Category: News

Reader GdI wrote in the comments to yesterday’s post:

All very interesting but I miss Roissy, whose near-daily offerings were that rarest of things online: unique. Funny, pithy, deeply irreverent, yet also profoundly based on a coherent and totally counterrevolutionary (and utterly reality-based) worldview. As Ken Tynan said, “Write heresy, pure heresy …” And so it was.

Occasional forays into paleo-punk politics and HBD-istan are are well and good, but Citizen Renegade ain’t doing it. This Roissy-lite-by-committee thing ain’t working.

Bring back The Dark Lord!

I see his point. This blog has been missing satan’s spittle lately. Henceforth, the dude who’s been writing the mid-week posts has been reassigned temporarily to Vladivostok. Now let’s get down to business.

Got mistress? If your woman finds a pair of earrings in your bedroom that aren’t hers, simply tell her:

“I was doing some spring cleaning and I found those. I figured they were yours.”

This is an impenetrable defense. The phrasing leads her to think the earrings are from a girl many years ago. You get the double plus goodness of insta-absolution plus the resume booster of female preselection.

Real Men of Genius called; they want this blog’s knowledge.

***

There’s this scene in “Death at a Funeral” that involves Uncle Russell, Norman, a toilet, a hand, and a runny shit deflected mid-expulsion. When I think of marriage, this is the scene that comes to mind — trapped under the maelstrom of an agitated anus. And yet, despite my words of warning, some of you will be damnfool enough to go ahead and get married.

Ok, then, if you want to march into the iron maiden with a dopey grin on your face, at least nudge the very bad odds slightly in your favor.

Rule #1 for men who insist on marrying the pussy they’ve been getting for free:

Make her propose first.

Yeah, this won’t be easy. How many women do you know who proposed marriage to their recalcitrant boyfriends? I know one. ONE. But that one gives all men hope, for where there is one, there can be many.

What’s the big deal about getting her to propose, you ask? Oh man, you have no idea how much misery you’d be saving yourself. Every time there’s an argument, and wifey is tempted to play that favorable divorce card with all the gatling guns of the misandrist industrial complex pointed squarely between your eyes, she’ll remember that time she dropped to one knee to ask — or more likely to beg for — *your* hand in marriage, and her rationalization hamster will whisper in her brain that the argument must have been her fault, because why on earth would she have proposed to an annoying loser? No, it must be that there’s something wrong with her, not you.

When a woman proposes, it is she who invests in the marriage. She becomes the chaser instead of the chased. It is her ego on the line; her judgement. A woman in this psychological lockbox will be a lot more apprehensive about walking away from the marriage. She will autonomically defer always and forever to the premise that all bitter arguments and all traveling tingles must be unfair to her husband somehow. After all, she proposed marriage to a WINNER. What girl in her right mind would propose to a chump?

Unfortunately, steering a girl to do the humiliating work of proposing is not easy. She has to be head over heels in love, for one thing. And she has to feel acutely the dread of loss. Hints at marriage won’t cut it. She has to say the words “Will you marry me?”. Variations such as “Let’s get married” or “I feel we should be married” are acceptable.

Only masters of the game should attempt the parallel universe proposal. Newbs will get dumped.

***

Need a quickie conversation boosting routine? Tell a chick you’re thinking about getting a dog. Then segue… smoothly, like a single malt… into an observation about how people’s dogs match their personalities. Tell her she looks like the type who would own a jack russell terrier. When she asks why, you say “Oh, you know, always jumpy, kinda funny in an accidental way, and full of energy.” (When negging a chick hard, Uzi style, you’ll want to pair two negative connotations with one positive connotation. You want to deflate her bloated ego, not crush it into a powder that can be snorted.)

This is a powerful neg that serves the dual purpose of giving you reams of conversational material so you don’t run into the dreaded wall of awkward silence.

The hotter she is, the gayer/nastier/goofier the dog to which you will compare her. If she’s a 9, tell her she’s a chinese crested kind of girl. If she’s a 10, she’s the type to own a fat, farting basset hound. Save the noble dogs like german shepherds for the 7s and below. If a hot chick gives you a hard time about being compared to the personality of an incontinent chihuahua, accuse her of ignoring the beautiful parts of a chihuahua’s personality, like its fierce loyalty and big dog syndrome. She will start to feel bad for being mean to chihuahuas. Pat her hand as she reconsiders her malevolence.

