Aside from the next Legend of Zelda Wii U owners don’t have much to look forward to in terms of forthcoming games. Breath of the Wild is the lone glimmer of hope in the console’s twilight years, but there could be another — perhaps even before that…
The air conditioners have a different voltage. And each voltage has special benefits and features. Which voltage is better and which air conditioner to choose? Let’s find out.
The differences between the 115-volt conditioner and 230-volt conditioner are existing and they are not only about the voltage.
Let’s review the main advantages of these systems through air conditioning equipment from Comfortside.com
It’s possible to connect 115-volt system into any standard outlet. It’s also easier and more traditional than 230-volt system plugging.
To install 230-volt air conditioning systems you have to use a special outlet. You also may need some support and professional installation and knowledge of your local electrical codes.
The setting and installation of such systems may cost a lot, and that’s the main disadvantage of 230-volt air conditioning system.
Also, the BTU is an important thing. And it has a connection with a voltage of the air conditioner.
British Thermal Units (BTU) is the system of cooling measurement. A 115-volt air conditioner in comparison with a 230-volt system provides less cooling power.
The 115-volt unit can have up to 12,000 BTU, while a 230-volt system can reach up to 24,000.
So, the air conditioning system with less voltage can deal with cooling of the room or small space while the system with higher voltage is created to cool big spaces and even houses.
For example, the model from C&H Victoria series GWH09KF-A3DNB4A (115V/60Hz) has 9,000 (3,500-11,000) Btu/h. And model from Cooper&Hunter Alice series split system GWH24KG-D3DNB4A (208~230V/60Hz) has 24,000 (6,400-24,000) BTU/h.
One of the main benefits of a 115-volt system is its mobility.
For example, any wall outlet is suitable for 115-volt system installation. No wiring or special outlet are needed to move the system to other room.
From this side, the 230-volt system is more complicated due to a special dedicated feeder outlet and can not be moved.
At the Comfortside, the HVAC equipment online shop, there are Alice and Victoria series from Cooper and Hunter available with 115-volt units and 230-volt units. They have SEER from 16 and up to 23 and represent the most powerful features of modern air conditioning.
For example, a 115-volt unit that uses 900 watts of power costs just as much to run as a 230-volt model that also uses 900 watts of power.
The systems with different voltage and same BTU mostly don’t have the same price. The 115-volt system costs less that 230-volt system with same BTU rating.
What is EER? And how it influences on the price and efficiency of the air conditioner?
Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) is one of the aspects to look closely while choosing the air conditioner. Energy star units have the highest efficiency. The efficiency of the unit is measured in this way: the fewer watts the system uses to achieve the needed BTU cooling capacity, the more energy efficient it is.
Due to 230-volt units are more efficient, they also cost more to run than 115-volt air conditioning system.
The post What is the difference between 115v and 230v in air conditioning? appeared first on TechFresh, Consumer Electronics Guide.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. watchdog for consumer finances unveiled on Thursday a major proposal to toughen regulation of the multibillion-dollar debt collection industry, with a focus on keeping agencies from pushing people to pay debts they do not owe, informing borrowers of their rights and cutting down on calls to debtors.
“Today we are considering proposals that would drastically overhaul the debt collection market,” said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray in a statement. “This is about bringing better accuracy and accountability to a market that desperately needs it.”
The proposal covers third-party collectors and debt-buyers. First-party collectors and creditors will be addressed in a separate rulemaking, the CFPB said.
According to a summary, the proposal would make sure collectors “substantiate the debt before contacting consumers,” by confirming their identities and the amount owed, as well as checking for any payments made after a default. Consumers frequently file complaints at the agency about receiving calls for debts that do not exist.
In an attempt to “limit excessive contact,” the proposal would cap agencies’ calls to debtors to six attempts each week. It would also create a 30-day waiting period after a person dies for contacting survivors.
Agencies would have to communicate specific information to consumers, such as when outstanding debt is too old for a lawsuit. They would also have to make it easier to both dispute or pay a debt through tear-off coupons on the bottoms of collection notices.
A federal law, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, already prohibits collectors from using abusive, unfair or deceptive practices to recoup money.
The industry has been awaiting the overhaul proposal since 2013 and CFPB had penalized a number of large debt collectors in recent years. The CFPB receives thousands of complaints each month about debt collection, more than any other area.
Roughly 13 percent of consumers have a debt currently in third-party collection, with an average amount of $1,300, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows.
