Category: News

Trouble-prone starlet Lindsay Lohan is at the center of a brewing hit and run case in Los Angeles. A member of the paparazzi member is threatening legal action against the actress after claiming her driver “almost killed” him in a pedestrian acccident over the weekend.

The Georgia Rule star’s car allegedly struck the photographer at approximately 12:30 AM Sunday morning in front of The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, according to L.A.’s NBC affiliate KTLA. After plowing through a throng of determined snappers, the BMW sped away from the scene, witnesses say. Lohan, 23, wasn’t driving, but was inside the car at the time.

The driver is now the target of a criminal assault with a deadly weapon investigation.

The photographer suffered injuries to his arm and wrist, but was not taken to hospital. “Of course I’m going to sue them … but I don’t care about the money,” the photographer told TMZ.com Sunday. He claims he is “lucky to be alive,” especially since the driver was wearing sunglasses while driving in a dark alley.

“I want to press charges so badly … she’s going to jail,” the shutterbug shouted.

Lindsay is no stranger to bad manners behind the wheel. She got her first DUI in 2006, two weeks before her 21st birthday, when she slammed her Mercedes into a tree in Beverly Hills. Her second collar for drunk driving came in July 2007, just days after she left a Malibu rehab facility.

Eco Factor: Printable lithium-polymer batteries to be used with a flexible solar battery.

A research group led by Advanced Materials Innovation Center (AMIC) of Mie Industry and Enterprise Support Center is developing lithium polymer batteries that can be manufactured by printing technology.

(more…)

The next generation hybrid system is reportedly in the works within BMW and rumor goes it will come in the form of a split engine hybrid. According to a report by Autocar, the German manufacturer has already filed a patent application for the technology.

According to the source, the application filed by BMW describes the technology as "comprising a first internal combustion engine unit… and a second internal combustion engine unit.

The operating princip… (read more)

Kamui Kobayashi might not be the only Japanese driver in the Formula One roster next season. According to some recent reports in the French media, Renault F1 Team are currently considering veteran driver Takuma Sato for the vacant seat in their 2010 lineup. With Robert Kubica already confirming his stay at Enstone, new team manager Eric Boullier is on a deadline to secure a functional drivers’ lineup by the Valencia testing session in February.

According to French publication Auto… (read more)

Al-Masry Al-Youm (Zeinab Abul-Magd)

The story of the High Dam was a tale of a nation, hikayit sha‘b, as Abdel Halim Hafiz chanted in an iconic song from the Nasserist period.

This nation lived under the yoke of British colonialism for over 70 years. After gaining independence, Egypt’s revolutionary president, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, approached the World Bank to finance the construction of a dam on the Nile, a vital step towards economic development. The World Bank refused. In an audacious challenge to old and new imperialism, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 to acquire funding for the project. The struggling nation heroically endured subsequent military assaults and a trade embargo. The dam was eventually built.

“We said we would build and here we have built the high dam. Oh colonialism, we have built it with our hands, the high dam. With our money, with the hands of our workers,” Abdel Halim’s chorus enthusiastically repeated. Like this, the socialist dream began, only to fall apart, leaving behind memories of a vanished era.

The story of the High Dam at Aswan is indeed the tale of this nation. The stages of its history chronicle critical transformations in Egyptian history at large. During the last half century, the dam moved from being a celebrated monument to Egyptian independence to a forgotten barrage deep in the country’s south. It was a state-engineered tool of anti-imperialist propaganda, whose splendor faded away with the downfall and fundamental reversion of the anti-imperial project.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

After returning from a quarter in Costa Rica, Molly Heft-Neal ’11 faced a waitlist and a series of walk-in meetings with Stanford Housing before finally moving into the sophomore dorm Toyon on Monday. Heft-Neal was one of many students who found themselves on the Housing waitlist after not receiving placement in a residence because they were abroad fall quarter.

However, the annual winter housing crunch has been somewhat alleviated compared to past years. A week into the quarter, all students with guaranteed housing status have already been assigned to residences on campus; a few students without guaranteed status still remain unhoused.

