November, 2011 archive
Video: Holiday spending expected to increase 0
The Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association release their 12th annual consumer survey on holiday spending plans and concerns about debt levels.
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45390600/
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How-to: use Google Music from anywhere (yes, outside of the United States) 0
Now that Google Music has finally clawed its way out of the realm of beta-ware, anybody in the US can sign up to play without an invitation. Of course, that leaves many folks out of the equation, so we thought it a good time to point out at least one other route to let you get involved in the service, no matter where you live. See, the rub seems to be that Google checks your IP address on your first attempt to log in, and accept its terms of use — only the first time, and yeah, you’re definitely going to be ignoring that doc by following this guide.
So, in essence all we need to do is find a way to gently tiptoe past that gatekeeper and we’re home free. Keep in mind that while you can upload your music, buying new tracks isn’t going to happen until it rolls out in your neck of the woods in a more official way — but hey, most of a good thing is still a good thing. There are various means to get this done, and we’ve found a pretty straightforward route, and if you’re up to it click on through to the guide.
Continue reading How-to: use Google Music from anywhere (yes, outside of the United States)
How-to: use Google Music from anywhere (yes, outside of the United States) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Video: Mystery surrounds actress? death, 30 years later 0
Wired to cheat? (We’re looking at you, Ashton)
Demi and Ashton – you don?t really need their last names, do you? – have called it quits, following rumors of his infidelity. While most of us want our mates to be true to only us, are we really built for monogamy? Sexual health expert Brian Alexander weighs in.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45361846#45361846
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Photo of the Day (Theagitator) 0
House says no to mandating balanced federal budget (AP) 0
WASHINGTON ? Rejecting the idea Congress can’t control its spending impulses, the House turned back a Republican proposal Friday to amend the Constitution to dam the rising flood of federal red ink. Democrats ? and a few GOP lawmakers ? said damage from the balanced-budget mandate would outweigh any benefits.
The first House vote in 16 years on making federal deficits unconstitutional came as the separate bipartisan “supercommittee” appeared to be sputtering in its attempt to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions to head off major automatic cuts. The lead Republican on that panel said members were “painfully, painfully aware” of its Wednesday deadline for action and would work through the weekend.
The House voted 261-165 in favor of the measure to require annual balanced budgets, but that was 23 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment.
Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the proposal, arguing that such a requirement would force Congress to make devastating cuts to social programs.
Most Republicans favored the measure, but there were prominent exceptions.
Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s point man on budgetary matters, agreed with GOP colleagues that “spending is the problem.” But he added that “this version of the balanced budget amendment makes it more likely taxes will be raised, government will grow and economic freedom will be diminished.”
Likewise, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said lawmakers should be able to find common ground without changing the Constitution, and he expressed concern that lawsuits filed if Congress failed to balance the budget could result in courts making decisions on cutting spending or raising taxes.
In all, 235 Republicans and 25 Democrats voted for the amendment, four Republicans and 161 Democrats opposed it. The other two Republicans voting no were Justin Amash of Michigan and Louie Gohmert of Texas.
Later in the day, the top Republican on the deficit-reduction supercommittee indicated no deal was near but efforts would continue through the last weekend before Wednesday’s deadline.
“We are painfully, painfully aware of the deadline that is staring us in the face,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. “When we have something more to report, we will report.”
With the national debt now topping $15 trillion and the deficit for the just-ended fiscal year passing $1 trillion, supporters of the constitutional amendment declared it the only way to stop out-of-control spending. The government now must borrow 36 cents for every dollar it spends.
“It is our last line of defense against Congress’ unending desire to overspend and overtax,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said as the House debated the measure.
But Democratic leaders worked aggressively to defeat it, saying that such a requirement could force Congress to cut billions from social programs during times of economic downturn and that disputes over what to cut could result in Congress ceding its power of the purse to the courts.
Even had it passed, the measure would have faced an uphill fight in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The House passed a similar measure in 1995, with the help of 72 Democrats. That year, the measure fell one vote short of passing the Senate.
Constitutional amendments must get two-thirds majorities in both houses and be ratified by three-fourths of the states to take effect. The last constitutional amendment ratified, in 1992, concerned lawmaker pay increases.
