When I took a quick trip out to Kauai recently, thanks to a great deal on airfare, I got to try a lot of great foods. Most of them, I didn’t bring home. Somehow tropical hot dogs and cinnamon kunckles seem best when they’re eaten right away. I did bring home a few things from Aunty Lilikoi, however. She isn’t a relative. “She” is a company based on Kauai that specializes in passion fruit products. I love passion fruit, so it was only natural that I tried to stop by to pick some goodies up to take home.
One of my favorites was the Passion Fruit Coconut Syrup that I bought. This delicious syrup is the very definition of tropical, with a sweet passion fruit base that is infused with coconut – and has shreds of coconut in it! I could put it in all kinds of dishes, but pancakes are a natural foil for syrup so I started with the obvious and made Passion Fruit Coconut Pancakes.
These pancakes are definitely tropical! There is passion fruit jucie in the pancake batter, as well as shredded coconut. Using coconut milk instead of regular milk will give them even more of a coconut flavor. but as they are they are light, fluffy and have a nice tropical flavor to them. Drizzling the passion fruit coconut syrup on top is what really makes them taste tropical, so if you’re a fan of these flavors, you might want to think about adding a bottle of this syrup to your wish list for your next birthday/holiday/etc.
I’m torn here. Not literally torn, as I expect to be when the robots take over and my body is used for spare parts, but morally torn. On one hand, here we have a little robot that could venture into dangerous situations via remote control and detonate bombs or flush out enemy dudes. Could save lives. On the other hand, here we have a little robot that, given the spark of strong AI, could rumble by the thousand through the wreckage of our world, checking every cranny for human insurgents. Just blast ‘em and let the EATRs clean up.
So as you can see, I can’t tell whether to cheer on our robot-loving military or cower under my bed, crying.
The Israeli roboticists who have created it (and advanced the machines’ day of ascendancy by who knows how long) call it the Pincher, and it’s really made for finding and detonating IEDs by firing tiny 8-inch-long rockets at them. The rockets, which they call pyrophoric arrows, bury themselves in the explosive and burn it away.
The robot itself is tiny (50 square inches, so probably around 7″x7″ — small enough to carry in a pack or mistake for a toy. I had a TMNT Pizza Van about that size that fired little pizzas from a launcher. I kind of wish I’d had one of these things. No! No, Devin! That’s what the machines want you to think! Be strong!
“The new Fiesta will deliver up to 40 mpg on the highway. It comes with the kind of agility and horsepower that make it a blast to drive, and it features more new-world technology than any other car of its kind – like push-button start, keyless entry and the SYNC hands-free communications and entertainment system,” said Matt VanDyke, Ford’s director of U.S. Marketing Communications. “It’s a pretty big deal, and we’re putting the media and creativity behind it to deliver that message to consumers.”
The campaign will launch with a new 60-second TV ad for the Fiesta that will debut tomorrow night during the live broadcast of “American Idol,” which airs 8 to 9 p.m. EDT on FOX.
Refresher: The 2011 Ford Fiesta is powered by a 1.6L DOHC 4-cylinder engine making 120-hp with a peak torque of 109 lb-ft. The EPA rated the 2011 Fiesta at 29/40 mpg (city/highway) when mated to a 6-speed PowerShift automatic transmission and 28/37 mpg when mated to a 5-speed manual. Pricing for the 2011 Ford Fiesta starts at $13,320.
2011 Ford Fiesta:
The New Ford Fiesta – It’s a Pretty Big Deal:
2011 Ford Fiesta:
Press Release:
2011 FORD FIESTA: ‘IT’S A PRETTY BIG DEAL’
* Ford is launching the all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta with a broad-reaching advertising campaign built around the theme, “It’s a pretty big deal”
* The new campaign shares the same nontraditional approach that defined the Fiesta Movement, an initiative that introduced the new small car to consumers through socially vibrant agents who have been driving Fiestas in monthly themed missions and relating their experiences through social media sites
* The campaign also includes a significant multicultural element to reach out to two of the largest consumer groups in the small car segment – young African Americans and Hispanics
DEARBORN, Mich., May 17, 2010 – The same type of out-of-the-box thinking that led to the groundbreaking Fiesta Movement social media initiative is reflected in a new ad campaign to launch Ford’s all-new small car, the 2011 Ford Fiesta.
“The Fiesta Movement enabled us to introduce the car to market in a whole new way,” said Matt VanDyke, Ford’s director of U.S. Marketing Communications. “We are continuing that nontraditional approach with a unique advertising campaign designed to get people’s attention by entertaining them as well as educating them about the vehicle.”
