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I got pretty excited when Makani Power staff photographer Andrea Dunlap showed me this photograph. For my purposes, it doesn’t get much better than this: sustainable energy, technology, the future, all rolled into a beautiful photograph. Pick up our June issue for a gander at the double-page spread.

This photograph is 30-second exposure taken during a test of a 10-kilowatt-scale prototype of an airborne wind turbine in Maui, Hawaii. The mobile turbine has a span of about 16 feet and is tethered to the ground using a long, flexible cable. A computer controls the flight pattern. These tests show that a flying generator can sweep through a bigger wind window than a traditional turbine, and without the massive supporting towers. Makani Power plans to have a functional megawatt version of the tethered turbine ready by 2011. Makani Power is partially funded by Google.org as a potential source of renewable energy. Google’s server farms and the Internet in general have ever increasing demands for power, which is in turn burning ever more coal.

Photograph courtesy Makani Power

Today Dell finally made official what we’ve known about for some time.  The Dell Streak (previously Dell Mini 5) will be launching early June on O2 UK (that’s next month/one week away!) and just as Michael Dell said, it will be headed to the US (on AT&T?) later this summer.  The Streak has been surfing the interwebs for a good while now and recently made an appearance on a product roadmap revealed by Engadget.  Though the device is intended to be a 5-inch tablet, it does contain the appropriate hardware to be used as a phone on GSM networks, and with 3G on AT&T – if the FCC is any indication.  Here are a few specs to keep you going, full press release below:

• Android platform complete with Android Market and Dell user interface enhancements
• ARM-based Processor: Qualcomm’s powerful and efficient Snapdragon chipset and software platform with integrated 1GHz processor
• 3G + WiFi + Bluetooth
• UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of up to HSDPA 7.2 Mbps* / HSDPA
• 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash. Easy point, shoot, and uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
• User accessible Micro SD expandable memory available up to 32 GB*. Store up to 42 movies* or 32,000 photos*, or 16,000 songs* with 32GB* Micro SD

DELL STREAK TABLET ENTICES PEOPLE TO WATCH, SURF, CONNECT, LISTEN, AND PLAY ON 5” OF POWER AND PORTABILITY

· Streak to launch early June in the UK exclusively on O2

· Available at O2 stores, O2.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse and later next month at Dell.co.uk

· U.S. availability to arrive later this summer

BRACKNELL, UK – May 25, 2010 – Today, Dell released plans for Streak, a 5-inch Android™-based Tablet designed to provide people the best “on-the-go” entertainment, social connection, and navigation experience. Early this June the Dell Streak will be available across the UK at O2 stores, O2.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse, and later in the month at Dell.co.uk. Pricing and data plans for the UK will be announced by O2 ahead of availability. Later this summer, Dell plans to make Streak available in the U.S.

The Dell Streak is a compact and powerful companion for people who want to expand their ability to access their digital lives on the go, and realize tomorrow’s technology today. The spacious 5-inch screen is ideal for experiencing thousands of Android Market™ widgets, games and applications, all without squinting or compromising portability. Built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and available 3G connectivity brings easy access for downloading and listening to music, updating social networking status in real-time, and staying connected to friends and family through e-mail, text, IM, and voice calls.

On-the-go students, mobile professionals, and active families will find Streak’s web-browsing capabilities as natural as a laptop. The 5-inch screen is large enough to present Web pages in their natural form, create a comfortable viewing experience, and make turn-by-turn navigation simple and safe. The Dell Streak leverages Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ solution with integrated 1GHz processor to combine basic functionality, performance, and benefits of a laptop in a pocket friendly size.

“The Dell Streak hits the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets,” said Ron Garriques, president, Dell Communication Solutions Group. “Its unique size provides people new ways to enjoy, connect, and navigate their lives.”

The Dell Streak was designed with the future in mind and will support over-the-air updates including platform upgrades, Adobe Flash 10.1 on Android™ 2.2 later this year, video chat applications and other software innovations.

Dell is a member of the Open Handset Alliance™ (OHA), a group of technology and mobile companies working together to accelerate innovation in mobility. Together, the OHA created Android, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform to provide people a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience.

