Category: News

Jason Lewis and Sharon Churcher
UK Daily Mail
Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009

The former London student charged with attempting to
blow up a transatlantic airliner carrying 278 passengers was barred
from Britain, it has been revealed.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab finished an engineering course at the
University College London last year, but a fresh visa request was
refused in May after he applied for a bogus course, Whitehall sources
said.

The 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker was charged in
hospital last night with attempting to destroy the aircraft during its
final approach to Detroit airport on Christmas Day, the US Justice
Department said.

Four weeks ago Abdulmutallab’s father told the U.S. embassy in
Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son’s religious
beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials.

The alleged bomber was also on a separate U.S. terror database, but
was not considered an immediate threat. His name was absent from
‘no-fly’ lists.

Full article here

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Andrew Johnson and Emily Dugan
London Independent
Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009

With his wealth, privilege and education at one of
Britain’s leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had
the world at his feet – able to choose from a range of futures in
which to make his mark on the world.

Instead, the son of one of Nigeria’s most important figures
opted to make his impact in a very different way – by detonating
80g of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a
passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.

As he was charged by US authorities last night with attempting to
blow up an airliner, a surprising picture emerged of the would-be
bomber.

Abdulmutallab, 23, had lived a gilded life, and, for the three years
he studied in London, he stayed in a £2m flat. He was from a very
different background to many of the other al-Qa’ida recruits who
opt for martyrdom.

Full article here

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Reuters
Sunday, Dec 27th, 2009

Airline passengers headed for the United States faced
tighter security measures on Saturday after an attempt to blow up a
U.S. jet bound for Detroit, including pat-downs and an order to stay
seated during the last hour of flight, airlines and security officials
said.

Air Canada advised U.S.-bound travelers to arrive early at airports
to allow extra time for security screenings, including additional
personal searches.

“Passengers should also expect flight delays, cancellations
and missed connections, and limit themselves to a single piece of
carry-on baggage,” Canada’s largest airline said on its
website.

“New rules imposed by the U.S. Transportation Security
Administration also limit on-board activities by customers and crew in
U.S. airspace that may adversely impact on-board service,” Air
Canada said.

Full article here

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dyad 1909 | ólafur arnalds (2009)
in case you don’t know, ólafur arnalds has just released new ep. the new ep is called “dyad 1909″. sadly there ain’t much “new” material to discover his compositions. contained a total of seven tracks, one of them “3326″ is taken from “eurology for evolution”, other two tracks “lokaðu augunum” and “við vorum smá…” are taken from “variation of static”. we are left over with four new tracks; “frá upphafi”, “brotsjór”, “til enda”, and “_…og lengra”. the tracks “brotsjór” and “til enda” are so magical and make me crave for more!

related :

1. found songs

According to the folks over at Car Design News, Sangyup Lee, the respected designer of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, has resigned from General Motors and is on his way to accept a position as Chief Designer of Exterior at the Volkswagen/Audi Advanced studio in California.

Lee will take up his new position in mid-2010 and will report to Jens Manske who was appointed Executive Director earlier this year. He will be responsible in inspiring a new group of design staff in Santa Monica.

Lee worked with GM for 10 years. Along with working on the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, Lee was also involved in the project between Bertone and GM where he created the 2004 Buick Velite Concept. He also threw in his two cents on the new Stingray Concept.

Well, we’re sad to see Lee go seeing as he helped resurrect one of the most iconic muscle cars in American history.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Car Design News (via AutoBlog)

With our US-centric focus, we often forget that globally, WiMAX has over 500 network deployments in more than 145 countries. One of the current hotbeds for WiMAX deployment is the Asia-Pacific region which is expected to see explosive growth over the next two years. Capitalizing on this growth opportunity is InfoValue, a US-based IPTV company. InfoValue has announced the launch of its newest IPTV service, which promises to deliver high quality live TV and interactive video-on-demand over WiMAX networks in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific market. They claim the service can deliver a consistent, high-quality H.264 stream in moving vehicles, handling tower to tower handoffs with ease. Sweet! Now if they could just get Sprint to jump on board and bring real mobile TV to the US… Full press release after the break.

