Monday, December 31, 2012

20,000 Year-Old Aluminum ‘Vimana’ Aircraft Landing Gear Discovered

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/04/26/20000-year-old-aluminum-vimana-aircraft-landing-gear-discovered/    

20,000 Year-Old Aluminum ‘Vimana’ Aircraft Landing Gear Discovered

truther April 26, 2012 


Terrence Aym
beforeitsnews
Some scholars are convinced an ancient, advanced civilization existed where the nation of India is today. They claim the prehistoric city-state had advanced technology including high-energy weapons, jet-like aircraft, and even the atomic bomb. Now a stunning artifact has been identified by some researchers as the part of an aircraft landing assembly dated as old as 20,000 years made from a metal that wasn’t discovered until the early 1800s.
For many years certain researchers in India and Asia have tried to convince Western skeptics that the so-called religious texts of the Vedas are really descriptive history. Lending credence to their claims are various artifacts found over the years and detailed descriptions of the vimana aircraft engineering and construction.
The incredible discovery during the 1990s of the remains of an ancient city in northern India that was still highly radioactive sent some archaeologists scrambling to the site.
And then, a very strange artifact, the Wedge of Aiud,first unearthed in 1973, was given another look: a machined piece of metal made of an aluminum alloy. Originally thought to be about 400 years old, new tests have determined it’s from 18,000 B.C.E., from the during the Pleistocene Era, nearly 20,000 years before aluminum’s discovery in modern times.
Odder still, some experts believe the artifact may be part of an aircraft landing gearpossibly from one of the ancient Indian vimana flying machines described in the Veda texts.
The lost super city-states
Evidence that has accumulated during the past few centuries adds credence to the idea that super city-states arose sometime towards the end of the last Ice Age. The best evidence for the location of some of the citiesthat may have spanned the globe—lies in northern India and southern Pakistan, and a desolate stretch of the Mongolian Gobi desert northwest of China.
Those advanced cultures are said to have possessed a very high technology, equal in some respects to that of the 21st Century.
Ancient texts refer to towering buildings, various types of aircraft, a high level of science and engineering, and even a weapon that today’s physicists believe was first used in the closing days of World War Two: the atomic bomb.
It may be that the advanced cultures wiped themselves out by engaging in a limited nuclear war. Evidence gleaned over the past few decades does point in that direction.
Perhaps after a series of devastating attacks, the remaining network of advanced cultures collapsed succumbing to the ravages of economic depression, displacement, and disease.
If so, the vestiges of one or more of those cultures may have served to fuel the legend of the great city of Atlantis that appears in Plato’s 360 B.C.E. Dialogues, Timaeus and Critias.
After the collapse, the remainder of Mankind fell into barbarism and knowledge of the fantastic technology devolved into myth. This viewpoint is supported by the fact that some of the earliest cave paintings reveal a greater level of sophistication than those that were created hundreds of years later.
The human race regressed and the once great glories of the super-cities occulted by the swirling mists of time.
Illustration of a vimana by David H. Childress
The ancient flying machines
According to the revered Indian Vedas Sanskrit writings, vimanas were flying machines. The word vimana is still used today in the modern Indian language to refer to aircraft.
While most vimanas were used for transportation through the atmosphere, some were described as being used to travel into space while others were a form of limited submarine.
Just like modern aircraft, the vimanas had various configurations and sizes depending on what they were designed to accomplish. Some had two engines, like the agnihotra-vimana; others, like the gaja-vimana, had more. In all there may have been as many as a dozen different types of vimanas all designed for different purposes. Most of them flew.
Atomic attack…11,000 years ago
Traces of an ancient atomic war between advanced and powerful city-states still linger in northern India-Pakistan and parts of the great Mongolian Gobi Desert. Scientists have known for many years about the expanse of vitrified sand that covers a region of the Gobi. The fused sand, greenish in color, can only be created by exposure to intense heat. Geologists theorize that the sand became vitrified by exposure to volcanic action; astronomers claim a large meteor might have done it; physicists wonder if it was caused by an atomic explosion.
Those three incidents are the only things that could account for the region of vitrified sand that lies in the lonely stretches of the arid land.
But volcanic origins are out as no volcanoes exist in the region.
No evidence exists of a crater or meteoric residue that would be found if a rock from space slammed into the desert scarring the terrain and searing the sand.
The process of elimination leaves only an atomic blast to account for the strange condition of the sanda glassified region where nothing grows.
Supporting the atomic theory is the fact that some of the area has a higher level of background radiation than similar terrain outside the affected area. It’s almost as if something once stood in that deserted region and was vaporized by a blast like the explosions that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Another find that supports the existence of a technologicaly advanced city-state about 20,000 years ago was the stunning discovery of the remains of an ancient city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, India. The site was found when construction began for a new housing development.
What astonished archaeologists eventually determined was the remains of charred and partially melted buildings and radioactive skeletons were covered by a thick layer of ashlater confirmed to be radioactive. The ash covered a three-mile square area.
Other research shows that several major city states existed and at least two or more were at war with each other. While much attention has been focused on the northern Indian city, little has been spent investigating the remains of the ancient atomic blast in the Gobi.
The ancient region is thought by some Indian university professors to be a forerunner of the more modern Matsya, another ancient state of the Vedic civilization. The Matsyan culture is believed to be associated with an earlier state called Jaipur.
Another Indian text, the Mahabharata, considered by some scholars to be present more fact than myth, contain passages that describe in detail the atomic attack on the city that the construction crew accidentally uncovered:
A single projectile charged with all the power in the UniverseAn incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor…It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race.
The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white.
After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river.
The atomic conflagration described was every bit as horrific and deadly as the attack on the Japanese cities in August, 1945.
Although the text suggest delivery of a nuclear weapon by a missile, ancient Indian writings also describein amazing detail—the flying machines called vimanas. The texts outline the vimana’s flight characteristics, construction, powerplant ( a jet-rocket hybrid powered by plasma mercury engines), and engineering specifications.
The mysterious Wedge of Aiud may have come from a vimana.
Enigma of the 11,000 year-old Vimana landing gear: the aluminum ‘Wedge of Aiud’
Near the picturesque banks of the Mures River located a little more than a mile east of the small city of Aiud, Romania, a bizarre artifact was unearthed dubbed the Wedge of Aiud.
Researcher Boczor Iosif investigated the find and reported that the wedge was discovered beneath 35 feet of sand. Two mastodon bones were reportedly also dug up near the wedge.
A report by Lars Fischinger states that he and an associate, Dr. Niederkorn, analyzed the wedge at the Institute for Research and Design. They determined the artifact was a metal alloy composed of 12 different metals. Their report lists aluminum making up about 89 percent of the object, the rest they listed as: “6.2% copper / silicon 2.84% / 1.81% zinc / 0.41% lead / tin 0.33% / 0.2% zirconium / 0.11% cadmium / 0.0024% / nickel / 0 , 0023% cobalt / bismuth 0.0003% / 0.0002% silver and traces of Galium.
The test results puzzled the two researchers as aluminum wasn’t discovered until the early 1800s. Fischinger notes that commercial production of aluminum requires smelting the ore at temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Initially, the object was though to be about 400 years old. That changed dramatically when they carefully analyzed the amount of oxidation covering the wedge. They readjusted the age backwards by thousands of years.
It’s now estimated the Wedge of Aiud may date back to 18,000 B.C.E. That date coincides with the age of the vimanas.
After the test results were analyzed, the wedge was sent to the Museum of History in Transylvania, Romania where it sat on a shelf, undisturbed, for two decades.
Florian Gheorghita, holding the Wedge of Aiud
Finally, in 1995, another Romanian researcher, Florian Gheorghita, came across the artifact in the museum basement. The wedge was tested again. This time in two different laboratories: the Archeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca and an independent Swiss lab. The tests confirmed the results arrived at by Fischinger and Niederkorn.
Gheorghita wrote in the publication Ancient Skies that he asked an aircraft engineer to study the artifact. The engineer noted the configuration and the hole drilled in the wedge and stated that a pattern of abrasions and scratches on the metal led him to believe it was part of an aircraft landing gear.
A sketch was made to illustrate the configuration.
Sketch by Florian Gheorghita of the artifact in use
Sketch by Florian Gheorghita of the artifact itself
Since the ancient city-states had advanced transportationperhaps even space vehicles—it was easy to transnaviagte the world just as modern aircraft do today.
The engineering and metallurgical evidence strongly supports the theory that the mysterious Wedge of Aiud is a pice of a landing gear that fell off a vimana some 11,000 years ago and lay unretrieved for millennia until the sandy banks of the Mures River swallowed it up.
Maybe someday the earth will reveal more of its secrets, hopefully an entire vimanaintact.

