Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • M.U.D. TV First-Look Preview

    Way back in the headband and tube-sockiest part of the 1980s, “Weird” Al Yankovic made a flick about a guy who inherits a crappy TV station and fills the programming schedule full of shows like “Raoul’s Wild Kingdom,” and “Wheel of Fish.” This being an ’80s comedy, the wacky band of misfits come to be celebrated, and the greedy corporate villain suffers appropriate humiliations. M.U.D. TV (the acronym stands for “Mad Ugly Dirty”) runs with a pretty similar premise, though instead of a stereotypical ’80s villain, you’ll be pitting your own weird little TV station against the weird little TV stations of friends.

    Click the image above to check out all M.U.D. TV screens.

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  • Ketones query?

    hy guys ,
    I am myself type 1 diabetic but i need some info in regards to causes of ketones in urine for my sis.My younger sis has PCOS for which she takes diabex xr she also has hypothyroidism.Now she used to urine frequently and had burning sensation as well during urination but she hasnt lot any significant amount of weight or any other major type 1 diabetes symptoms.We got her OGT(oral glucose tolerance test ) done before she started taking diabex for her PCOS and it was all fine , we did fasting glucose test and it was all fine as well.Recently we suspected she might have UTI(urine tract infection) soe did urine dipstick test and had +1 ketones positive , so thats scared us as she wasnt fasting.Next day i did random glucose test at home and it was fine.So i dunno what else could cause positive ketones ?Any idea and do we need to worry about this as we dont want her to become diabetic or any other health issue?
    Regards
    Singh

  • WGN-TV anchorwoman admits past addiction problem

    WGN-TV anchorwoman Allison Payne has gone public with her 20-year fight against addiction, and believes there is no shame in acknowledging that she has had a drinking problem.

    But Payne and WGN-Ch. 9 News Director Greg Caputo on Friday said that admission, which came as a passing mention during a Thursday newscast, was not the reason she was off the air for much of 2008.

    She and the station still attribute those absences to a series of mini-strokes and their lingering effects, including depression, for which she still receives treatment.

    Drinking, Payne said Friday, “was not the issue when I was out sick. … My right hand was numb. I had no use of my right hand. They diagnosed me with mini-strokes.”

    Read more on Tower Ticker at chicagotribune.com.

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • Welcome to GeekTonic

    Welcome to GeekTonic – the go-to place for Media Gadgets, HTPC’s and Tech Talk – Tonic for your Inner Geek

    Featured Recent Stories 

    TV Premieres, Finales and Specials This Week  
    Media Gadget Showcase – Rothgar’s MythTV Setup
    SageTV HD Theater Beta Update
    Teacher Tech – by Mrs GeekTonic
    Popcornhour New popbox Media Streamer
    Boxee Box News – and new QWERTY Remote
    Ceton Quad CableCard Tuner $399
    Skiff e-Reader Outed – Nice large format e-Reader
    SiliconDust to Announce CableCard Product at CES – Confirmed & will be Network-based!
    So You Received a Kindle for Christmas – Now What?


  • Man dies after being shot during robbery attempt

    A 27-year-old man died at a hospital in Joliet this morning after attempting to rob a nearby liquor store in Crest Hill the night before, police said.

    An autopsy by the Will County Coroner’s office this afternoon determined that Blake Tillery of the 1300 block of Rock Run Drive, Crest Hill, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

    Witnesses told Crest Hill police Tillery entered the store on the 1400 block of Cedarwood Drive “a little after” 10 p.m. Thursday, Deputy Chief Edward Clark said today.

    Tillery was struggling with a store clerk “when the clerk got hold of a firearm and shot him,” Clark said. The clerk was uninjured, Clark said.

    Tillery went to St. Joseph Provena Medical Center in Joliet where at 4 a.m. a deputy coroner pronounced him dead.

    Joliet police, alerted to Tillery’s death and aware of the robbery attempt, “put two and two together” and contacted Crest Hill police, Clark said.

    Clark said the weapon that was used did not appear to be Tillery’s, and investigators today were attempting to determine its owner.

