His and her money : Personal Finance - You Need A Budget

Hey guys

Me and my wife have been thinking about implementing some "his and her money" (Discretionary spending) into our YNAB budgeting and give ourselves an allowance for us each month. We used to do this prior to using YNAB but stopped when we became debt free. The reason for implementing this now is mostly to introduce some accountability into our "fun" spending which has recently been burning fast through our budget and even savings.

I was thinking about setting up a "His spending" and "Her spending" category in YNAB and split/budget the allowance to those two categories.
We've somewhat agreed on what will fall under his and her spending; Unbudgeted clothes, stupid things on the internet, music, books, magazines, hobbies, girsl/guys night out, beer, wine, going out to eat, candy, soda, movies, shows and more.

Now here's my question: How do you guys track this effectively in YNAB? With budgeting everything to these two "fun spending" categories all the other normally used categories will go dormant. (Like music, books, beer.) Do you find that to be allright? I won't be able to drill down into these two categories to see how much I spent on beer without some sort of tagging, right?

Thanks a bunch!

Source: http://www.youneedabudget.com/forum/personal-finance-f9/his-and-her-money-t21416.html

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Some Windows XP Users Can't Afford To Upgrade

Special dental application to track intervention history, show X-rays associated, etc should not communicate with the internet.

See this is just plain nonsense.

I'm working with these sorts of customers, and the bottom line is that air-gapping the internal network is absurd. They need things like internet access and email in the various exam rooms at the front desk, in their offices etc. They also need to be able to review exam data in many of these places.

For example, the front receptionist needs to be able to send and receive email, send out email reminders, email invoices, track shipments online, and other stuff like that. So that computer needs to be online. But they also need to be able to access the patient management system, pull up patient history for invoicing, etc.

The patient management system is also tied into the medical equipment, as many instruments will submit the captured exams to the patient management system via DICOM and so forth. So that computer also needs to be on the so-called "internal network".

You want support for a medical instrument / software -- you can't even theoretically take that to futureshop's geeksquad to sort out... but remote support via teamviewer/gotomypc/etc now saves shipping expensive equipment around or flying expensive technicians around in many cases. The equipment has to be online for that. Nevermind that they usually outsource IT because they're pretty small shops that can't support in-house IT, and remote admin / support for routine maintenance is a lot cheaper than onsite.

Meanwhile doctors want to be able to send exams to partners, manufacturers, consultants, and so forth. Doctors want to back up the data to the cloud. Two computers at every desk, separate networks, and moving the data across an airgap each time would be a major hassle and expense.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The software itself has started moving towards cloud storage and cloud backup integration, and there are even patient management systems now that are SaaS. The new and the old collide... people are using 10 year old instruments with new practice management systems and a lot of the new stuff available either outright has to be online, or at best you lose a lot of functionality if it is not.

I don't see such a problem here.

That's because you obviously haven't tried to solve it for a real practice in the real world.

Special dental application to track intervention history, show X-rays associated, etc should not communicate with the internet.

In the real world it does. Patients like email reminders of their appointments, they like to get emailed copies of their invoices for insurance claims and so forth. Doctors routinely need to send patient records to other doctors, specialists, consultants and so forth. Things need to be backed up offsite -- and online backup is the most practical solution by far for that.

Many doctors work in mutiple practices, Tuesdays here, Thursday's there... and they want to be able to review and analyze on patients cross-sites so the in some cases mutiple offices are linked via VPNs etc.

Nobody today would tolerate having all the exams from a particular instrument available only on a single air gapped unit or even an air gapped network.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/mBiTDQlMPyc/story01.htm

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Can the friend of my friend be my enemy? Choice affects stability of the social network, animal study shows

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Just as humans can follow complex social situations in deciding who to befriend or to abandon, it turns out that animals use the same level of sophistication in judging social configurations, according to a new study that advances our understanding of the structure of animal social networks.

The study, which appears today in the journal Animal Behaviour, is the first in which researchers applied a long-standing theory in social psychology called "structural balance," which is used to analyze human relationships, to an animal population to better understand the mechanisms that determine the structure of animal social groups. Researchers analyzed social bonds in behavioral data from a long-term study of the rock hyrax, a small mammal that lives in colonies across Africa and the Middle East.

Structural balance theory considers the positive or negative ties between three individuals, or triads, and suggests that "the friend of my enemy is my enemy" triangle is more stable and should be more common than "the friend of my friend is my enemy" triangle. Another configuration, "the friend of my friend is my friend," is considered to also be a stable configuration in the social network. The last possible triangle, "the enemy of my enemy is my enemy," presages an unstable state, according to the theory.

The potential power of structural balance theory is its ability to predict patterns in the structure of the whole social network and also predict changes that occur over time, as unstable triads are expected to change to stable ones.

"We all live in social networks of some kind, either online or offline, and we are interested in understanding how these groups form and dissolve and their internal dynamics, but while studying these human dynamics is important, it's also very difficult and in many cases impractical. So we study how sociality evolved in animals, which might offer us some insights into our own social behavior. And indeed, the structural balance theory that was developed to study human behavior appears to be relevant in animals as well," said the study's lead author Amiyaal Ilany, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis.

