The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has given us our first (tiny) glimpse at yet another Motorola smart phone. Known as the XT502, the phone may also go by the codename of ‘Greco’. The picture associated with the product detail carries the name greco1.jpg so we’re assuming that comes from the handset maker.
The details are pretty slim but we do know it’s a quad-band ( 850/900/1800/1900 ) GSM device with support for 8021.11 b/g, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, and GPS/AGPS. If the picture is any indication, the phone likely has a stock Android experience although there is plenty of time to tweak things before release. Other details we can somewhat assume are a 3.5mm headphone jack and camera with a flash.
SouthernLINC Wireless Launches Motorola i1 Regional iDEN carrier SouthernLINC Wireless is now offering the Motorola i1 as part of their handset stable. For $199.99 (2-year contract), customers can pick up the first Android phone to feature iD…
WASHINGTON–White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for what the White House called on Tuesday “an informal discussion of a range of issues in the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship.”
Emanuel, whose father, Benjamin, was born in Israel, flew to Israel last week with other family members for the bar mitzvah of his son, Zach and a nephew. On Thursday, the White House said the Emanuel family will visit with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
There’s been a lot of talk about HTML5 replacing Adobe Flash for online video, but there are plenty of other applications where the emerging standard could be used instead of the proprietary Flash platform. One website that has, very successfully it seems, adopted HTML5 is Scribd. The document-sharing site started converting its inventory to HTML5… (read more)
One year after Cyclone Aila swept across the Bay of Bengal, Mubashar Hasan returns to devastated areas of Bangladesh and finds there is still work to be done.
A young boy carries drinking water from a pond at village "number nine shora" – the only source of fresh drinking water for 6,000 people. Photo: Mubashar Hasan/Oxfam
More than 3 million Bangladeshis were affected when Cyclone Aila swept across the Bay of Bengal and ravaged its southern coast last May, killing nearly 200 people. Low-lying Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change. And climate scientists have predicted that strong storms and cyclones could increase in intensity and frequency in future years.
Cyclone Aila saw high tides break through poorly maintained coastal embankments built in the 1960s, submerging people’s houses and livestock. The government had promised to rebuild the embankments, and donor agencies also promised to help. But many months later, I returned to the area and saw people living in extremely difficult conditions. Oxfam has been pushing for the embankments to be swiftly rebuilt, and has warned that delays are making it harder to keep helping people affected by floods in the region.
I had travelled in a small boat with a group of journalists to the village “number nine shora” in the Satkhira district of southern Bangladesh. It was as though we were entering an entirely different world.
The village, once protected by an embankment, is now under water. People are forced to live on the broken embankment in small makeshift shelters built with leaves, bamboo and wood, and without electricity or proper beds. Bed for many is the sandy embankment.
When we travelled further up the embankment, we saw people living in very precarious conditions. Oxfam has built some emergency latrines, but about 6,000 people are living here, and space to build much-needed latrines is limited.
We saw groups of men and women with young kids in rickety boats, flocking towards a pond where Oxfam had introduced pond sand filter (PSF) technology. This technology helps to significantly improve the quality of the highly contaminated surface water of the pond.
It’s the only source of fresh water in the 10km area – most of the ponds in this area are full of saline water. People have travelled here for at least an hour and half in small wooden boats for their water.
The village had lost hope. I heard some people praying to God to take them away from this world so they didn’t have to suffer any more. I broke out into a sweat – not just because of the heat, but because of the sheer reality of unreal things.
Children were wandering about without shoes or proper clothes. Men and women were forced to live under the open skies, hoping that God would look after them.
A mother and child travel in a boat. Photo: Mubashar Hasan/Oxfam
Once they had houses to live in, lands on which to cultivate crops. Now they had nothing. All their belongings were lost in the cyclone. “Pray for me please, I don’t have any belongings apart from the skin of my body,” said 55-year-old Muhammad Abdul Kader. His eyes were dull and lifeless. After hearing his words, I felt stunned. What I was seeing felt almost unreal.
I had recently returned home to Bangladesh, after spending the past three and a half years living and studying in Europe. My life in the west was so different: it was another world. I had the luxury of debating political theories with other students at Dundee University, exploring the theological interpretation of life with Sufis and spiritual figures; debating about globalisation, multiculturalism and evolution theory at the Al Maktoum Institute of Aberdeen University, playing badminton with artists, students and professors, cycling around the UK and Netherlands, attending concerts and plays, sightseeing and living a carefree life. But now, here I was standing on a broken embankment surrounded by helpless and hungry people who had lost everything.
