Author: Serkadis

JPMorgan: Long Term We’re Fine, But This Selloff Is Not Over
(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

JP Morgan continues to view the current market downturn as a buying opportunity. Although they are paring back some near-term risk they also recommend that investors with a medium term outlook remain long. This is very similar to my own thinking as of now. Nonetheless, JP Morgan is not convinced that the sell-off is over in the short-term:

“We remain of the view that the recent sell-off is as a correction in a medium-term bull market in riskier assets, but a correction that is probably not over. We thus retain bullish medium-term forecasts for all risky assets, and bearish ones for government bonds.

Their medium term view remains quite constructive as they see continuing upside based on the economic recovery, strong earnings, and supportive government actions:

“Our still-positive medium-term view on risky markets is based on a solid global recovery and fading risks around it. Think of this as the mean and standard deviation of the growth distribution. Our growth view is itself based on strong corporate earnings and supportive government policies stimulating corporate spending on people, inventory, and capital.”

In terms of China tightening and the Greek debt problems, they say investors are overreacting. That doesn’t mean fears regarding both won’t continue to hold down markets though:

“We believe markets are overreacting to the impact of Chinese policy tightening and the Greek fiscal situation, at least with respect to global growth. China is aiming to stabilize a red-hot economy and is using all the tools at its disposal. China has a good track record, though not perfect, in stabilizing its economy, and we thus are confident of success. This is not a reason to sell risk. Greece is the subject of a liquidity crisis, but is fundamentally solvent. There is pressure on other countries to tighten spending, but they are not large enough to drive the Euro area economy down.

The pressure from these two risks is unlikely to fade in coming weeks and will thus likely further depress risky markets, even as we do not rate them that highly as macro risks.”

In short, be looking to get long into weakness….

Source: JP Morgan

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February 12, 2010
They may tell no tales, but they also create no jobs

Just add pickles and spam

I really do believe that Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley could screw up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Among other things, Baucus and Grassley said that jobs could only move forward if the Senate agreed to take up a bipartisan “reform” (a.k.a. slashing) of the estate tax.

For once, thank you Harry Reid for killing something…immediately.

Because there is nothing more economically stimulating for the economy than preserving old money.

February 12, 2010
Google Acquires Social Search and Q&A Service Aardvark for $50 Million

Google’s social web prowess seems to be growing these days. After just launching its new social network/aggregator, Friendfeed-inspired Google Buzz, the company has confirmed it acquired social search and Q&A service Aardvark for a rumored but unconfirmed $50 million. As a side note, have you noticed how web services are get… (read more)

February 12, 2010
Hip Kitties from Hot n’ Funky

These sassy little cats from Hot n’ Funky come on a variety of merchandise from t-shirts and mugs to totes and journals. Check out the Hot n’ Funky CafePress store for more.

February 12, 2010
New Views of Pluto

This is an interesting observation of changes taking place on Pluto. We learn that as far as she is away from the sun, it appears to still possibly be affected.

I wonder how much elemental carbon exists on the surface. I anticipate a great deal.

In the meantime this is not a barren moon. We have an atmosphere showing some unexpected behavior however thin it may be.

New Views of Pluto Reveal Weird Bright Spot

By Clara Moskowitz

SPACE.com Staff Writer

posted: 04 February 2010

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto-hubble-telescope-views-100204.html

http://i.space.com/images/pluto-hubble-100204-01.jpg

The Hubble Space Telescope has returned the most detailed images of Pluto ever taken.

The new photos reveal the strange mini-world in near true-life color, close to what the dwarf planet would look like to an observer traveling toward it in a spacecraft, scientists said. The surface appears reddish, yellowish, grayish in places, with a mysterious bright spot that is particularly puzzling to scientists.

Some of the colors revealed in the new pictures of Pluto are thought to result from ultraviolet radiation from the sun interacting with methane in the tenuous atmosphere of the dwarf planet. The bright spot apparent near the equator has been found in other observations to be unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost.

“This is our best candidate, that it’s carbon related,” Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. said during a Thursday teleconference.

The new images should provide “a real treasure trove of information in understanding the nature of Pluto and how it evolved and changes with time,” Buie said.

Pluto is a world on the fringe of the solar system with three small moons called Charon, Nix and Hydra. It was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, and was long considered a full-fledged planet. But in 2006, after much debate in the astronomical community, Pluto was downgraded to “dwarf planet” status, along with other cosmic bodies such as Ceres and Eris.

