COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? The state bud?get direc?tor says the admin?is?tra?tion of Ohio Gov. John Kasich (KAY?-sik) wants to cut income tax rates and small busi?ness tax rates, and it?s open to sug?ges?tions from law?mak?ers about how to do?it.
Bud?get Direc?tor Tim Keen told The Asso?ci?ated Press Tues?day he believes the income tax cuts will remain.
Keen made his com?ments as the Ohio House is prepar?ing its changes to Kasich?s two-year state bud?get proposal.
Repub?li?can lead?ers and the Ohio Cham?ber of Com?merce have raised con?cerns about Kasich?s plan to extend the state sales taxes to help pay for income-tax reductions.
House Finance Chair?man Ron Amstutz (AHM?-stuts) has said he antic?i?pates the House bud?get plan will replace the governor?s pro?posed sales-tax expan?sion as a way of pay?ing for the income tax?cuts.
Apple, given their history, is acutely aware of the pain that can result when their destiny depends on companies outside their control. Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Hollywood, AT&T, Nuance, and the list goes on. In yet another thoughtful piece on his blog, Hypercritical, John Siracusa argues that despite all this, Apple might do well to consider a few more dependencies.
An unfortunate side effect of doing everything yourself is that every other company starts to look like an enemy. Realistically, Apple can?t do everything?or can?t do everything well, anyway. Online services are only going to become more important with time, so it?s understandable that Apple wants to be the master of its own destiny in this area. But it needs to improve much more quickly if it wants to even remain competitive, let alone catch up to Google. Failing that, it needs to find some partners that aren?t mortal enemies. (I?m sure Marissa Mayer would take Tim Cook?s call.)
It's an interesting quandary. Apple ultimately suffered from their partnerships with Microsoft, Google, and Samsung. In essence, they taught their partners how to become their competitors. Apple is currently partnering with Nuance for Siri's voice detection, yet Google's in-house voice services are providing far better service. If Apple had voice in-house, would it be more competitive? Is Apple's lack of experience with services in general better served by partnerships or acquisitions?
Siricusa looks at the history and the current situation, and also at Samsung and Google, their dependencies, and how they compare and contrast with Apple's.
It's great to see Siracusa blogging more regularly again, and as usual, the whole article is a fascinating read. check it out.
(Along with Marco Arment and Casey Liss, John Siracusa is also podcasting about technology again. You can find their new show -- which has been excellent, so far -- at Accidental Tech Podcast)
Here is my review of the best and worst products that I?ve used in 2012. Thanks for Watching! I?d love to hear from you, so please rate, comment & subscribe!?
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Homemade Beauty Products: Natural Recipes for Healthy Skin & HairLearn how to make your own beauty products following these simple but effective recipes!
Many masks, scrubs, lotions and creams can be prepared right there at home with all natural products. With organic ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, berries, dairy products, honey, cosmetic clay, herbs, and such, you can make great and effective skin care products at home!
No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean CosmeticsIt started with a harmless quest for perfect wash-and-go hair. Every girl wants it, and Siobhan O?Connor and Alexandra Spunt finally found it in a fancy salon treatment. They were thrilled?until they discovered that the magic ingredient was formaldehyde.
Shocked, O?Connor and Spunt left no bottle unturned. If it went on their body (and thus, was absorbed into their skin and bloodstream), they researched it. As it turns out, many of those unpronounceable ingredients in your self-tanner and leave-in conditioner are not regulated and the ?natural? on your face wash doesn?t mean what you think it does.
Now, with the help of top scientists, dermatologists, and makeup artists, the authors share their compelling findings and the easy way to detoxify your beauty regimen. No More Dirty Looks also reveals the safest, most effective products on the market and time-tested home recipes. Finally, you don?t need to sacrifice health for beauty?because coming clean is the best look yet.
Natural Beauty Basics : Create Your Own Cosmetics and Body Care ProductsTaking care of yourself means making healthy choices. We are inundated with ads that tell us we cannot have naturally beautiful skin and hair without buying and using expensive brand name products. The fact is, we can attain a radiant, healthy appearance by making our own skin and hair care products out of all-natural ingredients.
Dorie Byers, a registered nurse, master gardener and herb enthusiast, describes the properties and characteristics of dozens of herbs, essential oils, and other natural ingredients, and provides a wealth of recipes for every skin type. These alternatives to commercial preparations will save you money and put you in control of the healthy ingredients you apply to your body.
Three myths about sleepwalking ? sleepwalkers have no memory of their actions, sleepwalkers' behaviour is without motivation, and sleepwalking has no daytime impact ? are dispelled in a recent study led by Antonio Zadra of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Sacr?-Coeur Hospital. Working from numerous studies over the last 15 years at the hospital's Centre for Advanced Studies in Sleep Medicine at the H?pital du Sacr?-C?ur de Montr?al and a thorough analysis of the literature, Zadra and his colleagues have raised the veil on sleepwalking and clarified the diagnostic criteria for researchers and clinicians. Their findings were published in Lancet Neurology.
Journalists are welcome to use the following responses in their own reports. Interviews and further information (including the original French text of this document) can be obtained by contacting media relations at the University of Montreal. The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit? de Montr?al.
Question: What are the causes and consequences of sleepwalking?
A.Z.: "Several indicators suggest that a genetic factor is involved. In 80% of sleepwalkers, a family history of sleepwalking exists. The concordance of sleepwalking is five times higher in monozygotic twins compared to non-identical twins. Our studies have also shown that lack of sleep and stress can lead to sleepwalking. Any situation that disrupts sleep can result in sleepwalking episodes in predisposed individuals."
A.Z.: "Most sleepwalking episodes are harmless. Apart from the fact that the deep slow-wave sleep of sleepwalkers is fragmented, wanderings are usually brief and pose no danger, or when they do, it is minimal. In rare cases, wandering episodes may be longer, and sleepwalkers may injure themselves and put themselves or others in danger: some have even gone as far as driving a car!"
Question: It is said that the sleep disorder mainly affects children. Is this true?
