In fact, the launch of the iPhone 4 may have drawn the largest crowds ever. In New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris and London, thousands of would-be customers queued up, some camping out overnight, to get a chance to buy the phone.
The latest discovery? Sperm whale feces might actually be a key element in the Southern Ocean's ability to regulate atmospheric CO2 levels.
According to the results of a recent scientific study, it has been determined that consuming prey at depth and defecating iron-rich liquid feces into the photic zone, sperm whales are able to stimulate new primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean.
Researches involved with the study learned that Southern Ocean sperm whales defecate 50 tonnes of iron into the photic zone each year, facilitating the export of 400,000 tons of carbon per year to the deep ocean.
When Massachusetts launched its reform program in 2006, it already had the highest medical costs in the nation. Today, the burden is still rising far faster than wages or inflation, from those already lofty levels.
Under guaranteed issue, insurers must accept all enrollees regardless of their medical condition; under community rating, they must charge all customers similar premiums, even if their costs are far different. The result is that prices rise steeply for young, healthy customers, who must pay far more than their actual costs. It also give them a strong incentive to drop insurance; then, they can "game the system" by signing up anytime they need surgery or get diabetes.
And surprisingly, the federal plans would probably prove a lot more costly than the ones in Massachusetts, where the state prides itself on restraining what they pay by squeezing providers, who then shift the added costs to private customers.
But it's clear in Massachusetts that low-to-medium earning families often suffer financially if they get a raise, work overtime, move to a higher paying job -- or if a spouse rejoins the workforce.
The problem is simple: If employers stop paying for health care, employees will flood into the government-subsidized programs, enormously raising the cost to already fragile budgets.
In remarks to be delivered Monday evening at Kalamazoo Central High School, Obama says it's easy to blame others when problems arise. "We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV," the president said.
By any measure my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster.
"After they drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back," said Obama, who also pointed to the 1.3-trillion-deficit he said he inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush.
He described his role as "clean[ing] up the mess" left by Bush.
"The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office," Obama said. "People are angry, and they're frustrated. Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years."
For too long, for a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill.
Two years later the president is tentatively unveiling the strategy he and fellow Democrats will pursue in this fall’s election season, and it has a heavy dose of ... looking backward. It’s going to be as much about history as hope, and more about attacking Republicans than promoting his own vision.
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