Congratulations to Honda, and its associates

There were many lessons to be learned during the Great Recession that seems to be loosening its grip on the nation and our part of the world.

One lesson learned was that quality still pays off. Quality products sold at reasonable prices continue to be bought, even in tough times.

That, we believe, is one of the reasons the Honda plant in Lincoln ended 2010 with a stable work force that not only had jobs, but needed to work overtime to increase output of the vehicles built at the plant.

That’s a compliment to the company, of course, and to the men and women who work there, producing more than 270,000 vehicles in 2010. They build the popular Odyssey mini-van in Lincoln, the Pilot SUV, Ridgeline pickups and some Accord V-6 sedans.

Honda employs a flexible manufacturing system that allows management to adjust the mix of vehicles coming out the back door to meet the demand on their dealers’ lots. That means they are producing the cars, trucks, vans and SUVs the buying public wants.

So, congratulations to Honda. And to the 4,000 associates who work there, producing quality products that remain popular, even in difficult economic times.

We are fortunate to have Honda in our community. And Honda is fortunate to have developed a workforce of Alabamians whose work ethic and attention to detail pays off in more sales.

Source;
http://www.dailyhome.com/view/full_story/10858268/article-Congratulations-to-Honda--and-its-associates?instance=home_opinion

African Leaders have failed to convince Mr. Gbagbo for Resignation

A delegation of African leaders has seems to be failed to convince serving President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast to resign following disputed polls.

The group offered him an amnesty if he resigned from the presidency.

Officially there was no response by Mr Gbagbo instead of he is still in the presidential palace. According the UN Mr Gbagbo lost the vote and West African countries have endangered to utilize power if he does not resign.

His opponent, Alassane Ouattara, is globally known as the winner of the 28 November presidential election.

The leaders who gone to Ivory Coast were Benin’s President Boni Yayi, Pedro Pires of Cape Verde and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, on behalf of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga - representing the African Union (AU).

During talks they have assured to Mr Gbagbo a legal amnesty as well as a security that his financial liabilities would be safe, if he resigned from the office.

The delegation moves on to meet Mr Ouattara under the protection of UN peacekeepers and staying in hotel. Afterwards, he said the dialogue was now "finished".

US offer

The US state department said the US could assists Mr Gbagbo make a "Nobel exit" by lifting a travel ban so he could move there.

Since 2002 election the Ivory Coast which is the world's foremost cocoa producer has been divided into clashes but the post November election was the real chance to unite to the chaos country.

Mr Ouattara was primarily declared the winner by the country's election commission, a verdict backed by the UN, which assisted for organizing the poll.

But the Constitutional Council, headed by an ally of Mr Gbagbo, said he had won, quoting misdeeds in the north which is controlled by past rebels sustaining Mr Ouattara.

Both men have been on oath as president.

The chance for the World to see Partial Solar Eclipse

The huge majority of the people will have the possibility to observe a lunar eclipse as they had returned at work after celebrating the Christmas.

The east and south seashores of United Kingdom will be the most excellent place to watch the event as the Moon overtakes between the Sun and Earth just after 0800 GMT.

It is the UK's first partial hide since 2008 and comes more than 11 years after the full eclipse of 1999. The experts warned to the sky watchers that their eyes could be affected if they see directly to the sun.

Dame Sally Davies, the government's chief medical officer, said it is very risky for children and they should not see the event and advised viewing the event on TV or the web.

eople should wear solar-filter glasses who want to view the event outside. The main hurdle to viewing the cosmic phenomenon would be the clouds and hills, the best place to watch it would be on the coast.

"The partial eclipse will be happening as the sun rises and will be best seen in the south east at around 0810 - and a little bit later the further north you are."

A long wait

The eclipse, which will be able to seen from much of Europe, North Africa and central Asia, will end at or shortly after 0930 GMT for England’s viewers.

The next partial eclipse will be in 2015 - with another 79 years to wait before the next total eclipse.

Last month, the first total solar eclipse for three years was visible in the UK, with Cornwall one of the best places to view it.

A full lunar eclipse occurs when the full Moon exceeds through the shadow formed by the Earth blocking the Sun's light.

Funny Story: The Giants Beat The Seahawks This Year. By 34 Points. In Seattle.

I suppose I ought to start this by saying I don't believe the NFL should forsake its divisional breakdown. Divisions are necessary for creating a structure that enables an easy schedule rotation and fosters rivalries and fan interest. Also, I haven't done the math, but I'm fairly certain the odds of one team beating another on the road by 34 points, and then winning 43% more games during the course of that season, staying home while the pounded 7-9 division champ takes aim at a Super Bowl is pretty close to about a bajillion to one.