In a survey released alongside its proposal, the CFPB found more than three-quarters of the country’s 3,994 debt collection firms are small, with less than 100 employees. Larger firms pull in about two-thirds of the industry’s $12.18 billion total revenue.
The agency also found credit card, student loan and automobile debts in collection typically have balances of $2,000 or more.
The proposal now goes to a panel of small business owners for review.
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We aren’t hearing much about Google’s upcoming Nexus smartphone, or smartphones, which isn’t that unusual given the flood of information coming in for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and the iPhone 7. However, not everyone is a Sammy or Apple fan and some are more interested in the vanilla goodness of a Nexus. For those of you in that crowd, … Continue reading
“Stay Calm and Keep Updating.” That seems to be the message that Microsoft, at long last, is giving baffled and irate Surface Pro 3 owners regarding their concern about the suddenly degraded battery life of their beloved 2-in-1 tablets. Rather than a cunning marketing ploy to get those to upgrade to, say, a Surface Pro 4 or even a Surface … Continue reading
Some of the largest banks in Australia are banding together to protest Apple and its Apple Pay service. Apple Pay first launched in Australia back in April alongside Samsung Pay and Android Pay. Those two payment solutions aren’t attracting the banks…
It’s taken a while, but Sky has finally come through on its promise to add TV shows to its “Buy & Keep” service. Just like its film offering, anyone in the UK can pay a single price to get both a physical and digital version of a TV box set. The…
Dealing with North Korea brings to mind Sisyphus, the mythological Greek king condemned for eternity to roll a stone up a hill, only to watch it roll back down. Whatever the U.S. does, Kim Jong-un again will fire missiles, test nukes, and threaten to lay waste to his enemies.
Now the Obama administration has applied sanctions to him personally, though for human rights violations, not security concerns. The State Department explained that Kim was “ultimately responsible” for what it termed “North Korea’s notorious abuses of human rights.”
There are many, of course. No political rights. No civil liberties. No freedom of speech. No religious liberty. Brutal detention camps. And the notorious Songbun system of social classification. The so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ain’t a nice place for anyone other than the Kim family and friends.
Now any property owned by Kim and ten of his top officials in the U.S. will be frozen. And Americans will be prohibited from doing business with them. The administration predicted that the impact from its action would ripple around the globe, making it harder for those named to bank overseas. The sanctions might even dissuade subordinates from carrying out Kim’s orders lest they, too, end up on Washington’s blacklist. “Lifting the anonymity of these functionaries may make them think twice from time to time when considering a particular act of cruelty,” one anonymous Obama aide told CNN.
Seriously?
The North’s abuses are great and the American frustrations are real. Anyone handling DPRK policy at the State Department is entitled to have a good scream every week or so. And if there was some way to deliver the North Korean people without plunging the peninsula into war, Washington should do it. But no one has figured out how to do so.
Unfortunately, imposing penalties without impact won’t turn him into a born-again humanitarian. And his subordinates more likely fear a god-king who has executed some 400 of his own officials, including his uncle, than the prospect of their name ending up on a list in Foggy Bottom.
This is feel good policy at its worst. Which even State admits, kind of. Acting Undersecretary of State Adam Szubin said the measure demonstrated America’s “determination to see” human rights abuses stopped. Targeting Kim’s nonexistent investments and transactions might not stop the abuses. But doing so would demonstrate U.S. officials’ “determination.” Frankly, putting out the statement alone would have accomplished that.
Kim isn’t the only foreign dictator who can’t do business in America. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko also have been blacklisted. Also, unsurprisingly, to no effect. All still oppress their peoples with the assistance of abundant numbers of loyal apparatchiks.
If the principle makes sense, one wonders why the list is so short. It should start with the leaders of China and Russia. Virtually all of the ruling establishments throughout Central Asia should be targeted. Sanctions belong on the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia, as well as of a multitude of other African states, such as Algeria, Uganda, Angola, and Congo. The rulers of U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt should be named. Along with the Islamist leaders of Iran, with which America is attempting to improve relations. And Cuba’s Castro brothers.
Sanctions can be a useful policy tool. But they should serve a purpose. They also should have a possibility of achieving their objective. Which means they should have some impact on their target. The dictator or flunky at least should be aware that he’s been sanctioned. None of which apply in Kim’s case.
Worse, there is a downside. It will be harder for both nations to shift course and begin a dialogue. That might seem to be an unlikely prospect, but then, few people expected Richard Nixon to ever talk with Mao Zedong.
