YouTube – Monumental Giacometti Sculpture Breaks World Auction Record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMb5UxhHa1c
Lets have other objects of desire bought/made beyond the reals of being sensible.
Recession we say ?
I am using my bike daily to commute to office which is about 55 kilometers from my house. I take the following route:
Mira Road – Thane: Ghodbunder Road
Thane to Taloja: Bhiwandi By Pass, Mumbra By pass.
Most of you who are familiar with this route would know that its is one of the most unsafe routes to travel on a bike due to heavy traffic of LCV/HCV’s.
Further, I am totally unsatisfied with the lighting my HH Hunk provides and, I cannot see anything in front of these truckies! Hence, I was wondering if I can fix two extra lamps (small size) on the crash guard?
I know any lamps above the headlamps are illegal. However, can a biker fix extra lights and avoid running into cops?
Thanks!
Apparently worried its On Demand Online project would suffer the shame of a silly name all by its lonely, Comcast has rebranded its cable TV, internet and phone services as Xfinity TV, Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Voice. Other than the name not much is changing (@ComcastCares will still be doing its thing on Twitter), although the rollout of the new branding (starting next week, the first 11 markets include Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Hartford, Augusta, Chattanooga, parts of the Bay Area and San Francisco) should sync up with 50mbps or high speeds becoming available. Of course, if those slick flame colored letter started showing up on TV repair guy trucks at the same time as a truly revolutionary new DVR software package instead of the slightly spruced up version we’ll be getting over the next few months, then they could call it anything they want to.
Comcast smears the XFINITY brand across all its services originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
Comcast Voices | Email this | Comments
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
In music industry parlance, the “360 deal” is a type of record contract that emerged over the past decade in which the record label takes a cut of live music ticketing and merchandise sales as well as recorded music revenues. Spotify, the streaming music provider that’s grown popular in Europe while U.S. music fans await its arrival, is aiming to do something similar in the online sphere: provide a channel for downloads, ticketing, merchandise, direct-to-fan marketing and communications, in addition to streams.
Speaking at yesterday’s New Music Seminar in Los Angeles, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said the company’s much-anticipated, much-delayed U.S. launch is “looking pretty good,” but might still be a few months off. In a subsequent offstage interview with Billboard’s Glenn Peoples, Ek said the company is having extensive conversations with artists and managers as well as labels in order to build a platform that delivers multifold music services: a way to follow an artist as you might on Facebook or Twitter, find live shows, buy downloads as well as music in physical form — vinyl, even — and pay for whatever else the artist offers online.
The logic is similar to what the labels attempted with 360 deals: If you can’t make ends meet on music alone, grab a piece of something else for which people are willing to pay. In the case of Spotify, those ancillary revenues would come from both free users and paid subscribers, and would take some pressure off its need to drive up its free-to-paid conversion rate (currently around 3.6 percent) — a need that stems from its yet-unproven freemium model. Spotify has already partnered with 7digital for download sales in Europe, adding an additional revenue stream beyond subscriptions and advertising on its free service, and is likely to offer at least a paid download store upon its U.S. launch.
Can Spotify convince consumers that it’s a place to open their wallets to buy something, and not just a music-listening app? It may be a matter of perception, first and foremost. Many companies have tried similar strategies, and the track record for crossover success isn’t all that encouraging: MySpace, for example, failed to capitalize on its integration of music-selling widget Snocap, primarily because consumers never saw MySpace as a store. In the Billboard interview, Ek spoke of educating consumers, and acknowledged that Spotify is still in the early stages of experimentation with wider-ranging functions beyond streaming music.
Becoming an all-inclusive online music service is a suitably ambitious goal for a company whose valuation has flown high during a period when other digital music startups have produced lukewarm and negative exits. Ek didn’t say whether Spotify intends to partner with existing companies to add more services and capabilities, or whether it would build its own, and it may be a while before all the pieces are in place. But it’s a sign that the young company is prepared to address the music industry as something broader than the record industry — an important distinction even for an innovative cloud-based streaming music startup.
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
WASHINGTONThe free market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today commended the series of bipartisan efforts in Congress to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Most recently, U.S. Representatives Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) introduced H.R. 4572, which will block the agency from regulating greenhouse gases based on their effect on climate change.
If a male member of Congress said they could get more done if women and other assorted minorities were sent home since these tend to be the demographics that tend to think the government owes them a living even if they could provide it for themselves, we’d never hear the end of it.
If Leftists are going to constantly make a hullabaloo over the propagation of stereotypes, one of the inferences of Rep. Carol Shea-Porter must be addressed.
In her remarks she insinuates that only the female members of the legislative body have been responsible for taking care of family.
It should be pointed out men that go out to work each day are also taking care of their families.
Anyone that argues otherwise should support the abolition of child support laws along with government welfare handouts and see just how long children thrive without any kind of material and nutritional sustenance.
This brings us to yet another observation.
It is safe to say that most of the female members of Congress did not come from the ranks of scrubwomen earning minimum wage.
As such, many no doubt possess professional backgrounds where they actually placed their careers over and above that of their children.
Rep. Shea-Porter (with her hyphenated last name indicating that her identity derived from her role as wife and mother is not sufficient for her) can pull the public leg all she wants; however, it is most likely the babysitters and nannies that have taken care of the children of the female members of Congress.
Thus, when this November rolls around, we should toss out both genders also irrespective of how the plumbing is hooked up.
If deficit spending is the way out of an economic downturn, as leftist economists like Paul Krugman keep telling us, then one way to characterize President Obamas approach to reviving the ailing economy is killing it with kindness.
Another is tough lovenot the kind where you force hard choices and self-discipline, but the kind where you shoot the poor beast to put it out of its misery.
James Clyburn, House Majority Whip, recently crystallized the Democrats position on fiscal responsibility when he announced, Were not going to save our way out of this recession. Weve got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.
