Category: News

PalmCast Live tonight featured the triumphant return of Derek Kessler – truly, it will be a momentous occasion worthy of a place in the annals of history. Also, we will talk about Palm, webOS, and all them crazy tablet rumors.

Got questions? Tweet them with the  #palmcast hashtag for our lightning round. Got emails? [email protected] is the place to send them.

Got some free time at 8pm Eastern tonight now that you can’t watch Lost anymore? Come join us right here, we can’t promise we’ll answer any long-standing questions, but we can promise that [Lost spoiler preemptively removed]

Dear Jack,

I tried it and hardly any of my calcium tablet dissolved in that time. If this does matter can you recommend a vegan calcium supplement that will break down either tablet, powder or liquid?

Answer:

For some background, according to Advanced Nutrition & Human Metabolism (1999), the pH of the stomach is about 2.0. According to Krause’s Food, Nutrition, & Diet Therapy (2000), it ranges from 1 to 4. Vinegar tends to be about 2.0 to 3.0.

The New York State Department of Health has a web page Commonly Asked Questions About Calcium Supplements:

“Calcium must dissolve in your stomach before it can be absorbed in your intestines and then used by your body. A USP symbol on the label of a calcium supplement means that is it will dissolve in your stomach. If your supplement does not have a USP symbol, you can easily test it to find out if it will dissolve. Simply put the supplement into a glass of clear vinegar. This creates an acidic environment much like that of your stomach. Stir the solution occasionally. If the calcium supplement disintegrates within 30 minutes, it should dissolve in your stomach, too. If the supplement does not completely dissolve, choose an alternative calcium supplement.

“If you are taking acid blockers for indigestion, reflux or other gastrointestinal conditions, your body may use calcium citrate better than other calcium compounds. Acid blockers reduce the acid in your gastrointestinal tract that is usually required for calcium absorption. However, unlike other calcium compounds, calcium citrate does not require an acid environment for calcium absorption.”

I did a test with my Trader Joe’s Calcium Magnesium & Zinc supplement, which uses calcium carbonate – I broke one tablet in half and put it in 1/5 cup of apple cider vinegar. After 8 minutes it was completely dissolved.

The Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health has the following to say on their Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Calcium:

“The two main forms of calcium in supplements are carbonate and citrate. Calcium carbonate is more commonly available and is both inexpensive and convenient. Both the carbonate and citrate forms are similarly well absorbed, but individuals with reduced levels of stomach acid can absorb calcium citrate more easily. Other calcium forms in supplements or fortified foods include gluconate, lactate, and phosphate. Calcium citrate malate is a well-absorbed form of calcium found in some fortified juices [8]. The body absorbs calcium carbonate most efficiently when the supplement is consumed with food, whereas the body can absorb calcium citrate equally effectively when the supplement is taken with or without food [9].”

GS to Lure in Younger Buyers to the Buick Brand
Canadian Auto Press

We all said it was a no-brainer, and obviously General Motors and particularly the product planners behind its Buick brand agreed. Not only would a hopped-up Regal be a great sport sedan that should find its share of enthusiast drivers, but it also could serve to further gloss up the division’s staid and conservative image and thus attract the younger crowd that will allow the brand to thrive well into the future.

Buick Regal GS

Buick has been steadily revitalizing that image and therefore pulling in younger buyers since the inception of its full-size Enclave crossover, and more recently its all-new LaCrosse luxury sedan. A four-cylinder LaCrosse will drop the price of entry and attract an even younger crowd, but 2011 will see the introduction of an all-new Regal to the lineup too, a smaller, lighter, four-cylinder powered sedan which, like the LaCrosse, finds its roots in Europe’s Opel brand.

A sport sedan worthy of European enthusiast’s interest is Opel’s Insignia OPC, so Buick dressed up a version with Regal design cues and threw it at Detroit auto show goers last January, to much praise, but the General was quick to quell queries as to production by stating it was nothing more than a concept, and that it wouldn’t see the light of day. The show car looked production-ready, mind you, with 20-inch performance-oriented rims and tires that filled out its wheel cutouts with newfound purpose.

Fingers were still crossed, however, and this week Grand National fans got their wish. A report comes in from The Detroit News that has Tom Stephens, Vice Chairman of Global Product Development for GM, confirming the Regal GS for production, and that it will likely arrive in a showroom near you some time next year.

Obviously performance specifications can’t be had for a car that hasn’t even been officially announced, but we know what the Opel has under its hood and what the Buick show car sported beneath its; a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 255 horsepower and V8-like 295 pound-feet of torque!

At least as exciting is its six-speed manual transmission, not to mention its all-wheel drivetrain that will all but eliminate torque steer and provide better all-weather traction. The Regal GS also boasted Interactive Drive Control, a system that lets drivers opt between normal and sport modes, plus a special GS mode that transfers greater torque to the rear for more tail wagging fun.

Additionally, the Regal GS concept received a thoroughly revised front fascia, reworked rocker panels, an upgraded rear deck lid plus cool new twin tailpipe outlets. Some updates to the interior offered a sportier appearance while sport seats planted driver and front occupant more securely in place, prepped for tackling the twists, turns and undulations the GS promises to be capable of straightening and flattening.

