Seven ways to cut your air conditioning bills

Americans rack up more than $22 billion a year on their air conditioning bills. As summer progresses, Carlozo offers seven ways to cut your bill ? including advice on how to buy a new air conditioner and how to use a ceiling fan to help beat the heat.

By Lou Carlozo,?Guest blogger / June 17, 2013

Air conditioning units line the exteriors of apartments in Boston, Mass. Cooling your home throughout the summer can be expensive, but Carlozo says you can cut your air conditioning bills by making sure your unit is new and periodically rotating out your unit for a ceiling fan.

Josh Armstrong/The Christian Science Monitor/File

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Though we're technically still in the season of spring, June is off to a hot start in many parts of the country, and that means one thing for millions of sweltering people: air conditioning. And while we may take air conditioning for granted, it's generally an expensive luxury. Americans spend more than $22 billion a year on electricity to cool their homes with air conditioning ? and use a whopping 183 billion kilowatt-hours, according to recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy. That accounts for at least 15% of all energy used in some homes, and in warmer climates can represent up to 70% of a summer electric bill.

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If you're shopping for a new air conditioner, you'll notice quite a few different sizes and models. But one thing's for sure: Savings are always chill. Here's a quick primer to staying cool and keeping your wallet from overheating when picking out an A/C unit.

What's a BTU and How Many Do I Need?

Chances are you already know that BTU stands for British Thermal Unit, and that the more BTUs an air conditioner cranks out, the stronger its cooling power. But here's the problem: Most American consumers aren't sure how to translate BTUs into the square footage of a room. (No disrespect to the Brits, but maybe we need an American Thermal Unit, where 1 AMU corresponds to 1 square foot.)

Lobbying for the AMU aside, you don't have to guess how much BTU power you'll need to cool your space. Instead, download this Energy Star document and turn to page three. There you'll find a handy chart that simply correlates the area you want to cool into BTUs per hour. So for example, an air conditioner with a rating of 8,000 BTUs can cool a room that's 300 to 350 sq. ft., aka one that measures about 18 ft. x 18 ft. Of course, you still have to measure your room, but we trust you can work a tape measure and apply this formula: Area equals length times width. For irregularly sized rooms, you can always estimate.

Air Conditioner + Ceiling Fan = Savings

It's one thing to run an air conditioner in your room. But combine its power with a simple ceiling fan, and you can have the best of both worlds. Costing less than a penny an hour to run, ceiling fans have an immediate impact on your domestic comfort once you buy and install them. They generally start at about $40 a piece, but we found this Harbor Breeze 42" Armitage White Ceiling Fan with Light Kit ($24.98 with in-store pickup, a low by $35), which is among the least expensive 42" ceiling fans we've seen. The nice thing about a ceiling fan is that it can make you feel anywhere from 3 to 8 degrees cooler.

Calculate Yearly A/C Costs Before You Buy

Nowadays, nearly all air conditioners come with one of those bright yellow Energy Guide stickers on the box that tells you exactly how much that unit will cost to run. Take this expense into account, as that's part of your total cost for both buying and operating the unit. Most folks think bigger is always better, but that's not so: "Air conditioners remove both heat and humidity from the air. If the unit is too large, it will cool the room quickly, but only remove some of the humidity. This leaves the room with a damp, clammy feeling. A properly sized unit will remove humidity effectively as it cools."

Why a New Window Unit Could Pay for Itself

If your air conditioner is more than 10 years old, you should seriously consider replacing it. Many new Energy Star air conditioners are so efficient that they use about 10% less energy than one without that designation, according to U.S. Department of Energy estimates. Depending on how long you hold onto the new unit, you could save $60 or more over its lifetime in energy costs alone ? a de facto rebate just for upgrading to an Energy Star model.

The key number to look for is the Energy Efficiency Rating (or EER): The higher the EER, the more efficient the unit. So if you replace an old EER 5 unit with a new EER 10 unit, you'll cut your cooling costs in half. You should also look for the "Energy Star" and "Energy Guide" labels when purchasing a window unit. An energy-efficient unit will cycle the compressor on and off so that it doesn't operate continuously. And Energy Star central air units are on average 14% more efficient than standard models. Speaking of which ...

