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What is it?
After a brief hiatus, the Viper V10 sports car returns as an SRT, not a Dodge, for the 2013 model year. There are major revisions across the board to boost performance and comfort, and a two-model lineup to broaden the Viper's appeal.
Let's start under the hood. The 8.4-liter V10 now uses a lighter, higher-flowing intake manifold made from composite material, replacing the previous cast aluminum unit. Other changes include forged pistons instead of cast pistons, lightweight sodium-filled exhaust valves, an aluminum flywheel and a single catalytic converter instead of dual units for better exhaust flow. All the engine changes deliver an additional 40 hp (to 640 hp) and 40 lb-ft of torque (to 600 lb-ft) over the previous Viper. And the 2013 engine weighs 25 pounds less.
The six-speed Tremec TR6060 manual transmission gets tighter spacing between the gear ratios, a shortened 3.55 final drive (from 3.07) and gear throws that are shorter by nearly 12.5 percent.
To help corral all that power the Viper gets standard traction control, multi-mode electronic stability control and launch control.
Like the engine, weight savings was the theme for the chassis. Chrysler engineers shaved more 100 pounds by using the newest high-strength steels for the space frame, carbon fiber for the hood, roof and rear hatch, aluminum body panels and lighter-weight wheels. The SRT Viper is also stiffer, with torsional rigidity up by 50 percent over the old car, helped in large part by the engine compartment X-brace lifted directly from the Viper GTS-R and Competition Coupe race cars. The increased rigidity improves the car's steering response.
Also helping to improve front end response is a wider, 62.4-inch track (up from 61.7 inches), and retuned Bilstein shocks, springs and hollow antiroll bars. Rear suspension geometry has been revised with the toe links relocated from behind the rear axle centerline to in front.
At the corners are Pirelli PZero tires–295/30 ZR-18 front and 355/30 ZR-19 rear– with four-piston Brembo brakes providing the stopping muscle.
The base SRT Viper uses fabric-covered Sabelt seats and skips the sound deadening material. The driver's seat is lowered by 0.8 inch for a better fit for taller drivers and drivers wearing safety helmets. The seat height can be adjusted by 1.6 inches. Seat travel has been increased by 3.5 inches and the center console is set lower for easier access to the shifter. In another Viper first, cruise control and push button start are standard.
The range-topping GTS model gets two-mode Bilstein Damptronic dampers with street and track settings–you can change modes with the push of a button on the center stack. A four-mode electronic stability control system adds speed sensors in each wheel and yaw, lateral-g and steering-wheel angle sensors. There's a sport mode that allows for significant lateral slip, a track mode that cuts out the traction control and allows even more lateral slip, and full-off mode that cuts all the electronic aids.
The GTS gets a sleeker, two-outlet hood and split six-spoke wheels instead of the SRT's five-spoke design. In the cabin, hand-stitched nappa leather covers the six-way power-adjustable seats, dash, center console, door panels and A-pillars. There's sound deadening material for a quieter ride and a 12-speaker Harman Kardon sound system. An optional premium interior package adds Laguna premium leather throughout the cabin and an Alcantara headliner.
Those looking for maximum performance will want to spring for the available track package, which adds two-piece StopTech slotted lightweight brake rotors, lighter wheels finished in black and Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires. The track package is offered on both the SRT and GTS models–it cuts 57 pounds from the car's curb weight.
What is it like to drive?
Based on brief drives of development vehicles around GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Mich., we can say that the 2013 SRT Viper is an easier snake to tame.
Before going out in the 2013 Viper we got a refresher session in the old car–where we quickly were reminded of that car's brutal nature. Under hard braking the back end dances around, while in corners you could feel the car just waiting for a chance to bite if you made any bonehead mistakes. But once you got the weight shifted there's gobs of grip available.
From there we moved to the 2013 Viper SRT with the track package. This car felt more forgiving and the rear felt better planted under braking, but you can still feel it get slightly skittish. Turn-in is sharper and weight transfer from side-to-side is more controlled, which boosts your confidence through corners. The hydraulic steering system keeps its weighty feel and good feedback comes through the thick-rim, flat-bottom steering wheel. The V10 roared down the back straight on GingerMan's shortened track configuration, with thrust available anywhere in the rev band and excellent throttle response.
Finally, we saddled up in the GTS and took a lap with the adjustable suspension in street mode. We immediately noticed more body roll in turns, which didn't feel great on the track. However, we are certain that on the street the extra give in the suspension would be welcome.
Then we set the dampers to track to experience the most-planted setup of the afternoon. Body roll in the corners was virtually nonexistent. The stability control was a nice safety net, though you can switch it off if you feel like wrestling the snake without any help.
In both base and GTS Vipers we liked the nicer interior surroundings, although SRT representatives were quick to point out that they weren't production spec and didn't allow photos. Even so, what we saw is a heck of a start with nice touch points all over and comfortable Sabelt seats that offered plenty of support. We're also happy with the shift action on the six-speed manual that requires more of a flick of the wrist to change gears.
What would we change? The brakes don't offer the initial bite that we like–there's a bit of travel in the pedal before the Brembos really start to clamp down. It's an unsettling feeling in this car when you go to the brakes and don't get instant grab. Then there was the jumpy tach needle on the central LCD gauge cluster that bugged us–it's a known problem and will be fixed by the time production begins in November.
Do I want it?
If you're a member of Viper Nation, you certainly do. The 2013 SRT Viper is not as raw and unapologetic as its predecessor but retains enough of the original Viper aura to keep the faithful happy.
Despite the weight cutting program, fuel economy falls to 12 mpg city and 18 mpg highway (from 13 mpg city/22 mpg highway for the old car).
Even hardcore enthusiasts should prefer the higher-quality interior over the Spartan black plastic cave the Viper had been. Compared to other high-end sports cars, the Viper is still quite raw from the drive perspective, which has always been a part of its charm.
For the many people who would never have considered a Viper because it was too crude–and SRT says there are a lot of you–the GTS is worth a look. The adjustable suspension saves your kidneys from punishment on daily drives yet sharpens things up for fun track day outings. The leather-lined interior offers a higher level of refinement and there are now useful things such as storage cubbies on the center console and doors.
The 2013 SRT Viper friendlier and better dressed–but still packs biting performance.
2013 SRT Viper
On Sale: Orders begin in November, deliveries start in January
Base Price: $100,000 (est)
Drivetrain: 8.4-liter 640-hp, 600-lb-ft V10; RWD, six-speed manual
Curb Weight: 3,354 lbs
0-60 mph: 3.5 sec (mfr est)
Fuel Economy (EPA): 12 mpg city/18 mpg highway


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Mark Kryder, a professor at Carnegie Mellon's college of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a legend in the world of computer capacity (click here for more on that underappreciated universe). He's most famous for his prediction about the exponential growth of hard drives, which is an analog to Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's famous law about computer processors. We contacted Kryder at the Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference in Tokyo to ask him a few questions about the future of the hard drive. —Glenn Derene
About how much does hard-drive capacity increase year to year?
The areal density on hard drives and therefore the capacity is currently increasing at about 40 percent per year, and I believe this will continue for the foreseeable future.
What do we need these big hard drives for now?
There is demand for higher capacity in almost all segments of the disk-drive business. Personal video recorders and drives for servers require the highest capacities. As we are just beginning the transition to HDTV, these demands are about to increase dramatically. Recent market studies by IDC have indicated that the supply of disk-drive capacity is lagging demand.
More From Popular Mechanics
What do you see as the next great hard-drive hog?
In the laptop market, there seems to be an encroachment of flash memory SSDs into the hard-disk drive space. Will flash capacities eventually catch or eclipse HDDs?
It is a misstatement to say flash is encroaching upon hard drives. Until the iPod put hard drives in digital audio players, that market was totally dominated by flash.
However, it also wasn't a very exciting business. When Apple put hard drives into the iPod, they suddenly provided enough capacity to make digital audio players an exciting market. Now, as Flash has increased its capacity and lowered its cost, it has begun to reclaim some of the territory it lost, but not at the expense of hard drives.
On the contrary, all the flash applications require backup and servers to send audio songs, pictures or whatever over the Internet. And all those applications are fulfilled by hard drives, because they offer much higher capacities and much lower cost per gigabyte. The fact that hard drives are cheap to make means that there always has been a capacity point below which various solid-state memories could offer a lower-cost device. Since storage density for both hard drives and solid state memory devices always increases, that capacity point also moves upward. It should also be pointed out that flash and HDDs are actually complementary. Seagate, for instance, has recently announced its hybrid hard-drive product in which a flash cache provides faster read-access time and lower power operation.
What about online storage? As ISPs start to offer fiber to the home with immense bandwidth, do you anticipate that people will simply migrate to remote storage systems such as Xdrive or box.net?
There is no question that networking is going to improve, and in the future, we will all have servers in our home for our personal digital information. But I believe we will always want our own copy of our personal information. If it only costs you $100 to store all your own personal information so you can always have it accessible and take it with you on a vacation, wouldn't you do it?
Is Hitachi's CPP-GMR going to be the only technology pushing capacities to the 4TB mark? What else is under development?
We have all been predicting that perpendicular recording would reach roughly 1 terabit per square inch (which is the areal density that will provide 4 terabytes in a single drive) around 2011. The challenge is to get beyond 1 Tbit per square inch.
The CPP-GMR head has been in research and development in most companies for well over a decade, and it has been recognized for many years that CPP-GMR will be necessary to go beyond a certain areal density around 1 Tbit per square inch. In my view, this announcement is thus much more important for going to 10 Tbits per square inch than to 1 Tbit per square inch, because CPP-GMR heads scale much better than tunneling magnetoresistive heads, which are in current products.
However, to get to 10 Tbits per square inch will require a drastic change in recording technology. Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording and Bit-Patterned Media are technologies that are under development to make that happen. I am the technical director of the Extremely High Density Recording program of the Information Storage Industry Consortium, which Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital and Samsung all currently support, and we are currently working on this 10-terabits-per-square-inch goal, which would enable a 40-terabyte hard drive.
BUZZWORD: The Future of Really Big Hard Drives

