Spanish photographer Chema Madoz doesn’t like digital photography, but he loves to warp reality in impossible ways. Like this spoon with a fork shadow, which is a straight photo, with no Photoshop or laboratory manipulation whatsoever. More »
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Traditionally women have been kept at a distance from the front lines, but in Afghanistan there are no front lines. The fight is everywhere… and it’s nowhere. The combatants may be staying in the shadows or hiding in plain sight. And since there’s no battlefield per se in Helmand Province, women are serving in the U.S. military here in a variety of roles.
One of those women is 21-year-old Da’Shonda Shedd, an Army Private First Class from Marieta, Georgia, on her first Tour of Duty. She’s a Combat Engineer and her unit is working in support of the Marines 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion at Forward Operating Base Payne in Southern Afghanistan.
Da’Shonda is a bridge crew member. She and her fellow soldiers operate a ferry of sorts, moving troops, civilians and up to six huge armored vehicles at a time across the Helmand River between Payne and the wide open territory to the west.
She says she joined the Army for a change of pace and to prove people wrong, people who said she couldn’t do it. She tried college but it didn’t work out and says she was sick of the party life back home. She says she’s learned a lot since she’s been here and become a better person, less selfish and more appreciative of the little creature comforts we all take for granted. She also admits she’s counting the days until she can go home, especially with the temperature topping 110 every day and headed for 130 in a month or two.
Da’Shonda Shedd is a soldier, and she’s as close to war as any female can be.
Plenty of the world’s cities are being recreated using 3D graphics for Google Maps and Google Earth. Google’s efforts combined with those of skilled and passionate volunteers have been paying off and more and more towns and cities can be explored in three dimensions from the comfort of your chair. The latest to be added to the list is Stockholm, Swe… (read more)
In the recent celebrations, marking the 30th Anniversary of the game Pacman, which Google celebrated, has almost consumed more than 4.8 million work hours. People had tuned in to play Google’s Free Pacman Game which was somewhat reported by almost all sites worldwide. According to reports, the game had cost companies, including tech giants more than $120.5 Million as people spent time playing the game rather working. The statistics has been compiled by RescueTime which is a Time Management Tool.
Google recently released the game, Pac-Man, as a playable doodle logo, which allowed users to click the insert coin button and begin gobbling ghosts. In the start the internet search giant offered the game to be online only for a week but after the popularity, Google offered to keep it alive forever at its own Web page.
Average users were found to be spending more than 36 seconds on Google’s site, where Pacman was originally hosted. 11,000 people spent 3 million seconds on Google.com on Friday which is 36 seconds more. The reason is clear that the game was made to go online and users started to stick to it.
Pac-Man consumed $120,483,800 in costs for the lost work time, where the Google user is paid $25 per hour.
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Fleet Week, a tradition of the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard and United States Marine Corps in which the active marine or military ships dock in a variety of major cities for one week.
This tradition has been on since 1984 to honor the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard and United States Marine Corps. This week is an opportunity for the public to tour and learn more about the visiting ships. Military aircraft would also take it’s part as they will fly over in honor of the ones that lost their lives for the service to the United States.
There are may things to do during fleet week like tour visiting ships, lectures, parade of ships in the harbor, watch competitions including eating contests and tug-of-war, attend the memorial day ceremony and watch the musical performances by sailors and marines.
All events on the Fleet Week are free, unless the events are held at the USS Intrepid Sea. You will have to go and buy tickets to enter the museum.
Fleet Week in New York City would start on May 26 until June 2, 2010. That means the big ships and huge number of sailors in uniform are visiting Manhattan.
Unless indicated, all events are held in Manhattan.
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US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on Europe and Greece to act today to implement programs aimed at stabilizing roiling markets.
“The markets want to see action,” Geithner said at a press conference with the new UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
Geithner tacked on stops in London and Germany following his Asia trip in the wake of troubles in financially-ailing Greece and the Eurozone. Today’s session was mainly supportive.