Here are some fun facts about Obamas proposed federal budgets over the next decade:
The projected deficit for Obamas 2010 budget is $1.6 trillion, which is 10% larger than the 2009 deficit, which was three times as big as the record 2008 deficit under President Bush.
The projected 2010 deficit is 10 times as large as the deficit for Bushs 2007 budget, the latter of which included funding for the troop surge that won the war in Iraq. Nearly matching our accomplishment in Iraq, the White House Travel Office has approved a trip for Obama to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts in November to get a Democratic dogcatcher elected in Harvard Square.
The projected 2010 deficit will render our national debt 13% bigger on the last day of this year than it is today. Projected 2010-11 deficits will cause the debt to swell 23% bigger than it is now. By 2020, the debt will be twice as big as it is today. read more »
Unknown to me before, visual (infovis?) artist Ward Shelley [wardshelley.com] comes as a refreshing surprise.
Shalley’s impressive oil paintings and pencil drawings use real information in an attempt to depict the understanding of how things evolve and relate to one another, and how this develops over time. Usual topics range from art or cultural history, such as the arc of an artist’s career and its influences, or the effect of particular ideas in an aesthetic or political movement. The paintings are interpreted as being “wide-screen”, as all information is available to the interacting eye at every moment.
These works are full of compact information, which takes months to collect and organize. The designs are done with pencil on paper because each piece goes through constant revisions during this time. 3 different versions of the painting are made from same information. Normally the pencil drawing goes through minor changes from version to version, and the painting is entirely different, using different colors and brushwork.
Thnkx Irene.
Game designer Will Wright has moved on to new things. But Tim LeTourneau has been with The Sims game development teams since before the first game launched a decade ago. Now he is the vice president and general manager of The Sims Studio at Electronic Arts. EA says that the video game franchise has now sold more than 125 million units across 60 countries. Like a machine, EA has produced 45 different versions of the game, launching The Sims 2 in 2004 and The Sims 3 in 2009 as base games for expansion titles. We caught up with LeTourneau for an interview about the occasion.
VB: How long have you been doing this?
TL: I have been working on The Sims for 10 years. I joined the team six months before the release of the first game, as a producer.
VB: What has it been like?
TL: It’s been 10 years of the most fascinating virtual neighborhood you can imagine. Every one of the neighborhoods is the creation of an individual person. When you think about it that way, as a game where you create the experience, where you can create your own person, houses and neighborhoods, I think that’s why The Sims has endured so long. It changes so easily with the times because people can put themselves into the game.
VB: What are some examples of that change?
TL: The technology we use has changed. When the first game came out, it had wall phones and counter phones. That is how the Sims called for pizza. Now with the Sims 3, they’re using cell phones. It’s funny how to look at the content of the game is a reflection of our everyday lives. We use laptops instead of big giant desktops. That’s what is so fun about The Sims. It captures everyday life, like a mirror of our universal reality. That’s probably why it sold more than 125 million copies.
VB: A lot of other games don’t last as long. The franchises die off. What is the difference here?
TL: We’ve been asked where we draw our inspiration from. What will we do next? The Sims is as big as life itself. The things that we find interesting in our own lives are things the Sim characters can find interesting in their virtual lives. As developers, we think about what the Sims would like to be able to do. We find game experiences in those things. We love to go on vacation. We love our pets. We love to become famous. Those are natural extensions to our games. For us, we can continually add content to this virtual world because there is always something we want to do in the real world.
VB: Were there particular games that were the most successful?
TL: If you look at the community, in the history of The Sims, I think that The Sims Hot Date (November, 2001) was a big transition for the franchise. It was the first time the sims got to break the barrier of the house. The Sims were used to living in the confines of one place. In The Sims Hot Date, the sims traveled to see other places, got to go downtown to shop. And you can chart from that point to this day to how The Sims has grown. The Sims 2 came with a whole neighborhood. The Sims 3 is an open world. You can follow them wherever they go. It’s simulated at a town level.
VB: You’ve got some more games coming?
TL: The Sims 3 High-End Loft shipped this week. The Sims 3 sold 4.5 million units since its launch in June, 2009. It’s doing very well. The Sims World Adventures was the first expansion pack for The Sims 3. That shipped just before Christmas. The expansion packs are what we use to add to the Sims experience over time. We grow the content and experience across new places and adventures.
VB: What brings in new players now?
TL: The Sims is a pop culture phenomenon now. It’s an ubiquitous brand. A lot of people are drawn to the new expansion packs that are relevant to them, and that brings them in. We take advantage of today’s marketing avenues. We use social networks. The Sims are everywhere. When you’re ready, it’s there on the shelf.
VB: I imagine that Facebook, the iPhone and other hot things are likely to be used with The Sims?
TL: The Sims 3 for the iPhone was the No. 1 app. It’s natural to expect that future Sims products will take advantage of all of the places where people are playing. The Sims 3 World Adventures will be available on the iPhone.
VB: The pace of game introductions will continue as you’ve done?
TL: We are always thinking about the future, including going places we haven’t gone before.
VB: What were some things that surprised you about the impact of The Sims on culture?
TL: First and foremost, it’s a game. What none of us anticipated was the creative medium it would become. We didn’t know we would have millions of pieces of content available from players for free. The Sims 3 already has 110 million downloads of player-created content. I don’t think any of us imagined that would happen. You combine that with the movie-making tools that we included in the game. Now you have a YouTube channel with Sims-themed movies that has been viewed 26 million times. Players can now experience the Sims without playing the game.
VB: Will Wright created it, but he has moved on now. How did you adjust to that?
TL: A lot of the creative team has moved up. I went from a producer/designer to a general manager of the studio. Many of us were there from the beginning. A lot of the original Sims talent is still there in the studio. It was Will’s brainchild. But Will is the first to point out that The Sims is a collaborative effort. Women designers such as Claire Curtain and Roxy Wolosenko had a very big impact on the game. It was a result of a very creative team. A lot of that team is still here. Will is not involved anymore, but the spirit of collaborative development is how we make the game.
