Published April 4, 2010
By Kristi Pihl, Tri-City Herald staff writer

Pasco is taking a hands-on approach to downtown after taking a back seat on the effort for more than a decade.

Pasco City Council decided to create an organization to pursue downtown revitalization at the Saturday biennial retreat.

Some of downtown has transformed on its own, said City Manager Gary Crutchfield. But, “We believe the laissez-faire approach has been tried,” he said.

Pasco Downtown Development Association has led recent revitalization efforts. But Councilman Al Yenney said the association hasn’t delivered on promises it made three years ago.

Columbia Basin College, the Pasco Downtown Development Association and the city are partnering on a facade improvement program, where seven downtown businesses will receive financial support for remodels and education and business plan aid from CBC.

Councilwoman Rebecca Francik said it’s the third downtown plan in 13 years. The other two are collecting dust.

“Having a plan isn’t enough,” she said. “It’s got to be more aggressive.”

The city could create a community renewal agency, which the council would appoint to create a community renewal plan and address physical and economic blights, said Rick White, city community and economic development director.

Pasco could also designate a city department or board to manage revitalization efforts, Crutchfield said.

Acting Mayor Matt Watkins said Pasco should bring in downtown stakeholders and facilitate a comprehensive plan that could include creating a new agency.

There would be some resistance to the city taking the lead on revitalization, Crutchfield said. Pasco would need to work with the other agencies, including the downtown association, to create an organizational structure that they could accept.

“It’s going to be slower than you would like,” he told the council.

The city should look into promoting the area as a Hispanic commercial district, Yenney said. But promoting it won’t help until parking is addressed, since during busy times, there isn’t parking.

“I really think the downtown could be a center for Hispanic business services,” Crutchfield said.

That could draw people from all over the region, especially on Sundays, which he said tends to be the main shopping day for Hispanic families.

Another council priority is tackling the city’s water rights shortage.

Pasco has borrowed water from the quad-cities water rights, which it owns jointly with Kennewick, Richland and West Richland, according to the council retreat packet. However, the city will need to pay that water back.

The city thought it had a commitment from the state Department of Ecology to solve the shortage, Crutchfield said. But that commitment seems to have eroded.

“We can’t grow without water rights,” he said.

Crutchfield said the worst thing that could happen would be a moratorium on any new development. And the new industrial development the city hopes to attract would also need water.

According to some, the city doesn’t have enough water rights for its current development, he said.

Resolving water rights could involve hiring an attorney, said Bob Alberts, city public works director.

And while curbside recycling didn’t make it to a council goal for the biennium, the city will consider adding the service. Sixty-three percent of those who responded to the city’s 2009 survey indicated they would support the program if it meant a $4 to $5 monthly charge.

The city will ask Basin Disposal Inc., which provides the city’s garbage service, to present a curbside proposal.

If the program was mandatory, support for the curbside recycling would be lower than the survey response, Yenney said. And an opt-in program would not work for the contractor.

There isn’t a market for the recyclable items being collected, Councilman Mike Garrison said.

Instead, the city should have more recycling collection centers around town, Yenney said.

Other council goals for 2010-11 include:

• Develop and implement a marketing strategy for the city’s industrial areas, including the Heritage Center, Foster Wells and the Highway 12 corridor
• Secure funding for a public safety building, including a police station and a municipal court
• Acquire funding for the Lewis Street overpass, a $31 million project that will replace the 70-year-old underpass
• Implement an emergency communication system plan
• Evaluate expanding the process water use facility
• Develop a plan with the state Department of Transportation to deal with Road 68 congestion
• Adopt a comprehensive sewer plan for the urban growth area
• Foster commercial development in Broadmoor area
• Apply city standards to the urban growth area
• Collaborate with other cities in the Mid-Columbia area to control gang activity
• Evaluate the affect of A Street interchange on the city’s urban growth boundaries and future development
• Implement the city’s rivershore plan to foster more shoreline use
• Continue to cooperate with neighboring cities on a regional center.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Don’t get caught with your pants down. The Fed is meeting right now to discuss a possible hike to the discount rate.

Here’s the announcement from the Fed:

——–

It is anticipated that a closed meeting of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, April 5, 2010, will be held under expedited procedures, as set forth in section 26lb.7 of the Board’s Rules Regarding Public Observation of Meetings, at the Board’s offices at 20th Street and C Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. The following items of official Board business are tentatively scheduled to be considered at that meeting.

Meeting date: April 5, 2010

Matters to be Considered:
1.	Review and determination by the Board of Governors of the advance and discount rates to be charged by Federal Reserve Banks.

A final announcement of matters considered under expedited procedures will be available in the Board’s Freedom of Information and Public Affairs Offices and on the Board’s Web site following the closed meeting.

