Thursday, January 31, 2013

Green Blog: Could Electric Vehicles Fly Out of Showrooms?

Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, gave a short talk on electric vehicles on Thursday at the Washington Auto Show. Dr. Chu, a physicist who is widely expected to be departing shortly from the job he has held for four years, described the progress made so far and what would have to happen next to make electric vehicles a mass-market product.

First he cited the cost of the battery. While it has declined from about $1,000 per kilowatt-hour of storage in 2008 to about $500 today, it would have to decline to $125 over the next 10 years.

A kilowatt-hour will propel a small electric car three or four miles. Its cost is cheap, about 11 cents. Storage for that kilowatt-hour is what is pricey. A battery that stores $2 worth of electricity but costs $8,000 to buy and has the same range potential as two or three gallons of gasoline is an odd combination, like buying a solid gold cup and using it to serve tap water.

Second, Dr. Chu said, the cost of a kilowatt of power from the rest of the drive system, now $30, would have fall to $8. That would make cars with electric batteries competitive with cars running on internal combustion, even with the efficiency of the latter improving as time goes by.

He said that features available only in cars with batteries, like the ability to heat or cool a car cabin to a comfortable temperature a few minutes before the owner gets in, could help sell the cars.

The Obama administration?s current goal calls for one million electric vehicles to be on the road in the United States by 2015. Asked whether it could be achieved, Dr. Chu replied, ?It?s ambitious, but we?ll see what happens.?

He said he was encouraged by a recen tprice cut for the Nissan Leaf, and Chevy?s sales of 24,000 Volts last year.

Dr. Chu steadfastly refused to talk about whether he will step down. Pressed on that issue, he replied, ?I came here today to give great announcements at the auto show of our E.V. challenge and E.V. blueprint.?? He announced an effort to have major employers install charging stations at work so that the 40 percent of people who live in apartments or other structures that may lack outdoor outlets could charge up, and he ticked off goals for progress on batteries and drivetrains.

(Last week, the transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, used almost identical language to deflect a question about his imminent plans at a news conference about the Boeing 787; he announced his departure this week.)

During a short question-and-answer session with reporters in the cavernous Washington Convention Center, I asked Dr. Chu whether sequestration would interrupt progress on energy problems. (Under the New Year?s Eve deal in Congress to head off the ?fiscal cliff,? automatic massive budget cuts, known as sequestration, are scheduled to take place in March.)

To the puzzlement of some reporters, he promptly began describing how we would still need to sequester carbon dioxide from power plants even if progress is made on embracing electric vehicles.

When I clarified things and said that I was referring to fiscal sequestration, he quipped to good-natured laughter, ?See what a nerd I am??

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/could-electric-vehicles-fly-out-of-showrooms/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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New Apple TV to Feature Internal Changes Only

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Source: http://www.iclarified.com/27100/new-apple-tv-to-feature-internal-changes-only

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Why Did $AAPL Stock Go Down After Beating Earnings Estimates And $AMZN Stock Go Up After Missing?

Screen Shot 2013-01-29 at 10.13.36 PMThe moves in different directions for Amazon and Apple have been about expectations and guidance. Wall Street has higher expectations for Apple and ?different? expectations for Amazon. Wall Street wants Apple?s ?gross margins? to grow. They don?t expect Amazon?s ?profits? to grow. It sounds silly, but if Apple has reported lower profits and a huge gross margin increase the stock might have shot up. If Amazon had reported record profits today on decreasing margins, Wall Street might have panicked.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/6BLdkM55pK8/

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'Star Wars' And J.J. Abrams: The Inside Story Revealed

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy aggressively pursued 'Star Trek' director in December, according to a new report.
By Josh Wigler


J.J. Abrams
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701066/star-wars-jj-abrams-inside-story.jhtml

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Kennedy Center plans 1st expansion since opening

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is planning its first major expansion since it opened in 1971 as a "living memorial" to President John F. Kennedy, with new features including pavilions to house rehearsal halls and classrooms, a memorial garden and a floating stage on the Potomac River.

The plans unveiled Tuesday call for a $100 million addition that would create a more lively outdoor space for gatherings and performances, with a pedestrian bridge connecting the center to the river. Architect Steven Holl drafted the initial concept and was hired from among several contenders to design the expansion.

New marble pavilions ? made from the same Italian Carrara marble as the original building's walls ? would rise from a new garden situated beside the center, and the pavilions would be connected underground. Most of the new facility, totaling about 60,000 square feet of usable space, would be buried below the surface to help preserve the silhouette of the center's primary building.

Officials plan to raise private funds to build the project. To kick off the capital campaign, Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein is giving $50 million to fund half the cost. The center aims to raise an additional $75 million to complete construction and establish a programming fund. Officials hope to open the new space in 2018.

Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser said the new pavilions would have windows to allow visitors to look in on rehearsals of opera, theater or dance.

"We're giving a great improvement in public access to the Kennedy Center, to our art making," Kaiser said. "It's going to allow us to engage our audience in new and different ways."

