Maya Civilization Provides A Real Apocalyptic Lesson

Each year, the US spends enough on holiday decorations to end homelessness, so it?s difficult to discourage anyone in our culture to consume less, let alone stop shopping altogether. But sportswear company Patagonia is doing just that, and it?s not a cute marketing scheme. These people are serious about saving the environment and they?re insisting that you lend a hand.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maya-civilization-provides-real-apocalyptic-lesson-140008524.html

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Things To Consider When Looking For Outdoor Fitness Melbourne ...

If you want to lose weight or just want to keep your body shape, then you need to do exercise. Not only this will help you but hiring a personal trainer in Melbourne will allow you to get the lifestyle you want. However, these are some basic facts that you need to know which are important when hiring a personal trainer. The following are few of them that you need to understand. Their qualification: some of the personal trainers may have a personal training and others not. Unlikely you need to care much on the experience because a person may have a degree but no qualification.

Make sure that before you hire your outdoor fitness Melbourne, you consider first the experience and qualification, this may differ on how many years he/she have worked as a personal trainer. Their experience: this counts than any other factor. If you get a personal trainer who has worked with other peoples well, then you have a good chance of getting good training. This is important when you are choosing. You can ask for references in knowing much about the person experience. How often: this is another important factor that you need to think of. Most people ignore this part but it is actually good to hire a personal trainer who is available anytime that you require the training. By agreeing with your trainer, you will benefit a lot from your health and also body fitness.

Personal trainers train people who offer help in making sure that you achieve your fitness goals. Most of the important things that personal trainers help are fitness evaluation where you need to complete your medical recommendation. This serves you in both the risk consideration that helps in establishing your current activities. Also you get a benefit because you are able to achieve your dreams very easily. This is because your personal trainer in Melbourne is there to guide you and helping you with everything that you need. Also when you are involved with a personal trainer, you are able to exercise well and maintain your body in a good shape.

However, there are many other things that you get from your trainer. One of them is ideas. As a young or old person, it is good to get ideas that are well formatted to improve your health. Personal trainers in Melbourne are well suited to this kind of job. They assist you in your exercise and also help you to know the best ideas of how you can achieve your goals of fitness without challenges. The next important thing is eating healthy food. As soon as you hire a personal trainer, you get to know the best diet that is good for your health. This is very easy to achieve because if you wanted to lose weight, then the best way if to eat food that is helpful. By knowing these things, then you will benefit from your trainer.

To know more about outdoor fitness Melbourne, visit www.ptdirect.com.au

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Source: http://www.proctorpta.com/uncategorized/things-to-consider-when-looking-for-outdoor-fitness-melbourne-trainers/

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Relationships Initiate Self-Improvement ? Dr. Diva PhD Online

Relationships Initiate?Self-Improvement

Posted by Dr. Diva Verdun on December 21, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?

Looking at the way our relationships are structured we learn to use them as mirror reflections to find the things within ourselves that we need to focus our attention on.? As long as we are looking at the person that holds our affections with a critical eye, we are not focused on the reality that the reflection we see in the mirror is actually pointing at the issues we need to address within.

No matter how much we try to change someone else we cannot.? People only change when they find a reason to make improvements within and not before. By chastising and criticizing your beloved, you are actually driving a wedge into the relationship bond.? You are breaking down the bridge from which love freely flows.? Where you see they need to make self-improvement is also a marker that is pointing directly back to you, so that you can find the very same similarities within yourself.

Relationships are a slippery slope.? You can get so caught up in attempting to improve someone else?s behavior and character, that you are not even aware of your own.? A relationship can only level off to the height of your awareness of self.? Thus, if you are not aware of the internal struggles you are experiencing, you will continue to attract others into your experience that bring trials and challenges that are designed to point you in the direction of your own healing.

The miraculous thing about bonding relationships is the growth that both parties receive in the experience. When both people are working to improve themselves, the need to criticize and chastise each other falls away and becomes true deep loving support of each others individual and spiritual growth.

