Category: News

President Barack Obama brokering an agreement at the Copenhagen climate change conference that critics say fails to address the problem of global warming.

Will the failed Copenhagen Climate Change Conference dampen investments in the clean energy sector? The short answer is no. With or without a binding agreement, demand for renewable energy will continue to grow next year and beyond. Ironically, China will lead this growth, in spite of playing an instrumental role in turning Copenhagen into a fiasco.

For 2010, New Energy Finance estimates that globally, companies and governments will invest $200 billion in renewable energy, up nearly 50 percent from $130 billion in 2009 and above the $155 billion invested in 2008.

Things are also looking good for venture capital (VC) firms, which are a key source of funding for renewable energy companies. In a recent post on RenewableEnergyWorld, Peter Nieh, founder of cleantech-focused VC fund Lightspeed predicted that the sector would see “increased availability of equity, debt, and project finance capital.”

Need further confirmation that the failed summit will not dampen investment flow into renewable energy?  On Saturday, China amended its energy law to require the country’s power utilities to increase their purchase of renewable energy, including wind, solar, or hydropower power, even if they are more expensive and less familiar than carbon-based electric generation technologies.

The new regulations come just a couple of weeks after the China-lead derailment of the climate change summit and provide investors clarity on one of the world’s largest cleantech markets. In short, one can successfully stonewall a global climate change conference and still like renewable energy. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Over the next two years, China has committed to invest $220 billion in renewable energy. As part of this massive green stimulus package China seeks to raise its wind power capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2020, or eight times the current level. Some market studies estimate the size of the clean energy market there at nearly a $1 trillion per year.

China’s green commitment is not motivated by altruistic environmental concerns. It’s about basic economics.  For one, the nation’s leadership views clean energy as a pathway to securing a technological dominance at the expense of the U.S. and European Union countries. On a more micro level, as Sam Jaffe, a senior research analyst at IDC’s Energy Insight tells GER, in China, the price differentiation between coal-generation (it feeds 70 percent of China’s power generation) and renewables is not as steep as in the U.S. For China going green make economic sense.

“The outcome of Copenhagen does not entail a shrinking of cleantech investments,” concludes Ethan Zindler, head of North American research at New Energy Finance. “A realistic assessment of the climate change summit is that from the start it was going to be impossible to get 190-plus countries to agree to a binding agreement.” Zindler points out that New Energy Finance’s NEX – WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index, which tracks the stock performance of traded clean energy companies, has continued to grow despite Copenhagen.

Photo Credit: White House Photo by Pete Souza via Wikimedia.org

TopNews United StatesCodexis IPO: Biofuels Firm Tests MarketWall Street Journal (blog)There can be no assurance that anyone will be able or willing to develop and operate biofuel production plants at commercial scale or that any biofuel …Codexis IPO:…

Biofuels investing is not for the faint of heart.

Earlier this week, Codexis Inc. filed for a $100 million initial public offering on Nasdaq. The short press release is here and we’ve uploaded the entire 841-page file for your reading pleasure here.

Codexis, as you may recall, is a San Francisco-based company developing the microbes to chew up plants and turn them into sugars, which are then turned into ethanol and diesel. Shell owns a 20% stake in the company and is pumping about $15 million a quarter into research and development. It filed for an IPO before, but then pulled back in September 2008 citing “current public market conditions.”

That was good timing. Two weeks later, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Within three weeks, American International Group was bailed out and Bank of America had bought Merrill Lynch.

An alternative energy, U.S.-listed IPO is something of a novelty. The last biofuels IPO was way back in December 2007, when Chinese biodiesel maker Gushan Environmental Energy Ltd. debuted. After that there have only been three IPOs – solar outfits Real Goods Solar, GT Solar and STR Holdings. (Hat tip to Dealogic for the data.) Battery maker A123 began trading a couple months ago also.

Will Codexis timing be any better this time around? There are still plenty of potholes.

The beauty of an IPO filing is that the company must file all sorts of risk factors laying out exactly what can go wrong. And in the biofuels business, that’s quite a lengthy list. Codexis (and its lawyers) cite: its sugar daddy Shell could decide it wants to stop bankrolling R&D efforts; “the development of technology for converting sugar derived from non-food renewable biomass sources into a commercially viable biofuel is still in its early stages, and we do not know whether this can be done commercially or at all”; “there are no commercial scale cellulosic biofuel production plants in operation. There can be no assurance that anyone will be able or willing to develop and operate biofuel production plants at commercial scale or that any biofuel facilities can be profitable”; new infrastructure is needed, such as rail lines; tax credits and other government subsidies could disappear; falling oil prices will pole axe revenue; fears of genetic engineering could pinch the company; and there might not be enough feedstock to turn into biofuels.

