Category: News

Eric Whitaker (Sun-Times Photo by John White)

By Abdon Pallasch
Sun-Times Political Reporter
CHICAGO–President Obama’s health care law will make a lot of people on Chicago’s South Side and other “underserved” areas healthier, said the president’s close friend Dr. Eric Whitaker, who has talked health policy with Obama since the two were grad students at Harvard in the early 90s.

“This new legislation will have a positive impact on this nation, on Chicagoans, and, indeed, on those I have worked with and for in underserved populations on Chicago’s South Side,” Whitaker said today. “It will benefit everyone in this room, all of us,” he told diners at the City Club of Chicago.

For one thing, the new law gives parents peace of mind, he said: “We don’t need to worry about our kids, especially those who have chronic illnesses, being denied coverage when they’re older, and we can even choose to keep our kids on our insurance policies now until they’re 26, and that should be a ‘Hallelujah’ in this crowd right now,” Whitaker told this mostly high-end audience.

Whitaker was exchanging e-mails with the president right up until the night before the vote on the health care legislation. He was there for Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress urging them to pass health care reform. That was the night a South Carolina congressman challenged Obama’s contention that the law would not cover illegal immigrants.

“I heard Rep. Joe Wilson shout, ‘You lie’ and, you know, we were going to try to deal with that South Side style,” Whitaker said as the room erupted in laughter. “I was sitting in the first lady’s box, and I decided to comport myself in a little different manner.”

Whitaker testified in favor of national health insurance twice before Congress in 1991 when he was national president of the American Medical Students Association. Like some other of Obama’s close friends in Chicago, Whitaker has attracted a few controversies over the years, and he defended himself today.

Whitaker heads up the Urban Health Initiative at the University of Chicago Hospital, where Michelle Obama recruited Whitaker to be a partner in what he described as an innovative program to divert people with “non-urgent” ailments away from the hospital’s emergency room to neighborhood clinics where they can be treated at one-tenth the cost to them or taxpayers and can develop long-term relationships with doctors to treat their chronic conditions.

Critics called that “patient-dumping.”

“Those who accuse hospitals of ‘patient-dumping’ when they direct patients away from the E.R. are too quick to assume the worst,” Whitaker said. “These critics miss the fundamental point that there are a host of reasons why it’s good health and fiscal policy to re-direct patients way from hospital emergency rooms.”

Whitaker introduced mutual friends of his and the presidents in the audience, including the successor to Obama’s controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

“I also want to recognize my pastor from a church you all have never heard of, Otis Moss from Trinity United Church of Christ,” Whitaker said to laughter and applause.

“Earlier this year, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and was present at a small session where we had Bill Gates … and other technology heavyweights. … They talked about health care technology that could really make a difference in improving health in developing countries,” Whitaker said. “I literally raised my hands and said, developing countries? How ’bout doing this work on the South Side of Chicago?”

Based on a recommendation from Obama, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich hired Whitaker to be the state’s director of Public Health in 2003. Like other major state posts in those days, it was screened by Tony Rezko, who has since been convicted of influence-peddling.

A federal grand jury is investigating the department’s funding of several faith-based initiatives that Whitaker helped start, though, as Whitaker emphasized today, “The organizations the subpoenas were about — they received funding in the last month of my tenure at the Illinois Department of Public Health.

One subpoena to the state names Whitaker and three others and asks for “e-mail and other electronic storage accounts” from “January 2007 to present.” Nothing indicates Whitaker is a target of the investigation and Whitaker himself said today, “I am not the target of any investigation.” He has not received an subpoena; has hired no lawyer and was unaware of the investigation until contacted by the Sun-Times two weeks ago.

Is sending government money to pastors to talk about chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension good public policy? Whitaker said “yes.”

“Our work in this particular area was recognized by the [Centers for Disease Control] as being an important innovation for improving the heath of the minority population,” Whitaker said. “That’s kind of under some controversy as of late, but I stand by the fact that churches on the ground are important actors in the community with ministers who are opinion leaders.”

These faith-based initiatives were Whitaker’s ideas, not Blagojevich’s, Whitaker said.

“It was something I felt strongly about,” Whitaker said. “I didn’t get any direction. That was part of how I wanted to administer the Public Health Department.”