To often we want to control and force the other person into their healing to satisfy our own needs and fears.? The amazing thing about relationships is that the other person is limited in their growth and healing unless we are growing and healing as well.? Thus, no amount of force, pressure or control can move them one step forward in their own growth and healing.

If there is no growth and healing on an individual level, your relationship will become stagnant and dry-up resulting in either a break-up, because one person is growing and the other is not, or level off into a complacent and withered experience void of love and passion as the you both continue to simply co-exist in your pain.

Relationships Initiate Self-Improvement - Dr. Diva VerdunWhat you desire in a relationship is yours to have.? The person you attract to you is always right in the moment that they come into your experience.? They mirror exactly all you are at that particular moment, both the good and the bad.? Sadly, most people are not adept in many cases to be aware of this truth and don?t realize that the relationship is also mirroring your bad qualities as well, when you see them in your beloved.

Seeing yourself in the mirror of your relationship can be a beautiful experience when you see love, compassion, passion, trust, and all the other wonderful things that come with the union you are enjoying.? Sadly, you do not readily welcome seeing the bad.? However, when you begin to exercise self-mastery, you become aware that all things that happen for your bad, both big and small, in relationships and otherwise, are all designed for your good.? You become fully aware that your good manifest through you and you become disciplined to use every opportunity to work on your own issues, knowing that as you do everything else will level-off to your new state of awareness, including seeing growth and changes in your beloved and the relationship.

Relationships are not simply about love and passion and all the wonderful things that come with them.? They are key elements in your own growth in the equation of higher levels of awareness and spirituality. When you begin to exercise self-mastery to go deeper to carve out your own negative thinking and deal with your own pain, your behavior and character patterns change, which directly improve your relationship by either ending one that does not serve you, improving the one you have, as both people grow in Divine Love as Spirit makes the adjustments, or you begin to attract new people into your experience with fresh new mirrors.

Namaste!

Diva

Click here for a prayer treatment as you move into using your relationships for self-improvement

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Filed under Empowerment & Motivation, Exercising Independence, Love & Relationships, Spiritual, positive mental attitude ? Tagged with lifestyle, Achieving your dreams, Life Coaching, Self Help, Motivation, Acceptance, Empowerment, Success Coach, Life, How to, Success, Self-Esteem, Personal Development, Spiritual, Dr Diva Phd, Metaphysics, relationships, Love, positive spirituality, spiritual mind treatment, self-mastery, living life, relationship mirrors, love and relationships, living, spirituality, divine presence, infinite intelligence, mirrors, divine power, mental-health, mirror reflections, love and relatioships, self-improvement, stop criticising your mate and look at yourself

Source: http://drdivaphd.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/relationships-initiate-self-improvement/

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Top tech flops of 2012 tainted a good year for gadgets

4 hrs.

A lot of good things happened in tech this year.?The iPhone 5 premiered with 4G and a feather-light design. Google released its Nexus 7 tablet to go head-to-head with the Amazon Kindle Fire, and equipped it with Jelly Bean.?Samsung delivered a powerful one-two punch with the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. And we saw a fair number of Ultrabooks that gave the MacBook Air?a run for its money.

But where there?s good, there?s bad. And there were plenty of major tech?fails this year. These awards go to the eight biggest.

Wrong-Way Award: Apple Maps
With all the anticipation surrounding iOS 6, many didn?t think twice about giving up Google Maps for Apple?s new Maps app. But once users switched over, the complaints and outcries that the iOS app was far inferior to Google Maps mushroomed. The app was riddled with errors ? including wrong addresses and warped-looking landmarks in the Flyover view ? while it lacked integrated mass-transit directions.

Apple eventually apologized for the Maps gaffe, and even recommended alternatives. CEO?Tim Cook probably put it best, saying, "We screwed up."

