Author: Serkadis

Article Tags: Doug L. Hoffman

A number of recent papers analyzing the nature of climate models have yielded a stunning result little known outside of mathematical circles—climate models like the ones relied on by the IPCC contain “irreducible imprecision.” According to one researcher, all interesting solutions for atmospheric and oceanic simulation (AOS) models are chaotic, hence almost certainly structurally unstable. Further more, this instability is an intrinsic mathematical property of the models which can not be eliminated. Analysis suggests that models should only be used to study processes and phenomena, not for precise comparisons with nature.

The ability to predict the future state of the Earth climate system, given its present state and the forcings acting upon it, is the holly grail of climate science. What is not fully appreciated by most is that,in the prediction of the evolution of that system, we are severely limited by the fact that we do not know with arbitrary accuracy the evolution equations and the initial conditions of the system. By necessity climate models work with a finite number of equations, from initial data determined with finite resolution from a finite set of observations. These limitations are further exacerbated by the addition of structural instability due to finite mesh discretization errors (the real world isn’t divided into boxes 10s or 100s of kilometers on a side; the impact of changing mesh size has been well documented in a number of recent studies).

Source: theresilientearth.com

Read in full with comments »   

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Organovo CEO Keith Murphy demonstrated the bio-printer for me several weeks ago, explaining that the technology was developed by Gabor Forgacs, a professor of biological physics at the University of Missouri. “The technology really sparked the germ of the company,” says Murphy, who previously spent 10 years at Thousand Oaks, CA-based Amgen.

Forgacs, a Hungarian who moved to the United States in the 1980s, founded Organovo in 2007 with more than $1 million in funding raised from angel investors in San Diego and elsewhere around the world, according to Murphy. The CEO says Forgacs gained a fundamental understanding of what it takes to artificially create human organs through painstaking studies of developing chicken embryos. As Murphy puts it, Forgacs literally wrote (or co-authored) the textbook, which is called “Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo.”

The field of tissue engineering has come a long way since the 1980s, when MIT’s Robert Langer developed methods of encouraging certain types of organ cells to grow on polymer scaffolding. In recent years, a number of researchers have begun experimenting with technology that uses modified inkjet printers to lay down precise patterns of cells that grow together to form tissue. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, demonstrated how researchers at Wake Forest use similar technology to grow a human ear, bladder, and heart muscle during a Ted Med presentation in San Diego three months ago.

Early demonstration of organ bio-printing

Forgacs showed in 2005 that it was possible to “print” a tube of living tissue, using droplets—or spheres—of viscous biological material from hamster ovary cells. When the cell spheres were printed in a ring and stacked on top of one another with the help of a supportive hydrogel, they fused together within 24 hours to form a tubular structure. Forgacs refined the technology under a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation that includes regenerative medicine scientists from Medical University of South Carolina, the New York Medical College, University of Utah, and other institutions. As Organovo’s Murphy puts it, the technology “really is about seeing this cellular self-assembly that occurs when these cells are put together. They already know how to behave and they just fuse together.”

Murphy says the startup moved to San Diego in late 2008 with a long-term goal of using the technology to create livers, kidneys, and other vital organs that are usually in short supply for patients in need of organ transplants. In the meantime, Organovo is expected to raise Series A venture funding sometime this summer. Murphy also says, “We’ve got to take the first steps to have commercially viable products in the short term.”

For the immediate future, Murphy says …Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:  

 
 
 

GateIn — the collaborative Portal project from Red Hat JBoss and eXo — has been making decent progress. A beta 4 was released recently the current timeline proposes final release in March, 2010. GateIn is jointly owned by eXo and Red Hat and is hosted on JBoss Community infrastructure.

