toothpick unappreciative: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

House eyes major budget cuts to energy innovation

No matter how you look at it, cutting energy innovation doesn?t make sense, Stepp writes. If the House Energy and Water appropriators are interested in ensuring national security and economic growth, then their proposed energy budget would look the opposite it does today

By Matthew Stepp,?Guest blogger / June 29, 2013

A wind turbine stands near Arlington, Ore. Federal investment in energy innovation enhance the United States? economic advantage and energy security, Stepp writes.

Rick Bowmer/AP/File

Enlarge

The House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee voted this week on an energy appropriations bill that decimates federal investment in clean energy innovation in the name of prioritizing funding for national security and economic growth. This bill presents the harshest proposed cuts to energy innovation programs in the last two years, cutting total funding for key Department of Energy offices by nearly 20 percent from already-sequestered FY2013 levels.

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Our mission is to provide clear, objective information about the important energy issues facing the world, address and correct misconceptions, and to actively engage readers and exchange ideas.?For more great energy coverage, visit?Energy Trends Insider.

Linnie Frank Bailey: Washington Watch: Week 22 - "What a Week"

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"What a Week" -- Major Supreme Court Rulings, Senate Passes Immigration Reform, Obama and Family in Africa.

Supreme Rulings

The Voting Rights Act (from 1965) was gutted and southern states quickly reacted to suppress the minority vote. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Prop 8 were struck down and gay marriages immediately resumed in California.

Nan Aron, President of The Alliance for Justice, got it exactly right with her HuffPo piece: "The Supreme Court Takes With One Hand, Gives With the Other."

Says Ms. Aron:

"It's been a bittersweet week in the Supreme Court. On the one hand, the Court's decisions on same-sex marriage left many of us profoundly hopeful, while its voting rights opinion was deeply disappointing. By simultaneously moving in opposite directions on fundamental principles of civil rights, this Court has torn a hole in our political fabric, and once again left the nation part equal and part unequal."

Before the ink had settled on the Voting Rights ruling, Republicans in Texas got busy. From The CS Monitor:

"Shortly after the decision on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that the state's new voter ID law would immediately take effect. He also said that the state's challenged redistricting maps "may" also take effect without prior approval from Washington."

Supporters of voting rights, such as Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, are calling on Congress to restore provisions of the act. However, even Ms. Brazile realizes this will be difficult given the current climate in Washington. From her CNN op-ed: "Congress Give us new Voting Rights Act,"

"Don't expect the conservative-controlled House of Representatives to jump at the chance though. Just last year, during the 2012 election cycle, Republican elected officials in states across the country pushed deeply hostile voter ID laws that disproportionately limit minority voters. Sometimes, the Republicans were even explicit that the purpose of these laws was to put victories in the "R" column. And all that took place with a full and complete Voting Rights Act still on the books."

In brighter news... with the decisions on DOMA and Prop 8, weddings are free to resume in those states which allow gay marriage. As a matter of fact, two of the plaintiffs in the historic ruling--Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, from Berkeley, were the first to be married with California Attorney General Kamala Harris officiating.

Btw.......Did Chris Christie just lose 2016 with this stance on gay marriage?

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) blasted the Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, calling it "wrong." Read More"

Maybe this is his stance going into the GOP primaries (which depend on the right-wing vote) however, should he become the Presidential candidate I predict he will "see the light" on this issue.

Will the Immigration Bill be Stalled?
The Senate passed a bi-partisan immigration bill this week, now it goes to the House. President Obama has called on Congress to pass the bill before their August recess. (We talked about this likely STALL in our post from week 20.)

Student Loan Rates set to Double
Rates on new student loans will DOUBLE on Monday. Still, no action from Congress to prevent this.

The Obamas in Africa:

View the video for a behind the scenes with the President & The First Lady at Gor?e Island -- including a visit to the Masion des Esclaves (House of Slaves) Museum. Watch as Barack Obama stands at the "door of no return" where countless Africans were forced to board ships to the Americas where they were enslaved.

Watch and Listen -- an eloquent narrative by the First Lady.