The ad campaign for the new Fiesta – which arrives in dealer showrooms this summer – includes national broadcast, print, digital and out-of-home components as well as a comprehensive multicultural marketing strategy. The entire campaign is built around the theme, “It’s a pretty big deal.”
2011 Ford Fiesta ads: A nontraditional approach
A new 60-second television ad for the Fiesta debuts tomorrow night during the live broadcast of “American Idol,” which airs 8 to 9 p.m. EDT on FOX. It opens with two people sitting in a Fiesta talking about the vehicle’s push-button start feature.
“From there, a whimsical world starts to unfold all around them, and you see the product messages brought to life in organic, over-the-top ways,” said VanDyke.
The 60-second ad also will be running in cinemas this summer, appearing on the big screen just before the movies start. One of the films expected to draw huge crowds to the theater is “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” which opens June 30.
The print ads get straight to the point with headlines like, “The Fiesta gets 40 miles per gallon. 21 hybrids do not,” and “The Fiesta has enough new-world technology to put a 50-grand car to shame.” The ads will be featured in a variety of publications – from women’s magazines like “In Style” to men’s lifestyle titles like “GQ.”
Billboards for the Fiesta also reflect an unconventional approach.
“Imagine a billboard positioned strategically above a gas station with the 40 mpg message and copy that reads, ‘Not everybody’s happy about it,’” explained VanDyke.
In addition to television commercials, print ads and billboards, the new campaign also includes extensive digital advertising, which directs consumers to the www.fordvehicles/fiesta website.
Unique webisodes combine information with entertainment
Ford is expanding the Fiesta website to include webisodes featuring agents of the Fiesta Movement proving – in their own uniqueways – why Fiesta is better than the competition. More than 500,000 people have viewed the first six webisodes since they debuted last week.
“We selected some of our most creative, funny and socially vibrant agents to help us showcase the vehicle’s class-exclusive features,” said Jonathan Beebe, Ford Digital Communications manager. “Not only do they know the vehicle inside and out, because they drove real-world miles on it with the Fiesta Movement, they also know how to make the webisodes relevant and engaging to their peers – digital or otherwise.”
For example, to illustrate the benefit of having Intelligent Access with push-button start, one of the agents decided to put the Fiesta up against the Toyota Yaris, which doesn’t even have keyless entry, and the Honda Fit, which has keyless entry but doesn’t have push-button start.
In “Dawn of the New Key Fob,” a zombie chases all three drivers through the woods. The Yaris and Fit owners don’t make it into their vehicles in time, but the Fiesta driver gets into his car and drives away before the zombie attack.
“Some of the webisodes are hilarious,” said Beebe. “We try not to take ourselves too seriously – the Fiesta is too much fun for that. The agents help us poke a little fun at ourselves and our competitors, while combining vehicle information and entertainment.”
Fiesta agent Brittani Taylor appears in a webisode titled “Fiesta vs. Lamborghini,” which pits the Fiesta against a $200,000-plus Lamborghini sports car.
“I’m an actress, so I had a lot of fun with it,” said Taylor, who amassed more than 300,000 subscribers on YouTube and 46,000 followers on Twitter during her stint as a Fiesta agent. “The Fiesta wasn’t as fast as the Lamborghini on the straightaway, but when it came to cornering and cool features like capless fuel-filler and push-button start, it was all about the Fiesta.”
There will be a total of 16 webisodes. The first set is already online. The second group will post in June.
“Our goal is to make people take a left-hand turn from their usual online browsing routine to check out how the Fiesta and its class-exclusive features can meet their driving needs,” said Beebe. “A zombie invasion might just convince them.”
2011 Ford Fiesta: Multicultural appeal
Research shows that two of the largest consumer groups in the small car segment are young African Americans and Hispanics. Ford has developed a multicultural marketing and advertising campaign designed specifically to communicate the Fiesta message to them.
To increase awareness of the Fiesta in the African American community, Ford launched a program called “Inspired by Color,” which challenged people to use their own personal style to connect with the colors and distinct features of the new Fiesta. Last month, more than 150 people turned out for a casting call at Howard University in Washington, D.C., dressed in a Fiesta-inspired way. Five finalists were chosen, and they will appear in a new television ad for the Fiesta that begins airing on the BET network June 1.
“Our goal was to create a unique program that truly embodied the spirit of Fiesta,” said Crystal Worthem, Ford Multicultural Marketing manager. “The Fiesta has an expressive, vibrant design and we wanted to tap into those style attributes in a way that was relevant to our target audience.”
In addition, radio commercials for Fiesta – produced with an urban flair – will air on 132 urban and adult contemporary stations in 78 markets throughout the country.
