Author: Serkadis

Chile, South America | Ghost Towns

Until 1909, Chile had something very special. Known as white gold, Chile saltpeter, or more technically as Sodium nitrate, it was an extremely valuable commodity for two main reasons: it could kill, and it could also give life.

Like its cousin, Potassium nitrate, Sodium nitrate could be used both as a fertilizer, and as a explosive, or rocket fuel. When someone talks about a fertilizer bomb this is the stuff they are talking about. The reason it was so valuable was that you couldn’t really make the stuff, you had to find it and Chile had tons of it.

So valuable was this “white gold” that Chile went to war with its neighbors over areas containing the valuable saltpeter. In the oft forgotten War of the Pacific or “Saltpeter war,” Chile, Peru and Bolivia all fought over territory containing the minerals with Chile gaining much of the disputed territory.

At the turn of the century the Saltpeter Works of Humbert and Santa Laura were both busy trying to extract as much of this Saltpeter as possible. Hundreds of buildings were built and whole communities of workers from South America, Europe and Asian formed around these towns. In the words of UNESCO they became a “distinct urban community with its own language, organization, customs, and creative expressions, as well as displaying technical entrepreneurship.”

But something was coming that would change this all. In 1909 two German scientists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch figured out how to chemically fix nitrogen, that is, how to make this white gold on an industrial level. It was disastrous for the Saltpeter towns, and despite efforts to compete, by 1960 they were completely and totally abandoned.

Today the towns ghostly remains stand as rusting ruins in the inhospitable Atacama desert. In 2005 UNESCO declared them a World Heritage Site.

Other “nitrate towns” nearby in a similar condition include Chacabuco, Maria Elena, Pedro de Valdivia, Puelma and Aguas Santas. It is ill advised to visit Chacabuco, which was used as a concentration camp by Pinochet and is still surrounded by unmarked landmines.

Filed under: Love & Relationships, Happiness

Judy Dutton, author of How We Do It: How the Science of Sex Can Make You a Better Lover, answers questions about why we’re so persuaded by physical beauty, and whether choosing beauty over brains will really make us happy.

Q: Why are we so … Read more

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The NY Times is reporting that the Chinese government appears to be raising the walls on the Great Firewall of China even higher, shutting down a bunch of sites, limiting the ability to let individuals put up their own websites, and completely restricting the ability to offer third party mobile content. Here’s where it gets sneaky. The Chinese government claims that it’s an effort to stop “piracy.” And, indeed, some of the sites that were shut down appear to be sites related to file sharing. But this is great for the Chinese government — because US lobbyists and diplomats have been complaining about Chinese “piracy” for ages, even as US diplomats have complained about free speech restrictions online in China. So, by hiding a more massive crackdown behind the claim that the government is really “cracking down on piracy,” China knows that the US can’t complain too much. After all, it’s been demanding a crackdown on piracy for so long. So what if that “crackdown” also massively limits the ability of individuals to communicate freely online?

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In online business, in addition to optimizing learning SEO, you would need a tool to determine the number of visitors coming to your site. It is useful to determine what steps will you do to revenue dollar / rupiah you up.

To determine the level of traffic, the number of visitors your site we usually use the services of statistical calculation or stats counter. There is much we can use. One of them is popular enough google analytics stats counter.

A few days ago when he was blogwalking, I find stats counter service is pretty cool. Features provided quite interesting. And I am sure you would be interested as well to try it.
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What features provided by this indostats.com?

Let us both clay skill (I learned directly from its web information)

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http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/time/topstories&source=imag&val=3

Sega’s also getting in on the spirit of giving this holiday season as prep to kick off the SEGA MEGA SALE on the PlayStation Network. Product discounts up to 40% off are sure to drive you loco.
 
 
 

As we count down to end of 2009, the emerging star of this year’s holiday shopping season is shaping up to be the electronic book reader (or e-reader). From Amazon’s Kindle to Barnes and Noble’s forthcoming Nook, e-readers are starting to transform how we buy and read books in the same way mp3s changed how we buy and listen to music.

Unfortunately, e-reader technology also presents significant new threats to reader privacy. E-readers possess the ability to report back substantial information about their users’ reading habits and locations to the corporations that sell them. And yet none of the major e-reader manufacturers have explained to consumers in clear unequivocal language what data is being collected about them and why.

As a first step towards addressing these problems, EFF has created a first draft of our Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy. We’ve examined the privacy policies for the major e-readers on the market to determine what information they reserve the right to collect and share.