Locals have alleged official corruption is one of the reasons so little has been done to repair the damaged embankments.
Oxfam is working with local and international partners to ensure safe water supplies and sanitation facilities for about 75,000 people living on embankments in the Khulna and Satkhira districts. But delays in rebuilding the embankment mean people here can’t properly rebuild their lives, and fear they could be badly hit by future storms.
Oxfam’s local alliances Aila Durgoto Shonghoti Mancho and Badh Punonirman Ganoshongram Komiti are supporting local people in calling for broken embankments to be quickly rebuilt. Vulnerable families who’ve already lost so much need proper protection before new storms strike in the next couple of months as the monsoon is approaching very quickly.
Bryan is stuck in San Francisco for two weeks on a business trip without his business clothes, which is what Delta loses when it doesn’t have a dog nearby.
He writes:
I need some help. On the 16th of May my suit bag was ‘misplaced’ by Delta upon my arrival at San Francisco airport. I have faxed in the missing bag form with confirmation as well as completed the online forms. I have called and left messages and have not received ONE response. [The lost bag contained] 2 suits and 7 shirts worth over $2,000. I’m on a two week business trip here in SF with no clothing.
Bryan goes on to describe how Delta CSRs have shuffled him around via their phone network, and how nobody in their Public Relations department will call him back, even though he’s threatening to blow this story up by sending it out to major newspapers.
He adds, “I’d appreciate any help you can provide.”
Well, first of all save your energy and stop trying to shame Delta into doing the right thing. An airline losing your luggage is SOP these days, unfortunately; the real “Delta sucks” stories now are about making a pet vanish or threatening to cancel a flight if passengers don’t agree to being bumped.
Instead, replace your clothes on your own dime and get ready for a prolonged battle with Delta on being reimbursed. It may take a long time, so don’t spend more than you can comfortably cover for the next several months. Delta will probably try to negotiate a lower reimbursement fee than you submit to them. You may also have to file a complaint with the Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Office, but the airline has to compensate you eventually. See this post on lost luggage compensation for tips.
Don’t call it a smartphone. Formerly referred to as the Mini 5, the upcoming Dell Streak is “the ultimate portable tablet PC”.
We were quite impressed with the specs of the Streak when Michael Dell showed it off in January, but don’t expect this phone in the United States till “later this summer”. The Streak will ship first in June across the UK at O2 stores, Carphone Warehouse, and Dell.co.uk.
While it initially looked like a stellar device, the Streak has suffered the same fate as the Xperia X10. Both were revealed too early ahead of their U.S. launch dates and have been passed up by newer phones from HTC and Motorola. The current version of the Streak is still running Android 1.6 (like the X10), but Dell is expected to upgrade it to Android 2.2 and beyond later this year.
Suzuki is recalling certain 2010 Equator pickups that were built from November 20, 2009 through March 3, 2010 due to a possible suspension issue.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the lower control link bushing collars, located in the front suspension, may contain welds that do not meet strength specifications. If a collar separates, it can cause the Equator’s wheel alignment to change, allowing the pickup to handle poorly.
No injuries or accidents have been reported related to the issue, but NHTSA warns that the driver may have difficulty controlling the vehicle, which could result in an accident.
Owners of the 2010 Suzuki Equator con contact the company at 1-800-934-0934.
A friend and source in the finance industry in New York has repeatedly made the argument to me that regulators focusing on the size of banks are missing the point.
“Small banks did the worst in this crisis,” he once wrote to me. “Making banks smaller would not have changed a thing. If you have 100 little banks with the same portfolio as one giant bank, how are those little banks any more acceptable as failures? If they all go, we’re in the same position. In fact it’s worse, because it’s disorganized and disaggregated.” I’ve been torn on this question. On the one hand, if largeness confers implicit and distorting powers to banks (this is the worry behind Too Big to Fail), then by allowing banks to grow without bound, we encourage them to take on cheaper risk. On the other hand, we’ve had small bank calamities before (the Savings and Loan crisis, for example). Lehman Brothers was not a huge bank and its collapse triggered a worldwide financial catastrophe.
