Category: News

China is trying out an interesting new rule that privileges energy sources like solar and wind power over coal. The country has modified existing law to require that utilities buy all the available power from renewable energy developments. The new …

After they’ve run Ferrari machineries during their maiden Le Mans Series campaign last year, JMW Motorsport have now confirmed they will field an Aston Martin Vantage GT2 in the 2010 Le Mans Series and Le Mans 24 Hours race.

No further from last week, Aston Martin confirmed that JMW Motorsport have been chosen as the manufacturer’s new development partners for its GT2 programme. No doubt about it, the team’s great season in 2009, when they managed to finish runner-up in their clas… (read more)

Article Tags: CO2 Propaganda, Kirk Myers

“Climate change” propaganda is turning many kids into militant save-the-earth pests at home.

The global warming movement has taken a decidedly sinister turn.

Not content with scaring moms and dads with tales of a coming global warming apocalypse, the true believers in human-caused climate change have taken their controversial doomsday message into the classroom and onto the Internet, polluting impressionable kids with green propaganda and creating youth legions of enviro-fanatics.

Fresh from their daily “greenwashing” sessions at school, these save-the-earth converts arrive home as little inspector generals, haranguing parents for exhibiting environmentally insensitive behavior and contributing to the planet’s looming CO2 overdose.

The young Greenites, already pre-conditioned by classroom propaganda, are subjected to the same man-is-destroying-the-earth homilies on the Internet. The eco-epistles consist of the usual heart-tugging climate scare stories (e.g. polar bears are dying and ice caps are melting), which conveniently fail to mention that the earth has warmed – and cooled – naturally for billions of years and that CO2 is a life-giving atmospheric gas. In the dark and depressing world of quasi-religious eco-fanatics, there is no room for the light of truth in their save-the-earth evangelism, and kids are easy targets.

Source: examiner.com

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Eco Factor: Sustainable building powered by solar and wind energy.

The decline in the amount of land available for farming has tempted architects to think about cities that are not based on the land but are constructed in the form of skyscrapers. However, the rise in population will mean that designers will have to find a way to even reduce the amount of land required for a building to stand.

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Tata Nano, the $2500 definition of low-cost motoring instantly attracted buyers when it was launched on the Indian market back in March, but it seems that meanwhile 15% percent of the customers have canceled their orders due to delivery delays, according to the Hindustan Times.

The waiting time for a Nano delivery has grown to a few weeks, driving some of the customers away, straight into the competition’s arms. This has happened due to the Nano’s production delay in 2008, as Tat… (read more)

With its 140 character limit, Twitter is all about brevity. But if you think the same shouldn’t apply for a job application, well then, “you’re done.”

This Craigslist job listing has some interesting rules, to say the least. While the eye-grabbing headline is asking for a “Twitter Genius” in Greenwich Village, the actual role is an “expert” social media marketer for some sort of e-commerce startup. “I need someone who tweets in their sleep and updates their fb status before calling their mom on Mother’s Day,” the description reads. And it gets better.

Background, education, references? Nah, these people don’t care about that stuff. All that really matters for getting this job is to follow the six little rules perfectly. Those are:

1) Email me two tweets. The first should be about your experience. The second should by why you’re perfect for this job. If you exceed twitter’s allotted character count, you’re done.

2) Email me your Twitter name in link form (e.g. http://www.twitter.com/YOURNAME)

3) Tell me how many followers you have and how many people you follow.

4) Tell me who’s the best person you follow and why (in tweet form).

5) Tell me what’s the best way to get more followers (in tweet form).

6) Specific salary requirement.

So basically, if this application is more than 600 characters or so, you’re done. And you better be damn well ready to talk briefly about how you can best self-promote, or you’re done. Also, it’s probably better if you don’t want too much money. But don’t say why, keep it short.

Think you can handle all that? Then you may have found your dream job with the easiest application ever.

[thanks Shmuel]

[photo: flickr/uaybet]

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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So you’re cruising along, with your GPS-enabled phone on the dashboard, taking your dear wife back home to Reno. The little gadget says “turn right” and you follow its typically reliable instructions. At what point in the next three days of plowing deeper and deeper into snow-covered Oregon do you start suspecting that maybe something is amiss? Alright, so this isn’t quite on par with others driving buses into low-clearance tunnels, dipping their cars into rivers, or jamming heavy load trucks into unsuitably tight farm lanes. But we don’t discriminate here, all instances of idiotic GPS dependency deserve their moment in the sun, so here’s to Mr. John Rhoads and his tastefully named wife, Mrs. Starry Bush-Rhoads, who are now safe and sound after their phone pinged out its coordinates to emergency services when it began losing signal.

