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Justification of a sustainable HSR/"Bullet Train" from Chicago to the Great Lakes & Northeast Corridors
Great Lakes/GLC to Keystone/KC to Northeast/NEC
This is a proposal for an exciting, strategic and practical true high speed rail(HSR) "bullet train" project. New electric bullet train/HSR designs-systems use both "dedicated" and existing infrastructures/track/rights of way(ROW). The energy/economic/security and transportation/health/safety rationales for this new transport mode would mostly be for servicing the states of Illinois through to New York/ Jersey, connecting the cities of Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York. Detroit and Cincinnati/Ohio can be individual bullet train line origin-destination points(these total linked HSR systems' state populations are over 140 million, half the USA population!).
Moreover, extra states would benefit by their link to Northeast corridor(NEC) service or by other modes to any city train station, including ones connected radialy to Chicago by conventional trains. The overall population reach serviced by both these systems combined is well over 170 million people in 18 states-more than Japan's HSR system and 3 times the French TGV HSR population source! Philadelphia would be the logistic hub where Great Lakes corridor trains would meet the Northeast corridor and either terminate there or continue on, alternating either northbound to NYC/Boston or southbound to Baltimore/Washington DC; or, even perhaps east to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Great Lakes(GLC) train could carry in excess of 50 million passengers a year, drawing travelers from air and bus but mostly automobile modes in addition to acquiring induced new travelers. Over the very long functional life, the properties of the GLC and large initial capital investments would prove very worthwhile & efficient. Relative past costs and subsidies of the aforementioned cities' air transport, interstate roads and highways were far more expensive in contrast than what this new initial route's would be.
50 million GLC passengers a year is equivalent to about 1/3 of commercial aviation enplanements in the Great Lakes/Northeast corridor cities of the over 700 million annual domestic enplanements in the US. In Japan(pop. 120 million) HSR usage is over 130 million trips a year; in France(pop. 55 million) HSR usage is over 30 million trips a year.
This proposal will apt to be very unpopular with air and road transportation related industries/lobbies (9 of the 10 largest companies worldwide either produce autos or petroleum products); nevertheless, it shouldn't be since additional railroad capacity alleviates some of their modes' problems. Hopefully progress and logic will prevail and this new transportation mode can develop and thrive despite other interests.
ECONOMIC REASONS (only 2% of world oil reserves are in the USA, true HSR transport is all electric using domestic coal and other sustainable energy resources)
1. This new GL Corridor system linking to the NEC interconnects more than 20 culture rich cities; 7 of the 10 largest and most important in the USA! The new line would travel from Great Lakes cities through the Alleghany Mountains on to Philadelphia, New York City, Washington DC and the rest of the Northeast HSR(NEC/Acela) cities.
2. There would be new job creation generated by construction and then for continual operation and maintenance of the GLC route(also, more good CBD/downtown jobs). Rider ship levels should reach and exceed the levels of the French TGV ultimately. The French TGV, with over 30 million annual trips, has revenues of about $3 billion a year.
3. With possible revenues of $4 billion or more a year, the large investment in this line's infrastructure and train sets would be realistically paid for within several years time, similar to the French TGV experience with their revenue streams financing and funding.
4. This new route would augment and strengthen AMTRAK abilities and potential elsewhere on complementary routes and that of the Northeast corridor/Acela. Acela/NEC HSR utilization continues to grow and is AMTRAK'S most profitable and popular route.
5. This travel mode would enhance cities' CBDs and integrated rail developments there. Proposed connected cities; Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia have and are expanding upon their own internal rail transit systems-cities not entirely reliant on autos!
SECURITY REASONS (HSR trains could evacuate an entire large city in 1-2 days)
1. The airline transportation mode is more favored for terrorist attacks(hijackings, bombings, sabotage, poisonings etc.) Assaults are not as likely or as catastrophic with the HSR transportation mode-insurance companies and the public would welcome that.
2. The HSR mode of transport wouldn't call for the necessary extreme expense and trouble of security systems and additional equipment as the airline mode requires.
