Author: Serkadis

Google is very protective of its name, logo and all the things that are closely associated with its brand. Having such powerful branding, which is actually about to undergo some major changes, this makes a lot of sense. In some cases, though, it may get a little overzealous and things may not go the way it intended, like the Groovle.com dispute which was very recently settled in favor of Groovle. The dispute was over the domain name which Google claims is very similar to its own and can be misleading. The fact that Groovle.com offers users a way of customizing their search experience, by enabling them to use background image on a page similar to Google’s homepage, certainly didn’t help.

The National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the organization which handled the dispute, found in favor of the defendant saying that the name is sufficiently different as to not cause confusion between the two. What it means is that Groovle.com gets to keep its domain name.

“Respondent [Groovle.com] contends that its alterations clearly transform the predominant word of the <groovle.com> domain name to “groove” or “groovy,” not GOOGLE. Respondent contends that these alterations are sufficient to distinguish its <groovle.com> domain name from Complainant’s GOOGLE mark. The Panel a… (read more)

This entry was written by [email protected], posted on December 30, 2009 at 2:39 am , filed under biofuel and tagged alkali, alkalis, bioethanol production, bioethanol production process, biomass, coastal bermudagrass, dielectric loss …

Demi Moore has spent the past several weeks embroiled in a He Said/She Said controversy over the alleged airbrushing of her cover shot on the Dec. 2009 issue of W Magazine, but the Hollywood actress proved her generosity recently by donating $100,000 to a California shelter that burned to the ground in a devastating fire earlier this month.

The Southwest Community Center in Santa Ana provided human services to impoverished children and needy seniors until it was destroyed in an electrical blaze Dec. 15.

Hollywood.com reports that after learning about the tragedy, Moore wrote a cheque to the centre to help replace crates of food and gifts that were lost in the blaze.

Article Tags: ClimateGate, Copenhagen Conference, Video Link

Fantastic Video from Bill Whittle…

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Source: pjtv.com/video

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BYD is indeed one of most optimistic carmakers in China as it continuously makes bright predictions and hopes to become a global player. After announcing that it is looking to become the world’s number one automaker by 2025, BYD is aiming to double its sales in 2010 to 800,000 units and thus grow even bigger to achieve the apparently impossible aforementioned goal.

Basically, BYD plans to boost its sales using a total of five new models, including a sedan, an SUV and an MPV. Accor… (read more)

Move over, Beyonce: Lady Gaga has SuBo Fever. The “LoveGame” singer has been a supporter of Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle ever since she heard the former spinster belt out the first note of “I Dreamed A Dream” — and she would love to collaborate with her.

“I love Susan Boyle. She is my woman of the year. She has achieved more in this year than most artistes will in a lifetime. Our styles are different, but it would be great to work with somebody of that talent…..”

Last month, hip-hop star 50 Cent also expressed an interest in sharing the stage with Boyle. May we suggest a SuBo Duets album?

Jay Leno participated in a series of pre-production tests of the supercar world’s new gem, the McLaren MP4-12C.

The editors at Auto Express followed him at the Dunsfold track in Surrey, UK – the same circuit that Top Gear uses, where the testing took place. Leno is no stranger to the McLaren brand as his immense automotive collection includes a McLaren F1.

Leno got a passenger ride along side McLaren Automotive’s Chief Test Driver Chris Goodwin. He told me the camo… (read more)

Before finding out the definitive decision of the Paris’ Tribunal de Grande Instance in his trial against the International Automobile Federation (FIA), Flavio Briatore spoke his mind about the most important topic of the day in Formula One, namely the return of his former pupil Michael Schumacher in the series.

Needless to say, his opinion is that Schumacher can return to winning in Formula One at any time, as Briatore argued the German already left the series prematurely in 2006… (read more)

Ford has a brand new V8 engine which was presented on the Mustang GT model. The powerplant will be built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, at its Essex Engine plant. This decision is of great importance for the Canadian Auto Workers union, which hopes that production of the new engine will increase as time passes and that the engine will be fitted on other models.