According to Executive Director of Student Housing Rodger Whitney, Stanford Housing always sees a higher demand for housing in the winter because fewer students choose to leave campus compared to those returning from abroad. Housing addressed the issue by preparing additional spaces to be available ahead of time.

“This year, for example, in addition to filling our regular on-campus vacancies, we reserved an additional small block of apartments in the Oak Creek Apartments complex in order to house undergraduates very near to the main campus,” Whitney wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

In addition, apartments are also available to undergraduates in Escondido Village. While these measures were taken in previous years as well, the availability of temporary housing to unhoused students beginning the first Monday of the quarter has also aided those still on the waitlist.

“The numbers of students waiting for housing versus the vacancies available [is] never a completely stable situation,” Whitney said.

“There is much fluctuation in enrollment and occupancy over the first two weeks of each quarter, as students return to campus and/or depart for any number of reasons,” he added. “Thus, as vacancies become available, they are offered to students who are looking for housing.”

Heft-Neal expressed some frustration with the process, however, because temporary housing was not made available for unhoused students until last Monday, leaving many without a place to stay for the weekend before school began. She also felt that students who go abroad with a Stanford program are given a higher priority.

“It was frustrating, because when we first got told we didn’t get housing, we didn’t even know that was a possibility,” she said. “For our first meeting on Dec. 5, everyone was still abroad and we had to get a proxy, and that was stressful because we couldn’t even go ourselves.”

Heft-Neal was number 23 on the waitlist, and after sending a proxy to the first walk-in meeting and two consecutive rounds, she was finally given the choice of Toyon or the Oak Creek Apartments.

For Helen Chen ’11, returning from Santiago and moving into Muwekma-Tah-Ruk was a much easier process, and her experience in the Row house so far has been a happy one.

“I drew alone, and I just listed my preferences of where I wanted to live before the deadline in October,” Chen said. “I never had any complications with Housing.”

According to Whitney, absolutely no “re-stuffing” of previously unpacked residences occurred, and the Master Plan allowed for even more spaces to be available to students with guaranteed status arriving back on campus. “The uncrowding of our residences was a major commitment of Student Housing as well as the University leadership, and we have not reversed this process,” Whitney said.

“With the addition of the Munger Graduate Residences and the conversion of Crothers Hall to undergraduate housing, we have 450 more students living on campus this year than we did last year at this time,” he added.

By Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

There’s not much that’s subtle about Ed Hardy, the clothing line splashed with rhinestones and vintage tattoo designs that’s favored by the likes of Jon Gosselin.

But at CES, Ed Hardy entered the world of mobile accessories with handset designs called Icing, intended for “the distinguishing mobile user who wants to show off the Ed Hardy brand with subtlety,” according to the company.

They’re made by Crystal Icing, which makes handsets adorned with Swarovski crystals. Users can choose between 10 new designs with names like “Beautiful Ghost,” “Love Kills Slowly” and “Koi Fish” for mobile faceplates ($30), iPod faceplates ($20 to $30) or special rhinestone faceplates ($50).

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

By Andy Ihnatko, Contributor, Chicago Sun Times

My Wednesday began with a worried focus on tablet computers.

Before lunchtime I closed my eyes, commended my soul to God, and bought roundtrip airfare to San Francisco for the last week of January.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

By Dave McClure, Blogger, Master of 500 Hats

Haven’t really gotten on a rant in awhile… guess i’ve been doing a lot of travel lately, but now that I’m back in California for awhile, there’s something i’ve been meaning to bring up that bothers me. It’s kind of a dirty little secret of the startup industry, but there are very few good product, design, and marketing people in tech. And hardly any of them that are good seem to make it into the venture capital profession.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

A Ford está anunciando muitas novidades para o ano de 2010 algumas delas já mostradas no mês passado e o restante será apresentado no Salão do Automóvel de Detroit 2010.