It’s too early to tell whether the production Regal GS will be identical to the concept, although being that the concept largely reflected the Insignia OPC already on the road in Europe, it’s likely what we saw in Detroit we’ll see again in roadworthy trim come November in LA or once again at January’s Detroit show.

The Regal GS and its more conservatively trimmed siblings will certainly go far to expand the brand into new Buick territory, which causes one to speculate as to which Opel model will get the three-shielded crest treatment next. With Saturn being the recipient of Opel goodness previously and that brand having gone the way of Pontiac, RIP, it was largely expected that Saturn’s green icon would get the nod for Buick. A compact crossover the likes of the stylish and nicely finished Vue would have fit into Buick’s lineup with ease after a few minor styling modifications, the trademark waterfall grille being first and foremost, whether conventionally powered or enhanced by electricity, yet the latter would not only have bought Buick the younger generation it so desperately wants and needs, but also the ever-growing environmentally conscious crowd who, like performance zealots that will ante up for the Regal GS, makes decisions that go beyond their wallets. Just why Buick decided not to opt for the Vue when it had the chance, and by so doing get “regular” and plug-in hybrid variants, is the proverbial enigma wrapped in a conundrum, as it would have also gone to further placate Washington. Nevertheless, Opel will bring to market another generation of Antera, and from that a Buick skinned model will likely result and progress the brand into the all-important compact crossover segment.

Next in line would seemingly be a premium compact based on Opel’s Astra, a car that Saturn imported as-is without even upgrading it with options like OnStar. By so doing it went after a Teutonic compact icon, Volkswagen’s Golf, and lost spectacularly. If Buick goes down market with a compact model, following the lead of its main premium competitor, Lexus, we’d be safe to bet it will receive significant Americanization before it crosses the Atlantic. A move into this critically important class, however, must be on the minds of Buick’s execs, especially with most premium players in the game already or on their way to the field.

Lastly, there are rumblings about a new Opel Calibra coupe to be based on the Insignia/Regal architecture, which also underpins the larger LaCrosse. If built, instead of a GS version of this two-door Buick might consider GN, for Grand National, or better yet, GNX. Either way, a two-door hardtop would fit well into the Buick lineup, with historic nameplates available ranging from Somerset at the lower end to Riviera at the top-end.

For now Buick performance fans will have to satisfy themselves with the Regal GS, a much more useful and hardly less enticing alternative.

Viacom’s case against Google and YouTube looks worse and worse each passing day. While we weren’t that impressed by Google’s mentioning the fact that Viacom tried to buy YouTube, back when the initial filings for summary judgment became public, as more details come out, this point actually highlights many more problems with Viacom’s claims that YouTube was just a “video Grokster” that thrived on infringing uses. In fact, it looks like Viacom execs were literally trying to push each other aside in trying to get YouTube for their own uses:

MTVN CEO Judy McGrath telling M&A execs: “Help us get YouTube. We cannot see it go to Fox/NBC” and “I want to own YouTube. I think it’s critical asnd if it goes to a competitior!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if we have to buy it with a partner to keep it below the line.” Then-Viacom CEO Tom Freston:”If we get UTube…. I wanna run it.” McGrath: “You’ll have to kill me to get to it first.”

The e-mail that starts that last exchange between Freston and McGrath is more about Viacom than YouTube. “We know what to do. I know this SUCKS its MADDENING that the revenue isn’t there when the content is….but we will fix it and get the stock back up. ‘Accretive’ digital acquisitions and a big idea or two. Fast.”

Does that sound like execs talking about a company that is sucking them dry through infringing uses? Furthermore, it takes away much of the strength of Viacom’s claims that Google is responsible for all this infringement because it bought YouTube knowing all this. Would Viacom begin suing itself if it had gotten its act together and bought YouTube?

Even more damning is the email exchange between Viacom General Counsel, Michael Fricklas, and Jason Hirschhorn:

“Mostly, YouTube behaves–and why not–user-generated content appears to be what’s driving it right now. Also the difference between YouTube’s behavior and Grokster’s is staggering. while the supreme court’s language IS broad; the precedent is not THAT broad.”

Yes, that’s from the guy who’s now trying to convince the world that YouTube was a “video Grokster” and that it survived solely on infringing content. Ouch. Viacom is trying to diffuse those claims by saying that Fricklas was simply ignorant at the time (way to throw your GC under the bus…). Funny, of course, that’s it’s perfectly fine for Viacom execs to make statements and later retract them, but Viacom harps on statements by YouTube execs, that are taken totally out of context, as if they’re gospel.



Separately, Fricklas has put out a “statement” on the case that reads like a blog post without a blog. It seems to highlight how this has really become more of a PR war than a legal war. Fricklas’ argument falls down on numerous accounts, though. He compares YouTube to LimeWire, despite astounding differences between the two — when even he knows the difference is “staggering.” But the most ridiculous of all is the following:

Google is the world’s leading search engine with a self-proclaimed mission to organize the world’s information. However, when it comes to videos on YouTube, Google cynically claims that search is too difficult for them to execute effectively.

