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Amazon just announced that it is now offering publishers and authors a new 70% royalty option. Publishers and authors who choose this option will receive 70% of the list price from sales of their e-books in the Kindle store. In order to qualify for this option, publishers have to turn on the text-to-speech feature and make the e-book available in all locations for which the author or publisher has rights. In addition, publishers also have to sell the e-book for at least 20% below the price of the physical book and can’t charge more than $9.99 for the Kindle edition.

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As Amazon notes in today’s press release, publishers and authors who choose the standard royalty option would only make about $3.15 from every sale of an e-book that sells for $8.99. Now, with the 70% option, these publishers would make $6.25.

The 70% royalty option will become available for U.S. publishers on Jan. 27.

This is an interesting move by Amazon. A 70% royalty has become the standard among numerous industries, including Apple’s App Store. Of course, there are rumors that Apple will open up its own e-book store when (if?) it launches the Apple tablet/iPad/iSlate. According to the latest rumors, Apple is currently talking to a number of U.S. publishers in order to bring these publishers’ e-books into the iTunes store or into a new Apple e-book store.

Publishers have long been unhappy with Amazon’s decision to keep e-book prices low by subsidizing them. Giving publishers a higher cut of the royalties as long as they fulfill Amazon’s requirements looks like a concession to these publishers. If Amazon expects to see competition from Apple in the near future, then this move would make even more sense.

Discuss

THE Oracle of Omaha is not a fan of the proposed tax on large banks:

“I don’t see any reason why they should be paying a special tax,” said Buffett, the chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. Supporters of the plan to tax the banks “are trying to punish people,” he said. “I don’t see the rationale for it.”

Mr Buffett’s argument is based on the idea that the tax is meant to cover the cost of TARP, which most of the large banks have already repaid. There are two problems with this. First, as Mr Buffett well knows, TARP was far from the only aid provided to large financial institutions during the crisis. Guarantees with potential values in the trillions were extended, along with easy emergency funding. That amounted to aid to banks and the assumption of bank risk by the federal government, a favour for which it stands to reason taxpayers should be compensated.

The second problem is that repayment of TARP isn’t really the best reason for the tax. The administration seems to know this; in advocating for the bank tax it acknowledged that a tax on leverage would counteract the negative externality posed by being too-big-to-fail and reduce careless risk-taking. But I don’t think that message plays as well politically as an effort to get Wall Street to pay back TARP.

But Mr Buffett should know better. It’s interesting that he says:

Look at the damage Fannie and Freddie caused, and they were run by the Congress…Should they have a special tax on congressmen because they let this thing happen to Freddie and Fannie? I don’t think so.

The reference to Fannie and Freddie is instructive. They weren’t actually run by Congress but operated as public companies. And yet, because they were government-sponsored entities, it was assumed that they enjoyed an implicit government guarantee. That government guarantee allowed them to borrow more cheaply than a purely private competitor, which enabled them to become too large and too risk-heavy. A tax on size or leverage would have counteracted the negative incentives generated by the implicit guarantee. And that’s the idea behind the bank tax, or at least it should be.

Days away from the supposed launch of the Apple tablet, we know almost nothing about it. While we can’t say for sure which rumors are true, we can definitely say which, over the past decade, were just plain dumb.

If you think galleries are dumb, too, click here for a single page.

Saga Car Insurance's Guide to Offsetting Your Vehicle's Carbon Footprint Advertiser Talk This figure is then translated into a fee – or carbon offset. As a rough guide, the average medium-size car produces a ton of CO2 for every 1900 miles …

Two-time NL Cy Young Award-winner Tim Lincecum asked for a record $13 million in salary arbitration Tuesday, while the San Francisco Giants offered their ace $8 million.

Lincecum is seeking the richest contract ever awarded in arbitration, surpassing the $10 million that Alfonso Soriano (2006) and Francisco Rodriguez (2008) got after losing cases and Ryan Howard got after winning his in 2008.

If Lincecum and the Giants don’t settle, an arbitration panel will hold a hearing next month and pick one of the salaries.

Lincecum’s case is an interesting test because few players have entered salary arbitration with credentials similar to his. Called up early in the 2007 season, the right-hander has a 40-17 record with a 2.90 ERA.

He won the Cy Young in his first two full seasons, becoming the first repeat winner since Randy Johnson from 1999-2002. Lincecum was a bargain for the Giants last year, when he made $650,000.

He had no negotiating leverage then, but is guaranteed to increase his salary by more than twelvefold even if he loses his case because he is eligible for arbitration as a so-called “Super 2″ — a player in the top 17 percent of service time between two and three seasons.

