Mobile Gaming Allowed in Atlantic City Casinos [POLL/AUDIO]

You?ll no longer need to be on the casino floor to place a bet, or even leave your hotel room, if Atlantic City casinos take advantage of a new law that goes into effect immediately.

The measure signed by Governor Chris Christie allows casinos to offer their guests portable gaming devices, on which they can play electronic versions of authorized games (for real money).

Tropicana casino

Dino Flammia, Townsquare Media

The devices could be used anywhere located within the property boundaries of a casino hotel facility, including the swimming pool area or at a restaurant.

At the end of their stay, visitors would return the devices to the hotel and, depending on their luck, cash out their winnings.

?In order to remain attractive to visitors and competitive with neighboring states, it?s important that Atlantic City keep up with the latest innovations and trends,? said bill sponsor Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D). Nevada has offered the mobile service since 2005.

Dr. Israel Posner, a gaming expert at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, said the move follows a trend that?s been transforming Atlantic City over the past few years. Years ago, Posner said, the casino floor was thought of as the primary purpose of a building. Over the years, though, casino gaming and other property amenities started integrating and morphing into a single resort-like experience for guests. He pointed out that gaming is also available at The Pool Bar at Harrah?s Resort and in The Quarter at Tropicana.

?There are so many things to do at Atlantic City?s casinos and hotels; it just makes sense to allow guests to take their games along with them,? said Republican bill sponsor Assemblyman Chris Brown.

Caesars, Atlantic City

Michael Loccisano, Getty Images

The service would only be available on the special devices, not individuals? cell phones, and they would be required to not work beyond casino property. Gamblers who utilize the devices would need to establish an account with the casino.

According to the Associated Press, the state Division of Gaming Enforcement said there are a number of safeguards that can be built into the devices to discourage underage gambling, such as requiring a special PIN number every few minutes.

Caesars Entertainment, which oversees operations at Caesars, Harrah?s, Bally?s and Showboat, said company officials are evaluating the new gaming opportunity, but no decision has been made yet.

Joe Lupo, Senior Vice President of Operations for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, released the following statement Wednesday:

?We are very pleased that the legislature and the Governor have provided us this opportunity to offer mobile gaming as a means of further distinguishing our gaming offerings from jurisdictions that compete with AC. Since mobile gaming is a relatively new development that has not yet been widely deployed in other jurisdictions, it is something that we are closely looking into in terms of what offerings our customers would be most interested to play.?

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Would you use a portable gaming device at an AC casino?

Source: http://nj1015.com/mobile-gaming-allowed-in-atlantic-city-casinos-pollaudio/

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Lomography Sprocket Rocket

By Jim Fisher

The Lomography Sprocket Rocket ($89.99 direct) ?is a fun 35mm film camera that shoots panoramic shots over the entirety of the film?including the sprocket area around the edges of the film. The camera delivers a panoramic perspective, about twice as wide as a standard camera, so you'll only get 18 shots on a 36-shot roll. It's a very fun toy camera, although you'll have to hunt around for a specialty processing lab or scan negatives yourself in order to digitize the sprocket area of the film.

Largely plastic in material, the camera is noticeably wide. There are two metal knobs on either side of its top?one to advance the film and the other to rewind it. The lens is manual focus, with indicators for focus on objects between 0.6 and 1 meter away, and for objects further away than a meter. There's also a shutter lever, a toggle switch to change between a standard 1/100-second shutter speed and bulb mode shooting (which keeps the shutter open as long as you hold the release down), and a switch to change adjust the lens aperture for sunny (f/16) or cloudy (f/11) shooting. There's also a hotshoe, so you can add an external flash for use indoors.

Once you've taken a shot, you'll need to turn the advance knob until you see a small white dot that indicates the film is advanced to the next frame. If you want to take a double exposure, just trip the shutter again?this can give you some very trippy results.

The 30mm lens offers a wider perspective than you'd expect from this focal length thanks to the wide format. The curved front element of the lens shows through in photos?there's significant distortion, producing an almost-fisheye effect that originates in the center of the frame.

