Filed under: Truck, Recalls, Safety, Ford

The last major Ford Ranger redesign ocurred in 1993. Bill Clinton was president, the Internet was almost completely unknown and many Autoblog readers were in utero or non-existant. In the 17 years that followed, Ford has done next to nothing to their neglected little pickup, yet we still have a recall notice for the 2010 model year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced the recall of 2,934 Ford Rangers equipped with manual transmissions. The vehicles reportedly contain a potentially defective parking brake cable that can be disconnected from the right rear actuator in colder climates. The condition presents itself when the brake is released and a wet parking brake shoe is frozen in the applied position. If the cable becomes disconnected, the parking brake may not fully engage.

Affected vehicles were built between June 8, 2009 and February 2, 2010. If you purchased one of these Rangers, you can take it to the nearest Ford dealer. The dealer will replace your faulty parking brake actuator free of charge. Hit the jump to read over the NHTSA press release.

[Source: NHTSA]

Continue reading Ford recalling select 2010 Ranger pickups over rollaway risk

Ford recalling select 2010 Ranger pickups over rollaway risk originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 May 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And the Motorola Droid Shadow is spotted again! This time the Droid Shadow is shown from the uber-sexy side angle and from the looks of it, we’re quite impressed with the overall thinness and clean lines of it. In this shot we can clearly see the HDMI out that’s in line with previous leaked info but the Howard Forums user who posted the pic says that the Droid Shadow "only" has a 4.1-inch screen, TI OMAP 3630 processor (720 ARM Cortex A8), 8GB internal storage, and 8-megapixel camera. That’s a little off from previous information so we’ll have to wait and see who’s right. We’d like Snapdragon and the extra .2 inches in screen size please. Other than that though, this phone looks sweet. Those of you who passed on the Droid Incredible might have a great thing in your hands soon. [via engadget]

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

Article Tags: World Temperatures

The Heartland Institute’s James M. Taylor, an environmental policy expert, said global cooling is already happening. Figures from the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab show snow records from the last 10 years exceeded the records set in the 1960s and 1970s.

The past “decade set a record for largest average global snow extent,” Taylor said.

There is this too: “Eight straight years’ global temperature downtrend: The authoritative SPPI composite index of global mean surface temperature anomalies, taking the mean of two surface and two satellite datasets and updated through November 2008, shows a pronounced downtrend for eight full years. Not one of the climate models relied upon by the IPCC had predicted this downturn.” – Lord Christopher Monckton

Click source to read FULL report from Mark Landsbaum

Source: orangepunch.freedomblogging

Read in full with comments »   

Drawing a huge following on Twitter does not necessarily mean that your tweets will have much influence. It turns out that some noncelebrities with meager followings have the greatest ability to start discussions and spread ideas.

via Researchers Find ‘Million-Follower Fallacy’ in Twitter – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

We have numerous super-light laptops, a plethora of netbooks, and the iPad to choose from. But some companies still produce portable DVD players. One example is Sony, which yesterday in Japan announced [JP] just that, the DVP-FX950. The player has two selling points: a 9-inch LCD screen that features an LED backlight and a battery life of 7.5 hours (up 25% from the previous model).

Other than the LED backlight, the screen features a resolution of 800×480 and a viewing angle of 180 degrees. Next to DVDs and CDs, the player also has a USB port, meaning you can plug in a USB stick to view JPEGs or listen to MP3s (other formats aren’t supported through USB). The player, which is sized at 227×170.8×34.4mm and weighs 0.88kg, also has an internal speaker.

Sony plans to start selling the DVP-FX950 in Japan on June 16 (price: $390). The company hasn’t said yet whether the device will go on sale in other markets as well.

I have two more amazing images for you! Both show the same thing — the International Space Station crossing the Sun — but in different ways.

The first is, once again, from Thierry Legault:

Wow! You can clearly see the station (with Atlantis docked on the left!) as it crosses the Sun. Here’s a slight closeup:

There’s a nice sunspot pair there in the upper right; the one on the right looks like a face, actually. Cute. This shot was taken at 1/8000th of a second, which froze the action nicely. He has higher resolution pictures on his webpage for this event.

