Deal of the Day: Qmadix Metalix Snap-On Cover for Galaxy S3

The March 28 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Qmadix Metalix Snap-On Cover for Samsung Galaxy S3. The Metalix Snap-On Cover adds style, sophistication and protection to your Galaxy S3. The durable but lightweight, textured polycarbonate border helps to keep a firm grip on your device while aluminum alloy accents enhance the look without adding bulk or unwanted weight. Comes in red, green and copper.

The Qmadix Metalix Snap-On Cover is available for just $16.00, 54% off today only. Grab yours while supplies last!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Uz8G-PZjByo/story01.htm

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Why You Are Paying for Everyone's Flood Insurance

Andy Stevenson, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Finance Advisor and Dan Lashof, Director of NRDC's Climate and Clean Air Program contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

There are many, many compelling and urgent reasons to take decisive action to combat climate change. Here's one that's measurable by dollars added to our budget deficit. Actually by tens of billions of dollars.

The soaring cost of private flood insurance is pricing so many coastal homeowners out of the market that the rest of the American taxpayers are having to bail them out ? to the tune of $30 billion under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

With over $139 billion in storm, wildfire, drought, tornado and flood damages taking nearly 1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, the insurance industry is referring to last year as the second costliest year on record for U.S.?climate-related disasters.?And while insurers do include $12 billion worth of flood-related damages in their estimates, they aren't the ones getting stuck with most of the bill. It's us, the taxpayer.

On a global basis, the insurance company?Munich Re?estimates that flooding represented 16 percent of total climate-related damages over the past decade, or $25 billion, on average, per year. Over that same period, insurers paid out on $3.75 billion per year, on average, or less than 15 percent of total flood-related costs. That percentage seems to be fairly representative as the total losses from floods along the Mississippi in 2011 were estimated at $4.6 billion with only $500 million (11 percent) covered by private insurers.

So if insurers are only paying 10-15 percent of the bill, who actually does pay the cost of flood-related damage? The not-so-surprising answer is you and me, largely through the?National Flood Insurance Program, which has nearly $1.3 trillion in policies outstanding. This program includes several state programs, such as the one for Florida (which has over 2 million policy holders and a face value of $475 billion) that had to be created as the rising cost of flooding was not being covered by private insurers.

This massive federal program has nearly doubled in size over the past decade as private insurers have continued to shy away from making bets against Mother Nature when it comes to floods. And while the federal government has picked up the slack in terms of coverage, it has had a tough time balancing the premiums that are paid in with the heavy losses it has sustained from recent climate related events.

In fact, following an estimated $12 billion in payout to 140,000 policy holders from Superstorm Sandy, the program is over $30 billion in debt and has Congress scratching its head about what to do about it since the private insurers have made it very clear this is not a business that they wish to be in.?NFIP is insolvent because premiums don't reflect actual risks; and it's hard to make a case that climate-change-charged storms are not a big part of the reason why. [Jersey Shore: Before and After Hurricane Sandy]

In sum, the U.S. taxpayer is currently down $30 billion trying to provide insurance for coastal landowners that no longer have access to affordable private flood insurance.?And that figure does not include the costs weathered by the state-based programs that have been set up due to a lack of private alternatives available to their residents. Taken together, these programs constitute a?climate disruption tax?that the U.S. consumer is being forced to pay to cover risks that the insurance industry, the true score-keepers on climate, won't touch.?

As the costs of climate change continue to mount, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we can't afford not to act to rein in the carbon pollution that is supercharging storms and floods. Fortunately President Obama has a big opportunity to reduce emissions from power plants, America's biggest carbon polluters. Under a plan NRDC put forward in December, we could cut these emissions by 26 percent by 2020 and 34 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. The plan provides great flexibility to states and utilities, and offers benefits to every American.

Its benefits?worth between $25 and $60 billion in 2020 ? far outweigh the plan's costs ? about $4 billion. Implementing it will save tens of thousands of lives through reductions in air pollution. And it will drive investments in energy efficiency and clean energy that will create thousands of new jobs across the nation. Now that's an insurance premium worth paying.

Editor?s Note: Andy Stevenson and Dan Lashof blog on NRDC's Switchboard.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-paying-everyones-flood-insurance-231731089.html

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Rep. Lewis: ?DOMA was wrong 17 years ago. It is wrong today?

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35198/f/654708/s/2a100045/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51351529/story01.htm

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Spy who foiled jet bomb plot to be MI5 chief

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - A British counterspy who helped to thwart an al Qaeda plot to blow up planes with explosives hidden in soft drink bottles and led the response to the 2005 London transport bombings will be the new head of MI5, the government said on Thursday.

