Would you like a plug-in Prius , the sort that we spent a few days with last year, back when the seasons were changing and there was only a hint of this killer winter to come? Well, too bad, because you still can’t buy them. But Zipcar can, apparently, adding eight of the things to its fleet, and they’re available now in Boston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Given the company has 8,000 total cars available your chances of securing one of these particular Priuses (Prii?) is slim, but if you score, know that they charge in just three hours on a 110 outlet, and half that if you’re wired for 220, so no fancy-pants charging station is required for use. Zipcar adds the plug-in Prius PHEV to its fleet, probably not changing name to Zapcar originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Image credit: Amazon , for about US$120. My Milwaukee 12V, 3/8″ electric drill (pictured) is extremely handy for infrequent home repairs and bench-top projects. This and similar rechargeable drills have light weight Li-Ion batteries that hold a charge for weeks. My Milwaukee has the entire juice-box built into the handle – so I can holster it in my jeans pocket. Before the Li-Ion battery revolution, the impact of which was felt over the last two years, most rechargeable power tools were unreliable and produced a big waste stream at end of product life…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Sen. Bernie Sanders talked to Ed Schultz about John Boehner and the Republicans wanting to destroy the social safety nets in America and their goal of privatizing Social Security and putting it in the hands of Wall Street and raising the retirement age. Sen. Sanders pointed out that there’s a very simple way to make sure Social Security remains solvent. Raise the income cap on the tax so it’s less regressive. SANDERS: Massive amounts of misinformation and disinformation. The truth of the matter is, Social Security today has a $2.6 trillion surplus. Social Security can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 27 years, at which point it could pay out about 80 percent of all benefits. What does that mean? It means that within 27 years, we have to figure out how we deal with that gap. In my view, what you do is you lift the income cap so that people making more than $250,000 contribute more into the system. SCHULTZ: Yes. SANDERS: Right now, you‘re making $1 million—you‘re putting the same into the system as somebody making $106,000. Do it, problem solved, end of discussion. SCHULTZ: OK. So, their method is misinformation. Their goal is to do what, line the pockets of the big boys on Wall Street? SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, what the debate is about, Ed, is not really about the finances of Social Security. It‘s an ideological debate. You know as well as I do, these guys don‘t like government. They love Wall Street. If you destroy Social Security and people want to have a retirement account, you invest in Wall Street. Wall Street makes over a period of time tens and tens of billions of dollars. That, in fact, is the long-term goal. Second of all, if you have a Social Security system, as we have right now, which for 75 years, Ed—and people should appreciate that—has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American in a very cost-effective way. You know what? People might actually have some faith in government. You can read the rest of the transcript for this segment here . Bernie made a lot of other great points as well on raising the retirement age and how these people out there protesting at these tea party rallies are being duped.
Continue reading …Chpwn has posted a video of his latest jailbreak-only app, VoiceActivator. VoiceActivator picks up where the native iOS Voice Control leaves off, and adds system-wide, customizable commands. VoiceActivator lets you open webpages, launch applications, and other actions like taking screen shots. The video above gives you a good look at what you can expect from Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : 9 to 5 Mac Discovery Date : 29/01/2011 23:52 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …Would-be looters broke into Cairo’s famed Egyptian Museum, ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging about 10 small artifacts before being caught and detained by soldiers, Egypt’s antiquities chief said today. Zahi Hawass said the vandals did not manage to steal any of the museum’s antiquities, and that the…
Continue reading …You won’t see George W. Bush hitting the campaign trail in 2012; he’s sworn off politics for good, he tells C-SPAN in an interview airing tomorrow night. “I don’t want to go out and campaign for candidates, I don’t want to be used as a perpetual money-raiser, I don’t want…
Continue reading …IRELAND'S Upper House of Parliament has passed a key finance Bill needed to secure the country's bailout package, paving the way for embattled Prime Minister Brian Cowen to call elections. The Budget – which hikes taxes and slashes spending as part of the price for the 67.5 billion euro ($91 billion)…
Continue reading …The woman who authorities say killed her teenage daughter and son because she was fed up with them talking back and being mouthy is being treated at a hospital for an unknown condition. (Jan. 29)
Continue reading …Taco Bell has been really , really , really adamant in denying accusations that its taco meat is only 36% beef , insisting that it’s actually 88% beef. But they don’t have to defend themselves, as far as Sandra Fish is concerned. “I’d be OK with even less than 88% beef in my…