The second picture is slightly different:

It was taken by Heiko Mehring and obviously shows a series of silhouettes as the ISS and Atlantis crossed the Sun. You can clearly see the same sunspots, but the path of the spacecraft is slightly different, and the spots look a bit different as well. The equipment Heiko used was less fancy than what Thierry has, but you can still see a lot of detail in the image. It really is amazing that we can see such detail on the station from the ground!

I suspect the atmosphere was steadier at Thierry’s observing site too; in the images on his page you can see the granulation on the surface of the Sun. Those granules are vast columns of hot gas rising to the Sun’s surface, cooling off, then sinking again. It’s a grand version of the convection that happens when you boil water in your teapot!

[Update: A third site with a great shot of the transit was pointed out in the comments below. I wonder how many more are out there?]

These kinds of shots take a lot of planning, a lot of experience, and a bit of good fortune (or whatever politically correct term skeptics are supposed to use these days). When I was younger I shot a LOT of film of the Moon, and got maybe a 10% success rate if I was doing well. Digital cameras and the Internet make it a whole lot easier to get spectacular shots like these. I’m glad to see more people tackling these difficult shots, and expect that we’ll be seeing lots more like these as time goes on.

Tip o’ the dew cap to Thierry Legault and Jan Sorg for sending these to me.

After years of inaction, federal officials are mulling new regulations to confront the growing problem of coal ash. But energy companies have fought off regulation before, and they’re fighting the new rules every step of the way.

A special Facing South investigation by Sue Sturgis

When the catastrophic coal ash spill occurred at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in 2008, a quiet debate over how to regulate coal ash had already been going on for decades, largely outside the view of the public or press.

That all changed with the Kingston spill, which aside from releasing a billion gallons of toxic waste into a nearby community and river system also pushed the problem of coal ash into the national spotlight and led to calls for change.

The month after the Tennessee disaster, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signaled during her Senate confirmation hearing that the agency would revisit the issue of coal ash regulation. “The EPA currently has, and has in the past, assessed its regulatory options, and I think it is time to re-ask those questions,” Jackson said.

Jackson soon began to make good on her promise. The EPA launched an inventory of coal ash impoundments like the one that failed at Kingston, sending information requests to more than 160 electric generation facilities and 60 corporate offices. Armed with this and other data, Jackson and the EPA concluded that the nation’s standards for regulating coal ash needed revision.

But the agency’s efforts soon ran up against massive resistance from an array of powerful interests — industries and groups that had succeeded in enabling coal ash to escape federal oversight for decades, creating a regulatory vacuum that many say made a Kingston-like disaster almost inevitable.

Fending off ‘burdensome regulatory requirements’

The battle over regulating coal ash goes back to 1976, when Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the main federal law that governs disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

In the beginning, coal combustion waste was not included in RCRA, and in 1978 EPA proposed that coal ash be covered under the law as a special hazardous waste.

But before that happened, Congress passed the Bevill Amendment in 1980, which effectively exempted the coal waste from RCRA. The amendment was named for Rep. Tom Bevill, a 15-term Democratic congressman from coal-dependent Alabama who chaired the powerful House Energy Development and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. During congressional debate, Bevill declared that “it would be unreasonable for EPA to impose costly and burdensome regulatory requirements without knowing if a problem really exists, and if it does, the true nature of that problem.” Bevill’s amendment called on the agency to delay regulation and study the matter instead.

Congress’ reluctance to regulate was reinforced when the EPA went on to release two reports — one in 1988 and another in 1999 — finding that damages from coal ash did not warrant lifting the regulatory exemption.

But in 2000, the agency began to change course. That year, as required by the Bevill Amendment, the EPA published a proposal titled “Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels” that concluded federal regulations for the disposal of coal ash — either under RCRA and/or the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act — were necessary to protect public health and the environment.

“Public comments and other analyses . . . have convinced EPA that these wastes can, and do, pose significant risks to human health and the environment when not properly managed, and there is sufficient evidence that adequate controls may not be in place for a significant number of facilities,” the proposal found. “This, in our view, justifies the development of tailored regulations under Subtitle C of RCRA.”

In other words, the EPA was saying that it was finally ready to treat coal ash as hazardous waste.

The EPA sent its report to President Bill Clinton’s White House Office of Management and Budget for review. An EPA employee involved in the internal debate told the Center for Public Integrity “it really hit a brick wall at OMB.”