A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single Moment

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-massive-electromagnetic-pulse-could-collapse-the-economy-in-a-single-moment   

A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single Moment

A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single MomentWhat would you do if all the lights went out and they never came back on?  That is a question that the new NBC series "Revolution" asks, but most people have no idea that a similar thing could happen in real life at any moment.  A single gigantic electromagnetic pulse over the central United States could potentially fry most of the electronics from coast to coast if it was powerful enough.  This could occur in a couple of different ways.  If a powerful nuclear weapon was exploded at a high enough altitude, it could produce an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to knock out electronics all over the country.  Alternatively, a massive solar storm could potentially cause a similar phenomenon to happen just about anywhere on the planet without much warning.  Of course not all EMP events are created equal.  An electromagnetic pulse can range from a minor inconvenience to a civilization-killing event.  It just depends on how powerful it is.  But in the worst case scenario, we could be facing a situation where our electrical grids have been fried, there is no heat for our homes, our computers don't work, the Internet does not work, our cell phones do not work, there are no more banking records, nobody can use credit cards anymore, hospitals are unable to function, nobody can pump gas, and supermarkets cannot operate because there is no power and no refrigeration.  Basically, we would witness the complete and total collapse of the economy.  According to a government commission that looked into these things, approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population would die from starvation, disease and societal chaos within one year of a massive EMP attack.  It would be a disaster unlike anything we have ever seen before in U.S. history.
Most Americans are totally clueless about what an EMP attack could do to this nation, but the threat is very real.  There was even a congressional commission that studied the potential effects of an EMP attack on the United States for eight years...
The US Congress in 2000 established the Congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. In 2004, the committee produced a 70-page executive summary on the EMP threat, and it issued a final report on the matter in 2008. According to the report, “several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication.”
Dr. William Graham was the chairman of that commission, and he says that an EMP attack could knock the United States back into the 1800s in just a single moment...
An EMP attack “could not only take down power grids, which are fragile anyway in this country, and telecommunications networks, and financial networks, and traffic controls and many other things, but in addition, there is a very close interrelationship among those national infrastructure capabilities,” Graham says.
“So, for example, we need telecommunications to re-establish the power network, and we need the power network to keep telecommunications going for more than a few hours. And we need the financial network to continue to operate to maintain the economy, we need the transportation system, roads, street lights, control systems, to operate just to get people to the failed power, telecommunication and other systems,” he adds.
Life after an EMP attack “would probably be something that you might imagine life to be like around the late 1800s but with several times the population we had in those days, and without the ability of the country to support and sustain all those people,” Graham says. “They wouldn’t have power. Food supplies would be greatly taken out by the lack of transportation, telecommunication, power for refrigeration and so on.”
Unfortunately, very few of us are equipped to survive in such an environment.  We have become incredibly dependent on technology, and most Americans would have no idea how to do something as simple as growing their own food.  Most people would be in a very serious amount of trouble in a very short period of time.
An article by Mac Slavo detailed some of the things that we could expect in the aftermath of a massive electromagnetic pulse...
The first 24 – 48 hours after such an occurrence will lead to confusion among the general population as traditional news acquisition sources like television, radio and cell phone networks will be non-functional.
Within a matter of days, once people realize the power might not be coming back on and grocery store shelves start emptying, the entire system will begin to delve into chaos.
Within 30 days a mass die off will have begun as food supplies dwindle, looters and gangs turn to violent extremes, medicine can’t be restocked and water pump stations fail.
Are you prepared for such an event?
If not, why not?
And actually, high altitude nuclear explosions and solar storms are not the only things that could produce sizable EMP bursts.
For example, the U.S. military has developed "a directed electromagnetic pulse gun" that can take out all electronics within a limited area.  This kind of weapon can be fired from a plane, a cruise missile or even a drone.  The following is from a recent WND article...
A pre-programmed cruise missile not too different from a drone has been proven to be capable of blasting out an EMP-type microwave that was able to destroy personal computers and electrical systems inside a building over which it was flying.
The U.S. Air Force and its contractor Boeing have created the High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, or CHAMP, which was just tested over a Utah desert.
Other nations such as Russia and China are busy developing similar weapons.  The ability to instantly take out the electronics of the enemy would be a very powerful advantage.
Even North Korea has been working on this kind of technology.  According to Newsmax, it is believed that they may have tested a "Super-EMP" weapon back in 2009
North Korea’s last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states