Continue reading …It seems these days whenever Bill Maher opens his mouth, he's bound to stick his foot in it while saying something totally devoid of logic or factual basis. Consider Friday's “Real Time” on HBO when with his final “New Rule,” he claimed the economic business philosophy of NFL football is similar to that of the Democratic Party while Major League Baseball's is more in line with the Republicans (video follows with transcript and commentary): BILL MAHER: So it's not a surprise that some 100 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl next week. That's 40 million more than go to church on Christmas. Suck on that, Jesus. It's also 85 million more than watched the last game of the World Series. And in that is an economic lesson for America, because football is built on an economic model of fairness and opportunity, and baseball is built on a model where the rich always win and the poor usually have no chance. The World Series is like the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”: you have to be a rich bitch just to play. Whereas the Super Bowl is like Tila Tequila, anyone can get in. Or put it another way, football is more like the Democratic philosophy. Democrats don't want to eliminate capitalism or competition, but they would like it if some kids didn't have to go to a crummy school in a rotten neighborhood while others get to go to a great school and their Dad gets them into Harvard, because when that happens, achieving the American dream is easy for some and just a fantasy for others. That's why the NFL literally shares the wealth. TV is their biggest source of revenue and they put it all in a big commie pot and split it 32 ways because they don't want anyone to fall too far behind. That's why the team that wins the Super Bowl in the next draft picks last – or what the Republicans would call punishing success. [Applause] For those of you familiar with how both sports work – something that Maher clearly isn't – you know the “Real Time” host was once again misrepresenting the truth to advance his liberal agenda. The NFL does indeed have what's called revenue sharing, but so does baseball. As reported by CBS Business Network in 2008: After hashing out their competing interests, large-market owners, small-market owners, and the players’ union initially struck a major revenue sharing deal during collective bargaining in 2002. Under the latest version , in effect through 2011, all teams pay in 31 percent of their local revenues and that pot is split evenly among all 30 teams. In addition, a chunk of MLB’s Central Fund — made up of revenues from sources like national broadcast contracts — is disproportionately allocated to teams based on their relative revenues, so lower-revenue teams get a bigger piece of the pie. As such, baseball's revenue sharing is actually more socialistic than football's for the lower-revenue teams get a bigger chunk of the shared funds. Makes Maher look like a bit of a jerk, doesn't it? So does his point about the winner of the Super Bowl getting the lowest pick in the following year's draft. Baseball does the same thing giving the last pick to the winner of the World Series. I guess you could call that strike two. But there were more wildly errant swings still to come: MAHER: Baseball, baseball, on the other hand, is exactly like the Republicans. And I don't just mean it's incredibly boring. I mean their economic theory is every man for himself. The small-market Pittsburgh Steelers go to the Super Bowl more than anybody, but the Pittsburgh Pirates? Levi Johnston has sperm that will not grow up and live long enough to see the Pirates in a World Series. Their payroll is 40 million. The Yankees is 206 million. The Pirates have about as much chances getting to the playoffs as a poor black teenager from Newark has of becoming the CEO of Halliburton. That's why people stopped going to Pirate games in May, because if you're not in the game you become indifferent to the fate of the game and maybe even get bitter. That's what's happening to the middle class in America. [Applause] It's also how Marie Antoinette lost her head. So you kind of have to laugh that the same angry white males who hate Obama because he's redistributing wealth just love football, a sport that succeeds because it does just that. To them, the NFL is American as hot dogs, Chevrolet, apple pie, and a second giant helping of apple pie. But then again, they think they're macho because their sport is football, when, honestly, is there anything gayer than wearing another man's shirt? As San Francisco Giants announcer Mike Krukow often says when someone strikes out, “Take some pine, meat”: The San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010. They had the tenth-highest payroll in the league. Their opponent, the Texas Rangers, had the 27th-highest payroll. Only three teams spent less last year. In 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays made the World Series with the second-lowest payroll. In 2007, the Colorado Rockies went with the 26th-highest payroll. In 2006, the Detroit Tigers went with the 14th-highest . In 2003, the Florida Marlins won the Series with the 20th-highest payroll. In 2002, the Anaheim Angels won the Series with the 15th-highest payroll beating the Giants who had the tenth. In 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks won the Series with the eighth-highest payroll. So much for his “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” analogy. Add it all up, and the differences between the economic philosophies of these two sports as depicted by Maher Friday evening were totally non-existent. Funnier still is that the “Real Time” host completely ignored what does indeed separate these leagues financially: football has a salary cap and baseball doesn't. This is what allows teams like the Yankees and Red Sox to spend so lavishly. Maher ignoring this suggests he really knows little about these sports, for there's nothing more Republican than the belief that achievement should come with unlimited rewards, and nothing more Democrat than it shouldn't. On the other hand, maybe the “Real Time” host didn't bring this up because he doesn't want to admit support for salary caps fearing that such a thing could some day be implemented by one of his employers to spread the wealth within the organization he works for. As likely one of the highest paid at HBO, Maher mightn't think such a program was “Democratic” if he was forced to participate in it. Now THAT'S entertainment!
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