Getting your film processed may be the biggest challenge you face with the Sprocket Rocket. While it's easy enough (for now) to walk into the local drug store and get a roll of 35mm film developed, one hour photo places aren't going to be able to scan the entirety of the negative, so you won't see the sprockets. If you have a flatbed scanner at home that supports scanning negatives, you can do it yourself. Lomography even sells the DigitalLIZA 135 Film Scanning Mask ($35) to hold your film in place for better scanning. If you're local to a Lomography Gallery Store, of which there are several in major cities around the world, you can take it there for scanning and processing.

The Sprocket Rocket isn't for everyone?you'll have to be open to shooting with a camera that doesn't use a memory card, has a pretty slow lens, and only offers one wide field of view. But the camera can give you some really cool results. Sure, you can add fake sprockets to your digital photos?but when a camera like the Sprocket Rocket exists, that just seems like cheating.

More Digital Camera Reviews:
??? Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20
??? Lomography Sprocket Rocket
??? Lomography LC-A+
??? Lomography La Sardina Camera & Flash ? Western Edition
??? Sigma 8-16mm F4.5-5.6 DS HSM
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/OShciXW8Prg/0,2817,2408013,00.asp

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My Road to Becoming a Landlord (Free Money Finance)

Over the past several months, a few events have conspired to make me consider investing in rental real estate. I thought you all might enjoy hearing about what has happened as well as my thinking along the way. And since there are at least a handful of FMF readers who are experienced real estate investors, I thought I might pick up a bit of useful advice as well. :)

It all started several years ago when my son began playing basketball. A couple years into the process, a new family joined the team. Their sons had never played basketball, but they were both over 6 feet tall (at 14!) and still growing. It became my project as assistant coach to help them get up to speed as quickly as possible (FYI, several years later, they are both good/above average players.)

As a result of this effort, our family got to know the boys' family quite well. We saw each other at practices, interacted at games, and eventually got together a handful of times at their house (they live on a lake -- a PERFECT location on a hot, summer day.) During these times I initially found out that the father did something in real estate. Ultimately I discovered he sold (as a real estate agent), purchased and flipped, and bought and rented out real estate. This was his sole means of income, and while they weren't extravagantly wealthy, they were doing fine financially (at least from outward appearance, which I know can be deceiving.) Better yet, as I got to know them he seemed both knowledgeable (he seems to know what does work and doesn't in real estate -- and very practical in his knowledge) and trustworthy.

I never really thought about his business and how it could apply to me until two things happened:

  • I began to wonder about inflation -- as I've written about recently -- and what my hedge would be in case it began growing out of control. I think that owning something, a physical asset that has value, could be a decent hedge against rampant inflation. For me, gold is too pricey and commodities seem too difficult. But real estate, which we all know has been beaten down in price, seemed like a viable option.

  • As I began to consider rental real estate specifically, I realized that this could be a great way to fund a retirement or early retirement income. (I know, I'm not sure what took me so long to come to this conclusion, but I am a little slow sometimes.) For instance, if I took a sizeable portion of my investments (most in various index funds) and converted them to rental real estate, I could develop a very decent level of income that could fund an on-going retirement income stream.

I then decided to find out a bit more about real estate in my market, so I asked my friend (the dad of the basketball boys) to lunch to discuss the subject. Bob (not his real name) was kind enough to accept the offer. He spent an hour and a half answering my questions about rental real estate in general as well as the specifics of what's happening in our market. He also volunteered to drive me around if I actually wanted to see different parts of town or even meet again if I had more questions.

During our conversation I asked him about potential returns in our area. He answered as follows:

  • In our market, there's a spectrum of what you can earn on rental real estate.

  • On one end, you can earn a great deal (I don't believe he gave me a percentage). But the homes are in "the hood", there will be a lot of tenant hassles, and potentially a lot of fix-up/maintenance costs because the houses are older. But because you can get the homes so cheaply and the rents are at least decent (if you can keep the places occupied), you can earn a great deal -- IF you want to deal with what is almost guaranteed to be a hassle property to manage.

