Steven Thorpe

A few key sentences from this article -

• Governments and utilities worldwide are likely to spend $200 billion on so-called smart grid initiatives by 2015, a development that promises greater energy efficiency on a global scale, but that is only a small step towards what could be done to use energy more efficiently.
• Right now, only a fifth of the energy we actually burn or otherwise generate for electricity is actually used.
• A smarter grid is the basic building block for such initiatives as electric and hybrid cars, and utility executives like Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, consider increasing efficiency a source of energy in and of itself.
• Bringing a full smart grid online in the United States alone is a $1 to $2 trillion proposition over the next couple of decades, according to research by Jackson Associates, and it will save $48 billion for the 200 largest U.S. utilities.
• Take, for instance, the Bush tax cuts of the early 2000s. That legislation cost $2.48 trillion from 2001-2010—enough to have already modernized our electric grid by now, if we’d chosen to invest it that way.
• Closer to our own time, the government will spend more money bailing out banks, AIG, General Motors and Chrysler than the entire world will spend on smart grid technology that could lay the groundwork for future growth and help mitigate the effects of global warming.

Read the full article here – http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2009/12/29/smart-grid-spending-on-the-rise-but-not-enough/

Atlanta – The oft-cited credo that more guns equal more crime is being tested by facts on the ground this year: Even as gun ownership has surged in the US in the past year, violent crime, including murder and robbery, has dropped steeply. Add to that the fact that many experts had predicted higher crime rates as the US grinds through a difficult recession, and the discrepancy has advocates on both sides of the Second Amendment debate rushing to their ramparts. After several years of crime rates holding relatively steady, the FBI is reporting that violent crimes – including gun crimes – dropped dramatically in the first six months of 2009, with murder down 10 percent across the US as a whole. Concurrently, the FBI reports that gun sales – especially of assault-style rifles and handguns, two main targets of gun-control groups – are up at least 12 percent nationally since the election of President Obama, a dramatic run on guns prompted in part by so-far-unwarranted fears that Democrats in Congress and the White House will curtail gun rights and carve apart the Second Amendment. Pro-gun groups jumped at the FBI report, saying it disproves a long-running theory posited by gun-control groups and many in the mainstream media that gun ownership spawns crime and violence. “Anti-gunners have lost another one of their baseless arguments,” Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told the Examiner’s Dave Workman.

Continue reading – http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091223/ts_csm/270518

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US consumer spending rose as Americans enjoyed their biggest income gain in six months in November, government data showed Wednesday in a sign the economy is gaining steam following recession.

The Commerce Department said personal consumption expenditures climbed 0.5 percent in the penultimate month of 2009 fueled by spending on goods as retailers slashed prices to woo shoppers amid the year-end shopping season.

The spending jump was slightly lower than the revised 0.6 percent rise in October and the 0.7 percent anticipated by most economists.

The government data also showed personal income grew 0.4 percent in November, the fastest growth since May, following upwardly revised growth of 0.3 percent the prior two months.

Wage income of Americans climbed 0.3 percent, the largest growth since April.

Continue reading – http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091223/bs_afp/useconomyconsumerincomespending_20091223161228

It would make a perfect Christmas gift!

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – America’s most famous dysfunctional cartoon family, The Simpsons, this week marks two decades of making the world laugh while offering alternative television therapy to millions of fans.

The now distinctive yellow characters of Homer, Maggie and their children, the intellectually-challenged Bart, his smart sister Lisa and pacifier-sucking baby Maggie first burst onto American TV screens on December 17, 1989.

Over the past 20 years, they have entered into the national and global consciousness as an icon of television entertainment.

The Fox network show’s influence on popular American culture was highlighted when The Simpsons were idolized on US postage stamps earlier this year, and in November Marge Simpson was the cover girl for Playboy magazine.

The gravelly-voiced Marge, whose upswept blue hair-do defies gravity, became the first cartoon character to grace the cover of the magazine, more known for featuring movie stars, athletes and other celebrities in states of undress.

The show’s success has surprised even creator Matt Groening and executive producer Al Jean, the creative pens behind the family which lives in the shadow of a nuclear reactor in a fictional town called Springfield.

“I knew that the show would be a success, but I didn’t know that it would be so big, last so long and become a global phenomenon,” Groening said earlier this year.

“The Simpsons immediately struck a chord with viewers across the country as it poked fun at itself and everything in its wake,” Fox studios said in a statement.

“With its subversive humor and delightful wit, the series has made an indelible imprint on American pop culture, and the family members have become television icons.”

The series is now the longest running comedy in US television history, and has received numerous awards.

Continue reading – http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091213/ts_afp/entertainmenttelevisionussimpsons_20091213031833

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress has meatier targets to tackle.

The bill, which faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, with one audible “no,” from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.

“With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on,” Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn’t like the current Bowl Championship Series, either.

Continue reading – http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4727426

Being a member of Congress rates as the least ethical and honest professions – faring worse than car salesmen by 4 percent – according to a new Gallup poll out Wednesday.

In a poll ranking how Americans view the honesty and ethical standards of 21 professions, Congressmen were rated as having a “low/very low” ethical standards by 55 percent of 1,017 adults across the nation. Only 9 percent said members of Congress have “high/very high” standards, while 35 percent gave the lawmakers an “average” rating.

Car salesmen were the only other professionals to get a “low/very low” rating by at least 50 percent of respondents, receiving 51 percent.

Senators ranked third lowest in the poll, earning a 49 percent “low/very low” ethical rating, beating out stockbrokers, 46 percent, and HMO managers at 43 percent.

Only 11 percent of respondents gave senators a “high/very high” ethical rating.

Nurses ranked as the most respected profession with an 83 percent positive rating. Following nurses were pharmacists at 66 percent, doctors at 65 percent, police officers at 63 percent and engineers, who received a 62 percent “high/very high” rating.

Governors were the only other political job polled, and ranked much higher than lawmakers in Washington. Only 15 percent said they had a “high/very high” opinion of governors, but 48 percent gave governors an “average” rating while 35 percent rated them as “low/very low.”

Source – http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30389.html

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A western Pennsylvania woman who drank herself unconscious celebrating her 20th birthday says a hospital didn’t properly treat her, resulting in partial amputations of both of her legs.

Shanna Hiles’ medical malpractice suit against Uniontown Hospital and one of its emergency physicians says she passed out while sitting on the floor with her legs tucked under her in May. Hiles was in that position for more than 12 hours, and she claims hospital officials didn’t properly diagnose her condition and work to restore circulation to her legs.

Instead, Hiles claims she was transferred to a Pittsburgh hospital several hours later where both legs were amputated at the knee.

A hospital spokeswoman has declined to comment on the suit filed Tuesday.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com

Joe Scarborough remembers the death of John Lennon – continue reading