According to David Rodriguez, Ford Multicultural Communications manager, the small car segment has a high concentration of Hispanic buyers – the largest of any automotive segment –and many of them are bilingual.
“What’s unique about our marketing effort for Fiesta is that we’re focusing on bilingual to Spanish-dominant Hispanic consumers,” said Rodriguez. “Digital advertising will play a key role because we know that Hispanics over-index compared to average consumers on their use of the Internet.”
A combination of portal digital advertising and extensive social media outreach will direct traffic to www.readypatumundo.com (which means “ready for your world” in Spanish). The website provides a consumer-centric introduction to the Fiesta, focusing on SYNC, push-button start and the overall design of the vehicle.
“The website is unique in that the consumer can control how the words will show up in terms of being more Spanish-based or more English-based,” said Rodriguez. “The technology is a first for Ford.”
In addition to digital advertising, Ford will increase Fiesta awareness in the Hispanic community through print and broadcast advertising. The ads, which will be predominantly Spanish with some English phrasing, will run nationally with emphasis in five target markets with the highest concentration of Hispanic small car customers: Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, New York and Chicago.
Sometimes, here at PopCrunch, we can’t help but feel dissatisfied with our lot. It’s not that scrutinising the lives of celebrities isn’t a riot, that following their failure is not fun, and marvelling at their weight gain not an excellent way to pass the time; it’s that sometimes we wouldn’t mind trading in our gossiping malfeasance for a wardrobe malfunction. That is, we’re jealous. And never more so than when we see how the other half live. To console ourselves, we say the extravagant palaces of the rich and famous are tacky, distasteful, ostentatious. Here are a few of the worst. We’d hate to live like this.
Britney Spears
Here’s Britney’s pad. Disgusting isn’t it? It’s called Chateau Suenos, which translates as House of Dreams. Situated in the quiet yet star-studded neighbourhood of Calabasas, just outside Los Angeles, it’s a $10.5 million mansion housing a cinema, swimming pool and spa. It might look like a house for life, but for Britney it’s a stopgap. She just rents this dive while building her real dream house in the area.
John Travolta
John Travolta lives in an airport. At night, when no one is looking, he rides the baggage carousel for fun.
Will Smith
Will Smith allegedly suffered ‘House-Building Stress’ when building this barrack. Back in 2004, when his modest family home was but a pile of expectant rubble, he said in an interview: ‘Listen everybody; I’m into having a good, powerful, bustling American economy, but don’t build no house!’ Should have gone for a one-up two-down.
Candy Spelling
This is Candy Spelling’s home. She recently put it on the market for $150 million, making it the most expensive house in the world. Why’s she selling up? ‘As you get older, you know, it’s a lot to walk.’ We sympathize.
Shaquille O’Neal
Basketball player, actor and rapper Shaquille O’Neal has more than one gargantuan mansion to his name. Here’s the inside of one of his homes, situated on the appropriately named Star Island. Cosy.
J Lo and Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez live here. Big isn’t it? It looks like two houses; and boasting nine bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a gym, a recording studio and more, they need never see each other ever again.
Oprah
Oprah’s got a house or two. She owns a pad in New Jersey, an apartment in Chicago, an estate on Fisher Island, a house in Georgia, a ski house in Colorado, a property in Hawaii, and a home in Antigua. Then there’s the one pictured, in Montecito, California, which she calls ‘The Promised Land’. Ew.
Rod Stewart
This is Rod Stewart’s Beverly Hills behemoth. Pictures of its interior reveal it’s as yellow on the inside as it is on the outside, and that he’s got a penchant for a naked bust.
Beckingham Palace, US
This is Beckingham Palace, Beverly Hills, belonging to David and Victoria Beckham. Priced at $22 million dollars, the six-bedroom, nine-bathroom house is in a 13,000 square foot plot with ocean views: the ultimate trophy estate.
Ira Rennert
The homes on this list are but McMansions compared to Ira Rennert’s enormous digs. The self-made billionaire is as famous for his home as he is for his self-made billions. His massive waterfront compound, which is thought to be the largest house in the US, contains two bowling alleys, two tennis courts, two squash courts, game rooms, a basketball court and at least 21 bedrooms: all this for just Rennert and his family. Monstrous!
Say what you will about Alfa Romeo‘s latest 8C-derived styling direction, but we’re going to miss the angular beauty of the current Brera and its drop-top Spider sibling. But before the achingly gorgeous two-doors sail off into the sunset – never having made it to American shores – Alfa has released an updated version.