Key Features:

Integrated Google Maps™ with turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views

· A full screen browsing experience with a 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA display

· Easily integrated social media apps: Twitter™, Facebook, YouTube

· High resolution 5 MP camera, VGA front facing camera, removable battery, built-in Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity options

· 2GB* of internal dedicated storage provides plenty of space to access and download Google Android Market’s many options

· Packaged with cushions made from 100 percent sustainable, compostable bamboo

Specifications:

Android platform complete with Android Market and Dell user interface enhancements

ARM-based Processor: Qualcomm’s powerful and efficient Snapdragon chipset and software platform with integrated 1GHz processor

3G + WiFi + Bluetooth

UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of up to HSDPA 7.2 Mbps* / HSDPA

5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash. Easy point, shoot, and uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more

User accessible Micro SD expandable memory available up to 32 GB*. Store up to 42 movies* or 32,000 photos*, or 16,000 songs* with 32GB* Micro SD

Filed under: Safety, Nissan

A Gainesville, Florida Nissan dealership received a most unpleasant surprise Monday morning as the dealer’s showroom floor became engulfed in smoke, with some flames centered in one very unfortunate area. Now we’re guessing here, but we would think that if the dealer could save any one vehicle from the fire, they’d pick the nearly $90,000 silver GT-R. Too bad they apparently didn’t have time to make the decision.

The Gainesville Sun reports that the GT-R was engulfed in flames when police and fire arrived at the dealership a little while after it closed, burning up much of the vehicle’s exterior. The last person to exit the building was the security guard, who did a quick check of the showroom and locked up. When firefighters arrived on the scene, they had to bust down a door to enter the building, and when they got inside, the GT-R was being served flambé-style.

Firefighters don’t know exactly how or why the GT-R burst into flames. Reports suggest that there was a light that dropped to the ground, and that light could have started the fire, or it could have dropped as a result of the fire. We don’t have any idea what happened to the GT-R, or whether or not it was even driven that day, but you can head over to Gainesville.com for more details and to see a picture of the carnage. Thanks for the tip, Justin!

[Source: Gainesville Sun]

Report: Nissan GT-R goes up in flames while parked in locked showroom originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK TV Guide features: 3 day’s listings, 3 view modes: Matrix, Channel Listing and Hour Listing, Program description and reminder, Refined and Favourite channels, Program Searching, Send program info via Email/SMS/Twitter.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Superb reminder and sharing functionality

Cons

• Difficult to use
• Ugly as that girl in school whose name you forget but you remember she’s really ugly

Features:

The Bad

Into the crowded market place of iffy television guides comes the UK TV Guide to revolutionize…………. nothing at all. As with all its competitors the UK TV Guide does some individual things well, really well in some places, but is fatally flawed in others. If someone cherry picks all the best features from these different guides and wraps it all up in an app that doesn’t appall me with its ugliness then I will be sold. Unfortunately I am still waiting.

Upon starting up the app you are invited to specify your favourite channels from a frankly enormous list full of channels you hadn’t heard of. The ‘Blighty’ channel for instance, is probably a load of crap though of course no one would know since no one watches it. For me this process took a quite some time and forced my HTC Hero to crash on multiple occasions.

Luckily you only have to do this once. After that time the app home screen changes to show your channels listed vertically down the side with a time line and the channels’ schedules stretching along the x-axis. All the programmes that have already finished are grayed out to show that they are in the past. A nice little feature this.

There is a date cell in the top left corner showing the current date and when pressed allows you to inspect your channels’ schedules for the next two days. This is pretty good but I would have preferred to be able to check out the whole week’s listings. In truth I had to read through the included instructions for the app to know how to do this. If I have to read instructions to get a TV guide to work properly, then the designers have done something wrong.

Clicking (pressing?) the channels thumbnail takes you to a page which shows you the entire day’s listings for that particular broadcaster. A pretty handy feature but I would question why it is displayed with coloured text on a black background unlike every other page in the app. This admittedly may be a small and personal issue but I like my apps to have a thread of uniformity running through them. From this page, or indeed on any other page of the app you can click on an individual program to get more detailed information and set a reminder. The problem here is that the text can be incredibly small on a channel page which makes it very finicky to get the right show. There is no zoom function at all.

The Good

The reminders are pretty great on this app. You can set them to alert you from the notifications bar of your phone or integrate the notification into your Google calendar. It would be nice to be able have both but that might just be me.

I’m a member of the camp that thinks Facebook and Twitter integration is overdone and normally pretty useless. However this app gets it absolutely right. When setting a reminder you also have the option to send it with the aforementioned social networks (obviously) but also with Evernote and other installed blogging apps.

