Only weeks after amputation, combat vet swoops slopes with Sochi dreams

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

Carlos Figueroa monoskis in Aspen Snowmass on Thursday as part of a VA sports clinic for disabled veterans.

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

An Iraq war veteran who yearns to snowboard next March at the Sochi Paralympics recently told a priest he would give his left leg to compete for his country. And then, he did.

Six weeks ago, retired Army Sgt. Carlos Figueroa allowed a surgeon to amputate below his left knee ? 10 years after an IED blast rendered the limb nearly useless. The decision was surprisingly simple, he said, because it sliced away a decade of mounting pain. Yet he also acknowledged: ?I did give it up because I want to get into the Paralympics.?

?When I went in, my doctor asked me: ?What?s your biggest goal?? I told him: ?Be on my board within three months.? He just said, ?Dude, most people aren?t walking within three months,? ? Figueroa recalled.?

Walking will come. What he can do ? already ? is carve down a mountain, the lone place Figueroa, 34, feels at peace: ?Up there, I?m no different from anybody. No PTSD. I?m at my happiest.? On Thursday, Figueroa beamed while manhandling an Aspen, Colo., slope atop a monoski at a sports clinic for disabled veterans. As a familiar, cool breeze brushed his face, he also dreamed?about racing in Russia.

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?My love for snowboarding is about loss, the loss of what I had in the military, where you?re used to being on the move, on patrols, on raids. That?s how I treat my races. The moment that gate drops, it?s like the door opening on a raid. I go full blast. I?m able to get something back that I felt was taken away. That rush. I love it.?

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

"Up there, I'm no different from anybody. No PTSD. I'm at my happiest," said Carlos Figueroa of the feeling of carving down slopes.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have borne a bittersweet byproduct: scores of American Paralympic hopefuls. The Sochi Paralympics, to be held just after the 2014 Winter Games in that city, marks the inaugural Paralympic snowboarding event for disabled athletes. The U.S. men?s Paralympic snowboarding squad will consist of five members.

'Slim chance'
Figueroa (and those close to him) knows he?s the longest of long shots. His own coach, Mike Shea, estimates he took two years to, literally, make the leap from his own leg amputation to landing jumps. The raw nerve endings in an amputated limb must become desensitized to the harsh pounding. When the board hits the snow, the stump pushes into the prosthetic leg, ?sending chills up your spine,? Shea said. ?It doesn?t feel good.?

Then there?s the calendar. If Figueroa is indeed back on his board by autumn, he?ll have a limited number of sanctioned races ? beginning in January 2014 ? to rack up enough points to rank among the top five American men. And the U.S. Paralympic snowboarders, including Shea, compose the world?s deepest talent pool in that sport. The roster likely will be named in February.

?It?s a slim chance, a super, super small window,? Figueroa said, ?but we?re still going to push.?

He needs only a sliver of possibility to kindle his hope ? or better yet, someone telling him he can?t. He certainly doesn?t need two legs.

The Feb. 15 amputation came 10 years after a bomb detonated beneath his armored vehicle, ejecting him through an open roof hatch. A decade spent lugging a useless left limb (with no heel), suffering increasing back and knee pain, instantly convinced him to say ?Let?s do it,? when an orthopedic surgeon in San Diego suggested, ?Let?s cut.? He was done, he said, wasting another day ?in a bubble? due to his injury, calling the operation ?liberating.?

'Go fast and have fun'
Nobody who has heard that account is betting against Figueroa.

?With any military athlete, you can definitely see that sense of pride and determination above and beyond what you see with other athletes. Part of it is just a chance to represent their county again,? said Kevin Jardine, high performance director of Parlaympic alpine skiing and snowboarding for the U.S. Olympic Committee. ?They?re willing to sacrifice a lot.?

Added Shea, who lost his leg in a 2002 wake-boarding accident: ?Anything you tell Carlos, he?ll get it done. He always seems to find a way. He has no fear up there. He has passion. And I?ve learned from him the smiling gets you a long way in life.?