That’s blatantly untrue and Fricklas knows it. No one is claiming that the search is too difficult. They’re claiming that determining whether or not the content is infringing is too difficult, and that’s supported by Fricklas’ own inability to know which clips were infringing and which were uploaded by Viacom itself. If your own General Counsel can’t tell what’s infringing and what’s not, how is it even close to reasonable to suggest that Google should be able to figure it out?

Also, the following is pretty low and also misleading:

Google claims it could not tell whether Viacom had authorized specific clips on YouTube — and misleadingly and falsely implies that we’re suing on clips we posted. The reality is simple: we are not suing about clips we posted.

No, it’s not suing over clips it posted… any more. But the original lawsuit did include such clips until Viacom realized this and dropped those clips from the lawsuit. Pretending that never happened is simply trying to rewrite history.

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Here in the United States, people are all atwitter about Craig Venter’s announcement last week of a new “synthetic cell,” and whether it constitutes creating life or simply a nifty new step in genetic engineering. Across the pond in the U.K., however, there are increasing rumblings of a more practical matter: Whether the patents that Venter is seeking to protect his work will bring a chill to genetic engineering research elsewhere.

Dr Venter’s [team] has applied for patents on the methods it used to create the new organism, nicknamed Synthia, by transferring a bacterial genome built from scratch into the shell of another bacterium. Synthia’s genetic code contains four DNA “watermarks”, including famous quotations and the names of the scientists behind the research, that could be used to detect cases of unauthorised copying [The Times].

Nobel winner John Sulston is the main man sounding the alarm (pdf); he argues that Venter is trying to obtain a “monopoly” on a range of genetic engineering techniques, which would prevent other researchers from freely experimenting with those methods. He’s also a familiar adversary to Venter. The two butted heads a decade ago when scientists were rushing to sequence the human genome.

Craig Venter led a private sector effort which was to have seen charges for access to the information. John Sulston was part of a government and charity-backed effort to make the genome freely available to all scientists [BBC News].

Venter found himself in another intellectual property vs. public domain flare-up in 2007, when a Canadian organization called the ETC Group challenged patents that Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, tried to file on the artificial microbe his lab had in development. After that public fight, Nature Biotechnology recognized the need for commercial biotech firms to protect their work, but called on national organizations and non-profits to continue putting as much DNA information as possible into the public domain so that research doesn’t get bogged down in a sea of legal battles.

This time around, the response from Venter’s organization is much the same as before: Relax, everybody.

In response to Sulston’s latest broadside, a spokesman for the J Craig Venter Institute told the BBC, “There are a number of companies working in the synthetic genomic/biology space and also many academic labs. Most if not all of these have likely filed some degree of patent protection on a variety of aspects of their work so it would seem unlikely that any one group, academic centre or company would be able to hold a ‘monopoly’ on anything” [Nature].

These fights will go on, and that’s a good thing: We need innovators, and we need agitators. While Venter’s work will push genetic engineering forward, and will likely make oodles of cash in the process, Sulston and others can keep questioning the balance of information power so it doesn’t all end up in once place.

Related Content:
80beats: Did Craig Venter Just Create Synthetic Life? The Jury Is Decidedly Out
80beats: Court Strikes Down Patents on Two Human Genes; Biotech Industry Trembles
DISCOVER: The Intellectual Property Fight That Could Kill Millions
DISCOVER: Discover Dialogue with Craig Venter
DISCOVER: The 10 Most Influential People in Science

Image: Amy Eckert

Más allá de lo que ya os hemos comentado sobre el pasado Salón del Automóvil Ecológico de Madrid están modelos que o bien fueron presentados en salones anteriores o bien ya están muy vistos, como el caso del Tata Nano eléctrico. Además, están los prototipos que todavía les queda un tiempo hasta pasar a fase de producción o fabricantes más pequeños o menos conocidos en España que intentan hacerse un hueco.

Dentro de la primera categoría encontramos casos como los BMW ActiveHybrid 7 y X6, los Honda CR-Z e Insight, el Lexus CT 200h, el Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid, el Nissan LEAF, el Peugeot iOn, los Toyota Auris HSD y Prius enchufable, y el Volvo C30 eléctrico.

Mención aparte merecen curiosidades como la presencia de Porsche, que hacía varios años que no aparecía por una feria del automóvil española. La marca de Stuttgart presentó las variantes diésel e híbrida de la nueva generación de su Cayenne. También resulta extraño que Renault trajera, una vez más, la flota de sus prototipos Zero Emission (a excepción del Kangoo Z.E. Concept), cuando las variantes definitivas del Fluence y el Kangoo ya las publicó el mes pasado.

Con respecto a prototipos, Madrid acogió a los Audi A1 e-Tron Concept, A8 Hybrid Concept y el e-Tron presentado en el Salón de Detroit de este año; el prototipo experimental Ford Focus BEV (si bien el óvalo azul tiene pensado lanzar en 2012 una variante eléctrica del nuevo Focus), el Kia Sorento Diesel Hybrid Concept, el Mercedes-Benz F800 Style Concept, el Opel Flextreme GT/E, los Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4 Concept y SR1 Concept, y el Seat IBE Concept.

