Taxi Cab in Berkeley

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Cab Berkeley | 2015 Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 Door Unveiled

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By: kevin
Posted by: www.green-transportations.com
Source:usnews.rankingsandreviews.com

Mini took the wraps off a four-door variant of the Cooper Hardtop this week. Mini says its new model “combines the legendary go-kart handling that MINI customers love with newly added utility in the form of two new added doors.”

The Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 door will cost $20,950 before destination and delivery charges, which is $1,000 more than its two-door counterpart. At that price, the new Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has the second-lowest base price in Mini’s lineup.

According to a press release, the new Hardtop 4 door features three rear seats (the two-door variant seats two in the rear) and there is a bit more rear-seat shoulder room and headroom, as well as slightly more cargo space behind the rear seats compared with the two-door model.

As with the two-door Cooper Hardtop, the base Cooper Hardtop 4 door is powered by a 134-horsepower, turbocharged, 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine. The Cooper S Hardtop 4 door has a turbocharged, 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that generates 189 horsepower. With either engine, a six-speed manual transmission is standard and a six-speed automatic is optional.

The Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 door will be available with features like a head-up display, adaptive cruise control, front and rear collision and pedestrian warning, automatic braking and automatic parallel parking.

Like the new Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 door, the Mini Countryman also seats five and has four passenger doors. The Countryman offers about 7 more cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats than the Cooper Hardtop 4 door and is longer, wider and taller. Both the Cooper Hardtop 4 door and Countryman come standard with front-wheel drive, but all-wheel drive is available on the Countryman. Although test drivers say the Countryman’s added size over other Minis makes it feel a bit less playful, most say that it is still quite fun to drive. The Countryman starts at $22,100.

The New York Daily News says the added space of the new Cooper Hardtop 4 door means “this could actually be a Mini that’s family-friendly.”

That family-friendliness may get more customers into Mini showrooms to buy their next vehicle. The Los Angeles Times reports, “The move to four conventional doors on the Cooper is largely to make Mini’s cars more mainstream and therefore boost sales.”

The 2015 Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 door is slated to hit dealerships in January 2015.

In the market for an affordable small car? Check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars. Then, look for a great deal on a new vehicle by checking out this month’s best car deals. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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we are proud to get a contructive feed back from our customer who says: You guys have the best drivers in the industry. It is so refreshing to see drivers who take pride in their work and in the company they work for.

Source:usnews.rankingsandreviews.com

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Taxi Berkeley| The world’s largest ocean treasure

  Taxi Berkeley      

 

By: Eve
Posted By: www.green-transportations.com
Source: bbc.com

Double the size of Texas and triple the size of Germany, New Caledonia’s recently established Le Parc Naturel de la Mer De Corail (The Natural Park of the Coral Sea), has been named the world’s largest marine park. Established just two weeks ago, it is the largest existing protected area — both on land and sea — at a staggering 1,300,000sqkm.

Besides its massive size, the oceanic sanctuary in the South Pacific is home to a vast array of marine life, hosting 48 different shark species, 25 mammal species, 19 nesting bird species and five sea turtle species, including the endangered green turtle. Its ocean floors are illuminated with more than 1.1 million acres of the vibrant coral reefs that give the sea its name, and its waters provide 3,000 tons of fish to New Caledonia’s inhabitants.

New Caledonia is no stranger to record-breaking sites. Located about 3,000km east of Australia, the remote French territory is home to the Grand Lagon Sud, the world’s biggest lagoon and a Unesco World Heritage Site, as well as to the world’s second largest double-barrier reef, after the one in Australia.

But besides these awe-inspiring locations, New Caledonia also has some of the richest biodiversity on Earth, which is why its government and conservation experts are taking measures to protect the natural treasure before there is a serious threat.

Currently, illegal fishing is the only concern, but potential increases in ship traffic from Queensland, Australia, and the continuance of deep-sea oil mining could harm the aquatic park in the future. Over the next three years, the park will be separated into zones, some of which will be open to economic activities like fishing and tourist activities like snorkeling and swimming.

The park’s preservation marks a historic moment in marine conservation and adds another wondrous site to New Caledonia, making this the perfect time to plan your next South Pacific adventure.

Green Transportation is that the low cost and comfortable Taxi Berkeley Company in CA. we have a tendency to had been providing reliable transportation from airport pick up to drop or a ride to any occasion. Taxi Berkeley with Green Transportation provides the safe and most cheap potential destination ride within the entire region of Berkeley. Our years of expertise during this field reflect to our services.

