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Peppermint bark is a holiday staple – or, at least, it appears in quite a few stores and a package always seems to make its way under my tree around Christmas. It’s easy to make it yourself and it makes a great holiday gift, as well as being a good treat to put out when guests stop by for snacks and hot cocoa. It is basically a layer or two of chocolate that has crushed peppermints added to the top. The combination of crunchy mint and creamy chocolate is a good one.

But as much as I enjoy crushed candy canes, big chunks of mint can be a little bit too crunchy for my tastes. This year, I topped my peppermint bark off with crushed Peppermint JoJo’s, the Trader Joe’s brand Oreo look-a-like. I’ve used these cookies before in Peppermint Cookies n’ Cream Brownies with great results. They’re crisp, have a nice creamy center and have just enough flecks of real peppermint candy in the filling. They make a great topping for this chocolate bark with all of those different textures!

My chocolate base has three layers, with dark, milk and white chocolate. Each layer must be chilled before adding the next layer, so make sure to allow some chilling time when you set out to make this. Also, use good quality chocolates (I like Dove, Ghiradelli and Guittard) because the chocolate is the most important element of this dessert and it just won’t be the same if you use the cheap stuff.

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Inheritance tax can be paid slowly, over many years

The Seattle Times editorial on inheritance tax was not completely accurate [“Repeal or reduce the death tax,” Opinion, Dec. 7].

The IRS allows terms in which inheritance tax can be paid over many years, rather than all at once, so that small businesses don’t have to be sold to pay the tax, all at once.

Inheritance taxes help restrain America’s tendencies in favor of an aristocracy, and I’d favor increasing them. With higher taxes on inheriting anything that isn’t a family business, there would be a lot of revenue from those who can afford it most, which could translate into less of a tax burden for everyone else.

— Tony Formo, Seattle

Tragedy for small businesses to change hands?

The heirs of a small business should not need to be protected from inheritance tax. It is a transfer of assets, every much as a transfer of cash, stock, gold, etc. There are other options for paying taxes than selling the business or having insurance, such as savings, inherited cash, a loan against the business, etc.

Or include one’s heirs in the business ownership at an earlier time — exercise foresight.

Taxes are not the only issue. One or more heirs might prefer the cash, and dividing the inheritance might force a sale.

It happens. Do we protect them from that also?

Selling does not automatically mean a loss of a small business to a large one. It could be an opportunity for some other person who wants a small business. The editorial seemed to assume it’s a tragedy for small businesses to change hands.

Sure, make some adjustments to the law. Sure, consider allowing people with businesses — or stock, or other noncash inheritances — to pay the tax in installments or defer some of it until the asset is sold. But inheriting a small business is still a transfer of monetary value to one or more people who didn’t previously have it.

— Judi Edwards, Bremerton

Winning the genetic lottery

The Seattle Times should quit the demagogic rhetoric of mislabeling an unearned windfall to the heirs of the extremely rich a “death” tax, and return to some thoughtful unbiased reporting on the issue.

Though imperfect, the basic philosophy of our current tax system is to tax individual accessions to wealth. For most Americans, that means we pay taxes on the earnings of our hard work. But does The Times point out the unfairness of this work tax? Even if an average American is lucky enough to win the lottery, that person will pay high taxes on the windfall. Does The Times complain about the wrongness of a luck tax?

How, under any concept of fair taxing, should most Americans to be taxed on non-discretionary income generated by our labor or even a lottery winning, but then not tax the recipients of more than a $2,000,000 unearned windfall of genetics?

The Times bemoans that inheritance taxes supposedly break up small businesses, but then provides no statistics on any businesses destroyed by heirs who could not borrow or insure against the taxes on their multimillion-dollar inheritance. If this tragedy happens so often, one wonders why The Times provides us with not one example.

Perhaps the tax system should be changed completely, but as long as it taxes the labor of most Americans, it should also tax the unearned windfalls of the extremely few Americans already fortunate enough to be related to multimillionaires.

— J. Anthony Salmon, Burien

Filed under: Motorsports, Europe, Hatchback, Renault, Specialty

Renaultsport Twingo R2 – Click above for high-res image gallery

For such a tiny car, Renault’s punchy little Twingo RS sure has been getting a lot attention lately. First came the launch of the Twingo Gordini edition, reviving a long-dormant racing nameplate for the French automaker. Then Jeremy Clarkson took it for a ride (and a swim) around (and under) Belfast. Now Renault’s motorsport division has released the a pair of entry-level rally machines based on the pint-size hot hatch.

