Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/banned-words-list-2012-spoiler-alert/
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সোমবার, ৩১ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১২
If cut, fiscal deal will pale against expectations
President Barack Obama pauses during a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama pauses during a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Whether negotiated in a rush before the new year or left for early January, the fiscal deal President Barack Obama and Congress cobble together will be far smaller than what they initially envisioned as an alternative to purposefully distasteful tax increases and spending cuts.
Instead, their deal, if a deal they indeed cut, will put off some big decisions about tax and entitlement changes and leave other deadlines in place that will likely lead to similar moments of brinkmanship, some in just a matter of weeks.
Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping for a deal as early as Sunday on what threshold to set for increased tax rates, whether to keep current inheritance tax rates and exemptions and how to pay for jobless benefits and avoid cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.
An agreement would halt automatic across-the-board tax increases for virtually every American and perhaps temporarily put off some steep spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.
Gone, however, is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart of a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over ten years.
Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.
"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.
The interview was taped Saturday while aides to the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were engaged in negotiations in the Capitol in hopes of having something to present senators as early as Sunday.
"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement," Obama said, referring to his mood Friday. "And now the pressure's on Congress to produce."
The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.
"I outlined a framework that deals with reforming our tax code and reforming our spending," Boehner said as the leaders gathered on the White House driveway on Nov. 16.
"We understand that it has to be about cuts, it has to be about revenue, it has to be about growth, it has to be about the future," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said at the time. "I feel confident that a solution may be in sight."
And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered a bold prediction: "There is no more let's do it some other time. We are going to do it now."
That big talk is over for now.
Senate negotiators were haggling over what threshold of income to set as the demarcation between current tax rates and higher tax rates. They were negotiating over estate limits and tax levels, how to extend unemployment benefits, how to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors and how to keep a minimum income tax payment designed for the rich from hitting about 28 million middle class taxpayers.
But the deal was not meant to settle other outstanding issues, including more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government spending. The deal also would not address an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.
That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.
As the day ended Saturday, there were few signs of success on a scaled-back deal. But no one was declaring a stalemate either.
Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar mattered. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.
Republicans said they were willing to bow to Obama's call for higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to prevent them from rising on those less well-off.
Democrats said Obama was sticking to his campaign call for tax increases above $250,000 in annual income, even though he said in recent negotiations he said he could accept $400,000. There was no evidence of agreement even at the higher level.
Obama, who once proposed nearly $1.6 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years, would get about half of that if he succeeded in getting a $250,000 threshold over 10 years. At a $400,000 level, the revenue figure drops to about $600 billion over a decade.
Republicans want to leave the estate tax at 35 percent after exempting the first $5 million in estate value. Officials said the White House wants a 45 percent tax after a $3.5 million exemption. Without any action by Congress, it would climb to a 55 percent tax after a $1 million exemption on Jan. 1. Obama's proposal would generate more than $100 billion in additional revenue over 10 years.
Democrats stressed their unwillingness to make concessions on both income taxes and the estate tax, and hoped Republicans would choose which mattered more to them.
Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this article
Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn
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Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this article.
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Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn
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Congress Stands on Edge of Fiscal Cliff, Considers Jumping (Little green footballs)
Comedian Katt Williams arrested in LA
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Katt Williams, the comedian who has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of the law, is out on bail after being arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a stolen gun.
Police Officer Norma Eisenman says Williams was taken into custody Friday after the LA County Department of Children and Family Services did a welfare check at his home. Authorities found more than one firearm, one of which had been reported stolen.
Eisenman says the DCFS did not specify how many children lived at the home or whether they were removed.
The 41-year-old was arrested this month on a felony warrant related to a police chase. In November, he was accused of hitting a man on the head with a bottle during a fight.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/comedian-katt-williams-arrested-la-182711819.html
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Laptop Computer Home Business: Press Releases And Podcasts ...
Website traffic is something that a lot of people struggle with. And this is especially true with newbies. From the internet to local bookstores, there are a ton of information about how to get traffic to a website simply and easily. But if it was this easy, more people would have success, and less people would be failing.
There are so many different ways to get traffic to your website, and in this article, I want to share a few of those ways. What I'm going to reveal are 2 free traffic methods that I know (and use) that will bring you the results that you are looking for. If you're not a believer in free traffic, trust me... you have no idea of what you're missing. Here's the first traffic method that I want to introduce you to:
1) Press releases
There's a website online called "PRweb" that is the best press release site on the internet. But this acclaim comes with a price. To list a press release with this company, you will have to pay $89 just to list 1 press release. As you can see, this price is very steep. But the results that you can get are amazing.
This company has been around for a while, and I'm confident that you can use it to boost your traffic, sales, customers, and income altogether. In fact, when the big name "gurus" online want to get instant publicity on a day where their brand new product launches... they use PRweb to get them the major publicity that they are looking for. Let's take a look at another traffic technique that you can use in your online business.
2) Podcasts
Not many people online use podcasts, but I think it's a great way to learn new techniques in a snap. Some people just don't have the time to write out their lessons and information, so they simply record themselves, put it on a?iTunes is owned by "Apple", and it's a great venue to promote your podcasts on. Plus it's free! You should be using this technique right away if you want to get the ball rolling on your sales and profits simply and easily. There many people who use podcasts effectively in their business. One person who I know of for sure that does this is financial expert Suze Orman.
She makes sure to mention this at the end of her show, and she offers her entire episodes via MP3 format on iTunes. If shy can do it, you can do it too - especially since you should be learning how to become a marketing expert anyway.
Podcasts and press releases are 2 great ways to get traffic and to boost your online sales in a hurry. The more you do them, the more results you will get, and the more they will benefit your business. Plus... they're free!
Good luck with using these techniques in your online business today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:?Randall Magwood is one of the most respected and highly-regarded?online marketing experts on the internet. He has a website about internet marketing that helps small business owners learn how to market their business online simply and easily. To learn more, simply visit his website here: Internet Marketing Secrets
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randall_A_Magwood
Source: http://zabih25.blogspot.com/2012/12/press-releases-and-podcasts-for-traffic.html
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GOP governors walk balance beam on health law
FILE - In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks in Fort Lauderdale. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After President Obama won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. He said he wanted to "have a conversation" with the administration about implementing the 2010 law. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)
FILE - In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks in Fort Lauderdale. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After President Obama won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. He said he wanted to "have a conversation" with the administration about implementing the 2010 law. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)
FILE - This Dec. 20, 2012 file photo shows New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie listens to a question in Belmar, N.J. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who made a fortune as a health care executive, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After the Democratic president won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie also has walked a careful line. Both Republican governors face re-election in states that Obama won twice, Christie in 2013 and Scott in 2014. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who made a fortune as a health care executive, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After the Democratic president won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. He said he wanted to "have a conversation" with the administration about implementing the 2010 law. With a federal deadline approaching, he also said while Florida won't set up the exchange for individuals to buy private insurance policies, the feds can do it.
