pricestar8

Emirates, which now serves three gateways in Iraq, will be the official carrier for TRADEUAE Iraq, a forum promoting trade between the UAE, Iraq and its Kurdistan region. The airline will have a dedicated stand at the event, which takes place today and tomorrow in Erbil. TRADEUAE Iraq is designed to provide UAE-based companies with the knowledge and contacts to do business in the Iraqi market. “Emirates is very much about connecting people, ideas and stimulating business around the world. This is an important event and supports the UAE government’s efforts to help rebuild Iraq economically,” said Haitham Al-Battawy, Emirates’ Manager, Iraq. “Since launching Basra in 2011, and then Baghdad the same year, our operations have grown steadily in Iraq. In August of last year, we started services to Erbil,” said Al-Battawy. “We know there is a great deal of interest in this market, particularly Erbil, so this event is a very useful platform to generate new business opportunities,” he said. Emirates’ flights to Iraq across its three gateways are served with Airbus A330-200s, which can carry up to 17 tons of cargo per flight. Emirates SkyCargo reports that air freight is showing strong growth in Iraq – so much so, Emirates is sending in three 777 freighters each week. Coupled with passenger aircraft capacity, this brings a total air freight capability of nearly 450 tons, feeding a burgeoning oil and gas sector. “With three departure points from Iraq connecting to our globally renowned hub of Dubai, we are superbly equipped to link Iraq with the rest of the world through our vast network of 132 destinations across six continents,” added Al-Battawy. TRADEUAE is backed by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment, Dubai Exports, Dubai FDI, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, the Kurdistan Regional Government and Kurdistan’s Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The event is being held at the Saad Conference Center in Erbil. Key exports carried by Emirates SkyCargo are: Oil drilling and mining materials/pipes/machinery/equipment, electrical and electronic equipment and automotive spare parts.

Twilight News / ruled out the decision of the Economic Committee in the House of Representatives Mahma Khalil, Wednesday, that is to delete the three zeroes from the currency of Iraq over the next year, returned to the changes, which affected the CBI may prevent the process of restructuring the national currency, as well as having a previous request to the government to wait In the beginning the currency exchange procedures. He was a member of the Finance Committee parliamentary Abdul Hussein al-Yassiri had announced, earlier, that the central bank and according to official communications of the current year starts procedures for deleting three zeros from the local currency, stressing that it would lead to the development of cash transactions and international economic. Khalil said in an interview with "Twilight News", that "the project to delete three zeros from the Iraqi currency had arrived from the Central Bank of the parliamentary economic committee earlier." However, Khalil said that "the Iraqi government has asked to wait to begin the project under false pretenses, although the application and currency restructuring is purely economic projects as well as it contributes to the safety of the national currency." He believes that "the policy of the central bank policy today is unsuccessful, did not succeed in lifting the siege of the Iraqi dinar, and the issue of the currency exchange as she could not keep the hard currency within the environment of Iraq." He described the decision of the Economic Committee that "the interest of Iraq to conduct restructuring of the Iraqi currency and delete the three zeroes, which is a vital economic project and to keep the currency from counterfeiting and damage." According to Khalil, the "There are international companies giant has a desire to implement this project, and sent appliances for this purpose for Iraq," noting that "Iraq is not the only country that is restructuring its currency national, has preceded us Turkey so, as there are many countries that its economy Exhausted the structuring of its national currency. " He pointed out that "the printed forms of the new currency (after deleting three zeros) include half a dinar and five dinars and ten dinars, 25 and 50 dinars, and the parameters of the country and its culture," noting that "if the deletion of zeros, the value of the dinar per be equal one dollar or so." And on the possibility to witness the next year, the birth of the new Iraqi currency, Khalil said, "We serve as the economic and the central bank is linked with us, we demanded from the bank to keep this project exists," but he also said, "The government asked to wait, and I think that what happened on the Central Bank of the changes and the appointment of New Acting Governor means that this project will not even see the light in the coming year as well. " The Iraqi government has decided to end of October last year, set the head of the Office of Financial Supervision Abdul Basit Turki, rather than Shabibi article the former government's decision, after criticism by the parliamentary Finance Committee relating to the mismanagement of funds and addressed to Alshabibi and other bankers officials. The CBI had said in August that it plans to delete the zeros from the Iraqi dinar to facilitate financial transactions made through cash in most cases. Among the difficulties faced by Iraq if they are to foot on the deletion of zeros from the dinar is pulling about 30 trillion dinars in circulation in the Iraqi market now, then get rid of them and replace them with a new currency. The Finance Ministry has ruled out earlier in the deletion of zeros from the local currency in 2013 because the budget is calculated in current currency. http://www.shafaaq.com/sh2/index.php/news/economy-news/56188-2013-04-17-13-55-00.html