Both Red Hat and eXo will use GateIn in their respective offerings.  Just to clear some confusion, Red Hat’s commercially supported Portal product is called JBoss Enterprise Portal Platform (EPP). EPP has many other components like the Portal CMS module, Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), Identity Module, and the JBoss Portal Project. It is this last Portal Project component that will get replaced by a version of GateIn project in the next version of EPP (version 5). EPP 5, which is slated to be released by May 2010, will also use eXo JCR (an implementation of JSR 170 by eXo), and will also later integrate eXo’s Web Content Management.

Similarly, eXo Platform will replace eXo Portal with GateIn project and will eventually certify all their other components to work with GateIn (and EPP).  This means that all their applications like eXo Social, eXo Collaboration, and so forth will use GateIn as the Portal runtime instead of the existing eXo Portal.

So what’s the big deal?

There are a couple of reasons that make this interesting. GateIn is not just a low-level framework like Struts or even a simple Portlet container, but a complete portal runtime, complete with bells and whistles getting reused across two platforms. The portal is now slowly becoming one component of an overall platform and in that sense getting "commoditized."  The partnership between Sun and Liferay under which Sun was planning to use Liferay’s Portal Server for their own version of Portal was another example. With Oracle acquiring Sun though, the future of that initiative is not clear.

If base portal functionality is becoming a commodity, how do vendors differentiate? (That’s a question many people ask when talking about standards as well.) Well, one way they differentiate is by building around the common component (or standard in case of discussion around that). In this case, JBoss differentiates by bringing in its middleware expertise and tighter integration with JBoss infrastructure, whereas eXo differentiates by building applications on top of this platform.

Finally, as I mentioned on twitter, this is a rather unique situation that has an impact on both vendors (and hence their customers). Red Hat for its part has committed to support its existing platform for five years (four more to go now) but the fact remains that they will not be doing any new development (apart from upgrading the Portlet Bridge) on JBoss Portal (the project) as Red Hat focuses on GateIn. Remember, GateIn is quite different from JBoss Portal and so for existing JBoss Portal customers its means a migration effort or committing to a legacy platform that will not see any new advancement.

So if you are evaluating Portal platforms, keep this in mind and make sure you understand clearly the respective vendors’ road maps and how they align with your requirements. We cover more details in our Portals evaluation research.

From multiple vendors using the same portal as a component to one vendor offering multiple different portals, these are interesting times for the portal marketplace…

Iguanas are not native to Florida but there is a thriving population of pets – and their descendants – released into the wild by irresponsible owners.

Some have suggested that now would be an opportune moment to cull the invasive South American species, which many view as a pest.

But Mr Magill warned: “I knew of a gentleman who was collecting them all in the street and throwing them in the back of his station wagon.

“All of a sudden as he’s driving along these things are coming along, crawling on his back and almost caused a wreck.”

Meanwhile off the Florida coast, hundreds of manatees have gathered in the warmer waters outside a power plant in Tampa Bay to keep out the chill.
Ron Magill of Miami Metrozoo has a warning for those who find the iguanas.

“I knew of a gentleman who was collecting them off the street and throwing them in the back of his station wagon, and all of a sudden these things are coming alive, crawling on his back and almost caused a wreck,” Magill said.

The stories of “kamikaze iguanas” plummeting from trees were urban legends in Florida, but now have a plausible explanation. Link (with video)

Related posts:

1. Scott And Erica Morning Show Live Streaming The historic team of Scott and Erica were the staple…
2. Jd Powers Car Reviews 2010 Information About J.D. Power and Associates Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif.,…
3. St Louis News, St Louis News Channel 5 Live Streaming Several employees in the building ran to the building’s rooftop…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Filed under: SUV, Mercedes-Benz, Diesel

Some of us are big fans of diesel engines. Huge fans even. We love the slow-revving grunt. We love the incredibly long time it takes them to run through a tank of fuel. We love lazily cruising at 70 mph while turning over less than 2,000 rpm. There’s even more to love, but we have to admit, none of us currently own a vehicle powered by a modern diesel engine that requires AdBlue, a urea-based solution that breaks down nitrogen oxide in exhaust gases that’s required for some diesel-powered vehicle to meet strict emissions standards. If we did, we might be a little irked like Tom Mutchler over at Consumer Reports.