There is an amazingly useful search function which even auto-completes your searches and takes you directly to the program info. Seriously seriously awesome.

Usefulness:

This is about as useful as a TV guide can get in that it allows you to plan a lot of TV watching. Go figure huh? Still, I can’t get past the fact that I usually need to check a channel’s output more than two days in advance.

Ease of Use:

This is a serious problem for this app. I had to read the instructions to figure out how to squeeze all the functionality out of it. I only found out that you could change the schedule date in the app by doing this. Not good at all.

Frequently Used:

This might have been my favoured TV guide but………….. see below.

Interface:

Oh man. If apps actually existed in the eighties then this would remind me of one those crappy looking apps you got in the eighties. When scrolling along the timeline on the home screen….wait, that’s not right. You don’t scroll. You just swipe, wait for what seems like an ice-age to pass and then the screen changes. What’s wrong with a smooth scrolling timeline? When pressing on a programme the app gives you no feedback as to where you have pressed. There are no animations, transitions or colour changes to show that a button has been depressed. It’s like the early days of touchscreens all over again.

Jamie Dupree, a radio reporter at WSBradio in Washington DC Tweets the following. This would be big trouble if true. We’re looking for more.

Join the conversation about this story »

Apple has revealed plans to open its retail stores early for the iPad’s upcoming international launch.

The company’s well-received 9.7-inch tablet is due to arrive on a more global scale later this week, with the device making its debut in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on the 28th. The move, which is no doubt going to please many devout Apple fans, will see the company open its doors one hour earlier than usual.

Apple announced the retail plans via email and have also since updated its website to reflect the special opening times, as shown in this UK example.

This means that those dedicated Apple shoppers can head to their local retail store from 8AM local time and grab their iPad earlier than expected. For those in the UK there are other choices beyond the 27 official Apple Stores — both Currys and PC World will be carrying the new tablet in addition to some select Apple Premium Resellers.

Beyond the launch plans listed above, Apple has detailed that the iPad will launch in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore at some point during July.

For those outside the U.S., its been a long time coming, but the global launch is finally in sight.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Hot Topic: Apple’s iPad

Chinese gadget manufacturer Foxconn, best known for making Apple’s iDevices, has been in the news quite a bit lately, and none of it has been good.  The company has often been accused of providing poor working conditions for its employees including verbal abuse, abysmal pay, and being forced to work far more overtime than is legally allowed.  Today, another worker fell off one of Foxconn’s buildings, making him the ninth person to die at the company in 2010.  The CEO of Foxconn, Guo Tai-Ming, spoke out recently and stated that the company is “definitely not a sweatshop,” going on to say that with nearly 900,000 employees around the world, they have a lot to do, but that the situation would be stabilized soon.

Surely some of you remember the item we posted last month about a towing company in Michigan that had filed a $750,000 slander and libel lawsuit against a college student because he’d created a Facebook page for people to voice their complaints about the company. Well, that move appears to have backfired for the towing company, which has since lost a good chunk of business.

Since launching in February, the Facebook page for Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing has garnered over 11,300 members and made this local towing company an object of national derision.

According to reports, T&J has lost half of its commercial towing accounts, including the apartment complex from which the creator of the Facebook page had his car towed in January.

Says a lawyer for T&J about the company’s owner:

He has wrongly become a pariah in the eyes of many people in the community… He’s lost upwards of 15 accounts because of the hostility this situation has created.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the student claim they are now using the complaints posted to the Facebook page to identify others who believe they’ve been wronged by T&J, with the purpose of possibly filing a class-action suit against the towing company.

Fight with student may wreck tow firm [Freep.com]

Microsoft is losing two high-profile executives. Both J. Allard, “Chief Experience Offer” and Entertainment and Device Division’s CTO, and Robbie Bach, President of Entertainment and Devices Division, are leaving the company per a Steve Ballmer email from this morning. These are the guys behind the Xbox, Zune, Project Natal, and the dead Courier project — so basically all of Microsoft’s hit entertainment projects from the last decade.