We do on-line booking and reservation and for more information cal- 510-434-1234 and email US at info@green-transportations.com
Source: bbc.com/travel/feature/20140514

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Taxi Cab In Berkeley | Drones banned from Yosemite, other parks

  Taxi Cab In Berkeley 

 

By:Tim
Source:edition.cnn.com
Posted By:www.green-transportations.com

(CNN) — If you’re planning to enjoy this spring or summer at a national park, you’d better leave your drone at home.

On Friday, Yosemite National Park in California turned heads when it announced that drones, the unmanned aircraft increasingly making their way into private hands, aren’t welcome in the park, famous for its picturesque valley of towering granite cliffs, waterfalls and Giant Sequoia groves.

Apparently using drones to capture experiences at the park, on the western edge of the Sierra Nevada mountains, is becoming a trend.

“The park has experienced an increase in visitors using drones within park boundaries over the last few years,” park management said in a news release. “Drones have been witnessed filming climbers ascending climbing routes, filming views above tree-tops, and filming aerial footage of the park.”

And it’s not just Yosemite. The buzzing aerial machines, which have become handy for everything from scaring off unwanted birds to delivering medicine and pizzas, aren’t welcome at any of the 58 national parks.

15 ways drones will change your life

“The … regulations cited at Yosemite apply at all units of the National Park System,” spokesman John Quincy said in an e-mail to CNN.

The Code of Federal Regulations states that “delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means, except in emergencies involving public safety or serious property loss, or pursuant to the terms and conditions of a permit” is illegal.

The parks system says that applies to drones, though privately owned, unmanned aircraft probably weren’t on anyone’s mind when it was written.

Yosemite’s news release cited a list of ways the aircraft can be harmful.

Among them: Ruining the experience for visitors with their noise, interfering with rescue operations and endangering wildlife in the area — particularly the peregrine falcons that nest in the park’s cliff walls.

A quick search on YouTube finds a host of of videos shot using drones at Yosemite and other national parks.

Some merely show shaky video from beginners sending their craft into the sky for the first time, while others are more professional productions that provide breathtaking views of the park’s mountains, trees and cyclists and hikers.

In a bit of irony, firefighters used a drone to battle the Yosemite Rim blaze that raged in and around the park last August.

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Source: edition.cnn.com/2014/05/05/tech/innovation/index.html

 

 

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Taxi Berkeley | Malaysia missing plane MH370 search has ‘best lead so far’

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By: John
Source:bbc.com
Posted by: www.green-transportations.com

An Australian vessel searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has detected signals consistent with those from “black box” flight recorders.

The Ocean Shield ship picked up the signal twice, once for more than two hours, said Angus Houston, a retired air chief marshal leading the search.

He called it the “most promising lead” so far.

But he said more information was needed: “We haven’t found the aircraft yet and we need further confirmation.”

Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said he had been briefed by Air Chief Marshal Houston and was “cautiously hopeful that there will be a positive development in the next few days if not hours”.

The plane, carrying 239 people, was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March when it disappeared. Malaysian officials say they believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
‘Two distinct returns’

ACM Houston said the signals were detected using the towed pinger locator deployed on the Ocean Shield.
Two separate detections occurred, he said. The first was held for two hours and 20 minutes before being lost.
The ship then turned around and on the return leg detected the signal again for 13 minutes.

“On this occasion two distinct pinger returns were audible. Significantly this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder,” ACM Houston said.

“I’m much more optimistic than I was a week ago,” he said.

“We are now in a very well defined search area, which hopefully will eventually yield the information that we need to say that [Malaysia Airlines flight] MH370 might have entered the water just here.”

The Ocean Shield was still in the area, about 1,040 miles (1,680 km) north-west of the Australian city of Perth, but had not been able to reacquire the signals since, he said.

The position of the signals needed to be fixed, ACM Houston said. Once that happened, the Ocean Shield could lower the Bluefin 21 underwater autonomous vehicle to try to locate wreckage on the sea floor.

The signal had been heard in sea with a depth of 4,500m, he added, which was at the limit of the capability of the Bluefin 21.

He cautioned that the next steps would take time.

“It could take some days before the information is available to establish whether these detections can be confirmed as being from MH370,” he said. “In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast.”

The search operation is in a race against time as the flight recorders’ batteries are due to run out, meaning a signal would no longer be emitted.