    There had been previous robberies at the store, Clark said.

    Police will file a report with the Will County State’s Attorney when the investigation concludes, Clark said.

    –Dennis Sullivan

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • Woman sues store after being attacked by homeless pair

    A woman who says she was attacked by a homeless man and woman while leaving a Jewel Food Store is suing the store and her attackers.

    Jennifer Hall says that while she and her fiance were leaving the Jewel store at 1224 S. Wabash Ave. on Aug. 25, 2008, her 36th birthday, she was approached by Derrick King and Joyce Burgess.

    The two requested a cigarette and when Hall denied them, she was physically attacked — losing most of her teeth and ending up with 85 staples in her head.

    The complaint states that “homeless persons and others were known to loiter outside the [store], commonly congregating on the wall along the sidewalk.”

    The complaint further states that Jewel was negligent when it, among other things, “improperly permitted homeless persons and others to loiter on said premises when they knew or should have known that such persons had a violent propensity,” and “that such persons posed a risk to persons lawfully on said premises.”

    Read more and look at the lawsuit at  Chicago Bar-Tender.

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • Felon testifies police officers framed him, planted drugs

    Two Chicago cops accused of framing a convicted felon faced off in court Friday against the man who says they planted drugs on him.

    Morris Wynn, 37, of Elmhurst, testified he didn’t have any drugs when Chicago Police officers Michael Bernichio and Daniel Murphy arrested him on narcotics charges outside his sister’s South Side home nearly six years ago.

    “I asked them several times, ‘What am I being arrested for?’ ” Wynn said. “I asked them, ‘What am I here for?’ ”

    Bernichio, 43, is facing conspiracy and perjury charges stemming from Wynn’s July 27, 2004, arrest in the 2500 block of 64th Street. Murphy, 35, is on trial for conspiracy.

    The Chicago Lawn District tactical officers arrested Wynn and his friend Wayne Guy on the night in question, according to authorities. They eventually released Guy but filled out two identical police reports for both men even though only Wynn was charged, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Romano DiBenedetto said.

    Bernichio also lied in court at Wynn’s 2005 trial, testifying that he and his partner had initially arrested just one man, DiBenedetto said at the opening at the officers’ bench trial. Wynn was found guilty but the Illinois Appellate Court later threw out his drug conviction.

    Bernichio and Murphy’s attorneys, Tom Needham and William Gamboney, denied their clients were involved in any wrongdoing. Wynn had dropped a bag containing a substantial amount of cocaine and Guy was taken to the police station because he promised information about the drug transactions in the neighborhood, Gamboney said.

    The filling out of two police reports wasn’t deliberate but an “innocent clerical error,” Gamboney added, chastising prosecutors of “doing a 180” after the Appellate Court reversed Wynn’s conviction.

    Gamboney continued, “The only crime that was committed on July 27, 2004 was by Morris Wynn.”

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • Quinn, Hynes in Democratic dead heat for governor primary

    The Democratic governor primary is a toss-up between Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes as controversy over an inmate early release program and an imploding state budget cut into the governor’s once-sizable advantage, a Tribune/WGN-TV poll has found.

    On the Republican side, three candidates are in a tight battle ahead of the Feb. 2 primary.

    Former state GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan and state Sen. Kirk Dillard lead the field, but none reached 20 percent, according to the new poll.

    Read more on chicagotribune.com.

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • Police face mystery in River North building

    Chicago police were trying to unravel a mystery this evening inside a River North apartment building where a shot rang out, a gun was found and a trail of blood led out the door – but one piece of key evidence, a victim, was nowhere to be found.

    Chicago police News Affairs Officer Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said police were called to the 300 block of West Illinois Street at about 5:15 p.m. She said when police arrived they found the area “disturbed” and a gun was found.

    “All we have right now is a weapon being discovered and a disturbed common area,” she said.

    Detectives on the scene said they believe a fight broke out between at least two men on a 2nd-floor courtyard inside the building. A shot was fired, police said, and police later found a gun on the scene.

    A neighbor said he heard a “single gunshot” at about 5:15 p.m.