Well, it won’t be all doom and gloom here today. Consumer confidence — an important bellwether of increasing household spending — shot up last month.

The Conference Board says that consumers’ expectations about today’s and tomorrow’s economic conditions continue to improve from low lows. Consumers’ six-month outlook climbed to the highest it has been since August 2007, before the recession started and the financial crisis hit. The main confidence index rose for the third straight month. From the release:

Consumers’ assessment of current-day conditions continued to improve in May. Those saying conditions are “good” increased to 10.0 percent from 8.9 percent, while those saying business conditions are “bad” declined to 39.3 percent from 40.0 percent. Consumers’ appraisal of the labor market was also more positive. Those claiming jobs are “hard to get” decreased to 43.6 percent from 44.8 percent, while those saying jobs are “plentiful” was virtually unchanged at 4.6 percent.

Consumers’ optimism about the short-term future was significantly better in May. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will improve over the next six months increased to 23.5 percent from 19.7 percent, while those expecting conditions will worsen declined to 11.5 percent from 12.4 percent. Consumers were also more confident about future job prospects. Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead increased to 20.4 percent from 17.7 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs declined to 17.7 percent from 19.9 percent. The proportion of consumers anticipating an increase in their incomes improved to 11.3 percent from 10.5 percent.

The trend is good even if the empiric numbers aren’t. (For every one person who thinks jobs are easy to come by, 10 believe they are hard to get; for every one person who thinks times are good, four think they’re bad.) The real concern is that continued high unemployment, very unsteady markets, the European crisis and a housing decline might discourage consumers — whose spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy — from opening their wallets, sending these statistics down again. The headwinds remain obviously strong.

We are constantly looking for ways to make our products faster so recently we spent some time optimizing UI graphics in Basecamp. With better support for CSS3 properties in the latest browsers and solid techniques for progressive enhancement, we began by eliminating some graphics altogether. We found that subtle gradients and drop shadows can be completely rendered with CSS properties and many times aren’t missed when viewed with a browser that doesn’t support them — the very definition of progressive enhancement. Using CSS instead of these graphics results in fewer HTTP requests to our servers plus browsers draw native CSS elements much faster than images.

Another approach we’ve used is CSS sprites, a method for combining many graphics into a single image which is then displayed via CSS. For us this technique reduced dozens of HTTP requests into one — a single, cache-friendly image file. For those new to the technique, the stylesheet references the coordinates of the desired graphic inside the image file. But keeping track of coordinates and creating new CSS styles everytime we wanted to use a graphic would have added a lot of code and made maintenance a chore.

We wanted to keep the code as easy to write as the Rails image_tag method that we used previously. So this:

<%= image_tag ("email.gif"), :class => "email" %>

…became this:

<%= image_sprite :email, :class => "email", :title => "Email" %>

The image_sprite helper method contains the dimensions and coordinates for each and renders the HTML. Here’s a shortened look at the method:

def image_sprite(image, options = {}) 
    sprites = {
      :add_icon           => {:w => 16,   :h => 16,   :x => 0,    :y => 0},
      :email              => {:w => 26,   :h => 16,   :x => 41,   :y => 0},
      :print              => {:w => 25,   :h => 17,   :x => 68,   :y => 0},
      :trash              => {:w => 10,   :h => 11,   :x => 94,   :y => 0},
      :comments           => {:w => 13,   :h => 13,   :x => 105,  :y => 0},
      :comments_read      => {:w => 13,   :h => 13,   :x => 120,  :y => 0},
      :comments_unread    => {:w => 13,   :h => 13,   :x => 135,  :y => 0},
      :rss                => {:w => 14,   :h => 14,   :x => 150,  :y => 0},
      :ical               => {:w => 14,   :h => 16,   :x => 166,  :y => 0},
      :drag               => {:w => 11,   :h => 11,   :x => 360,  :y => 0},
      :timeclock          => {:w => 17,   :h => 17,   :x => 375,  :y => 0},
      :timeclock_off      => {:w => 17,   :h => 17,   :x => 392,  :y => 0}
    }
    %(<span class="sprite #{options[:class]}" style="background: url(#{path_to_image('/images/basecamp_sprites.png')}) no-repeat -#{sprites[image][:x]}px -#{sprites[image][:y]}px; width: #{sprites[image][:w]}px; padding-top: #{sprites[image][:h]}px; #{options[:style]}" title="#{options[:title]}">#{options[:title]}</span>)
  end

Keeping the image details in a helper method made it easy to convert the existing images to sprites, easy to re-use the sprited images throughout the app, and will really pay off anytime there are changes to the images. Update the sprite image, update the helper, and the change is done everywhere. This improvement has already been rolled out for Basecamp and we hope to streamline our other products using these techniques soon.

