19 million homes may need new doors - Construction Digital

A new?report?estimates that there are 31 million doors over 10 years old installed in UK dwellings. Replacing 19 million of these doors with?energy efficient doors?would produce annual energy and money savings for homeowners.?

Payback periods range from between 5 and 19 years, depending on the type of door being replaced, but average around 10 years, well within the?Green Deal?Golden Rule?i.e. that total costs must not exceed the estimated savings over the lifetime of the measure. Energy efficient doors are recognised by the Government being the third most cost effective product in its list of the 47 measures eligible for the Green Deal.?

David Amos of D&G Consulting, which produced the report, commented: ?Based on extensive research and calculations there is potential to replace 19 million doors made from?PVC panels, timber or aluminium with energy efficient doors (in practice, this means?composite doors) to save homeowners energy and money. However, this is a conservative estimate ? the very minimum. If energy prices rise, as they surely will, the potential savings increase further.?

The report also covers the market for new build and social housing which also need good,?energy efficient?composite doors. From 2018 it will become an offence to let properties with?energy ratings?below E. Currently more than 15% of the total English housing stock is privately rented and much of it needs radical improvement, particularly in energy efficiency.

?Although it is due to be launched in January 2013 (delayed from October 2012), the Green Deal is still very much a work in progress,? added D&G Consulting?s David Amos. ?But the fact remains that in most cases replacing an old?entrance door?with an energy efficient door will save homeowners money, whether they use the scheme to fund it or not.?

The report, Big Savings on Britain?s Doorsteps: Composite Doors and the Green Deal, was commissioned by composite door manufacturer Door-Stop.?

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Source: http://www.constructiondigital.com/under_construction/19-million-homes-may-need-new-doors

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Archaebacteria: The Third Domain of Life Missed by Biologists for Decades

These unusual bacteria are genealogically neither prokaryotes nor eukaryotes. This discovery means there are not two lines of descent of life but three: the archaebacteria, the true bacteria and the eukaryotes


Methanogens, anaerobic bacteria that generate methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide, make up the largest group of archaebacteria identified so far. Four genera of methanogens that differ widely in size and morphology are seen here in scanning electron micrographs made by Alexander J. B. Zehnder of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Shown here is Methanosarcina. The cells are shown enlarged 2,500 diameters. The methanogens are found only in oxygen-free environments. Image: Scientific American

Editor's Note: Microbiologist Carl R. Woese, a recipient of the Crafoord Prize, Leeuwenhoek Medal, and a National Medal of Science, died December 30 at the age of 84. We are making this classic, definitive essay that outlines the evidence for archaebacteria as a domain of life (independent of eukaryotes and true bacteria) free online for the next 14 days. This story was originally published in the June 1981 issue of Scientific American.

Early natural philosophers held that life on the earth is fundamentally dichotomous: all living things are either animals or plants. When microorganisms were discovered, they were di?vided in the same way. The large and motile ones were considered to be ani?mals and the ones that appeared not to move, including the bacteria, were con?sidered to be plants. As understanding of the microscopic world advanced it became apparent that a simple twofold classification would not suffice, and so additional categories were introduced: fungi, protozoa and bacteria. Ultimate?ly, however, a new simplification took hold. It seemed that life might be dichot?omous after all, but at a deeper level, namely in the structure of the living cell. All cells appeared to belong to one or the other of two groups: the eukaryotes, which are cells with a well-formed nucleus, and the prokaryotes, which do not have such a nucleus. Multicellular plants and animals are eukaryotic and so are many unicellular organisms. The only prokaryotes are the bacteria (in?cluding the cyanobacteria, which were formerly called blue-green algae).

In the past few years my colleagues and I have been led to propose a funda?mental revision of this picture. Among the bacteria we have found a group of organisms that do not seem to belong to either of the basic categories. The or?ganisms we have been studying are pro?karyotic in the sense that they do not have a nucleus, and indeed outwardly they look much like ordinary bacteria. In their biochemistry, however, and in the structure of certain large molecules, they are as different from other prokary?otes as they are from eukaryotes. Phylo?genetically they are neither prokaryotes nor eukaryotes. They make up a new "primary kingdom," with a completely different status in the history and the natural order of life.

We have named these organisms ar?chaebacteria. The name reflects an untested conjecture about their evolution?ary status. The phylogenetic evidence suggests that the archaebacteria are at least as old as the other major groups. Moreover, some of the archaebacteria have a form of metabolism that seems particularly well suited to the conditions believed to have prevailed in the early history of life on the earth. Hence it seems possible that the newest group of organisms is actually the oldest.