Mutchler recently took the publication’s diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz GL320 BluTec to a dealer because a warning light indicated that the SUV was low on AdBlue. The total bill for a refill? $316.99! The GL gulped 7.5 gallons of this costly solution, which accounted for $241.50 of the total bill. For those who don’t do math, that’s $32.20/gallon. Labor and tax accounted for the remainder, which is also shocking considering the only labor involved was twisting a cap and pouring.

It took CR about 16,566 miles to run low on AdBlue, which means they’ll be spending $1,457.80 on the stuff over 100,000 miles. Sure, that may not be a lot of money for someone who just purchased a $67,000 SUV, but Mutchler makes a good point reminding us that BMW covers that cost for its diesel-powered vehicles up to 50,000 miles.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

Consumer Reports pays $32.20/gallon to fill up on AdBlue originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AP Top 25

RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Alabama (60) 14-0 1500
2 Texas 13-1 1399
3 Florida 13-1 1370
4 Boise State 14-0 1366
5 Ohio State 11-2 1224
6 TCU 12-1 1163
7 Iowa 11-2 1126
8 Cincinnati 12-1 1060
9 Penn State 11-2 1016
10 Virginia Tech 10-3 953
11 Oregon 10-3 886
12 Brigham Young 11-2 806
13 Georgia Tech 11-3 768
14 Nebraska 10-4 724
15 Pittsburgh 10-3 697
16 Wisconsin 10-3 571
17 LSU 9-4 501
18 Utah 10-3 491
19 Miami (FL) 9-4 310
20 Mississippi 9-4 296
21 Texas Tech 9-4 224
22 USC 9-4 216
23 Central Michigan 12-2 166
24 Clemson 9-5 125
25 West Virginia 9-4 91

Others receiving votes: Oklahoma 90, Oregon State 89, Navy 85, Stanford 67, Oklahoma State 40, Rutgers 37, Auburn 8, Georgia 7, Florida State 6, Connecticut 5, Arizona 5, Middle Tennessee 4, Air Force 3, Arkansas 3, Villanova 2

Rank Team (first-place votes) Record Points Final regular season rank
1. Alabama (58) 14-0 1,450 1
2. Texas 13-1 1,360 2
3. Florida 13-1 1,323 5
4. Boise State 14-0 1,312 6
5. Ohio State 11-2 1,190 8
6. TCU 12-1 1,104 3
7. Iowa 11-2 1,087 11
8. Penn State 11-2 1,071 9
9. Cincinnati 12-1 943 4
10. Virginia Tech 10-3 940 12
11. Oregon 10-3 846 7
12. Brigham Young 11-2 814 14
13. Georgia Tech 11-3 741 10
14. Nebraska 10-4 671 19
15. Pittsburgh 10-3 667 16
16. Wisconsin 10-3 587 22
17. LSU 9-4 530 13
18. Utah 10-3 466 24
19. Miami (Fla.) 9-4 336 15
20. Southern California 9-4 217 NR
21. Mississippi 9-4 192 NR
22. West Virginia 9-4 159 17
23. Texas Tech 9-4 152 NR
24. Central Michigan 12-2 123 NR
25. Oklahoma State 9-4 92 18

Others receiving votes: Navy (10-4) 89; Oregon State (8-5) 78; Clemson (9-5) 75; Oklahoma (8-5) 67; Stanford (8-5) 49; Auburn (8-5) 17; Georgia (8-5) 13; Houston (10-4) 12; Middle Tennessee (10-3) 12; Arizona (8-5) 11; Arkansas (8-5) 10; Connecticut (8-5) 10; Florida State (7-6) 9; Air Force (8-5) 7; Rutgers (9-4) 7; Northwestern (8-5) 6; East Carolina (9-5) 4; Southern Methodist (8-5) 1.