http://youtu.be/XXFSfP-SHIU

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Barack Obama's health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it's headed for a "train wreck" because of bumbling implementation. "I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama's health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense. Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance that start next year. Polls show the public remains confused by the complexity of the law, and even many uninsured people are skeptical that they will be helped. A six-term Democrat, Baucus expects to face a tough re-election in 2014. He's still trying to recover from approval ratings that nosedived amid displeasure with the health care law in his home state. Normally low-key and supportive, Baucus challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Wednesday's hearing. He said he's "very concerned" that new health insurance marketplaces for consumers and small businesses will not open on time in every state, and that if they do, they might just flop because residents don't have the information they need to make choices. "The administration's public information campaign on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act deserves a failing grade," he told Sebelius. "You need to fix this." Responding to Baucus, Sebelius pointedly noted that Republicans in Congress last year blocked funding for carrying out the health care law, and she had to resort to raiding other departmental funds that were legally available to her. The administration is asking for $1.5 billion in next year's budget, and Republicans don't seem willing to grant that, either. At one point, as Sebelius tried to answer Baucus' demand for facts and figures, the senator admonished: "You haven't given me any data; you just give me concepts, frankly." "I don't know what he's looking at," Sebelius told reporters following her out of the room after Baucus adjourned the hearing. "But we are on track to fully implement marketplaces in Jan. 2014, and to be open for open enrollment." That open-enrollment launch is only months away, Oct. 1. It's when millions of middle-class consumers who don't get coverage through their jobs will be able to start shopping for a private plan in the new marketplaces, or exchanges. They'll also be able to find out if they qualify for tax credits that will lower their premiums. At the same time, low-income people will be steered to government programs, mainly an expanded version of Medicaid. But half the states, most of them Republican-led, have refused to cooperate in setting up the infrastructure of Obama's law. Others, like Montana, are politically divided. The overhaul law provided that the federal government would step in and run the new markets if a state failed to do so. Envisioned as a fallback, federal control now looks like it will be the norm in about half the country, straining resources. Administration officials say their public outreach campaign will begin in earnest over the summer. They question the wisdom of bombarding consumers with insurance details now, when there's not yet anything to sign up for. Baucus said in his state, that vacuum has mostly been filled by misinformation. While some other Democratic lawmakers have privately voiced similar frustrations, most have publicly lauded Sebelius for her department's work. Democrats from reliably blue states have less to worry about, since their governors and legislatures have embraced the law and are working to make it succeed. In Montana, the legislature rejected Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock's bid for a state-run insurance market. The governor is now trying to find a compromise on expanding Medicaid. Republicans are certain to remind Montana voters next year that Baucus' fingerprints are all over the health care law, even though a similar strategy failed to knock off fellow Democratic Sen. Jon Tester last year. After the hearing, Baucus' office clarified that he still thinks the Affordable Care Act is a good law, but he questions how it is being carried out. ____ Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.

Richard A. Jewell By KEVIN SACK Published: August 30, 2007 ATLANTA, Aug. 29 — Richard A. Jewell, whose transformation from heroic security guard to Olympic bombing suspect and back again came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media, died Wednesday at his home in Woodbury, Ga. He was 44. The cause of death was not released, pending the results of an autopsy that will be performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the coroner in Meriwether County, about 60 miles southwest of here, said that Mr. Jewell died of natural causes and that he had battled serious medical problems since learning he had diabetes in February. The coroner, Johnny E. Worley, said that Mr. Jewell’s wife, Dana, came home from work Wednesday morning to check on him after not being able to reach him by telephone. She found him dead on the floor of their bedroom, he said. Mr. Worley said Mr. Jewell had suffered kidney failure and had had several toes amputated since the diabetes diagnosis. “He just started going downhill ever since,” Mr. Worley said. The heavy-set Mr. Jewell, with a country drawl and a deferential manner, became an instant celebrity after a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in the early hours of July 27, 1996, at the midpoint of the Summer Games. The explosion, which propelled hundreds of nails through the darkness, killed one woman, injured 111 people and changed the mood of the Olympiad. Only minutes earlier, Mr. Jewell, who was working a temporary job as a guard, had spotted the abandoned green knapsack that contained the bomb, called it to the attention of the police, and started moving visitors away from the area. He was praised for the quick thinking that presumably saved lives. But three days later, he found himself identified in an article in The Atlanta Journal as the focus of police attention, leading to several searches of his apartment and surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by reporters