The evolutionary record

The earth is four and a half billion years old, and on the basis of the macro?scopic fossil record it would appear to have been inhabited for less than a sev?enth of that time: the entire evolutionary progression from the most ancient ma?rine forms to man spans only 600 mil? lion years. The fossil imprints of unicellular organisms too small to be seen with the unaided eye tell a different sto?ry. Microfossils of bacteria in particular are plentiful in sediments of all ages; they have been found in the oldest intact sedimentary rocks known, 3.5-billion? year-old deposits in Australia. Over an enormous expanse of time, during which no higher forms existed, the bac?teria arose and radiated to form a wide variety of types inhabiting a great many ecological niches. This age of microorganisms is the most important period in evolutionary history not only because of its duration but also because of the na?ture of the evolutionary events that took place over those billions of years.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=36376a21b6e6053a5577a5261fefc324

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Att Samsung Galaxy S3 - How to know if this is block ?

Yes...as long as it is unlocked you can use it with any carrier that provides a SIM card.

That is what I did. I use to be on ATT then I broke my contract to go with T-Mobile's partnered MVNO Solavei. It was a very easy transition.

While T-Mobile is still going through the re-farming stages and hasn't upgraded throughout St. Louis I still get EDGE in some spots and 4G in others because it is an ATT phone. That is something else you might want to think about if those are options for you when it comes to your phone and who the carrier will be.

Manny

Source: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1786738-Att-Samsung-Galaxy-S3-How-to-know-if-this-is-block?goto=newpost

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L.A.'s Net Set: Portraits Of Lakers And Clippers Superfans - Los Angeles - Slideshows

www.laweekly.com:

Graphic designer - Charlie Edmiston has been a life long fan. He lived near Kobe Bryant as a child and remembers it well. He used to live 5 minutes from my house and would sometimes practice on the courts of my old high school. When asked about his favorite fan moment he quickly responds with being at game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Kings in 2002. 8th row with my dad, as Robert Horry hit a 3 to win. It was very epic.

Read the whole story at www.laweekly.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/30/las-net-set-portraits-of-_n_2385806.html

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Instapundit ? Blog Archive ? PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON LEGAL ...

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON LEGAL EDUCATION: ?I think Deans like Rodriguez should put their administrative house in order first. At my school, and I?m sure at many others, the number of administrators, program directors, and other bureaucrats has increased dramatically. See Roland A. Cass & John H. Garvey, Law School Leviathan: Expanding Administrative Growth, 35 U. Tol. L. Rev. 37 (2003), which notes that the growth in the numbers of law school administrators has outpaced growth in those of faculty and students. Of course, the problem is not limited to law schools. . . . But that?s no excuse for law school deans like Rodriguez to ignore the problem of administrator bloat.?

Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/160518/

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Brazil debates treatment options in crack epidemic

In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo sits on an armchair after collecting recyclables at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo sits on an armchair after collecting recyclables at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Dec. 8, 2012, a man hold narcotics at a drug selling point in a slum of western Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The South American country began experiencing a public health emergency in recent years as demand for crack boomed and open-air ?cracolandias,? or crack lands, popped up in the sprawling urban centers of Rio and Sao Paulo, with hundreds of users gathering to smoke the drug. The federal government announced in early 2012 that more than $2 billion would be spent to fight the epidemic, with the money spent to train local health care workers, purchase thousands of hospital and shelter beds for emergency treatment, and create transitional centers for recovering users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo smokes crack in his home at a slum in western Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo leans against a wall after smoking crack in his home at a slum in western Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack. With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to help such users and stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Nov. 22, 2012, an alleged crack addict checks an out-of-commission laptop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The South American country began experiencing a public health emergency in recent years as demand for crack boomed and open-air "cracolandias," or crack lands, popped up in the sprawling urban centers of Rio and Sao Paulo, with hundreds of users gathering to smoke the drug. The federal government announced in early 2012 that more than $2 billion would be spent to fight the epidemic, with the money spent to train local health care workers, purchase thousands of hospital and shelter beds for emergency treatment, and create transitional centers for recovering users. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

(AP) ? Bobo has a method: Cocaine gets him through the day, when he cruises with a wheelbarrow around a slum on Rio's west side, sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack.

"Sometimes I don't sleep at all; I'm up 24 hours," says Bobo, a former soldier who doesn't use his given name for safety reasons. "I work to support my addiction, but I only use crack at night. That drug takes my mind away. I lose all notion of what I'm doing."

Bobo says balancing crack with cocaine keeps him working and sane. On the shantytown's streets, life can be hell: Addicts unable to strike Bobo's precarious balance use crack day and night, begging, stealing, prostituting themselves, and picking through trash to make enough for the next hit. For them, there's no going home, no job, nothing but the drug.