The second-ranking Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, voted for the amendment in 1995 but said the situation has vastly changed since then. “Republicans have been fiscally reckless,” he asserted, saying the George W. Bush administration would not cut spending elsewhere to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, major tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
“A constitutional amendment is not a path to a balanced budget,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas. “It is only an excuse for members of this body failing to cast votes to achieve one.”
The measure on the floor Friday, sponsored by Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., mirrored the 1995 resolution in stating that federal spending could not exceed revenues in any one year. It would have required a three-fifths majority to raise the debt ceiling or waive the balanced budget requirement in any year. But Congress would be able to let the budget go into deficit with a simple majority if there was a serious military conflict.
The Republicans’ hope was that the Goodlatte version would attract more Democratic supporters, and the “Blue Dogs,” a group of fiscally conservative Democrats, said they were on board. But there are now only 25 Blue Dogs, half the number of several years ago when there were more moderate Democrats, mainly from rural areas, in the House.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat who is not a Blue Dog member, said he was supporting the amendment because “there’s an infinite capacity in this Congress to kick the can down the road. … We are going to have to force people to make tough decisions.”
But other Democrats pointed to a letter from some 275 labor and other mostly liberal groups saying that forcing spending cuts or higher taxes to balance the budget when the economy was slow “would risk tipping a faltering economy into recession or worsening an ongoing downturn, costing large numbers of jobs.”
Democrats also cited a report by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimating that, if there is not an increase in revenues, the amendment could force Congress to cut all programs by an average of 17.3 percent by 2018.
The amendment would not have gone into effect until 2017, or two years after it was ratified, and supporters said that would give Congress time to avoid dramatic spending cuts.
Forty-nine states have some sort of balanced budget requirement, although opponents note that states do not have national security and defense costs. States also can still borrow for their capital-spending budgets for long-term infrastructure projects.
The federal government has balanced its budget only six times in the past half-century, four times during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
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Mount Your Kinect Above Your TV or Higher to Make It Work in Tight Spaces [Video Games] 0
The Microsoft Kinect is a great gaming accessory for motion and exercise games, but if you have a small living room or apartment, it can be pretty tough to use. One easy way to put some distance between you and the lens so your Kinect sees you easier is to mount it on the ceiling or in another high place over the television, instead of right on top or below.
This tip comes from the folks at Unplggd, who note that moving your Kinect over the TV looking down over the living room is a good way to compensate for a limited amount of space between you and the TV screen, if you have a small living room. They also make a few other suggestions, like picking up a $29.99 Nyko Zoom, and finally marking the spot on the floor where the Kinect works best so you don’t have to struggle with it the next time you use it.
What are some of your suggestions for making a Kinect work in a limited space? Share your tips in the comments below.
Photo by Open Exhibits.
Real World Tips for Using the Kinect in a Tiny Apartment | Unplggd
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.
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Sign Of The Times (talking-points-memo) 0
Did Fracking Cause Oklahoma’s Largest Recorded Earthquake? 0
QUAKE CAUSE?: Oklahoma recently experienced its strongest earthquake ever and some suggest drilling for oil and gas may have played a role.
Image: ? iStockphoto.com / cstar55
Supplemental Material
The biggest earthquake ever recorded in Oklahoma struck on November 5, a magnitude 5.6 temblor that buckled a highway and ruptured water pipes. This quake is part of a skyrocketing rise in seismic activity the state has seen in the past three years, leading many to wonder?and worry?about its cause. Might the practice of fracking, a controversial method of drilling into rock for natural gas, be to blame?
The earthquake struck around 10 P.M. local time about 50 kilometers east of Oklahoma City, and was felt from Saint Louis to Dallas. Until then, the state’s largest temblor was a magnitude 5.5 event near the town of El Reno in 1952.
Overall, only minor injuries and damage were reported after last weekend’s earthquake. A magnitude 4.7 foreshock preceded the quake by about 20 hours, and dozens of aftershocks were detected as well. These all apparently happened on the well-mapped Wilzetta Fault. “It seems the east side of the fault moved a bit southward,” says seismologist Randy Keller, director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS).
The recent uptick in the area’s temblors has been dramatic. From 1972 to 2008 only two to six earthquakes were reported per year in Oklahoma, and were often too small for people to notice. However, in 2009 nearly 50 earthquakes were recorded (pdf), and that number more than doubled in 2010 to 1,047, with 103 powerful enough to be felt.
