Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, BMW, Luxury

You can’t buy the 2011 BMW 5 Series yet, but German tuner Racing Dynamics knows what it’s going to do to the car when you can. Opt for the 535i and you’ll take delivery of a sedan turned into an R35, pulled by a turbocharged six that’s got a 104-horsepower bump to 410 along with 385 pound-feet of torque. It will get to 60 miles per hour nearly a second faster than the standard 535i.

But if you can, why not take the R50S? That’s a 550i taken from 407 ponies and boosted up to 620 horsepower. Controlling that oomph will be a Racing Dynamics sport suspension, locking rear differential, and a brake system with slotted discs that can handle 800 degrees Celsius. Making it sound good will be a new exhaust, and making it look good will be a minimal bodykit featuring a pair of dual pipes and 21-inch forged wheels.

[Source: Bimmer Today (translated) via BMW Blog]

2011 BMW 5 Series tuned by Racing Dynamics originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Article Tags: Doug L. Hoffman

In an essay adapted from his 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting keynote address, James J. McCarthy has produced a fairly concise statement of the anthropogenic global warming believer’s world view. After a self-serving review of climate science history, McCarthy trots out the usual litany of climate change troubles: increased cyclones, rain and floods, rising sea levels and, of course, those pesky tipping points. The tone of the article is set early on, when research is cited stating that mankind’s impact on Earth is “sufficiently profound to declare that we have transitioned from the Holocene era of Earth history to the Anthropocene.”

McCarthy, professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard and outgoing president of the AAAS, has done an admerable job in summarizing the main stream, “concensus view” version of climate science. His article, titled “Reflections On: Our Planet and Its Life, Origins, and Futures,” appeared in the December 18, 2009, issue of the AAAS journal Science. He begins with a quick rundown of how the CO2 centric AGW theory developed—a history that could have been cribbed from The Resilient Earth.

Source: theresilientearth.com

Read in full with comments »   

Not to alarm y’all, but those millimeter wave body scanners that have been paraded around as the solution to would-be airplane terrorist attacks? Turns out they’re sorta useless in that, while they’re able to detect dense material (C4, metal, traditional bombs, etc.), they’re completely ineffective against less dense material. And wouldn’t you know it, the powdered explosive that was to have been used in the Christmas plot would not have been detected by the scanners. As Jay-Z would say, on to the next one.

Right, so the millimeter wave scanners—the ones that create a crude image of a nude human being (gasp!)—would not have prevented that Christmas bomb plot because the materials involved (some sort of powdered explosive) aren’t dense enough to be picked up by the scanners. Meaning that if you see any politician (or pundit or whomever) trying to say, “We need these new scanners ASAP; we may not be so lucky next time,” well, kindly point them in the direction of Ben Wallace, who was involved in the development of said scanners before he became an MP in the UK.

The bottom line is, the millimeter wave scanners simply wouldn’t have detected the powered explosive. Now, had the guy tried to smuggle C4 in his underpants that would have been a different story, but that didn’t happen.

And you’ve got to think that for every device that’s developed to help detect illicit materials, the bad guys, however you want to define that, are just as hard at work trying to circumvent said device. It’s not ideal, no.

So now privacy advocates, people who feel the millimeter wave scanners amount to an invasion of privacy have another talking point: they patently would not have foiled the attempt.

(When you think about it, the entire response to the botched attack has been a bit of a joke. Look at the new TSA regulations: people can’t move about a flight in the last hour. What, an attack can’t happen in the time preceding the final hour? You can’t have personal items on your person during the last hour, including blankets and pillows because you could be hiding something underneath… as if a woman’s dress isn’t just as effective at concealment.)

In short, the scanners aren’t going to make you or I any safer than what’s already in place.

And now we wait for the manufacturer of said scanners, or the politician in the manufacturer’s home state, to claim that they’re perfectly effective and that every airport all over the world needs several of them installed now.

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store

When you’re trying to live a more healthy lifestyle, it takes more than just watching your weight and exercising. Experts agree that you should eat a balanced diet, drink at least eight glasses of water per day, sleep well, and take nutritional supplements.

That’s the idea behind Healthy Me [US$0.99, iTunes Link] from developer Teddy Newell. Healthy Me features a simple and colorful interface for watching your weight approach your goal as well as tracking how many servings of the major food groups you’ve eaten, whether or not you exercised, and more.

Since it’s always nice to receive positive feedback when you’ve done something good for your body, Healthy Me gives you gold stars for achieving certain goals, as well as providing positive reinforcement through happy messages. The background of the app changes throughout the day, and there are even fun sound effects that play as you enter your daily info.