The beneficiary of the latest from Fiat Powertrain Technologies, the Brera and Spider have now been made available with the 1750 TBi and 2.0 JTDM engines. The former is a turbocharged, direct-injection gas-burning four with 1742 cubic centimeters of displacement, 197 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of torque and propelling the Brera and Spider to 62 mph in 7.7 and 7.8 seconds, respectively, and a 146 mph top end. The latter is a 2.0-liter turbo diesel with 168 horses and 265 lb-ft of torque, capable of 8.8- and 9-second sprints to 62 for the coupe and convertible en route to a 135 mph terminal velocity.
In addition to the new engines, which you can read more about in the press release after the jump, Alfa is also making the Italia Indepenent trim level – previously a special edition – available across the range, with matte titanium paint, 18-inch black alloys hiding red brake calipers and special interior trim. Have a closer look in the gallery below to see what we’re missing on the Atlantic’s Western shores.
A long time ago LG promised to deliver more than 50 Windows Phone devices. Not much came of that announcement then, so its heartening to see the company is planning to release more than one Windows Phone 7 device.
The above picture published by Handcellphone.com claims to be a new Windows Phone 7 device with a 3.8 inch AMOLED screen and 5 megapixel camera and also included QWERTY keyboard, all in a device a bit thicker than the Nexus One. it clearly also has a front-facing camera, a feature now also getting more common in USA.
Apparently the picture had been leaked by a Microsoft employee from France. The larger screen certainly makes the smartphone a lot more attractive than the earlier model shown of by Microsoft at various events.
Do our readers like the device? Let us know below.
When MassCare passed, it was supposed to lower the average cost of healthcare by getting relatively cheap young people into the system, and ending the inefficiencies of caring for the uninsured. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. The bill for the uninsured only dropped by about 40%; the young, cheap people turned out to almost all need subsidies, and worse, some of them figured out how to game the system by buying insurance, getting a bunch of expensive procedures, and then dropping the insurance again. There was a brief improvement in insurance prices for the individual market, because Massachusetts, with its community rating and guaranteed issue, had had a pretty sizable problem with adverse selection. But after a few years, insurance costs were still marching briskly upward, rates were among the highest in the country, and the system was putting heavy pressure on a budget that was already strained to the limit by the recession.
The Massachusetts governor’s answer to this problem was to
simply deny the Massachusetts insurers the right to raise their
prices. Then, when they refused to quote prices on the exchange at the
old, controlled prices, the government essentially argued that they
were a bunch of whiny liars who didn’t need all that extra money, and
commanded them to list their insurance at the old prices. As far as I
know, they never did find an actuary to sign off on the mandated
prices, but the insurers lost their hearing.
Well, now the whiny liars have upped the ante, claiming that they lost a bunch of money in the first three months of 2010,
mostly thanks to the extra money they had to reserve against the losses
they anticipate under the new rates. It will be interesting to see
whether we get another War on Accounting, where Deval Patrick accuses
the state’s biggest insurers of the dastardly use of Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles in order to embarrass his awesome government
program.
And indeed, it’s not impossible that there’s a
strategic element to this; there’s always discretion in how companies
reserve for losses. There is also always the possibility of accounting
error. But those possibilities are not unlimited, because financials
have to be signed off on by auditors who are keenly alive to the
possibility of ending up on the wrong side of a lawsuit if they wink at
obviously misleading representations. And four different companies
probably didn’t all make the same accounting error.
There’s a
depressing possibility, even a likelihood, that this is our future.
It’s hard to simultaneously expand demand, while lowering the
incentives for supply (i.e. Medicare reimbursements), without having
some pretty dramatic mismatches between the two. There’s an old adage
common in restaurants and engineering that goes “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick Two.”
Change that middle word to “Universal” and you’ve got a pretty good
summation of the problem that Massachusetts now faces–and that the
rest of us soon will.
San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies amended its IPO filing with securities regulators Friday—providing additional details about the company’s risk factors, including its lack of profitability and need to raise more capital to stay afloat.
As we reported, Fallbrook filed for its initial public offering in February. The cleantech company, which has 56 employees, has been developing a continuously variable transmission as a more energy-efficient design for bicycles, wind power turbines, electric vehicles, and other uses.
The company says it has received 168 domestic and foreign patents protecting its technology, and has submitted another 209 patents here and abroad. To finance its technology development over the past decade, Fallbrook has raised a total of $55 million from angel investors and in recent years, from NGEN Capital Partners, Robeco, a subsidiary of Rabobank Group, and other venture investors.
Among other things, the revised filing shows:
—Fallbrook lost $2.97 million in the three months ended March 31. The company said its net losses increased to $17.2 million last year from $10.56 million in 2008, and it expects to incur a loss in 2010 as well. Increased investment in commercializing its technology, along with escalating salaries and related expenses, “will make it harder for us to achieve and maintain future profitability,” the company says.
