Author: Serkadis

Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

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• November 11, 2009 — HTC Tattoo vs HTC Hero (18)
• November 8, 2009 — Droid Eris Commercial – Verizon Still Taking Shots at Apple’s 3G Network [VIDEO] (9)
• November 4, 2009 — Check it Out! It’s an Unboxed DROID Eris! (10)

The Iranian authorities must not execute a Kurdish man on death row whose transfer to solitary confinement last week raises fears that his execution could be imminent, said Amnesty International.

Habibollah Latifi was sentenced to death in July 2008 after he was convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) in connection with his membership of and activities on behalf of the Kurdish Independent Life Party (PJAK), a banned armed group.

He was transferred to solitary confinement at Sanandaj prison, Kordestan province, north-western Iran on 16 January.

Another man, Sherko Moarefi, was arrested in October 2008 and subsequently sentenced to death and remains on death row in Saqqez prison.

At least 18 other Kurds – 16 men and two women – are believed to be on death row in connection with their links to banned Kurdish organizations.  

In October, fears were raised that Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi and Ehsan Fattahian were at imminent risk of execution after a judge in Sanandaj, the provincial capital, received orders to carry our their executions. Ehsan Fattahian was executed on 11 November 2009.

Habibollah Latifi was arrested on 23 October 2007 in Sanandaj. His trial was held behind closed doors and neither his family, nor his lawyer, were allowed to attend. His death sentence was upheld by the Appeal Court in Sanandaj on 18 February 2009.

His lawyer is not known to have been notified of a scheduled execution as is required by law, although in some cases – such as that of fellow Kurd Fasih Yasmini, who was executed for moharebeh on 6 January 2010 – executions have taken place without this notification being issued. His family has not been notified that he will be executed but fear that he is at imminent risk of execution.

The scope of capital crimes in Iran is broad, and includes moharebeh, which is often imposed for armed opposition to the state, but can include other national security offences such as espionage.

Amnesty International has called on the Iranian authorities to commute the death sentences of Habibollah Latifi and Sherko Moarefi and any others imposed for political offences.

One of Iran’s many minority groups, Kurds experience religious, economic and cultural discrimination. For many years, several Kurdish organizations conducted armed opposition against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Formed in 2004, PJAK continues to carry out armed attacks against Iranian security forces.

No group has claimed responsibility for the spate of assassinations and attempted assassinations in Kordestan, which targeted mainly religious figures and judges between 9 and 19 September 2009.

The authorities have variously blamed PJAK and "hard-line Sunni fundamentalists" linked to foreign intelligence services. According to Iranian media on 28 September 2009, several of those believed to have been responsible for the attacks were arrested at the scene of another attack in which two others were killed.

On 18 January 2010, Vali Haji Gholizadeh, the prosecutor in the north-western city of Khoy, was shot dead. Four suspects were arrested. The Iranian authorities blamed PJAK for the killing although PJAK later denied responsibility.

Amnesty International condemned without reservation attacks on civilians, which include judges, clerics and locally or nationally elected officials, as attacking civilians violates fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

The organization said that these principles prohibit absolutely attacks on civilians as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. Such attacks cannot be justified under any circumstances.

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world and is used by millions of people and organizations, from regular users keeping a blog for friends and families to some of the biggest news blogs in the world with millions of monthly visitors each. WordPress.com is one of the biggest blog-hosting services in the world and is doing quite well f… (read more)

A judge has turned down the request for a new trial made by the lawyers of a former handyman convicted of killing seven people at a Palatine fast food restaurant.

Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan today affirmed James Degorski’s conviction for the 1993 murders at Brown’s Chicken and Pasta restaurant and a sentence of life in prison.

Degorski’s attorney Mark Levitt said he will be filing an appeal.

A jury convicted the 37-year-old Degorski in October. The same jury recommended Degorski be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ten jurors had wanted to sentence him to death, but two refused. A death penalty verdict must be unanimous.

Degorski’s high school friend and co-defendant, Juan Luna, was convicted in 2007. He’s also serving a life sentence.

–The Associated Press

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Filed under: Classics, Auctions

What a week to be in Arizona. Governor Jan Brewer declared a state of emergency yesterday following the worst storm that AZ has seen in decades, and not only are we spending the next several days here, but we’re actually going to be in a tent most of the time. Granted, Barrett-Jackson’s tent is the largest ever built by man and can probably withstand quite a storm, but for some reason that doesn’t make us feel much better.