In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie held his cards before saying he won't set up his own exchange, but he's avoided absolute language and says he could change his mind. He's also leaving his options open to accept federal money to expand Medicaid insurance for people who aren't covered. The caveat, Christie says, is whether Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can "answer my questions" about its operations and expense.
Both Republican governors face re-election in states that Obama won twice, Christie in 2013 and Scott in 2014. And both will encounter well-financed Democrats.
Their apparent struggles on the issue, along with other postures by their GOP colleagues elsewhere, suggest political uncertainty for Republicans as the Affordable Care Act starts to go into effect two years after clearing Congress without a single Republican vote. The risks also are acute for governors in Democratic-leaning or swing-voting states or who know their records will be parsed should they seek the presidency in 2016 or beyond.
"It's a tough call for many Republican governors who want to do the best thing for their state but don't want to be seen as advancing an overhaul that many Republicans continue to detest," said Whit Ayers, a consultant in Virginia whose clients include Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, a Republican who didn't announce his rejection of a state exchange until days before Sebelius's Dec. 14 deadline.
Indeed, cracks keep growing in the near-unanimous Republican rejection of Obama's health care law that characterized the GOP's political messaging for the last two years. Five GOP-led states ? Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah ? are pressing ahead with state insurance exchanges. Ongoing monitoring by The Associated Press shows that another five Republican-led states are pursuing or seriously a partnership with Washington to help run the new markets.
Democrats, meanwhile, hope to use the law and Republican inflexibility to their advantage, betting that more Americans will embrace the law once it expands coverage. The calculus for voters, Democrats assume, will become more about the policy and less about a polarizing president.
"It shouldn't be complicated at all," said John Anzalone, an Obama pollster who assists Democrats in federal races across the country. Anzalone said Republicans could use their own states-rights argument to justify running exchanges. Instead, he said, "They are blinded by Obama-hatred rather than seeing what's good for their citizens."
Governors can set up their own exchanges, partner with Sebelius' agency or let the federal government do it. The exchanges are set to open Jan. 1, 2014, allowing individuals and businesses to shop online for individual policies from private insurers. Low- and middle-income individuals will get federal premium subsidies calculated on a sliding income scale. Eighteen states plus Washington, DC, most led by Democrats, have committed to opening their own exchanges.
The law also calls for raising the income threshold for Medicaid eligibility to cover people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $15,400 a year for an individual. That could add more than 10 million people, most of them childless adults, to the joint state-federal insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans. Together, the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion are expected to reduce the number of uninsured by about 30 million people within the next decade.
A Supreme Court ruling last summer made the Medicaid expansion voluntary, rather than mandatory for states. At least eight governors, all of them Republicans, have already said they have no plans to expand Medicaid.
The complexity is obvious.
National exit polls from last month's election showed that 49 percent of voters wanted some or all of Obama's signature legislative achievement rolled back. Among self-identified independents, that number was 58 percent. Among Republicans, it spiked to 81 percent. When asked about the role of government, half of respondents said the notion that government is doing too much fits their views more closely than the idea that government should do more.
Before the election, a national AP-GfK poll suggested that 63 percent of respondents preferred their states to run insurance exchanges, almost double the 32 percent who wanted the federal government to take that role. And the same electorate that tilts toward repealing some or all of the new law clearly re-elected its champion.
That's not the most important consideration for governors who face re-election in Republican states. Georgia's Nathan Deal and Alabama's Robert Bentley, who also face 2014 campaigns, initially set up advisory commissions to consider how to carry out the health care law, but they've since jumped ship. But, unlike others, Deal and Bentley aren't eyeing national office.
Three Republicans who are viewed as potential national candidates ? Rick Perry of Texas, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana ? were full-throated opponents. Jindal, the only one of the three who is term-limited, is the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association. In that role, he has co-signed more conciliatory letters to Sebelius asking questions to flesh out how the designs might work.
Republican governors also are feeling quiet pressure from hospitals and other providers.
Deal, the Georgia governor, offers the typical argument for saying no: "We can't afford it." But the law envisions the new Medicaid coverage more or less as a replacement of an existing financing situation that pays hospitals to treat the uninsured. The law contemplates cuts in that program, which already requires state seed money. The idea was that expanding Medicaid coverage would reduce "uncompensated care" costs.
"Some of those cuts were made with the expectation that Medicaid would be expanded and that hospitals would be paid for portions of business that we are not being paid for now," said Don Dalton of the North Carolina Hospital Association.
Dalton's Governor-elect, Republican Pat McCrory, said as a candidate that he opposed Medicaid expansion. Dalton said his industry is leaning on McCrory and legislative leaders, though he commended "their deliberate approach." Similar efforts are underway in South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri and elsewhere.
For Democrats, Anzalone said the framing will be simpler: "You don't want to take a 9-to-1 match? That's a pretty easy investment. These governors who aren't expanding Medicaid, they're basically giving taxpayer money to the states that do."
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The Ultimate Japanese Convenience Food. Gyoza. | The ...
We love gyoza. Plump little Japanese dumplings filled with meat and vegetables. Their bottoms fried to a golden hue and tops softly steamed to silky perfection. They are available everywhere in Niseko. On and off piste. Always on the menu at the local izakaya to have with a drink and the ramen and noodle houses as an appetiser before the main course.
With three hungry teenagers in tow I paid a visit to the local Japanese supermarket in Kutchan town to stock up on supplies. I now have a refrigerator full of Japanese convenience food to satisfy the hungriest and greediest of them all. Gyoza, ramen, soba, pork or chicken buns, edamame and even tempura prawns are all available in handy convenience packs. With a minimum of fuss an authentic Japanese meal can be on the table in minutes.
Here?s how its done. Buy a packet of prepared gyoza from the Japanese supermarket. Any brand will do (it has to really as I neither speak Japanese or read kanji or hiragana). ?Be guided by the pictures.
Heat a pan on medium with a little olive oil. Sear the bottoms of the gyoza until they are golden brown. Add 1/2 a cup of water and the contents of the seasoning sachets. Steam until the liquid has evaporated and serve.
So easy that even my teenagers can prepare these for themselves. With unrestricted access to the refrigerator they will probably eat a whole packet each.?The ski lifts here open at 8.30 am and operate until 9 pm at night. Often my little darlings ski home at around 5 pm. Raid the fridge and can be back out there under lights until the last run.
I myself prefer to pay a relaxing visit to the soothing mineral waters of the onsen and then visit one of the many izakaya and restaurants for a bite to eat. ?Tonight my husband and I are off to ABuCha for sukiyaki.?Whilst I adore these gyoza too, when I?m on holiday my children can fend for themselves. Fortunately these gyoza are also available in Japanese supermarkets back at home. So you?don?t?have to wait for a trip to Japan to enjoy them.
