Author: Serkadis

In a recent post on the official Skype blog, Jean-Jacques Sahel, the company’s European director of government & regulatory affairs, has shown his support for mobile Internet neutrality, as a response to the fact that more and more companies want to charge users for browsing the net when using mobile devices. Apparently, this action can … (read more)

Article Tags: Energy & Fuel

Americans are being inundated with claims about renewable and alternative energy. Advocates for these technologies say that if we jettison fossil fuels, we’ll breathe easier, stop global warming and revolutionize our economy. Yes, “green” energy has great emotional and political appeal. But before we wrap all our hopes — and subsidies — in it, let’s take a hard look at some common misconceptions about what “green” means.

1. Solar and wind power are the greenest of them all.

Unfortunately, solar and wind technologies require huge amounts of land to deliver relatively small amounts of energy, disrupting natural habitats. Even an aging natural gas well producing 60,000 cubic feet per day generates more than 20 times the watts per square meter of a wind turbine. A nuclear power plant cranks out about 56 watts per square meter, eight times as much as is derived from solar photovoltaic installations. The real estate that wind and solar energy demand led the Nature Conservancy to issue a report last year critical of “energy sprawl,” including tens of thousands of miles of high-voltage transmission lines needed to carry electricity from wind and solar installations to distant cities.

Nor does wind energy substantially reduce CO2 emissions. Since the wind doesn’t always blow, utilities must use gas- or coal-fired generators to offset wind’s unreliability. The result is minimal — or no — carbon dioxide reduction.

Source: washingtonpost.com

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You know you like ’em big and real I’m talking about monsters of course. Lost Planet 2 has generous helpings of some of the biggest monsters you’ll ever get to slay in-game. Gametrailers caught a preview

Article Tags: Richard Lindzen

IN November last year a file appeared on the internet containing thousands of emails and other documents from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain.

How this file got into the public domain is still uncertain, but the emails, whose authenticity is no longer in question, provided a startling view into the world of climate research.

In what has become known as Climategate, one could see unambiguous evidence of the unethical suppression of information and opposing viewpoints, and even data manipulation.

Moreover, the emails showed collusion with other prominent researchers in the US and elsewhere. The CRU supplies many of the authors for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

One might have thought the revelations would discredit the science underlying proposed global warming policy. Indeed, the revelations may have played some role in the failure of last December’s Copenhagen climate conference to agree on new carbon emissions limits.

Source: theaustralian.com.au

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First a comment on the seasonal adjustment … on a Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) basis, the Census Bureau reported there were 38,000 new homes sold in March. That is up from 31,000 in March 2009.

Some (or all) of the increase was due to a one time event – the tax credit that expires in April. The Census Bureau doesn’t know the number of homes sold due to the tax credit, so they report the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) assuming this is the underlying rate of sales. It isn’t.

The April new home sales headline number will be distorted too, but the key is the actual underlying sales rate is much lower.

Note: remember the tax credit shows up in the new home sales numbers when the contract is signed (March and April), and in the existing home sales numbers when the transactions are closed (April through June).

The following graph shows existing home sales (left axis) and new home sales (right axis) through March.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The initial gap was caused by the flood of distressed sales. This kept existing home sales elevated, and depressed new home sales since builders couldn’t compete with the low prices of all the foreclosed properties.

The spike in existing home sales last year was due primarily to the first time homebuyer tax credit. Notice that there was also a bump last year in new home sales from the tax credit.

We are seeing another bump this year with the expiration of the extension of the tax credit.

The second graph shows the same information as a ratio – new home sales divided by existing home sales – through March 2010.

The ratio increased because the tax credit impacts new home sales first. I suspect this ratio will be at or near the all time low later this year.

Eventually this ratio will return to the historical range of new home sales being around 15% to 20% of existing home sales. However it will probably take a number of years to return to a more normal market.

This post is reprinted from Calculated Risk.

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Due to the nature of the site, YouTube has always had to struggle to reach a balance between protecting copyright and enabling users to let loose their creativity. The site is facing a $1 billion lawsuit with Viacom and with 24 hours worth of video uploaded every minute, it can’t possibly review each video that en… (read more)

The Hubble Space Telescope is turning 20 today, a venerable age for such an important piece of hardware for modern astronomy. Over the years, it has provided some of the most spectacular and famous images of our galaxy and beyond. Google is one of the geekiest companies out there, so it wouldn’t miss out on an occasio… (read more)

A lot of disgruntled fans weren’t too happy with the Final Fight: Double Impact DRM, which requires players to be signed into the PlayStation Network to be able to play even in single player games. In

The Sony systems continue to show strength in Japan as the PSP and PS3 finish the week at #1 and #2 respectively. What about the others?