Oh, but that's why they play the games. Or at least that's why the Rams and Seahawks did whatever it was they did Sunday night to send at least one atrocious team to the playoffs.

Yes, some of you out there might have noticed that I'm a teentsy bit bitter about how the 2010 New York Giants season wound up, and before I continue I will acknowledge that the Giants had three chances to seal a playoff berth and were unable to do so. But let's be real. The Giants finished 10-6 this season, which, while hardly spectacular, is usually more than enough to get a team into the annual postseason tournament. And failing that, I think it's fairly plain to see that the Giants are better than the Seahawks.

The 7-9 NFC West "Champion" Seahawks.

Lest I put too much focus on the fact that, even with Seattle being a markedly difficult place to play the Giants absolutely beat the living shit out of the Seahawks earlier this season, let's remind ourselves that the Seahawks are 7-9. They lost more often than they won this season and yet somehow are actually in the playoffs. In fact, and this is where it gets fun, the only way Seattle can go down in the books as having finished the 2010 NFL season with a winning record is by winning the Super Bowl.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't see that happening.

Still, I don't want to give you all the impression that I'm crying foul over what has befallen my beloved G-Men, nor am I taking it as an opportunity to blindly throw arrows at people for my own amusement. Apparently, neither are the people in charge, either. I accept the fate of a team that looked like world beaters with roughly two games and eight minutes remaining in its regular season. One that still had its fate in its own hands despite an absolutely spectacular meltdown only to lay an egg in Green Bay in Week 16. One that could have still made it courtesy of an absolutely brilliant effort by a Chicago Bears defense were it not for the astonishing ineptitude of Chicago's offense Sunday. At this moment I will point to the Bears having a 3-0 lead in the third quarter and an interception returned to the Green Bay 15 yardline, which the Jay Cutler company somehow managed to turn into zero points.

I accept all of this. Because sometimes a team just has to take responsibility when it had the chance to leave its fate up to itself rather than chance.

But goddamnit it's frustrating to see the Seahawks in the playoffs when the Giants beat them in their own building by 34 points and won three more games. Like crazy frustrating. Unfortunately, those are just the breaks of the NFL sometimes. Those are the rules. Fair is fair. Besides, we're all a little better off when a stellar quarterback like Charlie Whitehurst gets to start in the playoffs, right? Yes, I thought so.

There are a few positives to all of this however -- or at least I'm trying to convince myself of that. For one, I can now watch the NFL playoffs free from the fear that I might suffer some tremendously horrifying heart attack, which, let's be honest, is always possible when the Giants are involved. Another positive is that I somehow went 8-8-0 last week in my football picks, meaning I finished the season with a winning mark of 127-120-10. What we can assume from that is, well, that I miscounted my games once because that adds up to 257 and there are only 256 games in an NFL season. In the interests of fairness, we're going to assume that I gave myself an extra win, meaning I correctly predicted 126 of the NFL's 256 games against the spread. I was correct a whopping 49.2% of the time. Not anywhere close to statistically significant either way, nor large enough for me to feel comfortable ever trying to make my living betting on football.

Hot damn Vegas is good.

In addition, the following bizarre statistical anomalies this year have reassured me that it was just a strange year, which we'll all agree to forget ever happened come February 7th.
-- The Giants and Buccaneers both finished 10-6 and did not make the playoffs while the 7-9 Seahawks did.
-- The Seahawks went 3-7 in their last 10 games.
-- The San Diego Chargers had the No. 1 ranked offense and defense in the League and did not make the playoffs. This can only partially be explained by the fact that nine punts were blocked in the NFL this season, and the Chargers gave up five of them.
-- The only team in the NFL to go undefeated in its division was, you guessed it, the Oakland Raiders. They did not make the playoffs.

Also, the final positive is that with the regular season over I can now know for sure just who the Giants will be visiting next season so I can start to plan potential trips to see a few new stadiums. This, of course, assumes there will be a season next year, and commissioner Roger Goodell came out today to say "Goddamnit, there will be." As it stands, I've had the Giants' 2011 visits to New England and San Francisco pegged as potential stops for some time, but the news that New York will also be visiting New Orleans and Arizona in addition to their divisional foes is intriguing. I won't know when, exactly, those games will be happening until April, but consider them all marked as potential destinations. And if you happen to live in any of those destinations, or are interested in traveling with me to them, well, we'll be talking. It's the least I can do to distract myself from the fact that I won't really care who wins any football game for the rest of the season. Well, except for the fact that I'll be rooting for whomever winds up playing the Eagles. In this case, the Packers.