    A worker at the upscale complex said he saw two men make their way down the stairs and out of the building, leaving blood on a door. Police said they found splatters of blood in various locations inside the building.

    Police said that at least one of the individuals may have walked into a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, but they are still trying to determine if somebody was actually shot. Police could not confirm if anyone was in custody.

    – Cynthia Dizikes and Carlos Sadovi

    Read the original article from Tribune News Services.


  • All Your Twitter Bot Needs Is Love

    Anyone who has been on Twitter for more than a few days knows that it’s rife with bots — accounts that are run by a computer, rather than a human. But while bots may be pretty easy to come by, it isn’t often that you get the chance to read through the code that makes one tick. Tonight, you’ve got your chance. The bot’s name? Jason Thorton. He’s been humming along for months now, sending out over 1250 tweets to some 174 followers. His tweets, while not particularly creative, manage to be both believable and timely. And he’s powered by a single word: Love.

    Thorton is the creation of developer Ryan Merket, who built him as a side project in around three hours. Merket has just posted the code that powers him, and has also divulged how he made Thorton seem somewhat realistic: the bot looks for tweets with the word “love” in them and tweets them as its own. From Merket’s blog:

    Jason tweets A LOT about the word “love” – that’s because Jason actually steals tweets from the public timeline that contain the word “love” and posts them as his own.

    Jason also @ replies to people who use the word “love” in their tweets, and asks them random questions or says something arbitrary.

    Merket then goes on to detail why the ease with which he could build the bot should be cause for concern:

    It took me about 3 hours to code Jason, imagine what a real engineer could do with real AI algorithms? Now realize that it’s already a reality. Sites like Twitter are full of side projects, company initiatives, spam bots, and AI robots. When the free flow of information becomes open, the amount of disinformation increases. There’s a real need for someone to come in and vet the people we ‘meet’ on social sites — it will be interesting to see how this market grows in the next year.

    Can social networks really vet every single user that joins? That would likely be incredibly difficult to scale, but there’s certainly room for the algorithms to improve. In any case, here are some of Jason’s most recent tweets:

    And here are some of the people who fell for them:


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  • Statement by the President on the 37th Anniversary of Supreme Court decision Roe v. W

    01.22.10 03:11 PM

    Today we recognize the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which affirms every woman’s fundamental constitutional right to choose whether to have an abortion, as well as each American’s right to privacy from government intrusion. I have, and continue to, support these constitutional rights.

    I also remain committed to working with people of good will to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and families, and strengthen the adoption system.

    Today and every day, we must strive to ensure that all women have limitless opportunities to fulfill their dreams.

    White House.gov Press Office Feed

  • How would you change RIM’s BlackBerry Storm2?

    It’s sort of stunning how many stellar smartphone options Verizon Wireless customers suddenly have, but lest we forget that RIM’s hotly-anticipated Storm2 was rockin’ the suburbs late last year. For those who sprung, we’re curious to know if you’re happy with your decision. Do you think RIM adequately addressed the gripes from round one? Is the display responsive enough? Was the addition of WiFi what sealed the deal? Are you annoyed that you didn’t hold out for the new Palm lineup? Feel free to get really real in comments below — we get the impression that Waterloo needs all the feedback it can get when it comes to QWERTY-less mobiles.

    How would you change RIM’s BlackBerry Storm2? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • New Surveys Suggest Venture Investing Reset at Lower Level in 2009; We Break Out Data for Boston, San Diego, & Seattle

    DowJones4Q09
    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    The picture of venture capital investments in U.S. startups filled in a bit this week, with the results of two more VC surveys aligning generally with the findings we reported earlier this month from ChubbyBrain, the New York data services company that tracks the innovation economy. New surveys from Dow Jones VentureSource and the MoneyTree Report indicate overall venture investing has reset—after falling by roughly a third since 2008—with VC activity strengthening toward the end of 2009.

