Category: News

A lot of us spend a good part of our income on electronics, those little devices that help us communicate, entertain ourselves and are ever handy, making our lives easier. But these little devices need to be charged up too. So, we end up with a box-full of different chargers, to power them up, which also means, an increased usage of electricity form the grid.

Well, you don’t need to rely on the grid anymore to power up your devices, the sun’s ready to help using this solar powered battery charger. It also comes packed with 29 different adapters, ready for use. The 20,000mAh battery can power up your laptop, with 19 adapters dedicated to different laptop types, using the sun. 14 adapters for cameras, phones and the PSP keep your devices charged up. Using solar power, charging time extends to 8 to 10 hours, while an AC adapter takes just 3 hours. Hook up you devices to this charger for just $148.

[Akihabaranews]

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

CNN
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

“I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering…”

WASHINGTON — Bo, the Portuguese water dog, was a priceless addition to the first family, a gift from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and his wife, Victoria. Bo’s value, according to the Obama’s latest financial disclosure form, released on Monday, was $1,600.

Bo’s worth, the White House said, was determined by his breeder. Much of the financial picture of President Obama and first lady Michelle is known from their tax returns and prior disclosure statements. Obama signed his new statement on Friday, with details from January-December 2009. Among them:

• Last year, Obama recast his book deal with Crown Publishing; the original agreement dates to December 2004, after he was elected senator from Illinois but before he took office.

Under the new arrangement, Obama will not owe his publisher a nonfiction book — or any future works — while he is president. Obama’s original deal called for him to write two nonfiction books and a children’s book. Obama delivered one of the books, The Audacity of Hope.

• Also last year, Obama agreed to a deal with Crown in which one of its divisions, Random House Books, will published an edition of his memoir, Dreams From My Father, suitable for middle-grade or young adult readers. In 2009, Obama received a $225,000 payment, part of a previously disclosed $500,000 advance.

This youth book was proposed in 2008. Last year, Obama received royalties of more than $1 million for each of his best-selling books.

• The Obamas still keep a checking account at Chicago-based Northern Trust, though less than $1,000 was in it.

• At retirement, Obama will be able to draw a pension from his days as an Illinois state senator because he paid into the plan when he served.

• In 2009, Michelle Obama received a payment of an unknown amount from the University of Chicago Hospitals, her final deferred compensation distribution. She is not obliged to disclose her financial information.

The popular content-management system Joomla is getting ready for a big update. The Joomla 1.6 Beta has been released bringing with it a number of new features and plenty of smaller updates. Developers can get started testing the upcoming release, but the update is not intended for stable production environments.

“The release of Joomla 1.6 will raise … (read more)

Content: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Demo
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox live regions
Dash Text: Lead your team to glory with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11. Fight for honor, fight for country in the all-new Ryder Cup Challenge on the spectacular Twenty Ten Course at The Celtic Manor Resort, home to the 2010 Ryder Cup. Create your own team and take on others in 12 vs 12 online team play. Strategize and focus your game as you feel the intensity of the PGA TOUR season and explore the all new True Aim mode as you play from the perspective of a real-life pro.

 

Add the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Demo to your Xbox 306 download queue

 

Like the demo? Purchase the full game.

Demi Moore’s got a story to tell — and she hopes to do it on the pages of an upcoming memoir.

On Monday, Moore’s agent, Luke Janklow, confirmed that the Ghost actress is working on her autobiography and has been meeting with publishers in New York City in hopes of selling the effort for public consumption.

Content: The Force Unleashed
Price: Check pricing for your region
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Australia, Japan, New Zealand
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed! Take on the role of Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” in a new chapter of the saga set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Unleash over-the-top Force powers and devastating attack combos on enemies with unique behaviors and reactions every single time you play. Metal bends like metal, wood splinters like wood, and glass shatters like glass as you unleash the Force like never before. Scour the galaxy and defeat Jedi Masters on familiar worlds, including Cloud City, and on strange new worlds, such as the junk planet Raxus Prime. Destroy all who stand in your way in your ultimate quest to do Dart

 

Purchase The Force Unleashed and add it do your Xbox 360 download queue

 

Content: Top Spin 3
Price: Check pricing for your region
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan, Korea
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". TOP SPIN 3 delivers you the most immersive and intense tennis gaming experience on next generation consoles. Real animations and visuals for 20 top pro players to face and play with, real challenge for your own created player each 15 days on Xbox LIVE with the new World-Tour mode, and real tennis brought to you anytime on the court with the very best tennis gameplay to be released this year. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

