DETROIT ? Alex Avila took advantage of a rare mistake from Stephen Strasburg.
Avila hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the sixth inning on a Strasburg fastball right over the plate, lifting the Detroit Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
?When you?re facing a guy like Strasburg, you may get one pitch all game to do something,? Avila said.
Anibal Sanchez (9-7) gave up one run, five hits, and two walks over seven innings for Detroit. Jose Veras, a day after being acquired from Houston, was perfect in the eighth in his Tigers debut. Joaquin Benoit, who will keep his job as the team?s closer, gave up one hit in the ninth inning.
Sanchez, who has given up two earned runs combined in his last three starts, isn?t ready to say he?s in a groove.
?I need to keep working on my command,? he said. ?My first pitch for a strike is not there yet and I need that.?
Strasburg (5-9) allowed five runs, six hits and three walks while striking out seven over seven innings. Strasburg is winless in his last four starts and has given up at least four earned runs in three of his last five outings.
?I thought he pitched great,? Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. ?He just made one mistake and Avila crushed it. Until that inning, the way he was cruising, I thought we might get nine innings out of him.?
The AL Central-leading Tigers have won four straight and eight of nine to move 15 games over .500 for the first time this season.
Washington started strong, scoring a run on three hits in the first against Sanchez. Bryce Harper led off with a triple and scored on Ryan Zimmerman?s single. Then, the Nationals couldn?t get much else going offensively.
?We?re not swinging the bats that badly, but we never seem to score for Stephen,? Johnson said. ?I can?t explain that.?
The Nationals have scored a combined total of nine runs in Strasburg?s last four outings.
Miguel Cabrera faced Strasburg for the first time in the regular season with two outs and a runner on base in the first and he hit a 2-0 pitch sharply up the middle for a single, but was stranded when Victor Martinez hit an inning-ending flyout.
Cabrera later, trying to field a grounder in the fifth inning, appeared to aggravate the left hip injury that had recently knocked him out of the lineup, but he stayed in the game.
?It bothered him a little bit,? Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
Andy Dirks hit a game-tying double in the fourth inning and if a fan, sitting in the front row along the third-base line, didn?t field the ball with his glove, the Tigers might?ve gone ahead. Jhonny Peralta was sent back to third base after scoring, and Avila ended the inning with a flyout.
The catcher made up for the missed opportunity a few innings later, sending Strasburg?s 2-1 pitch soaring deep into the right-field seats to give the a four-run lead.
?I pitched well, minus one pitch,? Strasburg said. ?That was supposed to be a fastball away, but it came back over the plate and he put a good swing on it.?
NOTES: Johnson said pitching coach Steve McCatty, a Detroit native, was still in a hospital, two days after he was taken there to treat an irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. He is expected to be released today. ?Just being really careful with him,? Johnson said. ... Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski said he didn?t anticipate making another trade before today?s non-waiver deadline. ... Johnson said he doesn?t expect the Nationals to make a trade before the nonwaiver deadline. ... Detroit RHP Justin Verlander (10-8) is scheduled to start against Washington LHP Gio Gonzalez (7-3) today in the series finale. ... The Nationals, who swept a two-game series against Detroit at home in May, fell to 0-4 at Comerica Park. ... Detroit had a grand slam in its last game with Peralta clearing the bases in a 12-4 win that finished off a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies.
FANS DEATHS: Police have recovered a vehicle believed to have been involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed two men well-known among many Detroit Tigers fans.
Detroit police say the 2003 white Cadillac towed Tuesday isn?t the primary car in the crash near Eastern Market on the city?s east side.
James Van Horn and Michael Alston were killed about 2:30 a.m. Saturday while crossing Gratiot at Russell. Their bodies were found in the roadway.
Police still are seeking a dark-colored Dodge Avenger. Van Horn, 66, and Alston, 55, were well-known outside Comerica Park during Tigers baseball games.
(Paul Fraughton | The Salt Lake Tribune) Stephanie and Harlan McCoy play with their adopted son Gabe in their Saratoga Springs home. Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The wait is lengthy, but it is the cost of adoption that turns out to be the most daunting issue for some families.
That?s why many couples are increasingly relying on public appeals and crowdfunding websites to help them pay expenses of bringing home the children with whom they?ve fallen in love. With costs now approaching $30,000 to $40,000 for agency fees, home studies, court costs and travel, every possible way to raise money is being considered: gift boutiques, proms, benefit concerts, yard sales, silent auctions, carnivals and web-based fund drives.
Helping fund an adoption even became a project for a class at Westminster College, which put together a money-raising campaign to benefit an adjunct professor?s efforts to adopt a second child.
When they adopted Mia, their first child, Josh and Mandy Anger both worked full time and were able to save $40,000 to cover costs. Mandy Anger now supports the family as a professor in Westminster?s master of professional communication program, while Josh Anger is a stay-at-home dad ? which has made saving that sum for their second adoption more challenging. They were $5,500 short of their goal when Anita Boeira, a fellow Westminster instructor, decided helping the Angers would be an "awesome" project for her social media marketing class.
Boeira set up a fund on GoFundMe.com, which has raised more than $1 million for adoption and fertility campaigns since its inception in May 2010, while students set about publicizing the project through social media.
"To be successful, you need more than immediate family and friends" to contribute, Boeira said, and crowdfunding is a "very effective tool." The "Mia Wants a Little Brother" campaign, launched in mid-May, raised $1,000 before the class ended in June and has since brought in another $200.
"We were really surprised at how generous people were and how many people we were just acquaintances with or didn?t know at all contributed ? and thrilled!" said Mandy Anger, who plans to keep the campaign going for about another month.
Not all experts approve of this new approach to covering adoption expenses.
David Hardy, a Utah attorney and fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, said relying on others to help pay costs raises a red flag.
"If you are looking to others to pay expenses, the question becomes: ?Do you have enough solvency to raise a child?? " he said.
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While agency-based and international adoptions may be a financial stretch for some families, there are other less costly alternatives such as private adoption, adopting through foster care or pursuing an adoption through organizations ? typically faith-based ? that subsidize costs, Hardy said.
But Jacob Anderegg of Lehi called that concern "ridiculous."
"Who says in order to have a child you have to have so much money in the bank?" said Jacob Anderegg, a state representative. He and his wife Julie, parents of three biological children, decided to adopt after visiting an elementary school associated with an orphanage while in China for a study-abroad program.
"To us,it was very clear we had children in China and to that end, solvency for raising children is not even an argument," he said. "There are many more means than financial in providing for a child. ... It?s as much in the capacity and ability to love and nurture as it is in the ability to financially provide."
When they started their first adoption in January 2006, Jacob Anderegg comfortably provided for his family through his real estate and construction company. As the process dragged on, the Great Recession hit and "I went from making very decent money to making almost nothing," he said.
They were able to cover most expenses through savings but by 2011, when they were finally matched with a child, they were about $17,000 short of expenses associated with picking up their daughter Elizabeth "Lizzie" Lan Grace Anderegg, then nearly 2.
"We started a cause on Facebook and began telling our story," Jacob Anderegg said, "and had generous people we?ve known throughout our lives who just started donating."
In all, they received about $5,000 via donations on social media. They raised another $3,600 through a "Second Chance" prom attended by about 60 couples. A benefit concert featuring Jon Schmidt, a classical new age pianist, brought in another $1,600.
"We just started whittling away at what we were deficient," Jacob Anderegg said. And soon, "we had all the money we needed."
They brought Lizzie home from China last July. Though listed as a special needs child, Lizzie has thrived and shows no sign of any problems, Jacob Anderegg said.
"If you spend any real time with us, you see that Lizzie is an Anderegg," said Anderegg, who describes the adoption as a spiritual experience for his family. "I know she came through a different means, but she is definitely my daughter."