For more information please contact: Michelle Smith, Director, or Dave Skidmore, Assistant to the Board, Office of Board Members at 202-452-2955.

Supplementary Information: You may call 202-452-3206 beginning at approximately 5 p.m. two business days before this meeting for a recorded announcement of any bank and bank holding company applications scheduled for the meeting; or you may contact the Board’s Web site at http://www.federalreserve.gov for an electronic announcement about applications and other expedited items, as well as procedural and other information about the meeting.

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You may recall that a few years back, Canadian politician Wayne Crookes started suing a whole bunch of sites, including Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo and MySpace, just because of postings on those sites that Crookes felt were libelous. Whether or not the comments actually were defamatory was a big open question, but a bigger issue was why he was suing the service providers, rather than those actually responsible for the comments. Some of those lawsuits got tossed out on a jurisdictional technicality, but Crookes then also sued some others, claiming libel for just linking to a site that was potentially libelous as well. One of those sued was Jon Newton, the operator of P2Pnet.net, a site that many of you read. Newton had linked to the stories in question, but did not repeat was written in them or offer any commentary — and yet Crookes claimed that just the links were defamatory.

Thankfully, both the district court and the appeals court said that just linking was not defamatory, but the reasoning was a bit odd, and left some potential issue open. Now, as a bunch of folks have submitted, the Canadian Supreme Court is gearing up to take on the issue. There are really two questions here: whether or not the initial link is defamation, and secondarily, whether or not it becomes defamation if you refuse to take down the link after being alerted to it being defamatory.

In the US, Section 230 of the CDA protects website publishers in both cases. In Canada, the law is not at all clear on this issue, and there’s a very real threat of a pretty massive chilling effect if the Supreme Court decides that linking (or even refusing to take down a link) can constitute defamation. Hopefully, the Supreme Court agrees that merely linking should never be seen as defamation — and preferably, the Canadian Parliament makes this doubly clear by putting in place some basic safe harbors as well.

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According to the Washington Business Journal, First Lady Michelle Obama, will provide the commencement speech at George Washington University’s 2010 spring graduation. This after the school rallied to her challenge of 100,000 hours of community service.

First Lady Michelle Obama will be only the third First Lady in history to speak at George Washington University’s commencement after students and faculty fulfilled her challenge for community service.

Obama in September agreed to be the keynote speaker for the university’s graduation this spring if students and faculty completed 100,000 hours of community service by May 1. The university said it has already reached that goal.

An estimated 3,800 students, faculty, staff and members of the university’s Board of Trustees took part in the service challenge. Projects included painting Habitat for Humanity homes with the First Lady in September, giving a make-over to a Washington high school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and participating in the Alternative Winter and Spring Break Programs.

Michelle Obama or someone in her camp certainly knows how to stay on message. I am thoroughly impressed on how her FLOTUS initiatives are consistently threaded through almost everything she does as First Lady.
Posted by Bridgette. Photo provided by GWU.edu

Last week, we determined a common thread of seasonality running through historical fructose consumption. Warm weather with plenty of sunshine generally meant fruit was available. Those living in the tropics (as we humans did for most of our history) thus had year-round access to sweet fruit, while cold climate Grok had seasonal, intermittent access. Plus, there are many symptoms shared between folks with vitamin D deficiency and fructose-induced metabolic syndrome. Eating fruit seasonally (if you’re into that sort of thing) in the modern world, then, probably involves getting some sunlight with your berries.

What about other clearly seasonal foods – can they be consumed freely and wantonly?

Consider birds. The bird is especially sensitive to environmental and seasonal fluctuations, as anyone who’s ever been woken up by hungry birds chirping at the morning light can attest. You’re all familiar with the “flying south for the winter” phenomenon, and you’ve probably seen the highly efficient flying V formation employed by migratory ducks or geese.  They’re just following the food. Ever watch “The Endless Summer”? It’s like that, except with grubs and seeds instead of big waves. Not all birds are migratory, though. If they can stay put and get enough food to survive, migration to a warmer climate is unnecessary.

We’ve been eating birds for millennia. They can be a bit hard to catch, sure, but the payoff is incredible: juicy thighs, fatty skin, delicious edible bones. And if you were to nab a big one like an ostrich or a wild turkey, that’s dinner for a week! Birds are definitely seasonal, though, and depending on where Grok was living, bird meat wasn’t always available. Does that mean poultry should only be eaten seasonally? Of course not. Meat is meat (well, dark meat is definitely not white meat, but it’s all meat).