Newell has provided TUAW with 20 promo codes to give away, so you have a chance to win Healthy Me. The details follow:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us if you made a health-related New Year’s resolution and if so, what that resolution is.
• The comment must be left before Monday, January 4, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Twenty winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Healthy Me (Value: US$0.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

My next wish is for an app that I can just point my iPhone camera at to see how many calories I’m about to consume. Developers — get to work!

TUAWHealthy Me: Another TUAW giveaway to help your New Year’s resolutions originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

The world needs another wireless HD system like it needs another thousand gallons of goop spinning in the middle of the Pacific, but regardless of the facts, ProVision is set to introduce one such system at CES this week. According to details scrounged up by Pocket-lint, the AXAR technology will function much like WHDI does currently. The difference? Increased range and a knack for distributing to more than just an HDTV. It’s expected that AXAR will find its way into TVs, set-top boxes and a range of network devices in time for Christmas 2010, where it will allow any AXAR-enabled device (a laptop, phone, PMP, HDTV, PC, etc.) to receive 1080p content from a media player, Blu-ray player or similar. Better still, it can also distribute those signals to WiFi-enabled products if your network can handle it. Currently, the tech can support two separate HD streams at the same time, and it can broadcast ‘em to a living space that’s three times that of the Buckingham Palace. We’ll be sure to poke our nose around for more at CES, but in the meanwhile, feel free to catch a few first impressions down in the source link.

ProVision’s AXAR to wirelessly stream HD content to just about anything originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Pocket-lint  | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

Top 10 PSP Games of 2010

The PSP defies its lackluster reputation with a strong and varied lineup for 2010.

By 1UP Staff

If the DS is the portable RPG and adventure machine, then we’d consider the PSP the portable “all sorts of games” system. Which, to be fair, maintains the PSP’s original mandate in being a portable version of a home console. We’ve occasionally joked about the sparse and uninteresting PSP lineup, but once you take an honest look at 2010, it’s time to admit that the PSP jokes have been worn thin. It’s hard to be snarky about a lineup that includes a new Metal Gear Solid, Valkyria Chronicles, and Resident Evil on it.

<!– 10. –> Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Dev: Kojima Productions | Pub: Konami

Who would have thought that a full-fledged installment in the Metal Gear Solid series would be headed to the PSP? Hideo Kojima’s latest opus drops you into Big Boss’ sneaking suit once again and adds yet another chapter in the already completely off-the-wall story inhabited by characters named after animals and snakes of various physical states. Even though MGS has historically been a single player experience, Peace Walker tries its hand at cooperative play and seems to have pulled it off as Jeremy Parish suggests, “Kojima wants you to play this with a friend, and you should.”

<!– 10. –> Valkyria Chronicles 2

Dev: Sega | Pub: Sega

Whether you considered Valkyria Chronicles to be a really good strategic RPG with an awesome visual style, or a fantastic HD-generation update to the tactical gameplay of Jagged Alliance, you came to the same basic conclusion we did: it was an awesome PS3 game. While it’s a bit saddening to not see another HD-generation follow-up, the fact that we’re getting any sort of sequel is still good news. Not only does this follow-up maintain the class-based real/turn-based strategic gameplay of the original, but it also adds some new classes and multiplayer modes. Plus, it fits in your pocket.

<!– 10. –> MLB 10: The Show

Dev: SCEA | Pub: SCEA

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Facebook seems a bit neurotic about the news feed. Last March they made it a Twitter-like stream of everything by default. Then in October they switched back to using an algorithm to determine what stuff you see from friends. Now the company is asking users what they think.

In a survey Facebook is asking some users to tell them how they “feel” about the news feed. One question ask “How have the following affected how you feel about your Facebook experience?” Users are asked to respond to “trouble keeping up with all the posts in my News Feed” with “made me feel a lot worse” to “made me feel a lot better.”

Normally a survey would just ask if people like something or not. But Facebook seems concerned with causing stress and guilt to users by throwing too much information at them. I guess some users, feeling overwhelmed, may just give up on the news feed altogether (this is common with Google Reader, where people fall so far behind that they just give up).

Facebook is trying to solve a big problem – personalized news – that hasn’t really been solved by anyone yet. Asking users what they think isn’t likely to give them the answers they want.

A lot of the questions also deal with privacy and user confusion over what information about them gets published for others to see. Too many privacy options combined with frequent changes to how Facebook deals with privacy is clearly leaving users confused and frustrated.

