Mereja

Category: News

  • Faces of War: Capt. Jason Ford

    Captain Jason Ford is on his fourth tour of duty with the U.S. Marines, his first in Afghanistan.  I met him in 2003 during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq and again on the march towards Baghdad while he was serving with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, the same unit I embedded with.

    Now he’s the Commanding Officer of Charlie Company with the 1st LAR, based in a Combat Outpost known as South Station in the Helmand River Valley.

    We joined him on a four hour foot patrol into a neighboring village where we sat down cross legged on the floor in the open-air living room of a tribal elder’s home.  We drank the Chai tea they offered and I listened as the Captain worked to establish a relationship and trust with the elder and the large group of men and boys around him.

    “We do these sit downs with them to try and let them know hey yes we’re here, we’re here to help, we’re the good guys and here’s why…” the Captain told me later, “but we’re not going to give you everything because we can’t be here forever.  This is your country, your problem, and you guys gotta start addressing those problems.”

    “In order to win this war, in order to finally be successful over here, we have to win the people.”

    Ford grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attended the Naval Academy (when I asked how he finished there he laughed and said “I graduated!”) and now lives in Southern California with his new wife.

    “Before, the Marine Corps was everything.  Now it’s the Marine Corps plus a wife so… “

    So this may be his last tour of duty?

    “When I do get home it will be time to go and start making babies and do that good stuff.”

    “You got a new boss now?” I ask.  “Yeah, absolutely!”

  • Making money on an oil disaster – Will BP take responsibility, or squeeze the tragedy for profits the way Exxon did?

    ExxonMobil convened its annual shareholders meeting in Dallas this week as the magnitude of the ongoing BP oil disaster grows. This is a reminder that oil companies need to be held accountable for their actions—both while the oil gushes from the ocean floor and 20 years after the spill. The Exxon Valdez oil accident that slimed Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989 is a chilling reminder of the need for government oversight and corporate accountability.

    Exxon and BP’s broken record

    Many would assume that BP—the company responsible for the Gulf Coast disaster—will cover the entire cost of cleanup. But we learned from the Exxon Valdez spill that the reality is very different:

    The Exxon Valdez tanker spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, which eventually contaminated approximately 1,300 miles of shoreline. The total costs of Exxon Valdez, including both cleanup and also “fines, penalties and claims settlements,” ran as much as $7 billion. Cleanup of the affected region alone cost at least $2.5 billion, and much oil remains.

    Yet Exxon made high profits even in the aftermath of the most expensive oil spill in history. They made $3.8 billion profit in 1989 and $5 billion in 1990. And this occurred while Exxon disputed cleanup costs nearly every step of the way.

    Exxon fought paying damages and appealed court decisions multiple times, and they have still not paid in full. Years of fighting and court appeals on Exxon’s part finally concluded with a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2008 that found that Exxon only had to pay $507.5 million of the original 1994 court decree for $5 billion in punitive damages. And as of 2009, Exxon had paid only $383 million of this $507.5 million to those who sued, stalling on the rest and fighting the $500 million in interest owed to fishermen and other small businesses from more than 12 years of litigation.

    Twenty years later, some of the original plaintiffs are no longer alive to receive, or continue fighting for, their damages. An estimated 8,000 of the original Exxon Valdez plaintiffs have died since the spill while waiting for their compensation as Exxon fought them in court.

    Coastal regions and coastlines of the Prince William Sound are still contaminated. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council’s 2009 status report finds that as much as 16,000 gallons of oil remains in the sound’s intertidal zones today. A 2001 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study surveyed 96 sites along 8,000 miles of coastline and found that “a total area of approximately 20 acres of shoreline in Prince William Sound is still contaminated with oil. Oil was found at 58 percent of the 91 sites assessed and is estimated to have the linear equivalent of 5.8 km of contaminated shoreline.”

    Animals and ecosystems suffered immediately after the spill and still do today. Scientific American reported that, “some 2,000 sea otters, 302 harbor seals and about 250,000 seabirds died in the days immediately following the spill.” The researchers estimate that long term, “shoreline habitats such as mussel beds affected by the spill will take up to 30 years to recover fully.”

    Most of the oil cannot be mopped up, In fact, only about 8 percent was ever recovered. Dr. Jeffrey Short of Oceana testified at a hearing on the 20th anniversary of Exxon Valdez that, “Despite heroic efforts involving more than 11,000 people, 2 billion dollars, and aggressive application of the most advanced technology available, only about 8 percent of the oil was ever recovered. This recovery rate is fairly typical rate for a large oil spill. About 20 percent evaporated, 50 percent contaminated beaches, and the rest floated out to the North Pacific Ocean, where it formed tar balls that eventually stranded elsewhere or sank to the seafloor.”

    Exxon fought the courts, while BP botched the cleanup

    Exxon didn’t fail in its response efforts 20 years ago alone. BP actually joined Exxon in its response efforts—officially BP PLC, the same firm working to stop the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico now.

