Category: News

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

On April 24, I put aside my Google Nexus One and purchased a white 32GB iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Two days ago, I returned the Apple smartphone and cancelled the service. My reasons should interest anyone considering AT&T and iPhone between now and June 1st, especially, and after June 7th. The first date is when AT&T jacks up early termination fees; the second, when Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 4G.

Let me start by saying that I won’t pull a Dan Lyons. The Newsweek columnist and Steve Jobs wannabe also is switching from iPhone to Nexus One. But he unleashed one helluva venomous diatribe explaining why. I’ve got no venom to spew. I really enjoyed the iPhone 3GS and will miss using the device. My reasons are more pragmatic.

First some background: In October 2009, I moved my family from AT&T to T-Mobile, putting aside iPhone in the process. I had been an AT&T customer for about six years. My simple reason: Too many dropped calls. Six or more a day was a common number, with about as many failed outgoing calls. By comparison, I used T-Mobile for nearly five months before dropping a call.

But following Apple’s April 8th iPhone OS 4 announcement, I reconsidered the switch. My major gripe with iPhone is multitasking, something Apple should fix well enough with iPhone OS 4. I hadn’t tested iPhone apps for many months and wanted to prep for Apple’s newest mobile operating system. Also, I didn’t having a portable music player or good stereo digital recorder for doing interviews. Apple’s smartphone could fill in for both.

So I finally decided to buy a new iPhone 3GS and start fresh with AT&T. In California, the buyer’s remorse period is 30 days; I would have plenty of time to evaluate AT&T and iPhone 3GS. I also would be coming off the Nexus One, which would be a great comparison to the iPhone 3GS. To be clear: I planned on the switch being permanent; I ported my number to AT&T. But it was not to be. Here are my 10 reasons for dumping iPhone 3GS and AT&T (again), in no order of importance:

1. Dropped calls. During my first two weeks back with AT&T, I experienced fewer dropped or failed calls than before my departure in October 2009. Then the experience deteriorated. Last week, dropped and failed calls returned with a vengeance. For example, in conversations with my father-in-law and The Loops’s Jim Dalrymple over one 15 minute period, calls dropped six times. I simply gave up talking to both men.

By the way, when I returned the iPhone, the AT&T rep asked where I live. She laughed and said that everybody at the store knows that my zipcode has some of the worst AT&T service in San Diego. “Oh?” I asked. “Then why when I asked about reception before, AT&T reps said it was strong in my area?” She didn’t answer that question, but instead offered me an AT&T MicroCell. “We normally charge $150, but it’s free to people in your area,” she said. Basically, MicroCell acts as a local 3G hub connected to the home’s broadband. Ah, no thanks.

2. Google is leapfrogging Apple. That’s the story headline from Gizmodo on May 20, and I so totally agree. Apple’s yearly iPhone release cycle simply isn’t fast enough to stay competitive. Google has taken Android from version 1 to 2.2 since the T-Mobile G1 shipped in autumn 2008; Google is rapidly innovating by iteration. The pace reminds me of the browser wars, where Netscape lumbered along while Microsoft lept ahead.

The numbers tell part of the story. According to Gartner, Android handset sales rose to 5.2 million units during first quarter from 575,300 a year earlier. Last week, Google revealed 100,000 Android phone activations a day, which over one quarter puts units at 9 million — or more than the number of iPhones sold during first quarter.

3. Android 2.2. The new operating system is chock full of exciting features, many of which either close the gap on iPhone OS or push ahead of it. Installation of apps onto memory card, Web-based app store, better suport for multiple e-mail accounts and faster Chrome browser are among the new features that turned me away from iPhone, even when anticipating v4. Then there is support for Adobe Flash, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs disses. He can keep iPhone. The real Web runs Flash.

4. Android notifications bar. Sometimes the simplest user interface feature can change everything. Good example is TiVo’s program guide grid, which opened up the digital video recording market. Time-shifting wasn’t a new concept. People could record shows on VHS tapes long before TiVo. But the program guide proved to be a simpler and much better motif. I say the same about Android’s notifications bar, which by its placement, pull-down access and audible zing leaps way ahead of iPhone notifications. It’s one of Android’s killer features.

5. Desktop widgets. Returning to using the iPhone 3GS at first felt like returning to something old after using something new. The Nokia N900 and Nexus One spoiled me with their widgetized home screens. For example, while iPhone forced me to use various news apps, Nexus One provides a Google News widget accessing thousands of news sites. Nexus One kept me more informed than iPhone. Widgets make what is important readily available and updated in real time.

