For decades the surest and safest mortgage has been the quiet and dull fixed-rate loan. With fixed-rate loans the monthly payment for principal and interest never changes, the interest rate stays the same, the loan balance declines every month and the threat of payment shock is non-existent.

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The Sanyo Ark: Covered in 5,000 solar panels, the edifice is a working power-generation system which also houses a solar museum. But is it a genuine statement of Sanyo’s ideology or just a PR stunt?

The electronics giant is turning to rechargeable batteries and waterless washing machines, writes David McNeill in Tokyo

RIDING THE Shinkansen Bullet Train out of Tokyo along the eastern industrial corridor towards Osaka has long been one of the best and most pleasurable ways to experience Japan’s high-tech economy. Electronics giant Sanyo has added another attraction to the route: as the train barrels along at 270km/h (168m/h), it passes Sanyo’s Solar Ark, a futuristic 15m (50ft) -wide solar building that rises out of the landscape like a giant black boombox near the industrial city of Nagoya.

Simultaneously a working power-generation system and a monument to solar energy, the ark’s surface is made up of 5,000 solar panels that help power the entire facility. Inside, a museum to solar power attracts thousands of schoolchildren a year, part of what Sanyo – with a straight corporate face – calls an attempt “to live in harmony with the earth”.

The company has just emerged from a bruising battle with its founding family, ending what the Nikkei business newspaper called “six decades of nepotism”. In a spring-cleaning that shocked Japan’s staid corporate world, president Toshimasa Iue was ousted last year along with Tomoyo Nonaka, his hand-picked chairwoman. Iue’s father, 75-year-old chairman Satoshi, went the year before.

Shareholders rebelled after Sanyo posted a record net loss of about €1.16 billion in 2005, following earthquake damage to its Niigata semiconductor plant and failed investments in liquid crystal panels and microchips.

Analysts also believe that Nonaka, one of the very few women to run a Japanese company, pushed Sanyo’s conservative board too far, by attempting an ambitious restructuring linked to the environmental theme of Gaia, which holds that the planet is a self-regulating, interrelated organism. In a corporate blurb more Greenpeace than mass manufacturer, Sanyo now says it is “committed to listening to Gaia’s voice and engaging in activities that are beneficial to life and the Earth”.

Some observers have been startled at this fulsome embrace of environmentalism by a company known mainly for dour if dedicated service to churning out batteries and consumer appliances.

Long-time Tokyo tech-watcher J Mark Lytle calls it “the mother of all corporate makeovers”. Yurika Ayukawa, a leading environmental consultant who gave a presentation to Sanyo’s board in 2005, recalls that the Gaia concept was “not popular at all” among the company’s directors.

But even she acknowledges that this may be more than just a case of environmental opportunism. Sanyo’s rebranding coincided with the release of the Eneloop, a range of rechargeable batteries that have clocked up 60 million sales in less than three years and grabbed half the market for that product niche with two simple innovations: they last much longer than anything else on the shelves, and come to the shops already recharged.

The Eneloop series has expanded to include reusable solar chargers and other products, and Sanyo now makes battery packs for Nintendo’s mega-hit Wii. Expect the rest of the world to follow: just 400 million rechargeable batteries are sold globally out of total disposable sales of 40 billion, and Sanyo wants a much bigger share. And it is going after the burgeoning market for hybrid-electric car batteries in deals with Honda, Ford and Volkswagen.

Then there is Aqua, a range of state-of-the-art washing machines that clean clothes with little or no water or detergent. The trick is a drum that converts oxygen to ozone, which destroys bacteria and dirt, and recycles ozone-purified water from the rinse cycle – or even from last night’s bath. The Aqua 3,000 doesn’t come cheap – it’s about €1,300 – but its environmental appeal, and the promise of a €100 cut in annual water bills have helped make it a hit in Japan, with 210,000 units sold.

Of course nobody, least of all Sanyo, is considering a full-on Gaia revolution, which would entail abandoning our entire modern lifestyles. Still, these are the kind of innovative products that put Japan on the map, and they have helped vindicate the rebranding decision. The company plans more of the same, earmarking 70 per cent of €2.45 billion in capital spending over the next three years on solar cells, batteries, and components, as it continues to scale down production of mobile phones, white goods and LCD displays.