This unusual seismicity has led some to wonder about increased activity in the area related to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, which uses millions of gallons of fluid to break apart rock and release natural gas. The practice generates a considerable amount of waste liquid, which is often disposed of by injecting it? into deep rock formations where it can lubricate faults. Hydraulic fracturing is common in Oklahoma, the nation’s third-largest producer of natural gas, and has taken place there for decades (pdf). Now, with the discovery of natural gas deposits in other regions of the U.S., the extraction method is being used more widely and has raised concerns about its potential to contaminate drinking water.
Fracking has been linked to two minor earthquakes in northwest England, very likely by lubricating an already stressed fault zone and thus making it easier for the land to shift (pdf). A report in August (pdf) by seismologist Austin Holland at the OGS also suggested that a swarm of nearly 50 small quakes of magnitude 1.0 to 2.8 near the center of the state might have been triggered by nearby fracking.
Still, researchers say it seems unlikely that fracking had anything to do with last weekend’s magnitude 5.6 quake. “There was a lot of deformation of the Earth here 300 million years ago that created huge geological structures in the subsurface that shift from time to time,” Keller says. “We have an unstable situation here, and it’s one reason why oil and gas is available here in the first place.”
“I won’t say that man’s activity never ever caused the release of seismic stress, but hydro-fracks are such small things,” Keller adds. “If we were talking a magnitude 1 or 2 earthquake, that’d be different, but it’s awfully hard to imagine a hydro-frack being involved with one of this size. We also have to determine if there were any frack jobs going on there right now, but I don’t think there were?it didn’t happen in an area of particularly active oil and gas exploration.”
As to whether the spike in earthquakes recently seen in the state might be due to fracking, “it is probably best not to attach much significance to perceived increases in seismic activity in Oklahoma?the occurrence of earthquakes anywhere is quite irregular,” says seismologist Art McGarr with the U.S. Geological Survey. This surge in quakes might be a temporary statistical anomaly.
“It may be, however, that more earthquakes are being induced in Oklahoma because of an increase in disposal well operations and, indeed, research is going on now to investigate this possibility,” McGarr says. The large amounts of fluid disposed of in this way can seep into cracks and lubricate already stressed faults, making it easier for them to slip and cause an earthquake.” No answers yet, however.”
Scientists had three or four seismographs positioned at the epicenter of the earthquake when it occurred, and another 25 to 30 will be deployed there now or soon to study aftershocks and locate the November 5 quake’s origin more precisely. “In a few weeks or a month we may have a better idea of what might have caused this earthquake sequence?natural tectonic processes or industrial activities,” McGarr adds.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3e6feeb77ec6e1586616b6a1627f9eeb
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States weigh pros, cons of ‘smart’ utility meters 0
HARTFORD, Conn.?? The cost of using an air conditioner ? whether it runs during the peak time for electrical usage or during off-peak hours ? is still the same for many electricity users across the country. The same goes for using a clothes dryer.
Many utilities and state energy officials, some armed with federal stimulus money, think that should change and are advocating so-called “smart meter” technology in a growing number of states.
But opponents question whether the cost ? from about $250 to $500, including installation charges ? justifies a customer’s savings, reported by homeowners to range from negligible to hundreds of dollars a year.
Proponents say the smart meters could alert utilities of outages, like the massive loss of electricity in Connecticut during the recent October snowstorm. And, they say it can help consumers take advantage of time-of-use rates and new “smart appliances” programmed to run when electric rates are lower, so they can better manage their power usage. And by shaving electricity demand during peak times, they say, utilities and consumers would ultimately see savings because of the reduced need for generating additional power, especially on steamy hot days.
“If you want to dry a pair of blue jeans at 5 o’clock on a summer night … you should pay more for it. It shouldn’t cost the same as doing it at four in the morning,” said Jonathan Schrag, Connecticut’s new deputy commissioner for energy. “And doing it at four in the morning should be basically free because there’s plenty of electricity getting kicked out of power plants in the middle of the night.”
But changing the usage habits of consumers is more complicated ? and more controversial ? than just flipping a switch, or swapping out their old analog electric meters with the spinning dials for new digital models, which send electricity consumption data usage to the utility electronically.
