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U.S. spends $3.7 million on ex-presidents in 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Being the leader of the free world is an expensive proposition. And the costs don't stop once you leave the White House.

The government spent nearly $3.7 million on former presidents in 2012, according to an analysis just released by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. That covers a pension, compensation and benefits for office staff, and other costs like travel, office space and postage.

The costliest former president? George W. Bush, who clocked in last year at just over $1.3 million.

The $3.7 million taxpayers shelled out in 2012 is about $200,000 less than in 2011, and the sum in 2010 was even higher. It's a drop in the bucket compared with the trillions the federal government spends each year.

Still, with ex-presidents able to command eye-popping sums for books, speaking engagements and the like in their post-White House years, the report raises questions about whether the U.S. should provide such generous subsidies at a time when spending cuts and the deficit are forcing lawmakers and federal agencies to seek ways to cut back.

Under the Former Presidents Act, previous inhabitants of the Oval Office are given a $200,000 annual pension ? the equivalent to a Cabinet secretary's salary ? plus $96,000 a year for a small office staff. The government also picks up the tab for other costs like travel, office space and postage.

Departing presidents also get extra help in the first years after they leave office, one reason that Bush's costs were higher than other living ex-presidents. The most recent ex-president to leave the White House, Bush was granted almost $400,000 for 8,000 square feet of office space in Dallas, plus $85,000 in telephone costs. Another $60,000 went to travel costs.

President Bill Clinton came in second at just under $1 million, followed by George H.W. Bush at nearly $850,000. Clinton spent the most government money on office space: $442,000 for his 8,300 square foot digs in New York's Harlem neighborhood.

Clinton's predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, received about $840,000 in federal funds last year. Costs for Jimmy Carter, the only other living former president, came in at about $500,000.

Widows of former presidents are entitled to a pension of $20,000, but Nancy Reagan, the wife of former President Ronald Reagan, waived her pension last year. The former first lady did accept $14,000 in postage.

The cost totals for ex-president don't include what the Secret Service spends protecting them, their spouses and children. Those costs are part of a separate budget that isn't made public.

Funding for ex-presidents under the Former Presidents Act dates back to 1958, when Congress created the program largely in response to President Harry Truman's post-White House financial woes, the Congressional Research Service said. The goal was to maintain the dignity of the presidency and help with ongoing costs associated with being a former president, such as responding to correspondence and scheduling requests.

These days, a former president's income can be substantial from speaking and writing, and ex-presidents also have robust presidential centers and foundations that accept donations and facilitate many of their post-presidential activities.

Noting that none of the living ex-presidents are poor, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a bill last year that would limit costs to a $200,000 pension, plus another $200,000 that ex-presidents could use at their discretion. And for every dollar that an ex-president earns in excess of $400,000, their annual allowance would be reduced by the same amount. The bill died in committee.

___

Follow Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/govt-spent-nearly-3-7m-ex-presidents-2012-190704449--politics.html

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Palestinians cool to partial settlement freeze

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? A senior Palestinian official rejected on Sunday the idea of a partial Israeli settlement freeze as a way of restarting peace talks, a sign of tough times ahead for the Obama administration's new attempt to bring the sides together.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met separately late Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to talk about ending a deadlock of more than four years over settlements.

Abbas says he won't return to negotiations without an Israeli construction freeze, saying Israel's building on war-won land pre-empts the outcome of talks on a border between Israel and a future state of Palestine. Abbas last held talks with Netanyahu's predecessor in late 2008.

Netanyahu has refused to halt construction and instead calls for an immediate return to negotiations. President Barack Obama sided with Israel's position during a visit to the region last week, saying the Palestinians should return to talks to sort out the settlement issue.

The U.S. has not spoken publicly about possible compromises in recent days, though there has been some speculation it would propose a partial construction stop in the West Bank heartland, east of Israel's separation barrier.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that the Palestinians do not seek a confrontation with the Obama administration, but appeared to suggest that nothing short of a full freeze will bring them back to negotiations.

The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in 1967. Since that war, Israel has built dozens of settlements ? considered illegal by much of the world and now home to more than half a million Israelis ? in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Much of the construction takes place in so-called "settlement blocs" close to Israel and in east Jerusalem. Israel's separation barrier cuts off east Jerusalem and some of the settlement blocs from the rest of the West Bank.

Asked if Abbas would accept a partial freeze, east of the barrier, Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio: "Absolutely not. It is rejected."