Solar technology, in particular, is seen as a key growth area, with €477 million set aside for capital spending on that technology alone. Production of solar panels at Sanyo’s European assembly base in Hungary will triple in the next few years. “‘Think Gaia’ is genuine,” insists Sanyo spokesman Aaron Fowles, who says that the entire company is aiming to become “carbon-neutral” by 2010.

He urges those sceptical of Sanyo’s conversion, to consider the Gaia opposite: the “blind pursuit” of convenience and comfort: “‘Think Gaia’ is more than merely a ‘green’ or ‘eco’ initiative. It really is a focus on how we can contribute to make life and the Earth be in harmony.” The rebranding comes at a crucial time. Although Sanyo returned to profitability this year, its financial problems in 2005 forced it to go cap in hand to a consortium of lenders, who bought 300 billion yen (€1,925 billion) of preferred stock – about 70 per cent of the company’s value.

So far, the new management has kept the shareholders on board, but critics will continue to pick at Sanyo’s new-found environmental credentials. The Solar Ark provides an irresistible symbol of the company’s rebranding: is it genuinely saving power or just a giant PR stunt? According to its website, the ark’s solar panels generate 530,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, providing power to plants within the complex, and saving money on energy bills. But Sanyo doesn’t say how much money.

Technology writer Tim Hornyak urges caution: “It’s easy to bamboozle consumers with slogans. Big companies that have these campaigns are the very ones that are trying to block governments from curbing environmental emissions, so it behooves us to look beyond these slogans, and see what are they actually doing.”

Like many other observers, and companies, in Japan, he will be watching to see if Sanyo pulls off its green revolution.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

Last time for the Hubble. One more repair trip before it retires.

2008 Election Coverage

Pink Floyd founder member Richard Wright has died at aged 65 after battling cancer

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Wright (right) wrote songs on albums including Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died, aged 65, from cancer.

Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

Dave Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards.

Gilmour said: “No-one can replace Richard Wright – he was my musical partner and my friend.”

Writing on his website, he added: “In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten.”

Wright’s spokesman said in a statement: “The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer.

“The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.”

He did not say what form of cancer the self-taught keyboard player and pianist had.

Live 8

Wright, a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound – and other previous incarnations including Sigma 6 – met Waters and Mason at architecture school.

Wright rejoined Pink Floyd for the London Live 8 concert in 2005

Pink Floyd achieved legendary status with albums including 1973′s The Dark Side Of The Moon, which stayed in the US album chart for more than a decade.

Wright, known as Rick earlier in his career, wrote The Great Gig In The Sky and Us And Them from the album.

Waters left the band in 1981, performing his last concert at London’s Earls Court.

Wright, together with Gilmour and Mason, continued to record and tour as Pink Floyd during the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s, releasing their last studio album – The Division Bell – in 1994.

In 2005, the full band reunited – for the first time in 24 years – for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park.

Wright also contributed vocals and keyboards to Gilmour’s 2006 solo album On An Island, while performing with his touring band in shows in Europe and the US.

Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright dies

Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.

Pink Floyd’s spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group’s jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia “happenings” made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group’s dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973′s “Dark Side of the Moon,” which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” for that album, and later worked on the group’s epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother,” “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”

But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of “The Wall” when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of “The Wall,” and did not perform on Pink Floyd’s 1983 album “The Final Cut.”

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, “Identity,” with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums “The Division Bell” and “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums “Wet Dream” (1978) and “Broken China” (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the “Live 8″ charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour’s solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album “On An Island” and the accompanying world tour.

Source www.cnn.com http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/15/obit.wright.ap/index.html

Read the LA Times Article here.

Quarterinch Jack is a group of musicians from different backgrounds, different places, different time-zones, and different musical influences, that come together to to keep Rock & Roll standards alive.

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Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile

Will the Large Hadron Collider save the world, or destroy it?

As the atom-smasher at Europe’s CERN research center is readied for its official startup on Wednesday, researchers might wish that the general public was captivated by the quest for the Higgs boson, the search for supersymmetric particles and even the evidence for extra dimensions.