What about the eggs? Egg laying is absolutely seasonal. Birds are wired to lay eggs in warmer weather, when food abounds. Even birds that stick around all year long aren’t constantly laying eggs. Grok undoubtedly loved eggs (he never had to deal with the egg yolk fear campaign), but he didn’t have steady access to them. Still, if eggs are just another form of meat, there shouldn’t be an issue with steady consumption of them… right?

Maybe, but there’s a bit more to the story.

Remember that health issues with food generally arise when we eat food that really doesn’t want to be eaten. Take grains, for example. Grains house the little plant embryos; in order to deter consumption and ensure growth, the grain employs lectins and other anti-nutrients. These are chemical self-defense mechanisms that can trigger auto-immune diseases and irritate the intestinal lining. Meat, on the other hand, comes with claws and teeth and legs (and sometimes poison) to dissuade consumption. Once the animal is dead, though, it’s dead. It no longer cares whether it’s eaten, so dead meat is pretty safe to eat. Just watch out for the ostrich’s legs when it’s alive.

What about eggs? Eggs are a different beast altogether – almost like a meat seed. A meat precursor. An egg has no active physical defenses (unless the mother’s around). It can’t sprout legs and run away. It does have the shell, which appears fragile but is actually incredibly resilient. Note the shape, which varies according to the nesting environment; cliff-nesting birds have the most conical eggs, ensuring a loose egg will roll around in a tight circle rather than roll off, while hole nesters produce more spherical eggs. Shells are meant to keep predators, faunal and microbial alike, away from the interior goods.

If you get past the shell, there’s another line of defense: the white. The egg white serves three purposes.

It stores protein for the growing organism – about 50% of the total egg protein.

It helps transport nutrients into the growing embryo.

It protects the egg from microbial attack.

That last one is where things get potentially hairy for us egg-loving hominids who only had historically seasonal access to them. Because the egg is a stationary, otherwise helpless bird “seed,” it has selected for toxic, antimicrobial proteins in the white to bolster defenses. In fact, other than ovalbumen, which accounts for 54% of an egg white’s protein content, the thirteen other proteins in a white are antimicrobial. They aren’t explicitly meant to hurt mammalian interiors, but what harms the microbes can hurt us, too.

Lysozyme is the most problematic egg protein, but in a strange, roundabout way. By itself, pure lysozyme is probably harmless. We even produce it in our own bodies. But because it has an alkaline isoelectric point, it can form strong bonds with other egg white proteins. It binds with the white’s other protease inhibiting proteins, like ovomucoid or ovoinhibitor, to avoid digestive breakdown by protease enzymes, and it can form hardy, potentially harmful protein compounds that pass through the intestinal lining and produce or exacerbate autoimmune or digestive issues.

Now, certain animals can adapt to chemical defenses, given enough time and exposure. Birds, for example, are wild seed-and-grain-eaters. They’ve adapted to the lectins given their steady exposure to them. Primal folks eat a lot of eggs. I’m one of them, and I probably eat them five days out of the week. But how long have we been eating eggs year-round? The first fowl domestication probably occurred 8,000 years ago in Thailand with the red junglefowl, but I imagine year-round egg production took a bit longer to perfect. Have we adapted to year-round egg consumption?

I’m not sure. Egg white allergy is relatively common, ranging from between 1.6-3.2% of the population. According to Cordain, it’s the second most common food allergy. That, plus the inherent purpose of the egg white itself, makes me suspect that there is something there. I don’t think year-round consumption of eggs is a problem for most people; I just think that certain individuals may be sensitive to the egg white protein, while others can down them without issues. I have heard of people developing egg allergies or negative reactions in adulthood, but that usually happens with people who eat a ton of eggs. I don’t hear about people developing lamb allergies.

Egg consumption doesn’t have to be seasonal, but our understanding of eggs is informed by the seasons. Seasonality merely limited historical access to eggs, which in turn limited our ability to develop universal adaptations to egg whites. That’s it. Frying up a scramble in the dead of winter may not be historically accurate, but who the hell cares? It’s not the timing of consumption that matters, but the frequency – and even that isn’t set in stone. If you love eggs, don’t stop eating them. They’re a fantastic source of fat, protein, and vitamins. If you have a preexisting autoimmune issue, though, filling up on eggs could make it worse. And if you start feeling like crap after every egg meal, you should probably ease up. Don’t make eggs your primary protein source (I’m talking five or six eggs each meal), and most of you should be fine. Just be aware that the ability to eat a dozen eggs every day is relatively novel, evolutionarily. I’m not saying that problems will always arise when we introduce dietary novelties, or even that they’ll be more likely to arise. I’m just saying that they may arise for some.

(I find it highly ironic that the only thing you really have to worry about is the egg white. Hmm, next time I’m at a diner I’ll try to order an egg yolk omelet. It might be even cheaper.)