subset: commoncrawl


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statistical significance as explained by The Economist
There is a long article in The Economist of this week (also making the front cover), which discusses how and why many published research papers have unreproducible and most often "wrong" results. Nothing immensely new there, esp. if you read Andrew's blog on a regular basis, but the (anonymous) writer(s) take(s) pains to explain how this related to statistics and in particular statistical testing of hypotheses. The above is an illustration from this introduction to statistical tests (and their interpretation).
"First, the statistics, which if perhaps off-putting are quite crucial."
It is not the first time I spot a statistics backed article in this journal and so assume it has either journalists with a statistics background or links with (UK?) statisticians. The description of why statistical tests can err is fairly (Type I – Type II) classical. Incidentally, it reports a finding of Ioannidis that when reporting a positive at level 0.05, the expectation of a false positive rate of one out of 20 is "highly optimistic". An evaluation opposed to, e.g., Berger and Sellke (1987) who reported a too-early rejection in a large number of cases. More interestingly, the paper stresses that this classical approach ignores "the unlikeliness of the hypothesis being tested", which I interpret as the prior probability of the hypothesis under test.
"Statisticians have ways to deal with such problems. But most scientists are not statisticians."
The paper also reports about the lack of power in most studies, report that I find a bit bizarre and even meaningless in its ability to compute an overall power, all across studies and researchers and even fields. Even in a single study, the alternative to "no effect" is composite, hence has a power that depends on the unknown value of the parameter. Seeking a single value for the power requires some prior distribution on the alternative.
"Peer review's multiple failings would matter less if science's self-correction mechanism—replication—was in working order."
The next part of the paper covers the failings of peer review, of which I discussed in the ISBA Bulletin, but it seems to me too easy to blame the ref in failing to spot statistical or experimental errors, when lacking access to the data or to the full experimental methodology and when under pressure to return (for free) a report within a short time window. The best that can be expected is that a referee detects the implausibility of a claim or an obvious methodological or statistical mistake. These are not math papers! And, as pointed out repeatedly, not all referees are statistically numerate….
"Budding scientists must be taught technical skills, including statistics."
The last part discusses of possible solutions to achieve reproducibility and hence higher confidence in experimental results. Paying for independent replication is the proposed solution but it can obviously only apply to a small margin of all published results. And having control bodies testing at random labs and teams following a major publication seems rather unrealistic, if only for filling the teams of such bodies with able controllers… An interesting if pessimistic debate, in fine. And fit for the International Year of Statistics.
5 Responses to "statistical significance as explained by The Economist"
Is the 20 false negatives correct? If it's 80% power, wouldn't it be 200 out of 1000 false negatives? Confused.
[…] believed the crises in science will abate if we only educate everyone on the correct intepreation of […]
I had a bit of fun at the whole "we can save classical statistics if we just emphasize 'fail to reject' is not the same as 'accept' strongly enough" here:


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Shapiro to study at Oxford under Keasbey Scholarship
Senior Matthew Shapiro has won the Keasbey Scholarship, which provides the opportunity to study for two postgraduate years at selected British universities.
Shapiro, who is from Menands, N.Y., will attend the University of Oxford's Balliol College, where he will pursue a master's degree in political theory, concentrating on political morality.
He will graduate from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and twice received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.
During his undergraduate years, Shapiro has worked to improve race relations at Princeton: co-chairing the student-government committee that issued a survey on race and a report analyzing the results; participating in the Minorities Issues Action Committee; and moderating biweekly dinner discussions on diversity-related issues for Sustained Dialogue.
He was the project coordinator for a group of Princeton students who tutored and mentored elementary-school children at the Esperanza housing complex and community center in Trenton, N.J. He also served as a resident adviser and sang baritone for the University's Glee Club.
Last summer, Shapiro interned in the Manhattan district attorney's office, where he helped investigate several white-collar crimes, including the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. In the summer of 2003, he served as an enforcement investigator in the Washington, D.C., field office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
As an intern with the Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation in the summer of 2002, Shapiro organized the nationally televised
press conference that revealed six planning options for rebuilding the World Trade
Since 1953, selected colleges and universities on the East Coast have been invited, on a rotating basis, to nominate graduating seniors for the Keasbey Scholarship. The four British institutions that reserve places for Keasbey Scholars are: the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh and the University College of Wales-Aberystwyth.


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Street drugs called "bath salts" were linked to nearly 23 000 emergency department visits in the United States in 2011, a new report says.
Bath salts are amphetamine-like stimulants that have become increasingly popular among recreational drug users in recent years. Despite the name, these synthetic drugs have nothing to do with the crystals you might sprinkle in a bathtub.
The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report, released Tuesday, is the first national study to look at bath salts-related emergency department visits since the drugs appeared a few years ago.
'Legal highs'
"Although bath salts drugs are sometimes claimed to be 'legal highs' or are promoted with labels to mask their real purpose, they can be extremely dangerous when used," Dr Elinore McCance-Katz, SAMHSA's chief medical officer, said in an agency news release.
"Bath salts drugs can cause heart problems, high blood pressure, seizures, addiction, suicidal thoughts, psychosis and, in some cases, death – especially when combined with the use of other drugs," she noted.
The report said that 67% of emergency department visits linked to bath salts also involved the use of another drug. 15% of the visits involved the use of bath salts with marijuana or synthetic forms of marijuana.
In 2011, there were nearly 2.5 million US emergency department visits involving drug misuse or abuse, according to the report.
The bath salts report is based on data from the 2011 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report. DAWN is a public health surveillance system that monitors drug-related hospital emergency department visits and drug-related deaths in the United States.
More information
The US National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about bath salts.


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Below is a link to a photo gallery you may have already seen in the ajc- it's got some nice shots of the premiere in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the book release being celebrated today. I believe the book was first printed and sold the first of May- The Book of the Month Club wanted to have it for July, so it was not officially released till May 30th 1936. Do comment if I have those months wrong- very possible- The "official" celebrations of the 75th anniversary sort of split it down the middle for today, May 14th, which is pretty ok by me, since today is a favorite day and sticks in my mind anyway.
Click here for gallery, including Margaret Mitchell being presented with a pink camellia corsage at the premiere.
Picked up the above booty at on of the famous Cove garage sales. The '36 Singer is a get from a sale down the street. Appropriate, no? Talullah Bankhead, as we all know, was pretty hot for the part of Scarlett in Selznick's movie version, which was being "cast" as the book began flying off the shelves that summer. She was a great buddy of Jock Whitney, and tested extensively. Whether her flamboyance could have served the film or not is anyone's conjecture- Talullah was a fantastic, long lasting presence, as we southern pistols often turn out to be, and I enjoy the 1950s television Talullah more than anyone on currently. And of course, we owe the famous name of our childhood, Bankhead Highway, to her grandfather, who was a supporter of the Federal Good Roads project which brought us that road and in Bay County, U. S. 98, which leads through the beaches of our fair panhandle.
OF course, Clark Gable loved the Cove- loved the hunting and fishing offered at the Cove Hotel. He trained at the Gunnery School across Watson Bayou from there, at Tyndall Air Field in 1941 after his enlistment in the Army Air Corps. The Cove Hotel offered guided trips, led often by Wallace Caswell, seen in Panama City Beach: Tales from the World's Most Beautiful Beaches, and none other than George Thomas and various Thomas brothers, all of whom appear in The Cove: Panama City's Historic Neighborhoods.
The King also enjoyed the dances held at the Cove Hotel, and the lovely lasses he squired there. He frequented Mattie'e Tavern on Beck Avenue in St. Andrews, a stone's throw from every southsider's favorite seafood spot, Hunt's Oyster Bar.
To hear a little of what it sounds like to be at Hunt's on glittering St Andrews Bay on a blue sky day - in the middle of the week! - as well as what it's like to be standing on the white dunes of St Andrews State Park watching dolphins go by,
click the WKGC link below, scroll down and listen to Panama City Beach: Tales from the World's Most Beautiful Beaches. wkgc
Of course, as always, the best thing about the cove, or here, or anyneighborhood is the folks, and we here on the East end just welcomed some new neighbors from Chipley, fixing up a nice place on the lagoon, and I got to see George Thomas and the cover girl of the Cove book, his lovely bride Dorothy. Mr George, 92, was out picking up the paper so I hopped out and we went in and got Miss Dorothy out of bed to say hey. Then at the sale noted above- one of my youngest Cove friends was helping her mom with her grandmother's home- they were all for giving my the stuff, which of course couldn't be allowed.
But that's what it's like down here- and that's what neighborhoods are all about! Happy 75th Anniversary Day to you and yours!