6. AT&T termination fees. On June 1st, AT&T will raise early termination fees from $175 to $325. I simply didn’t want to be locked in to AT&T. I got to wondering why the increase, too. What is it that we don’t know yet about iPhone 4G? Is Apple charging AT&T more for the new device? Is AT&T concerned about churn to other services, like Verizon and its two-for-one Android smartphone deal? Could AT&T and Apple be planning to lower iPhone’s purchase price, increasing the carrier’s subsidy while paying same price for the phone? Or perhaps could lower monthly subscription fees be coming? Is iPhone coming to other carriers and AT&T proactively acting to keep customers? As a journalist, I’m interested in the answers. As a consumer, with the number of dropped calls, I wasn’t willing to be locked in for $325.

7. My wife loves the Nexus One. My beloved is an artist and non-geek. She simply doesn’t like gadgets — but she loves her Nexus One. After switching to iPhone 3GS, I offered her the Nexus One, not really expecting her to take to it; for starters, I find the Google phone to be kind of ugly compared to iPhone. What got her: The aspect of the user interface I also found appealing — the notifications bar (see #4). Now she does e-mail and Facebook on her phone, because of the notifications. My wife had used an iPhone 3G in autumn 2008 and asked me to return it, which I did within the 30-day buyer’s remorse period. She’s keeping the Nexus One. I had to buy another, and it arrived while I was writing this post. By the way, nearly two weeks ago there was big noise about Google stopping Nexus One direct sales. Oh, yeah? When? I ordered my phone from Google on Sunday (May 23rd).

8. Blue Mikey. Like iPod Classic, when I had one, iPhone 3GS was to be my digital recorder with attached microphone. I purchased the Blue Mikey, which records in stereo on iPhone 3GS in airplane mode. I also purchased from the iTunes App Store $9.99 “FiRe – Field Recorder.” But when I connected the iPhone to my computer, the recorded audio files wouldn’t transfer. According to the FiRe’s support site: “You cannot transfer your recordings using ‘Sync’ because it is proprietary to Apple.” Say what? I was presented with ridiculous options like browser access over same WiFi network (which I couldn’t make work) or uploading to FTP site. Frak that. When I’m recording interviews at events, there’s no time to muck around with FTP sites. If sync isn’t good enough, the product isn’t good enough.

9. Service costs. I have five lines on T-Mobile, four of them with unlimited phone, Web and text. These five lines cost me less per month than four did on the AT&T 2,100-minute family plan. I paid more for Nexus One ($529) versus iPhone 3GS ($299), but Nexus One is unlocked and the extra AT&T monthly fees would close the price difference in less than two months of service.

10. I prefer the real Web to apps. With iPhone, there are too many disparate applications. Nexus One presents the real Web, which will be more real with Android 2.2. Google also presents the real Web in a really useful way, in the browser and with supporting app services. The emphasis is search and location — what people need where they are. During the iPhone OS launch in April, Jobs asserted: “Search is not happening on phones.” What alternate universe is he living? Search is one of the principle benefits of smartphones.

By the way, of course I do use apps. Amazon’s release of Kindle for Android also factored into my decision, which leads to something else. Nexus One is all the tablet I need — better because it’s always with me. So also with the switch back to Nexus One came something else: Yesterday I sold my iPad to a good friend. As asserted last week, iPad isn’t for everyone, and that includes me.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
















Apple – iPhone – Nexus One – Steve Jobs – Microsoft

The AP is reporting that the house made famous by the 1979 film “The Amityville Horror” is up for sale. It’s a 5 bedroom Dutch colonial built in 1927, according to the listing. It’s 3600 square feet, with 3.5 baths and a detached two car garage. The boat house is especially nice, in our opinion.

The downside is that six members of the DeFeo family were murdered in the house as they slept. The eldest son was eventually convicted of the murders. The movie was based on the alleged experiences of subsequent residents.

Complaints depicted in the book and the series of movies include: “walls oozing slime, moving furniture and a visit from a demonic pig named Jodie.”

No mention of any of that in the listing however, and more recent owners have not had similar problems.

Also of note: the iconic windows have been replaced, and the property looks much different these days. Anyone want to buy it and restore it to its original creepy glory?

‘Amityville Horror’ home for sale in NY for $1.15M [AP]
5 Bed, 3.5 Bath | 3,600 Sq Ft on 0.28 Acres [Realtor]

It’s in human nature to try and measure everything around us, to better understand us. However, some are not happy with meters, kilograms or liters. Instead, they create new ways of analyzing nature. Some are just bored, and create funny units. Others create new scales to look at data in new and exciting ways. But all of them make you scratch your head and think “why can’t we just use the metric system on this problem?”