Some consumers, especially in California where Pacific Gas and Electric began installing smart meters in 2007, claimed they saw their bills skyrocket with the advent of the devices. Others contend they haven’t seen much of a difference in their bills
“I’m not so sure at the end of the day it saves the consumer anything,” said Michael Louis Kelly, an attorney representing plaintiffs in a lawsuit against PG&E. He said hundreds have come forward to report how their bills doubled or even quadrupled after new meters were installed.
PG&E has said an independent study determined the meters were accurate.
Other concerns have been raised about the meters’ possible negative health effects and the intrusion of privacy, prompting some homeowners to try and stop their old meters from being switched.
Kelly said there has been lots of resistance.
Aware of the controversies, some state energy officials across the country are cautiously taking a close look at whether it makes sense to allow residents and businesses to take advantage of the technology.
Recently, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission began investigating meters installed in more than 500,000 Las Vegas homes. Regulators had received complaints about possible health problems and privacy concerns.
Privacy concerns have been voiced in Vermont, where opponents fear the power usage data can be sold to companies seeking consumer information.
In Maine, after receiving numerous complaints about health and privacy concerns with the wireless, digital devices, the state’s Public Utility Commission voted in May to allow customers to opt out of the meters, at a cost of $12 a month.
New Hampshire Electric Cooperative has installed about 16,000 meters and will install all 83,000 by the end of 2012. Spokesman Seth Wheeler says the cooperative expects to save $1 million a year in meter readers, trucks and fuel used to read meters.
Connecticut is one of the latest states to consider smart metering. Regulators recently shot down a request by the state’s largest utility, Connecticut Light & Power, to install 1.2 million of the devices, arguing that the potential savings in electric bills doesn’t justify the cost. CL&P already offers its customers time-based rates.
“CL&P’s proposal would force the company’s ratepayers to spend at least $500 million on new meters that are likely to provide few benefits in return,” Attorney General George Jepsen said.
But Connecticut’s new energy commissioner asked regulators to hold off while his agency prepares a new statewide meter policy, expected to be ready early next year.
State officials are waiting for revised standards for smart meters from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), charged by Congress in 2007 to lay out a policy for modernizing the nation’s electric grid. Those standards are due around December.
Jepsen estimated it would cost each of CL&P’s 1.2 million customers roughly $411 per meter. In a legal filing, he cited company estimates that residential customers would save just over $11 over a 20-year period.
The devices are seen as potential money-savers for the utilities, however, which would no longer need to send meter readers to residences and businesses to manually check electricity usage. A CL&P spokesman said they would have been helpful during the recent freak snowstorm that knocked out power to more than 830,000 because the company has to rely on customers to call and report an outage.
About 35 percent of the 140 million U.S. homes and businesses are already using smart-metering or are in the process of getting the devices, said Eric Dresselhuys, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Silver Spring Networks, a Redwood City, Calif.-based company that sells so-called smart grid technology and services to utilities.
Ruth Diorio of Houston is a customer of Centerpoint Energy. She has a smart meter and an in-home display allowing her to keep an eye on power usage ? from the 5 cents an hour it takes to run her nightlight to the 50 cents an hour to run her air conditioning. In eight months, she said she saved $500 by turning off lights and devices, and raising her air conditioner thermostat. She doesn’t have time-of-use rates.
“Five hundred dollars, to us, is a lot of money. … It’s worth dinners out with the family, that extra pair of shoes,” she said.
Opponents include a California group that claims the smart meters are inaccurate, overcharge consumers and pose serious health and privacy concerns. Similar groups have been created in other states, including in Arizona, Maine and Illinois.
Joshua Hart, director of Stop Smart Meters, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., said the devices emit radio-frequency microwave radiation similar to a cell phone and have not been proven to be safe. He said some people claim effects ranging from headaches to cancers, with little recourse because they can’t turn off the radio frequency.
PG&E, which now allows customers to delay the meter installations, cites a study showing the radio frequency falls well below the federal threshold. The utility says there’s no evidence additional standards are needed.
Hart has chained the old, analog electric meter on his house to prevent it from being replaced. He is urging Connecticut and other officials to stop the meters.
“I would tell Connecticut state energy officials, if they consider the public’s health and safety to be a priority, that they impose an immediate moratorium on any installation of smart meter or smart grid technology, pending a full investigation into widespread reports of damage to health and risk to safety and property,” Hart said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45277595/ns/business-going_green/
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