In the study, the hyraxes tended to form balanced triads and changed unbalanced triads to balanced triads over time. However, new individuals in the population -- new pups or males that migrate into the network -- introduced social instability by often forming unbalanced triads, causing the network as a whole to retain some level of instability. The study also found that contrary to classical structural balance theory, the "enemy of my enemy is my enemy" configuration was actually a stable configuration.

The results suggest that structural balance may play a role in the evolution of social structures by selecting against specific configurations. Structural balance may also serve as a psychological mechanism that allows specific social structures to exist and that prevents cooperation between members of different groups.

The authors suggest that structural balance may be prevalent in other species as well.

"The results indicated that changes in social relationships are dependent not only on two individuals, but significantly on third parties, which underscores the importance of structural balance theory in explaining the evolution of complex natural social systems," Ilany said, who was a doctoral student at Tel Aviv University when the research was begun.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Amiyaal Ilany, Adi Barocas, Lee Koren, Michael Kam, Eli Geffen. Structural balance in the social networks of a wild mammal. Animal Behaviour, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.03.032

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/rTb9pXsMJ7I/130422122959.htm

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Albert hurting, but not on statsheet

You?d never know it if you looked at his stats ? the Angels? slugger is hitting .317 with eight extra-base hits ? but Albert Pujols has been bothered by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. With another start at DH this afternoon, he has now started more games as the DH (nine) than as the first baseman (eight). Pujols himself admits the injury is bothering him.

?I?m dying,? Pujols said according to Bill Shaikin. ?It?s hurting real bad.?

The Angels will continue to use Pujols until he cannot handle the pain anymore.

?You?re always picking at a scab a little bit, when you?re trying to play and trying to run,? Manager Mike Scioscia said. ?Certainly, you don?t want it to regress. He?s swinging the bat real well.

?You want to keep it to where he can still DH and hopefully get him to first base at some point.?

The Angels have used Mark Trumbo at first base when Pujols has been the DH, which should be the case for the foreseeable future.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/21/albert-pujols-is-hurting-real-bad/related/

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MPs want review into RBS/Lloyds 'bad bank'

LONDON (Reuters) - The finance ministry should examine the advantages and disadvantages of breaking up state-backed lenders RBS and Lloyds and hiving off their toxic assets into a 'bad bank', senior MPs have demanded.

The cross-party Treasury Select Committee, responsible for examining the finance ministry's policies, recommended it deliver a cost-benefit analysis in time for the government's spending review in June.

The report should also look at the impact on competition, it said.

Britain pumped 66 billion pounds into the banks to keep them afloat during the 2008 financial crisis, taking an 81 percent stake in RBS and a 39 percent shareholding in Lloyds.

The government does not have to adopt recommendations made by the committee but it would be considered unusual for it not to do so.

Officials at Britain's finance ministry could not be reached for comment. RBS and Lloyds declined to comment.

The committee has considered evidence from the outgoing head of Britain's central bank, Mervyn King, who called on the government to break up RBS so the state-backed lender could return to health and be sold to the private sector.

King said RBS needed to split off the bad assets on its books and build up capital at the remaining "good bank" so it can lend more.

However, Chancellor George Osborne appeared sceptical about the move, expressing concerns over the time it would take and the disruption it would cause when appearing before the committee.

RBS and Lloyds have already undertaken restructuring programmes shedding hundreds of billions of pounds worth of assets including the majority of their toxic assets.

RBS has said it hopes to be in a position to allow the government to start selling its shares before the next general election in 2015.

Industry and political sources have said a sale of the government's shares in Lloyds is possible before the election if they hit the 61 pence level which the government regards as its break-even price. They closed at 47.5 pence on Friday.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mps-want-review-rbs-lloyds-bad-bank-151052091--finance.html

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Qualicum Sports | Recreation | Open House at the Qualicum Beach ...

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Sunday, April 21st, 2013
12:30 AM to 3:30 PM

Why not give lawn bowling a try this year - come to our Open House and give it a try. Meet new people, get exercise and keep active. Whether you like the oudoors or prefer the indoors we have it all for you. Free to try - so come come on out and see what lawn bowling is all about.

Source: http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/open-house-qblbc/2013-04-21/

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Glee Renewed for Season 5... and 6!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/glee-renewed-for-season-5-and-6/

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Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S4 sign up page now live

Still no dates given, but a great way to show your interest in Samsung's newest on Big Red

Yesterday Verizon confirmed that their Samsung Galaxy S4 would be available sometime in May, and today they have made the sign up page for the new Galaxy S model live. We know it's not the Verizon page most of us want to see when we talk Galaxy S4, but it's a start.

Potential owners can head to the page to sign up for more information, and more importantly, show that they have interest in the device. Carriers often use this sort of thing as a way to know how many units they need to have on hand for launch day.

We expect that number to be pretty big, but there will always be the chance that your store will run out before you can get your tail there to grab yours. Take a minute, sign up, and let them know they need to order yours from Samsung. When finished, share it in the forums with the rest of us waiting for this one.