VB: How much more real is The Sims 3 compared to the original?
TL: We don’t think in terms of real. We think in terms of believable. How do we help the players believe in the characters? What The Sims 3 does is give you a sense that this entire town is simulating at the same time. You see families move in. You see this activity that happens around your character. That makes it more real for me. The entire town is growing, aging, and living together.
VB: What sums it all up for you?
TL: For ten years, which seems an eternity in the games world, The Sims has been a leader. There are no competitors.
No one is doing what we do. That is a testament to the game that came out 10 years ago and has continued to grow and develop. It’s a game that is about enabling the players to tell their own story in an incredible virtual world of their own creation. To me, what makes the game timeless is that it is a reflection of the player much more than it is a reflection of us.
VB: From a business view, I think of the Sims as an annuity business. From the purely business view, it is an example of milking a franchise for all that it is worth. Not many franchises would justify that. From a business view, The Sims seems to represent the best and the worst of games.
TL: As developers, we have always lived by the motto that we earn the right to make the next one. We can’t ever feel like we are just in a routine. We have to earn the right to make the next one. We have to create the desire for the consumer to come back. We stay humble. How do we deliver a quality experience for fans that makes them want to come back. We don’t take our success for granted.
VB: There were times when you had some difficult games. The Sims Online didn’t work out. How did you bounce back?
TL: The Sims Online was ahead of its time. Some really liked it. It never resonated as strongly as the regular
Sims game did. It was something we tried. It worked for players it worked for, but not in the same sorts of numbers that a regular game does.
VB: I suppose that with everything moving online, you could create a game that gives you a lot more feedback?
TL: A lot of people would say that The Sims is not an online or multiplayer game. But the reality is when you look at what people do with The Sims, the way that they share, we have always thought of The Sims as an online experience.
VB: How much content is created by the users, compared to what you create?
TL: We haven’t measured that, but the user content is huge. We released The Sims Create AWorld tool to let players create their own maps, populated with houses and people that have their own spaces. It’s like you are creating a neighborhood for people to experience.
VB: Have you considered open source?
TL: We have never gone that far. We still want to be able to control the experience for the users, to keep it consistent. We have been nervous about making it too open. The world of The Sims is precious to individual players. They trust the content we get from us. We go to great lengths to protect their content that they have created. We would never want that undermined by malicious players. It’s a tightrope that we walk.
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
When Electronic Arts launched The Sims on Feb. 4, 2000, nobody knew if it would sell. But on its tenth anniversary, The Sims has become the blockbuster franchise in video games, with more than 125 million copies sold worldwide. It has had a profound influence on game design, broadened the definition of a game, and become embedded in pop culture.
To date, the video game family has grossed more than $1.6 billion in revenue, putting it on par with blockbuster films The Matrix trilogy ($1.4 billion), and Titanic ($1.8 billion). The Sims 3, which launched last summer, has sold more than 4.5 million copies and it was the best-selling PC game of 2009.
“At first, no one believed that a video game about people and social interaction, without shooting, driving or what passes for action, could be published successfully,” said John Riccitiello, chief executive of EA. “The Sims has incredible appeal among teens and young adults, and, especially among female players, has broken all the old established rules about video games.”
Today, Redwood City, Calif.-based EA released a bunch of impressive facts about The Sims, which was conceived as a secret project by SimCity game designer Will Wright at Maxis and which took about seven years to complete. It is the No. 1 PC game franchise of all time.
The original Sims was the bestselling PC game of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 until it was dethroned in 2004 by The Sims 2. EA has milked the franchise for all it’s worth, launching a total of 45 different games across the PC, console and mobile platforms. It has been translated into 22 different languages and is available in 60 countries.
One of
the hallmarks of the Sims is the ability to customize your character’s appearance, belongings, house and tastes. To date, fans have downloaded more than 100 million items of content created by players for the Sims 3. The most popular downloaded content on The Sims 3 official community site is hair, which has been downloaded 670,000 times. The site gets 6 million visitors a month and there are 300 content downloads every minute.
Fans can upload their own movies of their Sims. About 1.7 million uploads have been made to date, which adds up to about 20 movie uploads every hour. The Sims 3 YouTube channel is the second most-subscribed to channel of all time with 55,000 subscribers and 26 million video views.
The cultural impact has been huge. The Sims was the only game franchiseto grace the cover of Newsweek. And The Sims franchise has graced the covers of four dozen magazines to date. In 2008, nearly 1,000 H&M stores featured a garment designed by a player of The Sims for anyone to purchase. That same year, furniture retailer IKEA added its own real-world furniture designs to the catalog of digital items that Sims players could use.
The simulated people in the game, dubbed Sims, speak a language dubbed Simlish. In developing it, the development team experimented with Ukrainian and Tagalog, the language of the Philippines. Rockstars like The Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry and the Pussycat Dolls have record their top songs in Simlish. The French loved the game so much they created a postage stamp honoring the game.
Wright once introduced a mysterious virus in The Sims. As the infection spread, players figured out that the source of the illness was the pet guinea pigs that they purchased. In 2004, EA’s European division, EA Benelux, created a real glass house where a family lived out their life for all to watch in The Sims style.
Wright is a college dropout, but he’s one of the most erudite game designers. He modeled the behavior of The Sims after Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs and consulted numerous books on architecture as he was designing the game.
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
More bad news for California bondholders. Pimco expects yields on California debt to return to their highs from the state’s fiscal crisis last summer, which would slam bond prices.
Credit default swaps have painted an ugly picture of credit deterioration as well:
Bloomberg: California’s credit default swaps, insurance contracts that are generally used to protect against default, have risen 97 percent since late October to $314,000 to protect an investment in $10 million of bonds. The state has $73 billion of general obligation debt outstanding, according to Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who has repeatedly dismissed any suggestion the state may not make required payments.