Called the Twingo Renaultsport R1 and R2, these are Renault’s latest offerings to aspiring rally drivers getting in at the bottom. They pack 1.6-liter 16-valve four-bangers pumping out a substantial 160 horsepower – 27 over the standard RS – driving the front wheels through a five-speed sequential gearbox with a slip-resistant dog clutch and wheel-mounted shift paddles. There’s little to distinguish the rally machines from their street-going counterparts, but inside, the interior has been stripped out and fitted with a roll cage.

Upgrading from the R1 to the R2 (which can be performed at any later point, helpful if your team is dependent on prize cash to re-invest into the car) gains Sabelt buckets with six-point harness and a few more bells and whistles. The best part? They’re apparently still street legal (in Europe at least) so you can drive it home after the rally instead of loading it onto a truck. A fully equipped Renaultsport Twingo R2 will set you back €38,980, or the equivalent of $58k in American greenbacks…if only it were actually available here. You know the drill: details in the press release after the jump, high-res photos in the gallery below.

[Source: Renault]

Continue reading Street Legal Racer: Renaultsport launches entry-level rally-spec Twingo

Street Legal Racer: Renaultsport launches entry-level rally-spec Twingo originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solution would disproportionately affect the poor

Finally, officials in Olympia wake up to the reality that this budget crisis can’t be solved by endlessly slashing services [“Gregoire, Dems say tax package will be in budget fix,” page one, Dec. 4].

It also shouldn’t be solved by raising the sales tax or property taxes, or instituting other regressive taxes that disproportionately affect the poor.

Currently, Washington state has one of, if not the most, regressive tax structures in the United States. The poorest 20 percent of the population pay more than 17 percent of their income in taxes, while the richest 1 percent pay less than 3 percent of their income in taxes. It’s outrageous. One way to fix this disparity is to replace the sales tax with a steeply graduated income tax.

The grass-roots campaign to save Washington state’s Basic Health Plan has already collected thousands of signatures on a petition calling for a fully funded Basic Health Plan and a change in the tax structure, including a tax on the income of the wealthy and the profits of large corporations.

Clearly these ideas are not nearly as taboo as politicians would like to believe. It’s past time to change the tax structure in this state.

— Margaret Viggiani, Seattle

Several ways to cover the deficit, with ease

It was interesting to see in The Times that after last year’s devastating cuts to social services and state employee benefits, Gov. Chris Gregoire is finally talking about raising taxes instead of axing more state services.

But that will only mean more hardship for many, unless Democrats finally correct our punitive tax structure. Repealing the sales tax and levying reasonable corporate taxes and an income tax on the rich would cover the deficit with ease.

It would also boost the economy, since those of us on the bottom put our money right back into circulation, unlike those who get all the tax breaks now.

— Megan Cornish, Seattle

We dropped the shovel, but our governor showed courage

I am ashamed Gov. Chris Gregoire must go hat in hand, apologetically, to the Legislature to close tax loopholes and raise needed revenues, because she wants to avoid cutting essential state programs. I am doubly ashamed of Republican promises, in turn, to attack her for her courage.

Filling this budget hole was our job, and we’ve dropped the shovel.

Washington state is being eroded by an archaic tax system. Our support for public education has dropped on a per-capita basis from 24th to 46th in the nation over the past 17 years. Our proportion of personal income spent to support our roads, schools, police and fire departments, our clean air, water and public health has dropped a similar 17 percent.

Washington has the most regressive tax system in the nation — dead last.

We need an immediate fix for the $2.6 billion hole in our budget. Longer term, we need a fairer, more adequate tax system that supports essential services and lifts the special burden we are placing on our poor, the elderly and small businesses.

Our governor has shown courage. It’s our turn to help fix this mess.

— Timothy W. Keller, Seattle

Agricultural runoff most likely caused bird deaths

The article “Trying to crack an ocean mystery” [page one, Nov. 29] didn’t include one important piece of information about the similar bird deaths from algae bloom in Monterey Bay.

Grebes, cormorants and numerous other local birds clotted our beaches after we had just been sprayed with pesticides involuntarily by the state of California.

The state had hoped to exterminate an apple moth. Coincidentally, thousands of sea and shore birds died. Their deaths were caused, we were told, by this type of algal bloom The Seattle Times article mentioned. So while sunlight has something to do with blooms, the levels of nitrates in the water have much more of an impact on blooms.

Runoff is a major mover of fertilizers and pesticides into the water system. The unknown chemicals in the aerial spraying also may have caused the bloom.

I would hope the scientists investigating this also check for any agricultural practices that add nitrates or other chemicals to water along the shoreline. That is where the most damage was done.

— Cecile Mills, Watsonville, Calif.

Filed under: Convertible, Budget, Truck, Kia

Will they build it or won’t they? That’s the question we’ve all been asking since Kia showed off its funky Soul’ster concept earlier this year at the Detroit Auto Show. We’ve been hearing rumblings that there’s a solid push from inside the Korean automaker’s own ranks to put the little trucklet into production, and it appears that’s still the case.