Scientist Mike Brown, professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., who as discoverer of Eris was partly responsible for this demotion, says not to feel too bad for Pluto.

“Pluto is a fascinating world and it doesn’t really care what we call it,” Brown said. “I think this is an exciting thing to see and an exciting thing to try to understand how the entire solar system works.”

Pluto is the destination for NASA’s New Horizons probe, a spacecraft currently on a course to fly by Pluto and its moons in 2015.

“It’s about halfway there already and when its gets there we’re going to get all sorts of great pictures and great data,” Buie said. “But these [Hubble] maps have been used already to help plan the encounter.

When compared to older data from 1994, the new photos – taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys – reveal a surprising amount of change in the appearance of Pluto. Over that period, Pluto has gotten redder, while its northern polar region has gotten brighter and its southern hemisphere has gotten darker.

One reason for the variability, scientists say, is Pluto’s highly eccentric – or oblong – orbit, which causes strong variations in temperature. Pluto takes 248 years to make a full orbit around the sun.

“Right now it’s close to being springtime on Pluto,” Brown said. “In the fall things will freeze out. It’s just a ridiculously extreme place to be.”

Since the dwarf planet is so small and so far away, it has been difficult to gather detailed data before. When New Horizons arrives, that probe should reveal even higher quality data. But until then, Hubble’s vision is by far the best view we’ve ever gotten.

“This has taken four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish,” says Buie, who developed a special computer program to sharpen the Hubble data.

The findings are detailed in the March 2010 issue of the Astronomical Journal.

Hubble Catches Pluto Changing With The Years

by Staff Writers

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 5, 2010

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Hubble_Catches_Pluto_Changing_With_The_Years_999.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/images-lg/pluto-hubble-2010-lg.jpg

This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. The center disk (180 degrees) has a mysterious bright spot that is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. Pluto is so small and distant that the task of resolving the surface is as challenging as trying to see the markings on a soccer ball 40 miles away. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute). Photo No. STScI-PR10-06a More images and captions at Hubble

___________

NASA today released the most detailed set of images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images taken by NASA’s Hubble SpaceTelescope show an icy and dark molasses-colored, mottled world that is undergoing seasonal changes in its surface color and brightness. Pluto has become significantly redder, while its illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter.

These changes are most likely consequences of surface ices sublimating on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the other pole as the dwarf planet heads into the next phase of its 248-year-long seasonal cycle. The dramatic change in color apparently took place in a two-year period, from 2000 to 2002.

The Hubble images will remain our sharpest view of Pluto until NASA’s New Horizons probe is within six months of its Pluto flyby. The Hubble pictures are proving invaluable for picking out the planet’s most interesting-looking hemisphere for the New Horizons spacecraft to swoop over when it flies by Pluto in 2015.

Though Pluto is arguably one of the public’s favorite planetary objects, it is also the hardest of which to get a detailed portrait because the world is small and very far away. Hubble resolves surface variations a few hundred miles across, which are too coarse for understanding surface geology.

But in terms of surface color and brightness Hubble reveals a complex-looking and variegated world with white, dark-orange and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant sun breaking up methane that is present on Pluto’s surface, leaving behind a dark and red carbon-rich residue.

When Hubble pictures taken in 1994 are compared with a new set of images taken in 2002 to 2003, astronomers see evidence that the northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere has gotten darker. These changes hint at very complex processes affecting the visible surface, and the new data will be used in continued research.

The images are allowing planetary astronomers to better interpret more than three decades of Pluto observations from other telescopes, says principal investigator Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

“The Hubble observations are the key to tying together these other diverse constraints on Pluto and showing how it all makes sense by providing a context based on weather and seasonal changes, which opens other new lines of investigation.”

The Hubble pictures underscore that Pluto is not simply a ball of ice and rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes. These are driven by seasonal changes that are as much propelled by the planet’s 248-year elliptical orbit as its axial tilt, unlike Earth where the tilt alone drives seasons.

The seasons are very asymmetric because of Pluto’s elliptical orbit. Spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere because Pluto is moving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the sun.

Ground-based observations, taken in 1988 and 2002, show that the mass of the atmosphere doubled over that time. This may be due to warming and sublimating nitrogen ice. The new Hubble images from 2002 to 2003 are giving astronomers essential clues about how the seasons on Pluto work and about the fate of its atmosphere.