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 11:01 AM
To: Microsoft – All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Executive Leadership Transitions

After almost 22 years with the company, Robbie Bach has decided to retire from Microsoft. I have worked with Robbie during his entire tenure at Microsoft, and count him as both a friend and a great business partner and leader. Robbie has always had great timing, and is going out on a high note – this has been a phenomenal year for E&D overall, and with the coming launches of both Windows Phone 7 and “Project Natal,” the rest of the year looks stupendous as well. While we are announcing Robbie’s retirement today, he will remain here through the fall, ensuring we have a smooth transition.

Concurrent with Robbie’s retirement, I am making several organization changes to ensure we have the right leaders in the right positions as we set ourselves up for the next big wave of products and services. Effective July 1, Don Mattrick, who leads our interactive entertainment business, and Andy Lees, who leads our mobile communications business, will report directly to me. Don and Andy have built out strong leadership teams and product pipelines, and are well-positioned for the years ahead. Independent of Robbie’s decision, J Allard (currently serving as senior vice president of Design and
Development for E&D), will also be leaving Microsoft. Given his ongoing passion and commitment to Microsoft, he will remain as an advisor to me, helping incubation efforts, looking at design and UI, and providing a cross-company perspective on these and similar topics. With J’s change in role, corporate vice president David Treadwell will join IEB to lead the core technology organization, reporting to Don. David has a great set of accomplishments at Microsoft, most recently working on the Windows Live Platform Services team. Over the next several months, Robbie and I will work together to finalize reporting and structure for the rest of his org.

Now that Office 2010 has been launched to business customers, Antoine Leblond, senior vice president in the Office Productivity Applications Group, will take a new role as senior vice president for the Windows Web Services team. This team brings together the integral Windows services that today deliver updates, solutions, community and depth
information for the Windows consumer. Kurt DelBene, senior vice president in the Office Business Productivity Group, will take on all of the engineering responsibilities for the Office business.

Transitions are always hard. Robbie has been an instrumental part of so many key moments in Microsoft history – from the evolution of Office to the decision to create the first Xbox to pushing the company hard in entertainment overall. J as well has had a great impact in the market and on our culture, providing leadership in design, and in creating a passionate and involved Xbox community, and earlier being at the center of our work seizing the importance of the Web for the company. But most important, both have been great team builders with a strong record of attracting, coaching and growing talent. As a result, their teams are primed to continue to step up and deliver great products, great services and great results for the company. Don has led the Interactive Entertainment Business since July 2007, where he’s significantly grown our entertainment footprint as well as our profitability. He can count as successes the evolution of Xbox Live, the launch of blockbusters like “Halo 3″ and the much-anticipated “Project Natal.” Previously, Don was president of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios. Andy has led the Mobile Communications Business since February, 2008, and has been instrumental in reinvigorating our mobility efforts, bringing in new business and development talent and
overseeing the creation of both KIN and Windows Phone 7.

As we finalize and ship so many of our key products (“Project Natal,”Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, Windows Live Wave 4 and others) it is a natural time for us to look ahead and make sure we have the right talent in the right roles to fuel our next set of offerings. I am confident that the changes above will set us up well for the months and years ahead.

I want to close by thanking Robbie for the incalculable contributions he has made to Microsoft over the years. He will be greatly missed when he retires this fall, and I am glad that I’ll have the opportunity to continue working closely with him between now and then. And as J makes a similar transition, I look forward to working with him in a new way.

No-Fault insurance lawyer warns car accident victims about Farm Bureau insurance company

Farm Bureau is at it again. I’ve written about this insurance company before. Despite their nice commercials, I personally see Farm Bureau treating their own customers the worst out of all the automobile insurance companies that I personally deal with as a lawyer representing victims of car accidents and truck accidents.

Again, the latest incident involves Farm Bureau finding new ways to avoid their obligation to their customers. Insurance companies like Farm Bureau get paid every year in insurance premiums by their customers, but as soon as their help is needed, they often look for ways to avoid meeting their legal, contractual obligations.

They just don’t do the right thing very often.

Why I do not recommend Farm Bureau

In my own experience, and in the experience of  other auto accident attorneys in  Michigan, it is almost impossible to get a Farm Bureau  claims adjuster to give permission to accept the proffered policy limits of a wrongdoer insurance company when an injured Farm Bureau customer has underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage.

