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The Yogo electric scooter joins the ranks of some of its peers we’ve seen before, the Motorino VTn and the Xero. Being electric is the only similarity between them though. The Yogo decides to go a bit farther with its drivable, or should we say ride-able range. A product by Econogo, this scooter uses a simple yet effective idea to extend its range. It simply packs a spare charged up battery in its storage compartment that you can swap with a drained out one when needed. This simple swapping doubles the scooters 22 mile range.

You can also carry the removable cell to your office and have it charge while you work. A great way to zip through packed city streets without burning up fuel, the Yogo scooter will cost you around £1999 (about $3k). Available in black and beige, this innovative scooter is a smart alternative to charging up every 20 miles.

[Engadget]

Grizzled rocker? There’s an app for that. Specifically Joey Kramer‘s Hit Hard iPhone app, who may be better known as the drummer from Aerosmith—or, he who isn’t Steven Tyler. More »

Sexual abuse by clerics and accusations of cover-up have rocked the Roman Catholic Church and disturbed churchgoers around the world, but many believers say the scandals have not shaken their faith.  From Rome to Rio de Janeiro, Paris to Dublin and from Warsaw and Washington, Easter sermons were overshadowed by allegations of priests molesting children, especially in Europe and the United States, and the Church’s mishandling of the crisis.

Across Pope Benedict’s native Germany, hundreds of long-concealed reports of sexual abuse have emerged and shattered a notion abuse was only a U.S. and Irish problem.  “It’s the greatest loss of confidence in the Catholic Church since the Hitler era,” said Christa Nickels, a member of the Central Committee of German Catholics and a Greens party leader.

In Bethlehem, where Christians believe Jesus was born, Mayor Victor Batarseh, himself a Catholic, said Church members were ashamed of the abuse carried out by priests.  “His holiness the pope should give a straightforward answer to all these things that have been done by some of the priests in the Catholic Church,” he said.

In New York, churchgoers at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan said they too were appalled and saddened.  “My confidence is shaken that they are not doing all that is necessary but I think that’s changing now,” said a man named Tom, 57, who asked that his surname not be used. “It’s disappointed me greatly. It hasn’t shaken my faith.”

Read the full story here.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

Fed up of all those empty beer or soda cans piling up in your backyard? Need a way to decrease your electricity bills? Well, simply put those cans to use by making a solar collector, the way 61-year old Ward Miner and 10-year-old Rashel Cortez did. The duo came up with solar collectors (these devices collect energy and are not to be confused with solar panels that convert solar energy to electricity) made out of 300 recycled aluminum cans. These cans once cleaned and dried had their tops cut off and holes punched in their sides. They were then painted black, with grill paint, to withstand heat.

Stacked up end-to-end, a continuous seven foot tube is formed taking in the air from the basement that rises in the can columns and is heated by the sun. On reaching a scorching 110 degrees, vent fans blow the heated air in the dining room. This project cost just around $400. Don’t throw your cans away. Recycle them to heat up our homes instead!

[Energyboom]

I’ll get to the Android stuff in a minute, but I would be negligent if I didn’t mention the Apple iPad release that has dominated the tech world for the last couple of weeks.   I know some Android buffs are Apple haters, but I’m not one of them.  We use both PCs and Macs at my house and if Verizon offered an iPhone, it’s very possible that I’d be using one.  I can’t say enough about what a great experience I had standing in line at the West Des Moines, Iowa Apple store on Saturday morning waiting for the opportunity to purchase the iPad.  After getting the device home, I can honestly say that it exceeds most of my expectations.  Ok, on to life this week with the HTC Droid Eris, my daily workhorse.