 

Purchase Top Spin 3 and add it do your Xbox 360 download queue

 

Content: Too Human
Price: Check pricing for your region

Availability: Now available in Japan
Dash Text: Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". As the cybernetic god Baldur, players are thrust into the midst of an ongoing battle that threatens the existence of mankind. An ancient machine presence has forced the hand of the gods, and now Baldur is charged with defending humanity from an onslaught of monstrous war machines bent on the eradication of human life. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

 

Purchase Too Human and add it do your Xbox 360 download queue

Materials: Akrum base cabinets (two 30″ with large drawers, two 18″ with cabinets), two lengths of Langan countertop (96″ and 49″)

Description: As a photographer, designer and artist, I was in need of a desk solution that would accommodate all my computer/camera equipment and peripherals, plus tons of storage for materials and supplies, and with extra room on top to spare so that it could actually be used as a work/craft surface.

While I am lucky to be blessed with the space for an 11-foot desk, sadly no such product seemed to exist. I headed to the Ikea kitchen section for answers. 4 Akrum base cabinets and 2 lengths of Langan wood countertop solved the problem. The cabinets are designed to sit on legs (keeping them flat on the ground would mean the bottom drawers and cabinets would scrape against the floor), but to avoid extra height I decided to forego the legs and instead placed a few pieces of 1/2″ plywood underneath to lift them just enough.

I needed a 132″ top, and decided to create it out of two lengths of the Langan. The pieces were cut, sanded, stained, and waxed; with the excess used along with the set of Capita stainless steel legs to make a shelf. A hole was cut in one of the pieces to allow cords to pass through.

Even without the cabinets sitting on legs the desk is still several inches taller than normal desk height (32″ instead of 28-29″) but an adjustable-height chair solved the problem.

Since the drawer and cabinet faces are not pre-drilled, I was able to choose interesting hardware from another source for the pulls and handles (library card catalog pulls, which I filled with bits from vintage NYC street maps).

~ Steph Goralnick, Brooklyn, NY

Mutations are as you know a double-edged sword. On the one hand mutations are the stuff of evolution; neutral changes on the molecular or phenotypic level are the result of from mutations, as are changes which enhance fitness and so are driven to fixation by positive selection. On the other hand mutations also tend to cause problems. In fact, mutations which are deleterious far outnumber those which are positive. It is much easier to break complex systems which are near a fitness optimum than it is to improve upon them through random chance. In fact a Fisherian geometric analogy of the affect of genes on fitness implies that once a genetic configuration nears an optimum mutations of larger effect have a tendency to decrease fitness. Sometimes environments and selection pressures change radically, and large effect mutations may become needful. But despite their short term necessity these mutations still cause major problems because they disrupt many phenotypes due to pleiotropy.

But much of the playing out of evolutionary dynamics is not so dramatic. Instead of very costly mutations for good or ill, most mutations may be of only minimal negative effect, especially if they are masked because of recessive expression patterns. That is, only when two copies of the mutation are present does all hell break loose. And yet even mutations which exhibit recessive expression tend to generate some drag on the fitness of heterozygotes. And if you sum small values together you can obtain a larger value. This gentle rain of small negative effect mutations can be balanced by natural selection, which weeds does not smile upon less fit individuals who have a higher mutational load. Presumably those with “good genes,” fewer deleterious mutations, will have more offspring than those with “bad genes.” Because mutations accrue from one generation to the next, and, there is sampling variance of deleterious alleles, a certain set of offspring will always be gifted with fewer deleterious mutations than their siblings. This is a genetics of chance. And so the mutation-selection balance is maintained over time, the latter rising to the fore if the former comes to greater prominence.

The above has been a set of logic inferences from premises. Evolution is about the logic of life’s process, but as a natural science its beauty is that it is testable through empirical means. A short report in Science explores mutational load and fitness, and connects it with the ever popular topic of sexual selection, Additive Genetic Breeding Values Correlate with the Load of Partially Deleterious Mutations:

The mutation-selection–balance model predicts most additive genetic variation to arise from numerous mildly deleterious mutations of small effect. Correspondingly, “good genes” models of sexual selection and recent models for the evolution of sex are built on the assumption that mutational loads and breeding values for fitness-related traits are correlated. In support of this concept, inbreeding depression was negatively genetically correlated with breeding values for traits under natural and sexual selection in the weevil Callosobruchus maculatus. The correlations were stronger in males and strongest for condition. These results confirm the role of existing, partially recessive mutations in maintaining additive genetic variation in outbred populations, reveal the nature of good genes under sexual selection, and show how sexual selection can offset the cost of sex.