De acordo com fontes internas teremos o lançamento de nove motores com cambio de seis marchas em sua maioria novos ou reformulados.

Isso somente confirma o que a empresa havia anunciado três anos atrás de reformular completamente sua linha entre 2008 e 2013. Essas modificações serão aplicadas em toda a sua linha mecânica somando um total de 60 combinações no mundo.

O novo 1.6 litros inline-four não é novidade nem o cambio de seis marchas automático de dupla embreagem que equipará o Ford Fiesta, também já sabíamos que o Mustang irá receber motores V6 e V8 o que reduz o consumo de combustível ganhando em desempenho.

Barb Samardzich engenheiro da Ford revelou que a caminhonete F150 receberá o novo motor 3.5 litros V6 Ecoboost ainda em 2010, além de um 2.0 litro inline-four Ecoboost com cambio de seis marchas automático de dupla embreagem.

Fonte: Autoblog

Daily Times, Pakistan

Egypt will host a conference in April for countries demanding the return of their antiquities, stolen but on display in museums round the world, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said. The conference will “discuss the question of returning stolen antiquities,” the council said in a statement. It gave no dates for the three-day conference. Thirty countries, including Greece, Mexico, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and China, will participate in the Cairo gathering, said Egypt’s antiquities director Zahi Hawass, who has made the return of looted Egyptian artefacts the hallmark of his tenure. “Officials from these countries will discuss taking action internationally to support efforts to return stolen antiquities to their countries of origin… and exhibited in certain museums and showrooms around the world,” Hawass said. The conference aims to work out “specific recommendations” and draw up a list of the antiquities claimed by each participating country. It will also review international laws on the subject, for their “reconsideration” and “to protect the rights of the countries to recover their cultural and archaeological property,” Hawass added.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

PR Newswire

Swansea archaeologist David Gill has been analyzing the sale of antiquities in New York since 1999. Some $300 million worth of antiquities have been sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s since 1998. There are normally two sales a year for each of the auction houses.

Around $20 million of antiquities were sold in 2009, down by over $8.5 million from the previous year. This is similar to the levels in 2003 ($20.4 million) and 2006 ($19.9 million). Only 2002 was significantly lower.

Sotheby’s seems to have been achieving lower sums. 2009 saw one of the lowest amounts achieved in the decade at just under $8.6 million. The worst year was in 2006 with $6 million. However, in December 2006 ,the auction house sold a single antiquity, the Guennol Lioness, said to have been found near Baghdad and displayed in the Brooklyn Museum since 1948, for $57.161 million.

Christie’s, in contrast, has been increasing its market share.

However, during 2009, a number of antiquities were seized from auction houses in New York at the request of Italian authorities. Some appear to have been identified from images seized during police raids on a dealer’s warehouse in Geneva.

One trend over the decade has been the decrease in the element of Egyptian antiquities. At Sotheby’s, Egyptian objects only represent some 17% of the value of the sales. A study of the median value of the lots in the sales suggests that prices are around their 2004 level.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Ted Zayner ’78 appointed to Santa Clara County Superior Court

More than 30 years after graduating from Stanford, Ted Zayner ‘78, a Bay Area resident since he arrived on the Farm, has found his calling.

On Dec. 29, Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed Zayner to a six-year term on the bench of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, whose session begins Jan. 19, sending Zayner’s career in a direction he couldn’t imagine when he first settled at Stern Hall in 1974.

Zayner was drawn from his home on the south side of Chicago to the Farm in part because of memories of watching Jim Plunkett win the Rose Bowl.

He spent his childhood hanging out on the sidelines of the field where his father coached high school football in the public leagues — he was 4 years old when he went to his first game. While football was not the primary reason for attending Stanford, he said it “was one of the things in the back of my mind.”

After graduating from St. Ignatius College Prep, a Jesuit school in Chicago that he described as “almost a magnet school,” Zayner helped assemble an independent intramural sports league where he played football, volleyball, water polo and soccer. But academically, Zayner wasn’t sure what direction to take.