More:?7 Things Apple Must Do in 2013

False Start Award: Windows 8
After Microsoft?released a preview of the highly anticipated Windows 8, users were dismayed to find that, although the new system's classic "desktop" was practically identical to the Windows 7 interface, it lacked a Start menu. Microsoft had substituted the menu with a shortcut to the Start screen, which meant users are forced to leave the desktop just to launch an app that takes them right back to the desktop.

Talk about frustrating. The good news is that a number of third parties have stepped up to the plate with alternatives, including Stardock's Start8 and Samsung's S Launcher utility.

More:?8 Windows 8 Annoyances and How to Fix Them

Worst Sales Pitch: Dell?s ?Daily Deals?
During Laptop's annual Tech Support Showdown, we made three calls to Dell's?tech support line and got more than we bargained for. During the calls, Dell pushed premium warranties on us, saying we had won a daily drawing that would allow us to buy a $500 four-year extended warranty for just $317. Lucky us ? we were chosen to spend even more money on something we didn?t need! When we resisted, the representative rushed us through the call, barely attempting to answer our question, but routinely haranguing us to buy the warranty, because otherwise the next caller would get our "prize."

According to Dell, using "drawings" as a sales tactic is against company policy. However, aggressively pushing extended warranties and hardware purchases is not, as we experienced on two other calls where support reps seemed more interested in making a commission than solving our problems.

More:?Tech Support Showdown 2012

IP-(Uh)-O Award: Facebook
Although Facebook?s IPO initially set a record for technology companies by raising more than $16 billion, it quickly became the decade?s worst initial public offering. When the social networking giant went public in May, its initial offering price was set at $38, while the company was valued at $104 billion. However, a little more than two weeks later, Facebook shares had dropped dramatically to $26.90 per share.

As it turns out, Facebook?s inability to monetize mobile traffic has caused a lot of concern among investors.?Although the stock has rebounded from a recent slide, the share is still way off the debut price.

More:?26 Ultimate Facebook Tips

Biggest Rip-Off Award: Shared Data Plans
In June, Verizon unveiled its new Share Everything plans, which allow customers to pay a flat fee for each device, plus a single charge for shared monthly data, which ranges from 1GB to 10GB. The plan includes unlimited voice minutes and text messages and makes you pay for them, whether you need them or not. As a result, a 2GB data plan costs $100 on the new plan while 2GB with a limited number of minutes and texts cost $70 on the old plan.

AT&T followed suit with similar Mobile Share plans. However, neither of these shared-plan options lets you opt for limited voice minutes or data. Plus, you still need to pay an additional monthly fee as you add devices, whether it?s a tablet?($15 for AT&T, $10 on Verizon Wireless) or mobile hotspot ($50 for AT&T, $20 for Verizon Wireless). At least AT&T kept its individual plans for those who don?t want to go the shared route.

More:?Top 10 Smartphones

Broken Promises Award: BlackBerry?10
BlackBerry 10 has become somewhat of a punchline in the tech industry, with the release of Research?In?Motion?s new mobile?OS continually delayed at a time when the straggling smartphone-maker should be trying anything to keep up with its Android and iPhone?competitors. After a brief demonstration of BlackBerry 10 at BlackBerry World in May, RIM pushed back the operating system?s release until Q1 of 2013, and soon after slashed 5,000 jobs.

Although there are some features in BB10 that look promising, many BlackBerry loyalists have already jumped ship. We'll find out in January if RIM has a shot at a better 2013.

More:?BlackBerry 10 Video Preview

Bait-and-Switch Award: Microsoft Surface
When commercials for the Microsoft?Surface started airing, viewers were enthralled by the device's Touch Cover. It came in fun, eye-catching colors and magnetically snapped onto the device for an easy typing experience.

One would assume that if Microsoft was putting the Touch Cover into its Surface commercials, it would come with the Surface, right? Wrong. Turns out the Touch Cover is a separate purchase, and shoppers would have to invest an additional $119 for the accessory ($100 if you buy it with the black one).

