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Friday, December 23, 2011
All the Companies Supporting SOPA, the Awful Internet Censorship Law—and How to Contact Them [Sopa]
Ron Paul emerges as outsider pick in GOP race
Ron Paul emerges as outsider pick in GOP race
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) ? Suddenly, Ron Paul is in contention to win the Iowa caucuses and positioned to do well in the New Hampshire primary two weeks before the first votes are cast.
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Source: http://www.rgj.com/article/20111220/NEWS19/111220025/1232
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
EPA tells nation's dirty power plants to clean up
FILE - In this July 27, 2010 file photo shows one of the stacks at the Four Corners Power Plant, near Fruitland, NM. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to release rules aimed at reducing mercury pollution from large coal-fired power plants. The Four Corners Power Plant in the Four Corners region stands ready to meet the rules, but the new standards did play a role in Arizona's largest utility planning to shutter three generators at a coal-fired power plant it runs on the Navajo Nation.(AP Photo/Paul Foy, file)
FILE - In this July 27, 2010 file photo shows one of the stacks at the Four Corners Power Plant, near Fruitland, NM. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to release rules aimed at reducing mercury pollution from large coal-fired power plants. The Four Corners Power Plant in the Four Corners region stands ready to meet the rules, but the new standards did play a role in Arizona's largest utility planning to shutter three generators at a coal-fired power plant it runs on the Navajo Nation.(AP Photo/Paul Foy, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Clean up or shut down.
That's the decision facing hundreds of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants under an Environmental Protection Agency rule announced Wednesday that will force plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first time.
The long overdue national standards rein in the largest remaining source of uncontrolled toxic pollution in the U.S. ? the emissions from the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants, which have been allowed to run for decades without addressing their full environmental and public health costs.
The impact of the ruling will be greatest in the Midwest and in the coal belt ? Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia ? where dozens of units likely will be mothballed, according to an Associated Press survey. The majority of facilities will continue to run, and find ways to reduce pollution.
About half of the 1,200 coal- and oil-fired units nationwide still lack modern pollution controls, despite the EPA in 1990 getting the authority from Congress to control toxic air pollution from power plant smokestacks. A decade later, in 2000, the agency concluded it was necessary to clamp down on the emissions to protect public health.
At a news conference Wednesday at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the regulation was the Obama administration's "biggest clean air action yet", trumping a landmark agreement to double fuel economy standards for vehicles and another rule that will reduce emissions from power plants that foul the air in states downwind.
The administration was under court order to issue a new rule, after a court threw out an attempt by the Bush administration to exempt power plants from toxic air pollution controls.
"Before this rule, there were no national standards limiting the amount of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases that power plants across the country could release into the air that we breathe," said Jackson, listing the contaminants linked to cancer, IQ loss, heart disease and lung disease that are covered by the rule, and that also pollute lakes, streams and fish.
In a video released Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama said the decades of delays caused by special interest groups that resulted in standards never being put into place for power plants "was wrong."
"Today, my administration is saying, 'Enough'," he said.
When fully implemented in 2016, the standards will slash mercury pollution from burning coal by 90 percent, lung-damaging acid gases by 88 percent and soot-producing sulfur dioxide by 41 percent.
Power plant operators will have to choose between installing pollution control equipment, switching to cleaner-burning natural gas, or shutting down the plant. None of those choices come cheap ? the EPA estimates the rule will cost $9.6 billion annually, making it one of the most expensive the agency has ever issued.
Some power producers intensely lobbied the Obama administration to weaken the rule and to delay it, and Republicans in Congress passed legislation to do so, saying it would threaten jobs and the reliability of the power grid, and raise electricity prices.
To ease those concerns, the administration will encourage states to make "broadly available" an additional fourth year to comply with the rule, as allowed by the law. Case-by-case extensions could also be granted to address local reliability issues, according to a presidential memorandum sent Wednesday to Jackson.
In the memorandum, Obama directs the EPA to ensure that implementation of the rule "proceed in a cost-effective manner that ensures electric reliability."
Environmentalists said Wednesday that the added flexibility did not jeopardize the public health benefits of the regulation.
