In the May 13 issue of this newspaper, it was printed that Acer was planning to debut a Chrome OS-based device in Taipei during June of this year. Acer now states that it has “no short term plans” regarding Chrome OS, despite having previously said that it would be the first to market with a Chrome OS device. We regret the error.
Hitchhiking women’s hair color. “To test the effect of women’s hair color on the frequency of offering help, male (n = 1,508) and female (n = 892) French motorists were tested in a hitchhiking situation. Five 20- to 22- yr.-old female confederates wore a wig with blonde, brown, or black hair. Each confederate was instructed to stand by the side of a road frequented by hitchhikers and hold out her thumb to catch a ride. Blonde hair, compared with brown hair or black hair, was associated with a small but significantly larger number of male drivers who stopped to offer a ride (18 vs 14%). No difference was found for those with brown and black hair (14 and 13%, respectively). No effect of hair color was found for female drivers who stopped. The greater attractiveness associated with blonde hair for women appears to explain these data.” Photo: Wikimedia commons/Roger McLassus Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Bust size and hitchhiking: a field study.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Women’s bust size and men’s courtship solicitation.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Eye Tracking of Men’s Preferences for Female Breast Size and Areola Pigmentation. WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!
Sure, with prices ranging from $199 to $349, these are pretty expensive iPhone stands. But what else would go so well with her elephant figurine collection? [CalypsoCrystal via CrunchGear] More »
What’s better than one Android tablet on Verizon? How about tablet(s). Big Red CEO Lowell McAdam said as much over the weekend at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York. But before we get to that, let’s talk LTE — Verizon’s 4G network that it expects to have ready to rock in the first half of next year. McAdam said three to five LTE-capable phones will be ready by May 2011 (at least one of those has to be Android, right?), with Motorola, HTC, LG and RIM among the manufacturers.
Then there are the tablets. Yes, McAdam said "Android tablets," as in more than one, and Motorola, LG and Samsung were named as the birthers, which would launch late this year as 3G devices but would be upgradeable to LTE later on, most likely. [Reuters] Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is doing his part to rally excitement for Android phones and tablets. Big Red’s boss was recently at the Reuters Global Technology Summit where he divulged a few goodies. What kind of goodies? How about Motorola, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics working on tablets that run off of Android? Tablets due as early as the second half of this year.
He also went on to say that LTE-capable handsets from Motorola, HTC, and LG will be arriving between now and this time next year. The carrier expects to cover 25-30 markets later this year when they turn on the their LTE network.
These forthcoming phones and tablets will run on Verizon’s current CDMA network for the time being. Down the road, customers will be able to upgrade them so that they are compatible with the LTE network.
Fun fact: McAdam says the new network will be fast enough to download full HD movies in under a minute.
The #1 selling snore reduction pillow in America. Designed by a doctor, the snore pillow gently lifts your chin off your chest and opens the airways thus reducing or eliminating snoring while encouraging healthier & more efficient breathing. In addition, the Snore No More will also encourage better sleeping posture. Includes zip off cover. Fits into any standard pillow case.
Albert Einstein: Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind. And the two met halfway.
Buddhist monk Dalai Lama challenged Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to explore man’s capacity for good and happiness, and the latter obliged.
Davidson has been studying how Buddhism practices affect mental health and a center dedicated for such endeavor has been established at the said university – the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, cites the Associated Press. It was found out that meditation triggers feelings of compassion, kindness, and empathy. He will be joining Dalai Lama in his quest for the causes of positive qualities in people the Buddhist way and incorporating it with western science.
This scientific venture may have been a breakthrough in bridging the gap between faith and science; however, both Davidson and Dalai Lama met criticism from fellow researchers. Nevertheless, it appears that both of them esteemed each other and the research will push through.