T-Mobile is continuing to roll out their super-speedy HSPA+ network, announcing coverage in areas of upstate New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Specifically: More »










Rhode Island – United States – Recreation and Sports – Politics – Business and Economy

If you can’t get a signal in Manhattan, blame AT&T. They’ve pretty much admitted that their network in New York is completely inadequate, and now, three years in, they’re taking some concrete steps to alleviate the problem — for tourists, at least.

The biggest concentration of AT&T users in New York probably is in Times Square; think of all those people on the shared voice/data network, emailing pictures to their nieces, checking the map to make sure they’re in Times Square, and all that. AT&T is going to give all these fanny-pack-wearing pretzel junkies (well, the ones with AT&T phones) free wi-fi access for their phones.

They’re hoping that by offloading some high-traffic areas onto wi-fi, they might unload some of the burden that’s been breaking the backs of iPhone users for the last few years. I’m not sure that it’s really going to make a dent, but hey, it’s something. If it makes a difference, they’ll probably roll it out in other major metropolitan areas, so stay tuned.

So, I am sitting in my Project 52, which those of you who spend time on whitewater rivers will know to be a kayak.  The river level is up, which makes for lots of company on the water and the guy I am chatting with asks me what I do for work.  “I work for EPA on water infrastructure sustainability.”  His reaction is typical – no idea what that means.  But he kayaks and has some interest in water and seems up for the explanation.

Most folks I know don’t think much about where their water comes from, where it ends up when it goes down the drain, or the extensive ’infrastructure’ systems that take care of all that.  The ones I have cornered – like that kayaker – now know that those ‘water infrastructure’ systems of pipes and treatment plants are in quiet crisis.  Our utilities have done a great job of providing us with safe water to drink and collecting and treating wastewater before discharge, usually into a nearby waterway (that some of us kayak in).  But many utilities have underinvested in renewing those systems.  And a BIG bill is coming due.

We need to start replacing that stuff at a rate that is sustainable.  I have heard estimates that we replace about 0.5% of water distribution pipes a year.  That would mean we expect those pipes to last, on average, for 200 years.  Not likely.  NOT sustainable…

Nationwide, annual utility revenues are roughly $25 billion less than what a sustainable replacement pace would require.  We can cover a good portion of that through efficiency and I coordinate a slew of programs to help utilities cut costs and make the most of every dollar.  But utility revenues – and so the price of water services – are also going to have to go up to close that gap.

So next time you hear that water or sewer rates might go up, think about how you depend on those services.  Think about how much you spend on cable T.V. or your cell phone (typically MORE than on water services).   Lots of folks have very tight budgets, no question –but if we want to continue to enjoy fabulous water services, we are all going to have to help keep our utilities ….‘afloat.’

To tune in more to the issue, join us at our facebook page:  EPA – Water Is Worth It.

About the Author:   Andy Crossland is the Sustainable Infrastructure Coordinator for EPA’s Office of Water.

[JURIST] Several international human rights and jurist organizations on Monday petitioned the UN [text, PDF] to support Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in his inquiry into human rights violations during the Spanish Civil War [LOC backgrounder] and to ask Spain to end his criminal prosecution.
Garzon was suspended last week [JURIST report] by the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) [official website, in Spanish] for abusing his power by opening an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed under Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder]. He has also been formally charged [JURIST report] with abusing his power for violating Spain’s 1977 amnesty laws, which bar investigation of all political crimes committed under the Franco regime. The international organizations argue [press release] that Spain’s actions show an improper interference with what is supposed to be an independent judiciary, and that the investigation and interpretation of Spain’s amnesty laws should be determined by judicial review and appeal:

