Buckhorn Dam

This is Buckhorn Dam on the Cape Fear River near Moncure NC

600 Iranian missiles said to be pointed at targets in Israel | Jerusalem Post

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Sep. 17, 2007

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Six hundred Iranian Shihab-3 missiles are pointed at targets throughout Israel, and will be launched if either Iran or Syria are attacked, an Iranian website affiliated with the regime reported on Monday.

"Iran will shoot at Israel 600 missiles if it is attacked," the Iranian news website, Assar Iran, reported. "600 missiles will only be the first reaction."

According to the report, dozens of locations throughout Iraq, which are being used by the US Army, have also been targeted.

The Shihab missile has a range of 1,300 km, and can reach anywhere in Israel.

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that the nuclear Iranian crisis forces the world "to prepare for the worst," and said that in this case it "is war."

Kouchner emphasized, however, that negotiations should still be the preferred course of action.

Kouchner, quoted by French daily Le Figaro, added that "Iran does whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one cannot find in the entire world a crisis greater than this one."

In response to Kouchner's comments, Iran's state-owned news agency accused France of pandering to the interests of the United States.

"The new occupants of the Elysee (Presidential palace) want to copy the White House," the IRNA news agency said in an editorial. The editorial added that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taking on "an
American skin."

Kouchner's statements came just hours after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at least for the time being, to using diplomatic and economic means to
counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.

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Coins circulating without ‘In God We Trust’

Coins circulating without ‘In God We Trust’

U.S. Mint admits to the goof with the new George Washington dollar

The Associated Press

Updated: 11:23 a.m. ET March 8, 2007

PHILADELPHIA
- An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were
mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including “In God We
Trust,” and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

The
properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of the nation’s
first president, are inscribed along the edge with “In God We Trust,”
“E Pluribus Unum” and the year and mint mark. The flawed coins made it
past inspectors and went into circulation Feb. 15.

The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in color and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter.

About
half were made in Philadelphia and the rest in Denver. So far the mint
has only received reports of error coins coming from Philadelphia, mint
spokeswoman Becky Bailey said.

Bailey said
it was unknown how many coins lacked the inscriptions. Ron Guth,
president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world’s
largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least
50,000 error coins were put in circulation.

“The
first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually
were,” he said. “They’re going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and
they’ll probably settle in the $50 range.”

Production
of the presidential dollar entails a “new, complex, high-volume
manufacturing system” that the mint will adjust to eliminate any future
defects, the mint said in a statement.

“We
take this matter seriously. We also consider quality control a high
priority. The agency is looking into the matter to determine a possible
cause in the manufacturing process,” the statement said.

Guth
said it appeared from the roughly 50 smooth-edge dollars he has
authenticated that the problem had to do with quality control rather
than a mechanical error.

“These coins are
struck like normal coins, then they go through another machine that
adds edge lettering in another process. These apparently skipped that
process,” he said. “We’ve seen a couple of instances where the edge
lettering may be weak or indistinct, but we’re not talking about that
here.”

The
coin’s design has already spurred e-mail conspiracy theories claiming
that the religious motto was purposely omitted. That rumor may have
started because the edge lettering cannot be seen in head-on
photographs of properly struck coins.

It is
the first U.S. coin to have words stamped around the edge since the
storied 1933 $20 gold “double eagle,” among the rarest and most
valuable in the world. In 2002, a 1933 double eagle was sold for $7.59
million — the highest price ever paid for a coin.

The
Washington dollars are the first in a series of presidential coins
slated to run until 2016. After Washington, the presidents to be
honored on dollar coins this year will be John Adams, Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison.

The 215-year-old
Philadelphia mint, located downtown on Independence Mall, employs about
500 people and last year produced about 7.8 billion coins. The
overwhelming majority of error coins are caught by inspectors and
melted down.

Bailey said the striking of the Adams coin, expected to roll out in mid-May, will proceed as planned.

“We are adjusting the manufacturing process to try to eliminate the problems,” she said.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Drive Your Car to Death

Drive Your Car to Death, Save $31,000

Saturday, September 1, 2007

By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports
magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model
every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners
trade in their vehicles.

In its annual national auto survey, the magazine found 6,769
readers who had logged more than 200,000 miles on their cars. Their
cars included a 1990 Lexus LS400 with 332,000 miles and a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up that had gone 488,000 miles.

Calculating the costs involved in buying a new Honda Civic EX every five years for 15 years - including depreciation,
taxes, fees and insurance - the magazine estimated it would cost
$20,500 more than it would have cost to simply maintain one car for the
same period.

Added to that, the magazine factored in $10,300 in interest that could have been earned on that money, assuming a five percent interest rate and a three percent inflation rate, over that time.

The magazine found similar savings with other models.

To
have much hope of making it to 200,000 miles, a car has to be well
maintained, of course. The magazine recommends several steps to help
your car see it through.

• Follow the maintenance guide in your owner's manual and make needed repairs promptly.
• Use only the recommended types of fluids, including oil and transmission fluids.
• Check
  under the hood regularly. Listen for strange sounds, sniff for odd
  smells and look for fraying or bulges in pipes or belts. Also, get a
  vehicle service manual. They're available at most auto parts stores or
  your dealership.
• Clean the car
  carefully inside and out. This not only helps the car's appearance but
  can prevent premature rust. Vacuuming the inside also prevents
  premature carpet wear from sand and grit.
• Buy
  a safe, reliable car. Buying a car with the latest safety equipment
  makes it more likely you'll feel as safe in your aging car as a newer
  model.

The magazine recommends several cars that have the
best shot at reaching the 200,000 mile mark and a few that, according
to its data, aren't likely to make it.

All the cars in the
magazine's "Good bets" list are manufactured by Honda and Toyota. (One
extreme example was not enough to get the Ford Ranger onto the list.) The "Bad bets" are a mixture of European models and two Nissans.

Consumer Reports' "Good bets" for making 200,000 miles: Honda Civic, Honda CR-V, Honda Element, Lexus ES, Lexus LS, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prius, Toyota RAV4

Consumer Reports' "Bad bets" for making 200,000 miles: BMW 7-series, Infiniti QX56, Jaguar X-type, V8-powered Mercedes-Benz M-class, Mercedes-Benz SL, Nissan Armada, Nissan Titan, Volkswagen Touareg, V6-powered Volvo XC90.

Copyrighted, CNNMoney. All Rights Reserved.

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