who set upon him, he would later say, “like piranha on a bleeding cow.” The investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement officers lasted until late October 1996 and included a number of bungled tactics, including an F.B.I. agent’s effort to question Mr. Jewell on camera under the pretense of making a training film. In October 1996, when it became obvious that Mr. Jewell had not been involved in the bombing, the Justice Department formally cleared him. “The tragedy was that his sense of duty and diligence made him a suspect,” said John R. Martin, one of Mr. Jewell’s lawyers. “He really prided himself on being a professional police officer, and the irony is that he became the poster child for the wrongly accused.” In 2005, Eric R. Rudolph, a North Carolina man who became a suspect in the subsequent bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., pleaded guilty to the Olympic park attack. He is serving a life sentence. Even after being cleared, Mr. Jewell said he never felt he could outrun his notoriety. He sued several major news media outlets and won settlements from NBC and CNN. His libel case against his primary nemesis, Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta newspaper’s parent company, wound through the courts for a decade without resolution, though much of it was dismissed along the way. After memories of the case subsided, Mr. Jewell took jobs with several small Georgia law enforcement agencies, most recently as a Meriwether County sheriff’s deputy in 2005. Col. Chuck Smith, the chief deputy, called Mr. Jewell “very, very conscientious” and said he also served as a training officer and firearms instructor. Mr. Jewell is survived by his wife and by his mother, Barbara. Last year, Mr. Jewell received a commendation from Gov. Sonny Perdue, who publicly thanked him on behalf of the state for saving lives at the Olympics.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— IER Senior Fellow Robert Michaels will testify on Tuesday, April 16 at 2:00 p.m. before a joint hearing of the House Science Subcommittees on Energy and Oversight. The hearing will focus on “Assessing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Wind Energy Incentives.” Michaels, a frequent witness before state and federal panels, will evaluate the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recent report exposing duplicative and wasteful federal wind initiatives and assess the many problems that wind subsidies pose to energy markets. The hearing is scheduled in Rayburn House Office Building 2318. Excerpts from IER testimony: “The physical properties of electricity greatly complicate the operation of an electrical system whose resources include substantial amounts of generation capacity that produces only intermittently. Maintaining area-wide reliability requires at all times that the amount of power being produced equal the amount users wish to consume. Mismatches of less than one second will produce region-wide blackouts, whether production exceeds consumption (which overloads lines) or the reverse (which destabilizes power flows). Storing large amounts of power is prohibitively costly (except behind hydroelectric dams) and researchers have yet to produce economical batteries or other storage devices on the necessary scale.” (p.4) “Today, there is growing agreement that America’s energy future has definitively changed for the better with the development of technologies for extracting natural gas and liquids from hitherto-inaccessible shales and tight sands. These technologies are cost-competitive with existing ones and environmentally acceptable. Renewables policies were based in large part on an expectation that the end of inexpensive gas and oil was near. Instead of exhaustion, the nation now looks forward confidently to centuries of clean, inexpensive and secure energy. Instead of a “bridge fuel” to a renewable future, shale-based hydrocarbons are now the future. When the end of natural gas appeared in sight, renewable power subsidies could have had a role to play in facilitating adjustment to it. It is now time to write them out of the drama.” (p.10) “Wind power’s costs must eventually turn up in consumers’ monthly bills, or if not, then certainly in their future tax burden. A tax that consumers must pay to buy something of low value inflicts harm on their budgets and produces benefits for those interests that succeeded in getting it enacted. Additional federal support for otherwise uneconomic technologies cannot possibly produce “green jobs” and prosperity. How could it possibly happen if that support raises energy prices for everyone? Quite simply, taxing Person A and spending the money to employ a new green job holder must at the same time destroy a job held by Person B who would have otherwise received the taxed-away income.16 It does not matter whether the tax takes the form of a higher power price or a collection by the IRS.” (p.11) “Since the early twentieth century economists have theorized about the possible value of governmental research funding and attempted to measure its actual consequences. We are all familiar with claims that governmental support was essential for the rise of digital technology and the Internet, but numerical evidence that might verify these conclusions is largely missing. For every claim about its importance (or unimportance) counter-examples seem easy to find. Was governmental support necessary to bring about the Internet? Was the development of hydraulic fracturing achieved with little or no governmental research funding?” (p.13) “Wind cannot be supported on grounds that it produces “green jobs.” There is no evidence that it does so and no theoretical support in economics for claims regarding green jobs. Existing methods of estimating green jobs are in fact one-sided contrivances whose only possible prediction is that building renewables must increase employment. The conclusion is not based on observations, but is built into the mathematics that underlies the prediction.” (p.16) To read the full testimony, click here. Tomorrow’s hearing can be seen live at the Science Committee website.