The Great Central Air Debate

If you're thinking about upgrading to central air, it's easy to beat yourself up for being an energy hog, or to get intimidated by the sticker price. Yes, it's true that central units will use a lot more power than, say, a single window unit on each floor of a 2-story dwelling. But if you have more than two rooms to cool, then your best bet is to go with a central unit, which also provides long term resale value for a home. Well-designed central systems also win out in terms of being able to filter the air for allergens and pollutants, and for controlling humidity.

Again, keep in mind that window A/C units aren't necessarily more energy-efficient than central air units. A window unit that is too small to cool a room may run continuously, wasting energy. When shopping for a central air conditioning system, make sure the SEER number (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) is 13 or better (14 in warmer climates). A less efficient system will cost you more to run.

Help Your New Air Conditioner Do Its Job More Efficiently

It's easy to think that buying a new air conditioner or two will solve all of your summer cooling problems. But your AC could use a little help. With central units, for example, a programmable timer or thermostat can save you about $180 every year in energy costs by regulating the temperature when you're out of the house, and by turning on only when you return home.

With window units, air filters get dirty ... fast. Clean your AC filter at least every month, as a dirty filter makes your AC work harder and use more electricity. Regardless of the type or age of the unit, you should change your filters after every 90 days of use. What's more, you'll use less energy cooling down a room by keeping direct sunlight out during the day: Sunlight can raise room temperature by 10 to 20 degrees. The less heat that gets into your home, the less you have to pay to remove it. It just so happens that drapes block sunlight and heat better than blinds.

Hot Air Conditioner Deals

We've got an ever-updated list of air conditioning deals for you to peruse and compare. This time of year, sales are as plentiful as backyard barbecues. Certainly one of the worst things to do is feel a heat wave hit you in the face, rush to the first store you can find, and buy the first unit you see. Chill out, if you will, and do some comparison shopping, checking out multiple units for price, efficiency, reliability, and features. The Keystone 6,000 BTU Energy Star Window Air Conditioner ($179.99 with free shipping, a low by $12) features three cooling speeds, three fan speeds, a programmable 24-hour on / off timer, energy and sleep modes, adjustable air flow, slide-out mesh filter, and a remote control.

The few minutes you spend comparing notes and using your shopping smarts will do more than show off how cool you are. It will help you make a prudent choice with your money that will keep your living space comfy all summer long, and for many summers to come.

Lou Carlozo is a contributor at dealnews.com, where this article first appeared.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/CvxIO--Bk9Y/Seven-ways-to-cut-your-air-conditioning-bills

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Food companies work to make it look natural

In this undated photo provided by Kraft Foods Inc., a package of Oscar Mayer Carving Board Turkey Breast is shown. More companies are now trying to make processed foods appear more homespun. (AP Photo/Kraft Foods Inc.)

In this undated photo provided by Kraft Foods Inc., a package of Oscar Mayer Carving Board Turkey Breast is shown. More companies are now trying to make processed foods appear more homespun. (AP Photo/Kraft Foods Inc.)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Here's the latest goal for food makers: Perfect the art of imperfection.

When stretching out the dough for its premium "Artisan Pizzas," Domino's workers are instructed not to worry about making the rectangles too perfect: The pies are supposed to have a more rustic look.

At McDonald's, the egg whites for the new breakfast sandwich called the Egg White Delight McMuffin have a loose shape rather than the round discs used in the original Egg McMuffin.

And Kraft Foods took more than two years to develop a process to make the thick, uneven slabs of turkey in its Carving Board line look like leftovers from a homemade meal rather than the cookie-cutter ovals typical of most lunchmeat.

"The goal is to get the same action as if you were cutting with a knife," said Paul Morin, a Kraft engineer.

Food companies are responding to the adage that people eat with their eyes. Americans still love their fast food and packaged snacks, but they're increasingly turning their noses up at foods that look overly processed. Home-cooked meals ? or ones that at least look like they were homemade ? are seen as more wholesome and authentic.

The result is that companies are tossing out the identical shapes and drab colors that scream of factory conveyor belts. There's no way to measure exactly how much food makers are investing to make their products look more natural or fresh. But adaptation is seen as necessary for fueling steady growth.

Over the past five years, the overall packaged food industry in North America grew 14 percent to $392.5 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor International. The fast-food industry meanwhile rose 13 percent to $225.6 billion.