14. Big Mac Index

The Big Mac Index only sounds crazy, until you realize what it’s there for. Created by the magazine The Economist, it provides an independent way of judging the purchasing power parity nations. There are McDonalds everywhere, right? And they all serve Big Macs (or a local equivalent). So you take how much it costs to buy one in a country, and compare that to the cost of the burger in another. If the difference in cost is substantially different from the actual exchange rate, it shows there’s a disparity between the stated value of a currency, and what it’s actually worth. You can also look at how long it takes someone to earn a Big Mac, based on their salary, as a way of analyzing pay in different cities.

13. Football Fields

For some reason, whenever a distance or area has to be used on the news, it’s always measured in “football fields”. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in, or what variant of football they play (soccer, handegg, or rugby), the same measurement is always used. “It’s 75 football fields long!” “That’s the same area as 17 football fields!”. For some reason, we’re all meant to have this perfect idea of how big a field is, and just how large a cluster of them would be. Ever heard of standard units? What exactly is so wrong with yards or meters, that we need to compare to the equivalent sports field?

12. Tons of TNT

When it comes to explosives, it all links back to one thing: trinitrotoluene. TNT. You know how nukes are measured in megatons or gigatons? Yeah, that’s how many tons of TNT it’s the equivalent of. It’s a handy way to compare, assuming you know the destructive capabilities of a ton of TNT. The thing is, do you? I have never worked with explosives. No one I know has (except for one guy who spent a bit of time working on fireworks, which don’t quite count). What exactly does a ton of TNT do? Is it a metric tonne or an imperial ton? How big of a boom is it? Could it knock down a building? A city block? A football field? Sometimes it’s good that people use an appreciable standard measure, but it only works if there’s a frame of reference for most people.

11. Tanner Scale of Sexual Maturity

The Tanner Scale isn’t weird in itself, but the way it’s used is a bit disturbing. It’s a method of judging the physical sexual maturity of a child or teenager based on physical characteristics. Size of the secondary sexual characteristics, development of pubic hair, that sort of stuff. However, it fails to take into account something very important — namely that people can vary mammothly. And due to the Tanner Scale, a guy almost spent 20 years in jail. See, there’s this porn star Little Lupe, who is absolutely tiny and used to have tiny breasts. She’s since had implants, but her old videos are still around. So this guy buys one of her DVDs, completely legally, and then gets busted for child porn. A pediatrician testified that due to the Tanner Scale, there was no physical way the star of the film was over 18. The judge even refused to admit evidence from the porn company’s records showing Lupe was of age. Eventually, the porn star actually showed up in the courtroom to prove she was legal, and so was the DVD. It’s terrifying that a rough guide is now being used as an absolute scale, with enough certainty to doom someone to jail for most of their life.

10. Smoot

Following the finest tradition of the US system of measurements, a Smoot is a very specific length as defined by the human body. In this case, a very specific human body, that of Oliver R. Smoot. As a freshman at MIT, his frat elders decided that Smoot’s stature made him an excellent height for measuring. Laid across the Harvard Bridge over the River Charles in Boston, a line was painted at Smoot’s head, some 5′7″. Again and again, they lay him down, crossing the bridge, and measuring it’s length at an official 364.4 Smoots. To this day, every year those lines are re-painted on the bridge, memorializing the Smoot. Smoot went on to chair the American National Standards Institute and become president for the International Organization for Standardization.

9. FFF System

Lets face it, the imperial system the US uses for measuring is pretty stupid. The rest of the world uses metric, and it makes a lot more sense. The FFF system was devised as a way of measuring using intentionally outdated units, just to poke fun at the impractical nature of the imperial system. FFF stands for furlong/firkin/fortnight, used for length, mass, and time respectively. A furlong is 220 yards/201.168m; a firkin 90 lbs/40.823kg; and a fortnight 14 days/1,209,600 seconds. Fortnight is still used pretty frequently in Commonwealth countries, but a firkin? That’s pretty obscure. The system is most famous for a “microfortnight” or 1.2096 seconds, and a “furlong per fortnight” which is around 1cm per minute.

8. The Galactic Year

Using the scale of an Earth year when talking geological or astronomical events is a problem, the unit of this time period dwarfs when compared to the length of time referenced. Hell, a million years is too small for some of it, but a billion years is too long. Enter the Galactic Year. This is a measure of the time it takes the solar system to orbit around the center of the Milky Way — somewhere around 250 million years. It provides a handy yardstick for great lengths of time, as well as providing a conceptually clear origin for the time period. Following this way of counting, the Earth is around 20 galactic years old, and the galaxy itself is around 80. Man, I can’t wait for Earth’s 21GY birthday! It’s going to be such a tight party! By the way, humans have been around for 0.001GY.