The administration was flooded with letters from electric utilities and visits from their lobbyists warning that regulating coal ash as hazardous waste would lead to economic hardship for them and their customers. New standards would increase the cost of disposing of coal ash waste, an extra cost the EPA estimated at about $1 billion per year. But industry representatives argued the cost would be astronomically higher — perhaps upwards of $13 billion.

After the lobbying onslaught, EPA backed away from regulating coal ash as hazardous waste in 2000. But the agency promised to issue guidelines to help states oversee it more effectively — a critical step, since most states lacked even basic safeguards for coal ash disposal sites.

But the EPA didn’t follow through. And without federal guidelines, states continued with business as usual. Five years later, a report prepared for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste found that most states didn’t require monitoring the impact of coal ash disposal sites on groundwater, more than half didn’t require liners, and more than a quarter didn’t even require something as basic as dust controls at coal ash landfills. The report also found that most of the coal ash produced in the top 25 coal-consuming states could legally be disposed of in a way that directly threatened drinking water supplies in underground aquifers.

A consensus for regulation grows

Meanwhile, even within the EPA, evidence was mounting that coal ash posed a growing threat to environmental and human health.

In 2007, a draft assessment was prepared for the EPA titled “Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes” that found some unlined coal ash impoundments pose a cancer risk 2,000 times above what the government considers acceptable. The assessment found that the use of a composite liner — a multi-layered liner like those required in municipal waste landfills — significantly reduced the risk of exposure to health-threatening pollution. However, most states don’t require such liners for coal ash impoundments.

That same year, a report by the EPA Office of Solid Waste tallied up the number of cases nationwide where coal ash was found to have caused environmental damage, documenting 24 cases of proven damages caused by coal ash and another 43 potential damage cases related to coal ash. Most of those cases involve toxic contamination from coal ash impoundments leaching into groundwater, rivers and lakes.

The EPA’s internal studies were complemented by a growing body of research by independent scientists and advocacy groups documenting the environmental and health consequences of coal ash.

Earlier this year, for example, the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice released a report titled “Out of Control: Mounting Damages From Coal Ash Waste Sites” that found serious water contamination problems from coal ash dumps at 31 locations in 14 states. The report noted that the contamination is concentrated in communities with family poverty rates above the national median.

Recently the EPA also acknowledged that toxic elements like arsenic, chromium and selenium can leach out of unlined coal ash dumps and into local water supplies in much higher concentrations than was earlier believed. After 20 years of using a testing method that the EPA’s own Science Advisory Board argued was low-balling the contamination risk, the agency recently began using an updated test that found the level of toxic contaminants leaching into water clearly crossed the threshold for designating coal ash as a hazardous waste.

“These unregulated sites present a clear and present danger to public health and the environment,” said Earthjustice attorney and former EPA official Lisa Evans. “If law and science are to guide our most important environmental decisions, as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised, we need to regulate these hazards before they get much worse.”

Hitting another brick wall

But Washington’s latest effort to regulate coal ash — spurred by the TVA disaster — has again met massive resistance from a familiar array of powerful political interests.

Last October, the EPA sent a draft regulation to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The proposed rules immediately became the target of a massive lobbying onslaught by electric utilities and energy interests determined to prevent coal ash from being regulated as hazardous waste.

The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported that OMB held 30 meetings about the rules with industry officials compared to only 12 with environmental and public health groups. The intense lobbying campaign was notable because of the electric utility industry’s already considerable clout in Congress: One of the most politically generous, it’s contributed more than $9 million to members’ campaigns during the 2009-2010 election cycle so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Joining the lobbying effort were state agencies and federal lawmakers who voiced concern about the cost of strict regulation and how it would affect the recycling of coal ash into products and its use as fill in construction projects.

Many of the congressional defenders of coal ash represent states where the toxic waste has been implicated in environmental damages. For example, a Facing South analysis found more than 50 proven and suspected coal ash damage cases in the states represented by the more than 90 senators and representatives who wrote to the Obama administration opposing the regulation of coal ash as hazardous waste.

