We mentioned earlier this month that Clear Channel’s iheartradio application would be available for Android in December. True to their word, the popular music app is now in the Android Market. With nearly 400 stations to tune into, the free title is a welcome addition to many Android users. We asked our twitter followers back in the summer to name an app that they’d like to see make the jump to Android and iheartradio was a common response.
It’s the time of year when people are making resolutions to lose weight, better manage their finances, better manage their anger, and myriad other things. Is increasing your commitment to environmental sustainability on that list?
As I wrote in my very first post for The Inspired Economist in the fall of 2008, the neat thing about committing to environmental sustainability is that you don’t have to make extreme changes to make a difference. You don’t have to install hemp carpet in the office or replace your roof with solar panels.
If we all make small incremental changes, the difference will be exponential. It’s a lot easier to get a lot of people to make small changes than to rely on a few people to carry the entire load.
What small, incremental changes can you pledge to make this year? Here are a few ideas.
Supreme Court Prepares For Big Second Half The Supreme Court entered its holiday intermission with the starkest drama put off until the second act. When justices return on Jan. 11 for their…
TSA Without Leader Thanks To Jim DeMint An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security…
Peter Connolly: Ideologues and Election Results For Democrats who value their Congressional majority, the 2009 Election results might suggest a need for caution in pursuing major new liberal initiatives until the deficit is brought down.
Jay Leno recently got behind the much-anticipated 2011 Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle and has now posted a video of his take on the upcoming vehicle that has everyone at GM so excited.
The best thing about Leno’s 13 minute video is that he asks Andrew Farah, Chief Engineer on the vehicle, almost every question that would concern an everyday Volt driver. Want to know whether your overall range will drop if you’re driving the Volt with the AC and radio on? Find out in the video posted after the jump.
That was quick. We’re back in panic mode, according to Citi’s Panic Euphoria model.
Citi: Our Panic/Euphoria model declined into Panic territory last week after revising the data and remained in Panic this week. This week’s Panic/Euphoria reading was -0.28; last week’s number was revised to -0.24.
Whatever the term one wants to use for the current level of sentiment, if we compare the model to itself, then on a relative basis it remains far weaker than 2007. Weak readings are meant to be positive for stocks from a contrarian perspective and given this plus other factors Citi remains cautiously bullish.
Citi: Markets should benefit from a backdrop of earnings recovery first determined by the moderation of inventory de-stocking leading to some inventory re-stocking, a better (though still subdued) employment environment, and the consumption benefits of some restored wealth via higher financial markets. All of these dynamics should bolster equities initially, especially if money flows begin to chase returns as has often been the case in the past. We believe gains in 2010 are likely to be uneven and the S&P 500 could spike above 1,200 during earlier parts of the year and then back off.
(Via Citi Investment Research, ‘The Pulse Monitor’, Tobias Levkovich, 28 December 2009)
Media On Palin’s ‘Banned List’ Ejected From Going Rogue Event The woman who once called on the press to “quit makin’ things up” took it a step further yesterday by allegedly banning four members of the media from a book event in Wasilla, Alaska. TPMmuckraker talked to a blogger and videographer who made the list.
Alaska Journo: Palin’s Banned Media List Written By Todd Palin Further details have emerged about the banning of undesirable reporters from the Sarah Palin book tour event in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, after Alaska-based photojournalist and blogger Dennis Zaki found himself on the list.
DeMint Blocks TSA Nominee The Washington Post notes that an “alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.”
“Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has held up President Obama’s nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union.”
It’s too bad this app wasn’t released before the Holiday season began! Fastmall makes your life easier when looking for a specific store, restroom, food courts etc in your local Mall.It will give you turn by turn navigation much like Google maps does outdoors. FastMall does not use GPS inside the mall so it will not crash if a signal fails. In addition, you can chart the best course for a leisurely shopping trip, even at the largest mega-malls like Mall of America. When you need a restroom just tap the toilet icon or shake your iPhone, and FastMall shows you where the nearest restrooms are. Interactive maps that include the option to shake your iPhone for the nearest restroom range from $0.99 for smaller malls to $2.99 for the largest malls. Now come next year I’ll have my holiday shopping done and my hands washed in 15 minutes flat.