Asimismo, hubo algunas pequeñas marcas que producen o experimentan con modelos eléctricos que querían darse a conocer en la muestra de IFEMA. Una de ellas es Tecnalia, una Corporación Tecnológica de carácter independiente y privada, cuya sede se encuentra en el Parque Tecnológico de Vizcaya, y con cuyo director de Comunicación de la Unidad Sistemas de Innovación, Antonio Bardosco, estuvo hablando Highmotor. El producto que presentaron es un coche llamado Dynacar, el cual se ofrece a otras empresas como plataforma de investigación y desarrollo de tecnologías para vehículos eléctricos.

El Dynacar posee un motor eléctrico con el que pasa de 0 a 100 km/h en 5′7 segundos. Se alimenta por unas baterías de litio que le otorgan una autonomía de 70 kilómetros. En concreto, Tecnalia lleva a cabo proyectos que analizan nuevos sistemas electrónicos, arquitecturas de tracción eléctrica y programas informáticos de simulación. No obstante, la división de Tecnalia dedicada a la automoción tiene muchas más líneas de actividad: desarrollo de materiales plásticos y composites, nueva maquinaria de fabricación, adhesivos y conformados o reciclaje.

Otra de estas marcas es la india REVA, con mucha experiencia en otros países de Europa y que ahora entra en el mercado español, a través del distribuidor Suministros Eléctricos Bolaños en Madrid, con dos modelos totalmente eléctricos. El primero es el REVAi, un microcoche de tres puertas y cuatro plazas (las de atrás solo aptas para niños) catalogado como cuatriciclo. Posee un motor de 13 kW (casi 18 CV de potencia) y un par motor de 52 Nm con el que alcanza hasta 80 km/h, y que está unido a una caja automática.

Sus baterías de plomo ácido reciclables le dan una autonomía de 80 kilómetros. Para recargarlas, además de usar la frenada regenerativa, se puede enchufar a cualquier toma de 220 voltios, con la que tarda ocho horas en volver a llenarse del todo. Su equipamiento cuenta con ABS, sistema de retención en pendiente, reproductor de CD MP3, climatizador de asientos, aire acondicionado y calefacción, cierre centralizado o asientos y volante de piel. Su precio es de 11.421′81 euros incluyendo IVA, transporte y descuento del Plan MOVELE, si bien hay que añadir los 200 euros de matriculación.

El otro modelo es el BEEPO, un pequeño camión, también clasificado como cuatriciclo, de dos plazas y disponible con caja abierta (Pick Up) o cerrada (Cargo Box). Su motor eléctrico de 15 kW (20 CV) le permite ir hasta a 60 km/h y la autonomía de sus baterías AGM es de 75 kilómetros. También se pueden recargar en tomas de 220 voltios y se tarda seis horas en completar el proceso. Su capacidad de carga es de 550 kilogramos y su precio es de 13.651 euros contando con el IVA, transporte y descuento MOVELE, además de los 200 euros previamente mencionados.

Finalmente, hay que señalar que otras marcas del Salón quizás estuvieran un poco fuera de lugar, pues no tenían ningún modelo verdaderamente ecológico pero fueron por presentar alguno nuevo o alguna edición limitada. Os dejamos con las fotos:

Salón del Automóvil Ecológico de Madrid 2010: Otras marcas

Fotos | HighMotor

Google said today that the effects of its search and advertising businesses helped generate an estimated $54 billion in economic value for the United States last year. The assertion is clearly an attempt to promote the company’s value at a time when it’s coming under fire from legislators for its size and market clout in a number of areas — as well as some of its privacy-related behavior — and is fighting the telecom companies on the issue of net neutrality.

Google based its analysis on a number of assumptions, Chief Economist Hal Varian explains in a video (embedded below), including how much revenue businesses generate from search-related advertising via Google AdWords, combined with the amount that Google pays publishers that take part in Google AdSense, as well as an estimate of the value generated for businesses when someone clicks on a regular search result. It then added to this figure the amount that it donates to non-profits through the Google Grant program, which provides up to $10,000 worth of advertising for charities.

For example, Varian said, Google estimates that advertisers make $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords (the company recently made public the revenue split for AdWords and AdSense). Google also tried to estimate the value of clicks on search results: Varian said that on average a search result gets about 5.3 clicks for every click on an ad, and the company estimates that advertisers get about 70 percent as much in revenue for each click on a search result as they get for each click on an ad.

Although he didn’t say how much Google pays its AdSense partners, Varian said that the bottom line from all these estimates is that companies get, on average, $8 in profit for every $1 they spend with Google. As a result, it believes that the average economic impact is eight times its AdWords revenue in each state, plus the amount spent by Google in AdSense payments and the value of Google Grants (maybe the company should have to subtract the estimated productivity decline from its recent Pac-Man playable logo).

There’s no way to determine whether the company’s estimates are correct, of course, since the parts of the equation that matter most are based on figures Google doesn’t release publicly. But it’s interesting to see the search giant trying to quantify its value to the economy (a full version of the report with a breakdown by state is available here). Whether it will help Google in its lobbying attempts in Washington is a much bigger question.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Google Takes the Open Battle to Apple on Multiple Fronts

Quick: of all the worlds in our solar system, which one is this?