But if the feedback so far is any guide, the real headline-grabber is the claim that the world’s most powerful particle-smasher could create microscopic black holes that some fear would gobble up the planet.

The black-hole scenario is even getting its day in court: Critics of the project have called for the suspension of work on the European collider until the scenario receives a more thorough safety review, filing separate legal challenges in U.S. federal court and the European Court of Human Rights.

The strange case of the planet-eating black hole serves as just one example showing how grand scientific projects can lead to a collision between science fiction and science fact. The hubbub also has led some to question why billions of dollars are being spent on a physics experiment so removed from everyday life.

Why do it?
Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist at the City College of New York, acknowledged that people often ask about the practical applications of particle physics. Even if physicists figure out how a particle called the Higgs boson creates the property of mass in the universe, how will that improve life on Earth?

“Sometimes the public says, ‘What’s in it for Numero Uno? Am I going to get better television reception? Am I going to get better Internet reception?’ Well, in some sense, yeah,” he said. “All the wonders of quantum physics were learned basically from looking at atom-smasher technology.”

Kaku noted that past discoveries from the world of particle physics ushered in many of the innovations we enjoy today, ranging from satellite communications and handheld media players to medical PET scanners (which put antimatter to practical use).

“But let me let you in on a secret: We physicists are not driven to do this because of better color television,” he added. “That’s a spin-off. We do this because we want to understand our role and our place in the universe.”

About those black holes …
The black holes that may (or may not) be generated by the Large Hadron Collider would have theoretical rather than practical applications.

If the collider’s detectors turn up evidence of black holes, that would suggest that gravity is stronger on a subatomic scale than it is on the distance scales scientists have been able to measure so far. That, in turn, would support the weird idea that we live in a 10- or 11-dimensional universe, with some of the dimensions rolled up so tightly that they can’t be perceived.

Some theorists say the idea would explain why gravity is so much weaker than the universe’s other fundamental forces — for example, why a simple magnet can match the entire Earth’s gravitational force pulling on a paper clip. These theorists suggest that much of the gravitational field is “leaking out” into the extra dimensions.

“It will be extremely exciting if the LHC did produce black holes,” CERN theoretical physicist John Ellis said.  “OK, so some people are going to say, ‘Black holes? Those big things eating up stars?’ No. These are microscopic, tiny little black holes.  And they’re extremely unstable.  They would disappear almost as soon as they were produced.”

Not everyone is convinced that the black holes would disappear. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Walter Wagner, a former radiation safety officer with a law degree who is one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit. Despite a series of reassuring scientific studies, Wagner and others insist that the black holes might not fizzle out, and they fear that the mini-singularities produced by the Large Hadron Collider will fall to the center of the earth, grow larger and swallow more and more of Earth’s matter.

Ellis, Kaku and a host of other physicists point out that cosmic rays in space are far more energetic than the collisions produced in the Large Hadron Collider, and do not produce the kinds of persistent black holes claimed by the critics. In the most recent report, CERN scientists rule out the globe-gobbling black holes and the other nightmares enumerated in the lawsuit, even under the most outlandish scenarios. Wagner remains unconvinced, however.

“I don’t think the knowledge we are going to acquire by doing such an experiment outweighs the risk that we are taking, if we can’t quantify that risk. … We need to obtain other evidence,” he said.

Strangelets, monopoles and more
Black holes aren’t Wagner’s only worry: He also is concerned that when the collider creates a soup of free-flying quarks, some of those quarks might recombine in a hazardous way — creating a stable, negatively charged “strangelet” that could turn everything it touches into more strangelets.

The lawsuit also suggests that magnetic monopoles — basically, magnets with only a north or a south pole, but not both — could be created in the collider and wreak havoc.

Physicists point out that such phenomena have never been seen, either in previous collider experiments or in the wide cosmos beyond Earth.

“The experiments that we will do with the LHC have been done billions of times by cosmic rays hitting the earth,” Ellis said. “They’re being done continuously by cosmic rays hitting our astronomical bodies, like the moon, the sun, like Jupiter and so on and so forth. And the earth’s still here, the sun’s still here, the moon’s still here. LHC collisions are not going to destroy the planet.”