“Like perhaps a lot of 18-year-olds coming out of high school, I sort of had ideas what I wanted to do, but it’s not that I had thought out any kind of career path,” he said. “I kind of defaulted toward science, muddling around in pre-med for a little bit, and decided I wasn’t going to survive in that.”

In college, and even law school, Zayner never imagined being a judge. It wasn’t until fall quarter his senior year, after he had flirted with degrees in biology, physics, math, economics and engineering, that Zayner start thinking about going to law school.

“[At the start of my senior year,] I was an econ major with only a few classes left, and then wasn’t really excited about being an econ major,” he said.

“I wanted to go to law school because I was interested in that,” Zayner added. “I wasn’t certain I wanted to be a lawyer, but I thought law school would be an interesting thing to do.”

Zayner began litigating shortly after he graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in 1983.

“I pretty much got thrown into it and started taking depositions [pretrial interrogation of witnesses] and preparing cases,” he said. “So, at the outset, it was a little nerve-wracking.”

For Zayner, the anxiety hasn’t disappeared, but it has changed character over time.

“The nervousness now, I liken to competitive nervousness — it’s not something that prevents you from doing the job and doing an effective job, but it enhances your awareness and your focus,” he said.

Zayner recalled a memorable bad-faith insurance case, which involved a yearlong series of trials concerning chemical cleanup liability. His firm was representing an insurance company slapped with a payment to cover cleanup costs for FMC Corporation’s chemical processing sites.

“It was probably the case that shaped my confidence in my skills as a trial lawyer more than anything else,” he said.

In stark contrast to his experience, Zayner believes today’s young lawyers aren’t being “thrown into it” fast enough or getting enough courtroom time. Part of the reason, he said, stems from a criminal case backlog that delays and drives up the cost of bringing civil cases to trial.

“The courts in general are fairly overwhelmed,” he said. “And they’re overwhelmed with criminal cases, which always have first priority, so it’s harder to get civil cases out to trial.”

Zayner attributes the rise in court fees, lawyers’ billable hour rates and other litigation expenses in the last three decades to a culture where a lot of clients, especially large companies, won’t pay for relatively inexperienced lawyers to try cases. Instead, young lawyers “tend to get a lot of experience working long hours and doing a lot of the grunt work that has to be done to prep a case.”

But working behind the scenes, they aren’t learning what it’s like in the courtroom. As Zayner put it, “they don’t get the reward at the end.”

When cases go to trial, Zayner believes new lawyers should sit “second chair” to their more practiced colleagues to gain courtroom experience.

“When you go to trial and learn to try a case in front of a jury, it’s a whole new world,” he said. “It’s a gradual learning curve like anything else — you grow more and more comfortable in your own skin.”

In addition to changing new lawyers’ roles, Zayner said the high expense of taking civil cases to trial makes it more likely the cases will be settled out of court.

“The courts have more strongly encouraged mediation and negotiation alternative disputed resolution (ADR), a more efficient and cost-effective method of trying to get cases resolved early,” Zayner said.

Since 1991, Zayner has involved himself in ADR both as a judge pro tem — a “temporary judge” — presiding over pretrial settlement conferences that sitting judges don’t have time for, and as private practice judicial arbitrator.

Zayner started applying for a full-time judgeship three years ago.

“It’s a pretty daunting process,” he admitted. The application is four pages, “but when you answer all the questions and add a detailed resume of your entire legal career, you end up submitting 50 or 60 pages to the governor’s office. And then they do their own investigation and vetting.

“If the governor’s office considers you a viable candidate, the state bar’s judicial commission interviews and reviews you, and then the governor’s office does its own investigation and brings you up for an interview,” Zayner added. “And then you wait and hope you get a phone call. They won’t ever call you again except to give you an appointment.”

Zayner got the call. He starts overseeing misdemeanor criminal cases at Palo Alto Courthouse on Jan 19.

“That seems to be a traditional first place for new judges to learn the ropes,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”