The images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, are invaluable to planning the details of the New Horizons flyby in 2015. New Horizons will pass by Pluto so quickly that only one hemisphere will be photographed in the highest possible detail.

Particularly noticeable in the Hubble image is a bright spot that has been independently noted to be unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. It is a prime target for New Horizons. “Everybody is puzzled by this feature,” says Buie.

New Horizons will get an excellent look at the boundary between this bright feature and a nearby region covered in pitch-black surface material.

“The Hubble images will also help New Horizons scientists better calculate the exposure time for each Pluto snapshot, which is important for taking the most detailed pictures possible,” says Buie. With no chance for re-exposures, accurate models for the surface of Pluto are essential in preventing pictures that are either under- or overexposed.

The Hubble images are a few pixels wide. But through a technique called dithering, multiple, slightly offset pictures can be combined through computer-image processing to synthesize a higher-resolution view than could be seen in a single exposure.

“This has taken four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish,” says Buie, who developed special algorithms to sharpen the Hubble data.

The Hubble research results appear in the March 2010 issue of the Astronomical Journal. Buie’s science team members are William Grundy of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Eliot Young, Leslie Young, and Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Buie plans to use Hubble’s new Wide Field Camera 3 to make further Pluto observations prior to the arrival of New Horizons.

February 12, 2010
Lebanon: Bloggers push for Daily Star revamp

Image sourced from http://betterdailystar.blogspot.com/

Ever visited Lebanon's online English paper, The Daily Star?

According to popular blogger, Qifa Nabki, it is:

…one of the worst websites I’ve ever seen. It is slow, clunky, and hideously ugly.

Another blogger, Richard Hall, describes The Daily Star's website:

…as easy to navigate as a 1920’s Russian steam boat.

The Daily Star, Lebanon's only English paper, has been providing online news from Beirut for over a decade. Since its launch online, the paper has refused to upgrade its website, frustrating many of its readers.

The “ugly” Daily Star has prompted Lebanese bloggers to act, with an online campaign launched by creator of the Beirut Spring blog, Mustapha.

Mustapha has cleverly created a mock Daily Star website – the Better Daily Star Project or #BDSP on Twitter – using WordPress functionality to highlight the incompetence of The Daily Star's IT and web design team.

Although his actions might raise eyebrows at The Daily Star, Mustapha insists his intentions are positive:

-The aim of #BDSP is not to steal away viewers from The Daily Star's website. It's to regain back readers who have left them in frustration. In fact, the DS should pay us to do this 🙂

-This project is not meant in any way to hurt the reputation of the Daily Star. The point of this project is to try to steer the Daily Star's website away from what we believe is the wrong course

-When the Daily Star finally puts a better website in place, this project will no longer have to exist. Our mission will be done. In fact, we will turn into their biggest cheerleaders

– We completely respect intellectual property rights. We never pretend that we own this stuff or that we wrote the articles, this is why this project strives to make the correct attributions to each and every article

Why am I doing it. What's the point?

Well, I am trying to say this: If one guy (yours humbly) can use freely available opensource software (wordpress if you must know) to create this alternative, arguably better website in two weeks, why can't a newspaper with an actual IT department do it? In other words, I'm shooting down the argument that it would be too expensive to do. Listen to me well: They're just being lazy.

But isn't this Illegal?

Probably. But I'm not making any money out of it (in fact, I'm paying some in effort and hosting fees), and I promise that as soon as they do something about their site, I'll gladly bow out. Besides, it will cost them more to sue me than to actually fix their site and let me off their back.

Mustapha's initative indeed caught the eye of the mainly supportive Lebanese blogosphere.

Rami at +961 added a few words of support on his blog:

What to do when you’re just fed up waiting for something to happen? Best thing is to take matters into your own hands! And that’s what fellow blogger Mustapha did while waiting for the Daily Star IT people to renovate their website.

As did Tajaddod Youth:

While we’re on the subject of dysfunctional websites, after many years of anglophone frustration with the Daily Star’s website, one bloggerhas decided to act.

The result, not just a critique of Lebanon’s only english language newspaper’s poor excuse for a website, but a completely redesigned homepage for the newspaper we all love.