As the political battle raged behind closed doors, the latest push to regulate coal ash seemed like it might again be derailed. The EPA originally said it would roll out a proposed rule for public comment by the end of 2009, but the release was postponed with the agency blaming the delay on the “complexity of the analysis.”

The new rules were then supposed to be released in April 2010, but were put off again.

Finally, earlier this month the EPA released the rules to the public. But instead of issuing a clear standard that would treat coal ash as a hazardous waste as it originally planned, the agency released two options: one that would empower the federal government to oversee the material like other hazardous waste, and one that would treat coal ash like ordinary trash and leave oversight up to the states.

The agency asked the public to help decide which approach makes the most sense during a three-month comment period that will begin when the regulation is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen as soon as this week.

Environmental watchdogs expressed disappointment over the agency’s equivocation. Eric Schaeffer, a former EPA official who now directs the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, said the move “sets up a boxing ring.” However, he also said he sees value in moving the fight from behind OMB’s closed doors out into the open.

“It’s in the public arena now, and that’s really important to move things along,” he said.

 
TOMORROW: Dumpsites in Disguise? Coal ash doesn’t just end up in dangerous dumps — the waste is also used increasingly as building material and even as fertilizer for farm crops. It’s called “beneficial use,” but is it safe?

Sue Sturgis is an investigative reporter and editorial director of
Facing South. This piece is the third installment in an in-depth,
week-long series on the growing national problem of coal ash and the
political battle over regulations. To read the entire series, click here.

N.Korea makes new threats as tensions rise

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
Immediate Release May 26, 2010

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT FIRST FUNDRAISING RECEPTION FOR BARBARA BOXER
AND THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

Fairmont Hotel
San Francisco, California
May 25, 2010

6:11 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, everyone. (Applause.) How’s it going, California? (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Love you!

THE PRESIDENT: Love you back. (Laughter.) This is a good-looking crowd. (Applause.)

SENATOR BOXER: That’s Nancy’s granddaughter, Isabella — Nancy Pelosi.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, she’s just precious, and I know her pretty well. (Laughter.) Hey, mom, how are you?

Well, it is so nice to see everybody. Thank you for the wonderful welcome and the genuine San Francisco weather. (Laughter.) I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted to come here and it was all sunny and bright. (Laughter.) No, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You rock, Barack!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)

We just flew in today from Washington, and I have to say that we’ve got a lot on our plate right now, so I don’t travel for just anybody. But when it comes to Barbara Boxer, I’m a lot like many of you, which is if she calls and she says, “I need some help,” then we’re going to give her some help, because she has helped millions of Californians and millions of Americans all across the country. (Applause.) And we’re going to make sure that Barbara Boxer is in office for an awful long time to come, whether Stu likes it or not. (Applause.)

I was talking to Stu in the back, and, you know, when you’re a senator, an elected official, right around this time of year you basically become a widow or a widower — (laughter) — until your spouse is finished with their race. But Stu has been so supportive because he knows the value of what Barbara does each and every day.

Now, let’s face it, this has been as tough a year and a half as any year and a half in our history since the 1930s. When I came into office, when I was sworn in, we were on the brink of what many economists thought might be another Great Depression. At minimum, we knew we were going to have the worst recession since the Great Depression. We were losing 750,000 jobs per month. The economy had contracted 6.5 percent. I had, wrapped like a gift, a welcoming gift for me a $1.3 trillion deficit.

And so we had to act quickly. And that meant that right away we had to make sure that we put in place mechanisms to put people back to work, to get the economy growing again. We had to cut taxes for small businesses and for individuals so that they would boost demand in the economy that was caving. It meant that we had to make sure that unemployment insurance and COBRA was in place so that people would have some safety net under them when they lost a job through no means of their own — through no fault of their own. (Applause.)

But it also meant that we had to make investments so that we would create a foundation for long-term growth in this country. See, we couldn’t keep on doing the same things we had been doing. It wasn’t good enough just to go back to the status quo ante. We couldn’t have a situation in which growth was premised on everybody maxing out on their credit cards, and taking out home equity loans, and getting deeper and deeper into debt, and wild speculation on the financial markets.

What we had to do was to go back to basics and think about what has made America great. Well, one of the things that has always made America great is innovation. And so through our Recovery Act, we made the largest investment in clean energy in our history.