Google Monopoly I have come to the conclusion that Google has evolved into what economists call a “natural monopoly”. When this situation occurs it is always cheaper for one large firm to supply the market than multiple smaller firms, In fact, absent…
Right Wing Renews Calls For Profiling: ?There Should Be A Separate Line To Scrutinize Anybody With The Name Abdul? The right wing’s predictable policy prescription in the aftermath of any terror incident is to impose greater ethnic profiling of Muslims. For instance, following the Ft. Hood shooting, Sarah Palin said, “profile away.” After six imams were removed from a plane in Minnesota in 2006, Ann Coulter justified profiling Muslims by arguing that it’s just […]
The right wing’s predictable policy prescription in the aftermath of any terror incident is to impose greater ethnic profiling of Muslims. For instance, following the Ft. Hood shooting, Sarah Palin said, “profile away.” After six imams were removed from a plane in Minnesota in 2006, Ann Coulter justified profiling Muslims by arguing that it’s just like “profiling the Klan.” That same year, after British authorities revealed a terrorist plot to blow up planes headed to the U.S., right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher said, “It’s time to have a Muslims check-point line” at airports.
They’re at it again. In the wake of the failed terrorist attempt aboard a Northwest airlines flight on Christmas Day, the right wing is renewing its pleas for more profiling of Muslims:
Radio host Mike Gallagher: “There should be a separate line to scrutinize anybody with the name Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed.” (Note: Those are some of the most common names in the world.)
Rep. Peter King (R-NY): “100 percent of the Islamic terrorists are Muslim, and that is our main enemy today. So why we should not be profiling people because of their religion?”
Terrorism pundit Steven Emerson: “Remember, there have been so many complaints about quote, profiling, by the quote, Islamic civil rights groups, that they stopped basically profiling. And that basically led to not putting this guy onto the terrorist watch list.“
Unsurprisingly, Fox News has served as the platform for right-wing voices calling for more profiling. Watch a compilation:
Broad-based ethnic profiling is counterproductive for a host of reasons. It creates a false sense of security and causes law enforcement resources to be wasted in chasing the wrong targets. Terrorists come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. John Walker Lindh was white, while Richard Reid was Jamaican and British. As the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has reported:
Terrorism profiling is a crude substitute for behavior-based enforcement. It violates core American values, including the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. It also hinders anti-terrorism efforts because it alienates people and communities that are critical to the success of the anti-terrorism effort.
Non-specific profiling of certain religions or races amounts to a witch-hunt against a class of people, creating the perception among the larger society that those individuals containing certain suspect features (skin color, foreign-sounding names, foreign-language skills, etc) are to be feared.
Yesterday, two Middle Eastern men were pulled off a flight heading to Phoenix because passengers reported they were engaging in suspicious behavior. The men were speaking in a Middle Eastern language. And on a Detroit-bound flight yesterday, a Nigerian businessman was taken off an airplane because passengers became suspicious that he was lingering in the bathroom for too long. The FBI confirmed that the individual’s behavior was due to a legitimate illness.
This past year I’ve had the chance to explore some exciting new territory. I’ve taken creative risks inside and outside the kitchen with some admittedly mixed – but rewarding – results. So, in choosing my favorite posts for 2009 at The Kitchn, I found myself drawn to those with an adventurous, expansive spirit. Here are 15 that have had a special resonance for me:
Explosive in Detroit terror case could have blown hole in airplane, sources say A dangerous explosive allegedly concealed by Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his underwear could have blown a hole in the side of his Detroit-bound aircraft if it had been detonated, according to two federal sources briefed on the investigation.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s legacy as Chicago schools chief questioned CHICAGO — Soon after Arne Duncan left his job as schools chief here to become one of the most powerful U.S. education secretaries ever, his former students sat for federal achievement tests. This month, the mathematics report card was delivered: Chicago trailed several cities in performance and…
Republican senator DeMint holds up nomination for TSA chief An alleged attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.