By now, it’s clear that the seasons affect everything: organisms (sentient and inanimate) respond to changes in temperature, rainfall, weather, availability of sustenance by adapting, migrating, or dying; certain geologic features are molded by rain, wind, or glacier, while coastlines are obscured or revealed by changing sea levels. It’s not even so much that things are affected by seasonality so much as they are imbued with it. You know how space and time are forever linked and wholly dependent on one another? How the two are contextual and relative? Think of the seasons, life, and this planet the same way. It’s all linked.

Anyone have egg white allergies? Did you develop them recently, or have you always had them?

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Related posts:

1. The Question of Seasonality in Fructose Availability
2. The Question of Seasonality in Human Health and Nutrition
3. Egg Purchasing Guide

Another datapoint in the pile of evidence that suggests the world’s transportation system has been caught wholly unequipped to handle the sudden rebound in global trade.

(Remember, there have been several stories of shippers having to scramble to un-mothball ships, and recently we noted that in China there are fields of filled-up storage containers that can’t go anywhere because there aren’t enough boats).

Now in Germany, it’s the trains.

According to Der Spiegel, Germany is facing a freight train shortage exacerbated by the fact that during the slump, several of the trains were simply left to rust.

According to the report, on at least one day last week, 180 trains had to be can celled due to a shortage of railcars.

Now see the 20 cities that missed the recovery >

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The “Seed Cathedral,” Thomas Heatherwick’s new UK pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, is composed of 60,000 translucent rods “that act as fiber-optic filaments that channel sunlight into the pavilion’s interior,” writes Inhabitat. Each 7.5-meter ”branch” of the building also contains seeds from the Millennium Seed Bank, a program run by the Royal Botanical Society at Kew Gardens. Once the expo is completed, the built-in seeds will be removed from the rods and given to the Chinese government. 

Inhabitat writes that the building breaks down the boundaries between architecture and sculpture. “The beautiful building envelope blurs the boundaries between architecture and animated sculpture, while the area surrounding the pavilion features a network of pedestrian walkways and a landscaped park area.” During the day, the interior will be lit by daylight, while at night each rod’s embedded lighting elements will turn on, illuminating the rods from the interior.

The architects say the piece is a commentary on how the British currently approach the integration of the natural and built worlds. ”The UK, with its millions of gardens, thousands of public parks and garden squares, has pioneered the integration of nature into cities as a way of making them healthier places, in which to live and work. The UK pavilion encourages visitors to look again at the role of nature and wonder whether it could be used to solve the current social, economic and environmental challenges of our cities.”

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) chief executive officer Sir Andrew Cahn told the Daily Mail that the new building would also help rebrand the UK in the eyes of modern Chinese. ”The Chinese view of Britain is a rather old-fashioned one; it’s all to do with Britain as being a heritage country, a traditional economy – there’s an awful lot of cobblestones and fog. It our hope that updating Chinese preconceptions will attract foreign investors and students to Britain, as well as encourage exports between the two countries.”

The £25 million building was organized by UKTI. Seven other UK government agencies were also involved. David Milland, UK Foreign Minister, launched the event in Shanghai.  

Read the article and see more photos. Also, check out the Millennium Seed Bank.

Image credit: Thomas Heatherwick, UK Pavilion / Inhabitat

Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, South America

With the increasingly well-publicized progression of drug wars, ransomings, robberies and, well, murders in Mexico, I thought it sensible to familiarize myself with the various government tourist advisory messages ahead of a trip retracing part of the route of La Carrera Panamericana, the famed Mexican road race that ran from 1950 to 1955. Regarded by many as the toughest and most dangerous race ever to take place, the perils of our run down memory lane were likely to be rather different than what was encountered in the ’50s. Here are some excerpts of what we were told to expect:

o. “Toll (cuota) highways should be used whenever possible, rather than less secure free (libre) roads, where armed robberies and carjacking are more frequent.”
o. “Large fire fights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico.”
o. “U.S. citizen visitors are encouraged to stay in the well-known tourist areas.”
o. “Mexican styles of driving and road safety standards are very different from those in North America. Police do not regularly patrol the highways. Be prepared for vehicles that fail to observe speed limits or indicate lane changes, and that do not stop at red lights.”
o. “Thefts occur regularly. You should dress down, avoid wearing or carrying expensive jewelry, and carry only small amounts of cash… try to blend in.”
o. “Be careful accepting food, drinks, invitations or rides from strangers or recent acquaintances.”
o. “Road conditions vary and can be poor in some areas. Dangerous curves, poorly marked signs and construction sites, roaming livestock, slow-moving or abandoned vehicles, and other obstacles pose hazards.”
o. “You are also strongly advised against borrowing a vehicle… drivers are legally responsible for their vehicle’s contents, as well as for the legal status of passengers and the items carried by passengers.”

