Carmakers and White House Haggling Over Mileage Rules

Depending on the stringency of the standard, the deal could also reduce global warming emissions by millions of tons a year and cut oil imports by billions of barrels over the life of the program, cornerstones of President Obama?s energy policy.

The administration is proposing regulations that will require new American cars and trucks to attain an average of as much as 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025, roughly double the current level. That would require increases in fuel efficiency of nearly 5 percent a year from 2017 to 2025.

The standard would put domestic vehicle fuel efficiency on a par with that in Europe, China and Japan, saving consumers billions of dollars at the pump and creating for the first time a truly global automobile market.

The automakers say the standard is technically achievable. But they warn that it will cost billions of dollars to develop the vehicles, and they express doubt that consumers will accept the smaller, lighter ? and in some cases, more expensive ? cars that result.

?We can build these vehicles,? said Gloria Bergquist, vice president for public affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the leading industry lobby in Washington. ?The question is, will consumers buy them??

The talks have heated up and will continue through the summer, with the proposed new standard expected in September and completed early next year after public hearings.

The auto companies are asking the government to phase in the standard gradually, to allow credits for using certain technologies and fuels and to include a review period that could lower the target if it proves too costly, industry and government officials said. They are also seeking assurances that the government will help build the charging stations needed for electric and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, which will help to meet the new standard.

A senior administration official, insisting on anonymity because the negotiations were continuing, said the 56.2 m.p.g. goal represented the government?s opening bid, and might not be the final figure. The official said there was still some disagreement within the government, and the final outlines are far from certain.

The United States has the world?s most lenient vehicle emissions and mileage standards, lagging as much as 10 m.p.g. behind the rest of the world. Europe is expected to reach about 60 m.p.g. by 2020.

The official added that arriving at a new mileage rule was particularly difficult because the auto industry has not yet fully recovered from the recession and the government was trying to force technological change more than a decade in the future.

On that, industry and government agree.

?It is very challenging,? Mark Reuss, president of General Motors North America, said of the 56.2 m.p.g. goal at a press event in Detroit last week. ?But it?s up to us as engineers to provide high value to the customer and support the environment.?

The auto companies and the government are returning to a familiar battleground, which the industry dominated for three decades beginning in the 1970s, using its clout on Capitol Hill and within the federal bureaucracy to keep fuel economy standards low.

But two years ago, when Chrysler and General Motors were clinging to life and the rest of the industry was slumping, carmakers agreed to aggressive new nationwide fuel economy standards covering the years 2012 to 2016. That deal, announced by President Obama in May 2009 as a dozen auto executives looked on, raises the domestic car and light truck fleet fuel economy to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

Now, the government wants to extend that mandate nine years, but is confronting a much healthier and feistier industry.

The lobbying is already in full swing. The auto companies are seeking a standard at the lower end of the range proposed by the government, citing studies that say that meeting the stiffer regulation will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new vehicle and require a significant downsizing of vehicles in all classes.

They also want certainty that there will be a single national standard and that California will not be permitted to pursue a tougher standard on its own.

Bill Vlasic contributed reporting from Detroit.

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Gaming 28 - Revisiting the Village

Gaming 28 - Revisiting the Village

2 Republicans Open Door to Increases in Revenue

One of the senators, John Cornyn of Texas, said he would consider eliminating some tax breaks and corporate subsidies in the context of changes in the tax code, provided there was not an overall increase in taxes.

?I think it?s clear that the Republicans are opposed to any tax hikes, particularly during a fragile economic recovery,? Mr. Cornyn said on ?Fox News Sunday.? ?Now, do we believe tax reform is necessary? I would say absolutely.?

But he insisted that any changes in taxes be ?revenue neutral,? meaning that the government would not take in any more money from individuals or businesses than it does now.

The other senator, John McCain of Arizona, said he would be willing to consider some ?revenue raisers? as part of a broad deal, but he refused to name specific measures.

Mr. Cornyn, a member of the Senate leadership, also said that Republicans would be open to a short-term deal on the debt ceiling to provide more time for a comprehensive agreement.