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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Tuesday, July 30, 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestine's chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. ...
Did NASA really spend millions creating a pen that would write in space? Is chocolate poisonous to dogs? Does stress cause gray hair? These questions are just a sample of the urban lore investigated in our newest eBook, Fact or Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths. Drawing from Scientific American?s ?Fact or Fiction? and ?Strange But True? columns, we?ve selected 58 of the most surprising, fascinating, useful and just plain wacky topics confronted by our writers over the years. Each brief article uncovers the truth behind everyday mythology, starting with Section One, ?In the Animal Kingdom,? where we examine some of the more outlandish claims about our fellow earthly inhabitants, such as whether elephants really remember everything and whether a cockroach can live without its head.
Other sections cover reproduction, the environment, technology and personal and mental health. In ?Babies and Parents,? the writers advise as to whether or not you should buy The Complete Mozart for your yet-to-be baby and whether or not Dad can help out with the breast-feeding. The sections ?Health Habits,? ?The Body? and ?Mind and Brain? explore just how much of our common conceptions surrounding our selves and well-being are based in fact or aren?t.
Whereas the answers to some questions, such as whether toilets really do flush in the opposite direction south of the equator, may only serve to fill your Trivial Pursuit pie, others, such as whether to wake a sleep walker or whether urine relieves the sting of a jellyfish, may come in more handy. This eBook represents a tiny fraction of circulating folk wisdom and urban mythology, but we hope it?s an enjoyable fraction and encourages you to do some well-informed debunking yourself.
NEWPORT, R.I. -- The UCF-USF rivalry began to pick up steam at the American Athletic Conference media day.
UCF coach George O?Leary and USF coach Willie Taggart dodged questions about the intensity of the rivalry ealrier this season, but both coaches added a little more fuel to the War on I-4? Tuesday.
O?Leary was asked for his thoughts on Taggart. The veteran UCF coach responded with a recruiting quip.
?He said he?s got to own the I-4 corridor,? O?Leary said. ?I said, obviously you?ve got to go back and look at your geography.?
Later in the day, Taggart told the Sentinel he is beginning to get a better feel for the rivalry.
?I think as the season gets closer, I am starting to sense the displeasure of Central Florida by all of our fans, and seeing it from them, too,? Taggart said. ?As the season comes, we?re a little more fired up and guys are ready to play each other.?
Then, he added: ?It hasn?t been that long, but I?m starting to sense it all and I?m starting to feel like our fans.?
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E-mail Paul Tenorio at ptenorio@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @OSKnights.
LAS CRUCES - The New Mexico State football team opens its 2013 fall camp Sunday at the football practice field at 3 p.m. Practices are open to the public.
The first five days of camp are the NCAA mandated five-day acclimation period before the Aggies jump right into two-a-day practices on Aug. 9.
The Aggies' annual media day in Las Cruces is scheduled for Aug. 5 at 10:30 a.m., in the football meeting rooms, located on the north end of the stadium. The Aggie soccer and volleyball teams will also hold their media days beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the same location.
NMSU opens up its 2013 season, Aug. 31, at the University of Texas in Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Kickoff time has not been set.
Season tickets are available through the New Mexico State ticket office and they can be purchased in person at the Pan American Center ticket office or over the phone by calling 575-646-1420.
Summer is called dam removal season by those who cherish the notion of dams being demolished. The hotter, dryer weather limits a river?s flow and seasonal fish migrations ?pause, providing the necessary conditions for demolishing the commonly aging infrastructure once erected to provide irrigation, water storage, hydropower and/or flood control.
The summer of 2013 is no different. According to American Rivers, a non-profit group that works on river preservation, approximately 30 dams have been removed so far, adding to the over 1,100 taken down since the early 1900s. About 100,000 dams still stand today.
The dismantling of dams picked up speed almost two decades ago when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (in the first decision of its type) decided that the Edwards Dam, a hydroelectric dam on the Kennebec River in Maine, should come down. It was 1999, and the Commission deemed the dams? negative environmental impacts ? the near annihilation of its river herring, Atlantic salmon, sturgeon and striped bass populations ? outweighed its minimal electricity production. So out came the dynamite.
Since then, both the health of a river?s ecosystem and safety concerns due to aging infrastructure have topped the list for common reasons for dam removal. The average age of dams in the US is now around 40 years.?The plan for these reincarnated rivers is the return of its natural cycle. This means seasonal flow variations, reinvigorated fish populations, lower water temperatures, and higher river tables. High hopes, yes, but possible.
Again, look at the Kennebec River and the Edwards Dam.?Its diminishing herring population of the 90s is now one of the countries healthiest today. The river has also seen a resurgence of people and businesses returning to its recovering shores.
Still, not all stakeholders embrace dam removal as a river?s remedy. From the aesthetics of the dam (some look like beautiful waterfalls) to the fears of turning the river to a pit of mud, to the yearning to preserve industrial history, change doesn?t always come easy. There?s also the issue of recreation and property values. While removing a dam may improve recreation for some, such as returning the froth and current to a flat water area, not all will rejoice in this choice, particularly some who live along a river.?Finally there?s the hydropower element. Though only about 3% of all dams produce hydropower and most of these are not dams aren?t considered for removal, utility providers must still seek alternatives should generating capacity decrease.
These are some of the ongoing pros and cons affecting a number possible projects on the horizon:
On the West Coast, these dam removal projects include (listed in the order of?likely to extremely likely to be removed): lower four dams on the Klamath River, which flows across the Oregon/California boundary; the Matilija Dam on the Ventura River in California; and the Bloede Dam on the Patapsco River, MD.
On the East Coast, there are two dams that are extremely likely to be removed: Off Billington and Plymco Dams on Town Brook in Maine; and the West Britannia Dam on the Mill River in Maine. Both of these?involve efforts to restore free-flowing habitat on some of the most productive herring rivers on the East Coast.
Much of the information in this post was provided by Serena McClain, American Rivers. Photo courtesy of NOAA.
This frame grab provided by WKMG TV shows the fire at the Blue Rhino plant in Tavares City, Fla Tuesday July 30, 2013. (AP Photo/WKMG TV)
TAVARES, Fla. -- All workers at a Florida gas plant rocked by a series of explosions have been accounted for after as many as 15 were initially feared killed, authorities say.
John Herrell of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said early Tuesday that all the workers at the Blue Rhino propane plant had been accounted for and that no fatalities had been reported after explosions hit the plant late Monday night. Seven people were injured and transported to local hospitals.
Herrell earlier had said 15 workers were unaccounted for after the blasts, but all were later found safe.
Herrell said a crew of 24 to 26 people were working at the plant on an overnight shift when the explosions occurred late Monday.
He said seven people were injured and transported to a local hospital and two employees escaped unharmed.
The Blue Rhino plant refilled propane tanks typically used for gas grills.
.Video footage on WESH-TV in Orlando showed fires burning through trucks used to transport propane tanks, which were parked at the plant. The fire was sending plumes of smoke into the air nearly two hours after the blast. Emergency crews could also be seen massing nearby.
Herrell said an evacuation zone was initially a one-mile radius but had been reduced to a half-mile radius. No injuries have been reported from residents in the neighborhood.
Herrell said officials believe the fire is contained and won't spread to another part of the plant but they cannot guarantee that.
Bryan Koon, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said he was still getting "preliminary information" from local authorities.
The blasts began about 11 p.m.
Herrell said the plant usually has 53,000 20-pound propane tanks.
According to the Leesburg Daily Commercial, the plant was built in 2004 and employs fewer than 50 people.
Detoxes and cleanses have become so mainstream, you may feel like you're doing something wrong if you haven't tried at least one. But the truth is detoxes and cleanses aren't right for everyone, and they can even backfire.
