BMW takes ‘great leap forward’ into electric car market

“BMW on Monday took the bold strategic step of revealing its first all-electric car, and said it plans to clinch a significant share of a market still in its infancy. The series-produced model will go on sale in Europe in November to be followed in the United States, China, Japan and several other markets in the first half of 2014. It will hit the German market at a price of 34,950 euros ($46,438) and has a range of 130 to 160 kilometres (about 80 to 100 miles). The Munich-based company trumpeted technological features of the model, which can seat four, including a carbon fibre passenger cell to help offset the weight of the batteries and an aluminium chassis.” Continue reading

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New York offers latest luxury: Five-star ‘outdoor bedroom’ atop skyscraper

“In the concrete jungle of New York City, where open sky can be hard to find, the latest luxury offering is a night under the stars — or, under twinkling city lights, at least. For the not-so-insignificant price of $1,995 (1,500 euros) a night, the AKA Central Park promises a five star ‘outdoor bedroom,’ 17 floors up, complete with a queen-size bed, candle-lit dinner, fireplace, romantic snacks, and a giant telescope to admire the stars in the city that never sleeps. To the strains of live jazz guitar, Brazilians, Australians, Emiratis, and even New Yorkers spend the night doing what travel agents call urban ‘glamping’ — short for ‘glamorous camping.'” Continue reading

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Economist Withdraws Bank of Israel Candidacy

“One of Israel’s top economists on Monday withdrew his candidacy as head of the central bank over an old shoplifting case. The incident happened in a Hong Kong airport seven years ago. Jacob Frenkel told Israeli media he mistakenly thought his companion paid for an item he was carrying. A committee reviewing his appointment raised questions about the incident, and Frenkel decided to withdraw his candidacy. Frenkel did not report the incident to the committee.” Continue reading

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Will the Federal Reserve Taper Off on QE?

“Why on earth would Mister Bernanke announce at this time that the Fed might taper off on QE? After all, Mister Bernanke is a committed Keynesian. Further, he is an ardent fan of President Roosevelt and his economic ‘solutions.’ So, what’s up? It is highly unlikely that the leopard is changing his spots. Rather than assume he has, we might want to consider that his recent announcement to taper off on QE is a mere smokescreen – a tactic that will create a scare sufficient to give the Fed license to print like never before.” Continue reading

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Working Class Whites Are Giving Up Hope.

“Working class whites are giving up economic hope, according to a recent poll. They did not vote for Obama. The article did talk about single-mother households. They are in poverty, of course. What did the social planners expect? If the government subsidizes a particular behavior, we get more of it. That was the conservative argument a generation ago. It was dismissed as heartless by liberals. This is what 80 years of welfare state politics have produced. But of course, no one in the mainstream mentions this. Pessimism now reigns.” Continue reading

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How the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy

“As a fiction, Zimmerman the white supremacist rivals Obama the Kenyan-born commie Muslim. Obama is right that our racial history—a history in which, a few decades ago, young black males in much of the country really could be murdered at will for looking at a white person the wrong way—gave Trayvon Martin’s death a powerful and painful resonance for black Americans. That made it all the more incumbent on the media to be scrupulously truthful and responsible in their coverage. At this, they have spectacularly failed, with deplorable consequences.” Continue reading

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Chicago Firearms Confiscation Begins

“There’s a good reason that law abiding gun owners don’t want their names on a national gun registry — namely, registration leads to confiscation. Gun control advocates immediately spout that “no one wants to take your guns” and other assorted platitudes. In Illinois, gun owners are required to get a Firearms Owners ID card, or FOID. Cook County police officers have become increasingly worried that when someone’s FOID card is revoked, their guns aren’t instantly confiscated. So they’re doing exactly what gun control advocates have said that registration would never result in — door to door confiscation.” Continue reading

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Undercover Police Informant Plants Crack Cocaine in Smoke Shop; Business Owner Saved by Tape

“Who exactly is the victim when crack cocaine is found on someone’s person or property? Maybe the owner of that property? In Scotia, New York, local and county police decided they were suspicious of Donald Andrew’s smoke shop, one of many in Schenectady County but, according to Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing, apparently the only one owned by a black person. They sent an informant, someone facing jail time of their own, to, er, ‘investigate.’ Here’s what happened, via the local NBC affiliate,WNYT.” Continue reading

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