    The Associated Press reports: “BP owned a controlling interest in the Alaska oil industry consortium that was required to write a cleanup plan and respond to the spill two decades ago…investigations that followed the Valdez disaster blamed both Exxon and Alyeska for a response that was bungled on many levels.”

    The same lack of preparation persists today, as BP workers and trained local employees and officials scramble to contain the gushing oil.

    BP profits while disaster unfolds

    BP has made huge profits over the last 10 years. In fact, during the early days of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, BP was making “enough profit in four days to cover the costs of the spill cleanup” so far.

    BP made $163 billion in profits from 2001 to 2009 and $5.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010. And The Washington Post found that, “BP said it spent $350 million in the first 20 days of the spill response, about $17.5 million a day. It has paid 295 of the 4,700 claims received, for a total of $3.5 million. By contrast, in the first quarter of the year, the London-based oil giant’s profits averaged $93 million a day.”

    Meanwhile, contamination in the gulf continues to worsen. BP CEO Tony Hayward bet there would be a “very, very modest” environmental impact on the region, but the gulf’s fisheries and shorelines will likely follow in the tragic path of the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill—ruined for decades after. Add thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants used for cleanup to this mix, along with their unknown but potentially toxic effects, and this only compounds the damage to public health, tourism, and the region’s greater economy.

    NOAA has already shut down “nearly 20 percent of the commercial and recreational fisheries in the area because of the spill.” And U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared a fishery disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday; the affected area includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

    There is only more devastation to come to the communities in the region as their local populations and tourism industries suffer a blow not easily nursed back to health.

    Holding BP accountable for the aftermath

    BP cannot be let off the hook like Exxon was. No matter what anyone does, most of the gushing oil cannot be recovered; this is why BP must be responsible for regional restoration and cleanup—as well as plugging the hole.

    BP needs to be held accountable for stopping the oil gusher and for shouldering the safety, health, restoration, and cleanup costs for years to come. President Obama created an independent commission to investigate causes and cleanup options for the disaster, and Congress is attempting to raise oil spill liability caps. But more steps need to be taken to hold BP fully accountable for the aftermath of the disaster.

    BP should be required to place its 2010 first quarter profit of $5.6 billion in an escrow account to provide compensation to the fishermen, those in the tourist industry, and others whose livelihoods are threatened. These funds should also be used for cleaning up the soon to be blighted shores.

    We are reminded as one of the largest environmental disasters in history continues to unfold in the gulf that we are putting our economy, national security, and environment at greater risk every day that the Senate fails to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. Yet ExxonMobil and BP both bragged that 2009 was a year of safety and environmental improvements for them; BP even claimed that, “2009 was an outstanding year” for their exploration and production efforts.

    The BP Gulf Coast disaster reminds us that the offshore oil industry as a whole carries extreme risks that the American people cannot bear. We must act now to dramatically reduce our oil use, and President Obama and leaders in both parties of Congress must provide the leadership necessary to develop a clean energy and climate solution that becomes law this year.

    This is a repost from the Center for American Progress. Susan Lyon is Special Assistant, Daniel J. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress.

    For more information, see:

  • AirSwing: Toshiba’s gesture-based UI system in action (video)

    Natural user interfaces using gestures aren’t really new, but AirSwing, a technology developed by Toshiba, offers something unique: it neither requires expensive hardware nor substantial CPU resources to work. After installing AirSwing (which is in prototype stage) on your computer, all you need is just a conventional web cam as the input device to start.

    In fact, NEC claims their UI system uses only 3% of the processing power of a 400MHz ARM 11 CPU. The way it works is that the display shows a semi-transparent image of the user, a menu and the content the user is supposed to interact with. It’s then possible move around or select pieces of content, for example flick through photos in a photo gallery, simply by making gestures.

    The idea is that because AirSwing users see a picture of themselves on the screen, it’s clear for them where to “press” a virtual button or how to move hands at all times. Once it’s ready, Toshiba plans to market AirSwing to digital signage companies.

    As you can see in the video below, Toshiba has some kinks to iron out before that can happen though:


  • IRONY: Warner Bros. Sued for Pirating Anti-Pirating Technology [Piracy]

    In 2003, a company named Medien Patent Verwaltung showed Warner Bros. their technology to mark films in a way capable of tracing a pirated copy back to its origin theater. And allegedly, WB has been using the tech since…without paying. More »










    Piracy – Warner Bros – Intellectual Property – Services – Copyright infringement

  • Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level

    Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

    Kurt Nimmo
    Prison Planet.com
    Thursday, May 27, 2010

    larry summers Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level onepixel
    Larry Summers wants Congress to “grit its teeth” and get busy on another worthless stimulus.

    The bankster operative who helped destroy Glass-Steagall is back.