And we made the largest investment in science. (Applause.) And while we were making all those investments in research and development, we also elevated science once again. (Applause.) And we said we would make decisions on stem cell research and other issues based on what science tell us. And so we had an innovation agenda.

Then we had an agenda with respect to making sure that we made the health care system more efficient. (Applause.) And so even before we got into the health care bill, we invested in information technology so that when you go to the doctor, you don’t have to take five tests. We’re just going to take one test, and then you’re going to e-mail the five tests to everybody else — and by the way, you won’t get charged for five tests, or Medicaid or Medicare won’t get charged for five tests.

And we thought about how could we restore an auto industry that was on the brink. But again, we couldn’t go back to the status quo. So what we did was we said, you know what, we’re going to make sure that GM and Chrysler aren’t liquidated, but we’re going to make sure that we invest in advanced battery technologies and hybrid technologies so that we can start seeing a future of plug-in hybrids that get 150 miles a gallon so that we can start breaking our dependence on foreign oil. (Applause.)

And we said, you know, part of the innovation economy is making sure every child in America has a decent education — (applause) — which meant we made the largest investment — we made the largest investment in education in our history, not only at the K-12 level but also at the community college level and at the university level.

And then we said, you know we — if we’re going to innovate and grow, we’ve got to have great infrastructure. And so we passed the largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

And we said if we’re going to cut taxes, let’s make sure we cut taxes for the right folks. And so as a consequence, we passed the most progressive tax cut in our history to make sure that people who really needed it got the benefits. (Applause.)

Now, California, I want you to understand we did all that in the first month. (Laughter.) That was in the first month. (Applause.) And in the first couple of months, we had already provided 4 million more children health care under the Children’s Health Insurance bill. We had already passed legislation to make sure that a basic principle that women, if they’re working on the job, should get paid the same for doing the work that a man is doing. (Applause.)

In the first six months, we had already made sure that tobacco companies couldn’t market to our kids — (applause) — and the toughest credit card regulations in our history — and legislation to prevent housing fraud. We did that in the first six months.

But that wasn’t enough to start building this new foundation for our economy. So we just kept on going. And as Barbara mentioned, we ended up doing something that seven Congresses and seven Presidents have failed to do — had failed to do for a century, and that is start providing basic security for all Americans when it comes to their health care, because in a country this wealthy, no person should go bankrupt because they get sick, no child should go unattended if they’ve got a chronic illness. That is a basic principle of America. (Applause.)

And by the way, it turns out that by making these changes, we can actually make the health care system more efficient, and drive down costs, and drive down premiums, and help small businesses.

Now, we decided that’s still not enough in order to make the changes that are necessary. And so we said we’re never going to have the situation again where taxpayers are forced to choose between the entire economy collapsing or having to bail out a bunch of folks who’ve been irresponsible.

So we decided we had to create a financial regulatory structure that continues to affirm the power of the free market, that recognizes that financial institutions have to be there to be able to finance small businesses and individuals buying homes and cars. And that’s all good. That’s part of what makes America so creative and so dynamic; that drives our growth.

But there have got to be basic rules of the road so consumers aren’t getting cheated; so people aren’t missing the fine print and suddenly find themselves way overextended; so that you don’t have financial instruments that can blow the entire economy apart.

And so after the — over the last several months, after we finished with health care, we’ve tackled financial regulatory reform. We’ve now passed it through the House. We’ve now passed it through the Senate. And we are going to pass it through Congress. And then I’m going to sign that bill to make sure that we don’t have taxpayer bailouts for irresponsible behavior in our financial sector. (Applause.)

All right, so that’s not a bad 18 months’ work. (Laughter.) That’s pretty good. But here’s the thing. I couldn’t have done that by myself. I mean, one of the things you learn as President is because you’ve got this title, and, you know, there’s the plane and the helicopter, and all that stuff — (laughter) — that people expect you to solve problems. And when things go wrong, they’re definitely going to blame you. If things go right, occasionally you might get the credit.

But the truth is, is that in order for us to succeed in bringing about the kind of America where everybody has opportunity, where our economy is growing and innovative and more stable, where our children are getting a good education, where we’ve got a sound health care system, where we’ve got an actual energy agenda, I can’t do that by myself. I’ve got to have strong allies. I’ve got to have people with passion. I’ve got to have people who are willing to fight for what’s right. I’ve got to have people who always have the voices of their constituents in their ear, and understand and remember, no matter how long they’ve been in Washington, who it is that they’re fighting for.