    The differences are in the details, and one of the benefits of multiple data sources is a clearer perspective on what the differences really mean. Dow Jones VentureSource says the definition it uses for a venture capital deal “is the clearest and best tested in the industry.” Dow Jones includes equity financings and cash investments by professional venture capital firms, corporations, diversified private equity firms, and individuals into companies that have received at least one round of venture funding. ChubbyBrain says it only counts investments by venture capital firms, including corporate venture groups. It does not count angel investments (unless the angels invest with VCs or corporate venture funds), and it does not count contingent funding, strategic corporate funding through R&D partnerships, so-called “venture loans,” or incubator investments.

    Differences in the way each survey defines venture investments can translate into differences in the way data gets counted, which sometimes results in disparate and even contrary findings. What follows is a breakout of the highlights from three nationwide VC surveys (as well as regional data and trends for New England, Washington state, and San Diego) for 2009 and the fourth quarter that ended in December:

    —ChubbyBrain noted a dip in VC dollars invested nationwide during the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2008, with venture investments in cleantech and energy companies showing substantial drops while VC funding for early stage companies—especially Internet startups—increased sharply. ChubbyBrain said nationwide VC investments during the three months that ended in December totaled $5.5 billion in 687 deals (a year-over-year decline of 7 percent). For 2009, which seems to rank as the year VCs would prefer to forget, ChubbyBrain said VCs invested $20.8 billion in 2,461 companies.

    —Dow Jones VentureSource said an overall bad year ended on a high note, with VC activity during the last three months marking the strongest quarter since …Next Page »

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  • Give A Man A Fish… And Make It Illegal To Teach Fishing

    We’ve talked in the past about how intellectual property rules seem to directly conflict with the purpose of educational institutions — and yet, many of those institutions are now starting to try to enforce those rules. Taking that a step further, in response to Bono’s recent confusion over ISP filtering, Russell McOrmond makes a great point in updating the old parable of “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime,” to the more modern version of: Give a man a fish, make it illegal to teach fishing. (found via Michael Scott):


    There are those who think that making knowledge scarce, including criminalising private citizens owning and controlling their own communications technology, is the only way to make it possible to pay authors/inventors for their important contributions to society. This ignores all the experience and research to the contrary. Whether you believe this or not, you must admit that deliberately making knowledge scarce and thus more expensive greatly harms the interests of the worlds poor.

    The repercussions of deliberately making knowledge scarce will be an underlying issue that will show up in many global conflicts in the next decade, whether talking about poverty, western economic recovery or global climate change.

    Indeed. It’s a scary world when people think that locking up naturally abundant information and knowledge somehow makes sense. All it does is lock away a natural resource that can be used at no cost to make the world a better place.

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  • Sitios Arqueologicos

    Posteare algunas fotos de mis visitas… quiero comenzar con algo muy interesante que visite de casualidad.. algo que muy pocos han visto…
    se trata de "el Aguila de Oyotun"

    Segun un articulo de Terra Los 3 geoglifos (uno de ellos el aguila y otro el buho, aunque dicen que hay mas) fueron descubiertos hace una década por el arqueólogo Walter Alva, responsable del descubrimiento del Señor de Sipán, nada mas lejos de la verdad, estos geoglifos son conocidos por los pueblerinos desde hace decadas, incluso se que federico kauffman hablo de ellas alla por los 70, mi tio cuenta que de niño se escapaba del colegio y siempre se iban a jugar a las faldas del cerro donde yace el aguila… todos en el pueblo sabian de su existencia

    Se trata de la figura de un aguila formada agrupando piedras a todo lo largo de un cerro, mide unos 60 metros por 50 de ancho, cuando estas ahi, al igual que con las lineas de nazca, es casi imposible notar que estas sobre la figura… se estima que estas figuras fueron hechas hace 2500 años aproximadamente, lo que las convertiria en mucho mas antiguas que las famosisimas lineas de nazca

    las fotos que tome realmente no muestran mucho de la figura, por lo que tendre que apoyarme con unas fotos de internet mas apropiadas.. porque es imposible verlas desde el nivel de la tierra, tendria que escalar algun cerro proximo para observarlas de lejos, pero el solo hecho de llegar a ese lugar es una epopeya.. de chiclayo parti hacia oyotun, un pueblo pequeñisimo a unas 3 horas de chiclayo, mitad por pista, mitad por carretera aplanada, luego subirse a un mototaxi y adentrarse por entre chacras y piedras (la mototaxi no aguanto el viaje y se murio a la mitad).. caminando, subiendo y bajando media hora mas, llegamos… la visita al buho la dejare para mi proximo viaje a chiclayo.