Additive genetic variance just refers to the variation of genes which affect the phenotype by independent and usually small effects which sum together to produce the range of variation of the trait. Imagine for example that the range of variation in height within the population was 10 inches, and that there were 10 genes which varied, and that each gene exhibited co-dominance. One could construct a model where every gene pair could add 0, 0.5 or 1 inch to the height independently, so that the maximum height could be constructed by adding 10 inches to the baseline and 1 inch per locus, and the minimum height by adding no inches to the baseline when each locus is homozygous for null alleles.

Mutations can be conceived of in the same manner, with each mutation being a new variant which changes trait value. Even if most of the impact of a mutation is masked there is a small effect in the heterozygote state, and this may serve as a fitness drag. The range in mutational load can then naturally be analogized to additive genetic variance, in this case the trait under consideration ultimately being fitness, mediated through life history and morphological phenotypes.

In this report they focused primarily on the weevil’s ability to obtain resources and transform those resources into size, which correlates with greater sexual access for males and fecundity for females (ergo, greater fitness). They bred various outbred and inbred lineages across families of these weevils, because these sorts of crosses gauge the impact of masked deleterious alleles, which will manifest in homozygote state more often between related pairs who share mutations than unrelated ones. They found a correlation of -0.24 between inbreeding and breeding value; in other words the more inbred the pair the fewer offspring. The impact of these recessively expressed alleles is mitigated in heterozygous individuals, but because of the non-trivial impact the number of these alleles within an individual will determine its fitness all things equal.

Interestingly when background variables were controlled males tended to show the greatest fitness drag due to inbreeding depression. This would comport with models of sexual selection where males justify their expense (because they can not bear offspring) within the population by serving as the perishable dumping grounds of bad genes. In particular in a polygynous population a few healthy males with good genes could give rise to most of the next generation, and so providing the balance of selection to the background mutational rate.

Of course mating patterns vary between taxa. The more reproductive skew there is, in particular for males, the more recourse selection has every generation to dump deleterious alleles via selection. In contrast monogamous populations will have less power to expunge mutations in this fashion because there is more genetic equality across males, the bad will reproduce along with the good, more or less. Therefore a breeding experiment of weevils may have more limited insight than these authors may wish to admit. Geoffrey Miller’s The Mating Mind attempted to take the insights of sexual selection and develop a model of human evolutionary history, but it does not seem that this theory has swept all before it. Only time will tell, but until then more breeding experiments can’t help but clarify where theory goes wrong or right.

Citation: Tomkins, J., Penrose, M., Greeff, J., & LeBas, N. (2010). Additive Genetic Breeding Values Correlate with the Load of Partially Deleterious Mutations Science, 328 (5980), 892-894 DOI: 10.1126/science.1188013

The skies above us go greener by the day as the aviation industry constantly upgrades to cleaner and more eco-friendly and environment-friendly means to have its passengers flying. The guys at MIT have come up with designs for a green aircraft, extremely eco-friendly, taken that it consumes 70% less fuel than the planes above today.

The MIT-led team, with a $2.1 million NASA grant, came up with the N+3 airplane. Why this confusing name? it simply states that the plane is three generations ahead of the ones we have today. The team has designed two aircrafts, a 180-passenger D “double bubble” series, which will push the good old Boeing 737 out of the skies, and the 350-passenger H “hybrid wing body” series, that will outdate the Boeing 777. These planes will be 10 percent slower though, but that makes up for the loading and unloading time taken. By 2035, we should have some of these taking off our international airports.

[Cnet]

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Tania Branigan
London Guardian
May 18, 2010

South Korean investigators have found “decisive evidence” that a North Korean torpedo sank one of its naval ships, a Seoul news agency claimed today, citing an unnamed senior military official.

The inquiry team will publish its report on the causes of the sinking in March, which claimed the lives of 46 sailors, on Thursday. South Korea’s defence minister said last month it was “likely” that a torpedo was to blame, but added that several possibilities were under review.

Today Yonhap news agency said that experts had found traces of explosives recovered from the wreckage of the 1,200-tonne Cheonan were identical to the torpedoes used by North Korea.

Pyongyang’s state media reported yesterday that senior official Yang Hyong-sop had repeated the country’s denial of any involvement, insisting: “We will not tolerate the confrontations and warmongering schemes of the puppet regime of South Korea.”

Full article here

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_______________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 17, 2010

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR

TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2010

In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and the Economic Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.