—Fallbrook says it has been expensive to raise private capital. In its amended filing, the company says: “If we are unable to raise capital from this public offering, in order to continue to expand our operations and invest in our products and manufacturing facilities, we believe we would need to raise approximately $18 million within the next twelve months through a private equity offering. We would also draw on any remaining amounts available under our existing revolving line of credit.” The company says it does not currently have other abilities to borrow.
—The company’s estimated cash burn rate is about $1.5 million a month. At the end of March, Fallbrook says it had about $5.4 million in available cash, with another $1 million left on a $3 million line of credit.
— Fallbrook said it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Chengdu Bus Co. of Chengdu, China, last month, and the company could eventually sign a deal that would provide Fallbrook’s transmission technology for the accessory drives of Chengdu buses.
NPR’s Howard Berkes and Frank Langfitt have spent weeks on the ground in southern West Virginia, the site of last month’s deadly blast at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine. And today they’re reporting that “most” of the 10 UBB miners they’ve interviewed over that span noted “continuing problems” with the ventilation system inside the mine — problems that Massey higher-ups allegedly knew about, but didn’t fix.
“They wouldn’t fix the ventilation problems,” a former supervisor and a member of mine management said. “I told them I needed more air. They threatened to fire me if I didn’t run enough coal.”
Another miner said “there was constant confusion” in the management of the air flow system.
A third miner described mine managers this way: “They don’t have a clue how to ventilate this place.”
Still, to hear those comments from guys who were working at the UBB mine when the disaster occurred provides another layer altogether — one that both federal investigators and Massey shareholders will surely want to learn more about.
A recent screenshot of Rogers webpage taken by MobileSyrup.com shows us the prices of the Acer Liquid E and the Motorola Quench with and without a new 3 year plan. The Liquid E features a Snapdragon processor underclocked to 768 MHz and will ship with Android 2.1. It will set you back just $79.99 with a new contract. Not too bad. The Quench has a MSM7200A running at 528 MHz and is stuck back on Android 1.5 with Motoblur. The Quench is a bit cheaper at only $49.99 with a new contract. I think there is no question about it, the Liquid E is a better deal here. Good to see though that we have a price.
Source: Mobile Syrup
Might We Suggest…
LG Handset Showing in Verizon inventory, is it the Aloha? Phonearena.com is reporting that they have gotten an anonymous tipster sent along the image to the left. Look closely and you will see LG VS740 with Google as being listed in their system. Of course…
As many of you might have noticed, I have been largely absent from the blog over the past few weeks. Thanks to a flu gone wild, I was forced to take a break from the Interwebs, and frankly in the process missed a lot of good stuff on which to pontificate. Oh well! Such is the nature of the beast; there will be something new to riff on soon enough.
During my time off, I had another setback: My T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700 died. It went into an endless loop of booting and re-booting, forcing me to use Google’s Nexus One phone, the online store for which is being put to rest. When the device first launched, I was among those most impressed by it.
I especially liked its screen, its fast processor and the fact that it worked well with Google apps and after using it for just 10 days, I called it the best Android phone yet. What a fool I was to jump to that conclusion. Over past few weeks I had to use it as my primary phone, and let’s just say that topping my list of things to do now that I’m feeling better is to get a new BlackBerry.
On the Nexus One, some of the most basic tasks — such as sending instant messages or typing out email — feel tedious and not at all smooth. And imagine my angst when I missed an important call because the Google calendar pop-ups prevented me from switching to the phone feature. On a case-by-case basis, these are minor things but encounter them often enough, and it’s easy to get annoyed. In fact I got so annoyed that I dug up an old T-Mobile Motorola RAZR and for the past couple of days have been using that to call folks. (How I wish and pray that Apple would sell the iPhone on a network not called AT&T.)
At the same time, I also had a chance to use the HTC Incredible, also an Android-based phone. And compared to the Nexus One, using the HTC Incredible (despite it’s overtly grandiose name) is bliss.
First of all, as a phone it’s just a rock-solid device and thanks to a great network (Verizon), is able to perform web tasks admirably. It is fast, thin and light. It has a great camera. It has a wonderful screen and it works much more smoothly than the Nexus One. And did I mention it runs on a really good wireless network, from Verizon? I wish they made one of these for T-Mobile — considering that I am a T-Mobile customer.
Nevertheless, the point of this post was to point out how much HTC has done for the Android ecosystem. With the HTC Sense, it has not only made the Android experience infinitely more appealing, it has shown the possibilities of where Google’s OS can go. (Related post: How HTC Because a Smartphone Hero.)