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Could you live without broadband at home? I don't know if I could, but Apple Co-Founder and Gizmodo hero Steve Wozniak can. That's what he has recently said in Australia talking about his home in Los Gatos, California:
I don't have broadband at my home. I, Steve Wozniak, don't have broadband at my home. I live one kilometre out of the main part of town. Broadband is a monopoly in my town—that means you can get it from a cable company, but I don't have cable. There are 50 companies that want to sell me DSL, but they've all got to go through the Horizon wires—the local phone company—and I've got one of the two worst Horizons in the country. And so I can't get broadband in my house.
So how does the Woz live without wired internet access? Wireless access, of course: smartphones, tablets and computers connecting through 3G and LTE. [News.co.au]


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Obama salutes new service-member American citizens
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama marked the Fourth of July by welcoming two dozen U.S. service members as newly-sworn American citizens, saying the contributions they have already made dramatize the need for Washington to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
"Immigration makes America stronger," Obama said. "Immigration makes us more prosperous. Immigration positions America to lead in the 21st century."
The 25 active duty U.S. service members who became citizens Wednesday hailed from 17 different countries, including Mexico, Nigeria and Russia. In front of an audience of family and friends, the service members were administered the oath of allegiance by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in the East Room of the White House.
Obama said the varied backgrounds of those taking the oath typified America's long tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world to its shores.
"Unless you are one of the first Americans, a native American, we are all descended from folks who came from somewhere else," he said. "The story of immigrants in America isn't a story of them. It's a story of us."
The president briefly touted his administration's move last month to stop deporting young people who were brought to the country as children and joined the U.S. military or went to college. But he acknowledged there was more work to be done in order to achieve a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system.
Obama's lack of progress on this count has been a particular frustration for many Hispanics, a key voting bloc in the November general election. Still, polls show Obama with a sizable lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney among Hispanic voters.
The president spoke shortly after returning to the White House from Camp David, the presidential retreat in the nearby Maryland mountains. Later Wednesday, Obama was to host military families at the White House for a barbeque and fireworks viewing.


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Being a writer, I've gone to seminars and conferences, read writing books and articles, and was given advice by real authors on how to make my books the best that they could be. I, at one time or another, believed a lot of what I was told, and altered some of my work to fit with "the right" criteria. That was a mistake. Here's a list of five writing misconceptions that I was told to believe.
1. "You must begin your book with an exciting scene."
I was once told that my book had to begin when everything is changing for my main character: "when their world is turned upside-down" so you can grab your reader's attention. I found a few things wrong with this advice, the first being, if we all started our books the same way, they wouldn't be special or unique. It would be pretty boring to read the same kind of introduction in every book you open, wouldn't it? The second problem I saw was, if we began our story when the character's world is turned upside down, how would we know what is normal for them? Without any background story on our character, how could we distinguish oddities from their ordinary life? We wouldn't know their everyday standards. The reader must connect with the character before he or she can care or worry about what is going to happen to that main character. Creating a subtle backstory first can help the reader to recognize abnormal happenings from ordinary ones. Beginning your book with a calm opening about the character's everyday life is absolutely fine; there are so many famous classics that begin with a simple scene, like Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, and Sense and Sensibility. These authors didn't follow the rule of the "dramatic opening scene" yet they have all have become enormously popular, selling a few million copies of their books!
2. Your book should contain 70% dialog.
A published author once suggested that I didn't have enough dialog in my books. I went on to learn that publishers sometimes determine your book's success by the amount of white space on each page. Having a page of dialog will provide more blank spaces than a full page of narrative, therefore, I was told that more "talking" is always best. So I decided to test out this theory and wrote a short book mainly full of dialog. It was choppy and not well explained, might I say. I couldn't elaborate on descriptions or explain the surroundings without having someone speak it aloud. This idea of "lots of dialog" is a modern concept, so I can see how it would work for books taking place in the modern world, but if you enjoy writing historical fiction like I do, then this "all dialog" theory probably won't work. It's just not realistic.
3. Tell your reader instead of showing (because it's shorter).
I've heard this one a few times. Some say that a writer should tell the reader about something, not show them, to keep the pace moving. I however, disagree. I find it much more interesting if I am actually shown something and not just told about it. The difference can have a lasting impact on the reader. Here is an example I made up:
Telling Version: "The boy told his dog to stay. The dog stayed."
Showing Version: "He held out his thin little hand like a fireman stopping traffic as he slowly backed away from his fur-matted friend. Oh, how those four dirty paws wanted to bound across the space between them and gift the boy with a thousand slobbery kisses, but being the keen and obedient dog that he was, he planted his feet in the dewy grass and vowed to keep as motionless as the statue he had seen in the park."
Both versions were each made up of only two sentences, telling the same story, yet they are both extremely different. Which one provided the most information? Which one would you be more likely to continue reading if it were the opening of a book? Which one do you find more interesting? Probably, the second one is the answer to all of these questions. The second version let us know that: the boys was small, the dog was scrawny, the dog loved the boy, the dog was obedient, it happened in the morning (dewy grass), and they take walks in the park together. The first version didn't tell us any of that!
4. End each chapter with a cliffhanger.
Many say that to keep your readers flipping pages, you must create a cliffhanger at places where the reader is most likely to put the book down, like at the end of a chapter. I find that this strategy just isn't realistic. Yes, cliffhangers are exciting and can add a bunch to your book, but one in every chapter is a bit excessive. Besides, if you have to bait your readers with a constant strand of dangerous and uncertain situations to stay seated and continue reading, it may not be a very interesting book in the first place.
5. Reading will make you a better writer.
Now, parts of this phrase are true. Reading other books can definitely help you with writing your own book. But when people give this advice, they forget to mention that it depends on what you read! If you read a lot of terrible books over time, you may find that you morph into having those same writing habits and write terribly. While at the same time, if you read many great books full of beautiful words and brilliant plots, your writing is more likely to improve. It is like that saying, "You are what you eat." Instead it's, "You are what you read." If you want to write inspiring things, read inspiring things.
Bonus misconception: The publisher is always right.
This is quite far from the truth. Many people I've met dream of the day when their book is accepted for publication. When they get turned down, they revise their work to fit the publisher's standards. Then if their book is accepted they allow the editors to change whatever they see fit, slap a generic unenticing cover on it, and ship it out. Sadly, this happens a lot and many just accept it because they want their book published. But the publisher is not always right and you shouldn't have to be forced to alter your hard work to please someone in order to get published. You don't always have to submit to what publishers say, because they're not always right. You're the author, it's your work, your special creation that no one can take away. Self publishing is a good way to ensure that your story is published the way YOU want it.
Do you like to write fiction?
Were you ever told to believe one of these misconceptions?
Do you have any other writing myths or misconceptions to share?