Even so, the flooding, 50-mph wind gusts and tornadoes (yes, there was actually a tornado warning in Phoenix last night) won’t stop us from covering the annual auction week here in Scottsdale. It took a six-hour, white knuckle drive from Los Angeles, but we’re here and ready to soak in more fine classic cars than most people will see in their lifetime. We’ll be covering all the highlights from the Barrett-Jackson and RM auctions this weekend. Be sure to check back during the next few days for our live coverage, keep an eye on this page for updates, and browse through our preview gallery below.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Autoblog storms into Arizona for auction week originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ozzie Guillen believes Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano might have another career when his baseball days are over.

Zambrano stars with Guillen and Los Angeles Angels outfielder Bobby Abreu in an amusing soft drink commercial shown during televised Venezuelan Winter League baseball games.

The commercial shows Zambrano arguing with an umpire and getting ejected before tossing a baseball. Guillen and Abreu later join Zambrano, and the threesome share a laugh.

”They showed the real Zambrano,” Guillen laughed.

Sox pitcher Freddy Garcia worked in previous Pespi commercials in which Guillen’s wife Ibis helped organize last winter. Zambrano was the last one to participate in what’s called ”The Pepsi team.”

”I think he’s a great actor,” Guillen said of Zambrano. ”He’s very good. I think to me, everyone who starts doing it for the first time is the best one.”

By Mark Gonzales

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

The collapsing support for Ben Bernanke is directly owed to the Massachusetts election.

In a note that was just sent out to clients, Concept Capital reports that on Tuesday night, Democrats nervously caucused, and Senators voiced their concerns about supporting Bernanke.

Hill sources tell them the nomination is now seriously in doubt, though they’re not quite ready to proclaim him cooked.

Harry Reid (who is extremely weakened) apparently met with Bernanke today to lend him support and plot strategy.

Not surprisingly, Chris Dodd is another huge ally of Bernanke right now.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Obama Backs Bernanke, As Odds On InTrade Begin Sickening Plunge
• Uh-Oh: Now Senator Feingold To Vote Against Bernanke
• Wait, Is Ben Bernanke Fired Too?

With a “hello world” and a shout out to Ryan Seacrest, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has joined Twitter.

The world’s richest man just met the social media network where millions of users issue reports of 140 characters or less.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gates posted his first tweet: ” ‘Hello World.’ Hard at work on my foundation letter — publishing on 1/25.’ ”

The reference was to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit.

Gates’ office confirmed the Twitter account, @billgates, was the real Bill Gates. A Gates representative declined to give any more details about what topics Gates planned to discuss on Twitter.

Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the company was aware of the account but declined to comment further.

By the late afternoon, Gates had exchanged public messages with “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest and actor Ashton Kutcher.

He thanked Seacrest for his fundraising work on Haiti.

Kutcher received a “thank you” for welcoming Gates to Twitter.

In addition to nonprofits, news sites and Microsoft accounts, Gates chose to follow actress Ashley Tisdale and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Monmouth County, New Jersey | Instruments of Science

In the 1950s, the scientific community was split by two competing theories explaining the origin of the universe. On one side, adherents of the Steady State Theory believed that the universe was static and would remain forever unchanged. In these theorists’ minds, the universe had always existed in its current state.

Opponents of this explanation favored a more controversial history of the universe, known as the Big Bang. This theory, supported most notably by Georges Lemaître and George Gamow, suggested that the universe began with a cataclysmic explosion billions of years ago. In this scenario, the universe existed in an infinitely dense and infinitely hot state before the Big Bang caused its rapid expansion.

Though Edwin Hubble’s observations of receding galaxies in 1929 supported the notion of an expanding universe, no definitive evidence of the Big Bang existed until Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson pointed the Holmdel Horn Antenna to the sky. Penzias and Wilson, a pair of radio astronomers working at Bell Telephone Laboratories, first gained access to the instrument after advances in satellite technology made in 1962.

The antenna was originally built in 1959 to support NASA’s Project Echo, which bounced radio waves off metallic balloon satellites in order to transmit signals from one part of the globe to another. A few years later, the antenna’s sensitivity was increased in order to detect faint signals from Telstar, the first communications satellite capable of collecting, transmitting, and relaying signals rather than simply reflecting them.

With its high sensitivity and horn shape, which allowed for precise pointing, the antenna was ideal for conducting radio astronomy observations. This fact was immediately recognized by Penzias and Wilson, who began using the telescope to study emissions from the Milky Way. The astronomers soon became bogged down, however, by a mysterious background noise that was present wherever the instrument was pointed.