Source: Verizon 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/-BpHB2k72jk/story01.htm

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Energy-Harvesting Street Tiles Generate Power from Pavement Pounder

Power for the people takes on a whole new meaning, as the largest installation of Pavegen energy-harvesting tiles to date produces 4.7 kilowatt-hours of energy during the Paris marathon, enough to power a laptop for more than two days

By Dhananjay Khadilkar

PAVEMENT POUNDING: Special "energy harvesting tiles" were developed by Pavegen Systems. The power generated can be used to run low-voltage equipment such as streetlights and vending machines. Image: Pavegen Systems

PARIS?On April 7, 2013, Kenya?s Peter Some won the 37th Paris Marathon with a time of 2:05:38. A surprise winner, Some missed the event record by only 27 seconds, thus depriving him of a place in running history. He need not have worried; unknown to him and thousands of fellow marathoners, they were all nonetheless part of a historic event. As they ran across the Avenue des Champs ?lys?es and thumped their feet on 176 special tiles laid on a 25-meter stretch, the athletes generated electricity.

These special ?energy harvesting tiles? were developed by London-based Pavegen Systems. The power thus generated can be used to run low-voltage equipment such as streetlights and vending machines. The concept is the brainchild of Laurence Kemball-Cook, who founded Pavegen in 2009 to commercialize it. ?The Paris Marathon is the first of many such projects that will enable us to realize our goal of taking this technology to retail sites, transport hubs, office blocks and infrastructure spaces,? he says.

Pavegen uses what it calls a hybrid black box technology to convert the energy of a footstep into electricity, which is either stored in a battery or fed directly to devices. A typical tile is made of recycled polymer, with the top surface made from recycled truck tires. A foot stomp that depresses a single tile by five millimeters produces between one and seven watts. These tiles generate electricity with a hybrid solution of mechanisms that include the piezoelectric effect (an electric charge produced when pressure is exerted on crystals such as quartz) and induction, which uses copper coils and magnets. The marathon runners generated 4.7 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power a five-watt LED bulb for 940 hours, or 40 days. ?We came together for Paris Marathon to highlight how technology is really going to change the way people think about energy,? says Joe Hart, senior vice president of Segment & Solution Marketing at Schneider Electric.

Easy power collection sounds promising, but implementation is challenging. As Kemball-Cook says, ?Installing the tiles in the ground is one of the hardest things to do as they have to be very durable, weather resistant and should have high fatigue resistance as well. Also, these tiles could get vandalized.?

Hart says that in a couple of years, Pavegen?s technology could become visible and apparent in a number of areas, not only as power units but also in security applications. ?Each of those tiles has wireless capability?using which, we can analyze movement and optimize floor management.?

Pavegen is not alone in harvesting human kinetic energy to generate electricity. Max Donelan, founder of Canada-based Bionic Power, which has developed a wearable knee brace that harvests energy while walking, says the braces ?can be useful when you need electricity without having to rely on the power grid. For example, our knee braces are being developed for military use in places like Afghanistan where battery cells are exorbitantly expensive.?

Energy-harvesting tiles may be just one step for man, but taking many such steps may lead to a more powerful and sustainable future.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e8687360a18a84a54e5cf13f9b4ba08d

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Obama: "Americans refuse to be terrorized" (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/300337631?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Glass software teardown indicates Google planning ?extensive multiplayer gaming service?

By Gregory Blachier MONTE CARLO (Reuters) - A string of errors put world number two Andy Murray out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday when he lost 6-1 6-2 to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. Fourth seed Tomas Berdych and Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, seeded five, were also beaten at the first big claycourt event of the season, while Rafael Nadal calmly continued his bid for a ninth consecutive crown with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/glass-software-teardown-indicates-google-planning-extensive-multiplayer-184016845.html

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Gunshots heard on MIT campus, school website says

By Gregory Blachier MONTE CARLO (Reuters) - A string of errors put world number two Andy Murray out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday when he lost 6-1 6-2 to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. Fourth seed Tomas Berdych and Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, seeded five, were also beaten at the first big claycourt event of the season, while Rafael Nadal calmly continued his bid for a ninth consecutive crown with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunshots-heard-massachusetts-institute-technology-campus-school-website-032912007.html

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HTC One for AT&T currently has an unlockable bootloader, but that'll soon change

If you're currently in the smallest (and most fortunate) of minorities to have an HTC One for AT&T in your hands, then you might want to go about unlocking its bootloader while the getting is good. As it just so happens, a few lucky individuals have already done just that, and to prove it's momentarily possible, they've shared their success within the forums of xda-developers. And if there was ever any doubt, we've confirmed this with our own review unit. Before you get too excited, though, HTC's affirmed to us that AT&T's One will not be supported by the HTCdev unlock service, which will effectively render its bootloader untouchable. As for the current discrepancy, one might speculate that the phone's identifier hasn't yet been blocked on the HTCdev site -- something that'd likely be resolved before the phone becomes officially available through retail channels this Friday. Naturally, if you're hoping to get in on the gravy train, it seems that your best bet will be to work your magic on an AT&T sales rep and then hope the unlocking service is still functional. Absent that, the HTC One Developer Edition seems just as tempting as ever.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, AT&T

Comments

Via: Droid Life

Source: xda-developers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/15/htc-one-att-bootloader/

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Facebook for iOS updated with news feed redesign, brings Chat Heads to limited number of users

Facebook for iOS has received a major update today, bringing the promised redesign to both the iPhone and the iPad, along with a major feature from Facebook Home, Chat Heads. The redesigned news feed emulates the new look of Facebook on the web, with content becoming more prominent and sporting an overall cleaner look.