© fanblogs.com

View the original post or comment on Final College Football Poll Results…

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced organization and leadership changes within its Integrated Defense Systems unit that continue to reposition the company for growth in the current business environment.

The realignment is effective immediately, and the unit will begin operating under a new name: Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

In announcing the changes, Boeing Defense, Space & Security President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the realignment is part of a continuing effort to successfully compete in a rapidly evolving global defense and security marketplace.

Muilenburg said that reshaping the unit positions Boeing for further growth in new and adjacent markets while continuing to serve existing defense and space customers.

“Boeing anticipated flattening defense budgets and shifting customer priorities for the past few years and has been taking aggressive steps to position the company for profitable growth in a challenging economy,” Muilenburg said.

“In the past 18 months alone, we have acquired seven companies to enhance existing capabilities, expanded Boeing’s services business, and created new divisions — like Unmanned Airborne Systems — to directly and rapidly respond to our customers’ emerging priorities.

“With these latest strategic moves, we can extend our core programs even as we enhance Boeing-wide capabilities designed to capture business in promising markets in the United States and around the world, including cyber-security, energy, intelligence, C4ISR and logistics,” Muilenburg said.

The scope of change in Boeing’s business environment is further reflected in the decision to rename Integrated Defense Systems, a name the unit has carried since 2002, when the company consolidated its military aircraft and space businesses.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a recognition that success in a highly competitive global arena will be determined by a company’s ability to offer and deliver new capabilities, products and services to meet complex customer demands.

“As Boeing sustains and grows its core global defense business through solid execution, we are also playing a broader role in markets that go beyond Boeing’s traditional strengths,” Muilenburg said.

“As we grow in these areas, it is important for us to send strong signals to our global customers that we are prepared to offer high-value Boeing solutions for all of their needs across defense, space and security domains.”

While Boeing Defense, Space & Security will retain its current operating units — Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA), Network and Space Systems (N&SS), and Global Services & Support (GS&S) — the realignment consolidates some divisions and makes a number of leadership changes.

Chief among the moves is consolidation of two divisions in N&SS: The Combat Systems division and the Command, Control & Communications (C3) Networks division will be unified as the new Network and Tactical Systems division.

Muilenburg also announced several key leadership assignments at the Boeing Defense, Space & Security level and throughout the business units that will help the company improve productivity, manage its cost structure and deliver on customer commitments:

• Rick Baily is named vice president, Engineering and Mission Assurance; prior to this, Baily was vice president/general manager of Combat Systems.
• Nan Bouchard is named vice president, Program Management; she previously served as vice president/general manager, C3 Networks.
• Dave Bowman is named BMA vice president/general manager, Global Mobility Systems and International Tankers; he previously served as vice president, Tanker Programs.
• Jean Chamberlin is named BMA vice president/general manager, U.S. Air Force Tanker Program; prior to this, she served as vice president, Global Mobility Systems.
• Steve Goo is named vice president, International Operations and Compliance; he adds international compliance to his responsibilities. He will oversee all BDS international legal entities in Australia, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
• Bill Schnettgoecke is named vice president, Operations and Supplier Management; Schnettgoecke previously served in a deputy role to this position, and succeeds John Van Gels.
• Torbjorn Sjogren is named GS&S vice president of the Boeing International Support Systems and Alsalam Aircraft Co. subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia; previously, he served as GS&S vice president, International Support Systems.
• Charles Toups is named N&SS vice president/general manager of Network and Tactical Systems; he had served as vice president, Engineering and Mission Assurance.
• John Van Gels is named vice president, Strategic Planning for Operations and Supplier Management; he previously was vice president, Operations and Supplier Management.