More:?Top 10 Windows 8 Tablet-Laptop Hybrids

Bad Idea Award: Google Nexus Q
Nexus Q could have easily made our list of most overpriced gadgets of all-time ... if it had actually come out. First shown and given to attendees at Google I/O 2012, the Nexus Q is a set-top box in the shape of an orb that streams music and movies to your home theater from Google Play ??and Google Play only.

While a $49 Roku box, a $99 Apple TV or a $99 Google TV box offers a variety of content services, even apps, the $299 Nexus Q didn't even have Netflix. Once you got over its unique design, the Nexus Q's main feature was allowing multiple users to add to the same playlist, something that was sure to create plenty of arguments among family members with different tastes. To Google's credit, the company quickly realized it had a dud on its hands, stopped accepting new orders and gave free units to anyone who had preordered.

More:?The 15 Most Overpriced Gadgets of All Time

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/top-tech-flops-2012-tainted-good-year-gadgets-1C7657745

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Iran defense minister says NATO missiles harm Turkey security

DUBAI (Reuters) - The installation of Patriot anti-missile batteries sent by NATO members to bolster Turkey's defenses against a possible missile attack from Syria will only harm Turkey's security, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

NATO approved Turkey's request for the air defense system earlier this month, in a move meant to calm Ankara's fears of being hit by Syrian missiles.

Iran has strongly supported its Arab ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria as he attempts to suppress a 21-month-old uprising against his rule. Tehran opposes the installation of NATO missiles as Western interference in the region and has said it could lead to a "world war.

"The installation of Patriot missiles in Turkey plays no role in establishing Turkey's security and this harms the country of Turkey," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). "The West has always pursued its viewpoints and interests and we disagree with the presence of Western countries in regional interactions."

Vahidi also denied that Iran is training Syrian forces to battle the rebels, ISNA reported. Iran considers itself, Syria's rulers and the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah as part of an "axis of resistance" against U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East, but has denied accusations that it helping Assad militarily.

"Syria has no need for the training of its forces by the Islamic Republic of Iran, because Syria has a powerful military which has prepared itself for involvement with the Zionist regime (Israel)," Vahidi said.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-defense-minister-says-nato-missiles-harm-turkey-061052749.html

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Canada's "Ikea monkey" to spend Christmas at sanctuary

OSHAWA (Reuters) - Canada's most famous monkey will not be donning his tiny Santa suit with his adoptive family this year, after a judge ruled on Friday that the primate should stay at an animal sanctuary until at least mid-January.

The animal's owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, tearfully navigated through a throng of reporters and cameras after being told she would not be allowed to take the 7-month-old monkey home for the holidays. Another hearing is set for January.

Darwin, a rhesus macaque monkey, shot to social-media fame this month after he was video-taped scurrying around an Ikea store parking lot in Toronto, clad in a fake shearling coat and diaper. He was later captured by animal control officers.

Monkeys are not legal pets in Toronto, so authorities moved Darwin to a sanctuary near Oshawa, about an hour outside Toronto. Nakhuda, a real estate lawyer, then launched a court bid to try to get him back.

In a statement of claim filed earlier this month, Nakhuda said she was coerced into surrendering the monkey under the threat of criminal charges and told she would not be allowed to see him unless she cooperated.

If granted custody, Nakhuda said she plans to move her family to a nearby cottage town that does not specifically ban pet monkeys. Darwin has lived with the family in their Toronto home since July.

The young monkey escaped from an animal crate in a parked car as his owners shopped at Ikea in early December. The monkey became an instant Internet sensation, complete with his own Twitter account.

Nakhuda has posted videos on YouTube showing the monkey brushing his teeth and dressed up for Halloween. She told local media that she has a Santa suit for him to wear at Christmas and a bow tie for New Year's Eve.