26 “[Drones are a] game-changing technology, akin to gunpowder, the steam engine, the atomic bomb—opening up possibilities that were fiction a generation earlier but also opening up perils that were unknown a generation ago.”—Peter Singer, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution America will never be a “no drone zone.” That must be acknowledged from the outset. There is too much money to be made on drones, for one, and too many special interest groups—from the defense sector to law enforcement to the so-called “research” groups that are in it for purely “academic” reasons—who have a vested interest in ensuring that drones are here to stay. At one time, there was a small glimmer of hope that these aerial threats to privacy would not come home to roost, but that all ended when Barack Obama took office and made drones the cornerstone of his war efforts. By the time President Obama signed the FAA Reauthorization Act into law in 2012, there was no turning back. The FAA opened the door for drones, once confined to the battlefields over Iraq and Afghanistan, to be used domestically for a wide range of functions, both public and private, governmental and corporate. It is expected that at least 30,000 drones will occupy U.S. airspace by 2020, ushering in a $30 billion per year industry. Those looking to the skies in search of Predator drones will be in for a surprise, however, because when the drones finally descend en masse on America, they will not be the massive aerial assault vehicles favored by the Obama administration in their overseas war efforts. Rather, the drones coming to a neighborhood near you will be small, some nano in size, capable of flying through city streets and buildings almost undetected, while hovering over cityscapes and public events for long periods of time, providing a means of 24/7 surveillance. One type of drone sensor, the Gorgon Stare, can keep track of an area 2.5 miles across from 12 different angles. Another sensor system, ARGUS, can find an object that is only 6 inches long, from 20,000 feet up in the air. A drone equipped with this kind of technology could spy on an entire city at once. For example, police in California are about to begin using Qube drones, which are capable of hovering for 40 minutes at heights of about 400 ft. to conduct surveillance on targets as far as 1 kilometer away. Michael Downing, the LAPD deputy chief for counter-terrorism and special operations, envisions drones being flown over large-scale media events such as the Oscars, using them to surveil political protests, and flying them through buildings to track criminal suspects. These micro-drones will be the face of surveillance and crowd control in the coming drone age. Modeled after birds, insects, and other small animals, these small airborne surveillance devices can remain hidden in plain view while navigating spaces off limits to conventional aircraft. Able to take off and land anywhere, able to maneuver through city streets and hallways, and able to stop and turn on a dime, these micro-drones will still pack a lethal punch, equipped with an array of weapons and sensors, including tasers, bean-bag guns, “high-resolution video cameras, infrared sensors, license plate readers, [and] listening devices.” You can rest assured, given the pace of technology and the fervor of the drone industry (and its investors), that the sky is the limit when it comes to the many uses (and abuses) for drones in America. The following is just a small sampling of what will be descending from the skies in the near future. Cyborg dronesThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun to develop a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) for the manipulation of insects into “cyborgs.” Through genetic engineering, they are aiming to control the movement of insects and utilize them for surveillance purposes. Dragonfly droneFirst reportedly spotted in 2007 hovering over protesters at an anti-war rally in Washington, DC, it turns out that the government’s dragonfly drones are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to small aerial surveillance devices designed to mimic nature. Just a year later, the US Air Force “unveiled insect-sized spies ‘as tiny as bumblebees’ that could not be detected and would be able to fly into buildings to ‘photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists.’” Hummingbird droneShaped like a bird, the “Nano Hummingbird” drone is negligibly larger than an actual hummingbird and fits in the palm of one’s hand. It flits around effortlessly, blending in with its surroundings. DARPA, the advanced research division of the Department of Defense, gets the credit for this biotic wonder. Nano QuadratorsSimilar to the hummingbird drone, these small, four-propellered nano quadrator drones, developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, operate based upon the flight dynamics of insects, enabling them to operate as a swarm. Using twenty drones, researchers demonstrated how, moving compactly as a unit, the drones were able to navigate obstacles, form complex patterns, and even execute a fluid figure eight arrangement. Black Hornet Nano droneWeighing in at roughly half an ounce and four inches long, comparable to a finch, the Black Hornet Nano helicopter drone was designed to capture and relay video and still images to remote users, and can fly even in windy conditions. DASH Roachbot droneDeveloped at UC Berkeley’s PolyPEDAL Lab, DASH, a 10-centimeter long, 16-gram Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod strives to mimic a cockroach’s speed and ability to remain covert and a gecko’s speed and agility. Trained to perform “rapid inversion” maneuvers that include dashing up to a ledge and then swinging itself around to end up underneath the ledge and upside-down, DASH is being trained to make rapid transitions between running and climbing. Samarai droneLockheed Martin’s compact “Samarai” drone, inspired by the design of a maple seed, is capable of high speeds, low battery consumption, vertical movement, and swift ground deployment. MicroBat droneAdditionally, CIT Group, Aerovironment, and UCLA have produced a “MicroBat” ornithopter; it was designed in part by zoologists who have attempted to make the MicroBat mimic the movement of birds and other flying animals. Spy-butterfly droneIn 2012, Israel unveiled its new insect-inspired drone which they dubbed the “spy-butterfly” because of its two sizable wings. Weighing in at only 20g, this drone was developed for indoor surveillance, including public places such as “train stations and airport terminals—or office buildings.” The size and muted sound of the “virtually noiseless” machines makes them unnoticeable and therefore ideal for intelligence gathering. The spy-butterfly is so realistic that, when tested, “birds and flies tended to fall behind the device arranging into a flock.” Switchblade droneA more sinister example is the Switchblade, a small military drone intended to act as a kamikaze weapon. Weighing in at a mere six pounds and two feet in length, it flies effortlessly through urban environments before zeroing in on its target, a person, at which point it explodes, unceremoniously killing him or her. Mosquito droneMore lethal than its real-life counterpart, the mosquito drone, while an engineering marvel, is also a privacy advocate’s nightmare with its potential to land on someone and use a needle-like-pincer to extract DNA from its victims or, alternatively, inject drugs or other foreign substances. As software engineer Alan Lovejoy notes: Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a DNA sample with the pain of a mosquito bite. Or it could inject a micro RFID tracking device under your skin. It could land on you and stay, so that you take it with you into your home. Or it could fly into a building through a window. There are well-funded research projects working on such devices with such capabilities. Raven droneWeighing in at 4 pounds, the RQ-11 Raven drone is not as small, nor is it as agile as its smaller counterparts, but with more than 19,000 out there already, it is the most common. Useful for seeing around corners and sending footage back to its handlers, the Raven resembles a rudimentary model airplane and crumbles like Legos upon landing. With 63 active drone sites across the nation and 56 government agencies presently authorized to use drones, including 22 law enforcement agencies and 24 universities, drones are here to stay. Indeed, the cost of drones—underwritten by a $4 million Homeland Security program which encourages local law enforcement to adopt drone technology as quickly as possible—makes them an easy sell for most police departments. Moreover, while manned airplanes and helicopters can cost $600/hour to operate, a drone can be put in the sky for less than $25/hour. That doesn’t even begin to cover drone use by the private sector, which is already chomping at the bit at the prospect. No matter what the future holds, however, we must ensure that Americans have a semblance of civil liberties protections against the drones. Given the courts’ leniency towards police, predicating drone use on a warrant requirement would provide little to no protection. Thus, the only hope rests with Congress and state legislatures that they would adopt legislation specifically prohibiting the federal government from using data recorded via police spy drones in criminal prosecutions, as well as preventing police agencies from utilizing drones outfitted with anti-personnel devices such as tasers and tear gas. Either way, we’d better get ready. As Peter W. Singer, author of “Wired for War,” a book about military robotics, warns: “The debate over drones is like debating the merits of computers in 1979: They are here to stay, and the boom has barely begun. We are at the Wright Brothers Flier stage of this. There’s no stopping this technology. Anybody who thinks they can put this genie back in the box—that’s silliness.”