WiMAX High Quality Mobile H.264 IPTV Deployment by InfoValue

WiMAX customers use InfoValue IPTV services to view high quality H.264 live TV channels and video-on-demand content on their laptop PCs, 3G phones, and other handheld devices anywhere and anytime within WiMAX coverage area.

Elmsford, NY (PRWEB) December 25, 2009 — InfoValue Computing, Inc. (InfoValue), experts in providing innovative, high-performance IPTV platforms and solutions, today announced its IPTV deployment at a brand new WiMAX infrastructure in Asia Pacific. The installation is powered by InfoValue QuickVideo IPTV platform and provides high-quality live TV channels and video-on-demand content to WiMAX mobile customers.

WiMAX customers use InfoValue IPTV services to view high quality H.264 live TV channels and video-on-demand content on their laptop PCs, 3G phones, and other handheld devices anywhere and anytime within WiMAX coverage area. Customers can watch live TV programs in fast moving cars crossing multiple signal towers without any interruption or quality degradation. Customers can watch video-on-demand content with full interactivity, including fast forward and rewind.

“InfoValue IPTV solution empowers WiMAX service providers to offer leading edge IPTV services to their customers in a way that truly helps them build premium quality and increase customer loyalty,” said Monsong Chen, CEO of InfoValue. “We are excited about this deployment as it turns the future vision into today’s experience.”

InfoValue QuickVideo is a feature-rich, reliable and scalable IPTV platform for large scale deployments. InfoValue QuickVideo offers comprehensive powerful features, ranging from high-quality HDTV channels, video-on-demand content, to network-based personal video recording (nPVR) and time-shifted television (TSTV). InfoValue QuickVideo is uniquely positioned to partner with WiMAX to offer premium mobile IPTV services to simultaneously generate new revenues, increase customer base, and reduce operational expenses.

Founded in 1994 and experts in providing comprehensive IPTV platforms and solutions, InfoValue is recognized for innovations and advances in IPTV technology that has set the pace in performance, scalability and intelligence. InfoValue QuickVideo™ IPTV platform is based on a standards-compliant, open architecture that is optimized with innovative, patented technologies. InfoValue QuickVideo, which is currently being used by telecommunication carriers, corporations, governments, educational institutions, hospitality providers, and broadcasters around the world, offers interactive video-on-demand and video multicast capabilities, as well as integrated video indexing, distributed video caching, server clustering, and video service management capabilities. InfoValue delivers turnkey IPTV solutions for specific industries, including InfoValue SuiteTV for hospitality, InfoValue BizTV for training and communications, and InfoValue NextGenTV for residential. InfoValue’s corporate headquarters is located at 4 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523. More information on InfoValue and its products and services is available at www.infovalue.com, via e-mail at info (at) infovalue (dot) com, or by phone at (914) 345-5980.

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Filed under: Etc.

We’ve heard this before: men are better at parking than women. It sounds like a bunch of macho male ego BS that’s been perpetuated since the days of Leave it to Beaver (happy 94th birthday, Barbra Billingsley!) and Father Knows Best, but the U.K.’s Telegraph reports that a study shows that this myth may not be far from reality.

Dr Claudia Wolf from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany lead a study of 65 men and women, testing different parking maneuvers of both sexes. The vehicle of choice was an Audi A6, and test subjects were timed during head-on, reverse and parallel parking. Parking accuracy was also measured. The end result? Men parked their vehicles an average of 20 seconds faster than women while also managing to park the Audi closer to the center of the spot. Dr. Wolf says the study demonstrates that men have better spatial awareness than women, but the good doctor was sure to keep men’s egos in check by adding, “it is not as if there was a massive failing by women. It is just about parking – not the triumph of men over women.”

We’re not sure that a study of 65 random test subjects is a big enough sample to definitively say that men are better parkers than women, but the test does give guys a small feather to stick in their caps nonetheless. We’d suggest not bragging about it to your wives and girlfriends, though, because that could lead to… unpleasantness.

[Source: Telegraph | Image: Bruno Vincent/Getty]

U.K. study suggests women don’t park as well as men originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE? People can have high blood pressure for years and not know it. Nearly 30% of adults in the United States have high blood pressure and of those over one-third are unaware that they have this condition. These numbers come from the American Heart Association.