In many cases, food products get their wholesome appearance because of the different or stripped-down ingredients companies are using to make them more natural, said Michael Cohen, a visiting assistant professor of marketing at NYU's Stern School of Business. But in other cases, companies are making tweaks just to achieve a desired look.

"Food manufacturers are adapting by the way they mold the product or the end color or texture they want the product to be," he said.

Appearances have always been a part of food production. But some experts say the visual cues food makers are using to suggest their products are wholesome fuel confusion about what's natural and what isn't.

"They can't change the fact that they're making processed products so they have to use these other tricks to pretend," said Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and author of "Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back."

A little dressing up can work. Bernell Dorrough, a 31-year-old web marketing coordinator in the Mobile, Ala., area, recently opted for the store brand lunchmeat at the local Publix supermarket in part because the slices came loosely packed in folds rather than in the traditional tight stacks where the meat is peeled off.

"It was folded as though someone held a bag under a machine," he said. "I know it wasn't hand sliced but something about the aesthetic quality appealed to me."

Food companies are banking on customers like Dorrough.

It's one reason why Wendy's softened the edges of its famously square hamburger patties. The Dublin, Ohio-based company says it changed the patty to a "natural square" with wavy edges because tasters said the straight edges looked processed.

At Kraft Foods Group Inc., executives took the quest for a turkey slice that looks home-cooked even further. A team at its Madison, Wis., research facility studied the way people carve meat in their kitchen, using the variety of knives they typically have at their disposal.

Instead of the traditional slicers found in delis, the goal was to build a machine that would hack at the meat as a person might, creating slabs with more ragged edges, said Morin, the Kraft engineer.

It wasn't as easy as it sounds since the meat still needs to fit neatly into a package and add up to a certain weight. Morin declined to provide details of the process for competitive reasons but said that no two packages are exactly alike.

"We have a way of making sure that the blade cuts the piece of meat differently with each cut," he said.

At Hillshire Brands Co., which makes lunch meats, hot dogs and sausages, executives also are attuned to the fact that more people prize foods they feel are natural. At an industry conference in February, CEO Sean Connolly noted that in addition to taste, the appearance of its food needed work.

Specifically, Connolly said people wanted a more natural look for lunchmeat that was "moist but not wet." They also wanted the turkey to look "a little bit grainier." Without providing details, a representative for Hillshire, which is based in Chicago, said those changes were achieved through the manufacturing process.

Reggie Moore, the company's vice president of marketing, concedes that the meaning of "natural" is hard to pin down and varies from person-to-person. But as the definition evolves, Hillshire is taking care to signal the natural qualities of its meat visually.

In revamping its turkey slices, for example, one of the cosmetic touchups the company made was darkening the edges of the meat with caramel coloring to give the impression that it was just sliced from a Thanksgiving roast.

Ultimately, Moore said the change didn't really impact the taste.

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-17-Homemade%20Fast%20Food/id-9032f4e14ec04308abcbaa6018600893

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How Britain spies on friends and rivals alike

LONDON (AP) ? Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks to the Guardian newspaper have thrown back the curtain on the world of diplomatic espionage, revealing ? in explicit detail ? how British spies monitor enemies and allies alike. So what does GCHQ, Britain's eavesdropping agency, actually do? And how does it do it? And is any of this really all that surprising?

?GCHQ targets phone calls, emails, and more

Documents quoted by the Guardian newspaper showed that GCHQ engaged in an aggressive espionage campaign against foreign diplomats, attacking their phones, their emails, and even satellite communications in a bid to give senior British leaders a real-time account of who was saying what to whom. For the first time, the newspaper aired evidence that Britain launched cyberattacks against foreign diplomats, using malicious software to steal passwords, eavesdrop on emails, and apparently even hack smartphones. The Guardian said that during the 2009 G-20 summit in London information was being gathered so quickly that a team of 45 analysts monitored the interplay of delegates' phone calls live on a 15 square meter (18 square yard) video wall of GCHQ's operations center.

?GCHQ targets enemies and allies alike

It seems logical to spy on the Russians, whose relations with Britain have long been rocky. But the Guardian says Britain also targeted South Africa and Turkey. The paper quoted one leaked document as saying that, with respect to Turkey, the analysts' "reporting requirements" were to ascertain Ankara's attitudes toward financial regulation and reform, as well as Turkish "willingness (or not) to co-operate with the rest of the G20 nations."