A Chinese search vessel, Haixun 01, also said it briefly heard signals over the weekend in a different search area.

Those signals are now being investigated with the help of a British naval vessel, HMS Echo, which is equipped with sophisticated sound-locating equipment.

Reports said the crew of the Chinese ship had been using a sonar device called a hydrophone to pick up sounds.

Experts said it was technically possible but unlikely that the sounds heard with this equipment related to the missing plane.

Chris Portale, a director of the US company Dukane which makes the device that emits signals from flight recorders, said looking for the Malaysian plane’s “black boxes” was like “looking for a suitcase on the side of a mountain” but under water.

But he said he thought searchers were now in the right area and had a “very good hope” of spotting debris, if the signal was from the aircraft.

“I believe they have got three to four more days of good, solid output [from the flight recorders],” he told the BBC’s Today Programme.
So far, not a single piece of wreckage has been found from the missing plane, but officials have concluded – based on satellite data – that it ended its flight in the sea to the west of Perth.

Officials do not know why it lost contact with air traffic controllers and ended up so far from its intended path.

The backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been investigated but to date officials are not thought to have discovered any concrete evidence about what might have caused the plane to disappear.
Green Transportation is that the low cost and comfortable Taxi Berkeley Company in CA. we have a tendency to had been providing reliable transportation from airport pick up to drop or a ride to any occasion. Taxi Berkeley with Green Transportation provides the safe and most cheap potential destination ride within the entire region of Berkeley. Our years of expertise during this field reflect to our services.

Source:bbc.com/news/world-asia

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Cab Berkeley |Every New Car Will Have a Rear-Facing Camera in 4 Years

Cab Berkeley

By : John Smith
Source : thewire.com
Posted By : green-transportations.com

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a final rule to require all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds, including all cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks to have backup cameras by May 1, 2018. The backup cameras must have a 10-foot by 20-foot zone view behind the vehicle. The backup camera system will also be required to meet NHTSA requirements for “image size, linger time, response time, durability, and deactivation.”

This new law will be saving lots of lives, mainly those of children. United States Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx explained that the official ruling came out of a concern for primarily child safety: “Safety is our highest priority, and we are committed to protecting the most vulnerable victims of backover accidents — our children and seniors. As a father, I can only imagine how heart wrenching these types of accidents can be for families, but we hope that today’s rule will serve as a significant step toward reducing these tragic accidents.”

There are an average 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries every year caused by back up crashes. Thirty-one precent of these deaths are children under five, and 26 percent of deaths are for people 70 and over. The NHTSA estimates that “58 to 69 lives are expected to be saved each year once the entire on-road vehicle fleet is equipped with rear visibility systems meeting the requirements of [this] final rule.”

The rule also satisfies the Cameron Gulsbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, which covers vehicle safety for children through backup visibility, vehicle roll away, and a child safety program. Under this safety act, the NHTSA had 36 months from 2008 to issue a ruling on backup cameras, but this was delayed numerous times due to research and rule revision. Some believe the delay in the law came from the government being “reluctant to put more financial burdens on an auto industry already crippled by an economic downturn.” The cost for the cameras to automakers is about $132 to $142 per vehicle for a complete backup system, and $43 to $45 to add a camera to a vehicle that already has a screen.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 73 percent of new vehicles were already projected to have backup cameras by 2018, as automakers have already embraced both the safety and coolness factors of this new technology. There’s more than just easy parallel parking at stake.

Source :thewire.com/technology

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Cab Berkeley | Malaysia Airlines MH370: Confusion over plane last location

Cab Berkeley

 

By:Josh
Source: bbc.com
Posted by: www.green-transportations.com

Search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula, amid confusion over a missing Malaysia Airlines plane’s last known location.

Malaysia’s air force chief has denied reports that the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west.

Vietnam has scaled back search efforts, but despatched a plane to investigate a possible eyewitness report of something burning in the sky east of Vietnam.

Flight MH370 went missing on Saturday. It had 239 people on board.

Authorities have been searching for the plane, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, for the past five days.

Earlier this week, Malaysia widened the search for the missing plane amid conflicting reports on its last known position.
‘Burning spotted’

The Malaysian authorities initially said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.

Early search efforts focussed on waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.

The search was later extended to the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia’s west coast, amid reports that the plane could have turned back.

On Wednesday, Malaysia’s air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that a missing Malaysia Airlines plane was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned route.

Gen Rodzali Daud said he “did not make any such statements”, but the air force had “not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back”.

