Best Buy has a pretty good deal on Logitech’s G13 game controller at $50. It’s backordered for a couple weeks, but patience is a wondrous virtue.
Normally selling for around $80, the G13 features a built-in status LCD, 25 programmable keys and mini joystick, built-in memory for game profiles, and compatibility with PC and Mac.
Logitech – G13 Gamepad [Best Buy via dealspl.us]
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The placebo effect occurs when you get better because you think you’re being given a certain drug. It’s in your head, but it’s good!
Researchers recently used the placebo effect to successfully treat psoriasis in some patients with one quarter to one half of their usual dose of steroid medication. The early study results were published online in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
The research team picked psoriasis for their first human experiments since it’s chronic, involves the immune system and gets worse with stress. Psoriasis (red, scaly patches of dead skin caused by the immune system’s overproduction of skin cells) causes pain and disability for four million Americans.
“Our study provides evidence that the placebo effect can make possible the treatment of psoriasis with an amount of drug that should be too small to work,” said Robert Ader, Ph.D., M.D.(hc), distinguished university professor in the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. However, Ader added that the placebo effect can’t help unconscious patients, or replace substances that the body can’t produce. For example, the placebo effect, wouldn’t work for treatment of Type l diabetes.
The encouraging early results show that new placebo technique may improve treatment for chronic diseases involving the immune system or mental state, such as chronic pain, asthma and multiple sclerosis.
According to the authors at the University of Rochester Medical Center, potential benefits of the placebo effect treatment (mixing active drug and placebo) include:
How do you feel about doctors using the placebo effect?
(Image via stock.xchng)
Post from: Blisstree
As a bittersweet farewell to one of the most tumultuous years in automotive history, RideLust presents to you a re-cap of all the biggest industry events in 2009…and a few that slipped in under editorial bias.
Rick Wagoner, Bob Nardelli, and Alan Mulally spent weeks feigning humility and destitution in three piece Brooks Brothers suits in an attempt to wrangle a billion-dollar loan from an apparently benevolent Uncle Sam. Eventually, the government acquiesced and agreed to bail out both General Motors and Chrysler so as not to interrupt their steady production of poorly built, aesthetically unappealing vehicles.
Stunt double Ben Collins outed himself as Top Gear’s infamous masked driver, The Stig, potentially blowing the sweetest gig on planet Earth. Rather than kill him off, Top Gear attempted to counter the rumors by fingering (::snicker::) legendary racer Michael Schumacher as The Stig. Gearheads in America with an Internet connection that’s too slow to cope with downloading the weekly BBC broadcast still don’t give a rat’s ass.
There was some sort of F1 scandal involving Renault intentionally throwing the Singapore Gran Prix, but we were too immersed in our rally obsession to care. Just Google it or something.
As per their plan to cut costs and pretend to pay back taxpayers, GM made the logical decision to axe one of the only remaining brands that consumers still cared about, Pontiac. Shortly after the announcement, rumors began to circulate that the late John DeLorean’s company was interested in purchasing the rights to produce the Pontiac Solstice. The idea, much like the DMC-12, was short lived.
Drawing heavily from the blatantly phallic styling of the Ambiguously Gay Duo’s car, Porsche released it’s first 4-door sedan, the Panamera.For what feels like the 10th year in a row, GM failed to launch the all-electric Chevy Volt. Reports indicate all 3 enthusiastic fans are coping well.
In an attempt to steal the allegedly sizable fan base the ever-elusive Volt has garnered, Nissan unveiled their equally unready-for-production EV, the Nissan LEAF. As quickly became the case with the Volt, no one really cares.
After muscling a disgraced Rick Wagoner from his position, GM CEO Fritz Henderson found himself on the receiving end of a nasty blow from karma when he was unexpectedly forced to resign after less than a year of service. Immediately following the announcement, his 20-something daughter Sarah Henderson took to Facebook, providing days of gossip fodder with her caps-locked, obscenity-filled defense of her father’s unremarkable stint with The General.
Although arguably destined to be a success in the long run, Cash For Clunkers proved treacherous to September car sales and dealer temperaments everywhere. In truly bureaucratic fashion, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of dealer rebates were caught up in red tape for much longer than expected and, thanks to a gross ignorance of performance and quality, at least one 300ZX was clunked in favor of a 2010 Chrysler Sebring. It was a very dark time for the automotive community.