A.Z.: "Many children transitionally sleepwalk between 6 and 12 years of age. It is thought that passing from sleep to wakefulness requires a certain maturation of the brain. In some children, the brain may have difficulty making this transition. Often, the problem disappears after puberty. But sleepwalking may persist into adulthood in almost 25% of cases. It decreases with age, however, because the older you get, the fewer hours of deep slow-wave sleep you enjoy, which is the stage in which sleepwalking episodes occur."
A.Z.: "Both children and adults are in a state of so-called dissociated arousal during wandering episodes: parts of the brain are asleep while others are awake. There are elements of wakefulness since sleepwalkers can perform actions such as washing, opening and closing doors, or going down stairs. Their eyes are open and they can recognize people. But there are also elements specific to sleep: sleepwalkers' judgment and their ability for self-thought are altered, and their behavioural reactions are nonsensical."
Question: According to you, the idea that people are partially awake and partially asleep is something that must be considered in conceptualizing sleepwalking?
A.Z.: "Absolutely. This is one of the points we outline in our article. There are increasing signs that even in normal subjects the brain does not fall asleep in a single block all at once. Sleep may occur in a localized manner. Parts of the brain can fall asleep before others."
Question: This may explain why the amnesia of sleepwalkers is not always complete. But can sleepwalkers really remember their actions while sleeping vertically?
A.Z.: "Yes. In children and adolescents, amnesia is more frequent, probably due to neurophysiological reasons. In adults, a high proportion of sleepwalkers occasionally remember what they did during their sleepwalking episodes. Some even remember what they were thinking and the emotions they felt."
Question: Your work has also shown that the behaviour of sleepwalkers is not simply automatic. Can you explain?
A.Z.: "This is another popular myth. There is a misconception that sleepwalkers do things without knowing why. However, there is a significant proportion of sleepwalkers who remember what they have done and can explain the reasons for their actions. They are the first to say, once awake, that their explanations are nonsensical. However, during the episode, there is an underlying rationale. For example, a man once took his dog that had been sleeping at the foot of his bed to the bathtub to douse it with water. He thought his dog was on fire! There was neither the logic nor the judgment typical of wakefulness. But the behaviour was not automatic in the sense that a motivation accompanied and explained the action."
Question: Another myth you are interested in relates to impact on the waking state. According to you, beyond the nocturnal phenomenon, sleepwalking is associated with diurnal disorders characterized by somnolence.
A.Z.: "Around 45% of sleepwalkers are clinically somnolent during the day. Younger sleepwalkers are able to hide it more easily. Compared to control subjects, however, they perform less well in vigilance tests. And if given the opportunity to take a nap, they fall asleep faster than normal subjects do."
A.Z.: "Over the last few years, we have shown that the deep slow-wave sleep of sleepwalkers is atypical. Fragmented by numerous micro-arousals of 3 to 10 seconds, their sleep is less restorative. Sleepwalking is therefore not only a problem of transitioning between deep sleep and wakefulness. There is something more fundamental in their sleep every night, whether or not they have sleepwalking episodes."
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University of Montreal: http://bit.ly/mNqklw
Thanks to University of Montreal for this article.
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Scientists working with data from a large particle accelerator in Europe are now almost certain they have pinned down the elusive subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson.
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From NPR News, This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
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And I'm Melissa Block.
Scientists in Switzerland have reinforced a huge discovery they announced last summer. They said today that they've almost certainly found the Higgs particle, the long-sought missing link that helps explain the basic nature of our universe. This firms up similar results they unveiled with great fanfare in July.
But NPR's Richard Harris reports, it's actually disappointing news for some scientists.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Nearly 50 years ago, scientists predicted that there is a particle out there that literally gives substance to our universe. It's now called the Higgs Boson, and it makes stuff have mass. Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider, which straddles the border of France and Switzerland, won't actually come right out and say they have proof that the Higgs particle exists. But Mark Sher, at the College of William and Mary, says that's not really in question anymore.
MARK SHER: A Higgs Boson has been found, period. I don't think anybody doubts that anymore.
HARRIS: The bad news for Sher and other theorists is the particle so far looks exactly as it was predicted to look. That's a problem because after all this effort, it doesn't tell us anything new about the universe. Sher was desperately hoping for something odd to come out of this multi-billion dollar experiment.
SHER: So there are no anomalies, no surprises. And that's a little disturbing because if there's something a little bit wrong, then we can have new physics to learn.
HARRIS: Sher has been publishing scientific papers about the Higgs particle since 1978. And for the time being, at least, he's stumped.
SHER: It's sort of weird. We've been looking for this for 35 years. And now that we found it, it behaves just like we expect. Now what? It's like the cat that finally catches the mouse and isn't sure what to do with it.
HARRIS: Across the country, at the University of California Santa Barbara, Steve Giddings sings high praises to the experimentalists who have nailed down the Higgs Boson. Discovering the Higgs could lead to a Nobel Prize. But when pressed, Giddings - a theorist, not an experimentalist - also feels let down.
STEVE GIDDINGS: Well, it is a little disappointing that we haven't gotten some more hints about the fundamental structure of nature beyond things that were more expected.
HARRIS: Happily for these scientists, there are plenty of theories hinting that unexpected results could lie just around the corner.
GIDDINGS: We have strong indications that something else should be there beyond the Higgs. And one of the things we've really been scratching our heads about is where is that new physics.
HARRIS: Giddings says we need some new physics. The Higgs Boson is the final discovery needed to complete a theory called the Standard Model, which makes sense of the quarks and leptons that atoms are built out of. But the Standard Model still doesn't explain some pretty basic things about our universe. For example, the universe is full of a mysterious and invisible substance called dark matter, and the Standard Model doesn't tell us what that's made of.
GIDDINGS: The amount of dark matter, the total mass in is much larger it appears than the amount of mass in ordinary matter. So that's a huge puzzle.
HARRIS: It may take a while to find more clues about that and other puzzles. The Large Hadron Collider is now shut down for upgrades. Over the next two years, it will get juiced up to be about twice as powerful as it is now. The new improved machine may probe new realms of the subatomic world. And that cheers up Mark Sher at William and Mary.
