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Humans are naturally fascinated by the future. We're always striving to see what the "next best thing" is going to be, long before it officially comes to fruition. With the amount of changes that have occurred through the history of payments, most of us are left wondering what could possibly be next. What do credit cards of the future look like? Are there any credit cards at all? We did a little research to find out.
Today's Credit Cards
Today's credit cards are almost like miniature plastic computers. They pass information from merchant to issuer in a matter of seconds. They are backed by magnetic strips that contain special digits, identifying each card as an individual. The numbers associated with the cards correspond to accounts of varying sizes, spending limits, and values. Every time you swipe your card, that account information goes where it needs to go.
Cards of the future are going to have to find new ways to pass the same data between merchants and credit card companies. There have already been transformations in the way that credit cards are processed, with the invention of swipeless credit cards and electronic payment processors like Square. Now it's a matter of changing the cards themselves to reflect the speed and mobility of the current generation. What lies in store for that?
Wristwatch Credit Cards
MasterCard, Discover, and several other credit card providers already offer no-swipe credit cards, which eliminate the need to physically run a card between two metal strips. In conjunction with this, a company called Watch2Pay has developed a set of wristwatches that double as credit cards. These watches still function like clocks, but they have the same magnetic components built into them that swipeless cards use. As a result, you can simply press your watch against a PayPass processor, and the merchant will be able to gather information about your card. Some people say that this will create extra security concerns, but there are teams of innovators working around the clock to make sure that doesn't happen.
Catch the pun "around the clock"? We just had to put that in there.
Phone Credit Cards
Google recently announced the invention of Google Wallet, which is a special payment system that turns your phone into a credit card. This is only going to be available for Android phones (for now), but it will allow you to avoid having to bring your card in with you to pay for something. Similar to the swipeless card idea, you will be able to run your phone against a special processor to transfer information to the merchant. As long as you have the right app downloaded, you can essentially leave your wallet at home.
Biometric Credit Cards
With biometrics, you will be able to use your body as a credit card. This will most likely happen through the use of your fingerprint, where a machine will scan the lines of your fingerprint and the veins behind them to figure out who you are. There is already a version of this technology in Citibank Singapore, where users can make full credit card payments with nothing but their hands. This will have to turn into a more widespread option before it truly becomes valuable to use, but signs show that such expansion is only a few years away.
If biometrics does take off, it will virtually eliminate the worry of identity theft. Credit cards will strictly be associated with individual fingerprints, which would make them impossible to steal. The technology may cost a lot to put in place, but the rewards it offers are overwhelming.
PayPal has been around for quite some time, but most people only associate it with eBay. In all actuality, PayPal is a virtual bank that can be used to store, transfer, and gather money just like a credit card or checking account would. Users who want to have a traditional credit card through PayPal can open a business account, where they will be issued a swipe card to use wherever MasterCard is accepted. The future holds a new option though.
At the moment, there are 18 nationwide retailers that allow PayPal payments directly in their stores. In these locations, you can log into your PayPal account at the checkout counter and use money from it to make your purchases. This combines the payment options online with the convenience of shopping in stores, allowing customers to get the most out of their accounts. This is just one more step toward the future.
You never know what will come of credit cards. There may come a time when we all have chips put into our wrists that get assigned to all of the cards we own. Until then, it's interesting to see the transformations that are already taking place. Watch out for some of these within the next five to ten years, because there's no denying that they will come to market. Consider this your sneak peak for the future.
This guest post comes from Chris at CompareCards.com. CompareCards.com is second to none in credit card comparisons and continues to educate consumers on the best balance transfer credit cards available today.
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New Spitfire wheels, Venture Trucks and Thunder trucks in stock @ the Log Shop!
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New boards from Anti Hero and Real in stock at the Log Shop!
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New Anti Hero, Real, Krooked Decks
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Some information is missing or invalid below.
Learn more.
This VTech Tote & Go Laptop has educational games that teach letters, vocabulary, numbers, logic and shapes, plus you can connect online to download more stories, music, and e-cards. In blue.
Product Features:
- Twenty activities include virtual fish tank and pretend social network of animal friends.
- Connect to computer to download additional content.
- Working mouse stores in top of unit.
- Handle provides portability.
Product Details:
- 9.2"L x 9.5"W x 2.5"L
- Ages 3 to 6 years
- Uses 3 "AA" batteries (included)
- Model no. 80-067800
- Manufacturer's 1-year limited warranty
Sponsored Links
The links below are ads provided by the Google AdWords™ program. Outside companies pay to advertise via these links when specific phrases and words are searched. These ads are provided by Google and are labeled as sponsored links. Clicking on these links will open a new tab displaying that respective company's own website. The website you link to is not affiliated with or sponsored by Kohls.com


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Amazing : d– Is Music Downloading Confusing For You? Read These Tips —
Any website that offers legal music downloads will have a copyright notice somewhere on their site. This notice will show that the site's owners are authorized to sell and distribute the music legally online. This notice should also tell you what you are and are not allowed to do with the music after you purchase.
When you use a paid site, downloading software is usually okay. But, don't download extras when not using paid services. They'll slow your computer and put ads all over your browser.
You have to always pay attention to the size of the files you're downloading. A music file is going to regularly be anywhere between two and five megabytes. If you notice anything much smaller than this, beware. This is usually only going to be a text file and might contain a harmful virus.
When choosing to purchase music downloads, always ensure that you are purchasing from a high quality source. Some companies offer poor MP3s which can diminish your listening experience. Popular sources such as Amazon and Itunes usually have the best in terms of pricing and high quality downloads that can appease even the hardest of critics. If you like your music to sound the best possible, look for the bitrate of the audio file. The bitrate helps you know at what quality the track that you want was downloaded. For instance, a track that's been encoded at 256 kilobytes per second will typically sound muck better than one that's been encoded at 128 kilobytes per second. If you're downloading music from a little known source, make sure you have recently updated antivirus software running during the download. Anytime you aren't sure of where the file is coming from, it's a must to protect your computer. These files could be laced with malware and spyware. You'll need top antivirus protection to secure your computer. Avoid the temptation of downloading popular music from new websites that promise you free music downloads. Due to copyright reasons, most legitimate music downloads are available only with a fee. Websites that advertise free downloads of the latest songs need to be scrutinized because there are often strings attached to their offer which makes the download much more complicated. Check out the quality of all music prior to downloading it, so that you can enjoy it fully. The actual kilobytes per second in which the song plays is a very important aspect to consider. If the number listed on the size description is high, it will sound better than if it is low. In order to make sure the music you want to download fits into your monthly budget, consider using a site that charges a subscription fee, rather than a fee for each download. You can budget the exact amount of money you want to spend on downloads each month and know that you won't go over that amount.
A great tip to consider when you're thinking about downloading music is to preview an entire album before you decide to purchase it. It's never a good idea to buy an entire album if you've only heard one song off of it. You might not like the rest it. Be careful with free peer-to-peer music download services. Many of these sites straddle the line of legality. What you may be thinking is ok is actually putting you in jeopardy of prosecution if the service is caught and they report on their users. Do your research before joining any peer-to-peer music download service.
You should always have an antivirus program if you download music on a regular basis. An antivirus program will scan a file before it is downloaded, letting you know whether the virus has a virus or not. If a virus somehow gets into your hard drive, then the antivirus program can neutralize and remove the virus.
There are many forums online where the sharing of MP3s happens every day. They allow you to check out new artists and songs in the genre you enjoy. That said, be aware that files can contain viruses and that sharing of these songs, unless they are posted by the owner, is illegal. One way to get a low quality version of a song is to view the music video on YouTube and rip it using software. That said, this method is illegal and you can be charged if you are ever caught. Keep this in mind if you are considering this process.
Random Article Content From Record For Viewing
Categorised as: Preparation


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No, the title is not reporting the statistics I recorded while playing as the Spartans in NCAA Football '13 for the Xbox 360. However, it is fair to say that junior tight end Dion Sims put up video game-like numbers at Saturday's scrimmage.
Sims, the 6-foot-5, 285-pound monster made 10 catches for 171-yards and a touchdown in what appears to be an unrepeatable performance.
It is doubtful that he'll put up the same type of numbers against the Boise State Broncos in the season opener on Aug. 31, but today's performance leaves fans anxious to find out if he actually can do this in a meaningful game.
Tags: Dion Sims


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I have had the idea since I was young, watching how insects move, jerky, mechanical, like wind-up toys. I always imagined them as being operated by someone inside. Now nature is pleading for help. It is something that needed to be expressed in the works.
- insect artist Scott Bain, interviewed in Don't Panic magazine.