The key to reaping the rewards is finding what works, and doesn't work, for you. Here are five dos and don'ts, and real-life lessons I've learned from my clients. Some of them may just surprise you.
Juice Cleanse Dos and Don'ts
Even at the thought of being restricted, some of my clients experience intense cravings, or obsessive thoughts of food, and become more prone to binge eating. This is often the case for people who were put on diets as children, or have a history of strict dieting or disordered eating.
While some people rave about how amazing they feel physically and emotionally during a cleanse, I've seen others struggle with moodiness, irritability, depression, fatigue, constipation, constant thoughts of food, and rebound overeating.
Striving to eat clean, all natural foods is fantastic, but you don't need to do a cleanse or detox to be healthy. If your body, mind, or both don't react well to limiting your diet, even for three, five, or seven days, don't put yourself through it.
16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast
Juice Cleanse Dos and Don'ts
Do Choose a Detox or Cleanse That's Right for You
There's no one standard definition of a cleanse or detox. For some, it means pressed juice only, and for others a cleanse can simply mean cutting out things like alcohol, caffeine, processed or refined foods, sugar, gluten, common allergens and animal protein.
While super strict regimes are incredibly popular, most of my clients feel much more energized and satiated when they include lean protein, and/or raw veggies and fruits they can chew, rather than juices that are gone in a few gulps. It's perfectly OK to "cherry pick" from various plans to create a program that feels right for you.
Juice Cleanse Dos and Don'ts
Don't Pull a Double Whammy and Work Out Too
Detoxes and cleanses are all about ending erratic, unhealthy eating, and rebooting and resetting your metabolism. This is much easier to do when you give your body a brief break from exercise. And trying to workout while following a limited eating plan can create unwanted side effects, because cleanses and detoxes generally don't provide the extra fuel needed for exercise, or the added raw materials required for healing and recovery. As a result, doing both can leave you feeling tired, dizzy, and nauseas. It can also result in breaking down muscle mass, which can up your injury risk and lower your metabolic rate, the exact opposite of what you're aiming for.
Your Guide to Popular Juice Cleanses
Juice Cleanse Dos and Don'ts
Don't Use a Detox or Cleanse as a Way to Purge
I've seen numerous people get stuck in the trap of bouncing back and forth between a cleanse or detox and bouts of overindulging. Because cleanses and detoxes have become so popular, this seesaw syndrome can be socially acceptable. But emotionally, using cleanses and detoxes this way can become a lot like other methods of purging, including over-exercise, or taking laxatives or diuretics ? it can feel like something you don't want to do, and know isn't healthy, but feel like you have to do, in order to undo the effects of overeating.
If you've found yourself on this roller coaster ride, reach out for help. While black and white, all or nothing relationships with food are common, they aren't good for you physically or emotionally, and striking a sustainable, healthy balance is possible.
Cynthia Sass is a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she's Health's contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Her latest New York Times best seller is S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange branded Pfc. Bradley Manning's espionage conviction Tuesday an episode of "national security extremism" while other supporters expressed relief that he was acquitted of the most serious charge. Among Manning's critics, House intelligence officials said justice was served.
From the courtroom to world capitals, people absorbed the meaning of a verdict that cleared the soldier of a charge of aiding the enemy, which would have carried a potential life sentence, but convicted him on other counts that, together, could also mean a life behind bars. Manning faces up to 136 years in prison if given maximum penalties in a sentencing hearing that starts Wednesday.
In Washington, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Intelligence Committee joined in a statement declaring "justice has been served today."
"Manning harmed our national security, violated the public's trust, and now stands convicted of multiple serious crimes," said Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence committee, and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the panel's top Democrat.
Assange, whose website served as the conduit for exposing Manning's spilled U.S. secrets to the world, saw nothing to cheer in the mixed verdict.
"It is a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism," he told reporters at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, which is sheltering him. "This has never been a fair trial."
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist, commentator and former civil rights lawyer who first reported Edward Snowden's leaks of National Security Agency surveillance programs, said Manning's acquittal on the charge of aiding the enemy represented a "tiny sliver of justice."
And Christian Stroebele, a German lawmaker for the opposition Green Party, tweeted: "Manning has won respect by uncovering the U.S.'s murderous warfare in Iraq."
But the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said the verdict is a warning to whistleblowers, "against whom the Obama administration has been waging an unprecedented offensive," and threatens the future of investigative journalism because intimidated sources might fall quiet.
Another advocate of less government secrecy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, questioned whether the implications will be so dire, given the extraordinary nature of the Manning case.
"This was a massive hemorrhage of government records, and it's not too surprising that it elicited a strong reaction from the government," Aftergood said.
"Does that mean that every leak from every journalist is likely to do the same?" he asked. "No it doesn't. Most journalists are not in the business of publishing classified documents, they're in the business of reporting the news, which is not the same thing. This is not good news for journalism, but it's not the end of the world, either."
Daniel Ellsberg, whose sensational leak of the Pentagon papers in the early 1970s exposed U.S. government lies about the Vietnam War, said Manning's acquittal on aiding the enemy limits the chilling consequences of the WikiLeaks case on press freedoms.
"American democracy just dodged a bullet, a possibly fatal bullet," Ellsberg said. "I'm talking about the free press that I think is the life's blood of the democracy."
Outside the courtroom, Manning supporters gave his lawyer, David Coombs, a round of applause and shouted "thank you." But they also pressed him on what the verdict meant for the soldier's fate.
"Today is a good day," Coombs said, "but Bradley is by no means out of the fire."
Manning acknowledged giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 battlefield reports and diplomatic cables, and video of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver. He said during a pretrial hearing he leaked the material to expose U.S military "bloodlust" and diplomatic deceitfulness but did not believe his actions would harm the country.
His defense portrayed him as a naive but well-intentioned figure. Prosecutors branded him an anarchist and traitor.
Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, welcomed the outcome.
"Bradley Manning endangered the security of the United States and the lives of his own comrades in uniform when he intentionally disclosed vast amounts of classified data," he said. "His conviction should stand as an example to those who are tempted to violate a sacred public trust in pursuit of notoriety, fame, or their own political agenda."
Many supporters in and outside the courtroom wore black T-shirts with "truth" on them to show they consider him a whistleblower just trying to expose government misconduct.
"The government's priorities are upside down," Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy for Amnesty International, said at the scene.
Officials have "refused to investigate credible allegations of torture and other crimes under international law despite overwhelming evidence," Brown said, but "decided to prosecute Manning, who it seems was trying to do the right thing ? reveal credible evidence of unlawful behavior by the government."
"It seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future," said Ben Wizner of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project.
Overseas, Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer who's been working with Snowden, merely said: "All cases are individual. We shouldn't take the Manning case and compare it to Snowden."
___
Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in London, Donna Cassata in Washington, and David Dishneau and Pauline Jelinek at Fort Meade, Md., contributed to this report.
Healthcare In America Is Already 'The Best In The World'
One of the more positive sounding admonitions from health care reform opponents was that the United States had "the best health care in the world," so why would you mess with it? Well, it's true that if you want the experience the pinnacle of medical care, you come to the United States. And if you want the pinnacle of haute cuisine, you go to Per Se. If you want the pinnacle of commercial air travel, you get a first class seat on British Airways. Now, naturally, you wouldn't let just anyone mess with someone's tasting menu or state-of-the-art air-beds. But like anything that's "the best," the best health care in the world isn't for everybody. The costs are prohibitively high, the access is prohibitively exclusive, and the resources are prohibitively scarce.
What do the people in America who "fly coach" in the health care system get? Well, at the time of the health care reform debate, they were participating in a system that was, by all objective measurements, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/us-health-care-expensive_n_624248.html">overpriced and underperforming</a> -- if you were lucky enough to be participating in it. As anyone who's fortunate enough to have employer based health care or unfortunate enough to have a pre-existing condition can tell you, health care for ordinary people already involved all of those things that we were told would be a feature of the Affordable Care Act -- long waits, limited choice, and rationing.