For more visit Our-Gov.com

Follow Linnie Frank Bailey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LinnieFB

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linnie-frank-bailey/washington-watch-week-22_b_3523409.html

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YouWeb Founder Peter Relan Sunsets His Gaming Incubator, Will ...

Peter Relan is best known for his gaming and mobile incubator YouWeb, which spawned Crowdstar, Agawi, Spaceport, OpenFeint and others. Today, the serial entrepreneur is announcing that YouWeb will no longer be incubating any additional companies, and Relan will be moving on to a new venture.

With this move, Relan will be sunsetting the operational roles he took across a number of companies he co-founded. For example, he stepped in as the CEO of Crowdstar in 2011, and stepped down from the role last fall. He will remain in a chairman role of his companies, he tells us.

YouWeb had differed from other accelerators in that it was extremely early-stage, almost pre-Y Combinator incubator. YouWeb chose individuals based on talent, and entrepreneurs came in with no team, business model or idea. The individual was given $100,000, and developed a business or app in-house, with Relan advising the startup along the way. YouWeb usually incubated about two entrepreneurs per year.

OpenFeint was acquired by GREE a few years ago for over $100 million, and Facebook acqui-hired the team behind Spaceport. Mobile gaming company CrowdStar is still alive, having raised another $11 million in new funding last year. In total, Relan says that YouWeb companies raised $60 million in capital, and saw $120 million in three exits.

He adds that YouWeb generated three times the cash multiple for investors (YouWeb raised around $2 million in outside funding). YouWeb won?t be shut down entirely, as the entity will still have ownership in the incubator?s startups. But the entire YouWeb team will be moving to Relan?s new company.

With all of the YouWeb companies now matured to full-fledged companies, Relan is setting his sights on something larger. He plans to expand the concept of YouWeb at a larger scale, and will be launching a studio-like organization that goes beyond mobile gaming. He adds that the new company will give greater focus on mentorship, not on co-founding or operational roles. ?I was an operational co-founder and now I will become a mentor,? he explains.

We?re seeing more and more serial entrepreneurs are forgoing traditional VC roles in favor of creating company-building studios. As Relan tells us, his new venture will have a slightly different take on this model by focusing on mentorship. Stay tuned.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/28/youweb-founder-peter-relan-sunsets-his-gaming-incubator-will-open-a-new-company-building-studio-soon/

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This Is the Best Looking Reusable Grocery Sack You've Ever Seen

Storage, storage, storage. You can never have enough storage. Especially versatile, multipurpose storage, like the Pia canvas carryall. It doesn't scream the name of some grocery store and it has a nice design.

Plus, it doubles as a storage solution. I must admit I can be kind of messy sometimes. If I don't have a place to put things like books and magazines, they'll pile up in some unsightly manner in a corner of my apartment. So in addition to being good for hauling your groceries, this bag is a nice solution for your reading materials or DVDs or what-have-you. Plus it doubles as a reusable grocery sack. The small version is $23 and the larger is $35. You can't really lose here, because you're being environmentally conscious, and you're organizing your crap. [MilkDesign via BLTD]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-best-looking-reusable-grocery-sack-youve-e-612945500

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Plaintiffs in Calif. marriage case marry in SF

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after an appeals court cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, of Berkeley. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, of Burbank, who planned to marry Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.

"They have waited and fought for this moment," Harris said. "Today their wait is finally over."

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, they took each other as "lawfully wedded wife."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 worked its way through the courts.

Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban said the appeals court's decision was "disgraceful."

Anthony Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups, called the 9th Circuit's order an "outrageous act" by judges and politicians determined to overturn Proposition 8.

He called the court's decision an "abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that the sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban lacked authority to defend the measure in court once Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown refused to do so.

The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban, approved by voters in November 2008, violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case. The court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 dispute until after that time had elapsed.

It was not immediately clear whether the appeals court's action would be halted by the high court.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-calif-marriage-case-marry-sf-000449812.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Pressed Spain considers options for nationalized bank sales

By Jes?s Aguado and Sarah White

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's economy minister said on Monday it was looking at all options for the sale of two nationalized banks as rising loan defaults and more volatility on stock markets renew questions over how it can fix the weakened sector.

