Amtrak High Speed Rail Study (Video at link below)

07-Dec-2010

On September 28, 2010, at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, Amtrak unveiled its vision for next-generation high-speed passenger rail service for the Northeast Corridor of the United States. 

To validate its vision, (click here) Amtrak engaged AECOM, a leading provider of professional technical and management support services for government and commercial clients around the world, to conduct a comprehensive technical and economic feasibility analysis for high-speed rail service on the Northeast Corridor.

Under the study’s accelerated 12-week schedule, AECOM worked closely with Amtrak staff to deliver a concept plan for a true high-speed rail corridor extending from Washington, D.C., to Boston.  Amtrak’s report, A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor, confirmed the viability of high-speed rail service in the Northeast. Trains would operate at up to 220 miles per hour on a new, dedicated, two-track corridor with a trip time of just under three hours and 30 minutes between Washington and Boston, approximately half the current schedule. 

Upon completion in 2040, annual high-speed train ridership in the corridor would approach 18 million passengers and generate an annual operating surplus of approximately $900 million for Amtrak.  Under the “Next-Gen HSR Vision,” high-speed rail departures would increase from the current average of one per hour to four per hour in each direction, with additional service in the peak periods. Total daily high-speed rail departures would increase from 42 today to as many as 148 in 2040. In addition, full system operation in 2040 would utilize only about one third of the system’s capacity, leaving room to expand service sufficiently to accommodate up to 80 million annual high-speed rail passengers compared with 3 million in 2010.

High Speed Rail in the USA.

It is interesting Texas is planning a bullet train. Whether or not they actually build it relies on funding, private funding. There are many implications with private funding, but, this may be a financing option. The effort to make this happen should prove to be of interest.


Anyway, high speed rail is the future and the sooner the nation gets their minds around that reality, the better.


Posted Wednesday, May. 09, 2012

BY GORDON DICKSON

gdickson@star-telegram.com

LEIPZIG, Germany -- They travel more than 200 mph, (click here) and during 48 years of operation in Japan, they have never been involved in a fatal crash.

They are bullet trains, a form of transportation many Texans thought they'd never see -- unless they were on vacation in Asia or Europe. But rail advocates say a proposal to build a high-speed line connecting Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston may happen a lot sooner than many residents think -- possibly by 2020.

A group led by Central Japan Railway Co. that includes notable Texans such as former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels is seeking roughly $10 billion in private investment. Officials with that group, who plan to brief the Regional Transportation Council today in Arlington, say they will not ask for federal or state funding....

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/09/3949397/group-aims-to-raise-10-billion.html#storylink=cpy

ITV Central News- Biofuel powered Bus converted by Regenatec

There are still concerns about the ethical content of biodiesel.

The cutting edge of biodiesel belongs to Berkley, California. It is not without its own critique of the practice when the source changes from recycled vegetable oil to soybeans.

Berkeley first in Bay Area to recycle with biodiesel Trucks from Ecology Center run on waste oil from restaurants (cick here) Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, April 24, 2001

(04-24) 04:00 PDT Berkeley -- The city of Berkeley, which pioneered curbside recycling, has scored another environmental first by running the trucks that pick up newspapers, bottles and cans on fuel made from recycled vegetable oil.
"It smells like doughnuts, it's pretty weird," truck driver Todd Miller said yesterday. "I'm used to it now, but for the first couple weeks it smelled like one of those all-night doughnut shops."
The fuel, known as biodiesel, is made from waste oil collected from restaurants such as McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and KFC. Advocates say that although the fuel is more expensive than regular diesel, it burns cleaner, is an alternative to fossil fuels and can be used in any diesel engine....




Biodiesel (click here)

Saturday, February 26th, 10am to 4pm

3107 Etcheverry Hall, UC Berkeley

Number of participants: 25

This homebrew workshop is a quick-moving, hands-on class, where you will make several small batches of biodiesel, learn safety and basic lab processes, test oil and biodiesel for quality, and work with ethanol and discuss acid-base biodiesel processes.

Students will also make a full size batch of biodiesel in a homebrew reactor, we will demonstrate washing processes, demonstrate purification of glycerol and it's uses, discuss biodiesel reactors and demonstrate methanol recovery equipment, discuss solar heating for the process, discuss heat exchangers, use of vacuum for energy savings, dewatering of waste vegetable oil, safe glycerol/waste oil burners for process heat, biodiesel co-ops and production groups, and more.