  • On the other end of the spectrum are homes in the very best areas of town. This is where everyone wants to live and where many real estate investors want to invest. There's prestige in owning homes in these areas. The tenants are also generally better and the properties newer. As a result, the homes are priced higher and because rents can only go so high and expenses are high (like real estate taxes), the return isn't that great.

  • He said that he wouldn't recommend either end of the spectrum, but somewhere in the middle based on what I was comfortable with for a return and "hassle factor."

From that meeting I took three months and read every library book I could find on rental real estate. Along the way I took notes and developed questions. I also searched online for more details and specifics. Then after I had this accumulated "book knowledge", I called Bob back and set up another lunch. We discussed various topics and he answered my questions.

Then I asked him a point blank question:

Can I invest in rental real estate in our market, not in the worst areas of town but in "decent" areas, and earn 10% income back on my investment after expenses but before taxes and depreciation?

He said I could. He then told me that he has about $500,000 invested in real estate and earns about $80,000 a year on it.

We then had a bit more discussion and decided on the following plan of attack:

  • I would make $300,000 available to invest in rental real estate.

  • I would invest in 100% cash -- not borrowing any money. Yes, I understand leverage, but if you've read FMF for more than 15 seconds you'll understand that debt and I don't get along. Besides, there is NO WAY my wife would take on debt. At least for now. :)

  • The goal for him would be to find me properties that would earn at least 10% income on the investment before taxes (FYI, these are personal taxes -- real estate taxes on the property would be included in the expenses) and depreciation.

  • The places would be in "decent" neighborhoods and be low to moderate on the "tenant hassle factor" scale.

  • He would search and recommend properties that fit this criteria based on his knowledge of the marketplace and our city. I can't understate how valuable this service has been since we started the process. If I had started this on my own, I would be lost and/or have made several very bad mistakes.

  • I would use him to purchase any properties that were identified in this way, hence he would be compensated by the real estate commission.

  • If we were successful in generating the 10% (or more) return on the $300k, I could make more money available to purchase additional properties. (I'm thinking about it this way, if I can earn 10% back on my money, I can develop a very nice and steady income -- an income that could easily help fund retirement or early semi-retirement. For example, if $500k would earn me $50,000 a year, that's a pretty good start on a retirement salary.)

  • We would diversify the purchases by looking to acquire properties with various prices, in various parts of town, with various types of tenants, and so on.

And that's how it began.

Bob set me up with a regular email notice where I get updates when new rental properties hit the market. He also sent me everything for sale in the rental market within our main county. I looked through 200 or so different properties (on paper), trying to determine a pattern for what works and what doesn't (or at least some sense of what is a good deal and what isn't). He also has started to send me details on places that have sold. He includes his best guess on what the rents were for each property. This way I can estimate the sort of returns people are getting on their investments.

The process is working quite well so far. He sends me stuff he thinks could work and I ask questions. Then we decide how to proceed. More often, I get an automated email and think a property might work. But 9 times out of 10 he says something like "you don't want to own a place in that part of town", "I was in that house last week and it leans significantly to one side -- it has bad structural issues", and the like. In other words, he discourages me away from properties way more than encouraging me to consider a purchase -- which is EXACTLY what I'm looking for in an advisor, someone who is as picky as me.

I'll give more details of how I'm evaluating properties and the like in a future post, but for now I've rambled on long enough. However, to bring this post to a complete close I should address where I got the $300k to invest. It came from the following sources:

  • I took some out of my emergency fund. The fund was way over-funded -- well more than six months of living expenses in it. So I took it down to 6-month levels.

  • Some CDs (that were earning next to nothing) matured.

  • I sold some shares in my Vanguard REIT index fund.

BTW, I considered buying properties through one of my IRAs, but since I may want access to the income prior to retirement AND there are added fees (in the neighborhood of 1%) with purchasing this way, my CPA advised me not to buy through an IRA.

In conclusion, I want to note that in the returns above I am not factoring in any benefit of potential property appreciation. This could be substantial over a long period of time given that real estate is priced near its low point. In 10 years, what I buy now will probably not be worth less than what I paid for it and could be worth a lot more.