Chat heads, one of the major features shown off in Facebook Home, has also come to iOS, allowing users to chat anywhere within the app. Unfortunately, the feature is not available for all users, and Facebook will be rolling out chat heads to everyone over the next few weeks. Facebook has also added stickers for use in chat, but these, like chat heads, will be rolling out to everyone over time. These features work on both the iPhone and iPad versions of the app.

The update is available now on the App Store. We don't have Chat Heads yet, but let us know if you do, and what you think of them!

• Free - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/CHZelOnNwQk/story01.htm

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Labour calls for banker licences to fight scandals

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/labour-calls-banker-licences-fight-scandals-230450325--sector.html

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Nonsurgical treatment turns back the clock, shrinks enlarged prostate

Apr. 15, 2013 ? Men with a common condition that causes frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom can get relief with a minimally invasive treatment that shrinks the prostate, suggests a study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The early findings hail from the first prospective U.S. trial of prostatic artery embolization (PAE), which reduces blood flow to the prostate, thus shrinking it.

"Nearly all men eventually suffer from an enlarged prostate as they age, and this treatment is almost like turning back the clock and giving them the prostate of their youth," said Sandeep Bagla, M.D., the study's lead author and an interventional radiologist in the department of cardiovascular and interventional radiology at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Va.

"Medications are of limited benefit and surgery -- while it can correct the problem -- can be risky and may cause significant side effects. PAE is a minimally invasive alternative with low risk that appears to reduce symptoms in the overwhelming majority of patients," he said.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) affects more than half of 50-year-old men and more than 80 percent of 80-year-old men. "All patients are looking for the least invasive treatment with lowest risk, and this U.S. clinical study confirms the results reported by interventional radiologists in Europe and South America," said Bagla. He noted that millions of men shy away from surgical and other transurethral procedures because they understandably do not want to risk urine leak, impotence or other complications that may arise from invasive procedures.

In early findings of the study, 13 of 14 men (92 percent) who had PAE noticed a significant decrease in symptoms after one month. None of the men suffered any major complications, such as impotence, leaking urine or infection. Most went home the day of treatment.

Enrollment of 30 men for the first prospective U.S. study to evaluate PAE for enlarged prostates is underway and will be completed by fall, said Bagla. The study will look at clinical success and safety and will follow patients for two years to assess long-term results.

When the prostate becomes enlarged, it blocks urine flow through the urethra, leading to aggravating symptoms including nighttime urinary frequency, weak flow and inability to completely empty the bladder. Untreated, BPH can lead to bladder stones, poor kidney function and infections. Interventional radiologists have long treated a variety of cancerous and noncancerous conditions through embolization, which blocks blood flow to tumors and organs. For instance, uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) is used to shrink benign fibroid tumors in the uterus. By temporarily blocking blood flow through the prostate artery, PAE causes the prostate to shrink, providing a larger passageway for urine.

"The participants in our study report a true lifestyle-changing effect after this treatment, with some men stopping medication for their prostate symptoms altogether," said Bagla. "Patients who have not been helped by surgery or laser treatments have benefited. Since the treatment does not involve placing a catheter or device into the penis, there is no risk of narrowing of the urethra, incontinence or bleeding," he noted.

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/wxO_Ougxg18/130415124817.htm

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Hot Legs: Guess The Owner Of These Sexy Legs!

Hot Legs: Guess The Owner Of These Sexy Legs!

These celebrities have hot legs and know how to use them! Men’s favorite body parts on women are normally boobs, booty, and long, sexy legs! Let’s check out some gorgeous gams and see if you can choose what Hollywood celebrity are the proud owners of these stems! What brunette beauty owns these gams? Any guesses? ...

Hot Legs: Guess The Owner Of These Sexy Legs! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/04/hot-legs-guess-the-owner-of-these-sexy-legs/

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Kurdish rebel leader hopeful for peace

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan says he hopes peace talks with Turkey will succeed.

Ocalan's message was read by Kurdish legislators who met him on his prison island off Istanbul on Sunday. Earlier in the week, these lawmakers also met with Kurdish rebel commanders based in northern Iraq.

The rebels declared a ceasefire last month, heeding a call by Ocalan, who is engaged in talks with Turkish officials to end the nearly 30-year-old Kurdish rebel conflict.

The efforts, however, appear to have hit a snag over Turkish demands that the rebels retreat from Turkey unarmed. A Kurdish party leader has said the insurgents are hesitant about withdrawing fighters without legal guarantees from Turkey.

The conflict between Turkey and the rebels has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kurdish-rebel-leader-hopeful-peace-155438210.html

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Biofuels are "irrational strategy"

14 April 2013 Last updated at 20:29 ET By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

The UK's "irrational" use of biofuels will cost motorists around ?460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was worse for the climate than fossil fuels.

Under EU law, biofuels are set to make up 5% of the UK's transport fuel from today.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

It creates a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at profit...?

End Quote Rob Bailey Chatham House

Since 2008, the UK has required fuel suppliers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the petrol and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK motorists will have to pay an extra ?460m a year because of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more often as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to meet its obligations to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is likely to rise to ?1.3bn per annum by 2020.