Why not just ask?

"No allies have 100 percent unity. There are always disputes, differences of opinion, and emphases," said William Keylor, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. He said that knowing the mind of your negotiating partner can help you better tailor your offers or prompt you to drive a harder bargain.

Or, as his Boston University colleague Joseph Wippl put it in an email, "If you know through intelligence the bottom line of the negotiating position of your adversary, you will get a better deal ? on Syria, or your car."

?None of this should come as any surprise

Spying on diplomats is as old as diplomacy itself, and the specter of electronic surveillance has hung over international meetings for the better part of the past century. In 1945, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin received daily digests of Americans' conversations from bugged meeting rooms at the Yalta Conference. Rhodesian leader Ian Smith insisted on huddling with his advisers in the women's toilets when he visited London in 1965 because he was convinced that was the one place British spies would not have dared to install listening devices, according to an account published in Richard J. Aldrich's book, "GCHQ."

Keylor said that at a 1974 arms control summit in Vladivostok, U.S. President Gerald Ford led his shivering delegation into sub-zero temperatures outside to discuss their negotiating strategy out of range of Soviet microphones.

More recently, U.S. spies are alleged to have targeted U.N. Security Council delegates in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Aldrich said in a telephone interview that it was no surprise that spooks spy on diplomats, although he was quick to add that when such spying comes to light, "it really, really annoys the intelligence agencies ? and it really, really, really annoys the countries that are targets."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-spies-friends-rivals-alike-181932847.html

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E3 Forum -- Education, Employment & Entrepreneurship on a Global context

Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Silvia Castro
silvia.castro@mitportugal.org
351-210-407-036
MIT Portugal Program

Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship will be the topics under discussion during the E3 Forum, Pavilho do Conhecimento, 26th June. For the third consecutive year, this will be a unique event for debate, interaction and sharing of experiences among members of Academy, Business, Educators, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Policy-makers and Masters and PhD students. Confirmed speakers: Elisa Martn Garijo (IBM South Europe), Chris Zegras (MIT), Mike de Leeuw (Branching Tree) and Mary O'Donovan (Hovione), among others. E3 Forum - Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship is an international conference organized by PhD students from the MIT Portugal Program.

E3 Forum 2013 aims to discuss the position of highly trained graduates in Portuguese society. Thus, it is intended to discuss and reveal the hidden virtues and pitfalls of careers in Academia or Industry, but also address the opportunities and challenges of those who stay or leave Portugal seeking employment. Taking into account the socio-economic situation, E3 Forum is an initiative that aims to contribute to the creation of a new generation of professionals, based on innovation and technological knowledge, and demonstrate that investment in training highly qualified professionals has a direct impact in society and that these professionals can take active participation in social and economic development of the country.

The two previous editions of E3 Forum received an enthusiastic feedback from the audience, and the general public, having received a total of 500 participants, 100 speakers and 60 business representatives. Now on its 3rd edition, E3 Forum will continue to build a dynamic and interactive environment, featuring Inspiring Talks, Debate Sessions, Parallel Seminars, Working Sessions and a Poster Competition, in order to promote networking among all participants.

To stimulate the interest in the event and prepare participants for the conference, the Free Pre?E3 Event Series, will take place across the country. The exhibition and discussion of a movie about the creation of Sillicon Valley and its innovative culture, but also debates and lectures via video conference with speakers like Dr. Douglas Terrier (NASA) and Dr. Richard Frackowiak (Human Brain Project), will take place in various locations: IST (Lisbon), University of Minho (Braga) and INESC TEC (Porto). The pre?E3 events will take place the week before the conference, 18-25 June.

In addition to seminars and round tables that will have the contribution of key figures, a poster and prototypes competition will also take place in three categories: "Most Innovative Product/Technology", "Best Go-to-Market Strategy" and "Scientific Breakthrough".

###

Submission of papers for the posters competition (until June 21): http://e3forum.org/?page_id=2354

Registration for E3 Forum : http://e3forum.org/?page_id=2379

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Silvia Castro
silvia.castro@mitportugal.org
351-210-407-036
MIT Portugal Program

Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship will be the topics under discussion during the E3 Forum, Pavilho do Conhecimento, 26th June. For the third consecutive year, this will be a unique event for debate, interaction and sharing of experiences among members of Academy, Business, Educators, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Policy-makers and Masters and PhD students. Confirmed speakers: Elisa Martn Garijo (IBM South Europe), Chris Zegras (MIT), Mike de Leeuw (Branching Tree) and Mary O'Donovan (Hovione), among others. E3 Forum - Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship is an international conference organized by PhD students from the MIT Portugal Program.

