Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/168427363?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Got somewhere to go? Rent a Virgin America plane for $60,000 (Yahoo! News)
You and 145 of your friends can also name the plane you fly on
Air travel can be a hassle these days, between inevitable delays, crowded flights, and the trial of getting through?airport security. Virgin America is offering one solution: for a mere $60,000, you can rent one of their planes ? presumably with a pilot and crew included ? to fly anywhere the airline flies (except Mexico) with up to 145 of your friends. That works out to about $410 per person.
The flight would take you on a full-size Airbus A320, complete with in-flight wifi, seatback entertainment systems, and in-flight meals and drinks. You'd have to travel before May 28, 2013, but other than that, the sky's literally the limit.
And your cash won't just get you a ride from point A to point B and back again ? you also get to name the plane you fly on. Virgin America is no stranger to oddly-named planes, either. They recently announced the first hashtagged plane: #nerdbird.
[via?Mashable]
This article was written by Katherine Gray and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
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Olympus to review business structure amid scandal (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's Olympus Corp has launched a review of its business structure, according to an internal memo, amid speculation the 92-year-old company may have to sell assets in order to survive a massive accounting scandal.
The maker of cameras and medical equipment is also looking to reform its corporate governance, and is setting up separate teams to supervise the two reviews, according to the November 28 memo, obtained by Reuters and later confirmed by the company.
"They will make clear the optimal business structure and the proper profit structure to promote the steady further development of our business," President Shuichi Takayama wrote in the memo to Olympus employees.
Olympus, under police investigation and at risk of losing its Tokyo stock market listing, is keen to protect its highly profitable endoscope business from the impact of the scandal.
So far, there is no sign it has disrupted the company's core $2.6 billion diagnostic endoscope business, which enjoys a near-monopoly worldwide. But the unit is part of a group that is highly geared and is expected to make major writedowns once its accounts are set straight.
The Nikkei business newspaper has reported that Olympus recently offered its creditor banks a plan to cut its debt by about 260 billion yen ($3.3 billion) over the next three years, and might sell assets to do so.
Olympus' camera division runs at a loss, and it also has businesses in microscopes, the field where it started almost a century ago, industrial testing systems and mobile phones, a small division emerging as a key focus of Japanese authorities investigating the scandal.
Investment bankers say rivals in both endoscopes and cameras are following events at Olympus, though prospective bidders are likely to stay on the sidelines until there is more clarity.
Besides concerns about whether the firm can survive, the scandal has also raised worries over corporate governance in Japan, prompting both ruling and opposition parties to look at possible reforms.
The ruling Democratic Party is considering making it mandatory for large firms to appoint outside directors, the Asahi newspaper reported last week. Olympus had three external directors, though all at some point worked for organizations or firms that had ties with the company.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, a lawmaker from the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said it should be made clearer that outside directors are independent from company interests.
"We found out this time that external directors do not work," he told Reuters. "It's inconceivable not to define independence at the level of other foreign markets after this case," he said, noting how the New York Stock Exchange has strict rules on who can be an external director.
President Takayama, who will head the teams reviewing governance and reconstruction, vowed last week to set Olympus on a path to revival, even as investigations into it proceed both at home and abroad.
ON-SITE INVESTIGATION
Japan's securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC), has launched an on-site probe of Olympus to uncover details of its loss cover-up scheme, the Nikkei said on Tuesday.
The SESC will ask Olympus to submit in-house financial documents about past mergers and acquisitions, and will examine the processes in which investment losses were moved off the company's balance sheet, the daily reported.
Olympus spokesman Yoshiaki Yamada said on Tuesday he was unable to comment on the investigations.
The company's former president, Masatoshi Kishimoto, however, has told a third-party investigative panel he was unaware of efforts to hide losses when he was at the helm from 1993-2001, a key period in the saga, media reported.
The panel, set up by Olympus and due to report its findings early next month, believes a 30 billion yen ($384 million)overseas investment fund that appeared on the company's books for the first time in 2000 was a so-called "tobashi" scheme designed to conceal losses, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said.
Olympus has admitted to using some unusual M&A deals and accounting tricks to hide investment losses that media reports have estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
One focus will be the company's actions around the 2000-01 fiscal year, when Japan switched to market-value accounting and when many companies were forced to come clean on losses from so-called "zaitech" investment schemes.
These were popular in the late 1980s, but saddled many firms with huge investment losses when the "bubble economy" burst at the end of that decade.