As this technology becomes more widespread, it will soon be accessible to just about everyone.  You don't actually need a nuclear weapon to set off a massive electromagnetic pulse.  A non-nuclear pulse generator can do the same thing.  If you set one off next to a power station you could potentially take out the electrical grid for an entire region.
Terrorist groups and lone wolf crazies could even use portable radio frequency weapons to do a tremendous amount of electromagnetic damage over a more limited area.  The following is from a recent article by F. Michael Maloof...
Such an individual with a penchant for electronics can pull together components from a Radio Shack or electronic store – even order the components off of selected Internet websites – and fashion a radio frequency, or RF, weapon.
As microprocessors become smaller but more sophisticated, they are even more susceptible to an RF pulse. The high power microwave from an RF weapon produces a short, very high power pulse, said to be billions of watts in a nanosecond, or billionths of a second.
This so-called burst of electromagnetic waves in the gigahertz microwave frequency band can melt electrical circuitry and damage integrated circuits, causing them to fail.
Constructing a radio frequency weapon is not that difficult.  In fact, you can find instructions for how to build them on the Internet.
People need to realize that we live in a world where technology is absolutely exploding and we are dealing with threats that previous generations never even dreamed of.  As the world becomes increasingly unstable, it is inevitable that these kinds of weapons will be used.
It is only a matter of time.
What will life look like after an EMP weapon is used?
That is something to think about.
And we also need to keep watching the sun.  It could produce a massive electromagnetic pulse at literally any moment.  As I have written about previously, scientists tell us that it is only a matter of time before we are hit with a technology-crippling solar super storm.
Most people don't even realize that the massive solar storm of 1859 fried telegraph machines all over Europe and North America.  If such a storm hit us today, the damage would potentially be in the trillions of dollars.  The following is from a recent New York Times article
A powerful solar (or “geomagnetic”) storm has the potential to simultaneously damage multiple transformers in the electricity grid and perhaps even bring down large sections of it, affecting upwards of a hundred million people in the United States for many months, if not years.
These huge transformers are expensive and difficult to replace, and not many are stockpiled in the United States for an emergency. In the worst case, the impact would be devastating: An outage could cost a few trillion dollars, with full recovery taking years. Not only would parts of the grid be compromised, but telephone networks, undersea cables, satellites and railroads also would be affected.
A 2008 National Academy of Sciences study warned that “because of the interconnectedness of critical infrastructures in modern society,” the “collateral effects of a longer-term outage” would likely include “disruption of the transportation, communication, banking and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration.”
By the way, 2013 is the peak of the current solar cycle.  So we are moving into a time period when conditions will be very favorable for solar storms.
Let us hope that we are never hit with a massive electromagnetic pulse that is strong enough to take out all of our electronics.
But if it did happen, and all the lights went out for good, what would you do?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below...
EMP Attack On The United States
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Spotiwhy? : Are Subscription Music Services a Sustainable Business Model?

http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/spotiwhy-are-subscription-music-services-a-sustainable-busin.html    

Spotiwhy? : Are Subscription Music Services a Sustainable Business Model?

Subscription music services have been dominating the news recently with the U.S. launch of Spotify and the new IHeartRadio, plus free offerings from MOG and RDIO, and the recent purchase of Napster by Rhapsody. There is a sea change occurring in all content industries moving towards streaming and subscription rather than ownership, and this transition has been causing a lot of debate and disagreement about the potential and the fairness of this new model of consumption.
Spotify has been both the most visible and the most vilified of the new companies. First there was the public removal of certain labels’ catalogs from the service. Since then, there has been a rash of artists making their royalty statements public in an effort to show that Spotify is not a viable business partner for a small label or an indie musician. Because these numbers exist in a vacuum there is no way to gauge if these are isolated instances or a pervasive injustice. Spotify’s response has been equally vague, referencing aggregate payouts instead of the individual ones that are being questioned.
There have been a lot of individual experiences and accounting being bandied about, but I have yet to see any hard macro numbers. Looking at all of this I decided to do some analysis into what the potential of subscription music is in the United States. Because of the nature of subscription services it is not necessary to focus on just Spotify. In aggregate all subscription music can be looked at in the same way as long we assume the services charge the same per month per user.
This essay is neither for nor against subscription music services, and will focus on answering four questions.
1) What is the revenue potential for subscription music services?
2) What are the most likely rates per stream?
3) How much money can an artist expect to make from subscription music?
4) Is a compulsory rate a sustainable business model?

What is the revenue potential for subscription music services?
This is a fairly straightforward calculation. The formula for the total possible revenue in a month is the number of accounts using a subscription service multiplied by the monthly cost of the service.
TMR = A x C
The resulting number multiplied by 12 months will give the yearly revenue potential. Using the last accounting of roughly 115 million U.S. Households and an assumption of a 9.99 monthly cost, the total possible revenue for a subscription music service is roughly 13.75 billion dollars.