A number of structural changes complement these leadership moves:

• In BMA, the Weapons business becomes a division with a direct reporting relationship to BMA; it had been a subdivision of the BMA Global Strike Systems division.
• In N&SS, the Heath, Ohio, and Ogden, Utah, facilities will now report to the Missile Defense Systems division; previously, they reported to the N&SS C3 Networks division.
• GS&S operations in Australia will report to Jim O’Neill, vice president/general manager, Integrated Logistics division. Aviation Training International Ltd., a joint venture for Apache helicopter training with AgustaWestland in the United Kingdom, will report to Mark McGraw, vice president, Training Systems and Services division. Both entities previously reported to International Support Systems.

About Boeing Defense, Space and Security

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.

MEDIA CONTACT:Daniel Beck, 703-414-6447
External Communications
[email protected]

Eriez’ revolutionary Model 26C Vibratory Feeder, a rugged AC-operated unit, enables linear, exact feeding of large quantities of bulk materials. Eriez electromagnetic feeders offer a cost effective, sanitary alternative to screw feeders.

Model 26C is designed for feeding up to four tons (3.6 MT) per hour and features a totally enclosed, dust and moisture resistant patented electromagnetic drive, which extends coil life and makes cleaning easier. Plus, the simple AC controls operate the feeder with “watch–like” precision.

This innovative feeder features a Hi-Vi Magnetic Drive Circuit, powered by alternately opposing and attracting magnetic forces, which assures low maintenance. There are no sliding or rotating parts, power consumption is low and installation is easy.

Old–style electromagnetic vibratory equipment operates with an inefficient attract-release system: a spring–mounted moving mass is alternately attracted by a rectified pulsating DC electromagnet and returned to its original position solely by the springs.

The Eriez® Hi–Vi system, on the other hand, incorporates a lifetime permanent magnet (part of a spring–mounted moving mass) whose poles are intermeshed with those of an electromagnet powered directly by an AC line. This results in the spring–mounted moving mass being both attracted and repelled by the AC electromagnet equally on each half of the AC cycle.

With Model 26C, customers get all the features that for years have made Eriez feeders the leaders in quality and dependability.

Eriez is recognized as world authority in advanced technology for magnetic, vibratory and inspection applications. The company’s magnetic lift and separation, metal detection, x-ray, materials feeding, screening, conveying and controlling equipment have application in the process, metalworking, packaging, recycling, mining, aggregate and textile industries. Eriez manufactures and markets these products through ten international facilities located on six continents. For more information, call toll-free (888) 300-ERIEZ (3743) within the U.S. and Canada. For online users, visit www.eriez.com or send e-mail to [email protected]. Eriez World Headquarters is located at 2200 Asbury Road, Erie, PA 16506.

With the current economic climate causing a slow down in most industries, many businesses are looking at ways to reduce expenditure without compromising on production. To help both the bottom line and keep up with competitors a viable solution would be to repair, improve and maintain existing equipment. Spooner Industries, a world leader in forced convection technology, has developed a Technical Services Division to do just that.

Complimenting the company’s long established capabilities in the design and manufacture of industrial drying, cooling, baking and proving machinery, the new division allows new and existing customers to take full advantage of repair, services and support systems that will optimize reliability, reduce downtime, improve energy efficiency and reduce costs.

Spooner’s Sales & Marketing Director, Steve Newell said, “With the present economic downturn it makes sense to repair and maintain existing equipment. The Technical Services Division has been developed by our team of specialist engineers to ensure you achieve optimum efficiency from all your process machinery.”

Spooner has also launched a new range of energy saving and air pollution control products. The new range, being manufactured under the Spooner Anguil name, is the result of partnership formed between Spooner Industries and US based Anguil Environmental Systems for whom Spooner has become the European licensee. Anguil has over 30 years of experience providing VOC and HAP abatement technologies to companies around the world.

The Environmental Systems product range includes thermal and catalytic oxidisers, heat exchangers, energy recovery systems and pollution abatement equipment for chlorinated emissions in addition to Spooner’s well established range of forced air convection equipment.