Source: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2012/08/my-road-to-becoming-a-landlord.html

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India reinvents 'ethnic chic'

Jumpsuits inspired by sari drapes, urban dresses in tribal cloth and digitally printed lehenga skirts -- young designers have re-embraced their Indian heritage at Mumbai's latest fashion week.

In a country that has struggled at times to find its way in the global sartorial stakes, a renewed pride in ethnic traditions has been sauntering down the catwalk.

"People have realised the whole point of Indian fashion is its Indian-ness," said fashion journalist Sujata Assomull-Sippy.

"A few years ago it looked like stuff that came out of Bangkok, or copies of what we'd seen in Paris and Milan."

Western clothing may be ever more conspicuous in Indian cities but traditional clothing remains integral to a woman's wardrobe.

Top designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee is reported to make 45 percent of his 11 million dollar turnover from the sari, the much-loved drape considered both formal and flattering, modest and sexy.

"Ethnic is chic," declared the Hindustan Times in June, as India's growing band of working women enjoy more sophisticated takes on traditional wear, now more readily available on the mass market.

For designers, providing a practical and affordable edge has become crucial as they shift their focus from the moneyed socialite to the middle-class young woman with her eye on global trends.

At Lakme Fashion Week, which closes on Tuesday, Sidharta Aryan took ethnic Indian garments -- the sari, the lehenga, the choli blouse -- but created them from digitally printed silk, rather than reams of embroidery.

"There's no point wearing 25 kilos on you to go to a wedding, you won't be able to enjoy it," the 30-year-old said.

For his first show two seasons ago at Lakme, seen as a platform for India's young talent, Aryan came up with a "hard rock" look, but his style has since become more infused with traditional Indian wear.

"We should try to reinvent it," he said, pointing to the competition from international chains that now operate in India, such as Zara and Mango.

Despite these rivals, the ethnic womenswear retail sector is still a big market opportunity, according to a recent study by management consultant firm Technopak Advisors.

The group's senior vice president, Amit Gugnani, expected an annual growth rate in the sector of 10 percent over the next decade.

The more comfortable salwar kameez -- a long tunic paired with loose trousers -- will see a higher growth rate than the sari, while the expanding Western wear market will also be "redefined" to include more Indian elements, he said.

Driving the growth in fashion are the country's young population (the median age is 26), rising disposable incomes, and increasing "Eve power", with 40 to 50 million working women aged 20 to 40 estimated to be part of urban India by 2016.

"It's about being financially independent and going out to buy something for yourself because you have the money," Gugnani told AFP.

Unsurprising, therefore, is the designers' shifting focus.

"They assume you will be taking it to Goa for your holiday, that you're online looking for the latest collections. The whole communication is to the urban, young population," said Vogue India's fashion features director, Bandana Tewari.

"It's about taking ownership of your colours and having fun with it. It's a very kitsch bag that comes out, very Indian."

At the fashion week, such trends were epitomised by Richa Aggarwal, 29, who turned to the chaos of the nation's streets to inspire her debut collection in Mumbai, pulling off the cliched "east meets west" fusion and drawing praise for originality.

With funky jackets combining denim and rice sacks, and peasant blouses lined with block-printed fabrics, she said she had in mind "someone who travels globally, who has a pride in wearing the country they come from".

But she suggested Indian design wasn't yet fully confident in its own uniqueness, despite a long and rich history in textiles and fashion.