We need to resolve these problems. There has to be a sustainable source of biodiesel to replace the products of the petroleum industry. I am confident there are hybrid forms of soybeans that can be grown in hydroponics in greenhouses the size of a warehouse to solve this. Rapid growing and high yielding specifically for biodiesel. If California can build the Cyrstal Cathedral it can build a greenhouse large enough to supply biodiesel for its commuter needs.

Bloom is off the biodiesel rose: Berkeley says "no" to soy biofuel (click here)

January 9, 2009

Often in the lead in progressive causes, the City of Berkeley started using biodiesel in more than 100 city vehicles six years ago. For a while, the biofuel came from recycled waste grease and everyone was happy. The source shifted to crop soybeans when not enough grease could be found but, due to new concerns about growing crops for fuel, the city has now decided that enough is enough. The City Council took delivery of its last shipment of biodiesel made from soy last month and will discuss formalizing its biodiesel policy this fall, taking land impacts around the world into account. The city had been burning biodiesel in trucks and other heavy machinery. Deputy Public Works Director Andrew Clough told Inside Bay Area that, "What seemed like a really good idea maybe isn't such a good idea as we thought because of all the considerations."

Berkley is sincere about biodiesel. It has dedicated a great deal of effort to the investigation of the fuel and all the pitfalls along the way. We need different synthetic gaskets, too. The problems are not huge and can build more economy than one realizes.

Usage Of Biodiesel Fuel (click here)

Biodiesel fuel usage can be done in pure form or it may be blended with petroleum diesel at any concentration, as in most injection pump diesel engines. Let us study the usage of biodiesel fuel on this page.

New common rail engines with extreme high pressure have stern factory limits of using biodiesel fuel, B5 or B20 depending on manufacturer. As Biodiesel fuel has different solvent properties than petrodiesel, it can degrade natural rubber gaskets and hoses in vehicles. Plus Biodiesel has been known to break down deposits of residue in the fuel lines, so as a result, fuel filters may get clogged with particulates if there has been a fast transition to pure biodiesel fuel. Therefore, when using biodiesel fuel, it is suggested to change the fuel filters on engines and heaters in a while after first switching to a biodiesel blend.

Manufacturer acceptance and vehicular usage of biodiesel fuel began in 2005, when Chrysler released the Jeep Liberty CRD diesels into the American market with 5% biodiesel blends. This was an indication of at least partial acceptance of biodiesel fuel usage. 2004 saw the the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia updating its bus system to allow the fleet of city buses to run completely on a fish-oil based biodiesel fuel. In 2007, McDonalds in UK announced that it would start producing biodiesel from the wasteoil of its restaurants and use biodiesel fuel to run its fleet...

The solar industry was sincerely impacted by the global recession.

Posted on Thursday, 05.17.12

China faces solar tariffs (click here)

BY DON LEE

TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry.

The Commerce Department announced the stiff duties Thursday after making a preliminary finding that Chinese solar panel manufacturers "dumped" their goods - that is, sold them at below fair-market value.

The widely anticipated ruling, if affirmed by U.S. trade officials this fall, is expected to have significant implications for both the global production of solar cells, now largely in China, and the growth of the solar energy industry in the U.S., which employs about 100,000 people in manufacturing, installation and services.

More than 60 Chinese firms, including Suntech Power Holdings Co., the world's largest solar panel maker, and Trina Solar Ltd., face a 31 percent duty on their exports to the U.S., retroactive to shipments made in February. All other Chinese exporters of solar cells will be hit with a tariff of 250 percent....

In Connecticut, however, there is a lot of incentive for residents to LEASE solar panels from their energy company. It save money.

Demands for solar panels feel when the global recession hit Europe. European countries found their austerity cut government incentives to encourage the use of alternative energies, simply because they are new infrastructure projects. The price of solar panels fell because they were not in high demand and the Chinese labor market could turn them out far less then labor anywhere else in The West. But, the scenery is changing and USA manufacturer of quality products and their use in local economies are proving to bring back the demand.

Conn. subsidies seen spurring home solar power (click here)

By Stephen Singer

AP Business Writer / May 20, 2012

HARTFORD, Conn.—Dmitri Donskoy figures he'll save only $20 a month on his electricity bill after solar panels are installed on the roof of his home under a state-subsidized program. But he shrugs it off because the green energy appeals to his environmental concerns.

Donskoy, a software developer in Prospect, said he was motivated to go solar after Connecticut officials killed a wind turbine proposed for the town last year.