7. The Dol

How do you measure pain? It’s incredibly personal and variable. What you might think stings a little, someone else might find agonizing enough to cause tears. Or, you might start wailing at what others would scoff at. There’s no absolute way to measure pain, and asking the person to say how much something hurts on a scale of 1 to 10 is flawed. After all, I really have no idea what a 10 is. Broken limb? Three weeks of torture in a dungeon in the Middle East? Passing a kidney stone? James D. Hardy, Herbert G. Wolff, and Helen Goodell attempted to create something a bit more scientific than saying “it hurts”. They created a unit of measure called the dol — equivalent to a just noticeable difference in the level of pain. Unfortunately, this falls in the trap of relying on self reporting, and requires that patients be able to correctly gauge these differences. Unsurprisingly, it never took off. Full points for trying, though.

6. Attoparsec

A parsec is a really, really large unit of measurement. It’s used in astronomy, and is around 3.25 light years, or 3.085×10^16 m (around 31 trillion km). Atto- is the SI prefix denoting 10^-18 or 0.000000000000000001. So an attoparsec a really small version of a very large measure. So what does that end up being? About 3.085cm. A nice, small length, gathered by combining to ludicrous measures. So why do it? Shits and giggles, more or less. It does create a humorous oxymoron sort of measure. Though utterly impractical. Frankly, I blame physicists. Coincidently, 1 attoparsec/microfortnight is nearly 1 inch/second.

5. Beard-Seconds

Remember what I just said about physicists? Well, this one is definitely their fault. Everyone knows what a light-year is. It’s the distance light travels in a year, in a vacuum, around 10 trillion km. It’s very handy for things far, far away. So what happens when you want something similar, but on a small scale? You take the average length that a beard grows in a single second. Light-year = fast moving thing over long time period. Beard-second = slow moving thing over short time period. Haha, very funny, bearded physics guys. In case you care, it’s 5 nanometers.

4. Bristol Stool Scale

As Scrubs once so eloquently put it, “Everything Comes Down To Poo”. And they’re right, you can learn a lot about someone’s health by their feces. So, how do you go about describing crap on an equivalent level? Enter the Bristol Stool Scale. Your poop gets rated on a scale from 1-7, constipated to diarrhea. And, for some unknown reason, four of the seven are described in relation to food. That’s right, nuts and sausages are used frequently when describing the consistency of the feces. You should apparently be able to differentiate between sausage and italian sausage when it’s coming out of your ass. Remember, try for types 3 and 4, they’re ideal!

3. The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale

Life can be pretty bad sometimes. Finances, relationships, stress — it can all take a toll on your health. But how much of one? Ah, now we get into the science! The eponymous Holmes and Rahe put together a list of stressful events that happen in your life, and assigned each a point score. You look at how many have hit you in the last 12 months, total the score, and if it’s above 300, you’re at a pretty bad risk for illness — ideally you want to keep it below 150. The worst possible occurrence is the death of a spouse, which clocks in at 100 points. Then divorce (73), marital separation (65), imprisonment (63), and death of a close family member (63). At the lower end of the scale are little things: Christmas, breaking a minor law, changing your eating habits. But they all add up. They also made a similar list for “non-adults”, which pretty much boils down to teen pregnancy and school sucks.

2. Scoville Scale

The Scoville Scale is pretty well known — a way of measuring the heat of chili peppers, but when you think about, it’s kinda crazy. Someone’s legacy is a way of figuring out how spicy little red fruits are. While today the measuring of a pepper’s heat is a thoroughly scientific endeavor, using high-performance liquid chromatography, the original test was far less precise. The first method involved making an alcohol extract of the capsaicin oil from a measured amount of dried pepper, which was then incrementally added to a sugar/water solution until the heat is just detectable. In other words, it relied on someone being able to feel when something gets spicy. Since spicy food binds to receptors in your mouth, the more hot food you eat, the less spiciness you would feel, making the original scale more or less bunk. But these days? It’s the gold standard of spice!