"It is hard to find any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very expensive way to reduce carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is regarded as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy but the incentives are there."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars the bigger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first place," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely irrational strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry across the EU, said it was aware of the problems caused by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles in the world is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.

"It has brought lots of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has reduced EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

"If there was no biodiesel farmers would just make their land idle - no food, no feed!"

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some difficult decisions on how to move forward on this issue as it faces tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.

Insiders suggest its preference would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from countries with powerful agricultural sectors who benefit from the current arrangement will be difficult.

"When you have a lobby which includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is very hard for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

Follow Matt on Twitter.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22127123#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Trayvon Martin targets: Fired cop fires back, saying it's a conspiracy (+video)

Trayvon Martin targets were not for target practice but were a 'no-shoot training tool,' says the Florida cop who was fired Friday for showing them to colleagues.

By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / April 14, 2013

Entertainer Jamie Foxx (r.) speaks alongside Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of Trayvon Martin, during a candlelight vigil in Union Square earlier this year to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of their 17-year old son by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman in Florida.

John Minchillo/AP/File

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First, a police sergeant in a Florida department only an hour away from where Trayvon Martin was killed gets fired for allegedly bringing targets that resembled Trayvon to a shooting range.

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Now, the officer has responded in an online video, suggesting that he brought the pictures as a "no-shoot training aid," and that he might be a pawn in a broader conspiracy to bring down the chief of the Port Canaveral Police Department.

So what began as a national upwelling of outrage at what appeared to be an appalling piece of judgment has now seemingly become a nationwide airing of a squabble within one small Florida police department.

It is a reminder of the power and speed of the Internet to ruin ? and perhaps resuscitate ? reputations all within the space of a weekend. With his video response, the accused officer, Ron King, has taken his case directly to a nation of YouTubers, putting pressure on Port Canaveral to disprove his assertions and justify his firing ? all while an attendant America watches and judges.

Because Port Canaveral police oversee the port, not any municipality, it was the Port Authority's CEO, Jim Walsh, who announced Mr. King's firing Friday. "Whether it was his stupidity or his hatred, [this is] not acceptable," Mr. Walsh said, according to news reports.

But King's video rebuttal Sunday portrays him as the victim. In it, he admitted to buying targets that show gun crosshairs on a black hooded sweatshirt with Skittles in one pocket and an iced tea in one hand ? which is what Trayvon was wearing, and what he had gone to a convenience store to buy, when he was shot. But as a firearms-safety trainer for more than 20 years, King said he saw it as a potential training tool.

"While others have used it as a novelty, I view it as a tool for scenario-based firearms training," he said.

At another point in the video, he said: "As an instructor in the law enforcement field, I can tell you that using real-life situations as a training scenario is not uncommon."

His purpose, he added, was to "look for training methods to prevent another such situation."

In the video, he apologizes to the Martin family, suggesting that others are using "the Martin family and myself as a way to further their own political and career agendas."

The person who reported him doesn't like the chief of the department, King said.

"I cannot help but think that he is using this in order to try to shed bad light on the chief in an effort to further that agenda," he added.

Of course, the video proves nothing. Media reports suggest that King's firing came after an internal investigation, and details of that investigation might come to light in coming days ? or hours.

But in his video, King has circumvented lawyers or handlers to take his case directly to the American people. While the quality is clearly homemade, the statement has all the trappings of official press statements ? King reads from a prepared script and at one point waves pieces of paper that he said are "copies of the statements made by the complaining party and a witness" proving that he said the targets were a "no-shoot training aid."

A USA Today report suggests Walsh was unmoved. "I found the entire situation unacceptable," he said. "It is not the type of behavior that I want a police officer to have on both a personal and professional level."

Trayvon was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012. Mr. Zimmerman says he was attacked and shot Trayvon in self-defense. The Martin family notes that Trayvon was unarmed and says Zimmerman is at fault. Zimmerman faces a charge of second-degree murder. The trial is expected to begin this June.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UWSxiuUrJbI/Trayvon-Martin-targets-Fired-cop-fires-back-saying-it-s-a-conspiracy-video

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Liberal Hypocrisy Watch (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/298909741?client_source=feed&format=rss

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The 5 money personalities (and your marriage)

We asked Scott and Bethany Palmer, aka The Money Couple, for their insight into putting a stop to fights about finances for good.

Which money personality are you?

"Marrying our opposite is what makes the relationship interesting, dynamic and complete."

?Every person has a distinct way of thinking about and dealing with money, and in a relationship, those distinctions can be the difference between being on the same page about money issues and having money be a constant source of conflict,? the Palmers explain. ?We?ve found that everyone has what we call money personalities?? a primary one and a secondary one.?

You can figure out your money personalities with their quick but comprehensive Money Personality Profile quiz. There are five money personalities according to The Money Couple, each with their own pros and cons.

1. Spender
2. Saver
3. Risk Taker
4. Security Seeker
5. Flyer

Luckily, there is no right or wrong money personality, especially if you learn how to make yours work. ?Once you and your spouse embrace your money personalities you can see where you agree and where you collide,? The Money Couple says. ?Then you can take this new bit of information and start to work as a team as you stop fighting and start rebuilding your life together.?