In 1999 at the height of the CD boom sales of recorded music totaled 14 billion dollars. In theory, subscription music’s 13.75 billion dollar potential returns the music industry to its glory years. It is unlikely though, that paid subscription music will reach 100% household penetration in the near future. Currently Spotify has somewhere between 1 and 2 million paying customers. The combined Rhapsody and Napster, which I’ll tentatively refer to as Rhaspterdy, has about the same. Add in MOG, RDIO and other miscellaneous competitors and the current subscription music base is most likely between 4 and 5 million paid users or approximately 600 million in yearly revenue.
Netflix, which has been the most successful paid subscription model, has roughly 25 million subscribers. If subscription music can reach that same level of cultural adoption then it will generate about 2.75 billion dollars in revenue at critical mass. If all 66% of U.S. households with broadband have a subscription music account then the total revenue will be about 9 billion dollars. These large numbers may seem impressive, but they actually have very little influence In terms of the rate per stream.

What are the most likely rates per stream?
There have been numerous instances where artists have released their royalty statement to show what appears to be paltry payment for streaming. Spotify’s recent assertion is that once the revenue goes up, increased payments will follow. This is obviously true in the aggregate as there is more money, but many people seem to think that this will also result in higher royalties per stream. After running the numbers, I believe this is highly unlikely.
The total revenue will be divided in two ways. The first division is the percentage split between the subscription service and the artist revenue pool. The calculations in this essay are modeled on an assumed 50/50 split for this pool, because I’m a fair guy. The second division is how the artist revenue pool will be split between the individual artists and labels. This is the payment per stream.
In order to know the potential payment per stream, or from the services viewpoint, the cost for each stream handled, the first step is to calculate the total number of streams that a service will stream.
If it is assumed that songs last 3 minutes on average, then a user will stream 20 songs an hour. Extrapolating this formula, a user can stream a maximum of 480 songs a day, and 14,400 songs a month. It is not likely that every user will listen to music twenty-four hours a day. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study entitled Generation M; the average American teenager listens to 2.5 hours of music a day. This seems like a reasonable number to use as the listening baseline for a subscription music user.
The following table shows the amount of streams a subscription service will handle per month at both constant usage and the average 2.5 hours of listening.

The two variables necessary for the division of the revenue pool based are now calculated. These are total revenue and total streams. My formula is based on a perfectly even division of revenue based on percentage of total plays a song comprises, because again, I’m a fair guy. The actual formulas the services use are probably slightly more complicated, but the basic concept should be the same.
Stream Payment Formula:
1
__________________ X Revenue Pool = Payment per stream
Total Plays

1% of U.S. Households using subscription music at 2.5 hours of listening a day.
1
__________________ X 5,735,530 = $.0033
1,722,381,420

20% of U.S. Households using subscription music at 2.5 hours listening a day.
1
__________________ X 114,710,603 = $.0033
34,447,628,400
The interesting thing about this equation is that because plays increase by the same factor as revenue, the ratio remains the same. The per-stream royalty is still the same 1/3 of a penny. There are two ways to increase the per stream royalty. The first is the per-stream royalty will increase if as more people adopt the service the number of plays decreases as they do. This would require the service to be used less as it gets more popular. This is the gym membership model. The per-stream royalty can also increase if the distributed revenue increases. This is possible if the overhead required to run a subscription company does not increase at the same rate as subscriber acquisition, and the extra money is added to the revenue pool.
After doing this calculation for numerous plausible scenarios, I’ve found the per-stream payment is almost always a fraction of penny. This will always be the case when dividing millions in revenue by billions of streams or billions in revenue by trillions of streams.

What can an artist or label expect to make from subscription music?
If the per-stream payment is a fraction of a penny, what does that mean for a song’s total revenue potential? To illustrate this the following table looks at potential aggregate payouts at 3 tenths of a penny.

It takes 200 streams to equal the wholesale payout for one download. It takes ten million plays of a song to equal the revenue that 51,000 single downloads currently generate.
A fun game to play is to take the current singles numbers of hit songs and see how many subscription plays it would take to equal that same number. The Black Eyed Peas best selling song is “I Gotta Feeling,” which was downloaded 7.5 million times. This would generate $4,875,000 in revenue. To generate the same revenue through subscription play the song would need to be played 1.6 billion times.
This seems like a lot, but lets look at it another way. Using subscription music, what is the possibility of a song getting played 1.6 billion times in a year? At 20% adoption, every month there are roughly 35 billion plays across the services. This equates to roughly 420 billion plays a year. This means that one out of every 262 plays would have to be that song. Judging from how many time I’ve heard the Black Eyed Peas this year that may be possible.
Another way to look at it is to ask the question, “What if every person who used subscription music listened to a song once a day?” These are your hits songs, the ones you cannot escape. This is “Stairway to Heaven” in 1971. This is “Candle in the Wind” in 1997. This is “Hey Ya” in 2003.
The following table shows what the potential is for massive hit song with very moderate listening by everyone in the country.

When there is a song that pervades pop culture, the potential numbers start lining up with the current revenue, and as subscription music attains larger percentages of the U.S. population, the numbers for a potential hit become significantly more than a hit song currently. Of course, the flip side of this is that there are no album sales on top of these numbers like there is currently. As subscription music becomes dominant this becomes the only recorded revenue stream.

Is a compulsory rate a sustainable business model?
The call from musicians is for more than 3 tenths of a cent, and the music industry has a history of embracing compulsory rates. One penny is the rate I have most commonly heard as fair for a stream. The next table examines what the maximum per stream royalty a subscription service can handle at different listening frequencies assuming a 100% payout. This is the maximum that a service can handle. After this point the service would be paying out more revenue than it would take in, and would shortly become unsustainable.