Citing the worsening global economy and the need for budget cutbacks, Toyota withdrew participation from F1, cruelly crushing the vain hope of fanboys everywhere that Toyota’s race-bred technology would eventually find its way into their excruciatingly boring production vehicles.
In a stark break with the Detroit Three’s storied business philosophy, Ford began producing cars that people actually enjoy driving. In one of the biggest upsets of the year, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid all but completely usurped the Prius as the public’s favorite hybrid.
After failing to resolve some sort of vague disagreement with Penske, GM opted to wind down the Saturn brand, finally putting an end to what was basically a 19-year identity crisis.
Unseating Ford as the reigning king of the recall, Toyota found itself in hot water in the latter half of the year when a grisly accident exposed serious engineering flaws. After feebly attempting to pin the problem of sudden, accidental acceleration on loose floor mats and receiving a class action lawsuit by way of response, Toyota demonstrated a rare act of responsibility for their subpar product by recalling 3.8 million vehicles for faulty accelerators. Of course, although this was certainly a serious problem in urgent need of an immediate resolution, some might reasonably argue that anyone who purchased a Toyota sort of deserved it anyway.
Ford went to great lengths to keep its month-long negotiations with Geely a secret, ultimately culminating in the quiet sale of Volvo in mid-December. Fortunately, traditional Volvo enthusiasts renounced their brand loyalty when the company was purchased by Ford in 1999, so few tears were shed.
Finally, just a few days before Christmas GM delivered a heartfelt gift to Sweden, announcing that purchase negotiations with Koenigsegg had fallen through and Saab would be killed off. The failure trifecta is now complete.
In conclusion, on behalf of the staff that I no longer employ, I’d like to wish the RideLust readership a very Happy New Year. Thank you sincerely for reading and please keep up the snarling hate mail, my therapist loves the business.
The HTML 5 technology intended to power Google’s forthcoming computer operating system can access a PC online or off, warns security vendor McAfee
We’re pleased to announce that Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown was the champion of the 2009 Yahoo! Mayoral Face-Off. The Mayor was playing on behalf of the Police Athletic League of Buffalo, which now receives a $15,000 donation. Congratulations to all.
Mayor Brown’s team, "Buffalo’s Best," earned the top seed in the playoffs with a record of 9-4-1, then it steamrolled "Pittsburgh Proud" in the finals. That’s a snapshot of the winning roster over on the right. The Mayor smartly avoided Bills. Well played, sir.
The fan-voting portion of the ’09 Face-Off was absolutely dominated by Green Bay, resulting in a $15,000 donation to the Children’s Museum of Green Bay.
Unfortunately, "Green Machine" finished dead-last in the mayoral league standings at 3-10-1. The City of Green Bay shall now be annexed by Buffalo and its citizens forced to dwell underground will have to settle for a real-life playoff run by the Packers, in lieu of an imaginary playoff run by Mayor Jim Schmitt.
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Photo via Getty Images
Multitouch screens have been a little slower to enter the electronics marketplace than consumers might have hoped. Since Jeff Han, a research scientist at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, first presented his multitouch wall at the TED Conference in 2006, we’ve seen other multitouch technologies trickle into the electronic marketplace. The cellphone has used the technology most, starting with the iPhone, and then moving into other smartphones using Google’s Android platform and Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart countertop computer. But with the exception of a few outliers and device manufacturer research demos, we haven’t really seen multitouch used in other consumer electronics yet.
With one decade concluding and another on the horizon, Americans are gearing up for 2010 by learning from the past and making plans for a better decade ahead.
According to a nationwide survey from OfficeMax® Incorporated (NYSE: OMX), a leader in office products and services, Americans have high hopes for the approaching decade with clear plans for their personal lives and heightened focus on family and personal wellbeing while embracing change and opportunity.
When referring to the 2010 decade, nearly four in ten (38%) Americans prefer to use the phrase “the twenty-tens” over other popular terms that include “the oh-tens” (16%), “the tens” (14%) and “the teens” (11%).
Moving forward, Americans predict that family, personal development and self-discovery will define the next ten years. Many believe they will spend more time with family (64%) and reconnect with old friends (42%).
Others plan to nurture themselves by grabbing the reins on their health (62%) and finally creating a work-life balance (38%). Over half (57%) of Americans believe the next decade will be about discovering what’s most important in life, while others think they’ll laugh more than ever before (47%).