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The Curious Listener: Listeners Say Goodbye To 'Talk Of The Nation'
A two-way dialogue is important in any conversation, especially when you are discussing compelling issues. Over the past two decades, Talk of the Nation has been part of public radio's national conversation with listeners, gathering perspectives and insights into the latest headlines and developments in science, education, religion and the arts.
The show has made us proud by setting a standard for call-in programs, and is the model on which many stations have built their own local programs.
So as Talk of the Nation comes to an end this week, we're remembering highlights with staff and listeners too, who have made Talk of the Nation part of their day. In these exchanges with our Curious Listeners, we talk about what's happening with the program and share some of the ways dedicated fans have made the program part of their lives.
I will so much miss [Host] Neal Conan. He is the best, most knowledgeable and gracious interviewer. I hope we'll hear from him in another capacity. I will miss Talk of the Nation very much.
Portland, OR
Is it true that the show will be ending soon? Why? It's the reason I listen to NPR. The show and Neal are wonderful with a variety of interesting stories about events and things that I might never have thought of. Please, Please, Please do not take this show off the air.
Emmett, ID
I'm writing today to express my support for TOTN. It is the reason I listen regularly. Neal Conan brings a warmth to radio that is missing from many other programs. He genuinely cares about people and it shows. After I discovered the program years ago, I became addicted. It was the voice of the multitude. No topic was too big or too small to warrant a discussion. To turn on the radio and listen to people all across the country who are just like me, calling in, sharing their stories and viewpoints, it makes you realize just how connected we all are. Talk of the Nation is a staple of my daily routine as I drive across the nation. I'll always be grateful for the program and can only hope that the quest to be more like Fox News or MSNBC ends and NPR goes back to being what they should be - a news organization that presents in depth discussions of worthwhile subjects.
Greenup, KY
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your taking the time to contact us.
We're sorry to hear you're unhappy with NPR's decision to end production of Talk of the Nation.
The decision was not an easy one. When the program started 21 years ago, national talk programming was new to public radio and Talk of the Nation has gone on to set the standard for the many local and national call-in programs. We're proud of the tremendous value Talk of the Nation brought to listeners.
As you may also know, Neal Conan, one of the organization's most distinguished journalists, will step away from the rigors of daily journalism after 35 years at NPR, including 11 years at the helm of Talk of the Nation.
Going forward, NPR is focusing its resources on news programming to complement the outstanding talk programming heard on our Member Stations. For example, we are collaborating with WBUR on expanding the daily show Here & Now from one hour to two hours in July. NPR will contribute its editorial muscle to the expanded program, providing listeners with more news from NPR, in addition to content contributed from select public radio stations across the country. And Science Friday with Ira Flatow will continue to be distributed by NPR.
As you may know, independently owned and operated public radio stations make their own decisions regarding programming. We encourage you to contact your local NPR member station to learn about the decisions they will be making as a result of NPR's changes.
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iOS: While a keyboard certainly isn't always useful with your iPhone or iPad, keyboard shortcuts certainly are. MacStories has started a running list of all the new shortcuts for Safari, Mail, and Pages.
For the most part, all the text editing keyboard shortcuts have worked in iOS for a long time, but MacStories has collected a few of the new ones in iOS 7:
- ⌘L to Open Location
- ⌘T to open a new tab
- ⌘W to close the current tab
- ⌘R to refresh the current tab
- ⌘. to stop loading the current tab
- ⌘N to create a new message
- ⌘⇧D to send a message (from the Compose screen, it also works in other apps that implement a Mail sharing feature)
- Backspace key to delete the currently selected message
- Up/down arrows to select suggested email address in To/CC/BCC popover fields
- ⌘⇧K to comment
- ⌘⌥K to show next comment
- ⌘⌥⇧K to show previous comment
MacStories' list is still growing, so head over there for the always updating list of new keyboard shortcuts.
A List of New iOS 7 Keyboard Shortcuts | MacStories
Photo by bfishadow.
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Competition in professional services
Outline of the Community (European Union) legislation about Competition in professional services
These categories group together and put in context the legislative and non-legislative initiatives which deal with the same topic.
Internal market > Single market for services
Competition in professional services
Document or Iniciative
Commission communication of 9 February 2004 entitled "Report on Competition in Professional Services" [COM(2004) 83 final – Not published in the Official Journal]
Professional services have an important role to play in improving the competitiveness of the European economy with the result that their quality and competitiveness have important spill-over effects. The disappearance of anti-competitive regulatory restrictions in this sector would mean that consumers could be offered more competitive and better-quality services on advantageous terms.
TheCommission report shows the need to take action in the field of the professions from a competition policy perspective, to provide information on what the Commission has done so far and to present its interim findings on key restrictions and their alleged general interest justifications and on the Community legal framework within which those restrictions have to be analysed. Finally, it proposes a future course of action aimed at encouraging the elimination of unjustified restrictions.
Restrictive regulation of professional services
At present, the professional services sector is characterised by either state regulation or self-regulation by professional bodies.
The Commission has analysed the markets in which lawyers, notaries, accountants, architects, engineers and pharmacists operate in the European Union and has identified five main categories of national legislation or self-regulation that restrict competition. These are:
- Fixed prices: These are probably the regulatory instrument likely to have the most detrimental effects on competition, eradicating or seriously reducing the benefits that competitive markets deliver for consumers, particularly in terms of price choice. In most Member States, fees for professional services are negotiated freely between practitioners and clients. However, in a small number of cases the Commission has observed the existence of fixed prices (e.g. in Germany for tax consultants), minimum prices (e.g. in Italy and Germany for architects) and maximum prices (e.g. in Italy for lawyers). Although in some cases maximum prices might protect consumers from excessive charges, the Commission considers that less restrictive mechanisms (such as improved information on the services provided) could be put in place.
- Recommended prices: These have a significant negative effect on competition since they may facilitate the coordination of prices between service providers and/or mislead consumers about reasonable price levels. The Commission found that in a minority of Member States (e.g. in Austria and Belgium) recommended prices are published for certain legal, accountancy, architectural and engineering services.
- Advertising restrictions: Advertising may facilitate competition by informing consumers about different products and allowing them to make better-informed purchasing decisions. It is also widely recognised that advertising, and in particular comparative advertising, can be a crucial competitive tool for new firms entering the market and for existing firms wanting to launch new products. However, a large number of the EU professions are subject to sector-specific advertising regulation. In some cases (e.g. in France for notaries), advertising of any kind is prohibited. In others, specific media or advertising methods such as radio advertising, television advertising, "cold calling" or specific types of advertising content are prohibited. In certain cases, there is a lack of clarity in existing advertising regulations, and this, in itself, may deter professionals from employing certain advertising methods.
- Entry restrictions and reserved rights: Excessive licensing regulation is likely to reduce the supply of service providers, with negative consequences for competition and quality of service. The professions are subject to qualitative entry restrictions in most Member States. These can take the form of minimum periods of education, professional examinations and minimum periods of professional experience. In many cases, entry restrictions are coupled with reserved rights to provide certain services. In some Member States the pharmacist and notary professions are even subject to quantitative entry restrictions based on demographic or geographical criteria. Entry restrictions, combined with reserved rights, ensure that only practitioners with appropriate qualifications and skills can carry out certain tasks. The EU is currently putting the finishing touches to a proposal for a directive designed to reform the system for recognising professional qualifications. The purpose of this reform, which is aimed at pharmacists and architects, among other professions, is to create a single legal framework to further liberalise the services sector and facilitate the recognition of qualifications in Europe.
- Regulations governing business structure and multidisciplinary practices: Business structure regulations may have a negative economic impact if they prevent providers from developing new services or cost-efficient business models. For example, these regulations might prevent lawyers and accountants from providing integrated legal and accountancy advice for tax issues or prevent the development of one-stop shops for professional services in rural areas. Certain ownership regulations can also reduce access to capital in professional services markets, hindering new entry and expansion. A number of professions in the EU are subject to sector-specific regulations on business structure. These regulations can restrict the ownership structure of professional services companies, the scope for collaboration with other professions and, in some cases, the opening of branches, franchises or chains.
There are essentially three reasons for this regulation of professional services:
- "asymmetry of information", i.e. the difference in the information available to consumers and service providers: a defining feature of professional services is that they require practitioners to possess a high level of technical knowledge. Consumers may not have this knowledge and therefore find it difficult to judge the quality of the services they purchase.
- "externalities": the provision of a service may have an impact on third parties. Rules are therefore needed to ensure that both service providers and purchasers take proper account of these external effects.
- the concept of "public goods": certain professional services are deemed to be in the public good since they are of value for society in general, for example, the correct administration of justice or the development of high-quality urban environments.
While the Commission acknowledges that some regulation in this sector is justified, it believes that in some cases more pro-competitive mechanisms can and should be used instead of certain traditional restrictive rules.
Possible application of the EC competition rules
From the perspective of Community competition law, a distinction must be made between the liability of professional bodies and that of Member States.
Regulations adopted by professional bodies are decisions of associations of undertakings that may be caught by Article 81 of the EC Treaty. However, regulations that are objectively necessary to guarantee the proper practice of the profession, as organised in the Member State concerned, fall outside the scope of the prohibition.
Article 81 is, in itself, concerned solely with the conduct of undertakings and not with laws or rules emanating from Member States. Nonetheless, read in conjunction with the second paragraph of Article 10 (prohibiting measures by Member States which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of the Treaty) and with Article 3(1)(g) of the Treaty (which justifies intervention by the Community in order to ensure that competition in the internal market is not distorted), Article 81 prohibits Member States from introducing or maintaining in force measures, even of a legislative or regulatory nature, which may render ineffective the competition rules applicable to undertakings.
Where a State delegates its policy-making power to a professional association without sufficient safeguards, i.e. without clearly indicating the public interest objectives that must be complied with, without retaining the last word and without exercising control of implementation, the Member State can be held liable for any resulting infringement. Measures adopted by professional associations and legislative or regulatory instruments adopted by public authorities may therefore give rise to the liability of the members of the professions and of their associations under Article 81 of the Treaty and of Member States under Articles 10 and 81 of the Treaty.
Position of the Commission and proposed actions
A significant body of empirical research shows the negative effects that excessive or outdated restrictive regulations may have for consumers. Such regulations may eliminate or limit competition between service providers and thus reduce the incentives for professionals to work, in a cost-efficient manner, to lower prices, to increase quality or to offer innovative services.
The Commission therefore acknowledges that some regulation in this sector is justified, but it believes that in some cases more pro-competitive mechanisms can and should be used instead of certain traditional restrictive rules. There are a variety of less restrictive mechanisms to maintain quality and protect consumers. For example, measures to improve the availability and quality of information about professional services could help empower consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions.
The Commission is therefore inviting the regulatory authorities of the Member States to review the national legislation restricting professional services. They should consider whether the existing restrictions pursue a clearly articulated and legitimate public interest objective, whether they are necessary to achieve that objective, and whether there are no less restrictive means to achieve this. The Commission is also inviting all professional bodies to undertake a similar review of their rules and regulations. They should apply the same proportionality test as the regulatory authorities of the Member States and, where necessary, change existing rules or propose changes.
With the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 in May 2004, the national competition authorities and the national courts will have a more prominent role in assessing the legality of rules and regulations in the professions. In so far as competition restrictions are imposed within Member States, administrative enforcement of EC competition rules in the professions should be mainly the task of national competition authorities, although the Commission will continue to carry out casework where appropriate. The Commission also proposes discussing with national regulatory authorities whether the existing regulations are necessary, proportionate and justified.
In 2005 the Commission will report on the progress achieved in eliminating the restrictions identified above or on the factors justifying these rules. To this end, it will contact the regulatory authorities by the end of the year to ask them to report on any measures they have adopted that fall within the scope of this report. Any explicit justification of the restrictive rules which they wish to maintain should then be communicated to the Commission.
Reform of the restrictive rules in the professional services sector was initiated in 2003 with the publication of a study commissioned by the Directorate-General for Competition on the economic impact of regulation of the professions in the different Member States. Commission action on this front complements the directive on services in the internal market. The Commission presented a further progress report [COM(2005) 405 final] in 2005.
Related Acts
Commission communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 5 September entitled "Professional Services – Scope for more reform": Follow-up to the Report on Competition in Professional Services (COM (2004) 83 of 9 February 2004), [COM(2005) 405 final – Not published in the Official Journal]
In its communication the Commission makes a first assessment of the reform of unjustified restrictions in the professional services sector. It welcomes the progress made in some of the Member States but is concerned by the all too frequent persistence of unjustified regulation which seriously impedes competition in many others. The analytical work underway in most of them, which should lead to substantive reform, is encouraging. But some countries report no reform activity as yet.
The Commission consequently urges the Member States to step up their efforts to increase pro-competitive reform, advocating a more refined analysis of the markets concerned in order to arrive at a clearer definition of the general interest and to ensure better targeted regulation. Occasional users (individuals) of professional services may have a greater need of carefully targeted regulatory protection than the main users (business and the public sector). The position with respect to small business users is not entirely clear and needs to be analysed further.
Strong political backing at national level and greater input from the professions are essential to the reform process. The Commission will continue to act as a facilitator in this exercise, helping to spread best practice.
This summary is for information only. It is not designed to interpret or replace the reference document, which remains the only binding legal text.