    Dibujo de Martín Lozada Vásquez en el que se puede ver como se verian las imagenes desde una vista panoramica


    Aguila de Oyotun (foto extraida de Terra.com)


    el Buho (foto extraida de Terra.com)


    foto tomada por vuestro servidor, parado exactamente encima del aguila, las piedras que estan en el piso, que no aparentan nada mas que la falda de cualquier cerro son las que conforman la enorme figura de dimensiones similares a las de las lineas de nazca.


    lamentablemente mas que fotos me la pase filmando… esta es una capturada de uno de los videos que filme, donde se puede ver la punta del ala del aguila (se aprecia la linea donde terminan las piedras y comienza la tierra

  • GoWalla About to Pass the 100,000 User Mark

    . gowalla1.jpegGowalla, a location-based social application developed by Austin, TX-based Alamofire is about to pass 100,000 users, according to some of my sources. The company is going to hit the milestone over the weekend, having just crossed 99,000 users. Gowalla recently raised $8.4 million in venture funding from an assortment of investors including angel investors Chris Sacca and Jason Calacanis.

    In comparison, Foursquare, my favorite mobile app, is closing in on 300,000 users having just crossed 290,000 users. Foursquare earlier this week released the Blackberry version of their service. Gowalla and Foursquare are vying for user attention at the same time competing with local search web service Yelp has started to encroach on their turf with its new mobile application. If you get a chance, watch my interview with Josh Williams, CEO of Alamofire to get his thoughts on location-based services, Twitter, Yelp and his competitors.

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  • Joy-Nostalg Center |Pasig City | 41 f | 150 m

    Joy-Nostalg Center (J-Tower, Q – Tower)


    Ortigas Center, Pasig city, Philippines

    Location:17 ADB Avenue corner Topaz Street, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Philippines
    Status:Complete
    Groundbreaking: December 2006
    Opening: September 9, 2009
    Use: Office / Serviced Apartment
    Height: (Roof) 150 m (492.1 ft)
    Floor count: 41 aboveground, 6 below ground
    Elevators: 10
    Cost: Php 3 billion
    Architect(s): Esteban Y. Tan and Gavino L. Tan Partners in collaboration with C.Y. Lee & Partners
    Owner: Quantuvis Resources Corp.

    The Joy~Nostalg Center, also known as J-Tower, Q-Tower, is a mixed-use office and hotel in Pasig City, Philippines. It houses the headquarters of Asia United Bank, a medium-sized financial company, and will also be the new home of Oakwood Premier serviced apartments in Metro Manila[7] (which was previously located in neighboring Makati City). The building is developed and owned by Quantuvis Resources Corporation. During construction phase, the name used for the building was Q-Tower.

    Originally planned to be a 38-storey building, it was finally approved to have 41 floors above ground with a total height of 150 meters (492.1 feet) from ground to its architectural top.

  • Infinite Space set for March

    Platinum aims for outer space with their latest offering for the DS, Infinite Space. Not only are they all set to go, they’ve also set the date for the official take-off.
     
     
     

  • Insulin Pump Costs

    I have BCBSNC Blue Options and will be going on an insulin pump , does anyone have any experience with this as far as what BCBSNC covers.

  • Parked Car Gets Multiple Speed Camera Tickets

    We’ve seen all sorts of problems with speed cameras — like the time one clocked a brick wall traveling 58 MPH (watch out!). It seems that they’ve got a problem with stationary objects. Reader Marshall points us to a story of a guy who parks his car on a road equipped with a speed camera and has received two speeding tickets while his car was parked. Don’t you feel safer now?

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