On Wednesday, authorities also began searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait.

“We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility,” Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told AFP news agency, without indicating why the search was expanded north.

Meanwhile, Vietnam said it was scaling back some of its search activities, but had deployed aircraft to investigate a possible sighting of the plane.

Doan Huu Gia, deputy general director of Vietnam’s air traffic management, said: “We received an email from a New Zealander who works on one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.

“He said he spotted a burning at that location, some 300 km (200 miles) southeast of Vung Tau.”

Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft, and several leads pursued so far have not been proven to be linked to the plane.

After more than four days of fruitless searching, there is an element of desperation creeping into this operation, the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Kuala Lumpur reports.
‘Shock at allegations’

At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft from several different countries are taking part in the search for the plane.

Two-thirds of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese. Some were from a range of other Asian countries, North America or Europe.

Earlier, it emerged that two men travelling on stolen passports on board the plane were Iranians with no apparent links to terrorist groups, officials said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it was “shocked” by reports made against its First Officer, Fariq Ab Hamid, who was the co-pilot of the missing flight.

A South African tourist told Australia’s Channel Nine that she and her friend were invited to sit in the cockpit with Fariq Ab Hamid and the pilot during a flight in 2011, in an apparent breach of airline rules.

Malaysia Airlines said it took the reports “very seriously”.

“We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident. As you are aware, we are in the midst of a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted,” it said.

None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the South China Sea or Malacca Strait so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.

In the US, CIA Director John Brennan said the possibility of a terror link could not be ruled out. But he said “no claims of responsibility” over the missing jet had “been confirmed or corroborated”.

Green Transportation is defenitely the best option for a Cab in Berkeley. Among the taxi cabs service providers in Berkeley, you must make sure that you are employing the services of only the trusted and reliable companies in the state. Just call and ask for Cab Berkeley and we will be there in less than minute.Green Transportation Service is one of them, with our professional and on time assistance; our drivers can pick you up from any area and make your ride an enjoyable one until you reach your destination safely and conveniently.
we are proud to get a contructive feed back from our customer who says: You guys have the best drivers in the industry. It is so refreshing to see drivers who take pride in their work and in the company they work for.

Source: bbc.com/news/world-asia

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Yellow Cab Berkeley |Apple unveils CarPlay iPhone system at Geneva show

Yellow Cab Berkeley

By – John Smith
Source –  bbc.com
Posted By – econolodgemontmorencyfalls.com

CarPlay allows iPhones to plug into cars so drivers will be able to call up maps, make calls and request music with Siri voice commands or a touch on a vehicle’s dashboard screen.It requires Apple’s latest software, iOS 7, and an iPhone 5, 5C or 5S.

Apple first announced plans to make its iOS mobile operating system more compatible with cars last June.Car producers including Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo previewed CarPlay in Geneva with other producers saying they plan to adopt the system.

“iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iOS product marketing.Ferrari is previewing CarPlay on its four-wheel-drive FF model.Volvo plans to feature the iPhone system in its redesigned Volvo XC90 sports utility vehicle (SUV).

Mercedes-Benz isn’t revealing which models will get CarPlay, but expects that both its S-Class large sedan and C-Class midsize sedan should be compatible with the system.A long list of other car manufacturers, including General Motors, Ford and Honda, also are drawing up plans for CarPlay, according to Apple.

Google announced it was teaming up with car manufacturers including Audi, Honda and Hyundai to integrate its Android operating system into their dashboards last month.GM and Honda declined to comment on their CarPlay plans.

Meanwhile Ford has already launched a voice-control system called Sync made by Microsoft in some of its cars and offers its own touch-screen technology.

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Source- bbc.com /Apple unveils CarPlay iPhone system at Geneva show

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Cab Berkeley| Obama budget sets up election-year clash with Republicans

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By- John Smith
Source- reuters.com
Posted By- green-transportations.com
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama proposed new tax credits and job-training programs for U.S. workers on Tuesday in a 2015 budget that drew instant condemnation from Republicans, who dismissed the document as an election-year campaign pitch.

The $3.9 trillion blueprint for the fiscal year that begins on October 1 also would boost spending on roads and bridges and expand early-childhood education while paying for some of the additional spending by scaling back tax breaks for wealthier Americans.

The proposal has almost no chance of passage in Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives, but it lays out Obama’s policy priorities ahead of November congressional elections. Democrats will be fighting to keep control of the U.S. Senate and avoid losing ground in the House.