"After more than two decades of delay, dirty coal-fired power plants are going to be cleaned up in short order," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, who said the EPA "bent over backwards" to accommodate concerns about reliability.
For those in the industry, and some in Congress, the concessions didn't go far enough.
Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate's environment committee, said he would file a joint resolution, a rarely used Congressional tactic, to get the rule overturned.
Some in the industry pushed for an automatic delay, or "safety valve," to make sure that plants that have to run to ensure reliability aren't found in violation of the rule and too many plants don't close down at once. In addition to those that will retire, hundreds of units will need to be idled temporarily to install pollution control equipment. Some of those units are at critical junctions on the grid and are essential to restarting the electrical network in case of a blackout, or making sure voltage doesn't drain completely from electrical lines, like a hose that's lost its water pressure.
The Edison Electric Institute, whose members were split on the toll of the rule, said in a statement Wednesday that while the EPA "made useful technical changes", it believes "the administration is underestimating the complexity of implementing this rule in such a short period of time."
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which is an association of companies producing electricity from coal, said the rule will destroy jobs, raise the cost of energy and make electricity less reliable. A study by the group estimated that as much as 12 percent of coal-fired generation would be forced to retire due to the regulation.
But an AP survey of 55 power plant producers found that estimate, and others, to be inflated. The mercury rule, along with another to reduce power plant pollution that blows downwind, will force portions of more than 32 mostly coal-fired power plants in a dozen states to retire, and put another 36 power plants on the brink of retirement.
But not a single operator interviewed said the EPA was solely to blame for the decision. And coal is still likely to be the country's dominant electricity source until 2035, according to the Energy Information Administration.
For the older, aging plants, many of which only ran when electricity demand peaked, the rules were the final blow. Coal was already struggling to compete against low natural-gas prices, demand from China and elsewhere driving up its price, and lower electricity demand.
The average age of the units retiring or at risk of shutting down was 51 years old, the AP found. And while they produce enough power for more than 22 million households, experts say they probably won't cause the lights to go out, because in many cases the power is being replaced.
___
Online: Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/mats
___
Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter (at)dinacappiello
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Jury says verdict close in $1B Microsoft lawsuit
FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2011 photo, Bill Gates arrives to testify at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. Closing arguments are set Tuesday Dec. 13,2011 in a $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. Novell Inc. claims the software giant duped it into working on a new version of the WordPerfect writing program only to withdraw support months before Microsoft's Windows 95 was released. Novell claims it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1 billion loss. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart,File)
FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2011 photo, Bill Gates arrives to testify at the Frank E. Moss federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. Closing arguments are set Tuesday Dec. 13,2011 in a $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. Novell Inc. claims the software giant duped it into working on a new version of the WordPerfect writing program only to withdraw support months before Microsoft's Windows 95 was released. Novell claims it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1 billion loss. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart,File)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ? Jurors have resumed deliberations in a Utah company's $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. and say they're close to a verdict.
Novell Inc. sued in 2004, claiming Microsoft duped it into developing a version of its WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own Word program.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates testified last month that Novell just couldn't deliver a compatible WordPerfect program in time for the rollout, and that Microsoft's own Word program was actually better.
Jurors said late Thursday they were making progress deciding whether Novell was entitled to damages. On Friday morning, they said they were close to finishing deliberations.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Esophageal Cancer: Facts and Figures (ContributorNetwork)
British journalist and author Christopher Hitchens died Thursday at 62 from complications of esophageal cancer. The well-known contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine had been diagnosed in June 2010. Here are some key facts and figures about esophageal cancer.
* Men develop esophageal cancer four times more frequently than women and also have a higher mortality than women.
* Esophageal cancer ranks seventh as the cause of cancer deaths among men.
* This year in the United States, approximately 17,000 adults will receive a new diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
* Approximately 15,000 deaths will be attributed to esophageal cancer this year.
* The lifetime risk of esophageal cancer in the United States is estimated to be 1 in 125 for men and 1 in 400 for women.