(Writing by Julie Gordon; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canadas-ikea-monkey-spend-christmas-sanctuary-193053778--finance.html

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Quentin Tarantino Isn't Fazed By 'Django Unchained' N-Word Controversy

In response to the Drudge Report headline, director tells MTV News to 'consider the source.'
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Quentin Tarantino
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1699249/django-unchained-quentin-tarantino-n-word-controversy.jhtml

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Bank of Japan expands asset-buying program, sees uncertain economy

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- The Bank of Japan announced Thursday it would add about 10 trillion yen ($119 billion) to its asset-purchase program, while keeping its policy interest-rate target at 0 to 0.1%, citing "a high degree of uncertainty concerning Japan's economy." The announcement, coming at the end of the central bank's regular policy meeting, briefly sent Tokyo stocks tumbling and the yen rising, only to regain their previous levels minutes later, as investors digested the bank's statement. While some analysts had said the central bank might issue a target for inflation, the Bank of Japan said it would wait until its next meeting to discuss "the medium- to long-term price stability that the bank aims to achieve in the conduct of monetary policy." The central bank also sounded a downbeat note on the economy, saying Japan would stick to "somewhat weak movement ... for the time being," with the core consumer price index likely to remain flat. Among threat to the economy, it cited "a deceleration phase" overseas, as well as uncertainty surrounding events in Europe, the U.S., and with Japan's recent tensions with China. said that also sounded a more downbeat note on the economy

Read the full story:
Bank of Japan eases further, sees uncertainty

Source: http://feeds.marketwatch.com/~r/marketwatch/bulletins/~3/1TSYDxCbf9c/bulletinredir.asp

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Genomic 'hotspots' offer clues to causes of autism, other disorders

Dec. 20, 2012 ? An international team, led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has discovered that "random" mutations in the genome are not quite so random after all. Their study, to be published in the journal Cell on December 21, shows that the DNA sequence in some regions of the human genome is quite volatile and can mutate ten times more frequently than the rest of the genome. Genes that are linked to autism and a variety of other disorders have a particularly strong tendency to mutate.

Clusters of mutations or "hotspots" are not unique to the autism genome but instead are an intrinsic characteristic of the human genome, according to principal investigator Jonathan Sebat, PhD, professor of psychiatry and cellular and molecule medicine, and chief of the Beyster Center for Molecular Genomics of Neuropsychiatric Diseases at UC San Diego.

"Our findings provide some insights into the underlying basis of autism -- that, surprisingly, the genome is not shy about tinkering with its important genes" said Sebat. "To the contrary, disease-causing genes tend to be hypermutable."

Sebat and collaborators from Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and BGI genome center in China sequenced the complete genomes of identical twins with autism spectrum disorder and their parents. When they compared the genomes of the twins to the genomes of their parents, the scientists identified many "germline" mutations (genetic variants that were present in both twins but not present in their mother or father).

Nearly 600 germline mutations -- out of a total of 6 billion base pairs -- were detected in the 10 pairs of identical twins sequenced in the study. An average of 60 mutations was detected in each child.

"The total number of mutations that we found was not surprising," said Sebat, "it's exactly what we would expect based on the normal human mutation rate." What the authors did find surprising was that mutations tended to cluster in certain regions of the genome. When the scientists looked carefully at the sites of mutation, they were able to determine the reasons why some genomic regions are "hot" while other regions are cold.

"Mutability could be explained by intrinsic properties of the genome," said UC San Diego postdoctoral researcher Jacob Michaelson, lead author of the study. "We could accurately predict the mutation rate of a gene based on the local DNA sequence and its chromatin structure, meaning the way that the DNA is packaged."

The researchers also observed some remarkable examples of mutation clustering in an individual child, where a shower of mutations occurred all at once. "When multiple mutations occur in the same place, such an event has a greater chance of disrupting a gene," said Michaelson.

The researchers surmised that hypermutable genes could be relevant to disease. When they predicted the mutation rates for genes, the authors found that genes that have been linked to autism were more mutable than the average gene, suggesting that some of the genetic culprits that contribute to autism are mutation hotspots.

The authors observed a similar trend for other disease genes. Genes associated with dominant disorders tended to be highly mutable, while mutation rates were lower for genes associated with complex traits.