"It was partly sparked by my annoyance of the cancellation of the windmill project," he said. "There must be a way for us to contribute."

Installing solar panels could cost, on average, $35,000, according to a state energy agency spokesman. Donskoy says he's leasing because he doesn't have thousands of dollars to spend, instead paying a solar company $58 a month for his electricity.

"The savings didn't motivate me. It's really the environmental aspects," Donskoy said.

Solar energy is seen as one way to save in Connecticut, where residential electricity costs were the third highest in the United States in 2010, exceeded only by Hawaii and New York, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Solar represents a fraction of the state's overall energy supply, but backers hope it will grow....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/17/2804846/china-faces-solar-tariffs.html#storylink=cpy

• Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/17/2804846/china-faces-solar-tariffs.html#storylink=cpy

Congress needs to get out of the way of progress.

Northwest Bucks National Wind Power Becalming (click here)

Tom Banse | Oct. 29, 2010 2:36 p.m. | Updated: Oct. 29, 2010 2:37 p.m. | Olympia, WA

...The American Wind Energy Association tracks wind farm construction.  The association's Elizabeth Salerno says the economy has taken a toll on her industry. 

She figures a bigger reason for the slowdown is Congress stalling on extension of a tax credit for wind developers.  But Salerno says wind farm expansion continues at a brisk pace in the Northwest.

Elizabeth Salerno: "It's an active region and the reason for that is both Washington and Oregon get it in terms of policy.  Strong renewable portfolio standards have been put in place in both states really sending a signal to all the different companies active in wind that the region is open for business."

Salerno says in 2010's third quarter Oregon added more new wind generation than any other state including perennial chart leader Texas....

Hydroelectric supported by wind power, now that is a green solution.

BPA orders NW wind farms to curtail production (click here)

The Bonneville Power Administration twice ordered Pacific Northwest wind farms to cut production in recent days because it has a surplus of power from hydroelectric dams.

By STEVEN DuBOIS

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. —

The Bonneville Power Administration twice ordered Pacific Northwest wind farms to cut production in recent days because it has a surplus of power from hydroelectric dams.

The agency, which manages much of the power grid in the Northwest, confirmed it issued the orders during the early morning hours of Sunday and Monday, when demand is low.

The action rekindles a dispute from last year, when the agency curtailed wind turbines because the water from a large mountain snowpack left the region with more hydropower than the electrical grid could handle.

Michael Milstein, a BPA spokesman, said spring runoff has picked up in the past month or two. "Originally it wasn't looking like that wet of a year, but that has changed," he said....

There are coastal areas everywhere in the world receiving the wrath of human induced global warming.

Delaivadra Village foreshore (looking south) showing the proximity of dwellings to the shoreline and the
elevation of the sandy strip where the houses are built (around 0.5m above high water). The recently built
(last 18 months) groynes can be seen crossing the active beach (at the time of study long shore transport
was towards the camera [northwards]).


These people are very worried about their lost Mangroves. 
They are trees that do very well in salt water. And they 
are being destroyed by sea level rise, so the people are 
attempting to build groines to plant seedlings in hope 
the Mangrove forests will again thrive.


Why are Mangrove Forests important? Because there are 
entire ecosystems that live among their roots, including, fish
for dinner.

Climate change in Labasa (click here)

Osea Sokomuri
Sunday, May 20, 2012

Jotame Ratabua, a 73-year-old villager in Yadua Island in Bua, and Tevita Rokuta, 74 of Salevukoso Village in Druadrua Island, Macuata do not need scientific reports to tell them that the sea is rising and affecting their islands.

The beaches of their childhood are disappearing.

In Druadrua, an old village shop was no more, washed away by the rise in sea level; the two houses that are closer to the beach are on the verge of being washed away. Both the islands are under threat as evidence has shown coastal erosion taking place, claiming the beach forefront. Left behind on the beach where the coastal erosion has taken place are visible foundations of tree trunks.

Global Warming or Climate Change is the measurable increases in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses....

The study supplying these images can be found if you click here.

Coastal areas will receive strong tides with these storms due to sea level rise.

Horse lovers grow up reading about the free-roaming ponies of Assateague Island.




May 19, 2012, 4:54 PM

Wild Ponies and Wild Weather

By DIANE ACKERMAN

...It took decades (click here) for the delicate coastal ecosystems to recover, the cities and towns to rebuild, and the wild ponies to regain their numbers. In one way the storm was lucky for the ponies. Assateague was being developed as an island resort, but after the roads and structures were washed away, developers abandoned the idea, and the island joined the National Park Service instead. Only the fittest and smartest ponies survived, and their genes live on in the current herd, which is vigorous, canny and well adapted to the rigors of a maritime landscape....