SHER: There still will always be hope that in the next round of running, and starting in two years, that they will see little deviations which will then tell us a lot.
HARRIS: If not, well, the high-energy physics community is now contemplating a vastly more powerful machine to spit out Higgs Bosons. That could be up and running in around 2025, giving theorists plenty of thinking time.
Richard Harris, NPR News.
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Does your home should be renovated in several ways? Or do you think you?re considering adding an expansion, just like a patio? If so, this post contains many helpful suggestions that could answer some questions you may have and get you going within the right direction into a successful do-it-yourself project.
Be sure you maintain your filter to your air conditioning unit clean. If your filter clogges up up, the air conditioning unit will have to keep working harder to cool your home, using up more energy. It can also result in the device running more than it should be needed. You must make positive changes to filter one or more times 30 days to stop buildup.
Improving the air quality inside your home is definitely an invaluable do-it-yourself both for your wellbeing as well as the resale value of your house. The initial step should be to replace a cheap carpets and have them professionally cleaned, as they could be hiding contaminants, allergens and ugly odors. Secondly, if your budget allows, install an energy efficient air conditioning system.
Keep your fans circulating, or put money into some if you don?t currently use them. Rooms are kept more cool while using circulating air created by fans. Furthermore, if you use them as an alternative to air conditioning on days past that aren?t scorching, the quantity of energy you take in is reduced, allowing you to enjoy lower electric bills. Get More Info
Installing fans will reduce your energy bill, add value to your own home and improve the design of your own home. Fans circulate and cool mid-air at home, especially during summer nights. This will help in order to reduce the price tag on air conditioning. Fans add a little style unlike any other accessory!
Be it summer or winter you should always check for drafts. There?s nothing more frustrating than heating or cooling the outdoors. Work with a lighted candle near a door or window, and if the candle flickers, you understand you almost certainly possess a crack to seal. Be sure to check all sides of all of the windows and exterior doors.
If you realize that your heating costs are much more than you realized being paying, you need to have someone install some better insulation to your home. While pest bit pricey, it is far less than you?ll have to purchase inflated power bills, over time.
Solar power panels are a great way to help your house greener and conserve your funds over time. Solar heating panels can be used for heating your own home and providing additional available electricity on your own use. Too, the us government offers a tax break for those who use and who may have installed solar panel systems with their home.
Keep your residence is well insulated. Insulation is vital to keep the temperature of your house consistent, regardless of the temperature outside of your house. This can be helpful in keeping down the price tag on your energy bill within the heating and cooling of your house. Insulation can also be effective in decreasing the noise via outside. Furthermore, it adds to the value of your house (make sure you keep all receipts and invoices to help you prove what work was done). Click for Source
Your house improvement project can be fun to perform, just about all can be be extremely practical. Taking care of your house is something you must take seriously, and renovating older, exhausted sections can make a huge difference when you find yourself likely to market it for any high price. These pointers will save you money and time and make the best decision for your house.
Compared to the sheer deluge of rumors surrounding last year's Galaxy S III, talk about the Galaxy S IV has been relatively hushed. That's partly owing to the contracted launch schedule -- despite Samsung's initial denials, the company is unveiling its next Android flagship almost two months before the GS3's first birthday. There's still been a fair share of rumormongering, however, and a picture is emerging of just what Samsung could unveil for yet another encore. Will the smartphone giant make a sharp break from tradition? Read past the break for a roundup of what to expect when Samsung hits the stage at Radio City Music Hall.
Often, when only general details emerge regarding a big contract, the truth ends up undercutting the perception created by the deal.
So that?s why we were skeptical about the Mike Wallace contract, which was described only as being worth $60 million over five years, with $30 million guaranteed.
Here are the full details, per a source with knowledge of the contract.
1.? $11 million signing bonus.
2.? $1 million base salary in 2013, fully guaranteed.
3.? $15 million base salary in 2014, fully guaranteed.
4.? $9.85 million base salary in 2015, $3 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed next March.
5.? $11.45 million base salary in 2016.
6.? $11.45 million base salary in 2017.
7.? $50,000 workout bonus, each year.
The cap numbers are $3.25 million in 2013, $17.25 million in 2014, $12.1 million in 2015, $13.7 million in 2016, and $13.7 million in 2017.
It adds up to a whopping $27 million in fully guaranteed money.? As a practical matter, it?s a three-year, $37 million deal, with a year-to-year option on the remainder.
By 2016, the question will become whether Wallace?s performance justifies an investment of $11.45 million in cash ? especially since cutting him would cost only $4.4 million against the cap.
The low cap number in 2013 gives Miami plenty of additional room to maneuver as the team attempts to improve its performance and generate excitement in South Florida.
Historic votes in Colorado and Minnesota approved civil unions and marriages, respectively, for same-sex couples.
By Ivan Moreno,?Associated Press / March 12, 2013
Dr. Paul Melchert, left, gets interrupted by his son, Emmett, at a news conference Feb. 27, in St. Paul, Minn. Behind him, his partner James Zimerman holds Emmett's twin brother, Gabriel. Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill today to legalize gay marriage. A few states to the south, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill to allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
Jim Mone/AP
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On the same day that the Minnesota House and Senate both passed gay marriage bills along strict party-line votes, Colorado lawmakers took a historic vote to approve civil unions for gay couples. For Colorado legislators, this highlighted a dramatic shift in the political landscape of a state where voters banned same-sex marriage just six years ago.
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In both states, the bills will go to the desks of Democratic governors: John Hickenlooper in Colorado and Mark Dayton in Minnesota.
Applause erupted in the Colorado Capitol as the bill won final passage on a 39-26 House vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats to approve the measure. Several dozen people watching from the House gallery left smiling and hugging, and some wiped away tears of joy.
Once the measure is signed, Colorado will join eight states that have civil unions or similar laws. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage now, but that number will rise to ten states when Gov. Dayton signs the Minnesota measure, as he has said he will do.