Andrew Parker has three decades' experience at MI5, countering Islamist militants, violent Irish republicans and organised criminals. He has been deputy chief since 2007, and once served as a British security liaison in the United States.

The 50-year-old, a keen birdwatcher and wildlife photographer, will be in charge of 3,800 staff investigating threats ranging from bomb plots and the spread of weapons of mass destruction to espionage and cyber attacks.

One of his first tasks will be to protect U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and other world leaders at the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland in June.

As Britain hosted the annual G8 meeting in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland, four suicide bombers killed 52 underground and bus commuters in London in coordinated attacks. Parker was in charge of the agency's response to the bombings and oversaw a significant expansion of its role.

Parker, who led MI5 teams that disrupted a 2006 conspiracy to attack several passenger jets with bombs hidden in soft drink bottles, said it was a "great honour" to be made head of the agency, also known as the Security Service.

"I look forward to leading the Service through its next chapter," he said in a statement.

The bespectacled father-of-two will replace the current head, Jonathan Evans, when he steps down in April after six years in the job during which Britain suffered no significant attacks.

Once so publicity-shy it officially did not exist and its director's identity was kept secret, MI5 now has a website which discusses its responsibilities and activities. On Thursday, the website posted an official biography of its new chief.

ENGLISH-SPEAKING MILITANTS

Counter-terrorism operations will remain at or near the top of MI5's priority assignments from the moment Parker takes the agency's helm.

European counter-terrorism officials have for years been concerned about British citizens and residents who travel to hot spots in the Middle East or South Asia, either to be indoctrinated and trained in militant ideology and guerrilla tactics before returning home, or to fight with local militants.

British authorities estimate that every year, 400,000 people travel from the U.K. to Pakistan. While only a tiny proportion of these travellers have any interest in militant activities, even a small number of recruits can cause disproportionate chaos, as occurred in London on July 7, 2005.

Among the hot spots which currently concern British and other European authorities most are Syria and Somalia. While travel by would-be militants to Somalia from Britain is relatively easy to trace, tracking movements of would-be recruits to anti-Assad forces in Syria is more difficult, since much such travel can be completed unobtrusively and over land.

European counter-terrorism officials have estimated that as many as 60 to 70 English-speaking militants with British citizenship or residence are currently fighting with rebel forces in Syria. There is concern that many of them may have joined up with al-Nusrah, an Islamist faction which U.S. officials describe as a front for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

CYBER-ESPIONAGE

While the signals intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is Britain's main cyber-security unit, under Parker's leadership MI5 will be responsible for investigating specific cases of state-sponsored cyber-espionage directed against such critical targets as gas and power grids and defence and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Based on what it learns from such cases and in consultation with other agencies, MI5 also advises potential targets on how to protect themselves against cyber attacks. MI5 does not have responsibility for cyber crime or dealing with hackers.

As part of its role in cyber security, Parker's agency will have to anticipate how to keep security measures ahead of technological innovation. And it will have to do so in an environment where greater productivity will have to be extracted from shrinking resources, including budgets.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Pravin Char and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spy-foiled-jet-bomb-plot-mi5-intelligence-chief-201443893.html

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Jack Dorsey Fights Robots In His Own Unauthorized Comic Book

He might not be bulletproof, but simultaneously running Twitter and Square qualifies Jack Dorsey as a superhero. This week a new unauthorized comic book about him was released, called "Jack Dorsey: Co-Founder of Twitter #1". Check out these page scans posted by Comic Book Resources that preview his quest to recover stolen quantum networking technology.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/oWKUq5cUamI/

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Senate Dems' bill light on deficit cuts in 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House-backed legislation in the Senate to replace $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts would result in very modest deficit savings through the end of the budget year, officials said Wednesday, most if not of all of them through higher taxes on millionaires.

Instead, the bill drafted by Senate Democrats would spread one year's worth of anticipated savings over a decade, a move sponsors say is designed to prevent damage to a shaky economic recovery.

The Democrats' approach to the latest episode of budget brinkmanship comes as the two political parties vie for public support in advance of across-the-board cuts due to kick in on Friday.

The replacement measure, which has yet to be distributed publicly, proposes cuts in defense spending and elimination of a program of payments to certain farmers as well as a tax on millionaires as the main elements of an alternative.

Yet it also specifies that no defense reductions would take place for 18 months, and officials added that the elimination of the farm program would have virtually no impact on the deficit until a new budget year begins on Oct. 1.