?The problem with a minideal is we have a maxi-problem,? he said. ?And the big problems aren?t going to go away if you cut a minideal. All it does is delay the moment of truth. And so I?d say better now than then. But if we can?t, then we?ll take the savings we can get now, and we will relitigate this as we get closer to the election.?

The White House had no comment on the senators? remarks.

Last week, President Obama harshly criticized Republicans lawmakers for refusing to eliminate tax breaks like those for private jet owners, hedge fund managers, multinational oil companies and ethanol producers. He argued that eliminating such loopholes could save billions of dollars and help fix the short-term federal deficit and long-term national debt.

The administration and Congressional negotiators are racing to find a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion by Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the United States will exhaust its ability to borrow money and could default on some obligations. A bargain must be struck at least a week before then to provide time for a Congressional Budget Office analysis and for both chambers to vote on it.

Mr. McCain said Sunday that closing the tax breaks that Mr. Obama mentioned would have a negligible impact on the nation?s fiscal condition and would defy the will of the voters.

?The principle of not raising taxes is something that we campaigned on last November, and the result of the election was that the American people didn?t want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending,? he said on the CNN program ?State of the Union.?

He added that his fellow Republican senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, a member of the budget negotiating team, had said there were certain measures that Republicans would consider, and that he was open to them. He refused to name any.

Mr. Kyl said he would be willing to consider some increases to help bring down the deficit. ?We?re perfectly willing to consider those kinds of issues in the context of tax reform, which we would very much like to do,? Mr. Kyl said last week on ?Fox News Sunday.? ?But we?re not going to have the time to do it or be able to do it in order just to raise revenue as part of the exercise, which should be about reducing spending.?

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Google disables Realtime search, plans to incorporate Google results

It looks like you may soon be available to search public Google+ posts in real-time.

In December 2009, Google launched an experimental realtime search service, offering the latest search results, displayed as Google indexed them. Particularly useful in ?breaking news? scenarios, the feature was given its own URL and additional features last summer. Now Google has announced that it?s been taken offline for the time being, noting in a tweet ?We?ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We?re exploring how to incorporate Google+ into this functionality, so stay tuned.?

We?re not quite sure why Realtime would have to be completely taken offline in order to investigate integrating Google+ results, but it certainly demonstrates that Google is keen to make its new service as integrated as possible with other parts of its product portfolio.

It?s fair to assume that only public posts, rather than those posted to specific Circles, will be searchable. Indeed, public Google+ posts already turn up in regular Google search results. The question that remains to be answer is whether  will Google let rival search engines like Bing access its real-time flow of Plus data?

UPDATE: We?re spotting journalists on Twitter complaining about the temporary suspension of the service. Looks like Google?s going to incur quite a bit of wrath with this move, especially as there?s no indication when Realtime might be back online.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/04/google-disables-realtime-search-plans-to-incorporate-google-results/

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Hard Lines iPhone Review

Hard Lines iPhone Review

Posted on 26th Jun 2011 at 10:44 by David Hing with 9 comments

Back when mobile phones were still thought of as a new idea, Nokia's 3210 was highly sought after in many circles for its built in version of the highly addictive game Snake. Fast forward a decade, and Hard Lines is attempting to be a worthy successor to that classic title.

The mechanics of Hard Lines are simple. With simple directional strokes of your finger, you steer a line around the screen towards randomly spawning markers, accruing points while avoiding other lines that enter from the sides of the screen.

Slick and neatly designed, Hard Lines is clearly influenced by the Light Cycles from Tron, yet it doesn't limit itself to that one style of play; there are several variations. In some modes, you gain points by getting opposing lines to crash into you or the walls; in others you race against the clock, or just try to last for as long as possible. There are also some good bonuses, such as the occasional power up that enables you to crash through any other competing lines without killing yourself.


The gameplay is occasionally made overly complicated, however, via the addition of dialogue that bikes may utter in the middle of a match. This appears as a single line of text and, while it's often funny, it's usually just a distraction that obscures your view.