Financial blunders are made all the time and everywhere – at the grocery store, at the bank, in the housing market, in the stock market, with your children’s allowance. Some stem from a lack of knowledge or awareness, while others are the result of human behavior that often works against our own best interests. The worst mistakes you can make, though, usually involve those that seem harmless but end up impacting your overall wealth. We spoke with financial advisers about the worst financial slip-ups people make and how much they can cost you. No doubt the opportunities to mishandle your money are endless, and this list is by no means exhaustive. But here are some money moves you should strive to steer clear of. 1. Spending an unexpected windfall. All of it. Two-thirds of baby boomer households will likely receive some inheritance, with a median amount of $64,000, for a total prospective inherited amount of $8.4 trillion, according to research published in 2011 by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. A big challenge for many inheritors, though, is that they can be completely inexperienced with money. And with inexperience and poor – or no – planning, comes the potential for squandering a windfall. Americans spend their inheritance shockingly fast, says Mackey McNeill, a CPA in Bellevue, Ky. “When people get a big amount of money that they didn’t earn, they feel like it’s so much money, they’ll never run out,” she says. McNeill recounted the story of a client whose mother had died and left her about $500,000. “By the time she walked in my door, she only had half of it left," McNeill says. "She paid off some of her mortgage, bought a new car, donated some money and bought a big-screen TV for her son” while having the unrealistic expectation of being able to quit working and pay for her son’s college tuition. “You need to run the numbers before spending it," adds McNeill. "If they keep that capital and invest it, they can generate income for the rest of their lives." 2. Cashing out of your 401(k) when you leave your job Among workers who left their jobs in 2012, 43% took a cash distribution, up slightly from 42% in 2010, according to yet-to-be-released data from Aon Hewitt, a human resources consultancy. And the smaller the balance in the plan, the more likely it is that participants will cash out when they leave. But taking money out of your plan before retirement is going to cost you; you’ll get hit with a 10% early-withdrawal penalty (if you’re younger than 59 ½) and get taxed on the sum. And possibly more serious, you lose the earnings that money could have generated. Consider this example from Aon Hewitt of an employee who cashes out of three employer-sponsored 401(k)s over 30 years of working and retires at 65. Assume she saved 8% of her pay, got a 5% match per year, earned 3% annual salary increases on a starting salary of $50,000, and earned 7% in investment returns a year. After factoring in taxes, penalties and lost interest, she’d accumulate $189,000 in her account by age 65. If she didn’t touch the money at all, however, she’d have $872,000 – the cash-outs would have cost this saver almost 80% of her nest egg. “I’d like to see folks roll over their 401(k) to an IRA upon leaving a job," says Sheryl Garrett, a CFP and founder of the Garrett Planning Network, a nationwide organization of fee-only financial advisers. "Rarely does it make more sense to roll the funds over to the new employer’s plan, presuming there is one.” 3. Stopping contributions to your 401(k) plan when the market – or your account – drops These plans are the main investment vehicle that will fund the bulk of many Americans’ retirements. There’s a reason your 401(k) automatically takes money out of your check each time you get paid – if it were up to you to set aside 5% of your pay, you’d never do it. Employee participation in 401(k) plans increased dramatically after the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which made it easier for companies to auto-enroll their employees, according to a paper published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College last year. The only real reason you would shut down your contributions is if you’ve got enough retirement savings already. “I still have people telling me they’ll stop contributing to their 401(k) because it’s going down," says Steve Burnett, CFP and financial adviser at Hanson McClain, a firm in Sacramento. "And the investments might be fine. You have to understand stock prices aren’t static; what you’re hoping for is over time, is that you acquire a mass of savings to live off.” And you’ve heard it before – you’re giving up free money when you don’t contribute to your 401(k): the matching contribution from your company (if they offer it). Say you earn $60,000 a year and your company matches 50% of your contributions up to 6% of salary. Stop participating and you’re giving up $1,500 bonus (if you contributed 5% of your salary) or $3,000 (if you contributed 10% of your salary). 4. Succumbing to lifestyle inflation A 10% salary bump shouldn’t always equate to a 10% increase in your shoe budget or upgrading to the pricier health club. Of course, a splurge is fine, but try to resist the temptation to adjust your lifestyle upwards – or succumb to what some pros call lifestyle inflation. Taking a $2,000 vacation is a one-time expense. Moving into an apartment that costs $150 more per month is a new and “permanent” expense that becomes part of your lifestyle cost. If we’re not careful about raising the bar on lifestyle costs, we’re likely to ramp it up so high that eventually we’ll be unable to manage the occasional speed bumps that come our way, says Michael Kitces, a CFP and director of research at Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Md. “We also end up with a lifestyle that requires an extraordinary pile of money to afford in retirement,” he says. 5. Using home equity to invest in the stock market If you’re a good way through paying down your home mortgage, and with rates so low (last week Freddie Mac said the average 30-year fixed rate fell to 3.43% from 3.54%), doesn’t it make sense to take some equity out of your house and sink it into the market? “I’m getting people who ask about this, saying ‘my home price is pretty stagnant – shouldn’t I take money out of my home and invest it?’” says Burnett. The problem with this approach is that the stock market is at multi-year highs at the moment – exactly the wrong time to enter the market, as most pros will tell you. Homeowners should pay down the remaining mortgage so that, when they leave the workforce, they’re not burdened by it. “If you pay X amount on your mortgage for a certain number of months, you’ll get a certain outcome. If you invest in the market, it’s uncertain you’d make money,” says Burnett. “Most of our clients are retired, and the ones doing well are those who paid down their house and were debt free.” <img width=1 height=1 alt="" src="http://us.bc.yahoo.com/b?P=4UWJ4M6.K_x9SHchUW3WrwBRbEu_DVFuPAIAC0nx&T=1dbdqbl2g%2fX%3d1366178818%2fE%3d1183317131%2fR%3dfin-glob%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3dH%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d3687399217%2fH%3dX2lkPSJhMzI4OThkNS1mZTgxLTM5ZmYtOGFlZC02ODEzZGI2MWY3OWMiIGNhbl9zdXBwcmVzc191Z2M9IjEiIHJlZnVybD0icmVmdXJsX3d3d195YWhvb19jb20iIHJzPSJsbXNpZDphMDc3MDAwMDAwQ0ZvR3lBQUwiIHNlcnZlSWQ9IjRVV0o0TTYuS194OVNIY2hVVzNXcndCUmJFdV9EVkZ1UEFJQUMwbngiIHNpdGVJZD0iNDQ1MTA1MSIgdFN0bXA9IjEzNjYxNzg4MTg4NDc4MjciIA--%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d4454D30A&U=12d33uvea%2fN%3dbkyLrUPDBpk-%2fC%3d-1%2fD%3dWLOGO%2fB%3d-1%2fV%3d0">