A taxable California bond that matures in 2039 traded today for an average yield of 7.79 percent in blocks of more than $1 million, the highest since Dec. 28, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board data. That opened a gap of 3.15 percentage points between California’s bond and 30-year Treasuries, according to Bloomberg data.
Of course, one could buy these high-yielding securities on the belief that California won’t, politically, be allowed to default on its bonds. After all, much of the bonds are held by individuals, ie. voters.
“California does have problems and some hard decisions to make, but defaulting on its debt is not a viable option,” Costas and Amoroso wrote. Even so, the negative news coming out of the state Capitol may lead the individual investors that Lockyer has relied on to buy much of the state’s debt to sell, Naehu said. As California sold more than $3.4 billion of bonds at the end of October, such buyers accounted for almost 72 percent of the orders.
…
“The market is dominated by individual investors right now,” said Naehu. “Those investors have very little to go on and are subject to headline risk.”
One would imagine that a federal bailout is on the table as an ultimate backstop.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
The following is another thought-provoking article by my Friend, Tom Fiske.
Today I received an email from a man named Vic who is writing a book. He thanked me for help that I have given him over the 
past two years. And it is true. I gave him family photos and inside information that he could never have gotten any other way. I had the only copies. And the hero of his book, or at least one of the stars, was gay and had no descendants to leave information to.
I was glad to give Vic the information. It was given to me by a woman named Betty. I thought it was kind of poignant that I met the woman who loved my second cousin Bill all her life. Even though Betty was married and lived a fast-paced social life she loved a gay man who could not return her affection. They were kids together in Kansas City’s more upscale area, and always kept up with each other over the years until Bill died in 1967.
In one pile of papers Betty gave me, there is a hand-written note made by a wealthy New York City resident who said that Bill was dead and that he had notified one of the Roosevelts, Rosa Ponselle, André Kostelanetz, Lily Pons and other luminaries of the New York philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera set. Betty was one of that group with Cousin Bill. Such names were important in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s in New York City.
Bill treated Betty well and was always a gentleman toward her, as far as I could tell. Her husband was a lawyer for a world famous psychologist, so he was no novice among well-known people. Although in photos he does not seem pleased to be in Bill’s presence. Some kind of tension dwelt among them.
I wish I had known Bill. While he was a stranger to me, Bill’s mother and my mother were not only cousins, but friends. I lived a thousand miles away and never got to know cousin Bill or his mother.
At this point in my life I have written 9.75 books and know I will not get to write about Cousin Bill. There is no reason for me to squirrel away information the writer Vic needed for his book. Betty was glad to find me, a family member who wanted information about Bill, and I was glad to hand copies of it to Vic for his use. So the passage of such genealogical data could be described as a study in gratitude.
What would I have done if I were intending to write about Cousin Bill? I know that his former partner and the guy who inherited Bill’s wealth lives within 50 miles of me today. He won’t talk to me, but if he did, I might be inclined to write a saga about Bill, his rather wild ancestors and how the family line ran out with Bill in 1967. I thought about it long and hard, but decided to let it go in favor of other projects.
If I were writing about Bill, I would tell the author Vic that I was working on such a project and he would understand. Still, I might be willing to share some specific items with him, but much less than I wound up sharing. And my conscience would not be damaged.
After all, I don’t owe the rest of the world’s writers my materials. To share or not to share—that is the question. But it is not a moral imperative. I share a lot as it is. As time goes on I find I have shared a great deal of information without knowing it. I find my data in corners and crevices of the Internet. I do not put information on the ‘Net, so I know that someone else took it, called it his or her own, and left it out for all to see.
In spite of “forced sharing,” it seems to me that genealogists are a grateful lot, quite often helping each other with information about techniques and copies of things. As I think back some twenty years when computer information was not as freely available as it now is, I recall the folks at the local LDS family history library in Pasadena, California. It was bursting at the seams with books and films and people who were eager to help me get started. I have not forgotten how nice they were. While visiting there, I helped a lady find her Polish Jewish ancestors and even connected her with Leland Meitzler who published one or two of her research articles in his magazine. She was a better writer than I was, unfortunately, but I managed to overlook that because she had good information to share.
We sometimes owe our progress to other people. One of my genealogical maxims is “The secret to genealogy is finding the person who has done all the work.” When that person is generous, our jobs are much easier. Fortunately, I have found a bunch of those people. Even more fortunately, those people were right in their facts. So I can accurately say that I owe most of my progress to other people.
I give credit when I can and I obtain permission to reproduce the property of others. The fact that I did not find all my materials myself does not keep me up at night. I sleep well because I know who recognized the importance of the information and who melded it all together into one persuasive story. That takes a small amount of talent and sometimes courage to stick your neck out with a reasonable hypothesis when everyone else is hiding behind a collection of “I don’t knows” and “no real proofs.”
I even think I know the real author of this article. And I’m going to sleep well tonight.
Professor Jeffery Wasserstrom of the University of California in Irvine provides a nice reminder in TIME magazine — Despite all the heated rhetoric between Chinese and American politicians, don’t forget that in reality both nations are joined at the hip as the world’s largest Too Big Too Fail economic entity.
Thus inflammatory words are simply a means for each side to play domestic politics.
Despite apparent political tensions, the China-U.S. economic relationship won’t fall apart because it can’t.
Just as all politics is local (to a degree), all diplomacy is domestic (to a large extent). China’s dramatic growth may have increased its ability to be less deferential toward the U.S. But when officials loudly proclaim that foreign leaders should steer clear of the Dalai Lama, lash out against Clinton’s “information imperialism” or stoke popular indignation about Taiwan, their motivation is largely a desire to play the nationalism card as effectively as possible at home, and it is as much a sign of insecurity as it is one of bravado. They see a value in deflecting criticism of the government over issues like corruption, as well as distracting the population from worrying about whether the economic good times will last long enough for those who have so far been left behind to get a chance to enjoy them. Similarly, when American politicians change their rhetoric about or policies toward China, we should remember that this is often done with an eye on how this will play in Peoria.