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Raonic downs Murray to reach Indian Wells quarters
Milos Raonic of Canada hits a return to Andy Murray of Great Britain during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 12, 2014 in Indian Wells, California - by Stephen Dunn
Raonic, seeded 10th, downed Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 to line up a quarter-final clash with giant-killer Alexandr Dolgopolov.
The 28th-seeded Ukrainian avoided any letdown in the wake of his third-round upset of world number one Rafael Nadal, powering past 13th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-4.
Second-seeded Novak Djokovic, four-time Indian Wells champion Roger Federer, seeded seventh, and Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka were also vying for quarter-final berths on Wednesday.
Raonic, ranked 11th in the world, wasn't surprised to find himself facing world number 31 Dolgopolov from a quarter of the draw that included both Nadal and Murray.
The 23-year-old Canadian with the booming serve said Wawrinka's Grand Slam breakthrough in Melbourne, where he beat both Djokovic and Nadal, had shown players like himself and Dolgopolov that the game's biggest names -- Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Murray -- were indeed beatable.
"I think everybody sort of in that top-10 range, also a little bit outside trying to break through, took a deep breath and said, 'Why can't that be me?'" Raonic said.
That kind of confidence stood him in good stead when he surrendered an early break to Murray in the third set.
Murray, who claimed his second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last year, has yet to reach a final since having back surgery in September.
But he was at a loss to explain a sudden drop in his level after he had taken the lead in the third set. He was immediately broken to love, and Raonic broke him again for a 4-2 lead that he wouldn't surrender.
"I think there was mistakes that he made that he wouldn't have liked to make," Raonic said. "I think his mistakes were critical that he made in that first break I got.
"But then I felt like I sort of got going a bit more after that. I sort of picked it up for the rest of the set."
Murray saved one match point as he held for 5-3 in the third, but Raonic was never threatened as he served it out with a game that included two of his 15 aces and a crisp forehand winner on match point.
Still riding high after his triumph over Nadal, Dolgopolov lost just five points on his own serve in the opening set against Fognini, breaking the Italian in the second and eighth games.
Dolgopolov saved all three break points he faced -- all in the seventh game of the second set, and a demoralized Fognini delivered three double faults to be broken in the final game.
In another early match, Latvia's Ernests Gulbis defeated Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (7/0), 4-6, 6-2 in a testy encounter.
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Sarah Palin to 'Go Rogue' on Oprah
Associated Press: CHICAGO -- Sarah Palin is going to sit down with Oprah Winfrey.
Harpo Productions announced Tuesday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Monday, Nov. 16.
According to Harpo, the interview will be Palin's first about her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet.
Palin's book was No. 4 on Amazon.com's bestseller list on Tuesday. It's slated to be released Tuesday, Nov. 17, the day after Palin's interview with Winfrey.
Read more stories moms are talking about.


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Bonnie Cassel has served Area 1 of the Lodi Unified School District as a trustee for six years, and was set to keep on serving until December 2014.
But a board policy concerning trustee absences could curtail her term, and district officials Thursday called for applicants who'd be interested in replacing Cassel.
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Capital Markets
Company Overview of Elm Park Capital Management
BOARD MEMBERS AFFILIATED WITH Charles M. Winograd CFA, CPA*
Senior Managing Partner and Chairman of Investment Committee
MOST CONNECTED PEOPLE TO Charles M. Winograd CFA, CPA
|Donald J. Carty
|187 Relationships
|Brian Michael Levitt
|161 Relationships
|Gerald Wilfred Schwartz
|121 Relationships
|Peter Cowperthwaite Godsoe
|120 Relationships
|Chaviva M. Hošek
|103 Relationships
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Our data partners will research the update request and update the information on this page if necessary. Research and follow-up could take several weeks. If you have questions, you can contact them at email@example.com.


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Look! Wood Fired Cedar Hot Tub
Water and fire. This past weekend we discovered the joys of one of natures' simplest pleasures: the cedar hot tub. But this hot tub was special. Our friends bought it as a kit and installed it within two weekends...
Better yet, the heating elements are two stainless steel Japanese "Chofu" woodstoves. They take about 6 hours to heat this puppy of 500 gallons up to over 100 degrees by stuffing their mouths with small split wood pieces that they had specially ordered.
No chemicals are needed. The water is pure and filtered through a combination of a big filter that sits on the outside and an ionizer that buzzes the water as it goes into the tub.
Although this is all taking place out in the country, these hot tubs come in many sizes and can be assembled anywhere. We think that rather than fantisizing about climbing into one of those water towers above your building, you should consider this as an option.
Hot Tub - Sea Otter Wooden Hot Tubs
Heater - Chofu Wood Heater
Filter - MicroStar Filter with Ionizer
Deck - that was the hard part, but it was built with #2 cedar decking and stainless steel screws
Chairs - Crate & Barrel
2 Comments
That tub looks to be an ideal relaxation spot. The stoves are amazing. It is too bad however, that all the infrastructure couldn't have been placed under/behind some of the decking. I know, set back distances for the stoves, but the filters could have been integrated. One more complaint. Special order fire wood? Tisk. I feel as though one could find a lumber mill or furniture place near by where they would give you all the hardwood scraps your stoves could gobble. I am still envious. Enjoy.
Firewood is always readily available in the free section of craigslist -- you just have to pick it up.


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North American vehicle production is on the rise amid strong demand for vehicles in the NAFTA countries and foreign markets.
Port of Portland (Ore.)
Port of Portland (Ore.)
Weekly wrap-up: ILWU ratifies deal with PNW grain handlers, reaches tentative agreement on health benefits with PMA
30 Aug 2014
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest, ending a two-year battle between the two parties.
25 Aug 2014
Now that the Port of Portland has taken away the jurisdiction of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union over the handling of refrigerated containers, the port authority is warning the leadership of the powerful union that a further loss of work opportunities could follow if productivity does not improve.
23 Aug 2014
The Port of Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22 announced the cancellation of a contract covering two reefer jobs with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, citing dips in productivity at its Terminal 6 facility.
08 Aug 2014
Troubles in the Pacific Northwest dominated the news this week.
08 Aug 2014
The operator of Portland's only container terminal charged this week that crane productivity hit a new low of 7.5 moves per hour because International Longshore and Warehouse Union members are stepping up their hard-timing tactics now that there is no longshore contract in effect.
05 Aug 2014
Marginal changes in container imports market share show U.S. East Coast ports slowly took business away from their West Coast competition in the first half of 2014.
15 Jul 2014
Members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8 in Portland walked off their jobs for about an hour today, but the dispute was not related to the coastwide ILWU contract negotiations underway in San Francisco.
09 Jun 2014
The Port of Portland today is all about growth.
04 Jun 2014
Either Portland has a bright future as a niche container port in the Pacific Northwest, or it will watch much of its business migrate to other ports in the region, depending upon how the International Longshore and Warehouse Union addresses the port's flagging productivity.
02 Jun 2014
Longshoremen engaged in illegal work slowdowns at the Port of Portland from September 2012 to June 2013 as they were contesting jurisdiction for jobs handling refrigerated containers, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge ruled at the weekend.
14 May 2014
In a down market, U.S. ports outpaced their Canadian and Mexican rivals during the first quarter, with solid growth at Los Angeles offsetting a drop at neighboring Long Beach and lifting the Southern California port complex further above its competition.