"Alberto" the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

May 20, 2012
1940:00z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Southeast USA (click here for 12 hour loop)


It has been more than interesting to witness first hand how a 'near shore hurricane' forms. I was in Wilmington, North Carolina for a few days and will probably return there before much longer to observe "Alberto" more closely.


It is the 'sea spray' you see. The sun goes down, but, the tide never stops. While the air is cool along the coast the sea mist consolidates into clouds above the ocean. After the initial beginning the clouds then take on a very odd characteristic during the day as the moisture from the repeating sea spray is carried to higher altitudes to begin to spin and form a heat vortex.

May 20, 2012
1930:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor USA (click here for 12 hour loop)


There are two front boundaries moving toward each other. The hurricane is noted off Georgia/South Carolina. Interestingly though, the two boundaries are defining themselves along another moisture source, the Mississippi River.

May 20, 2012
1930:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor of North and West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)

But the accumulation for the Alberto isn't all from near shore sea spray, there is also a very dense water vapor trail immediately to the east of it.

From The Boston Globe:


...Alberto (click here) is this years first tropical storm and radar is already picking up some rain off the southeast coast. Alberto is expected to stay off the coast and not make landfall. Some moisture from Alberto could get pulled into our area Monday and enhance our showers just a bit. Anytime you get a tropical system involved with another low pressure area, the rainfall from the non-tropical storm can be higher. Most of the heaviest rain should stay off the coast Monday night.


It was interesting to watch this hurricane develop and all the weather persons be wrong. They were predicting a movement out to sea and a good weekend. By Friday evening they finally realized this system wasn't going anywhere. I was waiting for someone to say this is looking like the first storm of the season, but, I guess they are still expecting them to come from Africa. The air next to Earth is very dry and very hot. Where air evaporates in large quantities it will accumulate and form a turbulent system. There is too much heat for it to simply move offshore.

The Age of Fossil Fuel is Over.

Peak Oil occurred in 2005. When the Oil Embargo of 1973 should have been a turning point in the USA to perfect and change the methodology of energy to the domestic need. That turning point never occurred in the face of scientists stating is was vital to make the coarse correction.


In ten years or less, there is a very strong probability the fossil fuels will double in cost and the global economy will tank unless that coarse correction is made NOW.


Oh, yeah. This is a report by the International Monetary Fund. I take it this is news to you. It didn't exactly make front page headlines in the USA since Republicans are demanding the XL Pipeline is their bottom line to energy dependence from Canada.


Interesting, isn't it? 

World Oil Price to Double by 2022 – IMF Report

MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti)

World oil prices may double (click here) in the next decade with a disastrous effect on the global economy according to a report commissioned by the IMF, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday .

Global oil prices are currently hovering at historically high levels of $110 per barrel but a combination of rising demand and constrained supply could have major consequences for the global economy, the paper said.

"Our prediction of small further increases in world oil production comes at the expense of a near doubling, permanently, of real oil prices over the coming decade," the paper quoted the report's authors as saying.

"This is uncharted territory for the world economy, which has never experienced such prices for more than a few months."

Persistently high oil prices are already threatening the global economic recovery, International Energy Agency Director Maria van der Hoeven said.

Although prices have eased somewhat in recent weeks, the threat of heightened political tension over Iran, limited spare production capacity and unplanned supply outages remain, she said....

It's Sunday Night

Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money ( HQ )

Donna Summer (click here)

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

Onetta there in the corner stand
and wonders where she is and
it's strange to her
some people seem to have everything

Nine a.m. on the hour hand
and she's waiting for the bell
and she's looking real pretty
just wait for her clientele

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

Twenty five years have
come and gone
and she' seen a lot of tears
of the ones who come in
they really seem to need her there

It's a sacrifice working day to day
for little money just tips for pay
But it's worth it all
just to hear them say that they care

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

She already knows
she's seen her bad times
she already knows
these are the good times

She'll never sell out
she never will
not for a dollar bill
she works hard

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

She works hard for the money
so hard for it honey
she works hard for the money
so you better treat her right

The DNC can't win this one? Joking!

Preibus became RNC Chairman for winning Wisconsin with a huge victory for Republicans in 2010. This is why he displaced Michael Steele. There is more than one career riding on this race.

We recommend Walker; his removal isn't justified (click here)

May 19, 2012 6:49 p.m.