"First of all, 90 percent of the building in settlements is going on in the blocs," he said. "If we accepted that, we would be committing two crimes. The first is legalizing what is illegal, which is settlement construction, and the second is accepting the Israeli policy (of) dictation."

Israel agreed to a 10-month slowdown in settlement construction early in Obama's first term, allowing talks to resume briefly in 2010. The talks fizzled out after Netanyahu refused to extend the slowdown, which had halted approvals for new homes but allowed previously started construction to continue.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who will oversee any negotiations with the Palestinians, said it remained to be seen what would bring about a new round of talks.

"We are after four years of stalemate, of distrust, and we need to see how we restart, what we will discuss," she told Army Radio.

Erekat said the Palestinians would wait for two to three months to see if the Obama administration can come up with a way out of the deadlock. "We want to cooperate with the U.S. administration, not clash with it," he said.

If the deadlock persists, the Palestinians will move ahead with their quest for international recognition, he said. "We have to focus on the steadfastness of our people, and we have 63 international agencies we can join," he said.

In November, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, despite objections by the U.S. and Israel. The recognition paved the way for Palestinians to seek membership in U.N. agencies and other international organizations.

Earlier Sunday, Israel dismantled a tent camp Palestinians set up during Obama's recent visit to protest Israeli plans to build a large West Bank settlement near Jerusalem.

During his visit, Obama singled out the settlement, known by its planning name E-1, as particularly problematic. The settlement of more 3,500 apartments would close one of the last open spaces between east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Before dawn Sunday, about 200 Israeli police officers removed some 40 demonstrators from the tent camp, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Three protesters were arrested, but no injuries were reported, Rosenfeld said.

The encampment is part of a new Palestinian tactic to protest against Israeli settlement expansion.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-cool-partial-settlement-freeze-084612569.html

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Nanowire solar cells raise efficiency limit

Mar. 24, 2013 ? Scientists from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institut, Denmark and the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, Switzerland, have shown that a single nanowire can concentrate the sunlight up to 15 times of the normal sun light intensity. The results are surprising and the potential for developing a new type of highly efficient solar cells is great.

Due to some unique physical light absorption properties of nanowires, the limit of how much energy we can utilize from the sun's rays is higher than previous believed. These results demonstrate the great potential of development of nanowire-based solar cells, says PhD Peter Krogstrup on the surprising discovery that is described in the journal Nature Photonics.

The research groups have during recent years studied how to develop and improve the quality of the nanowire crystals, which is a cylindrical structure with a diameter of about 10,000 part of a human hair. The nanowires are predicted to have great potential in the development not only of solar cells, but also of future quantum computers and other electronic products.

It turns out that the nanowires naturally concentrate the sun's rays into a very small area in the crystal by up to a factor 15. Because the diameter of a nanowire crystal is smaller than the wavelength of the light coming from the sun it can cause resonances in the intensity of light in and around nanowires. Thus, the resonances can give a concentrated sunlight, where the energy is converted, which can be used to give a higher conversion effeciency of the sun's energy, says Peter Krogstrup, who with this discovery contributes to that the research in solar cell technology based on nanowires get a real boost.

New efficiency limit

The typical efficiency limit -- the so-called "Shockley-Queisser Limit" -- is a limit, which for many years has been a landmark for solar cells efficiency among researchers, but now it seems that it may be increased.

It's exciting as a researcher to move the theoretical limits, as we know. Although it does not sound like much, that the limit is moved by only a few percent, it will have a major impact on the development of solar cells, exploitation of nanowire solar rays and perhaps the extraction of energy at international level. However, it will take some years years before production of solar cells consisting of nanowires becomes a reality, says Peter Krogstrup who just completed his PhD at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

The research is conducted in collaboration with the Laboratory des Mat?riaux Semiconducteurs, Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne, the Foundation and the company SunFlake A / S. Their scientific findings work support results published in the journal Science in January. Here, a group of researchers from Lund, showed that the sun's rays was sucked into the nanowires due to the high amount of power that their solar cell produced.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Copenhagen - Niels Bohr Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Peter Krogstrup, Henrik Ingerslev J?rgensen, Martin Heiss, Olivier Demichel, Jeppe V. Holm, Martin Aagesen, Jesper Nygard, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral. Single-nanowire solar cells beyond the Shockley?Queisser limit. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.32

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/GvlFiLzPecQ/130324152301.htm

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Director-General of DHA to inaugurate 1st Annual ME Indoor ...