Take a deep breathe. There’s one more, although it’s really only applicable to Codexis: “Our headquarters is located in the San Francisco Bay Area near known earthquake fault zones and is vulnerable to significant damage from earthquakes.”

A swarm of locusts is not mentioned.

The most feature-filled Reader device ever created by Sony, the Reader Daily Edition, is now hitting consumers and press worldwide and the reviews are pretty interesting. My Mom recently acquired a Kindle from a friend and I consider that this iteration of the Reader experience to be finally on par. Let’s face it – Sony was having problems competiting with a product that offered free wireless internet to connect to the Kindle Store, the ability to browse websites, and other interactive features.

Fortunately, the Reader Daily has free 3G Internet through AT&T with no reoccuring charge and a huge 1024×600 screen. Can you say widescreen newspapers and subscriptions? Nice.

After reading these reviews, I think the eBook store on the Sony Reader Daily Edition looks better than the Kindle. It also seems like the response time is on par (and perhaps slightly faster than) the Kindle. Check out these cool reviews we found of the PRS-900 (aka PRS-900BC), and we will update this post with other reviews as time goes on.

• Great initial opinions and pictures at First Look: Sony Reader Daily Edition PRS-900 eBook Reader” from MobileTechReview
• The always informative Amazon.com Sony Reader Daily Edition Reviews
• The EBook Reader’s PRS-900 Daily Edition Review with video!
• Sony Electronics Social Media Evangelist Sukhjit Ghag’s Reader Daily Edition Unboxing Video

Image courtesy of Lisa at MobileTechReview.

Most women make New Year’s resolutions, and healthier choices are often at the top of the list of to dos for the new year, according to a survey conducted by health info website VitalJuice.

Health vows abound on January 1

The site found that 89 percent of all women make resolutions, and 94 percent of women surveyed said they were planning to make a resolution for 2010. Among the most popular choices for resolutions this year included:

• Exercise more (17 percent)
• Lose weight (15 percent)
• Be a happier person (15 percent)
• Eat healthier (10 percent)
• Reduce stress (9 percent)

Of those who said they were making resolutions this year, 80 percent said they had “do over” resolutions they hadn’t been able to achieve previously, but 66 percent of women said they’ve been completely successful with a resolution in the past.

Some of the resolutions women most commonly said they’d been successful with include:

• Eating healthier (52 percent)
• Exercising more (49 percent)
• Losing weight (27 percent)
• Spending less money (22 percent)
• Being a happier person (16 percent)

Most hope they can keep their resolutions

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they pick a resolution they hope they can achieve, while 21 percent said they resolve to do things they know they can achieve and 1 percent have serious doubts about whether they can reach their goals.

As women age, 53 percent say they choose resolutions that are easier to keep than they did when they were younger, and 78 percent say they’re better at sticking with their resolutions than they used to be.

Still, a lot of people aren’t thinking about those new year goals for very long. While just 4 percent of respondents said they think about their goals for just a week, 28 percent focus on them for only two to four weeks, 26 percent for five to eight weeks and 43 percent are still thinking about them into March.

Forty percent said the best way to keep a resolution is to make the goal manageable, while 28 percent said telling a friend or family member helped them stick to a vow. Twenty percent said writing down their goals helped. Twenty-seven percent said they shared resolutions with a significant other, and 25 percent with friends, but 21 percent told no one (and just 2 percent shared the information on a blog).

Some things off limits in January

Lots of women seem to have pretty general goals about eating healthier, losing weight and exercising more, but many women also have certain things they refuse to give up in pursuit of their goals. Sixteen percent said they wouldn’t give up chocolate, while 14 percent had some other kind of specific food item they refused to part with.

Twelve percent said they wouldn’t do without alcohol, and 8 percent wouldn’t skip sex, the same number who refused to stop eating sweets or desserts.

Cash would be a big motivator

Thirty percent of women said money would help motivate them to reach their goal, while 13 percent said a trip or vacation would help them keep their resolution. Only 11 percent said a feeling of accomplishment would be sufficient motivation, and 10 percent said looking or feeling better would do the trick.