"This is the best step toward equality Colorado could take right now. I'm thankful we got it done," said Katy Jensen, a 34-year-old Denver engineer who plans a civil union with her partner after the bill becomes law on May 1.
Last year, Colorado's Democratic Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, a gay lawmaker serving his first term, was among those in the House gallery with his children, watching as Republicans used their one-vote majority in the House to prevent the measure from being debated in the waning hours of the session, thus killing the bill.
"I sat with my kids at midnight, wondering what was going to happen the next time we had a tragedy. What would happen if I had to take my kids to the ER and then I was questioned whether or not I was really their dad," said Ulibarri, one of eight gay Democratic lawmakers serving in the Colorado Legislature.
Civil unions for gay couples became a rallying cry for Democrats who took control of the Colorado House in last year's elections, and they vowed an early vote on the proposal.
"Elections have consequences," said Republican Rep. Frank McNulty, the former House speaker.
Democrats now control both chambers of the legislature, and the party elected Colorado's first gay House speaker, Mark Ferrandino.
"The people spoke in November, and we are fulfilling a promise we made at the end of last session," Ferrandino said Tuesday.
The vote marks a dramatic political shift in Colorado, a western state with deep conservative roots that has become more moderate over the past decade. In 1992, Colorado voters approved a ban on municipal antidiscrimination laws to protect gays. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court said the law, known as Amendment 2, was unconstitutional, but not before some branded Colorado a "hate state."
And in 2006, voters approved a gay-marriage ban ? meaning civil unions are the only option for gay couples in the state for now. That could change with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage bans in the coming months. The court will hear argument on the bans on March 26 and 27, and is expected to issue a ruling by June.
"We truly do stand on the edge of history. For some in this chamber, this is the reason that we are here, at this time, and in this place," said Colorado's Democratic Rep. Pete Lee. He called the vote a time for redemption.
"We vote today to redeem our friends, our aunts, our uncles, our brothers, our sisters, our children, and I daresay, our colleagues, from the scourge of discrimination and inequality," he said.
Colorado's measure grants gay couples rights similar to marriage, including enhanced inheritance and parental rights. People in civil unions also would have the ability to make medical decisions for their partners.
Republicans opposed the bill, saying they would've liked to see religious exemptions to provide legal protections for those opposed to civil unions.
"I have long-standing concerns about the way in which religion isn't tolerated by some down here at the state Capitol," McNulty said. "I continue to have those concerns."
Democrats contend the Republican suggestions to amend the bill would have opened the door to discrimination. Under the bill, churches are not required to perform civil unions, but Republicans wanted broader protections to include businesses and adoption agencies.
Republicans also argued civil unions were too similar to marriage, and that they would undermine the institution of marriage.
"Civil unions are not marriage. They are something that are separate, and distinct, and lesser, and unequal," Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman said. "And that really is not good enough. We passed this bill because this is the best we can do."
When asked, five of the eight gay Democratic lawmakers said after the vote that they would get civil unions. It was a difficult question for Steadman, whose longtime partner, Dave Misner, died of cancer last year.
"Some of us don't get that opportunity," Steadman said.
Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt contributed to this report.
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Read the bill: http://goo.gl/QOEjH
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Find Ivan Moreno on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IvanJourno
Sen. Marco Rubio today challenged some of the stereotypes affixed to the Republican Party on two hot-button topics, abortion and gay marriage, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that his positions on the issues make him neither a "chauvinist" nor a "bigot."
"In order to work together with people you disagree with, there has to be mutual respect," the Florida Republican told the annual, three-day conference in National Harbor, Md. "That means I respect people that disagree with me on certain things, but they have to respect me, too.
"Just because I believe that states should have the rights to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot. Just because we believe that life, all life, all human life is worthy of protection of every stage in its development does not make you a chauvinist."
Rubio, 41, continued to argue that science was on his side when it comes to abortion, saying "the people who are actually close-minded in American politics are the people that love to preach about the certainty of science when regards to our climate but ignore the absolute fact that science is proven that life begins at conception."
Rubio famously declared last year that he's "not a scientist, man," after he was asked a question about the age of the Earth.
"I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians," Rubio told GQ last year.
He went on to say, "I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."
Rubio later clarified his answer and cited exactly how old scientists say the Earth is.
"Science says it's about four and a half billion years old, and my faith teaches that that's not inconsistent," Rubio told Politico. "The answer I gave was actually trying to make the same point the president made a few years ago, and that is there is no scientific debate on the age of the Earth.
"I still believe God did it," Rubio added. "And that's how I've been able to reconcile that and I think it's consistent with the teachings of my church. But other people have a deeper conflict and I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever we believe."
It has been four years since we first introduced the non-believing world to China's ghost cities. Two years later, we revisited to check on the widescale immigration that was expected to occur into these salubrious suburbs. Alas, another epic Keynesian fail as we so delicately described the 'if we build it, they will come' mentality. Now, four years after the news of the Chinese real estate bubble began to break on tin-foil hat-wearing blogs, the mainstream media (to wit, Sixty Minutes) have gone in depth - taking a wonderfully eery trip through these ghost cicties explaining the growing (and in some places popping) bubble in Chinese real estate markets. The incredulous host concludes this chilling saga, "Meanwhile, people who can afford it are still buying as much real estate as they can... potential buyers crowding buses to see new construction and new owners line up to register their new apts... Like us in our bubble, they just don't believe the good times will ever end."
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CBS Sixty Minutes Transcript:
If trouble comes in threes, then what'll be the next global market to melt down after the U.S. and Europe? Some are looking nervously at China.
China has been nothing short of a financial miracle. In just 30 years, this state-controlled economy became the world's second largest, deftly managed by government policies and decrees.
One sector the authorities concentrated on was real estate and construction. But that may have created the largest housing bubble in human history. If you go to China, it's easy to see why there's all the talk of a bubble. We discovered that the most populated nation on earth is building houses, districts and cities with no one in them.
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IT'S EMPTY!!
Lesley Stahl: So this is Zhengzhou. And we are on the major highway, or the major road. And it's rush hour.
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Gillem Tulloch: Yeah -
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Lesley Stahl: And it's almost empty.
