Friday, April 1, 2011

Cure for cancer: Obama may back gas plan

Cure for cancer: Obama may back gas plan: "President Barack Obama is going to effectively join Dallas investors in switching U.S. vehicles to natural gas and off oil. Now Obama will..."

Obama may back gas plan


President Barack Obama is going to effectively join Dallas investors in switching U.S. vehicles to natural gas and off oil. Now Obama will effectively endorse legislation that would provide new incentives for natural gas powered trucks and transit buses.

The president will highlight the proposal during a speech at Gorgetown University, where he will call for cutting oil imports by one-third in a decade.

DRILLING

GOP wants to put emphasis on expanding oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and other federal waters. House Republicans intruduced several bills that aim to expand drilling by accelerating the timeframe for approving drilling permits and selling more leases. Democrats have repeatedly argured that oil companies aren't maximizing the federal resourses that are currently availible to them.

The Interior Department reported the Gulf of Mexico and one-half of onshore leases are sitting idle. Oil industry groups quickly rebutted the report, saying the administration has delayed and blocked access to domestic oil since february 2009.


In the speech Obama will call for "new and better incentives" to accelerate production on existing leases. He'll call for new Refineries to produce advanced biofuels and improved vehicle fuel efficiency standards for the 2017-2025 model year.

BACKING

The plan had significant bipartisan support last year, but it did not advance in the senate because Democratic and Republican lawmakers couldn't agree on how to pay the incentives.

Someone said a new version of legislation would cost $5 billion. Past versions of the legislation have called for increased tax credits for buyers of natural gas-powered vehicles. Even with Republican support Obama embrace of natural gas isn't without risk. Liberal Democrats and many enviromental groups say drinking water supplies could be contaminated by gas drilling in states such as Pennsylvania and New York. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the impact of drilling on water supplies.

And Republicans might not rush to work with Obama on his energy-security plan.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011


Higher oil and food prices. Unemployment near 9 percent. Crises in the middle east and Japan. The U.S. Economy faces threats at home and abroad that have the potential to dull growth or stoke inflation. Or both.

When they meet the chairman and his federal colleagues will debate those risks. At the top of their agenda is whether to make any changes to the Fed's $600 billion treasury bond purchase program, expiring at the end of June.

The bond purchases are entended to help the economy by keeping long-term interest rates down., encouraging spending and driving up stock prices. Economist expect the Feds to agree to maintain the pace and size of the bond purchases.

But the risk for the economy will probably complicate efforts as the Fed chief and a majority of his colleagues argue that the economy still needs support from the bond purchases. A vocal minority on the Fed has raised concerns that the bond purchases, combining with higher prices for food, fuel and other commodities, will spread inflation through the economy.
They also worry that the purchase could feed speculative buying that could inflate new bubbles in stocks or other assets. The recent spike in oil prices makes the Fed's job that much more difficult. The Fed's hope is that rising prices and inflation will accompany sustained and robust economic growth. However, rising energy prices may lead to a situation of stagflation: higher inflation and lower growth.

Friday, March 11, 2011


Head shaping is one of the most distinctive and deeply rooted practices of the ancient Maya, one they inherited from their olmec forebears. Of the 1600 skulls that have been studied by 122 Maya sites in presant day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Handuras, an astounding 90 percent had artificially shaped cranium, with males and females equally represented.
The practice of head shaping was a regular part of pre-Hispanic life and was required for a child's integration into society which took the form of name celebrating. Artistic representation of deforming apparatuses have been found on whistles and other musical instruments used to accompany these rites and caromonies. During the preclassic period (2000 B.C-A.D. 250) Maya had tall round heads, emulating a head of the Olmec Gods depicted in Olmec art work.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011


The Inca Indians were an indigenous group in what is now Peru. They created a highly advanced civilization for it's day and had a complex and rich culture. Many important discoveries in medicane and science were made by the Inca, and their agricultural and techniques made the cultivation of food much easier than it had been for other civilizations in the past. The agriculture and the art of the Inca indians were equally spectacular and continue to fasinate people to this day.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Apocalypse soon

In 2012, THE GRAND odometer of Maya timekeeping known as the Long Count, an accumulation of various small time cycles, will revert to zero and a new cycle of 1,872,000 days (5,125.37 years) will begin. as the long-awaited "Y12" nears, tales of what will happen have proliferated on the internet, in point, and in movies. As a result, on December 21, 2012 thousands of pilgrems, many origanized "sacred tour" groups will flee to Chichen Itza, Tikal, and a multitude of other celebrated sites of ancient America. There they will wait for a sign from the ancient Maya marking the end of the world as we know it. Will it be a blow-up or a bliss-out? Doom or delight? That depends on wich of the New Age prophets-an eclectic collection of self-appointed seers and mystics one chooses to believe.
Many of the predictions begin in outer space. it is known that there is a black hole at the center of the milky way, and that in 2012 the sun will aline with the planeof the galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years, Then, accourding to the doomsayers, the black hole will throw our solar system out of kilter. Some say supergiant flares will erupt from the suns surface. propelling an extraordinary plume of solar particles earthward at the next peak of solar activity. Earth's magnetic field will reverse, producing dire consequences such as violent hurricanes and the loss of all electronic communication systems. And natural disasters from Hurricane Katrina to the Indian ocean tsunami? They are all related to this alignment, and the ancient Maya knew all about it. That's the bad news.
But there's also good news coming from Y12 visionaries. Some say that rather than cataclysm we're due for a sudden, cosmically timed awakening: we will all join an enlightened collective conciousness that will resolve the worlds problems. The winter sulstice sun is slowly moving towards the heat of the galaxy. On December 21 (or 23 depending on how you align calenders), when the sun passes the "Great Rift," a dark streak in the Milky Way that represents the Maya "Womb of Creation" the world will be transformed. Then we will reconnect with our cosmic heart.

Why Charlie Sheen was fired from two and a half men

Page after page of bad language, the producers of two and a half men justify by firing Charlie Sheen by painting the actor as self-distuctive, sick addict who's deeriorating mentally and physically while scorning those that tried to help him.
In an unusual personal appeal, an attorney for Warner brothers tells the actors Lawers to focus on what people haven't been able to do yet, get the client sustained; rigorous and effective treatment he so urgently needs. He doesn't believe he has a problem.
He says he's tired of pretending like his life is perfect.