Forty-three percent said paying a “fine” of $100 or less for breaking their resolution would be enough to keep them on track, but 22 percent said they’d need between $101 and $250 to stay with their goal.

What a woman wants

Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said they planned to get more exercise in 2010, while 45 percent said they’d diet more, and the same number were looking for more sex.

Just 12 percent of women said they’d rather see a cure for obesity in the coming year rather than a cure for cancer. And 59 percent said getting more exercise is more important than getting more sex. Fifty-eight percent said that when trying to lose weight it’s important to exercise more, while 42 percent said it’s more important to eat less.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed with rather give up eating sweets for a month rather than go a month without sex. But giving up the cell phone for a month just narrowly beat out skipping sex, with 52 percent saying they’d give up their phone and 48 percent saying they’d skip sex.

Eighty-nine percent said they’d rather have an extra $10,000 than lose 10 pounds.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Women want to exercise more in coming year, plus other resolutions

I’ve seen a lot of hits lately from people looking up book report info on Mick Cochrane’s excellent YA novel, The Girl Who Threw Butterflies, because I’ve written about it previously. For example, in the last few days I’ve seen multiple hits for “Setting of The Girl Who Threw Butterflies” and “Tone of The Girl Who Threw Butterflies.” I’m glad teachers are assigning it, and while it’s a lovely book that would only take a few hours to read, I understand that today’s students are stressed and busy, so I’ll give you some quick help here.*

PLOT: It’s about a girl who masters the ancient Japanese art of butterfly hurling, under the tutelage of a sage mentor.

CHARACTERS: Renesmee, the heroine, and Yogi, her mentor. Mutt, her best friend, and Jeff, her dog. Her parents’ names are Punch and Judy.

SETTING: Mobile, Alabama in the 1960s.

THEME: You can do anything if you put your mind to it, unless it is winning the regional butterfly hurling championship, which is astonishingly hard even if you do put your mind to it.

TONE: Bawdy.

There, I hope that is helpful. Godspeed, young book reporters.

*No need to even glance at the book and verify. Just print off this blog entry, scribble your name at the top, and hand it in.

From Hackett: Home of authentic British style, this season Hackett brings you a collection inspired by quintessential British traditions. From the city to country gent, Hackett has your look covered this season. Choose from the Mayfair & Tailoring Collections, Tweed and Horse & Hound Collections and the Essentials Collection. This season, get the collegiate look inspired by our sponsorship of the Boat Race & the London Rowing Club or the Klosters Collection, inspired by the Hackett sponsored Snow Polo. For the motor enthusiast, there is the prestigious Aston Martin Racing Collection.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: Hackett

The Leo has a digital compass which is only useful by default in the HTC Digital Compass app. This is a bit of a waste of hardware, and a developer on XDA-Developers clearly agrees.

March2003 and Barty22 have been working for some time on a GPS driver for Windows Mobile which addresses the many issues seen with Qualcomm GPS chips, including the notorious GPS lag.

The GPSModDriver which is designed to increase the reliability of GPS readings has been updated to support the digital compass. This update also adds some usage of the accelerometer present in many devices.

GpsModDriver 1.50b changelog:
– Added HD2 compass and g-sensor support to ModDriver
– Hardware compass is read and averaged (only when it exists in the phone)
– G-sensor is read, averaged, and translated into orientation code (only when compass exists in phone)
– Whenever GPS has no fix, compass heading is inserted into the GPS data
– Whenever speed is below (delta speed * HDOP), compass heading is inserted.

The beauty of modifying the driver is that the modification will work for all GPS applications, but the effect will depends on the application.

In iGO8: In 3d view, your car arrow will rotate with the entire screen according to your compass heading, as long as you have a GPS fix. In 2d mode it will rotate the arrow according to your compass heading, or you can set it to rotate the map according to your heading, so that you will always move towards the top of your screen.
In Google Maps: Your current location and current heading will be displayed by means of a blue arrow. It will not rotate the map, but only the arrow.

Read more and download the modified driver at XDA-Developers.

Via WMExperts

After three-plus decades of exploring the gas giants, passing the orbit of Pluto, and reaching points beyond, Voyager 2 has found something interesting near the edge of the solar system: surprisingly magnetic fluff. Researchers document their findings in this week’s Nature.

