Dutch Put Electric Cars to the Test





AMSTERDAM — When Patrick Langevoort’s company issued him an electric vehicle two years ago, the first months were filled with misadventure: he found himself far from Amsterdam, with only a 25 percent charge remaining, unable to find the charging point listed on a map. Though the car was supposed to travel 100 miles on a full battery, he discovered that cold weather and fast driving decreased that range.




But electric vehicles have improved, the network of charging stations in the Netherlands has expanded and drivers like Mr. Langevoort are getting used to the particularities of electric driving. “I used to be a real petrol head,” said Mr. Langevoort, who works for a company that manages electricity networks. “Now, I’ve sold my petrol car.”


Although a number of European countries and a few American states are aggressively promoting the use of electric vehicles to reduce planet-warming emissions and pollution, the Netherlands provides perhaps the ultimate feasibility test. If electric vehicles catch on anywhere, it should be here: a small country — about 100 miles east to west — with gas prices of about $8.50 a gallon and a long tradition of environmental activism.


To encourage electric driving, the country is developing a rapidly expanding national grid of charging stations in cities and along highways; and Amsterdam offers owners of electric vehicles free street parking and charging. With hefty tax breaks, promotional leases and cheaper operating costs, the vehicles offer driving costs no more than those of conventional cars, some analysts say.


The number of plug-in electric vehicles in the Netherlands soared eightfold to about 7,500 last year, and charging posts dot the sidewalks. “In a few countries you’re starting to see a number of E.V.’s on the road, especially in capital cities; they’re very visible,” said Peder Jensen, a transportation expert at the European Environment Agency.


And yet, experiments with the cars in the Netherlands and Denmark also underscore the challenges facing this new technology. Sales have been lower than politicians and automakers hoped, representing under 1 percent of new vehicles, even here. “It seems that the industry has not convinced consumers that they can do this,” Mr. Jensen said. “If they fail over the next few years, I think investors will pull out, and that will be a problem.”


Last year 120,000 plug-in electric vehicles were sold globally, according to a recent report by Pike Research, an industry analyst group, which predicts 40 percent annual growth between now and 2020. In 2012, 52,000 were sold in the United States, which now has 12,000 charging stations, according to the automotive consulting firm J. D. Power; but they are dispersed over a large area. Those statistics include pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids, which can run on gas or propane once the battery loses power.


Though many analysts had assigned electric vehicles to the second-car niche, a 2012 survey of Dutch drivers of the cars by the consulting firm Accenture found that most of them ended up being used as a family’s primary vehicle.


Drivers learned to figure out how far they could drive on a charge, overcoming what has been dubbed “range anxiety.” They started off cautiously driving straight from home to the office, knowing they could charge at one or both sites. Over time, they expanded their driving repertoire, learning where to find charging points in garages and along highways — a smartphone app contains them all — much as people learn the locations of convenient A.T.M.’s. That task was made easier by the growing number of chain stores and restaurants offering parking spots with charging outlets, so that customers can refuel while they dine or shop.


Still, a layer of complexity limits acceptance. “There’s still some planning; it’s a bit like a puzzle,” said Maarten Noom, an Accenture consultant who drives an electric vehicle. “It’s not the same ease of mind as with a gas car.”


Mr. Noom, for example, charges at his office and overnight at home, but he switches to a gasoline car when his appointments are scattered around the Netherlands, since he sometimes drives hundreds of miles in a day. Charging at home uses low voltage and takes four to eight hours. New high-voltage rapid charging stations give an 80 percent charge in 20 to 30 minutes, but they are costly to install and still rare.


Mr. Langevoort, the electricity company manager, says he now leaves for work later because his Opel Ampera’s charge goes further as the day warms.


Some electric car leasing programs here provide free or discounted gas vehicles for those who want to take a weeklong driving vacation around Europe.