“This is mostly a meeting of the minds,” Howard Wheeldon, analyst from London’s BGC Partners told Fox News, “No decisions were expected.”
In the wake of Germany’s unilateral action last week to stamp out certain speculative trading, the Treasury Secretary did push for Europe to work together on new regulations, saying the US was committed to a “comprehensive and consistent approach to financial reform.”
Geithner also encouraged Europe to look at “stress tests”’ and other methods to maintain oversight of banks here.
While a new approach was pitched today by the EU to impose levies on banks to create a fund to support financial institutions, analysts say nations here have been slow to act.
“Stress tests are bad if the country is not willing to back them up,” Michael Hewson of CMC Markets explained to Fox News, “or if they don’t want to hear the news.”
With 45% of UK trade and 25% of US trade with Europe, Geithner said the US is looking not just for stability but for “strength in its recovery.”
That recovery , according to experts here , still seems a way off.
When I had spoken with a couple of representatives from ITM Power a couple of weeks ago about revisiting the “green box” hydrogen home refueler and the possibility of using the same or similar refueling for the forklift market they were non-committal. This is because they had something up their sleeves and weren’t ready to reveal it yet.
Earlier this week, ITM Power announced that they had beaten out several other companies and won a design contract from The NextEnergy Centre to build a home hydrogen refueling station that “…will be suitable for the next generation of hydrogen-powered vehicles currently being developed by major automotive OEMs.”
This last point had me confused since I had thought that the “Green Box” ITM home H2 refueler that I had talked about in July 2008 had filled the bill. So, I got on the phone with ITM Power CEO Dr. Graham Cooley to clear up this confusion.
According to Cooley, the old Greenbox design didn’t meet the needs of the major automakers as it was designed to output H2 at only 75 bar. The new small scale alpha prototype, however, that is being designed to NextEnergy specifications will be able to output at both 350 bar (5,000 psi) and 700 bar (10,000 psi) satisfying the international protocols for the European Union and the United States.
Besides home refueling the new hydrogen generator, which will be able to accept both electricity from the grid (in off peak hours presumably) and the intermittent power of renewable energy such as wind or solar power, may also be headed for warehouses to be a part of the emerging hydrogen forklift and palette truck market.
But, according to Dr. Cooley, ITM Power’s main thrust going forward in refueling hydrogen cars is a two pronged approach. The first prong is the building of the ITM Power HFuel commercial refueling station that is getting ready for prime time now. And, the second approach is the development of a home hydrogen refueling station that meets international automaker standards.
This way, consumers will be able to refuel their hydrogen cars at home, take a road trip, refuel in town or another town as needed, then head back home where they will refuel overnight. Putting part of the national refueling infrastructure inside of people’s garages will cut down on the amount of large-scale commercial refueling stations that will need to be built in public area and will be consumer-friendly as well.
This is the type of win-win situation that is necessary in order to expedite the building of the hydrogen refueling infrastructure that is so badly needed within the next 5 years in order to keep up with the major automakers who say they will be rolling out commercial H2 vehicles in 2015.
After getting frustrated working with Keynote on the iPad for the last month, and giving and planning a few talks, I’ve come up with some presentation tips I want to share with you. Used properly, and in a situation that allows it to play its strengths, the iPad can be an effective presentation tool.
To learn more about using Keynote and other iWork apps, check out our iWork screencasts on TechUniversity (subscription required).
That line I just used, about properly and in a place that allows it to play its strengths? Make sure where, and what you’re presenting, is ideal for the iPad. Remember, you won’t be able to use a remote, or have any sort of presenters view. So, if you’re giving a talk in a small conference room where you’ll be sitting at a table with the iPad hooked up to the projector, that’s a perfect use of the tool. Giving a Steve Jobs-style presentation in front of 5,000 people and a large stage? Not so good. I’m giving a talk in a month about e-books on the iPad (self plug: June 9 at the Boston Mac User Group) in a lecture-style room with a table in a convenient place to allow me to walk around and tap the screen, so I might use the iPad there.