By allowing Judge Garzon to be charged and suspended for carrying out his judicial duty to interpret the law as requiring the investigation of credible complaints of over 100,000 disappearances and executions, Spain is violating its positive legal duties arising from both domestic and international law to protect and enforce rights that are core to the implementation and enforcement of all human rights. … The paramount duty of states to ensure and allow effective investigations of disappearances and executions has been defined by international instruments and interpreted and confirmed by national and international tribunals. … Disappearances and executions remain in widespread use by states across the economic spectrum as a brutally effective means of neutralizing suspected opponents with absolute impunity. In the struggle between law and realpolitik, Judge Garzon has been a singular advocate for the proper universal enforcement of human rights and therefore one of the world’s most effective opponents of impunity. The charges against him have effectively silenced him and will indubitably have a chilling effect on other judges called to make unpopular decisions regarding allegations of serious criminal wrongdoing by former state agents.

No trial date has been set to adjudicate the claims against Garzon, but, if convicted, he could face a suspension of up to 20 years.

Last week, the judiciary oversight committee of the CGPJ approved a request [JURIST report] by Garzon to work with the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. The ICC confirmed earlier this month [press release] that they had asked Garzon to work for them as a consultant for a period of seven months in order to improve their investigative methods. The CGPJ granted Garzon’s request for leave indicating there was no legal reason preventing him from working as a consultant with the ICC. Thousands gathered [JURIST report] in cities across Spain last month in support of Garzon, chanting slogans and displaying flags of the pre-war Republican government ousted by Franco. Garzon is widely known for using universal jurisdiction extensively in the past to bring several high-profile rights cases, including those against Osama bin Laden and former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archives].

When I blogged the other day about the media training I was doing at MIT, the first comment read as follows:
Frauds at work. Science is not about PR, Mooney. You and your ilk make me feel both ill, and embarassed to say I am a scientist. You should go crawl back under your rock.
To which Aileen Pincus, who also does media training, ably replied:
There’s no question that science is losing the public relations battle, so it’s interesting to me to still find scientists like the poster above who obviously believe that learning to communicate the science somehow harms the science. Yes, those who apply science commercially don’t suffer from such delusions, and they’re a good many of my clients. Others however, come to understand the real world of how science in funded only after long, losing struggles. Public support for science, essential to that funding, isn’t something to be scorned–and that can only happen when scientists learn how to talk to non-scientists.
Indeed–and that is only one of the reasons that many scientists are interested in having such trainings. I believe a lot of it has to do with the nastiness of the evolution and climate wars, and the sense that we have been …

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi.

I included that quote because I was bemused by AT&T’s announcement that it’s building a giant Wi-Fi hotspot in Times Square as a way to offload traffic from its pokey and overcrowded 3G network.

Times Square may not be the only massive, public hotspot effort by Ma Bell — if the pilot works then AT&T plans to roll out in three other locations. I bet those places will be in New York and San Francisco, where AT&T performs like a 300-pound man running up a 60-degree incline. In 2008 AT&T bought Wayport for $275 million and with it 21,000 hotspots in places such as the Starbucks coffee chain, but the carrier never effectively used that network to boost its Wi-Fi capabilities.

AT&T, for as long as I can remember, was what I would call a Wi-Fi hater: using its immense lobbying powers to kill municipal Wi-Fi and other such efforts. Its executives often joked about Wi-Fi not being a carrier-class technology. Good to see them learning from those they mocked.

But they should also be reaching out to cable companies, which have Wi-Fi initiatives of their own and lease capacity on their Wi-Fi networks in order to accommodate their 3G customers. Cablevision in Long Island, N.Y. would be a good place to start.

Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d): How AT&T Will Deal With iPad Data Traffic

Image courtesy Flickr user Adventures in Librarianship.

These punchlines will just write themselves…

Angelina Jolie will be tapping into her inner homewrecker for a turn as The Wicked Witch of the West in one of three Wizard of Oz spinoff hitting theaters over the next few years.