Aside from this, though, the balancing is beautiful and the game manages to be both punishing and forgiving at once. Each line is only a single pixel wide, for example, but you only need to pass near an item on the screen to collect it, avoiding any frustrating situations where you might end up circling it forever. Not only this, but the very narrow nature of your line means the game can afford to throw a lot of competing lines at you at any one time. In particular, the Gauntlet mode continually spawns large numbers of other lines rapidly, resulting in an intense session that's highly satisfying when it goes your way.

Verdict: Hard Lines is a well designed, easily controlled, multifaceted version of Snake with enough new material and creativity behind it to stop it being called a straightforward clone.

Hard Lines is available from the AppStore for 59p / 99c.

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Gaming 28 - Revisiting the Village

The Champions: Congress?s Man of the Vines, Including His Own

Mr. Thompson, who represents this grape-obsessed district in Congress, is not only the industry?s foremost champion in Washington, helping it secure tax breaks, get money for pet projects like the Napa Valley Wine Train or beat back restrictions on direct sales of wine. He is also a vineyard owner, growing 20 acres of sauvignon blanc grapes at his farm north of Napa.

While plenty of lawmakers in Washington act as advocates for particular industries, Mr. Thompson is in business with some of the same companies whose agendas he promotes. His vineyard has been paid at least $500,000 since 2006 by two wineries whose executives have appealed to Congress on legislative matters.

Mr. Thompson could also benefit from his own efforts on the industry?s behalf, including a push to increase the value of grapes grown near his vineyard by seeking a special designation from the Treasury Department.

Mr. Thompson?s dual role as industry backer and grape producer has drawn some criticism, particularly from his alcohol industry rivals.

?Clearly, he has a personal interest in what he is advocating for,? said Craig Wolf, president of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, which has been in a dispute with wine producers over the past year. ?And the ethics rules in Congress say you are not supposed to do these kinds of things.?

Mr. Thompson called such claims nonsense. Any action he takes is to help the industry, he said, not his tiny vineyard, which he said made only an $18,000 profit last year.

?I?m unapologetic about going to the mat for the wine industry,? he said. ?That is my job.?

Mr. Thompson, 60, is the biggest recipient in Congress of campaign contributions from the alcoholic beverage industry, totaling more than $1.2 million during his seven terms. He is also a founder of the Congressional Wine Caucus, which has nearly 200 members who gather regularly to sample wine and talk about industry affairs.

He lives in St. Helena, a picture-postcard Napa Valley town, down the street from the elementary school he attended with future leaders in the wine industry like Mr. Mondavi. Mr. Thompson?s father worked as a vineyard foreman and his mother worked as a bookkeeper for local vineyards. Some of his closest friends ? and duck hunting companions ? are top local sellers.

His vineyard, most of which he bought in 2002 for $228,000 and which today has an assessed value of about $775,000, is about an hour north of Napa in Lake County, on a quiet road with pear and walnut orchards. One recent morning, the fog had just lifted at the vineyard, leaving the fields still covered with dew as Mr. Thompson headed out to walk his property, his khaki pant legs wet and boots muddy.

?It is looking good,? Mr. Thompson told his vineyard manager, David Weiss, impressed with a new weed-clearing machine. ?I like what I see.?

Mr. Thompson has a reputation for long hours, traveling constantly to the far corners of his sprawling district for community meetings and charity events. That and his down-to-earth manner ? he introduces himself to strangers as ?Hi, I?m Mike? ? explain in part why residents here take offense to any suggestion that his intertwined roles might raise ethical issues.

?He is the hardest-working guy I have ever met,? said Dennis Cakebread, an owner of the Cakebread Vineyard and a major campaign contributor to Mr. Thompson. ?So often people get elected, go to Washington, they get sucked in, and they kind of stay there. That is not what Mike is about.?

Many pointed out his family?s commitment to the community: his wife works as a nurse at the local hospital, one son is a deputy sheriff, the other works for the Fire Department. California?s wine country, they said, benefits from having Mr. Thompson in Washington, not the other way around.

But his relationship with the industry, at a minimum, is complicated.

