Category: News

  • University Recognized for Educational Support of Hungarian Life, Culture

    During a five-year period in the 1960s, dozens of students and a handful of educators contributed to an appreciation of Hungarian culture and life.

    Almost 50 years later, Case Western Reserve was honored for its role with an Abraham Lincoln Award, presented by the American Hungarian Foundation.

    Attendees at the recognition ceremony included August J. Molnar, president of the American Hungarian Foundation; special guests from the Hungarian American community; and the family of Ferenc Somogyi, the professor who taught the university’s Cultural History of the Hungarian People course for five years.

    President Barbara R. Snyder hosted the special event. “I often say that the mission of a research university is to advance knowledge and understanding. When we study the history and culture of other places, we inevitably gain new appreciation for what is unique and admirable about them. More, we discover ways in which that heritage helps shape the culture of our own country,” she said at the event, which was held in late spring.

    According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, at one time the city’s Hungarian population was the second-largest in the world.

    From 1962 to 1967, almost 100 students enrolled in the course, which also had teaching support from John Palasics, a well-known member of the Hungarian community, and Freda B. Kovacs, a writer and teacher who focused on Hungarian life and culture.

    The American Hungarian Foundation sponsors grants, special events, lectures, educational scholarships and exhibits portraying the unique cultural and historical heritage of American Hungarians.

    According to the foundation, “The Abraham Lincoln Award honors Case Western Reserve University for having enhanced the appreciation and understanding of Hungarian culture and heritage in America.”

    The award is inspired by the sixteenth president of the United States, who often spoke of the important role immigrants and their descendents played in American Life.

    Additional resources: The Cleveland Hungarian Heritage Society.

  • Quinn got Teamsters donations before McPier veto

    Posted by Ray Long at 4:45 p.m.

    Gov. Pat Quinn accepted $75,000 in campaign donation last month from the Teamsters union that would have benefited from changes he proposed when he vetoed legislation to overhaul the McCormick Place convention center.

    The Quinn campaign confirmed the Teamsters gave two donations-—one for $25,000 and one for $50,000—-to the Quinn campaign on April 23. That was two weeks before the House and Senate passed legislation to re-organize the operations of the convention venue, following months of arduous negotiations.



    But Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff declared the timing of the contributions played no role in Quinn’s amendatory veto Wednesday, saying the “assertion is completely offensive.”



    “Pat Quinn has spent 35 years as a reformer and fighting against political game playing,” Matsoff said.



    Quinn included a change that would have helped the Teamsters broaden its jurisdiction at McPier, the authority that oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier.



    Both the House and Senate rejected Quinn’s changes, overriding him with bipartisan votes at the Capitol today. The recent donations were reported online today by Crain’s Chicago Business.



    Matsoff said the Teamsters were the first to endorse Quinn and that the union has given donations to him on a cycle of about every three months since Labor Day.



    “This is not a secret,” Matsoff said. “Everyone knows the unions support the governor.”



    Quinn has previously reported receiving more than $127,000 from various Teamsters locals since 1994, state records show, with $100,000 of the total coming since he embarked on his election campaign last September.



    Quinn received two $50,000 checks from the Teamsters Volunteers in Politics, the political action committee of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents 22 union locals.

  • Sling Media demos SlingPlayer Mobile on Sprint EVO

    SlingPlayer is coming to Android later this summer and we know their private beta is currently underway. It looks like a public release could be nearing after Sling employee Dave uploaded a quick YouTube video of the latest version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Android.

    In the quick demo, Dave shares that SlingPlayer on Android is their quickest loading mobile app. We can see a live TV stream playing only ten seconds after the application is launched.  The Android version also has a few exclusive features including a keypad that easily launches your favorite channels.

    Sling Media charges $29.99 for their iPhone version so expect similar pricing for Android.

    Related Posts

  • Garcia new CBC Men’s Basketball coach

    PRESS RELEASE
    May 27, 2010                                                              Contact: Frank Murray, 542-4835

    Rolando Garcia is the new Columbia Basin College men’s basketball coach. Garcia has been the women’s team assistant head coach for seven years, but his CBC basketball history dates back even further.

    A high school standout at Grandview when the Greyhounds won a state championship, Garcia was the point guard for former CBC coach Ed Weidenbach when the Hawk men last won an NWAACC championship in 1990. Garcia went on to star at Northwest Nazarene College where he was named Honorable Mention All American.

    Garcia inherits a team that graduated only one sophomore.