Stumped? Go to Emily Lakdawalla’s post at The Planetary Society blog for the answer.

(This post originally appeared on the author’s blog, The Oil Drum. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.)

The next attempt to shut off the flow from the leaking BP well in the Gulf is still aimed to occur early Wednesday. The attempt will use the “top kill” method to try and kill the well. While I have described this in earlier posts, the Unified Command have put out a video animation of the process, and there was an earlier diagram. So I am going to use these, which are simplified explanations, with some additional comments and tie it in to more facts that came out of briefings today, to try and give a more detailed explanation. Here is the animation:

Before the process could begin, however, it was necessary to significantly modify the blow-out preventer (BOP) that sits on the top of the well. For those interested (its a bit like watching one of the operations on the space station) BP has assembled a short (5 minute) selection of the video footage of the various steps. When watching it, you should bear in mind that the ROV’s carrying out the different steps have to operate in a relatively crowded environment.

The well neighborhood

The tasks to be done included removing, modifying and replacing the control box (or pod) that operates the valves that open and close the flow lines into the choke and kill lines on the well. Other than this, the flow lines to the flow and choke lines themselves had to be replaced with the feed lines (shown in the animation) that will carry the mud into the well. Even tightening a fitting that had worked loose takes time, when it has to be done using an ROV (with the operator at the surface needing to see what he is doing while getting the ROV to hold the necessary wrench and turn the fitting). The old feed lines then had to be cut from the BOP, and replaced.

ROV image showing the control pod fitting being tightened

This involved
* cutting off the choke and kill line connectors
* Cutting the bolts on a flange
* Removing the clamp
* Removing the pipe flange end
* Buffing and cleaning the pipe end
* Preparing to attach the new jumper lines. (This had to be done for each feed line)
* A special hydraulic connector attached to the 150-ft jumper cables was used to latch onto the old inlets. This is slow work (as the video shows) and as a result this part of the work has taken seven days. (The jumper shown in the video was attached on the 16th and chained down into position on the 17th.)

When the connections and fittings have all been made and checked, and the control pod operation validated, and the necessary permits from MMS and others obtained, then the process can begin.

The process will be controlled from the Q4000, which is designed to have the capabilities needed. Two lines feed from the vessel to the BOP. The first carries the control feeds through an umbilical, while the second is a riser that carries the mud down to the flexible hoses and jumper lines into the BOP itself. This mud, at about twice the density of water, will be delivered from the two high-pressure Schlumberger MD 1000 mud pumps made by Schlumberger and will flow through the two feed lines that were the choke and kill circuits, into the well itself, below the main rams of the BOP.

Top Kill Circuit

The pumps will deliver the mud into the lines at a pressure of 6,800 psi, but as Kinuachdrach has correctly noted, it will then acquire the pressure from the full 5,000 ft column of mud as it flows down to the BOP, and enters the flow channel carrying the oil. Now we know that the BOP rams are at least partially closed. If they are planning on using golf balls for the “junk shot”, it is feasible to surmise that the maximum width of the flow channel is no more than a third of a golf ball diameter. Not arguing the merits of American vs British ball sizes, let us assume that this is roughly half-an-inch (though it may have a greater length).

However, as flow volumes go up it requires more and more pressure for the fluid to get through a small gap. And at a given delivery pressure, only a certain flow volume will thus be able to escape that way. As long as this pressure exceeds that in the well, the net result will then be that the mud begins to push the oil and gas back down the well, and the well fills up with mud. The weight of that mud should then be enough to exert a pressure on the bottom of the well that is enough to exceed the fluid pressure in the rock and therefore stabilize the well and stop the flow of fluid out. Cement can then be pumped into the well to seal the top end. (Or with the flow stopped, another BOP can be put on the well to seal it). The main worry is that the hole in the top of the BOP is small enough to contain the additional flow volumes, and not allow the entire flow to escape upwards rather than being forced down the well. The higher flows might, in addition, if they do exit the riser, further erode the openings. This could increase the oil flow, as it lowers the resistance. (If this happened then the LMRP will be deployed).

There are, however, a number of caveats to this operation. If the pressure in the well gets too high it can cause fractures in the rock at the bottom of the well, and this can cause the mud in the well to flow into the rock, rather than sitting in the well holding the pressure against the oil pressure.

There are also concerns with the condition of the bottom of the well, and whether this will have any impact on the flow of mud back down to the well and in sealing it.

Suttles said BP could not be certain but diagnostic tests on the well seem to indicate the flow is not coming up the main bore.

The well also contains obstructions that are restricting the flow rate.

It is impossible to know for certain what those obstructions are, Suttles said, but cured cement and rocks from the formations that crews drilled through could be partially clogging the well.

If the top kill fails, then the next step will be to cut off the riser, and use the top hat that is sitting on the sea bed near the well, to capture the flow in the LMRP option.

The Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) option

Were it me, I might contact Atlas Tocco and have them look into connecting up an induction heating coil around the outside of the bottom of the riser section. It might give them the occasional additional bit of heat on the inside surface that might be needed to dislodge any inconvenient crystals that might form, without interfering with the internal flow channels.

