Author: Serkadis

One mom in North Carolina had a NES and five games rotting away in her closet. Instead of tossing them into the dumpster or giving it to the guy that loves blending stuff on YouTube, she figured

Article Tags: You could not make it up

THE head of a climate research unit which has been accused of manipulating global warming data yesterday turned on sceptics for playing “Russian roulette” with the planet.

The astonishing claims came from Professor Peter Liss, the new boss of the controversial unit at the centre of the “climategate” storm which has faced accusations of massaging the figures to support the global warming cause.

Professor Liss, acting director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), said that sceptics were endangering the lives of generations to come by making unsupported “assertions”.

He also attacked those who believe that global warming is not man-made and branded their beliefs “very dangerous”.

His views are wildly at odds with the British public, more than half of whom believe that there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, according to a recent poll.

Source: express.co.uk

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On Thursday, it was reported that Honda’s Ridgeline pickup will be upgraded for the 2011 model year. Honda’s assistant vice president of product planning Vicki Poponi said that the Ridgeline, which has not been upgraded for five years, will see some changes in 2011. Well, you can scratch that.

PickupTrucks.com, who originally spoke to Poponi at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show about the next-generation Ridgeline, received an email today from Christina Ra, manager at Honda public relations. She says:

“American Honda apologizes if there was inaccurate information shared at the Chicago Auto Show about the Honda Ridgeline pickup. I can confirm that there will be no significant change to the Ridgeline through the 2011 model year.”

It looks like the Ridgeline will move on as one of the oldest vehicles in Honda’s lineup.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: PickupTrucks.com

Despite the strength of their name, Nippon Ichi still incurred a 97.5% drop (qjnet/news/nippon-ichi-operating-profit-down-975.html) in their operating profits. To help them pick up after that nose dive, the publisher has announced that they’ll be working on a

Thatgamecompany is giving that flOw game a Special Offer that the last PlayStation Store update didn’t give us a heads up for. For today only, the game will be free to download for those in the US

Filed under: Motorsports, Celebrities

Kyle Busch, reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champ and the polesitter for today’s 2010 season opener in Daytona, has a bone to pick with the media. Busch is irked that the overwhelming majority of the Nationwide Series TV coverage during the runup to the 2010 season kickoff has focused primarily (and not at all unexpectedly) on Danica Patrick’s impending stock car debut. He calls the lopsided coverage “horrible,” according to SceneDaily.com.

Busch has no issue with Danica herself; in fact, he’s quoted as saying she’s doing well. The problem, as he sees it, is that the avalanche of attention being given to Patrick is wildly disproportionate to what her actual participation in the series will be. Remember that despite all the media noise surrounding her arrival in NASCAR, Danica Patrick is a part-time driver who will appear in fewer than half the races on the 2010 Nationwide Series calendar. IndyCar remains her first priority, and she’s racing that full schedule. Busch feels the media is doing the other full-time Nationwide drivers a great disservice by not affording them some of the giant spotlight that the series finds itself under this week.

While some will doubtless view Busch’s comments as sour grapes, he makes a valid point in that there are surely other drivers who would stand to benefit from some media love, particularly given all the extra attention that has followed Danica to Daytona. It’s also a prime opportunity for casual observers to potentially learn more about the Nationwide Series itself, which puts on an entertaining show and offers up some interesting differences from the top-tier Sprint Cup series. (Did you know that the Nationwide teams bring rain tires and windshield wipers to the dates at Mexico City and Montreal? Now you do.)

Now, Busch’s media criticism may be well-intentioned, but he shouldn’t look this gift horse in the mouth. The gigantic amount of press that Danica Patrick has generated for the Nationwide Series this week can only be viewed as a good thing for everyone involved. It’s likely to carry over to her second race in Las Vegas two weeks from now as well. After that, Danica vanishes from NASCAR until late June in order to focus on IndyCar.

So here’s the deal: Danica Patrick (and the media swarm that’s following her) brings fresh sets of eyes to the NASCAR Nationwide Series this month. Eyes that might not otherwise tune in on Saturdays. What’s the single best thing that Kyle Busch and all the other every-week series regulars can do? Once March rolls around and Danica heads back to her day job: keep ’em.

[Source: SceneDaily.com | Image: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty]

Kyle Busch irked over Danica saturation in Daytona originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s one of the most popular automotive brand tag lines ever created – we’re talking about BMW’s “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan. Nonetheless, times are tough and BMW’s “go fast, go hard” tag line is taking a vacation. Starting today, BMW’s latest ad campaigns will features its “Story of Joy” tag lines.