Bankers say that Spain must pump more funds into some of the banks it used EU and its own money to bail out last year if it hopes to sell them soon, with the government's options for recovering some of the investment narrowing.

A recent government-commissioned report on the lenders by investment bank Nomura and consultancy McKinsey suggested quickly selling Catalunya Banc and NCG Banco before their assets deteriorate further, two banking sources said.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Monday that the government was exploring all options for the sale of the two banks, although he said there was no rush.

"The buyers always try to give the impression that things are worth less than what they are... We are convinced that these entities have value," de Guindos told COPE radio in an interview on Monday morning.

"We have to do it at the right moment and the process must be competitive... We have five years to do it, there's no need to rush. I know there are some that want it to go quickly."

Barcelona-based Catalunya Banc and NCG Banco, from the northern region of Galicia, which together hold less than 10 percent of the Spanish market, took some of the biggest chunks of the 41 billion euros ($55 billion) in aid Madrid took for troubled lenders last year.

Fernando Restoy, deputy head of Spain's central bank, opened the door on Friday to an asset protection scheme to speed up the sale of the banks, although he repeated the government's view that they do not need more capital.

Bankers say potential bidders are demanding guarantees against losses, or more capital, even though the banks are now mostly cleansed of the soured property assets that nearly felled them.

Two financial sources familiar with Catalunya Banc's accounts said interested bidders had identified additional losses of between 3 billion and 4 billion euros at the bank due to souring loans to households and companies.

But pumping extra funds into the banks would hinder Spain's attempts to slash its deficit in a prolonged recession, as it faces public anger over deep public spending cuts.

It would also bring the money spent on saving Catalunya Banc closer to its cost of liquidation. Under the terms of the European bailout Spain cannot spend more on capitalizing the bank than it would on winding it down.

"There is interest in these banks," one senior Madrid investment banker said. "But that interest is at a price which is very different to where the government's price is. Buyers essentially want to get money to buy them, as bank acquisitions in Spain have been more sour than sweet as norms keep changing and provisioning needs keep rising."

Spain has spent over 75 billion euros to help 14 banks in the past four years. To cover extra needs, it has the option to draw down more of the 100 billion euro aid line from Europe.

(Additional reporting by Sarah Morris; editing by Patrick Graham and Fiona Ortiz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pressed-spain-considers-options-nationalized-bank-sales-091558572.html

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B&N To Keep Selling Nook Tablets This Year While It Transitions To Licensing Its Ebook Brand

The Nook is on life support. Device sales are down. Digital content sales are down. Revenue is down. Things look bleak, but B&N plans to keep the devices around at least through 2013. Today in its 2013 year-end report, Barnes & Noble detailed the sad state of the Nook but said it will continue offering the Nook HD and Nook HD+ through the holidays. The company will also continue to support the devices in retail stores. However, things are about to change dramatically with the Nook brand.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/VPcuSZ1TPLc/

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Reinventing The Games Console Half Way Won't Work - TechCrunch

Editor?s note:?Tadhg Kelly is a veteran game designer, creator of leading game design blog?What Games Are?and creative director of Jawfish Games. You can follow him on Twitter?here.

In some ways you?ve got to feel bad for Microsoft. The company has spent years trying to find ways to expand its Xbox idea. It put together a very interesting camera peripheral that many people bought into, but not too many games. It?s tried, on several occasions, to use the games console as a way to win access into the living room. Yet now it?s at the point of having to roll back many of its big ideas because the market reacted so negatively. The company has run into a hard truth: In the minds of the market ?console? means something specific, and is not inclined to expand its thinking.

In essence what Microsoft wanted to do was similar to what Apple did for phones. Long before iPhones there were many years of terrible feature phones. They had Java games, shambolic web interfaces and data plans that charged per megabyte. They?stuck resolutely to sticky keys and small screens, and at best some of them had styluses that pretended to be able to recognize handwriting.?Apple managed to leapfrog that mess by reinventing how it controlled, how it looked and what it felt like. Mobile phones went from being cellular devices to something else, something with sexy touch-screen effects and whatnot, and that in turn opened the door to many other innovations.