GPS leads couple into Oregon wilderness, lack of common sense keeps them there 3 days originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How many of you found themselves at any given moment in the need to find a flat surface in your car, so that you can better write down a phone number, a license plate number or whatever? We know we have and, by God, regardless of the cars we’ve driven, none of them provides such a surface.

Well, all that agony is now over, as AutoExec introduces the WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray (a.k.a. laptop steering wheel desk). The device is as simple as they get, as is nothing but … (read more)

Imeem is the prime example that the online music business is far from a safe bet even now, as it’s beginning to look like 2010 may finally be the year when music streaming services become viable businesses for the companies running them as well as for the users. The free streaming service has been acquired by MySpace Music for a paltry sum, around $1 million, and has since been dismantled. And just when it looked like it couldn’t get any worse, the site gets a fine for $1.77 million in a copyright infringement suit.

The Orchard Enterprises, a music distribution company, filed a lawsuit against the company earlier this autumn over alleged copyright infringement charges. Things aren’t exactly clear cut though, as Imeem is accused of going over the bounds of a licensing agreement by streaming full songs instead of the previews which the license apparently allowed it to. Imeem decided to skip the hearings altogether leading the judge to issue a default judgment and fine the company.

However, the consequences of the decision are a bit murky as it looks like MySpace wasn’t involved in the lawsuit which would indicate that the assets it acquired from Imeem weren’t part of the legal battle. Because of the legal and financial troubles, MySpace Music only bought select assets from the company, the most valuable of which are… (read more)

After analyzing the trucks sold in America for the last ten years, the PickupTrucks.com website alongside AutoPacific decided to create a top ten of the most significant trucks, the models which introduced new technology.

"On balance, we thought the 2009 Ford F-150 was the most significant pickup of the last decade," said Jim Hossack, vice president of consulting for AutoPacific. "It sells in high volume, owners like it and its body, chassis and powertrain are all f… (read more)

Audi’s Q5 is the latest subject of a safety recall in the United States as it has been discovered that some trim covers might get loose once the head airbag is deployed. A notification posted on the official website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims that around 6,000 model year 2009 Q5 units are concerned by the recall.

In the official recall information it is mentioned that a defective cover piece mounted on the A-pillar can detach if the head … (read more)

Romain Grosjean might just have a shot at keeping his Renault seat for the 2010 season of Formula One, as it now appears Franck Montagny is no longer favorite for the job. Although recent reports showed that the Frenchman was in pole position to becoming Robert Kubica’s teammate for the upcoming year, his latest comments hint that F1 is no longer an option.

Writing on his personal website, Montagny’s goals for the year 2010 seem to have taken a sudden turn towards a successful Le … (read more)

Indian carmaker Tata Motors recently launched an upgraded version of the Sumo in the domestic market. Dubbed Grande MK II, the car will be available in 3 variants, namely Gx, Ex, and Lx, with a seating capacity ranging between 7 and 9 seats in front and side facing configurations.

The vehicle will be available in three new colours, Walnut Gold, Platinum Beige and Castle Grey.

Exterior styling features for the Grande MK II include a new chrome lined grill, side rub … (read more)

Article Tags: Michael Asten, Reply To Article, Updated

THE Copenhagen climate change summit closed two weeks ago in confusion, disagreement and, for some, disillusionment. When the political process shows such a lack of unanimity, it is pertinent to ask whether the science behind the politics is as settled as some participants maintain.

Earlier this month (The Australian, December 9) I commented on recently published results showing huge swings in atmospheric carbon dioxide, both up and down, at a time of global cooling 33.6 million years ago.

Paul Pearson and co-authors in a letter (The Weekend Australian, December 11) took exception to my use of their data and claimed I misrepresented their research, a claim I reject since I quoted their data (the veracity of which they do not contest) but offered an alternative hypothesis, namely that the present global warming theory (which was not the subject of their study) is inconsistent with the CO2-temperature variations of a past age.

Updated Below

Source: theaustralian.com.au

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Eco Factor: LED lamp powered by solar energy.