Tinseltown tattles tell PopEater’s Naughty or Nice Column that the do-gooder is attached to play the ghoulish character in the Warner Bros. project, which will reportedly be directed by another Hollywood notable. Last week, Drew Barrymore allegedly signed on to direct the Wizard of Oz sequel, titled Surrender Dorothy. The movie follows the great, great granddaughter of Dorothy who has to learn how to use the power of her ruby red slippers to keep the Wicked Witch of the West from taking control of Earth and Oz.

One loose-lipped Hollywood casting exec says: “Angelina as the Wicked Witch would be perfect casting. She is not only the biggest movie star in the world, but Angie is also a brilliant actress who isn’t afraid to play someone evil.”

Filed under: Hybrid, Minivan/Van, Toyota

When Toyota gets around to expanding its Prius line-up next year, the first model to benefit from the badge will be a compact MPV reportedly badged the Alpha. The small van will apparently be based on a stretched version of the current Prius platform, will add a third row of seats and should be the first production Toyota hybrid with a lithium ion battery pack. Toyota is currently testing a fleet of plug-in Prius hybrids with lithium batteries, but those aren’t slated for production until 2012.

The seven-seat Alpha is expected to be about one foot longer than the current Prius hatchback, while a shorter, five-seat version of the Alpha that may look similar to the Hybrid-X concept from 2007 and could retain the nickel-metal hydride batteries of the current Prius to keep costs down. If all goes according to plan, expect the Prius Alpha to launch around March of next year.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Report: Toyota Prius “Alpha” MPV coming in spring 2011 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A BMW provou na pratica que seu o seu futuro sedã com propostas ecológicas 300d EfficientDynamics, realmente pode cumprir todas as promessas que a companhia divulgou anteriormente, de apresentar um consumo médio de 24,3 km/l e uma autonomia de 800 km.

Mais que isso, o sedã BMW 300d EfficientDynamics equipado com um motor quatro cilindros de 2.0 litros turbo-diesel de 163 cavalos, conseguiu obter um consumo médio de apenas 29,3 km/l e emissão de 109 g/km. Com isso, a sua autonomia ficou em estupendos 1.630 quilômetros.

Além disso, no percurso o sedã BMW 300d EfficientDynamics foi dirigido pelo apresentador e jornalista especializado Tom Ford. De acordo com Ford, em nenhum momento ele utilizou artimanhas para reduzir o consumo, como andar numa velocidade deliberadamente baixa ou utilizar-se da inercia.

Durante o percurso, a velocidade media utilizada por Ford foi de 95 km/h, que disse: “Estava esperando que esta carro falharia no mundo real. Eu estava errado. Embora eu tenha sido cuidadoso na hora de utilizar os pés pra acelerar, fiz um cruzeiro em razoáveis 105 km/h nas autoroutes e rodovias, numa velocidade maior que o ritmo normal para a economia de combustível funcionar “.

Essa incrível redução nos níveis de consumo e de emissão foi obtido através do projeto ecologicamente correto EfficientDynamics, que utilizando varias tecnologias permite uma melhor eficiência dos veículos. Entre as tecnologias presentes no modelo estão o sistema Stop-Start, regeneração de energia na frenagens, suspensão rebaixada, câmbio manual de seis velocidades com relações mais longas e pneus de baixa resistência ao rolamento.

Fonte: AutomobileReview

Pardon us while we offer up our calm and practiced reaction to the "better hardware" chant: duh. The next flagship webOS device is looming large in the minds of all geek-oriented webOS users (after all, it’s been over a year since the Pre was unveiled), and up there with the calls for a larger screen and better battery life is the hope for a beefier processor. Perhaps something like Nvidia’s Tegra or Tegra 2 chip?

Asked about webOS, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told Laptop Magazine that he thinks “the world will want webOS” to be supported in the next iteration of his company’s processor technology, much like they first wanted Windows Mobile and then Android.

And when prompted about the mythical webOS tablet that we all want to believe HP is working on (despite the fact that they have yet to officially absorb Palm), Huang dropped the usual “I can’t comment on that line.” Except that he really wanted to comment on it, “But it sure would be an honor to work on webOS. It’s a great operating system. If you look at the first generation of webOS phones, the Palm Pre, the UI is just brilliant. It’s just too slow. So it needs a faster processor. Otherwise, it’s a great operating system.”