3. more.....
THE 1st TRUE HIGH SPEED RAIL/HSR SYSTEM-BULLET TRAIN FOR THE USA
Please distribute this concept with attachments to your transportation and energy contacts, I'm trying to receive feedback and financial and political support, thanks(to: firstname.lastname@example.com). Advanced countries are implementing true High Speed Rail/HSR systems and the USA is earnestly trying to also; of the many concepts proposed, the Great Lakes HSR Corridor -GLC system should be the one built. Millions of people would be able to use the system and even more benefit from it's numerous advantages.
This concept/proposal has received many favorable reviews from academics, consultants, the transport industries and others. This is not the Midwest HSR initiative, rather, another transportation choice/mode, a separate dedicated true HSR / "bullet train" system. The Great Lakes & North East US regions=25% of all US inter-city travel by road and air!
The benefits of the brilliant safety records(no deaths on similar decades old Shinkansen or TGV HSR systems), non-reliance on oil(electric powered), less pollutions(air and noise), and less road congestions true electric HSR systems offers outweigh the initial startup costs and land expropriations necessary for this new transport mode.
Jet aircraft expel thousands of gallons of dirty imported oil exhaust into the atmosphere and create dreadful amounts of noise(HSR uses domestic coal and other alternative electric power and is much quieter). Ohare airport generates thousands of additional traffic congesting and polluting vehicles daily-not the case with the Great Lakes/GLC central business district/CBD or current Northeast HSR corridor/NEC CBD destinations.
Incredibly!, estimates of life expectancy of people that live within several miles of a major airport is reduced by 6 or more years due to toxic airplane emissions. In Illinois, it's also reported that the air pollution created by Ohare airport alone is greater than all electric power plants in the state of Illinois combined!
In addition, the GLC system would conserve 5 billion gallons of fuel a year(1 million flights), relying on alternative energies. Also, a big new airport consumes double the land that the entire GLC system concept would, 15,000 vs. 7,000 acres. Finally, discount airlines with multiple airplane/airport transfers per route have as long or longer travel times in the Northeast quarter of the US than most GL/NEC HSR route travel times.
The Great Lakes HSR corridor would connect 45 major US city pairs, therefore, many intercity passengers while other proposed US HSR system concepts connect less than a dozen major city pairs. There are about 1-2 billion individual intercity trips annually within the Northeast and Great Lakes corridors, consequently, the 50 million trips or more a year projected for the model GLC system seems very attainable. There is existing infrastructure throughout Pennsylvania to facilitate HSR travel amid the mountains there-the major concern in adaptation of this HSR concept. It is time to build true HSR.
Mike Lehman
The core issue that derails any discussion about a railway system (pardon the pun) is the uncertainty of the scale at which a rail system becomes a viable alternative to automobiles and airplanes.
As everybody knows we need long planning horizons, both geographically and temporally, to reap the full benefits from large scale fixed-track transportation.
Quite understandably many people are not comfortable with the idea of a nationwide rail system needing massive levels of initial investment.
There is another fundamental reason for public apathy: the relative lack of imagination about what is possible with our ground transportation system.
Most of the blame for lack of public enthusiasm originates with the current railway system run by Amtrak, a sporadic and expensive service at best, which has given us little opportunity to imagine railways as a form of transport that will thrive in the coming decades.
We need another visionary like Eisenhower who can re-imagine the rail system as a crtical component of our national infrastructure vital to our security and prosperity in the 21st century.
Instead of comparing the costs and benefits of travel as they stand today, we should look beyond at least a decade, say 2020 and beyond to see where our railway system should be heading.
The story of the decades since 1980s was that we let China and other economies to play catchup by letting them follow a predictable manufacturing model while stagnating ourselves.
Unless we do everything in our power today to make bold investments in technological infrastructure, US will no longer be in a leadership position by 2020. This is where railways can play a major role.
A nationwide railsystem with an efficient people and goods hauling capacity will certainly allow US to capitalize on our existing social and economic strengths by allowing rapid integration of regional economies.