Let me explain: you, a Farm Bureau customer, gets seriously injured in a car accident in Detroit, or Lansing, or Grand Rapids. The person who hits you has a minimum insurance policy limit of $20,000. You have been paying Farm Bureau for years for a coverage called underinsured motorist coverage, or UIM. This is an additional protection that is meant to pay you the full extent of what your injuries are worth, if the value of your personal injury exceeds the amount of coverage that the person who caused your car accident has. So, the person who caused your coverage only has $20,000, and your injury is clearly worth more.  That insurance company eventually tenders its $20,000 policy, so you can accept it and turn to your own additional UIM coverage with Farm Bureau.

Only you can’t.

Farm Bureau won’t let you.

Under Michigan law, a personal injury lawyer cannot accept the full offered policy limits of an auto insurance company that insures a person who has caused a car accident, without first getting the permission from your own insurance company.

So what happens when your insurance company refuses to give you permission to accept the policy limits of the person who caused your car accident?

Without receiving permission to accept tendered policy limits from a negligent driver’s auto insurance company, UIM coverage will be voided under Michigan law.

The problem with Farm Bureau is that in almost every case I’ve seen, Farm Bureau claims adjusters seem to  refuse to give permission to accept tendered policy limits; essentially trying to force their own customer to sit through a trial and expend thousands of dollars, and waste everyone’s time with another insurance company that is trying to settle the case. The Farm Bureau UIM policy, that Farm Bureau’s own customers paid a lot of money for, basically becomes illusory coverage.

There is actually no downside for Farm Bureau to do this, other than breaking their promises to their own customers, that is.  If the customer and his attorney accept the policy limit settlement being offered without receiving the written permission of Farm Bureau, they void the UIM coverage.

If, on the other hand, Farm Bureau forces them to try the case, they can play the odds and if a crazy, conservative 1 in a 100 jury returns a verdict of less than the policy limit, they again, don’t have to pay.  Since their own client has to pay for the thousands of dollars of costs of being forced to trial, there literally is no reason for Farm Bureau to not continue to do this.

Michigan has no bad faith laws or punitive damages to prevent this type of conduct by insurance companies at this time.

How to protect yourself

There is an easy solution at this time: don’t buy Farm Bureau.

This is just one reason Farm Bureau is the winner of my 2010 Insurance Company Skunk Award. In my next blog, I will talk about another disappointing, anti-consumer thing Farm Bureau recently did to a long-time customer to again, get out of paying a valid claim they should have paid. I’ll also cover how the Farm Bureau customer ended up with nothing as a result.

– Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in serious car and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance No-fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the largest reported jury verdict for an automobile accident case in Michigan in seven of the past 10 years, including 2009, according to published year-end verdicts and settlements reports.

Related information:

The Dirtiest Insurance Company Trick of All

17 Mistakes that Can Kill Your Case

Three No-Fault Challenges Facing Car Accident Attorneys Today

No-Fault Lawyer Video: All About Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with an auto accident attorney. We can help.

Alarm.com, a big player in the mobile security and monitoring game, has released their application for Android handsets.  Available immediately, customers with Android 1.6 or higher can and/disarm a security system, check motion activity, or watch live video while on the go.  The free app also provides real-time notifications to users’ phones via email and text messaging whenever a system event takes place.  Worried that someone might open your liquor cabinet or take a dip in your pool?  You need to get this app.

Features found in Alarm.com for Android:

• Check on system status and motion activity at your property.
• Remotely arm or disarm your system.
• Watch live video feeds and view stored clips.
• Access a complete, searchable history of system and alarm events.

For more information about Alarm.com  for Android, visit www.alarm.com/android.

Might We Suggest…

• Download This! iTag
  There’s no way around it.  As much as we try to keep our cell phones with us, somehow we still manage to leave them places.  We leave our handsets on the counter at home, in the taxi, on the airplane,…

As a tech blogger, I often wonder how new leaks come about. Sometimes they are completely random and surprise us and others feel like they are being controlled by the actual companies about to launch a new device. Either way, get ready for the Motorola Shadow hype machine to go into full gear next month.

Yesterday we got our first look at Verizon’s next phone in the Droid series, codenamed the Motorola Shadow. Now we are to believe that someone conveniently left their prototype phone at the gym and it became front page news on Gizmodo.

The specs of the next Droid are impressive to say the least. It appears Motorola has finally dropped the Texas Instruments OMAP processor and adopted the more popular Snapdragon platform. In addition to a 1 GHz CPU, the Motorola phone sports a 4.3-inch screen, 8MP camera (capable of shooting 720p video), 16 GB internal storage, and HDMI out.