This week at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Aspen, organized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Figueroa has been tempted to grab a board and shred. This is his fourth year attending. As a testament to his disregard for other people?s timelines, he couldn?t even stand on a snowboard four years ago due to his injury, yet he competed in a World Cup event for disabled snowboarders not long after that.

Until his prosthetic leg arrives, he?ll stick to monoskiing, during which he sits in a ?bucket? atop one ski, using his arms to hold smaller, balancing skis.

?The first run, I took it slow. After that, I opened it up,? Figueroa said. ?I just want to go fast and have fun.?

When the instructor noticed his raw speed, he warned Figueroa: ?You do realize if you go down, you may peel off half your face.?

Figueroa simply grinned: ?That?s alright.?

On the 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a special group of people in Vail, Colo., are also marking the tenth anniversary of their unique program designed to help war amputees regain independence through skiing. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

Related:?

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Aspirational Travel Site Peek Hits The East Coast, Adds New York, Miami, And Orlando As Destinations

Online travel site Peek wants to make it easy for its users to discover and book unique experiences in a variety of destinations. And so, it?s added three new cities that it?s rolled out services in ? New York, Miami, and Orlando. Users can now eat their way through the High Line?s food trucks, book a catamaran off the coast of Miami, or charter a private sword fishing trip near Ft. Lauderdale.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7wQYDQdvbF0/

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Energy Storage: Why We Need It, Why We Don't

It's almost a clich? that there's a "friendly debate" pitting utilities against renewable energy. But concerns on the utility side of the table are real: intermittency, potential destabilization at the feeder level, non-baseload, and peaks in generation that don't necessarily match demand peaks. Today's power infrastructure involves unpredictability in both supply and demand that is extremely difficult to manage. The choice comes down to two options: over-generate so as to not undersupply, or find ways to better match up supply and demand.

"To balance the grid and keep it in a stable condition, you're going to need energy storage," said Doug Staker, VP of business development for Demand Energy. "Every customer interaction, every presentation, one question I'm getting now: what can you do to help me with storage?" He said there's a "huge lack of information and education" about whether energy storage is ready and in what form (e.g. which technology to use, and whether it's centralized vs. distributed) "People really want to understand how to integrate energy storage into a variety of applications."

As more renewable energy comes into the power mix, "high-response energy storage seems to be the way," added Chris Wheaton, CFO of Energ2. "We think storage is an equivalent leg of the chair" alongside solar and wind energy generation.

"In general energy storage is a good thing ??except that it is not cost-effective for bulk energy storage," counters Mahesh Morjaria, VP of PV technology applications at First Solar.?If the goal is to manage variable energy generation, Morjaria suggests, then the whole grid can act as energy storage, if managed properly. "When part of the resource is not available or generating, other resources are able to provide the load," Morjaria said. "That's the beauty of it, in a more cost-effective manner." Storage too can provide grid flexibility, agreed Morjaria, but it's simply not yet cost-effective enough.

What's It For?

Discussing large-scale energy storage depends on what problems are being solved. "People forget what energy storage is: an enabler," explained Erick Petersen, VP of marketing at Demand Energy. It's not that grid-scale energy storage *can't* be deployed ??it's a question of what do you want do with it, whether it's achieve true grid stability, or flatten loads to reduce peak congestion, or provide ancillary services. "The benefits stack up the highest as you move the edge of the grid," he said. "People get lost in the debate whether it should be grid-scale, which battery is right ??the answer is, 'All of it,' depending on the problem you're trying to solve."

Reliability and Flexibility

Germany is widely accepted as having a much more robust incorporation and management of renewable energy generation. But even there, many believe the nation's energy overhaul means storage is a matter of not if but when. Wheaton thinks "the jury's still out whether Germany will have an energy storage program." Rick Luebbe, CEO of Energy2, points to a Sandia Labs calculation that problems start emerging at a 20 percent renewables mix at which point storage has to enter the discussion.