Of course, this fluff isn’t made from the dust bunnies you find under your bed, the ‘Local Fluff’ (a nickname for the Local Interstellar Cloud) is a vast, wispy cloud of hot hydrogen and helium stretching 30 light-years across [Discovery News]. Astronomers already knew this fluff was out there near the boundary area between our solar system and interstellar space. What surprised them is that the fluff is much more magnetized than they’d expected.

Voyager 2 isn’t actually in the fluff yet, but it can measure the area’s magnetism by observing how its magnetic field deforms the shape of the heliosphere, that balloon of space created by the solar wind pushing outward from our sun. The magnetic field is not only stronger than anticipated—3.7 to 5.5 microgauss—it’s also tilted off the galactic plane of the Milky Way by about 30 degrees, NASA investigator Merav Opher says. “The tilted field probably is a result from turbulence in the interstellar medium outside our solar system or results from collisions of clouds in the solar system neighborhood,” Opher says [USA Today].

Magnetism could answer the question of why the “Local Fluff” continues to exist at all. Though it formed from supernova remnants 10 million years ago, exhaust from other supernovae should have destroyed it by now. It would be like expecting a wisp of cigarette smoke to retain its structure in the middle of a tornado; some kind of force would need to be surrounding (or intertwined through) the smoke helping it resist being dispersed. In the case of the wispy Local Fluff, a magnetic field may be helping [Discovery News].

Next stop for Voyager 2: interstellar space, beyond the influence of the solar wind. By NASA’s calculations, the two voyagers have until about 2025 to keep exploring before their instruments operate no longer.

Related Content:
80beats: Voyager 2 Hits the Edge of the Solar System—And Writes Home
80beats: Solar Winds Drops to Lowest Recorded Level, Probe Finds
80beats: NASA Spacecraft Will Soon Map the Solar System’s Distant Edge
The Loom: Astrophilia, a tattooed ode to Voyager 2
DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Aliens, including that the Voyager golden record contains a Bulgarian folk song

Image: NASA

Biophysicists at the University at Buffalo (NY) have found a protein in tarantula venom that shows promise as a therapy for muscular dystrophy (MD) and have formed a start-up to advance the drug to clinical trials. Fredrick Sachs, PhD, professor of physiology and biophysics at UB, and colleagues discovered the peptide, called GsMTx4. Because therapies for MD are classed as orphan drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, allowing a shorter testing period than normal drugs, Sachs anticipates that Buffalo-based Rose Pharmaceuticals may obtain FDA approval of the peptide for human use within two years. In addition to MD, the peptide has potential as a therapy for several other conditions, including neuropathic pain and atrial fibrillation.

In collaboration with the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, Sachs’ team tested the effect of GsMTx4 on mice with MD. Results showed that the drug increased muscle strength and caused no mortality, morbidity, or toxicity. Rose Pharmaceuticals now is developing methods to administer the drug. The peptide and its mirror image are covered by U.S. patents obtained by UB’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer, and Economic Outreach (STOR) and licensed to the start-up. No other drugs are known to act specifically on mechanosensitive ion channels — the target of GsMTx4, according to Sachs.

Source: UB News Center

Filed under: Spy Photos, Convertible, Performance, Bentley, Luxury

Really, it was only a matter of time before spy photos of the Bentley Continental GTC Supersports made the rounds. After all, there was never any doubt that the German-owned maker of high-end luxury cars would eventually cut the top off its latest sportster — in this case powered by the most powerful production version of the automaker’s 6.0-liter W12 powerplant.

For those that like to keep track of such things, this would be the eighth derivative of the Continental platform – the others being the GT coupe, GTC cabrio, Flying Spur sedan, Speed versions of each and the Supersports coupe. If it does indeed see the light of day, expect the GTC Supersports to boast a similar weight reduction as the coupe (243 pounds, although it’s sure to gain a few when the top comes off) along with carbon ceramic brakes and the deletion of the rear seats. Oh, and flex-fuel capability… at some point.