Penzias and Wilson made every attempt to explain the troublesome ‘static.’ They pointed the antenna towards New York City to check if humans were responsible. They even spent hours removing bird excrement (or as Penzias called it, “white dielectric material”) from the horn where pigeons were roosting. After all of their tests, the two men concluded that the noise was not coming from the Earth, the Sun, or the Milky Way. The only remaining explanation was that the source was outside of our own galaxy.

At the same time, a team of Princeton astrophysicists led by Robert Dicke was preparing a paper on the possibility of detecting leftover microwave radiation from the Big Bang. Although the energy released by the Big Bang would have been unfathomably high, Dicke’s team reasoned that the universe’s subsequent expansion would have shifted this radiation into the relatively low-energy radio regime. Upon hearing about the Princeton researcher’s work, Penzias and Wilson began to realize the significance of their mysterious background noise. The researchers contacted Dicke, who sent them a copy of the unpublished paper and was then invited to Holmdel to listen to the noise.

During Dicke’s visit, the scientists agreed that they had stumbled upon the cosmic microwave background radiation, the theorized remnants of the Big Bang. Dicke informed his team, “We’ve been scooped,” and in an act of scientific solidarity the two groups decided to publish their results jointly.

The scientific community immediately recognized the importance of such a discovery and in 1978 Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Harvard physicist and Nobel Laureate, Edward Purcell, even said of the finding, “It just may be the most important thing anybody has ever seen.” Aside from the implications for science and humankind in general, the discovery was also particularly important for cosmology: it represented a shift in the field from mostly theoretical work to the practice of direct observation.

Today, the Horn Antenna is a National Historic Landmark. Located just a few miles from Bell Laboratories, the 20-foot aluminum antenna is no longer in use and is open to the public. Though the entire apparatus weighs 18 tons, a force of only 100 pounds is sufficient to rotate the antenna along the horizontal axis. To ensure the instrument’s safety, it was designed to withstand 100 mph winds and to rotate freely when not in use, allowing it to settle in a position of minimum wind resistance.

In his latest article, “Packing a Series of Pluses,” New York Times tech columnist David Pogue went 1 for 2 in his phonetic terminology:

Apparently, the people in positions of power at Palm weren’t completely pleased with the plethora of P’s in the appellations “Palm Pre” and “Palm Pixi,” the app phones Palm produced for Sprint. Palm has now expanded the parade of P’s with a pair of improved products: the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus.
(We’ll pause while you repair your palate after all those plosives.)

Props to Pogue for working “plosives” in there, possibly a first in the history of the Times. But what’s up with the “palate” business? If he knows enough to identify /p/ as a voiceless bilabial plosive, he should also know that the palate doesn’t enter into its articulation.

But of course the alliteration was irresistible, not to mention the allusion to the expression “cleanse one’s palate” (where palate means not “‘roof of the mouth’ but ‘sense of taste’), so I suppose we can give Pogue a pass on this one.

(Hat tip, Greg Howard.)

[Update: Pogue actually is not the first Times writer to refer to “plosives.” A piece from August 16, 1972 by Francis Griffith entitled “A Better Idear” includes this line (accurate in its phonetics but appalling in its folk-phonetics):

Indigenous Brooklynites found the sounds of t and th, one plosive and the other fricative, incongruent for their easy-going ways, and therefore avoided them. They preferred d, a softer, lazier sound.

More recently it appeared in a 2001 article about a British voice coach who “stresses the difference among plosives, fricatives and affricates.” And former Times music critic Kelefa Sanneh used it a few times to talk about rapping styles (“spectacularly popped plosives,” “pop some plosives,” “distended vowels bounded by hyper-enunciated plosives.”)]

Already a hotly-contested race, the campaign for President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat is expected to get uglier and more expensive following today’s Supreme Court ruling that corporations and unions can spend as much as they want to sway voters.

“Big money is going to interject itself into federal elections,” said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

“And people with money always have an advantage over people without money.”

The high court’s ruling led the respective front runners in Illinois’ U.S. Senate primaries to start attacking each other on the issue before the Feb. 2 election has even taken place.

Read more on Clout Street at chicagotribune.com.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Apple Inc. officially alerted the world this month it is ready to unveil its latest tinkerings, which many in the tech industry are betting will be a multimedia tablet computing slate, on Wednesday morning.

The media hordes and analysts are being invited to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, where it is presumed company CEO Steve Jobs will show off the latest gadgets and services from Apple headquarters.

The invitation is as vague as it is inviting.

“Come see our latest creation,” the mass e-mail read. The Apple logo is emblazoned over a virtual painter’s palette splashed with colors.