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Update: Or not! My understanding of this amendment was based on this op-ed on Sen. Udall’s website. Sadly, it looks like the lobbyists got to it before vote. Shortly after posting, I received an e-mail from a Udall spokesperson saying:
I did want to make sure you had the most updated language. The amendment actually gives consumers free access to their credit score if it is used against them in a financial transaction or adverse hiring decision. Although Senator Udall also continues to support language that would give consumers a free credit score with their credit report, that’s not what the amendment would do. However, this updated version actually reaches far more people, so it’s terrific news for consumers!
This is still better than past precedent, but also very disappointing. On some level, every credit decision is more adverse than it could be, since the terms could almost always be more beneficial to the consumer. But this now only applies if credit is denied or results in worse terms than anticipated. In any case, here’s the original post, much of which is now a wish instead of reality:
Soon, you may be able to get your credit scores, for free. Monday evening, an amendment to the Senate’s financial reform bill succeeded which would allow Americans free access to their credit scores along with their free annual credit reports. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), passed by a simple voice vote. This move should boost transparency in the consumer credit market.
Up to now, many consumers had no way of knowing how the credit bureaus scored their creditworthiness, unless they paid a fee. This seems a strange notion, given how significant an input credit scores generally are for many lenders. By knowing your score, you may be more easily able to bargain for a better interest rate or loan terms.
Of course, the credit score still remains something of a black box. While some things are known about how various actions affect your score, the detail is unclear to consumers. The bill also doesn’t do much to reform the inequality between a borrower’s word and a lender’s word when it comes to credit scoring. Right now, it’s entirely based on what the lender says, while a borrower complaint is merely noted on the his or her report.
Still, this is a good first step. Knowing your score can also enhance your motivation for improving it, as you can check its progress each year. You can see how responsible borrower behavior increases your score, or how missing payments or defaulting on loans lowers it. Let’s hope this measure gets through conference and makes it into the final bill.
Academy Award-nominated actress Amy Adams and her fiance Darren Legallo welcomed a baby girl, Aviana Olea Legallo, in Los Angeles on Saturday May 15, PEOPLE Magazine has confirmed.
“Mom and baby are home and going great. Everyone’s healthy and happy,” Adams’s rep tells the celebrity weekly.
Adams, 35, and Legallo have been engaged since July 2008. The Julie & Julia actress announced her pregnancy in December. Aviana is the first child for both.
Congrats!
Robin Hood hit theaters May 14 with stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, Oscar Isaac, and Mark Strong, directed by Ridley Scott. Crowe is reportedly criticized because he spoke Irish when supposedly Robinhood portrays a thief who is a native of Nottingham, quotes Reuters.Nevertheless the movie speaks for itself. Here are some scoops from moviegoers.
David Edwards (Mirror):
“It’s thrilling, solidly entertaining, occasionally breathtaking…the film never gets bogged down in back story thanks to some great action set pieces…”
Anthony Stoeckert (New Jersey Newsroom) :
“…I wish Robin hood was a little more fun, but this is a movie about battle and action. It should be judged based on what it wants to be, and by that standard, it works. Its violence and war scenes are more intense than typical action movies…”
Michael Philiips (Chicago Tribune)
“I liked it. It’s on a par with Scott’s American Gangster; no revelations, but satisfying, large-scale genre movie, toned up by its cast.”
How about you, how did you find the movie?
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GM Renaissance Center Headquarters
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Treasury Department is interviewing Wall Street bankers so that they may advise the department on a GM initial public offering.
GM CEO Ed Whitacre said last month after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that a GM IPO was a strong possibility for 2010/2011, despite having shied away in the past from the 2010 timeline put forth by his predecessor Fritz Henderson.
With first-quarter reports set to be released today, executives have said privately that earnings will be strong and that there will even be an operating profit. With last month’s announcement that GM had fully repaid the balance on its U.S. and Canadian government loans, top White House economic advisor Lawrence Summers has said that chances are high that the U.S. government will sell its stake sooner than expected.