It would be a dream today to go from New York to Los Angeles by rail during 24-hours for the cost of a present day air ticket, but we should be able to accomplish that with existing technologies.
Now imagine what a rail system crisscrossing the US like that would do to the economic and social landscape of this country. Given our large land mass, with an efficient ground transportation, this country would have a global competitive advantage like no other nation for the forseeable future.
We might very well send a manned Mars mission in the next few decades, which NASA is already gearing up for, but given the political commitment, we should have a far more beneficial futuristic rail transportation system that we in America should be proud of at a much sooner date.
Bottom line, we need dreamers, the lucid kind, to conjure up a rail system that can bring back the excitement of the mid 19th century expansion of railways that made America the greatest nation of the 20th century.
Nonsense to spend millions of $'s to build a new higher speed train over the existing amtrak route between Chicago and Minneapolis.
The current train will take you one way for $125 in 8 hours and 5 minutes. The new train promises to shave an hour or so off that (before more politically motivated stops added along the way).
Competing airlines will take you there for $49 in two hours (including a margin for checking at the airport).
The bus will take you there for $29 (and hit the stops along the way if that's your concern).
Complete and total waste of taxpayer money. If any place is not the place to spend millions for a train, it's through the cow pastures of Wisconsin. Just some blue state payback, Obama-style.
Also, on many of the "Chinatown" buses, passengers have the added advantage of watching premier films that have not yet left theaters!
Even in the densely populated East Coast of America, and despite the existing rail infrastructure and public subsidization/interest, rail will not work.
If you think otherwise perhaps you can explain to me how Amtrak, a semi-private publicly subsided rail company, can continue to charge $100 (or more) for a round trip NYC to DC ticket, when Chinese immigrants and, more recently, Hasedic Jews can change $30 (at the high end--I've paid as little as $10 for a round trip ticket) for the same trip on bus?
America is heavily invested in road infrastructure and small private bus companies will always be able to out-compete trains.
That being said, the ONLY hope for rail in America is to attract wealthier travelers who want the space, speed, and amenities of train travel. It seems speed is currently being worked on...now if only Amtrak had wifi on board (many of the Chinese buses already do!)
These are truly good times for 'rail' of any speed in the USA, but without a national-level strategy to accompany the stimulus funds my fear is that the resultant speed and service gains will be minimal. Apparently lost in all the hoopla, too, is the promise of a short magnetic levitation (maglev) demonstration project, unless a rabbit can be pulled from a hat.
If we have to rely upon AmTrak then it will take a while. their Union makes the Sopranos and the UAW look like cradle school. Corrupt, lazy and inefficient.
Does any one feel a little awkward about Joe Biden's brother being on the board of directors of AmTrak?
We had a great rail transportation system in the Midwest in the interurban cars but they were bought up by the auto makers and we are where we are today.
Upon experiencing Japan and it's Shinkansen (Japan Rail) system, it's easy to be blown away and dream of a similar system in North America.
Rail travel in Europe and Japan was established through national companies. When privatized, the costs were not fully absorbed and the infrastructure already established along with dedicated ridership. At the time these systems were being expanded, in the US, GM was buying out many of the rail companies and dismantling them where most convenient.
With population density a given atribute contrasting mostly North America and Europe/Japan, the organization of the latter systems is rather elegant (at least the Japan Rail system from my experience). The backbone is primarily a high speed system with slower secondary and tertiary lines run by more than one private entity.
An upgrade at best is what North America can hope for for now. Although economically practical for freight, with the exeption of public transit, I cannot recall the last time I had used the rail systems to travel long distances (between cities, states, provinces or countries). It would be a shame to expand lines to nowhere or nowhere fast.
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This was such a great night, what a way to end the festival!