As Americans consider the advancements and transformations they hope to achieve during the next decade, it’s fitting that nearly three in ten people think “Changes” by David Bowie (28%) is the song title that best represents their outlook on the approaching decade.
Others selected “I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash (13%) to demonstrate their optimism while some shared their apprehension choosing “Help!” by the Beatles (16%) and “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (12%) to illustrate their future outlook.
Gearing up for the next decade, Americans plan to learn from the past and incorporate these lessons into the future. Demonstrating the importance of action in 2010, a large number of Americans selected the expressions – “action speaks louder than words” (73%) and “talk is cheap” (67%) – to illustrate what they learned over the past decade.
Nearly seven in ten people selected “knowledge is power” (69%) and “don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched” (67%) to describe their hopes for smarter, more calculated decisions in the future.
With the touch economic times, personal finances were also top-of-mind for most Americans, which is perhaps why phrases like “a penny saved is a penny earned” (66%) and “money makes the world go round” (50%) are what many will use as a springboard for the new decade.
“Everyone has the chance to start fresh in 2010 with a new decade ahead of them, and we’re excited to learn through this national survey that consumers are ready to take the express train to a brighter, more prosperous future,” said Bob Thacker, SVP of Marketing & Advertising for OfficeMax.
“At OfficeMax, we’re kicking off the year by celebrating positive achievements and helping people do their best work at home, the office, or on-the-go. It’s going to be a delightful decade as we focus more on what’s important and improve on the past ten years.”
About the Survey
The national survey of 1,000 consumers was conducted by Kelton Research in December 2009 using Random Digit Dialing of listed and unlisted phone numbers. Quotas were set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population ages 18 and over.
To view complete research data, questions, and graphics, please visit OfficeMax’s Media Room.
About OfficeMax
OfficeMax Incorporated (NYSE: OMX) is a leader in both business-to-business office products solutions and retail office equipment. The OfficeMax mission is simple. We help our customers do their best work.
The company provides office supplies and paper, in-store print and document services through OfficeMax ImPress®, technology products and solutions, and office furniture to consumers and to large, medium and small businesses.
OfficeMax customers are served by more than 30,000 associates through direct sales, catalogs, e-commerce and more than 1,000 stores.
For more information, visit OfficeMax.com.
About Kelton Research
Kelton Research is a full service market research consultancy with offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Kelton serves as a strategic partner to both Fortune 500 corporations and smaller companies, utilizing a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to drive tactical recommendations for clients.
For more information about Kelton’s services, please call 888-8-KELTON or visit keltonresearch.com
The group behind the $100 laptop has revealed the design for its latest computer aimed at connecting children in the developing world.
The XO-3, as it is known, is a slim-line touchscreen tablet PC.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said it would be “available in 2012″ and would cost “well below $100″.
The new design replaces the proposed XO-2, a foldable e-book that was first shown off in 2008 but has since been scrapped by the organisation.
Over more than a decade, consumers became accustomed to the sweet, steady flow of free news, pictures, videos and music on the Internet. Paying was for suckers and old fogeys. Content, like wild horses, wanted to be free.
I am looking to live 6 months in Thailand on and off and six months back in the UK and am just wondering how I go about getting enough supplies for a long period. Doctor indicates that he can only prescribe 1 month at a time?
I am Diabetes type 1 and use the Levemir and Novorapid pen cartridges
Any advice would be most helpful
The Transportation Security Administration is attempting to find the source of a leak of a sensitive security directive that followed a failed airline bombing attempt on Christmas Day. Two travel bloggers have revealed that they have been subpoenaed to provide information that may lead to the source of the leak.
Shortly after an attempted “underwear” bomber was discovered on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, the Transportation Security Administration issued immediate, temporary changes to security procedures in an attempt to prevent similar incidents. The particular details of those changes were issued in an internal security directive, intended only for TSA employees. However, copies of the directive were leaked to several bloggers and quickly spread around the ‘Net.
Writers Chris Elliott and Steven Frischling both received copies of the security directive from anonymous sources, and both published the text of the directive after mass confusion set in among holiday travelers affected by the sudden changes in security procedures. It appears that the TSA is not punishing either for publishing the document; rather, they are trying to find the source of the leak.