In the case of North Korea, there is no military solution and sanctions so far have not changed DPRK nuclear policy. With Pyongyang responding to isolation by continuing its missile and nuclear programs, a bilateral conversation at some point seems necessary and inevitable.
But that now would require the U.S.to engage a regime headed by someone under direct sanction. And Kim would have to swallow his pride and accept the appearance of being a supplicant seeking favor from those threatening him. Negotiating something useful always would be difficult without adding a new obstacle.
While targeted sanctions avoid punishing a largely helpless population in the hopes of influencing a regime which cares little about its people, they have yet to actually bring any government to heel. No reforms of note have occurred in Belarus, Syria, or Zimbabwe, despite the U.S. having named those nations’ leaders. Russian billionaires linked to Vladimir Putin may be frustrated by their travel ban, but they haven’t overthrown him. And Crimea remains part of Russia.
Such penalties appear to be most effective in allowing officials to satisfy critics and feel good by doing something without actually doing anything–useful, anyway. That’s obviously not good policy. In fact, it actually encourages policymakers to ignore problems as they worsen.
Like North Korea. The North is steadily adding to its nuclear weapons and improving its missiles, as well as abusing its population. Current policy, essentially to isolate him, has failed. Instead of trying something new, Washington will confiscate Kim’s nonexistent bank account and consider its work done.
Policymakers must grapple with the tough issues. What should U.S. policy be toward the North as a de facto nuclear power? Why does America remain deeply involved in a conflict best managed by the prosperous and populous surrounding states? Is there any way to win greater assistance from Beijing? Is it worth negotiating with Pyongyang over issues other than denuclearization? There are no easy answers, but Washington’s time would be better spent addressing these issues than in concocting fanciful punishments for the North’s leader.
No one can blame President Barack Obama for not wanting to end up like Sisyphus. However, imposing personal sanctions on Kim looks like an act of desperation: nothing else has worked, so why not try this? Unfortunately, they may make it even harder to find a workable solution to the North Korea Problem.
This article first was posted to National Interest online.
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PHILADELPHIA ― The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign urged U.S. intelligence agencies on Wednesday to get an ironclad agreement from Donald Trump that he would not leak information to the Russians before providing him with presidential candidate briefings.
“I think it’s an issue that … Jim Clapper’s going to have to come to grips with,” John Podesta said in an interview with The Huffington Post, referring to the director of national intelligence. “And I think they’ll have to find a way to negotiate with him and with his campaign to get … more than assurances ― sort of some proof that they can be able to hold on to that information.”
Speaking from the site of the convention, Podesta’s remarks underscored the extent to which the event unfolding behind him had become upended by the latest controversial remarks from the other side of the ledger. Earlier that morning, Trump had encouraged Russian agencies to try to hack and leak information on Clinton’s emails, following a hack these same agencies apparently executed on the Democratic National Committee.
“This isn’t a normal political story, and it’s not funny … And for Donald Trump to suggest that a foreign power should hack the candidate of the opposing power is beyond outrageous. I think it is really disqualifying,” Podesta said.
“I don’t know how the DNI assures himself that information that is being passed on to him is going to be secure,” he added.
Choosing his words deliberately, Podesta conceded that the events of the last few days would change Clinton’s approach to Russia should she end up winning the presidency. But he also made the point that the relationship between the two countries was at a stage of general distrust well before the party committee’s emails were hacked.
“I think that she’s been very skeptical and very tough on Putin since the days that he came back into power,” Podesta said. “So I think while this is a particularly outrageous potential interference in our democratic process … if they’re interfering in our democratic process, that means only that the pressure needs to ratchet up even more than it already has been.”
In ways more profound than virtually any other campaign controversy, Trump’s wink and nod to the Russians roiled the trail on Wednesday. It wasn’t just the timing ― coming during the heart of the Democratic convention ― it was in the way it quickly sparked backlash from members of his own party, who are deeply wary of Trump’s cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin.
But for all the geopolitical dust that Trump kicked up, the Clinton campaign also found itself having to deal with an impending and potentially immediate domestic problem as well. Officials in the ranks have resigned themselves to the high likelihood that more DNC emails will leak.
The DNC has brought in a few firms to assess the extent of what has been exposed, Podesta said. The campaign itself was relying on a “high level of technical security” to monitor its own vulnerabilities.