    “I’m really excited, humbled, and grateful for the opportunity to coach in a program that I also played for. I am also eager to take on this challenge and to begin working with these young men in preparing them for the upcoming season in an extremely competitive region of the NWAACC. I have been extremely fortunate in being an assistant for CBC’s women’s program under Cheryl Holden. She has been a tremendous teacher, friend, and mentor. Replicating the success we shared in the women’s program will be the tough task I will try to incorporate into the men’s program,” he says.

    Garcia works at CBC as the Director of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hispanic Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) grant. As head coach, he replaces Lane Schumacher who resigned earlier this month.

  • MN professor eviscerates Monckton in must-see video – TVMOB’s talk proves “how easy it is to fabricate data.”

    “The number of errors Chris Monckton makes is so enormous it would take a thesis to go through every single one of them.”

    The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (TVMOB) is a shameless purveyor of hate speech and anti-science disinformation (see links below).

    Nonetheless, you rarely sees such a thorough debunking of an anti-science disinformer as this astonishing point-by-point evisceration put together by John Abraham, an engineering professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN.

    One of the two reasons you rarely see this is because few people are willing to put in the time and effort that Prof. Abraham has — not merely looking up just about every reference TVMOB uses but actually e-mailing the authors of those scientific papers and asking them if TVMOB has accurately represented their work.

    The second reason you rarely see this kind of thorough dismantlement is that few people make stuff up with the relentlessness of TVMOB or push the kind of hate speech that make people want to debunk them entirely:

    Kudo to Abraham for this masterful debunking.

  • Koufax, Bikel, Ginsburg, Breyer and more at Jewish American White House event. Front row historic photo

    Jewish front row.JPGfrom left Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, President Obama, Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, Singer, Actor Theodore Bikel (Photo by Lynn Sweet)

    Below, background on the Jewish American event

    THE WHITE HOUSE

    Office of the Press Secretary

    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    May 27, 2010

    BACKGROUND ON THE JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH RECEPTION

    Approximately 200 guests are expected, including a range of community leaders and prominent Jewish Americans from professional athletes to Members of Congress, business leaders, authors and military veterans, among others.

    Members of Congress Expected to Attend

    U.S. Senate

    · Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)

    · Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

    · Al Franken (D-MN)

    · Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

    · Carl Levin (D-MI)

    · Arlen Specter (D-PA)

    U.S. House of Representatives

    · Gary Ackerman (D-NY)

    · Shelley Berkley (D-NV)

    · Howard Berman (D-CA)

    · Stephen Cohen (D-TN)

    · Susan Davis (D-CA)

    · Ted Deutch (D-FL)

    · Eliot Engel (D-NY)

    · Bob Filner (D-CA)

    · Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)

    · Jane Harman (D-CA)

    · Steve Israel (D-NY)

    · Steve Kagen (D-WI)

    · Ron Klein (D-FL)

    · Sander Levin (D-MI)

    · Nita Lowey (D-NY)

    · Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)

    · Jared Polis (D-CO)

    · Steve Rothman (D-NJ)

    · Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

    · Adam Schiff (D-CA)

    · Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)

    · Brad Sherman (D-CA)

    · Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

    · Henry Waxman (D-CA)

    · Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

    · John Yarmuth (D-KY)

    Other notable attendees include:

    · Justice Stephen Breyer

    · Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

    · Ambassador Michael Oren

    · Solicitor General Elena Kagan

    · Retired MLB star Sandy Koufax

    PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

    President Obama will deliver remarks

    Rabbi Alyssa Stanton,who leads Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, NC, will read Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”

    Regina Spektor will perform

    WHITE HOUSE DISPLAY

    The following items of significance to Jewish American history are on loan from the Library of Congress and National Archives. The items will be on display in the entrance hall for guests to view during the reception:

    Deed of Gift for the Statue of Liberty and Invitation to the Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty by President Cleveland

    Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus composed “The New Colossus” in 1883 as part of a fundraising campaign for the construction of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. The words of the sonnet remind us of our Nation’s promise as a beacon to all who are denied freedom and opportunity in their native lands.

    Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”

    Considered by some as an unofficial anthem for America, “God Bless America” was written by the son of a cantor, a Jewish immigrant, who left his home in Siberia for America when he was a child. It was originally written by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island. In the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe, Berlin decided to write a “peace” song. He recalled his “God Bless America” from twenty years earlier and made some alterations to reflect the different state of the world. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised “God Bless America” during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938, and the song was an immediate sensation.