And nobody is a better example of that than Barbara Boxer, which is why you are here today. (Applause.) On every fight that needed to be fought, Barbara was there, standing right there next to me, and sometimes we were in a foxhole together, and shots were being fired. (Laughter.) That’s just a figure of speech. I don’t want the Secret Service — (laughter) — getting excited.

But Barbara is always there. She’s been there for you. She’s been there for California. She’s been there for me. And now —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: — Boxer in your corner.

THE PRESIDENT: — we’ve got a Boxer in our corner. That’s a good one. (Laughter.)

So now we’ve got to be there for her, because the truth is our work is not yet done. And I actually visited the Republican Caucus today, and it was a very warm and cuddly meeting. (Laughter.) But the truth is I want the country to come together in dealing with some big problems that we’ve still got. And Barbara wants the same thing. (Applause.)

And here’s what I told them. I’m not going to get into all the details of the meeting, because they wanted the meeting closed. We had a meeting that was open with the Republican Caucus on the House side, and I had a lot of fun there. (Laughter.) So — but basically I said we’ve done some good work. Unfortunately sometimes we haven’t gotten a lot of help from the other side of the aisle. But we still are hopeful that you are willing to put party below what needs to be done for the American people.

And here are some areas where we know we’ve got to make progress. We know we still have to make progress on energy. This situation in the Gulf is heartbreaking. And the day that it was reported to me that this riser and the drilling situation had blown, I said to my team, we’ve got to put every bit of energy, time, all the resources we’ve got to make sure that we deal with this.

And we’ve now got over a thousand people from the federal government deployed down there. We are doing everything we can to contain the damage. But the fact of the matter is, is that not only do we have to revisit how these oil companies are operating, to make sure that they’re operating in a safe and effective way. But we’ve also still got this overarching issue, even if you hadn’t seen the catastrophe down in the Gulf, the reason that folks are now having to go down a mile deep into the ocean, and then another mile drilling into the ground below that is because the easy oilfields and oil wells are gone, or they’re starting to diminish.

And what does that tell us? That tells us that we’ve got to have a long-term energy strategy in this country. (Applause.) And we’ve got to start — we’ve got to start cultivating — we’ve got to start cultivating solar and wind and biodiesel. And we’ve got to increase energy efficiency across our economy in our buildings and our automobiles.

And we’ve got to also make sure that — (interruption) –oops. (Laughter.) You don’t agree. (Laughter.) And we’ve got to make sure that as these technologies develop, the government is not creating these technologies, but it’s supporting them, because that’s how the railroads got built, and that’s how the Internet got developed, for there was some measure of government support.

And we’ve got to stop subsidizing those industries that are not going to lead us to the future. (Applause.) Now — so I said to the Republicans, join with me. There’s been some good work done by John Kerry and Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Let’s go. Let’s not wait. Let’s show the American people that in the midst of this crisis, all of us are opening our eyes to what’s necessary to fulfill the promise to our children and our grandchildren.

And then I talked about immigration reform, another area where there are a lot of passions right now. (Applause.) And I said — I said to them — I said to them, look, I disagree with this Arizona law. I think it’s a bad idea. (Applause.) But I also said I understand the frustration of folks in Arizona. I understand they’re feeling that somehow the federal government can’t control the border effectively, and I’m willing to work with my Republican colleagues to create a stronger border here in California, New Mexico and in Arizona. I think everybody understands that that’s an important investment to make.

And I told them if we actually want to solve the problem, as opposed to just score political points, then we can’t just have one leg of the stool. We’ve got to make sure that we’re dealing with employers who are dealing in unscrupulous ways with undocumented workers. (Applause.) We’ve got — and for the millions of folks who are already here, we’ve got to say to them, you’ve got to take responsibility. You broke the law, you’ve got to pay a fine. You’ve got to pay your back taxes. You’ve got to learn English. You’ve got to go to the back of the line, but here’s a pathway whereby you can get right with our community and contribute to the larger American project. (Applause.)