My presentation tool of choice is Keynote, but PowerPoint will do OK. Keep in mind the screen on the iPad is 1024×768. Make sure your presentation is that size when you design it. Also, don’t resize any graphics in the program. Do all your work in a graphics program and import the image at the size you want. If you want an image to take up the whole slide, resize it in a graphics program.
The iPad handles editing poorly. Any object groupings will be lost when you import it. I’d recommend only light edits on the iPad, like when you realize right before the talk that you misspelled the CEO’s name.
Fall in love with iPhoto. I have an album in iPhoto named “Presentation Images” and all my images for talks go there. That library also syncs to the iPad, so I can add an image if I need to.
Transitions — which you should avoid anyway — can cause some problems on the iPad. Some are supported, some are not. Rather than risk it, use minimal transitions and only when needed. Don’t get fancy with line spacing, either, as that nice, tight, and finely kerned type you have on the desktop will likely be reset to default spacing.
Also, keep in mind if your talk is going to end up on a widescreen projector as pie charts might get distorted. Unfortunately, if you create a widescreen presentation, it’ll come into the iPad full screen and still get distorted on a widescreen monitor.
For informal or fun presentations, I love Comiccraft’s Comic Book Fonts. However, I can’t use them on the iPad. Padlicous’s Text to Render services are a lifesaver. Select the text in Keynote and use the service to create an image of the selected text. Delete the text block and replace it with the image. Now, when you present you’ll be free of the default fonts.
I know, you’re rehearsing the talk constantly, but make sure you’re rehearsing it on the iPad and in a similar situation. Just in case you ignored tip #1, now is when you find out any issues with the import, or if having to tap the iPad screen to advance to advance the slides really is a hassle. You’re going to want to have your rehearsal environment be as close to your venue as possible. If it’s a new enviroment, plan for the worst case scenario you can.
Bring a backup of the talk on a USB drive in all possible formats — if you’re a Keynote user, have an exported (and checked) file in PowerPoint and PDF. This way, if for some reason the iPad doesn’t play nice with the projector, you’ve got a fall back plan.
Related TechUniversity Screencasts: Keynote Transitions & Effects
Our favourite Windows Mobile reviewer, Noah from Phonedog, has had a look at the LG Fathom, and was surprisingly not too vicious to the device, praising its snappy Snapdragon processor, responsive resistive screen and good keyboard.
In fact, after seeing his review, I almost feel the device would be a pretty worthy successor to a HTC Touch Pro 2 that is getting long in the tooth.
Do any of our readers agree? Let us know below.
Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.
Congressional staff, physicians, members of industry, and the public health community gathered on Friday, May 21 at the inaugural Air Science 40 briefing, an event co-sponsored by EPA, the American Heart Association (AHA) and the House Committee on Science and Technology in recognition of the 40th anniversary of EPA air pollution research.
At the seminar, leading scientists presented evidence that air pollution causes cardiovascular disease and death.
The news that air pollution impacts the heart may have been new to some, but for others it served as official affirmation of a scientific link that researchers have been building a case toward for several years.
Dr. Robert Brook, physician and researcher of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Michigan, presented an official AHA statement that emphasized the “causal relationship between PM2.5 exposure and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.”
Brook is lead author of the statement, which was produced by a large panel of scientific experts after an in-depth evaluation of the breadth of current scientific literature on the health impacts of air pollution.
Brook noted that the AHA statement panel reached consensus on the causal relationship between particulate matter and cardiovascular health independently from EPA, which reached a similar conclusion in its most recent Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter (PM).
Dr. C. Arden Pope III, economist and environmental epidemiology researcher at Brigham Young University and co-author of the AHA statement, presented additional groundbreaking findings on the vast benefits of air pollution regulations to human health.
