Source: http://www.yuyangblog.com/2011/04/%e6%84%9a%e4%ba%ba%e8%8a%82%e6%95%b4%e8%9b%8a/
Thursday, 30 June 2011
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Home Business Tax Savings ? Business Travel
Source: http://www.cnltunisie.org/home-business-tax-savings-business-travel.htm
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Business Traveler Interview: Chris Christensen
Home Business Tax Savings ? Business Travel
Source: http://www.cnltunisie.org/home-business-tax-savings-business-travel.htm
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Spain's Mediterranean Beaches Offer a Different Kind of Paradise
Navigating shifts
IBM turns 100, Groupon prepares to launch its IPO despite hefty losses and video game manufacturers unveil their latest products
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/babbage-june-8th-2011?fsrc=rss
Monday, 27 June 2011
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Sunday, 26 June 2011
The Difference Engine: The beef about corn
IN A surprise U-turn, members of the United States Senate voted 73-27 last week to abolish a 45-cents-a-gallon subsidy for ethanol from corn (ie, maize) that is used for blending with petrol. They also voted to kill the 54-cents-a-gallon import duty on ethanol from abroad. This is the first time in over three decades that the Senate has challenged the sacrosanct $6 billion-a-year tax break for American corn-growers and ethanol producers.
The federal government started subsidising corn-based ethanol back in the late 1970s?in a bid to wean the country off imported oil. As recently as last December, lawmakers voted to extend the ethanol subsidy for yet another year. Since then, two things have happened to make the politicians change their minds.
First, a broad consensus has now thrown its weight behind the environmentalists? view that using home-grown ethanol?as a replacement for imported oil?squanders far too much energy and water in the process, and is not a particularly good way or reducing greenhouse gases anyway. Indeed, given the intensive use of energy in agribusiness, it is debatable whether replacing petrol with ethanol breaks even in terms of the ?wells-to-wheels? energy consumed, or even produces a net reduction in carbon emission.
Besides, even if America?s entire corn crop were to be devoted to ethanol production, it would still only supply 4% of the country?s oil consumption. So much for the argument that home-grown ethanol offers an answer to America?s dependence on foreign oil.
Second, the food industry has gone noisily public about the way the federal government?s corn subsidies?which have encouraged American farmers to devote more and more of their corn crops to ethanol production?have driven up food prices. Last year, 40% of the corn grown in the United States (some five billion bushels) was used for making ethanol. This summer, corn supplies for animal feed are heading for a 15-year low. As a consequence, corn futures have soared to almost $8 a bushel?twice their price a year ago. Consumers counting the cost at the supermarket checkout now know who to blame.
In America, two ethanol-blends of fuel have been approved for use. The most common by far is E10, a blend of petrol containing up to 10% ethanol. In this case, the ethanol is used simply as an oxygenate (ie, an oxygen-rich additive) to reduce the carbon monoxide produced during combustion and to raise the octane rating of the fuel enough to protect the engine from ?knocking? under load?a condition caused by the air-fuel mixture in the cylinders exploding prematurely instead of burning smoothly. Previously, MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) was the oxygenate of choice, but fell out of favour in 2004 when it was found to contaminate ground water.
A less-common blend, a fuel containing 85% ethanol and 15% petrol, is known as E85. This exists thanks to a political ploy designed to help motor manufacturers achieve the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirement for the fleet of vehicles they sell each year. In 2011, the motor industry has to achieve a fleet-wide average of 30.2mpg (7.8 litres/100km) for all the new cars and 24.1mpg for all the light trucks they sell in America. Under the ethanol fudge, so-called ?flex-fuel? vehicles that can run (even if they never do) on E85 as well as petrol are granted a 54% bonus towards their CAFE target. Judging from the limited availability of the blend outside the corn belt, few owners of flex-fuel vehicles ever fill up with E85.
There are good reasons why not. A gallon of pure ethanol contains two-thirds the energy of a gallon of petrol. If a flex-fuel vehicle achieves 30mpg on petrol, switching to ethanol would give it 20mpg. In other words, 50% more fuel is needed to travel the same distance. In having some petrol blended in it, the consumption penalty falls to 25% to 30% when a car is fuelled with E85. On a cost-per-mile basis, ethanol fuels like E85?even with their hefty subsidies?are typically 20% more expensive than petrol. Something similar goes for E10, though the penalty is much less.
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/biofuels?fsrc=rss
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Senior Citizens Visit Bruges
Source: http://www.seniorcitizenjournal.com/travel-articles/senior-citizens-visit-bruges/
Hijinx In Empty Dallas Terminal

We’ve all dreamed of it. What would we do if we had an entire shopping mall, office building, or airport terminal to ourselves? The latter recently became a reality for Joe Ayala and Larry Chen.
The two were stranded overnight in an empty terminal at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport after their connecting flight was cancelled. Rather than read or catch a few Z’s, the pair decided to have some fun with Ayala’s camera.
A video titled “Stuck” was posted to Vimeo on Monday night. In it, the pair are shown wheelchair racing, PA system beatboxing, and even sneaking a beer from a closed airport bar.
While some find humor in the hijinx, others are raising major security concerns. Though both cleared a TSA checkpoint to get into the terminal, their overnight party seemed to go completely unnoticed by airport security.
Watch the video here.
STUCK from Joe Ayala on Vimeo.
Editor's note: Jalopnik's Matt Hardigree explains how Ayala and Chen filmed their night in the airport.
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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/hijinx-in-empty-dallas-terminal-2011-6
Friday, 24 June 2011
Business Traveler Interview: Peter Shankman
Hiawatha stood and waited... but not for long
ON FRIDAY, my colleague sang the praises of the light rail system that connects the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to downtown Minneapolis. My colleague mentioned the obvious benefits of the airport link, which is known as the Hiawatha Light Rail?it facilitates travel and reduces road traffic, while encouraging the use of the airport. There are even some positive externalities:
[I]t strikes me that airport links may also have a significant positive externality for American cities struggling to make the case for their own light rail systems?which is to say, a lot of them. This is because they are, by design, highly accessible to travellers. They're likely to be a traveller's first experience of a city's public-transport system. And so a pleasant airport link can be an effective ambassador for light rail systems in general.
This is all true. But in this particular case, the argument in favour of Hiawatha is strong even before we start talking about externalities. The system, as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported last week, has proved remarkably successful by nearly every metric. It connects many of Minneapolis' most important destinations?the airport, the Mall of America, the downtown, and the Minnesota Twins' new home at Target Field. The line has already far surpassed its expected daily ridership for the year 2020. Perhaps most notable is the fact that Hiawatha is cheaper to run than the metro buses that so many American cities use in lieu of light rail:
The cost of operating the Hiawatha between Bloom-ington and downtown Minneapolis is about half that of Metro Transit buses in the Twin Cities, according to comparisons by the federal government. The Hiawatha also is less expensive to operate than most other light-rail lines in the nation....
...The Hiawatha Line costs about 51 cents per passenger mile to operate, while Metro Transit buses cost about 88 cents, according to the National Transit Database (NTD), a division of the Federal Transit Administration.
The cost comparison doesn't include initial infrastructure and equipment costs for the light rail line?but it doesn't include the costs for buying buses or maintaining the roads they rely on, either. Readers should also note that the Hiawatha was well-planned and is well-run. Costs for light rail lines in American cities that didn't do the job as well are significantly higher. But the Hiawatha is a example of how, given the proper planning, light rail can do more than just succeed?it can prove cheaper than buses. That's a lesson every city should keep in mind.
I'll be visiting Minneapolis next month. Maybe I'll see you on the Hiawatha.
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/06/light-rail?fsrc=rss