Those are issues that we’re going to have some legitimate differences on. Some of those differences were expressed in the Republican Caucus. And I expressed my opinions, as well. But you know what, if you talk to most Americans on these issues, they’re not thinking Republican, they’re not thinking Democrat, they’re not thinking liberal, they’re not thinking conservative. They’re thinking, what’s common sense, what’s decent, what’s right, what does the science say, what do the facts say, what will work, what won’t work? Solve the problem.

And that’s what I’m prepared to do. And that’s what Barbara Boxer has always stood for. (Applause.) And that’s why it’s so important that you’re here tonight, because that’s the kind of politics that is going to create a better future for California, that’s the kind of politics that’s going to create a better future for the nation. And that’s why I know that you are going to make sure that Barbara Boxer gets another six years in the United States Senate. (Applause.)

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.)

END 6:29 P.M. PDT

In the future, we can only hope that turning on one’s faucet will require a pseudo-sexual air stroke. Groping is so pedestrian. [Jasper Dekker via Yanko Design] More »










Project Natal – Microsoft – Yanko Design – Xbox – Arts

You really don’t need to know anything about the lens to appreciate it. It’s eff’n gorgeous. Mir.com has you covered just case you want the technical details and whatnot about the lens.

Sean Rodriguez(notes) entered the season atop everyone’s breakout list. Nobody generated as much spring buzz. Rodriguez hit .460 for Tampa Bay during Grapefruit League play with 13 extra-base hits in 63 at-bats. He led all players in runs-scored (20), and he finished second in both hits (29) and homers (6) this spring.

When he was selected in the late rounds of your fantasy draft, everybody paused to acknowledge the greatness of the pick. MLB Network’s Peter Gammons predicted that Rodriguez would be the A.L. Rookie of the Year, and it seemed like an easy call at the time. 

Then, of course, when the regular season began, Rodriguez was a mess. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts on opening day — and that’s when his batting average peaked. He’s now hitting .211 with just one home run in 71 at-bats. His strikeout percentage (42.3) is the second-worst in baseball. Right or wrong, Rodriguez carries the Quad-A label; he’s been an outstanding player in the high minors, but he can’t seem to produce in the big leagues.

On Monday, his season reached its low point. While wading in the water near his home, Rodriguez was stung by an actual ray. (The aquatic version. He was not stung by, say, Willy Aybar(notes)). Details here via the St. Petersburg Times:

Rodriguez was on the beach Monday morning behind his Redington Beach rental condo when he took his 2-year-old daughter, Sofia, a couple of feet into the water for a closer look at some dolphins.

A few steps (and a stingray shuffle or two) later, he saw something flash through the water and felt something on his right heel.

"I actually thought it was a catfish at first, that it grazed me. I didn’t think much of it," Rodriguez said. "And then I got out of the water, and I was like whoooaaaa."

I’m not aware of any other instance in which a professional athlete has been attacked by the real-life version of his team’s animal mascot. Did Ron LeFlore ever fight a live tiger? Can’t recall. But I believe the ray-versus-Ray thing is unique.

Paramedics treated the injury and Rodriguez is now fine. He struck out in a pinch-hit appearance against the Red Sox on Tuesday, so this apparently is not one of those scenarios where an unwitting human receives the proportionate powers of an animal, and is thus immediately awesome at everything.

Instead, this seems to be a simple statement made by the global community of
stingrays: they no longer wish to be associated with Sean Rodriguez.

—

Photo via US Presswire

Depois de um acordo com o chefão da F1, Bernie Ecclestone, os EUA estarão inclusos na temporada de 2012 em uma corrida na cidade de Austin, Texas. Os preparativos terão início esse ano e as corridas acontecerão até o ano de 2021. Ecclestone diz o seguinte:

“Pela primeira vez na história da Fórmula 1 nos EUA, uma instalação de classe mundial vai ser construída para sediar o evento. Faz 30 anos que o GP de F1 dos EUA teve um circuito de rua modificado em Watkins Glen, Nova York (1961-1980) que teve um grande sucesso.

Desde então a F1 teve eventos em Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas e Fênix, todos em circuitos de rua temporários. Indianápolis entrou nas listas de cidades para sediar eventos em 2000 e eles construíram o famoso circuito oval”.