(Updated Jan 6 2010: We’ve updated and corrected this guide. Please read the latest version instead.)

read more

	NASA / ESA / Hubble
	Click for slideshow: Review the top space images from 2009, including this Hubble view of a nebula.

The highest highlight of 2009 was clearly the revival of the Hubble Space Telescope, a mission that blended moments of beauty and brute force 350 miles above the earth.

Or was it?

Maybe the top story was the reassessment of NASA’s plans for human spaceflight. After all, tens of billions of dollars could be at stake. Or maybe it was the series of victories in NASA-backed competitions that had gone unwon for years.

For scientific significance, it’s hard to beat this year’s confirmation that the moon holds significant reserves of water. And if you’re looking for Hollywood flash plus a touch of drama, you just might choose the unveiling of the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

Every year since 1997, we’ve reviewed the top space stories of the previous 12 months and looked ahead to the trends to watch in the 12 months to come. It’s up to you to choose which story from 2009 and trend for 2010 should lead the list. Here’s this year’s lineup:

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Foreclosure backlog estimated at 1.7 million – About 1.7 million homeowners were on the verge of foreclosure in the fall, a looming “shadow inventory” of homes that will be put up for sale in the coming years and weigh down prices, a report said Thursday.  The number, up from 1.1 million a year earlier, is likely to keep rising through the middle of next year or later, said Mark Fleming, chief economist of First American CoreLogic, the real estate research firm that released the study. – TheAdvertiser.com 

and
First American Sees 1.7m in Shadow Inventory – By JON PRIOR – … What matters is how this pending inventory will hit the market. Unless banks disberse the “shadow inventory” onto the market in a controlled and measured rate, housing prices could double-dip again in 2010. … – HousingWire

————

Not Walking Away – Is it conditioning, morality, or naïveté? – Tim Iacono – The question of what motivates underwater homeowners to either stay put and continue to make their mortgage payments (if they can) or “walk away” from their home (and their financial obligations) has been receiving an increasing amount of attention in recent weeks. In looking at this matter, a good place to begin is with the abstract below from the recent study Underwater and Not Walking Away(.pdf) by Brent White at the University of Arizona: – TheMessThatGreenspanMade   and   link to Brent White’s paper 

————

Is There A Modification For The Loan-Modification Program? – By: Tycoon Report –  good summary of modification programs and thier pitfalls. – iStockAnalyst 
————

Resale Volumes: Another Shoe to Drop? – Existing home sales volumes are off 30% from the peak and have returned to 1998 levels (see the chart below that removes some of the month-to-month gyrations). While this might seem like a plunge, a little more historical analysis is in order … – John Burns Real Estate Consulting

Every model of the WILD range (CRAZY by LEMAITRE collection) finds its inspiration from the latest fashions in urban sportswear yet is still constructed from the very best materials. Each model of this range is S2 (SRC) rated.

Innovations:
>> LINING: Breathable, soft and abrasion resistant.
>> FOOTBED: Comfortable and anatomic. Hygienic and breathable. Antistatic.
>> CRAZY SOLE IN SEMI COMPACT POLYURETHANE: Light, flexible, slip resistant (SRC) and resistant (abrasion and hydrolysis).
>> ALUMINIUM TOECAP: Light, large and non-magnetic.

LEMAITRE’s footwear exceeds all requirements of the European norm EN ISO 20345: 2007 and is fully compatible with norm EN ISO 20345: 2010

PACTUR MANUFACTURER OF SHRINK WRAPPING MACHINES. AUTOMATIC L SEALERS. AUTOMATIC PACKAGING MACHINES, PACKAGING MACHINES FOR BREAD. L SEALERS FOR BREAD. SHRINK TUNNEL.
OUR STORY
Pactur, a company in constant increase and development, which was founded ex-novo in 1986. A positive reality, as some others in our industrial field and in our geographic area, based on a strong spirit of innovation and on a good talent in fulfilling the market requirements. In few words, a flourishing company, of middle dimensions, which has managed to obtain a good reputation all over the world. The trade mark itself “Lady Pack” stays for “reliable and high quality machines”, the “Ladies” of the packaging machines.
Shortly, a solid, prosperous, medium size factory, which identifies its policy with the following principles:
Seriousness. Correctness. Reliability. High quality standards.

Food industry is a high demanding environment when you are talking about electrical or electronic components which have to withstand high pressure and high temperature wash down processes.