    Baseball Cards

    A set of Jewish baseball player cards produced for the American Jewish Historical Society.

    Letter from Moses Seixas to George Washington, August 17, 1790

    Moses Seixas, the warden of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, penned a letter to George Washington, welcoming the newly elected first president of the United States on his visit to that city. Newport had historically been a good home to its Jewish residents, who numbered around 300 at the time of Washington’s visit. The Jews of Newport looked to the new national government to remove the last of the barriers to religious liberty confronting American Jewry. Seixas expressed his vision of an American government in words that have become a part of the national lexicon. He beheld in the United States “a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

    Statement by President Harry Truman, May 14, 1948

    On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, reads a “Declaration of Independence,” which proclaims the existence of a Jewish state beginning on May 15, 1948, at 12:00 midnight Palestine time (6:00PM EST May 14, 1948). At 6:11PM EST, America becomes the first nation to recognize Israel on a de facto basis. The White House issues this statement: “This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the State of Israel.”

    ###

  • Libel Reform Bill has been tabled in the House of Lords

    A Libel Reform Bill has been tabled in the House of Lords
    (From www.libelreform.org)

    Lord Lester QC has published a Private Members’ Defamation Bill to reform England’s outdated and unjust libel laws. This is the first attempt in over a century to put forward a wholesale redraft of our libel laws to address many of the issues our campaign has highlighted.
    Lord Lester’s Bill covers a great deal of the recommendations of the Libel Reform Campaign including a statutory defence for responsible publication on a matter of public interest; clarifying the defences of justification and fair comment, which will be renamed as ‘truth’ and ‘honest opinion’.


    The Bill will also:

    require claimants to provide evidence their reputation was damaged by an alleged libel before they can bring a case forward (they don’t have to do this at present) and make corporations prove financial damage before they can sue.
    Address the problems introduced by the rise of the internet and the culture of online publication including the multiple publication rule that makes each download a fresh instance of libel, and alter the responsibility of forum hosts for what is posted on their sites.
    Encourage the speedy settlement of disputes without parties having to bring in costly lawyers.
    Promote the speedy settlement of disputes without recourse to the courts.
    There is a great piece by Lord Lester on why he is doing this now here.
    And Simon Singh has written his thoughts on the bill here.

    Thanks to your support we’ve made the case that libel law reform is an issue politicians know they have to act on.

    There is widespread Parliamentary support for reform … the majority of eligible MPs signed up to an EDM supporting libel law reform in the last Parliament.
    There were general election manifesto commitments to reform from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and Labour.
    Now, there is a coalition Government promise to reform the libel laws in the Queen’s Speech …

    …But we need new libel laws!
    In light of Lord Lester’s Bill, the Libel Reform Campaign is asking: will the Government now make clear its plans for reform? Will it support, adopt or develop this Bill?
    Help us keep the pressure on. Write to your MP asking them what the Government intends to do.
    Best,

    Mike and Síle
    PS – for more details of the bill and complete coverage see www.libelreform.org

    See for example

    Dr Ernesto Bustamante’s predicament

  • Jesse James “Nightline” Interview Sets Ratings Record

    Nearly 7 million people tuned in to watch the “Most Hated Man In America” explain what he was thinking when he stepped out on one of Hollywood’s most gorgeous women with a tattooed chick who calls herself Bombshell.

    According to TVByTheNumbers.com, Jesse James’ Tuesday night interview with Nightline ABC’s Vicki Mabrey — filled with tales of alleged child abuse — attracted 6.817 million total viewers, the show’s highest ratings since the newsmagazine returned to the tube in 2005.


  • Dissatisfied AT&T Customer Shoots AT&T Store Employee [Crime]

    An “irate” AT&T customer went into an AT&T store and shot one of the employees. The employee is in surgery now, but the suspect was shot by an off duty police officer that was already at the scene. More »










    PoliceUnited StatesLawLaw EnforcementBusiness

  • ASUS gives Computex product release sneak preview

    A new Lamborghini VX looks like it's going to get a Computex 2010 release from ASUS

    Rather than wait for the blogosphere to come up with its own rumors with varying degrees of accuracy, ASUS has opted to start its own pre-Computex 2010 rumor mill. The company’s online technology magazine has hinted at the event release of a couple of notebooks, a pair of gaming motherboards and a new all-in-one. Details are almost non-existent, though…
    Continue Reading ASUS gives Computex product release sneak preview

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  • Peak Day Pricing Begins for Large Commercial PG&E Customers


    In a program designed to reduce California’s peak afternoon grid demand, the CPUC this month moved about 2,000 PG&E customers – large commercial power users with a demand over 200 KW – to a new pricing structure that charges more in summer afternoon hours, and less in off-peak hours.