Source: http://thepaddingtonfoodie.com/2012/12/31/the-ultimate-japanese-convenience-food-gyoza/
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রবিবার, ৩০ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১২
Shark Eats Shark: Picture Captures Fisherman's Amazing Catch Near Kaiteriteri, New Zealand (PHOTO)
In this handout picture released by Awashima Marine Park, a 1.6 meter long Frill shark swims in a tank after being found by a fisherman at a bay in Numazu, on January 21, 2007 in Numazu, Japan. The frill shark, also known as a Frilled shark usually lives in waters of a depth of 600 meters and so it is very rare that this shark is found alive at sea-level. Its body shape and the number of gill are similar to fossils of sharks which lived 350,000,000 years ago. (Photo by Awashima Marine Park/Getty Images)
A shark swims in a tank at the New York Aquarium on August 7, 2001 in Coney Island, New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A June 11, 2009 file photo provided by Elasmodiver shows scientist Eric Hoffmayer of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, Miss., taking fin measurements of a whale shark in the Gulf of Mexico, about 55 miles off the Louisiana coast. Hoffmayer says whale sharks, the world's biggest fish, are particularly vulnerable if they get into the oil slick. That's because, rather than moving up to the surface and down again, they eat by swimming along the surface, sucking in plankton, fish eggs and small fish. (AP Photo/Elasmodiver, Andy Murch, File)
Home And Away actor Jon Sivewright launches the new Adventure experience Grey Nurse Shark Feed Dive at Manly's Ocean World on December 18, 2006 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)
This Saturday, June 26, 2010 photo released by Bruce Sweet shows a juvenile great white shark swimming in the Atlantic Ocean about 20 miles off the coast of Gloucester, Mass., in the rich fishing ground known as Stellwagen Bank. The shark was pulled up by Gloucester-based Sweet Dream III, tagged, and returned to the sea. (AP Photo/www.SportFishingMA.com, Bruce Sweet)
A shark swims in a tank at the New York Aquarium August 7, 2001 in Coney Island, New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A shark swim inside a fish tank as a diver, left, cleans the glass at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011. The Two Oceans Aquarium hosts group activities for school children and students which include the identification and observation of fish and other species. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
In this handout picture released by Awashima Marine Park, a 1.6 meter long Frill shark swims in a tank after being found by a fisherman at a bay in Numazu, on January 21, 2007 in Numazu, Japan. The frill shark, also known as a Frilled shark usually lives in waters of a depth of 600 meters and so it is very rare that this shark is found alive at sea-level. Its body shape and the number of gill are similar to fossils of sharks which lived 350,000,000 years ago. (Photo by Awashima Marine Park/Getty Images)
In this picture taken on September 3, 2011, an environmental activist releases a baby black-tip shark into the sea as part of an operation organised by the sharks protection group Dive Tribe off the coast of the southern Thai sea resort of Pattaya. On average an estimated 22,000 tonnes of sharks are caught annually off Thailand for their fins -- a delicacy in Chinese cuisine once enjoyed only by the rich, but now increasingly popular with the wealthier middle class. (CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/Getty Images)
Walter Szulc Jr., in kayak at left, looks back at the dorsal fin of an approaching shark at Nauset Beach in Orleans, Mass. in Cape Cod on Saturday, July 7, 2012. An unidentified man in the foreground looks towards them. No injuries were reported. The previous week, a 12- to 15-foot great white shark was seen off Chatham in the first confirmed shark sighting of the season according to a state researcher. Two more sightings were reported Tuesday, July 2, 2012. The same waters are filled with seals, which draw the sharks because they are a favorite food of the animal. (AP Photo/Shelly Negrotti)
This undated photo released by The Galapagos National Park of Ecuador shows a diver alongside a whale shark in the Galapagos Island, Ecuador. (AP Photo/The Galapagos National Park of Ecuador)
Blacktip reef shark
A green sea turtle (R) (Chelonia mydas) swims next to a blacktip reef shark (L) (Carcharhinus melanopterus) in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres ('House of the Sea'), in Vienna on June 27, 2012. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/GettyImages)
A blacktip reef shark
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) swims in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres ('House of the Sea') in Vienna on June 27, 2012. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Bonnethead shark
A Bonnethead shark swims at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, on April 26, 2012.The Aquarium features a collection of over 11,000 animals representing over 500 different species. It focuses on the Pacific Ocean in three major permanent galleries, sunny Southern California and Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colorful reefs of the Tropical Pacific.The non-profit Aquarium sees 1.5 million visitors a year and has a total staff of over 900 people including more than 300 employees and about 650 volunteers. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)
Blacktip reef shark
A blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus swims in the aquarium of the Haus des Meeres in Vienna on June 27, 2012. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Baby Nurse Shark Birth Captured on Camera
The newborn is being kept away from the rest of the sharks at Yantai Haichang Whale and Shark Aquarium.
Rare Shark Frenzy Caught On Camera
A school of feasting sharks was captured on camera just a few hundred meters off shore in Perth, Australia.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/shark-eats-shark-picture-photo_n_2381210.html
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Why Starting a Home-Based Business is a Good Idea ? Articlearn
Owning and operating a home-based business requires a lot of work to make it a successful endeavor.? These are the benefits of owning these types of businesses.
At some point in time, many individuals have aspired to own and operate their own home-based business because it will provide them with the freedom to gain financial independence and be their own boss.? There are numerous legitimate income opportunities to be had if a person is willing to do a little research and perform some due diligence in the process.
When aspiring entrepreneurs contemplate the viability of a profitable home based business, the first question that arises is: ?What makes a home-based business such a good idea??
The acronym ?JOB? stands for ?Just Over Broke.? Interestingly enough, this has never been closer to the truth before.? At some point in time, probably everybody has had the desire to be their own boss and operate a home based business.
The problem has always been that finding a viable business opportunity is not always that easy.? But when a person does and they get that first taste of success, there is no turning back.? The following content will present the major reasons why starting a home-based business is a good idea.
There is no one to answer to ? there is no boss threatening a person?s livelihood and their job security.? It is the greatest form of freedom and independence that anyone can experience when it comes to earning a living and loving their job.
Home-based businesses are not a 9 to 5 routine ? there is no weekly work schedule that has to be followed, no time clock to punch in and out on every day, without asking someone for a day off when it is needed.
There is no limit to the amount of money a person can earn ? having a regular job does not provide a person the opportunity to realize any type of substantial income.
The worst part of working for somebody else is that unless the person is a commissioned salesperson, their earnings will always be limited to the company pay scale.? There are two truisms about owning and operating a home-based business that always exists about earnings, when a person works for someone else:
o?? ?there will always be limits on a person?s earning potential
o?? ?the person will never get paid what they are worth
Keep the pajamas on all day if desired ? one of the things that a lot of people despise about their job, is the fact that they are oftentimes forced to wear clothing that they cannot stand.? This is especially true when they work for an employer that demands wearing a company uniform.? It?s even more aggravating, when the person has to take care of those uniforms themselves.? When a person has their own home-based business, they can wear what they want ? no shirt and tie is ever required.