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VIDEO: EELS Perform 'What I Have to Offer' in Movie THIS IS FORTY; New Album Out 2/5
EELS leader Mark Oliver Everett sings "What I Have To Offer" and delivers some bad news to Paul Rudd in a deleted scene shot during the filming of Judd Apatow's new movie This is Forty. You can see the clip below!
"What I Have To Offer," off of the band's 2010 release Tomorrow Morning, is available on iTunes. EELS also performed the main titles song "Calling For Your Love" in the new Cirque du Soleil film Wolrds Away. The song is now streaming HERE. To celebarate the release of their upcoming album Wonderful, Glorious, out February 5 on E Works/Vagrant Records, EELS will embark on a world tour kicking off February 14 in Santa Ana, California and include dates across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe. The tour will wrap up on April 24 in Paris; please see below for a complete list of dates. Tickets are available HERE.
The ever-changing project of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett (aka K), EELS recorded Wonderful, Glorious at Everett's new Los Feliz, CA studio. Dubbed "The Compound," the new space invigorated Everett's writing process. "It was exciting," he says, "it filled me with hope for limitless possibilities. And I realized I'd had a similar feeling when I first put the band together for the last two tours." The band, which features guitarists The Chet and P-Boo, bass player Koool G Murder and drummer Knuckles, all had a hand in the writing of Wonderful, Glorious. "The only rule I had was 'let's try it,'" says Everett. "If anyone in The Room had an idea, I'd say 'let's try it.'"
In the four years prior to his album trilogy, Everett embarked on a number of projects including his acclaimed autobiography Things the Grandchildren Should Know and the BBC-produced multiple-award winning Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives documentary film about E and his quantum physicist father, Hugh Everett III, which was broadcast on PBS' Nova series in the U.S., fall of 2008. "All this time during the making of all these other projects, I was always writing and recording music," says Everett. "Every time I branch out and try something else, I think it will be some kind of relief to take a break from music. But I always come back with my tail between my legs, because there's nothing I enjoy more than making music. The other projects have been great experiences for me, but this is what I love to do."
February 14 Santa Ana, CA The Observatory
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Front Group
Tea Party ties to Koch Brothers Ignored by Media in IRS Scandal
10 out of 11 Tea Party spokespeople quoted in major news outlets regarding the IRS scandal have ties to the Koch funded Americans for Prosperity.
The Internal Revenue Service, not the most popular government agency to begin with, has been in the midst of a scatological squall for the past 3 weeks over their treatment of tea party groups. According to an agency spokesperson, organizations garnered additional scrutiny of their applications for non-profit status for having "Tea Party, Patriot, or 9/12" in the application materials. Non-profit status is granted by the IRS for "social welfare organizations" and federal law puts legal limits to the amount of overtly political things you can do if you are applying to be a non-profit, and thus tax-exempt.
In the coverage of this story, now a scandal, there are a couple of important facts that some of the reporting has missed.
First is the fact that the tea party is a creation of enterprising political and public relations professionals, constructed to accomplish a political purpose. A study published in the Tobacco Control Journal actually traced the origins of the tea party to "free-market" groups founded by tobacco corporations and the oil industry billionaires David and Charles Koch.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="738"] This map, created by researchers at UC San Francisco, shows the historical links between tobacco corporations, moneyed interests like the Koch brothers, and the modern tea party.[/caption]
According to researchers at UC San Francisco:
"Rather than being a grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party organizations have had connections to the tobacco companies since the 1980s. The cigarette companies funded and worked through Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), the predecessor of Tea Party organizations, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, to accomplish their economic and political agenda."
Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), was founded in 1984 by the Koch brothers.
There is even a tea party website registered to a Koch group in 2005, long before the conservative outcry we now know as the tea party began.
The second thing to keep in mind is that the tea party is still controlled by enterprising political and public relations professionals, funded by the David and Charles Koch. In coverage of the IRS scandal, there were 11 people who were involved in tea party groups quoted about IRS scrutiny. Of those 11, 10 have substantial ties to Americans for Prosperity (AFP). As you can see from the chart above, AFP (also founded and funded by the Kochs), is the direct descendent of CSE - one of the groups who registered a tea party site in 2005. Of those 10 with ties to AFP, 2 actually work for the organization currently. All 10 have received aid from AFP which included help with messaging and communication.
The tea party groups that were scrutinized by the IRS are not just separate grassroots citizen groups unfairly accused of political shenanigans, as the Koch associated spokespeople in the media would have you believe. They are one part of a wider political strategy, funded and managed by a very wealthy few. they have uniform and coordinated messages, such as attacking climate science and opposing environmental regulations.
As this IRS scandal progresses, it is important to keep in mind that many of the tea party groups in question deserve to have their non-profit, tax-exempt status questioned. The New York Times has already found that several tea party groups investigated by the IRS were engaged in activities that are illegal for tax exempt groups.
For the record, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network experienced expensive and debilitating audits by the IRS during George W Bush's presidency. Those audits were most likely at the behest of an Exxon funded front group.
Tea Party Spokespeople with ties to Americans For Prosperity (AFP)
Tom Zawistowski: quoted in the Wall Street Journal and other sources
- AFP funded his tea party conference
Margie Dresher: Quoted by ABC news
- Currently works for AFP
Toby Marie Walker: Quoted by Business Insider
- earned the "Watchdog of the Month" award in March and the "Tea Party Leader of the Year -2010" from Americans for Prosperity
Jennifer Stefano: Quoted by ABC news
- currently works for Americans for Prosperity as state director of Americans for Prosperity - Pennsylvania
Carol Waddell: Quoted by ABC news
- AFP trained Waddell and her Waco tea party group
- AFP coordinated and helped fund the "Waco Tea Party's Grassroots- Campaign, Leadership & Activist Survival School"
- Waddell and the Waco tea party joined tax day protest organized by AFP:
Tim Savaglio: Quoted by the Associated Press
- AFP trained Savaglio and his tea party group in tactics and messaging
Jaime Radtke: Quoted in ABQ Journal, Newsday
- Radke was a key speaker at the "Smart Girl Summit", funded by AFP
- Radke, who is running for state senate in Virginia, has an "alliance" with AFP
Larry Norvig: Quoted by CNN
- Norvig's tea party group is part of AFP campaigns
- Norvig's tea party group in Virginia runs AFP funded campaigns and displays AFP messaging prominently on their website
Tim Curtis: Quoted by CNN
- Curtis is a speaker at AFP events
Susan McLaughlin: Quoted in Reuters
- AFP ran tactics and messaging strategy training for Mclaughlin's group in Liberty Township, Ohio.
- McLaughlin served on the Romney campaign's Conservative Leadership Coalition with representatives from AFP
Jay Devereaux: Quoted by Fox News
- The only tea party spokesman quoted in the media with no obvious ties to AFP
Dominion: Dump ALEC! Protesters Confront Polluters on ALEC's Home Turf
Click here to add your voice: tell Dominion to Dump ALEC!
- Bill Euille - Mayor of Alexandria VA
- Joe Romm - Physicist and Founder of Climate Progress
- Jonathan Lykes - Co- Chair Black Youth Project 100, D.C. Chapter
- Jorge Aguilar - Southern Region Director at Food & Water Watch
- Priscilla Lin - Recent graduate of William and Marry College and Volunteer with Oceana
- Ivy Main - Chair Sierra Club Virginia Chapter and member of Virginia Governor's Climate Commission
- Seth Heald - Vice Chair, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter
Building Pressure on Dominion to Dump ALEC:
@PolluterWatch Live Tweets from the Protest:
Mayor @BillEuille calls on dirty utility @DomVApower to embrace #cleanenergy and dump @ALEC_States #ALECexposed #StandUpToALEC — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
.@climateprogress Joe Romm: @domvapower support for @ALEC_states is "immoral." 'Corps dont need livable #climate, people do.' #alecexposed — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Romm: Thomas Jefferson wouldnt support ALEC disregard 4 sustainability, #climate policy interference. #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/jdMJTBuIJw — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
.@sierraclub's ishmael buckner moderates ALEC protest calling on @domvapower to #DumpALEC! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/tWztkOwP1s — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
.@jonathanlykes calls for unity among siloed movements to #StandUpToALEC! @damvapower dump ALEC! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/sQv2rGpi7h — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Student Priscilla stands up for recognition of #climate science - someone tell @domvapower! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/zaDkYIMgbG — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Ivy Main on ALEC's anti-all-things-people policies for companies like @dompowerva #alexexposed #standuptoalec pic.twitter.com/iNxyjjEjqZ — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Creative paraphrasing of @jonathanlykes: @Domvapower - dont #StandYourGround on bad ALEC anti-person policies! pic.twitter.com/mGmOfs6k2W — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Protest wrapping up - time for @domvapower to #ActOnClimate and dump @alec_states! #alecexposed #standuptoalec pic.twitter.com/bREoWKSfiE — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014
Man Who Defrauded EPA calls EPA "Fraudulent" on FOX
If you're John Stossel and you want to host a segment to rail against the US Environmental Protection Agency, who ought you call?
It turns out, a man who was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for defrauding the EPA!
Stossel's guest last night, Jay Lehr, was sentenced to six months--serving three--in a minimum security federal prison back in 1991, and his organization at the time was fined $200,000. So Jay Lehr knows about EPA corruption better than anyone: he was the guy caught "falsifying employee time sheets on a government contract" for EPA, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Ironically, Lehr told Stossel that EPA is "fraudulent" in estimates of amounts of pollution that pose hazards to people's health, such as particulate matter in coal pollution, estimated to prematurely kill 13,000 Americans every year, according to the American Lung Association.
Jay Lehr is now the "science director" at a climate chance science denying organization called The Heartland Institute, which has received money from coal mining company Murray Energy.
John Stossel did not mention Lehr's fraud conviction. Perhaps he didn't know his guest defrauded US taxpayers, but Stossel and Lehr share a flair for denial of global warming for polluting corporations like Koch Industries, which has financial ties to both men. Heartland is part of the Koch brothers-funded State Policy Network--the massive apparatus of state-based and national front groups that push political agendas that are favorable to billionaire executives like Charles Koch. Heartland itself has received money from Koch foundations.
Stossel hosts "Stossel in the Classroom," a product of the Koch-funded Center for Independent Thought. When Stossel ran a TV segment in 2009 that was intended to mislead students about the scientific reality of climate change, Koch's Claude Lambe Foundation gave CIT $35,000. The Center for Independent Thought has continued to receive money from Koch foundations every year since, according to IRS tax filings.
According to a Heartland Institute email advertising Lehr's attendance on Stossel's show, Mr. Lehr's relevance in attacking the EPA comes from a Heartland report he wrote urging the agency to be "systematically dismantled." This coming from a group soliciting money from coal company Murray Energy, former ExxonMobil lobbyist Randy Randol and the Charles Koch Foundation.
This all fits into the framework that is becoming nauseatingly familiar to American voters: billionaires pull the strings, and our voices don't matter. Stossel is just one of many Koch-funded or Koch friendly media personalities that wrap Charles Koch's values in patriotic rhetoric and un-factual packaging. Meanwhile, people like Jay Lehr at groups like Heartland continue to carry Koch's water into the policy arena, influencing politicians to do things like undermine enforcement of laws to reduce air and water pollution or mitigate dangerous climate change.
Source: David Lore, "Minimum Security, Maximum Cost: State Spends $53,000 Per Prison Bed to House Mostly Nonviolent Criminals," Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) September 6, 1992.
USA V. LEHR, ET AL, Case Number: 2:91-CR-00068, Charges Filed 04/26/1991, U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio.
Hat tip to Deep Climate, Russel Seitz and Thomas Miles for leading to primary sources on Jay Lehr's conviction.
Heartland Institute Climate Change Denier James Taylor PWND on TV
(Not an internet nerd liek the author? Check out what "pwn" means...)
SHOWTIME's Years of Living Dangerously series just aired a segment featuring James Taylor, a lawyer who has been paid to confuse the public over the reality of climate change, its causes, and its impact on humanity. The Heartland Institute, where James Taylor works, is know for alienating its corporate supporters by comparing people like you and me--assuming you recognize the reality of climate change--to the Unabomber, Charles Manson, and Osama bin Laden.
I wish I was joking, but I'm not.
The joke was on James Taylor, last night. Taylor made an easily disprovable boast to America Ferrera, claiming, "I'm a scientist by training as well," apparently in addition to his law degree. See a teaser of that interaction here:
When pushed for an explanation--since Taylor holds no degree in science--he misrepresents himself:
"I successfully completed Ivy League atmospheric science courses, so I'm a scientist by training."
Who'd would've thought? Apparently if we all want to be scientists, we just need to take a course or two in science!
That means there must be thousands, perhaps millions of people in this country who qualify as scientists in James Taylor's world. Unless, of course, you have to take your science classes at the Ivy Leagues--I'll follow up with Taylor about that and let you know what he thinks.
After trying to spin his lack of expertise as full credentials, Taylor invokes the long-debunked "Oregon Petition" as supposed proof against climate change, despite the petition's inception as a tactic of the fossil fuel industry, its lack of climate experts as signatories, and its inclusion of fictitious characters like the Spice Girls.
As Lisa Graves at the Center for Media and Democracy explains in the Years of Living Dangerously segment,
"The scientific evidence is really against them, but they say things so boldly and stridently that it makes some people believe that they must be telling the truth."
She's right. It has to take a lot effort, creativity and sheer willpower to make a career pretending the obvious does not exist.
Imagine if The Heartland Institute's staff spent their time and money working on real solutions to these problems. Imagine if people like Koch and Murray felt the inevitable need for a shift, and put their skills as businesspeople into solutions-based entrepreneurship.
Unfortunately, these fossil fuel executives would rather fight against inevitable future trends, just like the Tobacco industry fought tooth and nail against scientific evidence of the dangers of smoking. In fact, The Heartland Institute continues to wage Big Tobacco's campaign. Check out this recent video of Heartland's president, Joe Bast, caught in an embarrassing contradiction of his own claims denying the health impacts of smoking:
The Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity and other fossil fuel industry front groups have united to kill incentives for wind energy in Kansas. Affiliated under the banner of the State Policy Network, these groups have also coordinated against clean energy in states like North Carolina and Ohio, where dirty energy giants may score a victory against renewable industry jobs.
So far, most of the State Policy Network attacks on clean energy have failed. As Years of Living Dangerously examines in Kansas, leasing land for wind farms has benefited farmers like Pete Ferrell, who faced impossible economic conditions from recent extreme droughts, made worse by climate change, leasing land to the wind industry has provided crucial income.
Because of farmers like Pete, and blue-collar wind workers and other citizens who are pleased with getting energy from sources that doesn't poison their air, water or climate, Kansas politicians have now defeated attacks on renewable energy incentives three times in the last two years. More are likely to come, as companies like Duke Energy and Peabody coal don't want clean energy competitors, while executives at Koch Industries and Murray Energy Corporation still combat the science of climate change with the finance of misinformation.
That means we will continue to see people like James Taylor, popping up on our TV sets and our state legislatures, lying about whatever he's paid to lie about. Keep your eyes peeled.
Heartland Institute lawyer James Taylor, as illustrated in Greenpeace's report on climate change deniers: "Dealing in Doubt"
Heartland Institute CEO Joe Bast has his own Tobacco-Cancer Denial Read to his Face
Well, this is the most embarrassed that the Heartland Institute has been since...21 days ago when they were run in circles for their denial of climate change at the National Press Club! To get a sense of how bad a month it has been for the liars at Heartland, footage of that humiliating event is available on Stark Reports.
And now, hat tip to Lee Fang and Nick Surgey posting on Republic Report for this cringe-worthy confrontation of Heartland Institute CEO Joseph Bast's ongoing shilling for tobacco companies. Bast denied writing a 1998 opinion article dismissing the health hazards of smoking cigarettes. Watch him eat his own words, hard, as the ghosts of propaganda-past revisit him.
Rather than accept the undeniable truth about cigarettes and cancer, Bast decided to stand by his own lies from over fifteen years ago. His article, "Five Lies About Tobacco," is still on Heartland's website. Funny how Bast suddenly remembered the piece after having it read back to him, blaming an anonymous pulmonologist he has lost contact with in order to defend the ludicrous claim that smoking seven cigarettes per day won't hurt you.
Right Joe. I'm sure you remember that as of 2012, Heartland still solicited funding from tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds American for funding, according to Heartland's own fundraising plan.
The clip was filmed at a coal industry convention. In recent years, Heartland has received funding from private coal mining company Murray Energy Corporation (MEC). CEO Bob Murray is so out-of-touch on climate science that other coal interests have trouble working with MEC, much like Joe Bast's extremely dishonest views even alienate others operatives in the small world of climate change denial.
We here at PolluterWatch have confronted Mr. Bast about his denial of climate change science at the behest of companies like Murray, the Koch brothers and anonymous billionaires like Barre Seid:
Climate Investigations Center: Craig Idso and Heartland Institute Climate Change Denial "NIPCC" Report
Crossposted from the Climate Investigations Center, written by Kert Davies (a former Greenpeace employee).
Background briefing, April 2014
Craig Idso: "Climate change is good for you"
This week the Heartland Institute will release another chapter of its NIPCC, the "not the IPCC" document that will tell you the opposite of the main message that's been coming from the prestigious IPCC, namely that climate change is a threat to security, food and mankind and especially a threat to the world's poor, along with ecosystems worldwide including coral reefs, polar regions, and the wildlife and myriad of creatures these ecosystems support.
Heartland Institute on the other hand, in its NIPCC "Climate Change Reconsidered II: the Biological Impacts" document, will say that climate change is good for the world, will have a net benefit for both plants and human health. This is the latest line run by right wing think tanks like Heartland, the coal industry's ACCCE coalition, Peabody Coal, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and echoed across the blogosphere by climate deniers.
This set of messaging and all 'reports' to back this line, all appear to be coming from one organization, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, and specifically from its chairman and former president, Craig Idso, one of the NIPCC's lead authors, who has been arguing the same "C02 is beneficial" line for nearly 20 years, along with his father, Sherwood Idso.
Craig Idso, his father Sherwood B. Idso, and brother Keith Idso, founded Arizona-based organization in 1998.
The Center's claimed mission is to "separate reality from rhetoric in the emotionally-charged debate that swirls around the subject of carbon dioxide and global change." Its main publication is CO2 Science, a weekly magazine that features articles questioning the science verifying man-made climate change and its impacts.
In 2012, leaked documents from the Heartland Institute revealed that they were paying Craig Idso $11,600 a month for his NIPCC work. We do not know how much Idso has been paid since that time, or prior.
The organization's total funding peaked in 2009 at $1.5 million a year. Funders have included ExxonMobil (total, $100,000 since 1998), Donors Trust, Sarah Scaife Foundation and a number of other right wing funders. See Conservative Transparency for a recent (but not full) breakdown. The Center's IRS 990's are here at Citizen Audit.
Publications produced by Craig Idso, with members of C02Science,org:
- In 2011 he and Sherwood wrote a book entitled "The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment".
- Idso has produced a series of video documentaries espousing his theory of C02's beneficial effect on plant life.
- Keith and Sherwood Idso wrote a paper in 1992 about how C02 benefits plant life, referenced in the NIPCC's Summary for Policymakers.
After founding the organisation, Idso got his PhD in geography at Arizona State University under the tutelage of one of the very early climate deniers employed by the fossil fuel industry, Robert C Balling Jr.
More resources at DeSmogBlog: Craig Idso; Sherwood Idso
Idso, the Greening Earth Society and the Western Fuels Association
Robert Balling, Idso's mentor, was one of the leading scientists paid by the Greening Earth Society, the climate science-denying front group created by the Western Fuels Association, one of the first and earliest coal industry groups funding the denial of climate change. But the coal industry's line was not 'climate denial' but 'climate change is good for you'. The Western Fuels Association is a cooperative of utilities and power companies supplying coal from the Powder River Basin in the western U.S.
Robert Balling was one of the seven scientists deployed by Western Fuels in the 1990s to challenge the prevailing consensus in climate science. Other names included some who are still on the core climate denial team today: Willie Soon and Patrick Michaels.
It was the Greening Earth Society for which Craig and Keith Idso penned a paper in 1995: "The Greening of the American West: The Atmosphere's Rising CO2 Concentration Is Stimulating Woody Plant Growth in the U.S. Forests, Grasslands, and Deserts."
Idso, Fred Palmer and Peabody Coal
From its inception, the Chair and CEO of the Western Fuels Association and the Greening Earth Society was Fred Palmer, who was also a registered lobbyist for the Western Fuels Association, a coalition of utility and coal companies.
Palmer is now the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Peabody Energy (Peabody Coal). (Guardian backgrounder 2011), and was in the media in 2010 leading the charge for "green coal." He chaired the World Coal Association from 2010 to 2012. Peabody is behind the recent climate denial hub "Advanced Energy for Life" campaign, working with Burson Marsteller as revealed by Climate Investigations Center.
From 2001-2002, Craig Idso served as Director of Environmental Science at Peabody Energy in St. Louis, MO. This was to set up the long relationship with the company that continues to this day.
Idso and ACCCE Tout the Social Benefits of Carbon
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is an industry group promoting coal, of which Peabody coal is a key corporate member.