As a point of scale for the video from the riser leak, the amount of dispersant that is being ejected into the water is about 14,000 gallons a day or about 10 gallons a minute (quarter of a barrel roughly). A 5,000 bd flow is around 150 gals/minute.

This came from Doug Suttles teleconference in which he noted that BP have now spent around $800 million. He noted that oil levels in the water near the well are being measured at 10 ppm (parts per million), against an EPA limit for oil discharge which is 15 ppm. However it is early in the monitoring cycle, and with a fleet of government sampling vessels now starting to work, the plumes and oil dispersant paths will be mapped in more detail in the weeks ahead.

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The 5 inch Android tablet Dell Streak, is giving away impressive features that only an Android device can be capable of. It has been claimed to be the most awaited product of Dell. The product would be available in the United States later this summer.

Here are the Software Features for the Dell Streak:

1. Google Android operating system and software stack for mobile devices. It includes middleware and key applications. A multi-touch version of the said operating system is expected. It also features Dell user-interface enhancements.

2. The Android Marketplace gives you access to over 38,000 applications (and growing). Android Market is an online store developed by Google for Android device softwares. The Android Market is preinstalled on most Android devices and allows the user to browse and download applications.

3. Integration through Touchdown made possible. Touchdown is the world’s first solution on accessing Exchange Server emails, calendar and contacts on Android devices.

4. Google Voice supported capability. Google Voice is a telecommunications service developed by Google. The service is roughly based after Google’s e-mail service, G-mail. Users are only required to establish a U.S. telephone service to be able to activate Google Voice.

5. Google Maps and voice-activated search. Gives a wider view of streets and satellite views. Google Maps: the free web mapping service application and technology developed and provided by Google that gives power to many map-based services on the web.

6. Quick access to streams and/or application widgets like Twitter and Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Google Android 2.2 vs Apple iPhone and iPad performance
2. Official Twitter App Now Available For Android Handsets
3. Dell launches Tablet PC, Streak with Android

Some of the biggest names in comedy will honor Tina Fey when the side-splitting SNL alum is awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Nov. 9.

The 40-year-old Emmy winner — whose comedy talents brought us the box office hit Mean Girls and hilarious impressions of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live — is the youngest person to ever win the nation’s top humor prize, The Associated Press said Tuesday.

“I am truly thrilled to receive this honor,” Fey exclaimed in a written statement. “I assume Betty White was disqualified for steroid use.”

Fey joins previous Twain Prize recipients previous winners Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and Lily Tomlin.

Materials: Expedit bookcases, Lekman bins

Description: We had two of the big daddy Expedit book cases and were using them with Lekman bins as a dresser. As you can see, it’s not so hot looking to be able to see all of your clothes and such through the plastic, so we decided to make fronts. We bought foam core board, and cut them to size. I bought some really cheap cream burlap (like 2 bucks a yard) and we used a spray mount to cover the boards with fabric.

Then we hot glued them to the front of the plastic bins.

I ordered some vintage nobs on ebay. We poked holes in the center of the boards and used a super ghetto combination of washers and cardboard to connect them through the center holes of Lekman boxes.

Does that make sense?

Voila…super sleek looking storage with no socks showing through. Go ikea!

~ Alyssa, Los Angeles,

I got pretty excited when Makani Power staff photographer Andrea Dunlap showed me this photograph. For my purposes, it doesn’t get much better than this: sustainable energy, technology, the future, all rolled into a beautiful photograph. Pick up our June issue for a gander at the double-page spread.

This photograph is 30-second exposure taken during a test of a 10-kilowatt-scale prototype of an airborne wind turbine in Maui, Hawaii. The mobile turbine has a span of about 16 feet and is tethered to the ground using a long, flexible cable. A computer controls the flight pattern. These tests show that a flying generator can sweep through a bigger wind window than a traditional turbine, and without the massive supporting towers. Makani Power plans to have a functional megawatt version of the tethered turbine ready by 2011. Makani Power is partially funded by Google.org as a potential source of renewable energy. Google’s server farms and the Internet in general have ever increasing demands for power, which is in turn burning ever more coal.

Photograph courtesy Makani Power

Today Dell finally made official what we’ve known about for some time.  The Dell Streak (previously Dell Mini 5) will be launching early June on O2 UK (that’s next month/one week away!) and just as Michael Dell said, it will be headed to the US (on AT&T?) later this summer.  The Streak has been surfing the interwebs for a good while now and recently made an appearance on a product roadmap revealed by Engadget.  Though the device is intended to be a 5-inch tablet, it does contain the appropriate hardware to be used as a phone on GSM networks, and with 3G on AT&T – if the FCC is any indication.  Here are a few specs to keep you going, full press release below:

• Android platform complete with Android Market and Dell user interface enhancements
• ARM-based Processor: Qualcomm’s powerful and efficient Snapdragon chipset and software platform with integrated 1GHz processor
• 3G + WiFi + Bluetooth
• UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of up to HSDPA 7.2 Mbps* / HSDPA
• 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash. Easy point, shoot, and uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
• User accessible Micro SD expandable memory available up to 32 GB*. Store up to 42 movies* or 32,000 photos*, or 16,000 songs* with 32GB* Micro SD