The Conference, to be held under His Excellency's patronage, has an HVAC focus to it. Being organised by CPI Industry and with the support of the Health Ministers' Council for the Cooperation Council States, it will see presentations and discussions on topics such as the role of civil engineering in ensuring good IEQ, the critical nature of air filtration and ducting, chemical contamination, humidification, dehumidification, thermal comfort, acoustics and vibration in the built environment.

Engr. Al Maidoor's participation will be a significant feature of the conference. Before becoming the Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority, Engr. Al Maidoor was the Chairman of the Dubai Municipality Green Building Committee. In his address, he will be speaking on the key factors governing public health with relation to the quality of indoor air and the critical need for preventive health measures. Broadly speaking, he will be focusing on environmental and occupational health from an IEQ perspective. His Excellency's address, it is expected, will be against the backdrop of the Dubai Health Sector Strategy 2011-2013.

Speaking of his participation, Engr. Al Maidoor said, "This event will provide a great opportunity to spread awareness on how best practices in air conditioning and ventilation can help promote good health and occupant comfort, which in turn, will help enhance productivity in the country. We truly hope that this event will be an inspiration for other people, especially the engineers, architects and the new generations to practice Sustainability and Green Environment. I can see unlimited benefits of this bold step, and I congratulate you in advance for your success."

Added B Surendar, the Editorial Director & Associate Publisher of CPI Industry: "His Excellency's acceptance of participation is an affirmation of the critical nature of indoor environmental quality for the health and well-being of residents. I see his participation as enhancing the discussions and also ensuring that the insights and recommendations that emerge from the conference reach a wider audience."

In addition to focusing on healthcare and educational facilities, the Conference will look at IEQ-related issues in residential spaces, hotels, malls, airports and food establishments. To date, it has also attracted participation from Dr Tawfik A M Khoja, the Director General, Executive Board, of the Health Ministers Council for Cooperation Council; the Society of Engineers - UAE; Royal Court Affairs (Sultanate of Oman); Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Aldar Properties; Middle East Facilities Management Association (MEFMA) and numerous technology solutions providers.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/director-general-dha-inaugurate-1st-annual-indoor-334498

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Letter from DNA discoverer to be auctioned in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) ? Sixty years ago scientist Francis Crick wrote a letter to his 12-year-old son saying he and a colleague had discovered something "very beautiful" ? the structure of DNA.

Now, the note and its hand-drawn diagrams are being auctioned off in New York. Christie's estimates the letter could fetch $1 million or more at the April 10 sale.

Crick's letter describes to his son how he and James Watson found the copying mechanism "by which life comes from life." It includes a simple sketch of DNA's double helix structure which Crick concedes he can't draw very well.

The seven-page handwritten letter from Francis Crick in Cambridge, England to Michael Crick at his boarding school concludes, "Read this carefully so that you will understand it. When you come home we will show you the model. Lots of love, Daddy."

Michael Crick, now 72, said Saturday he immediately understood his father had made a breakthrough. Though he added, "I don't think any of us at the time quite realized the full impact it would have."

The letter dated March 19, 1953, was written about a month before Watson and Crick's research was published in the journal Nature.

Francis Crick, who died in 2004 at age 88, was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1962 along with Watson and Maurice Wilkins. He spent the latter decades of his career doing brain research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., where he became a professor in 1977.

Michael Crick, who lives in Bellevue Wash., is a pioneer designer of computer games whose current project is a puzzle called Cricklers that appears in newspapers including The Washington Post.

"I was interested in science from Day 1," said Crick. His father gave him a book on codes when he was about 9 and he read it "cover to cover," he said.

Michael and his wife, Barbara, have promised to donate half the proceeds from the sale of the letter to a trust benefiting the Salk Institute.

Crick said there are no strings attached other than that the money be used for "something that my father would have endorsed."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-03-23-US-DNA-Letter-Auction/id-1cf25808349e41bab2370e78ce82b9a3

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New Potato Technologies Foosball table for iPad review

I enjoy playing games on my iPad, but when it comes to action style games, I miss not having physical controls. Virtual controls are adequate for some games, but for others, they just don’t cut it. That’s why I was excited to accept an offer to review the New Potato Technologies Foosball?table. This device turns [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/22/new-potato-technologies-foosball-table-for-ipad-review/

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