He shared his landmark 2009 finding that air pollution regulations over the past two decades have increased the average American life expectancy by “a half to a full year,” and discussed an array of other studies on air pollution’s impact on cardiac morbidity and mortality that have proved “reproducible and remarkably robust.”
The AHA statement and supporting science presented by Brook and Pope deems fine particle exposure a “modifiable factor contributing to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality,” and includes new recommendations to physicians on how to advise patients at high risk for air pollution health effects. The statement offers several practical suggestions for reducing particle exposure and limiting potentially harmful physical activity in relevant cases.
While science to support the link between air pollution and cardiovascular health is constantly evolving and developing, the conclusions presented Friday should be taken seriously, Brook said.
He emphasized one of the concluding sentences in the AHA statement presenting the scientific evidence linking cardiovascular with air pollution, which asserts: “at present, no credible alternative explanation exists.”
About the Author: Becky Fried is a science writer with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research. Her OnAir posts are a regular “Science Wednesday” feature.
Foi anunciado pela Ford o recall de 2.934 unidades da Ranger 2010, devido a um problema no freio de mão que pode causar movimento involuntário do veículo, de acordo com a NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). A Ford não registra ainda nenhum acidente por causa desse problema.
Também segundo a agência, apenas os veículos com transmissão manual sofrem com esse defeito. em declaração oficial, a NHTSA informa o seguinte:
“É possível que o freio de mão se desconecte do atuador da roda direita traseira durante tempos frios. Isso pode ocorrer quando o freio de mão é solto se as pastilhas de freio ficarem congeladas na posição certa.
Se o cabo do freio de mão da roda direita traseira se desconectar, o pedal será pressionado e não terá o efeito completo do freio de mão. Um veículo de transmissão manual estacionado no ponto morto sem um freio de mão adequado pode gerar movimentos involuntários que podem causar acidentes”.
Via | Inside Line
A new lineup of basic consumer LCD monitors has been announced by HP, and they look fine. Juuuuust fine. Nothing flashy here, but the specs look solid (except for the cheapest one) and the styling is very “Apple Cinema Display” – but less chromey. That’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Basically you’ve got four models, at 20″, 21.5″, 23″, and 27″. The 2010i is kind of low resolution, and has a slow response time and (relatively) low contrast as well, so we’ll just strike that one from the running.
The 2210m and 2310m (pictured above) are nearly the same, except of course for the slight size difference and a ever-so-slightly slower grey-to-grey time on the 2310m. 1000:1 contrast ratio (and the usual vastly exaggerated 40,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio), 2.5ms response time, 1920×1080 resolution, and a couple integrated 2W speakers. The 2210m costs $220 and the 2310m costs $260.
The 2710m (above; also, that link is kind of janky) has virtually the same specs (and, disappointingly, the same resolution) as its smaller brethren, but costs significantly more at $456 (or at least, that’s what is listed at Amazon (you can get it for $366 though)). With a rather larger pixel pitch, this one won’t give you as crisp an image as the others. My pick for value out of this bunch is the 2210m; it could make an excellent second monitor if you already have a large, high-quality one for your primary.
Filed under: Paris Motor Show, Hatchback, Citroën, Design/Style
Attention all budding car designers: Citroën‘s DS3 Design Competition is giving you a chance to see your automotive vision in production. Well, at least the dashboard and roof of your automotive vision. Seeking designs that are daring yet professional, the contest to create a compelling look for the top and front of the DS3 is open to anyone anywhere in the world.
Should you enter, your work will be critiqued by designing eyes from GQ, Louis Vuitton and The Cartier Foundation. If you win, your work will be showcased on an actual DS3 at this year’s Paris Motor Show in October and Citroën’s C_42 show on the Champs-Elysées.