DELL STREAK TABLET ENTICES PEOPLE TO WATCH, SURF, CONNECT, LISTEN, AND PLAY ON 5” OF POWER AND PORTABILITY

· Streak to launch early June in the UK exclusively on O2

· Available at O2 stores, O2.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse and later next month at Dell.co.uk

· U.S. availability to arrive later this summer

BRACKNELL, UK – May 25, 2010 – Today, Dell released plans for Streak, a 5-inch Android™-based Tablet designed to provide people the best “on-the-go” entertainment, social connection, and navigation experience. Early this June the Dell Streak will be available across the UK at O2 stores, O2.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse, and later in the month at Dell.co.uk. Pricing and data plans for the UK will be announced by O2 ahead of availability. Later this summer, Dell plans to make Streak available in the U.S.

The Dell Streak is a compact and powerful companion for people who want to expand their ability to access their digital lives on the go, and realize tomorrow’s technology today. The spacious 5-inch screen is ideal for experiencing thousands of Android Market™ widgets, games and applications, all without squinting or compromising portability. Built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and available 3G connectivity brings easy access for downloading and listening to music, updating social networking status in real-time, and staying connected to friends and family through e-mail, text, IM, and voice calls.

On-the-go students, mobile professionals, and active families will find Streak’s web-browsing capabilities as natural as a laptop. The 5-inch screen is large enough to present Web pages in their natural form, create a comfortable viewing experience, and make turn-by-turn navigation simple and safe. The Dell Streak leverages Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ solution with integrated 1GHz processor to combine basic functionality, performance, and benefits of a laptop in a pocket friendly size.

“The Dell Streak hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets,” said Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions Group. “Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect, and navigate their lives.”

The Dell Streak was designed with the future in mind and will support over-the-air updates including platform upgrades, Adobe Flash 10.1 on Android™ 2.2 later this year, video chat applications and other software innovations.

Dell is a member of the Open Handset Alliance™ (OHA), a group of technology and mobile companies working together to accelerate innovation in mobility. Together, the OHA created Android, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform to provide people a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience.

Key Features:

Integrated Google Maps™ with turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views

· A full screen browsing experience with a 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA display

· Easily integrated social media apps: Twitter™, Facebook, YouTube

· High resolution 5 MP camera, VGA front facing camera, removable battery, built-in Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity options

· 2GB* of internal dedicated storage provides plenty of space to access and download Google Android Market’s many options

· Packaged with cushions made from 100 percent sustainable, compostable bamboo

Specifications:

Android platform complete with Android Market and Dell user interface enhancements

ARM-based Processor: Qualcomm’s powerful and efficient Snapdragon chipset and software platform with integrated 1GHz processor

3G + WiFi + Bluetooth

UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of up to HSDPA 7.2 Mbps* / HSDPA

5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash. Easy point, shoot, and uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more

User accessible Micro SD expandable memory available up to 32 GB*. Store up to 42 movies* or 32,000 photos*, or 16,000 songs* with 32GB* Micro SD

Filed under: Safety, Nissan

A Gainesville, Florida Nissan dealership received a most unpleasant surprise Monday morning as the dealer’s showroom floor became engulfed in smoke, with some flames centered in one very unfortunate area. Now we’re guessing here, but we would think that if the dealer could save any one vehicle from the fire, they’d pick the nearly $90,000 silver GT-R. Too bad they apparently didn’t have time to make the decision.

The Gainesville Sun reports that the GT-R was engulfed in flames when police and fire arrived at the dealership a little while after it closed, burning up much of the vehicle’s exterior. The last person to exit the building was the security guard, who did a quick check of the showroom and locked up. When firefighters arrived on the scene, they had to bust down a door to enter the building, and when they got inside, the GT-R was being served flambé-style.

Firefighters don’t know exactly how or why the GT-R burst into flames. Reports suggest that there was a light that dropped to the ground, and that light could have started the fire, or it could have dropped as a result of the fire. We don’t have any idea what happened to the GT-R, or whether or not it was even driven that day, but you can head over to Gainesville.com for more details and to see a picture of the carnage. Thanks for the tip, Justin!

[Source: Gainesville Sun]

Report: Nissan GT-R goes up in flames while parked in locked showroom originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK TV Guide features: 3 day’s listings, 3 view modes: Matrix, Channel Listing and Hour Listing, Program description and reminder, Refined and Favourite channels, Program Searching, Send program info via Email/SMS/Twitter.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Superb reminder and sharing functionality

Cons

• Difficult to use
• Ugly as that girl in school whose name you forget but you remember she’s really ugly

Features:

The Bad

Into the crowded market place of iffy television guides comes the UK TV Guide to revolutionize…………. nothing at all. As with all its competitors the UK TV Guide does some individual things well, really well in some places, but is fatally flawed in others. If someone cherry picks all the best features from these different guides and wraps it all up in an app that doesn’t appall me with its ugliness then I will be sold. Unfortunately I am still waiting.

Upon starting up the app you are invited to specify your favourite channels from a frankly enormous list full of channels you hadn’t heard of. The ‘Blighty’ channel for instance, is probably a load of crap though of course no one would know since no one watches it. For me this process took a quite some time and forced my HTC Hero to crash on multiple occasions.