Lighting fixtures and lamps use a major percentage of the total amount of energy a household consumes. Using renewable energy for lighting systems can significantly reduce energy consumption. Od-Do Arhiteckti has come up with a sustainable lamp that harvests clean energy during the day for sustainable lighting after dark.

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A young man named Jeremy Gillian stole another young man’s XBox 360 in a robbery and then turned it on… with the network and Gamertag intact. The results are as you’d expect: the victim was able to grab the IP, police tracked it to Gillian’s grandmother’s house, and the XBox and a trove of other stolen stuff were discovered.

Now this story comes to us from the NY Post, not one of the most tech savvy newspapers in our fair city. Also the thought that NYC detectives would “work with Microsoft” to track a stolen XBox is a bit hard to accept at face value, but apparently the story happened so kudos to Pelham Detective John Hynes and Microsoft for working together on this. At least a detective had a bit of fun learning about IP scanning.

We should also totes send the detective a new XBox. Anyone live in Pelham, Bronx?

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Did we just see an Instant Classic at Soldier Field on Monday night? From a fantasy perspective, the answer is a resounding (or a depressing) yes.

The Week 16 fantasy story had a thrilling final scene as the Bears and Vikings tossed around 66 points and 789 yards in an overtime thriller. Did you win or lose your fantasy title on Sidney Rice’s(notes) dramatic touchdown in the final minute of regulation (on fourth down, no less)? Did Robbie Gould’s(notes) miss in overtime decide your match? Was the issue clinched when Adrian Peterson lost a fumble in the extra session? How did Jay Cutler’s(notes) game-winning rainbow to Devin Aromashodu(notes) affect your league? Big plays and major statistical swings were all over the place in this one, especially in the second half.

Let’s hit on the high points and figure out what we learned from all this:

With the Bears: The middle of Cutler’s season was an absolute horror show, but let’s not forget that he played brilliantly in Weeks 2-4 and he was just about letter-perfect against Minnesota here (20-for-35, 273 yards, 4 TDs, 1 pick). Cutler spread the ball around, was decisive, hit some tight windows, and seemed to keep the risky throws at a minimum, at least by his standards (albeit the pick was a force into heavy coverage). The game-winning toss to the sneaky-quick Aromashodu (7-150) was as pretty a throw as you’ll see.

That said, this monster game from Cutler came after most rational fantasy owners wrote him off. Unless you play in a two or three-QB league, Cutler’s explosion here was nothing more than a frustrating footnote to a maddening season. Are you buying or selling Cutler as a 2010 commodity? Let’s discuss in the comments.

Four different players scored the touchdowns for Chicago. Greg Olsen(notes) (3-47) got the first spike but wasn’t a factor after intermission; Desmond Clark(notes) (5-39) shook free on a play-fake at the goal line; and Earl Bennett(notes) (3-35) made a rare visit to the end zone. Matt Forte(notes) slogged out 74 yards on 21 carries, never breaking anything to the second level. Johnny Knox(notes) dinged his ankle in the third quarter and didn’t have a reception, while Devin Hester(notes) (calf) was a game-day scratch. Danieal Manning(notes) set up two of Chicago’s scores with a pair of lengthy kickoff returns.

With the Vikings: You can take a half-full or half-empty approach to Minnesota’s offense here; the Vikes had a bagel at halftime, then exploded for 30 points in the next 30 minutes. Brett Favre(notes) & Company scored on five straight drives in the second half and this probably is the deepest offense in the NFC, even with the suspect play from the offensive tackles.

It took a while for Favre to get his sea legs but there’s nothing wrong with him (26-for-40, 321 yards, 2 TDs). He used everyone he could downfield; nine different Vikings caught passes while no one had more than 58 yards. Favre’s clearly more comfortable spreading the field at the goal line and it showed on the scoring plays. Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) scored his 10th touchdown in the third period, and Rice snagged a score on a beautiful fourth-down fade route in the final seconds of regulation.

Peterson’s night was a mixed bag; it’s hard to complain about 137 total yard and two touchdowns, but he only managed 3.9 yards a carry and there was the critical fumble in overtime, of course. Peterson now has seven fumbles and six lost fumbles, worst among all non-quarterbacks. In fairness to AD, the fumble came on a nasty strip from Chicago’s Hunter Hillenmeyer(notes); to my eyes, that was more of a great defensive play than a gaffe from the ball carrier.