For more info, a look at the DS3 Portfolio and style advice or inspiration on the “Concept Anti-Retro,” check out the Citroën Creative Awards site. And save us an autograph at the show if you win…
[Source: Citroen Creative Awards via Car Design News]
Citroën launches DS3 design competition originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 May 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Xtina has x-ed out her summer tour — and she wants her fans to know why.
The singer was set to tour North America with British singing star Leona Lewis in a tour kicking off in Connecticut on July, but now the dates have been pushed back until 2011 and the announcement came just four days after the tickets went on sale.
What gives?
The “Back In The Day” crooner wants her loyal legion of followers to get acquainted with her new album, Bionic, when it hits shelves next month before she embarks on a stage show.
In a post on her official website Tuesday, Aguilera explained: “I made the decision to move my summer tour and I am truly sorry to those of you who had purchased tickets and have been disappointed by the news. My album has not even been released as yet and I would like for you all to become familiar with the music before you hear it live on tour. Again, I am sorry to have to move the dates, but I promise to come see you when the time is right!”
Bionic will be her first album of new music since 2006’s Back to Basics.
Something else to keep an eye on in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense authorization mark-up: via Satyam Khanna, Steve Vladeck finds the remnant of a much-denounced smear on attorneys who have defended Guantanamo Bay detainees in the bill.
[S]ection 1037 of the Act [page 403 of the PDF], titled “Inspector General Investigation of the Conduct and Practices of Lawyers Representing Individuals Detained at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” instructs the Department of Defense IG to “conduct an investigation of the conduct and practices of lawyers” who represent clients at Guantánamo and report back to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees within 90 days.
“Reasonable” basis for an investigation of these lawyers includes such vagueries as believing an attorney “interfered with the operations of the Department of Defense at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” As Vladeck points out, this can mean any attorney, since the overlapping DOD commands at Guantanamo Bay (the Office of Military Commissions; the Naval Base; Joint Task Force-Guantanamo; the Office of the Secretary of Defense) ensure that any lawyer will inevitably “interfere” with some operation on the base. Consider the chilling effect that will have on detainees’ access to counsel in the commissions.
For instance. Right this moment, the chief commissioning authority for the military commissions at Guantanamo, Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald, is in talks with detainee Omar Khadr’s attorneys to see if the Khadr’s case can be resolved through a plea deal. The government’s interest in seeking a plea? First, a judge might throw out a lot of the basis for its case against Khadr as improperly coerced; and more broadly, a detainee who was 15 years old when first captured by U.S. forces might not make the best poster boy for the justice dispensed by the military commissions.
So how cooperative might Khadr attorneys Barry Coburn and Kobie Flowers be in those plea talks if a different military command is investigating their activities at Guantanamo Bay? More broadly, how might an appeals court consider the overall fairness of a system that allows for detainees’ access to counsel — but places the specter of military investigation over counsel’s heads?
We’ll see whether this survives the Senate committee mark-up or the floor vote in the House.
While Sprint has already launched their version of the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and we’ve gotten hands-on time with it, Verizon has yet to say anything about their own Bold 9650. If you’re on Big Red and have been waiting to get your paws on the Tour successor, you won’t be waiting much longer. The BlackBerry Zone has received a tip that Verizon has begun training on the new ‘Berry, along with photo proof. The phone looks to be exactly the same as the Sprint version, but as a sign of good will, it looks like you’ll be receiving a 2GB microSD card along with the device. Still no word on an exact release date, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it landed within the next couple of weeks. So, are any of you planning on picking up the Verizon Bold 9650?
Magna Milan EV Concept
Battery manufacturers are all scurrying to secure for themselves, a relevant role in the impending boom in electric vehicles. Magna International Inc., is one such company; the Canadian company is actively seeking locations to produce batteries for electric vehicles.
CEO Siegfried Wolf has said that $200-$300 million has been earmarked for each of two factories; one in the U.S. and one in Europe.