"We have the technical know-how in terms of handiwork and surfaces but we're still not banking on our USP (unique selling point). It's high time people should use it," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/india-reinvents-ethnic-chic-152640662.html

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NASA releases low-res video of Mars rover descent

This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, informally called Mount Sharp Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak of Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers), taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has not yet been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This image taken by NASA's Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover -- its main science target, informally called Mount Sharp Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak of Mount Sharp at a height of about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers), taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has not yet been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This photo provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the gravel on the surface of Mars' Gale Crater where the Curiosity rover landed late Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 PDT. On the horizon is the rim of the crater. Part of the spring that released the lens' dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. At top left is part of the rover's power supply. The lines across the top are an artifact from the sensor since the camera is looking into the sun. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This late Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012 PDT photo made available by NASA shows the Curiosity rover, bottom, and its parachute descending to the surface from the vantage point of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (AP Photo)

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity team member, Miguel San Martin, Chief Engineer, Guidance, Navigation, and Control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, left, celebrates with Adam Steltzner, MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), right, after the successful landing of Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Michael Malin, principal investigator, Mars Descent Imager explain how Mars Curiosity cameras were able to video Mars surface dust caused by the rover's engines on the descent stage, during a news briefing on the last data and imagery from Sol 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

(AP) ? NASA's Curiosity rover on Monday transmitted a low-resolution video showing the last 2 1/2 minutes of its white-knuckle dive through the Mars atmosphere, giving Earthlings a sneak peek of a spacecraft landing on another world.

As thumbnails of the video flashed on a big screen on Monday, scientists and engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion let out "oohs" and "aahs." The recording began with the protective heat shield falling away and ended with dust being kicked up as the rover was lowered by cables inside an ancient crater.

It was a sneak preview since it'll take some time before full-resolution frames are beamed back depending on other priorities.

The full video "will just be exquisite," said Michael Malin, the chief scientist of the instrument.

NASA celebrated the precision landing of a rover on Mars and marveled over the mission's flurry of photographs ? grainy, black-and-white images of Martian gravel, a mountain at sunset and, most exciting of all, the spacecraft's white-knuckle plunge through the red planet's atmosphere.

Curiosity, a roving laboratory the size of a compact car, landed right on target late Sunday night after an eight-month, 352-million-mile journey. It parked its six wheels about four miles from its ultimate science destination ? Mount Sharp rising from the floor of Gale Crater near the equator.

Extraordinary efforts were needed for the landing because the rover weighs one ton, and the thin Martian atmosphere offers little friction to slow a spacecraft down. Curiosity had to go from 13,000 mph to zero in seven minutes, unfurling a parachute, then firing rockets to brake. In a Hollywood-style finish, cables delicately lowered it to the ground at 2 mph.

At the end of what NASA called "seven minutes of terror," the vehicle settled into place almost perfectly flat in the crater it was aiming for.

"We have ended one phase of the mission much to our enjoyment," mission manager Mike Watkins said. "But another part has just begun."

The nuclear-powered Curiosity will dig into the Martian surface to analyze what's there and hunt for some of the molecular building blocks of life, including carbon.

It won't start moving for a couple of weeks, because all the systems on the $2.5 billion rover have to be checked out. Color photos and panoramas will start coming in the next few days.

But first NASA had to use tiny cameras designed to spot hazards in front of Curiosity's wheels. So early images of gravel and shadows abounded. The pictures were fuzzy, but scientists were delighted.

The photos show "a new Mars we have never seen before," Watkins said. "So every one of those pictures is the most beautiful picture I have ever seen."

In one of the photos from the close-to-the-ground hazard cameras, if you squinted and looked the right way, you could see "a silhouette of Mount Sharp in the setting sun," said an excited John Grotzinger, chief mission scientist from the California Institute of Technology.

A high-resolution camera on the orbiting 7-year-old Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, flying 211 miles directly above the plummeting Curiosity, snapped a photo of the rover dangling from its parachute about a minute from touchdown. The parachute's design can be made out in the photo.

"It's just mind-boggling to me," said Miguel San Martin, chief engineer for the landing team.

Curiosity is the heaviest piece of machinery NASA has landed on Mars, and the success gave the space agency confidence that it can unload equipment that astronauts may need in a future manned trip to the red planet.

The landing technique was hatched in 1999 in the wake of devastating back-to-back Mars spacecraft losses. Back then, engineers had no clue how to land super-heavy spacecraft. They brainstormed different possibilities, consulting Apollo-era engineers and pilots of heavy-lift helicopters.