[Source: ThumbSnap]

Spy Shots: Inevitable Bentley Continental GTC Supersports spotted originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arrayit Diagnostics, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Arrayit Corporation, has signed an exclusive license agreement with Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, for IP covering newly discovered biomarkers of ovarian cancer. The agreement grants Arrayit exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a novel microarray-based diagnostic test using biomarkers developed by Wayne State researchers. The test aims to effectively screen for early-stage ovarian cancer in women who are not yet symptomatic. According to the National Cancer Institute, ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of death among U.S. women, yet no adequate screening or diagnostic test for early-stage detection exists. As a result, most ovarian cancers are diagnosed only when later stage symptoms manifest and the disease has metastasized to other parts of the body. In the near future, Arrayit plans to file a premarket approval application for its pre-symptomatic ovarian cancer diagnostic test with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Source: Clinical Lab Products

In less than three years, technology transfer at the University of Delaware (UD) in Newark has evolved from an acknowledged bare-bones licensing effort into broad-scale commercialization activity. UD President Patrick Harker, who took the reins in July 2007, provided the initial vision that the university should “play a critical role in the prosperity of the community of Newark, our state, and our region,” says David Weir, PhD, director of the Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships (OEIP). “With that in mind, we came to the conclusion that we needed a portal or gateway to allow the outside world to gain access to the university’s knowledge-based assets and, at the same time, to allow the university and its assets out into the outside world.”

Translating the concept of a two-direction gateway into reality took a giant leap forward in July 2008 when the university launched OEIP as the dedicated core of its entrepreneurial, tech transfer, and business development strategy. Previously, the university’s tech transfer capabilities were embedded in the UD Research Office. The creation of OEIP put these activities “into a business culture,” says Weir. Two central components of OEIP are the IP Center and the IP Asset Development Group. The IP Center manages all UD-developed IP, driving invention disclosures, patent application filing, and patent procurement. The IP Asset Development Group’s primary role is to “extract value” from the university’s IP portfolio, says Weir, including commercialization of the portfolio through licensing, marketing, and start-up activities. A detailed article on the UD gateway approach appears in the December 2009 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To get access to this complete article and become a subscriber, including access to the entire archive of back issues, CLICK HERE.

Sure, this ain’t the first time that Seagate’s allegedly run afoul of the law, but this tale will definitely have you breathlessly demanding more (you know, if patent infringement is exciting to you — which would actually be pretty weird). Way back in July 2000, Convolve (an M.I.T. spin-off formed to market the school’s hard drive noise reduction research) sued Seagate for using patented tech in its Sound Barrier Technology — with the end result being that Seagate drives no longer support automatic acoustic management. But that isn’t the exciting part. In a dramatic turn reported by The New York Times, a former Seagate employee named Paul A. Galloway has apparently provided “an eyewitness account” of what went down, including the theft of info obtained in a meeting between the two companies held in 1998 and 1999 and the destruction of blueprints relating to Convolve’s technology. As for the whistleblower, he claims that he was kept in the dark about the nature of the research he was working on, with Seagate even going so far as to take his computer with notes pertinent to the trial. All of this (and more) are detailed in an affidavit that is available (in PDF form) by hitting that source link — and, man, is it a page-turner!

Ex-Seagate employee claims the company stole MIT research, tried to cover up its tracks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University is securing $5 million to $10 million to fund the first start-up companies expected to move later this winter into its new Biodesign Impact Accelerator. “We expect the first three to five start-ups will enter the Impact Accelerator by February of 2010,” says Joe Caspermeyer, a spokesperson for the Biodesign Institute. Those start-ups — to be selected from proposals now under review by the accelerator’s executive committee — will be designed to commercialize the institute’s research discoveries and technologies. The firms will have access to up to 8,000 square feet of research space at the Biodesign Institute, located on ASU’s Tempe, AZ, campus, and a 25,000-square-foot floor in nearby SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center.

Over the accelerator’s first few years of operation, additional space will be built to house 10 to 15 companies, according to Caspermeyer. The funds now being raised will be supplemented in the future, with a goal of $25 million for infrastructure improvements and technical support. The accelerator will fund and nurture companies deemed capable of capitalizing on the institute’s innovations in personalized medicine, diagnostic systems and devices, cancer research, vaccine platforms, alternative energy solutions, bioremediation technologies, and national security initiatives.

Source: GenomeWeb

On Wednesday, January 6, our distance learning division presents Successful Outsourcing for Tech Transfer Organizations. This detailed session will focus on how to implement an effective outsourcing strategy to reduce your backlog of invention files, get more deals done, and boost faculty relations. A case study of Texas Tech University’s outsourcing experience will provide valuable takeaways and lessons learned. CLICK HERE for full details.