Germany has been able to accommodate roughly 22 percent of a renewables mix, mostly variable wind and solar ??and they're doing it by leveraging flexibility in their grid "without going out and acquiring a whole bunch of storage," Morjaria points out. Similarly, California's 33 percent renewables target won't rely on building massive amounts of bulk energy storage. In both cases, "they're figuring out other ways to achieve grid flexibility," he said.

In California the difference between trough and peak load on a summer day can be 20 gigawatts, Staker pointed out. "People talk about the [grid] having flexibility and capability to absorb excess generation ??and that's true," he said. "But more system saturation becomes more problematic," once you have to start doing things like firming up wind power with gas peakers that by definition want to run in a steady-state condition and not vary up and down to plug intermittent gaps.

Demand Response

"Demand response has been the cure-all for all kinds of system challenges," Staker said. He recalled an effort from Baltimore Gas & Electric with a demand/response plan to reimburse customers for turning off their air conditioners for a few hours during critical peak events. But the system was one-way and radio-based, and closed-loop ??no way to really know who responded. So an urban secret spread: wrap your AC in tinfoil to block the signals, and cash in the reimbursement. That, he said, illustrates a problem with demand/response: "at the end of the day, customers can just opt out."

If response time is the target, hydro and possibly compressed air make sense, balancing on a 24-hour cycle, says Luebbe. But either of those options are selective based on geography. For shorter-timeframe needs, electrochemical storage comes into play, with multiple technologies to choose from (lead/acid, lithium-ion, flow, molten, ultracapacitors, hybrid configurations). For balancing solar power into a facility or a grid, lead-acid batteries "will probably be just fine," he said, while flow and molten batteries will emerge at point-of-use to balance intermittent power from a local grid (e.g. cell-phone towers).

Still, Morjaria thinks the costs for energy storage still aren't low enough to make it feasible for this time-shifting. Even if there's a significant difference in the cost of every kilowatt-hour that can be fed into and pulled out of the grid, adding costs associated with energy storage eliminates those potential gains. "In California they're talking about PPAs on the order of $85/MWh [$0.08/kWh]. That's what they expect from solar energy," he points out. (Note that a recent deal in New Mexico was for less than six cents/kWh, and ironically for a First Solar [FSLR] project.) Storing energy and pumping it out adds to that cost ??Morjaria ballparks it at $0.20/kWh ??which quickly snuffs out any price arbitrage.

Frequency Regulation

Morjaria did acknowledge one area where energy storage is indeed viable: frequency regulation. Constantly adjusting power input to offset increased/decreased demand and keep frequency constant, responding very fast with charging and deploying energy in very short cycles ??"that's where energy storage has an interesting role to play," Morjaria said. A123 and Beacon Power have explored that in NY ISO and other places, FERC has tweaked regulation to support it, and "it seems to be making some sense," Morjaria noted. But that isn't necessarily a practice that depends on variable generation from renewables.

Frequency response can stretch out some power output at the expense of some quality, but power coming from renewable sources "is simply not high enough for most independent power producers and transmission to handle," said Chris Wheaton, CFO of Energ2.

What It Costs

The big question in energy storage, Wheaton says, boils down simply: what does it cost to build more generation (to oversupply), vs. how to store and manage energy? Today it's more "economically rational" to build more generation, whether it's solar or wind or even coal, he noted. As energy storage technology costs come down ??and as there is better understanding and calculation of externalized costs, such as societal impacts ??"we will see those lines cross, and more utilities will go to energy storage as a more economical means to serve the grid."

Fundamentally, economics determines the decision of over-generation vs. energy storage; right now "either energy storage is not cheaper, or the payback is not enough to shift over," noted Luebbe. As the cost (dollars per kilowatt-hour) come down and energy storage costs intersect with those in over-generation, "then everyone will do it because it's economically the logical thing to do."

Part of that economic determination, Luebbe says, has to define, manage and regulate the externality of emissions. That will play out differently in different countries and economies, he noted ??how will many countries hit the Kyoto Protocol targets without big changes to grid infrastructures, and how is oxygen interpreted as contributing to emissions calculations. Even the presence of some pilot stage energy storage projects "tells me we're pretty close" to that cost intersection, Luebbe said.