The new space for rehearsals and education programs also is desperately needed as the center has grown since 1971, Kaiser said. The center now includes a national arts education program and houses the Washington National Opera as a permanent affiliate.

In an interview, Holl said he is honored to work on a memorial to a president he saw inaugurated in 1961 and respected so much.

"The Kennedy Center is a living memorial. It's active, open to the public for performance, the arts, which he really believed in," Holl said.

Preliminary plans call for a memorial garden to honor Kennedy. It could include 46 Gingko trees to note the number of years Kennedy lived, 35 lavender rows for the 35th president, and a video wall for projections of performances from inside the Kennedy Center.

"The idea really is that the landscape is activated," a fusion of architecture and landscape features, Holl said.

It could include a reflecting pool the exact length of the PT-109 boat that Lt. John Kennedy commanded during World War II. Holl envisions a deck along the pool made from the same mahogany wood as the boat. It could also include inscriptions of Kennedy's words.

The biggest challenge in the design concept could be winning approval for a performance stage that would float on the Potomac River, Holl said. Still, he said he has successfully negotiated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a past project that fell inside a flood plain.

"I'm ready for the fight," he said.

Open-air performances were once held on a floating river stage nearby at the Lincoln Memorial in the 1930s.

The new expansion plans come more than 10 years after the Kennedy Center announced a major project to build two new buildings and a plaza over a nearby freeway to connect the center with the National Mall. The $650 million project was essentially canceled in 2005 after budget constraints forced Congress to eliminate $400 million in federal funding for the project.

Kaiser envisioned a museum of the performing arts as part of that project. Now, he said, the center can plan future exhibition galleries in its main building as education programs and rehearsals move to the new facilities.

Rubenstein, a billionaire businessman and a former vice chairman of New York City's Lincoln Center, said the Kennedy Center has been limited by its building over the years. So he wanted to plan a realistic project that could be privately funded without relying on Congress. As the federal budget tightens, Rubenstein said more Americans should consider supporting nonprofit federal entities like the center.

Rubenstein's gift is the largest in the center's history. Combined with previous gifts, he has donated $75 million, making him the center's largest donor.

Adding a garden and outdoor pavilions will make the center more inviting, Rubenstein said.

"Rarely do people say in Washington, 'I'm going to go over and spend a couple hours at the Kennedy Center,'" Rubenstein said, noting it's often an evening destination for shows. But that will change, he said. "What we wanted to do was to remind people that this is a living memorial to a president."

___

Kennedy Center: http://www.kennedy-center.org

___

Follow Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kennedy-center-plans-1st-expansion-since-opening-164326333.html

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Tim Geithner: A Good Hire -- Who Stayed About Three And A Half Years Too Long

The New Republic:

What are we to make of Tim Geithner on his last day as Treasury Secretary? For my money, the story that best gets at his essential Geithner-ness took place in the second half of 2009, when the recently-bailed out banks were back to making staggering profits even though unemployment was 10 percent. The public was furious over this disparity, which naturally caught the attention of Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. And so Emanuel gathered the president?s top political and economic advisers to figure out what to do about it.

Read the whole story at The New Republic

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/tim-geithner-treasury-secretary_n_2564789.html

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Laptop Replacement Battery Online

The battery life of any of the electronic products depends upon the usage. If you properly charge the battery and use it with proper guidelines, the battery life will be more. But it is seen that many of the batteries fail to sustain for long, even when they are handled with care. There can be various reasons of battery drain out and among the most common reason is the constant usage of device, usage of battery at high temperature and direct exposure to the sunlight. The battery life also affect the performance of laptop and hence it is always better to go for the replacement of the battery of the laptop.

In principle the actual battery life of the battery depends upon the using habits of the laptop. If you find your laptop experiencing the short backup without charging, then the battery demands the repairing or in most of the cases it is better to for replacement. You can find both repaired and original batteries at offline and online stores. It is better to go to the online shopping portals. Although you can get the replacement battery in the offline stores, but for that you need to go to the market and have to search for it at a different store, as it might not be sure that you get the required battery at all shops and hence to save the time and get the reliable and reasonable alternative, so it is better to go with an online shopping portal.

The best thing about this online shopping is that, at single platform you get the opportunity to view multiple products that in affordable price range. They sell the alternatives, they also offer the warranty on every battery they sold. You can get it for all kind of laptop models. Right from the Sony, to Acer, or to ASUS, Dell, Apple, HP and IBM, you will get them for all range of laptops. In the price range of USD 10 to USD 50,you will get the best and the reliable laptop battery with high quality of performance for your laptop.

The only thing which you need to remember while placing the order at an online store is to correctly identify the model and serial number of your laptop battery and the Amp rating along with the voltage. There are also other laptop accessories which you can get at affordable and comparative rates.

Source: http://www.readingprinters.co.uk/computer-hardware-articles/2810-laptop-replacement-battery-online

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Commend Architect's Environmental Designs for Italy ! PLEASE ...


Gran Pat (316)
Monday January 28, 2013, 5:50 am
TY, Cher. Done.

Why is this inappropriate?