1. Schmidt Sting Pain index

Justin O. Schmidt deserves a medal for the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Personally stung by 78 species of insect, he compiled a a scale of the pain they caused. From 1-4, he classified and described the pain they caused — with vivid detail. In fact, reading his descriptions might cause you to question Schmidt’s sanity, but hey, being stung by all those critters might drive anyone up the wall. Rather than wax lyrical about the index, I’ll let the WTFery speak for itself:
•1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
•1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch.
•1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
•2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
•2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
•2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
•3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
•3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic and burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
•4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.
•4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel

In a recent press release announcing its HSPA+ expansions, T-Mobile referred to their upgrades as “4G speeds” several times, which may lead many to believe that what T-Mobile is rolling out is actual 4G rather than upgraded 3G.  AT&T has spoken out against T-Mobile’s announcement, responding by saying that T-Mobile needs to “be careful that they’re not misleading customers by labeling HSPA+ as a 4G technology.”  AT&T, who is planning to upgrade their own network to similar HSPA+ speeds before making the jump to LTE/4G, said that they are not labeling the upgrade as 4G, so T-Mobile shouldn’t either.  While T-Mobile isn’t technically saying that their network expansion is 4G, their wording could lead many to believe that it is since most people probably don’t really know what 4G actually is.  What are your thoughts on this situation?  Share them with us!

by Jennifer Prediger

Day 36: Scenes from the BP oil spill disaster. Embattled CEO walks oil-stained beach.  Embattled president caught in Rand Paul/Sarah Palin firestorm. Oily, pink people turn angry and naked in Houston.  Rachel Maddow, Steven Chu, Sylvia Earle, and so much more …

Last night, Rachel Maddow devoted most of her show to the oil spill, including an interview with seemingly distraught BP CEO Tony Hayward:

And here’s Maddow’s with Energy Secretary Steven Chu:

Sarah Palin says Obama is sleeping with BP, because the oil giant gave him more money than any other candidate in the last Presidential election. 

Watchdog group, Media Matters, says Palin’s claims are untrue. BP as a corporation did not give Obama more funding than other politicians. Their employees did.

On “Face the Nation,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs reponds to Sarah Palin and answers questions about the oil spill and the administration’s response. Aren’t you glad you don’t have his job?

Man of the hour Rand
Paul rags on Obama for ragging on BP. That kind of talk is just “un-American,” said Paul. But, wait. Wasn’t America founded by people criticizing Brits?

Codepink activitists in Houston take off their clothes and put on some oil—lots of it—to protest BP. Then they sing, “The eyes of Texas are upon you.”

Sarah Palin keeps signing autographs and keeps shilling for drilling. “We need to keep drilling because if we don’t drill for a year, we’re going
to be more and more reliant on foreign countries that have even less stringent
environmental standards,” Palin told ABC News.

Finally. Someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle talks about the disastrous oil spell adding “insult to injury.”

Related Links:

The 7 dumbest things in BP’s spill response plan

BP gears up for ‘top kill’ to plug oil leak, despite doubts

Is the Gulf oil spill spinning out of control?

Tesla Motors Co-founder, Chairman, CEO – Elon Musk

After Tesla Motor and Toyota Motor Corp. announced last week that they take over the former NUMMI factory in Fremont, California, the United Auto Workers urged the two automakers to hire union workers.

While nothing was confirmed at the time of the announcement, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk recently said that “hiring former NUMMI workers is a priority” for the company. Musk, who answered the question during the taping of a Southern California public radio program, said that “It is always easier to hire from the neighborhood” than to recruit workers from out of the area.

Musk said that Tesla has already hired a number of people who had previously worked at the factory when it was jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota.

He said that the company anticipates 1,000 people to come back to work when it starts building the Tesla Model S sedan in 2012. When everything is up and pumping, employment at the plant should increase to nearly 5,000 workers, who will build both Tesla and Toyota’s smaller, more affordable electric-vehicles.

Toyota will purchase $50 million of Tesla’s common stock issued in a private placement.

Photo Copyright © 2009 Kap Shah – egmCarTech.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Edmunds Green Car Advisor

Marc Faber gave a presentation at the Mises Institute Conference in Manhattan today, and Andrew Mellon at BigGovernment.com (via The Daily Crux) was on hand to take notes.

Among his points:

• Central banks will never tighten monetary policy again, merely print, print, print
• Bubbles used to be concentrated in 1 sector or region in the 19th century, but off of the gold standard this concentration has ended
• “The lifetime achievement of Greenspan and Bernanke is really that they created a bubble in everything…everywhere.”
• “You have to ask what they were smoking at the Federal Reserve,” during the housing bubble, as prices were increasing by 18% annually when interest rates started to steadily rise in 2004

As for the top one, it seems extreme, but we’re beginning to believe that, as both the ECB and the Fed are probably both in loosening mode, and markets are predicting rate cuts in Australia. Maybe “never” is strong, but we’re certainly inclined to think rate hikes won’t be coming for a long long time.