    Larry Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, has told Congress to “grit its teeth” and approve a fresh fiscal boost of $200 billion to keep growth on track, reports the Daily Telegraph. “We are nearly 8m jobs short of normal employment. For millions of Americans the economic emergency grinds on,” he said.

    The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the stimulus boondoggle.

    “It’s frightening,” professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research told the Daily Telegraph. “The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly,” he said.

    No precedent since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the corporate media has the public obsessing over Lindsay Lohan’s court-ordered ankle bracelet.

    The M3 is a measure of the money supply. It began tumbling last summer. The stock of fiat money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6 percent. The assets of institutional money market funds fell at a 37 percent rate, the sharpest drop ever.

    In 2006, the Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3 figures. The Fed said it did this to save money. Nonsense. It did this to stop you from understanding what the big boys are doing with the money supply. It allows them to more effectively cook the books and keep you in the dark. It allows them to portray the largest economic crisis in history as a recovery.

    Economists and others use ancillary data provided by the Fed to get an idea of what is going on with the money supply.

    Fiat Money Supply Contracting at Great Depression Level 260310banner2

    In 2008, the funny money supply experienced the sharpest contraction in modern history. The current “economic crisis” followed in short order. “The US economy is without doubt facing severe headwinds going into the autumn,” reported Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in August of that year. He wasn’t whistling Dixie.

    Manipulating the money supply is how the banksters control economies and force nations to do their bidding. “The system is not being fixed and deliberately so. The elitists do not want it fixed. They want a collapse. This is the only way they can force people to accept world government,” writes Bob Chapman. “Many say they do know where it will end, but if they studied history they’d know exactly where it would end. It will end with the deliberate collapse of the financial and economic system and war, the way it always has.”

    International bankers have choices. Either Iran or North Korea. Only time will tell if they will exploit these emerging crises and go for it as history and Chapman warn they invariably do.

  • Exclusive: Innova Dynamics Eyes Series B

    Innova Dynamics, the advanced materials spinout from the University of Pennsylvania, will likely tap investors for a Series B sometimes in coming year, company CEO and co-founder Alexander Mittal tells G.E.R.

    Mittal said the amount is still not settled but would likely be more than the $5.5 million raised as par of the Series A financing round announced yesterday and led by Rho Ventures. MentorTech Ventures also participated in the financing. Innova plans to use the proceeds from the Series A to hire new employees to scale and commercialize its flagship Innlay technology.

    Innova’s Innlay technology can be used across various industries, including cleantech. Specifically, it can improve the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels as well as fuel cells membranes.

  • Women’s role in a warming world

    In June climate negotiators will reconvene in Bonn, Germany for an interim meeting to discuss the working text of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, the international treaty that aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent climate change’s worst effects. A relatively new aspect of this conversation is how women can help adapt to climate change and their unique circumstances when it comes to the issue. They are severely affected by climate change yet underrepresented and not engaged in solutions.  CAP’s Kari Manlove has the story in this repost.

    Women are likely to be hit harder by climate change than men due their social roles and the simple fact that a majority—as much as 70 percent—of the world’s poor are women. As a result, they are much more devastated by natural disasters than men. One researcher concludes that women are 14 times more likely than men to die in a natural disaster such as a tsunami. Experts predict climate change will only exacerbate such inequities.

    But over the last few years the increasing portfolio of climate solutions is beginning to include gender-sensitive approaches and women’s involvement. Observers realize that women need to be protected, engaged, and empowered for climate solutions to truly succeed. They also see that a vulnerable segment of the population is in fact one with mass potential to bring positive change.

    Women are a largely untapped resource that we must use to effectively and justly combat climate change. They need to be harnessed to prepare communities for global warming’s effects, particularly in developing countries where warming will have the most severe consequences.

    Engaging women on adaptation strategies

    Women in developing countries have an intimate knowledge of the social and natural systems global warming affects. They are at the heart of their families’ and communities’ resource management and well-being, notably in rural areas. Women and girls, for example, are responsible for gathering cook stove fuel and producing 60 percent to 80 percent of the food in developing countries. According to the United Nations, women in Sub-Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water. They can therefore provide valuable insight when it comes to formulating adaptation policies and implementing projects as fuel and water become scarcer and agricultural yields shrink.

    The first step to making women full participants in adaptation is recognizing their value in international climate negotiations and supporting advocacy group work (more on both of these below). Next is finding concrete ways to integrate women into the planning, development, and execution of climate adaptation strategies.

    Climate adaptation strategy literature is minimal, but observers often turn to experience with disaster risk reduction to craft informed approaches. The disaster risk reduction community is also giving gender issues more consideration, which involves evaluating regional, national, and local response systems through a gender lens, collecting supplemental data, and ensuring women have equal access to early warning systems and the resources for preparedness and disaster assistance.

    Further, these techniques are made much more possible and effective with targeted financing, which is why some advocates argue that part of adaptation funding should be set aside for gender-specific training, community workshops, and disaster plans. It’s hard to disagree.