I’ve been toying with the idea of rooting my Eris for a few weeks.  When the Eris was first released, Verizon promised an upgrade to Android 2.1 sometime in the 1st quarter of 2010, but March 31 came and went with no real specifics about when the upgrade will arrive.  It just so happened that a root path for the Eris was discovered by the great folks at XDA Developers which includes an update to a pretty stable version of 2.1.  I spent several weeks following the Droid Eris development threads at the XDA forums to see how difficult rooting the device would be.  I’d like to think that I’m pretty computer savvy, but reading through the instructions found on the XDA forums without a frame of reference for how the steps described would actually be completed made me hesitate to make the move.  That is, until I came across a couple YouTube videos from The Unlockr actually showing the process from start to finish.  I knew I was ready for the challenge, but for some reason I still didn’t pull the trigger.  The deciding factor for my final decision to root was not the 2.1 upgrade, but was actually the combination of having made the final decision to purchase the iPad and hearing about Verizon’s announcement to reduce the price of the Mobile Hotspot service (wifi broadcast from the phone) for the Palm Pre Plus from $40 per month to FREE.  After that Verizon announcement I started lusting after the Palm Pre Plus, looking on Craigslist and Ebay to see what people were selling them for while imagining myself using the iPad with the free Mobile Hotspot service.  I remembered one of the benefits of a rooted Android device was using the wifi tether app (essentially a Mobile Hotspot-like function), which is not available for non-rooted phones.  What a killer combination the cheaper wifi-only iPad model would be with the benefit of a wifi signal from my Eris if I ever needed it while traveling.

After successfully completing the steps required for the 2.1 upgrade with root as described on the XDA Developers forums, with a little remedial help from The Unlockr videos, I can tell you that all my hopes and dreams have now come to fruition…well, not all of them, but I’m pretty happy with the results.  The 2.1 rom has been pretty stable as I haven’t had any system freezes or unexpected reboots, and the wifi tether app works as intended.  I don’t expect to use the wifi tether fuction unless absolutely necessary, but it’s comforting to know that it’s available in a pinch.  I’m also a big proponent of charging the same amount for similar services on the same carrier (well, since last week anyway) so if the Palm folks get their wifi tether for free, why shouldn’t Android folks?  Who’s with me on that?  After the rooted upgrade, my only real disappointment is that I can’t find my favorite app in the market, Radiotime.  I wrote about the Radiotime app in my 2nd column (here) so I won’t go back into what it does, but I’ll tell you this loss has been both unexpected and significant. Hopefully the good folks at Radiotime will update the app to be compatible with 2.1 soon (please!).

I’ll close with these words of caution: 1) I am not advising anyone to root their phone, as it is not for everyone, 2) rooting will void your phone’s warranty, and 3) a mistake in your attempt to root could cause your phone to turn into an expensive paper weight.  Any Android users out there have similar stories? Let me know in the Comments.  

We’re not alone in The Kitchn when we proclaim our love for Fibroxed-handled Victorinox Forschner knives. Far from their fancier looking and much, much more expensive German-made cousins, Victorinox knives have a loyal following among professional chefs and serious cooks everywhere. They’re basically the punk rock of kitchen knives: lean, mean, bad-ass blades that don’t put on flashy airs. But now Victorinox is just about to release a new, fancier line of ceramic knives. Read on for our review.

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Foursquare is one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley at the moment and tech-savvy users and blogs are gushing with praise for the service/game/mobile app. The rumor is that the company is looking for investment, at a rather inflated valuation, but it now looks like it may also be interested in selling or is, at least, discussing t… (read more)

Mitsubishi have gone a shade greener with its new 23” LCD monitor. Known as the RDT232WLM (why can’t model names be easier to remember?), this LCD monitor was released by the company in Japan recently. With a 1920×1080 resolution, the monitor sports a 1000:1 contrast ratio (5000:1 with the CRO). Mitsubishi claim that this monitor reduces energy consumption by 35% by using an improved ECO mode. With a brightness of 250cd/m2, it also features HDMI, DVI-D (HDCP), D-SUB and 2×1W speakers.

The companies spouting LCD technology on shelves in markets today need to come up with and work on energy saving technology for future use, before they get run over by newer technologies like the laser phosphor TVs being developed that save a lot more power.