"I think its engineering at its finest. What engineers do is they make the impossible possible," said former NASA chief technologist Bobby Braun. "This thing is elegant. People say it looks crazy. Each system was designed for a very specific function."

Because of budget constraints, NASA canceled its joint U.S.-European missions to Mars, scheduled for 2016 and 2018.

"When's the next lander on Mars? The answer to that is nobody knows," Bolden said in an interview with The Associated Press recently.

But if Curiosity finds something interesting, he said, it could spur the public and Congress to provide more money for more Martian exploration. No matter what, he said, Curiosity's mission will help NASA as it tries to send astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s.

___

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I&feature=youtu.be

___

Borenstein reported from Washington. Follow Alicia Chang's Mars coverage at: http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-08-06-Mars%20Curiosity/id-56c2b9d419474460ae17448bc1ed2e43

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Growing Pains: Nations Balance Growth, Power Needs

Muslim girls study by candlelight on July 31 inside a religious school in Noida, near New Delhi. The collapse of three regional power grids last week caused a massive power outage that blacked out more than half of India. Enlarge Parivatran Sharma/Reuters /Landov

Muslim girls study by candlelight on July 31 inside a religious school in Noida, near New Delhi. The collapse of three regional power grids last week caused a massive power outage that blacked out more than half of India.

Parivatran Sharma/Reuters /Landov

Muslim girls study by candlelight on July 31 inside a religious school in Noida, near New Delhi. The collapse of three regional power grids last week caused a massive power outage that blacked out more than half of India.

It may take some time to pinpoint the exact cause of India's massive blackouts last week, but the underlying issue for India and many other parts of the developing world is that supply is struggling to keep up with the growing demand for power ? an imbalance that can affect the reliability of electric grids.

Power grids have a tough job. They need to detect how much electricity is needed on a second-by-second basis, and match that with just the right amount of power from widely scattered generating stations.

"We are dealing with one of the most complex systems created by mankind, and it's actually pretty reliable," says Marcelino Madrigal, who works on transmission grid projects at the World Bank.

Madrigal says power grids around the world are up and running more than 99.9 percent of the time. That may not ring true to anyone who has traveled to the developing world where power outages are a common nuisance. But Madrigal says that's almost never because the transmission system has failed; it's because there isn't enough power to go around. The grid operators have to decide who will go without. That's a familiar struggle for grid operators in India. Individual places may go without power frequently, but usually the grid itself is OK.

"We know India's growing a lot. They are trying to keep up investments to be adequate to supply the needs of the strong economy," Madrigal says. "So it's actually astounding that they had a grid that was so reliable."

Power grids all around the world suffer from growing pains like India's, as these nations try to build modern economies.

Jesse Ausubel, who heads the program for the human environment at the Rockefeller University, says one challenge is to make sure that the power plants and power lines all grow at the right rate.

What happened in India to me was a sign of a much larger problem. In the world, 1 out of 3 people don't have access to either electricity or reliable electricity.

"One hopes that each time one adds a new piece, whether it's for generation or transmission, that it will be done in such a way that the integration is successful and the reliability will increase," Ausubel says. "But it may not."

These days electricity is so important to industrial society that providing adequate power isn't good enough. For example, businesses that rely on the Internet simply can't afford to be without power, even for a minute. Sure, it was a nuisance for Indian commuters on electric trains to get stranded. But, Ausubel says, the risk to our interconnected world runs much deeper.

"It's not just the railroads stopping, it really is the signal that if you want to be in the 21st century economy, you need to be very, very good at electricity," he says.

There's also a growing demand to make power supplies 100 percent reliable.

"A phrase that people sometimes use now is perfect power," Ausubel says. "People want perfect power."

That involves not only tweaking the grid, but installing more backup power supplies, to cope with the inevitable moments when catastrophic weather and other events bring down even a well-managed grid.

Many of the world's poorest nations aren't ready to think about perfect power just yet. They need a basic supply, to provide reading light at night and to attract industry.