How compatible are you and your spouse?

The Palmers have identified something called the ?Opposite Dynamic." When one money personality falls on one side of the spectrum and the other one falls on the opposite side of the spectrum, that person has the ?Opposite Dynamic," they explain. ?When two people have two different money personalities, collisions happen and bickering happens." If, for instance, one person is a Saver/Spender and the other person is a Security Seeker/Flyer, you can expect some sparks to fly.

If you did marry someone with a money personality that?s opposite to yours, that?s OK. ?Marrying our opposite is what makes the relationship interesting, dynamic and complete,? say the Palmers. It could actually be beneficial to you both. ?For example, if one is a Saver/Security Seeker and the other is a Spender/Risk Taker then this couple can talk through decisions with a 360-degree perspective and come up with an answer that is best for all.?

Why we fight about money

Arguments about money can happen at any time, at any level of a relationship?? and they?re never fun. But why do they happen? ?Money is a very personal thing, so when we question each other?s money approach, we hit a nerve that goes very deep,? The Money Couple explain. ?If you and your partner are struggling with money issues, if you?re constantly fighting about your finances, if you just can?t seem to get on the same page financially, the problem isn?t your budget. The problem is that your money relationship is broken,? they note. And the best financial plan won?t change a thing. The solution to your money problems isn?t a better budget or less debt. It?s to reclaim your money relationship.

Getting in sync financially

Balancing your budget and making sure you have enough money for essentials each month is one thing, but The Money Couple also recommend having a "Financial Arrangement" and a "Money Relationship."

Financial Arrangement: This encompasses all of the topics you discuss with your spouse around finances, such as debt reduction, retirement planning, investment planning, insurance planning, tax planning, etc.

Money Relationship: This refers to the day-to-day discussions you have where money is involved?? things like deciding whether to make coffee at home or indulge in a $5 cup of Starbucks, whether to buy the kids' school supplies at Target or Walmart, or deciding to get shoes at Bloomingdale's versus Payless.

Financial Arrangements can be more black and white whereas a Money Relationship moves and changes daily. ?As you navigate your discussions with your partner this week, notice how often you make decisions together and analyze how well you discuss the money component of those decisions,? the Palmers advise. The more you communicate and work together to fine-tune your financial life together, the less you?ll argue about money.

More relationship tips

Power struggles: Why being right can make everything wrong
The secret to a happy relationship: Be selfish
Is it time to end your relationship?

Source: http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/987099/money-personalities-and-your-marriage

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Peter Robbins, Voice of Charlie Brown, Pleads Guilty to Stalking and Threatening Ex

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/peter-robbins-voice-of-charlie-brown-pleads-guilty-to-stalking-a/

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Justin Bieber Signs Multi-Milllion Dollar Deal with Debit Card Company

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/justin-bieber-signs-multi-milllion-deal-with-debit-card-company/

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eBay's PayPal Acquires IronPearl To Fuel Growth Beyond 123M Users

About a month ago, I wrote about a stealthy company called IronPearl, led by Stan Chudnovsky and James Currier.?They were growth hackers before the word “growth hacker” even existed. In fact, they don’t even really like the word “growth hacker.” For years, Chudnovsky had been advising companies like Goodreads, Path, Wanelo, Poshmark, Lyft and Highlight on how to acquire users. His stealth startup,?IronPearl?was systematizing that advice. He and his partner have been?building a set of optimization tools that will track a user through a site or app and test which combinations work best to keep them coming back after a week or a month — although the goal can be whatever you want it to be. PayPal, along with GoodReads (which was recently bought by Amazon), were early testers. Apparently, IronPearl’s product and the pair’s expertise was so valuable that eBay’s PayPal unit decided to just outright buy the company before launch.?We hear the price in the “double-digit millions,” although neither company is talking about the price. With the deal, Chudnovsky becomes Paypal’s vice president of growth while Currier will be a growth advisor. (Currier won’t be coming on full-time.) “Creating a growth group is foundational for us,” said PayPal president David Marcus. “PayPal has grown to almost 125 million users almost organically, and we’ve never pulled the levers to grow much faster. There are only very few, world-renowned growth hackers in the world and Stan is one of them.” Chudnovsky and Currier were behind a Web 1.0 company called Tickle that did personality quizzes and tests. It was later acquired by job site Monster for about $100 million. He then got into gaming and sold Wonderhill to midcore developer Kabam. Then he got into advising before starting IronPearl. “The main reason I decided to sell is because I’ve built companies before,” Chudnovsky said. “I know what that path looks like. When you look at something like PayPal, it’s different. It’s more of a marketplace than just a sheer network. There are merchants and people transacting with each other.” Chudnovsky will lead a growth team that will focus on building out PayPal’s customer base beyond 123 million registered users.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3iwmpPAZN8k/

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UK investigates in-app purchases for possible consumer law violations