With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to stop the drug's spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. Brazil today is the world's largest consumer of both cocaine and its crack derivative, according to the Federal University of Sao Paolo. About 6 million adults, or 3 percent of Brazilians, have tried cocaine in some form.

Rio de Janeiro has taken the lead in trying to help the burgeoning number of users with an approach that city leaders call proactive, but critics pan as unnecessarily aggressive. As of May 2011, users living in the streets have been scooped up in pre-dawn raids by teams led by the city's welfare department in conjunction with police and health care workers. By Dec. 5, 582 people had been picked up, including 734 children.

The sight is gut-wrenching. While some people go meekly, many fight, cry, scream out in desperation in their altered states. Once they're gone, their ratty mattresses, pans, sweaters and few other possessions are swept up by a garbage removal company.

Adults can't be forced to stay in treatment, and most leave the shelters within three days. But children are kept in treatment against their will or returned to parents if they have a family. In December, 119 children were being held in specialized treatment units.

Demand for crack has boomed in recent years and open-air "cracolandias," or "crack lands," popped up in the urban centers of Rio and Sao Paulo, with hundreds of users gathering to smoke the drug. The federal government announced in early 2012 that more than $2 billion would be spent to fight the epidemic, allotting money to train health care workers, buy thousands of hospital and shelter beds, and create transitional centers for recovering users.

Mobile street units stationed near cracolandias are among the most important and visible aspects of the government's approach. The units, housed in metal containers, bring doctors, nurses, therapists and social workers to the areas where users concentrate. Slowly, by offering health care and other help, the units' workers gain the trust of users and refer them to treatment centers.

Studies suggest the approach can work: 47 percent of the crack users surveyed in Sao Paulo said they'd welcome treatment, according to the Federal University of Sao Paulo study.

Ethel Vieira, a psychologist on the raid team, thinks their persistence is paying off.

"Initially, they'd run away, react aggressively, throw rocks," she said of users. "Now most of them understand our intention is to help, to give them a chance to leave the street and to connect with the public health network."

Human rights groups object to the forced commitment of children, saying treatment delivered against the will of patients is ineffective. They also oppose the sweeps, which they describe as violent.

"There are legal procedures that must be followed and that are not being followed. This goes against the law and is unconstitutional," Margarida Pressburguer, head of the Human Rights Commission for Brazil's Association of Attorneys, said during a debate last year.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes suggested in October that the city would start forcing adults into treatment. "A crack addict isn't capable of making decisions," Paes said from the Jacarezinho shantytown in the week after police stormed the area and seized control of what was then Rio's largest cracolandia.

The Rio state Attorney General's Office responded by telling city officials "the compulsory removal of adults living in the streets has no legal foundation." It said adults can be committed only when they become a danger to themselves or others and outpatient treatment options have run out.

"They give us a place to sleep, food, clothes, everything," said Bobo. "I've been picked up by the city and I liked it. They are doing this for our good."

But even as Bobo endorsed the city's approach, a friend was stepping over to the drug stand for more cocaine. Bobo asked for $5 worth of drugs ? cocaine for now, crack for later. Then he rolled up a bill and dumped a small mound of white powder in his palm for snorting.

With a nose full of cocaine, he set off, ready for another day.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-30-Brazil-Crack%20Epidemic-Photo%20Pkg/id-f64e5f5cccea4f4387bb5313ac079961

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UFC 155 Tweet of the Day: Alistair Overeem makes fun of Junior Dos Santos following loss to Cain Velasquez

Top heavyweight contender, Alistair Overeem poked fun at Junior Dos Santos during his UFC 155 bout against Cain Velasquez.

During the UFC 155 main event bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, heavyweight star, Alistair Overeem was intently watching the fight. The Dutch fighter, who could possibly earn the next shot at the belt, went to twitter and took a slight dig at JDS as he was losing the bout:

After making a slight joke about Dos Santos, Alistair did give them both props though on his following tweets, saying it was a "great fight" and a "great performance by Cain."

Overeem is currently scheduled to face Antonio Silva at UFC 156 on Super Bowl weekend, a card headlined by the super-fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar. If he earns a quality victory over 'Bigfoot', he can very well be next in line against the re-crowned champion in Cain Velasquez.

As always, check out more of our UFC 155 coverage here.

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Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/ufc-155-dos-santos-vs-velasquez-2/2012/12/30/3816854/ufc-155-results-alistair-overeem-junior-dos-santos-cain-velasquez

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Senate leaders work to avoid New Year's fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:22pm EST

WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - Congressional negotiators burrowed into their offices on Saturday to see if they could stop the U.S. economy from falling off of a "fiscal cliff" in just three days when the biggest tax increases ever to hit Americans in one shot are scheduled to begin.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell worked through the day on a possible compromise that would set aside $600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to kick in next week.

