WWE launches auction to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts

WWE is joining forces with New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes to launch Superstars for Sandy Relief, the largest ever global online auction to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in New York and New Jersey. Beginning today, through a partnership with global charity auction site Charitybuzz.com, the auction will feature unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences with WWE Superstars and other international sports and entertainment celebrities, including the opportunity to attend a NASCAR race with John Cena.

WWE fans can currently visit www.Charitybuzz.com/WWE to begin bidding on items. The proceeds will benefit the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund and runs through Tuesday, April 9 at 6 p.m.

Current auction items include experiences with WWE Superstars such as Triple H, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar, as well as with celebrities like Sting, Michael J. Fox, Charlie Sheen, Tony Hawk, Coldplay/Chris Martin, Carl Edwards, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Mark Cuban, Carrie Underwood, Adrian Grenier and more.

Entertainment powerhouse Sean ?Diddy? Combs will co-host a Superstars for Sandy Relief party with WWE Chairman and CEO Mr. McMahon and special guest Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that will kick off WrestleMania Week on Thursday, April 4, at Cipriani Wall Street. The live auction will be led by sportscaster Joe Buck, where more incredible experiences will be made available for bidding.

?The devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy continue to present challenges here at home,? Mr. McMahon said. ?We are proud to partner with Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Christie on Superstars for Sandy Relief, a global auction that will provide significant financial support for relief efforts in New York and New Jersey.?

WWE experience auction highlights include:

Attend a NASCAR Race with John Cena?? Talk the finer point of wrestling, NASCAR and the Cenation leader?s astronomical rise to stardom while watching a race with the 12-time WWE Champion.

Tour WWE's new training facility with Triple H?? You and one guest will receive a behind-the-scenes tour from Triple H, as well as a sneak peak at the new WWE training facility, when you attend a taping of NXT at Full Sail University in Orlando, Fla.

Attend the WWE Superstars for Sandy Relief Party with The Miz?? Walk the red carpet with The Awesome One and mingle at the party with celebrity guests such as Diddy and Joe Buck.

Go bowling with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez, Ryback and Daniel Bryan ? Hit the lanes with four of WWE?s most popular personalities.

Meet Brock Lesnar at a WWE Live Event?? Go backstage at a WWE Live Event and meet the only athlete in history to have captured the WWE, UFC and NCAA Heavyweight Championships.

Other auction highlights include the chance to have lunch with Charlie Sheen on the set of FX?s ?Anger Management,? be an extra on the show and take home a signed copy of the script. ?Anger Management? airs Thursdays on FX at 9:30 p.m.

With more than 175 items and experiences up for bidding, there?s sure to be something that appeals to every member of the WWE Universe. Whether you?re looking for an autographed Ryback figure or a personalized Tout by WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel, the Superstars for Sandy Relief auction has you covered.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/superstars-for-sandy-relief

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Trees used to create recyclable, efficient solar cell

Mar. 26, 2013 ? Solar cells are just like leaves, capturing the sunlight and turning it into energy. It's fitting that they can now be made partially from trees.

Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers have developed efficient solar cells using natural substrates derived from plants such as trees. Just as importantly, by fabricating them on cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) substrates, the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle.

The technology is published in the journal Scientific Reports, the latest open-access journal from the Nature Publishing Group.

The researchers report that the organic solar cells reach a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent, an unprecedented figure for cells on substrates derived from renewable raw materials. The CNC substrates on which the solar cells are fabricated are optically transparent, enabling light to pass through them before being absorbed by a very thin layer of an organic semiconductor. During the recycling process, the solar cells are simply immersed in water at room temperature. Within only minutes, the CNC substrate dissolves and the solar cell can be separated easily into its major components.

Georgia Tech College of Engineering Professor Bernard Kippelen led the study and says his team's project opens the door for a truly recyclable, sustainable and renewable solar cell technology.

"The development and performance of organic substrates in solar technology continues to improve, providing engineers with a good indication of future applications," said Kippelen, who is also the director of Georgia Tech's Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). "But organic solar cells must be recyclable. Otherwise we are simply solving one problem, less dependence on fossil fuels, while creating another, a technology that produces energy from renewable sources but is not disposable at the end of its lifecycle."