    Progress in the UNFCCC

    U.N. officials, UNFCCC country delegates, and nongovernmental organizations are beginning to integrate gender into their discourse and policy pushes. A handful of NGOs have more publicly championed ìgender justice,î such as the international antipoverty organization CARE and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, or WEDO. They held side events at the Copenhagen climate change conference last year on this very issue, and groups like Climate Wise Women have since taken their message on the road.

    Negotiators seem to be listening. UNFCCC interim negotiating text released in Bonn, Germany in June 2009 made 13 mentions of gender and 17 of women—a significant advance over previous texts, which excluded both. During the December meetings, NGOs maintained pressure to include gender-sensitive language in the final text, and several governments were on board. Finland, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Iceland, Norway, the European Union, and several African countries supported gender-based language going into Copenhagen.

    The Copenhagen Accord—the document that UNCCC delegates agreed to at the final plenary session of the conference—makes no specific mention of women or gender, but the tabled Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action, or AWG-LCA, text still contains gender-sensitive language (eight references) that will hopefully be retained through the 16th meeting of the U.N. Conference of Parties or COP16 in Mexico this year.

    Groups like WEDO and GenderCC continue to push the United Nations to involve women at high-level climate negotiations. They note that at Copenhagen 30 percent of the country delegates were women. On the one hand, this was the peak for women’s engagement, but on the other hand it does not mirror reality. Similarly, in March U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon put together the Advisory Board on Climate Change Financing and appointed all men. The gender justice community subsequently voiced their concern over the apparent apathy to involve women in high-level discussions.

    Going forward

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—while not explicitly a U.S. climate negotiator—has unabashedly placed women as a strategic centerpiece in her foreign policy approach. She appointed Melanne Verveer as her ambassador at large for global women’s issues and stated, ìWithout providing more rights and responsibilities for women, many of the goals we claim to pursue in our foreign policy are either unachievable or much harder to achieve.î

    We should similarly place women on the front lines as we craft solutions to abate global warming and adapt to it. They embody much knowledge, responsibility, and unrealized potential, and are therefore essential if we’re to achieve any meaningful degree of success.

    Kari Manlove is a Research Associate for the Energy Opportunity team at American Progress. This column was reposted from the Center for American Progress website.

    For more information, see:

  • Julia Stiles Joining Cast Of “Dexter?”

    Julia Stiles — who became a bona fide teen star appearing alongside Heath Ledger in 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You — is reportedly in talks to join the next season of Showtime’s Dexter, Entertainment Weekly spilled on Wednesday.

    While the actress’ potential role is currently under wraps, word is she’s very close to closing a deal that will see her join the cast when the fifth season of Dexter premieres next fall.

    Series star Michael C. Hall is currently in remission after successfully battling cancer earlier this year.


  • Siemens Considers Wind Plant in Ontario

    Ontario's flower, the trillium, even looks like a windmill. Coincidence?

    Siemens Canada is looking at building a new wind turbine plant in Ontario, according to a report in Bloomberg.

    Siemens Canada Chief Executive Officer Roland Aurich said the company is considering multiple sites but is focusing on Ontario and isn’t far from making an announcement. The move would further bolster Ontario green credibility and could validate the blockbuster CAD $7 billion deal with Samsung for wind and solar projects signed in January. As part of the deal, Samsung pledged to attract other manufacturers to the province.

    Aurich did not indicate that he had any discussions with the Korean company, but Ontario’s efforts to become a green manufacturing hub have been difficult to miss, with its generous feed-in tariff and aggressive green energy legislation.

    Aurich said that Siemens is factoring the strength of the Canadian economic recovery into its decision-making process.

    There are possibilities for a Canadian operation to also use that for export, but primarily we want to show Canada that we are a Canadian company, we manufacture things here, and we make sure the market is big enough.

  • Next Chevrolet Volt may get rotary, 2-cylinder, or diesel

    2011 Chevrolet Volt

    The 2011 Chevrolet Volt hasn’t even hit dealerships yet and General Motors’ engineers are already looking for ways to cut costs on the second-generation model. The battery-pack of the currentl model costs roughly $10,000 and GM is doing all it can to get that down by 50 percent by the time the next Volt is due.

    GM’s new vice president of global vehicle engineering, Karl Stracke, says that the company is considering a wide range of possibilities including a rotary engines or a 2-cylinder gasoline engine making 15-18 kW. Stracke says the Detroit automaker is also looking at a diesel engine.

    “The cost of the engine would be higher for the manufacturer,” said Stracke, “but the fuel costs would be cheaper for customers.”

    Click here to read our first drive impressions of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt.