"We settled our losses appropriately with special charges,"
Kishimoto was quoted as telling the Mainichi, pointing to a 16.9 billion yen write-off in the year to March 2000 to cover latent losses on investments. "I have not been involved in any cover-up of losses."
Takayama, who took over after Tsuyoshi Kikukawa resigned over the scandal, said last week that former Olympus directors would also be held to account for any responsibility in the scandal.
(Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Yoko Kubota in Tokyo, and Shounak Dasgupta in Bangalore; Writing by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
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Gingrich Once Wanted a Health Insurance Mandate - Politics - The ...
Dave?Weigel at Slate has posted video from 2005 of Newt Gingrich expressing support for a plan that would require Americans making more than $50,000 a year to purchase health insurance or face a penalty, just like Obamacare. Weigel notes that Gingrich's think tank once proposed something to that effect, but no one had yet put the words into Gingrich's mouth. Specifically, Gingrich said:
Now, when you talk to hospitals, a very significant part of their non-collectibles are people who have money, but have calculated it's not worth the cost to pay. And so I'm actually in favor of finding a way to say, whatever the appropriate level of income is, you ought to have either health insurance, or you ought to post a bond.
?We'll just go ahead and add this to the list of not-that-conservative things Gingrich has said in the past.?
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at erandall at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/11/gingrich-once-wanted-health-insurance-mandate/45520/
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GOP: Offsetting cuts must cover payroll tax relief
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Toyota taking orders in Japan for Prius Plug-in (AP)
TOKYO ? Toyota began taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies.
Toyota is targeting Prius Plug-in sales of 35,000 to 40,000 a year in Japan, and 60,000 globally. The car is set for delivery in Japan in January. With subsidies the cost comes down to 2.75 million yen ($35,200). It starts at $32,000 in the U.S. and 37,000 euros in Europe, according to Toyota.
Japan's top automaker says the plug-in, which it calls the Prius PHV, is for those who want something more innovative than a regular gasoline-electric hybrid, but are worried about running out of power on the road, as can happen with pure electric vehicles.
When a plug-in runs out of power to keep the electric vehicle going, it becomes a hybrid.
"The plug-in is the premier next-generation ecological car that will follow the hybrid," said Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, the Toyota Motor Corp. engineer known as the "father of the Prius."
The Prius Plug-in has an estimated electric vehicle cruise range per charge of 26.4 kilometers (16 miles), according to Toyota.
Its mileage is estimated at 61 kilometers per liter for Japanese test conditions, which converts to a whopping 143 miles per gallon. Such numbers vary depending on road conditions. Toyota is promising 87 mpg for the U.S. Prius Plug-in, which will be delivered starting in March. Orders are already being taken online in the U.S.
Green cars such as the Prius Plug-in are expected to take centerstage at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public this weekend.
Japanese consumers have taken to the Prius, despite a languishing auto market overall, thanks to government-backed subsidies. Nations around the world are offering similar perks, boosting its chance for success.
The Prius Plug-in, which seats five people, comes with a new lithium-ion battery that can be charged from a household outlet, much like an electric car. It also recharges itself while driving like a gasoline-electric hybrid. The battery is more powerful and compact so the back trunk fits three golf bags.
Uchiyamada told reporters that the plug-in was the best solution for green cars as most Japanese don't drive more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day and Toyota studies showed that most people don't want to use EVs for drives longer than 100 kilometers (60 miles).
How the plug-in fares in coming months will help show whether Toyota can keep riding on its success of the Prius as a global leader in green technology. Toyota said it had collected data from 600 people around the world who had leased the plug-in on a trial basis.
Toyota has sold more than 3.4 million hybrids worldwide so far, including models other than the Prius.
Selling in big numbers is important because it helps cut costs and allows the automaker to offer products at affordable prices.
Honda Motor Co., which has also been aggressive with hybrid technology, has sold 770,000 hybrids worldwide.
Nissan Motor Co., which hasn't released a global hybrid sales number, is banking more on pure electric, selling 17,500 Leaf cars around the world so far.
In Japan, Toyota will work on services with its housing unit to support plug-in owners' charging stations, it said.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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Peer Inside Your iPhone With IFixit?s See-Through Rear Panel
There are many places you can buy replacement back panels for the iPhone 4, but if you buy one from the gadget repair supremos at iFixit you get the added benefit of a comprehensive step-by-step guide showing you how to fit it.
Not that you’ll really need it. The iPhone’s delicate glass rear panel is almost [...]
Not that you’ll really need it. The iPhone’s delicate glass rear panel is almost [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/BENirPzOFfk/
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