“All of our efforts in engineering, design and technology are about one thing, which is creating moments of joy,” said Jack Pitney, Vice President, Marketing, BMW of North America. “Given recent trends in consumer mindsets, the campaign refocuses BMW on the joy of driving and sharing those moments in an upbeat, humanized and refreshing fashion.”

In October 2009, BMW released its “Jump for Joy” video campaign, which you can check out after the jump.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Straightline

Rumours of a new device to be announced by HTC at Mobile World Congress are starting, with a number of tweets mentioning the HTC HD Mini.

Sina.com.cn believes the device will be the HTC Photon, leaked in December 2009.

The HTC Photon features a 3.2 inch Half-VGA capacitive screen, Windows Mobile 6.5 and 600 Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, so in most ways seem to be a low-end HTC HD2.

The handset is expected to arrive in April 2010.

One bad upload can throw your whole life down the toilet. That’s the story of James Burt from Australia, who made the life-ruining mistake of uploading his copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii into the net.

Australia, as a small Country with a population of only 22 million has consistently punched well above its weight in World sport, evidenced by its standing in the overall Olympic winners of medals where it stands 8th on the overall count and 7th in the Gold medal count. However, when it comes to the Winter Olympics, we rank quite low in the medal count, mainly because here in Oz, it is a really hot Country, so there is a distinct lack of facilities, and especially, venues where those Winter sports can take place.

Even though Australia has competed in 16 Winter Games, it took until the 15th of those Games, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City for Australia to win its first gold medal, and we have only won three Golds in total.

This short video is of that first Gold Medal, and the video takes some very careful explanation for American audiences not quite attuned to Australian Humour, and a detailed explanation is below the video.

The first explanation is the two guys at the start, Roy and HG. They are known as Rampaging Roy Slaven (on the left) and HG Nelson. That is not their real names. These two guys are literally legends of Australian sports media broadcasting.

They started out commentating in the mid 80’s on the Rugby football here in Australia, (both codes) and the technique they use is to parody the sport, and make it as humourous as is possible. They had been doing this on radio for many years before they decided to take the concept to TV. It translated quite well, mainly because of the Australian way to accept ‘larrikin’ humour, and they had numerous hit TV shows with the concept. They were approached by one of the Major Commercial Networks to come up with a concept for a late night variety show centred around the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, which in actual fact proved to be one of the most watched broadcasts for the whole of the Olympic Games, and overseas athletes especially wanted to be part of the show, because of the way they took humour and translated it to Sport. The show was actually a huge hit in the UK, as well as in Europe, and also in some places of the U.S.  They took the same format to Salt Lake City, where again the show proved immensely popular, both here in Australia, and also again in other Countries. Their brand of typical Australian humour is sometimes a little puzzling, but the duo have kept it Australian by nature, and even though there have been some puzzled faces from non Australian guests, it has always proved very funny. In fact some people who have never watched Sports of any sort specifically tuned into this show, because it was just great entertainment.

Steven Bradbury wins Gold

Now, the athlete in question. His name is Steven Bradbury. He first competed at a Winter Olympic Games in 1992 at Albertville, where he was part of the short track speed skating four man team, which at that time was in fact World Champions at the event. In 1994, at Lillehammer, he was again part of the four man team in the same event and this time they won a Bronze Medal, Australia’s first Winter Olympic Medal. He represented Australia again in the 1998 Nagano Olympics, at the same teams event and also in some individual short course speed skating events.

By the time 2002 came around, Steve was one of the older athletes, now at his 4th Winter Olympics. This 1000 metre individual event was one of three short track events he entered, but the only one he expected to perform well in, and when asked what his aspirations were, in the typical laconic Australian way he replied, ‘to stay on my feet, and if and when others fall, to hopefully get as far as I can. The four races in this event were all held on the one day, and he knew there was no way he could keep up with the younger guys. The favourite was the American, Apolo Anton Ohno.

Steven won his first race, a heat, and that put him straight into the quarter final. He finished third, effectively eliminating him from the field. However, the second place getter was disqualified for interfering with another racer, and Bradbury luckily made it into the semi final race.

He was again in fifth place in a normally four man field for most of the race, but luckily three others fell during the race and he sneaked into second place, assuring him of a place in the four man final. Another racer was given an extra place in that field after a successful protest, and again five men lined up for the race in what would normally be a 4 man field. Bradbury had no way whatever to keep up with these younger and much faster guys, so again it was a case of just staying on his feet. The rest is history when all four front runners fell on the last corner. Bradbury cruised to the line arms raised in absolute disbelief that he might actually have won. There was a protest, but what actually happened after Bradbury crossed the line had a major effect on that protest. As you can see, two of the crashed skaters struggled to get a skate across the finish line, for second and third. Had they not done this, there may well have been a re run of the race, but because there actually were three finishers, the result stood, and Bradbury won what was Australia’s first Gold Medal at a Winter Olympic Games, having also shared the distinction of winning Australia’s fist ever medal at a Winter Games, that Bronze as part of the team in 1994.