Read more at BigGovernment.com >

Join the conversation about this story »

Quick heads up, people. ModNation Racers has now been released into retail for both the PSP and PS3, so now you can start playing, creating, and sharing, plus all the other stuff you can do in the

“Who blinks in the sunlight / that peeks through the Himalayas?” … thus begins a year in the life of a moon bear – named for their distinctive crescent-shaped mark on their chest – otherwise known as an Asiatic black bear. An endangered species that is fast disappearing from the wild, too many are found trapped on ‘bear farms,’ where they “spend their entire lives in tiny cages … unable to stand up or move around,” writes author Brenda Z. Guiberson in the “Author’s Note.”

The moon bear in the story thankfully roams the Himalayas, feeding on birch tree sap, new bamboo shoots, and raspberries. In her vast wanderings, she is careful to avoid the poachers and loggers in the lowlands, and prepares for her next hibernation.

While the story is heartfelt and adventurous, especially for the youngest readers, the highlight of this title is, no surprise, the visual splendor of master illustrator Ed Young‘s multimedia collage illustrations of the moon bear’s journey. That cover alone with the almost-prayerful moon bear gazing upward, with such trusting eyes …  have to hold the book in your own hands to behold the glory and depth of Ed Young’s always memorable, gorgeous art.

Readers: Children

Published: 2010

Filed under: ..Children/Picture Books, .Fiction, Chinese American, Nonethnic-specific Tagged: Nature, Pets/Animals

Just three months after the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a call for a redesigned hot dog that would be safer for small children to eat, Eugene D. Gagliardi, Jr. — the food designer who invented Steak-umms and popcorn chicken — has come forward with a solution. His patented hot dog has eight slits that open during cooking, which cause it to break up into smaller pieces, potentially reducing the likelihood that a child could choke on it.

The patent, for a “food product having reduced likelihood of choking,” is all about breaking up the “elongated food product” into smaller pieces:

Briefly stated, the present invention comprises an elongated food product having a central axis extending along its length and two portions, a segmented portion comprised of at least two segments that are separable from each other, and an unsegmented portion which is substantially contiguous to the segmented portion. A consumer’s biting into the food product generally perpendicular to the central axis results in the separation of the segments, creating in the mouth of the consumer small food pieces relative to the size of the bitten-off section to reduce the likelihood of choking on the food product.

In one preferred construction the invention comprises an elongated food product having a generally cylindrical outer surface, a length and a longitudinal centerline traversing the length of the food product. The food product further comprises an array of at least two generally radial lengthwise cuts, each cut residing in a plane containing the centerline, with each cut extending from the outer surface of the food product inwardly to a predetermined, substantially uniform distance from the centerline, thereby providing an unsegmented generally cylindrical inner portion and a segmented outer portion having at least two separable segments, each segment having as a cross-sectional shape a sector of a circle truncated at its apex, each segment further being contiguous with and connected to the unsegmented inner portion.

Gagliardi received his patent in 1991. According to reports, he’ll soon begin marketing his elongated food product on the East Coast. No word on why it’s taken nearly 20 years for it to go from concept to product.

United States Patent: 5069914 [U.S. Patent Office via The Package Unseen]
Pediatricians Urge Warning Labels on Foods That Can Choke [NYTimes.com]

PREVIOUSLY: Is Your Hot Dog Trying To Kill You?

Let the giggling begin! Mother/daughter writing team of hundreds-and-hundreds-of-titles-between-the-two-of-them present girl power with a pink-less crown on top! And what an absolutely delightful collaboration indeed. Not to disparage the color pink – I admit it! I loathe the color! – but really, pink is just not the only color of choice for girls! Here’s why …

Today’s real girls prefer stinky red socks, not-quite-fitting blue team jerseys, unfancy soccer cleats, and muddy tattered wrestling gear. And while they might have a thing for jewelry, they also enjoy power tools, greasy meals, dump trucks, and fighting in chain mail. Believe you me, these girls need no one but themselves to rescue them from stony towers!

With sparkly crowns jauntily in place, nothing is going to stop these princesses from enjoying all their boundless, limitless “princess power”! We should all be that uncolor-uncoordinated … and gleefully STRONG. Here’s to girl power for ALL ages!

Readers: Children

Published: 2010

Filed under: ..Children/Picture Books, .Fiction, Nonethnic-specific Tagged: Friendship, Girl power

We anticipated that the HTC DROID incredible was going to sell out pretty quickly, and there have been shortages of the device ever since a few days after it launched.  Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, mentioned a few weeks ago that the shortage was due to components that were not being manufactured quick enough to meet the demands of VZW customers.  BGR is now reporting that it has just become even more difficult to purchase the device.  If you intended to order one via the VZW website you will be sadly disappointed to find out that, at least for now, you cannot.  Instead you will receive an error message that says “the selection you made is unavailable at this time.“  I’m not sure what’s going on or why that screen is appearing, but I’ll agree with BGR when saying, it’s just plain strange!