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Gillem Tulloch is a Hong Kong based financial analyst who was one of the first to draw attention to the housing bubble in China. He's showing us around the new eastern district of Zhengzhou, in one of the most populated provinces in China - not that you'd know it. We found what they call a "ghost city" of new towers with no residents, desolate condos and vacant subdivisions uninhabited for miles, and miles, and miles, and miles of empty apartments.
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Lesley Stahl: Why are they empty? I've heard that they have actually been sold.
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Gillem Tulloch: They've all been sold. They've all been sold.
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Lesley Stahl: They've all been sold? They're owned.
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Gillem Tulloch: Absolutely.
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Owned by people in China's emerging middle class, who now have enough money to invest but few ways to do it. They're not allowed to invest abroad, banks offer paltry returns, and the stock market is a rollercoaster. But 15 years ago, the government changed its policy and allowed people to buy their own homes and the flood gates opened.
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Gillem Tulloch: So what they do is they invest in property because property prices have always gone up by more than inflation.
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Lesley Stahl: And they believe it will always go up?
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Gillem Tulloch: Yeah, just like they believed in the U.S.
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Actually, property values have doubled and tripled and more -- so people in the middle class have sunk every last penny into buying five, even 10 apartments, fueling a building bonanza unprecedented in human history. No nation has ever built so much so fast.
REAL ESTATE IS CENTRAL TO THE CHINESE ECONOMY
Lesley Stahl: How important is real estate to the Chinese economy? Is it central?
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Gillem Tulloch: Yes. It's the main driver of growth and has been for the last few years. Some estimates have it as high as 20 or 30 percent of the whole economy.
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Lesley Stahl: But they're not just building housing. They're building cities.
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Gillem Tulloch: Yes. That's right.
GIANT GHOST CITIES
Lesley Stahl: Giant cities being built with people not coming to live here.
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Gillem Tulloch: Yes. I think they're building somewhere between 12 and 24 new cities every single year.
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Unlike our market driven economy, in China it's the government that has spent some $2 trillion to get these cities built - as a way of keeping the economy growing. The assumption is "if you build it, they'll come." But no one's coming.
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Lesley Stahl: Wow. This is really completely, totally empty and it goes up -
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Gillem took us to this shopping mall that's been standing vacant for three years.
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Lesley Stahl: Can I find this all over China?
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Gillem Tulloch: Yes, you can. They've simply built too much infrastructure too quickly.
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Lesley Stahl: But I see KFC behind you. I see Starbucks over there. I see some other very recognizable American franchises coming in here. At least they-- does that mean they have faith that this is going to ignite?
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Gillem Tulloch: No, these are all fake signs. Just to get potential buyers the impression of what it might look like if they moved in.
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Lesley Stahl: They're not real? So I see KFC didn't-
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Gillem Tulloch: They haven't--
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Lesley Stahl: Buy this space or rent this space?
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Gillem Tulloch: No, they haven't.
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Lesley Stahl: Starbucks?
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Gillem Tulloch: No.
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Lesley Stahl: They just put the sign up?
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Gillem Tulloch: That's right.
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It's all make-believe -- non-existent supply for non existent demand.
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Lesley Stahl: Look at that. Swarovski. Piaget. They're hoping for high end too.
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Gillem Tulloch: H&M. Zara.
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Lesley Stahl: And it's all Potemkin.
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Gillem Tulloch: Yeah.
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It's surreal and it's everywhere. Like the city of Ordos in Mongolia built for a million people who didn't show up. And no, you are not in England. You're in Thames town -- a development near Shanghai built like an English village.
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Gillem Tulloch: And it was finished, I think, around five or six years. And it must have cost close to a billion U.S. dollars. And you'll see, it's still standing there empty.
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Lesley Stahl: Well, I heard that there is some industry there or some business, one business there.
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Gillem Tulloch: Marriage.
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Lesley Stahl: Wedding pictures!
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And what's more uplifting than a wedding -- or 10? You can see these empty developments on the edge of almost every city in China.
WHAT ABOUT THE URBANIZATION?
Lesley Stahl: What about the idea that China is urbanizing? People are flooding into cities by the hundreds of millions. And that this really is a smart move: build the housing to accommodate the urbanization process.
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Gillem Tulloch: Well, so people are being moved into the cities. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they can afford these apartments which, you know, cost $100,000 U.S. or whatever. I mean, these are poor people moving into the cities, so they're building the wrong sort of apartments.
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And what's worse, to build all these massive cities, they've had to tear down what was there before, clearing rice fields and displacing by some counts tens of millions of villagers. On the edge of Zhengzhou, Gillem and I came upon a strange sight.
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Lesley Stahl: I'm just watching what they're doing, these-- do you have any idea?
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Gillem Tulloch: I think they're trying to recycle the bricks.
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These villagers were salvaging what's left of their homes, bulldozed to make room for more empty condos, already encroaching in the distance.
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Lesley Stahl: There are all these empty apartments over here. Can they conceivably move into those up-scale places?
NOONE CAN AFFORD IT SO THE BUBBLE BURTS
Gillem Tulloch: Most people in China live on about less than $2 a day. And these apartments probably cost upwards of $50,000 or $60,000 U.S. So it's very unlikely.
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Lesley Stahl: What will happen to them, do you think?
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Gillem Tulloch: I mean, they'll be forced to relocate somewhere. I have no idea where they'll go.
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These are the immediate casualties of the building boom. And there's another problem: analysts warn that all this building has created a bubble that could burst.
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Lesley Stahl: So if the bubble bursts, who's left holding the bag?
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Gillem Tulloch: There are multiple classes of people that are going to get wiped out by this. People who have invested three generations worth of savings -- so grandparents, parents and children - into properties will see their savings evaporate. And then, of course, 50 million construction workers who are working on all these projects around China.
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The prognosis of a bubble about to burst isn't only coming from financial gloom-and-doomers. We heard it from the most unlikely source.
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Lesley Stahl: Are you the biggest home builder in the world?
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Wang Shi: I think. Maybe.
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Lesley Stahl: You may be?
