As Portugal passes the halfway mark of its three-year adjustment program, the steep tax increases facing many families have made the outlook for 2013 -- the third consecutive year of austerity, recession and rising unemployment -- the grimmest yet.

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In exchange for a more substantial energy-bill savings (5-10% of the summer's air-conditioning tariff), participating customers agree to an "Auto-Tune" of their Nest, a three-week adjustment period where the algorithms plan a regime that routinely rejiggers air-conditioning use during the day.

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The next step is to nail down the remaining specifics on a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to move forward with all three agreements and with TAA, trade adjustment assistance, in a timely fashion.

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While lags are expected (economists speak of a J-curve effect that accounts for the process of adjustment to the new prices in both countries), a two or three year lag in an era of instant communications, cyberspace transactions, transnational production, and airtight supply chains is simply not credible.

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And the timing could not be more critical, what with the unemployment rate for young military veterans having recently risen as high as 27 percent (nearly three times the national average) and CBS News 60 Minutes reporting that the difficult adjustment to work and home-life, plus present economic realities, are contributing to a growing homelessness rate among veterans.

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The main control surface is wide enough, in fact, that we could comfortably put three fingers on the top of the mouse, using the middle to control the mouse wheel and DPI sensitivity adjustment rocker (a nice touch in and of itself) without ever moving our index and ring finger from the all-important trigger buttons.

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