The Windsor plant has been closed by Ford since 2007, while the decision to start production on the new V8 here came as a … (read more)

Leona Lewis is ready for her closeup — on the big screen. The “Bleeding Love” crooner is being prepped for her first Hollywood role by critically-acclaimed director James Cameron.

The 24-year-old former Pizza Hut waitress rose to fame after her powerhouse vocals helped her grasp victory on the British talent show The X Factor. Now Leona has caught the filmmaker’s eye after contributing the lead single on the soundtrack of his 3D sci-fi hit Avatar.

“James is well known for casting strong females in his films and he sees that quality in Leona,” a Hollywood insider told London’s Metro on Wednesday. “She has made quite an impression in Hollywood and James is one of a number of people interested in developing her performance skills for film.”

We’ve had plenty of discussions about Thomas Jefferson’s views on the patent system. He is, clearly, the father of the patent system in the US. While he was incredibly skeptical of the idea of granting any monopolies originally, he did come around to accept patents in very limited circumstances, and when he oversaw the patent system, he was careful to make sure that the downsides of such monopolies were limited. Separately, for many years, I’ve heard the story of how Ben Franklin purposely decided not to patent his stove invention, stating:

“As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

However, I had not heard of a similar story involving Thomas Jefferson refusing to patent certain inventions he came up with as well. Reader jprlk points us to a recent Straight Dope column, which is mostly about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s exposure to marijuana, but there is one interesting part about how Jefferson refused to patent his “hemp brake” patent, because he found the invention to be “too important”:

Jefferson invented a better “hemp brake” to separate the fibers from the stalks, something he thought was so important agriculturally that he refused to patent it.

Combined with the Franklin quote, this is quite telling. In both cases, they realized that the invention could be a lot more useful if it were not limited. This goes against claims by patent supporters that (1) an invention is not a “real invention” if it’s not patented and (2) the patent system is necessary for better dissemination of ideas. It’s nice to see (yet again) that Thomas Jefferson, despite overseeing the early years of our patent system, clearly was quite skeptical of the actual benefits of such a system.

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The best way to get something done best is to do it yourself. So true this is, little wonder then that the Solar-Powered Wooden Biplane Model is actually a Do-It-Yourself kit that we have to put together and with the help of solar panels on top of the wings, the plane actually propels itself. I have played with remote controlled and battery operated planes, but this light-weighted wooden biplane measuring 21cm x 19.5cm x 8.5cm, the model cannot just be placed as a decorative on the desk, but also be put to actual use. The small solar panels on the Solar-Powered Biplane Model are powerful enough to work even under lamplight. Suitable for children above the age of 6, it effectively explains and teaches the functioning and requirement of conversion of solar energy to electricity to the young kids.

[EnviroGadget]

Gaga’s good, but the eccentric sensation can’t hold a candle to Britney, says acid-tongued songbird Lily Allen. Lily revealed that she prefers the “Womanizer” star to Lady Gaga after being asked which singer she liked the most in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. The outspoken Brit has proclaimed Britney Spears a “legend,” whose accomplishments on stage far exceed those of the charttopping wonder whose fashion selections and vocal stylings dominated 2009.

“You can not compare Britney with Lady GaGa,” Lily explains. “Why? You are putting Lady Gaga at the same level of Britney Spears? I really cannot believe it.”

“Lady GaGa is good, but she’s a new artist, Britney Spears is a legend,” she adds. “They are two different artists, two forms of entertainment but very different, is like comparing Picasso to Dali.”

Keystone has brought out its solar gadgets charger that like all other chargers, charges the gadgets using solar energy. But what’s different about Keystone solar charger is that it can charge gadgets in flat 4 hours under direct sunlight, and in 8 hours under indirect sunlight. Apart from that it also has a USB slot, so you can easily plug in your gadget to be charged. But the thing that is really different about this device is that you can scribble in your name with pencil in the space provided on the device. So it acts like a luggage tag where you can never lose it, and if you ever did lose the device, some Good Samaritan would definitely return it back to you. Well, I personally don’t see any remarkable innovation in this, but I’m sure the designer had some thing in mind while he thought of this.