We’re not going to try and read between the lines here, except that Mr. Huang is clearly a man with discerning tastes when it comes to mobile operating systems. Could an Nvidia chip power the next webOS device, be it a new phone or a tablet or a toaster? Sure, there’s the possibility. And yes, HP has worked with Nvidia in the past, but there isn’t a single major computer builder that hasn’t put Nvidia graphics chips in their machines at some point in the last decade.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

• Video Share Calling for live streaming over the ultra-fast AT&T 3G network
• 3G for accelerated data speeds and simultaneous voice and data capabilities
• Audience® Voice Processor
• Dimensions: 4.01 x 2.05 x 0.86 inches
• Weight: 3.52 ounces
• Battery details: 1300 mAh
• Technology: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA*
• Frequency: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE); 850/1900/2100 MHz (UMTS/HSDPA)*
• Display: Internal: 2.2-inch TFT; External: 1.3-inch CSTN
• TTY Compatible

It may not be a smartphone, but it should survive your kids!  Any takers?

Via AT&T

AT&T and Samsung Mobile Announce Upcoming Availabilty of the Samsung Rugby(R) II

Next Generation Rugged Phone Runs on AT&T’s Push to Talk Network

Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2010

AT&T* and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the  No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.**, today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Rugby® II, the next generation Push to Talk device with a durable, military-grade design that can stand up to the harshest of elements.  Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the Rugby II will be compatible with AT&T’s High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation’s fastest 3G network when paired with expanded backhaul.

The Rugby II, available in a grey, rugged clamshell design, features improved noise suppression and an external speaker making it easier to communicate regardless of the environment. In addition, the Rugby II is also certified to military standard MIL-STD-810G to withstand dust, shock, vibration, rain, humidity, solar radiation, altitude and temperature extremes, ideal for use even in the toughest of environments.

“The Samsung Rugby II offers our customers a sturdy phone that can withstand some of the roughest environments,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “This is a no-nonsense, durable device with easy-to-use features like Push-to-Talk and a one-touch button to keep you in touch with your contacts while backed by the nation’s fastest 3G network.”

With advanced aGPS capabilities, users can stay on the right track. The Rugby II features AT&T Navigator, which offers voice-guided and visual turn-by-turn GPS driving directions with automatic reroute, full-color maps, and real-time traffic alerts, as well as AT&T Family Map, which gives families the ability to track a child’s location from a PC or cell phone and request location updates at any time. The Rugby II also includes access to aGPS applications, including Loopt, Trimble Outdoors, AllSport GPS and Where.

The Rugby II enables AT&T’s Mobile Resource Management applications, TeleNav Track™ and Xora GPS Timetrack from AT&T, and is great for transportation, distribution, construction, field service, maintenance, landscaping, and other businesses and government agencies looking to increase visibility of their field operations, monitor track location and activities of their employees, and improve responsiveness and productivity. 

In addition to a robust design, the Rugby II includes large external speakers, which allow for ease of use with AT&T’s Push to Talk service , which covers 97% of the U.S. population.  Push to Talk gives customers the ability to pull an entire work group into a wireless call from a PTT session and the ability to set one’s own status to available, unavailable, do not disturb and more.  Push to Talk is available to AT&T customers for just $5 per month on Nation Plan lines.

“Following the success of the Rugby, Samsung is introducing the Rugby II, a rugged and durable device with an enhanced external speaker and new aGPS applications,” said Omar Khan, chief strategy officer, Samsung Mobile. “This device allows a workforce to stay in touch with the push of a button and its design can withstand everyday wear and tear.”

Rugby II is equipped with one of the world’s most intelligent voice processor from Audience to enhance voice and suppress noise for clear communications nearly anywhere.  Like the human ear, the chip isolates your voice, and filters out all the unwanted background noise, for unsurpassed mobile call clarity without the noise from a busy street, loud public places, nearby conversations or even sirens going by. 

The Samsung Rugby II also includes AT&T Video Share, Mobile Video and AT&T Mobile Music to keep you entertained on and off the job. Additional features of the Rugby II included a 2.0 megapixel camera with video recording, Bluetooth® technology and a microSD™ memory card slot. The Rugby II also includes dual-band 3G connectivity and quad-band GSM technology, which allows AT&T customers to make calls in more than 220 countries and download data in more than 195.