But how will all those collisions benefit the planet?

“We don’t justify CERN or other big particle accelerators on the basis of spin-offs or technology transfer,” Ellis said. “Of course, we do have programs for that. Personally, I believe that the most important knowledge transfer that we can make is by training young people who then maybe go off and do something else. I think that’s probably more important than some particular technological widget that we may develop.

“I think the primary justification for this sort of science that we do is fundamental human curiosity,” Ellis said. “It’s true, of course, that every previous generation that’s made some breakthrough in understanding nature has seen those discoveries translated into new technologies, new possibilities for the human race. That may well happen with the Higgs boson. Quite frankly, at the moment I don’t see how you can use the Higgs boson for anything useful.”

Kaku takes a different view: He said physicists will have to do a better job of explaining the potential payoffs if they expect taxpayers to keep covering the multibillion-dollar cost of exploring the scientific frontier. He pointed to the example of the Superconducting Super Collider — a project planned for Texas that would have been bigger than the Large Hadron Collider, but was canceled by Congress after $2 billion had been spent.

“After that cancellation, we physicists learned that we have to sing for our supper,” Kaku said. “The Cold War is over. You can’t simply say ‘Russia!’ to Congress, and they whip out their checkbook and say, ‘How much?’ We have to tell the people why this atom-smasher is going to benefit their lives.”

Forecasting future benefits
If past physics experiments are any guide, the potential payoffs would likely come in three areas, Kaku said:

• Telecommunications: The challenge of dealing with all the data created by past experiments led to the creation of the World Wide Web at CERN in 1990. In a similar way, the Large Hadron Collider could usher in an era of global distributed computing and more efficient mass data storage. A better understanding of the subatomic world could lead to breakthroughs in quantum computing and super-secure communication.
• Medicine: Particle accelerators are already playing a fast-rising role in cancer treatment and medical imaging. New technologies developed for the Large Hadron Collider could well find their way into hospitals of the future. The ultrasensitive photon detector built for the LHCb experiment is a prime example, said the project’s deputy spokesperson, Roger Forty. “I think there will be some cross-pollination with medical applications,” he told msnbc.com.
• Energy: Kaku suggested that the insights gained from the Large Hadron Collider could be applied to developing new energy sources in the decades ahead — such as controlled fusion power. Those microscopic black holes might even play a long-range role in the energy quest. “Some people think that maybe black holes in outer space may be a source of energy for future civilizations,” he said.

Looking even farther ahead, Kaku noted that a deeper understanding of the universe has always led to technological leaps. Harnessing mechanical power led to the steam engine and the industrial revolution of the 19th century. The unification of electricity and magnetism led to computers, lasers and other 20th-century wonders. Unlocking the secrets of the atom led to the triumphs and terrors of the nuclear age.

“Human history has been shaped by the progressive unraveling of gravity, electricity and magnetism, and the nuclear force,” Kaku said. “Now we are at the brink of the granddaddy of all such unifications … the unification of all forces into a super force. We think the super force is superstring theory, a super force that drove the big bang, that created the heavens and the earth, that drives the sun, that makes all the wondrous technologies of the earth possible.”

Will that great revelation come from the LHC? Even Kaku thinks that would be too much of a giant leap. “The Large Hadron Collider will not open up a gateway to another universe,” he said. “It will not open up a hole in space. But it will try to nail down the equations which would allow perhaps an advanced civilization to do precisely that, to manipulate the fabric of space and time.”

How will the machine do that? Ironically, it takes bigger and bigger machines to unlock the smallest subatomic mysteries — and the Large Hadron Collider is the biggest Big Bang Machine ever built. With its tangles of wiring, twists of plumbing and 17 miles of supercooled magnets, the machine may well rank as one of the engineering wonders of the 21st century.

Wednesday: Showtime for the Big Bang Machine

Good article re Denver-based Namaste Solar’s business and how many more people are opting for solar panels to offset their electrical energy usage.

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Short guide to the dos and dont’s of flipping real estate in North Carolina. Several good links to other real estate flipping resources.

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