[Akihabaranews]

Nicole Scherzinger hit out at the blogosphere on Tuesday, issuing a furious denial of any romance with her Dancing With The Stars partner Derek Hough. The stunning bombshell insists she is “in love and committed” to her boyfriend, race car driver Lewis Hamilton.

The Pussycat Dolls star has been teamed with the professional dancer while she competes on the 10th season of the TV talent contest, but the pair has been hit with speculation they have grown a bit too close over the last few weeks. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Derek has taken up romantically with one of his partners on the show: the hoffer previously dated former DWTS contender Shannon Elizabeth. The whispers have infuriated Scherzinger, who maintains that the relationship is platonic is adamant their relationship is strictly professional.

In a post on her Twitter page yesterday, Nicole wrote: “Been reading the net & seeing the craziest stories… Derek is like a little brother to me. Everyone knows how in luv (sic) & committed I am to Lewis!”

Nicole and Lewis recently reunited after briefly splitting in January.

This may not be the ideal gift for your loved one on Valentines Day, taken that its devoid of color and flowery scents. This “flower” can do things pretty red roses from your local florists can’t. It glows with light every time the wind blows right. Located on the banks of the River Mersey in Widnes, Cheshire, UK, and christened as the Tonkin Liuʼs Future Flower, this structure has a frame of an icosi-dodecahedron to which 120 perforate galvanized mild steel petals are attached. The central stalk lacks thorns. It sports 60 low voltage LEDs though, that are directed to different clusters of petals.

The Halton Borough Council pulled the veil off this 14 meter high metallic flower that uses three turbines fitted on its stem to produce electricity at wind speeds of 5 mph or more to lighten up the LEDs. 4.5 meters in diameter, the Future Flower is a piece of art wrapped with green sustainable innovation.

[Dezeen]

Porque tener familia no supone renunciar a un coche de gran potencia. Esto es lo que debio pensar Sportec cuando decidio aumentar hasta los 700 CV la potencia del motor V10 con doble turbo del Audi RS6 Avant que ya el solito alcanzaba los 580 CV.

Este aumento está disponible en dos actualizaciones diferentes, la primera eleva los caballos hasta los 650 consiguiendo además un pár motor de 740 Nm, lo que supone un paso de 0 a 100 Km/h en unos 4,4 segundos una cifra ya más que respetable.

Sin embargo por si esto nos sabe a poco Sportec ofrece un Stage II que añade una nueva ECO junto a un escape deportivo que le permite alcanzar la asombrosa cifra de los 700 CV con un par que tampoco se queda corto ya que se sitúa en los 800 Nm desarrollados entre las 3000 y las 6200 rpm. Traducido a cifras, en este caso, el Audi RS6 pasa a una aceleración de 0 a 100 Km/h en 4,2 segundos.

Para esto dos aumento se ha limitado electrónicamente la velocidad de los dos a 306 Km/h. En cuanto a sus precios para el Stage I asciende a casi unos 3200 euros mientras que para el Stage II habrá que desembolsar unos 7400 euros.

Vía | zercustoms

The Earthbound RV can now sell up its chest in pride as it conquers and wins the Third Annual Green RV Award by the Roaming Times. The V2 Earthbound is lightweight using thermoplastics and hybrid materials instead of traditional wood and wood byproducts, allowing it to shed those extra pounds. This obviously increases fuel efficiency. This also makes these trailers that boast a host of eco-friendly features, towable by a range of cars people own. According to David B. Hoefer, Earthbound’s vice president of sales and marketing, the company has the prospective to add 11 million customers to the towable-RV market.

With companies like AM Solar and RV Solar Electric offering products that turn your gas-guzzling RV green; we hope to see more of these eco-friendly homes-on-wheels ahead. Eco-friendly RVs are bound to turn that hour long trip across deserted roads with your family into a greener and cleaner affair. Shed the guilt of punching holes in the ozone and get your own green RV!

[RVBusiness]

Malaysia will set up an interfaith committee to promote religious harmony, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, after a series of religious disputes have fueled tensions in the mainly Muslim country.