"We plan to focus on these mutation hotspots in our future studies," said Sebat. "Sequencing these regions in larger numbers of patients could enable us to identify more of the genetic risk factors for autism."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jacob?J. Michaelson, Yujian Shi, Madhusudan Gujral, Hancheng Zheng, Dheeraj Malhotra, Xin Jin, Minghan Jian, Guangming Liu, Douglas Greer, Abhishek Bhandari, Wenting Wu, Roser Corominas, ?ine Peoples, Amnon Koren, Athurva Gore, Shuli Kang, Guan?Ning Lin, Jasper Estabillo, Therese Gadomski, Balvindar Singh, Kun Zhang, Natacha Akshoomoff, Christina Corsello, Steven McCarroll, Lilia?M. Iakoucheva, Yingrui Li, Jun Wang, Jonathan Sebat. Whole-Genome Sequencing in Autism Identifies Hot Spots for De Novo Germline Mutation. Cell, 2012; 151 (7): 1431 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.11.019

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/wIwFTSbWH3U/121220143516.htm

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GM to buy stake from Treasury; government may lose billions

(Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury plans to sell its stake in General Motors Co over the coming year, all but assuring a multibillion-dollar loss in a move that will end the automaker's "Government Motors" era.

Treasury's plan - a two-step process that includes a $5.5 billion stock sale to GM - is part of a broader push to wind down the controversial financial bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief (TARP) program. TARP was created by former president George W. Bush to prevent the collapse of the U.S. banking industry during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

The planned GM sale will raise the proceeds that Treasury has recovered to $28.6 billion of the $50 billion bailout GM received. With $20.9 billion left from the original bailout, the government would have to sell its remaining shares at an average price of $69.72 to break even.

GM shares were up 7.1 percent at $27.31 on Wednesday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

If Treasury, which will reduce its stake to about 19 percent when the buyback closes this month from about 26 percent at present, sold its remaining stock at the price GM is paying now, it would come up short by more than $12 billion.

"GM wins," Jefferies analyst Peter Nesvold said, pointing to the elimination of the government stake that has been acting as a drag on the stock price and to eventual higher earnings per share. "From a government standpoint, it's a mixed bag, but they went into it to save jobs, not as an investment." He said the buyback was lower than the $30 a share he had expected at the very least and was occurring earlier than anticipated.

GM's planned buyback of 200 million shares will give it more freedom from government oversight and likely result in a sales boost as some consumers unhappy over the U.S. taxpayer-funded bailout give the automaker a second look, GM Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann said.

"This is very attractive to the company, to our shareholders," he told reporters at GM's Detroit headquarters. "It obviously brings some clarity and certainty around the U.S. Treasury exit.

"It's obviously good for the business in terms of continuing to remove the perception of government involvement in the company, which is going to be good for sales," he said, also noting that the reduced share count would boost earnings.

GM approached Treasury officials after the U.S. presidential election in November, but was rebuffed when it offered only to pay market value for the government's stock, according to a senior Treasury official. Treasury rejected a second offer of a small premium before the sides finalized the deal on Tuesday afternoon, said the Treasury official, who asked not to be identified discussing the negotiations.

"We've always looked at this as balancing speed of exit with maximizing return, and GM basically made us what we felt was a very attractive offer," the Treasury official said.

TARP TRIP NEARS END

TARP was approved by Congress as a $700 billion program, though Treasury eventually disbursed $418 billion. On Wednesday it said it had recovered $381 billion to date, or about 90 percent.

"TARP was always meant to be a temporary, emergency program. The government should not be in the business of owning stakes in private companies for an indefinite period of time," Treasury Assistant Secretary Timothy Massad said in a statement.

"Moving to exit our investment in GM within the next 12 to 15 months is consistent with our dual goals of winding down TARP as soon as practicable and protecting taxpayer interests."