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Second Reading Speech
Mr Speaker I am in introducing this Bill because the Parliament should pass laws which are optimistic and hopeful about Australia's future.
It proposes to increase the Superannuation Guarantee charge from 9 percent to 12 percent.
And this Bill abolishes the Superannuation Guarantee age limit.
This Bill passes the test of being positive and constructive.
We are living longer than ever before. So we must change with the new rhythms of life.
Those of us over 65 now are only 3 million in number, but by 2050 there'll be 8.1 million.
Today there are fifty of us in work for every ten of us in retirement. By 2050, there will be twenty-seven of us in work for every ten of us in retirement.
These days we're probably at school and in college until we're 20 or 25. We then work for 35 years, and after that we have another twenty or even thirty years to think about things, play bowls, go fishing, join reading groups, write family histories, and the rest of it. Thirty years, perhaps. Forty, maybe.
Life itself, our life in the best country on earth, has been redefined by these new unchangeable figures of a long and largely healthy life.
Longer life full of quality and meaning is the great gift of 20 th century Australians to 21 st century Australians. And we should celebrate it.
Therefore the goal of lifetime income security celebrates a long and quality life.
This bill declares that the Australian people understand change is inevitable.
This bill declares Australians reject the proposition that Australians should stay frozen in the moment.
This bill declares that Australians do not believe change is too hard.
This bill declares that Australians understand that as we are living longer, we need to smooth our prosperity over longer life.
Until 1985, private retirement income under the superannuation provisions applied to the very wealthy and some well paid employees in the public sector.
Until 1985 the great majority of working Australians had no viable access to the generosity of the superannuation tax provisions.
Until 1985 most Australians had to rely upon had relied on the taxpayer provided Age Pension as their principal post-employment income system.
The first move towards universal access under the superannuation provisions came as part of the Hawke government's Accord with Australian trade unions.
Government and unions agreed that the profit share in the economy had to be restored to re-ignite private investment. At the time, unemployment and inflation were both hovering around 10 percent.
In return for this restraint the Government supported the ACTU's claim that 3 percentage points of wages should be contributed by employers to a superannuation account in the name of each worker.
This was 1985. Then on 20th of August 1991; in the Hawke Government's ninth Budget laid the groundwork for the superannuation industry as we know it now. Not long after becoming Prime Minister, Paul Keating announced the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge.
Under this path-breaking legislation, employer contributions to superannuation would rise from three percentage points of ordinary time earnings in 1992-93 to nine percentage points of ordinary time earnings by 2002-03.
Over the period when the Superannuation Guarantee Charge grew from 3 to 9 percent of employer contributions, unit labour costs fell. This meant that the cost of superannuation was rarely borne by employers. It was absorbed into the overall wage cost.
Had employers not paid 9 percentage points of wages as superannuation contributions to employee super accounts: they would have paid it in cash as wages. As Keating said in 2007: "when you hear conservatives these days speak of superannuation as a tax on employers they are either ill-informed or they are lying. The fall in unit labour costs and the upward shift in the profit share during the period of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge is simply a matter of statistical record. It is not a matter of argument."
Today the savings pool is worth more than $1.3 trillion to the nation. Our retirement savings system is the fourth biggest pool of funds under management on the planet.
The original Superannuation Guarantee legislation has since proven fundamental to the sustainability of our private retirement income.
Superannuation has proved to be a terrific idea; blessing Australia with a national institution that almost every developed economy in the rest of the world would give their eye teeth for.
It is now a mature idea.
Yet in terms of providing an adequate retirement nest egg, the system still has great capacity to grow, to mature and perform even better for individuals who get to retire after a whole working life of superannuation behind them.
Compulsory superannuation's gradual introduction between 1992-93 and 2002-03 has smoothed the transition path and demonstrated how long run reforms can be successfully introduced in our country.
But adequacy remains the challenge, and task of providing for retirement is getting bigger as we live longer and as weak investment markets slow growth of fund balances, necessitating higher contribution levels.
Running the system as efficiently as possible is essential as it grows bigger balances and maximizes the return to the taxpayers of the 15 percent concessional tax rate.
I think it obligatory to recognise the future's lament if we in the Federal Parliament don't take this opportunity to pass the law that will deliver 12 percent compulsory superannuation contribution.
Of all the human emotions, it is perhaps regret we should fear the most.
It is both instant and long-lasting.
In politics, the worst regret is always the regret for the path not taken, the timidity of a moment that cost us the skirmish, the skirmish that cost us the battle, the battle that cost us the war.
Too often in politics we deal, or we end up dealing, not with the problem, but the politics of the problem.
The rhetoric of the problem. Dare I even say -- the spin.
We try to paper over with bravado the fragility within.
We lose the moment, and in doing so - the future.
No big economic reform is easy.
I understand that no change to our public life, no social contract -- indeed no progress -- could be taken for granted.
It has to be fought for, with all the guile and persistence of Fred Hollows, and all the brash force of Henry Chauvel, racing his horses for Beersheba water.
Victory is never certain.
And to be fair, probably all of us - whatever our political stripe - who have the privilege to serve fully in this place, sooner or later realize that the big public policy struggles are inevitable, and intricate, and close-fought, and exhausting.
Long lasting economic change - whether floating the dollar or deregulating the financial markets require all the powers of political persuasion.
We believe 9 to 12 percent is profoundly necessary, and we wish to calm the anxiety and explain the detail of what this reform would do.
This Bill is pressing the advantage of doing the right thing by the nation, even if vested interests and loud voices opposite yelling 'no' make the going all the slower, all the tougher.
But this Bill has an army of good voices and minds behind it.
Just as an army of commonsense, real world voices raised their game to advocate for and help deliver compulsory superannuation two decades ago.
I am inspired that always and every time, the agents of change in our national story already written - from both sides of the political divide - have had to consistently and persistently argue the merits of the case and keep a firm grip on the detail and sketch out - with daily alacrity - what would happen when the changes were actually implemented.
The superannuation reforms the Gillard Government has announced - lifting the Super Guarantee from 9 up to 12 percent and how it's afforded through the mining tax - has been met with a fiercely hostile opposition. And so once again we find the going harder than such good ideas deserve.
Yet as the Minister for Superannuation I am finding that the strongest argument for these retirement savings reforms is not purely through a recitation of the details. But a simple plea that we must, for dignity of hardworking Australians in retirement and to place less pressure on the age pension, secure the goal of adequate lifetime retirement savings.
A 70 percent replacement rate in post work life - of average earnings prior to retirement constitutes the winning tape for adequate retirement.
This plea is especially applicable now because of the arithmetic we are in, in this Parliament, compared with the years, in the 1980s and 1990s, of large majorities in the Lower House, and of civilised reason in the Senate.
When it comes to lifting super to 12 percent, I know that most of our nation absolutely get it.
Australians get it right in their bones.
We believe that longer life is a gift that should be celebrated.
We believe there's little point in working hard and retiring poor.
We want Australians to live long lives that have quality and meaning.
We want those lives that go up to and last beyond a hundred years to have been well-lived, both at the start and at the end.
Which means, as the numbers of the old go up, we want to deliver a better deal, a new deal, on superannuation.
Our starting point is that 9 percent is simply not enough, especially for women, who have breaks in their career rearing the next generation, when they are not earning, and therefore not putting in their 9 percent away for the nest egg.
It's why we are taking, as Paul Keating planned many years before, the 9 percent up to 12 percent. And in doing this we are strengthening superannuation.
The Superannuation Guarantee charge percentage will be increased gradually with initial increments of 0.25 percentage points on 1 July 2013 and 1 July 2014. Further increments of 0.5 percentage points will apply annually up to 2019-20, when the SG rate will be set at 12 per cent.
These superannuation measures and others contained in the Stronger, Fairer, Simpler package of reform, along with the increases in the age pension which the Government introduced in 2009, and the Stronger Super package of reforms will allow Australians to secure higher standards of living in retirement than ever before. This Bill also makes superannuation fairer for Australians of all ages.
From 1 July 2013, the Superannuation Guarantee will be payable for eligible employees over 18.
Currently, the Superannuation Guarantee only applies to people under 70. The amendments will align the SG age limit with the age limit for voluntary and selfemployed contributions.
The increase in the Superannuation Guarantee age limit means that eligible individuals aged 70 and beyond will have superannuation guarantee contributions made on their behalf for the first time.
Making superannuation contributions compulsory for these mature-age workers will improve the adequacy and equity of the retirement income system, and provide an incentive to older Australians to remain in the workforce for longer.
The actuaries tell us the average Australian needs a 70 percent replacement rate of his or her accustomed income to live in retirement comfortably. For example, the Melbourne-Mercer Global Pension Index recommends this.
Being satisfied with just 9 percent compulsory superannuation means being satisfied with a big percentage of Australians outliving the money set aside to see them through the Third Age.
As we live longer - 9 percent just doesn't build enough.
It's why the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is so important to our nation's future.
The MRRT pays for the tax concessional treatment of the additional 3 percent Superannuation Guarantee - with workers retirement contributions taxed at 15 percent instead of their marginal personal income tax rate.
It's of great concern to me, and I know of great concern to the Prime Minister, that whilst women live longer than men, their super balances are in fact on average around 40 percent lower.
This is a serious challenge to Australian women's financial independence. Currently, around 2.1 million women get no tax benefit from contributing to superannuation, due to the 15 percent superannuation contribution tax being at or above their income tax rate.
The Gillard Government is therefore acting on the recommendation of the Henry Review which said that superannuation tax concessions be distributed more equitably.
From 1 July next year, we will make the system fairer by ensuring no tax is paid on the 9 percent superannuation contributions for Australians earning up to $37,000 and that the money is instead directed into their superannuation. 60 percent of the beneficiaries of this policy are women.
The superannuation savings of 2.1 million women earning less than $37,000 will be boosted by $550 million in 2012-13 alone.
So a 30 year old woman on full-time average wages will have an extra $108,000 in retirement savings providing her with an extra $2,900 to spend each year of her retirement.
This is what good law - from a Government that is confident in Australia's future - is all about.
In August 2011 looking at the great economic reforms of Hawke and Keating and Kelty - reforms like superannuation - can be a bit like looking at the silverware in our nation's economic trophy cabinet.
But I believe each generation has to make its own history.
To build new achievements.
We can respect our history - as families, as tribes, as nations - while still making our own history as a generation.
Surely we don't want to look back in 20 years time and regret not raising superannuation to 12 percent.
We want to say "do you remember when we lifted it to 12 percent - to where it needed to be".
Do any of us really think we would have saved $1.3 trillion without compulsory super?
I believe there are four pillars which today assure a quality of Australian life for all our fellow citizens:
- -
- the minimum wage
- -
- the age pension
- -
- Medicare; and
- -
- compulsory superannuation.
I might add that I think a National Disability Insurance Scheme has the potential to be the new fifth pillar. So early August was a wonderful time measured by the significance of first big steps.
In mid 2011, two decades after compulsory superannuation was introduced, superannuation stands as one of Australian Labor's most enduring and far sighted reforms.
The mission of adequate retirement savings is not yet completed, but the journey here has been a great national direction.
We will know that we have succeeded when all Australians recognise that superannuation is as vital a pillar for our quality of life as Medicare or the minimum wage.
And let me say when that happens, after 12 percent is achieved, Governments need to step right back and stop the tinkering with the tax treatment of superannuation. I truly believe we are not quite there yet, but the Government's reform agenda together with the good work the industry is doing on building the brand will help us get there.
Our superannuation reforms will deliver a great good to Australians upon their retirement and the Australian economy more generally.
The great good of a more comfortable post work life.
The great good of Australians retiring on a 70 percent replacement rate.
The great good of concessional tax, compound interest and dividend imputation.
The great good of seeing Australia become even better at financial services.
The great good of reducing the cost of capital.
The great good of more capital becoming available for nation-building infrastructure.
The great good of low inflation, high savings and a future some Europeans now dream of.
The Gillard Government understands the forces of change that we have to navigate to secure future waves national prosperity.
That the ageing of our population is one of these forces is undeniable and the need for greater retirement savings is therefore irresistible.
And I submit, is logically inevitable.
We always hear a lot from financial planners and investment strategists about savings and investment but it is politicians who can make the real difference. And it is the politicians who need to grasp the relative immediacy of longer life spans - with it's all too predictable dislocating consequences.
Under Prime Minster Gillard's leadership our national Government is acting for the long term and we are strategically placing the nation where the challenges and opportunities of the future can be met with confidence and conquered with commonsense.
Lifting the Superannuation Guarantee change to 12 percent is profoundly sensible.
Australians need not fear the future - we should be optimistic.
This bill keeps faith that Australians should and can live long lives full of quality and meaning. This bill keeps faith that the goal of lifetime income security for Australians is achievable.
And this Parliament, I believe, should not miss the opportunity to do good.