    Refresher: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is powered by 16-kWh, “T”-shaped lithium-ion battery that powers the electric drive unit, which allows it to drive 40 miles on battery power alone. According to GM’s preliminary specs, the system puts out 150-hp and a maximum torque of 273 lb-ft, allowing the Volt to go from 0-60 mph in about 9 seconds, hitting a top speed of 100 mph. The battery can be re-charged by plugging into a household outlet and takes less than 3 hours to recharge on 240 volts, and about 8 hours on a standard 120-volt outlet. The Chevrolet Volt also carries a 1.4 4-clyinder engine that allows the five-door, FWD sedan to travel additional miles while averaging a fuel-economy of 50 mpg. A fully charged battery and full tank of gas will allow the Volt to travel 300 miles.

    First Drive: 2011 Chevrolet Volt:

    All Photos Copyright © 2010 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.

    – By: Omar Rana

    Source: Inside Line


  • Kendra Exposed Video: Leaked on the Web

    Playboy’s Kendra Wilkinson gets back in the headlines. A sex tape titled “Kendra Exposed” was discovered by Vivid Entertainment.

    The torrent Download for the Kendra Exposed Video is one of the top searches now on the net. Vivid Entertainment had found the leaked video more than a month ago but they have claimed that it had been created back in 2005 for a special purpose when Kendra got of 18 years of age.

    The 24-year-old actress from “Girl next door” is now upset and confused about the matter. She is disturbed with the distribution of Kendra Exposed video and she does not want it to be public now at any cost. She already tried to remove the videos from the web but she failed.

    The video has Kendra with her former boyfriend during high school. Reports said that the ex-boyfriend leaked that sex tape video to some sources just after their separation.

    On the website set up by Vivid you can see a preview of the tape along some still images to encourage you to buy the membership for the site which costs $29.95 for 30 days.

    Related posts:

    1. Kendra’s Sex tape Exposed!
    2. On Second Installment: Kendra Could Be A Lesbian
    3. Kendra Wilkinson’s Sex Tape Exposed

  • Photo Comparison Shows BP HAS Reduced Well Pressure (BP)

    I am putting up these two pictures to show why I believe that the injection pressure of mud into the well has dropped, indicating that BP have filled the well, and are now holding pressure to see if there are any problems. I would assume, if none develop, that they will inject cement to seal the top of the well, sometime today.

    livecam

    livecam

    Notice how the flow was longer and straighter in the first image, indicating that it was at higher pressure (velocity) and that now it blows out at much closer distance, meaning it doesn’t have the same pressure (velocity). There is a small caveat, and that is that I am assuming that there hasn’t been any significant erosion of the surface of the cracks between the two shots, and that may be a possible change, though not enough to cause the reduced throw distance of the central jet.

    UPDATE: Here is a picture showing the ROV and the leaks – note the pipe on top of the riser that is also flowing mud.

    livecam

    This is a guest post by Heading Out of The Oil Drum –> (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.)

    Join the conversation about this story »

  • Conheçam a BMW M3 versão IND

    Imagens do veículo

    A preparadora americana IND trabalhou em um projeto ambicioso para a BMW M3. Houveram modificações em todo o veículo, visualmente, e na potência do esportivo também. Uma nova pintura “Azul Atlantis” foi feita, se extendendo até o motor, e o visual ficou muito agradável. Mas as mudanças não param por ai.

    Algumas peças de fibra de carbono foram instaladas e uma nova suspensão ajustável foi inclusa. Um kit de freios da Brembo e escapamentos de titânio. Interiormente, o carro lembra muito o modelo M3 GTS, não existem bancos traseiros e existem painéis na porta, os bancos dianteiros são revestidos de couro.

    Todas essas mudanças garantiram à modesta M3 “meros” 522 cv de potência. Vejam após o link algumas imagens do esportivo depois de sua transformação radical. O resultado realmente é de agradar os olhos. Não foi divulgado valores do modelo transformado.

    Imagens do veículo
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    Via | Top Speed


  • Degrees, certificates awarded at 359th Commencement

    Today (May 27) the University awarded a total of 6,777 degrees and 81 certificates. A breakdown of the degrees by schools and programs follows. Harvard College granted a total of 1,562 degrees.