…
While Washington and Beijing seem very much at odds just now, we shouldn’t let their current state blind us to how intertwined they have become, nor to parallels between America’s rise at the start of the last century and China’s at the start of this one. Whether they like it or realize it, their relationship is truly one thing too big to fail.
Continue reading the full article here >
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Areogel, the 90% air material previously used in such space platforms as the Mars Pathfinder Rover, is actually dropping in price. So much so that’s actually being used as insulation in some commercial applications. In fact the prices are dropping so much that it might soon be a standard option for residential homes.
Aerogels are made by removing the liquid from gels, resulting in a material that is more than 90 percent air. The porous structure of the nanomaterial makes it difficult for heat to pass through. As a result, aerogels make very good and light-weight insulators.
Aspen Aerogels says that its aerogel blankets have two to four times the insulating value per inch compared to fiberglass or foam. It’s also relatively easy to work with, allows water vapor to pass through and is fire resistant.
You really should hit up this link and watch the embedded video. These blankets don’t seem that revolutionary, but I guess that’s the point. Besides, it’s blue. Pink insulation was so 20th century.
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
When it was announced that this administration was redefining space-related goals (and, many seemed not to notice, increasing NASA funding by $6bn) there were mixed reactions. We’d already spent a bundle on moon mission stuff, but it was over budget and behind schedule. Nobody wants to abandon the moon, but man, we’ve got people floating in space right now who need funding, fuel, upgrades, and all that.
Well, someone thinks the funding plan is a good idea. You might have heard him talk before — you know, when he was walking on the moon.
Here is Buzz Aldrin’s full statement on the topic. I don’t put it here to be political — I put it here because this guy went the moon, and if I had my way his word would be law.
Today I wish to endorse strongly the President’s new direction for NASA. As an Apollo astronaut, I know the importance of always pushing new frontiers as we explore space.
The truth is that we have already been to the Moon—some 40 years ago.
A near-term focus on lowering the cost of access to space and on developing key, cutting-edge technologies to take us further, faster, is just what our Nation needs to maintain its position as the leader in space exploration for the rest of this century.
We need to be in this for the long haul, and this program will allow us to again be pushing the boundaries to achieve new and challenging things beyond Earth.I hope NASA will embrace this new direction as much as I do, and help us all continue to use space exploration to drive prosperity and innovation right here on Earth.
I also believe the steps we will be taking following the President’s direction will best position NASA and other space agencies to send humans to Mars and other exciting destinations as quickly as possible.
To do that, we will need to support many types of game-changing technologies NASA and its partners will be developing. Mars is the next frontier for humankind, and NASA will be leading the way there if we aggressively support the President’s plans.
Finally, I am excited to think that the development of commercial capabilities to send humans into low-Earth orbit will likely result in so many more Earthlings being able to experience the transformative power of spaceflight.
I can personally attest to the fact that the experience results in a different perspective on life on Earth, and on our future as a species. I applaud the President for working to make this dream a reality.
Buzz Aldrin
There you have it. Besides, we’ll get back to the moon in good time. We’ve got freaking RC robots rolling around on Mars. You think we can’t go to the moon when we feel it’s convenient? Come on!
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
Intel’s Core i5 and i3 CPUs have found a new home in MSi’s latest notebook offerings. The CX520 and CR20 Classic Series combine otherwise standard specs and a 15.6-inch 16:9 screen with the powerful cores. Both seem like solid rigs although you’ll likely pass over them in favor of something a bit more flashy.
Along with either the aforementioned CPUs, the systems both utilize the Intel HM55 chipset, up to 8GB of DDR3 800/1066 memory, and either a 250GB, 320GB, or 500GB SATA hard drive. The CX520 however is graced with the ATi Mobility Radeon HD5470 GPU with 1GB of memory, while the CR620 is slumming with an Intel HD Graphic chip. Both have the same 15.6-inch, LED-backlit display with an integrated 1.3MP camera topside along with an HDMI port and 802.11 b/g/n.
No word on pricing or availablity just yet though. Good thing there are plenty of nearly identical other systems available for your buying pleasure.
Pleasant Modeling with Outstanding Efficiency –
MSI Classic Series CX620 and CR620
MSI’s new generation classic models of large-size CX620 and CR620 come with the New 2010 Intel® core™ processor. CX620, embedded with the ATi Radeon HD5470 discrete graphics card (1GB DDR3 VRAM included), provides the new-generation video/audio performance and processing efficiency.[Taipei] MSI has announced the 15.6″ models CX620 and CR620. CX620 equipped with a discrete graphics card, for its Classic Series notebook computers. Clad with MSI exclusive Color Film Print coating, along with an independent Chiclet keyboard and a seamless touchpad, these laptops were modeled in pleasant simplicity and full quality. The feature of lower power consumption offered by the latest Intel® Core™ processor achieves even greater efficiency.
Sam Chern, MSI Notebook Marketing Director, claimed that the latest models of MSI Classic Series come equipped with the New 2010 Intel® core™ processor. CX620 is embedded with the ATi Radeon HD5470 discrete graphics card including 1GB DDR3 display memory. Via MSI exclusive GPU Boost and ECO power saving technologies, users can switch among different display modes and various scenes as necessary, which enables high-quality video/audio, processing efficiency and long battery life at the same time!”
Extraordinary Efficiency and Video/Audio Performance
Brand-New Intel® Core™ Processor: CX620 and CR620 come with the latest Arrandale platform, carrying the New 2010 Intel® core™ processor and HM55 chipset to utilize Hyper-Threading Technology and integrate the graphics core into the processor. The lower power consumption, as compared to that of the last-generation processor platform, will extend the battery life by 15%. Moreover, the substantial boost in efficiency of graphics core provides outstanding video/audio and processing performance.Embedded ATi Radeon HD 5470 discrete graphics card (1 GB DDR3 VRAM included): The ATi Radeon HD 5470 discrete graphics card including 1GB DDR3 display memory, CX620 can present the unparalleled display performance, crisp images, and bright colors.