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Lowe Improves Oilers' Draft Potential
An interesting day yesterday, to say the least. Some teams got stronger, others got weaker, and some removed themselves from the playoff picture a season from now. The Edmonton Oilers, for example, have now been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for the 2008-2009 season. If I'm an Oiler fan, though, I'm hoping they can swing a deal to get Angelo Esposito, and start building with youth much like the Pittsburgh Penguins have done. Otherwise, the Oilers are now the Phoenix Coyotes of the Great White North.
Kevin Lowe may have made the most ridiculous statement of the day when he said, "Today we turned a page for sure – but this is not as much about the Oilers today, but what we continue to do as part of an overall plan. I want to be very clear that making this trade today is a hockey decision. It was not financial."
If it was not a financial deal, Kevin, what was it? The opportunity to trade your best player for two third-liners and a first-round draft pick in an already weak draft year? What makes even less sense is that, according to reports, Smyth was asking for around $5.5 million per year. Lowe's offer was $200,000 to $300,000 less than that. Why wouldn't he just offer up the extra dough for the best Oiler in the last decade?
Bob McKenzie of TSN writes, "As near as anybody can tell, the magic number for Ryan Smyth looked to be in and around $5.5 million per year.
"I think this was a number that came to be a reality the moment that the Calgary Flames signed Alex Tanguay to a $5.25 million deal.
"Tanguay is not the face of the Flames franchise and he doesn't have the pedigree of a Ryan Smyth - the world championships, the Olympics - so I think in Ryan Smyth's mind, he started thinking he's a $5.5 million player. The Oilers don't see it that way and as near as anybody can tell, the average annual difference at the end looked to be somewhere between $200,000 a year and $300,000 a year."
If that was the difference in what Smyth wanted, and what Lowe wanted to pay, the Oilers' strategy for the future is significantly flawed.
In the last two weeks, Garth Snow has acquired Edmonton's best offensive defenseman and Edmonton's most complete player for a guy who doesn't want to play in the minors, and two guys who will most certainly be in the minors for a while.
The City of Champions may not see the playoffs for a long time.
The Score's Ultimate 64 Highlights rolls along. Mario Lemieux's embarrassment of Ray Bourque didn't advance yesterday. Let's see what we can do with this beauty save by Norm Maracle.
Bill Guerin thinks he scores, but Maracle uses some Hasek-like moves to keep the puck out of the yawning cage.
I'm still shell-shocked over the Ryan Smyth-for-nobody trade. It might be a long time before I have any respect for Kevin Lowe again. I'm looking forward to the playoffs, though. They should be highly entertaining. Take it easy, and keep your sticks on the ice!