Looking forward to seeing this

http://youtu.be/KpzVnLNXcgY http://youtu.be/U_IWKaoN6hg Sorry they don't seam to play right.

This would be a GREAT TIME for a RV and for the people running for office in Irag.

http://youtu.be/GLF46JKkCNg How’s this for fusion? Here we have The Sachal Studios Orchestra, based in Lahore, Pakistan, playing an innovative cover of “Take Five,” the jazz standard written by Paul Desmond and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1959. Before he died last year, Brubeck called it the “most interesting” version he had ever heard. Once you watch the performance above, you’ll know why.

I sounds good to me !

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of the towering architects of Obamacare, on Tuesday openly criticized program managers for not moving quickly enough to build the system, warning that if it gets off to a bumpy start it will just get worse. Decrying the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as way too complex, he warned the acting Medicare director that Obamacare is "so complicated and if it isn't done right the first time, it will just simply get worse." The retiring senator also told Marilyn Tavenner at her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that Obamacare rivals tax reform in its capacity to confuse Americans. "I believe that the Affordable Care Act is probably the most complex piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress. Tax reform obviously has been huge too, but up to this point it is just beyond comprehension," said Rockefeller. Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina also hit Obamacare, questioning predictions that it will save money. He cited a recent analysis that insurers will face an average 30 percent increase in payouts for those covered by Obamacare, which could then be passed on to those insured outside of Obamacare. But Tavenner suggested that other elements of Obamacare will "mitigate insurance increases," though she conceded that not all of the projected higher costs will be absorbed by those elements. Despite the outcry over Obamacare, Tavenner received bipartisan praise and Obama officials said they expect her to win Senate confirmation, making her the first administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services since 2006. As a show of bipartisan support for the former Virginia top health official, she was introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Another sign of her likely confirmation: During the last 20 minutes of the hearing for the woman who will oversee Obamacare, there wasn't a single Republican senator in the committee room.

http://youtu.be/RUGGJut0bxw Radical liberal professor Cornel West explained yesterday that President Obama – like former Presidents Nixon and Bush – was guilty of war crimes because of his drone program. “I think my dear brother that the chickens are coming home to roost,” said Cornel when asked about the issue by radio show host Tavis Smiley asserting that “over 200 children” had been killed by immoral drone strikes. “These are war crimes,” West added. “Let us be very honest, let us not be deceived – Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals. They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom but they are suspending the law.” Cornel West also criticized Attorney General Eric Holder for using the Justice Department to back up the President. “It’s so sad to the see the Justice Department – Brother Eric Holder ought to be ashamed of himself – but Eric Holder did the same thing,” West added, adding that while Holder made a name for himself talking about human rights he became a “rationalizer for war crimes” as soon as he got to the White House.

Wild hogs are estimated to cost $1.5 billion in damages every single year The United States has a pork problem, and it isn't a bacon shortage. Feral pig populations have exploded in recent years, with an estimated 5 million wild hogs causing $1.5 billion in damages annually. The massive, tusked creatures have been known to terrorize both people and pets, and possess a "remarkable knack for causing trouble," says, "ranging from eating threatened species like dune lizards and spreading invasive weeds to carrying and transmitting more than 30 different kinds of diseases to humans, livestock, and other wildlife." The situation has gotten so dire that the state of New Mexico is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a $1 million project to hunt and trap the animals, in hopes of curbing the hog boom. There are a few reasons why their populations are so hard to control. For starters, the animals are fiercely intelligent, and are known to devise clever ways of avoiding traps. "Pigs have been known to scope out traps for days before sending in the group's lowest ranking members to test for danger," "And if a trap isn't built just right, the pigs will find a way out, either by climbing over each other or squeezing under the fencing." Secondly, they breed at an astonishingly fast rate. The animals begin reproducing at an early age — as young as 6 months old — and the average litter yields about six sows (female hogs). Mama pigs are known to produce about 1.5 litters each year. That's why hunters are using some surprisingly aggressive tactics to nab large groups of hogs at a time. A particularly macabre one involves the use of a "Judas pig." Essentially, after capturing and killing a hog family, hunters will leave a sow alive and outfit her with a microchip or tracking collar. Then, when she finds a new group of pigs to join, hunters can use the GPS data and descend on the unsuspecting creatures. "We're trying to get ahead of the curve with this so we can prevent a lot of the damage that we know will be coming if we don't do anything about it," USDA Wildlife Services state director Alan May "Sport hunting pressure alone won't be enough to stop a population from spreading."

I think a bucket of paint would make it very hard to see thur those little windows. Just a thought.