The overall bailout investment in GM is expected to result in a loss, but that figure now is far lower than the one that had been originally proposed one year ago; less than $8 billion compared to $30 billion.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)
Starting today, Foursquare Mayors of Starbucks can cash in their hard-earned virtual reputation in the form of a $1 coupon. Frappuccinos may taste awful but slightly cheaper Frappuccinos should be drunk proudly. More »
by Joseph Romm
It was the hottest April on record in the NASA dataset. More significantly, following fast on the heels of the hottest March and hottest Jan-Feb-March on record, it’s also the hottest Jan-Feb-March-April on record.
The record temperatures we’re seeing now are especially impressive because we’ve been in “the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.” It now appears to be over. It’s just hard to stop the march of manmade global warming, well, other than by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that is.
Most significantly, NASA’s March prediction has come true: “It is nearly certain that a new record 12-month global temperature will be set in 2010.”
Software engineer (and former machinist mate in the U.S. Navy) Timothy Chase put together a spreadsheet using the data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In NASA’s dataset, the 12-month running average temperature record was actually just barely set in March—and then easily set in April.
Actually, NASA first made its prediction back in January 2009:
Given our expectation of the next El Niño beginning in 2009 or 2010, it still seems likely that a new global temperature record will be set within the next 1-2 years, despite the moderate negative effect of the reduced solar irradiance.
Of course, there never was any global cooling—see must-read AP story: Statisticians reject global cooling; Caldeira—“To talk about global cooling at the end of the hottest decade the planet has experienced in many thousands of years is ridiculous.”
In fact, the 12-month record we just beat was set in … 2007!
Moreover, the overwhelming majority of recent warming went right
where scientists had predicted— into the oceans (see “How we know global warming is happening”):
Total Earth Heat Content [anomaly] from 1950 (Murphy et al. 2009). Ocean data taken from Domingues et al 2008.
Another 2009 article details an analysis of “monthly gridded global temperature and salinity fields from the near-surface layer down to 2000 m depth.”
Time series of global mean heat storage (0–2000 m), measured in 108 Jm-2.
Still warming, after all these years! And just where you’d expect it. This study makes clear that upper ocean heat content, perhaps not surprisingly, is simply far more variable than deeper ocean heat content, and thus an imperfect indicator of the long-term warming trend. And the surface temperature is even more variable.
NASA’s recent draft paper reported: “We conclude that global temperature continued to rise rapidly in the
past decade” and “that there has been no reduction in the global warming
trend of 0.15-0.20 degrees C/decade that began in the late 1970s.”
NOAA points out that both satellite data sets show about the same
amount of warming as the land-based record, “which increased at a rate
near 0.16 degrees C/decade (0.29 degrees F/decade) during the same 30-year period”—
once you remove the expected stratospheric cooling from the satellite
records (see NOAA discussion here).
For the record, it was the second hottest April in both satellite
records (UAH and RSS),
which appear more sensitive to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
than the land records.
I asked NASA’s James Hansen last month about the apparent 12-month
record confirming his prediction, and he noted, “that conclusion is
sensitive to how the global mean is defined … We will compare several
alternatives in an invited review paper for Reviews of Geophysics—it should be ready within a few weeks.”
That caveat noted, it is also worth pointing out that “there are no
permanent weather stations in the Arctic Ocean, the place on
Earth that has been warming fastest,” as New Scientist explained (see here and here). “The U.K.‘s Hadley Centre record simply excludes this area, whereas the
NASA version assumes its surface temperature is the same as that of the
nearest land-based stations.” Thus it is almost certainly the
case that the planet has warmed up more this decade than NASA
says, and especially more than the U.K.’s Hadley Center says (see Why
are Hadley and CRU withholding vital climate data from the public? and Finally,
the truth about the Hadley/CRU data).
After the endless disinformation-based global cooling stories of the past few years, it’s time for the media to start do some serious fact-based global warming stories (unlike this piece of he-said, she-said journalistic crap from the Boston Globe).