There is a major fight heating up at the State and Federal level on how we set what the government calls the Social Cost of Carbon, a metric calculated by the Government on the harm carbon (C02) does the economy, to our health and to the planet. These social costs range from the medical bills and lost workdays (when a mother has to take her asthmatic child to the hospital), all the way to the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities.
In 2013, the EPA recalculated the social cost of carbon and increased the figure to $35 per metric ton, up from $21.
ACCCE and Peabody Coal retaliated by questioning why the Obama EPA didn't included analysis of the benefits of CO2, enhancing agriculture, for instance.
As part of this argument, ACCCE released a report in January, entitled "The Social Costs of Carbon. No, the Social Benefits of Carbon" claiming the government is vastly underestimating the social benefits of coal as well as the benefits from the carbon dioxide pollution produced by burning that coal, including enhancing photosynthesis and agricultural productivity. DeSmogBlog has more details.
Footnotes of the report reveal ACCCE commissioned Craig Idso to undertake a study that appears to be a rehash of the work he has done for 20 years. Idso's contracted study, titled "The Positive Externalities of Carbon Dioxide," which makes up a large part of Chapter III of the ACCCE "Social Benefits" report.
Idso and ALEC
Idso's "benefits of C02" was also a topic at the 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual meeting. According to Sourcewatch, he spoke at a workshop of state legislators that was to be titled "Warming Up to Climate Change: The Many Benefits of Increased Atmospheric CO2." The title was later changed to "Benefit Analysis of CO2".
Idso was joined in that workshop by two other speakers and fellow climate skeptics, Roger Helmer and Robert Ferguson.[8]
ALEC has also used that same "CO2 is beneficial" line in submissions to the EPA.
Idso told the audience that we "should let CO2 rise unrestricted, without government intervention", a very different recommendation than that emanating from the IPCC and the vast majority of the world's climate scientists.
AAAS "What We Know" Initiative: Same Denial, Different Issue - From Ozone Depletion to Climate Change
It must be like Groundhog Day for Mario Molina, the scientist who has presided over the American Association for the Advancement of Science's new report and publicity drive aimed at convincing Americans about the urgency of what's happening on climate change.
The normally reticent AAAS has taken a highly unusual step. There's no new science in it. Instead, it summarizes "what we know" on climate science, highlighting the 97% consensus on the issue and calling for action.
Why did they do it? The AAAS says it's becoming alarmed at the American public's views on climate change, stating in the opening paragraphs:
"Surveys show that many Americans think climate change is still a topic of significant scientific disagreement. Thus, it is important and increasingly urgent for the public to know there is now a high degree of agreement among climate scientists that human-caused climate change is real."
They're right: the latest Gallup Poll published this month shows that climate change is low on Americans' priority list, with 51% saying they worry about climate change very little – or not at all. And 42% said they believe the seriousness of the issue was "generally exaggerated."
The AAAS report also stated:
"It is not the purpose of this paper to explain why this disconnect between scientific knowledge and public perception has occurred."
That's not their job. But I bet they'd like to. Especially Mario Molina.
The reason for that American disconnect between scientific and public views on global warming is simple: it's the result of a 20-year campaign funded by the fossil fuel industry that profits from the very products causing it – oil, coal and gas. It's got nothing to do with science per se.
A brief history of that campaign is outlined in a report I wrote last year: "Dealing in Doubt" that catalogues the attacks on climate science, the IPCC and on the scientists themselves.
But what's that got to do with Mario Molina? Molina, now 70, was one of the researchers who discovered the chemistry around ozone depletion. He and two other scientists received the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work. Twenty years ago, he faced a remarkably similar campaign to what the climate scientists face today.
In 1992, Molina was at a gathering of scientists in Brazil, ahead of the Rio Earth Summit, and about to present a 30-minute talk on ozone depletion. He was dumbfounded when the presenter before him told the assembled scientists that the ozone depletion theory was a sham. He later told the AAAS's Science magazine (full text here):
"Given enough time I could have carefully rebutted his objections. They sounded reasonable but they were only pseudoscientific."
At the time, in the face of increasing scientific certainty, there was a (successful) push to strengthen the Montreal Protocol, to further regulate CFCs to stop ozone depletion. The fight was on.
The Science article went on to outline how talk show host Rush Limbaugh was leading the charge against the ozone science, labeling the issue a "massive conspiracy" promulgated by "dunderhead alarmists and prophets of doom."
Limbaugh claimed the only reason scientists were working on ozone depletion was because "they always want more funding, and today that means government funding. What could be more natural than for [NASA], with the space program winding down, to say that because we have this unusual amount of chlorine in the atmosphere, we need funding."
This is one of the main mantras of the climate science deniers today – they're only in it for the funding. They also get labeled "alarmists" and "doomsayers" amongst other things. Same arguments, different subject.
Enter S. Fred Singer, a serial denier who cut his teeth on tobacco science, before moving on to ozone depletion and global warming. In a 1995 article, he said this on ozone depletion:
"The facts are that the scientific underpinnings are quite shaky: the data are suspect; the statistical analyses are faulty; and the theory has not been validated… The science simply does not support this premature and abrupt removal of widely used chemicals—at great cost to the economy."
It's telling that one of Singer's early articles, "My adventures on the ozone layer," can be found today on the Heartland Institute website. This is the same Heartland Institute that last year employed Singer to help work on its "NIPCC" report, designed to confuse a casual observer with the similarity to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) while using debunked arguments to suggest there isn't a problem – which couldn't be farther from the truth.
In 1996, Singer told a House Committee there was no scientific consensus on ozone depletion. He went on to use the high-cost argument, and brought in a new theme that is very much prevalent in today's anti climate arguments: that it would hurt the developing world.
"We are flying blind on this issue, at a huge cost to the U.S. economy and ultimately to every American household. In less developed countries, absence of low-cost refrigeration--for food preservation and vaccines--could, unfortunately, exact an even higher price in human lives."
Two years later, Singer was even advocating putting mirrors in the sky to stop ozone depletion. That article can be found on another think tank website, the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The CEI set up the Cooler Heads Coalition. But its extensive ExxonMobil funding was dropped in 2007 because the company said their campaign "diverted attention" from a real conversation about how to tackle climate change.
Meanwhile, over at the Marshall Institute, Fred Seitz and Sallie Baliunas had also picked up the cause, with Baliunas arguing that it was the sun and other natural factors causing the problem:
"Scientific findings do not support an immediate ban on CFC's. Both global and Arctic measurements point to natural factors as the main cause of recent ozone fluctuations. Ozone levels change primarily as the result of natural factors such as the ultraviolet output of the sun, oscillation of upper stratosphere winds and El Nino conditions."
Sunspots is one of the main denialist arguments used against global warming today, notably by Baliunas's colleague, Willie Soon. A later Marshall Institute report about global warming, ozone depletion and tobacco science was picked up and pushed by Phillip Morris.
No consensus, science unsettled, the sun, El Nino, in it for the funding, doomsayers, solutions will hurt the poor, natural variations: all these arguments are run today around global warming science by, amongst others, the Heartland Institute, the CEI, the Marshall Institute, S Fred Singer, Baliunas, Limbaugh and others.
The late climate scientist Steve Schneider described the problem as being "caught between the exaggerations of the advocates, the exploitations of political interests, the media's penchant to turn everything into a boxing match and your own colleagues saying we should be above this dirty business and stick to the bench."
The AAAS appears to have gotten off of that bench, not least because they're worried about Americans sleepwalking into climate chaos, cheered on by industry.
But the bottom line, as the AAAS has stated in no uncertain terms, is this: "human-caused climate change is happening, we face risks of abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes, and responding now will lower the risk and cost of taking action."
Perhaps our elected leaders might also like to spend some time reading it.
NC to Duke Energy: Have You Dumped ALEC Yet?
Amid a dump of leaked American Legislative Exchange Council documents published by The Guardian last week, North Carolina is asking Duke Energy: Have you finally dumped ALEC?
NC WARN and ProgressNC have both raised the question, based on Duke Energy's inclusion in a list of "Lapsed" private sector ALEC members featured in The Guardian and an article in the Raleigh News & Observer.
ALEC's notes for Duke Energy's lapsed membership, as of April 22, 2013, only say "Merged with Progress Energy, new contacts," indicating that Duke's absence was only temporary as new personnel were assigned to participate in ALEC's work. Duke and Progress merged into the largest U.S. utility company last year.
Duke Energy, North Carolina's monopoly utility company, has long been a member of ALEC. Last year, Duke Energy refused to leave ALEC even after being petitioned, emailed and called by over 150,000 people to defect. ALEC's controversial legacy includes blocking climate change policies as part of Big Oil's 1998 master plan, the NRA's Stand Your Ground laws, which increase homicide rates, and "Voter ID" bills that suppress legitimate American voters, especially students, the elderly and people with brown skin.
While Duke Energy has resisted calls to dump ALEC, it has responded to the pressure by distancing itself from several items on ALEC's dirty lobbying laundry list:
- Duke has repeatedly pushed back on any association with ALEC's Stand Your Ground and voter suppression laws.
- Duke's call for action to address global warming clash with ALEC's legacy of climate change denial, including new draft policies to interfere with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas rules, and a bill that forces teachers to misrepresent climate change science to their students, now law in at least four states, thanks to state legislators implementing ALEC's model bills.
- Duke has explicitly denounced ALEC's attacks on state Renewable Portfolio Standards-laws to increase utility electricity generation from cleaner sources. Duke takes credit for helping create North Carolina's RPS.
So why has Duke Energy resisted popular pressure to leave ALEC, including from its own ratepayers? If Duke doesn't like ALEC's history shilling for climate change deniers, nor the National Rifle Association, nor the Republican party's voter disenfranchisement strategies, what is making Duke stay?
ALEC's new attacks on rooftop solar electricity producer are right in line with Duke Energy's attempt to pay back 29% less to homeowners whose solar panels feed extra electricity back into the grid, despite the fact that these homeowners fronted the costs of installing and maintaining solar panels themselves.
Duke is terrified of the prospect of rooftop solar energy, which threatens its century-old monopoly business model. Duke is used to being the dominant company providing power to North Carolina residents, and they can basically charge customers as much as they want. More customers are choosing to install their own solar panels as the technology rapidly becomes cheaper, keeping money in the pockets of ratepayers rather than Duke's executives.
ALEC's Updating Net Metering Policies Resolution, discussed last week at its States and Nation Policy Summit in Washington, DC, would complement dirty utilities like Duke Energy that are working to make it more costly for people to feed their own solar power into the electrical grid. See here for ALEC's new anti-environmental resolutions.
Which Utilities will be Using ALEC's State Lawmakers to Attack Solar Energy?
The new ALEC resolution was crafted with help from lobbyists at Edison Electric Institute, the primary trade association for Duke and most other large U.S. utility companies.
EEI's roster also includes Arizona Public Service (APS), the utility that tried to force Arizona's residential solar electricity producers to pay $50 per month for feeding unused electricity back into the grid. In the end, the monthly fee was reduced to $5 per month, which still serves as a disincentive for homeowners to install their own solar panels.
As it sought to make net metering more expensive for small-scale solar producers, APS lied to the public, denying its funding of anti-solar TV advertisements run by Koch brothers front groups.
APS recently rejoined ALEC after disassociating for a short year. ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force includes APS and presumably Duke Energy, among other dirty energy giants. The EEA task force is governed by American Electric Power's Paul Loeffelman and Wyoming state Representative Thomas Lockhart, friend of the coal industry.
Duke Can Still Do the Right Thing
Duke Energy needs to make its intentions clear.
The company can go with the Koch brothers, ALEC, and companies like APS, and financially punish North Carolinians who choose to produce their own electricity. Or, it can finally dump ALEC, its bad policies and anti-democratic processes and shift to a business model that embraces the power of the sun. It can continue to plan around a cost on carbon emissions and phase out dirty coal that aggravates everything from climate change to water pollution to asthma.
We hope to get the right answer from Duke Energy soon.
Oops! CEO of Corporate Front Network Lied to Reporters - State Policy Network
Last week, the Center for Media and Democracy and ProgressNow released a series of reports on how the State Policy Network coordinates an agenda carried out by affiliate "Stink Tanks" in all 50 states. Responding to questions from reporters, SPN's CEO Tracie Sharp demanded that each of the seemingly independent groups were "fiercely independent."
But Jane Mayer at the New Yorker reports Tracie Sharp said the opposite to attendees of SPN's recent annual meeting. In Oklahoma City last September, Ms. Sharp plainly told her associates how to coordinate a broad agenda and pander directly to the interests of billionaire funders like the Koch brothers and the Searle family for grants:
Sharp went on to say that, like IKEA, the central organization would provide "the raw materials" along with the "services" needed to assemble the products. Rather than acting like passive customers who buy finished products, she wanted each state group to show the enterprise and creativity needed to assemble the parts in their home states. "Pick what you need," she said, "and customize it for what works best for you." During the meeting,
Sharp also acknowledged privately to the members that the organization's often anonymous donors frequently shape the agenda. "The grants are driven by donor intent," she told the gathered think-tank heads. She added that, often, "the donors have a very specific idea of what they want to happen." She said that the donors also sometimes determined in which states their money would be spent.
Tracie Sharp responded to the New Yorker with a generic statement that didn't address her contradictory statements. And who knows if there's anything useful she could say at this point, The State Policy Network was just caught with its pants down.
For those who don't spend their days reading about the inner workings of the corporate-conservative political machine, the State Policy Network isn't a familiar name. But it's an important entity. SPN serves as the umbrella of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and all of its state and national allies pushing a coordinated corporate-friendly agenda through all 50 states.
SPN and ALEC have led the coordinated attack on clean energy in states like North Carolina, Kansas and now Ohio. Dozens of SPN groups are longtime players in the Koch-funded climate change denial movement. By orchestrating against policies to lessen global warming impacts or by directly undermining the science, SPN's efforts have ranged from urging inaction on global climate treaties and forcing teachers to misrepresent climate science to their students.
Beyond shilling for the coal, oil, gas and nuclear companies bankrolling ALEC and SPN's operations, these coordinated entities attack public employee unions, wages and pensions, block Medicaid expansion, suppress legitimate voters, push to defund and privatize schools, and undermine choice in women's health.
And who pays for SPN's work in all 50 states?
SPN's main purpose is to advance the interests of its corporate funders: dirty coal and petrochemical industries, the tobacco giants, agribusiness, pharmaceutical companies, private education firms, tech and telecom companies, and the usual web of trade associations, law firms and lobby shops paid to represent each of those industries. Corporations use SPN to advance political campaigns they are typically embarrassed to associate with publicly.
The State Policy Network also serves to advance an ideological agenda that tends to undermine the interests of most Americans in favor of those who are particularly wealthy and well-connected.
The Koch brothers fit this description, of course. But they're joined by a legion of lesser known multi-millionaires and billionaires, sometimes coordinating directly with the Kochs.
These SPN funders include Richard Mellon Scaife, Phil Anschutz, Art Pope, the Coors family, the DeVos family, the Searle family, and the remains of the Bradley family fortune, to name a few of the better known of these sources of dark money. Few citizens recognize the names of this quiet minority of political puppetmasters, but people still feel the bruise of plutocratic spending as state and national politics are pushed to new extremes.
More on the State Policy Network can be read in the National Stink Tanks report. SourceWatch has the full list of SPN members and affiliates and SPN funders.
Ohio Clean Energy still in Koch & ALEC crosshairs
Crossposted from Greenpeace's blog: The Witness.
Ohio is currently fighting this year's final battle in a nationally-coordinated attack on clean energy standard laws, implemented by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other groups belonging to the secretive corporate front group umbrella known as the State Policy Network (SPN).
ALEC and SPN members like the Heartland Institute and Beacon Hill Institute failed in almost all of their coordinated attempts to roll back renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in over a dozen states--laws that require utilities to use more clean energy over time. After high profile battles in North Carolina and Kansas, and more subtle efforts in states like Missouri and Connecticut, Ohio remains the last state in ALEC's sites in 2013.
ALEC Playbook Guides the Attack on Ohio Clean Energy
After Ohio Senator Kris Jordan's attempt to repeal Ohio's RPS went nowhere, ALEC board member and Ohio State Senator William Seitz is now using ALEC's new anti-RPS bills to lead another attack on the Ohio law--see Union of Concerned Scientists.
ALEC's newly-forged Renewable Energy Credit Act allows for RPS targets to be met through out-of-state renewable energy credits (RECs) rather than developing new clean energy projects within Ohio's borders. RECs have varying definitions of renewable energy depending on the region they originate from, lowering demand for the best, cleanest sources of power and electricity.
Sen. Bill Seitz's SB 58 takes advantages of existing provisions of Ohio's RPS law and tweaks other sections to mirror the key aspects of ALEC's Renewable Energy Credit Act. His RPS sneak-attack is matched by House Bill 302, introduced by ALEC member Rep. Peter Stautberg.
Just five years ago, Senator Seitz voted for Ohio's RPS law. Now, Seitz calls clean energy incentives "Stalinist."
Attacks on Ohio's Clean Energy Economy: Fueled by Dirty Energy Profits
Most of ALEC's money comes from corporations and rich people like the Koch brothers, with a tiny sliver more from its negligible legislator membership dues ($50/year). This includes oil & gas giants like ExxonMobil ($344,000, 2007-2012) and Big Oil's top lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute ($88,000, 2008-2010). Exxon and API just two of dozens of dirty energy interests paying to be in the room during ALEC's exclusive Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force meetings.
Other polluting companies bankrolling ALEC's environmental rollbacks include Ohio operating utilities like Duke Energy and American Electric Power. AEP currently chairs ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force. Some of these companies (like Duke Energy and the American Petroleum Institute) pay into a slush fund run by ALEC that allows Ohio legislators and their families to fly to ALEC events using undisclosed corporate cash (see ALEC in Ohio, p. 6).
Ohio Senator Kris Jordan used corporate money funneled through ALEC to attend ALEC events with his wife (ALEC in Ohio, p. 7). With electric utilities as his top political donors, Sen. Jordan has dutifully introduced ALEC bills to repeal renewable energy incentives (SB 34), along with other ALEC priorities like redirecting public funds for private schools (SB 88, 2011), and blocking Ohio from contracting unionized companies (SB 89, 2011).
Koch-funded Spokes & Junk Data Bolsters the ALEC Attack
The behavior of Senator Bill Seitz indicates he's more beholden to ALEC and the dirty energy utilities dumping tens of thousands of dollars into his election campaigns* than his constituents. There is support from a majority of Ohioans for utilities to obtain at least 20% of their electricity from clean sources. Ohio veterans spoke up for the RPS for increasing the state's energy security and lowing wholesale energy costs.
Rather than listening to these voices from Ohio, Senator Seitz has sided with out-of-state Koch-funded mouthpieces invited to testify against the Ohio RPS. Back in March, Seitz heard anti-RPS testimony from The Heartland Institute's James Taylor, who repeated false claims that the RPS will make electricity unaffordable.
Taylor's assertions mimicked those made in a debunked series of reports written for ALEC's RPS attacks. The Ohio anti-RPS report was co-published by the Koch-funded Beacon Hill Institute and the American Tradition Institute (ATI), sister group to the Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute. ATI, now known as the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, was largely funded by Montana petroleum millionaire Doug Lair.
Senator Seitz also heard testimony from Daniel Simmons of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), who recited long-debunked statistics from the so-called "Spanish study" and "Danish study." Koch-funded groups have used these two papers for years to stifle clean energy growth in the United States. Daniel Simmons previously worked for ALEC and the Mercatus Center, which was founded by the Kochs. Heartland and the Institute for Energy Research have financial or personnel ties to the Kansas billionaire Koch brothers.
RPS and Energy Efficiency Are Helping Build Ohio's Economy
Thanks in part to energy efficiency incentives and the RPS law, Ohio's clean energy economy is expanding rapidly, with 25,000 Ohioans employed by 400 companies in the sector. Wind energy is set to expand rapidly, with the American Wind Energy Association projecting $10 billion in investments over the next decade, thanks to the RPS targeted by ALEC and its dirty companies through loyal politicians like Senator Seitz.
Not content to just weaken incentives for clean energy growth, Bill Seitz's SB 58 would also undermine energy efficiency standards, another item on ALEC's agenda. This despite a projected $2.7 billion in savings for Ohio by 2012, as directed by the efficiency and RPS laws.
No wonder ALEC got dumped by its wind and solar trade members.
*Since 2007, Senator Seitz has received $46,450 from coal utilities that are ALEC member companies:
- $21,500 from American Electric Power (AEP)
$15,300 from Duke Energy
- $4,800 of this bundled from Duke Employees in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana during the 2008 election cycle
- $4,000 from NiSource
- $3,000 from Dominion
- $2,650 from the Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, a member of the nation's top dirty energy lobbying heavyweight, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
If you add contributions from FirstEnergy, AES subsidiary Dayton Power & Light, and the Ohio Coal Association, Sen. Seitz's coal money since 2007 tops $66,000.
ALEC's December, 2012 meeting in Washington, DC was heavily sponsored by coal companies, including AEP, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), and Edison Electric Institute, the utility trade group whose membership includes Duke Energy, AEP, NiSource, Dominion, AES and FirstEnergy.
Data aggregated by the National Institute for Money in State Politics - FollowTheMoney.org