Rumors suggest the Motorola “Shadow” will run Android 2.2 with Motorola’s Motoblur.

We expect new high-end phones to have the latest version of Android, but even more shocking is the possible release date. Gizmodo’s source claims we could see the new Droid as early as June or July. Given the fact that Verizon is already printing out quick-start guides for the new phone, I would say chances are high these rumors come true.

If all of the specs are to be believed, this new Motorola phone will become Verizon’s top Android prize. After playing with the EVO, I can say the 4.3 inch display really makes a difference (coming from 3.7 in) and the HDMI out is a welcome addition. If Motorola actually releases this with FroYo Android 2.2, it will see a noticeable performance improvement over all the HTC Android 2.1 phones still waiting for an update.

Current Droid owners will likely be attached to their physical keyboards, but anyone else looking to upgrade their first-gen Android phone should keep the Motorola Shadow on their short list.

Related Posts

• Verizon set to launch an Incredible device “really soon” – April 29th
• Motorola Droid successor coming to Verizon later this year
• Possible Droid 2 passes Wi-Fi certification
• LG Ally commercial leaks, Verizon launch pending soon
• The Motorola Shadow re-emerges

The headline says it all.  Netflix Taps Microsoft PlayReady as Its Primary DRM Technology for Netflix Ready Devices and Applications.

This is very good news for Microsoft as well as those who make hardware devices using Microsoft PlayReady for content protected playback.  Netflix already uses PlayReady for its Windows and Mac computer instant streaming service.  This announcement adds PlayReady for hardware devices as well.  The press release speaks of “Internet TVs, Blu-ray disc players, home theater systems, video game consoles and other devices.”  I wonder what they mean by other devices…

According to the announcement, the first devices making use of the PlayReady DRM should hit stores this summer.  Supposedly XBox360, Wii, PS3 and other devices that already have Netflix streaming support won’t be affected by the move to PlayReady.

Microsoft Press Release

Netflix Press Release

Even the Huffington Post admits that their Safest U.S. Airlines list is a bit unnecessary, considering the excellent safety records of everyone on the list. Still, it’s fun to rank things, so that’s what they did. U.S. Airways and JetBlue came in near the top, while Delta, United and Continental came in at the bottom. Regardless, you’re likely to remain alive after a flight on any of them.

Before you worry about their last place positions too much, an MIT professor who studies airline safety says that there’s actually a negative correlation between the number of nonfatal accidents and airline has and involvement in fatal accidents later on. Maybe it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be at the end of the list.

“America’s Most Dangerous Airlines” [Huffington Post]

Last week, the RAC participated in a letter-a-day campaign to pressure the House of Representatives to take action on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (H.R. 3017/S. 1584) which would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, demote or refuse to promote an individual based on his or her real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. For the past three weeks, a broad based coalition of faith and non-faith organizations has faxed and emailed a letter from one of its organizations to the full House each day, urging support for ENDA.

Recently, Consumer Reports has tested a number of different sunscreen brands to find out which is the best at protecting people from the sun.  Among the tested products were sprays, lotions, creams, and pump sprays.  Consumer reports seems to feel strongly about the issue of sunscreen: “sunscreens that guard against ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B radiation can help prevent sunburn, wrinkles, and certain skin cancers.”

Accordingly, the above mentioned test took a look at “how well each product blocked UVA and UVB rays and how well their claimed sun-protection factor, or SPF — a measure of UVB protection — lasted on volunteers who soaked in water for 40 or 80 minutes.”

The results: the four top ranked sunscreens are as follows: Up & Up Sport Continuous, Walgreens Sport Continuous, Banana Boat Sport Performance Continuous, and Aveeno Continuous Protection.  Apparently the above are listed in no particular order, as all four tied in their overall score; all four sunscreens also cost the same per ounce!  Consumer Reports: all four “provided very good UVA protection and excellent UVB protection, and met their SPF claim even after treated skin was in water for 80 minutes.”