Magna started a new business earlier in the year whereby they will focus exclusively on electric cars, producing battery units as well as complete vehicles. The company’s E-car business is a joint venture with Magna’s founder Frank Stronach and is part of a deal that will reduce his direct influence on Magna.
Wolf said that the decision about where to build the battery factories would come by year’s end. He said the company will begin serial car production in 2012 or 2013.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)
The White House is seemingly making an increased show of pressuring BP, but President Obama is facing political heat from within his own party for what some say has been a lackluster response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Democratic strategist blasts White House over rig spill reaction. The “political stupidity is unbelievable,” Democratic strategist James Carville said on “Good Morning America” today:
The Forest Legality Alliance was launched today to support private sector efforts and policies to reduce trade in illegally harvested wood. The Alliance is a global public-private initiative open to businesses, industry associations, financial institutions and civil society organizations with a stake in legal forest product supply chains.
Joining the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA-U.S.) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Alliance are the American Forest & Paper Association, the Hardwood Federation, IKEA, the International Wood Products Association, NewPage Corporation, the Retail Industry Leaders’ Association, Staples Inc., and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
“Some companies are not aware of the need to ask questions about the wood they are buying or the consequences of letting illegal wood enter their supply chains,” said Craig Hanson, director of WRI’s People and Ecosystems Program. “The Alliance seeks to build confidence that imported wood and paper products are legal. Done right, trade supports environmental protection and the Alliance recognizes the role trade plays in protecting our world’s great forests.”
Responsible forest management delivers renewable raw material for a wide range of products, such as timber and paper. It also provides livelihoods for millions of people and contributes to preserving biodiversity.
In many regions, however, illegal logging is having unsustainable impacts. Much of the illegal logging taking place is directly connected to land conversion activities, for instance, when forests are cleared to make room for agriculture and ranching activities. This illegal logging contributes to deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, deprives nations of much needed public revenue, and can lead to social conflict and human rights violations.
Any illegal wood from these activities that makes its way into international trade creates an unlevel playing field for the private sector, allowing a few bad actors to put companies with legal operations at an unfair disadvantage. It also affects poor, rural residents in developing countries who rely on forests for food, fuel, and other benefits.
In response, major wood importing regions are enacting policies to reduce demand for illegal wood. In 2008, the U.S. government amended the Lacey Act to prohibit trade within the United States of products made from illegally harvested wood. With this amendment, the United States became the first country to ban imports of illegal wood and related products.
The European Union is in the final stages of approving a “due diligence” regulation to curb illegal timber entering the European market, and Australia is also considering legislation to prohibit trade in illegal wood.
“From musical instruments to textbooks, legislation in the United States and abroad is fundamentally changing how wood and everything that is made from wood is traded and produced,” said Sascha von Bismarck, executive director of EIA in Washington, D.C. “Suppliers unaware of these emerging policies could face financial repercussions in addition to reputational risk. The Alliance will work to provide businesses and civil society groups the information they need to avoid risks and create change in the world’s forests.”
The Alliance will ensure that importers and supply chains know and understand the emerging new trade policies. It will develop new online resources that help companies assess the risk of encountering illegal wood, conduct due care, and complete import declarations. It will work with suppliers to document best practices and unforeseen challenges associated with purchasing legal wood and complying with import regulations. It will focus on the capacity for legal trade in the sector as a whole, rather than on the performance of individual companies, and complement existing initiatives that certify legality and sustainability.
“USAID is pleased to be a central partner in the Forest Legality Alliance,” said James Hester, director of the USAID’s Office of Natural Resources Management. “Eliminating illegal wood from supply chains will help developing country producers compete in developed country markets while maintaining biodiversity in their forests and strengthening forest governance.”
USAID helped catalyze the formation of this new partnership under its Global Development Alliance initiative which seeks to leverage the resources, expertise, creativity and market access of corporations, industry associations, civil society organizations and others to jointly address pressing development challenges around the world.
For more information on the Alliance, please visit www.forestlegality.org.