I, for one, enjoyed the messaging applications, the social integration efforts and most of all, how uncluttered HTC has left this Android device. In a recent post, Kevin highlighted some of the ways some of the ways he improved his Nexus One by layering the HTC Sense UI on top of it:
Android focuses more on utility while the iPhone OS is more polished and refined. Simply put: the Sense UI levels the playing field when it comes to “fit and finish.” Both the HTC apps and widgets are extremely well designed. I’m generally not a fan of most Android widgets, but HTC takes it to another level. Tapping the Home button from the main screen zooms out and shows all seven, making it quick and easy to navigate. I also love the fact that I can cut and paste text from the web far easier than the stock Android method.
Android by itself allows decent customization, but the Sense UI takes it to an entirely new level. There are six pre-loaded “scenes,” each of which is like a theme, complete with wallpaper, widgets and shortcuts relevant to the theme. Social, for example, adds more of the messaging, communications and social networking widgets like HTC’s own FriendStream for Facebook.
Kevin suggests that I should upgrade my Nexus One to HTC Sense UI, but frankly I don’t want to waste any more time on this device.
And regardless, it’s great to be back in the saddle again.
An emeritus physics professor writes me cautioning against the use of the word ‘anomaly’ since, “In many people’s mind, the word ‘anomaly’ means something unusual that is a temporary phenomenon.” He suggests “change,” which is probably better.
Certainly for those who are communicating to the general public, like NOAA and NASA, ‘anomaly’ is a confusing word as used in these charts. And that is especially true because the recent temperature trend is anything but an anomaly — it is in fact a prediction of basic climate science.
Indeed, besides the record April and record Jan-April, NOAA itself explain:
This was also the 34th consecutive April with global land and ocean temperatures above the 20th century average.
So, yes, that isn’t really an anomaly any more — unless of course you are in the anti-science crowd, in which case the whole thing is one big mysterious deviation from the norm.
As for the oceans, NOAA points out:
The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the 20th century average of 16.0°C (60.9°F) and the warmest April on record. The warmth was most pronounced in the equatorial portions of the major oceans, especially the Atlantic.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters discusses the implications in his WunderBlog:
Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic’s Main Development Region for hurricanes had their warmest April on record…. The area between 10°N and 20°N, between the coast of Africa and Central America (20°W – 80°W), is called the Main Development Region (MDR) because virtually all African waves originate in this region. These African waves account for 85% of all Atlantic major hurricanes and 60% of all named storms.
When SSTs in the MDR are much above average during hurricane season, a very active season typically results (if there is no El Niño event present.) SSTs in the Main Development Region (10°N to 20°N and 20°W to 85°W) were an eye-opening 1.46°C above average during April. This is the third straight record warm month, and the warmest anomaly measured for any month–by a remarkable 0.2°C. The previous record warmest anomalies for the Atlantic MDR were set in June 2005 and March 2010, at 1.26°C.
Figure. The departure of sea surface temperature (SST) from average for May 13, 2010. Image credit: NOAA/NESDIS.
What is the cause of the high SSTs in the MDR?
During December – February, we had the most negative AO/NAO since records began in 1950, and this caused trade winds between Africa and the Lesser Antilles Islands in the hurricane Main Development Region to slow to 1 – 2 m/s (2.2 – 4.5 mph) below average. Slower trade winds mean less mixing of the surface waters with cooler waters down deep, plus less evaporational cooling of the surface water. As a result, the ocean heated up significantly, relative to normal, over the winter. Negative AO/NAO conditions have been dominant much of this spring as well, resulting in further anomalous heating of the MDR waters.
This heating is superimposed on the very warm global SSTs we’ve been seeing over the past few decades due to global warming. Global and Northern Hemisphere SSTs were the 2nd warmest on record this past December, January, and February, the warmest on record in March, and will likely be classified as the warmest or second warmest on record for April, since NASA just classified April as the warmest April on record for the globe. We are also in the warm phase of a decades-long natural oscillation in Atlantic ocean temperatures called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). This warm phase began in 1995, and has been partially responsible for the high levels of hurricane activity we’ve seen since 1995.
What does this mean for the 2010 hurricane season?
The high April SST anomaly does not bode well for the coming hurricane season. The three past seasons with record warm April SST anomalies all had abnormally high numbers of intense hurricanes. Past hurricane seasons that had high March SST anomalies include 1969 (0.90°C anomaly), 2005 (1.19°C anomaly), and 1958 (0.97°C anomaly). These three years had 5, 7, and 5 intense hurricanes, respectively. Just two intense hurricanes occur in an average year. The total averaged activity for the three seasons was 15 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and 6 intense hurricanes (an average hurricane season has 10, 6, and 2.) Both 1958 and 2005 saw neutral El Niño conditions, while 1969 had a weak El Niño.