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Max Bruch
Bruch was firmly placed within the conservative romantic tradition in nineteenth century Germany and can be seen as a natural successor to the fresh, lyrical style of Mendelssohn and Schumann. His opposition to progressives such as Liszt and Wagner earnt him the predictable tag of being "old-fashioned", but the raw emotional power of his music was never doubted.
His Violin Concerto No.1 is arguably one of the finest works for violin and orchestra ever composed, and although not wildly original in form or instrumental writing, its romantic lyricism is exceptional.
Bruch's work was quite diverse, from oratorios and concerti to traditional symphonic writing. Bruch even took an interest in Jewish religious music, and composed the popular quasi-cello concerto Kol Nidre, based on the Jewish prayer for the dead.
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SoHi claims Ice Challenge
The Kenai Central and Soldotna hockey squads went to overtime in a 3-all tie on the final night of the Peninsula Ice Challenge Saturday at the Soldotna Sports Center.
The tie means the Stars earn the tournament championship with a 2-0-1 record and five points, topping runner-up Eagle River (2-1-0, four points), third-place Kenai Central (1-1-1, three points) and last-place North Pole (0-3-0, zero points).
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Super moist! I didnt add raisins but did add crystallized ginger. Yummy...
Mini Pumpkin Spice Loaves
Oxmoor House
These mini-pumpkin bread loaves are flavored with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, filled with golden raisins, and topped with a sweet cream cheese frosting. If you're giving the loaves as gifts, you can put the frosting in a separate container for easier packaging.
Yield: 12 loaves
More From Oxmoor House
Recipe Time
Cook Time:
Prep Time:
Other: 10 Minutes
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
- 3/4 cup golden raisins
- 2 cups canned pumpkin
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Cream Cheese Icing
- Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.
- Combine flour and next 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add pecans and raisins, tossing to coat. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with pumpkin, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla.
- Spoon batter into 12 greased and floured 5" x 3" mini loaf pans. (We tested with Anolon nonstick 6-cavity mini loaf pans, filling each cup 2/3 full.) Bake at 325° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes, remove from pans, and let cool completely. Frost loaves with Cream Cheese Icing.
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Mini Pumpkin Spice Loaves Recipe at a Glance
- COURSE: Breads, Breakfast/Brunch
- CONVENIENCE: Gifts
- COOKING METHOD: Bake
- OCCASION: Autumn, Winter, Christmas, Thanksgiving
- PUBLICATION: Oxmoor House
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Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.
Robert Tew (via haemus)
summer lovin'
im really hoping for a summer heatwave so i can enjoy my evenings and weekends soaking it up in my garden with a tub of mint choc ice cream and shoving my dog in his paddling pool. thats all.