All that remains is the credits
So long, I hope to do it again next year if you'l have me
A UK chemist who has finally given in to the urge and decided to have her own science blog. As well as a chemistry degree I also have an MSc in Polymer Composite science & engineering. I pursued a PhD in paper science (deinking)in the guise of a research assistant at the University of Manchester. So you can expect to find those subjects written about here and anything else which appeals to me. I have many interests and many thing I still wish to do. I'm also a devout atheist xxx

subset: commoncrawl


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Also, you can check out my original podcast,"Spike The Vodka"!
Available thru iTunes:
I am blogger. I sit in the safety of my home and troll the internet to find some flaw with any of the few positive notions happening on the internet. My own attempts at art, commentary and creativity have failed to garnish any attention, so I try to make a name for myself by misrepresenting the integrity of others. I am so full of myself and so blinded by my own self righteousness that I look right past any sort of context or intention of words in hopes I may catch a piece of worthless internet fame and parlay that into a career where I am able to "tattle-tale" for a living. I am too much of a coward to present any original thoughts and opinions of my own in a live arena, where a room full of people may be able to instantly judge me like I do so many others. I can dish it, but god forbid I put myself in a position where I have to take it. So I sit in the comfort of my bubble tea cafe and vent my craven garbage into the trashcans of the internet. I complain about the WI-Fi connection as I sink into the posh loveseat at this Artisan Grill Cheese Salon Hut in hopes that the pretentiousness of this moment will bleed into my vacant drivel. Maybe if I overvalue my own opinion just enough, I'll be the next person that is worshiped by other invertebrate bloggers that are just like me. We control the pulse of what's important, we are the gatekeepers of what's right and wrong. We form hard strong opinions based on headlines without even reading the content of the article. We are the extreme left and right, that cause everyone in between to hate all of the other side. We spread misinformation, lie, and misinterpret the work and effort of others for our own gain. MAN, we are SO AWESOME at finding the one angle of what's wrong with anything anyone says. We let no good deed go with out punishment. We let no inspirational movement go without backlash. It doesn't matter how convoluted my logic, I AM BLOGGER, and I will find anything and EVERYTHING that's wrong with how you think. And if you DARE put up any sort of art, commentary or creativity that isn't EXACTLY the type of very specific art, commentary and creativity that I like, I will rain hellfire on you like no other. For hell hath no fury like a blogger bored.
As everyone in the blogosphere knows by now, Hannibal Buress joked about Bill Cosby's past sexual assault allegations which have caused the stories to resurface in the mainstream. (Which by the way for all the ultra right wing bloggers that keep suggesting the backlash is part of some liberal media agenda by saying "Why now? Why NOW?" The viral video is WHY NOW you morons). But it's not right just the super right wing bloggers that perpetuate misinformation, super left wing bloggers can vomit diarrhea out their mouth too. This week Richie Goldstein decided to attack Hannibal's character by suggesting that Hannibal has "joked about rape" in the past. The thing is though that Richie Goldstein (which already sounds like the name of some fictional evil billionaire) also goes by the internet name "SexMahoney". And SexMahoney himself has joked about rape in his cartoons:
For someone who doesn't think that rape is a "laughing matter" and "nothing to joke about" apparently Richie SexMahoney" Goldstein thinks that rape is funny enough to joke about in his cartoon strip. His rape jokes don't stop there. Richie feels that Hannibal's jokes, contribute to rape culture, yet Richie SexMahoney Goldstein thinks its okay to make jokes like this:
But Richie, you said, "there is nothing funny about rape" and that rape is "No laughing matter". So why do you think it's funny to make a joke about a female saying "No" and a male dismissing her "No" and putting in "just the tip" anyway? Oh that's right cause you're a FUCKING HYPOCRITE! These are rape jokes. So Hannibal does a joke, that by no design of his own, brings a scandal that was swept under the rug into the mainstream, and you felt compelled to try to get 15 minutes of internet fame by trying to slander the character of someone that brought the discussion of the rampant problem of sexual assault into public forum. Your angle was to try to take him down a notch by misinterpreting his material, and passing along that misinterpretation to the masses? You suggest that his joke that ends with him saying that the woman was actually harassing HIM, was offensive, yet…
YOU DID THE SAME FUCKING JOKE! That's right, so not ONLY do you think it's alright to make a joke about the harassment that women have to deal with, but YOU STOLE THE JOKE FROM HANNIBAL! The universe will have to invent new heights to accommodate the levels of hypocrisy you're reaching.