The interfaith committee will look into religious groups’ disputes with one another and promote understanding among them, Koh Tsu Koon, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was quoted by the online version of the Star newspaper as saying.

The development came a week after the government dropped a caning sentence imposed on a woman for drinking beer, a case that raised concerns of intolerance in the country.

The woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, was sentenced to six strokes of the cane and a fine after she was caught drinking beer by Islamic enforcement officials two years ago at a hotel lounge in the central state of Pahang.

Malaysia practises a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family law applicable to Muslims. Non-Muslims, who make up about 45 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s 28 million residents, are subject to civil law.

In January, churches were attacked as a row escalated over the use of the word Allah to refer to the Christian God.

The dispute was sparked by a 2009 court ruling allowing a Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah” in its Malay-language editions to describe the Christian God.

Analysts said growing religious disputes risk dividing the country, which has significant religious minorities, and complicate Prime Minister Najib Razak’s plan to win back support from non-Muslims before the next elections due by 2013.

Do you think this approach can be effective? Some doubts have already been expressed.

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld

The Greek government has clarified their position vis-a-vis the IMF helping the nation along with Europe in the case of an emergency —  they are on board with the latest European plan.

The IMF has even announced plans to meet the nation in order to advise the country on its debt burden.

Yet confidence in Greek creditworthiness continued to fall apart overnight, with 10-year Greek bond yields hitting 7.2%.

The spread vs. German debt hit the widest level since the beginning of the euro.

Join the conversation about this story »

American Chopper has been saved from the Graveyard of TV Shows Past……TLC is reviving its veteran biker-themed franchise after pulling the plug on the show earlier this year.

The canceled series ran for six seasons — first on Discovery Channel, then on TLC — with its supposed final episode airing Feb. 11, b ut the network has made a deal for another round with the entire Teutul clan that fronts the series, set at motorcycle builder Orange County Choppers in Upstate New York, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The new show will play up the long-running feud between the Teutul men. American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior, premiering in August, focuses both on the original Orange County Choppers business run by Paul Sr., and Paul Jr.’s startup bike shop, Paul Jr. Designs.

Two of the most powerful political leaders in the state – Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and House Speaker Chris Donovan – squared off Tuesday over the state budget and the Democratic-controlled finance committee’s votes to close Connecticut’s huge budget deficit.

They specifically clashed over the complicated borrowing process known as “securitization,” which is mandated in the state budget to fill a hole of $1.3 billion in the 2011 fiscal year.

Rell wanted to securitize the proceeds from legalizing the keno electronic gambling game, but the committee instead decided to borrow against a surcharge on electric bills.

Rell said the “proposal to securitize revenue from charges on consumers’ electric bills is not the solution I would pursue. Ratepayers, who have paid these charges for the last 10 years, have rightfully been expecting the charges to soon be expiring – by the end of this year for Connecticut Light & Power customers and in 2013 for United Illuminating customers.”

Rell added, “Some sort of securitization is necessary. This option, however, is the least desirable for Connecticut’s beleaguered families.”

But Donovan took issue with those statements, saying Rell was the one who wanted to securitize in her own budget proposal.

“It was the governor’s proposal to securitize $1.3 billion,” Donovan told Capitol Watch. “I think she’s being less than truthful with the public. … For her to criticize it is disingenuous.”

He added, “I’m disappointed in her rhetoric. Her rhetoric is less than truthful.”

In the crafting of the budget last fall for the second year of the two-year plan, a request for securitization was used as a placeholder to fill the $1.3 billion hole. The exact way of how the money would be borrowed would be determined later – which is now.

“The Republicans and the governor wanted to borrow,” Donovan said. “We went along with the governor. … We did a variation of what she proposed – a slight variation of what she proposed.”

Democrats said several times Tuesday that the move was not a rate increase for electric customers.

“It’s funds that the ratepayers are paying,” Donovan said. “It’s a phase-out, but we’re grabbing some of it.”

Overall, the plan calls for using 56 percent of the current surcharge, which was supposed to be phased out to zero.

Donovan was surprised at Rell’s comments, which were issued by her press office.

