Unveiled as an installed option on his new sleigh – which he picked up when he dropped by OnStar HQ – it comes with at least one extra feature you won’t be getting anytime soon: a reindeer health meter.

But you haven’t been left out of the bonanza. GM has partnered with NORAD so that if you have an OnStar subscription, you can keep track of K. Kringle during his midnight run. From 6 a.m. on Christmas Eve until early Christmas morning, press the blue button and OnStar will update you on the hour with info relayed by the guys deep in the mountain.

It’s not a Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, but it’s a start. Follow the jump for the press release and watch Santa get his Christmas present.

[Source: OnStar]

Continue reading VIDEO: Gag Me With a Yule Log – GM allows kids to track Santa Claus via Onstar

VIDEO: Gag Me With a Yule Log – GM allows kids to track Santa Claus via Onstar originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I saw this headline today at Discovery News.

CHILDREN’S SWINE FLU VACCINE RECALLED

Uh oh. Is it an outbreak of the dreaded Guillain-Barre syndrome? Is it high levels of dreaded toxins in the vials? Is it that they killed too many fetus’ to get the serum? Are children dropping off the table dead after they get the shot? Are there now masses of people who have to walk backwards to get anywhere from strong cases of dystonia?

No, this is why I like our system with all its warts. People check that stuff is working as they expect. In this case, Sinofi-Pasteur, the maker of the recalled live virus nasal sprays, recalled the vaccines because, for a reason not understood (yet), the strength of the vaccine drops after it leaves their facilities (since its a live virus, couldn’t it just be that the virus is dying for some reason?). But, they actually checked. Any CAM people checking that their stuff meets their claims before and after the supplements or exotic berry juices leave the plant? Any homeopaths, checking the “strength” of their dilutions before and after the water leaves their facilities? (lol, I can see that, “Oh good, still looks like pure water!”)

I have not seen anything from the fear mongerers yet over at Natural News or Age of Autism. I’ll keep an eye out.

PlayaroundNYC [playaroundnyc.com] is an interesting example of where social visualization meets captology. The website was specifically created to help New Yorkers explore how well their neighborhoods are supported by playgrounds and to investigate how this support is tempered by nearby conditions. The aim is that with better understanding, New Yorkers will be in a better position to act to both improve the availability and quality of neighborhood playgrounds.

The neighborhood playground support map is the result of combining several different types of data sets. First, each playground was assigned a quality rating. Currently quality is mainly determined by nearness to major and minor truck routes. A grid of points were then sampled on the map, by determining the nearest playgrounds, walking distance to these playgrounds, and the quality of these playgrounds. These factors are combined to assign each point an overall rating which estimates how well that area is supported by playgrounds. Lastly, the various support ratings are interpolated to generate the heatmap visual effect.

I have a quick and easy pattern for a set of gingerbread place mats for your kitchen or dining room table. The kids love them and they really make the room look festive. Since the gingerbread man material is a light tan, you can use any pattern of fabric for the placemat and napkin.

Kathy Zengolewicz

Here is what you will need to get started:

• ¾ yards of Christmas print
• ½ yard of polyester fleece
• ½ yard of solid fabric (for the napkins)
• ¼ yard of light brown or tan print or solid (for the gingerbread bodies, I used solid to make a contrast)
• ½ – 5/8 inch sew through buttons
• (4) ½ to 5/8 sew through buttons
• Matching thread
• A black permanent marking pen, extra fine
• Powder blush (optional)

This pattern makes two place mats. Cut four 13×18 pieces of the Christmas print, two 13×18 pieces of fleece and two 17 inch squares of broadcloth (napkins).

Allow a ½ inch seam for the place mats and ¼ inch seam for the gingerbread bodies. Hem the napkins to your desired length and set aside.

Round the corners of the 13×18 inch pieces slightly. Machine baste a fleece piece to the wrong side of two print pieces. Trim the fleece close to the stitching. The remaining print pieces are for the back of the place mat.

Wit the right sides together, stitch each front to each back leaving a 5 inch opening along one of the long edges. Trim and clip the curves, turn it right side out and slip stitch the opening and press it.

Transfer all marks to the right side of two of the body pieces. Machine baste each body fleece to the wrong side of the two body pieces with the marking. Trim all of the fleece close to the stitching.

With the right sides together, stitch each body, leaving an opening between the small “.” on one side. Reinforce the stitches at the side points. Clip to inside of the points and clip the curves. Turn it right side out, slip stitch the opening and press.

Sew the buttons to the body at large “.” and using the marker, draw the mouth and “x”’s for the eyes. Apply powder blush for the cheeks if you’d like to, I didn’t bother. Following the diagram for placement, stitch a gingerbread man to each placemat. Leave it open between “s” on each side. There you have your place mats. Enjoy!

To download the patterns, please go to  http://domesticbuzz.com/templates/gingerbread.tiff

http://domesticbuzz.com/templates/placement.tiff

Post from: Blisstree

Gingerbread Place Mats

Filed under: Technology, Mercedes-Benz

While Audi and BMW have embraced turbocharging, Mercedes has — by and large — stuck with large displacement, naturally aspirated engines. However, If a recent report is to be believed, that’s set to change late next year.

Insideline quotes Daimler AG Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development board member Dr. Thomas Weber as saying the big 6.2-liter V8 powering Mercedes’ AMG lineup will be replaced by the end of next year by a twin turbocharged 5.5-liter V8. And that’s not all. Under Mercedes’ reported plan to downsize its powertrains, all V8s will shrink in size for 2011, with turbocharging making up for the power deficit. If true the move to smaller displacement engines would help increase efficiency while also reducing CO2 emissions.

While the report only mentions V8 engines, we’re guessing there’s a good chance Mercedes could use more turbos in its V6 product lineup as well. The move will help the German automaker meet more strict emissions laws in both Europe and the U.S., while giving the torque-craving masses what they need.

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2009 Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Insideline]

REPORT: Twin-turbo 5.5-liter V8 to replace Mercedes-Benz’ 6.2-liter V8 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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