A variety of lower taxes are scheduled to expire at the end of Monday, the last day of the year. If allowed to rise, the approximately $500 billion value of the revenue increases would represent a historic hike when taken together.

The combined punch of the tax increases and spending cuts could push the U.S. economy back into recession.

"We're now at the point where, in just a couple days, the law says that every American's tax rates are going up. Every American's paycheck will get a lot smaller. And that would be the wrong thing to do for our economy," President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, which was broadcast on Saturday.

McConnell left the U.S. Capitol after spending seven hours in his office. "We've been trading paper all day and talks continue into the evening," he told reporters on his way out.

A source with knowledge of the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "We are still very far apart with almost no time left on the clock."

TEMPORARY PATCHES

One congressional aide close to the talks said that most of what was being discussed late on Saturday would provide temporary patches to the "fiscal cliff" dilemma. The negotiations, the aide said, likely could extend into Sunday.

"They continue to go round and round," the aide said of the negotiations, with ideas constantly in flux.

The aide, who asked not to be identified, said negotiators were discussing the possibility of putting off for a few months the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts due to start on Wednesday. Those cuts would be divided equally between military and non-military programs. It is feared that they could cause severe disruptions inside federal agencies if allowed to occur.

Earlier this week, talk of a temporary delay in the spending cuts was met with derision by some congressional aides.

The extension of the low income tax rates first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush would also be on a temporary basis, probably one year, the aide said.

No deal had been reached on the most difficult question: Democrats' demand that upper-income earners - families making more than $250,000 a year - see their tax rates go up.

Republicans had been opposed to any rate increase, but lately have signaled a willingness to go along with a higher threshold - and a $400,000 figure has been floating around for days.

Under proposals being discussed, top earners could see their income tax rate rise to 39.6 percent, from the current 35 percent, in order to help tame budget deficits.

The aide added that Republicans still had not agreed to Obama's call for extending long-term unemployment benefits, but that they were demanding some spending cuts to be included in a stop-gap deal.

Disagreements over what to do about low estate taxes that are expiring also had not been worked out, the aide said.

Unless Congress acts, the tax is set to jump on Tuesday - the first day of 2013 - to 55 percent with the first $1 million exempted for individuals. Currently, there is a 35 percent tax and a $5 million exemption.

A Senate Republican leadership aide said that it might not be known until sometime on Sunday whether these talks bear fruit. That is when the leaders are expected to brief their rank-and-file members.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a rare Sunday session beginning at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), but it was not clear whether the chamber would have "fiscal cliff" legislation to act upon.

One Democratic aide was pessimistic that McConnell would come up with a counteroffer that Reid would find acceptable. Such a counteroffer would have to be calibrated in a way that also could attract votes from conservative House of Representatives Republicans, many of whom have balked at tax rate increases on anyone.

'HARD TO SEE'

A senior House Republican aide on Saturday voiced pessimism about prospects for a deal.

"It's hard to see Reid agreeing to anything that can get the votes of the majority of the (Republican) majority in the House, thereby allowing a bipartisan accomplishment," the aide said. A "majority of the majority" refers to the 241 Republicans who are in the 435-member House.

The Republican aide placed the blame squarely on Democrats, as many Republican members have done publicly, saying that going off the "fiscal cliff" is a "policy upside" for them. "Higher taxes, devastating defense cuts. The polls tell them they can win the PR (publican relations) war in January. From their perspective, why stop the cliff dive?"

Democrats, in turn, have publicly accused House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, of preferring to put off any tough "fiscal cliff" votes until after a January 3 House election in which he is expected to win another two-year term as speaker.

If McConnell and Reid can manage to reach a deal on inheritance taxes and raising income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, they likely would throw into the compromise some other "fiscal cliff" solutions.

Those could include extending an array of other expiring tax breaks such as one that encourages companies to conduct research and development. Also, Congress wants to prevent a steep pay-cut in January for doctors who treat elderly patients under the Medicare health insurance program.

Lawmakers also want to prevent middle-class taxpayers from inadvertently creeping into a higher tax bracket, known as the alternative minimum tax, intended for the wealthiest.

If the Reid-McConnell effort fails, Obama has asked the Senate to hold a vote on Monday on a "basic package" that would stop taxes from going up on the middle class and would extend long-term unemployment benefits that are about to expire. If it passes the Senate, its fate would be in the hands of the Republican-controlled House.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Jeff Mason; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/30/us-usa-fiscal-idUSBRE8A80WV20121230?feedType=RSS&feedName=smallBusinessNews&rpc=43

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