Jim Montgomery is Associate Editor for RenewableEnergyWorld.com, covering the solar and wind beats. He previously was news editor for Solid State Technology and Photovoltaics World, and has covered semiconductor manufacturing and related industries, renewable energy and industrial lasers since 2003. His work has earned both internal awards and an Azbee Award from the American Society of Business Press Editors. Jim has 15 years of experience in producing websites and e-Newsletters in various technology.

This article was first published on RenewableEnergyWorld.com, and is reprinted with permission.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlternativeEnergyStocks/~3/Ta9Z2RlGWMI/energy_storage_why_we_need_it_why_we_dont_1.html

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Judge strikes restrictions on "morning-after" pill

By Jessica Dye

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the "morning-after" emergency contraception pill available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn, New York, comes in a lawsuit brought by reproductive-rights groups that had sought to remove age and other restrictions on emergency contraception.

Currently, only women age 17 or older can obtain emergency contraception pills without a prescription. Point-of-sale restrictions require that all women present identification to a pharmacist before obtaining the drug.

In his ruling, Korman said the FDA's rejection of requests to remove age restrictions to obtain the pill had been "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, hailed the ruling. "Women all over the country will no longer face arbitrary delays and barriers just to get emergency contraception," she said.

FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson declined to comment on the ruling, saying it was an ongoing legal matter.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Martha Graybow, Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-strikes-restrictions-morning-pill-123759152.html

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White House to celebrate "Memphis Soul" (Washington Bureau)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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A longer life for lithium-sulfur batteries

Apr. 2, 2013 ? Electric cars have still got it tough in the German marketplace. They are too expensive and their range is too short. This is an opportune time for a breakthrough in efficient and low-cost lithium-sulfur batteries.

There are currently over 40 million cars on Germany's roads. Only a fraction of them are powered by electric energy -- around 6,400 vehicles according to the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. The comparatively short range of electric cars doesn't help their popularity, with drivers often having to start the search for a charging station after a mere 100 kilometers, not to mention the high price of the batteries, which cost several thousand euros. Remedying this situation has researchers looking at new options in developing more efficient technologies. An extremely promising avenue of research is the lithium-sulfur battery, which is significantly more powerful and less expensive than the better-known lithium-ion battery. Although their short lifespan has made them unsuitable for use in cars before now, this may be about to change in the foreseeable future.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden have developed a new design that increases the charge cycles of lithium-sulfur batteries by a factor of seven. "During previous tests, the batteries scarcely crossed the 200-cycle mark. By means of a special combination of anode and cathode material, we have now managed to extend the lifespan of lithium-sulfur button cells to 1,400 cycles," says Dr. Holger Althues, head of the Chemical Surface Technology group at IWS, who is delighted with his team's breakthrough. The anode of the team's prototype is not made from the usual metallic lithium, but from a silicon-carbon compound instead. This compound is significantly more stable, as it changes less during each charging process than metallic lithium. The more the structure of the anode changes, the more it interacts with the liquid electrolyte, which is situated between the anode and the cathode and carries the lithium-ions. This process causes the liquid to break down into gas and solids and the battery to dry out. "In extreme cases, the anode "grows" to reach the cathode, creating a short circuit and causing the battery to stop working altogether," explains Althues.

The interplay between anode and cathode is the critical factor determining the performance and lifespan of a battery. In the lithium-sulfur model, the cathode is composed of elemental sulfur. The advantage here is that unlike cobalt -- the main cathode material used in lithium-ion batteries -- sulfur is available in almost unlimited quantities and is therefore cheaper. The problem remains, however, that sulfur also interacts with the liquid electrolyte, which impairs the performance of batteries and, in the worst case, causes them to lose capacity entirely. The IWS researchers are using porous carbons to slow down this process. "We have precisely altered the pores to allow the sulfur to lodge there, slowing down the rate at which it combines with the electrolyte," clarifies Althues. He and his colleagues have developed a method of manufacturing these special cathodes.