The pure Twitter approach is at least understandable – you see everything from everyone you follow, and if there’s too much info you just stop following people. And accounts are either public or private. Simple and easy to understand. Facebook should just do the simple thing that works. In my opinon.

Here’s the survey:

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Article Tags: UK Independence party (UKIP)

Several UKIP MEPs speak out against the sham of ‘man-made global warming’, carbon taxes and global pillage and impoverishment.

The theory of ‘man-made global warming’ has been disproven over and over again by science — study after study. There is absolutely no proof that man-made CO2 heats up the atmosphere. The polar ice caps are at their normal size. No polar bears or penguins are losing their habitats or drowning (in fact, these animals are natural born swimmers….). The world has been cooling since 2001. The recent scandal of CLIMATEGATE was the last nail in the coffin of whatever scientific credibility the theory still had — since it proved the main authors of the IPCC reports systematically engaged in data fudging and manipulation to prove their nonsensical theory.

Source: climategate.com

Read in full with comments »   

Article Tags: John O'Sullivan

Hi,

I work for climategate.com, a campaign website staffed by dedicated volunteers. We are looking to garner support from you and other like-minded sites in any way you see fit. We seek publicity or other such assistance that you and your readers may be able to give freely to support our latest initiative. We are offering a multi-million dollar legal and financial package as an incentive to whistleblowers from Penn State Uni. who are willing to come forward and give evidence to assist a prosecution of climatologist, Michael Mann.

Please read our story for more details, it is already being run in the British national press (Climategate: Michael Mann’s very unhappy New Year by James Delingpole)

Many thanks,

John O’Sullivan
www.climategate.com

Read in full with comments »   

Article Tags: ClimateGate, Headline Story, James Delingpole

As I said yesterday, one of our jobs this year is to wipe the complacent smiles off the smug faces of the lobbyists, “experts”, “scientists”, politicians and activists pushing AGW.

This is why I am so glad to report that Michael Mann – creator of the incredible Hockey Stick curve and one of the scientists most heavily implicated in the Climategate scandal – is about to get a very nasty shock. When he turns up to work on Monday, he’ll find that all 27 of his colleagues at the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University have received a rather tempting email inviting them to blow the whistle on anyone they know who may have been fraudulently misusing federal grant funds for climate research.

Under US law, regardless of whether or not a prosecution results, the whistleblower stands to make very large sums of money: it is based on a percentage of the total government funds which have been misused, in this case perhaps as much as $50 million. (Hat tip: John O’Sullivan of the wonderful new campaigning site www.climategate.com)

Here’s that email in full:

Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Read in full with comments »   

Here’s an unboxing of the new Leica S2-p, done by happy new owner Matthew Harrison. Matthew hasn’t just unboxed his new toy, he’s also written a first impression review.

[Thanks to Leica Rumors for the tip]

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

TUAWTalkcast this evening at 10pm EST: Best of the year originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Here’s a superficially curious, but fundamentally quite important, bit of legal wrangling for you. Reuters is reporting that the District of Columbia has filed suit against AT&T Corp for the recovery of unused balances on calling cards purchased from the telecom giant. Estimated at somewhere between 5 and 20 percent of the overall value of the cards, the so-called breakage — leftover credit that customers neglect to use — has typically remained with the carrier as a sort of predictable bonus. The DC Attorney General, however, is seeking to have breakages treated as unclaimed property, which under district law means that after three years they must be returned to the state. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, the decision on this case will set a significant precedent for the future of such prepaid services.

AT&T sued by Washington DC for unused balances on calling cards originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Reuters  | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

Bruce Sterling gives his annual State of the World interview on the Well.

Quick summary: Something of a downer–we aren’t facing groovy teenage problems like a war or a natural disaster, so much as we’re facing middle aged crises of befuddlement and general worn-down-ness. Your best option is to move to Brazil and join some kind of post-post-modern tribe of artisans and disaster recovery experts.

From the imagination of an anonymous musical engineer comes the simultaneously coolest and nerdiest custom electric guitar ever made: Behold, the Koopa Troopa shredder.

This first popped up on Reddit through a post by one of the anonymous Creator’s friends (via Joystiq), and it seems its skyrocketing popularity has spurred said Creator to make a Reddit account of his own, where he’s provided a few more details on how the guitar works.

“Just to clear this up. The guitar is right handed,” he writes. “I play it so the Koopa is on its back (it’s been stomped). When it is on a guitar stand it’s walking about. Just pretend Mario jumped on the Koopa Troopa and chose to hold it for too long so it’s escaping.”

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article