The maker of iPhones, iPods and Macintosh PCs and laptops is known for jolting the tech world with its announcements. Tablet devices have been around for two decades and have failed to catch on with the mainstream buying public.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, tablets were being pitched by the likes of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. And e-readers, a form of tablet, are gaining some traction after the success of Kindle, Amazon’s wireless reading device.

Apple, though, is known for rearranging the markets of tech products.

“Apple loves to innovate around existing products,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. “They didn’t invent MP3 players, but they reinvented them. They didn’t invent smart phones, but they reinvented smart phones.”

As usual, Apple is not saying what will be shown off at the morning event. But the tech world has been buzzing for months with speculation and rumors about a thin computing slab that could change how people access and interact online with content, from newspapers to movies to games. I

t is expected to be priced in the $800-to-$1,000 range.

More than one product could be offered up, said Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty. Possible announcements could include a touch-screen iMac PC; a larger iPod Touch with a superior screen equipped with Wi-Fi for gaming; a 7-by-9-inch tablet that is a multimedia player; or even a laptop with a built-in tablet, perhaps a revamping of the ultrathin MacBook Air, he said.

The company’s innovative edge, Doherty said, likely will be more than just sleek hardware and smooth-running software. It will be a new business model for, say, renting and accessing Hollywood movies, just as the company changed the way people buy music and other content through its online iTunes store.

“Apple is probably going to beat them all to the punch with not just the hardware but a business model that satisfies more consumers, that is more consumer-centric,” he said.

Though multiple news outlets and bloggers have reported leaks out of Asia about an impending Apple tablet computing device, longtime Apple watcher Bajarin isn’t ready to say he is sure about anything that will or will not be released this month.

“One thing that is a little puzzling is that Apple is famous for the secrecy they demand from their suppliers,” he said. “This time around, the suppliers were singing like canaries. So right off the bat I’m suspicious. Who knows what this is about.”

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Africa, Globe | Electrical Oddities

For the implementation of the VLF or Very Low Frequency-Navigation System “OMEGA” in 1976, the US Coast Guard erected a 417 meter tall radio tower, which is taller than any man-made object existing today in the European Union!

Built near Paynesville in Liberia, it served together with seven other stations as part of a worldwide navigation system, and which could be used to communicate with submerged submarines. While VLF has a very low data transmission rate, one of the advantages of VLF is that, unlike higher frequencies, of say VHF or UHF, it can deeply penetrate seawater to reach submarines. (Frequencies such as VLF and ELF, extremely low frequency, have been cited as the casue behind disoriented and injured whales who communicate using the same wavelengths) However by the 1990s, the global satellite system and GPS made OMEGA obsolete and so OMEGA was shut-off on September 30th, 1997 and the station was given back to the government of Liberia.

Unfortunately during this period the government of Liberia was involved in a bloody civil war and had no use for the transmitter and the huge mast, which though it survived the civil war until today, continues to go unused. As there is no access restriction to the mast, it is theoretically possible it could be used for skydiving, powerful transmission experiments and Tesla experiments.

For those Tesla experiments however, one ought not forget, that Liberia is a country with a very unreliable electric power supply, so one should come with their own, very large, power generator.

A couple of weeks ago I had talked about how Toyota has said it will rollout 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for testing by 2013. Now, at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Toyota has said they will make “affordable” hydrogen FCVs available to the public by 2015.

According to Toyota North America spokesman, Irv Miller, “We plan to come to market in 2015, or earlier, with a vehicle that will be reliable and durable, with exceptional fuel economy and zero emissions, at an affordable price.”

The one caveat and it’s a big one is that Toyota says it will rollout these affordable vehicles if there is a hydrogen refueling infrastructure in place to support them. Now, this statement could have several meanings.

First, it could simply be that Toyota is blowing smoke since it knows that no nationwide H2 infrastructure will possibly in place by 2015, so this is simply a stall tactic. Second, if Toyota carries through with this promise it will put pressure on business and government to start in earnest building the needed infrastructure since the cars are ready.

Third, Toyota may mean a limited low production rollout of affordable hydrogen vehicles in fueling station cluster areas such as Los Angeles and New York. This scenario would make the most sense, because it would require the least investment by Toyota, would still put pressure on business and government and will still have the effect of showcasing its vehicles in two of the largest population centers in the U. S.

Toyota will most likely not make a profit on these vehicles. They will be “loss leader” items that will keep their name in the news and stimulate sales of their other vehicles. But, that’s Okay with hydrogen advocates such as myself. Whatever means the automakers can use to push H2 progress forward will appreciated by environmental advocates in the near term and profitable for the carmakers in the long-term.