E3 Forum 2013 aims to discuss the position of highly trained graduates in Portuguese society. Thus, it is intended to discuss and reveal the hidden virtues and pitfalls of careers in Academia or Industry, but also address the opportunities and challenges of those who stay or leave Portugal seeking employment. Taking into account the socio-economic situation, E3 Forum is an initiative that aims to contribute to the creation of a new generation of professionals, based on innovation and technological knowledge, and demonstrate that investment in training highly qualified professionals has a direct impact in society and that these professionals can take active participation in social and economic development of the country.

The two previous editions of E3 Forum received an enthusiastic feedback from the audience, and the general public, having received a total of 500 participants, 100 speakers and 60 business representatives. Now on its 3rd edition, E3 Forum will continue to build a dynamic and interactive environment, featuring Inspiring Talks, Debate Sessions, Parallel Seminars, Working Sessions and a Poster Competition, in order to promote networking among all participants.

To stimulate the interest in the event and prepare participants for the conference, the Free Pre?E3 Event Series, will take place across the country. The exhibition and discussion of a movie about the creation of Sillicon Valley and its innovative culture, but also debates and lectures via video conference with speakers like Dr. Douglas Terrier (NASA) and Dr. Richard Frackowiak (Human Brain Project), will take place in various locations: IST (Lisbon), University of Minho (Braga) and INESC TEC (Porto). The pre?E3 events will take place the week before the conference, 18-25 June.

In addition to seminars and round tables that will have the contribution of key figures, a poster and prototypes competition will also take place in three categories: "Most Innovative Product/Technology", "Best Go-to-Market Strategy" and "Scientific Breakthrough".

###

Submission of papers for the posters competition (until June 21): http://e3forum.org/?page_id=2354

Registration for E3 Forum : http://e3forum.org/?page_id=2379

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/mpp-ef-061713.php

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IRS official contradicts claims about reviews

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An Internal Revenue Service supervisor in Washington says she was personally involved in scrutinizing some of the earliest applications from tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status, including some requests that languished for more than a year without action.

Holly Paz, who until recently was a top deputy in the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, told congressional investigators she reviewed 20 to 30 applications. Her assertion contradicts initial claims by the agency that a small group of agents working in an office in Cincinnati were solely responsible for mishandling the applications.

Paz, however, provided no evidence that senior IRS officials ordered agents to target conservative groups or that anyone in the Obama administration outside the IRS was involved.

Instead, Paz described an agency in which IRS supervisors in Washington worked closely with agents in the field but didn't fully understand what those agents were doing. Paz said agents in Cincinnati openly talked about handling "tea party" cases, but she thought the term was merely shorthand for all applications from groups that were politically active ? conservative and liberal.

Paz said dozens of tea party applications sat untouched for more than a year while field agents waited for guidance from Washington on how to handle them. At the time, she said, Washington officials thought the agents in Cincinnati were processing the cases.

Paz was among the first IRS employees to be interviewed as part of a joint investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Congressional investigators have interviewed at least six IRS employees as part of their inquiry. The Associated Press has reviewed transcripts from three interviews ? with Paz and with two agents, Gary Muthert and Elizabeth Hofacre, from the Cincinnati office.

The IRS declined comment for this story.

A yearlong audit by the agency's inspector general found that IRS agents had improperly targeted conservative political groups for additional and sometimes onerous scrutiny when those groups applied for tax-exempt status.

The audit found no evidence that Washington officials ordered or authorized the targeting. But the IRS watchdog blamed ineffective management by senior IRS officials for allowing it to continue for nearly two years during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Since the revelations became public last month, much of the agency's leadership has been replaced and the Justice Department has started a criminal investigation. Both Paz and her supervisor, Lois Lerner, who headed the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, have been replaced.

Agency officials told congressional aides that Lerner was placed on administrative leave. They did not disclose the status Paz, other than to say she was replaced June 7.