Lincecum’s case could be most similar to Howard, who won a $10 million award in his first time in arbitration in 2008. Howard won the NL MVP in 2006 when he led the league with 58 home runs and followed that with 47 homers in 2007. The Phillies offered $7 million, while Howard won with his $10 million request.

Lincecum, nicknamed “The Freak” for his giant stride and slender body, has been the NL’s most dominant pitcher almost from his arrival. He has a 33-12 record with a 2.55 ERA the past two seasons, leading the league in strikeouts both years. He has 526 strikeouts during that span, averaging 10.5 per nine innings.

Lincecum also leads the majors in ERA, batting average against (.214), winning percentage (.733) and strikeouts over the past two seasons.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lincecum agreed to pay $513 to resolve marijuana charges against him in Washington state.

He originally faced two misdemeanor charges of marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession stemming from a traffic stop on Oct. 30. The charges were reduced to a civil infraction.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

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By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now

Here’s an early entry in the running for Environmental Quandary of the Year:

Up to his elbows in budget shortfalls and ravenous, under-funded programs, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last year proposed closing 220 of 279 state parks. The reaction: Staunch opposition by environmentalists and park activists, so Schwarzenegger terminated the plan, if not the problem.

Earlier this month, he returned with a different solution: An estimated $140 million could be raised for state parks…if oil drilling off Santa Barbara could be expanded.

Drill, baby, drill…or no more parks?

Nice choices, eh?

Across America, state parks are becoming an endangered species, an easy target for politicians charged with making fewer dollars go a long way. The irony, of course, is unmistakable: At a time when people are looking for cheap entertainment and low budget vacations, communing with nature may become a fleeting option.

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the state’s parks did very healthy business in 2009, even as the economy as a whole did not. Camper days rose to 714,592, up 5.3 percent from 2008, and an increase of 7.4 percent from five years earlier.

Including campground visits and other activities, 56 major state parks together drew an estimated 14 million visits, up 250,000 from 2008 and the highest total since 2006.

The poor economy almost certainly played a part in this, DNR spokesman Mick Klemesrud told the Des Moines Register.

“When we have dips in the economy, when unemployment is up, people tend to stick around,” he said. “People can easily borrow equipment to camp, if they don’t have any. Or, if they buy things, they are available locally, and are inexpensive.”

Unfortunately, budget vacations do little to fill state coffers. Iowa officials currently are considering closing some less-popular parks and limiting access at others.

Caught between shrinking revenues and hemorrhaging red ink, governors and legislators from New York to California have identified state parks as quaint, low dollar-producing luxuries that cash-strapped governments can no longer afford. And some proposed solutions are more drastic than others. In Idaho, for instance, Governor Butch Otter is hoping to disband the state parks agency, saving $10 million by selling the headquarters and moving management of 30 state parks to other agencies.

The financial consequences of these closures reach far beyond shuttered bureaucracies and laid-off employees. Lost tourist dollars associated with the parks will no longer support restaurants, shops, hotels and grocery stores in the towns nearest the affected facilities.

Critics of the closings cite another concern. During long periods of closure, they say, parks will be vulnerable to vandalism and theft, which could cause irreparable harm and make them even more expensive to reopen at a later date.

Arizona is the latest to concede that nature may suffer in the climate change produced by the current cash crunch. The most recent plan involves closing more than half of the state’s parks, including popular attractions such as the Tombstone Courthouse and the Yuma Territorial Prison. State officials already shuttered five parks last year.

“We don’t have a choice,” said Reese Woodling, head of the Arizona Parks Board. “It’s either shut them all down right now or shut them down in phases, and we’re picking the ones that cost the state money.”

Which parks are likely to survive in the longer run? The ones that turn a profit, or at least come close enough.

Generally speaking, that means parks that have more going for them than simply a chance to hike, camp, fish or swim. In Arizona, that would include the likes of Lake Havasu (located conveniently near the famous London Bridge in Lake Havasu City) and Kartchner Caverns (which benefits from popular cave tours that cost up to $22.95 for adults).

To eventually save parks that don’t generate sufficient revenue, the state may have to be creative. One idea making the rounds in the legislature: Adding $9 to the fee required to register a vehicle. In return, residents who pay the fee would not be charged admission to state parks.