Supportive comments for the #BDSP poured on Qifa Nabki's blog post on the subject:

Blackstar Says:

wow. I feel I can breathe!
I positively HATE the Daily Star website as it is now (does it sound strange that reading it makes me claustrophobic?)

sean Says:

A huge improvement. The real site is absolutely terrible. It looks like a spammy ad-infested blogspot site, or worse.

Many Daily Star readers will be hoping that the #BDSP campaign will prompt a change at The Daily Star, turning the “1920's Russian steam boat” into a 21st century cruise liner.

Also on Global Voices Online:
Lebanon: The Better Daily Star Project

February 12, 2010
Bangalore Meet in Bandipur/ Nagarahole in March

Hi Guys, still fresh from the Yellagiri trip, here is an idea why don’t we plan for a weekend trip & nightout-Jungle Safari in either Bandipur or Nagarahole National Park. We can do this in March end as more participation will be great fun… do post your comments and suggestions.:thumbs up

February 12, 2010
Paw Nation Guest Post: Valentine’s Day Picks

This month on Paw Nation, I chose some of my favorite Valentine’s Day goodies for kitty. Check out the post here.

February 12, 2010
Aurora Borealis Photos

These are surely the best photos of the northern lights I have ever seen. I have all of them up because they show the full range of their appearance.

Enjoy There are more on his web site.

Amazing photos of Northern Lights over Arctic

The Northern Lights are seen when the solar wind stream hits Earth’s magnetic field, sparking bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the Aurora Borealis, named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621. The aurora borealis is also called the northern polar lights, as it is only visible in the sky from the Northern Hemisphere, with the chance of visibility increasing with proximity to the North Magnetic Pole.

These shots were taken by photographer Bjorn Jorgensen who lives in Tromso in northern Norway.

Bjorn said: “I try to capture the essence of the arctic light, and I am particularly obsessed with the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. This breathtaking phenomenon has always left people awestruck, and it has inspired artist and scientists for hundreds of years.

It’s challenge to capture good images of the aurora, not only technically, one must also be prepared to spend several freezing nights alone in the dark wilderness.”

Here are 11 photos, including one that has never been published, it was taken yesterday night close to the city Tromso in North Norway. We start with that photos:

February 12, 2010
Google Is Already Fixing Buzz, Based on the Feedback

Google Buzz has been out just a couple of days now and it’s off to a good start clearly helped by its integration with Gmail. The company says millions of people have checked out Buzz already and have created over 9 million posts or comments. But there have been some privacy concerns too, rightly so it would seem as Google has already made some changes to address them. Clearly, Google is very aware of just how much is riding on Buzz.

“[T]here’s been concern from some people who tho… (read more)

February 12, 2010
WinMoSquare – FourSquare client for Windows Mobile demoed
CareAce has published a brief review of the new FourSquare app for Windows Mobile, WinMoSquare. They note the app is stable and smooth, and the user experience enjoyable.

The latest beta adds:
- Added code to determine rough location based off device IP address
- Times were not always being adjusted for local time zones
- Times are now displayed in consistent manner through out application
- Application title appeared as ‘Main’ instead of ‘WinMoSquare’ in some situations
- Latitude and longitude formatting correction for non US locales
- Better error and exception handling
- Added ‘About’ screen off the ‘Settings’ screen
- Check In screen clears and resets on load now
- Add Venue screen clears and resets on load now
- Added Venue Details screen
- Zero Email Bounce: we’ve at least read all emails now
- Various small and minor fixes throughout
The beta can be downloaded here.

Read more at Careace here.
February 12, 2010
2010 Nissan Leaf EV

Attachment 286586

PRESS RELEASE

NISSAN ANNOUNCES NISSAN LEAF PURCHASE PROCESS; GIVES FIRST GLIMPSE AT MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Nissan LEAF Zero-Emission Tour Culminates in New York

NEW YORK (Feb. 11, 2010) The Nissan LEAF Zero-Emission Tour culminated today with an appearance in New York City. The three-month tour, which made 63 stops in 24 cities, offered the opportunity for interested drivers, media, civic partners, businesses and university students to learn more about the Nissan LEAF and the benefits of zero-emission driving.