Anguil has a strong reputation and state of the art air pollution control technologies. The partnership allows Spooner to design, engineer and manufacture oxidiser equipment in-house and offer industrial facilities in Europe a single source solution for their dryer, oven and air pollution control needs.

Based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Spooner Industries has over 75 years experience in forced convection baking, proving, cooling and drying for a range of industries, including food, paper, non wovens, converting, pharmaceuticals and metals.

Scapa 2701 is a general purpose plasticised PVC tape, 0.13mm thick, suitable for all splicing, cable bundling, colour coding applications or for primary electrical insulation up to 600 volts.

World class, inspired, market driven team, focused on optimising customer and shareholder value through responsible, agile delivery of specialist tape solutions.

As a market-led organisation, our marketing and technical teams are continuously evaluating client needs, in order to meet their evolving requirements. Our sales people are experienced in working with you to find the right solution for your product and business needs, while our technical service and customer care teams ensure your ongoing satisfaction.

As a specialist provider of bonding solutions, with an unrivalled range of adhesive tapes, films and foams, Scapa offers customers the benefit of dealing with a core supplier and manufacturer. With customer and market understanding as leading principles, Scapa is committed to a partnership approach with its customers.

Leveraging our global presence and experience in fast-moving markets, Scapa is able to meet customer requirements swiftly. Building on these strengths, Scapa is in an excellent position to deliver sustainable customer and shareholder value.

If you tire of your own personal Top 40 songs, you can use the iFM to plug in and tune in to the Radio’s Top 40. The iFM actually wakes up the embedded Apple radio control software on your iPod. A free download on the Apple store of Griffin’s application and you are good to go. It has the ability to compose preset favorite stations and tag your favorite songs so you can purchase them. Available soon for $40 on Griffin’s site.

We’ve been hard at work crafting a real-time lineup for paidContent:2010 and we’re pleased to announce the latest additions, led by a Q&A with Hilary Schneider, Yahoo’s EVP for North America. Schneider’s responsibilities include advertising sales, partnerships and programming as well as the company’s global mobile business. Schneider, the former CEO of Knight Ridder Digital, was integral in launching the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, partnerships with publishers to expand Yahoo’s local reach and their online revenues—one of the subjects she’ll discuss when we meet on February 19 at TheTimesCenter in New York.

Our new panelists bring a mix of experience and perspectives from cable, mobile gaming, search and large-scale online publishing: Bruce Campbell, President, Digital Media and Corporate Development, Discovery Communications;; Josh Cohen, senior business product manager, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) News; Shawn Colo, co-founder of Demand Media; Bart Decrem, co-founder and CEO, Tapulous; KC Estenson, General Manager, CNN.com; Marty Moe, SVP-AOL (NYSE: AOL) Media. (The full list of speakers confirmed so far.)

Our areas of focus will include:

»  The truth about the subscription business: Digital subscriptions are all the rage now, but the idea is far from new—and far from a sure thing. How do companies evolve the idea that worked for newspapers and magazines for so long?

»  The rise of content super-distributors: Are content-generating machines like Demand Media, Associated Content, Mahalo and About.com – driven largely by SEO and Google – the future for a big subsector of the content industry?

»  The age of the big-media JV: What lessons can be learned from past failures, and what happens when companies that haven’t been able to crack the code on their own, band together for scale, reach and sales power?

»  Parsing the mobile/e-reader boom: Is the hybrid model (premium+ads) the answer, or are there more promising models still in the works?

Register today for the special early bird rate of $885

Judge Rules Chicago Transit Authority Cannot Ban Computer and Video Game Ads

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) a preliminary injunction in its suit against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the ESA said today.

The case, which the ESA filed in July 2009, challenges CTA’s prohibition of certain computer and video game advertisements as a violation of the guarantees of free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In her opinion, Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer stated, “…the advertisements the CTA wishes to ban promote expression that has constitutional value and implicates core First Amendment concerns.”