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The coolest place on the internet, according to this tagline.Ask • Archive • FAQ
Two teams, four decades, two championships: The former Baltimore Ravens owner, who controversially moved the Cleveland Browns from their home base in 1996, has died. Modell, a former NFL president who played a key role in bringing football to national television (most notably setting up the deal for "Monday Night Football"), says that he lost money by staying in Cleveland, which is why he eventually moved the team, which became the Baltimore Ravens. "This has been a very, very tough road for my family and me," he once said. "I leave my heart and part of my soul in Cleveland. But frankly, it came down to a simple proposition: I had no choice." Modell, who had to leave the team's branding and records back in Cleveland (where a new franchise eventually came to life), sold off most of his stake in the Ravens in 2004.
As a former Clevelander, all I have to say is fuck Art Modell.


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Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance
Article first published online: 7 JAN 2008
DOI: 10.1525/can.2004.19.2.226
Cultural Anthropology
Volume 19, Issue 2, pages 226–249, May 2004
Total views since August 2010: 42
Additional Information
How to Cite
Rouse, C. and Hoskins, J. (2004), Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance. Cultural Anthropology, 19: 226–249. doi: 10.1525/can.2004.19.2.226
Publication History
- Issue published online: 7 JAN 2008
- Article first published online: 7 JAN 2008
- Taboos;
- African American history;
- Islam;
- food;
- resistance
ABSTRACT Contemporary African American followers of Sunni Islam are self-consciously articulating a form of eating that they see as liberating them from the heritage of slavery, while also bringing them into conformity with Islamic notions of purity. In so doing, they participate in arguments about the meaning of "soul food," the relation between "Western" materialism and "Eastern" spirituality, and bodily health and its relation to mental liberation. Debates within the African American Muslim community show us how an older anthropological concern with food taboos can be opened up to history and to the experience of the past reinterpreted in terms of the struggles of the present.