Twitter has been more active on the acquisition front lately, no doubt spurred by the huge amounts of cash it got from its investors. Another trend has been moving back to its SMS roots by signing more agreements with carriers. Put these together and you end up with Twitter’s latest acquisition, a startup called Cloudhopper, whi… (read more)

With FW 3.30, the PS3 is now ready to handle 3D gaming. But what about the games? The Digital Foundry reports that in order to support the 3D output, the first few games to support the feature

Honda LI NIAN Everus Concept

At the 2010 Beijing Motor Show, Honda surprised the automotive world with a new concept for its LI NIAN brand, Guangqi Honda’s proprietary automobile brand (previously known as Guangzhou Honda).

“The mass-production model of this concept car will be introduced at the Guangzhou Motor Show, scheduled at the end of this year,” Honda said.

No additional details on the Honda LI NIAN Everus Concept were revealed. We’re not sure if this hints at the next-generation design of Honda sedans but it looks like Honda took some design hints from its Acura department. We’ll update you on the details as we get them.

Honda LI NIAN Everus Concept:

– By: Omar Rana

When SOCOM 4 was first announced at last years GDC, a lot of skeptics and fans alike ponder to the fact that the game will support the upcoming PlayStation Move motion controller. But no worries folks, Zipper

The various luxury brand companies are pretty quick with trademark lawsuits these days — often going well beyond reason. We’ve seen it time and time again — especially when they sue third parties like Google or eBay. So I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that in their rush to sue, they don’t always check all the facts… leading to hilarious scenarios like the one brought to our attention where Gucci accidentally sued Chanel and even got a temporary restraining order against the company.

The timeline, as far as I can tell, goes like this. Last year, Chanel and LVMH sued some websites that were selling counterfeit goods. One of those websites was called MyPurseWorld.com. In a ruling last June, a federal district court in Florida transferred that domain to Chanel, who began using the website to post the court ruling and to post info about other counterfeiting sites. Fair enough (well, I might argue that, but we’ll leave it aside for now).

However, earlier this month, Gucci sued a bunch of sites for trademark infringement — including MyPurseWorld.com. Apparently whoever put together the lawsuit hadn’t checked out the site since last June, or discovered that Chanel now owned it and it was being used by that company to post anti-counterfeiting info. So, basically Gucci sued Chanel, claiming that its MyPurseWorld.com site was selling counterfeit Gucci products. They even had Chanel served as a defendant. On top of that, a district court in Manhattan granted a restraining order against “the website or its owner” barring web hosts or ISPs from working with them. Technically, yes, this could have meant that Chanel couldn’t work with webhosts or ISPs. Of course, Chanel protested and Gucci quickly backed down, admitting “a minor bit of confusion.”

I’m still a bit confused why the judge would totally bar a site from working with a webhost or ISP, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.

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Check out the list of characters that will be present in the upcoming Super Street Fighter IV. The all star trailer after the jump.
 

Filed under: Sedan, China, Government/Legal, Beijing Motor Show, Luxury

Beijing-based First Auto Works has long been the provider of the official transportation for the hierarchy of the People’s Republic of China. Back in the 1950s, FAW started off building a localized version of the standard Soviet parade car, and over the past half century, they have evolved. FAW has also built licensed stretched sedans based on Audi and Lincoln vehicles.

Here at the Beijing Motor Show, FAW is showing off a new limo that is a modern interpretation those original models from the 1950s, but with a greenhouse and door array that looks more like a contemporary Rolls-Royce Phantom. We couldn’t find any press materials written in English, but we have reason to believe that this machine is powered by a V12 engine that looks suspiciously like the one from the BMW 7 Series V12 of the late-1980s.

Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Beijing 2010: First Auto Works Red Flag limo is fit for government work originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Performance, Videos

First let us deal with the baffling part. Having grown up just miles from Agoura, California we can attest that, with the exception of Mike Cimo’s Bar Mitzvah, nothing of any interest has ever happened there. Not during our lifetime at any rate. However, it turns out that back in the mid-1950s, Agoura was quite the place to be, assuming you’re of the gearhead persuasion, of course.

Now for the wonderful part. In the following video you will see an Austin-Healy 100, a Jaguar XK120 and a Ford Thunderbird all jamming their hardest to run up a dirt hill as fast as possible. More incredibly, there were 160 entrants and 2,000 spectators, so says West Coast Sports Car Journal. Amazing figures for something as non-sanctioned as a hill climb.

Sadly, not included int he video is the winning Eliminator Model T that’s now supposedly owned by none other than Brock Yates. Nor do we get to see the second place place car, a Cad-Allard J2X. This hill climb took place on February 6, 1955 and not only can’t we imagine anyone running cars this pretty in the dirt, but anything 1/10th as joyous taking place in Agoura ever again. Make the jump to watch the video.

[Source: The Chicane]

Continue reading Video: 1955 Agoura Hill Climb is baffling, yet wonderful

Video: 1955 Agoura Hill Climb is baffling, yet wonderful originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Head up, PlayStation movie fanatics! This week’s PlayStation Video Store content update is now up and it includes a bunch of new movie deals, a Universal Giveaway promo and the HD arrival of James Cameron’s Avatar.