“This ruling is a win for Chicago’s citizens, the video game industry and, above all, the First Amendment,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers.

“It is our hope that the CTA sees the futility of pursuing this case further. To do so will waste taxpayer money and government resources. Chicago deserves better and we look forward to bringing this matter to an end.”

ESA argued that CTA’s Ordinance 008-147, which took effect in January 2009, unfairly targeted the entertainment software industry by prohibiting any advertisement that “markets or identifies a video or computer game rated ‘Mature 17+’ (M) or ‘Adults Only 18+’ (AO).”

The ESA further contended the ordinance unconstitutionally “restricts speech in a public forum that is otherwise open to all speakers without a compelling interest for doing so.”

In addition, the ESA’s complaint stated that the ordinance impermissibly discriminates on the basis of viewpoint and ignores less restrictive means of achieving the supposed ends of the ordinance. The court ruled that the ESA was likely to succeed on the merits of these claims at trial and, therefore, blocked enforcement of the ordinance until the case could be finally resolved.

The ESA also contended that the CTA’s ordinance is unnecessary because game-related marketing is already subject to the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s Advertising Review Council, which strictly regulates computer and video game advertisements that are seen by the general public.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board assigns computer and video games ratings and content descriptors, which are both displayed on advertisements for those games.

The Entertainment Software Association is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet.

The ESA offers services to interactive entertainment software publishers including a global anti-piracy program, owning the E3 Expo, business and consumer research, federal and state government relations, First Amendment and intellectual property protection efforts.

For more information, please visit theESA.com.

Vuzix can make glasses with built in stereoscopic cameras that can seamlessly blend computer-generated imagery and your real world environment together, but they can’t make them look cool?

Of course, it doesn’t seem like anyone in the business of high tech eyewear has any sense of style. Apparently, they all want us walking around looking like Geordi or Blade. Still, if you can get past the looks, here’s what the Wrap 920AR glasses can offer:

The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space

Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:

• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99

The idea of video game characters hanging out in my living room or viewing web links published in magazines or books on the internet in real time sounds intriguing, but I’m not quite ready to spend $800 to look like an idiot quite yet. If you are, expect the glasses to be available in the second quarter of this year.

Vuzix to Introduce Revolutionary Augmented Reality Wrap 920AR Video Eyewear at 2010 International CES

Las Vegas, NV – January 6th, 2010 – Vuzix Corporation (TSX-V: VZX), the leader in video eyewear for the mainstream consumer, defense and low vision markets, will debut the Wrap 920AR eyewear complete with a stereo camera pair that “looks” into the world, bringing mixed and augmented reality content to life. With the new Wrap 920AR, users can view the real-world environment and computer-generated imagery seamlessly mixed together; allowing video game characters to jump out of the TV and come to life in your living room, or magazines and books with animated links back to the web in real time.

The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space. Selected as a 2010 CES Innovations Award winner and a semifinalist for the “Last Gadget Standing” competition, the Wrap 920AR will be the highlight of Vuzix’ display at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show.

“The Wrap 920AR offers the world’s only sunglass styled Augmented Reality experience” said Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers. “This state-of-the-art video eyewear, offers consumers an AR solution only available in handheld devices to date, merging the real world with the digital in a pair of glasses makes for world changing experiences from industry to gaming,” adds Travers. “With the Wrap 920 AR, Vuzix brings exclusive new capabilities to the consumer.”

The Wrap 920AR’s stereo camera assembly and 6-DoF Tracker will also be available separately for upgrading existing Wrap video eyewear.
Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:

• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99

Expected availability for the Wrap 920AR is 2nd quarter of 2010. For specific product or company information, please visit www.vuzix.com.

The latest research from the Center for American Progress finds that the U.S. could reap $1.5 trillion in economic benefits by legalizing its vast population of unauthorized workers.