When your doctor takes a blood pressure reading it is reported as two numbers. The first, or the upper number, being systolic and the second or lower number being called the diastolic number. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute have issued the following guidelines for interpreting these numbers.

• Normal Blood Pressure is below 120/80 mmHg

• When systolic pressure is 120 to 129 and diastolic pressure is 80 to 89 this is defined as prehypertension.

• Stage 1 hypertension is systolic 140 to 159 and diastolic between 90 and 99.

• Stage 2 hypertension is when systolic is higher than 160 and diastolic is over 100. Read more…

While America was kvetching about new security restrictions, and what it would mean for holiday travel, Iran continued its descent into total public chaos for the second time this year.

The first time was in the aftermath of the disputed elections this summer.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the nephew of chief opposition leader Mir Hossain Moussavi has been killed.

The protests — which coincide with the Iranian festival Ashura (celebrating martyrdom) — brings new uncertainty to the regime. In a timely, must-read regime critic and Duke professor Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar predicts the current system is toast — and that it’s only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, wrenching images and videos are flowing out of the country once again. The LA Times has culled several interesting videos.

Now see the footage >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Battling Forces Dig In, As Iraq-Iran Oil Well Standoff Continues
• STRATFOR: The Iran Incursion Wasn’t Trivial, Was Meant As A Clear Message To Washington DC
• Neda And Iran’s YouTube Revolution

I’m safely ensconced in a ski hut in Austria but I’ll be traveling back to the US of A shortly and I look forward to not being able to use electronic items in the last hour of my nine hour flight. After all, that is the magic hour, the hour during which most intercontinental planes are circling over US soil and would, therefore, apparently make the biggest impression on a scared and frightened American populace. After all, if Mr. Sizzly Pants (thanks, Xeni and Antinious), late of Nigeria, had blown his bomb over Amsterdam who would care? As O’Reilly et al point out, that den of iniquity would be better off for it.

I’m all for airline safety. I’m all for security. I’ll stew in my juices for the last hour of the flight if need be. But security directives that expect terrorists to use the same basic game plan over an over again are, at best, magical thinking. Bruce Schneier once again hits the nail on the head when he writes:

Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.

The rest of the security theater happens on the ground and we will have to give up a great deal of liberty and treasure to stop future Sizzler’s from lighting up their seats. Try flying El Al from Jerusalem. You are examined to within an inch of your patience by chipper but thorough Israeli operatives. They had us take everything out of our carry-ons, gave us pat-downs, and generally suspected every single thing in their field of vision a potential threat, including defenseless MacBooks. Israel has a real problem on its hands and if our threats are as real and as near as theirs, then by all means incorporate that draconian system at JFK. But that’s not appropriate. They have an ages old hot conflict over their border. He have some Nigerian dude with firecrackers.

We are working under the assumption that all terrorists are like Alan Rickman in Die Hard – we’ll appointed bad-guys with guns and bombs galore. I assert that this is wrong. Most attacks on planes will be thwarted from now until forever. Random nuts will pop up, the news cycle will whirr itself to pieces over it, and we will feel less safe. We will have to turn off our iPods, won’t be able to go to the potty, and will suffer under the theater of security.

To quote Schneier again:

Only one carry on? No electronics for the first hour of flight? I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first glass and giving them free drinks.

There are better ways to stay safe and I know the TSA is trying their best but this parade of regulation is reactive, not preventative. When the real Alan Rickman terrorist team wants to get its way, it will (ask the folks in Mumbai). All we can hope is that our technology, our culture, our politics, and our perception in the world will protect us as it has for the past half-century.

For more information check out Sascha Segan’s article on Frommer’s about the delays.

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Clique aqui ou na imagem para ler a matéria do e-farsas.

If you want to help Mozilla to make Firefox better but you are not a developer, here is your chance. Earlier this year, Mozilla announced the launch of Test Pilot, the organization’s new distributed usability lab. Test pilots will be enlisted in various usability tests and will be some of the first to see some of Mozilla’s ideas for new user interfaces and Mozilla Labs products. We first wrote about Test Pilot when it was just a “still-in concept platform.” Now, however, you can download the Test Pilot add-on for Firefox 3.5 here and begin to help Mozilla make Firefox even better.