Suffice it to say that unmonitored in-app purchases by kids have proved problematic -- most of all for the parents who first learn about them through a gigantic bill. The UK's Office of Fair Trading is concerned enough that it's launching an investigation into whether mobile- and web-based games for the junior set are running afoul of consumer protection laws. Its six-month study will explore whether or not those games are "misleading or aggressive" when they goad kids into parting with real cash for virtual goods; the regulator also hopes to hear from game developers, app store operators and the parents themselves. OFT senior director Cavendish Elithorn tells the BBC that the investigation won't likely ban in-app purchasing when all is said and done, but we wouldn't be surprised if the outcome involves more than just a few app store disclaimers.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet

Comments

Via: Electronista

Source: Office of Fair Trading, BBC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/12/uk-investigates-in-app-purchases-for-possible-consumer-law-violations/

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Greenhouse gases make high temps hotter in China

Smoke is emitted from chimneys of a cement plant in Binzhou city, in eastern China's Shandong province on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. China, the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, is directly feeling the man-made heat of global warming, scientists conclude in the first study to link the burning of fossil fuels to one country's rise in its daily temperature spikes. The study appeared online in late March 2013 in the peer reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

Smoke is emitted from chimneys of a cement plant in Binzhou city, in eastern China's Shandong province on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. China, the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, is directly feeling the man-made heat of global warming, scientists conclude in the first study to link the burning of fossil fuels to one country's rise in its daily temperature spikes. The study appeared online in late March 2013 in the peer reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

WASHINGTON (AP) ? China, the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, is directly feeling the man-made heat of global warming, scientists conclude in the first study to link the burning of fossil fuels to one country's rise in its daily temperature spikes.

China emits more of the greenhouse gas than the next two biggest carbon polluters ? the U.S. and India ? combined. And its emissions keep soaring by about 10 percent per year.

While other studies have linked averaged-out temperature increases in China and other countries to greenhouse gases, this research is the first to link the warmer daily hottest and coldest readings, or spikes.

Those spikes, which often occur in late afternoon and the early morning, are what scientists say most affect people's health, plants and animals. People don't notice changes in averages, but they feel it when the daily high is hotter or when it doesn't cool off at night to let them recover from a sweltering day.

The study by Chinese and Canadian researchers found that just because of greenhouse gases, daytime highs rose 0.9 degree Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the 46 years up to 2007. At night it was even worse: Because of greenhouse gases, the daily lows went up about 1.7 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit).

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of coal, which is the largest source of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. While the country has made huge investments in alternative energy such as wind, solar and nuclear in recent years, its heavy reliance on coal is unlikely to change any time soon.

About 90 percent of the temperature rise seen by the researchers could be traced directly to man-made greenhouse gases, the study said. Man-made greenhouse gases also include methane and nitrous oxide, but carbon dioxide is considered by far the biggest factor.

The study appeared online in late March in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The study uses the accepted and traditional method that climate scientists employ to attribute a specific trend to man-made global warming or to rule it out as a cause.

Researchers ran computer simulations trying to replicate the observed increase in daily and nighttime high temperatures in China between 1961 and 2007. They first plugged in only natural forces ? including solar variation ? to try to get the heat increase. That didn't produce it.

The only way the computer simulations came up with the increase in daily high and low temperatures that occurred was when the actual amounts of atmospheric heat-trapping greenhouse gases were included.

"It is way above what you would expect from normal fluctuations of climate," study author Xuebin Zhang of the climate research division of Canada's environmental agency said in a telephone interview. "It is quite clear and can be attributed to greenhouse gases."

China did not become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases until 2007; for much of the period studied, it had a smaller economy. Because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for about a century, China and its defenders maintain that the U.S. and other developed nations bear more responsibility for climate change.

Outside experts praised the research as using proper methods and making sense. An earlier study didn't formally blame the proliferation of U.S. heat records to a rise in greenhouse gases but noted that they were increasing substantially with carbon dioxide pollution.

"The study is important because it formalizes what many scientists have been sensing as a gut instinct: that the increase in extreme heat that we've witnessed in recent decades, and especially in recent years, really cannot be dismissed as the vagaries of weather," said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann.

China has rapidly grown from a nation of subsistence farmers at the end of the 1970s into the world's second-largest economy behind the U.S., and the environmental costs of such change are often visible.

Beijing is no longer dominated by bicycles but by cars, and the skyline is barely visible at times because of thick pollution. More people are living in cities, buying air conditioners and other energy-hungry home electronics and consuming more energy for transportation and heating.

China passed the United States as the No. 1 carbon dioxide emitter about six years ago and "the gap is widening, it's huge," said Appalachian State University professor Gregg Marland, who helps track worldwide emissions for the U.S. Energy Department.

When developed countries around the world in 1997 agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, developing countries, including China, were exempted.

U.S. Energy Department statistics say that China gets 70 percent of its energy from coal, compared with 20 percent in the United States. China is also a world leader in the production of cement, a process that also causes greenhouse emissions.

___

Associated Press writer Louise Watt in Beijing contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-12-US-SCI-China-Changing-Temperatures/id-c1aeb2b45c9d476e8e151377ec30fcbf

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Computer composition pioneer David Cope discusses his iPad app (video)

We probably shouldn't have been surprised when David Cope excitedly asked us if we'd like to see his new iPad app, as we began packing up our shoot for a forthcoming Engadget Show episode. After all, the former UC Santa Cruz music professor's name has, over the past several decades, become closely tied to the world of computer-generated music -- it figures that the journey that began with punch cards would have eventually led to tablets and smartphones.