“I think we have a better sense of information that ― files that they searched, avenues that they were exploiting,” Podesta said. “So we’re just going to have to take this one day at a time. But this is an extraordinarily serious matter that needs the attention of our intelligence agencies, the law enforcement ― and the American public has to ask itself what is going on here.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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image courtesy Wikileaks and Michael Vadon
Donald Trump is probably going to be elected,
He is probably going to be elected because he is running on a platform of fear.
He promises to be the ‘Law and Order’ candidate, because crime is rampant in our cities.
He is going to go to Congress to get a declaration of war against ISIS, the first time this has been done since the Second World War.
He is going to rescue us from the threat of terrorism.
He is going to fix the broken economy.
He is going to make America great again.
His message is clearly resonating with Americans.
How else can you explain his incredible rise from someone with absolutely no political experience or record of public service to garnering the nomination of the Republican Party for the Presidency of the United States.
Fear works.
Fear works because Americans are afraid.
They are convinced that all the fears that Trump has conjured up are in fact true, when in fact, they are mostly false. As FDR said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. But in America, fear runs wild and Donald Trump has latched onto that fear and is riding it into the White House.
The fear is palpable, not because the threats are real – they are really not. The fear is palpable (and marketable) because the media companies have been selling the same line as Donald Trump for years – that the nation is a mess, that we should all be afraid – very afraid.
The reason the media companies have been selling this line is because they are, first and foremost, companies. Their business is not to deliver the ‘news’ nor to educate the American people. The business of media companies is to make a profit. And they derive their profit from selling advertising. This is true whether they are newspapers, TV news or online. Their goal is not ‘truth’, their goal is ratings or clicks or eyeballs. The more readers or viewers or users they can attract, the more they can sell their ads for.
So their primary motivation, their only motivation, is attracting and holding an audience.
That’s it.
Many years ago, I produced a very successful TV series for TLC called ‘Trauma, Life in the ER’. Real life in hospital trauma centers. People came in with knives in their heads, bullets in their brains, limbs ripped off by farm machinery. You name it, we showed it. It was a real horror show and it immediately shot to the top rated show on TLC and stayed there for ten years until it was killed by the HIPPA laws.
People could not look away for the same reason that people slow down to stare at a traffic accident on the highway. It is a kind of human instinct.
The news industry, and particularly the TV news industry has known this for years and used it to their benefit. Take a look at any local TV news show – what do you see? A fire. A murder. A robbery. An automobile accident. That’s the news. Now, for the average viewer, these incidents, tragic though they may be, have absolutely no bearing on them, nor anyone else, except the poor bastard whose house burned down. Yet we watch, transfixed.
When it comes to national or international news, this same car wreck phenomenon is also in play. ISIS last year beheaded 55 people, and they took the trouble to film it, giving the networks a great gift. This is needless to say, bad, but in the same year Saudi Arabia beheaded 143 people and 33,256 Americans died in automobile accidents. 55 people beheaded is dramatic, but hardly worthy of a Congressional declaration of war. But it does make great TV.
ISIS has 30,000 fighters. Nazi Germany had 18 million ‘fighters.’ Nazi Germany was also amongst the most technological advanced countries in the world in 1939. ISIS can barely collect the trash. Yet they make a great TV enemy. Scary!
Crime is in fact down. I used to live in Brooklyn in the 1980s. It was really dangerous. They city was selling brownstones on Smith Street for $1 each. Today, they go for about $3 million. But crime also sells on TV.
Ebola was a big news story. Your organs dissolve. You bleed out. It is a terrible death. Do you know how many Americans died of Ebola contracted in this country? The answer would be zero, but that did not stop it from being a great and long lasting news story. Scary!
The average American watches TV for 5 hours a day. We have done this for nearly 40 years. When you spend 5 hours a day, every day, doing something it gets engrained inside of you. What they show becomes part of you. It takes on its own ‘truth’. We are effectively brainwashed by what is, more than anything else, a commercial enterprise, whose business is to sell seats and scare us all.
The news companies are not really presenting ‘news’, per se, they are attracting audiences. John Ford, who used to run TLC explained it to me thusly: “TV is video fly paper. Our job is to catch as many people as possible.”
You show killing, robbery, war, terrorism hour after hour, day after day, year after year and what do you get?
Ratings.
And Donald Trump.
But let’s not confuse any of this with any kind of objective reality.
We are voting our fear, but it is not based in reality. It is based in entertainment.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