Settlement reached in Nevada governor’s divorce RENO, NEV. — Gov. Jim Gibbons and first lady Dawn Gibbons reached a settlement in their divorce Monday as they were preparing to begin a four-day public trial.
We’re but three years removed from the US introduction of both Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3, and already the rumors are running rampant about the future iterations of both consoles. Two separate reports from Japan’s Impress touch on both units, with speculation and insider information on the former suggesting that Intel could be in talks with the Big N about powering the second Wii. Hard details are obviously tough to come by, but word has it that the two are mulling a GPU / CPU combo similar to the Larrabee; granted, we’d prefer something a touch more potent in the Wii 2, but we wouldn’t be shocked if Nintendo chooses the less powerful path yet again. In related news, it seems as if Sony could be looking for an alternative to its Cell CPU in the PlayStation 4, an alternative that involves some sort of “multi-core CPU.” Potentially more interesting is the notion that Sony’s next-gen handheld could be out before said console, which is loosely pegged for a 2013 release. We wouldn’t take any of this to heart just yet, but we’re pretty certain we can’t stop the dreamers from going too far.
As if we didn’t have enough pretenders in the ebook space, here’s Ray Kurzweil with a new format of his own and a bagful of ambition to go with it. Set for a proper unveiling at CES in a week’s time, the Blio format and accompanying application are together intended to deliver true-to-life color reproductions of the way real books appear. Interestingly, the software has been developed in partnership with Nokia, in an effort to turn Espoo’s phones into “the smallest text-to-speech reading devices available thus far,” though apps are also being developed for the iPhone, PC and Mac. The biggest advantage of this format might actually be behind the scenes, where the costs to publishers are drastically reduced by them having to only submit a PDF scan of their books, whose formatting remains unchanged in Blio. We’ll be all over this at CES, but for now you’ll find more pictures and early impressions over at Gizmodo.
Dems Don’t Need to Be More ‘Moderate’ Robert Creamer, Huffington Post There is little doubt that over the last several months President Obama's poll numbers — and those of Democrats generally — have taken a swing for the worse. The president's job approval numbers have drifted below 50 percent. The popularity of some of his signature initiatives has dropped. Last week, Democratic Congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama announced he was switching parties — presumably in order to enhance his odds of political survival next fall. These events have given rise to calls that the Democratic agenda needs to become more “moderate” or…
Foreign-Policy Team Bests Economy Stars Albert Hunt, Bloomberg (ii) If you submit material to this site or to BLP or its representative, unless BLP indicates otherwise, you grant Bloomberg a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, copy, and display such content throughout the world in any form, media, or technology now known or hereafter developed. You also permit any other user to access, store, or reproduce such material for that user's personal use. You grant Bloomberg the right to use the name that you submit…
There is very little news today but I really do need to test this email interface into Blogger, so here’s a bit of trivia for you. There’s a photo of the pyramid clock on the above page.
“In the early 1980’s talking pyramid clocks were extremely popular. The Pyramid Talk Clock was the world’s first talking clock and worked by pressing the shiny pyramid at the top. The clock was considered legendary. Now, the pyramid clock is back in an updated version.”
It is just as well that I didn’t see this before Christmas or most of my friends would have found themselves with one!
We mentioned earlier this month that Clear Channel’s iheartradio application would be available for Android in December. True to their word, the popular music app is now in the Android Market. With nearly 400 stations to tune into, the free title is a welcome addition to many Android users. We asked our twitter followers back in the summer to name an app that they’d like to see make the jump to Android and iheartradio was a common response.
We’re but 