Jambandit hit the App Store a couple of weeks ago. It's the first offering from Recombinant Inc., a small company co-founded by Cope in Santa Cruz a few years back as a "commercial extension of a body of [his] academic work." His time in the field began during one particularly bad bout with writer's block -- tasked with writing an opera, Cope eschewed traditional paths for the earnest development of a new system for creating music, working to create a software program that could generate scores in the styles of different composer -- a move that, unsurprisingly, opened up a slew of questions on the subject of creativity.

Comments

Source: iTunes

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/HNKAecTPLYg/

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Surprise: Organic Apples And Pears Aren't Free Of Antibiotics

Organic apples hang from trees in an orchard in Forest Range, Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

donkeycart/via Flickr

Organic apples hang from trees in an orchard in Forest Range, Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

donkeycart/via Flickr

Apples and especially pears are vulnerable to a nasty bacterial infection called fire blight that, left unchecked, can spread quickly, killing fruit trees and sometimes devastating whole orchards.

"It's basically like a gangrene of your limbs. It's hard to stop" once it takes hold, says Ken Johnson, a plant pathologist at Oregon State University.

It's such a big threat that for decades, growers have seen two antibiotics, streptomycin and oxytetracycline, as vital weapons in the fight to control the disease ? even on organic apples and pears.

But their use has raised questions about transparency in organic labeling, amid concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in food production.

"This isn't what consumers expect out of organics," says Urvashi Rangan, the director of consumer safety and sustainability at Consumer Reports. "Organic is supposed to be consistent in meaning," she tells The Salt.

Here's the back story.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national organic labeling standards went into effect in 2002, the two antibiotics were listed as synthetic materials approved for use in organic apple and pear production. Items on that list are revisited on a periodic basis. The notion behind the exemption for these two fruit crops was that, in between reviews, growers would devise effective non-antibiotic-based methods for controlling fire blight.

But the antibiotic exemption is set to expire in October 2014. This week, the National Organic Standards Board is meeting in Portland, Ore., to decide on a petition from organic growers to extend that exemption. Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, is among the groups who say the answer should be a resounding no.

Antibiotics have been used in American plant and livestock agriculture since the mid-20th century. About 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. go to livestock ? not just to treat disease and prevent infections, but also, primarily, to help animals put on more weight.

That heavy usage has been widely blamed for promoting the spread of antibiotic-resistant bugs. And resistance can jump from bacteria that infect livestock to microbes that sicken people. The problem of drug resistance has led to widespread calls for reining in the use of antibiotics on farms, in order to preserve the medicines' effectiveness in treating human disease.

But antibiotic use in plant agriculture is far more limited ? just a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of total agricultural use, according to Virginia Stockwell, a plant pathologist at Oregon State University who studies fire blight management. Put another way, about 30 million pounds of antibiotics were used in livestock in 2011. By comparison, 36,000 pounds of antibiotics were sprayed on fruit trees ? mostly on pears and apples, according to data she compiled from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

In the U.S., up to 16 percent of all apple acreage and up to 40 percent of all pear acreage get sprayed with antibiotics each year, she says, citing data from NASS. That's including all organic and conventionally grown fruit. Not every orchard gets sprayed every year.

"There have never been any cases where we've been able to link an antibiotic-resistant pathogen in humans to orchards," says Stockwell, who recently conducted a review of the literature on the subject for the National Organic Standards Board.

Research suggests both of the antibiotics used on fruit crops are rendered inactive in soils, she says, minimizing concerns that residues that drift to the ground after spraying would be a problem. Any residue on fruit, she says, is minuscule.

That said, fire blight resistance to streptomycin is a concern for growers ? it's now pretty common in orchards in the Pacific Northwest. That's one reason why growers have scaled back their spraying over the past two decades, Stockwell says.

"Everybody is committed to eliminating this use," says David Granatstein, a sustainable agricultural specialist with Washington State University, who works with organic farmers in his state.

But before all organic growers can completely give up antibiotics, he says, they need to have effective alternatives for preventing the devastation of fire blight.

Aggressive pruning has helped reduce reliance on antibiotic spraying. So has the use of biological controls, like bacteria that compete with E. amylovora, the microbe that causes fire blight, for nutrients on blossoms. But it's not enough.

Oregon State's Ken Johnson is one of several researchers overseeing field trials of two promising antibiotic alternatives. "I'd say we're fairly close," Johnson tells The Salt.

He's set to testify about these alternatives before the National Organic Standards Board on Wednesday. One option, called Blossom Protect, is a yeast-like fungus that blocks the fire blight bacteria from colonizing the blossom. It was registered for use with the Environmental Protection Agency late into last year's growing season, so this will be the first year lots of farmers can try it.

The other alternative, a copper sulfate that can be applied during bloom times without harming the fruit, has yet to be registered with the agency. Both are highly promising, according to Johnson ? but they need more testing. So 2014, he says, is still a bit too soon to say goodbye to antibiotics.

"Most people," he says, "when their livelihoods depend on it, want to see a few years of positive data before they're convinced that it is the right thing for them."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/08/176606069/surprise-organic-apples-and-pears-aren-t-free-of-antibiotics?ft=1&f=1007

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