"What happened in India to me was a sign of a much larger problem," says Nigel Purvis, who runs a consulting company called Climate Advisers in Washington, D.C. "In the world, 1 out of 3 people don't have access to either electricity or reliable electricity."

Some 1.4 billion people have no electricity at all, and even more can't count on their lights to go on when they flip the switch. Purvis says this isn't a technical problem; it's a failure of policy and financing.

"We have all of these people who are really eager to have access to electricity and a whole bunch of investors both in their countries and globally who are eager to invest in commercial ventures that will provide a healthy return on investment," he says. "And what we don't have is the political and policy conditions right that can match that willing money with that willing investor."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tried to make this issue the centerpiece of the recent sustainable development conference in Rio de Janeiro, but his pitch fell utterly flat.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/07/158275818/growing-pains-nations-balance-growth-power-needs?ft=1&f=1007

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You Want Your Child To Learn Spanish? Make it fun and easy ...

By Manuela Canales

We all know fluency in more than one language has enormous benefits.? Research tells us that the cognitive learning skills of a child are enhanced, employment opportunities can increase and it certainly broadens a child?s exposure to different cultures, resulting in an expanded? view of the world. And with more than 350 million native Spanish speakers in the world and it ranking as the world?s No. 2 language ? learning Spanish many would say can come in handy.

So tap into your child?s interests and set aside some time to do some of these easy, fun exercises together.? In a classroom, teachers might use minimal English to teach Spanish but as a parent these strategies allow you to subtly incorporate learning a second language into every day family life activities.

? Create a puppet or the digital version with this free website www.voki.com. Choose an avatar and use an external microphone and record a message in Spanish, then e-mail to relatives.

? Play restaurant at home: The menu is Spanish food. Your child is in charge of selecting what?s on the menu and you can both look up ideas.? Amarillos anyone?

? The next family night ? play the card game Fit Deck Jr. (available at WalMart) If I get the higher number, she has to perform the activity of the card like ?Touch knees to chest while skipping,? which I tell her in Spanish. The picture in the card helps my youngest child. As you start with simple commands and then you?ll make it harder you?re following advised by the TPR (Total Response Technique) advised by James Asher in 1986 that takes into account how the brain functions.

? Use TV for input for literacy, with Spanish subtitles. Expand the limited choices with offerings on the Internet. Combine YouTube and Apple TV, which allow you to watch Spanish programs in the big screen comfortably from the couch.

? Create your grocery shopping list in Spanish, looking up words you don?t know.

? Label some toys and furniture in Spanish.

? Prepare a slide show or Powerpoint with Spanish captions of your family vacation and daily routine with pictures for Grandparents and other patient family members.

? Print a calendar with Spanish days of the week to write family activities.

? When you meet other Spanish-speakers, introduce them to your kids in Spanish; the Argentinean bakery lady is always popular in our neighborhood. It also surely helps when my Nicaraguan friend from the Latino parent group based in our public library branch plays along and pretends to only understand Spanish.

Have fun with it. You?re always doing something together and indirectly, they?ll learn it as they?re living the language. Colin Baker?s ?A Parents? and Teachers? Guide to Bilingualism? is a useful resource you might want to check out. Meanwhile enjoy the journey while you are planting the seeds for your child?s interest in another language.

Photo (c) Stock Xchng

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Source: http://ctlatinonews.com/blog/2012/08/07/you-want-your-child-to-learn-spanish-make-it-fun-and-easy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=you-want-your-child-to-learn-spanish-make-it-fun-and-easy

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Syrian prime minister defects, flees to Jordan

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's prime minister defected and fled to neighboring Jordan, a Jordanian official and a rebel spokesman said Monday, evidence that the cracks in President Bashar's Assad's regime have reached the highest echelons of government.

Ahmad Kassim, a senior official with the Free Syrian Army, said Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to Jordan along with three other ministers. A Jordanian government official confirmed Hijab defected with his family but did not comment on whether three other ministers had also come. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not allowed to make any public statements on the defection.

Hijab is the highest-level government official to defect since the uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule began 17 months ago. The other ministers' identities were not immediately known and Syrian TV denied reports that Finance Minister Mohammad Jlailati had defected.