If a compulsory rate of 1 penny is mandated, then the averaging listening time for a consumer needs to be around 50 minutes a day to sustain a 50% revenue pool share. After about 1hour and 40 minutes a day the mandated royalties are more than the revenue brought in by the 10 dollars a month in fees. Another way to look at this is to think how much revenue can be paid if there was only one subscriber, and a mandated one penny per stream royalty.
9.99 subscription fee = 999 songs per month = 33 songs a day = 99 minutes of listening time. This is 1 hour and 39 minutes or 1.67 hours as the chart above indicates.
Looking at no other overhead or costs, this is the point where a subscription service can no longer physically pay out fees, although it would have went bankrupt well before then. Looking at this chart and the others, and knowing that the average listening time for music is 2.5 hours a day, .003 cents still seems to be the most likely candidate for the payment per stream.
Anything above this at the current cost per month, would bankrupt any subscription music service. To sustain a compulsory rate of one penny, subscription music services would have to increase the monthly cost to 60 dollars listeners must not exceed 2.5 hours of listening or 50 songs a day.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this essay I set out to answer 4 questions about the potential revenue and costs as the music industry switches to subscription streaming. After exploring the various scenarios, the conclusion that can be drawn is that there is significant revenue that can be generated by the services as a whole, but the individual stream payments will remain in fractions of a cent and will only decrease as the services become more popular.

Devils Advocate: Possible arguments against my claims and my responses.
Q: This does not take into account advertising revenue.
This is because premium versions of subscription services, the 10-dollar a month kind, are built on the premise of no advertising. The ad supported networks will generate even less revenue. Ads are generally sold on CPM. If an ad was sold on every play (which is not the case) a CPM of 79.82 would be required at 2.5 hours of listening to equal the same revenue as subscription services. This is extremely high for a passive audience.
Q: This doesn’t use the exact formulas the subscription services currently employ.
The formulas in this essay are based on the mathematically fairest division out there. This is the perfect scenario. The actual case will be slightly different, but as shown in numerous calculations the per-stream payment will almost always be in fractions of a cent at the current monthly cost.
Q: You are not taking into account the promotional aspect. Streaming promotes other revenue streams.
This argument is true at the lower levels of household adoption, but begins to fall apart as more people use the service. This is because as subscription music becomes the dominant medium for music consumption, there will be less and less physical or file sales to benefit from the supposed promotion. To put it another way, if everyone is getting their music from subscription music services then the only thing you are promoting is other subscription music. In regards to merchandise, tickets or any of the other ancillary revenue streams, it is true that streaming will promote them, but the current and former methods of music consumption also did that. I’d be interested to see any proof that streaming music is somehow a more efficient promoter of these other revenue streams.
Q: These calculations are based on a 50/50 split. If we increase artist revenue the per-stream payments will go up.
Yes and no. This could be true, but it again depends on the ratio. If the plays go up at a faster pace than the revenue pool is increased then the per-stream payments will not go up and possibly could go down. The compulsory sustainability section was based upon a 100% revenue pool and this is the absolute maximum that a subscription company could pay out at the current monthly costs. Looking at that you can see that subscription music is practically unsustainable after a penny a play.

About:
Frank Woodworth is a ten year veteran of the music industry and the founder of www.glacialconcepts.com. He has previously been selected to “30 under 30” music executives by Billboard magazine, and has twice spoken at the CMJ Music Festival.

The results are in: More guns sold mean fewer guns deaths, injuries

http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-results-are-in-more-guns-sold-mean-fewer-guns-deaths-injuries.html             

The results are in: More guns sold mean fewer guns deaths, injuries








J. D. Heyes
NaturalNews
December 31, 2012
It isn’t a firearms statistic that liberal progressives and gun banners like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will want to hear but it’s true nonetheless: According to the most recent statistics, the more guns that have been sold in the Golden State, the fewer gun deaths and injuries there have been.
According to the state’s office of the Attorney General, gun dealers sold around 600,000 guns last year, nearly double the 350,000 sold in 2002, according to figures compiled by department officials.
During the same period of time, however, “the number of California hospitalizations due to gun injuries” fell by some 4,000 a year to roughly 2,900, a drop of about 25 percent, “according to hospital records collected by the California Department of Public Health,” the Sacramento Bee reported.
Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office said, the number of deaths from firearms fell from 3,200 a year to about 2,800, an 11 percent decline, according to California health department figures.
“Most of the drop in firearm-related injuries and deaths can be explained by a well-documented, nationwide drop in violent crime,” the paper said.
California’s example is being repeated all over the country
There’s more. Data show that the number of injuries and death in the state caused by accidental discharge of firearms has fallen as well, suggesting as one explanation, perhaps, that instruction in the use of firearms may have improved (Note: California allows concealed carry of handguns, but is much more restrictive than most other states, according to USACarry.com).
There are some caveats to the California figures, the SacBee reported. For one, state figures track gun sales, now gun ownership, meaning the state treats “a family’s first gun purchase the same as a collector’s twelfth.” Secondly, gun sales in California reached their zenith in the mid-1990s, when violent crime also peaked.
What is going on in California is being repeated all over the country – again, to the chagrin of gun-banning politicians, Hollywood types, academics and the mainstream media, the latter of which barely reports the phenomenon.
Gun-related violent crime has also steadily fallen in Virginia over the past six years, though the sale of firearms has risen dramatically, “according to an analysis of state crime data with state records of gun sales,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
The total number of guns bought in the Old Dominion climbed significantly – 73 percent – from 2006-2011. When you factor in the increase in state population, firearms sales per 100,000 residents rose 63 percent, still a substantial increase.
But higher numbers of guns has not translated into more violent gun crime. As in California, gun crime has fallen in Virginia, dropping 24 percent over the same period. When adjusted for the population increase, gun-related offenses fell by more than 27 percent, from 79 crimes per 100,000 in 2006 to 57 crimes in 2011 (Note: Virginia has much less restrictive carry laws than does California).
The numbers contradict what Americans are being told by the gun controllers and banners; that more guns in circulation equals more violent, gun-related crimes, notes Virginia Commonwealth University Prof. Thomas R. Baker, who compared the state’s crime data for the aforementioned timeframe with gun-dealer sales estimates obtained by the Times-Dispatch.
Concealed carry is helping to lower crime, deaths
“While there is a wealth of academic literature attempting to demonstrate the relationship between guns and crime, a very simple and intuitive demonstration of the numbers seems to point away from the premise that more guns leads to more crime, at least in Virginia,” said Baker, who specializes in research methods and criminology theory and has an interest in gun issues, the paper said.
Gun control advocates refused to accept the reality of the data, but those who understand the effects of more Americans accepting responsibility for their own self-defense weren’t surprised.
“My opponents are constantly saying, ‘If you got more guns on the street, there’s going to be more crime.’ It all depends on who has the handgun,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and an avid gun rights supporter. “As long as it’s going into the hands of people like you or me, there’s not going to be a problem. Criminals are going to continue to get their guns no matter what.”
Emily Miller, the editorial page editor for the Washington Times, pointed out in June that the drop in gun crime and armed violent criminal action has directly coincided with a rise in the number of states that allow concealed carry, an assertion backed by FBI crime data.
“If the gun grabbers were right, we’d be in the middle of a crime wave, considering how many guns are on the streets,” she wrote.
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam made a similar connection.
“This is not a one-year anomaly, but a steady decline in the FBI’s violent-crime rates,” he told Miller. “It would be disingenuous for anyone to not credit increased self-defense laws to account for this decline.”
Sources:
http://www.sacbee.com
http://www.timesdispatch.com
http://www.washingtontimes.com
http://www.timesdispatch.com