Anyone feeling a bit sad now?  I know I am.

Via BGR

Wednesday, May 26, NEA launches its National Speak Up for Education & Kids Campaign – beginning with a National Call-in Day.

TAKE ACTION:

• On Wednesday May 26th, call 1-866-608-6355 to contact your Representative in Congress.
• You will hear talking points and will be connected to the United States Capitol Switchboard – ask for your House Member.
• Tell your Representative that public education faces a budget catastrophe and that he/she should support including funding to save education jobs in the emergency funding bill (known as the “emergency supplemental” funding bill).

With 300,000 education layoffs expected nationally (and up to 20,000 in Illinois alone), our students are the ones who will suffer – with overcrowded classrooms; shortened school days and weeks; and less individual attention and help from counselors, nurses, teachers, and support professionals. How can our students succeed with less time in the classroom, fewer instructors, and fewer supports?

Thousands of your colleagues are receiving pink slips every day. Layoffs of this many educators will also drive the national unemployment rates up even more. This would be a disaster in states that are already cash-strapped and even more of a disaster for the students we serve.

Find out more

WASHINGTON – Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R), who is widely seen as among those making the most aggressive preparations for a 2012 presidential run, will soon make his third visit to New Hampshire since he announced he would not be running for re-election last summer.

The potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate will headline the Strafford County Republican Committee summer picnic on July 10.

Pawlenty visited the all important “first in the nation” presidential primary state in December and March as well.

Each year before a new iPhone is introduced to the masses, the older models become a bit more scarce, and all signs are pointing to a price and inventory shakeup within the iPhone world. As you can see in the image above, the iPhone 3G model is not able to be selected for purchase from the Apple Store online. The change happened sometime in the last day. In addition, AT&T stores are no longer able to order more iPhone 3G stock. At this point, it looks like the current entry-level iPhone model is going to be phased away. It’s interesting, because we would have been willing to put money (not a lot, mind you) on the notion that Apple might keep the 3G going, and drop it down to being free with two-year contract.

Update: Looks like Wal-Mart has dropped the iPhone 3GS to $97, so apparently the 3GS will take the place of the 3G as the entry-level iPhone device!

Tags:
apple,
att,
iphone,
iphone 3g,
iphone 3g discontinued,
iphone 4,
iphone hd,
iphone pro,
smartphones,

[JURIST] A collection of African civil society organizations on Monday issued a declaration [text] urging greater cooperation between the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] and African nations during the upcoming ICC review conference. The group of 124 organizations called on African governments to enhance their cooperation with the court and to make greater efforts in the execution of outstanding warrants. The declaration also urged member states to improve their national judicial systems in order to maintain the court’s status as one of last resort, and called on states that had not ratified the Rome Statute [text], the treaty establishing the court, to do so. In explaining the purpose of the declaration and the need for greater continental cooperation with the ICC, the authoring organizations said:

We … call on African governments to make the most of the upcoming review conference… The review conference comes at a critical time in the development of the ICC. … [T]he court faces important challenges to implementing its mandate successfully, includ[ing] challenges in conducting court operations, such as obtaining adequate support … [and] external attacks on the institution… The review conference offers an exceptional occasion for African governments to help advance the global fight against impunity by restating their commitment to justice for the victims of grave crimes and offering views on the development of international criminal justice and the ICC.

The Review Conference of the Rome Statute [official website] will take place in Kampala, Uganda from May 31 to June 11, 2010. During the conference, member states will consider proposed amendments [text] to the statute.

The majority of the ICC caseload has come from Africa, causing tense relations with the governments in the region. The ICC on Wednesday sent a delegation [JURIST report] from the Office of the Prosecutor [official website] to Guinea to further investigate the killing of more than 150 pro-democracy protesters in Conakry in September 2009. In March, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] submitted [JURIST report] to ICC judges the names of 20 senior political and business leaders who “bear the gravest responsibility” for the deadly violence perpetrated after Kenya’s 2007 presidential election [JURIST news archive]. In March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant [JURIST report] for Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir [ICC materials, PDF; JURIST news archive], charging him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but declining to charge him with genocide. The warrant was rejected [BBC report] by Bashir, and strongly denounced [Reuters report] by the chairman of the African Union (AU) [official website], Muammar al-Gaddafi [BBC profile]. Gaddafi described the warrant as a form of terrorism and raised the possibility of the withdrawal of African member states in protest.