Thankfully for you, dear reader, we aren’t terribly proficient at heeding warnings, so a Mercedes-Benz invitation to borrow their spanking new (and clearly utterly inconspicuous) gullwing SLS AMG supercar and drive it through Mexico at a high rate of speed seemed downright reasonable and prudent. It also appeared to be an absurd amount of fun. Follow the jump to find out how it all shook out.

Photos by Mercedes-Benz | Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading AB Road Trip: Crossing Mexico on the trail of La Carrera Panamericana in a Mercedes SLS AMG

AB Road Trip: Crossing Mexico on the trail of La Carrera Panamericana in a Mercedes SLS AMG originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dividend fever is gripping America.

From Starbucks to Two Harbors Investment to Earthlink, offering a killer dividend is a great way to garner positive press and woo investors to your company.

The reason?

Companies have big wads of cash, and actually investing in the business seems unnecessary.

A recent report from Citigroup (C) lists 15 highly underleveraged companies that could, theoretically, pay a monster one-time dividend, were they to borrow money and dump it out. Note they’re not saying this is definitely going to happen — it mainly gives you an idea of who some of the most underleveraged companies are.

In each, we’ve provided the potential size of the payout, along with a few choice financial datapoints.

Check out the 15 companies >

See Also:

• 12 Things You Absolutely Must Know About Investing Right Now
• Pepsi Raises Dividend By 7%, Announces $15 Billion Stock Repurchase Program
• Here’s Proof That Your "Diversified" Portfolio Is A Joke

GameStop Corp (GME) Potential one-time dividend: 80.1%

Cash balance: $905.4 million
Market cap: $3,522.3 million
TEV/EBITDA*: 3.8x

 

*Total enterprise value over earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization.

Health Net Inc (HNT): 83.4%

Cash balance: $2.04 billion
Market cap: $2,568.3 million
TEV/EBITDA: 5.3x

Healthspring Inc (HS): 89.6%

Cash balance: $462.3 million
Market cap: $1,048.4 million
TEV/EBITDA: 3.3x

Molina Healthcare Inc (MOH): 95.1%

Cash balance: $644.3 million
Market cap: $653 million
TEV/EBITDA: 4.3x

Amsurg Corp (AMSG): 99.4%

Cash balance: $33.9 million
Market cap: $693.8 million
TEV/EBITDA: 4.4x

Telephone & Data Systems Inc (TDS): 104.4%

Cash balance: $784.3 million
Market cap: $3,427.2 million
TEV/EBITDA: 3.7x

Barnes & Noble (BKS): 106.8%

Cash balance: $157.7 million
Market cap: $1,376.8 million
TEV/EBITDA: 3.6x

Penn Virginia Corp (PVA): 107%

Cash balance: $98.3 million
Market cap: $1,112.0 million
TEV/EBITDA: 9.9x

Time Warner Inc (TWX): 116%

Cash balance: $1.08 billion
Market cap: $17,331.8 million
TEV/EBITDA: 6.0x

Clearwater Paper Corp (CLW): 118.1%

Cash balance: $190.8 million
Market cap: $604.6 million
TEV/EBITDA: 1.7x

Alaska Air Group Inc (ALK): 127.8%

Cash balance: $1.19 billion
Market cap: $1,492 million
TEV/EBITDA: 4.4x

Kindred Healthcare Inc (KND): 130.9%

Cash balance: $123.1 million
Market cap: $760.3 million
TEV/EBITDA: 3.6x

Humana Inc (HUM): 142.2%

Cash balance: $7.80 billion
Market cap: $8,339.8 million
TEV/EBITDA: 4.5x

NRG Energy Inc (NRG): 171.2%

Cash balance: $2.30 billion
Market cap: $5,510.5 million
TEV/EBITDA: 3.7x

AOL Inc (AOL): 311.3%

Cash balance: $147 million
Market cap: $2,761.4 million
TEV/EBITDA: 2.5x

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You may recall that, at the end of March, Warner Bros. studios did a new deal with Blockbuster that seemed likely to confuse the hell out of consumers. That’s because Warner Bros., in its backwards-looking wisdom, had already done deals with both Netflix and Redbox to not make new release movies available to rent until 28 days after their release. There is no good reason for this, other than it pisses off customers all around, and makes them less interested or inclined to bother watching Warner Bros. movies (hint to WB: you have competitors).