When the <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2010/Jun/Mirror-Mirror-Update.aspx">Commonwealth Fund rated health care systems by nation</a>, the top marks in the surveyed categories went to the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Ezra Klein examined the study, and <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/06/us_health-care_system_still_ba.html">observed</a>:
"The issue isn't just that we don't have universal health care. Our delivery system underperforms, too. 'Even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology.'"
Death Panels
The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... <i>to Death!</i>
The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." <a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/health-care-misinformation.pdf">You should go read the whole thing</a>.
But to summarize, the lie began where many lies about health care reform begin -- with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/andrew-sullivans-mccaughe_n_313157.html">polluted the pages of the New Republic</a> with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation
in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'"
Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five years or more frequently if they become seriously ill. As independent fact-checkers showed (PolitiFact.com 2009b; FactCheck.org 2009a), her statement that these consultations would be mandatory was simply false--they would be entirely voluntary. Similarly, there is no evidence that Medicare patients would be pressured during these consultations to "do what's in society's best interest...and cut your life short."
But the match that lit the death panel flame was not McCaughey, it was Sarah Palin, who repeated McCaughey's claims in a Facebook posting and invented the term "death panel." As Nyhan reports, Palin's claims were met with condemnation from independent observers and factcheckers, but the virality of the term "death panel" far outstripped its own debunking. To this day, the shorthand for this outrageous falsehood remains more firmly planted in the discourse than the truth.
One thing worth pointing out is that Palin, in creating the term "death panel," <i>intended</i> to deceive people with it. In an interview with the <em>National Review</em>, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/228636/rogue-record/rich-lowry">Palin admitted</a>: "The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally." Rather, it was "a lot like when President Reagan used to refer to the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire.' He got his point across." Of course, while Reagan was exaggerating for effect, he wasn't trying to prey on the goodwill of those who were listening to him.
The Affordable Care Act Is A "Jobs-Killer"
Naturally, the GOP greeted anything that the Obama White House did -- from regulating pollution to flossing after meals -- as something that would "kill jobs." The Affordable Care Act was no different. As you might recall, Republicans' first attempt at repeal came in the form of an inartfully named law called the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." But did the health reform plan threaten jobs? Not by any honest measure. <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/17/106950/is-health-care-law-really-a-job.html">Per McClatchy Newspapers</a>:
<blockquote>"The claim has no justification," said Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow at the centrist New America Foundation's Health Policy Program.
Since the law contains dual mandates that most individuals must obtain health insurance coverage and most employers must offer it by 2014, "the effect on employment is probably zero or close to it," said Amitabh Chandra, a professor of public policy at Harvard University.</blockquote>
As McClatchy reported, the "job-killing" claim creatively used the "lie of omission" -- relying on "out of date" data or omitting "offsetting information that would weaken the argument." The Congressional Budget Office, playing it straight, deemed it essentially too premature to measure what the effect the bill would have on the labor market. At the time, Speaker John Boehner dismissed the CBO, saying, "CBO is entitled to their opinion."
Perhaps, but lately, job growth in the health care industry has <a href="https://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2012/03/07/Jobs-report-preview" target="_hplink">bucked the economic downturn and health care has remained a robust sector of employment</a>. And it stands to reason that enrolling another 30 million Americans into health insurance will increase the demand for health care services and products, which in turn should trigger the creation of more jobs.
Is there a downside? Sure. More demand, and greater labor costs, could push health care prices upward even as other effects of health reform push them down. But it's more likely that repealing the bill will have a negative impact on jobs than retaining it.
The Affordable Care Act Would Add To The Deficit
The only thing more important than painting the Affordable Care Act as a certain killer of jobs was to paint it as a certain murderer of America's fiscal future. Surely this big government program was going to push indebtedness to such a height that our servitude to our future Chinese overlords was a <i>fait accompli</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/cbo-score-on-health-care_n_502543.html">As Ryan Grim reported in May of 2010</a>, the CBO disagreed:
<blockquote>Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $138 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the second ten year period.
The source said it also extends Medicare's solvency by at least nine years and reduces the rate of its growth by 1.4 percent, while closing the doughnut hole for seniors, meaning there will no longer be a gap in coverage of medication.</blockquote>
Recently, the CBO updated its ten-year estimate by dropping off the first two years of the law (where there was little to no implementation) and adding two years at the back end (during which time there would be full implementation). As you might imagine, replacing two years of low numbers with two years of higher numbers increased the ten-year estimate. But opponents of the bill immediately freaked out and declared the costs to have skyrocketed. <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/obamacare-haters-angered-by-facts.html">As Jonathan Chait reported</a>:
<blockquote>The outcry was so widespread that the CBO took the unusual step of releasing a second update to explain to outraged conservatives that they were completely misreading the whole thing:
"Some of the commentary on those reports has suggested that CBO and JCT have changed their estimates of the effects of the ACA to a significant degree. That's not our perspective. ...
Although the latest projections extend the original ones by three years (corresponding to the shift in the regular ten-year projection period since the ACA was first being developed), the projections for each given year have changed little, on net, since March 2010."
That is CBO-speak for: "Go home. You people are all crazy."</blockquote>
As Chait goes on to note, the CBO now projects that "the law would reduce the deficit by slightly more than it had originally forecast."
The Affordable Care Act $500 Billion Cut From Medicare
Normally, if you tell Republicans that you're going to cut $500 billion from Medicare, they will respond by saying, "Hooray, but could we make it <i>$700 billion</i>?" But the moment they got it into their heads that the Affordable Care Act would make that cut from Medicare, suddenly everyone from the party of ending Medicare As We Know It, Forever got all hot with concern about what would happen to these longstanding recipients of government health care.
In fairness, <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">as Factcheck pointed out</a>, the GOP opponents of Obama's plan were simply picking up a cudgel that had recently been wielded by the president himself:
<blockquote>Whether these are "cuts" or much-needed "savings" depends on the political expedience of the moment, it seems. When Republican Sen. John McCain, then a presidential candidate, proposed similar reductions to pay for his health care plan, it was the Obama camp that attacked the Republican for cutting benefits.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/a-final-weekend-of-whoppers/">Nevertheless</a>!
<blockquote>Whatever you want to call them, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those who get their coverage through Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) would see fewer add-on benefits; the bill aims to reduce the heftier payments made by the government to Medicare Advantage plans, compared with regular fee-for-service Medicare.</blockquote>
The <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMp1005588">concurred</a>:
<blockquote>A phased elimination of the substantial overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, which now enroll nearly 25% of Medicare beneficiaries, will produce an estimated $132 billion in savings over 10 years.
[...]
The ACA also produces nearly $200 billion in savings by assuming that providers can improve their productivity as firms in other industries have done. On the basis of this presumed improvement, the law reduces Medicare's annual "market basket" updates for most types of providers - a provision that has generated controversy.</blockquote>
The law doesn't cut any customer benefits, just the amount that providers get paid. Hospitals and drug companies agreed to these cuts based on the calculation that more people with insurance meant more people consuming what they sell and, more importantly for the hospitals, fewer people getting treated and simply not paying for it.
The Affordable Care Act Provides Free Health Care For Undocumented Immigrants
This lie was launched to prominence with the help of a false accuser, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously heckled President Barack Obama during an address to a Joint Session of Congress by yelling "You lie!" after the president had mentioned that undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the credits for the bill's proposed health care exchanges.