You've knighted yourself as some sort of champion for feminism, yet at the same time you post this:
Really? Oh how noble are you to accuse someone of being offensive to women when you do a CUM IN A WOMEN'S FACE joke? So you think it's funny to joke about disrespecting a woman by shooting his load all over her face? You really think this is funny, oh bastion of feminism? You think this is a laughing matter, oh champion of women's lib?
Richie Rich Rich SEXMoney Goldsteing also thinks whipping his dick out to women who don't want it and sneaking his dick into a woman's hand is funny:
He also thinks calling a woman a bitch is funny:
These jokes are infinitely more offensive than anything Hannibal said. There's a difference between "thinking rape is funny" and having two jokes in your entire career that involve the word rape. At NO POINT EVER IN HANNIBAL'S PROLIFIC CATALOG OF MATERIAL DOES HE SAY OR EVEN ELUDE TO THE IDEA THAT HE THINKS THE ACT OF RAPE IS FUNNY. Yet, that's not how you presented his material. That's not how you portray him as a person. And now all these super right wing bloggers have found your super left wing bullshit article and are perpetuating a lie that YOU STARTED! Blogger moron extraordinaire Matt Walsh took your misinterpretations of Hannibal and his material and took the lie even further. In a blog posted in THE BLAZE Walsh started THIS lie: "Hannibal FREQUENTLY jokes about rape", and he even cites Goldstien's blog as where he based that misinformation from. While Goldstein completely misinterpreted Hannibal's material, he never once said he "Frequently" did it. In all of the hundreds of jokes that Hannibal has written, Goldstein was only able to find two jokes where he even mentions the word rape. Yet, Matt Walsh, who tittles himself as a "profession truth sayer", lies and uses the word "frequent".
I reached out to Matt Walsh on how he could call himself a "professional truth sayer" when Matt lied in his blog about the content of Hannibal's act. At the time of the publication of this blog, Matt had not yet returned my explicative filled message.
So now Goldstein, you have become an ultra left wing blogger that is now supplying lies to an ultra right wing blogger. Matt Walsh "Professional Liar" has played a game of telephone with what Goldstein wrote and misconstrues the lie even further. And the game of telephone continues; on my Facebook wall someone posted The Matt Walsh blog, and based off Matt Walsh's lie she commented "I've never seen Hannibal's act but I will not support anyone who makes a living off telling rape jokes". WHAT?!?! She even admits that she's never seen him, yet feels it's fine to slander the character and integrity of a comedian and perpetuate the misconception of someone she admits she knows nothing about. That's the era we live in now, where people glance at a headline, and then form super strong opinions on stuff they don't take the time to research and fact check. People don't take the time to become informed, they're too busy calling everyone else stupid. They often take every single thing that happens in the news and find a way for it to be the fault of everyone else, usually blaming those on the other side of the political spectrum.
Dear those on the left, not everyone who is on the right feels the same as the ultra right moronic bloggers you always hear about. Dear those on the right, not everyone who is on the left feels the same as the ultra left moronic bloggers you always hear about. Dear moronic ultra left bloggers and moronic ultra right bloggers, quit facilitating the division in our country. Matt Walsh takes the Bill Cosby scandal and feels the most productive thing to do is to dismiss the victims allegations and say, "Well What about Bill Clinton?" Hey Matt, instead of taking everything that happens in the news and twisting it to serve your own political agenda, why don't you do something productive? For instance, ask why we prioritize the justice for victims attacked by celebrities? Why aren't all rape cases, treated with the same weight and attention as those committed by famous people? Sexual assault is a HUGE problem in our country. We we should seek justice for all victims. But I guess that wouldn't serve your purpose of creating a rift in our country by taking every story that happens and turning it into some left wing conspiracy. Goldstein, pick your fucking battles. If you're a true proponent for assault victims, why try distort the character of a comedian that brought to light a sexual assault scandal that seemed to be hidden from the mainstream?