But the Blockbuster deal seemed confusing — because most consumers wouldn’t be following these silly deals and wouldn’t understand why a movie had been “released” but wasn’t available via their favorite rental service. Apparently, Blockbuster’s answer to all this is to mock Netflix and Redbox for not carrying new releases. Seriously. Reader Daylyn sends in the following ad he recently saw that points out that Netflix and Redbox don’t carry this movie:

Apparently, this is all part of Blockbuster’s new WB-partnered advertising campaign: “hey, the movie studios screwed over our competitors! rent from us!” Looking around, it appears a few others have noticed this campaign as well, which went into place quite quickly after the WB deal was announced.

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Acaba de ser publicado un nuevo vídeo en el que podemos ver en movimiento al nuevo McLaren MP4-12C. Este increible deportivo biplaza de tracción traserá llegará al mercado en Enero de 2011. Se fabricarán durante su primer año 1.000 unidades.

Su precio apróximado será de 200.000€. Hace uso de un motor V8 sobrealimentado con dos turbocompresores de 600CV. Dicho motor va unido a una caja de cambios automática de doble embrague y siete velocidades.

A continuación os dejo con el vídeo, que lo disfruteis:

Related posts:

1. Audi RS5, vídeo disponible
2. Renault Wind, vídeo disponible
3. Toyota FT-86, vídeo disponible

From Green Right Now Reports

An oil spill created when a coal-carrying Chinese vessel grounded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef poses a  threat to the world’s largest coral reef, home to thousands of marine species.

The Shen Neng I went aground at Douglas Shoals over the weekend. By Monday, about two tons of oil had spilled from the 1,000 tons on board, creating a 100-yard slick stretching over about two miles.

Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh announced plans to place a boom around the ship to contain the spill, while aircraft sprayed chemical dispersants to break up the slick.

“It’s in such a delicate part of the reef and the ship is in such a badly damaged state, managing this process will require all the specialist expertise we can bring to bear,” Bligh told reporters in Brisbane.

The ship’s owner, Shenzhen Energy, could be fined up to 1 million Australian dollars ($920,000) after the vessel strayed from a shipping lane used by 6,000 cargo vessels each year. Authorities fear the ship will break apart during the salvage operation and wreck more coral and spill more oil.

“One of the most worrying aspects is that the ship is still moving on the reef to the action of the seas, which is doing further damage,” said Patrick Quirk, General Manager of Marine Safety Queensland.

Maritime law specialist Michael White of the University of Queensland said oil is the major environmental threat posed by the grounding, adding that coal could do “considerable localized damage” but would dissipate quickly.

Finalmente ha ocurrido lo inevitable, los Red Bull han dominado todo este fin de semana en el GP de Malasia y han conseguido su primer doblete de la temporada 2010. El ganador ha sido Sebastian Vettel seguido por Mark Webber.

Por otra parte, el piloto de Mercedes Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg, ha conseguido el primer podio para dicha escudería quedando en tercera posición. Michael Schumacher tuvo que abandonar la carrera debido a una tuerca mal apretada. En lo referente a los pilotos de Ferrari, Fernando Alonso corrio toda la carrera sin embrague y aun asi, consiguió la vuelta rápida de la carrera, además de quedarse a las puertas de los puntos aunque tuvo que abandonar a falta de dos vueltas para finalizar porque su motor no resistió más por dicho problema.

Felipe Massa terminó en la séptima posición lo cuál le convierte en lider actual del campeonato seguido de Alonso. Una vez más, debemos volver a elogiar la carrera realizada por el piloto polaco Robert Kubica quién llevó a su Renault F1 hasta la cuarta posición. En Force Indian también deben estar contentos con el quinto puesto obtenido por Adrian Sutil. Por otra parte, en lo que respecta al resto de españoles en la parrilla, Pedro de la Rosa no pudo ni empezar la carrera por unos problemas con su monoplaza.

Sin embargo, Jaime Alguersuari consiguió terminar noveno lo cuál le otorga sus primeros puntos de su carrera en la Fórmula 1. Por último, debemos mencionar que Hispania Racing Team F1 consiguió llevar a sus dos monoplazas hasta la bandera de cuadros lo cuál es ya de por si un premio. A continuación os dejo con la clasificación final de este Gran Premio:

1. 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 56 Winner 3 25
2. 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 56 +4.8 secs 1 18
3. 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 56 +13.5 secs 2 15
4. 11 Robert Kubica Renault 56 +18.5 secs 6 12
5. 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 56 +21.0 secs 4 10
6. 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +23.4 secs 20 8
7. 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +27.0 secs 21 6
8. 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 56 +37.9 secs 17 4
9. 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 56 +70.6 secs 14 2
10. 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 56 +73.3 secs 5 1
11. 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 56 +78.9 secs 13
12. 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 55 +1 Lap 7
13. 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19
14. 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 24
15. 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 22
16. 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 52 +4 Laps 23
17. 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 51 +5 Laps 18
18. 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 +10 Laps 15
19. 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 32 +24 Laps 11
20. 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 +44 Laps 10
21. 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 9 +47 Laps 8
22. 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 8 +48 Laps 9
23. 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 +54 Laps 16
24. 22 Pedro De la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 + 56 laps 12