To date, organic solar cells have been typically fabricated on glass or plastic. Neither is easily recyclable, and petroleum-based substrates are not very eco-friendly. For instance, if cells fabricated on glass were to break during manufacturing or installation, the useless materials would be difficult to dispose of. Paper substrates are better for the environment, but have shown limited performance because of high surface roughness or porosity. However, cellulose nanomaterials made from wood are green, renewable and sustainable. The substrates have a low surface roughness of only about two nanometers.

"Our next steps will be to work toward improving the power conversion efficiency over 10 percent, levels similar to solar cells fabricated on glass or petroleum-based substrates," said Kippelen. The group plans to achieve this by optimizing the optical properties of the solar cell's electrode.

Purdue School of Materials Engineering associate professor Jeffrey Youngblood collaborated with Kippelen on the research.

A provisional patent on the technology has been filed with the U.S. Patent Office.

There's also another positive impact of using natural products to create cellulose nanomaterials. The nation's forest product industry projects that tens of millions of tons of them could be produced once large-scale production begins, potentially in the next five years.

The research is the latest project by COPE, which studies the use and development of printed electronics. Last year the center created the first-ever completely plastic solar cell.

This research was funded in part through the Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001084 (Y.Z., J.S., C.F., A.D.), by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant No. FA9550-09-1-0418) (J. H.), by the Office of Naval Research (Grant No. N00014-04-1-0313) (T.K., B.K.), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture -Forest Service (Grant No. 12-JV-11111122-098). Funding for CNC substrate processing was provided by USDA-Forest Service (Grant No. 11-JV-11111129-118) (R.J.M., J.P.Y., J.L.). The authors thank Rick Reiner and Alan Rudie from the U.S. Forest Service- Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) for providing CNC materials.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology.

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. Yinhua Zhou, Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, Talha M. Khan, Jen-Chieh Liu, James Hsu, Jae Won Shim, Amir Dindar, Jeffrey P. Youngblood, Robert J. Moon, Bernard Kippelen. Recyclable organic solar cells on cellulose nanocrystal substrates. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01536

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/matter_energy/electronics/~3/3eP5hoGrcgI/130326111958.htm

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Bernanke says Fed's easy policy benefits world economy

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday defended the central bank's aggressive easing of monetary policy, saying while it was aimed at bolstering the economic recovery, it was helping other countries as well.

The Fed's asset-purchase programs, aimed at keeping long-term borrowing costs down and spurring investment, have been criticized overseas for their adverse impact on emerging market currencies.

But the Fed chief, fresh from a grilling from Congress on the potential domestic risks of his quantitative easing measures, countered the rhetoric about "currency wars," though he did not use the term specifically.

In prepared remarks to a group of academics in London, Bernanke said the integrated nature of the global economy meant the whole world benefits from a sturdier outlook.

"Because stronger growth in each economy confers beneficial spillovers to trading partners, these policies are not ?beggar-thy-neighbor' but rather are positive-sum, ?enrich-thy-neighbor' actions," he said.

In response to a deep financial crisis and recession, and subsequent weak recovery, the Fed not only lowered overnight interest rates to effectively zero but bought more than $2.5 trillion in mortgage and Treasury securities.

Domestic critics say the central bank's vastly expanded balance sheet, now topping $3.1 trillion, risks future inflation. But Bernanke has noted that inflation is forecast to remain at or below the central bank's 2 percent target for the foreseeable future.

Economic growth, meanwhile, remains more of a question mark, particularly with the combination of sharp spending cuts at home and turbulence in European financial markets casting a pall over some better recent U.S. economic data.

Analysts expect gross domestic product will expand around 2 percent this year, while Fed officials see 2013 growth between 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent.

"The distinction between monetary policies aimed at domestic objectives and trade-diverting exchange rate devaluations and other protectionist measures is critical," Bernanke said.

(Editing by Neil Stempleman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bernanke-says-feds-easy-policy-benefits-world-economy-171652677--business.html

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A US Nuclear Exit? (Part 5) The Economics of a ... - Nuclear News

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) has released its third and final issue in its Nuclear Exit series, this time turning its expert focus on the United States. The first two installments looked at Germany and France, countries that share a border but are ? for historical, political, and economic reasons ? answering the nuclear power question in different ways.