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Amish Country Inn, Garden Gate Get-A-Way Bed & Breakfast, loves to send guests to the Holmes County Fair. Remember when back in time the entire town would come out to a County fair? There were corn dogs and cotton candy, ferris wheel rides, the prize steer on show from the farmer down the street... That is what the Holmes County Fair in Ohio is like. This summer the fair runs August 16-21, 2010 just outside of the village of Millersburg. In addition to the old-fashioned kind of fair displays and animals there is a lot of special music. The feature is on August 21 with a Johnny Cash Tribute performance. There is an entire schedule for the Holmes County Fair on the Internet. There are many other things to see and do during the week that the fair is going on and you can even take an Ohio Amish Country Tour. There is also an Art Show in Winesburg and big sale at Keim Lumber. After a busy day at the fair, or exploring Amish Country, you can unwind at the campfire at Garden Gate Get-A-Way Bed & Breakfast. Be sure to ask your innkeepers about other things to do in Holmes County, Ohio.
Written by Carol Steffey, Garden Gate Get-A-Way Bed & Breakfast, Millersburg, Ohio (330) 674-7608 www.garden-gate.com
Friday, August 6, 2010
Amish Country Inn Invites Guests to Holmes County Fair
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text: My name is Georgia Lee Barber, I'm 16 years old. A few, but hardly any of the pictures i post are taken by me, if you see a picture taken by you or of you please message me so i can reference you or remove it if you wish. Anyways, i hope you like my Tumblr, if not...oh well.