Here's ours: We see no reason to remove Walker from office. We recommend him in the June 5 recall election.

Walker's rematch with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was prompted by one issue: Walker's tough stance with the state's public-employee unions. It's inconceivable that the recall election would be occurring absent that. And a disagreement over a single policy is simply not enough to justify a vote against the governor.

A Marquette Law School Poll in January showed that many people in the Badger State agree. In that poll, 72% of Republicans, 44% of independents and 17% of Democrats said recalls should be limited to criminal wrongdoing. Republican state Rep. Robin Vos has proposed tightening the recall mechanism; he should continue to push for that after the election, regardless of who wins....

Mayor Tom Barrett, no relation, must demand an Op-Ed and end this charade.


Walker and Preibus are among the most corrupt politicians in the league. They take huge amounts of money to win elections to return the monies to cronies as a favor. This is America? Where?


Walker is using the union busting to obtain more funds to fill in budget gaps. He isn't doing anything extraordinary to grow the Wisconsin economy, so much as piece aspects of the public sector together to fill in the gaps.


Walker is a typical Republican that wants to cut and raise taxes on the Middle Class. That is what his union busting proposals are all about. It is about filling in budget gaps he can't find money from increased employment and fiscal soundness, so he is taxing the Middle Class by increasing pension contributions out of their paycheck.


A cut in the Middle Class income is austerity. Walker is practicing austerity. He hasn't been doing anything to help Wisconsin since the former Governor Jim Doyle made budget cuts, RAISED TAXES and brought in stimulus monies from DC. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act dollars brought in by Jim Doyle ran out in June 2011 and Walker has been unsuccessful in job creation or increased tax revenues from increased economic growth.


Wisconsin is weaker today, as the citizens are weakened through budget cuts and lays offs. Wisconsin is not better.


The State Workers didn't cause the problem and neither did the Unions. The problem was caused by the banks. It is time to be sure there is not more damage done to the Wisconsin economy before it is too late. The global economic collapse of 2008 destroyed Wisconsin's economy, not the teachers or any other public worker. It is time to stop penalizing the people that do their jobs and do it well.

"I love them more." Elisa Barrett.

Still limping from a foot injury, Chen arrives as another victory for US-China relations.

Activist Chen Guangcheng being accompanied by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell (front R) and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke (C), in Beijing, May 2, 2012.


There is a movement in China to end "The One Child Policy." The movement started years ago, as reported in the New York Times and it may be noted this blog, as the Chinese society changed, the demand for change emerged among the wealthy.

China has an enormous population of which many have lived in substandard conditions. If one ventures into the countryside the poverty and illiteracy is still very much a noted part of the citizens lives. It is not a simple task to move a nation larger than a billion people into a First World quality of life. If Communism didn't exist whereby the people were provided for by the government there would be conditions far worse than exist today. China is an emerging First World nation. For that reason, there is a huge division of culture in the country. The wealthy, the brain trust have their rewards through achievement and cultural enrichment. The politics of "The One Child Policy" is a part of the awakening of the upper class and status. They want more than one child in their family.


It is the common experience of any person to want egalitarianism as a moral imperative, hence, the activists and the movement to free all Chinese citizens of this burden. The One Child Policy is a burden of the state on the people. It is imposed to help relieve the fiscal burden of supporting so many people under a Communist government and improve their quality of life by minimizing the population growth. For a long time, it was a solution to a problem then out of control, today, it is an imposition on a changing culture that now enjoys greater wealthy while seeking freedom of expression. This expression is the love of family and the desire to have more children as they can afford more children themselves and know far better how to nurture them into the future.


The Chinese government has divided loyalties to the outcome of the opposition of The One Child Policy. This Communist government sees its country flourishing in new ways afforded by the sweat of their people in producing consumer products for capital based markets. The strides China has made in the past two decades could not have been achieved without the hard work of its citizens, yet, it is still too ungainly for an egalitarian culture for all its citizens.


The provincial authorities is really where most of the short fall is when it comes to changing culture. There is much tolerance of change, but, there is also intolerance to drastic change or paradigm shift. The provincial governments maintain order. The citizens don't necessarily like it, but, they live with it. And they do live, by the way. The provincial governments are not killing machines for the central authority.


The Chinese are still perfecting their work a day worlds, finding ways to make the lives of their citizens better. In turn, when citizens that work for companies understand better quality of life they will be able to translate it into better work environments and better products. Over the years the Chinese products have fallen short of expectations at times, but, I am confident that is under scrutiny, there have been executions in relation to these incidents. 