Related Post: Arctic poised to see record low sea ice volume this year
Related Links:
Virginia’s AG slammed for ‘witch hunt’ against climate scientist Michael Mann
Finding evidence of climate change in the caves of the American Southwest
Publicize or perish: The scientific community is failing miserably in communicating the potential ca
The Arab-American representative Rima Fakih, candidate of Michigan, beat 50 participants to take the title of Miss USA 2010 on Sunday night. Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant, moved to America when she was a baby and grew up in New York, where she was attending a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003. The beauty told reporters that she sold her car after graduating from college in Michigan to help pay for her participation in the beauty contest of Miss Michigan USA. During the competition, Fakih almost falls to the ground when the ride ended a long strapless evening dress due to the long tail of it, but she recovered and went on to win the contest.
Here you can see a selection of pictures of Rima Fakih in swimsuit.
Rima Fakih Swimsuit Photoshoot Video.
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Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp., has said that it is going to be developing lithium-ion batteries with multiple carmakers as it aims to be a part of the pending surge of environmentally friendly cars. So far, Toshiba is set to be the supplier of batteries for Honda electric motorcycles, and an as-of-yet unidentified automaker.
Marriages between electronic companies and automakers such as this one have been becoming increasingly commonplace. Output of rechargeable batteries is expected to jump five-fold over the course of the next five-years. Sanyo has recently teamed with Suzuki, and Panasonic with Toyota.
Ryuichi Nakata, head of Toshiba’s division in charge of lithium-ion batteries, has made it known that his company is widely seeking opportunities, and is in development phases with multiple manufacturers.
The company plans to start production of its SCiB (Super Charge ion Battery) in February of 2011 with an initial capacity of 500,000 per month.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)
Chrysler Group LLC Headquarters
The United States Treasury Department said Monday it has received a $1.9 billion repayment from Chrysler Holding, which emerged from bankruptcy last year. It said that the $1.9 billion payment was all it expected to recover and will lose $2.1 billion on a loan made to the Auburn Hills in early 2009.
Congressional auditors say that taxpayers are expected to lose as much as $34 billion from bailing out Chrysler and General Motors. Much of it will depend on how much the U.S. government recovers from its eventual sale of its 61 percent stake in GM and 10 percent stake in Chrysler.
The original loan to Chrysler was made on Jan. 2, 2009 by the Bush administration.
– By: Omar Rana
Source: MSNBC
Following last month’s deadly underground mine explosion in West Virginia, the recent controversy surrounding surface mining has been largely (if temporarily) forgotten — at least in Washington. But today, two House Republicans from Appalachia’s coal fields revisited the issue, ripping the Environmental Protection Agency for installing strict new guidelines designed to protect mountain streams from the destructive practice known as mountaintop removal.
In other words, the lawmakers are blasting the Environmental Protection Agency for trying to protect the environment.
“While the EPA conducts an unnecessary re-examination of the mining permitting process under the guise of environmental stewardship, the troubling reality is that the EPA’s unsolicited policy changes are aimed solely at the coal industry and more specifically, Appalachian coal,” Reps. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) wrote Monday in an op-ed in Roll Call.
Unilaterally implementing some of the most sweeping regulatory changes in recent history, the EPA is supplanting well-established, Congressionally justified water quality programs in six Appalachian states and running roughshod over commonly agreed upon principles and practices.
It’s tough to know how the lawmakers would define “recent history” here, but evidently they don’t wish to go back too far. Not to 2002, for example, when the Bush administration unilaterally reclassified mining “waste” as mining “fill,” thereby allowing companies to fill streams more easily. And not to 2008, when the Bush White House gutted a 25-year-old rule prohibiting the disposal of mining debris within 100 feet of streams.
Here’s how The Washington Post described the 2002 change:
The “fill rule,” as the May 2002 rule change is now known, is a case study of how the Bush administration has attempted to reshape environmental policy in the face of fierce opposition from environmentalists, citizens groups and political opponents. Rather than proposing broad changes or drafting new legislation, administration officials often have taken existing regulations and made subtle tweaks that carry large consequences.