Mayor Mike Bloomberg's armed bodyguards also carry their weapons when in Bermuda with Mr. Bloomberg by special permission-NY Times

http://impeachobamatoday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bloombergs-armed-bodyguards-also-carry.html    hey dit-shit !    all  right 4 U ? ....just not common  folk?  ....O  eye  C !                 

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Mayor Mike Bloomberg's armed bodyguards also carry their weapons when in Bermuda with Mr. Bloomberg by special permission-NY Times

.
4/25/10, "New York’s Mayor, but Bermuda Shares Custody," NY Times, Michael Barbaro

"The mayor also takes along a police detail when he travels, flying two officers on his private plane and paying as much as $400 a night to put them up at a hotel near his house; the city pays their wages while they are there, as it does whether Mr. Bloomberg is New York or not. Guns are largely forbidden in Bermuda — even most police officers do not use them — but the mayor’s guards have special permission to carry weapons. A spokesman for the Police Department declined to comment....

Mr. Bloomberg often eats with members of his security detail. At Rustico, his favorite Italian restaurant in Bermuda, he stakes out an outdoor table for six and orders platters of herb-marinated chicken, tenderloin of beef and fresh orecchiette....

An architectural drawing of the mayor's house in Bermuda. His new neighbors did not approve of plans for the property. Even by Bermudan standards, it was flashy: five balconies, four bedrooms, seven bathrooms, an in-ground pool and space for four cars, all hidden by a gated driveway, according to documents on file with the Bermuda Department of Planning....

Mr. Bloomberg's Bermudan estate, called Stokes Bay. When he bought the property, he had a 2,620-square-foot house demolished, and he commissioned a local architect to replace it with a $10 million home nearly three times its size....

A letter from the property committee of the Mid Ocean club complaining about the size of the proposed Bloomberg house. The committee said it was too large and would obliterate the views for nearby residents. Mr. Bloomberg's architect agreed to shave three feet off the height of the house and to abandon plans for a large dock in front of the house....

At times, though, his attempts at privacy border on the extreme. Shortly after Mr. Bloomberg was elected mayor, he requested that the Bermudan government seal all of his housing records, according to a letter from his architect. The government refused. Since then, the mayor’s gardeners have stopped trimming the vegetation around his house. It has grown several feet taller and now largely blocks the viewfrom the water. (The downside: it obstructs the mayor’s view.)"...via 4/12/12, "Bloomberg reeks of hypocrisy on ‘stand your ground’ laws," Examiner.com, D. Codrea

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 .







2/4/12, "NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg with his armed bodyguards. Reuters"

----------------------------------- 

2011, "An Open Letter to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg," from Rabbi Dovid Bendory, Rabbinic Director, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership."
 
"Mr. Mayor, your citizen disarmament is an act of hypocrisy. Unlike nearly all the rest of us, everywhere you go you are surrounded by official armed guards, police escorts, and your highly trained personal private bodyguards. (See adjacent photo). Mr. Mayor, is your life worth more than the lives of your fellow citizens? 

Or are we mere “subjects” in your eyes?...

Tyrants like Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao “pioneered” the bloody trail of “gun control” in the 20th Century. Why do you so thoughtlessly, in effect, mimic the insidious actions of these monsters?

This apparent elitism on your part makes your recent publicity stunt in Arizona even more cynical. You sent NYPD agents all the way across the country to purchase guns -- but you can't deploy enough police to protect your own City residents?

And if you expose your city’s residents via such a manpower diversion, how do you justify denying these residents the right to protect themselves with a firearm?

Mr. Mayor, do you need a rabbi to tell you that your actions are wrong and immoral?

This nation’s Bill of Rights is a sacrosanct public trust. You are a public servant. You swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. As you blatantly disregard the Second Amendment, the actual “Guardian” of all the rest of the Bill of Rights, I must ask you: Did you knowingly lie when you took your oath of office?"

-----------------------------------------

Bloomberg tells Obama to bypass Congress and "lead" on gun control:


"It must be nice for someone who has the luxury of bodyguards to tell the rest of us we are not allowed to have the means to defend ourselves. 

“It’s time for the president, I think, to stand up and lead and tell this country what we should do, not go to Congress and say what you guys want to do,” Bloomberg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ...

Chicago, with about one-quarter the population of NYC is worse. By October, 400 people were murdered in Chicago. Chicago has very strict gun laws."...

------------------------------------------

Bloomberg takes the subway with bodyguards:

6/29/07, "Bloomberg," NY Daily phot, Brian Dube

"He (Bloomberg) has a 20-acre farm in North Salem, NY, a Victorian townhouse in London, and a condominium in Vail, Colorado. He is a private pilot with a fleet of aircraft at his disposal. Yet, ever to be practical and demonstrate that at some level he is still one of us plain folk, he continues to take the subway every morning to City Hall (albeit with bodyguards)."....