    The state’s peak summer demand forecast is expected to be 47,139 megawatts, lower than the 50,270 megawatts of four years ago. Rooftop solar already produces over 2.5% of California’s sunny afternoon electrons for the grid, which has reduced the peak summer afternoon demand over the last few years.

    The change will provide an incentive for hotel chains, large manufacturers, school districts, hospitals and some office buildings to consider the many available alternatives that would move their power demand to off peak times.

    Some examples include using night power to supply daytime air conditioning or adding solar that typically produces the most power during peak times, thus offsetting their peak load.

    This policy greatly improves the already good economics now for solar for commercial users, whether investing in their own solar system, or simply contracting for the solar power itself, using a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a company that builds a solar system for them. Most companies that have added renewable energy have saved money.

    (more…)

  • Japanese Team Pushes Electric Car 623 Miles Without Recharging

    Driving in a Daihatsu Mira equipped with a huge 74 kWh lithium-ion battery and a brushless DC motor, the Japan EV Club has achieved a new world record for an electric car: 1003.184 kilometers (623 miles) without recharging.

    Although the team didn’t exceed 25 mph and was on a racing oval at a constant speed, the 8.4 miles traveled per kWh (mpkWh) statistic is an amazing achievement in-and-of-itself.

    (more…)

  • More Regalia: Buick Plans to Bring Us More Options

    Although the impressive Opel Insignia/Buick Regal is offered around the world in no fewer than three body styles (sedan, five-door hatch, and wagon), with nine engines (four gas four-cylinder, three 1.8-liter diesel fours, and naturally aspirated and turbocharged versions of its 2.8-liter V-6), with front- or all-wheel drive, and a choice of three transmissions, here in Buick’s home market, just how many of those permutations we’ll get remains a mystery.

    In the States, of course, we’re used to being denied most of the choices offered in “world cars” such as the Regal; At this point, the only way we can get our Regal on is with the sedan body and front-wheel drive, with the 2.4-liter four available first, the 2.0-liter turbo later, and, in 2011, the GS with a 255-hp version of the 2.0-liter turbo four mated to all-wheel drive. Manual gearboxes will also be part of the mix eventually.

    Happily, according to GM’s Regal guru, Jim Federico, we are pretty well assured to get even more. First, in terms of additional body styles, it sounds like we’re going to get at least one, if not both, of the other Regal shapes, with the hatchback being the easiest to bring over from an engineering standpoint and the wagon being slightly more complex to federalize due to its Audi Q5–esque wraparound tailgate, but it’s hardly impossible. We’ve recently spied Buick-badged Insignia Tourers in Michigan, something Federico willingly acknowledges. “I’ve got a bunch of ‘em,” he said. Should either additional body make it stateside, the cars would come from GM’s German plant due to the low volumes they’d expect to build. (North American Regal sedan production is shifting from Germany to a plant in Ontario soon.) “We designed flexibility into the [Russelsheim] plant specifically for that,” he said.

    Federico also suggested that, since wagons sell particularly well in the Snowbelt, that version would pretty much have to come with all-wheel drive. And since many wagon buyers also love diesel engines—Americans order a predominate number of their Jetta SportWagens with the TDI engine—Federico says one of the Insignia’s diesel fours would definitely be offered, though not until the motor is engineered to meet the strict new Euro 6 emissions regulations in 2012 or 2013. The required changes, which could include an exhaust-scrubbing urea-injection system, would in turn allow the motor to meet emissions standards in all 50 U.S. states.

    As for something more, uh, stirring? Federico suggested that we shouldn’t be at all surprised to see the hallowed Grand National nameplate make a comeback sometime in the future, although he wouldn’t provide any more specifics. Don’t expect it soon, however. Buick has a lot on its plate, with an upcoming compact SUV and a Cruze-based sedan also in the works. “We’ve got a plan to move fast,” said Federico, “but carefully.”

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  • Ford SYNC adds horoscopes, movie listings, stock quotes and more

    Ford SYNC on 2011 Ford Fiesta

    Ford and Microsoft’s SYNC system just keeps getting better and better. FoMoCo announced today that it will be adding a bunch of extras to its SYNC system including access to horoscopes, stock quotes, movie listings and access to airlines, rental cars and hotels.