The tour helped pave the way for the 2010 introduction of Nissan LEAF, the world’s first all-electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market, and leads up to the start of the vehicle-purchase process. The Nissan LEAF will be available to consumers via lease or sale, in a single transaction that includes the battery. Steps to acquiring a Nissan LEAF are:

REGISTER: Interested people can register for more information about the Nissan LEAF on Nissan Cars, Hybrid, Trucks, Crossovers, SUVs | NOW Sales Event | Nissan USA. To date, close to 50,000 people have registered on the website. Registrants will be given first priority to reserve a Nissan LEAF.

Attachment 286587
Attachment 286588
Attachment 286589

RESERVE: The reservation process will begin in April, shortly after the announcement of the price of the Nissan LEAF. Upon paying a fully refundable $100 reservation fee, registrants will be among the first in line able to order a Nissan LEAF.

ORDER: Nissan will begin taking firm orders in August, for deliveries when sales begin in the driver’s particular market.

EARLY DELIVERIES: Rollout begins in select markets in December 2010, with vehicles available in all major launch markets quickly thereafter.

"The Nissan LEAF purchase process is effortless, transparent and accessible, offering value with a one-stop-shop approach for everything related to the car, including the assessment, permitting and installation of in-home battery charging units," said Carlos Tavares, Chairman, Nissan Americas. "We want everyone to feel good about having a car that is affordable, fun to drive and good for the environment."

Attachment 286590
Attachment 286591
Attachment 286592

Coinciding with this next phase of the Nissan LEAF launch is the debut of Nissan’s initial global marketing campaign, which is called "The New Car." A first look at the campaign which illustrates Nissan’s passion about the potential for zero-emission mobility and a better, cleaner world was shown in New York as part of the culmination of the Nissan LEAF Zero-Emission Tour.

The Nissan LEAF Zero-Emission Tour covered 10,000 miles in the United States and Canada, providing the first opportunity for more than 100,000 people to see and learn about the Nissan LEAF first hand.

"There was a groundswell of grassroots support from coast to coast," said Tavares. "Everywhere we went, people recognized a new form of mobility a turning point and they wanted to be a part of it. The response was spontaneous and diverse. We were joined by mayors and government officials, CEOs, utility partners, car enthusiasts, students, dealers, media, environmentalists, Twitter users and lots of families."

Attachment 286593
Attachment 286594
Attachment 286595

Tour Highlights:
Diverse tour stops, stretching from Stanford University to the Kennedy Space Center. Other stops included: Phoenix on New Year’s Eve, in conjunction with the Fiesta Bowl; Qwest Field in Seattle; the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland; and a charging-station-equipped McDonald’s in Cary, N.C. The tour also stopped at Nissan Americas in Franklin, Tenn; the Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing facility where the Nissan LEAF will be built starting in 2012; and Nissan Design Americas in San Diego. New York area stops include Madison Square Garden (Feb. 10), and upcoming public displays at the Time Warner Center (Feb. 12) and the Liberty Science Center (Feb. 13).

Due to the high level of interest, Atlanta and Boston were added to the original tour schedule, bringing total cities to 24.

Nearly 50,000 people have registered to receive information and learn more about the Nissan LEAF on HYPERLINK "http://www.NissanUSA.com" Nissan Cars, Hybrid, Trucks, Crossovers, SUVs | NOW Sales Event | Nissan USA as a result of the tour. Signing up online is the first step in the reservation and purchase process.

Already, the Nissan LEAF has received more than 10 media and environmental awards, including the Green Car Vision Award, presented at the Washington Auto Show by Green Car Journal.

Attachment 286597
Attachment 286598
Attachment 286599

The announcement of the closing of Nissan’s loan with the U.S. Department of Energy. The $1.4 billion loan will fund the modification of Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing plant to produce the Nissan LEAF and batteries to power it. Groundbreaking for the new battery plant will take place in May.

The announcement of a joint commitment with Hertz, the world’s largest general market rental brand, to bring zero-emission mobility car rental to the United States and Europe in 2011. Hertz is developing a rollout of the Nissan LEAF at select rental sites in both major markets.

Nissan announced that AeroVironment will supply and install home charging stations for the Nissan LEAF, creating a one-stop shop for the Nissan LEAF and its charging equipment.

The tour reached all markets that are part of The EV Project, the world’s largest EV infrastructure deployment ever undertaken. The EV Project, funded by a $98 million grant from the Department of Energy and led by EV infrastructure provider eTec, a division of Ecotality, will provide an unprecedented number (6,510) of public charging stations across the 5 participating markets and will provide home charging stations for up to 4700 Nissan Leafs sold in those markets. The public stations will include both Level 2 (240V) and Level 3 DC fast chargers. The EV Project markets are Seattle, Oregon, Tennessee (Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga), Phoenix/Tucson, Ariz., and San Diego.