-------------------------------------------

11/26/10, "Officer on Bloomberg bodyguard team charged in shooting," Newsday, Matthew Chayes

"A police detective assigned to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bodyguard team appeared before a judge Friday for allegedly shooting his girlfriend's former boyfriend, Queens prosecutors said.

Det. Leopold McLean, a 17-year veteran on the force, was released on bail after his arraignment on charges of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree criminal use of a firearm, first- and second-degree..." (subscrip.)

--------------------------------------------

12/15/10, "Bloomberg Bodyguard's Shooting Victim Suing The City," Gothamist

Graigslist sperm donor forced to pay child support to lesbian couple despite giving up parental rights to daughter before birth

FOLKS  u  just CAN'T  make THIS shit up :)                            http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255241/Sperm-donor-ordered-pay-child-support-lesbian-couple-despite-giving-rights-child.html?ICO=most_read_module            where's my hammer?             hehe !        ....& u look me in the eye,& tell me that E.T.  is not looking down & saying   WHAT  THE  FUCK !!!    ...under NO  circumstances .....R  we letting them motherfuckers  OFF  their planet ? LOL  ..NO!!!   not another list ???

Graigslist sperm donor forced to pay child support to lesbian couple despite giving up parental rights to daughter before birth

  • Angela Bauer, 40, and partner Jennifer Schreiner, 34, placed ad in 2009
  • Donor William Marotta relinquished financial responsibility for child
  • Kansas state ordered Mr Marotta to pay after lesbian couple applied
    for welfare
By Daily Mail Reporter
|

A sperm donor has been ordered to pay child support for the biological daughter he fathered to a lesbian couple who found him via Craigslist.
Angela Bauer, 40, and partner Jennifer Schreiner, 34, placed an ad on the site three years ago for a donor which was answered by William Marotta.
'We are foster and adoptive parents and now we desire to share a pregnancy and birth together,' Bauer wrote in the online posting.
Mr Marotta provided sperm which was used for artificial insemination by Ms Schreiner. In return, he gave up parental rights including financial duties for the child.
Battle: Angela Bauer and former partner Jennifer Schreiner (right) are supporting their sperm donor William Marotta in his fight against paying child support for their daughter
Battle: Angela Bauer and former partner Jennifer Schreiner (right) are supporting their sperm donor William Marotta in his fight against paying child support for their daughter
The three signed a legal document which stated Mr Marotta, a married mechanic who fosters children with his wife, would have no rights to the child. 
Bauer and Schreiner updated Marotta on their daughter's well-being occasionally but he has had little contact, according to the Kansas City Star.
The arrangement changed earlier this year when Ms Schreiner, the only parent registered on her daughter's birth certificate, applied for social welfare.
 
Ms Bauer had been supporting the child but was left unable to work due to ill health.
On October 3, 2012, attorney Mark McMillan filed a petition on behalf of the Department of Children and Families seeking a ruling that Marotta is the father of Schreiner's child and owes a duty to support her.
United: Ms Bauer and Ms Schreiner celebrating their same-sex union. The couple adopted eight children together during their relationship but have not been given the same rights as straight couples
United: Ms Bauer and Ms Schreiner celebrating their same-sex union. The couple adopted eight children together during their relationship but have not been given the same rights as straight couples
It said the department provided cash assistance totaling $189 for the girl for July through September 2012, and had paid medical expenses totaling nearly $6,000.

Schreiner had allegedly been put under pressure to reveal Mr Marotta's name so that her daughter could continue to have health care.
The legal agreement that the three made in 2009 was deemed invalid by Kansas state because they did not use a certified doctor for the insemination.

THE DOT.COM WAY TO MAKE A BABY: RISE OF ONLINE SPERM DONORS

It may appear unconventional but searching for sperm donors on Craigslist is not unheard of.
In 2010, the popular cafemom blog lit up in outrage after a man from Beaverton, Oregon advertised his sperm donor services on Craigslist. He wrote: 'I'm ready to help. We'd be very discreet, no one needs to know.'
Another ad for a potential donor in San Diego read: 'I'm not offering thrilling risky sex, just pregnancy.'
Craigslist requires that users agree to guidelines when posting ads for services.
However the site 'does not control, is not responsible for and makes no representations or warranties with respect to any user content... You must conduct any necessary, appropriate, prudent or judicious investigation, inquiry, research and due diligence with respect to any user content'.
Among the long list of banned items on Craigslist are illegal goods; offensive material including porn and anything deemed malicious or fraudulent. There is no mention of sperm donors.
Ms Bauer and Ms Schreiner, who separated in 2010, plan to help Mr Marotta fight the state's decision, saying they are 'forever grateful' for the child he gave their family. 
Ms Bauer, from Topeka, told cjonline.com this week: 'We’re kind of at a loss. We are going to support him in whatever action he wants to go forward with.'
Hannah Schroller, Mr Marotta's attorney, argued that the case was consistent with a 2007 case in which the Kansas Supreme Court denied parental rights to a man who sought them after providing a sperm donation under similar circumstances.
A licensed physician performed the insemination in the 2007 case.
Schroller wrote that Marotta took the same actions as the man in the 2007 case did, and he - like that man - should be considered a sperm donor, not a father.
She stressed that sperm banks regularly ship donations for the intended purpose of artificial insemination within the United States and abroad to both residential and medical facility addresses.
Schroller argued in court documents that if a donor is free of parental responsibility only when a doctor performs an insemination, 'then any woman in Kansas could have sperm donations shipped to her house, inseminate herself without a licensed physician and seek out the donor for financial support because her actions made him a father, not a sperm donor.
'This goes against the very purpose of the statute to protect sperm donors as well as birth mothers'.
Ms Bauer and Ms Schreiner had been together for eight years and adopted eight children. They ended their relationship in 2010 but continue to co-parent their sons and daughters who range from three months to 25 years old.
The state of Kansas does not recognize same-sex unions, so each of their children was registered for adoption by a single parent.