Related posts:

1. Jenson Button ganador del GP de Australia 2010 y carrerón de Fernando Alonso
2. Sebastian Vettel ganador del GP de Japón
3. Sebastian Vettel consigue la pole en el GP de Australia

Issues of water management caused the New Zealand Parliament to replace a 14-member elected environmental council with an appointed commission.

New Zealand’s government announced it will replace the Environment Canterbury’s, ECan, 14-member elected council with a group of up to seven government appointed commissioners, according to the Otago Daily Times.

The government had to replace the council because Canterbury’s water management was in shambles, lacking resource management, Environment Minister Nick Smith said. Former public service chief executive Margaret Bazley has been appointed to head the new commission, and up to six more commissioners may be appointed by New Zealand’s government.

Since 2006, ECan has sought more power for the council so it could impose moratoriums on areas with over-stressed water sources and delay consents for water permits.

Some of these powers will be granted to the newly appointed commissioners.

Outgoing ECan chairman Alec Neill responded to the decision saying that had the council already been appointed commissioners’ powers, he was certain issues involving water could have been more easily dealt with, according to the Otago Daily Times.

Meanwhile, the legislation was passed with some resistance. Christchurch Central’s Member of Parliament, Brendon Burns, led the Labour Party’s movement against the legislation in the debate, saying it was an assault on democracy.

“This is about the replacement of a democratic council function by executive fiat,” Burns said during the third reading debate on the bill, reports TVNZ. “We haven’t even had a flicker of democratic process here with this bill rammed through under urgency.”

“All the power rests with the Minister for the Environment and he says ‘trust me, I will look after Canterbury’s interests’–Well, I don’t trust him.”

New Zealand’s Green Party also opposes replacing the council,The New Zealand Herald reports.

During debate over the bill, the Green Party pointed out that New Zealand’s Agriculture Minister, David Carter, has a farm in the area under ECan management. The Greens co-leader, Russen Norman, said the bill could ease the process and construction of a proposed dam on the Hurunui River, and financially benefit Carter as a result.

Carter said that Norman’s concern was outrageous and irrelevant since he had consent to irrigate his property from the Hurunui River, which would not be altered if the proposed dam went through.

Sources:the Otago Daily Times, The New Zealand Herald and TVNZ

The Science of Aesthetics by Keith Lang (video) is a talk Lang gave at UXAustralia in 2009. In it, he talks about how some shapes are naturally friendly looking, like the rounded rectangle, while other shapes are harsher and more unfriendly. Here’s a cool example of how a UI could take advantage of this by using an aggressive, spiky shape:

Interesting idea. People would definitely think twice before clicking a button that looks like it’s going to carve up fingertips.

An innovative substance with an obvious similarity to a common liver support supplement begins a Phase II clinical trial to protect the livers of those with Hepatitis C.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Novelos Therapeutics, a Massachusetts based biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes oxidized glutathione-based compounds for the treatment of cancer and hepatitis. One of their products, NOV-205, has just enrolled its first participant in a Phase II clinical trial for Hepatitis C previous treatment non-responders. Although there are several chemical differences, a popular supplement taken by people with Hepatitis C has a distinct resemblance to this experimental compound.

For the estimated four to five million Americans with Hepatitis C, the current standard treatment of pegylated interferon and ribavirin can help only about 50 percent of those infected. For those with the virus who did not have a successful outcome with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, preventing any further decline of their liver’s condition is a medical priority.

Prevention of liver disease progression has historically fallen into the categories of lifestyle modifications, herbal supplementation and alternative medical practices. However, Novelos Therapeutics’ NOV-205 is one of the first pharmaceutical agents to be categorized as a hepatoprotective compound – meaning its goal is to protect the liver from incurring any further damage. Described not just as a hepatoprotective agent, but also a substance containing immune modulating and anti-inflammatory properties, NOV-205 is a unique formulation of oxidized glutathione and inosine.

NOV-205:

· Demonstrated safety, reduced viral load and improved liver function in a Russian trial of 178 patients with Hepatitis B and C.

· Was approved in Russia by the Ministry of Health in 2001 as a monotherapy for the treatment of Hepatitis B and C.

· Successfully completed a Phase 1b trial in the US, proving itself as a safe compound.