    Customers that have a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle equipped with SYNC app Traffic, Directions and Information (TDI), will not have to pay an extra fee for the service. All they need is an active owner account on www.syncmyride.com.

    “SYNC is helping us move at a faster pace and deliver the level of connectivity and access that consumers want,” said Doug VanDagens, director, Ford Connected Services Organization. “Now, by leveraging the cloud, we continue to give our customers access to more and more services without having to touch the vehicle or inconvenience the owner with more subscription fees.”

    The TDI feature is available on all 2010 and 2011 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles equipped with SYNC.

    Follow the jump for the press release and for videos of the new features in action.

    New Ford SYNC TDI Features:

    Press Release:

    STOCK QUOTES, HOROSCOPES AND MORE ADDED TO FORD SYNC CLOUD-BASED SERVICES; NO EXTRA FEES ATTACHED

    – Ford adds new services to SYNC® through the cloud-based app Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI), giving users on-demand access using simple voice commands to stock quotes, movie listings, horoscopes, and airlines, hotels and rental car companies

    – The new services are now available to SYNC TDI owners and showcase the flexibility and expandability of the SYNC architecture to continuously improve the user experience – no extra fees or software upgrades required

    – TDI is available on all 2010 and 2011 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles equipped with SYNC; services come with no monthly subscription fees for the first three years of vehicle ownership

    DEARBORN, Mich., May 27, 2010 – Horoscopes, stock quotes, movie listings and access to airlines, rental cars and hotels are now just a voice command away for customers driving Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles equipped with the SYNC® app Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI).

    And customers did not have to inquire, purchase or upgrade anything to get this whole new set of services. All that is needed is an active owner account on www.syncmyride.com.

    Ford expanded SYNC TDI services to include stock quotes, entertainment, travel and movie categories, in addition to the already available traffic, directions, news and business search capabilities. The new services are provided by Microsoft Tellme, one of the many partners in Ford’s cloud-based Service Delivery Network, which gives SYNC users the ability to use a simple Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to connect and voice request the information they want while in the car.

    More features, no extra cost
    Owners of SYNC-equipped 2010 and 2011 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury products will have immediate access to the enhanced TDI services.

    “Current TDI users will hear a special announcement through SYNC the first time they call in, announcing stocks, movies, horoscopes and travel, and informing them that they have more choices,” adds VanDagens.

    When users say the “services” voice command, they can ask for “stocks,” horoscopes,” “movies” or “travel,” and follow the prompts. They can also create personalized lists of stocks and horoscopes to follow by visiting their account on www.syncmyride.com, clicking on the “Manage favorites” tab and adding their top picks.

    In total, the new SYNC TDI categories offer the following options:

    Stocks

    * Say a company name and receive real-time stock quotes
    * Request other specifics such as the high/low of the day, of a 52-week period, share volume, market cap and price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio

    Horoscopes

    * Speak an astrological sign to hear the daily horoscope
    * Hear list of astrological signs

    Movies

    * Search for movie theaters near customer’s current location or provided city
    * Receive lists of new releases
    * Say a movie name and receive rating information, theater names where movies are playing
    * Request movie times at a location for today, tomorrow or the next day

    Travel

    * Request to be directly connected to 150 airlines, the 50 largest hotel chains and the 11 largest rental car agencies – all in the U.S.

    – By: Omar Rana


  • Round 3: Pros and Cons of Gameloft’s Android store

    Our last Gameloft article generated quite a bit of buzz across the Android blogs, so I thought an update was needed on some recent happenings.

    First let’s start with the good. Gameloft has the best 3D games that Android has to offer. You can see of couple of their titles in my Sprint EVO games preview or head over to the Gameloft Android store to view even more videos. Gameloft currently offers 10 “HD+” titles which is the most impressive lineup I have seen from any Android developer.

    I would also like to say that Gameloft’s customer support is good. I had issues with downloading one of my purchases and they were able to help me resolve the problem in a timely manner.

    So Gameloft’s games are awesome, but what about the bad? For starters, the majority of their new games (9 of 10) are not available in the Android Market. This means customers must purchase the titles from the Gameloft store, which could be an issue for some.

    The main problem stems from Gameloft’s DRM policy. One of our readers contacted Gameloft customer care to check their official policy when it came to refunds and re-downloading previous purchases. What he found was similar to what I reported on my own experiences.

    When a customer purchases a game from Gameloft, that entitles them to one download of the game to one phone number and one phone model only. If a user switches phones, removes the game, or performs a firmware upgrade that requires a wipe, then they will have to buy the game again. Considering Gameloft’s titles are priced on the high-side of Android games ($6.99), it is disappointing that this only gets users a single download.