Also coming soon:

• January 27, 2010: “Shrink Wrap” Your University’s Technologies for Industry: Packaging Your Innovations to Minimize Corporate Risk and Extract Optimum Licensing Value.
• February 9, 2010: Patent Prosecution: Best Practices for Reducing Costs While Improving Patent Quality
• March 9, 2010: Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to invest up to $366 million to establish and operate three Energy Innovation Hubs focused on accelerating R&D in three key energy areas. Each hub, to be funded at up to $122 million over five years, will bring together a multidisciplinary team of researchers to shorten the path from scientific discovery to technological development and commercial deployment of highly promising energy-related technologies. “Given the urgency of our challenges in both energy and climate, we need to do everything we can to mobilize our nation’s scientific and technological talent to accelerate the pace of innovation,” says DOE Secretary Steven Chu.

The hubs are part of a broad-based clean energy research strategy that includes three complementary initiatives:

• The Energy Frontier Research Centers launched by the DOE’s Office of Science will support multi-year, multi-investigator scientific collaborations focused on overcoming hurdles in basic science that block transformational discoveries.
• The department’s recently formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (”ARPA-E”) will use an entrepreneurial funding model to explore potentially transformative technologies.
• The Energy Innovation Hubs will establish larger, highly integrated teams to conduct high-risk, high-reward research and seek to solve priority technology challenges from basic research to engineering development to commercialization readiness.

The three DOE Energy Innovation Hubs will focus on:

• production of fuels directly from sunlight;
• improvement of energy-efficient building systems design; and
• computer modeling and simulation for the development of advanced nuclear reactors.

The DOE will provide $22 million in the first year to establish each hub and up to $25 million per year for the following four years to support operations. Information on the DOE’s hub implementation plan can be found at http://hubs.energy.gov.

Source: Ethanol Producer Magazine

These days, we’re inundated with overly-airbrushed female musicians supported only by their underwires and overproduction. While many lesser-known artists are slowly being recognized by larger audiences, we’d still like to see many more female musicians in the spotlight who have raw talent — with whatever instrument it may be. Here are 15 incredibly sexy female musicians — that don’t suck.

Jenny Lewis

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Jenny Lewis is the primary vocalist of the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, and is one hot ginger. She’s since released two solo albums, and dabbles in indie folk, rock and alternative country. Her vocals ooze raw emotion, and her songwriting is tops, too. It doesn’t hurt that she wears cute little numbers up on stage, either.

Sara Bareilles

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Singer-songwriter and noted pianist Sara Bareilles gained mainstream popularity in 2007 with her hit single, Love Song, and we haven’t been able to keep our eyes, or ears, off of her since. This sultry beauty dabbles in pop, pop rock, and soul. A nice plus that you’ll see a lot with the girls on this list — her voice is amazingly versatile and flawless live.

Amy Lee

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Amy Lee not only catches the public eye for fronting the rock band Evanescence, but for her stunning looks as well. She often sports corsets and fishnets on stage, but she’s the classiest broad you’ll ever see wearing them. She’s a classically trained pianist, and can also play the harp, organ and guitar. Besides all that, her vocal range is unbelievable — without the help of Autotune.

Sarah Brightman

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The word opera doesn’t conjure an alluring image to many in this day and age, but Sarah Brightman definitely changes that for all who experience her music. A British crossover soprano, Brightman is known best for her role as Christine Daae in the original The Phantom of the Opera, a part that was written for her voice. She has a staggering 160 Gold and Platinum awards in 34 countries and a three-octave voice of an angel — with looks to match.

Neko Case

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Neko Case, singer-songwriter extraordinaire, is best known for her solo work and contributing work with Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers. With looks to kill and a voice to match, she’s nabbed a Grammy nomination and remains a champion among women in rock music with a style distinctly her own.

Emilie Simon

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Emilie Simon is a beautiful singer-songwriter from France. She brings electronic and experimental influences to the table — along with a light, whispy voice and sexy accompanying accent. Though her musical journey only started in 2003, she has since moved to New York City to take on the rest of the world and shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

KT Tunstall

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KT Tunstall, a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Scotland, shot into the mainstream after her stellar performance on the British music television show Later… with Jools Holland. She’s since picked up a Grammy nomination and BRIT Award — along with an engagement ring. We know she’s spoken for, but we can still look.