Many experts say the lack of a uniform business model in the fledgling market is also a hindrance. Contracts for charging are sometimes purchased along with the car and tied to a particular charging network, much as cellphones are linked to a certain carrier. What is more, the penetration of the various networks varies depending on the region, and technology is not always interchangeable.


In Europe, the charging network run by New Motion delivers electricity from pumplike devices. One rival, Better Place, offers swap stations where drivers get a fresh battery in addition to charging points. In the United States, SAE International, an organization of scientists and vehicle engineers, recently adopted a standard charging plug nationwide so that most electric vehicles can use any charging station. But some companies, like Tesla Motors, operate closed networks of high-performance “superchargers.”


“That type of uncertainty is also unsettling to customers,” said Mike Omotoso, a senior manager of forecasting at LMC Automotive, a market research firm. “There’s a Wild West feel, with a lot of companies jumping in. But ultimately there will be a shakeout and consolidation.”


In many European countries there is a good financial case for driving electric. In Denmark, taxes on new luxury cars can be 200 percent of the sticker price, whereas electric vehicles come tax-free. In the Netherlands, gas costs about five times as much as the electricity needed for a similar journey.


While there are some tax breaks for electric vehicle purchases in the United States, the Obama administration has relied more on exhortation to make electric vehicles “as affordable and convenient as gasoline-powered cars in the next 10 years.” Last month, the Energy Department announced its Workplace Charging Challenge, in which Google, Verizon, Eli Lilly, Nissan and other companies pledged to put charging infrastructure in at least one major office.


Mr. Jensen, of the European Environment Agency, said that a big infusion of money could be needed to improve infrastructure in those countries seeking to increase the use of electric vehicles.


When he looked into buying an electric car, the charging system would not fit in his garage, Mr. Jensen said, and few are willing to drive around Europe with a trunk full of adapters. “I think the companies who will win are not necessarily the ones that have the best technology, but the ones that form the best alliances,” he said. “It you have a mobile phone — and even more a car — the most important thing is that you can use it wherever you go.”


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PlayStation 4 pricing will reportedly top $400









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Katy Perry (Sort Of) Steals Spotlight at Bruce Springsteen Pre-Grammy Tribute









02/09/2013 at 11:45 AM EST







Katy Perry at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala


Lester Cohen/WireImage


It may have been a tribute to Bruce Springsteen but Katy Perry seemed to be the main attraction for some at Friday's MusiCares Person of the Year tribute at the Los Angeles Convention Center before Sunday's Grammy Awards.

The singer, who arrived at the charity event which raises money for musicians in need sans beau John Mayer, was interrupted by two young fans who asked to take a picture with her as she was talking to director J.J. Abrams. But that wasn't all: the pop star, who later hung out with Elton John, was approached by even more fans in the lobby at the show.

Other MusiCares attendees included Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, who arrived hand-in-hand before the dinner began. (McGraw and Hill later performed "Tougher Than the Rest" during the concert.)

As for the man of the hour, when the auction slowed The Boss offered up the ultimate prize: himself.

While composer David Foster urged the crowd to bid on a guitar signed live by many of the music stars in attendance, Springsteen grabbed the mic himself and threw in a few very personal extras to amp up the bidding.

First, he offered a one-hour guitar lesson and a ride in the sidecar of his Harley Davidson. Next, he added eight tickets to an E Street Band show of the bidder's choice, plus backstage passes and a backstage tour he promised to conduct personally.

"So dig in you one-percenters," he urged the audience with a smile. Springsteen raised the winning bid to a whopping $250,000 by making it a family affair, promising to also include "a lasagna made by my mother!"

Auction winner Tracey Powell, a "full-time mom," was so thrilled that she ran to Springsteen and kissed him on the lips – twice!

"I'm a Jersey girl and that's why I did it," Powell, who now lives in California, tells PEOPLE of her generous bid. "He's an amazing musician and I've followed him for years. Plus it was for an amazing cause that I'm so happy to support."