That, in essence, was Microsoft?s big idea with Kinect. If the company could redefine control to be much broader than stuffy old joypads, then that opened the door to lots of other avenues. In a sense it was trying to take ?console? into the realm of ?smartconsole? but it had an unwillingness to really go for that. Like Sony and Sega before it, Microsoft has attempted to achieve its vision by expanding the metaphor of what ?console? is supposed to mean rather than defining a new type of product from the ground up. And the market has yet again said no.

Unlike in the computing space where one machine acts as arbiter and translator of all content toward multiple screens, the living room has never really been able to unify. We have several smaller devices that all plug into one big screen. And often they have duplicate functions.?The games console seems like it should solve that. It should be a point of access for content and functionality, roles already filled by computers but in the living room.?So much more could be brought to the living room?if only the audience would get behind that idea. Throw out all your confusing boxes, it seems to say. Bring back some sanity to your life. One box to rule them all and make your life elegant.

Yet no company can really get there. No one company can strike deals with all cable-box makers to essentially cut them out of a key part of their value chain. Nobody is yet able to convince television manufacturers to get behind one standard control method. And since that means there will always be fragmentation,?players really just want consoles to play games. They view consoles as essentially gaming CD players, and preferably cheap ones at that, and steadfastly refuse to buy into the bigger picture.

Their resistance is with good reason:?Transitioning from cheaper many-box to expensive one-box means giving up a lot. It means forfeiting the chance to play games on other systems. It means disconnecting from a pre-existing media service and converting or dumping a lot of material in the process. (Could you ever see iTunes on your Xbox?) The argument has not yet been made strongly enough to the market that the trade-off is worth doing. While smartphones show that dramatic evolution is possible,?a platform holder like Microsoft needs to go much further than it already has if it?s going to change how gamers think.

Several commenters have lamented that Microsoft?s recent reversal on DRM is caused by players being short-sighted, putting immediate value (used games) ahead of long-term potential gains (digital connectedness). To me this reflects a key dissonance.?It?s rare that the market gets educated, and instead much more common that it gets fixated on an idea of what a product category is. It hears ?PC? and it thinks ?powerful desktop computer.? It hears ?console? and it thinks ?shiny games deck.? It sees one sort of trying to act like the other and resists. No no, it says. The device is supposed to be like this.

Even though every PC, smartphone and tablet in the world has a front-facing camera, for example, the market finds something weird about consoles doing likewise because that doesn?t seem to add much to what it believes??shiny games deck? is supposed to be. Even though Nintendo has a great idea for how second screen gaming could work, the market fundamentally regards it askance. A shiny games deck is supposed to be about joypads and such. The tribe only understands ?console? as one thing and is only really interested in features that bolster that vision. All else is viewed with suspicion.

There?s some kind of smart-TV idea trying to be born at Microsoft, an interesting technology which seems just out of reach. There?s something to its Minority-Report-esque idea of swiping, swishing and talking to your television. There?s some notion in the middle of that with tablets and interactions and second screens.?But to get there needs a deep reinvention, and the road toward it does not lead through changing everyone?s minds about the meaning of ?console.? Instead it needs to be a new product, even a whole new category, and its adoption has to go slow.

Rather than adapting a product into something that is complicated, confusing and suspicious, the right approach would be to create something new. One example would be a Kinect standard that could be licensed to television makers and integrated into sets. A standalone camera, irrespective of gaming, that perhaps makes all sorts of remote control tasks easier. And not called ?Xbox? at all. Not called ?console? either.?Or, if the vision mandates that gaming still be involved, a gaming deck that gets beyond the joypad.

Much as the iPhone managed to sell itself by walking away from keypads, arguably the gaming machine that moves beyond ?console? as a product category needs to move beyond the joypad. This is very hard to do. Nintendo almost managed it with Wii before running out of steam and then trying to create a joypad/tablet combo that few people really like.?Kinect tried too, but gestural games are somewhat limited in their scope. Perhaps through SmartGlass or some haptic variant of that in combination with Kinect, Microsoft could get us all into the idea of a new product category like ?smartconsole.?