My NY friend will be gratified to see this piece from Vox that warns: “A world with only small and domestic banks is no safer. The key
benefit of multinational banks – being able to mobilise funds across
countries – could still be extremely useful for maintaining stability
in times of distress.“
A view shared by many has gradually emerged during the crisis, that
a world with relatively small domestic banks is safer than one where
large global institutions are also important players. This is
understandable, given that many of the financial firms that had to be
bailed out or supported with public funds in 2008 and 2009 in Europe
and in the US were multinational banks and that the size and the scope
of the activities of these banks have partly been at the root of the
systemic nature of the financial turmoil (see for example Gros and
Micossi 2008).
But this would be a superficial view of the current events.
Institutions with regional or national frameworks of action also had to
be supported because of bad investment policies. Examples include
Nothern Rock in Britain and WestLB in Germany. Moreover, the key
“raison d’être” of multinational banks – i.e. being able to mobilise
funds across countries – could in principle be extremely useful to
support global operations in times of distress and not necessarily be a
cause of instability.
That was the immortal email response from LA Community College District Chancellor Mark Drummond 13 months ago when Assemblyman Kevin de Leon raised questions on behalf of the Northeast LA community about betraying the commitment to build a badly-needed satellite campus in the old Van de Kamp’s bakery site in Glassell Park.
Drummond’s contemptuous words are set to become official policy of the LACCD board when it meets Wednesday to approve the centerpiece of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s political agenda for job creation, anti-gang programs, clean energy — a strategy that tramples on the rule of law, makes a mockery of public policy and benefits the few at the expense of the many.
On the 365th day after the contemptuous response from Drummond (who was axed for misconduct last summer), Deputy Mayor Larry Frank told the LACCD Board of Trustees exactly what the site was going to be used for.
“This is the holy grail of all our new jobs…that is 1,000 jobs at the DWP that would be IBEW Local 18 jobs,” Frank said.
These workers would do the “solar and all the municipal, commercial and residential retrofit work that happens in the city of Los Angeles,” he added.
In other words, the monopoly on local solar installation and energy efficiency work would be achieved by the DWP despite the defeat of Measure B last year. It will be paid for by raising the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor by the full 20 to 30 percent despite the “meltdown” over the hike in the City Council, Frank declared.
In a deal negotiated over the last three years with the IBEW union boss Brian D’Arcy, these unemployed workers, many of them current or former gang members, would be hired after training at the Van de Kamp’s site as $16-an-hour “green doctors” in a pre-Civil Service capacity. After a two-year probation period, they will become full-time, permanent employees at much higher salaries.
It’s all part of what the mayor calls his job creation program, which is nothing more than taxing the public to create more jobs on the city payroll at inflated costs
How the Van de Kamp’s site came to be used for this purpose is far worse than even the abuse of the DWP and its ratepayers, particularly home owners and businesses that are being stuck with the bills. Under two bond measures voters approved for LACCD, $60 million was promised specifically for turning the historic Van de Kamp’s building into classrooms and building a ew building for LA Community College classrooms for the educationally under-served Northeast LA.
In one of several “no-bid” arrangements, the LACCD Board flipped the new state-of-the-art building over for use as a technology charter school although paid for out of college bonds. Although architectural designs were approved by the state and structural reconstruction of the Van de Kamp’s building already was completed, construction of new classrooms was suddenly halted.
Instead of classrooms, the second floor of the building was rebuilt as executive offices for LACCD officials and the DWP/IBEW work force development program.
So instead of a college, the Northeast Valley got a high school and training program that served no local community need.
What it served was the mayor’s plan to give jobs on the public payroll for hoodlums or reformed hoodlums who will some day come to your home or business and advise you how to reduce your energy use or install solar panels — jobs that could be done cheaper, faster and with a more positive economic impact by the private sector.
The Van de Kamp Coalition formed by Northeast LA residents who want the college campus they were promised put out an email blast Monday urging the public to email the LACCD Board to reject the “no-bid sweetheart lease” of the facility before Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. meeting at West LA College.
The mayor’s message, the email says, is that “executive offices for my programs are more important than your access to educational opportunity.”