Filed under: Spy Photos, Wagon, BMW

The 3 Series is perhaps the most important vehicle in BMW‘s lineup, and though the automaker has given it a few minor tweaks for the 2011 model year (fascia nip/tuck, new N55 single-turbo mill), an all-new version is in the works for 2012. We’ve seen photos of the next-generation sedan all covered in BMW’s signature swirly paper, but our spies have just caught the wagon Touring version of the new 3er roaming around European streets, as well. Aside from the obvious addition of a more capacious boot, not much should differ between the 3 Series sedan and wagon when it hits showrooms, which figures to feature a range of new engines and a design more akin to that of the F10 5 Series and new Z4.

We’re sure that the new 3 Series Touring will fare well in European markets, but it’s unclear how the wagon will be received here in the States, especially since BMW is rumored to be working on a 3 Series Gran Turismo – similar to the 5 Series GT that launched earlier this year. However, the 5GT’s slow initial sales numbers may cause BMW to rethink its product planning, and the new 3 wagon will be perfectly poised to do battle with the likes of the Audi A4 Avant and Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon, as well as the new TSX Sport Wagon from Acura which will be arriving in early 2011.

No word yet on when we’ll see the production version of the next-generation 3 Series, though we certainly won’t rule out a possible debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show. For now, click through the gallery below to see the 3 Series Touring showing off its new rump.

[Source: CarPix]

Spy Shots: BMW 3 Series Touring closer to hauling into showrooms originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Umbra Fisk

Dearest readers,

I’m giving away DVDs of Dirt! The Movie signed by the directors
to eight lucky readers. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, the film is a glorious
ode to the “living skin of the Earth” we so often taken for granted—an homage
to dirt, if you will. All you have to do is let me know in the comments below
how you use dirt. What is dirt to you? Is it the compost in your outdoor bin?
Is it a badge of honor worn under your nails after a day of gardening? Is it
what your indoor tomato plant calls its home?

I’ll pick eight winners at random when the contest closes Wednesday
at 5 p.m. PDT.

And whether you win the goods or not, you can check out my
interview with one of the film’s directors Bill Benenson to get a taste of Dirt!. And you can see what my pal Jennifer
Prediger had to say about the movie when she saw it at the Environmental
Film Festival.

Filthily,
Umbra

Related Links:

Ask Umbra on eco-fiction and hair donations for the oil spill

Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on driving

Are we too clean?

How far can you beam information instantaneously? Try 10 miles, according to a study in Nature Photonics that pushes the limits of quantum teleportation to its greatest distance yet. At that distance, the scientists say, one can begin to consider the possibility of someday using quantum teleportation to communicate between the ground and a satellite in orbit.

As stories about quantum teleportation usually note, this isn’t the Starship Enterprise’s transporter: The weird quantum phenomenon makes it possible to send information, not matter, across a distance.

It works by entangling two objects, like photons or ions. The first teleportation experiments involved beams of light. Once the objects are entangled, they’re connected by an invisible wave, like a thread or umbilical cord. That means when something is done to one object, it immediately happens to the other object, too. Einstein called this “spooky action at a distance.” [Popular Science]

Previous experiments achieved this phenomenon in photons separated by a distance of hundreds of yards, connected by fiber channels. But the physicists in China blew that distance away, and with 89 percent integrity for the information.

In this particular experiment, researchers maximally entangled two photons using both spatial and polarization modes and sent the one with higher energy through a ten-mile-long free space channel. They found that the distant photon was still able to respond to changes in state of the photon they held onto even at this unprecedented distance. [Ars Technica]

More recent developments in the strange quantum world:

Cryptography: Last month researchers announced a way to make quantum cryptography, a way to encode information that relies on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, 100 times faster than previous experiments could.

Coherence: In quantum coherence, photons can enter a multi-state existence in which they simultaneously travel multiple paths, but then at the end choose only the fastest route (a counter-intuitive talent I wish I possessed). Researchers have found this happens in plants, which helps make photosynthesis so efficient.

Entanglement: This month physicists in Israel managed to entangle five separate photons. That’s not the overall record (which is six). But the scientists say their five entangled electrons could only choose one of two paths, and that’s the kind of system that would someday be used in quantum communication or computing.

The quantum state: We don’t witness the oddball behaviors of the quantum world on the scale our naked eyes can see, but in March physicists put the largest object ever into a quantum state.

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Image: Jian-Wei Pan et. al