Or maybe the reason that this product struggles to come to life is simply that there is no place for it. There isn?t anything fundamentally wrong with the games console as a device.?If you like to shoot stuff, jump on platforms, race, and play sports or roleplaying games, the console form factor that we have right now does that. All of the sector?s problems are about how it runs as a business rather than a form factor (which is why microconsoles are a big deal, as they primarily innovate on the business).?Much like the computer or the car, the form factor for doing all those things has not significantly changed in 30 years ? and there?s precious little need for them to.

Blaming the market is all well and good, but there?s no reason for it to change its idea about what a games console is.?And that?s a hard truth. That?s the sort of truth that makes games executives depressed. That?s the kind of truth that, after years of working on grand visions game makers often realize (and become bitter about) that they have to lower themselves back down into the muck. Rather than change the fundamentals the market consistently tells game makers to lean in. Make it bigger. Make it better. Make it play well. Make it feel right. Make it cool. Make it, you know, a great game. That?s all the gaming market cares about, and as yet no one?s made a compelling case for it to think differently.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/23/reinventing-the-console/

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Tightrope walk over Ariz. gorge draws 13M viewers

Aerialist Nik Wallenda near the end of his quarter mile walk over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday, June 23, 2013. The daredevil successfully traversed the tightrope strung 1,500 feet above the chasm near the Grand Canyon in just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the cable swayed. (AP Photos/Discovery Channel, Tiffany Brown)

In this photo provided by the Discovery Channel, aerialist Nik Wallenda walks a 2-inch-thick steel cable taking him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge, Ariz. on Sunday, June 23, 2013. The daredevil successfully traversed the tightrope strung 1,500 feet above the chasm near the Grand Canyon in just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the cable swayed. (AP Photos/Discovery Channel, Tiffany Brown)

Daredevil Nik Wallenda smiles during a news conference after crossing a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo reservation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Wallenda completed the tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile across the gorge in just more than 22 minutes. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Daredevil Nik Wallenda crosses a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge Sunday, June 23, 2013, on the Navajo reservation outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) ? Aerialist Nik Wallenda's tightrope walk over a gorge near the Grand Canyon drew nearly 13 million viewers to the live television broadcast.

The Discovery Channel said Monday that the quarter-mile stunt at the Little Colorado River Gorge was among the most highly viewed shows in the station's history.

It also prompted 1.3 million tweets Sunday, making it one of the top trending topics.

Wallenda took 22 minutes to cross the 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the dry river bed. He did it without a harness or safety net.

The well-known daredevil contended with the wind and repeatedly called on God to calm the swaying cable.

He wore a microphone and two cameras, one that looked down on the river bed and one that faced straight ahead.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-24-Wallenda-Ratings/id-89d2fc05b4c14795a78afba649e08611

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This Brilliant Subway Hack Guarantees You'll Never Fall

The only thing worse than getting on a full subway car where there's no place to sit, is getting on an even fuller subway car where there's no place to brace yourself. But here's a brilliant hack that not only guarantees you've always got something secure to hold onto, but also something no one else has put their dirty hands on: a toilet plunger.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Money to burn? Buy this gold-plated HTC One for $2900

HTC One

A brand new HTC One with a seriously limited edition casing

Luxury goods maker Goldgenie has made a name for itself by gold-plating all kinds of items, including a few phones along the way, and its latest item up for sale is a 24ct. gold HTC One. Coming in at the completely unnecessary price of £1895 ($2919), this is the same HTC One you know and love that has been gold-plated from head to toe in a rather stunning fashion. If you want to show off to your friends even more, Goldgenie also offers a Rose Gold-plated version and Platinum-plated version for £1995 ($3073) and £2095 ($3227), respectively.

Beyond the pretentiousness of the device, you'll also get a very nice cherry oak box with what looks to be a full array of the OEM accessories for your $3000 purchase. What a nice touch. We don't expect anyone reading this to be buying one (the order page hilariously has a "quantity" box you can fill in), but it's fun to take a look -- you can see a few more details at the source link below.