The experts at IWS measure the capacity of a battery in watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). Over the long term, they expect lithium-sulfur batteries to reach an energy density of up to 600 Wh/kg. For comparison: the maximum energy density of the lithium-ion batteries currently in use is a mere 250 Wh/kg. "In the medium term, figures around the 500 Wh/kg mark are more realistic. In practical terms, this means you can drive twice as far with the same battery weight," says Althues. This of course implies that significantly lighter battery models are possible -- an interesting prospect not only for automakers but for smartphone manufacturers too. After all, the overall weight of smartphones would be greatly reduced if they had lighter batteries. "Lithium-sulfur technology might even make electric flying a realistic possibility. Although such progress is still a long way off," adds Althues.

The researchers are currently working on further optimizing the material and using it in larger battery models. They are also turning their attention to suitable manufacturing methods. And with good reason, as this is the only way the technology will reach a mass market, leading to a significant increase in the number of electric cars on Germany's roads.

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The First and Best Place to Find Investment Property Loans | Epic ...

Hot Tip! Your creativity can be a bigger financial resource than actual money; to the point where you don?t even need money or conventional investment property loans. Think about it, no money (at least not your own) and no credit, just words and imagination ? it?s like one red paperclip, you know the kid who traded from a paperclip to a house in a year? Except not nearly as difficult.

If he can do that, you can do this.

Hang on to your eyeballs, because my primary method of funding deals might shock you.

Here it is.

FIRST, I look to the seller to provide financing for my deal as opposed to getting a conventional investment property loan. Typically, this is referred to seller financing or seller carry-back.

Listen up before you fry your brain.

There are endless ways to creatively finance a deal (See 9 different ways here), but before you craft your numerical masterpiece, you?ve got to first know WHAT the seller needs and WHEN they need it.

You?ll also need to know:

How much money they owe on the property, and if the payments are current.

After you?re firm on those items, you can get to work massaging terms to see how they can help you help them.

The three scenarios you?re likely to encounter are:

1. FREE & CLEAR PROPERTIES

If they own it free and clear, and they?re open to seller financing, then that?s an easy deal.

But wait! Why would someone want to take payments instead of cash out?

Well, maybe they don?t want to be landlords, but they?d like the cash flow. Maybe they?re old and have no use for a chunk of money but would rather live out their days in extra comfort. Maybe they don?t want to pay the taxes on the whole amount. Who knows?!

The reason doesn?t matter, either. I can tell you there are more reasons than you can conceive of, so stop trying to figure out why they wouldn?t finance the sale, and just ask.

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2. EXISTING LOANS

The property won?t always be owned free and clear. If there?s a loan in place, my first choice is to leave it there and transact what?s known as a ?subject to? deal. Subject to means I take ownership subject to the existing loan. At the end of the transaction, I?m on title but the loan remains in the seller?s name.

Essentially I?ve become their loan-sitter. I make the payments on time and in full, and I?m free to flip the property and pocket the profit or rent it out and hold on to it for cash flow.

Remember! Don?t try to figure out why they won?t, but rather focus on why they will.

3. THE LOAN AND THEN SOME

Sometimes the seller wants cash above and beyond the existing loan. In those cases I look to the seller AGAIN and present them with the option to carry back an additional investment property loan. (Snazzy eh?)

If they agree, you can either keep the loans separate, i.e.: pay the bank and pay the seller. Or, my preference, wrap them into one using a third party servicing company who then distributes the payments to each lender accordingly. It?s tidy, it?s simple, it?s safer, and it?s my first choice.

Listen, the more I creatively fashion deals involving the sellers, the less money I use. But, understand it?s a SKILL. It takes patience and PRACTICE to develop. You might self-combust in the beginning (not really), but stick it out because it?s WORTH it.

Not everyone has the ability to make money appear from the words they speak, but those who do can be found sipping fruity cocktails on remote beaches whenever they feel like it.

The majority of my Epic Pro Academy focuses on negotiating and creative deal structuring. If you?re serious about honing your skills, click here to check it out.

Source: http://epicprofessionals.com/the-first-and-best-place-to-find-investment-property-loans/

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