Hayley Williams

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An American singer and songwriter, Hayley Williams fronts the rock band Paramore — best known for singles Misery Business and Decode. The band truly shot into stardom when Decode was featured in Twilight, but Williams truly has a voice that carries it’s own. Hottness doesn’t hurt in the business either — she won Sexiest Female at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009.

Cat Power

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Chan Marshall, AKA Cat Power, is a singer-songwriter known for her amazing, breathy voice, minimalist style, and home-grown beauty. In 2007 she became the first female solo act to win the Shortlist Music Prize when her album, The Greatest, was voted album of the year.

Rachael Yamagata

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Japanese-American beauty Rachael Yamagata is a singer-songwriter that has seen great success in her 32 years. Her music is considered blues rock and alternative — and it’s has been featured in shows like Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy, and How I Met Your Mother. Her looks are classic, and she has a twin, but to our disappointment we found out it’s a guy.

Feist

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Leslie Feist, who performs under the name Feist, is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for her solo work, but is also a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. She dabbles in anti-folk and baroque pop — and gained a reputation for putting out some catchy beats. We’d like this Grammy-nominated musician to get feisty with us.

Taylor Swift

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Taylor Swift was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when Kanye West interrupted her at the VMAs while she was accepting her award for Best Female Video. Her voice is solid and her songs are highly autobiographical — that night she became the first country singer to ever win a VMA, and solidified her place in our hearts — and pants.

Emily Haines

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Emily Haines is best known for her role as vocalist for indie rock band Metric, but has maintained a strong solo career as Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton. Compared to Metric, her solo work is more mellow and piano-based — which suits her haunting voice perfectly. Born in New Delhi, India and raised in Canada, this musician is worldly, talented, and hot.

Angel Deradoorian

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Twenty-two year-old multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian is best known as bass player/vocals for Brooklyn-based experimental rock band Dirty Projectors. This Armenian stunner released her promising solo debut this past May, and proved her musical proficiency — whether it be with vocals, on bass flute or guitar.

Ingrid Michaelson

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Cute-as-a-button Ingrid Michaelson is an American singer-songwriter best known for her single The Way I Am, which was featured in Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and the Fall 2007 Old Navy commercial campaign — all of which gave her huge exposure. She picked up piano at age four and hasn’t stopped performing since. We’d like to see her do another duet with Sara Bareilles, actually.

In response to the high demand for HD video conferencing in the Asia Pacific region, Sony announced that it is introducing its latest generation HD visual communication system, the PCS-XG55. Part of the IPELA family from Sony’s current HD PCS series systems lineup, the PCS-XG55 HD incorporates the functions and features of Sony’s existing high-end, PCS-XG80, developing an enhanced video communications platform that is flexible for the education, healthcare, government and corporate environments.

According to Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific is expected to contribute $1.7 billion to the video conferencing market, which is poised to grow into a $4.7 billion-dollar industry by 2014 worldwide. In India alone, the video conferencing market is growing 23 percent year-on-year due to the growing demand from the government sector, which leans towards more affordable and lower bandwidth-compatible systems. As a result, India is becoming the fourth largest market for video conferencing equipment.

“Despite the softening of the market elsewhere, there is great demand in the Asia Pacific region for HD video conferencing,” said Yoshikazu Hirano, General Manager, Business & Professional Products Asia Pacific (BPPA). “Currently, HD deployment in video conferencing has not matured and this presents a lucrative market opportunity for Sony. In response, we are making our PCS-XG55 available in March to provide customers a high-quality HD video conferencing experience.”

Although the video conferencing industry is filled with SD endpoints, Sony expects to see a marked improvement in the HD visual communication system in the very near future, with estimated revenues projected to increase by more than four times in 2010 from 2007.

To ride the changing trend, Sony’s PCS-XG55 is designed to be both HD and SD compatible. This enables enterprises’ to tailor their business needs with affordable price and lower investment in bandwidth compared to the high-bandwidth requirements for high-end (maximum 1080p) HD visual communication systems.

However, the true experience of customers’ equipped with a HD video conferencing system (minimum 720p) will be largely affected by peers, who send poor quality video signals and low-resolution pictures from low-end endpoints.

Sony IPELA PCS-XG55 HD visual communication system will be competitively priced and available for shipping in March 2010 in the Asia-Pacific region, and possibly other markets too.