Cinema-class 16:9 ratio LED backlit display: CX620 and CR620 utilize 15.6″ LED screens with cinema-class 16:9 ratio and high resolution to provide perfect and eye-catching visual displays with most details and the brightest colors.
Pleasant Modeling with Exquisite Technics
Elegant cross-hatch color film print: The cover and palm rest area of CX620 and CR620 are clad with MSI exclusive Color Film Print coating with cross-hatch design, which not only prevents scratching and wear of the laptops, but also reveals the stylish elegance of the products with smooth and shiny luster. Combining with the 45-degree beveled edges, the device, weighing no more than 2.5KG, is light and portable for perfect mobile entertainment.MSI’s unique chiclet keyboard: The CX620 and CR620 come equipped with the latest chiclet keyboards which offer that perfect touch to keep you from hitting the wrong keys. The lustrous cross-hatch color film print coating on the cover and palm rest areas is unassuming and tasteful.
Classic cross-hatch seamless touch-pad: CX620 and CR620, modeled in fashionable simplicity, adopt MSI’s unique seamless touch-pads with full-quality cross-hatch Color Film Print coating, which not only enables more comfortable, smooth usage, but also makes these laptops the most classical and technological works through the ideal combination with the palm rest area.
Unique High-performance Power Saving Technology
Exclusive GPU Boost Technology: Utilizing MSI exclusive GPU Boost technology, CX620 helps you obtain the perfect balance between video/audio efficiency and battery life! When executing applications requiring high efficiency of image processing, press the button to enable the high-efficiency discrete display mode to provide optimal video/audio performance. If the long battery life is required, press the Battery icon key to switch the system to the integrated chip display mode to substantially extend the battery life.Exclusive ECO Engine Power Saving Technology: The CX620 and CR 620 come equipped with MSI’s own ECO Engine Power Saving Technology which allows you to select from among five power management levels—Video Game, Film, Presentation, Word Processing, and Turbo Battery, for the image brightness you need when you need it. They also adjust shutdown, standby, and processor performance settings to give you more or less power, depending on your current needs, thereby extending battery life.
CX620 Spec
OS Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU Intel® core™ processor
Chipset Intel HM55
Graphic ATi Radeon HD5470 with 1GB VRAM
Memory DDRIII 1066/800 MHz、SO-DIMM slot x 2 (up to 4GB)
LCD 15.6″ 1366×768 HD,( 16:9 )
HDD 2.5″ 250/ 320/ 500GB SATA
Card reader 4 in 1 ( XD MS SD MMC)
I/O HDMI, D-sub, USB 2.0*3, Mic-in, Headphone out, RJ-45, Kensington lock port
Battery 6 cells battery
Wireless 802.11 b/g/ draft N, Bluetooth V2.1
Webcam 1.3M Webcam
Sound 2 Speakers
Dimension 247.5*374*35mm
Weight <2.5 KGCR620 Spec
OS Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU Intel® core™ processor
Chipset Intel HM55
Graphic Intel GMA HD
Memory DDRIII 1066/800 MHz、SO-DIMM slot x 2 (up to 4GB)
LCD 15.6″ 1366×768 HD,( 16:9 )
HDD 2.5″ 250/ 320/ 500GB SATA
Card reader 4 in 1 ( XD MS SD MMC)
I/O HDMI, D-sub, USB 2.0*3, Mic-in, Headphone out, RJ-45, Kensington lock port.
Battery 6 cells battery
Wireless 802.11 b/g/ draft N, Bluetooth V2.1
Webcam 1.3M Webcam
Sound 2 Speakers
Dimension 247.5*374*35mm
Weight <2.5 KG
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
The official data hasn’t been released yet, but Goldman Sachs’ China economics team expects that January loan growth ‘slowed’ to 29.3% year over year, hitting 1.35 trillion yuan.
Note the ‘channel checks’ below… which always seem like dressed up words for leaks, research espionage, and rumor:
Yu Song@Goldman: Our channel checks with commercial banks suggest many banks stopped lending in the last days of the month and some short-term loans were not renewed, especially discount bills. Although this is not quite as high as the Rmb1.6 trillion previously reported by mainland media (China Economic Information Daily), it still would be the 4th highest reading in history (only January, March and June 2009 saw higher readings). Yoy growth of CNY loans is expected to fall to 29.3% in January from 31.7% in December. A standard seasonal adjustment would suggest sequential growth is little changed at 18.1% mom s.a. ann., compared with 17.5% mom s.a. ann. in December.
Goldman remains of the view that such growth is ‘excessive’ but is optimistic that government tightening efforts will ultimately succeed.
Yet one wonders, if China economists rely on connections for advance data (we’re making an assumption which we believe is likely, top U.S. analysts probably have their fair share as well), are they even able to come out and say government policy is doomed to failure? Or do they have to be more nuanced and coded in their language?
Goldman: [Emphasis added] We believe the credit expansion in January is excessive in light of the strength in the real economy and the rise in other non-loan financings such as IPOs and the issuance of various bonds. The good news is the government has started to take tougher measures to control lending, including requesting commercial banks to report lending on a daily basis and strictly controlling the size of total lending. Although these measures are slightly late in our view, as long as they can maintain a tight control, the risks of serious overheating are limited. On the other hand, we are less worried about an over-tightening which would lead to a hard landing of the economy, not least because the government is very concerned about that type of risk and therefore, the risks seem to be more on the side of insufficient tightening.
So there is still too much credit growth, tightening efforts have come too late, the government needs to tighten more, and the risk of a disastrous Chinese lending binge remains.