That is why REER is now proposing a special version of its watertight enclosures (WTF / WTFH), made of resistant materials suitable for such an industry.

Voortman, the Dutch machine builder for the structural steel fabrication and stockholder market has organized on the 4th and 5th of February 2010, the Voortman Product Introduction Days 2010 in their new showroom and demonstration facility in Rijssen. Voortman is specialized in production solutions for the complete process of structural steel fabrication and steel service centres. Voortman offers a wide range of standard machines for profile and plate drilling, sawing and cambering, angle, flat steel and plate punching and shearing, plate processing, shot blasting and painting systems.

At the event on the 4th and 5th of February, Voortman will present some innovative solutions for the production process, especially in the field of beam coping with robotic plasma, layout-marking, plate processing and fully automatic shot blasting and painting systems. Not only new machines, but also Voortman will demonstrate during the Product Introduction Days 2010, their complete machinery range in their new showroom and demonstration facility. Visitors will also be informed in seminars, about the latest developments and innovations in pre-fabrication, production planning and monitoring, flexibility in connection plate manufacturing and surface treatment systems.

Finally Voortman will surprise all visitors with a tour around our sister production facility of ‘Voortman Staalbouw’ (a Voortman Steel Group company). In this production facility, the complete process is automated to a very high level, which can be seen as one of the most sophisticated examples of production automation in structural steel fabrication.

Voortman invites companies and editors of journals in the field of structural steel fabrication to sign up for this event before the 30th December 2009.

Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, Ferrari, Middle East, Luxury

The black and white menace you see above was created for Gemballa’s Middle East distributor, the Illyas and Mustafa Galadari Group, using Mustafa’s personal Enzo as the subject. The roof scoop, jet-thruster-surrounds for the exhaust, and black rims are Gemballa hallmarks, on top of which the nose has been slightly sculpted and the hood sports a central scoop.

The widebody treatment has given Gemballa room to add new elements, like the vents up front and behind the wheels, the gills on the fenders, and stolen-from-a-Subie rear wing. Other Enzo features, like the side vents, have merely been massaged. The paint scheme, a far cry from the Middle East’s de rigueur gold or chrome, is nothing short of arresting — make of that what you will. We don’t mind it.

The inside is rather subdued, comparatively speaking: black and quilted red leather, trimmed in red stitching and piping. We don’t know anything else about the car at the moment — seems the proud owners are holding back until it’s officially rolled out, debutante style, to a waiting Dubai public. If anyone makes it to the unveiling, please let us know if it comes with a set of Imperial armor and an E-11 blaster…

[Source: TeamSpeed]

Gemballa-tuned Enzo MIG-UI waiting for The Empire to strike back again originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, yet another lawsuit over Google ads. These just never seem to stop. The latest, found via Michael Scott, has a few interesting elements, however. In this case, a small online retailer of used cameras and electronics, Sellify, is suing Amazon, not over its own ads, but ads of Amazon affiliates. The two main complaints are over trademark violations of buying keywords, and then defamation. Defamation? Yes, because apparently when people do searches on Sellify or some of its related trademarked names, like OneQuality, some of the ads that come up say things like:

Beware of the SCAM Artist
Camcorders at the Best Price
From the Trusted Source
amazon.com

So that’s a bit different than the usual keyword advertising claim. The only problem, of course, is that these ads are placed by Amazon affiliates, and any defamation claim almost certainly should fall under a Section 230 safe harbor that protects Amazon. The claims in the lawsuit that Sellify notified Amazon are meaningless. Basically, Sellify is suing the wrong party. They might have an argument if they sued the affiliates in question, but they appear to have chosen to focus instead on the big, easy target. But, the whole purpose of Section 230 is so that you can’t just focus on the big, easy target, but have to sue those actually responsible.

Now, trademark claims, however, are not covered by Section 230, so we’re back to the standard legal questions in these sorts of competitive keyword advertising claims. But this has been covered a lot, and many courts have found that there is no trademark violation in competitive ads on trademarked keywords, so it’s hard to see that one getting very far either. It seems like the only argument the company might have is a potential defamation claim if it were filed against the affiliates. But the lawsuit against Amazon seems like a long shot.

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HALLS Refresh is providing one lucky blisstree reader with warmth and relief this holiday season. You have a chance to win a comfortable robe and slipper set, plus a $100 AMEX gift card!

When’s the last time a candy gave you anything?

Refresh is a new mouth moistening candy with advanced moisture action. It’s specially formulated to help moisten your mouth. In addition to relieving a dry mouth, HALLS Refresh is nice to your teeth as well. It’s sugar-free! HALLS Refresh is available in all the same stores where you usually find HALLS.