Jon Stewart hosted the evening's entertainment, a the Springsteen tribute concert that featured artists Elton John, Mumford & Sons, Sting, Neil Young (who sang "Born in the USA"), John Legend, Natalie Maines, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris, Kenny Chesney and others, who performed some of Springsteen's classics.

Katy Perry (Sort Of) Steals Spotlight at Bruce Springsteen Pre-Grammy Tribute| Grammy Awards 2013, Hot Topics, News Franchises, Individual Class, Bruce Springsteen, Faith Hill, Katy Perry, Tim McGraw

John Legend performing at the MusiCares pre-Grammy tribute to Bruce Springsteen

For more behind-the-scenes photos of your favorite stars, follow @peoplemag on Instagram.
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After early start, worst of flu season may be over


NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.


But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.


For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.


Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.


"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.


In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.


Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications


But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.


Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.


___


Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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Wall Street advances after stream of economic data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index rose on Friday after a batch of positive economic data points, but gains were checked with the benchmark S&P index at five-year highs as investors looked for strong catalysts to push the market further upward.


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Another positive sign was U.S. economic data which showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


But wholesale inventories unexpectedly fell 0.1 percent in December as auto dealers and agricultural suppliers drew down their stocks.


The S&P 500 <.spx> has risen for five straight weeks and is up 6.3 percent for the year. Its advance was helped by legislators in Washington averting a series of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes earlier in the year, as well as better-than-expected corporate earnings and data that pointed to modest economic improvement but no immediate change in the Federal Reserve's stimulus plans.


The index, hovering near five-year highs, has found it tougher to climb in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive it further upward.


"We are going to have this churn and this consolidation, which actually isn't a bad thing - it's actually good the market isn't being so volatile and is actually consolidating because it is building a base," said Ken Polcari, Director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New York.


"If it builds a base, from there it is easier to make the argument that you move ahead."


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 67.62 points, or 0.48 percent, to 14,011.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> climbed 7.82 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,517.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> rose 27.34 points, or 0.86 percent, to 3,192.47.


McDonald's Corp said January sales at established hamburger restaurants around the world fell 1.9 percent, a steeper decline than analysts expected. Still, shares edged up 0.5 percent to $94.11.


Healthcare stocks were among the best performers, with the Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index <.hmo> up 2.3 percent. Molina Healthcare Inc surged 12.1 percent to $32.36 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.


LinkedIn Corp jumped 19.3 percent to $148.02 after announcing blow-out quarterly profits and a bullish forecast for the year that exceeded Wall Street's already lofty expectations.


According to Thomson Reuters data through Friday morning, of 339 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 69.9 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.


Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies grew 5.2 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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IHT Rendezvous: 'Downton Abbey' vs. 'Girls': Who's Happier?

BROOKLYN — Can we have too much freedom?

Page Two

Posts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.

That’s the question behind my latest Currents column, where I discuss what “Downton Abbey” and “Girls,” two wildly popular television shows set 100 years apart, have to tell us about ourselves and our society — especially when it comes to personal freedom and its consequences.

What begins on ‘‘Downton’’ as a new liberty to follow your heart, to dare love that others find unwise, has culminated in ‘‘Girls’’ in romantic pursuits that are dully mercenary and often unwise. The daughters of the sexual revolution are depicted without much agency: far from being conquerors, initiators, even equals, the girls of ‘‘Girls’’ are reactors, giving in to an ex who changes his mind, or a gay man wanting to try something, or a financier seeking a threesome that he manages to upgrade to (traditionally twosome) marriage.

I discussed the dangers of today’s freedoms with Rendezvous’s editor, Marcus Mabry, in this video, here and below. (I also argue that today’s India is “Downton.”)

Do you agree with my analysis of the drawbacks of what we call Western-style freedom? Is there a happy medium between the strictures of “Downton Abbey” and the ceaseless longing of “Girls”? In the video, I suggest Latin America is a modern society that, in places, has found the balance between personal freedoms and a collective sense of belonging. What society or country or group would you nominee?