I remember listening to a management consultant tell an audience about how handling e-mails determines what kind of person you are. He said that there were two types. The first group handled all their tough and involved e-mails (those that required lengthy responses, research, etc.) first, and then dealt with the other e-mails after they’d finished. That group was the one you wanted running companies, proving your innocence in a murder trial, etc. The second group first looked at all their joke e-mails, dirty picture e-mails, gossip e-mails, etc., and then went on to their more serious e-mails. That constituted 99% of people and is why I will never be a mover and a shaker, since I immediately knew I was in group #2.

Yesterday I noted a few comments by Warren B. about the tax on banks. In an effort to give equal time, many feel that a bank tax is fine. They say that because the government is already giving the banks money at 0% and the banks are buying treasuries and collecting 3%, or making mortgages and making 5%, so making money for them is not rocket science. And giving the profits to their executives doesn’t make sense.

I received several valuable comments yesterday about the new GFE form. One sharp mortgage banker in Santa Cruz, CA noted, “No one has thought about the bottom line impact to the IRS. Formerly you could only deduct origination points. Now all the origination costs are in a single box, which results in a greater deduction for the borrower!” “A lot of people didn’t know that you can include tax prorations in your bottom line. Now I put in on page 3 of the 1003.  With all these crazy changes making out bottom lines look larger than it really is we need all the help we can get. Not to mention for qualifying etc.”

“The new GFE does not have a signature line and I don’t believe it calculates cash to close. It only shows the costs of acquiring the loan. I think after a little experience with the new documents everyone will chill out.” “The borrowers do not sign the new GFE. The issue of not having a cash to close number on the GFE is one with which we are all struggling. Many are putting Cash-to-Close worksheets together. Giving them an old GFE violates the rules.”

“Where my office is the seller has to pay for owner’s title and taxes on the deed, yet we have to disclose it as a cost on the GFE. The GFE isn’t ‘the cash you need at closing’; it is just a total of all costs. We have page 3 of the 1003 handy when going over the GFE so they can see their actual cash needed at closing. In the case where we are forced to show a seller cost on the GFE, we include a page 3 credit to offset it, so the cash to close is still correct from the application.”

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day. Sometimes individual loan agents ask the owners of their company, “Dude, I know that I didn’t close any loans in the fourth quarter, but keep me on anyway – I am not costing the company anything, right?” Wrong.

Granted, some areas are more expensive, but I did a very informal poll of managers/owners on the cost of having producers. For retail agents, “The basic cost of overhead per agent is approximately $587 per agent per month. This is for the in-house agents that share an office. If they have an office by themselves, then the expense is $375 higher per month. The outside agents are $375 less. This doesn’t include the cost of the staff, which is an additional $843.75 per agent, whether inside or out.”

continue reading about costs of LO’s (lots of good stuff), the markets, rates, and joke of the day … <<< CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

You know The White House is getting nervous about Bernanke, because Obama just had to issue a statement calling him the right man for the job.

Suddenly this is looking like Obama-making-an-emergency-trip-to-Massachusetts-on-behalf-of-Martha-Coakley moment all over again.

CNBC, meanwhile, reports that Donald Kohn will take over for Bernanke if he’s not confirmed.

This InTrade chart shows the beginnings of the market losing faith in Wall Street’s best friend getting reconfirmed.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Uh-Oh: Now Senator Feingold To Vote Against Bernanke
• Wait, Is Ben Bernanke Fired Too?
• Liberals Fantasize About Firing Bernanke, And Replacing Him With Someone Who Will Quantitatively Ease Like Crazy

Digg has had an interesting year in 2009 as the site struggled to regain its identity in a world ruled by Twitter and Facebook. It mostly focused on revenue and apparently has managed to fix that particular problem and now it’s looking at growth again planning some radical changes to make the site relevant again as a news source. Talking with t… (read more)

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Misc. Auto Shows, UK, Racing

Following an earlier preview several months ago, British racing car manufacturer Ginetta finally took the wraps off its completed G40 sportscar at the ongoing Autosport International show in Birmingham, England.

Designed from the get-go as a racer, the G40 will make its first track appearance in the Ginetta Junior race series in support of the upcoming British Touring Car Championship season. Its 850-kg chassis is said to be 50 times stronger than minimum FIA crash-test requirements, and is motivated by a 1.8-liter Ford Zetec four-cylinder engine sourced from the European Focus and tuned for competition duty.

An initial batch of 26 units is currently underway, with prices starting at £24,950 (about $40k). Details in the press release after the jump and photos live from the show floor in the gallery below.

[Source: Ginetta]

Continue reading Ginetta G40 spec racer debuts at Autosport International

Ginetta G40 spec racer debuts at Autosport International originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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