"The prime minister defected from the regime of killing, maiming and terrorism. He considers himself a soldier in the revolution," Mohammad Otari, Hijab's spokesman, told The Associated Press in Amman, Jordan.

Assad's regime has suffered a series of significant setbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on the country.

Four of the president's top security aides were killed in a rebel bombing of state security headquarters in the capital Damascus on July 18, including the defense minister and Assad's brother in law. There has been a steady stream of high-level defections from diplomats to generals in recent weeks. And the regime has been unable to fully subdue rebel challenges in the two major cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

Hijab's defection comes less than two months after he was appointed to the post, which is largely symbolic in Syria where the president and a tight coterie of advisers hold the real power.

Otari said Hijab, who hails from Syria's eastern province of Deir el-Zour, planned his defection for more than two months, and began the planning as soon as he was appointed prime minister. He declined to confirm that the premier was in Jordan now, but said Hijab was in a "safe place" along with his family and seven brothers, including two who held top government posts at the ministries of oil and environment.

"The criminal Assad pressed him to become a prime minister and left him no choice, but to accept the position. He had told him: 'You either accept the position or get killed,'" Otari said.

He said the prime minister approached rebels from the Free Syrian Army at least two months ago to help him escape, which they did.

Earlier Monday, Syrian state-run TV reported Hijab was fired from his post. A former agriculture minister, Hijab took office less than two months ago and was considered a loyalist in Assad's ruling Baath party.

The Syrian opposition celebrated Hijab's defection and saluted his bravery. George Sabra, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Council, said Hijab is a symbol of the state and added that he expected his desertion to usher in a chain of others.

"He has finally discovered that this regime is an enemy of its own people and is destined to fall, and he chose to join the ranks of those who defected before him," Sabra told AP. "This will trigger a chain of other defections by Syrian senior government and security officials," he added. "The Syrian regime is drowning and this is the clearest sign yet."

A few hours before news of the defections came out, a bomb ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus, shattering offices and wounding at least three employees. The Syrian capital has witnessed a string of suicide attacks and other bombings in the past few months as the civil war escalates and the rebels grow bolder and more capable.

The TV remained on air despite what was another severe breach of a state institution and a heavily guarded area in the capital.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.

"The explosion was so powerful it threw me in the air," said Mohammad Oudeh, a staffer who was lightly wounded in his right hand.

Ahmad Abdullah, a Turkey-based member of the Free Syrian Army rebel group, said the TV station "broadcasts government propaganda and this makes it a target for the rebels."

A pro-government private Syrian TV station, Al-Ikhbariya, broadcast images of the damage at the state TV building. The footage showed destroyed walls, overturned desks, blown-out cabinet doors, broken glass and dangling electricity cables. A few TV workers were shown tending to a wounded colleague.

Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi blamed Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel for the attack. Syrian authorities accuse the Gulf countries and Israel of supporting the rebels.

"Nothing can silence the voice of Syria or the voice of the Syrian people," al-Zoubi said while inspecting the damage at the TV building. "We have a thousand locations to broadcast from."

Syria's rebels have grown increasingly bold and capable in recent months. In July, the rebels and Syrian regime forces fought intense battles for a week in Damascus in what was the opposition fighters' biggest challenge so far in the capital.

The government claimed Saturday it was now in full control of all districts in the capital, after purging one of the last rebel-held areas, but clashes have continued in some districts.

In a brazen daylight attack, rebels commandeered a bus and snatched 48 Iranians just outside Damascus Saturday. Iran said those abducted were pilgrims who were visiting a shrine about 10 miles south of Damascus and were on their way to the airport to return home.

But the captors claimed in a video broadcast Sunday that one of the captives was an officer of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and that the 48 were on a "reconnaissance mission" in the capital.

Mainly Shiite Iran is a close ally of the beleaguered Syrian government, which is dominated by the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

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Halaby reported from Amman, Jordan. AP writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Hatay, Turkey.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-prime-minister-defects-flees-jordan-112333616.html

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