The Chinese government’s recent decision to build an array of new dams on rivers flowing to other countries seems set to roil inter-riparian relations in Asia and make it more difficult to establish rules-based water cooperation and sharing. Asia, not Africa, is the world’s driest continent. China, which already boasts more large dams than the rest of the world combined, has emerged as the key impediment to building institutionalized collaboration on shared water resources. In contrast to the bilateral water treaties between many of its neighbors, China rejects the concept of a water-sharing arrangement or joint, rules-based management of common resources. The long-term implications of China’s dam program for India are particularly stark because several major rivers flow south from the Tibetan plateau. India has water-sharing treaties with both the countries located downstream from it: the Indus pact with Pakistan guarantees the world’s largest cross-border flows of any treaty regime, while the Ganges accord has set a new principle in international water law by assuring Bangladesh an equal share of downriver flows in the dry season. China, by contrast, does not have a single water-sharing treaty with any neighbor. Yet most of Asia’s international rivers originate in territories that China annexed after its 1949 communist “revolution.” The sprawling Tibetan plateau, for example, is the world’s largest freshwater repository and the source of Asia’s greatest rivers, including those that are the lifeblood of mainland China, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Other Chinese-held homelands of ethnic minorities contain the headwaters of rivers such as the Irtysh, Illy and Amur, which flow to Russia and Central Asia. China’s dam program on international rivers is following a well-established pattern: Build modest-size dams on a river’s difficult uppermost reaches, and then construct larger dams in the upper-middle sections as the river picks up greater water volume and momentum, then embarking on megadams in the border area facing another country. The cascade of megadams on the Mekong River, for example, is located in the area just before the river enters continental Southeast Asia. Most of the new dam projects announced recently by China’s state council, or Cabinet, are concentrated in the seismically active southwest, covering parts of the Tibetan plateau. The restart of dam building on the Salween River after an eight-year moratorium is in keeping with a precedent set on other river systems: Beijing temporarily suspends a controversial plan after major protests flare so as to buy time — before resurrecting the same plan. The Salween — Asia’s last largely free-flowing river — runs through deep, spectacular gorges, glaciated peaks and karst on its way into Burma and along the Thai border before emptying into the Andaman Sea. Its upstream basin is inhabited by 16 ethnic groups, including some, like the Derung tribe, with tiny populations numbering in the thousands. As one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions, the upper basin boasts more than 5,000 plant species and nearly half of China’s animal species. The decision to formally lift the moratorium and construct five dams — with work to start immediately on the Songta dam, the farthest upriver structure in Tibet — threatens the region’s biodiversity and could uproot endangered aboriginal tribes. There is also the risk that the weight of huge, new dam reservoirs could accentuate seismic instability in a region prone to recurrent earthquakes. No country is more vulnerable to China’s re-engineering of transboundary flows than India. The reason is that India alone receives nearly half of the river waters that leave Chinese-held territory. According to United Nations figures, a total of 718 billion cubic meters of surface water flows out of Chinese territory yearly, of which 347 billion cubic meters (or 48.3 percent of the total) runs directly into India. China already has a dozen dams in the Brahmaputra River basin and one each on the Indus and the Sutlej rivers. On the Brahmaputra, it is currently close to completing one dam and has just cleared work on three others. Two more are planned in this cascade before the dam-building moves to the water-rich border segment as the river makes a U-turn to enter India. Asia awaits a future made hotter and drier by climate and environmental change, and resource depletion. The continent’s water challenges have been exacerbated by consumption growth, unsustainable irrigation practices, rapid industrialization, pollution, environmental degradation and geopolitical shifts. If Asia is to prevent water wars, it must build institutionalized cooperation in transboundary basins that co-opts all riparian neighbors. If a dominant riparian state refuses to join, such institutional arrangements — as in the Mekong basin — will be ineffective. The arrangements must be centered on transparency, unhindered information flow, equitable sharing, dispute settlement, pollution control and a commitment to refrain from any projects that could materially diminish transboundary flows. International dispute-settlement mechanisms, as in the Indus treaty, help stem the risk that water wrangles could escalate to open conflict. China — with its hold over Asia’s transnational water resources and boasting more than half of the world’s 50,000 large dams — has made the control and manipulation of river flows a pivot of its power and economic progress. Unless it is willing to play a leadership role in developing a rules-based system, the economic and security risks arising from the Asian water competition can scarcely be mitigated.

No longer the fantasy weapon of tomorrow, the U.S. Navy is set to field a powerful laser that can protect its ships by blasting targets with high-intensity light beams. Early next year the Navy will place a laser weapon aboard a ship in the Persian Gulf where it could be used to fend off approaching unmanned aerial vehicles or speedboats. The Navy calls its futuristic weapon LAWS, which stands for the Laser Weapon System. What looks like a small telescope is actually a weapon that can track a moving target and fire a steady laser beam strong enough to burn a hole through steel. A Navy video of testing conducted last summer off the coast of California shows how a laser beam fired from a Navy destroyer was able to set aflame an approaching UAV or drone, sending it crashing into the ocean. "There was not a single miss" during the testing, said Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of Naval Research. The laser was three for three in bringing down an approaching unmanned aerial vehicle and 12 for 12 when previous tests are factored in. But don't expect in that video to see the firing of colored laser bursts that Hollywood has used for its futuristic laser guns. The Navy's laser ray is not visible to the naked eye because it is in the infrared spectrum. Many of the details about how the laser works remain secret, such as how far its beam can travel, how powerful it is or how much power is used to generate it. But Navy officials have provided a few unclassified details. For example, the laser is designed to be a "plug and play" system that integrates into a ship's existing targeting technologies and power grids. Those factors make it a surprisingly cheap weapon. Klunder says each pulse of energy from the laser "costs under a dollar" and it can be used against weapons systems that are significantly more expensive. The Navy says it has spent about $40 million over the past six years in developing the weapon. Rear Admiral Thomas Eccles, Navy Sea Systems Command, says the beam can be turned on instantly and that ultimately "the generation of power is essentially your magazine. It's the clip we have" instead of bullets. "We deliver precision with essentially an endless supply of rounds." Some new technological fixes, what Klunder calls "a secret sauce," have been developed to improve the degrading of lasers over distance as well as maintaining a lock on a target from a moving ship. The strength of the beam is flexible enough that at a lower intensity level it can be used to warn approaching ships and UAV's not to get too close to a Navy ship. Instead of using machine guns to fire non-lethal warning shots as Navy ships do now, the laser can be aimed to "dazzle" the viewing sensors aboard the craft. That light effect warns the pilot of a small water craft or at the controls of a UAV that they are being targeted by a laser and to turn away. If they don't, the laser's power can be boosted to destroy the approaching craft. Based on earlier testing the Navy is confident the laser is ready for real-world testing aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. The ship was selected because of its mission to be an enduring presence in the Gulf to counter Iranian maritime threats in the region. Coincidentally Iran uses small fast boats to harass American warships in the waters of the Persian Gulf. {C}How might Iran feel about the new weapon? "Frankly I hope it sends a message to some of our potentially threatening adversaries out there to know that we mean business," said Klunder. "This is a system where if you try to harm our vessels that I hope you will take a very, very serious moment of pause to think about that before you do it because this system will destroy your vessel or will destroy your UAV." The Navy wants the ship's crew to use the same techniques and methods they use with their other defensive weapons systems. While for now the laser will be used primarily against slow-moving UAV's and fast boats cruising at speeds of 50 knots, the Navy sees the system's capabilities expanding over time to target faster weapons. "There's absolutely every intention that with the development of this system and follow-on upgraded systems we will eventually be able to take higher speeds in-bound,"