The greatest investment a person can ever make is in themselves ? when a person invests in their own business, they are investing in themselves, and that is the best investment they can ever make in their lives.
Published in BusinessSource: http://www.articlearn.com/why-starting-a-home-based-business-is-a-good-idea/
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Does religion make a person more likely to stay in a bad marriage?
Yesterday, 11:51 PM
Registered User
?Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: New Jersey, USA.
Posts: 16
I'm a regular on Christian Forums (although not religious myself), I find that a lot of people posting in their marriage section have big problems within their marriage but refuse to consider divorce as an option because it's not condoned by the Church. Even on the grounds of cheating and abuse, they don't want to leave, most of the time not only because of their faith but because there is kids involved (which doesn't even make sense to me, really, because I know that a peaceful separation would be much easier for their children compared to years of them fighting with each other and staying together).
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Some Type 2 Diabetes Remissions Possible With Exercise, Diet ...
From Your Health Journal?..?As many of you know, I raise money for diabetes awareness if I can ? and have a link on one of my web sites to assist with donations. The CDC came out with a new report that states one out of nine type 2s who followed an intensive diet and exercise program for one year were able to record normal or prediabetes-level blood sugar levels. Yes, this is something we already know, since type 2 diabetes is environmental, and many times, associated with obesity. So, eating right and getting some daily physical activity can potentially lower someones weight and help a type 2 diabetic have normal blood sugar levels. Researchers noted that patients most likely to achieve remission of diabetes-level blood sugar measurements had been diagnosed with type 2 for fewer years, and lost more weight and achieved greater fitness during the course of the study than their peers. Please visit the Diabetes Health web site for the full story (link below) ? as well as learning more about diabetes, it is a fantastic site.?
From the article?..
One out of nine type 2s who followed an intensive diet and exercise program for one year were able to record normal or prediabetes-level blood sugar levels, according to a study recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the multi-year study, which has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 11.5 percent?roughly one in nine?of the type 2 patients who followed a rigorous diet and exercise routine were able to drop their blood sugar levels below the diabetes threshold of 126 mg/dL without the use of medication. This compared to 2 percent of patients in a non-diet, non-exercise control group who were able to achieve the same result.
The diet called for a daily intake of 1,200 to 1,800 calories, including beverages, and physical activity adding up to just under three hours per week.
Researchers noted that patients most likely to achieve remission of diabetes-level blood sugar measurements had been diagnosed with type 2 for fewer years, and lost more weight and achieved greater fitness during the course of the study than their peers.
To read the full article?..Click here
Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=11033
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Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network's Executive Director, Dies In Swimming Accident
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The executive director of San Francisco-based environmental group Rainforest Action Network has died in a swimming accident at a beach near Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta, police said Friday.
Rebecca Tarbotton, 39, was swimming Wednesday at a beach about a half hour north of Puerto Vallarta when she was caught by a wave and tossed around, said Adan Leyva, spokesman for Puerto Vallarta municipal police.
Leyva said that paramedics tried to revive her after she was brought ashore, but she was dead by the time she reached the hospital.
In a statement on its website Friday, Rainforest Action Network said Tarbotton ? who friends called Becky ? was travelling with her husband and friends.
"RAN is heartbroken by our loss of Becky, but we are committed to continuing the course that she set for us," Nell Greenberg, the group's spokeswoman, said. "Focusing on our core purpose of protecting forests, moving the country off of fossil fuels and defending human rights through bold, effective, and innovative environmental corporate campaigns."
A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Tarbotton took the group's helm in 2010, the first woman to do so.
Rainforest Action Network works with major corporations on environmental projects, and Tarbotton recently brokered an agreement with the Walt Disney Company that changed the way the entertainment giant uses paper, RAN said.
Tarbotton's family said they planned to scatter her ashes off Canada's Hornby Island.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/rebecca-tarbotton-rainforest-action-network_n_2378717.html
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State Dept. warns of travel hazards in Haiti
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department has issued a revised Haiti travel advisory, warning Americans planning to travel to the Caribbean island nation about robbery, lawlessness, infectious disease and poor medical facilities.
"U.S. citizens have been victims of violent crime, including murder and kidnapping, predominantly in the Port-au-Prince area. No one is safe from kidnapping, regardless of occupation, nationality, race, gender, or age," the department said.
The new travel warning was released Friday to replace a less strongly worded advisory issued in June.
In recent months, travelers arriving in Port-au-Prince, the capital and largest city, on flights from the United States have been attacked and robbed after leaving the airport. This year, at least two U.S. citizens were shot and killed in robbery and kidnapping incidents, the State Department said.
"Haitian authorities have limited capacity to deter or investigate such violent acts, or prosecute perpetrators," the department said.
The State Department also noted that while the incidents of cholera have declined, the disease persists in many areas of Haiti. Medical facilities, including ambulance services, are particularly weak.
"Thousands of U.S. citizens safely visit Haiti each year, but the poor state of Haiti's emergency response network should be carefully considered when planning travel. Travelers to Haiti are encouraged to use organizations that have solid infrastructure, evacuation, and medical support options in place," the department said.
___
Online:
Haiti Travel Warning: http://tinyurl.com/bnrfqtx
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/state-dept-warns-travel-hazards-haiti-102654744.html
How badly will budget cuts hurt troops, DOD civilians?
WASHINGTON ? In the final presidential debate, President Barack Obama declared to the American people with unflinching certainty that sequestration ?will not happen.?
Two months later, the Jan. 1 deadline is looming, with no debt reduction deal in sight.
Now what?
How quickly and deeply will these automatic defense budget cuts totaling about $500 billion over the next decade hit troops, Defense Department civilians and contractors? And how much will they hurt?
Many experts agree: ?The sky is not going to suddenly fall on Jan. 2,? said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. ?In fact, we are likely to see hardly any impacts in that first week.?
But in the weeks that follow, the DOD could begin implementing the furlough plan for civilian employees that was announced before Christmas by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The Defense Department could hit the entire civilian workforce ? about 700,900 full-time employees ? with furloughs. In that instance, offices would not be shuttered. Furloughs would come in waves and in a rolling manner, so only a handful of civilian employees from each department would stay home without pay each month.
Harrison expects that by early spring the Defense Department will have to move to reduce its peacetime operations. For example, the number of flight hours that pilots get for regular training and the number of live-fire exercises for ground forces could be reduced. Maintenance of equipment, such as ships and ground vehicles, would be deferred.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testified to the House Armed Services Committee in August that sequestration would allow for less training for later-deploying Army and Marine Corps units to Afghanistan and would reduce readiness of other units if other conflicts arise.
Troops also could see reductions in base support services, facility and government-owned family housing maintenance and commissary hours, Carter said. They may also see Tricare health coverage affected, with delayed payments to medical service providers. That could cause providers to deny medical services to some retirees and family members, he testified.
Harrison predicts that the first pink slips for layoffs in the defense contracting industry could go out by late spring or early summer. DOD plans to buy different weapons systems could stall, resulting in delayed contract awards and the renegotiation of contracts.