The President will later travel to Youngstown, Ohio. The arrival at Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station is open press. The President will tour the facilities of V&M Star. There will be travel pool coverage of the tour. The President will then deliver remarks on jobs and the economy to workers. The President’s remarks are open press.

The President will return to Washington, DC in the afternoon.

Later, the President will meet with Jewish Members of the Democratic Caucuses in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. This meeting is closed press.

Also tomorrow, Solicitor General Elena Kagan will travel to Capitol Hill to meet separately with Senator Whitehouse, Senator Cornyn, Senator Murray, Senator Franken, Senator Graham, and Senator Stabenow.

In-Town Travel Pool

Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg

Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP

TV Corr & Crew: CNN

Print: Newsday

Radio: ABC

Out-of-Town Travel Pool

Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg

Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP

TV Corr & Crew: CNN

Print: AFP

Radio: FOX

EDT

9:30AM In-Town Travel Pool Call Time

10:00AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

Oval Office

Closed Press

10:30AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Economic Daily Briefing

Oval Office

Closed Press

11:20AM THE PRESIDENT departs the White House en route Andrews Air Force Base

In-Town Travel Pool Coverage (Gather Time 11:00AM – North Doors of the Palm Room)

11:50AM THE PRESIDENT departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Youngstown, Ohio

Out-of-Town Travel Pool (Call Time 10:30AM – Virginia Gate, Andrews Air Force Base)

12:50PM THE PRESIDENT arrives in Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station

Open Press

1:20PM THE PRESIDENT tours the facilities of V&M Star

Youngstown, Ohio

Travel Pool Coverage

1:45PM THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks on jobs and the economy to workers

V&M Star

Open Press

3:20PM THE PRESIDENT departs Youngstown, Ohio en route Andrews Air Force Base

Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station

Open Press

4:25PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at Andrews Air Force Base

Out-of-Town Travel Pool

4:55PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at the White House

In-Town Travel Pool Coverage (Gather Time 2:45PM – Stakeout Location)

5:15PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Jewish Members of the Democratic Caucuses

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Closed Press

Briefing Schedule

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton will gaggle aboard Air Force One

##

Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

Jenny Hope and Steve Doughty
UK Daily Mail
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Parents of children under five are to get home checks to ensure they are keeping their youngsters safe.

Inspectors will check whether families have installed smoke alarms, stair gates, locks on medicine cupboards, windows and ovens, and fitted temperature controls to stop bath water getting too hot.

Guidelines for inspections have been drawn up on the instructions of the Department of Health in a bid to prevent injuries among under-15s in the home.

More than two million children visit casualty departments with such injuries each year, says the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) which has developed the guidelines.

In 2008, 208 under-15s in England and Wales died as a result.

Full article here

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Call of Duty: Space Warfare? Don’t laugh too hard. Based on some recent trademark filings by Activision, we might actually see that game in the future.

 

Amazon just announced that an Android Kindle application will be available this summer. The Kindle app (which is currently available for the iPhone & Blackberry) gives users access to over 540,000 Kindle e-books (with a built-in store) and is a wonderful e-book platform for those who don’t own a Kindle or the Android-powered Nook. What’s cool about the Kindle app is that it syncs your reading across multiple platforms, so you can pick up right where you left off no matter what device you’re using. The Kindle app for Android will be free but the books do cost money, if you want to learn more about it, head over to Amazon. Any Kindle fans excited for Kindle on Android? [amazon]

The iconic red London double-decker buses are all set to go green, and this doesn’t mean they will shed their red skins. Their hearts and minds will turn green. The Routemaster is being brought back to life by London Mayor Boris Johnson, but will not drink those gallons of diesel anymore. Instead, these buses will use clean green technology, hybrid engines instead.

These buses will cut emissions and will regain their status as London’s pride. Each costing $420,000, the all new Routemaster will have a 15% better fuel efficiency than the hybrids around today, and a sweet 40% more than the diesel powered ones. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the new Routemaster will have three doors, two staircases, one of which boasts a view outside with its windows. The good old Routemaster, burning asphalt since 1954 gets its well deserved makeover, green and clean.

[Fastcompany]

Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 18, 2010

David Hammer, the death row inmate who authored two books on the Oklahoma City bombing, was locked down by prison officials following his interview last week on the Alex Jones Show.

Margaret Roberts, a journalist who wrote the preface to Hammer’s 2004 book Secrets Worth Dying For: Timothy James McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, contacted Alex Jones today.