How do you ‘lose’ a river? The answer is ‘quite easily’, apparently. China has lost more than 25,000 of them in the last 30 years. In a survey, released by the country’s Ministries of Water Resources and Statistics, the number of recorded rivers with catchment areas of over 100 square kilometres had fallen to just under 23,000 compared with a figure of 50,000 in the 1990s. These figures come at a time when the government is still trying to explain the discovery, earlier this month, of 16,000 pig carcasses, floating along the Huangpu River, which supplies much of Shanghai with its drinking water. In the last week 1,000 dead ducks were found dumped in the Nanhe River in Sichuan province. Official explanations for the discrepancy have placed the blame on errors made by earlier cartographers and also climate change. Yet many of the rivers have simply dried up and water, or the lack of it, has been a major problem in China for many years. China is one of the 13 countries most affected by water shortages, according to the United Nations. A report in 2007 highlighted that water shortages affected two thirds of China’s cities with 110 of them suffering severe shortage. People fair no better in the countryside. In 2009, the World Bank stated that 300 million people in rural areas lacked access to safe drinking water. The problem is made much worse by China’s burgeoning economy and the demands for water from industry and agriculture. According to Ma Jun, of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs the disappearance of the rivers highlighted the need for more sustainable development. “…the disappearance of rivers is a reality. It is really happening in China because of the over-exploitation of river resources. One of the major reasons is the over-exploitation of the underground water reserves, while environmental destruction is another reason, because desertification of forests has caused a rainfall shortage in the mountain areas.” Throughout its history China has struggled to deal with both drought and flooding. The Central China floods of 1931 are thought to have killed anywhere between 145,000 and 4 million. In the Great Famine of 1958-1961, which was partly the result of severe drought, around 15 million people died. The construction of the Three Gorges dam across the Yangtze river, completed in 2008 is an example of the country’s desire to control and moderate the impact of weather. At the same time, the dam resulted in the world’s largest hydroelectric power station serving the demands of the rapidly expanding industrial sector. Therein, of course, lies the dilemma; many rivers and tributaries have been diverted to power the turbines. Ancient waterways have dried up or flows have been seriously restricted. The Chinese leadership seems to be aware of the issue, perhaps fearing it may be a political catalyst for social unrest. In a recent speech, the country’s new Premier, Li Keqiang said, “We must take steps in advance, rather than hurry to handle these issues when they have caused a disturbance in society.” With more than 20 million people currently affected by drought in Yunnan, Gunsu and Sichuan provinces the management of its dwindling water resources is likely to remain a major challenge in the years ahead. 579

Many parts of Europe have suffered unusual weather over the last few weeks. For the north, it has been the persistent cold weather which has caused frustration. In the UK, March 2013 was the coldest since 1962, while in Germany locals shivered through the coldest March since their records began in the 1880s. The cold weather still prevails across the northern parts of the continent, despite the arrival of a series of weather systems, which have filtered into the Mediterranean and the up into the northeastern parts of Europe. These systems have already caused problems across the southern parts of Europe. Parts of Spain and Portugal have seen record amounts of rainfall in the last month. The latest weather system over the weekend caused some rivers to burst their banks, flooding towns and roads. In central Portugal, 60 people had to be evacuated from a campsite after the waters rose, and flooding also caused a bridge to collapse in Spain, killing three people. A travel advisory issued on April 1, warned that flooding could affect almost all of Spain’s river basins. The Balkans have also reported flooding, as the heavy rain has combined with water from melting snow. This has caused some of the rivers to burst their banks and inundate homes and farmland. After triggering flooding in southern Europe, the system then tracked up the east of the continent. As the wet weather slammed into the cold air in the north, it turned wintry and swamped many parts with heavy snow. In Poland, more than 100,000 people spent the Easter weekend without electricity after heavy snow dragged down powerlines. 30 cm of snow fell across the country on Easter Sunday, with the provinces of Mazovia and Podlachia the worst hit. This has left many roads impassable and delayed dozens of flights. The snow also fell in Moscow. This brought the depth of snow lying on the ground up to 65 cm, setting an all-time record for April. The previous record of 61 centimetres was set in April 1994, For the next few days the weather is likely to remain cold and icy for many northern parts of Europe. Another weather system will bring more snow to the northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. Unfortunately for the Iberian Peninsula, there will be more heavy rain in the coming days. 392 Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href='http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a>

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http://youtu.be/sillEgUHGC4 I like your but, heres the supper bowl one,

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There are alot of other countrys that have worse banking system. It must be something else It could be a 100 things. I think your right as much as I would like to see a RV soon. I think we have long wait.