***

Chicks who read comic books are slutty. They will bang on the first night. Don’t ask me why this is, it just is.

***

If you haven’t touched a girl on the forearm within ten minutes of meeting her, disengage. Your pickup is toast. If you haven’t touched a girl on the thigh within thirty minutes of meeting her, cut your losses and start fresh with a new girl.

Let me explain. In every one of my successful pickups, sensual touching occurred sometime within the first half hour. If you find yourself talking to a girl for longer than ten minutes without any touching taking place, you are perched over the LJBF abyss. Her erotic charge has been drained to less than 50%. And don’t be fooled by her smiling and laughing along with your witticisms and cutesy quips. Her lips may be curled in a smile, but her untouched body is withering into a cloistered nunnery of pussy dust.

Kino is king. Escalation is eminent. Zap these golden maxims into your wet head ham.

***

You can catch a lot of pretend-pious SWPL chicks off guard with this simple line:

“So how are you helping the environment for earth day?”

If she’s a status-jockeying hipster, expect a glorious apologia of defensive posturing. And where are tingles birthed? In the defensive crouch, of course!

If she’s Dana, expect her to laugh in your face. Then grab her and give her a deep, penetrating kiss. Sneak in a little tongue.

Filed under: Game, Guy Rules, Marriage Is For Chumps, The Id Monster

YouTube is turning five (again) today. While the video site’s official birthday is in February, the very first video was uploaded to YouTube on April 23rd, 2005. At the time, the site was still in private beta and the 18-second clip features YouTube founder Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo. The clip, dubbed “Me at the zoo,” … (read more)

Con semejante vehículo ha sorprendido Lamborghini a los visitantes al Beijing Auto Show, una edición especial que sólo será ofrecida a los coleccionistas de coches deportivos en China y que sólo fabricará 10 unidades. El fuerte crecimiento de la marca italiana en China hace que sus directivos estén volcados con este mercado en expansión.

Esta edición especial está rebajada 100 kilos respecto a la tradicional y mantiene los 670 caballos que desarrolla su 6,5 litros V12, mejorando la ratio de caballos-por-kilo a sólo 2,3 kilos por caballo. Así esta edición exclusiva sólo necesitará 3,2 segundos para llegar a los 100 kilómetros y rondará los 350 de velocidad máxima.

Además el Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera se presentó en el continente asiático. Como su nombre indica una de sus características es ser tremendamente ligero, 1.340 kilos, lo que marca un nuevo récord en el exclusivo mercado de coches superdeportivos extremos. El uso de la fibra de carbono se ha ampliado para lograr reducir 70 kilos a este vehículo, equipado con un V10 5.2 litros de 570 caballos de potencial que sólo necesita 3,4 segundos para llegar a los 100 y 10,2 para llegar a los 200.

Un 11% de crecimiento en China avalan las apuestas de esta marca en el país asiático. El octavo concesionario está apunto de abrirse en Xiamen y se acaba de cerrar un acuerdo para vender en Shenzhen, así que Lamborghini y otras marcas siguen su expansión en el suculento mercado chino.

Fuente | Lamborghini

Está sendo apresentado no Salão de Pequim a criação da montadora chinesa BAW (Beijing Auto Work), o C60, sedan inspirado no Saab 9-3 com algumas pequenas mudanças na carroceria. O carro é muito parecido com o 9-3, mas tem um porém.

Não devemos dizer que esse carro é mais um “clone do Saab 9-3″, porque há um tempo atrás, a GM vendeu os direitos intelectuais desse veículo para a companhia BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co.), empresa parceira da BAW e que passaram a integrar as tecnologias (e formas) adquiridas em seus carros.

Parece que as intenções de comercializar o C60 poderão começar em 2011, com um modelo 1.8 a gasolina nas versões turbo e aspirado. Outro carro que será apresentado vai ser a geração anterior do Saab 9-5, feita pela BAW. Mais informações serão ditas em breve.

Imagens do Sedan Chinês

Via | Carscoop

That’s the Air Force‘s super-secret unmanned X-37B space plane hitching a ride on an Atlas V rocket yesterday. No one knows what its mission is. Or even when it’s coming back. More »

While praised by many immigration reform proponents, the law passed in Arizona that seeks to limit illegal immigration by making it a crime to be in the state without documentation has stirred controversy among many ethnic organizations.