“The DHS & TSA are taking this matter seriously, and that tells me that they are paying attention to security in detail,” Frischling wrote on his blog. So far, neither has admitted to knowing the identity of the source of the TSA directive.
The leak is somewhat embarrassing for the TSA, though, in light of a recent leak of the entire contents of the TSA’s “Standard Operating Procedures” manual online. That disclosure was due to improper redacting of the document, which the TSA later claimed to be out of date.
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Another year has come and gone. 2009 saw a couple of major operating system releases, but the releases of Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 were just a couple of the stories that piqued our readers’ interest over the past 12 months. Here are the ten news posts with the highest number of pageviews over the past year, followed by the five most popular features.
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Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) continues the 2009/10 Family Series with Short Shakespeare! The Comedy of Errors, a family-friendly 75-minute abridged production of Shakespeare’s madcap comedy, directed and adapted by David H. Bell.
CST’s Short Shakespeare! program is designed for parents, grandparents, teachers—or anyone with children in their lives—to introduce young people to the timeless works of Shakespeare and the magic of live theater.
Immediately following each performance, the actors remain on stage for a brief question-and-answer session and then join the audience in the lobby for one-on-one conversations and photo opportunities.
Tickets are $16 for students (18 and younger), and $20 for adults.
Short Shakespeare! The Comedy of Errors runs Saturdays at 11:00 a.m., January 23 through March 6, 2010 in Chicago Shakespeare’s Courtyard Theater on Navy Pier. All CST patrons receive a 40% parking discount.
For further information and to purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 312.595.5600, or visit the Theater’s Web site at chicagoshakes.com.
The Comedy of Errors tells the wildly entertaining tale of Antipholus and his servant Dromio landing in Ephesus, searching for their long-lost twin brothers. Everywhere they go in this foreign land, strangers insist that they’re old friends.
Mistaken identities abound, but in the end, chaos gives way to clarity in this comedy filled with mayhem and madness as identical twin brothers and their identical twin servants get lost in a hilarious, mixed-up world of mistaken identities.
For young audiences being introduced to live theater, Chicago Shakespeare’s Courtyard Theater provides a close relationship between audience members and the actors, enhancing the play-going experience.
For this production, the Theater is configured with the addition of main floor seating on the proscenium stage itself, creating a theater-in-the-round.
| Title | Short Shakespeare! The Comedy of Errors | ||||
| Directed and Adapted by |
David H. Bell | ||||
| Dates | Jan. 23–March 6, 2010 | ||||
| Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. | |||||
| Tickets | $16, students (ages 18 and younger) $20, adults | ||||
| Location | Courtyard Theater | ||||
| Chicago Shakespeare Theater | |||||
| 800 E Grand Avenue | |||||
| Box Office | chicagoshakes.com | ||||
| 312.595.5600 | |||||
| Group Sales | 312.595.5678 | ||||
| groups of 10 or more | |||||
Usually when you see copyright infringement claims, it’s for copying something that someone else held a copyright on, but THREsq points us to a case where Canadian songwriter, Gordon Peterson, is suing singer Eddie Vedder for supposedly changing lyrics in a version Vedder did of Peterson’s song “Hard Sun.” Assuming that the song was properly licensed (which is also in dispute, but that seems to be a separate issue), it’s difficult to see what sort of copyright infringement claim there would then be for modifying the song. After all, the modifications wouldn’t be covered by Peterson’s copyright at all. But, alas, this is what you get with today’s “ownership culture,” where people just assume more ownership rights over something than they actually have under the law.
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If you need motivation to keep your New Year’s goal of getting more exercise in 2010 and beyond, here are 15 great reasons you can’t argue with:
What’s your motivation to exercise more this year and beyond?
(Image via stock.xchng)
Post from: Blisstree
Everyone has a favorite local specialty shop—the Italian butcher who sells the best prosciutto or the Mexican grocer with the amazing dried chili peppers. Making a list of the best in any city (let alone country!) is impossible, but we’re trying nonetheless. Add your local favorites in the comments.
Filed under: Etc.
We’re a privileged bunch here at Autoblog. We drive some pretty amazing cars and go to the world’s best automotive events. Of course, it’s our job to not just keep these experiences to ourselves, but let others enjoy them as well. Our cameras are perpetually in hand, capturing the best moments of each test drive, auto show, auction, race and everything else to share with you, our faithful readers.