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I'm not sure if I've got this wrong or right, but I ordered my copy already anyway. According to amazon.com, the Lich King will be released on November 3rd, 2008:
Super Guest Man 9000 said...
Thats just retailers trying to cash in on pre-order money. They dont know a release date anymore than we do. Its just a guess.
superfrank said...
A|mazon have been saying it will be out since January 2008.
TBH that's fraud when they know for sure that no release date has been set.
Someone needs to do something about this.
Also, you must realize that e-commerce sites like amazon are databases. The release date is more than likely a required field for them to even create the entry. They have to put something in, you cant just leave a release date blank on something that people are ordering. Yes, they could have a place holder for the release date instead of choosing an actual date, but if the game/movie/etc was delayed and not released for months after the target, then they would have missed out on potential income if they dont list a specific date (accurate or not). It all comes down to buyer beware. If blizzard hasn't released a date, then use a little common sense and dont worry about what anybody else is saying.


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Summer Squash Casserole
This fresh-tasting side dish is excellent with any meat. It was a popular part of the meal served at the August wedding of our son James and his bride, Margret.—Carole Davis, Keene, New Hampshire
26-30 Servings
Prep: 20 min. Bake: 35 min.
18 cups sliced zucchini
yellow summer squash (about 6 pounds)
6 medium carrots, shredded
3 medium onions, chopped
1-1/2 cups butter,
3 cans (10-3/4 ounces
) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3 cups (24 ounces) sour cream
3 packages (8 ounces
) crushed stuffing mix
In a Dutch oven, saute squash, carrots and onions in 6 tablespoons
butter until tender; remove from the heat. Stir in soup and sour
cream. Melt the remaining butter; add to stuffing mix. Gently stir
into the squash mixture.
Transfer to two greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dishes. Bake,
uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until stuffing is heated
through. Yield: 26-30 servings.
Assemble casserole, cover and refrigerate. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
Nutritional Facts:
1 serving (1/2 cup) equals 188 calories, 14 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 41 mg cholesterol, 326 mg sodium, 11 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 3 g protein.
© Taste of Home 2014


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The BBC's iPlayer currently has a feature on the North Face of the Eiger.
The program, starring top mountain guide and UKC regular Kenton Cool is described as "A history of one of the world's most challenging mountains, the Eiger, and its infamous north face. The film gets to the heart of one of Europe's most notorious peaks, exploring its character and its impact on the people who climb it and live in its awesome shadow."
Sir Ranulph FIennes being guided by Kenton Cool on the Hinterstoisser Traverse, North Face of the Eiger
Kenton Cool, Jan 2008
© Dream Guides
Commenting on Facebook, Kenton Cool said:
"By all accounts I was on BBC 4 tonight climbing the Eiger....really must get a TV one of these days..."


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Book your room at Costantinopoli 104
Standard Double RoomMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 2 infants)
Standard Double Room Single UseMax Occupancy: 1 guest
Junior SuiteMax Occupancy: 4 guests (up to 3 children, 3 infants)
4-star romantic hotel in Naples (Historical Center) near National Archaeological Museum
This romantic hotel is located in the heart of Naples, walking distance from Second University of Naples, National Archaeological Museum, and Santa Chiara. Also nearby are Cathedral of Naples and Carthusian Monastery of San Martino.
Hotel Features
In addition to a bar/lounge, Costantinopoli 104 provides complimentary wireless Internet access, a rooftop terrace, and 24-hour room service.
Room Amenities
Televisions come with premium satellite channels. Guestrooms also feature complimentary wireless Internet access, air conditioning, and climate control.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Costantinopoli 104
At your hotel
A bar/lounge is on site where guests can unwind with a drink. A complimentary breakfast is offered. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access.
This romantic hotel also offers an outdoor pool, a rooftop terrace, and multilingual staff. Parking is available onsite for a surcharge.
Costantinopoli 104 has designated areas for smoking.
- Designated smoking areas
- Free Wi-Fi
- One meeting room
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- 24-hour front desk
- Total number of rooms - 19
- Number of floors - 3
- Complimentary newspapers in lobby
- Free breakfast
- Concierge services
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Fireplace in lobby
- Bar/lounge
- Babysitting or childcare
- Laundry facilities
- Garden
- Rooftop terrace
- Luggage storage
- Multilingual staff
- Porter/bellhop
- Room service (24 hours)
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Outdoor pool
Stay connected
Available in all rooms: Free Wi-Fi
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi
Park your car
Self parking (surcharge)
In your room
- Premium TV channels
- Pay movies
- Premium bedding
- Ceiling fan
- Air conditioning
- Phone
- Minibar
- Complimentary bottled water
- Daily housekeeping
- Designer toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Bidet
- Slippers
- Shower/tub combination
- Satellite TV service
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- In-room safe
- Desk
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Free Wi-Fi
- In-room massage available
- Soundproofed rooms
- Climate control
- Complimentary newspaper
Eat and drink
Guests are offered a complimentary continental breakfast.
24-hour room service is available.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Bicycle rentals nearby
- Scooter/moped rentals nearby
- Massages
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible path of travel
- In-room accessibility
The fine print for Costantinopoli 104
When you arrive
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
When you leave
Check-out time is Noon
How you can pay
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Diners Club, JCB International, MasterCard, Visa
Your pets
Pets allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- A tax is imposed by the city: EUR 2.50 per person, per night, up to 10 nights. This tax does not apply to children under 18 years of age.
- Self parking fee: EUR 20 per day
We should mention
Cash transactions at this property cannot exceed EUR 999.99, due to national regulations. For further details, please contact the property using information in the booking confirmation.