“David Hammer has been locked down by prison officials, who are investigating alleged security violations relating to his interview with Alex,” writes Roberts. “David believes these actions represent the federal government’s effort to silence him for reopening the Oklahoma City Bombing case. In the email, he reports on an ominous incident over the weekend in which prison officials tried to take him out of his cell for an unscheduled ‘medical visit.’ Hammer suspects he never would have returned from said visit. He refused to go.”

A number of people connected to the Oklahoma City bombing have mysteriously died, including Oklahoma City police officers, Terrance Yeakey, Gordon Martin and Ken Griffin, a number of Oklahoma City firefighters, Dr. H. Don Chumley, G.S.A. employee Mike Loudenslager and others.

On April 20, Alex Jones talked with Jane Graham, a ninth floor survivor of the Murrah federal building bombing. Graham spotted Timothy McVeigh at the building on several occasions prior to the bombing. Graham also witnessed mysterious men inside the Murrah building and in the parking garage. “I am utterly convinced the ATF and the FBI are involved in the bombing of that building,” she told Red Dirt Reporter.

During the May 14 telephone interview from death row at the Terre Haute prison in Indiana, Hammer provided details on his relationship with Timothy McVeigh and McVeigh’s account of government involvement in his recruitment and perpetration of the bombing.

“This is extraordinary human drama: a prisoner defying the federal government, which holds his life in its hands, over the right to tell the truth about one of the darkest days in American history,” Roberts continues.

She says the interview with Alex Jones created significant activity on the “Deadly Secrets” website and renewed interest in Hammer’s revelations.

See the entire interview with Hammer here.

She includes the following email sent to her by David Hammer:

This email was marked 3:55PM May 17, 2010 through the computer system at USP Terre Haute

Subject: Get the word out

Well it’s official yours truly is in the shit again! I was informed at 1:00 P.M. today that I am officially under investigation for posing a threat to the security of the institution all because of the Radio Interview I did with Alex Jones on Friday, May 14, 2010. For those of you who haven’t heard the interview it’s on Facebook, and several other places on the web. I’m told by those who have immediate control over me that my legal calls to my attorneys […] have been suspended. I have no doubt that my social calls and e-mail access will be terminated soon as well.

It appears as if the federal government is intent on trying to keep me quiet about the Oklahoma City Bombing. I’m afraid that they may be planning to try and shut me up for good. Early in the a.m. shortly after midnight (May 17, 2010) the unit officer came by my cell to inform me that I was going to be going on a medical trip and to refrain from eating or drinking. Since I’m not scheduled for any such trip I respectfully declined to go on any such trip. It would be an easy thing for some guard to say I attempted to escape after he had shot me. No, I’m not paranoid, and those of you who know me well know this to be true. I don’t however put anything past some people within the Department of Justice and other governmental agencies.

I’m told that I am going to be transferred to an isolation cell here on the unit. I don’t know for certain as no written or official word has been given to me yet. What I know comes from the officers working the unit. About five minutes ago, my Counselor, John Edwards brought me some legal mail and when I ask him if this was all because of the Alex Jones Interview, he said “I shouldn’t have to tell you this.” When I explained to him that according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit’s en banc [a French term meaning “on a bench” used to refer to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will hear the case] opinion, I am allowed to do telephone interviews and I’m allowed to conduct conference calls with my attorneys, Mr. Edwards stated “You’ll have to take that up with someone above my pay grade.” Well, so far I’ve not seen anyone else in any position of authority.

I attempted to place several telephone calls on the inmate telephone line to alert y’all to my situation, but wasn’t able to get the calls to go through. Kept getting a recording saying you have reached mail box——— I’ve not yet been told if this is the Bureau of Prisons intercepting the calls or what. Usually they are only allowed to take such action after disciplinary action has been litigated in the institutional system.

I want to get the word out to Alex Jones, Scott Horton, and online via all avenues. I can’t blog if they take away my e-mail access, so I need those of you in a position to do so to do it for me. I encourage Warden Helen J. Marberry’s e-mail address and telephone number be placed online. The more people who protest what is happening the better. Those of you in a position to do Alex Jones show and to cover this situation the better. There is still a First Amendment in this country and while prison officials may be able to stop me from speaking out, they can’t stop y’all.

I want to send this on now in hopes that it will reach you all before they stop my e-mails from going out.

Just so everyone knows, I am not planning to kill myself or do anything else stupid. If I end up dead it’s for speaking the truth and nothing more.

In Solidarity,

David Paul Hammer
Federal Death Row