?The ?cliff? metaphor is not accurate,? Harrison said. ?It?s more like a slope and it will build from the first year, but it won?t be like a government shutdown, where suddenly at midnight, everyone stops there.?
Patrick Lester, director of fiscal policy at OMB Watch, a progressive Washington think tank, tells people not to panic. He argues that based on his nonprofit?s analysis, the politics for a deal being struck is much better in January. ?Pain focuses the mind,? he said.
The White House and executive office agencies have some ability to soften sequestration?s harshest impacts ? if it kicks in ? because the effects won?t come down immediately.
They can offset some of the pain because they have the authority to control the rate of federal spending. They could use carryover funds to help cushion cuts, redirect funds to more urgent activities and accelerate spending to avoid employee furloughs, Lester said.
?But just because they have this management authority, it doesn?t mean they?ll use it,? he said. The White House?s Office of Management and Budget declined to comment when asked whether using that authority would be considered.
The longer a deal goes unresolved, sequestration becomes a more serious issue, forcing more draconian cuts to make up for the entire fiscal year. With nearly one-fourth of the fiscal year already passed, deeper cuts will be needed to make up for rest of the fiscal year.
For instance, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins said DOD is looking at a 12 percent cut in funding for all accounts, except for military personnel accounts, after putting off sequestration planning for months.
?It?s too early in the process and it?s too soon to tell the effects on specific activities and programs,? she said.
Jacob Stokes, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank with close ties to the Obama administration, said that it?s important to remember that sequestration is ?not irreversible.?
For that reason, there?s been a shift in rhetoric from the defense contracting industry. The consensus has moved from a doomsday scenario to reassurances that it?s not going to be as bad as originally thought.
The goal is to reassure financial markets, which experts say could be thrown into turmoil if the country goes off the fiscal cliff.
?It will be a lot like standing on ice that?s breaking,? Lester said. ?You can see the cracks breaking around you and eventually you will fall through the ice, so you don?t have unlimited time,? he said. ?You can manage sequestration, but every day that passes, that gets harder and harder to do.?
Lester said he believes that Congress and the president will get a deal done.
?The question,? he said, ?is when.?
tsai.joyce@stripes.com
Twitter: @JoyceTsaiDC
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What They Don't Tell You About Promotions
I always thought life was a game where for the most part, you have to figure out the rules to succeed. In school (aka pre-real-life), the rules are clearly explained for how to succeed. You know when you're taking a test and what the evaluation metric is. After that, it starts becoming harder to understand how to succeed.
At jobs, when you first start working, all you have to do is the work assigned. If you do it well and on time, you get a raise and hopefully a promotion. Eventually though, that isn't enough and a lot of people find themselves puzzled about what they are no longer doing correct.
The game changes and no one tells you the new rules. I've seen law associates get frustrated when they don't make partner even after they did all the paperwork and litigation right?all the i's and t's dotted and crossed. I've seen account executives at PR firms frustrated why they aren't VPs after they get a lot of publicity for their clients.
There are two universal truths I find in promotions no matter what level though they get more and more important the higher you go up. First, the less your boss worries about you, the more he or she values you. Second, the more value you deliver the firm beyond your assigned work, the more likely you'll get to the next level.
All managers are stretched thin. It's like being a teacher in a classroom where you have some outstanding students and some challenging ones. You often end up teaching to the lowest common denominator to ensure no one gets left behind. The kids who can self teach or pick things up quickly are the ones who get the least attention and become a pleasure to teach. Employees who don't need to be managed are the ones managers value a lot.
Not only can managers not spend much time helping people do their job but they actually don't have as much time as you might think to come up with new ideas or work beyond the day to day and what's been given to them. So people who can come up with projects and execute on them without direction are ones who are creating value for the firm and not just fulfilling on it.
Every industry has different things that a firm would value. A venture capital firm wants deal flow ultimately and not just due diligence done. An investment bank wants new trading ideas or M&A deals to work on?not just a pitch deck or excel spread sheet made. Law firms need new clients and not just good services to existing ones. Big multinational corporations need new $100MM+ products or partnerships. Startups need just about everything and can rarely rely on founders to come up with every solution to every emerging problem.
You can get by doing your assigned job well for a while even with titles like managers or directors but generally as you get to VP or higher, you aren't given exact instructions from your superior and you're just expected to deliver.
In fact, no one in these industries really ever sits you down and explains that to make it to the highest levels you need to start doing work outside of your day to day work. They don't tell you that you need to be out there meeting new potentials business or keeping up with industry trends on your own time. They don't tell you that you need to come up with a project to do your assigned work even better than was originally planned?cause they didn't have the time to think of something better. They don't even explain to you in a structured manner "here's how you go about doing this work" since it's not your job yet?you're at best an apprentice who needs to keep an eye out to learn. They just don't have the time to teach you that.
So if you want to get promoted, keep these things in mind. Your manager isn't charting your career trajectory because your manager is just trying to keep today's operations running smoothly. You need to do today's work, but the more you can deliver on tomorrow's needs, the brighter your future will be at the firm.
What they don't tell you about promotions | I Am Victorious
Victor Wong is co-founder and CEO of PaperG, a San Francisco-based technology startup focused on local display advertising.
Illustration by Tina Mailhot-Roberge.
Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/cff3LZ3hSJ4/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-promotions
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Building Your Dream Home in Mexico ? Permits and Early Steps Part 2
Yesterday I offered a brief overview of some of the first key steps in the process of building a home in Mexico.? Today?s post offers a closer overview of an all-important topic ? permits.
Permits
One of the most important early items will be the permits.? As one builder puts it, the only permit needed to proceed with building is a construction permit, which is granted by the municipality; however, there are permits needed to gain this permit, and others that could cause complications later on (such as fines or even putting the project on hold) if they are not in place.
Permits are not the same for each project.? For example, a home built next to the beach in places like Playa del Carmen will require several environmental permits from the federal and state governments.? (It must also be noted that there are plenty of lots in the Playa del Carmen real estate area that are within a short distance to the beach, but do not require any extra permits.)
In cases where a lot is wooded, there are permit to remove the vegetation. This can be avoided by buying a prepared lot; if someone chooses a ?raw? lot to save money, the will need to consider not only the cost of clearing, but also the cost of the permit to remove the vegetation and the time to gain this permit.? This item will need to be considered in markets like Tulum real estate, where much of the area is still jungle. Often agreements to leave a significant portion of the trees standing can make the process easier, and add value to the property.
There are also documents that prove that a property owner is indeed paying their workers, perhaps involving unions, depending on who is hired to do the work.? These documents will not be required to validate the building, but offer protection for the owner down the road.
Even the building permit itself will require several ?endorsements;? for example, it will need a stamp of approval from Hacienda, which is Mexico?s equivalent to the IRA, as well as the Health Department.
Again, an experienced professional will know best which permits are necessary and how to navigate through the process of obtaining them.? Property owners who decide to give it a go on their own should proceed carefully, taking all necessary time to do their homework before beginning any preparation or step of construction, talking to people who have built in the same community to ensure they have necessary permits and have covered their grounds.
