Eco Factor: PV module manufacturing facility to harvest solar energy for power.
Vipiemme Solar has announced that the company’s new manufacturing facility will be powered by renewable energy. The manufacturing site will produce photovoltaic cells, PV modules, solar panels and tracking equipment. Dubbed the Photovoltaic Shed, the facility will harvest clean energy using roof-mounted solar panels.
Picasa hasn’t been able to take on Flickr’s coolness factor, which it managed to retain to a certain degree even after being acquired by Yahoo, but Google’s photo sharing service has it’s own strengths and what it lacks in charm it makes up in smartness. Most recently, developers have taken advantage of the performance improvements in the online front-end to serve better quality images with no penalty when it comes to loading times.
“A helpful feature of Picasa Web Albums is that when you view photos, they’re automatically resized to fit your browser. We always display the largest-size photo that will fit inside your browser window, up to 1600 pixels if you have a nice big display,” Thomas Kang & Jon Wray, software engineers at Google wrote.
“From our extensive testing, we found that adding a little bit of sharpening can make a subtle but noticeable improvement in the visual quality of resized photos in Picasa Web Albums. So we recently added some logic to the server processing code that adds the appropriate amount of sharpening when necessary, before sending it out to the browser,” tgey added.
In order to enable Picasa to serve the appropriate size image for the browser window, Google stores a few smaller copies of the original image which is usually capped at 1600 pixels. Picasa then determines which of the store… (read more)
Paul Krugman was on ABC’s The Week on Sunday declaring a “reasonably high chance” of a double dip coming next year.
Actually, he doesn’t sound quite as gloomy as you might guess. Yes, he describes the entire recovery so far as being driven by government spending and inventory rebalancing, but the odds of a double dip he does place at lower than 50/50, so that’s good. Obviously he wants much more spending. (via HuffPo)
(Ignore the weird intro to the video below)
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Michael Schumacher’s return to the series might be a major marketing success for Bernie Ecclestone and his Formula One championship, but the German’s decision doesn’t seem to change a whole lot of the bookmakers’ options for the 2010 campaign.
Although many argue that Schumacher could indeed return to his winning ways inside the championship that he left at the end of 2006, the majority of the betting companies are not so convinced the German ace could upset the odds next year.
Suzuki’s long-time partner in India, Maruti, will introduce its new R III concept next month at Auto Expo 2010. The car is based on a stretched Suzuki SX4 platform, insideline.com wrote, and will come in the form of an MPV with three rows of seats. Still, the production version of the car will undergo several modifications and rumors are pointing to a monocoque chassis.
The engine lineup will include several units optimized for reduced fuel consumption and emissions, with displace… (read more)
Eco Factor: Concept system to harvest solar energy.
Researchers opine that harvesting 40 minutes of sunlight falling on the entire planet can power the world for about a year. However, till date only 1% of that energy is harvested and converted into renewable electricity. Industrial designers have taken up the task to develop systems that can harvest solar energy in a better way, thereby leading to renewable power plants that are more efficient.
Another high speed accident involving a Ferrari ended up tragically. One person was killed and three others were injured as the supercar got out of control, jumped a median on the Pacific Coast Highway and smashed into a flatbed truck.
According to the Newport Beach Police Department, the accident happened around 5:15 pm, Thursday night, on Pacific Coast Highway between Bayshore Drive and Jamboree Road.
Though there is no official statement about the reason the Ferr… (read more)
Ladies should start gearing up for the Vagabond Chopper Company’s 2010 Chicks Rule & Boys Drool Tour, an on-the-road display dedicated to women motorcycle riders, promoting women who ride and wrench on their own bikes. The 44-foot trailer will stop in all major biker events in 2010 and will offer a mix of on-site how-to seminars, fashion shows, book signings and special guest appearances.
The tour officially kicked off during the 2009 Toys in the Sun Run with featured guests the M… (read more)
Now that the group teams’ launch in Formula One will officially not happen in Valencia, each outfit will try to spend as little money as possible when showing their 2010 challenger to the media next year. Most of the championship’s big guns are scheduled to release their cars in late January, and Mercedes GP don’t make any exception from that rule.
According to German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the launch of the 2010 version of the BGP 001 will not happen at Brackley, where… (read more)
~ My Total Bilirubin dropped 50% [liver acting up].
~ My LDL dropped 15 points.
Not worth it for me. Better to do it the old fashioned way – exercise and eat right.
With an overall increase in sales in 2009 of 67 percent (this while the whole hybrid industry has decreased by 11 percent), Ford’s hybrid Fusion has set a new record for the company, managing to find itself 31,000 new owners by the end of November.