The ironic part of all this backlash from Hannibal's Cosby joke, is that people forget the WHOLE point of Hannibal's Cosby joke. When he wrote that joke, it wasn't with the intention to bring down a comic icon. The joke is making fun of someone who has crowned himself as the authority of right and wrong, even though he himself has had a very sketchy moral past. Regardless of the alleged victims claims, Cosby's marital infidelity is widely talked about in the comedy community and always has been. The joke is about questioning someone who self appoints themselves as some sort of moral compass, when they themselves have had a history of a worse deviance than what they preach against. The joke is making fun of hypocrisy. And yet, ironically, people miss the point of the joke on hypocrisy and continue hypocrisy in commenting on Hannibal's joke about hypocrisy. Richie Goldstein fancies himself a moral compass and tries to attack Hannibal for doing jokes that involve the word rape, when Richie himself in the past has joked about rape. Hypocrisy. Matt Walsh fancies himself a "Sayer of Truth" as he lies and perpetuates false notions about Hannibal's comedy on his blog. Hypocrisy. Despite Hannibal's joke about hypocrisy, the hypocrisy continues. For that is blogger, to completely miss the point because they're too focused on getting notoriety from misrepresenting the work of others.
I hope this gets ME attention!
I hope make ME relevant!
And if you're looking for something that I've done that is completely offensive and undermines everything that I've said, I'll save you the time, in fact, I'll say something right now. It's a SUPER offensive joke about sexual assault. Yeah, THAT'S RIGHT! What a hypocrite I am! For I am blogger! That's right, I'll do a sexual assault joke right now, here it goes; it involves Richie Goldstein, and Matt Walsh, going to to their respective homes and sexualy assaulting themselves. And let me be clear so that there is no way to misinterpret what I'm saying, I want you two, to GO FUCK YOURSELVES! That's right, I want you to take your dick, and put it in your own ass hole, and fuck yourself so hard that your whole entire body completely disappears inside your own asshole so that no one but you ever has to listen to your own shit again.
I am self righteous.
I am the problem.
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By Tristan Harris Tuesday 31 December 2013 Updated: 02/01 17:27
A MODEST Rednal dance teacher said she was 'shocked and embarrassed' after being awarded a British Empire Medal in The Queen's New Year's Honours list.
June Green, who won the accolade for her dedication to charity and the community in Rednal, has been running sequence tea dance sessions in the area for almost 30 years with the proceeds going to various good causes.
The 81-year-old currently holds two afternoon classes - one at the Austin Sports and Social Club on Wednesdays and one at St Stephen's Church in Rednal on Fridays.
When the charity coffers reach £300, the cash is donated to a good cause, with around £3,000 being collected in total each year.
She said: "You never think what you are doing is that important.
"It was so nice and kind of whoever nominated me for it.
"I was almost ready to say no, but the family said I should accept it for the grandchildren.
"The charity money collected over so many years is due to the generosity of the dancers.
"They find all sorts of ways to boost the collections and support me in anything I do."
As well as the dance sessions, Mrs Green organises four social dances every year, along with days out, for the people who attend her sessions and she runs jewellery stalls at the St Stephen's Church fayres.
She also, up until about three years ago, used to run two evening dance sessions for beginners every week and was also a Sunday school teacher at St Stephen's - a post she held for more than 40 years.
June lives with her husband Geoff, who she has been married to for 63 years, and has three children, eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
As well as teaching dance and being a Sunday school teacher, Mrs Green also worked at British Leyland, along with her husband.
But, she left the car-maker early to do what she has always enjoyed doing - teaching people to dance.