(Via Goldman Sachs, China Views, Yu Song, 3 February 2010)
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Electrical Engineers everywhere must be tearing their hair out in frustration.
The Carbon Cap and Trade legislation is specifically designed as a revenue raising device alone, and is not designed for the purposes of lowering Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions.
That’s a pretty bold thing to say, I can see, and requires some explanation, which is where the frustration of those electrical engineers comes into play.
When people discuss Cap And Trade, they do it from only one aspect, that of the political point of view. Everything that is said about it is based around that point of view.
The biggest of those Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emitters are those large coal fired power plants, and when people discuss it, the point continually stressed is that they just introduce this piece of legislation, and what it will do is to cause those plants to cut back their emissions. The legislation will place a cap on the emissions from those coal fired plants. Anything above that cap, then those plants will have to pay a large fee for each ton over that cap. The cap is then decreased each year. The theory is that the plant will just emit less over time because that cap will be forced lower each year, thus effectively lowering emissions over time.
When stated like that, it sounds all too easy.
What people fail utterly to comprehend is just how that coal fired plant does produce its electrical power, something I have tried to explain in as many different ways as is possible in an attempt to make it a little more easily understood, because, if the truth is told, there’s probably even electricians out there who are hazy on the subject.
Climate Change/Global Warming is so far down the list of what people are concerned about that it barely rates a mention at all. However, the next time someone does bring up the subject in your presence, ask them if they can explain exactly the simplified process of how they turn coal into electricity, and I’m willing to bet there would be very few people who could actually do that, and here I’m talking about the absolutely most simplified version there is.
The coal is crushed almost to powder and is then fed into a critical high temperature furnace. This furnace boils water to highly pressurised steam in the boiler. This steam then drives a multi stage turbine, and the turbine then drives the generator.
That’s the simple version.
A large coal fired power plant can produce 2000MW of power. To do this it can have two three or four generators. Let’s look at one plant that has two generators, each producing 1000MW.
Those generators are huge. Electromagnetic formers are on the rotor and these then induce a current flow in the Stators, which is the power produced from the unit. That rotor can weigh in the vicinity of 250 to 400 tons, depending on how modern the technology is. All this weight then rotates at 3,600 RPM. It needs to rotate constantly at that same speed all the time it is rotating because the frequency of the voltage needs to be kept constant, and this is how the plant produces its maximum power at all times. To keep the generator revolving at this speed all the time, it is driven by the multi stage turbine through a form of gearbox called a Constant Speed Drive, (CSD) which I suppose is fairly self explanatory. The turbine has to be driven at a speed that will enable that CSD to be able to keep the generator rotating at all times at that 3,600 RPM. Any slower and the whole unit would just drop off line, and effectively stop.
So, the turbine has to kept rotating above a certain speed. To do that, then it is intricately calculated how much steam is needed, and from that, back to how much coal is needed to be burned in the furnace.
So then let’s look at how much coal is burned to be able to do that. Those large plants burn in the vicinity of 6.5 million tons of coal to do this. Keep in mind here that very few new technology plants have been constructed in the U.S. due solely to lack of political will. Hence, those currently existing U.S. coal fired plants are all aging, and in fact the average age of the whole U.S. inventory for all coal fired power plants is 48 years. One of the few Countries actively constructing new coal fired power plants is China, at the rate of one new plant every seven days coming on line supplying power to the grid, and these are all the newer technology plants. They have generators vastly lighter in weight while producing more electrical power, and because they are lighter in weight, they are smaller all round, hence smaller turbines hence less steam is required, hence less coal is burned, and less CO2 is being emitted, and producing larger amounts of power.
So that 6.5 million tons of coal being burned each year in an average U.S. coal fired plant translates on average to around 18,000 tons of coal being burned each day. I can see some eyebrows being raised at the mention of that. This means that each and every day, that amount of coal must be burned to produce the electricity. The coal is brought to the plant in differing ways, Some plants are constructed near coal mines. Some have the coal brought in up the river by barge, and all these plants need to be near a dedicated water source so they can have that water for the steam they need to produce. However, most coal is brought to the plant by rail.
Two train loads a day. This amounts to 10,000 tons per train load. 3 locomotives haul 100 coal hoppers each hopper holding 100 tons of coal. The train is almost one mile long. That coal is offloaded on site and then fed up the conveyor belt to the crusher and then into the furnace. Continually, 24 hours a day, 236 days a year, for anything up to 50, 60, or 75 years, barring down time for maintenance, carefully calculated so as to cause the least amount of problems for the grid the plant supplies.
The plant is owned by the Authority, and that authority then has to purchase the coal it needs to keep the plant going. As I mentioned earlier, the turbine needs to be kept at a speed to keep the generator rolling at that 3,600 RPM.
The authority then carefully calculates the minimum amount of coal needed to keep that level of steam up to the turbines. The cost of steaming coal is considerable, especially when you realise they are burning 18,000 tons each day, so any excess is not really needed if you can see the point there. So, they use the minimum amount of that steaming coal as they possibly can, carefully calculated, because excess amounts of coal, while not needed, will be quite a large added cost to the running of the plant. especially when extrapolated across a whole 12 month period.
Enter Cap And Trade.
The theory is that the plant then has an upper limit placed on their emissions.
I’ve carefully explained how one tone of coal produces 2.86 tons of CO2 in this post, again something people find difficult, if not impossible to comprehend.
So, burning 6.5 million tons of coal each year means that your average large coal fired plant emits 18.6 Million tons of CO2 each year.
Let’s just say that the Government is benevolent and makes that Cap for that plant the current maximum emission, that being the 18.6 Million tons. This way the plant can operate in the same normal way it has always gone about its operation.
Then at the end of year one, that Cap is lowered.