Pricing and Availability

The Samsung Rugby II will be available on June 6 at AT&T retail locations nationwide or at http://www.att.com/wireless for $129.99 after $50 mail-in rebate.  (Pay $179.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $50 AT&T Promotion Card.  Two-year agreement required.)

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.  For more information on the Samsung Rugby II, visit www.att.com/SamsungRugbyII.

Like the camera sitting on the face of every single leaked iPhone HD hasn’t been proof enough, or like the references to video chat in the beta SDKs didn’t mean anything, now we have even more proof that there will be video chat capabilities in the upcoming iPhone HD (or whatever it will be called).

Right now, filming is underway for the new iPhone commercials (directed by Sam Mendes, of American Beauty fame), and Engadget have it on good authority that one scene will feature a mother and daughter video-chatting to each other using their next-gen iPhones. Aw, how sweet.

Of course, don’t expect any official confirmation before June 7th, but I think this one’s a pretty safe bet.

Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn with the founder of Italdesign Giugiaro, Giorgetto Giugiaro

Volkswagen Group announced today that it will take a 90.1 percent controlling stake in Italdesign Giugiaro SpA, leaving the Giugiaro family with 10 percent of the shares.

“With this shareholding in Italdesign, we are participating in one of the most renowned design and development companies with one of the richest traditions in the automobile industry,” said Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn. “Italdesign is the flagship for creative Italian automobile design and has been instrumental in shaping the face of the automobile industry worldwide. As the creator of the Golf I, Giorgetto Giugiaro laid a new foundation for Volkswagen design in the 1970s.”

Italdesign Giugiaro also helped with concepts for important models including the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

Volkswagen Golf Gen 1

Winterkorn said that with Italdesign becoming a permanent member of the Volkswagen family, the company will play an important role in the German automaker’s 2018 global growth strategy.

On a personal note for Volkswagen Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech, the executive goes from a student who spent a summer working at Italdesign Giugiaro almost 40 years ago to the owner. At the age of 37, Piech learned about design and engineering from founder Giorgetto Giugiaro (Source: Automotive News)

– By: Omar Rana

If you’re a market-watcher, then you know the Dow fell below 10,000 at its open, down 200 points as of around 10:15am. What’s driving the drop? Europe’s instability? Korea’s conflict? General fear of a double dip? Probably all of the above, and more.

As Megan McArdle explained last week, it’s always tempting to try to make a big deal out of the stock market dropping a few percent, and explain it away with a chief cause. But it’s also generally hack journalism. The stock market is hopelessly complicated, and its moving parts change direction for a variety of reasons. As a result, while single reasons for aggregate changes in a major index may be appealing due to their simplicity, they’re also generally incorrect.

The truth is that the Dow could close up a hundred points today. We’ve entered another period of instability. It’s starting to look a lot like mid-2008. If you followed the market back then, you remember the insane volatility that gripped stocks. They could be down 400 early only to end up 300 by day’s end. The next day, they’d be down 200 again.

Uncertainty drives volatility, because stock trading becomes a psychological exercise instead of a technically one. If you can’t trust the numbers you’re using to value equities, then you have to rely on how the back-and-forth swings of the headlines instead. And right now, the euro zone has created an incredible amount of instability, very reminiscent of the U.S. leading up to the financial crisis. Will Greece collapse? How about Spain? Italy? Portugal? Today, there was even a New York Times article that said Britain’s debt problems are really the greatest. Will North Korea nuke South Korea? And that doesn’t even get into the mixed signals we’re getting for the U.S. economy’s recovery.

When people ask what they should do with their stocks at a time like this, all you can really do is shrug. Uncertainty, instability, and volatility are the enemies of market, because they make it impossible to even try to understand. If the worst-case scenario happens, and a contagion strikes the entire euro zone, coupled with a war in the Koreas and a double-dip in the U.S., then the Dow will likely touch 8,000 again or worse. If everything turns out to be okay, then it will head towards 11,000 again. The problem is that no one knows. And that’s why anyone who wades into the stock market needs to be able to stomach the possibility of a big short-term loss.

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