As Time's Michael Scherer pointed out, this was not much of a challenge for factcheckers:
<blockquote>In the Senate Finance Committee's working framework for a health plan, which Obama's speech seemed most to mimic, there is the line, "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health care tax credits." Similarly, the major health-care-reform bill to pass out of committee in the House, H.R. 3200, contains Section 246, which is called "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS."</blockquote>
In fact, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/why_immigrants_get_short_shrif.html">as Ezra Klein pointed out</a>, the Affordable Care Act "goes out of its way to exclude" undocumented immigrants:
<blockquote>As the AP points out...there are about 7 million unauthorized immigrants who will be prohibited from buying insurance on the newly created exchanges, even if they pay out of their own pocket. And the exclusion of this group from health reform -- along with other restrictions that affect fully legal immigrants as well -- could create a massive coverage gap that puts a strain on the rest of the health system as well.</blockquote>
Klein goes on to add that "immigrants-rights advocates tried to prevent this scenario from happening," but they ended up losing to the politics of the day. The concession they won was a promise from the president that he would shepherd a comprehensive immigration reform package through the legislature. They lost that round, too.
Republicans, And Their Ideas, Were Left Out Of The Bill And The Process
Were health care policies dear to Republicans left out of the health care reform bill? Totally! <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2009/10/29/171026/top-10-reasons-why-republicans-should-support-the-house-health-bill/">Unless we're counting the following</a>:
--Deficit-neutral bill
--Longterm cost reduction
--Interstate competition that allows consumers to purchase insurance across state lines
--Medical malpractice reform
--High-risk pools
--An extension of the time young people were allowed to remain on their parents' policies
--No public money for abortion
--Small business exemptions/tax credits
--Job wellness programs
--Delivery system reform
In fact, the Democrats were eager to get GOP input and enthusiastic about including many of their desired components in the bill.
Oh, and did we mention that the Affordable Care Act was modeled on a reform designed and implemented by a former Republican governor and presidential candidate, whose innovation was widely celebrated by the GOP while said former governor was running for president? And did we mention that the individual mandate that was used in Romneycare to ensure "no free riders" was originally dreamed up by the Heritage Foundation? And did we add that additional DNA of the Affordable Care Act was borrowed from the Senate GOP alternative to the Clinton plan in the 1990s and the <a href="http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/news/press-releases/2009/08/bipartisan-policy-center-releases-report-improving-health-care-quality-a" target="_hplink">2009 Bipartisan Policy Committee plan</a>, which was endorsed by Tom Daschle, Howard Baker, and Bob Dole?
As for the process, you might recall that the White House very patiently waited for the bipartisan Gang Of Six to weigh in with its own solution, and openly courted one Republican gang member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, long after it was clear to every reporter inside the Beltway that Grassley was intentionally acting in bad faith.
And perhaps you don't recall the bipartisan health care summit that was held in March of 2009? if so, don't feel bad about it -- RNC Chairman Michael Steele couldn't remember it either, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201002250005">when he yelled at the president for not having one</a>.
The Demonization Of 'Deem And Pass'
So, here's a fun little story about obscure parliamentary procedures. In May of 2010, as the health care reform michegas was steaming toward its endgame, it looked like the measure might fall. The Senate had passed a bill, but the House was stuck in a bit of a jam. It had no other choice but to take a vote on the Senate's bill, because if the House bill ended up in a conference committee to be reconciled with the Senate's, the whole resulting she-bang was assured of a filibuster, as the Democrats had, in the intervening period, lost their Senate supermajority.
But the House had a problem. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/health-care-opponents-dem_n_501353.html">As I wrote at the time</a>:
<blockquote>House members are averse to doing anything that looks like they approve of the various side-deals that were made in the Senate -- like the so-called "Cornhusker Kickback." The House intends to remove those unpopular features in budget reconciliation, but if they pursue budget reconciliation on a standard legislative timeline -- where they pass the Senate bill outright first and then go back to pass a reconciliation package of fixes -- they'd still appear to be endorsing the sketchy side deals, and then the GOP would jump up and down on their heads.
Enter "deem and pass." Under this process, the House will simply skip to approving the reconciliation fixes, and "deem" the Senate bill to be passed. By doing it this way, the Democrats get the Senate bill passed while simultaneously coming out against the unpopular features of the same.</blockquote>
"Deem and pass" is the aforementioned obscure parliamentary procedure. And here's the thing about obscure parliamentary procedures -- everyone <i>loves</i> them when their side is doing them, but when they're being <i>done to you</i>, then they are basically evil schemes from the blasted plains of Hell.
So if you're guessing that the Republicans declared the Democrats' use of "deem and pass" -- which also carried the moniker "the Slaughter Rule," after Rep. Louise Slaughter, who proposed its use in this instance -- to be a monstrous and unprecedented abuse of power, then give yourself a prize! And give yourself a bonus if you guessed that in reality, the GOP had used "deem and pass" <i>lots of times</i>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/house-has-long-history-of_n_500623.html">As Ryan Grim reported</a>, "deeming resolutions" had been in use dating back to 1933, and in 2005 and 2006, Republicans employed them 36 times.
Other Republicans complained that Slaughter was supporting a tactic that she once vigorously opposed. <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/the_arms_race_of_rules.html">That's true</a>! She fought the "deem and pass" during the Bush administration and lost. Which is precisely when she learned how effective it could be!
The Affordable Care Act Would Create A Mad Army of IRS Agents
Lots of people wouldn't mind having better access to more affordable health care. But what if it came with thousands of IRS agents, picking through your stool sample? That sounds pretty bad. It also sounds pretty implausible! But that was no impediment to multiple health care reform opponents making claims that the tax man was COMMINAGETCHA!
In this case, the individual mandate -- which requires people to purchase insurance or incur a tax penalty -- provided the fertile soil for this deception to spread. A March 2010 floor speech from a panicked Sen. John Ensign was typical of the genre:
<blockquote>My amendment goes to the heart of one of the problems with this bill. There is an individual mandate that puts fines on people that can also attach civil penalties. And 16,500 new IRS agents are going to be required to be hired because of the health care reform bill.</blockquote>
March of 2010 was a pretty great time for this particular lie. In one five day period, Ensign was joined by Reps. Paul Ryan ("There is an individual mandate. It mandates individuals purchase government-approved health insurance or face a fine to be collected by the IRS which will need $10 billion additional and 16,500 new IRS agents to police and enforce this mandate."), Pete Sessions ("16,000 new IRS agents will be hired simply to make sure that this health care bill is enforced.") and Cliff Stearns ("There is $10 billion to hire about 16,000 new IRS agents to enforce the individual mandate on every American").
All wrong! <a href="http://factcheck.org/2010/03/irs-expansion/">Per Factcheck</a>:
<blockquote>This wildly inaccurate claim started as an inflated, partisan assertion that 16,500 new IRS employees might be required to administer the new law. That devolved quickly into a claim, made by some Republican lawmakers, that 16,500 IRS "agents" would be required. Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas even claimed in a televised interview that all 16,500 would be carrying guns. None of those claims is true.
The IRS' main job under the new law isn't to enforce penalties. Its first task is to inform many small-business owners of a new tax credit that the new law grants them -- starting this year -- which will pay up to 35 percent of the employer's contribution toward their workers' health insurance. And in 2014 the IRS will also be administering additional subsidies -- in the form of refundable tax credits -- to help millions of low- and middle-income individuals buy health insurance.
The law does make individuals subject to a tax, starting in 2014, if they fail to obtain health insurance coverage. But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified before a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee March 25 that the IRS won't be auditing individuals to certify that they have obtained health insurance.</blockquote>
As Factcheck goes on to note, <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf">on page 131 of the bill that was passed</a>, the IRS is explicitly prohibited from "from using the liens and levies commonly used to collect money owed by delinquent taxpayers, and rules out any criminal penalties for individuals who refuse to pay the tax or those who don't obtain coverage."