    Bachelor of Arts Cum laude in field of concentration Cum laude Magna cum laude Magna cum laude with highest honors Summa cum laude in field of concentration
    Men 389 221 23 90 27 35
    Women 415 270 18 140 27 40
    Total 804 491 41 194 54 75
    Bachelor of Science Cum laude in field of concentration Cum laude Magna cum laude Magna cum laude with highest honors Summa cum laude in field of concentration
    Men 4 2 0 1 3 1
    Women 1 2 0 0 0 0
    Total 5 4 0 1 3 1
    Harvard College 1673
    Bachelor of Arts 1,659
    Bachelor of Science 14
    Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 864
    Master of Arts 319
    Master of Science 59
    Doctor of Philosophy 484
    Graduate School of Business Administration 907
    Master of Business Administration 901
    Doctor of Business Administration 6
    School of Dental Medicine 90
    Specialty Certificates 36
    Master of Medical Sciences 13
    Doctor of Dental Medicine 34
    Doctor of Medical Sciences 7
    Graduate School of Design 209
    Master in Architecture 104
    Master of Architecture in Urban Design 28
    Master in Design Studies 25
    Master in Landscape Architecture 37
    Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design 4
    Master in Urban Planning 27
    Doctor of Design 9
    Divinity School 155
    Master of Divinity 56
    Master of Theology 8
    Master of Theological Studies 86
    Doctor of Theology 5
    Graduate School of Education 685
    Certificate of Advanced Study 6
    Master of Education 625
    Doctor of Education 54
    Harvard Kennedy School 577
    Master in Public Administration 86
    Master in Public Administration (Mid-Career) 204
    Master in Public Administration in International Development 68
    Master in Public Policy 208
    Doctor in Public Policy 6
    Law School 761
    Master of Laws 161
    Doctor of Juridical Science 11
    Doctor of Law 589
    Medical School 180
    Master in Medical Sciences 27
    Doctor of Medicine 153
    School of Public Health 385
    Master of Public Health 201
    Master of Science 145
    Doctor of Science 36
    Extension School 703
    Associate in Arts 6
    Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies 128
    Certificate in Applied Sciences 11
    Certificate in Environmental Management 7
    Certificate in Management 21
    Certificate in Publishing and Communications 7
    Certificate in Technologies of Education 1
    Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies 522

    All figures include degrees awarded in November 2008 and March and May 2010

  • Electric car travels record 623 miles on single charge

    Filed under: , , ,

    The plug-in aficionados of the Japan Electric Vehicle Club hit the track this weekend in a Daihatsu Mira Van with a 74 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery to see how far they could go on a charge. The last time the crew attempted this feat in November 2009, they managed to squeeze out 345 miles before running out of juice.

    This time out, the members reduced some mass with new features likes a carbon fiber seat and even lower rolling resistance tires from Toyo. The van used the same Sanyo battery as the previous record drive and continued rolling for an amazing 623 miles before running out of electrons.

    Seventeen drivers participated in the 27.5-hour drive with an average speed of just under 25 miles per hour. While getting over 600 miles on a charge is certainly impressive, we aren’t likely to see many 74 kWh batteries in production vehicles any time soon thanks to their prohibitive cost. Plus, the driving style on the closed course was doubtlessly extremely conservative, which doesn’t bode well for real-world driving. Regardless, it’s quite a feat. A tip of the hat to Paul!

    [Source: Electric Vehicle News]

    Electric car travels record 623 miles on single charge originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Acer Liquid Stream loses the ‘Liquid,’ gets official

    The Acer Liquid Stream (now simply Acer Stream) literally only popped up on our radar last week and in a matter of days cleared the FCC and got certified by the Bluetooth SIG.  That’s pretty fast by most standards, considering rumors and leaks usually begin to occur a few months before a device gets officially launched.  This morning, Acer dropped a press release (below) giving us more detail on some of the features you can expect to see in the Stream.  The device will have a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM, and will be running Android 2.1.  It also comes with a 5MP camera which is capable of 720p video recording, 2GB internal memory, comes with an 8GB microSD card and supports up to 32GB of external storage.  The device is being classified (by Acer) as the “Perfect Entertainment Machine” as it will have many media-friendly options.  No word on pricing or availability, but you can be sure we’ll keep you posted.  Who’s getting excited about this shiny new device?

    Via Engadget

     

    Acer Stream the Perfect Entertainment Machine

    2010-05-27 – 

    Powerful. Spectacular. Cutting-edge technologies. State-of-the-art connectivity. Ultra-fast. Highly sensitive. These are just some of the words that best describe Acer Stream, the latest technological jewel of the Taiwanese company. Defining it a smartphone would be reductive. In fact, Acer Stream is the utmost expression of technology, design, performance and entertainment.

    Acer Stream is a high-end multimedia smartphone, optimized for watching movies, listening to music and enjoying web browsing like at home. Perfect for most demanding users who look for the best in entertainment.

    Elegant and minimalist in design, Acer Stream is made from highly resistant materials and offers truly outstanding user interface and technical features, all in just 11.2 mm, ensuring users a unique and unrepeatable experience.

    The completely brand new user interface has been totally redesigned in order to focus on what is essential to users and guarantee a simple and quick access to what matters to them. 

    Enjoy smooth animations and fine graphics: surf between photos and video thanks to the stunningly fluid 3D interface and unlock the phone by a ‘peeling’ gesture, assure a cool but very functional detail! 

    – Read information straight from the lock screen widget: accessing ambient information on the idle screen gives the user what he needs before he even asks for it. 

    – Quickly start your favorite applications with one tap: the status bar appears as an innovative divider between logical spaces. It shows all the essential information, providing shortcuts to most frequently used settings and its position allows a very easy access to the settings or notifications. 

    – Easily switch applications with the History panel: the top part of the Home screen has been dedicated to applications history, with the benefit of reducing complexity and providing significant cues for navigation.