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Facebook Broke the Internet






A weird thing happened on Thursday night. Anytime you clicked on a link — or most of the time anyways — some strange Internet force directed you to an error page on Facebook. The URL is full of weird randomly generated code, but it’s definitely a Facebook page. You can even check your notifications even though you didn’t even want to visit Facebook. No, this is not a conspiracy. In all likelihood, it’s a bug that will be fixed within the hour. (Unless, it’s not, in which case things will get very interesting.) If you need to use the Internet before then, simply log out of Facebook, and you should be good to go.


RELATED: Are Facebook Users Higher Class?






Folks that understand how these Internet things work have quickly surmised that the bug must be related to Facebook Connect, the ubiquitous, one-click log-in feature that you’ve been using much more than you though you were. If true this would mean that every time you’re redirected by this bug or whatever it is, you’re heading to a site that’s controlled by Facebook. We couldn’t have said anything so dramatic yesterday, but today it’s become painfully apparent. Facebook rules the Internet. There are few corners that it does not touch, and whether you read your News Feed or not,  Facebook can ruin your Thursday night of Internet surfing any time it wants to. 


RELATED: Happy Hour Vid: Mashable CEO Sees Society Growing Tolerant of Less Privacy


This is a developing story, so check back soon for more details.


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Mariska Hargitay Loves Her Curves from Motherhood















02/08/2013 at 11:15 AM EST







Mariska Hargitay


Courtesy Ladies Home Journal


Motherhood and the perspective of age have helped Mariska Hargitay become a more confident – and fulfilled – woman and actress.

The longtime Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star, 49, answered candid questions about life and aging from readers for the Ladies' Home Journal's March cover story, on newsstands Feb. 12.

"I love my curves because they scream, 'I'm a mama!' I'm the girl who started wearing maternity pants about an hour after I found out I was pregnant because I was so excited about becoming a mom " Hargitay, a mother of three, happily offers, noting that while she runs to stay fit, it's carrying toddlers up the stairs in her home that now add strength training to her daily workouts.

While her late mother, the actress Jayne Mansfield, was known for her vavoom pin-up body, Hargitay eschews that sexualized image, saying women should not be defined by their shapes.

"There's this picture of her in a director's chair with her measurements on the back: 40-21-35. When I look at that picture part of me says, 'Mom, I love your sense of humor.' But the other part of me says, 'No, your name is supposed to go there. Your body is not who you are," says Hargitay who lost her famous mom at age 3 and who was raised by her father and stepmother.

"I don't think women should label themselves based on the way they look," Hargitay says. "What about defining yourself by a different kind of measurement? What about your heart, your soul, your compassion, your generosity, your strength, and your power? There are so many other things to focus on besides your waistline."

She confesses: "Some days having that extra bowl of pasta and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup means more to me than being thin."

Although she was raised to look natural – her late father, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, didn't like makeup – Hargitay says she supports any woman who might consider plastic surgery to freshen their appearance and make them feel better about themselves. For now, she is happily embracing her age.

"Things are sagging a bit – I'm not going to lie. But am I going to be upset about the sag or am I going to look at my three gorgeous kids and my husband and count my lucky stars?" she says. " I try to focus on who I am rather than who I'm not."

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk


Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.


It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.


Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.


"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.


People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.


In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.


"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.


Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.


The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:


Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.


—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.


—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.


—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.


—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.


"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.


Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.


There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.


There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.


The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.


Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.


The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.


"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.


"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."


___


Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Wall Street extends losses; Nasdaq off 1 percent


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell further on Thursday, with the Nasdaq falling 1 percent, as a sharp drop in the euro against the safe-haven dollar and yen curbed investors' appetite for risky assets.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 119.84 points, or 0.86 percent, at 13,866.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 12.31 points, or 0.81 percent, at 1,499.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 30.76 points, or 0.97 percent, at 3,137.72.


(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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