The final editorial piece in this five-part installment presented on PennEnergy.com comes from Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on efficiency and renewable resources. Starting from a detailed discussion of the US nuclear energy industry?s economic problems, Lovins draws on a comprehensive study that he and his institute authored, Reinventing Fire, to analyze three possible nuclear futures.
Part 1: Introduction- A US Nuclear Exit

Part 2: How to close the US nuclear industry: Do nothing

Part 3: The Limited National Security Implications of Civilian Nuclear Decline

Part 4: Nuclear exit, the US energy mix, and carbon dioxide emissions

?

The economics of a US civilian nuclear phase-out
By Amory B. Lovins

In the United States, which trades three-fifths of its electricity in competitive markets, the prohibitive capital cost of new nuclear power plants ensures that only a handful will be built. Nonetheless, with 40-year licenses being extended to 60 years, the 104 existing reactors? relatively low generating costs are widely expected to justify decades of continued operation. But the generating costs of ageing reactors have been rising, while competitors, including modern renewable s, show rapidly falling total costs?and those opposed cost curves have begun to intersect.

An expanding fraction of well-running nuclear plants is now challenged to compete with moderating wholesale power prices, while plants needing major repairs or located in regions rich in wind power increasingly face difficult choices of whether to run or close. Thus, even without events that might accelerate nuclear phase-out, as the Fukushima disaster did in Germany, shifting competitive conditions have begun to drive a gradual US nuclear phase-out. Its economics are illuminated by a detailed energy scenario that needs no nuclear energy, coal, or oil and one-third less natural gas to run a 158 percent bigger US economy in 2050?but cuts carbon emissions by 82 to 86 percent and costs $5 trillion less. That scenario?s 80-percent-renewable, 50-percent-distributed, equally reliable, and more resilient electricity system would cost essentially the same as a business-as-usual version that sustains nuclear and coal power, but it would better manage all the system?s risks. Similarly comprehensive modeling could also analyze faster nuclear phase-out if desired.

Nuclear power in the United States, long considered the durably low-cost generator of electricity, faces intensifying competitive risks: New reactors are far too costly to replace the aging fleet of existing reactors, which in turn face rising pressure from even cheaper-to-operate ways to save or make electricity. For economic or other reasons, the gradual phase-out of unprofitable nuclear power plants, already quietly under way, may accelerate. Transparent empirical data and orthodox analytical techniques can illustrate the economics of this US nuclear energy transition?a complex transition embedded in a context that extends far beyond nuclear power.

Continue here: The economics of a US civilian nuclear phase-out

Part 1: Introduction- A US Nuclear Exit

Part 2: How to close the US nuclear industry: Do nothing

Part 3: The Limited National Security Implications of Civilian Nuclear Decline

Part 4: Nuclear exit, the US energy mix, and carbon dioxide emissions

http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2013/03/a-us-nuclear-exit-part-5.html

Source: http://nuclear-news.net/2013/03/26/a-us-nuclear-exit-part-5-the-economics-of-a-phase-out/

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Peggy Noonan: 'Black Robed Masters' Decide What's Right for America

Below you can find some of the notable comments made Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Roundtable guests included former Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina; former Bush deputy chief of staff Karl Rove; "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran, who covers the Supreme Court for ABC News; Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile; Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; ABC News global affairs anchor Christiane Amanpour; Atlantic national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg; former Romney campaign senior adviser Dan Senor, co-founder of the Foreign Policy Initiative; and TIME Magazine assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar.

Noonan describes the Supreme Court justices as 'black robed masters'

NOONAN: Yeah, Americans don't take it well and don't accept it as a resolution when their black robed masters in Washington decide to put on them what they decide is the right thing.

Noonan finds Congress' work to be 'slightly Banana Republican-esque' after budget plan is passed overnight

NOONAN: Yeah. It - it does seem a little strange that they work sometimes on The Hill in a slightly Banana Republican-esque kind of way, where they're making moves at 3:00 am while all of America is asleep.