    – Reorder applications across several pages at their convenience: Apps can be moved around from one page to another or easily uninstalled by simply dragging them to the bin.

    – Customize the phone according to specific needs:a simple customization page accessible from the Home screen will be a pleasant surprise, enabling customers to tailor their smartphone through wallpaper and sound personalization.

    Coupled with three types of predictive keyboards, a smart dialer and a redesigned contacts list, the Acer user interface makes using the smartphone an efficient and delightful experience.

    Social and entertaining: All the most popular applications are pre-installed: Nemo player to enjoy multimedia content to the fullest, Acer UrFooz to create your virtual “look-a-like”, add your profile and bookmarks and post it to your social networks, Facebook™ and Twidroid perfectly integrated into the address book.

    And for music addicts Acer Stream features Spinlets™, a completely free streaming service that lets you browse and listen to major music labels and record companies for great music and instantly post what you find to your favorite Social Networking sites.

    Main features:

    Superb display quality: the touch screen with Amoled technology boasts 1.67 million exceptionally bright colors, through a generous 3.7″ WVGA display. Furthermore, its incredible contrast (superior 2000:1) makes for clear images and perfect legibility in any environment and light condition. Moreover, this type of display consumes less energy to help increase battery life.

    Ultrafast connectivity 3G+ for streaming: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps in download, Bluetooth and WiFi n, enabling faster transmission of multimedia content than ever!

    Power and performance: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, with its 512 MB RAM, makes the Acer Stream one of the fastest and most reactive phones on the market. The operating system behind Stream is Android version 2.1, better known as Eclair.

    Unique and high-quality multimedia features, enabling the recording of HD videos up to 720p. Listening to your favorite music or the radio with RDS has never been so pleasant; enjoy the Dolby Mobile quality, with powerful bass and crystal-clear clarity for an unparalleled purity of sound. UPnP technology enables content sharing with other devices. Furthermore, a 5MP photocamera and integrated GPS system allow photos and videos to be geotagged. Last but not least, you can connect the Acer Stream to your home TV with HDMI port and watch a movie on a larger screen.

    2GB of internal Flash memory is ideal for downloading tons of applications and 3D games, while an 8GB memory card as free bundle and a micro-SD card slot support up to 32GB enables users to enjoy their favorite multimedia content at all times.

     


  • Pensions, vouchers could be be voted on today

    The Illinois General Assembly is trying to finish its work and adjourn for the summer, but major issues remain unresolved despite passing a state budget earlier this week.

    Pension payment?

    The Illinois House this week voted to borrow nearly $4 billion needed for the state to make its scheduled payment to the pension systems.

    Borrowing was the best option since the most likely alternative would be for the state to take a “pension holiday” and forgo the payment until next year, weakening the pension systems and incurring billions of dollars in additional debt.

    To ensure the pensions are paid as promised, the Illinois Senate needs to approve the House plan to borrow. That is no slam-dunk. Doug Finke at Gatehouse reports

    “I have been told there are no votes in the Republican caucus for borrowing,” said Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, one of the Democrats’ budget negotiators.

    The Senate did not return to Springfield until late Wednesday afternoon and did not take up any budget issues. Both parties planned to hold private meetings with members Wednesday to talk over positions on the remaining budget issues.

    Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, said Republicans have not yet taken a position on the pension borrowing bill.

    “The governor called me (Tuesday). I said I will consider it. Right now, I haven’t ruled it out or decided to support it,” Bomke said.

    It’s worth noting that Bomke represents Springfield and thousands of state workers who want their pensions funded.

    What can IEA members do?

    Keep in touch by checking the IEA Website and the IEA Twitter feed and the IEA facebook page. It might become necessary to urge IEA members to call their senators about pension borrowing, but we’ll have a greater sense of that later.

    Vouchers

    The plan to divert nearly $100 million in public dollars to private and religious schools in the city of Chicago has been on life support for two weeks, but could be brought back to life on the Illinois House floor today.

    The Chicago voucher bill, which was 12 votes short of passage on May 5, has been amended in an effort to make it more palatable, but the changes are merely cosmetic.

    One change is that there is now a sunset provision; the voucher program supposedly would end in 2020. However, that is misleading because the amendment also states that students who have received a voucher by 2020 can continue to receive vouchers as long as they remain in school, so the voucher program could actually last beyond 2030.

    Also added to the bill is a provision that says any private school whose student body is comprised of at least 20 percent voucher students must test all of their students “…in the same manner as Illinois’ public schools.”

    It appears likely that the cost of such testing, if it ever occurs, would be paid by the state. Of course, there is no money budgeted for that.

    What can IEA members do?

    The buzz at the Statehouse is that vouchers could be reintroduced Thursday morning. Please call the Illinois Statehouse at 217/782-2000, ask for your state representative and urge that representative to oppose SB2494, the Chicago voucher bill.

    What about the budget?