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watch time: 3 minutes
Hardware's in a really disruptive period right now, as we get more — but not faster! — transistors, and as we move computing into sensors and other small devices in the Internet of Things. So what does this mean for software? And how can we make those interfaces more programmable by more people (not just by computer science PhDs)? MORE
After years of being shut off to the world — Myanmar is opening itself up. Not just across physical borders, but also the digital. What happens when the vast majority of a population suddenly has access to a cell phone, not to mention Facebook? How is technology manifesting itself in the media, in the economy and in the education of a population eager to use the tools it suddenly has access to? What can Myanmar teach the rest of the world about the opportunities that arise, and potential pitfalls, when a wave of new technology crashes down? MORE
Technology can be an equalizer, especially as new tools democratize the expertise that was previously held only by a limited few. But is coding really the new literacy — the fourth "r" — after reading, writing and arithmetic? Should it be? Why does this even matter, and how can coding enable more people?
VCs wouldn't fund Salesforce ("that obviously won't work") when Marc Benioff began. With the cloud a growing part of practically every company, government, organization, and people's lives, a lot's changed since 1999. But what's next? Do enterprise CEOs get (mobile) religion? [Answer: not yet. Benioff thinks there's a ton of opportunity ahead there.] What's happening with international growth, when countries want their own clouds and 90% of enterprise software is bought in just 7 countries? MORE
Apple and Google have both won; both got what they wanted, more or less, and that's not going to change imminently. Within that framework, what happens next?
Seven years into the smartphone world, it's time to change the questions. The questions that we asked and argued about for the last few years have now mostly been answered, become irrelevant, or both — and new problems and puzzles are emerging. MORE


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Futures Gain After Portugal Bond Sale
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Stock futures rose Wednesday as Portugal's bond auction saw strong demand, lifting global stocks.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up by 58 points, or 57 points above fair value, at 11,674. Futures for the S&P 500 were higher by 8 points, or nearly 8 points above fair value, at 1278, and Nasdaq futures were ahead by 13 points, or 11 points above fair value.
Stocks advanced Tuesday as European debt concerns eased and fourth-quarter reporting season got off to a promising start.Portugal sold €1.25 billion ($1.62 billion) of
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Go bananas and monkey around in a pair of these orange orangutan gloves! These gloves slip on easily and match the separately-sold orangutan mask, shirt, and feet for an ape-tastic animal costume.
Chimp Feet
Want a fun accompaniment to your chimpanzee costume? This year, get some Halloween shoes that will make you go bananas! Able to fit over your own shoes, no monkey costume is complete without these fabulous feet. Half latex, half hair.
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Cameras & Lenses » Lens Filters » Square / Rectangular Filters » LEE Filters
The Lee Neutral Density Soft Filter Set can be used with both digital and film cameras. The set contains three types of graduated resin filters enabling the photographer to adjust exposure over part of the photograph without affecting the colour balance. Exposure can be controlled by 1, 2 or 3 stops, to suit the individual situation and offers a soft transition from dark to light. This set is for the 100mm system. Please note: No filter holder or adapter ring is included with this kit and is available to purchase separately. More
An introduction to Lee filters
The Lee ND Grad Filters
Lee ND Grads with Joe Cornish
(based on 11 reviews)
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Best Uses
Reviewed by 11 customers
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By Pixelmike
from Derbyshire
About Me Photo Enthusiast
Comments about LEE Filters Lee ND Grad Soft Resin Filter Set:
for landscapes
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Best of the rest
By Silverfish
from Yorkshire
About Me Semi-pro Photographer
Excellent quality. Learn how to use it properly for natural effects without obvious filter lines
Expensive. But should last a lifetime.
By Sonny
from North Ayrshire
Expensive filters but they are the best. Solid enough construction and great optics. Haven't had any use of the 1 stop filter yet so not sure if that is a luxury for me.
great product
By mickey
from Derry
as a photo enthusiast who's passion is landscape photography these filters are a must, since I bought this set I have scene the difference in the photo's that I have and I would not take another landscape without using them.you do get what you pay for.
Purchased LEE filters before -The Best
By Tel
from Nuneaton
Quality and performance superb,easy to use,care must be taken handling to prevent surface marks from sharp or rough surfaces.