Andy Welbourne, from London, Ontario, has been living in Playa del Carmen and working as a part of the team with Thomas Lloyd for 7 years. He has worked with many Canadians and Americans to assist in finding their dream home in the Mexican Caribbean; many of these clients have turned into great friendships. Contact Andy at (512) 879-6546.
The TOP Mexico Real Estate Network; ?Mexico?s Leading Network of Specialists for Finding and Purchasing Mexican Properties Safely!?
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4 dead in Moscow airliner crash
Rescuers work at the site of careered off the runway plane at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Rescuers work at the site of careered off the runway plane at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Rescuers work at the site where a plane careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Rescuers work at the wreckage of a plane which careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Rescuers work at the site where a plane careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Alexander Usoltsev)
Wreckage of a plane which careered off the runway at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. A Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian airline Red Wings careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
MOSCOW (AP) ? A passenger airliner careered off the runway at Russia's third-busiest airport and partly onto a highway while landing on Saturday, broke into pieces and caught fire, killing at least four people.
Officials said there were eight people aboard the Tu-204 belonging to Russian airline Red Wings that was flying back from the Czech Republic without passengers to its home at Vnukovo Airport.
Emergency officials said in a televised news conference that four people were killed and another four severely injured when the plane rolled off the runway into a snowy field and partly onto an adjacent highway, then disintegrated. No collisions with vehicles on the major, multilane highway were reported.
The plane's cockpit area was sheared off from the fuselage and the tail section partly torn away.
The crash occurred amid snow and winds gusting up to 15 meters a second (30 mph), but other details were not immediately known. A spokesman for Russia's top investigative agency, Vladimir Markin, said initial indications were that pilot error was the cause.
The state news agency RIA Novosti cited an unidentified official at the Russian Aviation Agency as saying another Red Wings Tu-204 had gone off the runway at the international airport in Novosibirsk in Siberia on Dec. 20. The agency said that incident, in which no one was injured, was due to the failure of the plane's engines to go into reverse upon landing and that its brake system malfunctioned.
On Friday, the Aviation Agency sent a directive to the Tupolev company's president calling for it to take urgent preventive measures.
The plane that crashed Saturday took off from Pardubice airport in the Czech Republic. Jan Anderlik, the director of the company that operates the airport, told Czech public television that the plane underwent a regular technical check before takeoff and no problems were discovered.
Prior to Saturday's crash, there had been no fatal accidents reported for Tu-204s, which entered commercial service in 1995. The plane is a twin-engine midrange jet with a capacity of about 210 passengers.
The Red Wings airline is one of the holdings of Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, who also owns the British newspapers The Independent and the Evening Standard.
Vnukovo, on the southern outskirts of Moscow, is one of the Russian capital's three international airports.
___
Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed to this story.
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Use RSS Feeds to Bring Visitor Back to Your Site | Internet ...
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is essentially a tool which enables internet users to ?subscribe? to content they?re interested in.? It helps people keep track of the information they value without having to go online and search for it each and every time they sit down to surf.
For example, blogs, websites, and forums can all be subscribed to.? Anytime new content is posted, it is either emailed it is either emailed to you or it shows up on a ?reader.?? A reader is essentially an aggregate for all information a person subscribes to.
On the marketing and business side of the coin, an RSS feed (the tool used to send info to subscribers) benefits business owners because it ensures messages reach the intended audience.? Content and promotions land smack dab in their mailbox or reader for easy access.
RSS feeds offer a variety of options.? Business owners can:
* Send all full length blog posts to readers
* Send excerpts of blog posts with links back to your site.
* Send weekly blog post highlights ? with links back to your site so readers can read entire posts at your site.
* Send top industry stories of the day.
* Send reviews of relevant products
* Send promotional messages, contests, coupons etc?
* Send posted articles, in their entirety, to subscribers.
* Send excerpts of articles to subscribers.
Some of these options lend themselves quite easily to bringing readers, and prospects, back to your site.? For example, sending a full length article to subscribers is great for them ? they don?t have to click on anything.? The content is all there right in front of them ? no work.
However, delivering an excerpt or even a captivating headline encourages people to click on the link which of course brings them right back to your company website.
The key concept to bringing readers back to your site ? present a benefit driven excerpt and/or an attention grabbing headline.? Skipping this step results in fewer click throughs to your site and who wants that?? It?s certainly not the goal ? however sending a full post or article doesn?t encourage any click throughs.
Another way to bring readers back to your website and still send them a complete article, is to include an advertisement, promotion, or even a simple embedded link right in the feed.? That way, even article scanners, receive the opportunity to click through and take advantage of promotions and interested readers will click through on text links ? landing right on your business website or sales page.
RSS offers myriad opportunities for both readers and business owners.? Be creative, pay attention to how your readers prefer to interact online (track click through rates and length of time on pages) and provide the experience they desire.? It?ll keep them coming back for more.? The end result, more traffic and more profits.
Source: http://internetmarketer.com/blog/use-rss-feeds-to-bring-visitor-back-to-your-site/
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Cleantech Investing: 2013 Predictions - Seeking Alpha
By Rob Day
First: Several folks asked if I could post my little Christmas Eve twitter poem. Well, Walt Frick was kind enough to do so here. So enjoy, typos and all! And my thanks to Walt...
It's that time of year again! Time for some prognostications of questionable accuracy, as we head into the new year. 2012 was hard for cleantech investors. Will 2013 be a rebound year? This time next year will we be looking back and smiling broadly at our good fortune?
Unfortunately, that's not what I'm expecting.
Our sector is at a pretty low point right now, and while I do personally believe cleantech is just in the "Trough of Disillusionment" and will eventually rebound, there aren't a lot of factors primed to trigger any upswing in the coming months. So 2013 seems like a "go-sideways" year, off of an already low starting point.
In fact, I think the term "cleantech" will continue to become unfashionable, although some (including myself) will continue to use it in very generic ways. But this will be a year where the cleantech sector gets a lot broader, in terms of where the (limited) activity is and who's interested in it, so that'll probably mean a lot of rebranding and proliferation of other terms as everyone tries to figure out their own renewed take on things.
But my track record on these things isn't very good, so don't get either too discouraged or encouraged by the following predictions:
1. U.S. cleantech deal counts will be flat in 2013 (within 10% plus or minus) of 2012 levels, and dollar amounts will be down.
Both venture dollars and deal counts were down in the first three quarters of 2012 (note: link opens pdf) and Q4 doesn't feel poised to surprise on the upside. Even follow-on funding has been down, but mostly it's the initial investments (Series A, etc) that have fallen by the wayside. This is driven by the significant withdrawal of generalists from the sector, and the reality that specialist VC firms are low on capital reserves. More on this below, but it doesn't seem like LPs will suddenly start demanding VCs invest in cleantech or start making big commitments to the sector, at least in the next few months, and there's a lag time between such shifts at the LP level and how deal volumes flow down through the GP level anyway.