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Wang Shi: Yes. Only the quantity, not quality.
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Wang Shi is modest, but his company, Vanke, is a $53 billion real estate empire, building more homes than anyone in China. He was born on the frontlines of communism, and joined the Red Army. But he secretly read forbidden books about capitalism, so that when China liberalized its economy, he rushed to the frontlines of the free market. Even he thinks today's situation is out of control.
HOW MUCH???
Lesley Stahl: Are homes in China too expensive today?
Wang Shi: Yeah.
Lesley Stahl: Here's a number I saw. A typical apartment in Shanghai costs about 45 times the average resident's annual salary.
Wang Shi: Even higher, even higher.
Lesley Stahl: What does that mean for your economy if it's just too expensive for the vast majority of people to buy?
Wang Shi: I think that dangerous.
Lesley Stahl: Dangerous.
THERE'S THE BUBBLE
Wang Shi: That's the bubble. So I think that's the problem.
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Lesley Stahl: Is there a bubble?
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Wang Shi: Yes, of course.
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Lesley Stahl: There is a bubble and the issue is will it burst or not? That's the big issue--
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Wang Shi: Yes, if that bubble - that's a disaster.
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Lesley Stahl: If it burst?
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Wang Shi: If it burst, that's a disaster.
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To try and prevent the disaster the Chinese government decided to act. Heard of their one child policy? Since 2011, China has had what amounts to a one apartment policy, where it's very hard to buy more than one apartment in major cities. Because of this, prices plunged. The bubble was being tamed. And yet, the taming was creating all kinds of unintended consequences.
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Lesley Stahl: Are many developers in debt?
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Wang Shi: Yes, yes.
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Lesley Stahl: And are many stopping development in the middle of projects 'cause they don't have the money to go forward?
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Wang Shi: Yeah, that's problem. That's a huge problem.
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A problem because the slowing down of construction led to a downturn in the overall economy. Unfinished projects dot China, and not just apartment buildings.
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Lesley Stahl: Look at this. Can you believe it?
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Analyst Anne Stevenson-Yang who has traveled across China showed us a giant project all but abandoned in the port city of Tianjin with concrete skeletons as far as the eye can see. The plan is to build a new financial district to rival Manhattan including a Lincoln Center and a World Trade Center, only taller. But it all seems frozen.
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[Anne Stevenson-Yang: There's supposed to be a Rockefeller Center here.
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Anne Stevenson-Yang: I hope they have a Christmas tree too. Skating rink.]
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City officials told us everything stopped because developers want to build all the facades at once to match. But on the ground we heard a different explanation.
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esley Stahl: Workers told us that many of these buildings haven't had any work done on them for weeks, months, as if the developers just don't have the money to go on.
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Anne Stevenson-Yang: It's true. You see that happen first. The migrant workers will go home. That's often the first sign that the debt crisis is starting.
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Lesley Stahl: The debt crisis?
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Anne Stevenson-Yang: Well, when you stop paying your bills, then everything stops.
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It could become a debt crisis because of the huge loans most of the developers took out. If they can't repay them, the whole economy'll seize up.
AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF A REAL ESTATE BUBBLE???
The government's great fear is that all this could lead to social unrest and that's not hypothetical.
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Last year when home prices fell, it infuriated all those owners of multiple dwellings, who watched the value of their nest eggs plummet.
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esley Stahl: And there's already been some demonstrations over real estate around the country.
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Wang Shi: Yes.
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Lesley Stahl: Have you had demonstrations against your showrooms anywhere? You're company?
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Wang Shi: Often!
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So often, Wang Shi shudders to think what would happen if the bubble actually burst.
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Wang Shi: If that bubble break, that maybe who know what will happened? Maybe that-- maybe--maybe the next Arabic Spring--
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Lesley Stahl: Arabic Spring. You mean people coming out and demonstrating.
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Wang Shi: Hmmm.
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Lesley Stahl: A lot of economists say that it's too big for even this government to control.
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Wang Shi: A ha. I believe that top leaders have enough smart to deal with that. I hope!
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Lesley Stahl: You're doing this.
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Wang Shi: But that's uncertain.
Meanwhile, people who can afford it are still buying as much real estate as they can. They're even finding ways around the one apartment restriction in big cities. Can't buy in Beijing? Just cross the city line and the boom is in full swing. Flyers advertising new projects, potential buyers crowding buses to see new construction and new owners line up to register their new apts. Like us in our bubble, they just don't believe the good times will ever end.
BUSH - NO PATH TO CITIZENSHIP:Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday he does not support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., a central provision of immigration reform plans being considered by Congress. ABC-Univision's Jordan Fabian reports that Bush has long chided the Republican Party to adopt immigration reform and improve its outreach to minority and immigrant voters. But he said that a path to citizenship would violate the rule of law, and instead is proposing giving a path to legal permanent residency to many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. "If we want to create an immigration policy that's going to work, we can't continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration," Bush said during an interview on NBC's "Today" show. http://abcn.ws/104C80D
WHY IT MATTERS: The ex-governor's stance is notable because of his reputation as an immigration moderate within the GOP, especially during the 2012 campaign season when he criticized GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his opposition to immigration reform that legalized undocumented immigrants. As early as June of last year, Bush said he would be supportive of either a path to citizenship or a path to legal residency. Now, Bush's position on a path to citizenship is to the right of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" Senate proposal, which has been endorsed by his former political mentee Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and several other Republican lawmakers. http://abcn.ws/104C80D
TODAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE:President Obama has no public events today. In the afternoon, he visits wounded service members at Walter Reed. Later, he meets privately with Biden and Defense Secretary Hagel. The staggering defense cuts will presumably be among the topics of discussion, notes ABC's Mary Bruce.