In the meantime, as we turn the page into a new decade, America’s passion for nature may be tempered by political and economic reality. Part of that bottom line: Do a little homework before you plan the next family trip to the great outdoors. That park you’ve enjoyed so much in the past may be on hiatus, assuming it is coming back at all.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

As highlighted by The Economist, only 400,000 more Americans were employed in 2009 vs. 1999 despite the fact that the population had grown by 30 million. Yet it gets worse — Not only has unemployment skyrocketed, but long-term unemployment has skyrocketed even higher. (Shown in the chart below.)

The Economist: Long-term unemployment is what will make this economic downturn inordinately tough for many Americans to bear. Regardless of what headline U.S. GDP data may do, many of the people represented by the spike below will experience a multi-year personal economic downturn regardless.

Of course, it’s worth asking whether the skills they forget will even be valuable by the time things turn around.

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See Also:

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With Rhinoplasty, you can greatly enhance the face by improving the shape of the nose. While subtle changes are desired by some patients, a complete changes are desired by other patients. Rhinoplasty has the potential to give a self esteem boost to anyone who is self-conscious about their nose.

By making your nose more balanced with the rest of your face and enhancing your profile, this procedure can greatly enhance anyone’s facial appearance. The Rhinoplasty procedure is customized to specifically enhance each person’s face whether their nose has been damaged from an injury or a birth defect has caused them to have a less than desirable nose shape or these problems have caused your nasal airways to not allow regular airflow.

More information can be found on this website I found that I believe should be very useful in teaching more about this procedure and help in making the decision to get Rhinoplasty.

The Bears said Tuesday the team is chartering a flight to take front-office personnel, coaches and players to the funeral of Gaines Adams on Friday in Easley, S.C.

Team president Ted Phillips, general manager Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith are expected to make the trip, along with many other members of the franchise. It would not be surprising if members of the McCaskey family also attend.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers likely will be well-represented, too. Adams was the fourth pick in the 2007 draft by the Bucs.

A wake for Adams is scheduled from 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Blyth Funeral Home in Greenwood, S.C. The funeral will take place Friday at 1 p.m. at Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, not far from where Adams was an All-American at Clemson.

By Brad Biggs

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

by Agence France-Presse

GENEVA – An estimate on the fate of Himalayan glaciers that featured a benchmark report on global warming has been “poorly substantiated” and represents a lapse in standards, U.N.‘s climate scientists said on Wednesday.

Charges that the reference was highly inaccurate or overblown have stoked pressure on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), already assailed in a separate affair involving hacked email exchanges.

The new row focuses on a paragraph in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, a 938-page triple-volume opus that warned climate change was on the march and spurred politicians around the world to promise to take action. In the contested section, the report declared that the probability of glaciers in the Himalayas “disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high.”

The IPCC said in a statement that the paragraph “refers to poorly substantiated rates of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers. In drafting the paragraph in question, the clear and well-established standards of evidence, required by the IPCC procedures, were not applied properly.”

It added: “The Chair, Vice-Chair, and Co-Chairs of the IPCC regret the poor application of well-established IPCC procedures in this instance. This episode demonstrates that the quality of the assessment depends on absolute adherence to the IPCC standards, including thorough review of ‘the quality and validity of each source before incorporating results from the source in an IPCC report.’”

The statement noted that the reference was not repeated in an important “synthesis report” of the 2007 assessment, and stressed the IPCC’s “strong commitment” to thorough, accurate review of scientific data.

The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its reputation of scientific rigor, caution, and fact-checking. Under this process, data are peer-reviewed by other scientists and are then meant to be double-checked by editors.

On Monday, a leading Austrian glaciologist, Georg Kaser, who contributed to the 2007 report, described the mistake with the 2035 date as huge and said he had notified his colleagues of it months before publication.

Despite the controversy, the IPCC on Wednesday stood by the overall conclusions about glacier loss this century in major mountain ranges, including the Himalayas. “This conclusion is robust, appropriate, and entirely consistent with the underlying science and the broader IPCC assessment,” it said.

The report concluded that “widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century.”

This would reduce “water availability, hydropower potential, and changing seasonality of flows in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives,” it added.

The Indian scientist at the centre of the row, Syed Hasnain, has denied that he mentioned the 2035 date in a magazine interview more than 10 years ago, the apparent original source for the prediction.

IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri on Tuesday defended the panel’s work, a position shared by other scientists, who say the Fourth Assessment Report’s core conclusions about climate change are inconvertible. “Theoretically, let’s say we slipped up on one number, I don’t think it takes anything away from the overwhelming scientific evidence of what’s happening with the climate of this Earth,” Pachauri said.

Skeptics have already attacked the panel over so-called “Climategate,” entailing stolen email exchanges among IPCC experts, which they say reflected attempts to skew the evidence for global warming.