Last week, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce criticized the law, saying it will result in the racial profiling of Latinos. It has now been joined by The Hispanic National Bar Association, whose representatives claim that the legislation raises "grave constitutional issues."

In addition to racial profiling, the alleged constitutional violations include freedom from unreasonable seizures and lack of due process guarantees, according to the association.

HNBA National President Roman D. Hernandez said that "if enacted, this law will create an impediment to effective police enforcement of major crimes."

He cited local law enforcement officials as saying that "Hispanics in general and undocumented persons in particular will be less willing to cooperate in providing information to police."

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act was passed earlier this month and it makes it a state misdemeanor to fail to comply with Federal law requiring that foreign nationals register and carry their documents with them.

Moreover, it directs police officers to inquire as to immigration status on a "reasonable suspicion" that an individual is undocumented.

Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Don’t Eat This

Suppose you’re not feeling at the top of your game, but you don’t really know why. Maybe you feel crampy or gassy or bloated after you eat. Maybe you get migraines, or you’re always exhausted, or you’re having weird allergic-type reactions. So you do … Read more

 

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The Academic Careers in Engineering & Science program (ACES+) recently announced recipients of the 2010 ADVANCE Opportunity Awards. Fourteen proposals representing academic disciplines ranging from engineering to religious studies to sociology received $41,667.

“We’re thrilled to have the support of President Barbara R. Snyder and Provost Bud Baeslack to continue these awards,” said Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic programs. ADVANCE Opportunity Awards also receive funding through the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program.

Advance Opportunity Grants provide small amounts of supplemental support of current or proposed projects and activities where funding is difficult to obtain through other sources. All Case Western Reserve University faculty members are eligible to apply.

According to the Office of the Provost, the following is a list of 2010 ADVANCE Opportunity Award winners and information about their projects:

Alexis Abramson, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $1,771 to support travel to attend and present work at two national conferences.

Karen Beckwith, Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $3,258 to develop a database and to purchase statistical software for data collection, coding and analysis for a new project.

Diane M. Bergeron, Department of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Management

Award: $6,500 to provide summer support for two doctoral research assistants working on a project.

Joy R. Bostic, Department of Religious Studies, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $3,630 to support research on activism in African American mystical traditions, including travel to investigate original manuscripts, data collection and materials documentation.

Clemens Burda, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $1,500 to support child care during a three-month research visit during a sabbatical leave.

T. Kenny Fountain, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $1,300 to support a student assistant to aid in transcription and data analysis of audio data for preparation of a book manuscript.

Victor Groza, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences

Award: $2,800 to support international travel to train interviewers in an ethnosurvey approach to expand an ongoing study.

Gladys Haddad, Western Reserve Studies Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $2,000 to seed funding for program design and implementation for the East Cleveland Neighborhood Project.

Charles J. Love, Department of Comprehensive Care, School of Dental Medicine

Award: $1,996 to support travel to an international conference to disseminate research findings.

Heidi B. Martin, Department of Chemical Engineering, Case School of Engineering

Award: $6,000 for short-term funding to support a graduate student stipend for a four-month period.

Heather Morrison, Department of Astronomy, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $2,000 in travel support to seed a collaboration with researchers from China for a survey project on the Milky Way.

Ronald G. Oldfield, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $5,000 to support a research visit to research a publication.

Robert Spadoni, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $505 to support travel to a national society meeting for participation in a panel discussion related to a new book project.

David F. Warner, Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences

Award: $3,407 to support a specialized training course to enable an expanded research project.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Kurt Cobb has an article at Scitizen on a new enhanced oil recovery technique (saying nothing about the greenhouse gas emissions, which are presumably horrendous) – Will Toe-to-Heel Air Injection Extend the Oil Age?.

Currently, the energy for extracting oil from underground must come from the fuel and equipment on the surface. But what if the main source of energy for extracting oil could come from the oil deposit itself? And, what if the method for doing this could provide us with access to oil not amenable to conventional extraction techniques while minimizing disruption of the surface and any associated pollution? This is what the developers of an oil recovery technique called toe-to-heel air injection or THAI suggest they are able to accomplish. And, the technique could increase appreciably the percentage of the world’s vast heavy oil resources that we are able to exploit.

The oil the engineers and scientists at Petrobank, the patent holder, have in mind is so viscous that it is not easily budged from its hiding places below the surface. There are other techniques already in use for extracting this oil. But they typically require copious amounts of both water (usually in the form of steam) and energy to work. The THAI process, however, burns some of the oil in the underground deposit in a way that makes the remaining oil flow to the surface on its own through production wells.

This isn’t a bonfire, but rather more like a charcoal fire, very hot (400 to 600 degrees C) without flames. Petrobank claims that THAI burns about 10 percent of the oil in place to accomplish its task. The oil is first heated to about 100 degrees C using steam injection. So far this sounds like conventional steam injection technology. But once this critical temperature is reached, the oil is ignited and only air is injected to keep the oil burning. The burning oil creates additional heat which makes the heavy oil flow more easily, and the combustion gases drive the flowing oil toward and up a set of production wells without any pumping. There are other fire flooding techniques. But the particular methods and well configuration of THAI hold great promise for vastly increasing ultimate recovery while minimizing pollution and well failure.

Petrobank claims recovery of between 70 and 80 percent of original oil in place, a truly astounding number. Even if this result proves to be reproducible on a large scale, it won’t mean that all heavy oil deposits will be amenable to the THAI process. Some deposits might be too scattered to be economical. Others might not be sufficiently saturated to allow adequate burning and thus high enough temperatures. Yet others might be too close to the surface in which case the fire might break through. Finally, geology, remote location and poor associated infrastructure might make many potential deposits financially too risky to exploit.

Twitter, like Android, is exploding.  The latest entry into the Android twitterverse is from sobees.  Many of you might already be familiar with Sobees desktop and web apps, but their application for Android is all new. 

Follow after the break for a video and my impressions of the new Sobees twitter application.

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Earlier this year, we wrote about Vision Media TV, a company that appeared to be participating in a questionable game of convincing non-profit organizations to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be featured in a television program with broadcaster Hugh Downs that would appear on “public television.” The implication is that these shows will air on PBS, but that’s not the case. In fact, PBS has a warning on its website telling people it’s not associated with these offerings at all. We’ve even been approached by similar offerings (though, not involving Hugh Downs — and the one where we were approached involved getting an “award” for “best small business” or something similar). About a year and a half ago, the NY Times wrote an article trashing Vision Media TV. The company insisted that the article was false and defamatory but, tellingly, chose not to sue.

Instead, it later sued the small site 800notes.com, because some people there had written negatively about Vision Media TV in explaining who was calling from Vision Media’s phone number. Paul Alan Levy, from Public Citizen, who is defending 800Notes, also found himself targeted, after Vision Media sought to bar him from posting public documents about the case on Public Citizen’s website — an attempt that failed. Of course, it did help Levy find more info about the company, including that similar pitches have come from differently named companies, using the same address as Vision Media TV, that pitched (instead of Hugh Downs), Walter Cronkite and Mike Douglas — both of whom ended up suing the company, claiming they were misled by the company.

Levy says he’s asked Vision Media why it never sued the NY Times over its article, and the company’s lawyer responded “I should have,” but supposedly the statute of limitations had already passed. Well, now Levy is pointing out that Vision Media has a second chance to sue a big media player, since NPR just did a devastating takedown of Vision Media TV and its practices:

“They are selling something that they generally cannot deliver,” says Garry Denny, program director of Wisconsin Public Television and a past president of the professional association of programming officials for PBS member stations. “In fact, they are probably not carried by any public television station around the country.”

Officials at PBS and at PBS member stations in California, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, South Carolina and Virginia were all aware of the Hugh Downs spots. Yet not one knew of a concrete instance in which the spots featuring Downs appeared on their stations or those of others. PBS and its member stations say they adhere to guidelines banning marketing programming paid for by subjects of the programs.

To be fair, the article and Vision Media point out that the videos can be useful as marketing materials or infomercials even if they don’t appear on public television — but the whole pitch involving Hugh Downs is where things get questionable. His contract only lets him be involved if the stuff is on public television, and the marketing focuses on Downs involvement, even if that’s unlikely to happen for most organizations who pay up — which certainly suggests misleading marketing:

According to both Downs’ agent and Vision Media’s Miller, the retired anchor’s contract limits his involvement to public television. Yet for many people approached by Vision Media’s cold-calling pitchmen, he’s by far the strongest selling point.

One of the firms recently pitched is Portland, Maine-based Putney Inc., which develops generic drugs for pets. “Hugh Downs! I know that name,” said Jean Hoffman, Putney’s CEO. “We were of course pretty excited, pretty interested, and pretty eager to cooperate.”

It seemed like a splendid opportunity, until Hoffman and her colleagues started to bore in on the details. “They send the signal that they’re doing a story” as journalists, Hoffman said. “Then, they try to sell us what under questioning was revealed to be advertising.”

Others, who did buy into the videos, claim that the pitch about public television was what got them interested in the first place:

Robert Biggins is past president of the funeral director trade group and owner of a funeral home in Rockland, Mass. He said Vision Media’s promise of a presence on public television and the involvement of Downs were crucial.

“He brings a credibility in reporting,” Biggins said. “I felt that dealing with an organization that he’s so intimately involved in gave us the opportunity to share our message, and to do so in a warm and gracious manner.”

If their spots did not air on public television, Biggins said, “That would be a serious concern.”

The National Funeral Directors Association provided NPR with a copy of the contract it signed with Vision Media. The association paid $22,900 in 2007 for the production of different versions of the spot, plus an additional $3,000 as a “location fee” — presumably for travel costs. The contract and additional material from Patrick Wilson of American Artists, the segments’ distributor, stated the “estimated reach is over 40 million households” on public television stations. The brochure also suggests the spots will reach 84 million households nationwide on cable — the overwhelming majority of all homes subscribing to cable television.

So, if Vision Media’s lawyer said he wished he had sued the NY Times over a very similar article from a couple years ago, will he now sue NPR? Or is it easier to focus on small sites with much smaller budgets?

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The New York Times has a look at the past and future of tidal power in Maine – Generating Megawatts Like Clockwork.

WHEN Christopher R. Sauer stands before the swirling waters of the Western Passage and describes his company’s alternative energy vision, he doesn’t see an army of wind turbines or banks of solar cells.

In fact, Mr. Sauer sees nothing at all that could block his view of Canada, just across the channel. For if his plans come to fruition, an array of turbines will be operating out of sight, deep under the water, cranking out power to a substation on shore.

His company, Ocean Renewable Power, is one of a number of start-ups trying to develop tidal energy — water-powered turbines that spin in the current as the tides come and go, turning generators to make electricity that is clean and, they hope, reasonably priced.

“We’re not going to beat out the old coal plants in the Ohio Valley,” said Mr. Sauer, who has decades of experience developing co-generation plants and other power projects. “But we will be competitive with any new power source, including fossil fuels.”

That’s an ambitious goal, but Mr. Sauer, the company’s president and chief executive, has at least gravity and the earth’s rotational energy on his side.

Tides come and go twice a day everywhere around the globe. In places like Eastport — a former sardine capital at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy that is surrounded by deep channels like the Western Passage — tidal power makes the most sense, at least for the moment.

Here the tides are very high and the current strong, reaching about 6 knots, or 7 miles per hour, at peak flows four times a day. “We’ve got the best tidal current on the East Coast,” Mr. Sauer said.

Tidal power is not a new idea. A few tidal generating stations are already operating around the world, including one in France that is more than four decades old. But they represent an older approach, one that employs barrages, or dams, to hold back the high tide. The water is then released through turbines, like a conventional hydroelectric plant, when the tide goes out.

Eastport itself was the site of an elaborate and enormous barrage project, proposed in the 1930s during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who knew of the great tides here, having spent many summers on Campobello Island nearby. The project, the East Coast’s answer to Hoover Dam, was abandoned after a year.

The Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan will soon augment his team with one of the senior-most officials responsible for implementing the civilian surge on the ground. Frank Ruggiero, who oversees 110 U.S. and allied civilians in southern Afghanistan, is set to become Amb. Richard Holbrooke’s deputy this summer, State Department officials confirmed.

Ruggiero is a well-respected career civil servant who’s worked with the Department of Commerce as well as the State Department, where he’s most recently been at the top of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs before heading to Afghanistan last summer. As part of the “civilian uplift,” Ruggiero has established and coordinated small teams of civilians in Helmand and Kandahar provinces known as District Support Teams to embed with NATO military battalions in order to assist Afghan officials with delivering services for local citizens in order to reduce the demand for the Taliban’s shadow governance.  While the hundred-plus civilians on Ruggiero’s team is up from fewer than ten civilians in southern Afghanistan before Ruggiero arrived, the effort still dwarfed by the thousands of U.S. Marines, soldiers, NATO troops and still-arriving U.S. forces as part of the “extended surge” focusing on the south of the country.

Still, Ruggiero should be able to provide Holbrooke, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama with ground-truth visibility on the difficulties and possibilities of fostering credible, deliverable governance for Afghans in the south, a centerpiece of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. That’s especially salient since Clinton indicated today at a NATO conference that the civilian presence in Afghanistan will outlast the U.S. military’s post-2011 drawdown.

Thousands of finance ministers and central bankers from around the world descend on D.C. this weekend for the semi-annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. These meetings have become an important opportunity for civil society, NGOs, journalists, and the private sector to engage with bank staff and country delegates on an array of issues in international economic development, from poverty reduction to clean energy.

The timing of these spring meetings is especially crucial now, as the World Bank conducts an ongoing review of its Energy Strategy. This strategy will guide all World Bank Group energy-related lending for the next decade.

WRI’s International Financial Flows and the Environment (IFFE) Program works to improve the environmental and social decision-making of these and other Multilateral Development Banks. These institutions are in a unique position; they can continue to drive investments in a conventional “business as usual” manner or they can raise environmental and social standards through their lending practices.

In preparation for the Spring Meetings, WRI has the following resources:

Analysis:

• Shattering Glass Walls at the Multilateral Development Banks: The development and environment communities must stop viewing their goals as separate or even at odds with each other. Investing in ecosystem services will help MDBs improve the livelihoods of the poor.

• The World Bank, MDBs, and Low Carbon Development: By 2030, approximately 90% of future growth in energy demand will come from developing countries. The Multilateral Development Banks have an important role to play in advancing more sustainable energy.

• Investing in Sustainable Energy Futures: Multilateral Development Banks’ Investments in Energy Policy: This report analyzes energy-related loan programs at the World Bank, ADB, the IDB in addition to the newly created Clean Technology Fund (CTF). Despite the increase in sustainable energy initiatives, a limited number of loans financed by the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and Asian Development Bank consistently support sustainable energy investments in developing countries.

• A Roadmap for Integrating Human Rights into the World Bank Group: This report argues that human rights are an integral part of effective and sustainable development, and should be explicitly considered in all World Bank Group (WBG) investment decisions. We examine the WBG’s integration of human rights standards into its operations — highlighting accomplishments, shortcomings, and barriers — and suggest ways forward.

• Summary of Climate Finance Pledges Put Forward By Developed Countries: WRI’s preliminary analysis on countries’ immediate and long term climate finance pledges announced thus far.

Events:

The World Bank’s Energy Strategy: Hosted by the World Resources Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Center for American Progress (CAP), and International Rivers

Finance for Climate Change: 2010 Opportunities in Developing Countries: The World Resources Institute and McKenna, Long & Aldridge, LLP host a panel discussion on the role of private sector investment in addressing climate change mitigation in a time of economic and policy uncertainty.

WASHINGTON–Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who has been quarterbacking the Illinois Senate bid of Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias, asked White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for help and did not get any promise of assistance.

That’s according to a Politico story by Glenn Thrush and Manu Raju. Excerpt:

“At the moment, the White House seems open to the idea of losing Obama’s old seat rather than putting the president’s prestige on the line for Giannoulias, the brash and boyish Illinois state treasurer — and onetime Obama basketball buddy — whose campaign has been rocked by the financial meltdown of his family’s bank.”

Read the rest here.

I love Wordnik’s stylized description of themselves on their home page. Each reload changes the word sandwich. While we’re at it, I also find their Word of the Day selections to be the most interesting ones on the web.

Research In Motion Ltd.’s valuation reflects a “sentiment war” over its prospects, but its annual product showcase kicking off on Monday in Orlando should alleviate some concerns.

The BlackBerry maker has historically used its Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) to showcase its plans for growth, developments in carrier partnerships, and its latest products and solutions.

The event should draw plenty of attention as management its expected to address how it intends to regain top-line growth relative to Apple Inc. and other emerging handset and smartphone vendors. RIM is also expected to launch a new lower-priced BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, a new faster browser that may include things like Flash support, and a new operating system (OS).

“As is clearly evident to BlackBerry users, the current web-browsing experience has significant shortcomings in terms of quality of experience, compared to the Apple iPhone or even new Smartphones introduced by HTC, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung,” Northern Securities said in a report. “This has been cited as one of the key reasons for limited penetration of the BlackBerry within the consumer segment, in addition to lack of a iTunes-type distribution platform.”

While some on the Street are concerned about competitive threats from Apple and Google Inc., momentum in North America and RIM’s enterprise business, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky thinks WES should produce improved sentiment.

He told clients that the event represents the “kick-off” to rising visibility for a number of new software, services, strategies and next-generation handsets RIM will launch in the second half of 2010. The analyst also thinks WES may help skeptical investors concede that RIM has a better chance than generally thought to narrow perceived competitive gaps and invigorate consumer uptake.

It may also further solidify RIM’s differentiated advantages versus Apple and Google. This, coupled with a “satisfying” browsing, user interface and application experience, may sustain market share, profitability and smartphone leadership.

Mr. Abramsky highlighted a variety of possible announcements RIM could make at WES. He assigned a 90% probability to a Webkit-based browser with iPhone-like speed, tabbed browsing and Flash support. A CDMA Bold 9650 handset announcement and launch timing was given a 75% chance, as was a 3G Pearl 9100, media/content partnership announcements and details on its China strategy.

Investors will be hungry for any commentary on the company’s success in China and other emerging markets as it may serve to offset the threat posed by a CDMA-based iPhone at Verizon Wireless. Northern Securities noted that Verizon Wireless and AT&T generate an estimated 40% of RIM’s total revenue and the launch of a CDMA-version of the iPhone is expected to erode RIM’s market share in the United States, which generated 58% of total revenue or US$8.6-billion in fiscal 2010.

The consumer market accounted for more than 50% of RIM’s current net subscriber additions each quarter during the past 12 months. Northern Securities believes this success is partly due to the company’s increased carrier partnerships in emerging markets and the European Union, as well as the introduction of lower-priced smartphones.

“With potential improvement in the web-browser to compete with consumer demand, we believe RIM can at least maintain its market share in the consumer market,” it said.

It also expects the enterprise refresh cycle during the second half of 2010 will bode well for RIM during 2010 and 2011 given its dominance in North America. “With Smartphone market share in key emerging markets like China and India up
for grabs, we believe it is too early to write off the potential success of the BlackBerry relative to the iPhone.”

Jonathan Ratner

Der Spiegel has an article on phosphorus, claiming “Essential Element Becoming Scarce” – Experts Warn of Impending Phosphorus Crisis (via Cryptogon).

The element phosphorus is essential to human life and the most important ingredient in fertilizer. But experts warn that the world’s reserves of phosphate rock are becoming depleted. Is recycling sewage the answer?

They sift the powder through their fingers, smell it and admire its soft, brownish shimmer. The members of the delegation from Japan, dressed in black suits and yellow helmets, stand attentively in a factory building in Leoben, Austria, marveling at a seemingly miraculous transformation, as stinking sewage sludge is turned into valuable ash.

Nothing suggests that the brown dust comes from a cesspool. It doesn’t smell, is hygienic and is as safe as sand in a children’s sandbox. It’s also valuable. The powder has a phosphate content of around 16 percent. Phosphate, the most important base material in mineral fertilizer, is currently trading at about €250 ($335) a ton.

Untreated sewage sludge was once dumped onto fields as liquid manure, until it became apparent how toxic it is. Human excretions are full of heavy metals, hormones, biphenyls — and drugs. New processing plants are designed to remove these toxins far more effectively than before, thereby paving the way for the use of sewage sludge in safe, human fertilizer. Ash Dec, the company that operates the pilot plant in Leoben, has dubbed the program “Ash to Cash.”

This unconventional approach could be important for all of mankind. While the term “peak oil” — the point at which production capacity will peak before oil wells gradually begin to run dry — is well known, fewer people know that phosphate reserves could also be running out. Experts refer to this scenario as “peak phosphorus.”

“While the exact timing may be disputed, it is clear that already the quality of remaining phosphate rock reserves is decreasing and cheap fertilizers will be a thing of the past,” warns Dana Cordell of the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney. A phosphate crisis would be at least as serious as an oil crisis. While oil can be replaced as a source of energy — by nuclear, wind or solar energy –, there is no alternative to phosphorus. It is a basic element of all life, and without it human beings, animals and plants could not survive.