* Symptoms include difficulty swallowing, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, choking while eating, indigestion, vomiting, persistent hiccups and hoarseness. Symptoms frequently do not appear in the early stages of esophageal cancer.
* The most common age for esophageal cancer to occur is between 45 and 70.
* Risk factors include drinking alcohol, chewing tobacco, obesity, drinking extremely hot liquids, bile reflux, GERD, smoking, Barrett's esophagus, radiation to the upper abdomen or chest, eating foods preserved in lye and eating too few fruits and vegetables.
* Endoscopy and barium swallow are usually done to make a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
* Since symptoms do not usually occur until the later stages, treatment options carry a poor survival rate.
* Treatment may involve surgery and almost always involves chemotherapy and radiation combined.
* In the U.S., the five-year survival rate is 17 percent, excluding patients who die from other causes. For anyone with early stage esophageal cancer, the survival rates are higher.
* Esophageal cancer is much more prevalent in countries other than the U.S. For example in places such as northern China, India, Iran and southern Africa the rates are 10 to 100 times higher,
* Two types of esophageal cancer are the most common and are named after the cells at their point of origin. These include adenocarcinoma, which begins in the lower part of the esophagus and is the most common in western societies, and is caused most often by reflux and Barrett's esophagus. The second type is squamous cell carcinoma, which begins in the lining of the middle and upper esophagus. This type is most often caused by smoking and alcohol use and is the most common worldwide.
* Squamous cell carcinoma occurs three times more often in blacks than whites, while adenocarcinoma is most prevalent in white males.
Margie Miklas is a critical-care nurse with more than 30 years' experience. She currently works in South Florida in a cardiovascular ICU with a specialty certification in cardiac surgery.
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Social Gaming's Big IPO | Adweek
Zynga, the maker of social gaming hits like FarmVille and CityVille, is set to start trading on the NASDAQ today at a price of $10 per share, valuing the company at $8.9 billion.
The offering comes at the end of a big year for tech IPOs, with companies continually claiming the title of "biggest Internet IPO since Google,"?starting with LinkedIn in May, which was topped by Groupon last month. Now?Zynga is claiming the title?at the current pricing, the company will raise at least $1 billion (the amount could be as high as $1.15 billion, depending on whether the underwriters choose to sell additional shares).
In recent months, the public markets have shown a pattern of embracing Internet companies, then cooling over time. Pandora and Demand Media, for example, are trading well below their opening day prices, and although that's not true for Groupon and LinkedIn, even they have seen prices fall after the early excitement. Zynga's path to an IPO hasn't been smooth either, with the offering delayed after it was first announced in July.
On Thursday, Dun & Bradstreet tech specialist Lee Simmons told?Adweek?that Zynga has some key differences from the other tech companies that went public this year: "For one thing, it's profitable." Zynga, he argued, has shown that free-to-play games, with users paying for virtual goods, are "a sustainable business model." (In its IPO filing, Zynga says it brought in $828 million in revenue and profits of $31 million during the first nine months of 2011?so revenue was up and profits were down from the same period last year.)
Zynga will be the first social gaming company to go public (competitors like Playdom and Playfish have been acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars), and also the first public company built primarily on Facebook's application platform.
Not everyone shares Simmons' optimism. Earlier this week, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia gave Zynga an "underperform" rating, saying that the company's growth seems to be slowing.
Even Simmons said Zynga has an Achiles heel: "It really needs to loosen its dependence on Facebook." By tapping into Facebook's social capabilities, Zynga has built an audience of hundreds of millions of monthly users (it was averaging 227 million at the end of September), but that also makes the company vulnerable if its relationship with Facebook deteriorates. Even Zynga acknowledged the risk in its IPO filing, and it's trying to address the issue with intiatives like an upcoming, stand-alone gaming site.
Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/social-gamings-big-ipo-137161
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Verizon Galaxy Nexus factory images released, modders can start modding (updated)
Update: And just like that, Google's released the ICL53F factory images. You can go ahead and grab them at the source now.
Verizon Galaxy Nexus factory images released, modders can start modding (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Android Building (Google Groups), (2) | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/15/verizon-galaxy-nexus-factory-images-released-modders-can-start/
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