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Skip Hire in Great Dunmow
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- 12 cu yd (Large Containers for Light Waste) = 24 Wheelie bins or 100-120 bin bags
- 16 cu yd (Large Containers for Light Waste) = 24 Wheelie bins or 120-140 bin bags
Further Options
- Drop End Doors available on 4 & 6 cubic yard skips
- Permit skips available on 2, 4, & 6 cubic yard skips
- Enclosed 08, 12 & 16 cubic yard skips available
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- 7 to 14 days hire
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- Fully Licensed and Insured
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- Friendly Drivers
- Competitive Prices


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[Updated at 12:40 p.m.] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel "neither chose nor initiated this escalation, but if it continues we are prepared for much more extensive and deeper action. In any case, we will continue with preventative operations. Whoever intends to attack Israeli citizens needs to know that he will bear the consequences."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured areas hit by rockets in southern Israel and said the military "is working efficiently against all the terror elements. Since the beginning of the month, 15 active terrorists have been killed in the act, and more have been injured." He wished a speedy recovery to those injured by rockets fired from Gaza. "Hamas will receive its punishment for what has happened here," he vowed, promising that Israel will "work with patience and level-headedness."
"There is no way to eliminate the hatred or hostility entrenched in Hamas. But the IDF will act on the border, from the air, and in any other necessary way in order to strike down those who attempt to cause us harm," he said.
[Updated at 9:02 a.m. ET] As dozens of Palestinian rockets rained down on southern Israel, the country's air force carried out new raids on positions in Gaza on Wednesday. Two days of air strikes have so far killed four Palestinians.
Israeli strikes have killed two Hamas militants, journalist Tala Abu Rahma reports. Nine people have been injured, including two critically, in Gaza from the air strikes.
A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said today they will respond to any and all activity by the Israeli military when the time comes.
[Posted at 3:32 a.m. ET] An Israeli air raid on Gaza early Wednesday killed a Palestinian, bringing the total killed in overnight strikes to three, health authorities said.
The attack early Wednesday near Khan Younis also seriously wounded nine people, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza. It came after an airstrike late Tuesday that killed two Palestinians and seriously wounded two others.
The Israeli Defense Forces said Wednesday that the aircraft had been responding to rocket fire and that tanks had shelled "terrorist targets" in Gaza.
More than 40 rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza overnight, seriously wounding three people, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
Israeli areas around Gaza are under heightened alert amid fears that more rockets could be launched.
The Israel Defense Forces said aircraft had targeted two rocket-launching squads in Gaza in the strike on Beit Hanoun late Tuesday. The two Palestinians killed were militants from Al-Qassam group, the military wing of Hamas, the IDF said.
Israel created Hamas. Can you spell "psy-op"?
Are you saying that the Palestinians ae SO DUMB that they need Israeli help to create terrorist organizations? If I was a Palestinian I would be insulted.
Israel is a terrorist state.. they will terrorize whoever to obtain their goals.. It all started in 1948.
tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since the creation of the Zionist state of Israel (not Jewish as majority of Jews would agree). As their land continues shrinking to encroaching settlers and ethenic cleansing. Apartheid.
The world watches.
A sovereign independent state was offered to Paleastinian Arabs in 1948 just like it was offered to the Jews. If the Arabs chose to live in pecae in their own state instead of trying to destroy the states of others no one would be killed or forced off his/her/their land. As long as the Palestinians are willing the war to continue it means that they're happy with its results.
The situation on the ground here is nothing like Apartheid. Your saying it does not change the facts.
@Thinke, if the Israelis would have choose to live in the offered piece of land......? Then what?
As someone who lived in South Africa during apartheid and post apartheid, as well as having lived in Israel, it is apparent that you don't know what the injustices of apartheid were. If white South Africa treated the black people, like the Israeli's treat the Arabs, there would never have been a world outcry. I am glad that the terrible apartheid era in South Africa ended, because that was the ethical & proper thing to have been done & I am glad that there is no apartheid in Israel. In Israel there is respect for all peoples & just like with any other country in the world, when outsiders threaten its citizens, the country takes action to protect its people (in Israel, the country protects its Jewish, Arab & Christian citizens) – nothing unusual about that and quite normal.
Dozens of home made unguided rockets 'rain' on S.Israel doing nothing as is mostly the case in response to regular strikes by IDF and raids by their artillery. Us supplied fighter jets respond from Israel.
The "bad" Israelis do not like to play rocket games with the Palestinians. The Palestinians should find someone else to play (Egyptians? Jordanians? Lebanese?)
They are not "home-made". They are just badly made. And if your getting this badly tuned in a war, the logical thing to do is STOP FIRING THE ROCKETS AND MAKE PEACE.
In over 15 years a total of 14 people have died from these rockets. More people die in Israel from bee stings.
would you accept that your kids will wake up from siren alert alert from rockets falling in 15 sec every week for 12 years already?
What the CNN wouldn't report is that IDF raided the peace boat to Gaza as they are fond of doing to all that are unarmed. They tasered Israelis riding that boat . "Electro torture' is what it is called.
Also what is not reported is that the unthinkable is happening in this land of ours.
15 Christian leaders of major Protestant denominations have sent a letter to Congress asking for investigations into Israeli military human rights abuses and to tie military aid to human rights.
This is an action initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace, incidentaly.
CNN DID report that the "peace boat" trying to breach the blockade of Gaza was stopped at sea and escorted to Israel. According to the international law it is PERFECTLY LEGAL for any state (even Israel) to stop, insect and even SINK any vessel delivering supplies to the enemy during a war.
Couple of my posts were deleted. Thanks to the censors who wouldn't like some more facts posted.
Blockade of Gaza, yes. 1.7 million people made to live in appalling conditions. A war indeed. Peace loving Israelis manage to get a boat and much needed supplies to those folks and their boat is raided and those Israelis tortured.
I am just glad the IDF didn't sink the boat. That would also be in keeping with the international law of course. Thanks you brave guys of IDF.
What makes me proud as an American is that finally we are waking up to the reality. Brave peace loving Jews both here and in Israel are doing what the spirit of Judaism dictates not Zionism, And Christians here are joining hands. More power to them.
Good day all.
If the Palestinians in Gaza did not like their current conditions they would ask their leaders to NEGOTIATE A BETTER DEAL. Don't you agree, "saywhat"?
is a Zionist hasbara paid troll.
Israel used jets to kill Palestinians, then there's a counter-productive reply from Hamas, and the Hamas bottle rockets get wide coverage as Palestinian "terrorism" – justifying further air strikes, killing more civilians...
All because Israel won't give up its hunger blockade of Gaza and hopes to starve and expel the native Arabs – all while crying 'antisemitism' each time they are called on their WAR CRIMES.
Hamas took over Gaza by force and started firing rockets into Israel. Gaza is now under blockade.
The West Bank is NOT under Hamas control, and NO rockets are being fired from the West Bank. The West Bank is NOT under blockade.
Do you see a pattern? So what is the logical way to end the blockade? I'll help you out: Stop firing the rockets.
100% correct, Israel entire existence is based on Victim hood. They bully and steal from their neighbors then cry victim to retaliation. The world has woken up to the Israeli "cries" no one listens anymore. They have cried wolf far too much.
Hamas strategy and Palestinian strategy in general is to get beaten and seek sympathy, the Arab Spring took the focus away from the Gaza Strip. So it is not a surprise that after the Amir visits Qatar being involved in Syrian knowing of the pending ceasefire. Hamas decide to seize the opportunity to gain attention. The IRA were smart not allow the UK to bring all its force to bear on them such as air power during the troubles.
And while the IRA had sympathy to their cause and treatment at the hand of the English. That strategy was never going to get them to the table or a deal, because it was sympathy vs military capability, the IRA had a balance with the English and the ROE, hence no air power. If your military capability is destroyed which the UK could have done to the IRA if there was a higher intensity ROE an Israel does do Hamas which provides periods of calm, then you get no sympathy because they do not have kill your people. It is a futile strategy.
The IRA ROE changed because of support a lot of the mass bombings, and killings of NI people that worked for the British lost them support of the population, if the resistance is not seen as legitimate by the population, then SF and the IRA become irrelevant. Hamas will find in the end that get there own people killed for sympathy will make them less relevant. The fact is as it is now due to their military tactics and the blockade, they need the legitimacy that they can get from the MB in Egypt and the Qatar. Because they are unpopular, they rule the place with an iron fist, whether that support is going to be enough is the question, it is what the Palestinians think that matter as was the case with support for Assad, not popular with the cause and people Hamas are supposed to represent. Originally Hamas gain popularity via have a dual government and service delivery before even being elected, into government as IRA did in the early days, before they abandoned it.
And who's punishing Israel for their illegal occupation, illegal settlements, their past war crimes including chemical weapons on civilians?
In the REAL world, Mike, people (and even states) are being punished for REAL (not imaginary) crimes... You see, there is NOTHING "illegal" in occupation of the enemy territory during a war; nothing "illegal" in allowing people of certain ethnicity (in this case, the Jews) to live in certain areas while people of other ethnicity (in this case, Arabs) are allowed to live there as well; finally, using a smoke screen during a war is NOT a "crime"...
Hey Mike.
Go learn your history and use facts, not your own created fiction.
Unfortunately... no one. And the US continues to fund their terrorism of people who are contained in an occupied territory. Like shooting fish in a barrel. 🙁
Using that idealism then all the barbarians who are occupying North America should vacate and give OUR LAND BACK!!!!!!!!!!
North America was Indian land before the so called Christian Nations occupied it and drove our people into enslavement!!!!!!!
The neverending story: Israle overreacts, justifies his terrible attacks on those poor people and the world watches and just does absolutely nothing about it. We are as guilty as the people firing those rockets of all the deaths...Isreal is the world's bully whom is free to act as pleased and receives no opposition. If a country dares to criticize Israel it is labeled antisemitic and so on...........like I said...neverending story
Still Obama kissess their behind...shame on him
Every Dog has its day. Good ridance. Hania – your next.