(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
Reliable set of filters
By JB
from Surrey
What can I say? If you're looking for a dependable set of soft-grad ND filters, it's hard to find anything better. I already had the hard-grad set and eventually found that these are equally good to have. If you only buy one set, get the hard grads, but if you can stretch to both, these are great for scenes with trees, etc
Long wait but worth it
By Bob the bower
from Buckinghamshire
Great for bringing together extreme contrasts such as back-lit sunsets where the camera is already at its limits.
(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
not for everyone
By Starman
from New Forest
About Me Pro Photographer
Once you start using Lee filters, you quickly get why pros use them.Start with the hard ND filters to see if landscape photography is for you. Then invest in these. If you want every photon to count, avoid cheap filters. Don't waste your energy - life is too short.
Nice filters
By KJ
from Soton
Great for balancing the settings.
Essential for any serious landscaper
By dtcotw
from Glasgow
With anything wider than 40mm on a full frame body, my previous Cokin P series led to huge vignettes, at 17mm it was nearly square crop. In combination with a wide angle mount this system gets much much better results.They can take a while to be in stock at the moment, but that is testament to the quality when demand outweighs supply.And don't forget they have other uses than just correcting the exposure of the sky in a landscape.
Wex Photographic is a trading name of Warehouse Express Limited (registered as company no. 03366976).
Registered Office: 13 Frensham Road, Sweet Briar Industrial Estate, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 2BT. Showroom: Unit B Frenbury Estate, Drayton High Road, Norwich, NR6 5DP.
Technical specifications are for guidance only and cannot be guaranteed accurate. Errors and omissions excepted.
Warehouse Express Limited acts as a credit intermediary offering credit products from a panel of one lender. Credit is subject to age and status.
© 2014 Warehouse Express Limited


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Samsung Galaxy S5 In-Store Advance Surprise Release: Where to Get S5 Ahead of Release Date?
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By Precious Silva | March 30, 2014 10:16 AM EST
Samsung Galaxy S5 went on sale in South Korea - but Samsung did not know. Apparently, the Samsung Galaxy S5 became available in South Korea around two weeks earlier than its official release on the market. Samsung announced previously that the new smartphone will be available starting April 11. Did Samsung change the release date? What really happened?
A new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone is displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 23, 2014. Samsung Electronics unveiled a new smart watch and fitness band along with the latest version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone on Monday, demonstrating how the battleground for innovation is shifting from the hand to the wrist.Picture taken on February 23. REUTERS/Albert Gea
Samsung previously said in an announcement that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will hit shelves in around 150 countries on April 11. It appears that is a long waiting time as people in South Korea started getting access to the device. South Korean SK Telecom released the device last March 27 beginning at 866,800 won.
Korean networks have been eager to sell the S5 to customers because they cannot sign up new users between April to May. This is part of the penalty from the Korean government regarding illegal subsidy of new users. The sanction excludes the likes of SK Telecom, LG Uplus Corp and KT Corp from selling the device starting the release date.
SK Telecom went against the herd and began selling prior to Samsung's official release.
"We just wanted to provide the device to local users as soon as possible. It is for the good of our subscribers," the Korea Herald quoted an official from SK Telecom. CNET quoted Samsung saying that the company already: "provided mobile carriers with a limited number of units for marketing and pre-sales activities, but the decision to release the device early in the Korean market was made by the mobile carrier itself, independently of Samsung. We express our regret at this decision and we are working to verify all the facts."
Analysts think it is a bold and risky move for a carrier to offer a device against its own manufacturer. Samsung remains as one if not the biggest supplier of mobile phones in its market today. It can be a problematic move for SK Telecom in the future. Samsung Galaxy S5 offers the following features:
- Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
- 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.1 inches (~432 ppi pixel density)
- 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, phase detection autofocus, LED flash
- Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
- Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
- Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400
- Adreno 330
- Wireless charging (market dependent)
- ANT+ support
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL 2 A/V link)
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