That said, with 2012 levels already pretty low, I don't expect a major decline from these depressed levels either. So I expect a flat year for deal counts. I do think the shift toward smaller follow-ons and more capital efficient first rounds will continue, however, so even with deal counts staying the same I expect dollar amounts to continue to decline. Remember: I always say to look more at deal counts as an indicator of VC interest in a sector than the dollar amounts.
Note that I'm not making any prediction about international venture activity in cleantech. That's because I find the deal tracking outside of North America to be pretty squirrelly still, and I also cannot guess what's going to happen in some of those other markets. Generally speaking, Europe will continue to be an economic mess, BRICs will continue to grow and thus drive demand for "all of the above", and MENA will continue to diversify. To what extent, and to what effect on cleantech? I have no idea.
2. Agriculture-related investments will be the next "new new thing" area for venture investments.
I don't quite know how to quantitatively define this, but I think 2013 will be a big year for venture investments in the agriculture / food sector, generally speaking. Most VCs I speak with now talk about this as being one of the sectors they're spending a lot of time looking at, and that often results in significant visible dealflow months later.
It would have been easier to forecast a big year for cleantech-related IT and web investments. But while I do think we'll see a lot of noise out of the "Cleanweb" sector in 2013, everyone can already see that coming. I didn't want to just be the 20th person to suggest 2013 will be "The Year of Cleanweb/ Cleantech IT". Whereas I do think Ag/Food might surprise some folks, so I'm highlighting that sector instead.
Interestingly, not all cleantech deal tallies include agriculture in their tracking, so it may or may not show up depending upon which analyst report you're looking at. And for many readers, they may not even consider agriculture and food to be "cleantech" in the first place, except for where it overlaps with biofuels. But regardless of how it's categorized and regardless of what label it receives, this seems like an area where there will be a visible uptick in venture activity -- and probably including a few deals that will make you stop and go "huh?" -- the sure sign of a hot sector.
3. There will be a wave of consolidation and shake-out in solar financing.
The consolidation wave and shake-out in upstream solar (panels, wafers, etc) is now obvious to all, and will continue. But downstream, installations are booming and solar financing is taking off, perhaps best illustrated by SolarCity's (SCTY) IPO this past month.
Heady times in downstream solar, to be sure, and that's probably not going away.
That said, there are reasons to expect solar financing in particular will eventually be dominated by a few big players rather than the current somewhat fragmented group. Scale-driven efficiencies can be seen in branding, installer relationships, customer acquisition, and especially in cost of capital.
This latter area is where I'm already seeing a fair amount of separation starting to develop between "winners" and "losers". We've just been through a period where a small handful of investment banks (most prominently, perhaps, US Bancorp) spread around their commitments to rooftop solar financing across a number of solar financing players. But now I'm seeing indications that these banks are starting to gravitate toward a shorter list of rooftop solar financing players, even actively shifting away from others, because of factors like dealflow, quality of contracts, low cost of customer acquisition, etc. The rooftop solar financing players who can't obtain the lowest-cost capital from banks will be at a decided pricing disadvantage, and will be forced to join forces with other financing players, or to be acquired by upstream solar panel manufacturers looking for access to certain markets, or simply will go away. I think we'll start to see this happen in 2013.
Just remember, when you see solar rooftop financing players start to fall out like this, it's not necessarily a sign of bad health for the entire sector. It's just a sorting out of winners and losers, and the winners will be likely doing quite nicely indeed.
4. Large corporates will continue to play a vital role in keeping cleantech entrepreneurship vibrant -- but there will be a shift from oil / chemicals to consumer products, IT and industrial equipment/controls strategics, in terms of level of activity.
Even as LPs and VCs have (temporarily) fallen out of love with cleantech, large corporates have continued to find these subsectors (again, under a variety of labels) strategically interesting. And over the past few years I feel like I've seen a significant upswing in the seriousness with which large corporates are looking to new energy and resource technologies for topline growth.
This seems poised to continue. Fortune 500ish companies have never been sitting on more cash, and the strategic interest in the cleantech sector broadly-defined hasn't waned much as far as I can tell. But with the emergence of low-cost natural gas in the US and the likelihood of low-cost gas (and to a lesser extent, oil) being readily available going forward, the major corporates that had been the strategic partners of choice seem to have less motivation to search for low-cost inputs. Namely, oil and gas giants, and large chemicals manufacturers.
These are the large partners who had helped some of the capital-intensive plays in cleantech to address the first-project "valley of death" by doing things like JVs where they would provide the capital to put steel in the ground. And while this role likely won't be fully abandoned by them, a) many of them already have a pretty full dance card of startup partnerships by now; and b) low-cost traditional inputs reduces the need to find alternative inputs.
Meanwhile, the data side of cleantech has risen in prominence, and many customers still care about "green". This is attracting renewed interest amongst large players like Google and Facebook and IBM who view data as their bread and butter, and amongst consumer products companies eager to offer their customers green alternatives. In terms of focus and rhetoric it's almost a return to the days of emphasizing "sustainability" such as I used when working with such companies nearly two decades ago (and, btw, which will further drive interest in things like the Cleanweb and sustainable food/agriculture amongst investors), rather than just low-cost commodities production (such as dominated cleantech over the past decade).
Furthermore, while energy prices are currently low and on the decline, volatility of demand (especially in electricity) isn't going away. In my interactions with corporates in the industrial controls and equipment markets, there's a recognition that automation and optimization around energy will be a crucial complement to controls they already offer for production, quality, and so forth. So companies like Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Siemens are all poised to be important players in 2013, and I already see them getting serious about partnerships with smaller companies. Again, they may not consider it "cleantech" per se, but under whatever label you prefer they're getting serious about it.
5. There will be no significant progress on US federal energy policy.
I plan to write up some observations soon from a couple of trips I made to DC in December to talk with policymakers, pundits, etc. about energy policy. But the short answer is that the White House and Capitol Hill don't have enough bandwidth to take on any major energy legislation effort this year -- pending some kind of unexpected disruptive disaster.
The Fiscal Cliff is taking all the air out of the room currently. And that won't be a quick resolution, even if there's some kind of 11th hour compromise that happens over the next couple of weeks -- there will be a lot of follow-on fights on the budget throughout this coming Congress. To the extent anything else can get done, the White House has already signaled that they care more about Immigration Reform and Gun Control as legislative priorities over Energy and Climate. It's not as if the White House doesn't care about energy policy. But they don't care about energy enough to elevate it over these topics and whatever other crisis-du-jour pops up along the way. Only if there is some kind of major unexpected disruption to energy supply, or some kind of horrific and obvious climate-driven disaster (because apparently even Sandy wasn't enough) will this topic pass the threshold from "yes, we should do something about it when we can" to the "we must do something immediately" category, at least in 2013. And clearly I'm not rooting for something like that to take place, so my hopes for any important happening legislatively are low. At least in terms of forward progress; there's always the chance of some rollback as the White House and Congress horse-trade in favor of higher priorities.