    Gameloft chose to use their own store to experiment with new distribution methods for Android, but there is still the chance some of these games could find their way to the Android Market. Their only HD+ title in the Market , Asphalt 5, has sold over 5,000 copies and I believe future games will perform even better based off the number of new Snapdragon phones now available.

    Is Gameloft’s refund policy enough to prevent you from making a purchase or could you care less? If these games were on the Android Market, would that increase your chances of buying one?

    “About the handset, our policy is: according to our refund policy, once the game is successfully installed, we cannot resend it for any reason, unless you buy it again. One purchase entitles you to one download of the game to one phone number and on one phone model only. If you delete or otherwise remove the game from your phone, or change your handset, you will have to buy it again.”Roman GarmashGameloft customer care

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  • Hussman: Here’s Why The Market Still Has A Long Way Down

    Money manager John Hussman spoke with Bloomberg Television today about how he feels the market is overvalued and has a long way to go down. He was also keen to point out the problems of Europe, and that an orderly path for delinquent states, like Greece, to leave the eurozone needs to be established.

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • AdMob: iPhone OS outnumbers Android 2:1 in U.S.

    AdMob graph

    Not long after a report was released that Android had overtaken the iPhone in U.S. marketshare comes a report from AdMob stating that iPhone OS devices are outnumbering Android 2:1 in the U.S.  AdMob, officially a part of Google as of today, has released a report measuring the number of unique devices that requested an ad from AdMob at least once during April 2010.  During April, AdMob says that there were 10.7 million unique iPhones accessing AdMob, compared to 8.7 Android devices.  When we include iPod Touches and iPads in the equation, the iDevice number jumps to 18.3 million unique devices.

    Worldwide, the story is largely the same.  AdMob says that there were 11.6 million unique Android devices compared to 27.4 million iPhones, and that numbers jumps to 40.8 million when you include all of Apple’s iDevices.  When breaking down the OS distribution worldwide, AdMob reports that Android is considerably more popular in North America than the rest of the world, as we have 75 percent of the world’s Android devices here, compared to only 49 percent of iPhones.

    When considering the actual number of ad requests, the iPhone OS is still the leader worldwide at 42 percent and Android at 25 percent, ahead of Symbian and BlackBerry at 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.  In the U.S., however, Android is in the lead with 46 percent of ad requests.  The iPhone OS is in second place with 38 percent, followed by BlackBerry at 7 percent and webOS at 3%.

    Via AdMob, Boy Genius Report


  • Genetically Engineered Bugs Can Smell Blue Light | Discoblog

    blue-bananaDo I smell a banana? Nope. It’s a blue light I’m smelling.

    Fruit fly larvae made this mistake while participating in a study recently published in Frontiers in Neuroscience Behavior. By adding a light-sensitive protein to certain smell receptors in the larvae, German scientists allowed the genetically engineered bugs to essentially smell light.

    The team, under the guidance of Klemens Störtkuhl at Ruhr University Bochum, is attempting to understand “olfactory coding”–how the brain transforms chemical signals into perceptible smells. Normally, a fly’s olfactory receptor neurons only send an electrical signal to its brain when the fly smells something, but by adding a protein the researchers caused a neuron to fire when the one-millimeter bug was basking in blue light.

    The fly brain uses some of its 28 olfactory neurons to detect bad smells, and others for good ones. Protein puppeteers, the researchers could pick which neuron to add the light-sensing protein to. The good-smelling neurons respond to a smorgasbord of fly-friendly scents: like banana, marzipan, and glue (apparently rotting fruit gives off these scents). By attaching the light-sensitive protein to one of these neurons, researchers caused the typically light-fearing insects to crawl straight towards the blue glow.

    According to a ScienceDaily article, given their successful mapping of these larvae olfactory neurons, the researchers next hope to make adult fruit flies go bananas.

    Related content:
    Discoblog: Neuroscientist Says We Perceive “Smounds”—Half Sound, Half Smell
    80beats: A Life-Extending Coup: Flies That Can’t Smell Food Live 30 Percent Longer
    Not Exactly Rocket Science: Smell a lady, shrug off flu – how female odours give male mice an immune boost
    Not Exactly Rocket Science: Elephants smell the difference between human ethnic groups
    DISCOVER: The Brain: The First Yardstick for Measuring Smells

    Image: flickr / Jason Gulledge