Speaking to our friends at PickupTrucks.com at the LA Auto Show, Tom Kearns, Kia North America’s Chief Designer, said, “Kia’s internal design community is firmly behind building the Soul’ster. We’d like to see it happen. There’s no official decision to build it but it’s still possible.”

The base Kia Soul starts at $13,995, and though we have no idea what Kia might charge the Soul’ster if it were to make it to U.S. dealerships, the open-bed unibody would likely have its own little niche to itself as it figures to be significantly smaller and cheaper than vehicles like the Honda Ridgeline. Would it sell? Let us know what you think in ‘Comments.’

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

Kia designers reportedly still want Soul’ster built – is there a market for it? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More than five years ago, we wrote about a ridiculous lawsuit that involved a lawsuit against Cingular (now a part of AT&T) seeking to pin liability on Cingular for an accident caused by a driver who was talking on his phone. That lawsuit was tossed out as ridiculous (and again on appeal) with the court noting that the mobile phone operator was not at all responsible for what a driver did. Apparently, some folks are unaware of this case. Broadband Reports alerts us to the news that Sprint is being sued in a similar lawsuit. In this case, a woman was killed by a driver on the phone, and the woman’s daughter is claiming that Sprint should have warned people of the risks of driving while talking on the phone. Nice try, but chances are, this lawsuit is going to get tossed just as fast as previous ones.

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We tend to feel better when we get exercise, but could physical activity also help stimulate the brain? Newly published study results reveal a clear association between good physical fitness and better IQ test results.

The strongest associations were for logical thinking and verbal comprehension. And researchers noted that the key to the link with the IQ test was physical fitness, not strength. Plus, since researchers analyzed twins as well, they found that the link isn’t based on genes, but on environmental factors like exercise. The people in the study who were fit at 18 were more likely to go to college and secure better jobs.

Researchers noted that being fit means you have better heart and lung capacity, which gives your brain plenty of oxygen. Another mental advantage of exercise is that it reduces stress and anxiety.

The study, carried out at the Center for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation in Gothenburg, involved 1.2 million Swedish men in the military. The results were published in December in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More advantages of being physically fit

In addition to the possibility that being fit will may help make you smarter, being fit has some impressive physical advantages as you might have guessed. Studies have shown that people who are physically fit are less likely to suffer from heart disease or to die from other illnesses. Physical fitness can be determined by an exercise stress test, which measures your heart responds to exertion, such as walking on a treadmill.

Do you consider yourself physically fit?

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Could Exercise Make You Smarter?

While most of the other “gurus” preach about danger on the horizon, hedge fund manager John Paulson continues to defy conventional wisdom.

Reuters: Today our net long exposure is perhaps the highest it has ever been in our portfolio,” Paulson said during a luncheon presentation at the Japan Society.

“We still find a lot of compelling long investments on the equity side,” he said, citing specifically Bank of America, U.S. cable-television giant Comcast Corp, and Germany’s HeidelbergCement AG.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• BusinessWeek: John Paulson Has Become Mediocre
• Amazing: John Paulson Makes $50 Million In Five Weeks On A Gold Trade (DGC)
• John Paulson: We’re Making A Killing On Defaulted Debt

Global trade declined last month, with total shipments dropping 9% from October.  

This bad news could undermine the notion that we are in the midst of an economic recovery.

In fact, the number is higher than it was at the depth of the crisis last year—when shipments to the US dropped 7% from October to November.

The news jibes with data from JPMorgan, released last week, that global economic activity stalled out again in November.

Of course, some seasonal decline is expected at this time of year. Last year, however, the fall off in shipping just got worse and worse. Cross your fingers and hope that we’re not back on that sinking ship.

(source:Panjiva.com)

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As much as he doesn’t want people to pirate games, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello concedes that there’s a sizeable pirate market out there, and he wants to turn them into paying customers. How? By selling them

Filed under: Motorsports, Etc.

According to a report by the New Haven Register, Gregory Loles – the team principal behind the Farnbacher-Loles race team and its associated performance shop – has been fingered in an embezzlement scandal involving the St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church of Orange, Connecticut.

The church’s followers raised $6.3 million to fund a new building of which Loles was in charge of managing, and the Porsche dealer and racing magnate was also reportedly administering several member’s college and retirement funds, with one person claiming to have lost as much as $4 million.

The federal authorities are involved, but haven’t released a statement yet. Expect all the sordid details to be revealed in the coming days, so consider this developing…

[Source: New Haven Register via Axis of Oversteer via 0-60 | Image: Chris Graythen/Getty]

BREAKING: Farnbacher Loles principal reportedly embezzled church funds, investigation underway originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: LA Auto Show, Podcasts, Etc., Aston Martin, Audi, Chrysler, Dodge, Volkswagen

Click above for the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes, RSS or listen now!