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Trayvon's b-day marked with new 'stand your ground' case
Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY
Trayvon Martin's would-be 19th birthday is marked Wednesday by day three of jury selection in a case that puts a spotlight back on Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law.
Michael Dunn, 47, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Jordan Davis during a dispute over loud music in November 2012.
Dunn, who is white, said he feared for his life and was acting in self-defense when he fired into an SUV containing four black teenagers, killing Jordan Davis, in Jacksonville.
George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon, also an unarmed black teen, in Sanford, Fla., in 2012. Zimmerman, who was acquitted, was prosecuted by Jacksonville's State Attorney Angela Corey, who also is prosecuting the Dunn case.
Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon, has advocated for a change in the "stand your ground" law since her son's death. "We need to do something about this law when our kids cannot feel safe in their own community," she said.
Early Wednesday, Fulton posted an image on Twitter of Trayvon's face on an American flag with the words "Happy 19th Birthday Trayvon."
Other users sent birthday wishes to Trayvon using (POUND)HoodiesUp and (POUND)NeverForget.
Zimmerman is also back in the news after an announcement Wednesday that he will box rapper DMX in March.
Damon Feldman, owner of Celebrity Boxing, said he had received 15,000 inquiries from people interested in fighting George Zimmerman since the fight was first advertised. "America wants to see this guy get his a-- kicked," Feldman said. "Everyone wants to see him lose."
Feldman said he heard from politicians, reality stars and television stars who all wanted to get in on the fight. "I am not here to hurt anybody," he said. "It's all about the show."
Twitter users erupted in criticism over the announcement's timing -- Trayvon's birthday.
A White House petition and a change.org petition have been created to stop the boxing match.
"We are going to create a profit for the mockery of the death of an innocent African American teenaged boy?" the Change.org petition states.
Social media users are also up in arms over a Google search that brings up George Zimmerman's picture and information when the phrase "Trayvon Martin's birthday" is searched.


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Grab a cuppa coffee and settle into stories big and little about this place we call home.
In time, we know you'll find just the right words to join our list of Biggest Little Storytellers.
We know you've got a story to share, a tale about anything from your favorite season to the story about the old man with the little dog who shares a good morning wave with you on your way to work. Learn how to find it, share it and submit it right here.
The Biggest Little City movement is proud to support Rock The Vote. Why? Because we believe in getting things done — one voice at a time, one vote at a time. We believe in you and the power of your opinion and the strength of your vote.You rock. And your vote matters.
Got room on your bumper, your windows, backpacks, computer bags, ski racks or any other palette where you can show your love for the Biggest Little City? Then hop in here and start searching.
A group of creative, ambitious and talented Reno residents banded together more than a year ago to create a marketing campaign, which would re-define Reno by telling the stories of local Reno residents. Since then the Biggest Little City has been making the headlines. Click here to read about our recent news.
We first met online in the summer of 2011. One August afternoon, we decided to meet in person and enjoy some cold refreshing frozen yogurt. … Read the rest


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Artur Davis is an impressive guy. Here is how Howard Fineman of Newsweek described him in the course of a 2008 article hailing Barack Obama as "a symbol of a new generation of leadership."
By 1990, Artur Davis had worked his way up from a childhood of poverty in Alabama to the top of his graduating class at Harvard College, and he was a hard man to impress. One day one at Harvard Law, he stopped by a classroom to hear a speech by a senior who was the new president of the Law Review. Davis wasn't expecting much from the guy with a funny name. But he was surprised and riveted. "I still remember almost every word," Davis told me last week. …
The men became friends. Seventeen years passed until, a year ago, Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama became the first congressman outside Illinois to endorse the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama. Two weeks ago Obama won the Alabama primary with Davis as state campaign chair.
Since then Davis, formerly a "rising star in the Democratic Party," has become disillusioned. Politico reports that he is leaving the Democratic Party:
Former Alabama Rep. Artur Davis announced Tuesday that he's cutting ties with the Democratic Party, and said that he's considering a future bid for Congress as a Republican. …
Davis, who for a time had been considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, wrote a message on his website confirming that he is switching parties.
"[I]f I were to leave the sidelines, it would be as a member of the Republican Party that is fighting the drift in this country in a way that comes closest to my way of thinking: wearing a Democratic label no longer matches what I know about my country and its possibilities," Davis wrote.
Davis wrote that he could no longer support the job-killing policies of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party:
In his message on Tuesday, Davis wrote: "On the specifics, I have regularly criticized an agenda that would punish businesses and job creators with more taxes just as they are trying to thrive again. I have taken issue with an administration that has lapsed into a bloc by bloc appeal to group grievances when the country is already too fractured: frankly, the symbolism of Barack Obama winning has not given us the substance of a united country."
Artur Davis explained his views and the reasons for his defection from the Democratic Party on the Neal Cavuto show. He is articulate, reasonable and obviously intelligent. His indictment of the Obama administration is damning because it is so measured.
Davis describes himself as center-right. He says there is no center-right in the Democratic Party, but there is in the GOP. This guy could go very far as a Republican.


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Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
~ Mother Teresa
Thank you to all of our amazing retailers and family of customers for the amazing feedback and friendly thoughts on OMI. Your kindness and loyalty are forever appreciated.
Here are some of the wonderful things people are saying about OMI:
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- Maureen Smithe, Walter E. Smithe Furniture, Chicago, IL
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- Rebecca Hassel, Giggle NY
"We felt it made sense to compliment our sustainable furniture lines with an organic mattress, but wanted to make sure that what we offered was the most authentic mattress on the market. We have been very happy with the customer response to the OrganicPedic collection."
- Aaron Resnik, HD Buttercup Division Sales Manager


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BERLIN (REUTERS) - American golfer Michelle Wie, who helped her sport win a place at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, has been appointed Youth Olympics ambassador, the International Olympic Committee said on Monday.
Wie, 24, will advise golfers during the 2014 Nanjing Youth Games next year. Olympic champions Michael Phelps and Yelena Isinbayeva are also Youth Olympic ambassadors.
The American is hoping to compete at the 2016 Olympics when golf returns to the Games after more than a century.
"I went to the London Olympic Games last year and that really got me inspired," said Wie, who was part of golf's Olympics bidding team in 2009.
"It got me motivated and I'm going to do everything I can. It's one of my biggest focuses, making the American team for Rio."


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I managed to slip away for a couple of days of fun and research in and around Kent County, MI. On the first day of my trip my mother and I spent a good portion of the day with my Grandmother and Great Aunt. Hanging out with this feisty pair and sharing my progress is truly rewarding. They are so appreciative of the research I've done and their very interested in how I've organized it.
We spent a couple of hours going through their old family pictures and telling stories—many that I have heard before and love to hear them repeat—and often with an added tidbit, or a possible puzzle piece, that I might be able to use on another day. And as I talked about some of the characters I had found in my research it is definite that my grandmother in particular has an affinity for the black sheep of the families.
We, of course, talked about good old Henry R. Massy, but we also talked about. Cornelius Shea who may or may not have been dismissed from working for a Catholic church in Grand Rapids over a problem with disappearing wine. And this was the same man who laughed too hard to help his pregnant daughter-in-law out of a well. Poor Grandma Cora! Aunt June still fumes a little telling that story.
But more than anything for me these visits are a time of gathering memories from and of these lovely women who are so neat! Families are so interesting to observe. I see these two ladies and their mannerisms echoed in my mom and aunt (who I watched at breakfast the next morning), or even between myself and my cousin. And it's those echoes that keep me interested in what's passed down from generation to generation.
Talk to your elders, talk to your contemporaries and pass it down!
Happy hunting,