Hybrid customers increasingly are considering Ford, George Pipas, Ford sales analyst said. And we are seeing a growing number of conquest sales, many of them from customers coming from import brands, mostly Toyota and Honda.
<... (read more)
Everyone is becoming more and more interested in geolocation and for good reason. Besides the hype that surrounds most new technologies, geolocation has a lot of applications and is set to transform the way we use the web in a profound manner. Twitter, which is getting its fair share of hype on its own, is betting big on location and has already released a Geotagging API to enable tweets to have location data attached. Now it’s stepping up its game with the acquisition of Mixer Labs, makers of the GeoAPI which will be integrated with Twitter’s own APIs.
“[W]e’re excited to announce a major new step into the location-aware future. Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs, creators of GeoAPI,” Twitter cofounder Biz Stone wrote. “The Mixer Labs crew has been working on harnessing the power of local information for a couple years and just recently launched GeoAPI, a comprehensive service for helping developers build geolocation-aware applications. As of today, they’re part of Twitter and will be working to combine the contextual relevance of location to tweets.”
The acquisition was more of a talent hire, though the technology Mixer Labs developed also played a big role. The plan is to implement the GeoAPI directly into Twitter’s own location APIs to speed up the company’s efforts in this area. Mixer La… (read more)
Eco Factor: Prototype device to harvest renewable energy.
Researchers at the Cornell University have created an energy-harvesting tree that uses the flittering of leaves to produce electricity. Dubbed the “Piezo-tree”, the system carries synthetic leaves that are connected to a piezoelectric stem.
T
ook some time off for the holidays, did you? Well, things haven’t changed much since you’ve been gone. The world is still afraid of terrorists and Apple’s still rumored to be working on a tablet. Regarding the latter, two rumors have coalesced this morning from component suppliers. First, Taiwan’s Economic Daily is reporting via the Wall Street Journal that Cheng Uei Precision has landed “connector” orders for a “new flat-panel Apple Tablet PC” expected to begin shipping in Q3. Then DigiTimes piles on with its claims that Innolux (not WinTek) will be the initial supplier of 10-inch glass “touch panels” for Apple’s new tablet. DigiTimes then muddles things by claiming that the tablet will begin mass shipments (presumably to consumers) in March or April based on its analysis of shipping schedules from Apple’s upstream component suppliers. One thing’s for sure: if Apple does ever announce an iSlate or whatever they decide to call it, you won’t be using it during the last hour of your flight into the US.
Apple tablet terrorized by component rumors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mazda is definitely planning to launch the RX-7 in the near future but sources are now indicating that the revived model will actually take the place of the RX-8. If we go the rumor way, the RX-7 will most likely arrive in early 2011 and, once it will be released, the Japanese parent carmaker will discontinue the RX-8, a more expensive model that returned only moderate sales.
Insideline.com writes that the future RX-7 will rely on a recently-revealed Renesis 16X rotary engine fitt… (read more)
Odata cu sarbatorile era necesara si o iesire in oras. Am mers la patinoar unde a fost incredibil. Distractia e garantata.Va recomand o vizita acolo,daca aveti asa ceva in oras. Dupa patinajul “artistic” de care am dat dovada,am ajuns la o pizzerie.
Ce loc mai bun sa iti aduci aminte de intamplari din viata si sa le povestesti ? Iata una dintre ele:
Eram la liceu. (deci acum vreo cel putin 8 ani) Ziua : duminica
Ora : 23.00
Ma pregateam sa dorm,pentru ca luni trebuia sa merg la liceu.Aveam ore de la 7,ceea ce insemna ca trebuia sa ma trezesc la 5.30 si sa ma grabesc,ca sa prind autobuzul.
Deci,aveam nevoie de somn !!!
Dar cineva s-a gandit ca unii si asa dorm prea mult. Vecina mea care era,cum sa zic eu : “muci”, “trompeta”,”praf” adica beata.Atat de beata incat s-a gandit sa faca o dedicatie intregului bloc.
Asa ca ce a facut ? A deschis geamul,a scos boxele (pe geam) si a dat drumul la muzica la maxim. Mult spus muzica pentru ca a pus o singura melodie toata noaptea.
Da.Ati inteles bine.TOATA NOAPTEA ! Melodia se numea Flori de tei (parca de la Andre). Si oare cine a auzit-o cel mai bine dintre toti ? Era clar. Eu !!! Pentru ca vecina statea exact sub mine !
Si asta am auzit eu de la ora 23 pana la 5.30 dimineata cand desigur trebuia sa plec spre iluminarea oferita de invataturile liceului.
