Category: News

With winter here it seems appropriate to discuss wood fireplace issues. Now, first of all wood burning fireplaces or wood stoves are not so green. They smell nice, look cozy, and keep your home sort of warm, but there are better green options if you have a choice. For example a pellet stove is a good green choice if you heat your home frequently with fire. Pellet stoves are also a smart financial move as you can sometimes score a tax credit on them.

That said, I have more experience with wood burning so we’re going to discuss that today. When I lived in Humboldt, we lived in a tiny (very old) logging town, and the homes were so old the only heat the houses there had was a wood burning stove. I felt super guilty about all the wood too – and yeah, that’s one downside of wood burning anything. You have to have wood. To green your wood stove or wood burning fireplace do the following…

• Buy local wood not wood that’s been shipped in.
• Buy hardwood such as oak, hickory, or eucalyptus which give more heat as they burn then other, softer woods.
• Don’t burn green (or un-seasoned wood) because it won’t heat nearly as well and is not as good for your chimney. If you’ve never heated with wood you may be surprised to hear that you have to season it. Seasoned wood basically means dry wood. Fresh cut wood is wet; too wet to burn so you need to dry it out. Chop it then stack it on pallets, not the ground. It helps if you buy your wood well ahead of time (like in the summer) so it has ample time to dry out before winter. Do not stack too near a wall or fence because the wood nearest the structure won’t dry out as well. You’ll need to cover the whole pile loosely with a tarp, one that keeps the rain out while also letting air circulate.
• Have your chimney cleaned once a year.
• Try to plant some trees if you feel guilty about your wood use.
• The most eco-friendly option are Enviro-Logs because they’re made with 100% waxed old corrugated cardboard boxes used for fresh vegetables and have a much smaller emission BUT I’ve never used them personally. Since wood was our only source of heat we needed a lot of it and mad-made logs are always more costly. I don’t know how much Enviro-Logs cost, but I’m guessing too much if wood is your primary source of heat. That said, if your wood fires are more for ambiance, I’d say use these eco-friendly logs.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Green your wood burning fireplace

I don’t think I’d be alone in listing Paperboy as one of my favorite childhood games. I was a bit young to enjoy it during its arcade run, but I certainly had the Nintendo version, and even dust off my old copy once in a while (when my NES actually works). It was also one of the first games I downloaded in college when I realized the brilliance of NES emulators. Now you can get that same experience on your BlackBerry. Elite Systems Group has released an officially licensed version for your BlackBerry.

(more…)

We’re out in California visiting my family for the Holidays. Already, we’ve done a fair amount of cooking: a blow-out tamale party, warm bowls of polenta and greens by the fire, and a plum pie (still in season at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market).

Read Full Post

Earlier this year, I randomly ended up in a fascinating conversation with a marketing guy from Pepsi, who was telling me about some of the online marketing efforts the company ran during the 2009 Super Bowl, saying that they got the same “response” as the multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercials got, but only cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than millions. Based on that I have to admit I’m not all that surprised to find out (via The Infamous Joe) that Pepsi has decided not to buy any Super Bowl ads for the 2010 game, but will be investing a ton in some online promotions. This is after 23 straight years of Super Bowl ads by Pepsi, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. I’m sure that the Super Bowl will be just fine (it claims it’s sold out 90% of its ads already, though the prices did drop a bit this year, apparently), but it does suggest that some may be realizing that there are better ways to get your message out than spending a ridiculous sum for a single commercial spot.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone

The big-time gamers over at Joystiq have picked up the iPhone game review pace lately, and here’s a sampling of what they’ve tried lately.

	iPhone Top Gun game takes highway to the postmortem Top Gun on iPhone is one of the device’s many hidden treasures. Not only does it have cool, After Burner-esque gameplay, it’s also got one of the best easter eggs of all time (as you can see…		Ridge Racer: Accelerated comes to iPhone It appears the recently unearthed Ridge Racer: Accelerated trademark pointed to an iPhone entry in the long-running racing series. The title is now available on the App Store (try iTunes if you’re…
	Battleship now syncing on iPhone Adding to its growing roster of Hasbro board games retooled for board-less play, EA has christened the iPhone / iPod touch version of Battleship on its maiden voyage to the iTunes App Store. The…	Also of interest: 360 Live iPhone app now free

TUAWiPhone games review roundup originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Preocupante la sentencia conocida ayer, el director y el jefe de informativos de la SER, condenados a un año y nueve meses de prisión, y a las penas accesorias de “inhabilitación especial para la dirección de medios de comunicación y el ejercicio de la actividad de periodistas” (información en su propia web). Javier Casal señala los puntos que analizados uno a uno siembran de inseguridad la labor de todos los periodistas y ciudadanos que utilizan internet para publicar.