“Our budget is about choices, it’s about our values,” Obama told reporters during a visit to an elementary school.

“At a time when our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years, we’ve got to decide if we’re going to keep squeezing the middle class or if we’re going to continue to reduce the deficits responsibly while taking steps to grow and strengthen the middle class.”

While working within the overall cap of $1.014 trillion for discretionary spending that Congress set for 2015, the president proposed $56 billion in additional spending for education, welfare and defense programs, paid for in part by ending a tax break for wealthy retirees.

Republicans objected to the plan’s spending increases and said it did not address larger fiscal challenges related to the Social Security retirement program and Medicare and Medicaid healthcare for the elderly, poor and disabled.

“After years of fiscal and economic mismanagement, the president has offered perhaps his most irresponsible budget yet,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. “Spending too much, borrowing too much, and taxing too much, it would hurt our economy and cost jobs.”

Democrats hope to draw a contrast with the Republicans’ focus on fiscal restraint and portray themselves as better able to deliver jobs and growth.

Obama’s proposal signaled a shift from last year’s emphasis on deficit cutting to a greater focus on fighting poverty, a goal the president is highlighting as he eyes his legacy with fewer than three years left in office.

Republicans, cognizant of Americans’ slow recovery from the 2007-2009 recession, also have focused on poverty-reduction but they favor a dramatically smaller government role.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a potential Republican presidential contender in 2016, argued in a report on Monday that the government had barely made a dent in combating poverty in the past 50 years despite massive spending. He blasted Obama’s Tuesday proposal.

“This budget isn’t a serious document; it’s a campaign brochure,” said Ryan, who will unveil a Republican budget as a counter to Obama’s in the coming weeks.

POVERTY, TAXES, AND DEFICITS

Obama’s budget proposes expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, an anti-poverty measure that is meant to encourage low-income Americans to continue working.

The change would expand the program to cover some 13.5 million people who do not have children and make it available to younger workers who are not currently eligible.

The expansion, which would cost $60 billion, would be funded by closing loopholes such as the tax break for “carried interest,” profits earned by wealthy investors who run private equity and other funds.

Obama has long sought to end that tax break, which allows financiers to treat their income as capital gains, making it subject to a tax rate of 20 percent instead of the nearly 40 percent rate on ordinary income paid by the highest earners.

Representative Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, also proposed last month to “clean up” the carried interest deduction, but tax reform is not expected to get traction in Congress this year.

The White House signaled last month that its new budget would not extend the olive branch to Republicans on reform of entitlement programs such as Social Security. Last year Obama proposed changing how the government calculates inflation for Social Security and other federal benefits that could have led to income drops for older Americans.

White House officials said Obama abandoned the idea after Republicans declined to offer concessions of their own.

While Obama played down the deficit issue, congressional budget analysts have warned that longer-term budget picture looks bleak because of the aging of the population, which will lead to increased costs for entitlements programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

The White House projected that in fiscal year 2015 the budget deficit would total $564 billion, or 3.1 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. That would be down from a $649 billion deficit, or 3.7 percent of GDP, in fiscal year 2014.

The Obama budget projects that annual deficits will remain in the $400 billion to $500 billion range throughout the decade, reaching a modest 1.6 percent of GDP in 2024.

The outlook from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office looks far worse, forecasting that deficits will climb back to $1.1 trillion by 2024, or 4 percent of GDP.

The Pentagon unveiled a $496 billion base budget that shifts the United States from its war-footing for the first time in a dozen years, cutting the size of the military to pay for training and new weapons systems in an era of tighter spending.

The budget set the Obama administration on a collision course with Congress by seeking to eliminate popular older weapons and reform military compensation while proposing an additional $26.4 billion in military spending to be paid for by closing tax loopholes and cutting mandatory spending.
Source- reuters.com/Obama budget sets up election-year clash with Republicans

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Taxi Cab Oakland California | Richard Branson’s celebrity island

Taxi Cab Oakland California

Taxi Cab Oakland California

     Taxi Cab Oakland California

 By- John Smith
Source-edition.cnn.com
Posted by-Green-Transportation.Com

Richard Branson has never been one to shy away from sharing his ostentatious exploits with the wider world.

Over the years, the billionaire entrepreneur has invited us to follow his attempts to hot-air balloon around the globe, delve the deepest recesses of the oceans and cross the Atlantic on a speedboat.