Lerner is the IRS official who first disclosed the targeting at a legal conference May 10. That day, she told The AP: "It's the line people that did it without talking to managers. They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

On May 22 ? the day after Paz was interviewed by investigators ? Lerner refused to answer questions from lawmakers at a congressional hearing, citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.

Paz told congressional investigators that an IRS agent in Cincinnati flagged the first tea party case in February 2010. The agent forwarded the application to a manager because it appeared to be politically sensitive, Paz said. The manager informed Paz, who said she had the application assigned to a legal expert in Washington.

At the time, Paz headed a technical unit in Washington that provided guidance to agents who screened applications for tax-exempt status. The agents worked primarily in Cincinnati. One of their tasks was to determine the applicant groups' level of political activity.

IRS regulations say tax-exempt social welfare organizations may engage in some political activity but their primary mission cannot be influencing the outcome of elections. It is up to the IRS to make that determination.

"It's very fact-and-circumstance intensive. So it's a difficult issue," Paz told investigators.

"Oftentimes what we will do, and what we did here, is we'll transfer it to (the technical unit), get someone who's well-versed on that area of the law working the case so they can see what the issues are," Paz said. "The goal with that is ultimately to develop some guidance or a tool that can be given to folks in (the Cincinnati office) to help them in working the cases themselves."

By the fall of 2010, the legal expert in Washington, Carter Hull, was working on about 40 applications, Paz said. A little more than half had "tea party" in the name, she said.

IRS agents in Cincinnati were singling out groups for extra scrutiny if their applications included the words "tea party," ''patriots" or "9-12 project," according to the inspector general's report. Paz said she didn't learn that agents were targeting groups based on those terms until June 2011, about the time Lerner first ordered agents to change the criteria.

Paz said an IRS supervisor in Cincinnati had commonly referred to the applications as "tea party" cases. But, Paz said, she thought that was simply shorthand for any application that included political activity.

"Since the first case that came up to Washington happened to have that name, it appeared to me that's why they were calling it that as a shorthand," Paz told congressional investigators.

Paz said she didn't think the agents in Cincinnati were politically motivated.

"My impression, based on, you know, this instance and other instances in the office is that because they are so apolitical, they are not as sensitive as we would like them to be as to how things might appear," Paz said.

"Many of these employees have been with the IRS for decades and were used to a world where how they talked about things internally was not something that would be public or that anyone would be interested in," Paz added. "So I don't think they thought much about how it would appear to others. They knew what they meant and that was sort of good enough for them."

For several months in 2010, Hull worked closely with Hofacre, the agent in Cincinnati, to review the tea party cases, Paz said. In Hofacre's interview, she complained that Hull micromanaged her work.

Hofacre left for a different IRS job in October 2010 and was replaced by an agent whose name was blacked out in the transcript. Paz said the new agent sat on the tea party applications for more than a year because he was waiting on guidance from Washington on how to proceed. Officials in Washington, however, thought the agents in Cincinnati were still processing the cases, she said.

As a result, many applications languished for more than a year, which, the inspector general said, hurt the groups' ability to raise money.

"I knew they were waiting for guidance," Paz said. "I did not know that they were not working the cases because what had been done previously was, they were working the cases in consultation with Washington. And I was under the impression that that was continuing."

Hull was to be interviewed by congressional investigators on Friday. Efforts to reach Hull and Paz for comment were unsuccessful.

In all, agents singled out 298 applications for additional scrutiny because the groups appeared to be involved in political activity, the inspector general's report said. But IRS agents in Cincinnati weren't given adequate training on how to handle the cases until May 2012, the report said.

Before the training, only six applications had been approved. Afterward, an additional 102 applications were approved by December 2012, the report said.

Of those 102 applications, 29 involved tea party, patriots, or 9-12 organizations, the report said. Many applications are still awaiting action. None has been rejected, according to the IRS.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-17-IRS%20Investigation/id-aa98e7cecb794d0dac25bb0f88bb4e1a

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Global Future 2045 Congress: Robotic Avatar

Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro's robotic avatar on stage at Alice Tully Hall. Global Future 2045 Congress. The robot gave a nice spoken introduction to the real Dr. Ishiguro. While Ishiguro speaks, the robot sits on stage, making slight movements of its head. It's impossible to watch this spectacle and not think you have been given a glimpse of the future.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/hiroshi-ishiguro-robotic-avatar?src=rss

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David stymies former club, as Royals top Rays

By MARK DIDTLER

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 5:40 p.m. ET June 16, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Wade Davis kept the Kansas City Royals' long stretch of strong pitching intact in a win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Davis stopped his five-game winless streak, Jeff Francoeur homered, and the Royals beat the Rays 5-3 on Sunday.