Lo peor del asunto no es sólo la condena sino la justificación de la misma en la sentencia, en la que se llega a afirmar que

“la protección constitucional al derecho a la información se refiere a los medios de comunicación social (televisión radio o prensa escrita), pero debe matizarse, que Internet, no es un medio de comunicación social en sentido estricto, sino universal”

Uno tiende a pensar que esta sentencia no resistirá la apelación, pero también que la corriente de pensamiento que quiere situar internet como un mundo aparte en la que hay menos libertades y derechos está calando en nuestra sociedad y que la condena a la que asistimos no es sino otro síntoma de la misma.

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

As with every other automaker – heck, almost every other company – Toyota wants to save more money. Japan’s Asahi business daily revealed a Toyota initiative to lower its parts expenses by 30% over the next three years, and it is one that we’re all too familiar with: Toyota told its suppliers to cut their prices by 30-40%. Can anyone guess how suppliers will most likely remove one-third the cost of their parts? If you said “use cheaper materials,” we have your prize backstage…

A Toyota spokesman said the company had given “various suggestions including cost reductions” to the affected portion of its supplier base, which makes it sound like at the very least the company didn’t just say “Here’s less money, make it work.” There are more than 200 vehicle components involved the move – that might sound sizable on its own but it’s a tiny fraction of all the parts in a car.

Ultimately, Toyota wants to ensure its competitiveness in emerging markets and guard against a strengthening yen. Assuming the initiative is carried out, the parts in question will be used for cars arriving for the 2013 model year. We hope that by 2014 it is clear that Toyota chose the right bets for this game of parts roulette.

[Source: Reuters via TTAC | Image: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images]

Toyota cutting supplier expenses by 30%, probably means using cheaper parts originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

In a move that Chris Dodd called a Christmas present to America (seriously) the Senate just officially passed a healthcare reform bill.

Now it’s on to be “reconciled” with the house version. If they iron out the kinks over abortion, and a few other things, the seemingly impossible battle may be over. Finally!

Actually, it may drag on for a bit. It was reported yesterday that the vote will slip to February, as Obama takes a hard pivot on pushing for a new stimulus.

The vote — the Senate’s last before Christmas — went down on a 60-39 party-line split.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• HEALTHCARE REFORM SEEN SLIPPING TO FEBRUARY, Obama To Focus On New Stimulus
• Congressional Budget Office Says Dems Are Using Accounting Trick To Claim Medicare "Savings"
• Senators Forced To Fly Blind To Beat The Christmas Healthcare Deadline

Most of you are probably hoping to hear something about the future of Saab any day now – well, don’t hold your breath. According to Automotive News, General Motors is continuing with the process of winding down Saab and does not plant to make any announcement regarding a sale of the Swedish brand. GM spokesman Chris Preuss said that “no new Saab deals are imminent with any interested parties.

“At this point, GM has no plans for any further announcements regarding Saab,” Preuss said. “If anything changes or if any new deal or actions arise, we would certainly communicate them, but right now there’s nothing to communicate.”

Last Friday, General Motors announced that it failed to reach an agreement with Spyker Cars for a possible sale of Saab and will start an orderly wind-down of the brand. On Sunday, Spyker said it had renewed its offer to GM and that its new bid would expire at 5 p.m. Monday. Throwing us all into a “oh come on already” frenzy on Tuesday, Spyker’s CEO Victor Muller said that its talks with GM were open-ended and that it will extend its offer until further notice.

GM said that it has received inquiries from other parties as well.

The Detroit automaker’s vice president of corporate planning and alliances said that the wind-down process is expected to take several months and that GM will look at inquiries about Saab during the wind-down process.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

The Senate just passed its version of the health-care bill by a vote of 60-39. Over the next month or so, the Senate and House will try to work out the differences between the bills.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the key effects of the Senate bill, based on estimates from CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation for the years 2010-2019.

$395 billion in federal spending to expand the number of people covered by Medicaid and CHIP, insurance programs for the poor.

$436 billion in federal spending pay for health-insurance exchanges that would largely be used by people who don’t get health insurance through work. Most of that money would be in the form of subsidies for insurance premiums for people earning up to four times the poverty level.

$398 billion in new taxes. That includes the tax on high-value health-insurance plans, new fees on health insurers and drug and device makers, and higher payroll taxes for high earners.

$483 billion in cuts to projected spending for Medicare and other programs. This includes reductions in projected costs for privately administered Medicare Advantage programs and a new formula likely to lower annual increases in payments to hospitals.

31 million additional people would have health insurance by 2019 because of the bill.

23 million people in this country would still be uninsured.

It seems not only women use shopping as a therapy after breaking up, but men do it as well. Tennis star Andy Murray recently purchased a second-hand red Ferrari F430, just one month after splitting with Kim Sears. However, though he paid almost £30,000 less than the price of a new one, recent media reports place his new ride as another bad love affair.

The insurance costs £100,000, the Daily Mail reports, which is as much as he paid for the 196 mph Italian supercar in the first pl… (read more)

Technology Review has an article on (at this stage theoretical) ultra-high performance “Digital quantum batteries” – A Quantum Leap in Battery Design.

A “digital quantum battery” concept proposed by a physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign could provide a dramatic boost in energy storage capacity–if it meets its theoretical potential once built.