Luckily you only have to do this once. After that time the app home screen changes to show your channels listed vertically down the side with a time line and the channels’ schedules stretching along the x-axis. All the programmes that have already finished are grayed out to show that they are in the past. A nice little feature this.

There is a date cell in the top left corner showing the current date and when pressed allows you to inspect your channels’ schedules for the next two days. This is pretty good but I would have preferred to be able to check out the whole week’s listings. In truth I had to read through the included instructions for the app to know how to do this. If I have to read instructions to get a TV guide to work properly, then the designers have done something wrong.

Clicking (pressing?) the channels thumbnail takes you to a page which shows you the entire day’s listings for that particular broadcaster. A pretty handy feature but I would question why it is displayed with coloured text on a black background unlike every other page in the app. This admittedly may be a small and personal issue but I like my apps to have a thread of uniformity running through them. From this page, or indeed on any other page of the app you can click on an individual program to get more detailed information and set a reminder. The problem here is that the text can be incredibly small on a channel page which makes it very finicky to get the right show. There is no zoom function at all.

The Good

The reminders are pretty great on this app. You can set them to alert you from the notifications bar of your phone or integrate the notification into your Google calendar. It would be nice to be able have both but that might just be me.

I’m a member of the camp that thinks Facebook and Twitter integration is overdone and normally pretty useless. However this app gets it absolutely right. When setting a reminder you also have the option to send it with the aforementioned social networks (obviously) but also with Evernote and other installed blogging apps.

There is an amazingly useful search function which even auto-completes your searches and takes you directly to the program info. Seriously seriously awesome.

Usefulness:

This is about as useful as a TV guide can get in that it allows you to plan a lot of TV watching. Go figure huh? Still, I can’t get past the fact that I usually need to check a channel’s output more than two days in advance.

Ease of Use:

This is a serious problem for this app. I had to read the instructions to figure out how to squeeze all the functionality out of it. I only found out that you could change the schedule date in the app by doing this. Not good at all.

Frequently Used:

This might have been my favoured TV guide but………….. see below.

Interface:

Oh man. If apps actually existed in the eighties then this would remind me of one those crappy looking apps you got in the eighties. When scrolling along the timeline on the home screen….wait, that’s not right. You don’t scroll. You just swipe, wait for what seems like an ice-age to pass and then the screen changes. What’s wrong with a smooth scrolling timeline? When pressing on a programme the app gives you no feedback as to where you have pressed. There are no animations, transitions or colour changes to show that a button has been depressed. It’s like the early days of touchscreens all over again.

Jamie Dupree, a radio reporter at WSBradio in Washington DC Tweets the following. This would be big trouble if true. We’re looking for more.

Join the conversation about this story »

Apple has revealed plans to open its retail stores early for the iPad’s upcoming international launch.

The company’s well-received 9.7-inch tablet is due to arrive on a more global scale later this week, with the device making its debut in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on the 28th. The move, which is no doubt going to please many devout Apple fans, will see the company open its doors one hour earlier than usual.

Apple announced the retail plans via email and have also since updated its website to reflect the special opening times, as shown in this UK example.

This means that those dedicated Apple shoppers can head to their local retail store from 8AM local time and grab their iPad earlier than expected. For those in the UK there are other choices beyond the 27 official Apple Stores — both Currys and PC World will be carrying the new tablet in addition to some select Apple Premium Resellers.

Beyond the launch plans listed above, Apple has detailed that the iPad will launch in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore at some point during July.

For those outside the U.S., its been a long time coming, but the global launch is finally in sight.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Hot Topic: Apple’s iPad

Chinese gadget manufacturer Foxconn, best known for making Apple’s iDevices, has been in the news quite a bit lately, and none of it has been good.  The company has often been accused of providing poor working conditions for its employees including verbal abuse, abysmal pay, and being forced to work far more overtime than is legally allowed.  Today, another worker fell off one of Foxconn’s buildings, making him the ninth person to die at the company in 2010.  The CEO of Foxconn, Guo Tai-Ming, spoke out recently and stated that the company is “definitely not a sweatshop,” going on to say that with nearly 900,000 employees around the world, they have a lot to do, but that the situation would be stabilized soon.

Surely some of you remember the item we posted last month about a towing company in Michigan that had filed a $750,000 slander and libel lawsuit against a college student because he’d created a Facebook page for people to voice their complaints about the company. Well, that move appears to have backfired for the towing company, which has since lost a good chunk of business.

Since launching in February, the Facebook page for Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing has garnered over 11,300 members and made this local towing company an object of national derision.

According to reports, T&J has lost half of its commercial towing accounts, including the apartment complex from which the creator of the Facebook page had his car towed in January.

Says a lawyer for T&J about the company’s owner:

He has wrongly become a pariah in the eyes of many people in the community… He’s lost upwards of 15 accounts because of the hostility this situation has created.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the student claim they are now using the complaints posted to the Facebook page to identify others who believe they’ve been wronged by T&J, with the purpose of possibly filing a class-action suit against the towing company.

Fight with student may wreck tow firm [Freep.com]