Affordable Care Act Bill Is Way Too Long And Impossible To Read!
Oh, Congresscritters, the poor dears! So many bills to read and so little time -- between raising campaign cash at lush fundraisers and receiving marching orders from powerful corporate interests -- to actually read them all. <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019629.php">And this Affordable Care Act was a real humdinger of a long bill</a>. And long bills are bad because length implies complication and complication requires study and study implies some form of "work." So the proper thing to do is to mulch the entire print run of the bill and use it to power the boiler that heats the "sex dungeon" in the Longworth Office Building, the end!
Actually, reading the bill is not that hard, despite the complaints. As the folks at <a href="http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/11/08/facts-about-the-length-of-h-r-3962/">Computational Legal Studies were able to divine</a>:
<blockquote>Those versed in the typesetting practices of the United States Congress know that the printed version of a bill contains a significant amount of whitespace including non-trivial space between lines, large headers and margins, an embedded table of contents, and large font. For example, consider page 12 of the printed version of H.R. 3962. This page contains fewer than 150 substantive words.
We believe a simple page count vastly overstates the actual length of bill. Rather than use page counts, we counted the number of words contained in the bill and compared these counts to the number of words in the existing United States Code. In addition, we consider the number of text blocks in the bill -- where a text block is a unit of text under a section, subsection, clause, or sub-clause.</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/house-health-care-bill-ac_n_350810.html">As HuffPost noted in March of 2010</a>, "the total number of words in the House Health Reform Bill are 363,086," and when you throw out the words in the titles and tables of contents and whatnot, leaving only words that "impact substantive law," the word count drops to 234,812.
"Harry Potter And the Order Of The Phoenix," a popular book read by small children, is 257,000 words long. (Although in fairness to Congress, the Affordable Care Act contains very few exciting accounts of Quidditch matches.)
The 2012ers Join The Fun
We couldn't have a list of Affordable Care Act distortions without noting the ways some of your 2012ers have added to the canon.
Herman Cain said that if the ACA had been implemented, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/177511-video-cain-if-obamacare-had-been-implemented-already-id-be-dead-">he'd be dead</a>. Not likely! The new law expands coverage so that uninsured individuals who face what Cain faced (cancer) have a better chance of getting coverage, and it restricts insurers from tossing cancer patients off the rolls based on their "pre-existing condition." But more to the point, Cain would have always been the wealthy guy who could afford to choose his doctor and pick the care he wanted. The Affordable Care Act doesn't prohibit wealthy people from spending money.
Rick Santorum says that his daughter, who is diagnosed with a genetic disorder called trisomy 18 and who required special needs care, <a href="http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/25/santorum-more-disabled-people-will-be-denied-care-under-obamacare/">would be "denied care" under the Affordable Care Act</a>. Nope! Again, the law restricts insurers from throwing people with pre-existing conditions off their rolls. And for individuals under 19, that went into effect in September of 2010.
Michele Bachmann believes that the Affordable Care Act would open "sex clinics" in public schools. This is Michele Bachmann we're talking about. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/bachmann-sex-clinics-will_n_306292.html">Do you even need to ask</a>?
And finally, Mitt Romney has said, as recently as March 5, that he never intended his CommonwealthCare reform to serve as a "model for the nation." "Very early on," he insisted, "we were asked -- is what you've done in Massachusetts something you would have the entire government do, the federal government do? I said no, from the very beginning." Unless "very early on" and "from the very beginning" mean something different from the conventional definition of those phrases, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/05/438044/romney-mandate-model-video/">Romney should augment his daily pharmaceutical intake with some memory-enhancing gingko biloba</a>.
So Many More To Choose From!
Obviously, we did what we could to include as many of these lies and distortions as possible, but there's no way to include them all. If you're a completist, however, be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-03-14/fact-or-fiction-obamacare%E2%80%99s-1-dollar-abortions/">Impossible Tale Of The One-Dollar Abortion</a>, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020905682.html">Story of the State-Based Inflexibility That Wasn't</a>, <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201101210006">The Curious Case of the Politically Connected Waivers</a> and <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2011/03/michele-bachmanns-health-care-cover-charges-hard-fathom">Nancy Drew And The Hidden $105 Billion Expenditure</a>.
0609 GMT - Dubai's Emaar Properties jumps at the opening after it beat analysts' expectations for second-quarter net profit by a margin of about 20 percent, helping lift the overall bourse.
Shares in Emaar rise 1.9 percent, extending their 2013 gains to 55.2 percent. The stock was up as much as 3.0 percent in the opening seconds.
Dubai's largest developer posted a 10 percent increase in profit on higher sales in the emirate. as it stages a recovery from its post-financial crisis slump.
Dubai's index climbs 0.7 percent to 2,533 points, 40 points away from last week's near five-year high.
0527 GMT - Shares in Emaar Properties, Dubai's largest real estate developer, may gain after it beat analysts' earnings forecasts by about 20 percent
Emaar posted a 10 percent increase in second-quarter net profit, on higher property sales in the emirate.
At 5.74 dirhams, the stock is up 53 percent year-to-date, underperforming the Dubai benchmark's 55 percent rise. Major technical resistance lies around 6.00 dirhams, where the stock peaked in June and July this year.
In Saudi Arabia, loss-making telecommunications operator Zain Saudi may also see increased buying interest after saying on Monday that it reached an agreement to extend its outstanding $2.3 billion Islamic loan facility by five years.
In Doha, petrochemicals and metals company Industries Qatar , the second largest stock on the exchange, may decline after it posted a 6.5 percent dip in second-quarter net profit to 2.0 billion riyals ($549 million), missing analysts' forecasts of around 2.3 billion riyals.
The global market backdrop is moderately positive; Asian stocks rose on Tuesday after China's central bank injected funds into money markets for the first time since February, while the dollar index edged up from a five-week low as investors positioned for the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.
Brent crude oil futures remained steady above $107 a barrel. (Reporting by Nadia Saleem; Editing by Andrew Torchia)
China and the European Union have reached an agreement over low-cost solar panels that should help reduce tensions between the key trading partners.
The deal, reached after weeks of negotiations, will allow Chinese solar panel producers to export their goods to Europe, provided they offer the products above a minimum price. Chinese companies that agree to the terms will avoid the severe tariffs that had been implemented by the EU.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht praised the agreement as the solution that "both the EU and China were looking for."
"We have found an amicable solution that will result in a new equilibrium on the European solar panel market at a sustainable price level," he said.
The deal is not likely to please all parties. While the European Commission has not announced the full terms, media reports indicate that the minimum price for Chinese panels has been set at 74 U.S. cents per watt -- a much lower price than had been sought by European manufacturers.
De Gucht, the EU trade chief, is bound to face questions from producers over the price minimum. He must also move to patch up fissures between EU member countries -- some of which had publicly questioned the wisdom of taking China to task over solar panels.
The agreement still needs approval from the European Commission.
The deal should cool tensions between China and the EU, which had been engaged in tit-for-tat retaliatory actions that raised the specter of a trade war.
In recent months, China had launched investigations into European wine and chemical producers. The EU, meanwhile, said in May that it had enough evidence to begin an investigation into Chinese telecoms.
A full-blown trade spat would have resulted in profound consequences for both economies. China is the EU's second biggest trading partner behind the United States, and the EU is China's biggest market. Trade in goods and services between the two totaled nearly 480 billion euros ($638 billion) last year.
July 29th, 2013 by Nate Hoffelder ? 3 Comments ? Uncategorized
Have you been following the rumors over the past few months about the supposed budget/plastic iPhone? I had mostly been ignoring the rumors because I didn?t find them plausible, but today I learned that I might have been wrong.