“Her staff was happy with our proposal for securitization,” Donovan said.  

WASHINGTON–New Yorker editor David Remnick talks about President Obama and his new biography on him, “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.” Remnick recounts the impact Chicago had on Obama’s life and political career in the book, out this week.

This is the sixth and final installment in a multi-part series that looks at various options used by income investors to boost their yield while waiting for dividend growth to lift their portfolio’s overall yield-on-cost. Last week we looked at Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). This week we are looking at Time.

Yield does not come without a price. The five options looked at in prior weeks carry some form of added risk and/or complexity. Ultimately, dividend growth investors realize that long-term and sustainable high-yield investments are grown over time. This is accomplished by purchasing high-quality dividend investments with a reasonable yield and a long history of growing their dividends, and waiting for the yield on cost to grow. Consider the following stocks:

Sysco Corp. (SYY)
– Current Yield: 3.36%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 6.52%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 6.32%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 11.89%

Coca Cola Co. (KO)
– Current Yield: 3.22%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 7.32%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 6.53%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 13.22%

Abbott Labs (ABT)
– Current Yield: 3.25%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 8.27%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 7.20%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 15.93%

Raven Industries Inc. (RAVN)
– Current Yield: 1.85%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 15.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 7.49%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 30.31%

Kimberly Clark Corp. (KMB)
– Current Yield: 4.20%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 6.67%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 8.02%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 15.30%

United Technologies Corp. (UTX)
– Current Yield: 2.09%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 15.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 8.46%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 34.24%

Harleysville Group Inc (HGIC)
– Current Yield: 4.09%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 8.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 8.83%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 19.07%

Cardinal Health Inc (CAH)
– Current Yield: 1.98%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 15.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 8.00%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 32.34%

Nucor Corp. (NUE)
– Current Yield: 3.15%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 15.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 12.76%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 51.60%

McDonalds Corp. (MCD)
– Current Yield: 3.27%
– Assumed Dividend Growth Rate: 15.00%
– Yield On Cost in 10 Years: 13.23%
– Yield On Cost in 20 Years: 53.53%

The growth rates rates used above are the minimum of the compound annual dividend growth rate for the last 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 years or 15% if dividends grew on average in excess of 15% for each consecutive 4 year period, within the last 10 years. The growth rates are for illustrative purposes only. Obviously, no one can definitively say what any stock’s future dividend growth rate will be. However, there were dividend growth superstars over the past 10-years and, needless to say, there will be several in the next 10 years.

Below are links to the other five options to increase the yield in our income portfolio:

1. Increasing Dividend Yield Part I: Utilities
2. Increasing Dividend Yield Part II: REITs
3. Increasing Dividend Yield Part III: Preferred Stock
4. Increasing Dividend Yield Part IV: Bonds
5. Increasing Dividend Yield Part V: MLPs

Full Disclosure: Long SYY, KO, ABT, KMB, UTX, HGIC, NUE, MCD. See a list of all my income holdings here.

(Photo Credit)

Related Posts:

• 38 Dividend Securities For A Well-Rounded Asset Allocation
• 10 Best U.S. Dividend Stocks
• Refining Risk Measurement Of Dividend Stocks
• The 2010 Dividend Stock Ideas List
• Dividend Stocks: Three Keys For Successful Investing

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Eighties pop queen Cyndi Lauper — a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community — is planning to open a shelter for disenfranchised gay teens in Harlem.

Lauper’s True Colors Residence will open its doors next winter, taking in gay, bisexual, and transgender young people between 18 and 24 who have been disowned by their families due to their sexuality. The center will contain 30 studio apartments, a library, a computer room and communal space. Residents will pay rent according to their income.

“Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets. We need to make sure we’re taking care of them….”

AOL is now officially ready to let go of Bebo, the UK-based social network it acquired two years ago. The site has been declining in user numbers and is in no position to compete with the likes of Facebook. AOL now plans to either sell the social network or shut down the site, depending on which path makes the most sense. Either way, AOL is not likel… (read more)