As of March 2010, an ongoing U.S. Phase 2 trial to expand the safety database and assess NOV-205’s efficacy commenced. Taking on a notoriously challenging to treat population, this trial is being conducted on patients with Hepatitis C who did not respond to pegylated interferon/ribavirin therapy. Treatment centers are currently recruiting participants for this study in the states of Florida, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

While a detailed explanation of NOV-205’s formulation remain under wraps, the Novelos Therapeutics product line clearly revolves around oxidized glutathione-based compounds. Glutathione is a well-known antioxidant that can benefit individuals with Hepatitis C. It is an enzyme found in all of the body’s tissues that protects against potential damage from wastes and toxins.

Glutathione is available as an over-the-counter pill. However, its absorption into cells has been repeatedly questioned. A better way of boosting this antioxidant in the body, many experts advocate supplementing with glutathione’s building blocks – so that the body can convert them into glutathione.

Since a liver with Hepatitis C must continually defend itself against damage from the virus, many people with this illness supplement with N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) – a building block of glutathione. While NOV-205 clearly contains a different form of glutathione, the logic behind this experimental drug is along the same lines as NAC supplementation. For the previous non-responders to Hepatitis C treatment who are lucky to get into this trial, NOV-205 could help thwart their liver disease progression. For everyone else, supplementing with NAC is a wise move in the name of hepatoprotection.

For more information about the eligibility requirements and recruitment centers for the NOV-205 clinical trial currently underway, visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01058512?term=NCT01058512&rank=1.

References:

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01058512?term=NCT01058512&rank=1, A Trial of NOV-205 in Hepatitis C Patients Who Failed Standard Therapy, Retrieved April 4, 2010, ClinicalTrials.gov, 2010.

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/mt/archives/2007/07/hcv_and_the_bod.html, HCV and the Body’s Most Important Antioxidant, Nicole Cutler, L.Ac., Retrieved April 4, 2010, Natural Wellness, 2010.

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hep_c/news/2010/040210_b.html, Novelos Starts Phase 2 Trial of NOV-205 to Reduce Liver Damage in Non-responders to Interferon Therapy for Hepatitis C, Retrieved April 4, 2010, hivandhepatitis.com, April 2010.

http://www.novelos.com/docs/Novelos%20PR%203-25-10%20205%20Ph2%20initiation.pdf, Novelos Therapeutics Enrolls 1st Patient in Phase 2 Hepatitis C Trial with NOV-205, Retrieved April 4, 2010, Novelos Therapeutics, Inc., 2010.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Audi, Diesel, Racing

Audi has just dropped a bunch of photos of the new livery that its R15+ TDI race cars will wear for 2010 beginning with their competition debut this weekend in France. The heavily revised R15+ features a completely new aerodynamic treatment up front and along the sides, a change which Audi hopes will allow the car to have both better grip and lower drag than than last year’s model. In fact, it looks like almost nothing but the cockpit area has been carried over, with the racer’s side-pods and even the rear wing being heavily re-worked.

The 2009 car was something of a disappointment and for the first time in a decade (aside from 2003 when Audi stepped aside in favor of sister brand Bentley) was handily beaten at Le Mans. Audi opted to skip last month’s American Le Mans Series opener at Sebring to spend the time testing. Only one R15+ will run at Le Castellet this weekend for the opener of the Le Mans Series, and we don’t expect to see the R15+ racing in North America until the Petit Le Mans in September.

[Source: Audi]

Continue reading Audi R15+ shows off its new duds ahead of race debut

Audi R15+ shows off its new duds ahead of race debut originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s always fun to see patent system defenders in our comments insist that the patent system rarely makes mistakes in issuing patents, and how really bad patents get pushed out upon review. And yet… then we hear stories like the following one. Four guys, back in 2001 filed for a patent (6,519,629) on a “system for creating a community for users with common interests to interact in.” Seriously. Reading through the patent application, I’m having trouble seeing how this wasn’t covered by a ton of prior art. What in that patent does not apply to early BBS systems, for example? And, even if there really is something new (I can’t find anything), how is putting together an online community not an obvious thing?

Back in 2007, the company holding that patent, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, sued Facebook. In turn, Facebook asked for the trial to be held up while it explained to some patent examiners that they were insane to think this was patentable. Apparently, the patent examiners haven’t used the internet very much, and affirmed the validity of the patent — so the lawsuit is now back on. This is just one in a growing series of patent lawsuits against Facebook — once again highlighting that once you get big enough to be noticed, some nobody will sue you for patent infringement.

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Those looking for a Star Wars game to play on their PS3 or PSP can look no further than PSOne Classics service. The ESRB has recently rated the PSOne title, Star Wars: Dark Forces, for PS3 and