The bulk of Mr. Thompson?s grapes, about 100 tons a year, have been sold since 2005 to Bonterra Vineyards, a winery in Mendocino, Calif., that relies on Mr. Thompson to produce about half its sauvignon blanc. Since last year, an additional 25 tons have been sold to Honig Vineyard of Rutherford, Calif., which blends them with grapes from Napa to produce its own sauvignon blanc.

Bonterra has paid Mr. Thompson an average of $978 a ton since 2005, a price that is somewhat higher than the Lake County average, $877 a ton during the same period. But Bonterra executives said it was in line with what they paid other independent growers.

?To paint a picture, you have to have to have a palette of colors,? said Robert Blue, Bonterra?s founding winemaker. ?Mike helps bring that.?

But Mr. Thompson?s ties to both companies ? as well as to other wineries ? go well beyond grape growing.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2919ce4fabc9b09b3fa781902b711a97

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Are estributors the future of publishing?

By now it is common knowledge that ebooks comprise an ever-growing slice of the book market, and are quite likely to become the dominant book format in the next quarter century. Quick, simple distribution, ease of sale and purchase, and the ability for extensive continuing revision make ebooks a format that is a winner for both publishers and readers alike.

But  there is a disturbance in the book market?s dynamics. Authors have realized that the advantages of ebook publishing, in many cases, allow them to bypass their old publishers and strike out on their own, taking a much larger cut of the profits along the way. After all, if you can make more money, why not?

But despite the lure of increased royalties per copy, can the average writer competently execute the roles of both publisher and author?

It?s an interesting question, as the market forces that have allowed authors to effectively self-publish and keep a larger portion of their sales have also made it simpler for any individual to leverage sufficient resources to become a one-person publishing house. The Internet allows for authors to find, and collaborate, with excellent editors, artists, and formatting specialists to create a truly professional-grade book in both print and digital formats.

But is that for everyone? Will all authors want to take on that massive workload that they had previously passed of to their publishers? Many will, the money is simply that much better. How much better? Imagine your cut of a book sale going from 15% to 70%. It?s a revolutionary change. But not all authors are going to want to take time that they had previously spent writing and run their own personal publishing outfit. After all, every moment spent haggling with an artist over cover art is a moment spent not writing.

Then again, no savvy author wants to simply continue giving nearly all the revenue from their work to a company who they could likely replace, at least in most respects. Want proof? J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, is setting out on her own.

So for the author who doesn?t want to lose the support of a publisher, but wants a bigger cut, something that traditional publishing houses can?t afford, is there a middle-of-the-road option for them? As it turns out, not currently, but that seems to be about to change.

Enter the concept of estributors, the brainchild of J.A. Konrath, ironically one of the largest and most famous proponents of author?s striking out from their publishers and going it alone.

What is an estributor? We?ll start with Konrath?s explanation of the idea:

A facilitator who could be a buffer between the author and the business end of self-publishing. I called this position an estributor.The more I began to self-publish, the more I realized what a time suck it was to take care of all the non-writing parts of the job. When you go indie, you essentially become a small business, and take on all the responsibilities for running that business. That cuts into writing time. Doing quick and dirty assessment of my time management and my productivity, I concluded that I could make more money if I gave an estributor 15% to take care of the business side for me, because my increased writing output would more than make up for that cost. Plus, I?d be happier, because I?d much rather write for a living than run a business.

There is movement towards this becoming a reality. Agency Dystel & Goderich is now offering services to its authors that are shocking similar to what an estributor would. But they are toeing the line, as their bread and butter is still representing authors and landing big-dollar legacy contracts. Still, the move is crucial as it shows that diverse players in the marketplace are sitting up and wondering how they can jump on the ebook train, and not miss out on new opportunities that crop up as the traditional world of publishing crumbles around them.

If Konrath?s numbers are correct, meaning that they represent a functional business plan, the idea could represent a sweet spot: Authors can write a book, sign on to a top notch estributor, and have all the details managed, for a livable cut. They still make far more money per sale than they would have with any traditional publisher, but avoid the headache of being completely independent.

Now, for the estributor, they are in effect investing a certain amount of capital into each book that they publish, putting together its editing, cover art, formatting, and promotion. And they are wagering that whatever cut they negotiate for a set period (Konrath says 15%, but might be a bit low), will more than cover those costs, thus earning them a profit.