Brazile thinks the GOP is 'out to lunch'

BRAZILE: But here's the thing, the Republican Party is out to lunch. It's not just mechanics. It's not just communication. I mean, it's the party that continues to reject the majority of the American people and they feel it. They don't want to be associated with a party that talks down to them, that's condescending, that attacks their rights and then call them victims.

So, I think they're out to lunch. And as far as I'm concerned, I will give them a bus ticket pass to continue to stay off the national radar.

Goldberg states it is hard for a POTUS to 'catch a break' in Middle East affairs

GOLDBERG: This Syria case is an example of consequences of non-interventionism. In other words, a President of the United States cannot really catch a break in the Middle East. Either you're intervening too much, you're not intervening enough, there are, we might wind up a couple years from now thinking, man, we really should have done something a couple of years earlier to stop what is unfolding in Syria from unfolding.

Like "This Week" on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a different take on the news at OTUSNews.com.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/peggy-noonan-black-robed-masters-decide-whats-america-172012546--abc-news-politics.html

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Easiest Way to Root Your Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, and Many More Galaxy Devices [Video]

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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Sunday, March 24, 2013
Some users can't stop improving and upgrading Android devices for more power, latest apps, new features and better Web browsing. Unfortunately, you cannot do all those things without "rooting" the device. XDA developers made the One-Click Rooting Solution for rooting most of Android devices made by Samsung. ...

Source: http://www.ibtimes.comhttp:0//www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/449818/20130325/easiest-way-root-galaxy-note-2-s2.htm

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Fukushima 'increased cancer risk'

28 February 2013 Last updated at 06:20 ET

People living near the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have an increased risk of developing some cancers, the World Health Organization says.

The increased risk is limited to communities and some emergency workers exposed to radiation after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, analysis shows.

For those living in the rest of Japan there is no health risk, it said.

Experts stressed the increased lifetime risk of cancer remained small.

The report is part of an ongoing assessment by international experts on the fallout from severe damage to the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

In March 2011, a powerful tsunami generated by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake out at sea slammed into the nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, damaging four of six reactors at the site.

Around 16,000 people were killed by the impact of the earthquake.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

The radiation doses received by the surrounding population are small, even for the most exposed communities?

End Quote Prof Richard Wakeford Dalton Nuclear Institute

A substantial amount of radiation was released into the environment and a 20km (12 miles) evacuation zone was set up.

The latest analysis has found that those living in the most contaminated areas around Fukushima are expected to have a small but higher than expected risk of cancer.

The biggest lifetime risks were seen in those exposed as infants, compared with children or adults.

For girls exposed to radiation from the accident as infants, the report found a 4% increase above the lifetime expected risk of solid tumours and a 6% increase above that expected for breast cancer.

Boys exposed as infants are expected to have a 7% increased risk of leukaemia above that expected in the normal population.

The biggest risk was seen in thyroid cancer, which for infant girls could be up to 70% higher than expected over their lifetime.

Demographic factors

But the WHO was keen to stress that these risks were relative and remained small.

For example, the lifetime risk of developing thyroid cancer over a lifetime for women is 0.75% and the additional risk for those exposed as infants in the most affected area is 0.50%.

The report also found that a third of emergency workers working in the plant after the disaster are at an increased risk of cancer.

Radiation doses from the damaged nuclear power plant are not expected to cause an increase in the incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths or congenital disorders.

Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said: "The primary concern identified in this report is related to specific cancer risks linked to particular locations and demographic factors."

She added that the report underlined the need for long-term health monitoring of those who were at high risk, along with medical follow-up and support.

"This will remain an important element in the public health response to the disaster for decades."

Prof Richard Wakeford, visiting professor at Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester and contributor to the WHO report, said: "The release of radioactive materials into the environment during the Fukushima nuclear accident was substantial but based on measurement data, the radiation doses received by the surrounding population are small, even for the most exposed communities.

"These doses produce an extra risk of cancer over a lifetime of about 1% at most, in addition to background lifetime cancer risks from all other causes of, on average, 40% for men and 29% for women."

He added: "Radiation exposure from the Fukushima accident has had only a small impact on the overall health of the nearby population, and much less outside the most affected areas."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21614722#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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