Now the founder of the Virgin Group has provided access to his very own private Caribbean resort, Necker Island, for a new book by Australian fashion and celebrity photographer Russell James.

Featuring more than 150 deluxe images, “A Virgin Island” reveals Necker’s idyllic beaches and spectacular tropical wildlife as well as dipping inside Branson’s luxury residences.

Branson purchased the British Virgin Island retreat in 1978 for a knockdown price of $180,000, setting up a home in which he still stays for at least two months of every year.
Ride aboard Virgin Galactic spacecraft
Branson continues to break down barriers

In 1984, he opened a luxury resort on Necker that has since welcomed a long line of rich and famous guests.

Those reported to have spent their vacation time there include the late Diana Princess of Wales, Hollywood stars Kate Winslet, Eddie Murphy, Geena Davis, Kate Moss and Robert De Niro as well as statesmen such as Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair.

Google co-founder Larry Page, meanwhile, married his girlfriend on the island in an elaborate 2007 ceremony.

Today, a stay on Necker is possible for anyone with the means, although prices rise to a prohibitive $60,000 a night to rent out the entire island.

If you’re short a buck or two, we suggest clicking through a selection of James’ best photos in the gallery above as a more fiscally prudent way of attaining the Necker experience.

Source- edition.cnn.com/richard-bransons-treasure-island

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Berkeley Yellow Cab|Train Accidents Stir Worries About Crude Transport

Train Accidents Stir Worries About Crude Transport

 

At least 10 times since 2008, freight trains hauling oil across North America have derailed and spilled significant quantities of crude, with most of the accidents touching off fires or catastrophic explosions.

The derailments released almost 3 million gallons of oil, nearly twice as much as the largest pipeline spill in the U.S. since at least 1986. And the deadliest wreck killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

Those findings, from an Associated Press review of U.S. and Canadian accident records, underscore a lesser-known danger of America’s oil boom, which is changing the global energy balance and raising urgent safety questions closer to home.

Experts say recent efforts to improve the safety of oil shipments belie an unsettling fact: With increasing volumes of crude now moving by rail, it’s become impossible to send oil-hauling trains to refineries without passing major population centers, where more lives and property are at risk.

Adding to the danger is the high volatility of the light, sweet crude from the fast-growing Bakken oil patch in Montana and North Dakota, where many of the trains originate. Because it contains more natural gas than heavier crude, Bakken oil can have a lower ignition point. Of the six oil trains that derailed and caught fire since 2008, four came from the Bakken and each caused at least one explosion. That includes the accident at Lac-Megantic, which spilled an estimated 1.6 million gallons and set off a blast that levelled a large section of the town.

After recent fiery derailments in Quebec, Alabama, North Dakota and New Brunswick, companies and regulators in the U.S. and Canada are pursuing an array of potential changes such as slowing or rerouting trains, upgrading rupture-prone tank cars and bolstering fire departments. Company executives were expected to offer a set of voluntary safety measures in the coming days at the request of U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

“I’m absolutely positive the railway industry will come up with techniques to define how to minimize risk,” said Allan Zarembski who leads the rail-safety program at the University of Delaware. “The key word is ‘minimize.’ You can’t eliminate risk.”

Since 2008, the number of tanker cars hauling oil has increased 40-fold, and federal records show that’s been accompanied by a dramatic spike in accidental crude releases from tank cars. Over the next decade, rail-based oil shipments are forecast to increase from 1 million barrels a day to more than 4.5 million barrels a day, according to transportation officials.

By rail, it’s roughly 2,000 miles from the heart of the oil boom on the Northern Plains to some of the East Coast refineries that turn the crude into gasoline. Trains pulling several million gallons apiece must pass through metropolitan areas that include Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Some cities such as Chicago have belt railroads that divert freight traffic from the metropolitan core. But elsewhere, railroad representatives said, the best-maintained and safest track often runs directly through communities that were built around the railroad.

Trains sometimes have no option but to roll deep into populated areas. That’s the case in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Albany, N.Y., and Tacoma, Wash.

Experts say the explosive nature of Bakken oil derailments caught everyone off guard — from regulators to the railroads themselves.

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Taxi Cab Oakland California

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Whether you need us for social visit, for grocery shopping, for tours, Taxi Cab Oakland California with Green Transportation are committed for better service 24 hour, 365 days-a-year. Our dispatch and marketing department can work with you for any special needs that your company might have.

We do on-line booking and reservation and for more information cal- 510-434-1234 and email US at info@green-transportations.com

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