The new mouth moistening candy has only 6 calories and 3 grams of carbohydrates per drop. Refresh can be incorporated into the diet of diabetics, but you should consult with your doctor if you have concerns.

To enter, you must have a US mailing address. Leave a comment on this post telling me which flavor of Halls Refresh you would choose! I’m a strawberry gal myself. The three available flavors of HALLS Refresh include Juicy Strawberry, Tropical Wave and Refreshing Mint. Deadline to enter is 11 pm CST on January 4, 2010.

How to Enter More Than Once
Tweet this contest and let me know by commenting again for a second chance to win this great holiday giveaway. You may also become a fan of HALLS on Facebook for a third entry.

The randomly chosen winner will have five days to respond to my request for a mailing address. That means you should check your spam filter on January 5 if you don’t want to lose your prize.

Good luck and happy holidays!

(Images courtesy HALLS)

Post from: Blisstree

Win a $100 AMEX from HALLS Refresh!

The old switcheroo

Editor, The Times:

Let Big Brother watch me use my ORCA card [“ORCA card worry: Boss could track your travel,” page one, Dec. 18].

I don’t care.

By the time he starts to watch me, my card will be in the hands of someone else. I already have a pretty big group of like-minded friends who plan on having an ORCA card trading party as soon as our employers give them out.

So when my boss wants to see where I have been, all he is going to find out is where my neighbor went.

A simple plan to thwart a stupid idea.

— Mike Crowley, Seattle

I’m not exposing my child to this

In “ORCA card worry: Boss could track your travel,” it mentioned people could assure privacy by purchasing a nonsubsidized card and not registering it.

Actually, this is not true if the purchaser is under 18 years old. I went to purchase my 6-year-old son an ORCA card. I was told I would not be permitted to get him a youth pass unless I was willing to give his name, birth date and full address.

I am deeply upset. I do not want all of my children’s personal information and movement patterns a matter of public record. This is not only an invasion of privacy, it’s a major safety concern. My current solution is to get a number of youth ORCA passes, register them to fictitious names, addresses and birth dates, and rotate them randomly.

The ORCA card needs to record whether it is loaded with a current pass, what kind of pass it is loaded with, and any current balance in the e-purse. All other information regarding ridership can be gathered from simple counters on the busses, the same way ridership is counted when cash is used.

If ORCA wants to allow people to register their cards and protect their balances, lovely. I think it’s a service many would appreciate. But requiring it? No way.

ORCA not only allows employers to monitor their employees, ORCA also forbids parents from protecting their own children’s privacy. That is outrageous.

— Karen Crisalli Winter, Seattle

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, UK, Celebrities

A month ago, Jay Leno got a glimpse behind the scenes at McLaren, where the late-night talk show host and car nut got a tour of the facility and had a chance to sit in an early version of the company’s newest roadcar in the studio. While Jay was on the other side of the pond he even stopped in at Top Gear to do a lap in the Lacetti. Well, apparently he ran a couple of laps in another car while he was at the Top Gear Test Track too. One camo-covered McLaren MP4-12C prototype.

After the jump you can view a video of Leno ride along in the new McLaren supercar, wax poetic about the 12C’s power, its handling and its totally bespoke construction. Jay even wrote up an article for The Times recalling his experience. Read here and watch here.

[Source: Times Online]

Continue reading VIDEO: Leno gets a ride in the new McLaren MP4-12C

VIDEO: Leno gets a ride in the new McLaren MP4-12C originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Potential success only skin deep

Measuring and monitoring children’s body mass index (BMI) is a convenient check box for the Seattle school district to show they are addressing the obesity epidemic [“Tread carefully with body-mass assessments,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 17], but they have not done their homework.

The district’s response to community concerns regarding BMI measurement should be: Are there outcomes to show the BMI measurement leads to fitter, healthier children? Is BMI a good measure for obesity? Does school-based BMI measurement set some children up for teasing or exacerbate unhealthy weight-loss strategies?

District officials are ignoring these hard questions in their zeal to embrace the war on obesity. We risk harming our children for questionable benefit of an intervention that looks good on the surface, but is really a minefield.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against BMI measurement, it clearly recommends that parental consent be obtained before obtaining these measurements —opting in versus the current program of opting out.

At a minimum, the Seattle school district should be following these guidelines.

— Carol Achtmeyer, Seattle