Under the deal, GM will pay $27.50 a share for the Treasury-held shares, representing a 7.9 percent premium on Tuesday's closing price.

Treasury said it will then sell its remaining stake of about 300.1 million shares "through various means in an orderly fashion," and could begin the process, including sales on the open market, as soon as January.

The auto giant was dubbed "Government Motors" by many critics after it received its bailout package as part of the bankruptcy restructuring in 2009 under TARP.

Treasury's plans echo other recent moves. On Tuesday, Treasury said it would largely sell its remaining shares in bailed-out banks over the coming 12 to 15 months. Last week it sold the last of its common stock in American International Group Inc at a profit.

This also would close Treasury's involvement with the U.S. auto sector. In June 2011, the agency sold its remaining 6 percent stake in Chrysler to Italy's Fiat SpA , which controls the U.S. automaker.

U.S. President Barack Obama heavily promoted his decision to use public funds to rescue the auto industry and save jobs as he campaigned for re-election in swing states like Michigan and Ohio. Voters in both states backed him again in the November 6 election, providing critical support in his victory.

Treasury officials reiterated on Wednesday that the auto bailout saved more than 1 million U.S. jobs and was not meant to turn a profit.

With Treasury's planned exit from GM, auto lender Ally Financial Inc will be the last major TARP recipient that has not yet paid back the government. Of the $17 billion it owes, Ally has paid back $5.8 billion.

SHOWING CONFIDENCE

Separately on Wednesday, Canada Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said his country had no immediate plans to sell its stake in GM. Canada and the province of Ontario have a combined 9 percent stake.

Ammann said the move and resulting Treasury plans will remove a "significant overhang" on the stock that has hurt sales and bring an "element of closure" to the bailout. Company research suggests eliminating the Treasury stake would benefit sales, he said.

Ammann said the deal was good for shareholders, when asked whether GM might be sued for paying Treasury a higher price than where the stock was trading at the time of the announcement.

However, one large shareholder loved the deal, as a spokesman for hedge fund manager David Einhorn said: "We applaud GM management for unlocking shareholder value by releasing excess capital and beginning a resolution of the government stake overhang."

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said that once the government reduces its stake, GM likely will be eligible for inclusion in the Standard & Poor's 500 index , which could serve as a catalyst to drive up the company's stock price.

GM will end the year with estimated liquidity of about $38 billion, even after the deal, Ammann said. That will add to earnings per share by reducing the number of outstanding shares by about 11 percent.

Ammann said the deal will be funded through cash and not tap in to the $11 billion credit line GM secured last month.

Citi analyst Itay Michaeli said the deal showed GM's confidence in its ability to generate cash despite worries about the U.S. economy and the recession in Europe. "The ability to spend this amount of money on a share buyback shows they are putting their money where their mouth is," he said.

The deal also made a winner of Ammann, considered one of a handful of GM executives who could succeed Chief Executive Dan Akerson. Ammann, along with Akerson and GM general counsel Michael Millikin, negotiated the deal with Massad, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, chief investment officer Matt Pendo and government attorneys over several weeks, according to the senior Treasury official and another person familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified.

Ammann did not provide details of the talks with Treasury, when asked whether negotiations picked up following the presidential election. Analysts said Treasury likely did not want this deal to be turned into a political issue.

Treasury also may have wanted to wait for the unveiling of the critical full-size pickup trucks that will go on sale next year, analysts said. GM showed the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra on December 13.

GM will take a charge of about $400 million in the fourth quarter tied to the buyback.

In addition, Treasury relinquished certain governance rights, including required levels of U.S. manufacturing and barring the purchase of corporate jets, Ammann said. Senior executive payment caps under TARP remain in place.

"For GM management, it was very important to get out from under the 'Government Motors' moniker," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull in Washington, Jennifer Ablan in New York, Paul Lienert in Detroit and Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Jeffrey Benkoe, Tim Ahmann, Matthew Lewis and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gm-buy-stake-treasury-plans-full-exit-holdings-131103066--finance.html

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