The SSTs are already as warm as we normally see in July between Africa and the Caribbean, and we have a very July-like tropical wave approaching the Lesser Antilles Islands this weekend. However, wind shear is still seasonably high, and the tropical waves coming off of Africa are still too far south to have much of a chance of developing. The GFS model is indicating that shear will start to drop over the Caribbean the last week of May, so we may have to be on the watch for tropical storms forming in the Caribbean then.
The anti-science crowd have been cheering the death of El Niño, but in fact it it quite bad news for those in hurricane alley, including the long-suffering Gulf Coast.
Protein is the key and is stored in a gland in the spider’s body, says researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It is divided into three parts, the first of which is identified as NT that makes it maintain the liquid state under neutral pH. The protein passes through a canal where the substance becomes more acidic (ph 6). NT facilitates the spider to convert and rapidly spin threads of silk.
“We have seen how the first part of the spider silk protein has a very special and important function. It quite simply controls when the protein is to be converted into gossamer,” explained My Hedhammar.
Researchers have been attempting to artificially replicate spider silk, one of the strongest elastic materials. It offers great potential in medical technology.
This development can be read in the journal Nature with authors Glareh Askarieh, My Hedhammar, Kerstin Nordling, Anna Rising, Jan Johansson, and Stefan D. Knight.
We already knew Verizon was working on Android tablets, but we had no idea of the manufactures or release dates until today. According to Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam, customers should expect that the first tablets will be Android devices from contenders including Motorola, Samsung and LG. These Android tablets will go head to head with Apple’s iPad and Verizon expects to sell many of these gadgets in the forth quarter.
No specs have been revealed, but look for manufacturers to utilize next-generation processors running Android 2.2 or greater. Most tablets will feature ARM-based cores, like the NVIDIA Tegra 2, but keep an eye out for some Intel-powered devices as well.
In addition to tablets, Verizon also revealed they will have up to five 4G LTE handsets by May 2011. McAdam said the front-runners to provide LTE handsets included Motorola, HTC, LG and RIM. Verizon has been testing their LTE network and expects to cover 30 markets with 100 million people in 2010.
Rima Fakih swimsuit attire has been the talk of the town. Swimsuit, swimsuit, and swimsuit… that made Rima Fakih more gorgeous and leading to be the crowned Miss USA 2010 winner. What made Rima Fakih swimsuit more gorgeous? Lets see how the Miss USA 2010 winner made herself more popular through that swimsuit thing. Internet search engines have been filled by searches for Rima Fakih Swimsuit or Miss USA 2010 winner swimsuit. One of the possible reasons could be Rima Fakih being a Lebanese-American, and also her family is known as a Shiite Muslim. Muslim women are being forbidden from making poses such as wearing swimsuit which are deemed to be haram to Islam.
However, Miss USA 2010 winner-Rima Fakih says though they are Shiite Muslims her family celebrates elements of both the Muslim and Christian faiths. So Rima Fakih Swimsuit attire or shall we say the Miss USA 2010 winner’s swimsuit attire should not be a big deal.
Miss USA 2010 winner-Rimah Fakih swimsuit attire looks perhaps the reasons why she deserves to be crowned as the fairest of the 49 contenders from 49 states of the United States.
There are still some serious questions about the legality of the police’s decision to search the home of Gizmodo reporter Jason Chen and to seize his computers as part of their investigation of the iPhone prototype story. However, with the unsealing of the search warrant, some are noticing some oddities. Reader johnjac highlights that the police defense of the need for the search warrant claims that Jason “created copies of the iPhone prototype in the form of digital images and video.” While it may just be either a misstatement or an awkward use of the word, it does seem like a strange description of what happened, designed to make the judge think that the “risk” was much greater than it actually was. If there were actual “copies” of the device being made, that might be an issue. But photographing or videotaping a device is hardly making copies. But, of course, in an age where many in the world are trying to falsely equate “copies” with “theft,” suddenly the idea that Jason was able to “copy” the iPhone prototype via the magic of a camera makes his actions seem that much more nefarious than they really were.
Tom Foley of Greenwich – who is leading the Republican race for governor in the polls – announced Monday that he will be arriving at Saturday’s state party convention without a running mate.
Instead, he said he would serve with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton or whomever wins the Republican primary for lieutenant governor on August 10.
“Let the Republican primary voters decide,” Foley said in an interview Monday. “I don’t want to be cutting deals and short-circuiting the process. … Let the primary voters decide and not the gubernatorial candidate.”
Boughton was introduced Monday as Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele’s running mate as they pledged their support to each other. Foley, though, said he would serve with the 46-year-old Boughton if they both win their respective primary races this summer.