Bradbury retired right then and there, after more than 14 years in the Sport, 11 of those at the top level, as he was ranked in the top ten in the World at the event for nearly all of those years. Steven’s win in this event has gone into immortality here in Australia, and he has never been one to have any pretensions about being the best in his event. When asked what it took for him to win his Gold, he laughs it off with the following.

“I stayed on my feet. I progressed due to two protests, and for me to win, 7 other guys has to fall over, and that’s exactly what did happen.”

Australia has always been well represented at Winter Olympic Games, and no, we do not practice in the Australian Antarctic Territories. We have only one major snow resort that has snow for some months in Winter. All our athletes in virtually every discipline have to train and compete overseas. We have some small Ice rinks mainly one or rarely two in Capital Cities, but after that there is virtually nothing. We may not get very many Medals, but we typify that typical Australian attitude to ‘have a go’ at anything.

The story of Steven Bradbury is legendary, not only in Skating, or in Winter disciplines, but in the annals of all Australian Sports. After his wonderful win, if a little unintended, he was awarded a grant of $20,000 which he put towards the first new car he had ever owned. His old car was off the road at the time of the Olympics, and he borrowed some money from his parents for repairs. He had a job making skates which gave him a very small income, and he practiced when and where he could.

It was a truly great story of the underdog winning despite so much adversity, and a little dash of luck, well, maybe a lot of luck spread over three races.

Steve now speaks on the circuit as a motivational speaker, and has also been awarded the Medal of The Order of Australia, for his lifetime achievements in his sport.

Steven Bradbury – An Australian athlete in the typical no nonsense tradition.

Filed under: Australia, Heroes, Video Tagged: Australian Sporting Heroes, Speed Skating, Steven Bradbury OAM, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Sports

Article Tags: BBC, You could not make it up

A – Do you agree that according to the global temperature record used by the IPCC, the rates of global warming from 1860-1880, 1910-1940 and 1975-1998 were identical?

1860-1880 21 0.163 Yes
1910-1940 31 0.15 Yes
1975-1998 24 0.166 Yes
1975-2009 35 0.161 Yes

Click source for more

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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Google has had a spotty history in Australia lately. While it has spoken out against government plans to institute what amounts to Internet censorship laws, it has at times acted against the very principles it claims to be upholding. It looks like the company is on the right track again as it is refusing to censor YouTube videos on t… (read more)

FCC certification have always been a major barrier to keeping a phone secret, forcing companies to announce phones well before they actually become available.

It seems Microsoft’s rumoured Project Pink Turtle phone has suffered the same fate a few days before its suspected public announcement in 2 days, as ZuneBoards has noticed a Sharp CDMA slider trying to slip through the FCC unnoticed. 

The Sharp filing with the FCC for a "CDMA Slide Phone with WLAN & BT," will remain mostly confidential until March 29th.

Zuneboards were quick to notice the FCC label profile matched the shape of the leaked device pretty well, confirming most of the leaks rumoured by the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Those leaks suggested the Project Pink phone will be released in the Spring, on Verizon and Vodafone and will be manufactured by Sharp, who currently makes the Sidekick.

In many ways the purported Zune phone is a diversion from Windows Mobile as we know it, and is certainly not directed at the same market as currently supports the OS.  The Turtle phone, according to Wall Street Journal, is aimed at teens, which may very well explain the restrictions we have heard of recently.

Via istartedsomething.com

Article Tags: BBC, ClimateGate

Phil Jones, the professor behind the “Climategate” affair, has admitted some of his decades-old weather data was not well enough organised.

These statements are likely to be welcomed by people sceptical of man-made climate change who have felt insulted to be labelled by government ministers as flat-earthers and deniers.

Click source to read more

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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Websites evolve, it’s a fact of life, they all need to be constantly refreshed as things move pretty fast online. Every time one major site decides to roll out a new feature or design, you can be sure there’s a number of people who are going to hate it, almost instinctively. And you can also be sure that they’ll be the ones screaming the loud… (read more)

The 2010 Winter Olympics were off to a bad start as those following the event may already know after the fatal accident of a Georgian luger. The crash opens up a number of issues with the organizers and the track but it also opens up another unpleasant discussion as copyright is being abused, again, to keep video of the crash from popping up online… (read more)

Google has just acquired search and Q&A startup Aardvark and already we have some clues about the future of the service. Both companies have come out confirming the deal and offering small details about the former’s plans for the newly bought company. From the looks of it, the future seems good for Aardvark as not only Google isn’t winding down the produ… (read more)