The tour also served as the backdrop to announce newly established partnerships with Reliant Energy of Houston; the City of Orlando and the Orlando Utilities Commission; the City of Houston; and the State of Massachusetts. These agreements, like three dozen others globally, are designed to promote the development of an electric-vehicle charging network and policies to support the widespread adoption of electric cars.
Existing partnerships furthered progress, taking steps like securing letters of intent for vehicle fleet purchases and the formation of working groups and task forces to foster the development of the electric-vehicle infrastructure, such as Oregon’s Governor’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle Infrastructure Working Group. In North America, Nissan has spearheaded a holistic approach to zero-emission mobility by working with states, municipalities, utility companies and other partners, to prepare markets and infrastructure. Nissan has formed 18 partnerships in the United States, in areas including State of Tennessee, the State of Oregon, Sonoma County, San Diego and San Francisco in California, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., Washington D.C., Seattle, with the City of Orlando and Orlando Utilities Commission, with Progress Energy in Raleigh, N.C., with the City of Houston and Houston-based Reliant Energy, with the State of Massachusetts. Nissan also has formed partnerships with Mexico City and Vancouver, Canada.

Nissan, along with alliance partner Renault, is the only automaker committed to making all-electric vehicles available to the mass market on a global scale.

Attachment 286600

In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on the Nissan LEAF and zero emissions can be found at HYPERLINK "http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car" Nissan LEAF Electric Car | Home | Nissan USA Official Site.

Attached Thumbnails

February 12, 2010
House Of Lords Has Serious Concerns About Digital Economy Bill

We’ve already pointed out how Lord Lucas seems to be quite concerned about the ridiculousness in the Digital Economy Bill, and has proposed a series of amendments to help get rid of these problematic elements. However, it looks like some others in the House of Lords are equally concerned as well. Michael Scott points us to the news that the Lords’ Human Rights Joint Committee has put out a report that is highly critical of the more controversial points in the Digital Economy Bill, starting with the pressure on ISPs to disconnect users under a three strikes plan:

The Bill provides for the Secretary of State to have the power to require ISPs to take “technical measures” in respect of account holders who have been the subject of copyright infringement reports. The scope of the measures will be defined in secondary legislation and could be wide-ranging.

We do not believe that such a skeletal approach to powers which engage human rights is appropriate. There is potential for these powers to be applied in a disproportionate manner which could lead to a breach of internet users’ rights to respect for correspondence and freedom of expression.

There are also grave concerns over section 17, which would effectively let the Business Secretary change copyright law at will:

The broad nature of this power has been the subject of much criticism. In correspondence with us, the Secretary of State explained that the Government intended to introduce amendments to limit the power in Clause 17 and to introduce a ‘super-affirmative’ procedure. The Government amendments would limit the circumstances in which the Government could use their powers to amend the Act by secondary legislation and would provide a system for enhanced parliamentary scrutiny.

Despite the proposed amendments we are concerned that Clause 17 remains overly broad and that parliamentary scrutiny may remain inadequate. We call for a series of clarifications to address these concerns.

On top of that, they’re still a bit skeptical even of requiring ISPs to send notices when a user is accused of infringement, noting that while they don’t think this would be a restriction on human rights or freedom of expression, they would like “a further explanation of why they [the backers of the bill] consider their proposals are proportionate.”

Definitely nice to see that this bill isn’t just getting rushed through, and there are some folks who are heavily questioning the more ridiculous parts of the bill.

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February 12, 2010
Seats and Cats

I fixed a new split seat on my bike.
Its very comfortable and the front seat quite broad as well.

The cats in my buildings cellar parking have taken a fancy for it.

The front seat got scratched. I changed the parking spot and decided to leave the bike on its side stand.

Now the rear seat got scratched.

Need help. How do I save my seats.

A full body cover for the bike is not an option.
I have no place to leave it, when I take my bike out.
Leaving the cover at home when not on the bike is not an option.
My flat is seventh floor and the parking is in the cellar.
I will waste to much time in the up down elevator trips.