Revisiting the NFC Playoff Picture: Minnesota’s stunning loss was welcome news to the Saints – they’re now locked into the No. 1 seed. The No. 2 seed in conference is up for grabs; four teams have a shot at it (everyone but the Packers). Assuming we don’t see any ties on Sunday, here’s everyone’s path to the No. 2 spot in the NFC:

• If the Eagles beat the Cowboys, they’re the No. 2 seed. Easy, breezy.

• If the Vikings beat the Giants and the Eagles lose, Minnesota is the No. 2 seed.

• If the Cardinals beat the Packers while the Eagles and Vikings both lose, the Cardinals are the No. 2 seed.

• If the Cowboys beat Philly while the Vikings and Cardinals both lose, the Pokes take the No. 2 seed.

We already knew the Eagles and Cowboys would have incentive here, playing for a division title and at least one home game (versus a wild-card spot and a road trip). The Vikings obviously will be out to win, looking to get an off week (also consider they kick off three hours ahead of the Eagles and Cowboys). Things could get a little dicey with the Cardinals; by the time their game starts, they could already know that they have no shot at the No. 2 spot (a Minnesota victory would lock Arizona into 3-4 range). Would the Cardinals expose Kurt Warner(notes) over a full game if there were little at stake? It’s hard to say.

The Packers don’t really have much to play for, they can’t get a home game for the first round, they’re a wild-card team no matter what. And obviously the Saints have a decision on their hands – should they go after the game at Carolina, or play it safe and keep people healthy?

For more on the NFL’s playoff situations, have some interactive fun with Yahoo’s playoff scenario generator. Pick all the games any way you want (ties included!), the generator does the rest.

Eco Factor: Self-powered prosthetic limbs to harvest kinetic energy.

KCF Technologies will be receiving a $2 million grant to develop and commercialize self-powered prosthetic limb technology that will improve the quality of life for amputees and improve their ability to return to active military duty.

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Digg has had one busy year and, while things are looking up, it still has a lot of work cut out ahead of it. Twitter was a major disruptor and replaced the social news aggregator as a source for many users who found Twitter’s immediacy a much better alternative to Digg. At the same time, Digg introduced quite a few products, mostly aimed at generating revenue, but also at improving the experience for the users. But as 2009 draws to a close, Digg is focusing its attention on the things that make the service what it is, its users and the stories.

From this perspective, it wasn’t a great year for Digg either, at least from the raw numbers, as the top stories of the year got half the diggs popular stories in previous years got. The biggest story of the year was US president Barack Obama’s inauguration getting almost 25,400 diggs.

This was followed by Michael Jackson’s death which captured the attention of the world and got 24,800 diggs, just shy of taking the first spot. At number three is “The Story of Prisoner F95488,” an US student and talented soccer player, immigrated from Ghana, which may have been wrongfully imprisoned.

Perhaps worrying, for Digg, is the fact that the numbers don’t stack up to previous years, for example the top story of 2007 and of all time for that matter, the whole AACS encr… (read more)

Article Tags: ClimateGate, Tim Ball

Climate science is a productive pursuit with Nobel Prizes, an Oscar, billions in research funding, massive tax grabs and wealth for exploiters

Climate science is a productive pursuit with Nobel Prizes, an Oscar, billions in research funding, massive tax grabs and wealth for exploiters. Continuation of these activities partly validated the claim the disclosed files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) are of small consequence.

As I wrote earlier the scandal at CRU (Climategate) is diverting from the real scandal, which is the claim CO2 is causing warming and climate change. Climategate is the greatest orchestrated fraud in scientific history, but claims about CO2 are the greatest fallacy. Climategate lets those who’ve known what was happening to avoid being ignored as conspiracy theorists.

Everyone incorrectly talks about carbon when they mean CO2, which was the original focus of the claim human industrial activity was causing global warming. Theory assumed CO2 was a greenhouse gas that slowed heat escaping to space. As it increases temperature rises and it would because of increased industrial activity. This became fact immediately and challenging scientists were pushed aside. Mostly by nasty attacks from those who falsified records, rewrote historic records, distorted and misused science and statistics as the leaked CRU emails attest. Now they, their supporters, and all those benefiting, work to perpetuate the massive deception.

Click source to read FULL article by Dr. Tim Ball

Source: canadafreepress.com

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