    Since the Illinois House refuses to consider revenue in an election year, key state programs, including education, will be taking big hits.

    According to this report from AP , K-12 education will be cut $585 million or nearly 8 percent, with higher education being cut 4.5 percent. Meanwhile, medical care for the poor would be cut ten percent and the Department of Children and Family Services would be cut 28.7 percent.

    It’s not a coincidence that issues of great importance to education employees are being resolved at the time of year when it is hardest to mobilize IEA members. We will try to inform you in a timely fashion, but things are likely to happen quickly and perhaps without notice.

    Stay in touch.

  • The Surge is On in Afghanistan

    If you’re wondering when the U.S. Military is beginning it’s surge in Afghanistan, wonder no more.  It’s on.

    If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard more about battles with the Taliban, it’s complicated.

    There are tens of thousands of Marines fresh on the ground in Afghanistan, including more than 13,000 in the Helmand River Valley, under the command of Brigadier General Joseph Osterman.  Many of these Marines are now laying the groundwork for future operations and establishing relationships with local tribal elders and government officials.

    “A lot less kinetic activity (like gun battles)” says General Osterman, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Channel at Forward Operating Base Payne, “and much more on the non-kinetic side, which the Marines have been doing a great job with.  Very sophisticated in their approach.”

    Like developing local governments and local economies.  “Not as glamorous or sensational as clearing operations..” the General says, but far more important long-term.

    The Marines are working every angle.  They’re offering seed to farmers at a cut rate price and offering classes on how to better work their land.  They’re having sit-downs with tribal elders to establish trust and spread the word that they’re here to establish security and provide aid, asking in exchange that locals share information on Taliban insurgents.

    And the Marines are spreading out across the blistering hot desert in Southern Afghanistan, on twice-daily foot patrols and in their imposing and lethal Light Armored Vehicles like the LAV-25’s, stop-checking people and traffic, disrupting insurgent supply lines and gathering intel that can help prevent future attacks.

    “It’s a slow build of confidence… we’ll establish a security presence, patrolling, talking to people and it almost creates a security bubble.  Within that we find more and more people will talk to us and it gets harder and harder for the insurgents to work against us.”

    So far there’s been very little push-back from the enemy in this region south and west of Kandahar, but the General expects it’s coming.

    “The first thing they’ll do is try to stand up to us, do attacks and very rapidly realize that’s a losing proposition because we end capturing and killing quite a number of them and then what they generally do is move into a more indirect approach, use of the IED’s (improvised explosive devices, like roadside bombs), then they start to move into desperation mode… they get into a murder and intimidation campaign.”

    That’s already happening further north in Marjah, but the General says this won’t last long.  “It’s a losing proposition.  They very quickly alienate the population…” and that’s when the Marines believe they can help the Afghanis stand up and reclaim their country for themselves.

    To the critics who point to Marjah as a failure, the General shakes his head in surprise.  “My sense of Marjah is that it’s a success story.  We’re less than 90 days since we first started that assault.  Too often people forget where we started.  Marjah was a Taliban enclave.  Completely run by the Taliban, completely governed by the Taliban, completely involved in the opium trade and in less than 90 days we now have a functioning government… we’ve opened up a number of schools… all the bazaars are thriving… there’s two, three thousand people in there at a time.  Those are all the indicators that we had that things are moving positively.”

    “Don’t get me wrong,” he cautions, “there are insurgents out there that are trying to be disruptive, taking potshots here and there, but frankly the presence we have is continuing to build a very positive security situation.”

    Counter-insurgency missions take time, the General says.  “How long does it take to gain a person’s confidence that things are now better and things will continue to be better?”

    When the people are convinced, the General insists, they’ll be a giant step closer to establishing security, stability and peace.

  • BP’s ‘Top Kill’ Efforts Are Working

    So reports the L.A. Times, citing U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen.

    The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persists, he said.

    Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.

    In a month of nothing but bad news, this comes as a welcome change of pace.

  • Bret Michaels Didn’t Tell Doctors About “American Idol” Performance

    After a series of health troubles over the past few weeks, rock star Bret Michaels made his return to performing during the American Idol live finale in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, joining finalist Casey James for a rendition of Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” Idol viewers weren’t the only ones stunned by the lively performance — even Bret’s doctors didn’t know the Celebrity Apprentice winner planned to take the stage at last night’s show.

    “I needed to be here and do this because it’s been two months since I played,” the rocker told MTV News backstage shortly after his performance. “It’s been a month and a half in the hospital. It was such an amazing feeling to come out here and jam with Casey. I didn’t tell [my doctors] I was going to do this. I just told them I was doing the ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ finale. They’re going to find out in a minute. But I feel great, I gotta be honest. There’s still a lot of pain I’m still experiencing. [But] except for a little hitch … my left side from the … stroke, I feel amazing.”

    We’re so glad Bret’s feeling better. Hopefully, it sticks; he’s still facing heart surgery this fall.