Source: Goldgenie; (2)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/mr1J_zyYcLE/story01.htm

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'Monsters' Scares Away 'World War Z' For Box-Office #1

Brad Pitt's zombie flick couldn't top the $82 million opening of Pixar's 'Monsters University.'
By Ryan J. Downey

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709454/monsters-university-box-office-world-war-z.jhtml

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Prada questions summer and the exotic

MILAN (AP) ? Miuccia Prada says she is questioning the very meaning of summer and the exotic in her latest menswear designs.

In a presentation of the 2014 summer collection Sunday on the second day of Milan Fashion Week, Prada has delivered satin floral prints that are clearly associated with the Pacific, and pairs them not with the classic linen gin-and-tonic suit, but with a traditional double-breasted pin stripe.

Her reference point in the collection is clearly the 1940s. The designer has returned to the old-fashioned carry-on luggage ? no trollies, please ? with bold designs, including tropical florals and Hawaiian girls. The period references on the luggage were also backdrops to the runway: graphic prints of palm trees, postcard sunsets and images of water.

Prada did not limit herself to men's designs, and interspersed the male models with young women companions, who all wore different versions of the same smart dress. Prada worked with panels of solids and prints, gathering and pleating them around the curves, and adding beading and crystals for glamor. The women carried vintage shoulder bags and purses.

Men and women alike wore two-tone boxer shoes with colored ankle socks. There also were sneakers, with thick rubber toes.

The men's looks were classics ? with Prada updates. She seemed to have sports on her mind: There were satiny boxer shorts, light-weight shirts based on a baseball jacket and a retro bowling ball bag. The designer also layered short-sleeved knitwear over shirts, often with clashing patterns.

The color palate recalled stormy sea colors ? gray to teal to black ? and sunsets ? yellow to terracotta to earthy brown and black.

Asked her inspiration backstage, Prada laughed and said: "I would have to tell my whole life," but then conceded that she was "questioning the cliche of summer and the exotic."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prada-questions-summer-exotic-190456763.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

7 Easy Carpet Cleaning Tips - ArticleSnatch.com

Mattress cleaning Calgary

There are a lot of cleaning profits that you can find from allowing us to help you in need of rug cleaning course of action. Moreover, using less quantities of water cuts down on drying time required to the surface. Its since top quality carpets need specialized cleansing that amounted to the organization more.

Heated carpet cleaners, which could typically range between approximately 135 degrees F. Of these supermarkets shopped--Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons--Albertsons had the largest overall choice of household cleaning products for both daily and weekly chores, at the same time as some of the spring cleaning annuals, including house window, hardwood floor and area rug cleaners. These are usually made of stainless-steel and some are equipped with more than one water jet.

The trained and expert personnel at these cleaning agencies also allow it to be a point to not get inside way of everyday living of their clients and try to furnish along choices about how frequently you'll need them understanding that too with flexible timing alternatives. Pressure washers are used for cleaning the exteriors of your automobile, including the engine parts and metallic body. Minimize ornaments, books and magazines, and organize cushions on the sofa.

Even though most carpet cleaners will help you move furniture out from the way, try and get as much items up of the floor as possible. Yet, if you do it effectively, its at that point it may be more worthwhile. Therefore, it is important that you purchase carpet-cleaning machines from any company or it franchises which can be reliable and professional in this field.

carpet-cleaners

Scrub the solution which has a scrubbing brush to ensure that it penetrates the carpeting. * Outsourcing to telemarketing firms let the business to obtain quality leads which is well worth the rug cleaning company's money. The industry adopted the name "steam carpet cleaners", although the phrase is really a misnomer.

These kinds of cleaners ask you for further commercial rug cleanings as it's tougher. These often contain harmful chemicals that could be fatal if your child gets ahold in the cleanser and needs a taste. They are completely biodegradable and safe.

You will understand if you have ever undergone such an ordeal and know precisely what Im talking about. We are discussing proper cleaning. And just one tip from the book can save you the price of the book.

This is why research and certifications are important to successfully obtaining a reliable organization to clean your carpets. Put the lid on and wait 24 hrs because of it to gel. If carpets are cleaned around the regular basis, there will probably be no very last minute scramble to perform thorough cleaning.