[SlipperyBrick]

The hints were already pretty strong on this one, but now Microsoft has come right out and said it, albeit in a job posting — the Xbox Live gaming platform is extending beyond the console and specifically onto WinMo phones. Seeking a Principal Program Manager who would be responsible for bringing “Xbox Live enabled games to Windows Mobile,” Redmond is particularly interested in “avatar integration, social interaction, and multi-screen experiences.” That leaves an awful lot of room for imagination as to how the two modes of gaming will complement each other, but at least we now (sort of) know that it’s going to happen.

[Thanks, Jessy]

Windows Mobile and Xbox Live coming together, according to Microsoft job ad originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Social media can be a great thing but just like anything else, overuse can lead to sometimes damaging behavior. Facebook pretty much defines online social interaction these days and it’s not that easy to let it go. An interesting alternative has popped up, Seppukoo, a website offering Facebook users an honorable way out by committing ‘virtual suicide’. And the best part is that you won’t pass away quietly, all your Facebook friends will be able to visit a memorial page set up on Seppukoo.com. Facebook though isn’t finding the site particularly amusing and, not only has it begun blocking it, it’s also getting its lawyers involved, as the LA Times blog found.

A couple of weeks ago, after the site had already been blocked, Seppukoo got a legal letter claiming that it violated Facebook’s Rights and Responsibilities, the social network’s Terms of Service, on five accounts. Some of the claims can be argued with but, unfortunately for Seppukoo, some are clear violations of the terms.

The five claims are:
– Soliciting users’ Facebook login information.
– Accessing a Facebook account that belongs to someone else.
– Collecting users’ content or information using automated means.
– Sending commercial communications.
– Using Facebook’s intellectu… (read more)

Many solar panels in the past have been designed to capture solar energy and make electricity out of it. Prism Solar Technologies in Highland, New York has built this innovative holographic thin-film with crystalline photovoltaic cells that are able to capture more sunlight in regions which have low level insolation. The thin-film strips diffract both direct and reflected energy to the PV cell strips integrated between strips of thin-film. Solar modules made in this way are cheaper because they use 50-72% less silicon to make the same energy. The best aspect of this is that the modules use light from absolutely any direction including the back. The application of the Holographic Planar Concentrator™ (HPC) technology leads to reduction in the per watt costs due to less silicon, and also that it can easily capture even a low angle light.

[Cleantechnica]

The plot thickens: Jon Gosselin is accused of slamming ex-girlfriend Hailey Glassman against a wall after spying a snapshot of the 22-year-old sharing a liplock with her new love interest, Celebrity Boxing Federation promoter Damon Feldman.

According to a report from The New York Post, Glassman — who dated Gosselin during his divorce from ex-wife Kate — filed a report with the New York City Police Department on Dec. 20 accusing the father of eight of attacking and verbally assaulting her in a Manhattan penthouse that was found ransacked over the holiday weekend.

Feldman, believes Jon set Hailey up after his pad got trashed. Glassman moved out of the apartment she shared with Jon last week. Her lawyer admits that Hailey removed her belongings at some point, but insists the daughter of an affluent plastic surgery had nothing to do with the break-in.

“I spoke with Hailey a week ago and she was pretty depressed about the whole situation [with Jon],” Damon said this week. “In my opinion she was set up. She was definitely over the guy and had already made arrangements with delivery trucks to remove her possessions before the incident went down,” he added.

“Hailey may act young and foolish at times but she comes from a really good family and I don’t think she’s the type of person to smash up a place.”

We’ve seen some crazy prices for replicas, but this time things have gone extremely far, as this add might be the biggest joke of them all. We’re talking about a car dubbed the 2010 Ferrari Enzo prototype which was built and designed by Dimitris Papanagnou from Greece.

According to the sale ad on eBay, the replica has an Audi 3.7-liter V8 which produces 300HP in Stage I, 500HP in Stage II and 900HP in Stage III. The car has all-wheel drive and was apparently built using materials … (read more)