Related posts:

1. New Sunscreen Guidelines by FDA
2. CDC recommendations in swimming pools and water parks
3. Health Dangers in New England

Expletives and MIDI music rose from office cubicles this past Friday: Pac-Man had returned. On May 21, Google replaced its usual blue, yellow, red, and green title with what the company calls a “doodle.” But unlike previous replacements, which have celebrated everything from Pi day to Norman Rockwell’s birthday, for Pac-Man’s special day (the 30th Anniversary of the game’s Japan release) Google pulled out the big guns, er, ghost-eaters. This time, the doodle was an animated and playable version of the 1980s Namco video game, complete with our pie-shaped hero and his multicolored ghost foes: Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange). But some kill-joys complain that Friday’s Pac-Man play hindered productivity, and set out to determine just how much money had been frittered away as employees avoided their work. The BBC reports that the firm Rescue Time tracked 11,ooo users’ online activity and noticed that Pac-Man kept them on Google’s site about 36 seconds longer than usual. Multiplying those 36 seconds by Google’s 504 million users, that means over 500 years worth of work time spent playing. The firm estimates an average worker’s salary at $25 an hour for a grand total of about $120 million in lost productivity. How Rescue Time …

If you’ve been wondering (like we have) what exactly networking giant Cisco planned to sell to utilities for the smart grid, ponder no longer. Cisco announced its first smart grid-specific products on Tuesday, including a router and grid switch, which are based on its traditional networking products but have been built specifically for the utility environment.

Cisco’s new smart grid gear — dubbed the Cisco 2000 Series Connected Grid Router (CGR 2010) and the Cisco 2500 Series Connected Grid Switch (CGS 2520) — gives utilities another option for deploying smart grid networks, and offers them the security of having the deep pockets and extensive supply chain of a big company. Utilities are risk averse by nature, have to abide by very specific regulations for maintaining service and for the most part, prefer to work with a big company with decades of experience under its belt.

Cisco says utilities, including Germany’s E.oN Westfalen Weser, Enel in Italy and Spain, and U.S. utilities Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have already been testing out the new gear. Cisco has previously announced smart grid deals with Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, Germany’s Yellostrom, and Canada’s Enmax, and Cisco’s senior VP of smart grid, Laura Ipsen, previously told us that it’s been selling a build-buy-partner model.

Cisco says the new smart grid products are “ruggedized” for the electrical network, can tolerate higher and lower temperatures than its traditional network gear, include a high level of security, and can help integrate renewables, detect network outages and migrate older proprietary gear to IP network gear.

Cisco’s new products will also give a solid boost to a smart grid that’s based on Internet Protocol (IP), the language upon which the Internet and information technology is built. Cisco’s strategy to embrace everything IP is similar to those of younger smart grid network firms Silver Spring Networks and SmartSynch, with its GridRouter, which it says can run over any network.

Cisco also recently made an investment in Grid Net, which builds smart meter software based around IP, and its first products have been based on the wireless standard WiMAX. Cisco’s Ipsen told us the company would likely make additional investments or acquisitions in the smart grid space, from electricity generation to consumption.

But when it comes to the smaller smart grid networking firms that had been moving faster than Cisco — like Silver Spring Networks or SmartSynch — Cisco’s announcement this morning is not such good news. While Cisco has been slow, it’s clearly ready to be aggressive. Ipsen told us at our Green:Net event that Cisco sees the smart grid market opportunity as “bigger than the Internet” (video clip).

For more research on smart grid check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Smart Algorithms: The Future of the Energy Industry

New Opportunities in the Smart Grid

The Developer’s Guide to Home Energy Management Apps

Images courtesy of Cisco.

Erin Kutz wrote:

Microsoft announced today that it will be taking over another chunk of Cambridge’s Kendall Square neighborhood this summer. The company said it will expand its New England Research & Development Center—affectionately known as NERD—by leasing another 113,000 square feet at One Cambridge Center, down the road from NERD’s One Memorial Drive location.

The initial phase of the One Cambridge Center expansion should be completed this summer, the company said, and will house the Microsoft Advertising team and employees from Navic, a Microsoft company in the TV advertising space, currently working out of Waltham, MA. In June, Microsoft will also bring its Beverly, MA-based SharePoint Workspace team to One Memorial Drive. These shifts will put the majority of the software giant’s 500-plus Bay State research and development employees in Cambridge, the company said. Microsoft will complete the expansion into the new space over the next three years, says NERD site director Sara Spalding.

“We definitely see a continued effort to recruit and hire top talent into this area,” Spalding told Xconomy. “The expansion really supports Microsoft’s continued investment in this area.”

One Cambridge Center is home to a number of other firms in the tech community, including the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, online video-hosting company Brightcove, and supplier search engine startup Panjiva. The MIT Media Lab also has a presence in the high-rise building.

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