And last year, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pointed out the reasoning behind the 2008 “stream-buffer-zone” change when he noted that it “allows coal mine operators to dump mountaintop fill into streambeds if it’s found to be the cheapest and most convenient disposal option.”
But company expense and convenience, Salazar said in proposing to abandon Bush’s rule, shouldn’t be the only considerations when issuing permits.
We must responsibly develop our coal supplies to help us achieve energy independence, but we cannot do so without appropriately assessing the impact such development might have on local communities and natural habitat and the species it supports.
Whether they can succeed in the face of industry opposition — opposition evidenced by today’s Rogers-Capitol op-ed — is another question.
Noah’s review of the LG Ally. Android 2.1 plus LG’s UI plus capacitive touch and full QWERTY = Watch to find out!
A group of Oregon National Guardsmen returning from Iraq recently noticed that that the medical care the Army provided at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state differed significantly from what their active-duty comrades received. And they might have discovered a systemic problem in the process.
Some Guardsmen from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, while still called up on active duty, found themselves getting rushed through Lewis-McChord’s medical facilities. So they contacted their members of Congress to alert them to what they considered alarming anomalies between their treatment and that given to active-duty soldiers. Staffers for two Oregon legislators, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D), visited Lewis-McChord on May 11. They quickly found that “this was more than a couple of isolated incidents,” said Wyden spokeswoman Jennifer Hoelzer.
Interviews with base staff and members of the 41st IBCT eventually led the congressional aides to discover a PowerPoint presentation at the base that clearly placed reservists and active-duty soldiers on two different tracks for medical attention. The PowerPoint, assembled by the family practice department at the base’s Madigan Army Medical Center, indicated that the goal for active-duty soldiers was to “RUSH” attention for an acute illness or infirmity to a unit medical provider. For reservists, the goal for most demobilizing soldiers was “GET HOME NOW.” For Guardmen and Guardswomen getting ready to deploy, it was “Get acute issues resolved and be eligible to deploy.” Feel confident about that standard of care?
The PowerPoint itself carried a flip — to the Oregon Guardsmen, offensive — illustration of the bifurcation. I’ll put the slide below:
In a letter to Wyden and Schrader, the chief of the Army’s Medical Command, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, “apologize[d]” for what he called the “insensitive and offensive depiction of Reserve Component Soldiers in this presentation.”
That’s not good enough for Wyden and Schrader. They’ve written to Army Secretary John McHugh asking for a full investigation of whether members of the 41st were treated as “second-class soldiers” and ensuring that the Guardsmen get “all the medical, pay and other benefits to which they are entitled.” Wyden spokeswoman Hoelzer expects McHugh in for a discussion about next steps later this week.
Filed under: Motorsports, Etc., South America
Despite the best efforts of racing organizations the world over to clean up their image, it’s pretty tough to consider any kind of motorsport squeaky clean. Apparently, that’s especially true of the recent Dakar rally in South America. Besides the expected burning of fossil fuels and the emissions associated with it, the National Monuments Council (NMC) of Chile reports that the off-road race caused roughly $570,000 (300 million pesos) of damage to 56 of the country’s 111 heritage sites.
Further, the NMC says that 13 of those heritage sites suffered from lost archeological data. Apparently, this isn’t the first such instance of collateral damage during the Dakar race. Last year, a similar report was filed by the NMC, and the organization is again asking that the rally organizers pay these costs.
For what it’s worth, such damage was not unexpected. Late last year, the NMC drafted a detailed report of expected damage to the sites it monitors. Next year, though, the NMC is hoping that its report, which will be completed this August in anticipation of the event early in 2011, will be handed out to rally participants so they know where to tread especially lightly.
[Source: Moto-Net via Motorbiker | Image: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images]
Eco Unfriendly: Dakar 2010 caused 570K of damage in Chile originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 17 May 2010 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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