The email accuses LACCD of “giving a no-bid sweetheart lease to the City of Los Angeles after $6.3 million” in bond fund “to illegally convert classrooms into executive suites for unemployment programs funded by federal economic stimulus funds directed by the mayor.”
You can read the draft letter, Drummond’s email exchange and the LACCD Board resolution after the jump:
Here is the draft letter of protest and the email from the Van de Kamp Coalition to send to these emails:
CUT AND PASTE THIS LETTER INTO THE BODY OF YOUR E-MAIL (EDIT AS NEEDED FOR YOUR COMFORT WITH THIS ISSUE) AND ADD YOUR NAME AT THE END:
May 24, 2010
RE: Reject City Lease Of Van de Kamps Building; Return the Van de Kamps Campus to Community College Purposes Promised to Voters for A Decade
Dear LACCD Trustees and Mr. Mayor:
I am writing in opposition to Com. No. FPD3 on the Wednesday agenda of the Los Angeles Community College Trustees for the following reasons:
LACCD used $72 million of taxpayer bond monies to build the brand new community college satellite campus for students, not commercial office space.
For more than a decade Trustees such as Sylvia Scott-Hayes, Kelly Candaele, and Mona Field have promised voters that they would DELIVER a Northeast Satellite campus to address the unequal access opportunities for young adults in Northeast Los Angeles.
The State of California gave $3 million to this campus for the restricted purpose of a Satellite Campus of LA City College, and this action takes away the Satellite Campus. The voter approved Measures AA and J that allocated $60 million of new taxes to develop this high priority community college access opportunity.
LACCD staff have ignored two economic feasibility studies showing Van de Kamps can be initiated as a successful campus with both profit-oriented and traditional community college classes.
These studies mean that the Board has no substantial evidence to support its proposed “finding” that that the Northeast Campus buildings are NOT NEEDED for community college purposes. They are needed now!
The City funded unemployment classes may properly be included among the possible profit-oriented classes offered at Van de Kamps, but the placement of executive administrative offices in 60% of the school building is highly offensive to the core mission of the Los Angeles Community College District.
LACCD and City of Los Angeles joint actions improperly discriminate against the historically underserved and predominately minority communities. The action tells our young adults they are not deserving of a community college.
For the above reasons, the LACCD must begin offering as many community education classes (non-credit fee-based classes like computer skills, artistic endeavors, conversational foreign languages, creative writing, etc.) and contract classes (employer paid skills training) as possible. This is the positive path to establish the Van de Kamps campus as a financially self-sustaining Satellite of LA City College.
I join the Van de Kamps Coalition and urge you to halt ill-conceived efforts led by your former Chancellor to abandon promises you made to open Van de Kamps under LA City College supervision. The effort to hand this $72 million new campus over to tenants of the Mayor’s Office, instead of maintaining City College stewardship, will be an action remembered by voters at the next election. If there is a vote to approve this ill-conceived LACCD staff proposal, I know I will not forget how the LACCD Board helped Mayor Villaraigosa literally steal this campus away from the community it is intended to serve.
Most sincerely,
Here is the Board Resolution:
ADOPT RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING LEASE OF SPACE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES
WHEREAS, Education Code Sections 81430 -81432 authorize governing boards of community college districts to enter into leases with another public agency on a long term basis without the need for public bid if the space is not needed by the community college district for school classroom buildings; and
WHEREAS, the Los Angeles Community College District (“Districf’) desires to lease 13,900 square feet of space located in the Van de Kamp Innovation Center at 3020 San Fernando Road in Los Angeles to the City of Los Angeles for the operation of a work force/work source center providing classes, job training as well as advisory, education and other job placement services to students and the community from June 1, 2010 through June 30, 2014; and
WHEREAS, City of Los Angeles shall pay the District an annual base rental rate of $250,000 for lease of the space plus $150,000 to cover the costs of tenant improvements for a total annual rental amount of $400,000. The District shall allow the City of Los Angeles to sublease its space to tenants approved by the Chancellor; and
WHEREAS, the space is not needed by the District for any school classroom building and shall be subject to the terms and conditions as the Chancellor may agree; and
WHEREAS, The District has given notice of the action to adopt this resolution once a week for three (3) weeks in a newspaper of general circulation prior to execution in accordance with Education Code Section 81432(b).