THE ROUNDTABLE
ABC's RICK KLEIN: What's Jeb's angle? That's the question swirling in the immigration-reform world after the surprising news that Jeb Bush now opposes a path to legalization for illegal immigrants currently in the United States. That puts the former governor in opposition to the bipartisan group - yes, the one that includes Sen. Marco Rubio - now working the issue in the Senate, to promising results so far. (It also puts Bush in opposition to himself, as recently as last summer.) It's possible the politics of immigration reform shifted too quickly to comply with book publishing schedules, and that Bush was trying to nudge his party forward but misread the movement that's already occurred. It's possible (though less likely) that this is an early 2016 move. But in the shorter term, it's hard to see how Bush's reentry into the immigration debate is going to help a bill forward. Conservatives in the both the Senate and especially the House now have all the pretext they need to oppose a deal that includes a pathway to citizenship. Strip that from a bill, and Democrats will be under tremendous pressure to scuttle the whole effort - something many Republicans believe President Obama secretly wants to happen anyway, for political gain.
ABC-UNIVISION's JORDAN FABIAN: For years, Jeb Bush led the charge in prodding his own party to adapt on immigration and improve its outreach to Hispanic and immigrant voters. Now allies of immigration reform, who once championed the ex-Florida governor as a model Republican, are left wondering what exactly happened to their old flame. Bush outlined his proposal in his new book, which provides legal status for undocumented immigrants. But it would specifically bar undocumented immigrants from seeking full citizenship unless they first return to their home countries. Some would have to wait a decade before re-entering the U.S. That places Bush well to the right of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" plan in the Senate, which is backed by his former prot?g?, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Just last summer, Rubio was the one holding out on a path to citizenship, while Bush was speaking in favor of it. That's a remarkable shift. Speculation has abounded as to what sparked Bush's reversal, whether it's boosting book sales or jockeying to run for president in 2016. But the more important question is: What impact will Bush's switch have on the immigration reform effort in Congress? Bush's comments could provide political cover for conservative fence-sitters to oppose the current framework being debated (i.e. "Even Jeb Bush opposes a path to citizenship.") But some close to the debate on the Hill in both parties aren't so sure. One senior Democratic aide, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said: "The process here is going to keep moving. He is not a member of Congress." Even if Bush's comments don't derail the process, that won't reduce the shock generated by his shift. "Jeb was always pointed out as someone who really got it. I assume he still does," the Democratic aide said. "It is unfortunate and disappointing."
ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Ahead of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC next week, it's worth noting not all conservative politicians are on board with the group despite the tendency of presidential hopefuls to address the confab. At news that his friend and fellow Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was uninvited after taking on John Boehner for pulling the vote on Sandy funding at the eleventh hour, New York Rep. Pete King's response to the snub was "if the Republicans start catering to CPAC then we are just signing our own suicide pact, and the fact that CPAC is the first step to the presidential nomination we have to end that." King added, "Chris Christie is the most popular across the board governor we have. He's conservative, he's balanced the budget, he's done tough budget reforms, he's pro-life and yet he has a 74 percent approval rating in a Democratic state. The fact that he is not being invited to CPAC because he fought for the aid that he's entitled to to save New Jersey shows Republicans if they give in to CPAC they have a death wish and it shows we should stop taking groups like CPAC so seriously." The executive director of the American Conservative Union Gregg Keller said in response that King's comments meant he "apparently didn't get the memo that CPAC is a conservative event, not a Republican event. That's what the first C in CPAC stands for." http://abcn.ws/WwMuA7
WHAT WE'RE READING
"INSIDE THE NRSC'S COMEBACK STRATEGY," by Roll Call's Kyle Trygstad. "The National Republican Senatorial Committee plans to expand its press operation to train campaigns earlier in the cycle on how to better handle the kind of candidate missteps that have plagued its party's nominees. The goal? To avoid what's become known in GOP circles as 'Todd Akin moments.' 'The campaigns that jumped off message not only infected themselves, they infected all the rest of the campaigns,' said Rob Collins, the new NRSC executive director, in his first extensive interview on the job. 'So in this age of fractured but continuous, three-dimensional communication, we have to constantly plan for that and train for that and build for that.' ? While candidate control is often beyond the NRSC's abilities, the committee will ultimately be judged on whether the party can avoid such troubles and pick up the six seats needed for a majority in 2014. So for the past two months, incoming NRSC leadership surveyed senators, candidates and operatives from 16 winning and losing campaigns from 2010 and 2012. As a result, the NRSC's new leadership discovered its party lacked talented communications professionals in the field able to capably run a campaign press operation that could handle such situations." http://bit.ly/XSHHZY
BUZZ
HOUSE MOVES TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: House Republicans unveiled a stopgap measure yesterday to fund the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year, a move intended to mollify a deeply divided Congress that has fought through three years of bruising budget battles, reports ABC's John R. Parkinson. The continuing resolution, known around Washington as a CR, is subject to sequestration levels in its entirety, setting the top-line overall rate of spending at $982 billion, down from $1.047 trillion the previous fiscal year. "The legislation will avoid a government shutdown on March 27, prioritize DoD and Veterans programs, and allow the Pentagon some leeway to do its best with the funding it has," Rep. Hal Rogers, the chairman of the appropriations committee, wrote in a statement Monday. "This CR package is the right thing to do, and it's the right time to do it." The bill is expected to be on the floor for debate on Wednesday and a vote on Thursday. http://abcn.ws/ZYmVdS
CHRIS CHRISTIE DINGS OBAMA'S SEQUESTER EVE 'PHOTO OP.' So much for the bromance. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yesterday blasted President Obama over what he said was a failure of leadership to prevent the sequester, notes ABC's Devin Dwyer. "Real leadership would get this fixed. You get everybody in the room and you fix it, and you don't let them leave until you fix it," Christie said at a press conference in Jersey City. "That's what real leadership is, not calling a meeting two hours before the thing's going to hit to have a photo-op in the driveway at the White House," he said of Friday's eleventh-hour meeting. "That's not real leadership." Christie, who has downplayed the much-hyped impact from the automatic spending cuts, also said he's dumbfounded that both sides have failed to tackle the root causes of the deficit and debt problem. "Seems to me it should be pretty easy to fix," he said. http://abcn.ws/10694Wx