If the plant then wishes to keep in operation, all it can do is to pay the excess. They cannot cut their emissions because that means burning less coal, hence less steam, the turbines then cannot keep the generator rotating at it’s designed specifications to produce the power at the correct frequency, and the plant then just shuts down, and there will be no power at all. To keep going, all they can do is pay the excess, the end result being that this is then passed directly down to the consumer, those consumers coming from three sectors, Residential, (38%) Commercial, (37%) and Industrial. (24%) Each of those sectors will feel the impact of the raising of their electricity costs, you directly as the residential consumer, and then you as a consumer of goods from the Commercial and Industrial sectors, so you as the consumer get caught three ways.
Each year that Cap gets progressively lower, and the amount of money flowing to the Government increases by a huge amount each year considering that the electrical power generating sector alone emits nearly 3.5 Billion tons of CO2 each and every year.
You may think this applies only to coal fired power plants. These plants supply their power to the grids and that power, always available there on the grid is drawn down by consumers. During times of excess demand, Peaking Power, then those plants specifically designed to be able to run up and down in a short space of time come on line to supply power to top up the level available at the grid. These plants are in the main Natural Gas fired power plants. The gas drives a turbine, similar in nature to a jet engine, which then drives the generator. These plants supply considerably less than the huge lumbering coal fired plants, so they can be brought on line as they are needed. The natural gas is also an emitter of CO2, so again, that Cap will also apply to them as well.
Incidentally, I’m willing to bet legislators did not have this target in mind when they crafted their legislation. Those plants deemed to be the saviour of the industry, Concentrating Solar plants (Solar Thermal) use natural gas fired turbines to drive the generator for the times when the molten compound heated by the sun via mirrors goes off its molten state and cannot boil water to steam to drive a conventional turbine and (much smaller) generator. That component where the natural gas fired turbine drives the generator will se these so called renewable plants emitting up to 1,200 tons of CO2 each day. (440,000 tons each year) This means that these plants will also be subject to Cap And Trade.
Will this lead to the construction of newer technology coal fired plants that are smaller, produce more power, burn less coal more efficiently, thus emitting considerably less CO2. Not really, because the same Cap will then apply to them also. The Cap will be set at what they do emit, and then be lowered progressively each year, so you’re in the same position as you already are with those much older plants.
It will however, unintentionally lower CO2 emissions. Bean counters at the Power supplying Authority will be doing their sums. The plant, already old, needing more intensive maintenance, burning more coal as it ages will become uneconomical to remain in operation. The plant will then just be closed down. Hence no more CO2 emissions at all. It also means the removal of that huge amount of electrical power from the grid.
You can feverishly construct all the wind towers and solar plants you like to replace that one coal fired plant. You’ll need 700 of them just to replace that one coal fired plant, and even then. you’ll only get one fifth of the power because that’s the best efficiency rate they operate at. Renewable power currently supplies only 1.6% of all consumed power in the U.S. There are currently 35,000 wind powers in the U.S. The total amount of power they supply amounts to 64 Billion KWH, the same amount of power being produced from only four of those large coal fired plants over a whole year. Why I mention this is that for every four of these large coal fired plants that do close down because of this Legislation, you will need to double the number of those wind towers. The time needed to construct that many towers and the cost for all of them would be prohibitive.
That is how I can confidently say that the Carbon Cap And Trade Legislation is only being brought into play for one reason, that being as a a revenue raising device.
It will not lower CO2 emissions. It can not lower CO2 emissions.
Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Blundering Bureaucrats, Climate Alarmists, Climate Change, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Environment, Environmental activists, Fanatics, Fear-mongering, Fraud/Waste, Global Warming, Infrastructure Problems, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Carbon Cap And Trade Tax, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions, Climate Change Legislation, Climate Change Religion, Coal Fired Power Generation, Coal fired power plants, Global Warming Alarmism, Global Warming Hype, Kyoto, U.S. Electrical Power Consumption 
Child welfare officials and advocates, foster parents, and supporters from throughout Illinois will gather tomorrow at 10:30 am at Loyola University Chicago School of Law (Kasbeer Hall, 25 East Pearson Street) to launch this year’s Foster Kids Are Our Kids campaign.
In It For The Kids TV commercials will air on WGN featuring local individuals sharing the joys and challenges of foster parenting.
Norma and George, Norma and Jose, and Treena, share their experiences with foster parenting to show the public how important foster care is to the thousands of foster children in Illinois.
According to George, “Foster kids are just like any other children and being a foster parent is all about loving them and helping them be the best they can be.”
Treena, who works closely with birth parents, says, “I want to help keep children and parents together.” Norma and Jose have a message for other potential foster parents, “We are part of this effort because we see how well children can do when they have caring and reliable foster parents to help them through hard times.”
The TV spots will be accompanied by print and transit advertising, along with a website and Facebook page.
Participating agencies throughout the state will disseminate brochures and posters to motivate others to learn about foster care and get involved. “As a society we need to better understand and appreciate the role of foster parents.
We want this campaign to replace any negative misconceptions people might have about foster care so we can attract more great foster parents,” says Rick Velasquez, Co-chair of the campaign and Executive Director of Youth Outreach Services.
Foster Kids Are Our Kids is a collaborative effort of over 60 Illinois child welfare agencies. The campaign was initiated by Voices for Illinois Children and designed by Better World Advertising.
The goal of the campaign is to elevate the importance of foster care and dispel negative stereotypes.
“Too many people, including many who would make amazing foster parents, are put off because they only hear about foster care when there is some tragedy on the evening news. We need to show the public that foster parenting is indispensable, and overwhelmingly made up of loving and honorable people,” says Ruth Jajko, campaign co-chair and Associate Executive Director of Lutheran Social Services Illinois.
To learn more about how you can help, log on to FosterKidsAreOurKids.org or call 1-888-R-KIDS-2.
For campaign images, spokesmodel and campaign member interviews and all other media inquiries please contact Anne Klassman, Foster Kids Are Our Kids Project Manager @ 312-516-5564 or email at [email protected].