A motion to dismiss the state's case will be heard in Shawnee County District Court on January 8.
Angela de Rocha, spokeswoman for the Department for Children and Families, said that Kansas law prevented her from commenting on the case.
Moving on: Jennifer Schreiner posted this picture with a man believed to be her new partner since the end of her relationship with Angela Bauer
Moving on: Jennifer Schreiner posted this picture with a man believed to be her new partner since the end of her relationship with Angela Bauer

Luxury 99 per cent of Americans can only dream of...Michael Moore's stunning waterfront mansion revealed

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060704/Occupy-protests-Michael-Moores-mansion-luxury-99-Americans-dream-of.html              just liv in ..like the rest of us? & he feels your pain ;0

Luxury 99 per cent of Americans can only dream of...Michael Moore's stunning waterfront mansion revealed

By Lydia Warren

He is the booming voice of the Occupy protests, encouraging activists to continue their battle against the wealthy one per cent of Americans.

But it seems left-wing documentary maker Michael Moore has been uncharacteristically quiet about one thing: his own wealth.

While Moore has denied he is among the top-earners in the country, tax records show he owns an extensive property in one of the country’s most elite communities.
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Pricey: Michael Moore's sprawling second home on Torch Lake, Michigan has been valued at around $2 million
Pricey: Michael Moore's sprawling second home on Torch Lake, Michigan has been valued at around $2 million
Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted the details Thursday, detailing Moore's large holiday home on Torch Lake, Michigan.
The documentary film maker owns the luxurious lakeside escape in addition to his pricey Manhattan residence.

The spacious 10,000 sq ft property is a far cry from the scene of tightly-packed tents near Wall Street in New York City.
The sprawling timber property has large bay windows, a number of small turrets, a private drive and decking that leads right to the water’s edge.
 
It is located on the southeastern shore of Torch Lake, regarded by locals as the ‘third most beautiful lake in the world’.
Moore's neighbours include Hollywood stars such as Bruce Willis, Madonna and Tim Allen.
He also shares the stunning views with corporate executives loathed by Occupy protestors, including ex-Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton, according to The Michigan View.
Extensive: The waterfront mansion includes a private drive and decking to the water's edge. Moore also owns a property near Park Avenue in Manhattan
Extensive: The waterfront mansion includes a private drive and decking to the water's edge. Moore also owns a property near Park Avenue in Manhattan
Elite: The 10,000-square foot summer mansion is in an exclusive neighbourhood. Fellow home owners include Bruce Willis, Madonna, Tim Allen - and corporate executives including ex-Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton
Elite: The 10,000-square foot summer mansion is in an exclusive neighbourhood. Fellow home owners include Bruce Willis, Madonna, Tim Allen - and corporate executives including ex-Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton

Houses on the lake cost as much as $3million.
Moore originally bought the 2,500 sq ft home before expanding to two surrounding lots, according to local real estate sources.
Public records show the property in the name of Moore and his wife, Kathleen Glynn, and notes its taxable value at nearly $1 million.
Local real estate agents estimate the real value of the compound at $2 million, according to The Michigan View.
It places the property near the top one per cent of home values in the Forest Home Township and in the state of Michigan.
The township is roughly 98 per cent white residents, according to statistics from 2009.

Wealthy: Michael Moore, pictured addressing Occupy Denver protesters two weeks ago, bought a 2,500 sq ft plot and expanded it to create the mansion, sources say
Wealthy: Michael Moore, pictured addressing Occupy Denver protesters two weeks ago, bought a 2,500 sq ft plot and expanded it to create the mansion, sources say
Luxury: Public records place the property's worth at $1million, as shown in the pictured document, but local estate agents have suggested its actual worth is nearer $2million
Luxury: Public records place the property's worth at $1million, as shown in the pictured document, but local estate agents have suggested its actual worth is nearer $2million
Moore, who has toured the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country, has previously defended his wealth.
He has claimed he never set out to write a book or film with the intention of making money.
On his blog, he wrote: ‘I do very well - and for a documentary filmmaker, I do extremely well. That, too, drives conservatives bonkers. "You're rich because of capitalism!" they scream at me.
'Um, no. Didn't you take Econ 101? Capitalism is a system, a pyramid scheme of sorts, that exploits the vast majority so that the few at the top can enrich themselves more. I make my money the old school, honest way by making things.’
Questions: Moore was forced to defend his involvement with the Occupy protests as he was interviewed by Piers Morgan this week
Questions: Moore was forced to defend his involvement with the Occupy protests as he was interviewed by Piers Morgan this week
Talking with Piers Morgan about Occupy, he joked: ‘I’m here talking against my own interests.’
He added: ‘I’m not in the one per cent. For a documentary filmmaker I do very well. There’s a big difference between a documentary and Avatar.’
In another interview on Tuesday, Morgan said: ‘I need you to admit the bleeding obvious. I need you to sit here and say, “I'm in the one per cent”, because it's important.

Moore refused, saying: ‘I'm not.’

He said that, even though he is wealthy, ‘I am devoting my life to those who have less and who have been crapped upon by the system.
'That's how I spend my time, my energy, my money on trying to up-end this system that I think is a system of violence, it's a system that's unfair to the average working person of this country.’

JAY-Z DROPS OCCUPY T-SHIRTS AFTER BACKLASH

Jay-Z
Multimillionaire rapper Jay-Z has removed t-shirts in support of the Occupy movement from his clothing company's website - just one day after they went on sale.
The rapper faced a backlash after a spokesperson from Rocawear revealed it did not intend to share the profits with the protesters.
He was recently seen wearing one of the $22 shirts, which changes the phrase 'Occupy Wall Street' by crossing out the 'W' and adding an 'S' to read 'Occupy All Streets'.
A spokesperson for the rapper's clothing company, Rocawear, told Business Insider: 'At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement.'
Following the launch, TMZ spoke with an Occupy leader named 'Grim' who said: 'To attempt to profit off of the first important social moment of 50 years with an overpriced piece of cotton is an insult to the fight for economic civil rights known as Occupy Wall Street.'
The t-shirts no longer appear on the company's website.
Jay-Z is worth an estimated $450 million. In 2009, he sold Rocawear for $204 million but still oversees product development and remains a stakeholder. The company has annual sales of $700 million.

Credit: The Michigan View
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