About the Author:
Dino is the name he adores to be called with and he totally digs that name.
Kansas is the only place he's been living in. As a man exactly what he actually suches as is running but he's been handling brand-new things lately. His task is a meter reader.He is known by the name of Margarito Foutz. Kansas is where he's been living for many years. He is an office supervisor. As a man exactly what he actually likes is to ride horses and now he is trying to make cash with it.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/7-Easy-Carpet-Cleaning-Tips/5094673

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Video: New York Eyes Tesla Ban

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52277140/

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U.S. arms makers emerging hopeful in face of budget cuts

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

PARIS (Reuters) - The fallout of U.S. defense budget cuts was plain to see at this week's Paris Airshow in a range of scaled back displays that in the past were packed with a crowd-pleasing array of U.S. military hardware.

Lockheed Martin Corp , whose F-35 radar-evading jet is the biggest weapons program ever, conspicuously left the mockup of the fighter which normally graces Europe's premier industry meeting at home in favor of a billboard picture.

Yet there was also further evidence of a shift towards previously neglected markets in Asia and the Middle East, where economies and defense budgets are still growing strongly, which the industry says will allow it to weather the downturn.

The talk of the show among its U.S. participants was about how well they seem to be riding out the biggest defense cuts in a generation - and how next year's federal budget may prove more forgiving than had been feared.

"The other shoe hasn't dropped yet," said Tom Captain, head of aerospace and defense at the Deloitte consulting group, told Reuters at the air show. "The question is, will it ever?"

U.S. defense budgets are being cut by hundreds of billions of dollars after more than a decade of strong growth, but the top 20 global defense companies reported only a 1.3 percent drop in combined revenues in 2012.

The uncertainty over revenues at home is taking a toll on investments, but executives also say big backlogs, strong international demand and commercial orders have alleviated the worst effects of the sequestration that kicked in in March.

Some companies like Northrop Grumman Corp skipped the show entirely, a reflection, some argued of the industry's shift in geographical priorities.

Lockheed Martin Corp , Boeing Co , Raytheon Co and others are rapidly building up offices in countries including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India, where military spending is increasing.

Lockheed made about 17 percent of its $47 billion of revenue abroad in 2012, or $8 billion, and the company's senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development, said it will "absolutely" exceed this year's goal of 20 percent.

"We're moving much more aggressively in the international domain," Pat Dewar told Reuters at the airshow. "We're going global in a much bigger way.

FOCUS SHIFT

Industry executives are growing impatient about the inability of U.S. lawmakers and the Obama administration to resolve their differences over future budget levels but Captain said lawmakers were proceeding with fiscal 2014 budget plans as if further cuts would be avoided.

He said companies specialized in next-generation precision strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance would perform better in coming years than those that saw big gains from ground vehicle demand in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

But Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, which led an intense, but unsuccessful campaign to avert the $500 billion in across-the-board budget cuts, said many companies were scaling back investments because they still did not know how deep the cuts would finally go.

The first batch of cuts under sequestration took effect on March 1, but many lawmakers and government officials still hope to avert or reduce those planned over the next decade.

"Companies continue to hold back on investment. The uncertainty makes it impossible to move ahead in as aggressive and robust a way as they normally would," Blakey told Reuters.

Mark DeYoung, chief executive of Alliant Techsystems Inc , said the sequestration cuts and lack of clarity over funding made companies more cautious about investing in new technologies, which could have a rippling effect across the economy, limiting jobs and growth in coming years.

ATK reduced its investment plans by 10 to 15 percent during the most recent planning cycle, and further reductions may follow, depending on what happens this year, DeYoung told Reuters at the air show.

"There's uncertainty about making investment and having a return on that investment, so it makes you be more cautious," he said. "As we get through this year and see how sequestration is actually going to be implemented, it may help -- or it may make companies feel the need to pull back even further."

William Swanson, chief executive of Raytheon Co , said he remains focused on things he can control, including delivering weapons on time at the promised cost.

But he can't hide his frustration about what he considers an unprecedented level of uncertainty about U.S. budget levels.

"Every meeting I have, people want to talk about sequestration. That's what sucks all the oxygen out of the room," he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; editing by Patrick Graham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-arms-makers-emerging-hopeful-face-budget-cuts-165504549.html

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