A new report was released today by China Labor Watch, and it includes an inadvertent mention of that new plastic iPhone:
Today?s work is to paste protective film on the iPhone?s plastic back cover to prevent it from being scratched on assembly lines. This iPhone model with a plastic cover will soon be released on the market by Apple.
This report was based on the work of an undercover operative who was reporting on the working conditions of that Pegatron factory, not a tech blogger, so the source would have little reason to fabricate those deals.
That plastic iPhone had previously been hinted at by the CEO of Pegatron. He had reportedly told stockholders back in June that the plastic iPhone was in the works but that it would not actually be cheap. I did not believe that report at the time because that information should have been under an NDA, and CEOs usually know better than to violate agreements with a company as scary as Apple.
There was another leak over the weekend of what is believed to be a retail case for the new iPhone 5C:
I had hesitated to post this image because it wasn?t clear what it meant and because makers of Chinese iPhone knockoffs have fooled us before. And the same can be said for the plastic iPhone shell which TechDY got their hands on earlier this month:
But now that we have a concatenation of sources I think it?s safe to call this rumor as the real deal. It more than meets my minimum standard of ?wait until we see hardware?.
There?s a very good chance that the iPhone 5C is indeed the new iPhone, and that it will have a plastic shell in several colors (the C in 5C is for color). Tim Cook? will likely unveil the new iPhone either this Fall or next Spring, though of curse we don?t know when, where, or how much this iThing will cost.
Simulations aiding study of earthquake dampers for structuresPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emil Venere venere@purdue.edu 765-494-4709 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Researchers have demonstrated the reliability and efficiency of "real-time hybrid simulation" for testing a type of powerful damping system that might be installed in buildings and bridges to reduce structural damage and injuries during earthquakes.
The magnetorheological-fluid dampers are shock-absorbing devices containing a liquid that becomes far more viscous when a magnetic field is applied.
"It normally feels like a thick fluid, but when you apply a magnetic field it transforms into a peanut-butter consistency, which makes it generate larger forces when pushed through a small orifice," said Shirley Dyke, a professor of mechanical engineering and civil engineering at Purdue University.
This dramatic increase in viscosity enables the devices to exert powerful forces and to modify a building's stiffness in response to motion during an earthquake. The magnetorheological-fluid dampers, or MR dampers, have seen limited commercial use and are not yet being used routinely in structures.
Research led by Dyke and doctoral students Gaby Ou and Ali Ozdagli has now shown real-time hybrid simulations are reliable in studying the dampers. The research is affiliated with the National Science Foundation's George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), a shared network of laboratories based at Purdue.
Dyke and her students are working with researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, home to one of only a few large-scale shake-table facilities in the world.
Findings will be discussed during the NEES Quake Summit 2013 on Aug. 7 and 8 in Reno. A research paper also was presented in May during a meeting in Italy related to a consortium called SERIES (Seismic Engineering Research Infrastructures for European Synergies). The paper was authored by Ou, Dyke, Ozdagli, and researchers Bin Wu and Bo Li from the Harbin Institute.
"The results indicate that the real-time hybrid simulation concept can be considered as a reliable and efficient testing method," Ou said.
The simulations are referred to as hybrid because they combine computational models with data from physical tests.
"You have physical models and computational models being combined for one test," Dyke said.
Researchers are able to perform structural tests at slow speed, but testing in real-time or the actual speed of an earthquake sheds new light on how the MR dampers perform in structures. The real-time ability has only recently become feasible due to technological advances in computing.
"Sometimes real-time testing is necessary, and that's where we focus our efforts," said Dyke, who organized a workshop on the subject to be held during the NEES meeting in Reno. "This hybrid approach is taking off lately. People are getting very excited about it."
Ozdagli also is presenting related findings next week during the 2013 Conference of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute in Evanston, Ill.
The simulations can be performed in conjunction with research using full-scale building tests. However, there are very few large-scale facilities in the world, and the testing is time-consuming and expensive.
"The real-time hybrid simulations allow you to do many tests to prepare for the one test using a full-scale facility," Dyke said. "The nice thing is that you can change the numerical model any way you want. You can make it a four-story structure one day and the next day it's a 10-story structure. You can test an unlimited number of cases with a single physical setup."
The researchers will present two abstracts during the Reno meeting. One focuses on how the simulation method has been improved and the other describes the overall validation of real-time hybrid simulations.
To prove the reliability of the approach the researchers are comparing pure computational models, pure physical shake-table tests and then the real-time hybrid simulation. Research results from this three-way comparison are demonstrating that the hybrid simulations are accurate.
Ou has developed a mathematical approach to cancel out "noise" that makes it difficult to use testing data. She combined mathematical tools for a new "integrated control strategy" for the hybrid simulation.
"She found that by integrating several techniques in the right mix you can get better performance than in prior tests," Dyke said.
The researchers have validated the simulations.
"It's a viable method that can be used by other researchers for many different purposes and in many different laboratories," Dyke said.
###
Much of the research is based at Purdue's Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research and has been funded by the NSF through NEES. A portion is supported by the Sohmen Fund, an endowment established by Purdue alumnus Anna Pao Sohmen to facilitate faculty and student exchange with the Harbin Institute of Technology and Ningbo University. The fund is managed by International Programs at Purdue.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Earthquake-engineering researches at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China work to set up a structure on a shake table for experiments to study the effects of earthquakes. Purdue University civil engineering students are working with counterparts at the institute to study the reliability of models for testing a type of powerful damping system that might be installed in buildings and bridges to reduce structural damage and injuries during earthquakes. (Photo courtesy of Harbin Institute of Technology)
A publication-quality image is available at https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2013/dyke-dampers.jpg
ABSTRACT
Application of Robust Integrated Actuator Control Strategy in Real Time Hybrid Simulation
Presenter: Ge(Gaby)Ou, Purdue University
Corresponding Author: Ge Ou (gou@purdue.edu)
Real-Time Hybrid Simulation performs substructure test in real-time scale and includes rate dependent feature in consideration. One major challenge for RTHS is that it requires accurate and prompt execution of boundary condition that is calculated from numerical substructure. In most cases, traditional PID control induces large time lag between desired command and response which may cause system instability and further the failure of the test. Many control strategies for servo hydraulic actuator-structure system have been proposed recently to compensate such time lag and other system dynamics. This presentation introduces a new integrated control strategy into RTHS. The new proposed algorithm integrates three key control components; first, a loop shaping feedback control based on H-? optimization, second the Kalman filter for feedback estimation and a pure delay feed-forward block for control performance enhancement. The combination of the aforementioned blocks provides flexible performance according to different control evaluation criterion. RIAC has been applied for displacement tracking through RTHS of a 3DOF steel structure with equipped magnetorheological (MR) damper located in Harbin, China. The experimental components herein is the MR damper attached to a large scale actuator has maximum force capacity of 2000N, the numerical substructure is the rest of the steel structure.
ABSTRACT TWO
Comparison of shake table test with real time hybrid simulations for a large-scale
Presenter: Ali Ozdagli, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University
Corresponding Author: Ali Ozdagli (aozdagli@purdue.edu
Real-time Hybrid Simulation (RTHS) enables physical testing of critical sub-structural elements in a cost-effective way, compared to other existing test methods such as shake table or pseudo-dynamic testing. As RTHS methodologies develop, there is still a pressing need to assure growing interest from civil engineering community seeking for validation. To meet community expectations and reveal the feasibility of RTHS, an international multi-university research project has been proposed focusing on verification of RTHS with shake table tests. The development and implementation of the comparison tests comprise the following tasks: (1) a 3.6 meters tall three story 3-D steel frame structure with base plan dimension of 1.84 m by 2.04 m -- located in Structural and Seismic Test Center at Harbin Institute of Technology, China -- was selected to be tested on the shake table; (2) a 2500 N capacity magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper was attached to the first floor of the frame as the main energy dissipation device; (3) the integrated system was tested on the shake table under various earthquake inputs, and analytical simulations were developed for the comparison basis; (4) for the RTHS scheme, the system was divided into physical and numerical components. The steel structure was modeled as the numerical substructure whereas the MR damper was chosen as the physical component as it allows test repeatability without compromising system integrity. A 2500 kN capacity actuator is used as the transfer interface between physical and numerical substructure. Accuracy of numerical models, performance of MR damper controllers and data quality of RTHS are evaluated through comparisons with shake table structural responses. The results indicate that RTHS concept can be considered as a reliable and efficient testing method.