NOTED - TRUE OR FALSE?: "I don't think we're going to see much impact from sequester in New Jersey at all," Gov. Christie said yesterday, according to The Bergen Record's Melissa Hayes. "Christie said there is no evidence the $85 billion in spending cuts, known as sequester, will have a big impact on New Jersey and he accused President Obama of overplaying the impacts of sequester 'in a major way.' He said the proof is that no planes have fallen out of the sky, despite cuts to airport security and air traffic controllers. 'I don't believe that sequestration at one cent on a dollar is going to have a grave effect on anybody and that anybody is really going to notice it all that much, except for some of the federal employees who are going to be furloughed,' Christie said." http://bit.ly/Xnx590
BIDEN: WE'RE NOT BLUFFING ON IRAN. Tough talk from Vice President Joe Biden yesterday, warning that the U.S. is determined to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, reports ABC's Dana Hughes. "Big nations can't bluff," said Biden at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a group that lobbies in favor of Israel. "Presidents of the United States cannot bluff. And President Barack Obama is not bluffing." The Obama administration has employed a "dual track" strategy on Iran, continuing diplomatic negotiations while imposing harsh sanctions on the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Biden told AIPAC that Iran has a limited time for negotiations. "We're not looking for war. We're looking to and ready to negotiate peacefully, but all options, including military options, are on the table," he said to a cheering crowd. http://abcn.ws/WICKrW
WOMAN SAYS SHE WAS PAID TO LIE ABOUT CLAIM OF SEX WITH SENATOR. Allegations that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic were a lie, according to a young woman who signed an affidavit saying she was paid to make the false claims in the week before last year's elections. ABC's Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz report that last fall, Republican operatives, who insisted on anonymity, helped arrange the woman's appearance, along with two additional women, in back-to-back, on-line interviews with ABC News and a conservative news website, the Daily Caller. The woman, who was not present when her affidavit was revealed at a press conference by an attorney in the Dominican Republic Monday, said her performance last year was arranged by a Dominican lawyer who had her rehearse statements and promised to pay her well. "I never slept with Mr. Menendez nor Mr. Melgin," the woman, Nexis de los Santos Santana, said in her sworn statement, adding she did not know the Senator or the doctor."So therefore I don't have any relationship of any kind with the aforementioned people." In her interview with ABC News before the election, she said her name was Michelle Rodriguez and that she had come forward because Menendez had paid her only $100 of the $500 she had expected. She now says she was coached to make the claim. http://abcn.ws/15uwkgl
WHO'S TWEETING?
@aseitzwald: "Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?" Romney adviser tells @MarcACaputo http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/04/3266978/jeb-bush-no-citizenship-path-for.html ?
@JesseFFerguson: Washington Post reports that "anxiety is rising among House Republicans" about new Ryan budget and Medicare. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/republican-goal-to-balance-budget-could-mean-deep-cuts-to-health-programs/2013/03/04/94632f92-840b-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html?hpid=z1 ?
@elisefoley: Jeb Bush: "We wrote this book last year, not this year." http://bit.ly/Zd55Bo
@jimacostacnn: DC is so divided. We even have a rain/snow line: http://www.wjla.com/blogs/weather/
@CoryBooker: "The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become." W.E.B. Du Bois
The White House and the FCC have recently come out in favor of allowing consumers to unlock their phones. That is a really good thing. Let's hope that the rest of the regulators in this country join them in this stance.
I would go even further. I would assert that rooting, jailbreaking, and other actions that users take to gain total control of their device should be entirely legal in this country.
Here is why. We need to defend the concept of general purpose computing. General purpose computing is the idea that the owner of the computer can get access to the base computing functions on the device. Rewind to the time of the homebrew computer club. Hackers and coders were building their own computing devices and putting software on them and making what became personal computers. Personal computers have evolved a lot since then, most recently ending up in our pockets and purses, but they remain personal to the core.
In recent years we have seen more and more attempts to separate us from the core computing functions on our personal computing devices. The iPhone is stock full of them and that is the fundamental reason I will never use one. The same is true of the iPad. So iOS users jailbreak their phones. The evasion iPhone jailbreak is on 23 million phones now.
Android phones and tablets are better, but the carriers who sell these Android devices play Apple's game pretty well themselves. Getting a Nexus with a clean build of Android what I do. Others cleanse their phones with Cyanogen or other mods.? All of this activity shows that many of us want to control our devices, configure them the way we want, and put the software on them that we want to put on them.
It feels to me and other industry observers I talk to that we are moving away from this notion of general purpose computing to some other place where we use devices that are controlled by others and that we can't truly make our own. This is a dangerous trend in the technology world and one we need to resist.
I feel a growing divide between the users, who are rooting, unlocking, and jailbreaking in record numbers, and the device makers and marketers who are tightening up the screws on their devices ever tighter. I stand with the users in this fight and unlock, root, and jailbreak as much as I can. You should too. And our governement should make this activity legal so that we do not face any adverse consequences from this behavior.
A photo booth is a nice addition to any party, but when you combine one with an iPad and trendy animated GIFs, you'll have a line around the block trying to get in. PHHHOTO offers just that.
The service converts an ordinary iPad into a self-contained GIF production engine, courtesy of cloud storage and a little extra hardware. It uses the iPad's front-facing camera, so resolution won't be too hot, but the app provides a ringlight to to illuminate faces for a professional look.
Once you're in front of the camera, you activate the shutter and it takes a few pictures, sending them off to PHHHOTO's servers, where they are assembled into an animated GIF. The finished product is sent back to the iPad and stored online as well so it can be linked to, shared and so on.
The app is put out by HyperHyper, a "creative technology studio" based in New York and Los Angeles that made it for a holiday party and decided to take it a step further. The company is partnering with local services for rental and installation of the booth and lighting.
It costs 99 cents to activate the app, but parties will run you $10 per event (for as many photos as you'd like) ? or you can really shell out for a big event with custom colors and multiple iPads. At $999, though, it's not likely you'll be doing it for a friendly get-together.
Sure, you could probably find a free GIF-making app and cobble something together, but if you put a tip jar next to this photo booth, chances are you'll recoup your investment. PHHHOTO should be available in April.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