China still has a long way to go before its internal consumerism is enough to keep their own manufacturing humming. It is happening though and it is happening without internal upheaval. 


Someday, the One Child Policy will be a thing of the past. It will happen. Until then lawyers and those that are striving to be lawyers like Chen Guangcheng will continue to remind the central authority there is a country preparing for and in many ways are ready for change.

By Lisa Mascaro and Barbara Demick

May 19, 2012, 4:28 p.m.

WASHINGTON — After years of detention (click here) and a bold escape to the U.S. Embassyin Beijing, blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States, a bittersweet moment in a harrowing journey that had touched off a diplomatic crisis and poses continued challenges for U.S.-Chinese relations.

The human rights leader and his family were whisked quickly and suddenly out of Beijing, as Chen expressed gratitude but also concerns about the safety of the relatives he was leaving behind in China. He arrived Saturday night in Newark, N.J....

To good to be true. Someone actually cares.

Perhaps the First Lady Michelle Obama might make a trip to Chef Batali's kitchen to discuss nutrition, deserts and the challenge of our nation to reform our diets.

Never before have I witnessed an act of compassion quite like this. A well accomplished chef comes forward to put his reputation on the line to make a political statement. That takes guts. I'd like to see our USA Congress live on Food Stamps for a week.

Posted on Friday, 05.18.12

BY LEANNE ITALIE

To much of the world, (click here) it was Monday. To Mario Batali, it was Day Four.

The chef, his wife and their two teenage sons were eating for a week on the equivalent of a food stamp budget in protest of cuts pending in Congress to the benefit program used by more than 46 million Americans.

That’s $31 per person for the week, or about $1.48 per meal each.

“I’m [expletive] starving,” said Batali, who’s on the board of the food relief agency Food Bank for New York City, which issued the challenge.

Batali said his first reaction when asked to join was a big “gulp,” then he realized while shopping that with a little forethought it wouldn’t be all that brutal.

One lesson: forget organic and anything pesticide- or hormone-free. “The organic word slides out and saves you about 50 percent.”...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/18/2804458/mario-batali-a-hungry-chef-on.html#storylink=cpy

They seemed to hit all the high spots.

World leaders attend the family photo session during the G-8 Summit at Camp David, Md., Saturday, May 19, 2012. From left are European Commission President Jose' Manuel Barroso, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Francois Hollande, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minster David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. (AP Photo/Philippe Wojazer, Pool)


I was pleased there was a concensus on Iran and that President Medvedev could bring the leaders together. It will be a nice finish to his Presidency. Added to the accomplishments was a discussion and consensus on austerity vs growth. Let's home the global economy can stop growing in 'fits and starts' so much as a continuity that provides security for all the nations. Nations need to put their people first while allowing concern for investment instruments, but, generally there probably should be a return to something more "Glass - Steagal"l which began the FDIC and separated investing from banking.


The FDIC is a clear indication of the thought placed on security for citizens. That should never be sacrificed for those that have MONEY TO WASTE as venturists.


With the surprising news from Morgan-Stanley recently, there can be no doubt consumers need more protection and even separation from the risk takers, even if that means their governments don't recognize the investment banks as viable from the standpoint of a stable entity in global economies.


Corporations need their own equity content to their treasuries and not a 'line of equity' with an end to risk taking to make stockholders more important than the USA economy they rely on for their product profit margin. Citizens are allowed to have security in life and a safe home to retire into.


Published: May 19, 2012 5:17 PM
By The Associated Press 
DAVID McHUGH (AP Business Writer)

WASHINGTON - (AP) -- President Barack Obama (click here) and other leaders of wealthy nations underscored an increasing consensus that their countries need to adopt growth measures alongside relentless budget cutbacks to work their way out of their debt troubles.

It's a juggle that's much harder in real life than it is on paper.

Their eight-paragraph statement from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., on Saturday seamlessly bridged both sides of the austerity versus growth debate and let each decide exactly what the new growth emphasis is going to mean. And it said little about where the money for more spending might come from....

Morgan Stanley is more or less the canary in the mine and I simply don't believe any government has an obligation to rescue them ever again. If this venue continues the global economy will never stabilize and insure citizens security or a future they have relied upon.

I do believe Morgan Stanley passed the most recent stress test, too. Hello? And now the total lose will be close to $5 billion US. That can't be tolerated when each country on each continent are trying to recover from that last party Wall Street held.