BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — A tsunami watch was issued for countries across the Indian Ocean after a massive earthquake hit waters off Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering widespread panic as residents along coastlines fled to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles.

Some were screamed “God is great” as they poured from their homes. Others, separated from relatives, cried as they ran frantically through the streets.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 8.6-magnitude quake was centered 20 miles (33 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor around 269 miles (434 kilometers) from Aceh’s provincial capital.

The tremor was felt in Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India. High-rise apartments and offices on Malaysia’s west coast shook for at least a minute.

Dear Fellow Conservative,

Under the Obama Energy Department, a lot of people are winning big by losing the taxpayers’ money. In the government-sponsored green energy industry, working Americans have effectively handed millions in salaries and bonuses to executives of companies on the road to bankruptcy.

At the most famous failed solar company, Solyndra–to which the Obama administration gave a $530 million loan guarantee–several executives were making nearly half a million dollars a year, including large bonuses taken in the months before the company filed for bankruptcy. For them, the failed endeavor was extremely lucrative.

Solyndra was hardly the only taxpayer-backed firm that paid big bonuses while stumbling to bankruptcy, however. As ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity recently uncovered in a report, Beacon Power, which received a $43 million loan guarantee, paid bonuses of about $260,000 to three individuals before going bankrupt last year.

Another company, Ener1, the recipient of a grant worth $118 million, paid its CEO a $450,000 bonus. In January, it, too, filed for bankruptcy.

Supposedly, the Department of Energy approved these loans to foster an industry which the market didn’t come close to supporting. Certainly most Americans, if they knew about the program at all, did not imagine leaders at these startups paying themselves millions in taxpayer dollars.

In 2009, after bailing out many of the country’s financial institutions, President Obama made executive compensation a major political issue, proposing rules to limit it for firms that had received the taxpayer money.

He observed that “what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.” He said these words just weeks before his administration made its half-billion dollar commitment to Solyndra.

Later that same year, President Obama demanded executives at AIG return their bonuses, asking “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”

I have a couple questions of my own.

Why isn’t the President just as concerned about the looting of failed energy startups at taxpayer expense?

Why isn’t he demanding that executives at Solyndra and the other bankrupt green energy firms return their bonuses, since we were keeping those firms afloat with gigantic and unjustified loans?

In truth, the real scandal goes far beyond bonuses and salaries. Many of these companies were dependent on an enormous amount of government support all along–far more than just a little boost to get them going.

Two numbers give you a sense of the scale of the bad energy bets the Obama administration is making. Several weeks ago, in my newsletter on the transition to liquefied natural gas as a less expensive source of fuel, I reported that Chesapeake Energy had invested more than $150 million to build a national network of LNG truck stops–an investment by a private company to be supported by genuine demand.

President Obama, on the other hand, is putting taxpayer money into dozens of risky ventures. Last week yet another green energy firm, Solar Trust of America, declared bankruptcy after having received a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

That loan guarantee is more than the value of Regal Entertainment, the nation’s largest chain of movie theaters, and about the value of HSN, the Home Shopping Network. It’s one heck of a loan for a startup. And it put taxpayers on the hook for 14 times the amount Chesapeake invested in its far more viable project to build a nationwide natural gas highway.

Of course, there could be a lot more where all this came from. The Energy Department’s current loan program has approved nearly $35 billion in total–more than $110 from every American citizen. Feel like you’re getting your money’s worth?

Your friend,

Newt

Someone write in before this blog loses its Alien connection.

Kent

Here’s news that may bring smiles to the faces of coffee lovers. A large new study suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee is associated with a lower rate of depression.

Since other studies have already noted links between coffee drinking and potential protection against type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and several types of cancer, one might be tempted to say that there are sufficient “grounds” to say that coffee’s health benefits are plenty potent.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston examined the health data of nearly 51,000 women (average age 63) who were taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study, an ongoing examination of nurses and their health habits.

At the start of the Harvard study, all of the participants were considered “depression free” (no diagnosis of depression from a doctor, no antidepressant use and no severe depressive symptoms per the Mental Health Questionnaire).

Every two years, the women were asked to provide information on their caffeine intake as well as whether or not a physician had diagnosed them with depression or prescribed them an antidepressant.

The study collected data for 10 years — making this one of the few studies to ever look at the long-term effects of caffeine. Among participants, 82% of the caffeine consumed came from coffee and 13% and 6% came from tea and soft drinks, respectively.

What the researchers discovered: The more caffeinated coffee women drank, the less likely they were to become depressed over the course of the study.

For example, women who drank four cups a day were 20% less likely to become depressed than women who drank one or fewer cups a week, and those who drank two to three cups a day had a 15% lower risk.

Women who drank decaffeinated coffee were no more or less likely to be depressed than women who drank no coffee at all, which leads the researchers to believe that caffeine itself might explain the link.

It’s important to note that a “cup” was defined as 150 milliliters, which is about five ounces — less than half the size of a 12-ounce “tall” at Starbucks.

And the researchers aren’t sure if taking your coffee black, with sugar or with milk will make a difference, since those details weren’t studied. The findings were published in the September 26, 2011 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

To try to figure out the answer, I spoke with Michel Lucas, PhD, RD, one of the Harvard epidemiologists who conducted the research.

He told me that previous studies have linked caffeine (found in coffee or anything) with the release of dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters in the brain that are associated with enhancing mood temporarily.

But exactly why caffeine may deflect depression over the long term hasn’t yet been pinned down.

And, the coffee study may come as a surprise to many people who connect caffeine consumption with a spike in anxiety — which often goes hand-in-hand with depression.

“A high level of caffeine can increase jitters and nervousness in some people, and could therefore potentially cancel out any mood-enhancing benefit that the caffeinated coffee may bring,” said Dr. Lucas.

And since our reactions to caffeine vary greatly by individual, he added, it’s important to know your limits. “Some people drink three cups of caffeinated coffee in one day and find that they can’t sleep and have anxiety, while others can drink six cups a day with no such effect,” he said.

While this finding may be reassuring for people who drink coffee, Dr. Lucas said it doesn’t mean that if you don’t drink coffee, you should start. This study shows only an association between caffeinated coffee and a low risk for depression — more research needs to be done to see if there is a cause-and-effect relationship.

But if you like coffee and it makes you feel good — this is yet another reason to enjoy your morning cup(s) of Joe!

Source(s):

Michel Lucas, PhD, RD, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.

You just don’t think, you are just told what to believe and that is the way you like it, because that is so much easier then thinking for your self.

The fact the you read REDSTATE shows that you don’t believe in facts at all, and it shows in your comments.

If you really thought about it, it would mean that you are voting against yourself and your own best interest, and why would you do that to yourself, it just seems stupid…..