That said, there might be some small rationalization of energy policies that can be helpful on the margin. MLP treatment of renewables, for example, and more information-driven (as opposed to dollar-driven) efforts by the DOE to promote clean energy and energy efficiency. These would be good to see.
6. 2013 will be the year journalists (and thus everyone else) figures out that US cleantech entrepreneurship has become driven as much by family offices and other non-VCs as by VCs themselves.
Look, this is already the case. I came to the realization the other day that if I were to name the top 5 most active west coast investors I keep personally seeing engaged on potential cleantech venture deals I look at, at least two would be family offices. And on the east coast, our own group, a few angels, and quasi-governmental groups like the MassCEC and NYSERDA are as active as any remaining venture investors still investing in the sector. I don't mention this as a point of self-promotion, however, because I think it mostly points out just how far down the LP withdrawal from cleantech has taken institutional venture capital activity levels; it's not that suddenly Black Coral Capital and our breathren are taking on massively higher levels of deal activity. So it's more of a depressing thought than a point of pride, to have come to this realization.
But while family offices and other non-VC offices are now, in my opinion, as important as VCs for funding cleantech entrepreneurship, you wouldn't be able to tell that from journalist coverage of the sector. And the simple reason is that VCs have the brand names and the PR efforts to get attention, and non-VC investors don't tend to report out their funding activities like VCs do (so a lot of their investments don't show up in the deal tallies, for example). That's all fine and good, that's the way most non-VC investors would like to keep things, they typically don't want attention. But sooner or later, we'll start to see journalists pick up on this shift and start to talk about it a lot more. If only because the VCs won't be feeding them enough cleantech-related stories to keep them busy...
7. Large-format (e.g., stationary) energy storage will be the next sector to see multiple high-profile flameouts.
I am personally a fan of grid-scale and distributed energy storage... over the long run. I see several promising technical efforts out there than might eventually result in very low-cost electricity storage suited for particular needs that would complement load control to help address variability for the electrical grid.
But this is a sector that has seen a fair amount of venture dollars go into a number of capital-intensive startup efforts over the past few years, with very little revenue to show for it. In the current funding climate, that's not a recipe for raising follow-on financings. And indeed, in the third quarter PwC said that energy storage investments were down 99% year on year -- although that's probably an artifact of one particularly low quarter, it's indicative of a broader trend by investors away from long-development, capital-intensive plays like many grid-scale energy storage efforts.
Thus, while some such startups will be able to carry on by combination of reduced cash burn, by reinventing their business models to accomodate existing storage/DG technology, and via the occasional follow-on financing, you have to guess that a number of them won't be able to carry forward and will be forced to shut down or sell for pennies on the investment dollar.
I'm loosely including SOFCs in this category, btw.
8. At least two well-known cleantech-focused venture capital firms will publicly shut their doors or at least acknowledge they won't be raising any future funds.
I've alluded to it several times above and written about it here, but the limited partner community has at this point really pulled back from the cleantech sector. And many of the cleantech specialist firms out there are at or nearing the end of their current fund cycles. I know several that delayed attempting their next funds in 2010, 2011, and now 2012 in hopes of finding a more receptive group of LPs later on. They limped through by supporting their existing portfolios, shedding some junior staff, and doing 1 or 2 new smallish deals a year to stay "in the game". But that game can only be drawn out so far. And several cleantech specialist VCs have some big smoking craters in their portfolios, which will make raising that next fund even harder. Believe me, I've been there.
So I certainly don't predict this with any happiness, but I do expect this will be the year when we see the cleantech venture capital shakeout extend from lesser-known firms and a pullback by the generalists, into the better-recognized cleantech specialist firms out there.
Fortunately, there are others that still have dry powder, or that have been able to raise smaller new funds, and so while this is indeed an "extinction event" period right now for the sector, new and renewed champions will emerge.
This will eventually be looked back upon as a period of significant and healthy reinvention for the sector.
9. Natural gas prices in the US will spike at least 50% at some point during the year.
Most forecasts I've seen project only a slight rise in natgas prices going forward over the next few years, and I agree. Over the medium to long term we're clearly now in an era of cheap natural gas and it's having a major impact on the US energy market.
Henry Hub prices are currently around three and a half dollars per MMBtu, and consumers (especially power generators and chemicals manufacturers) are planning around that kind of price, perhaps drifting up to a bit over $4.00 per current 2013 forward contract prices.
But natural gas has a history of sudden price spikes. Why? Because of limited storage and a lagtime to increase production.
Gas drilling rig counts are well off of their 2011 highs. Horizontal drilling activity has stopped increasing and in fact has been flat or in decline throughout 2012. Therefore production was pretty flat throughout the year, and there's no sign of it increasing suddenly. Meanwhile, whereas throughout most of 2012 storage levels were significantly higher than during previous recent years, now they're back to more normal levels.
As powergen continues to shift from coal to gas and chemicals manufacturing recovers with the economy (and shifts to low-cost US gas supplies as well), short term natgas demand in the US feels once again pretty inelastic and primed for some kind of disruptive event (such as a major summer heat wave) that would rapidly deplete available storage and result in a price spike above $5 before drilling can kick back into gear. Potentially much higher than $5.
You don't have to disbelieve the fracking revolution to believe that a significant natgas price spike is inevitable. You just need to look back at historical price charts.
This is very important for the cleantech sector. Because while I don't myself believe low natgas prices are deadly to most clean technologies and applications, certainly I've heard sentiments to this effect amongst LPs and generalist VCs over the past few months. I definitely heard it from certain partisans in DC. There's currently this perception that low-cost natgas is here to stay and therefore that clean energy technologies are endangered and/or less important. That cleantech is "just a climate issue", no longer an economic issue.
But it's not just the long-term price of energy that's economically important -- it's also the volatility. And natgas is historically one of the most volatile energy inputs. A big, disruptive price spike would serve to remind a lot of important constituencies that natgas should be an important part of the go-forward US energy mix... but that we can't let ourselves get so dependent upon it that a price spike hurts the economy as badly as an "oil shock" has done in the past. A price spike, when it happens, will hopefully remind everyone that we need an "all of the above" energy mix, and that emerging energy technologies -- and especially DG and load-control technologies -- are strategically crucial going forward.
10. The Redskins will make it at least to the NFC semifinals round of the 2013-2014 season.
Yep, I'm all in for RG3. He'll probably have some kind of a sophomore slump and/or get hurt again, but with one more draft to bolster the O-line and secondary, and hopefully a healthier receiver corps than this year's snake-bitten bunch, I think the Redskins will rejoin the NFC's elite teams.
I've even still got my fingers crossed for this year -- big game Sunday night.
So Hail! to a great 2013, everyone. Here's hoping I'm right about the positive predictions above, and wrong about the pessimistic ones. Have a terrific new year.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1084621-cleantech-investing-2013-predictions
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