With 2009 coming to a close, nothing reminds us more of how lucky we are than browsing through the thousands of photos we’ve taken ourselves throughout the year. Of course, we wanted to share the memories with you as well, so we picked out our favorite images taken by the Autoblog team in the last year and put them in one big gallery. We’ve also included a link to the original story from which each image was pulled, just in case you missed out the first time. So to honor the year that was, we give you Autoblog’s top 100 photographs of 2009. Enjoy, and let us know which are ones are your favorites!
For nostalgia’s sake, feel free to also check out the top 50 photographs of 2008.
All photos copyright (C)2009 Autoblog / Weblogs, Inc.
Autoblog’s Top 100 Photographs of 2009 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Chicago White Sox have a limited number of two-night hotel reservations and weekend passes to SoxFest 2010 at the Palmer House Hilton available to fans.
The special SoxFest hotel rate is $259 (plus tax and applicable charges) for a two-night stay.
White Sox fans have the opportunity to purchase up to two rooms per reservation and those who purchase a two-night stay are eligible to purchase up to four SoxFest weekend passes at $75 each.
SoxFest hotel packages and weekend passes together are available for purchase online at whitesox.com/SoxFest.
Weekend passes only are available for purchase by fans who book the two-night stay.
SoxFest 2010, presented by Comcast SportsNet, Miller Lite, the Palmer House Hilton and Pepsi, will feature appearances by the following White Sox players: Gordon Beckham, Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Andruw Jones, Paul Konerko, Mark Kotsay, Scott Linebrink, Jayson Nix, Juan Pierre, Jake Peavy, A.J. Pierzynski, J.J. Putz, Alexei Ramirez, Mark Teahen and Matt Thornton, along with manager Ozzie Guillen.
They will joined by former White Sox stars Floyd Bannister, Roland Hemond, Kevin Hickey, Lance Johnson, Ron Kittle, Bill Melton, Minnie Minoso, Gary Peters, Billy Pierce and Bill “Moose” Skowron.
Coaches Harold Baines, Don Cooper, Jeff Cox, Juan Nieves, Mark Salas, and Greg Walker, along with broadcasters Ed Farmer, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, Darrin Jackson and Steve Stone are all scheduled to appear at SoxFest this year.
SoxFest 2010 will be held Friday, Jan. 22, Saturday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010.
Days and times are: Friday, 4:00 to 9:00 p.m.; Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; and Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The Omnia II is just about the most into it, app filled device I have ever used that had the pleasure to run Windows Mobile. The list of preinstalled apps are never ending and I just enjoy going through them and discovering something I have not used before. The video is just showing some of the good apps(they are all good) like the voice command, which is surprisingly good, even though my voice is hard to understand, and it takes no setting up at all. The other app that was talked about is the video editor that I love to use, it takes both your images, videos and song and puts everything together in the way you would like, and then make it into a MP4 format video with little memory used.
Enjoy
The torque flange T40 from HBM, the allrounder for measuring torque, even under difficult ambient conditions, is now available with a new rated measuring range from 200 N•m onwards.
This means that rated torques of 200 N•m, 500 N•m, 1 kN•m, 2 kN•m, 3 kN•m, 5 kN•m and 10kN•m are now available.
The electrical configuration is identical throughout the series. This allows the torque trans-ducer to be used without great modifications for various applications – from friction perform-ance measurements, applications for engine or gear test benches to chassis test benches.
Numerous torque measurement applications in test benches and in process monitoring can be completely covered with this complete series. Due to the compact design, the torque flange can be very easily integrated into a test bench and is insensitive to parasitic loads. This enables direct mounting of machine elements – additional joint shafts or couplings are not necessary.
The T40 does not use slip rings or bearings and is therefore totally maintenance and wear-free. The reliability of the measurement flange is very high because of the robust design, leading to reduced test bench downtimes and therefore cost savings. Data transmission be-tween rotor and stator is digital so that secure and error-free measured value acquisition and transmission is possible even under difficult ambient conditions.
The measured torque can be output either via a voltage output or a frequency output. Con-nection with Ethernet TCP/IP and integration in the field bus interface world, e.g. CAN-Bus or Profibus DP, is also possible with the torque interface module TIM40, which is available as an accessory.
Typical application areas for the torque flange can be found mainly in friction performance measurements, and in the automotive industry for engine, gear or chassis test benches.
The T40 can also be used in the testing of electric motors, pumps and generators.
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