Essentially, they argue that the costs of enforcing a broken system are massive, and do nothing in the long-term. Thus legalize them.

CAP: The current enforcement-only approach to unauthorized immigration is not cost effec- tive and has not deterred unauthorized immigrants from coming to the United States when jobs are available. Rather, enforcement-only policies have wasted billions of taxpayer dollars while pushing unauthorized migration further underground. And these policies have produced a host of unintended consequences: more deaths among border crossers, greater demand for people smugglers, less “circular migration” in favor of more “permanent settlement” among unauthorized immigrants, and further depressed wages in low-wage labor markets.

Significant declines in unauthorized immigration have historically occurred only during downturns in the U.S. economy when U.S. labor demand is damp- ened. And declining birth rates in Mexico will likely accomplish what tens of billions of dollars in border enforcement clearly have not: a reduction in the supply of migrants from Mexico who are available for jobs in the United States.

Read the full Center of American Progress report here >

(Via Paul Kedrosky)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Obama Tells Immigration Reformers They Are At The Back Of The Line
• Immigrants Hammered By Foreclosures
• 12-13 Killed In Hostage Standoff At Binghamton Immigration Center

Diesels are slowly starting to get popular in the United States, with German automakers leading the front with diesel variants of their most popular gasoline models.

Of course there are some obvious benefits to diesel over gasoline, including the increase in fuel-economy, a boost in torque and the final price differential over gasoline models is generally much smaller than that for hybrids. Nonetheless, diesel fuel is a bit pricier than gasoline, which may be the reason why Americans still seem to be a bit hesitant about purchasing them.

So we figured we’d ask you guys whether or not you would consider buying a diesel over a gasoline model? If yes, then which one? Some choices you have include the 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI, 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, 2010 Volkswagen Touareg TDI, BMW 335d, BMW X5 xDrive35d, 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML350 BlueTEC, 2010 Mercedes-Benz GL350 BlueTEC, 2010 Mercedes-Benz R350 BlueTEC, Audi A3 TDI and the Audi Q7 TDI.

– By: Omar Rana

TNDTE has put Diploma Results 2008 on the srevers of website www.squarebrothers.com.
Click any one of these these mirror links of 4 severs to get your DOTE october2008 result.
Mirror 1

Mirror 2

Mirror 3

Mirror 4

http://results.squarebrothers.com/diploma-results/dec2008/

Drop your registration no. in commenting section to get your result by mail.
Update as of 4th DEC 2008:
Following notifications are available on the TNDTE website.

QUESTION PAPER REQUIREMENT FOR GRACE CHANCE JAN-2009 EXAMINATION

http://www.tndte.com/QPR-Jan_2009.pdf

GRACE CHANCE – JANUARY2009 – TIME TABLE

http://www.tndte.com/Grace_chance.htm

The results for the Tamilnadu Diploma in Technical Education will come soon, kindly check this space for the most recent and updated information regarding this. According to some online sources, these results will be made online and all the students who had appeared for these exams can take this facility of going through their results online.

The location of the online website to get the results is

http://www.tndte.com/results/index.html

For some reason this website is currently not working – may be it is under maintenance or may be there is too much load on it by students across India or Tamil Nadu who are queuing up to check their examination results for TNDTE 2008.

Students who qualify for the exams in these tests will be eligible for admission to various colleges and institutes in Tamil Nadu who offer different courses in Technical Diploma.

Read more: TNDTE 2009 Results for Tamilnadu Diploma

Related posts:

1. Tndte Diploma Results October 2008 Information TNDTE has put Diploma Results 2008 on the srevers of…
2. Tndte Results, Tndte Results 2009 & Tndte Diploma Results 2009 Find your Result 2009 of Diploma by just entering your…
3. Bharathiar University Ug Results 2009 Information The Bharathiar University is the University of Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore….

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.