February 12, 2010
Watch: God of War III – "Chaos will Rise" trailer

Here it is folks, as promised, the new God of War III trailer. So sit back, relax and enjoy the pure awesomeness of the “Chaos will Rise” trailer, after the jump.

February 12, 2010
IGN: "Very good (PS3) game" getting a Trophy patch soon

Here’s something to look out for tomorrow. The latest IGN podcast, Podcast Beyond, let slip a nice little detail pertaining to a new Tropy patch for a “very good” PS3 game.

February 12, 2010
Tattooing One Dot for Every Casualty during Operation Iraqi Freedom

Artist Wafaa Bilal will soon be getting a tattoo that contains 1 dot [wafaabilal.com] for every casualty associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom. The full-back tattoo will be applied during a 24 hour performance on March 8th in conjunction with a fundraiser aimed at collecting $1 per death towards scholarships for Americans and Iraqis who lost their parents in the war. Kyle McDonald designed the visualization for this remarkable tattoo, which contains more than 4.000 US soldiers in red ink, and more than 100.000 “invisible” civilians depicted in ultraviolet ink.

The process of visualizing the data involved a lot of research, including reconciling plain text descriptions containing GIS place names, warping the geographic coordinates to design for the landscape of the back, and distributing the deaths in an organic but respectful way.

Watch a descriptive movie about the project below.

See also the Body as a Living Pain Map.

February 12, 2010
CIOs Jumping On The Free Software Bandwagon

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

For years, we’ve heard claims that, for all the wonders of “free software,” the “real” CIO would never use free software, as they would need to have a clear monetary relationship with the provider to ensure things wouldn’t go bad. Of course, that’s pretty silly. Lots of IT departments have made use of all sorts of free software such as Linux and Apache, but a new study suggests that CIOs are quite comfortable with using free software, finding that “76% of CIOs surveyed say they use free software at the enterprise level and 88% said they have free software deployed at the department level.”

Now some of this may be driven by standard free utilities like Adobe Reader, but many CIOs reports using things like OpenOffice, Google Docs, Skype and others. In fact, the study found that 54% of the CIOs for large organizations admitted to using more than 10 free software products (if you drop it to six or more, the number goes up to 84%). CIOs seemed split down the middle in preferring open source software to proprietary but still free products, which isn’t really a huge surprise.

Not surprisingly, the CIOs who use so much free software say it’s not just the “free” part that makes this happen. They still put the software through the same testing they put fee-based software, but 81% also admit that not having to pay license fees is one of the “key benefits” to going free.

While this might not be all that surprising overall, it is a pretty good view of the general impression of “free software” in the enterprise, suggesting that it’s hardly a taboo or something to be avoided.

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February 12, 2010
Faber: I Believe A China Crash Is Possible, It Would Destroy Most Commodities
As Western currencies turn into toilet paper, Marc Faber is worried about a major China slow down at the same time.

A China crash (hard landing) would have disastrous consequences for industrial commodities, which make up the lion’s share of commodities in the world.

Thus investors might need to be very selective when using commodities as an inflation hedge vs. Western economic challenges:

Bloomberg:

“The economy, for sure, will slow down meaningfully this year,” Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. “It has the potential to crash because of the overcapacities that have developed, and when loan growth slows down, we don’t know how the economy will react.”

…

A possible crash in China’s economy will be “disastrous” for raw materials used in industrial production, Faber said. He instead favors commodities including wheat, corn and soya beans and also said he doesn’t see a “huge downside risk” for gold.

…

“Other commodities haven’t gone up yet, such as the grains,” Faber said. “It may take time until they start to go up substantially but if you have time, you should be long wheat, corn, soya beans or own a farm, which is one way to participate in future food price increases.”

In fact, a sharp China slow-down would most likely be a deflationary force across the global economy due to falling demand and overcapacity. Thus all inflation hedges could feasibly be slammed and few, if any, commodities would be spared.

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February 12, 2010
Why no Genesis for India?

Dear All,

Almost all the major sports car and super car makers are now in India and others are eyeing to enter India in the near future. However, I fail to understand why can’t we have a economical sports car (Hyundai Genesis) in India?

Hyundai should bring this car to Indian and even if they price it close to 25-30 Lakhs, it should sell like hot cakes IMHO.

What do you feel?

Hyundai, please bring this here and soon!:thumbs up

Pics Courtsey – google and respective websites

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February 12, 2010