Sponsor

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

First Tests Are Coming Soon

For now, Mozilla will start the program with a survey that aims to get a better understanding of who is joining the Test Pilot community. The first actual tests should arrive soon after this first survey is complete.

Mozilla stresses that it will take its users’ privacy seriously. Participants have to opt-in and data will be stored in anonymous form. Only aggregate test data will be made available to the public.

Overall, this looks like a great project. Usability studies tend to be slow and costly, yet with Test Pilot, Mozilla will be able to quickly enlist feedback about new design ideas from its large community of users.

Discuss

Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. E-book readers have been the hot ticket for a while, and the holiday season has seen activity in the digital publishing world as never before. Amazon is reporting that Kindle books outsold print books on Christmas day for the first time in the company’s history. The Kindle was a hot holiday seller, and the company is quite happy they are selling e-books like hotcakes.

The high sales volume of readers didn’t come without its price, as both Sony and Barnes & Noble were overloaded trying to pump out e-book downloads to meet demand. Owners of new Nook readers could not download books on Christmas day due to the servers being slammed trying to keep up with demand. Nook book downloads were unavailable until the day after Christmas, when they resumed.

Sony also experienced high sales for the Reader line of devices, and that demand saw its servers equally slammed on Christmas day. New Reader owners were unable to get into the store to download purchased books, due to high volume. The Sony Reader problem was more pronounced that the Nook download problem, as Reader owners needed a software update to access the new and improved Sony store. The update download is believed to have contributed to the server overload. Things should be back to normal currently.

The 800-mile long trans-Alaska pipeline — a key artery in our national oil infrastructure — is on the verge of collapse owing to the decreased production out of Alaska’s North Slope.

As with other key components of oil infrastructure, the pipeline does not do well then the flow slows to a trickle. Underutilization is a major problem.

The Seattle-Tacoma News Tribune (via The Oil Drum) has an interesting report on the situation there

In the 1980s, at peak oil flows, a barrel of oil made the trip from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in four days.

Now it takes 13 days.

The slower flow causes the temperature of the hot oil to cool faster. At some point, the oil temperature will dip below the freezing point of water along certain segments, unless Alyeska reheats the oil inside the pipe.

As it gets colder, ice and wax may coat the insides of the pipeline. The colder oil might also increase the risk of buried segments of the pipeline jacking up in the ground, company officials said.

The problems have been building for decades and will only become more pressing as oil production declines further.

For example, Alyeska, owned by BP, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil and two smaller companies, used to launch devices to scrape wax — a component of the oil — out of the pipe’s interior every several weeks.

Now it’s every four to seven days.

Read the whole story >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Decline In Alaskan Crude Production Threatens Entire US Oil Infrastructure
• Battling Forces Dig In, As Iraq-Iran Oil Well Standoff Continues
• Stratfor: An Iraqi Oil Renaissance May Destroy OPEC

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

Chris Liddell, the Microsoft CFO who’ll be leaving to to take the same position at GM next month, might not stop there. Observers have suggested that Liddell wants the chance to run his own company, and say they can’t imagine a star at Microsoft would take a post at an “eroded pillar of an old economy” without the chance to move up to CEO.

The idea of (another) finance guy in the top spot at GM could give auto enthusiasts pause. Liddell does have experience as a chief executive, however, having held the position at two New Zealand firms: Carter Holt Harvey, and CS First Boston NZ. Still, the bulk of his experience is in finance, and his Microsoft tenure is regarded mostly for helping the company save cash and overseeing job cuts.

Those are two skills GM clearly needs right now, and we hope Liddell will do well in the CFO position. But if he’s being groomed for the top position, we wonder how his skills will translate to developing vehicles. True, Ford’s Alan Mulally was an outsider who hadn’t ever developed a car, either, but he did have decades of experience in development, having assisted or overseen the progress of at least seven different Boeing planes.

No need to get ahead of ourselves, though — Liddell has plenty of work to complete as CFO first, his $750,000-plus pay package won’t deliver until 2012, and only then if he delivers. GM is still searching for a CEO to take the reins back from Ed Whitacre. That will give the 51-year-old Liddell time to study and learn the craft of running an auto company… and figure out how to bring back the Pontiac G8 GXP. Seriously, we don’t care which brand does it…

[Source: CNBC]

Is GM’s new CFO Liddell on track to become CEO? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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