The concept calls for billions of nanoscale capacitors and would rely on quantum effects–the weird phenomena that occur at atomic size scales–to boost energy storage. Conventional capacitors consist of one pair of macroscale conducting plates, or electrodes, separated by an insulating material. Applying a voltage creates an electric field in the insulating material, storing energy. But all such devices can only hold so much charge, beyond which arcing occurs between the electrodes, wasting the stored power.

If capacitors were instead built as nanoscale arrays–crucially, with electrodes spaced at about 10 nanometers (or 100 atoms) apart–quantum effects ought to suppress such arcing. For years researchers have recognized that nanoscale capacitors exhibit unusually large electric fields, suggesting that the tiny scale of the devices was responsible for preventing energy loss. But “people didn’t realize that a large electric field means a large energy density, and could be used for energy storage that would far surpass anything we have today,” says Alfred Hubler, the Illinois physicist and lead author of a paper outlining the concept, to be published in the journal Complexity.

Hubler claims the resulting power density (the speed at which energy can be stored or released) could be orders of magnitude greater, and the energy density (the amount of energy that can be stored) two to 10 times greater than possible with today’s best lithium-ion and other battery technologies.

Clear Channel Radio already had mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and Chumby devices, but today it’s adding an Android version to the line-up.

Not that there’s a lack of decent radio streaming applications on well, any platform these days, but here goes: Clear Channel Radio’s iheartradio app gives users free access to some 350 American radio stations, including a couple of artist-hosted stations from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Megadeth, Eagles and Weezer.

The app also enables you to get ‘frequently updated’ traffic reports for large markets including New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and Houston.

Like its iPhone / iPod Touch sister, the iheartradio app for Android can be configured to automatically start playing a specific station upon launch, includes artwork and lyrics and also enables users to tag songs for purchase on iTunes.

To download the free app, simply log on to Android Market from your handset (Android v1.5 or higher).

Enjoy the music.

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

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Combined with a poweful postprocessor Eureka transforms any 5-axis CAM output in a robot program.
* Full 3D simulation with material removal
* Automatic collision detection
* Out of limits verification
* Singularities verification
* Verification of material removal in rapid movements
* Tool changing
* Interactive creation and editing of trajectories
* Robot and external axes movements optimization
* Machining with disc and blade cutters
* Compatible with any industrial robot: ABB, Kuka, Fanuc, Motoman, Kawasaki, Staubli, Comau
* Compatible with the most diffused CAD/CAM on the market

The latest version Eureka will be on display at EUROMOLD 2009 in Frankfurt / Main, Germany, 02.12.2009 – 05.12.2009- Hall 8 – B96.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR PARTNERS IN USA, ASIA AND EUROPE. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.

For your holiday edification, here’s Eric Sprott railing against the Fed, and claiming fictitious numbers. (via ZeroHedge)

Sprott December

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Just Accept The Giant Federal Reserve Lie And Make Money From It
• Stephen Colbert Hilariously Savages The Federal Reserve
• Fed Accused Of Jumping In Front Of Other Lehman Creditors

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

As with every other automaker – heck, almost every other company – Toyota wants to save more money. Japan’s Asahi business daily revealed a Toyota initiative to lower its parts expenses by 30% over the next three years, and it is one that we’re all too familiar with: Toyota told its suppliers to cut their prices by 30-40%. Can anyone guess how suppliers will most likely remove one-third the cost of their parts? If you said “use cheaper materials,” we have your prize backstage…

A Toyota spokesman said the company had given “various suggestions including cost reductions” to the affected portion of its supplier base, which makes it sound like at the very least the company didn’t just say “Here’s less money, make it work.” There are more than 200 vehicle components involved the move – that might sound sizable on its own but it’s a tiny fraction of all the parts in a car.

Ultimately, Toyota wants to ensure its competitiveness in emerging markets and guard against a strengthening yen. Assuming the initiative is carried out, the parts in question will be used for cars arriving for the 2013 model year. We hope that by 2014 it is clear that Toyota chose the right bets for this game of parts roulette.

[Source: Reuters via TTAC | Image: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images]

REPORT: Toyota cutting supplier expenses by 30%, probably means using cheaper parts originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Cleantech.com reports that Californian utility PG&E is investigating a 100 MW wave power project – PG&E takes another shot at wave power.

San Francisco’s Pacific Gas & Electric said today it filed a filed a preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a three-year study of a potential wave power site with a capacity of up to 100 megawatts off the coast of northern Santa Barbara County.

If the study is successful, the utility proposes the installation of wave energy conversion devices that would feed into the electrical grid at Vandenberg Air Force Base. PG&E said it already signed an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to allow it to conduct the study.

PG&E has received approval from FERC to conduct environmental studies of a potential wave power site off the coast of Humboldt County. The utility says it plans to give a maximum of four wave energy converter (WEC) manufacturers the chance to test their devices.

The five-year trial is expected to be installed in fall 2013.