Va dati seama cat de “fresh” am fost in acea zi. Tot ce aveam in cap erau “flori de tei”.Melodia asta se repeta la infinit !!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Greu mi-a iesit melodia aia din cap.De fapt nu stiu daca a iesit vreodata .
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For years, people have been hearing and learning about menopause and how to deal with it. Men and women are educated about this natural condition that affects women when they reach a certain age in order to properly cope with it and accept it as a natural condition.
However, another particular condition similar to menopause affects men and is a mystery on why this condition happens. This male menopause condition is called the andropause. Andropause is a condition that affects men that is very similar to women’s menopause.
This condition is caused by low testosterone level in men and is considered as the male menopause condition that is affecting men when they reach a certain age. In the early 50s, andropause is defined as the natural cessation of sexual function in older men.
The symptoms of andropause relates very closely to menopause. It will include fatigue, depression, decreased sexual activity, and irritability. Surprisingly, this change has been always ignored and is considered as a normal phase in a man’s life. It may be a normal thing, but it doesn’t mean that men should suffer greatly from this condition.
Researchers suggest that andropause is caused by excess alcohol intake, stress, overweight, vasectomy, lack of exercise and ageing. Because of this, researchers have also begun to seek treatment methods to reduce the effects of andropause.
One solution to the problem is the Testosterone Replacement Therapy or TRT. This treatment showed promising results in effectively relieving symptoms of andropause. Adding to that, it also restores health, sex drive, and potency. It will also include a sense of renewed vitality and virility when it is given to the right patient, at the right time and at the right doses.
You have to realize the fact that the natural tendencies of men in the early years of his life are concerned primarily on their career, money and power. Often, men ignore and neglect family and friends to focus more on career. However, in the later years when andropause sets in, men becomes more maternal, as if the men changes role from being fatherly to becoming motherly. Surprisingly, men don’t even sense the changes themselves and women notice it more. Women often tell doctors about this condition that their husbands are going through.
In response to the falling testosterone levels in the body, andropausal men will experience night sweats, and palpitations.
When men who experiences the mentioned symptoms and visits their doctor, the doctor will usually check for andropause by examining the following:
• Loss of hair in the armpits and axilla
• Low sex drive
• Erectile dysfunction or impotence
• Shrinkage of testicles
• Decreased muscle strength
• Depression
• Constant fatigue or tiredness
• Low sperm count
• Decreased bone density
Aside from the testosterone treatment, men should take the necessary steps in order to decrease the overall effects of andropause. The first step in treatment is to accept the condition. Once men accepted the condition it will be easier for them to treat it.
The next step is to exercise, and teach them to control themselves by quitting smoking and not abuse alcohol. Since, the body is changing while people age, men who are andropausal should also learn to relax and rest well.
These are the things that men should do when they reach the andropausal phase in life. This condition is inevitable and will affect men as they reach a certain age. Better to accept it and live life to the fullest rather than complain of not looking good anymore or being unable to have sex anymore.
By Jason Dean and Lorraine Luk, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
China Mobile Ltd. said Vice Chairman Zhang Chunjiang is being investigated by officials for alleged breach of conduct related to personal reasons, the latest probe into alleged wrongdoing by an executive to roil the country’s massive state sector.
China Mobile, the world’s largest cellular carrier by subscribers, didn’t elaborate on the probe. The Web site of the state-run Xinhua news agency said Saturday that the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is investigating Mr. Zhang for “suspicion of serious violation of discipline,” language that is generally code for suspected corruption. The two-sentence report cited a commission official.
Rainie Lei, a China Mobile spokeswoman, said Saturday that the probe would have no impact on the company’s operations. Mr. Zhang couldn’t be reached for comment.
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By Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com
Domain hacks aren’t exactly new, but with a bumper crop of URL shortening services doing business under two-letter country domains these days, we wanted to know: Where exactly is that? And is the government over there any good?
Thank Twitter for the hubbub. The popular microblogging service’s 140-character post limit first created the need to cut down on link sizes. Services like tinyurl.com were quick to oblige, allowing users to create short strings on the fly and use them in their tweets to save space.
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By Rita Chang, Contributor, Advertising Age
In a sign that virtual goods aren’t just the province of gaming anymore, marketers from Anheuser-Busch to 3M (MMM) have offered up free virtual wares for social-media mavens to pass around to their friends. But how well have these online “gifts” paid off? Chances are, if you’re a Facebook-aholic, you have either received or even sent a branded virtual gift — really, a display ad by any other name.
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