The tax on millionaires would raise government revenues through the end of the budget year by an estimated $1 billion ? a figure that pales in comparison to the $85 billion in spending cuts due to take effect. White House spokesman Jay Carney recently told reporters at the White House the administration supports the measure.

The Senate is expected to vote on Thursday on rival Democratic and Republican plans to replace the spending cuts, known in Washington-speak as a sequester. Both bills are expected to fail.

In an indication that across-the-board cuts are inevitable, President Barack Obama has set a meeting with congressional leaders for the day they take effect. While the administration has warned of severe cuts in government services as a result of the reductions, few, if any, are likely to be felt for several weeks.

That could give the administration and lawmakers breathing room to negotiate a replacement, although Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said during the day there were limits to what could be negotiated.

"We can either secure those reductions more intelligently, or we can do it the president's way with across-the board cuts. But one thing Americans simply will not accept is another tax increase to replace spending reductions we already agreed to," he said.

Democrats said their proposal to replace across-the-board cuts was designed with the economy in mind.

It "seeks the same amount of savings in a more responsible way" as the $85 billion in cuts that will otherwise take effect, said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"The impact on the economy is much better. Sequestration as constituted would hurt economic growth and destroy jobs," he added.

Over a decade, the bill would cut deficits by an estimated $110 billion, half from higher taxes and half from the defense and farm program cuts.

That is in keeping with Obama's call for a balanced approach that combines selected spending cuts with closing tax loopholes.

Senate Democrats have been reluctant to spell out the details of their measure, although it is not clear if that results from its relatively small impact on the deficits through the end of the current budget year.

Across the Capitol, though, the party's leaders have talked openly of their desire to spread the cuts in their replacement measure over a longer period.

"It is entirely intentional," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and the party's senior member on the House Budget Committee. "The whole idea is to achieve the equivalent deficit reduction without hurting jobs and having disruption in the economy. You do that by having targeted cuts and eliminating tax loopholes over a longer period of time," he added.

He said the Democrats' approach is the same as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's recommendation, which is to help the recovery gain strength before beginning to make cuts.

In the Senate, Republicans have yet to disclose their own sequester replacement measure. Most of the rank and file favors an alternative that lets Obama adjust the cuts to minimize any impact on the public, but that approach has its critics among lawmakers who fear giving the White House that much authority.

____

Eds: AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this story

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-27-US-Budget-Democrats/id-7552ced2b6f945e4811ebadc8bcb2b14

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US economy expanded, barely, at end of 2012

Reuters ? ? ? 31 min.

The U.S. economy barely grew in the fourth quarter although a slightly better performance in exports and fewer imports led the government to scratch an earlier estimate that showed an economic contraction.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 0.1 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, missing the 0.5 percent gain forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

The growth rate was the slowest since the first quarter of 2011 and far from what is needed to fuel a faster drop in the unemployment rate.

However, much of the weakness came from a slowdown in inventory accumulation and a sharp drop in military spending. These factors are expected to reverse in the first quarter.

Consumer spending was more robust by comparison, although it only expanded at a 2.1 percent annual rate.

Because household spending powers about 70 percent of national output, this still-lackluster pace of growth suggests underlying momentum in the economy was quite modest as it entered the first quarter, when significant fiscal tightening began.

Initially, the government had estimated the economy shrank at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2012. That had shocked economists.

Thursday's report showed the reasons for the decline were mostly as initially estimated. Inventories subtracted 1.55 percentage points from the GDP growth rate during the period, a little more of a drag than initially estimated. Defense spending plunged 22 percent, shaving 1.28 points off growth as in the previous estimate.

There were some relatively bright spots, however. Imports fell 4.5 percent during the period, which added to the overall growth rate because it was a larger drop than in the third quarter. Buying goods from foreigners bleeds money from the economy, subtracting from economic growth.

Also helping reverse the initial view of an economic contraction, exports did not fall as much during the period as the government had thought when it released its advance GDP estimate in January. Exports have been hampered by a recession in Europe, a cooling Chinese economy and storm-related port disruptions.

Excluding the volatile inventories component, GDP rose at a revised 1.7 percent rate, in line with expectations. These final sales of goods and services had been previously estimated to have increased at a 1.1 percent pace.

Business spending was revised to show more growth during the period than initially thought, adding about a percentage point to the growth rate.

Growth in home building was revised slightly higher to show a 17.5 percent annual rate. Residential construction is one of the brighter spots in the economy and is benefiting from the Federal Reserve's ultra easy monetary policy stance, which has driven mortgage rates to record lows. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/us-economy-expanded-barely-end-2012-1C8611202

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