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Simulations aiding study of earthquake dampers for structuresPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emil Venere venere@purdue.edu 765-494-4709 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Researchers have demonstrated the reliability and efficiency of "real-time hybrid simulation" for testing a type of powerful damping system that might be installed in buildings and bridges to reduce structural damage and injuries during earthquakes.
The magnetorheological-fluid dampers are shock-absorbing devices containing a liquid that becomes far more viscous when a magnetic field is applied.
"It normally feels like a thick fluid, but when you apply a magnetic field it transforms into a peanut-butter consistency, which makes it generate larger forces when pushed through a small orifice," said Shirley Dyke, a professor of mechanical engineering and civil engineering at Purdue University.
This dramatic increase in viscosity enables the devices to exert powerful forces and to modify a building's stiffness in response to motion during an earthquake. The magnetorheological-fluid dampers, or MR dampers, have seen limited commercial use and are not yet being used routinely in structures.
Research led by Dyke and doctoral students Gaby Ou and Ali Ozdagli has now shown real-time hybrid simulations are reliable in studying the dampers. The research is affiliated with the National Science Foundation's George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), a shared network of laboratories based at Purdue.
Dyke and her students are working with researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, home to one of only a few large-scale shake-table facilities in the world.
Findings will be discussed during the NEES Quake Summit 2013 on Aug. 7 and 8 in Reno. A research paper also was presented in May during a meeting in Italy related to a consortium called SERIES (Seismic Engineering Research Infrastructures for European Synergies). The paper was authored by Ou, Dyke, Ozdagli, and researchers Bin Wu and Bo Li from the Harbin Institute.
"The results indicate that the real-time hybrid simulation concept can be considered as a reliable and efficient testing method," Ou said.
The simulations are referred to as hybrid because they combine computational models with data from physical tests.
"You have physical models and computational models being combined for one test," Dyke said.
Researchers are able to perform structural tests at slow speed, but testing in real-time or the actual speed of an earthquake sheds new light on how the MR dampers perform in structures. The real-time ability has only recently become feasible due to technological advances in computing.
"Sometimes real-time testing is necessary, and that's where we focus our efforts," said Dyke, who organized a workshop on the subject to be held during the NEES meeting in Reno. "This hybrid approach is taking off lately. People are getting very excited about it."
Ozdagli also is presenting related findings next week during the 2013 Conference of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute in Evanston, Ill.
The simulations can be performed in conjunction with research using full-scale building tests. However, there are very few large-scale facilities in the world, and the testing is time-consuming and expensive.
"The real-time hybrid simulations allow you to do many tests to prepare for the one test using a full-scale facility," Dyke said. "The nice thing is that you can change the numerical model any way you want. You can make it a four-story structure one day and the next day it's a 10-story structure. You can test an unlimited number of cases with a single physical setup."
The researchers will present two abstracts during the Reno meeting. One focuses on how the simulation method has been improved and the other describes the overall validation of real-time hybrid simulations.
To prove the reliability of the approach the researchers are comparing pure computational models, pure physical shake-table tests and then the real-time hybrid simulation. Research results from this three-way comparison are demonstrating that the hybrid simulations are accurate.
Ou has developed a mathematical approach to cancel out "noise" that makes it difficult to use testing data. She combined mathematical tools for a new "integrated control strategy" for the hybrid simulation.
"She found that by integrating several techniques in the right mix you can get better performance than in prior tests," Dyke said.
The researchers have validated the simulations.
"It's a viable method that can be used by other researchers for many different purposes and in many different laboratories," Dyke said.
###
Much of the research is based at Purdue's Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research and has been funded by the NSF through NEES. A portion is supported by the Sohmen Fund, an endowment established by Purdue alumnus Anna Pao Sohmen to facilitate faculty and student exchange with the Harbin Institute of Technology and Ningbo University. The fund is managed by International Programs at Purdue.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Earthquake-engineering researches at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China work to set up a structure on a shake table for experiments to study the effects of earthquakes. Purdue University civil engineering students are working with counterparts at the institute to study the reliability of models for testing a type of powerful damping system that might be installed in buildings and bridges to reduce structural damage and injuries during earthquakes. (Photo courtesy of Harbin Institute of Technology)
A publication-quality image is available at https://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/2013/dyke-dampers.jpg
ABSTRACT
Application of Robust Integrated Actuator Control Strategy in Real Time Hybrid Simulation
Presenter: Ge(Gaby)Ou, Purdue University
Corresponding Author: Ge Ou (gou@purdue.edu)
Real-Time Hybrid Simulation performs substructure test in real-time scale and includes rate dependent feature in consideration. One major challenge for RTHS is that it requires accurate and prompt execution of boundary condition that is calculated from numerical substructure. In most cases, traditional PID control induces large time lag between desired command and response which may cause system instability and further the failure of the test. Many control strategies for servo hydraulic actuator-structure system have been proposed recently to compensate such time lag and other system dynamics. This presentation introduces a new integrated control strategy into RTHS. The new proposed algorithm integrates three key control components; first, a loop shaping feedback control based on H-? optimization, second the Kalman filter for feedback estimation and a pure delay feed-forward block for control performance enhancement. The combination of the aforementioned blocks provides flexible performance according to different control evaluation criterion. RIAC has been applied for displacement tracking through RTHS of a 3DOF steel structure with equipped magnetorheological (MR) damper located in Harbin, China. The experimental components herein is the MR damper attached to a large scale actuator has maximum force capacity of 2000N, the numerical substructure is the rest of the steel structure.
ABSTRACT TWO
Comparison of shake table test with real time hybrid simulations for a large-scale
Presenter: Ali Ozdagli, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University
Corresponding Author: Ali Ozdagli (aozdagli@purdue.edu
Real-time Hybrid Simulation (RTHS) enables physical testing of critical sub-structural elements in a cost-effective way, compared to other existing test methods such as shake table or pseudo-dynamic testing. As RTHS methodologies develop, there is still a pressing need to assure growing interest from civil engineering community seeking for validation. To meet community expectations and reveal the feasibility of RTHS, an international multi-university research project has been proposed focusing on verification of RTHS with shake table tests. The development and implementation of the comparison tests comprise the following tasks: (1) a 3.6 meters tall three story 3-D steel frame structure with base plan dimension of 1.84 m by 2.04 m -- located in Structural and Seismic Test Center at Harbin Institute of Technology, China -- was selected to be tested on the shake table; (2) a 2500 N capacity magneto-rheological (MR) fluid damper was attached to the first floor of the frame as the main energy dissipation device; (3) the integrated system was tested on the shake table under various earthquake inputs, and analytical simulations were developed for the comparison basis; (4) for the RTHS scheme, the system was divided into physical and numerical components. The steel structure was modeled as the numerical substructure whereas the MR damper was chosen as the physical component as it allows test repeatability without compromising system integrity. A 2500 kN capacity actuator is used as the transfer interface between physical and numerical substructure. Accuracy of numerical models, performance of MR damper controllers and data quality of RTHS are evaluated through comparisons with shake table structural responses. The results indicate that RTHS concept can be considered as a reliable and efficient testing method.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
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