The Royals have given up three runs or fewer in 14 of 15 games. Kansas City has won 10 of 12.

"Kansas City is playing really well now," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "They deserved to win. They're playing with a lot of confidence. If you look at their team ERA, it's number one in baseball. Kansas City outplayed us, period."

After the game, the Rays announced that they were going to purchase the contract of slugging prospect Wil Myers from Triple-A Durham in time for Tuesday's doubleheader at Boston. The outfielder, who hit 14 homers with Durham, was acquired in a seven-player offseason deal with the Royals that sent Davis and starting pitcher James Shields to Kansas City

Davis (4-5) gave up two runs - both coming in the first - and five hits in six innings for his first win since he beat the Los Angeles Angels on May 15.

"I knew once he got through the first, he was going to settle in and be fine," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. "Wade did a great job of limiting the damage. I just had a real good feeling he'd get back in the dugout, he'd regroup and hold them right there. That's exactly what he did."

It was Davis' first game against the Rays.

"I was up in the zone a little bit," Davis said. "The walks and a couple of hits that got in there were just balls I left up a little bit. Once I got the breather in the third or fourth inning when we scored some runs, I got a little breathing room."

After Francoeur hit a solo homer in the fifth inning, Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon had RBI singles to put the Royals ahead 4-2 in the sixth. Gordon added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Francoeur had only 13 hits in 83 at-bats before delivering his third homer this season.

Greg Holland, the fourth Kansas City reliever, earned his 14th save despite allowing a homer to Jose Lobaton in the ninth.

Roberto Hernandez (4-7) allowed four runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings for Tampa Bay, which went 4-6 on a 10-game homestand. The Rays were coming off a three-game series with Boston that included a 10-8 loss in 14 innings, and a 2-1 defeat.

"The Red Sox series was kind of a weird one," Rays third baseman Kelly Johnson said. "It was tough to lose a couple of those games. We had opportunities to win both. Then this series was one of those hangover series from that. It kind of felt that way anyway. Not a ton of energy, not a ton of life, unfortunately.

"There's always going to be some stuff like that. We've got to get it turned around quickly."

Billy Butler had an RBI single in the first for Kansas City, which won three of four against Tampa Bay.

The Rays took a 2-1 lead in the first when Luke Scott drove in a run with a double and scored on Desmond Jennings' single.

Davis prevented further damage by getting an inning-ending fly from Jose Molina with the bases loaded.

The Rays announced during the game that right-hander Alex Cobb, who was hit on the right ear by a liner off the bat of Kansas City's Eric Hosmer in the fifth inning on Saturday night, had been discharged from Bayfront Medical Center.

"I know we feel wonderful about it," Maddon said. "I think the rest of baseball feels good about it."

Tests showed Cobb has a mild concussion. He was put on the 7-day concussion list, and Tampa Bay recalled right-hander Josh Lueke from Triple-A Durham.

In a message posted on his Twitter account, Cobb thanked Rays head athletic trainer Ron Porterfield and the doctors at Bayfront, and said that he, "Woke up with only a minor headache today."

There was a loud cheer from the announced crowd of 27,442 at Tropicana Field when the news about Cobb was posted on the scoreboard after the top of the sixth.

NOTES: To make room on the roster for Myers, INF Ryan Roberts was optioned to Durham. ... Tampa Bay LHP David Price (strained left triceps) isn't ready to start a minor league rehab assignment. He will have another bullpen session on Tuesday. ... The Royals flew in 21 fathers and two sons of team personnel to be together for Father's Day. "I've never heard of anybody doing this before so I think it's a special treat for everybody," Yost said. ... Rays 3B Evan Longoria (right foot) was the DH for the fourth consecutive game. Maddon hopes Longoria will be able to play in the field on Tuesday. ... Kansas City LHP Danny Duffy (elbow ligament replacement surgery) made his second rehab start Saturday night for Triple-A Omaha. He gave up two runs, four hits and three walks in three innings.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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