Odd as that may be, I can at least respect the tradition of Green Bay and the fact that they aren't an annual rival of the Giants. Plus Lambeau Field is kind of awesome, so the Pack wins points for that.

I'll give you a full rundown of who is going to win this weekend and the rest of the playoffs later this week, when I've had the time to think about it analytically, but in closing, I'll give you a sneak peak of just what we'll be watching when Super Bowl XLV kicks off on February 6th.

Yep. You guessed it. Seattle vs. Kansas City for all the marbles.

Let's face it. It's the matchup we all wanted to begin with.

BMW concept spotted in Abu Dhabi!

Wow, all I can say is that this is one Hot looking concept! Looks like they are readying it for production....

Source;

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/31/bmw-vision-efficientdynamics-spotted-in-abu-dhabi-is-it-closer/

China'a latest development to reprocess the useless nuclear fuel

The state television of China has reported, the country has built up its own expertise that will be able to reprocess the useless nuclear fuel.

China has initiated an ambitious program to build up numerous new nuclear power stations.

This latest development could supply fuel to those plants, which will be built up in next couple of the years. Chinese scientists have actually been working on this technology for 24 years.

They have now maintained a procedure that will let them to reprocess useless nuclear fuel state television has said. Though the procedure is difficult and costly yet recycled material can be used once more to fuel nuclear power stations.

China is not the first country to establish its own reprocessing facilities. France, Britain and India are just three countries that already have their own operations.

But this penetration will have major suggestions in China.

The country is making a number of new nuclear power plants in an attempt to expand its energy sources.

Presently it generally relies on coal.  The present achievement could support its nuclear power program.

State television says the country currently has sufficient identified uranium for about 70 years.

It maintains this new development could indicate that supply will now last 3,000.

Afghan push back towards opium producing due to High Prices

Afghan officials concerned on Sunday that opium’s prices have reached on almost doubled in 2010, that it is the fear that more Afghan farmers would turn to the illegal crop due to non availability profitable alternatives and the prices of opium’s prices reaching on almost doubled in 2010.

Mohammad Ibrahim Azhar, Deputy Counter-Narcotics Minister said the opium crop, which facilitates fuel the insurgency, had been reduced by 48 percent in 2010 by a still unknown stain.

Big jumps in prices already intend farmers were earning far more for their crops than in 2009.  He said the price for opium, a thick paste from poppy plants developed into heroin, had gone up 190 percent by the end of December 2010. 

Afghanistan has long been the producer of about 90 percent of the world’s opium. Most of it is exported in a prosperous world trade estimated at US$ 65 billion a year, although the number of fanatics in Afghanistan is also growing.

The Taliban in Afghanistan obtain US$ 100 to 400 million dollars a year in forms of revenues charged from drug production and trafficking, according to United Nations data, promoting the mutiny and threatening volatility across South and Central Asia and into Russia.

He also said after delivering departmental conclusions for December 2010 increasing demand and prices without adequate support from the outside contributors to provide substitute will leave farmers few options but to implant poppy fields again.

 Azhar told in a news conference in Kabul, “Our report from the month of December illustrates that opium prices have gone up till 190 percent, which has shocked our concerns and fear.

Afghanistan’s government and its Western supporters have resisted to arise on the possible substitutes, sorting from wiping out poppy fields to encouraging wheat and other crops, since the Taliban were exiled  in late 2001.

The situation will be much worsening, if the international community doesn’t provide us substantial support and help. He said without giving alternative sources to the 1.7 million farmers who grow opium, mostly in the Taliban heartland in the south and east devastating poppy fields will never give us fruitful results.

The farmers who were generating US$ 604 million in income from opium in 2010, 38% up as compared to 2009 according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report in September.

In 2009, wheat prices rose and poppy prices fell, giving farmers a reason to review their planting plans for fields produced in 2009. In 2010, the reverse was true, with farm-gate opium prices at times reaching $169 per kg of dry opium and higher in 2010 compared with $64 per kg in 2009.

Output for 2010 has been estimated at around 3,900 tonnes, the lowest since 2003, compared with 6,900 tonnes in 2009. Even so, opium production last year accounted for 5 percent of gross domestic product, up from 4 percent in 2009.

Aside from leading the world in opium production, Afghanistan has become the biggest producer of hashish, or cannabis resin, turning out between 1,500 and 3,500 tonnes a year.

Foreign enforcement agencies are increasingly seeking ways to curb the opium trade as part of the wider battle against Taliban-led insurgents, who use profits from the trade to battle about 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Military and civilian casualties are at record levels, with 711 foreign troops killed in 2010, by far the bloodiest year of the war.