The row came as the U.N. panel began the marathon process of drafting its Fifth Assessment Reports, inviting nominations of scientists to lead its work.

The reports, due out in 2013 and 2014, will focus on sea-level changes and the influence of periodic climate patterns like the monsoon season and El Niño, and will aim to forge a more precise picture of the regional effects of climate change.

Related Links:

Last decade was the warmest ever, says NASA

The Climate Post: Asian ice granted temporary stay of execution

New Sierra Club chief brings confrontational style to the job

Renault acaba de confirmar una edición limitada para el Renault Kangoo. Esta versión se lanza debido a la colaboración con la marca de navegadores TomTom, quién ha integrado un sistema de navegación Carminat TomTom que cuenta de inteligencia artificial para calcular las rutas.

También incluye climatizador, techo panorámico delantero y trasero, barras en el techo. El precio para el modelo con el motor 1.6 de 105 CV de bioetanol es de 19.750€ mientras que el de 1.5 dCi de 105 CV será de 21.600€.

Recordemos que el navegador Carminat TomTom tiene una pantalla de 6 pulgadas a todo color insertada en el centro del salpicadero, teniendo el mando para controlarlo en la consola central, delante del reposabrazos.

Related posts:

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2. Lotus Exige Scura, edición limitada
3. Renault Twingo Gordini RS

What a day. The Dow is still down 175 points and it’s been a hell of a day for the Bears. Especially in the finance sector.

All the major firms are down, from Traveler’s to Citigroup to MetLife.

However, a few firms are doing quite well despite the downturn. Bank of New York Mellon (BK) is up 3.8%, Northern Trust (NTRS) is up 5.6%, and State Street (STT) is killing it, up 6.7% for today.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Schwab ETFs Are A Day Trader’s Dream
• Is It Possible To Invent An Investment Product Too Stupid To Find Buyers?
• Financial Stocks Getting Whacked After JPMorgan Earnings

Google isn’t the only American commodity being driven out of
China. Avatar,
James Cameron’s highly successful and critically acclaimed sci-fi epic, will be
pulled from all 2-D screens in China
by this weekend, according to Chinese media outlets.

Although 3-D and IMAX versions of the film will continue,
the majority of Chinese movie theaters are not equipped with 3-D technology. As
a result, the movie will be pulled from 1,628 movie screens across the
country (compared to only 800 3-D and IMAX cinemas). Avatar will be replaced with Confucius, a domestically
produced biopic about the renowned Chinese philosopher. Why?

Avatar generated
record-breaking profits in China,
earning $76 million in Chinese ticket sales so far. The film’s financial
success, however, may have led to its demise. Several reports from both the mainland
and U.S.
indicate that the government wants to promote and protect the domestic film
industry. Currently, only 20 films can be imported per year, in order to reduce
foreign competition. These films can only run for 10 days and are often curtailed
during a major holiday, giving domestic films a significant market advantage.

Avatar’s resonance
with Chinese audiences also may have prompted government intervention. In the
film, humans attempt to conquer the alien-inhabited world of Pandora, which
contains a mineral that the Earth desperately needs. Many Chinese citizens see
a close parallel to their own lives, as urban developments and projects
such as the Three Gorges Dam force them off their land. Perhaps the government
is worried that the ensuing violence on-screen may incite violence off-screen
as well.

At first glance, the decision to pull Avatar is not exceptional. The film has indeed lapsed its 10-day
run and a holiday — the Lunar New Year — is approaching. In addition, foreign films often
contain themes that the government is not fond of. What is exceptional is the
timing. A week after Google threatened to leave China, the Chinese government shows
no signs of changing its restrictive censorship policies. I don’t think it is mere
coincidence that Confucius — a
state-sanctioned, state-produced movie about one of China’s most beloved and
patriotic figures — will replace the controversial Avatar. By canning the most successful movie of all time in China, the
government shows little concern for free markets or its consumers. Ignoring
Chinese consumer demand for Avatar and
bait-and-switching it with state propaganda may incite the very criticism that
the government seeks to avoid.  

The Zero Emission Electric Propulsion Ship is a 100-foot, 800-person ferry that sucks no diesel. Instead, the boat operates from a huge bay of lithium ion batteries, all while looking vaguely like it’s going to kill you and your family.

Just how many batteries are we talking about? Between 200 and 300 times the amount you’d find in an electric car—all for a fuel capacity of only about 50 miles.

For now, what you see here is just a prototype. Manufacturers at IHI Marine United hope to commercialize the machine by 2015 with the hopes that battery prices will be more economical. [Fareastgizmos via technabob]