I would bet that for an established author, the 15% rate is a working number for both the writer and the estributor. As the established author already has some form of brand recognition and fan base, his next book is much more likely to sell well than the first tome of a new author. Therefore, for a newer, unproven author, I suspect that a higher rate for their estributor will have to be negotiated. This will help reduce risk for the estributor. But still, at a cut of 30%, or so, the author is still flipping the old ratios in their favor. And, as an author and the estributor that they work with grow their relationship over the course of multiple books, rates could be re-negotiated simply on a title by title basis.

But what about Amazon: How do they fit into this picture? The company takes 30% of the sales price of a digital book at or over the price of 2.99, a fat margin. This is pure conjecture, but I would guess that in the future, for volume accounts, i.e. big name individual authors and publishers, Amazon will offer a slightly better rate, perhaps reducing their cut by 5 to 10%. That may not sound like much, but over tens of thousands of sales, it adds up.

Why would Amazon do so? Because it wants to keep its crown as the place to sell independent books. Nook is a viable threat to the Kindle crown. And if Amazon does make that sort of rate cut, it would in fact become more economical to run books through an estributor than to go it alone, as they have, literally, the price economies of scale.

Leaving that line of thought, let?s take another look at publishing from the perspective of a young author looking to break into the ?big time? with their first book. For that person, would it not be better for them to attempt to land a big publisher, in hopes that the company would drop ad dollars into their work, giving it a much larger sales potential? The answer is a firm probably not. Over the course of talking to several authors during the last year, the tales that have reached my ears have always been the same: Major publishers are putting nearly no promotional money into first books by new authors, as they feel that there is a better return to be earned by investing that money into sure-fire hits (big name authors, books that are tied to movies and brands, etc). One author said that she was assigned to a publicity ?expert? who advised her to ?get on Facebook? and attempt to push her book there. Then the expert disappeared.

On the right: Konrath. Credit: Spine Tingler Magazin

What I mean by noting that example is that only the biggest titles are given any serious marketing support by legacy publishers, leaving estributors and their low-cost, low-cut model financially viable as they would not have to invest much in per-title advertising to be competitive. Of course, every author always wants the most publicity cash that they can get their hands on, but at least estributors won?t have to treble their per-book investment to compete.

This entire post has been a mental exercise, but one that I hope you found to be illuminating. Remember: Every industry that dealt with the physical distribution of data is ripe for revolution, and you would be hard pressed to find a more hidebound example of this than the book industry.

And finally, Amazon is the market leader in ebooks right now, but that does not mean that other players won?t rise and match it. We are currently living in the infancy of the ebook market, and that is good for authors, readers, and perhaps even the estributors that have yet to be established.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/07/03/are-estributors-the-future-of-publishing/

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South Korean Schools to Replace All Textbooks with Tablets

By 2015, students will be carrying digital textbooks in lieu of paperback books in all schools in South Korea, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Taking advantage of cloud technology, the ministry said that it will invest KRW 2.2 trillion (US $2 billion) to convert textbooks to digital with links to various multimedia content, establish massive servers and WiFi networks in schools, and provide free tablets for students from low-income families, reports The Cosunilbo.

It?s likely that the government will choose tablets manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, over U.S.-based Apple?s iPad, as some schools in Korea have started using it already for a similar initiative.

?We don?t expect the shift to digital textbooks to be difficult as students today are very accustomed to the digital environment,? a ministry official said.

The government expects that the new educational plan will help students establish their own study patterns based on individual needs by giving them online access to their lessons and other educational resources. Students who miss classes will also be able to catch up by attending substitute online classes, which would be recognized as attendance.

Technology and the Internet has revolutionized education all across the globe. While South Korea is the first to declare a country-wide plan to shift to digital textbooks, it shouldn?t come as surprise to see other countries follow suit seeing as digital content is slowly taking over traditional media.

Korea?s next problem? ADHD.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/07/04/south-korean-schools-to-replace-all-textbooks-with-tablets/

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