“Mark Boughton is well qualified to be lieutenant governor,” Foley said.
If he wins the primary and eventually runs with Boughton in the general election in the fall, Foley said, “I don’t want it to look like he wasn’t my choice.”
Foley said he would also serve with Lisa Wilson-Foley of Simsbury if she wins the lieutenant governor’s primary – even though “I don’t know a whole lot about her.”
After establishing a detailed vetting process six weeks ago, Foley’s campaign contacted a number of Republicans recently and asked them if they would be interested in becoming lieutenant governor. But Foley emphasized that none of them had been offered the job. He eventually decided that the primary voters should decide.
Foley said there is a major difference between being asked if you are interested in a particular position and then actually being offered the job.
Two of those reportedly on Foley’s list – state Rep. Pam Z. Sawyer of Bolton and state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi of Somers – both showed up Monday at the state Capitol press conference where Fedele introduced Boughton as his running mate.
“I endorsed Fedele before Foley got into the campaign,” Sawyer told Capitol Watch. “I’m sure he’s picking someone else.”
Having a running mate can prove awkward because votes are cast separately for each office. In the 2006 Democratic primary, for example, Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy lost in the governor’s primary, but his running mate, Mary Glassman of Simsbury, won her race for lieutenant governor with 57 percent of the vote over West Hartford’s Scott Slifka. Glassman then joined forces in the general election with New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, who had defeated Malloy.
Some insiders were stunned by Foley’s announcement about going solo.
“It’s pretty remarkable that a guy with $4 million cannot get a running mate going into the convention,” one longtime insider said. “I can’t figure out a reason why he would go to the convention without a running mate – strategically.”
It is a complex process how we think, understand, and solve problems day by day, although it seems everything happens in a blink of an eye. We figure out what we do everyday and there are ways we choose to do them differently than what we are accustomed to do. New ideas surface and more often they are achieved by trial and error.
These sudden insights intrigued scientists Dr. Jeremy K. Seamans from the University of British Columbia and Dr. Daniel Durstewitz from the Central Institute of Mental Health as to its origin in the brain, where and how do they start – the so called neural dynamics from familiarity to novelty. Familiarity suggests what we commonly do; novelty applies to new strategies in doing things.
Neurons located in the medial frontal cortex were found to be responsible for the “a-ha moments” in the brain. They form networks corresponding to familiar and novel rules. They abruptly set new patterns which translate to a shift in behavior.
Team BMW Motorsport took victory at the 2010 24-hour race at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife on Sunday, five years since the manufacturer’s last victory.
The no. 25 BMW M3 GT2 claimed BMW’s 19th victory at the endurance classic, which was piloted by with Jorg Muller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Pedro Lamy (PT) at the wheel. All three helped the M3 GT2 cross the finish line first after 154 laps.
“During my last stint we lost fourth gear,” said Muller. “The problem gradually got worse. The main priority was to be careful and keep the car in the race. Everything worked out superbly in the end. The entire team has worked extremely hard over the last few months. This victory belongs to them. We drove consistent laps over the entire distance. If you can achieve that at a 24-hour race, you normally find yourself up at the front. For us today, it was even enough to finish first.”
At first it seemed like the race would be won by the Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid after it led the race through the night. However, the vehicle faced technical problem a few hours from the end.
The Aston Martin Rapide race car finished second in its class.
Can’t wait until you get home to add some novelty effects to your photographs? Have I got a product for you! These Photo Paddles are essentially just bits of transparent plastic with props mounted in them — lips, sunglasses, a nice big mustache, that sort of thing. Cheesy, yes, but possibly entertaining.
http://www.photopaddles.com/index.php
They’ve actually been around for quite a while (they were created for a design show last year) but they’re now available for purchase more easily than by . $6 each seems a bit steep (you could probably make your own for far less), and I can’t figure out how to get any of the sunglasses ones (“Howdy”?), but hey. It’s art, it’s not supposed to make sense.
Keep in mind these won’t work if you have any depth of field at all. The creator instructs you to use them with your camera phone, which seems like sound advice, though if you have a fancy autofocus camera phone, you might have trouble.
At the same time, I also had a chance to use the HTC Incredible, also an Android-based phone. And compared to the Nexus One, using the HTC Incredible (despite it’s overtly grandiose name) is bliss.
Protein is the key and is stored in a gland in the spider’s body, says researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It is divided into three parts, the first of which is identified as NT that makes it maintain the liquid state under neutral pH. The protein passes through a canal where the substance becomes more acidic (ph 6). NT facilitates the spider to convert and rapidly spin threads of silk.