Editor Chris Paukert has apparently been bitten by the podcasting bug, and he once again joins Shunk and Roth for Episode #156 of the Autoblog Podcast. We dive right in to reminiscence about the recently finished Los Angeles Auto Show. Moving on from there, we talk about Audi’s new A7 Sportback and its extreme gorgeousness, as well as the new A8 and all its massive awesomeness. Speaking of awesomeness, Shunk thinks that the $199,950 Aston Martin Rapide is one very attractive four-place supercar. Going to the other end of the spectrum, rumors about Volkswagen’s upcoming Jetta replacement gets some head scratches from us before we moved on to prognosticating about a unibody Dodge Dakota replacement. We wrap up a chewy hour-and-forty-five minutes by addressing some of your questions and calling it a night.

Don’t forget to check out our colleagues at Joystiq and Engadget, and let us know what you think of our podcast by dropping us an email at Podcast at Autoblog dot com, reviewing the show in iTunes, filling out our survey, or even leaving us a voicemail on our Google Voice line 734-288-8POD (734-288-8763). Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Autoblog Podcast #156

Autoblog Podcast #156 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Utah, US | Cultures and Civilizations

There are a number places which embody the ideas of long now thinking: Nuclear waste repositories, historical sites, and other long term structures are all excellent places to look for long now inspiration. But there is one facility, though hard to gain access to, which is an amazing example of long term thinking, and it is not what you might expect.

Welcome to the underground bunker where the Mormons keep their genealogical backup data, deep in the solid granite cliffs of Little Cottonwood Canyon, outside Salt Lake City. UT.

The Mormon Church has been collecting genealogical data from all the sources it can get its hands on, from all over the world, for over 100 years. They have become the largest such repository, and the data itself is open to anyone who uses their website, or comes to their buildings in downtown Salt Lake City.

While the Mormon Genealogical Archives don’t give public tours of the Granite Vaults where all the original microfilm is kept for security and preservation reasons, in special cases, (in this case to Steward Brand and Alexander Rose of the Long Now Foundation) access is granted.

The largest contaminate of their microfilm is, in fact, blue jean lint brought in by the workers! The archivists use microfilm mainly because there is not yet a longer lasting digital equivalent. However, they are also digitizing their holdings and collecting more and more information digitally for easier dissemination.

Upon entering the gate the first question comes up… “Why doesn’t anyone park near the entrance?” There is a good reason. It turns out that boulders occasionally cleave off the rock face above, caused by the freezing and thawing of water in the cracks of the rock. These boulders then come down the cliff and crush peoples cars. (This is an excellent lesson in long now thinking: anything under a rock cliff is on borrowed time.) No pictures were allowed beyond this point.

Once safely inside the building looks like just about any other office building. The only thing giving away the strangeness of the location was the curved corrugated metal ceiling and walls. Another difference from an average office building is that the design life of the archive is said to be “1000 years.” The facility was built in the 60’s (likely a product of cold war fear) so it is now about 45 years into its intended design life, and roughly sixty full time workers currently bustle about with microfilm, scanning in the front lateral tunnel near the daylight.

Past the front lateral tunnel one steps through double doors, and a large bank vault style door, into one of the 750 foot long tunnels going back into the archives. These are all connected by lateral tunnels holding impossibly long rows of skinny microfilm drawers. The infinite repetition and forced perspective reminds one of the “we need lots of guns” scene from the matrix. Each drawer is numbered with a simple set of digits, the film number, given in order of collection, and is indexed “in an Oracle database” according to the lead archivist, though this begs some questions about the long term viability of such database software.

The real highlight of the Mormon Genealogical Archives is the reservoir. In the deepest tunnel, through a door, is the only part of the facility where one can see exposed rock. A small cement wall is built up here to trap the water dripping from the micro cracks in the rock above. The narrow long hallway filled with water from a slow drip reminds one of the Fremen water caches of Frank Herbert’s Dune. The water itself, having dripped through the huge filtration system that is the mountain, is cold and quite tasty.

The facility, while impressive, has its share of engineering difficulties. It has already had to relieve water pressure under the floors and walls, and allow it to drain. (Another big Long Now lesson: don’t think you can keep the water out, it’s far better to accept it will come through, and just route it.) Giant air movers keep the space ventilated, but at a large energy cost, another potential issue with the long term design.

Regardless, the Mormon Genealogical Archives are an inspiration for long now thinking and in showing the Archives the Church was both helpful and open. At the very least, new allies in the long term.

In conjunction with the Long Now Foundation. Modified from original text by Alexander Rose at the Long Now Blog.