Via | Inside Line

The Phoenix Suns beats Los Angeles Lakers at game 4. When he was asked by a reporter how he was feeling, Kobe Bryant replied “Jovial”.

Kobe Bryant cited one single reason behind the disastrous Laker’s Game 4 loss to the Phoenix Suns. He made one thing clear, it was the defense that lost the game, not his team’s ability to score points.

At the post game press conference here, Tuesday night in Phoenix, Bryant calmly stated, “We have to do a much better job defensively.”

The NBA superstar added that the Lakers had focused so much on attacking the Suns newly implemented zone, that they lost focus on the defensive end.

When a reporter asked Bryant how he was feeling after the disastrous defeat, he responded with one word, “Jovial.” The reporter was so surprised that he asked Bryant to repeat. Again came the same response “Jovial.“

Kobe scored 38 points in the 115-106 loss. Game 5 will be Thursday night at 9 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Related posts:

1. 2nd Straight Game Miss for Black Mamba
2. The team is focusing at the moment. –Kobe Bryant
3. Lakers Swept the Victory Over Oklahoma this Game 5 Playoffs

In this News Sentinel story, Team Living Light, an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty at UT, describe plans for the Living Light solar-powered house to be built and transported to the Washington Mall for the Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon competition.

Mobile advertising server AdMob — whose purchase by Google, by the way, was approved by the feds last Friday — just released its April numbers today. (AdMob servers up many of the in-app ads you see on your Android phone.) Let’s look at the bullet points:

• Some 75 percent of unique Android devices are in North America. Asia has 12 percent of Android devices, followed by Western Europe with 11 percent.
• In the United States, the iPhone has about 10.7 million devices, and Android makes up 8.7 million. (If you count the iPod Touch along with the iPhone, Apple’s share jumps to 18.3 million.)
• Worldwide, there are about 11.6 million Android devices pinging AdMob’s servers, compared to 27.4 million iPhones and 40.8 million for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
• Top Android smartphone in the United States in April was the Motorola Droid, with 16.1 percent of AdMob advertising requests. The HTC Magic (myTouch) followed with 5.3 percent, the HTC Dream (G1) with 5.0 percent, Motorola Cliq at 4.5 percent, HTC Droid Eris and Hero each at 4.3 percent, and Samsung Moment at 3.3 percent.
• Android phones showing gains in April were the Magic (0.5 percent), Droid Eris (0.2 percent) and Moment (0.2 percent).

You can find more at AdMob’s site, and you can read the entire report here. (pdf link)

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

Pete Davis on the line-item veto and its siblings:

Unless you have worked in the right places in Washington, you rarely see how much White House pork moves into bills before Congress. We tend to focus on congressional pork without realizing that presidents will use additional power to rescind as a lever to gain votes or to punish those who don’t go along or to reward supporters. A president may generate some modest budgetary savings on balance compared to what Congress wanted to spend, but it wouldn’t be worth the price in my opinion.

Line-item veto – White House – United States Congress – Congress – President

Barring an incredibly unlikely space ship rescue of stranded astronauts during Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final mission–ever–in November, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will never launch again.

At 8:48am EDT, Atlants, commanded by Ken Ham and piloted by “Tony” Antonelli, dropped from orbit safely and glided back to earth, landing at the Kennedy Space Center. There had been a chance that Atlantis would have to wait for morning showers to get out of the way, to then try landing later this morning, or Thursday, but the weather worked out and violated none of NASA’s landing constraints.

The 12 day mission accomplished quite a bit up at the International Space Station, installing a new Russian-built module and docking station, a 6-pack of batteries for power and a new antenna for the I.S.S.

A few of the astronauts even made an out-of-this world appearance on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, joking that the mission had gone very well, and that the crew had even defeated the forces of evil while 220 miles above the earth.

Atlantis will now be cleaned up and prepared for one more possible mission, as the “rescue ship” for NASA’s last Space Shuttle mission ever, in case the NASA determines that Endeavor is unsafe to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. This was Atlantis’ 32nd mission, and during it, surpassed flying 120 million miles in space.

In this WBIR-TV story, a team of UT students and faculty describe the Living Light project, an “off the grid” solar-powered house, and their acceptance as one of only 20 teams to compete in the Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon.