Category: News

The New York Times has a good overview of an extremely powerful conventional weapons system that could be fired from a missile in the U.S. and reach anywhere on the planet in an hour. It’s called Prompt Global Strike. It’s an immature weapons system, barely in development, that looks for the moment like it was imagined by Wile E. Coyote. And the Nuclear Posture Review basically held it out as the conventional alternative to nuclear weapons.

Partly because elements of the technology behind Prompt Global Strike are “not yet even invented,” it’s hard to say what the system will ultimately cost or when it can be deployed. The New START accord with the Russians even had to limit its development because once launched from an intercontinental ballistic missile, it would be hard for Russia or any other power to determine with confidence that such a missile didn’t carry a nuclear payload.

Relatedly, here’s something that should warm Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R-Ariz.) New START-opponent heart but surely won’t: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a NATO forum that the U.S. won’t withdraw its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe until there’s a follow-on treaty with Russia ensuring the Russians will do the same.

Although, Gizmodo’s decision to publicly name and shame Gray Powell was despicable, we are glad that at least something good is coming out of it (and no Gizmodo, you don’t get to take the credit for this).

Lufthansa Airlines – the largest airline in Europe (in terms of overall passengers carried), has offered Gray Powell free business class transportation to Munich to check out some of the finest German Beer. Quite obviously, Lufthansa Airlines is trying to milk the situation to gain some free publicity. But, we don’t mind. Gray Powell has possibly had a harrowing time over the past couple of days and he definitely needs a break.

To cut a long story short, Gray Powell – a software engineer at Apple, misplaced his iPhone in a bar. This was picked up by an unknown person who sold it to Gizmodo. After dissecting the prototype for a month, Gizmodo fired a slew of posts in which they publically named Gray Powell.

It will be interesting to see if Powell accepts the offer. I get a feeling that he won’t. Nevertheless, kudos to Lufthansa for some clever marketing. Here is the open letter shared by Nicola Lange, Lufthansa’s marketing director for the Americas.

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The German carmaker takes another shot at a high-end, four-door coupe.

In a move reminiscent of—and likely inspired by—its sultry Concept CS of 2007, BMW is unveiling a new, low-profile, four-door coupe concept at the 2010 Beijing auto show. Called the BMW Concept Gran Coupé, it’s meant to showcase the company’s design abilities and philosophy. It’s also another one-off concept that we wish BMW would actually build.

According to BMW, the Gran Coupé “concentrates the design expertise of the brand” and “captures a sense of superior dynamic performance and high-quality elegance.” Whatever. It’s a low-slung, long-wheelbase, edgy-looking sedan with a coupe-like roofline and short overhangs. The possibility of it reaching production is probably very low, and details about its powerplant and drivetrain technology are not available. What we can tell you is that the Gran Coupé is a few inches longer than the new 5-series at nearly 197 inches, but is about four inches lower at 55.1.

Keep Reading: BMW Concept Gran Coupe – Auto Shows

Related posts:

1. BMW 5-series Gran Turismo Concept – Auto Shows
2. BMW 5-series Gran Turismo Concept – Car News
3. BMW Cancels Gran Turismo Four-Door Coupe – Car News

Durable goods orders came in at -1.3%, far below the Reuters-based consensus estimate of a 0.3% rise.

But the good news was a +1.1% revision of February data.

Read the government report here >

—

New orders for manufactured durable goods in March decreased $2.2 billion or 1.3 percent to $176.7 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease followed three consecutive monthly increases, including a 1.1 percent February increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 2.8 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.2 percent.

Transportation equipment, down two consecutive months, had the largest decrease, $5.9 billion or 12.9 percent to $40.2 billion. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts which decreased $6.5 billion.

Shipments

Shipments of manufactured durable goods in March, up following two consecutive monthly decreases, increased $2.2 billion or 1.2 percent to $182.2 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent February decrease.

Machinery, up two consecutive months, had the largest increase, $1.0 billion or 4.3 percent to $24.0 billion.

Unfilled Orders

Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in March, down following two consecutive monthly increases, decreased $2.3 billion or 0.3 percent to $719.8 billion. This followed a 0.4 percent February increase.

Transportation equipment, also down following two consecutive monthly increases, had the largest decrease, $4.6 billion or 1.1 percent to $408.6 billion.

Inventories

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in March, up three consecutive months, increased $0.5 billion or 0.2 percent to $304.7 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent February increase. Primary metals, up five consecutive months, had the largest increase, $0.5 billion or 1.8 percent to $27.1 billion.

Capital Goods

Nondefense new orders for capital goods in March decreased $4.6 billion or 7.5 percent to $56.1 billion. Shipments increased $1.4 billion or 2.4 percent to $59.0 billion. Unfilled orders decreased $2.9 billion or 0.7 percent to $409.1 billion. Inventories decreased $0.5 billion or 0.4 percent to $132.1 billion.

Defense new orders for capital goods in March decreased $0.4 billion or 4.0 percent to $10.0 billion. Shipments increased $0.1 billion or 0.7 percent to $10.9 billion. Unfilled orders decreased $0.9 billion or 0.6 percent to $131.3 billion. Inventories decreased $0.1 billion or 0.6 percent to $20.6 billion.

Revised February Data

Revised seasonally adjusted February figures for all manufacturing industries were: new orders, $384.3 billion (revised from $383.5 billion); shipments, $385.4 billion (revised from $384.9 billion); unfilled orders, $722.0 billion (revised from $722.2 billion); and total inventories, $499.7 billion (revised from $498.3 billion).

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[JURIST] A Shangai court ruled Thursday that a Chinese insurance company is liable to software company Microsoft for using illegal copies of its products, ordering the insurance company to pay Microsoft USD $318,000 in damages. The $318,000 awarded against Dazhong Insurance is the largest amount of damages ever ordered by a Chinese court in a software piracy suit. This was Microsoft’s first major anti-piracy lawsuit in China, where last November a court ruled that Microsoft had infringed on intellectual property of a Chinese company.
Microsoft has been a party to many legal proceedings outside the US in recent years. In December, the European Commission (EC) reached a settlement with Microsoft over claims that it violated European anti-trust laws by packing its Internet Explorer web browser with new copies of Windows. Last September, the Seoul Central District Court found Microsoft in violation of South Korea’s antitrust laws for bundling software programs with its Windows operating system. The court found the company’s bundling practice to be in violation of fair competition rules and disruptive to the market. This was the second suit within a few months in which Microsoft was found liable for breach of South Korean antitrust laws. This was the second suit within a few months in which Microsoft was found liable for breach of South Korean antitrust laws. Last June, the same court ruled that Microsoft violated antitrust laws by packaging software with its Windows operating system, also dismissing requests for damages from two Korean software firms on the grounds that the damages were not sufficiently linked to Microsoft’s conduct.

By NATASHA KORECKI and CHRIS FUSCO
Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporters

CHICAGO–Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers asked a federal judge today to force President Obama to testify at Blagojevich’s upcoming corruption trial, asserting that Obama played more of a role in the process of selecting someone to replace him in the U.S. Senate than Obama has acknowledged.

On the day before he was elected president, then-Sen. Obama personally called a union official about his desire for Blagojevich to appoint Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the Senate, according to Blagojevich’s defense filing in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

As smartphones get more and more advanced, we’re seeing an increasing amount of sensitive information stored on them. RIM provides a secure platform for its BlackBerry devices, but they can’t protect everything. The files store locally on your device, for instance, are at risk if your BlackBerry is lost or stolen. Many developers have released applications to help with this issue, mblware among them. Their application, mblVault, allows you to encrypt your sensitive documents, including image files, so that they’re inaccessible to unwanted parties.

(more…)

We’ve heard of a census wherein every citizen in a city is accounted for right since the times of the Bible. Well, San Francisco is going to have all its trees accounted for too! This project, known as the Urban Forest Map, will have information on every tree in the city collected from sources like city of San Francisco itself and a non-profit group called Friends of the Urban Forest.

The website community will also be allowed to edit or add information regarding trees, making the project similar to the functioning of a Wiki. Starting in the Bay Area, the project once kicked off will soon spread its roots to other cities as well. Maybe a hi-tech system to help nab tree-cutters would be a useful addition to this website project!

[Wired]

The Android tablets are coming out of the wood work. This is another one that promises to be an affordable option for all your Android needs. It looks pretty good and if the dock comes with it, it would really be a great deal. The version of Android that is preinstalled is not known.

This tablet has a 7 inch capacitive touch screen, Flash 10.1, SD card slot (I’m assuming it’s a micro slot), Market access via the Cruz Market and some type of eReader capabilities. Are you ready to buy it yet? Looks like you’re going to have to wait a bit longer, the links on the page doesn’t work, there is no price set on the page that we can see. Maybe the page is still under construction. Most of us might be skeptical about this because the last affordable tablet turned out to be a hoax.

[via cruztablet]

Academy Award winner Helen Mirren has signed up to star alongside fellow Brit Russell Brand in a remake of Dudley Moore’s 1981 comedy Arthur.

The Queen star will play a nanny to the title character in a role loosely based off of the one that earned John Gielgud an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the original. Mirren’s role was originally intended for Meryl Streep, who reportedly passed on the part.

Arthur is set to begin filming in New York City in July.

Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham are working with the White House, environmentalists, and industry to craft comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation, which they plan to unveil on Monday. But Senators Lugar (R-IN) and Voinovich (R-OH), both of whom have admitted the threat of global warming, announced yesterday “a narrower competing bill” that resembles the weak legislation passed out of the Senate energy committee last year.  Brad Johnson has the story in this Wonk Room repost:

George V. Voinovich of Ohio and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana are developing an energy-only bill that would mandate new renewable and nuclear power production without imposing cuts on carbon emissions.

This approach, which has also been floated by energy committee members Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-AK), has been described by Graham as “half-assed.” Voinovich believes that subsidy-based legislation that fails to reduce global warming pollution is more “doable” than comprehensive reform that pays its own way by putting a price on carbon pollution:

I’d like to get something done. But I’m not sure it would meet the standards of the environmental groups or what Sen. Kerry would like to get done. I’d like to do the doable — move it down the field while I can.

More problematically, Voinovich also announced today that climate legislation “must include a comprehensive preemption provision that goes well beyond language included in previous climate bills” to get his support, a poison-pill stance that would derail the progress made by states across the nation to build a green economy.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) have been jockeying for attention with a bill that addresses the other half of energy reform, a climate-only package with weak targets known as the CLEAR Act.

These senators are participating in a complex dance — if President Obama and the public throw their weight behind real action, then these senators can take credit when elements of their bills appear in the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman legislation. However, if momentum stalls under the weight of polluter lobbying and Beltway indifference to the climate crisis, they can instead say they offered a “pragmatic” alternative.

Unfortunately, such political insurance only covers elected politicians, not people living in the real world.

The world will soon see more of solar power, developing hand in hand with nano-materials popping up everywhere. Quantum dots, nano-wires, nano-antenna, carbon nano-tubes, and multiple quantum wells are pushing solar technology to greater levels. Nano-materials, tiny little particles invisible to the naked eye, help reduce materials needed to produce photovoltaic cells. This also leads to decrease in production costs and material costs.

Materials such as these are being tested for cost efficiency as compared to the use of silicon and thin-film photovoltaics. Companies are also developing photovoltaic sprays and thin film nano-solar panels. Companies like NanoSolar have panels capable of capturing 15.3% of the sun’s light. Nano-materials such as these being developed nowadays will sure help solar power find greater applicability in the very near future.

[Coolerplanet]

Aquí tenemos la comunicación oficial de Toyota, con galería de imágenes incluida, del nuevo RAV 4 2010. Lo primero que me llama la atención es cómo ha crecido en tamaño, precio y calidad este vehículo que en sus orígenes era un SUV razonablemente barato y ligero, siendo ahora otro todoterreno más parecido al Land Cruiser que a otra cosa.

Un nuevo frontal más dinamico, dtalles cromados en la parrilla frontal y en los faros antinieblas delanteros (habiendo sido reubicados) junto con un diseño interior que aumenta la percepción de calidad son las nuevas señas de identidad de este nuevo RAV 4 que aspira a crecer, a ser una variante más asequible del Land Cruiser en lugar de estar más distanciado de los todoterreno de lujo.

Dos motores tendrá disponibles por ahora, el 2.0 VVT-i Valvematic de 158 cv de potencia y el 2.2 D-CAT de 150 cv, ambos con la tecnología Toyota Optimal Drive que lo situarán entre los más ahorradores del segmento. Los precios oscilarán entre los 23.300 € y los 35.350 €, variando entre los 5 acabados disponibles y la tracción a dos o a cuatro ruedas, precios no válidos para Canarias.

Blanco Perlado, azul Abisal y Rojo Oscuro serán los tres colores disponibles junto a la carrocería Cross Sport, que no tiene barras de techo ni rueda de repuestos en el portón trasero. El acabado superior Executive ofrece una tapicería mixta en cuero y Alcantara con asientos calefactados y regulados eléctricamente.

Nuevo Toyota RAV 4 2010

Fuente | Toyota

Airports around the globe are going greener by the day. We’ve heard of the Page Field General Aviation Airport in Southwest Florida and the Le Castellet International Airport in the South of France using solar power before. This time it’s the Alice Springs Airport in Northern Australia that will soak in the sun.

A 235-kilowatt solar power station has been planned with SolFocus providing the solar arrays. 28 units of SolFocus’ 1100S concentrator photovoltaic arrays will be installed by developer Ingenero and the project will be completed in the third quarter of this year. Half the project’s costs will be financed by the Australian Government, amounting to $1.1 million. This project will help do away with around 470 tons of carbon emissions annually!

[Ecoseed]

You aren’t the only one who has been sweating it out more than ever this summer. Everyone else around the globe is feeling the heat too! The sun is swelling up in pride and baking the earth to a blistering brown. March 2010 was the hottest ever, breaking records globally. Our planet has been subjected to the hottest January to March period in history this year.

Combining together the global land and ocean temperature, March 2010 was the warmest march ever, with 56.3°F (13.5°C), which is 1.39°F (0.77°C) above the 20th century average of 54.9°F (12.7°C). this heat has sure brought out drops of sweat on foreheads everywhere. Brace yourself for a hot summer season this year.

[ScienceDaily]

The results of a new study suggest that individuals who make regular use of tanning beds are more likely to be suffering from substance abuse, raising questions as to whether tanning itself is actually addictive. 

The research, conducted by Catherine Mosher and Sharon Danoff-Burg of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the State University of New York, was published in the latest issue of the Archives of Dermatology. The researchers found that people who admitted to other forms of substance abuse were more likely to have made frequent use of tanning beds in the previous year than those who did not show signs of substance abuse.

The scientists interviewed a total of 421 college students from September through December of 2006. They found that, out of 229 students who used indoor tanning facilities, 90 of them met criteria for signs of addiction to indoor tanning. Those same students also were more frequent drinkers of alcohol, marijuana users and were more likely to suffer symptoms of anxiety.

The study’s results were released less than a month after an FDA advisory panel recommended that the government either ban the use of tanning beds for everyone under the age of 18, or require parental consent. The recommendations were aimed at protecting children from the heightened risk of skin cancer from tanning beds.

FDA began to review the use of tanning beds, particularly among young people, after the World Health Organization (WHO) reclassified tanning beds as known carcinogens last year. WHO came to that conclusion after it conducted a study on tanning bed skin cancer risks. WHO’s report determined that the use of tanning beds before the age of 30 increases the risk of skin cancer by 75%.

Some studies have shown that the use of tanning beds by young adults results in eight times the risk of developing melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer once found mainly in the elderly, but which has increasingly become a problem for younger adults. The American Cancer Society says that melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is diagnosed in about 69,000 Americans each year and causes about 8,650 deaths annually. Less dangerous, but more common, basal and squamous cell carcinomas affect more than one million Americans each year and cause about 2,000 deaths annually.

If the process of getting a tan from an indoor tanning bed is itself addictive, it may make it harder to devise effective interventions to reduce skin cancer risk, researchers warned. However, the study does not draw a direct link between tanning and addiction, it only notes that frequent tanning bed users often show signs of an addiction and are more likely to be addicted to other substances.

Officials from the Indoor Tanning Association, which represents the U.S.’s $5 billion indoor tanning industry, was skeptical about the results, saying that there was no definitive proof that tanning was addictive, and that the word addiction was being used to stir up media attention.

Concerns over tanning bed cancer has resulted in bipartisan legislation aimed at lowering tanning bed cancer risks. The Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act, was introduced in late January by U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) and Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania). The bill would allow federal regulators to set controls on the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by tanning beds as well as set limits on the amount of time users can use the devices.

The sun shone with all its glory this Earth Day brightening up the world to its sparkling golden glory. And as a gift to us all, SunRun came up with an ingenious info-graphic that will help spread the word of solar power use around. Informative and enlightening, this info-graphic can also be embedded on blog sites and your own webpage, and visitors are sure to stop and have a look at it.

The info-graphic informs on ways to fix the broken electricity grid with the use of solar power. It also has a whole lot of stuff on the potential of solar energy and shows just how bad coal power can be. With a whole lot of information on rising energy demand and costs and the current usage of solar energy, the info-graphic also states that there should be around 30,000 new solar installations in 2010 in the United States. Worth a look!

[Sunrunhome]