RESOLVED, the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees adopts this resolution authorizing lease of 13,900 square feet of space to City of Los Angeles for purposes of operating a work force/work source center to support the education, advisory and job placement needs of students and community participants in and around the Van de Kamp Innovation Center from June 1, 2010 through June 30, 2014.
IN WITNESS, of the unanimous passage of the foregoing resolution, as prescribed by law, we, the members of said Board of Trustees, present and voting thereon, have hereunto set our hands this 26th day of May 26,2010.
Here is the email exchange between Assemblyman De Leon and Drummond’s vulgar response:
From: Drummond, Mark [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, April 16, 20092:58 PM To: Moore, Jamillah K Subject: RE: Satellite Campus Issues Flag Status: Red
fuk em From: Moore, Jamillah K [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thu 4/16/2009 8:05 AM To: Drummond, Mark; Barrera, Adriana D. Subject: FW: Satellite Campus Issues
Hello,
This is just an FYI I will be following up with her directly I will keep you posted.
From: Moore, Jamillah K Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:17 PM To: Moore, Jamillah K Subject: Satellite Campus Issues
Dr. Moore, I wanted to get some clarity on a couple of issues that come to my attention this morning:
Alliance Charter School – Members of the community informed me that they are to occupy the entire first floor of the Van de Kamps facility. Is this correct? They have also informed me that there is a fitness room that was made possible by funding from Congressmember Becerra’s office which is also located on the first floor. Does this mean that the community will not have access to this fitness room.
Community Room – Is this located on the first floor and if so, will the community have access to it if this entire floor is to be loaned out to Alliance Charter. If it is not on the first floor please let me know where it is to be located.
Can you please clarify how much money it costs to apply for center status?
Did LACC hire a consulting firm to apply for center status for the Van de Kamp site? If so what is the name of this firm consulting firm and how much was paid to them? Can you send me any documentation indicating this amount?
Please remind me again as to why center status was not pursued? I am hearing that Glendale City College protested against the Van de Kamps site getting center status and I would like to know if there is any truth to this and why they would protest this?
Is it possible to review the minutes of the Shared Governance Committee meetings online? If not can you please forward me the minutes of the meeting in which the Shared Governance Committee allocated funding to apply for Center Status for the Van de Kamps campus and the meeting in which they turned over the campus to the Los Angeles Community College District Office.
Alana Yanez Field Representative Assemblymember Kevin de Leon 45th Assembly District
By now, we all know that the federal government is pretty much impotent in the face of the seafloor gusher that’s been spewing unknowable amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a month, reliant instead on BP to clean up the mess it’s made. But why the oil giant has also been empowered to dictate where along the Gulf journalists can travel is another thing altogether.
Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland spent two days recently trying to get out to the Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge, “stymied at every turn” by law enforcement officials who claim they’re getting their marching orders from BP.
In an excellent piece published Monday, McClelland describes the hurdles that she and John Hazlett, a former professor of hers at the University of New Orleans, encountered before they finally made it out to Elmer’s.
The blockade to Elmer’s is now four cop cars strong. As we pull up, deputies start bawling us out; all media need to go to the Grand Isle community center, where a “BP Information Center” sign now hangs out front. Inside, a couple of Times-Picayune reporters circle BP representative Barbara Martin, who tells them that if they want passage to Elmer they have to get it from another BP flack, Irvin Lipp; Grand Isle beach is closed too, she adds. When we inform the Times-Pic reporters otherwise, she asks Dr. Hazlett if he’s a reporter; he says, ”No.” She says, “Good.” She doesn’t ask me. We tell her that deputies were just yelling at us, and she seems truly upset. For one, she’s married to a Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy. For another, “We don’t need more of a black eye than we already have.”
“But it wasn’t BP that was yelling at us, it was the sheriff’s office,” we say.
“Yeah, I know, but we have…a very strong relationship.”
“What do you mean? You have a lot of sway over the sheriff’s office?”
“Oh yeah.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
Martin goes on to tell McClelland that BP is dictating who can visit Elmer’s because “it’s BP’s oil.”
“But it’s not BP’s land.”
“But BP’s liable if anything happens.”
“So you’re saying it’s a safety precaution.”
“Yeah! You don’t want that oil gettin’ into your pores.”
“But there are tourists and residents walking around in it across the street.”
“The mayor decides which beaches are closed.” So I call the Grand Isle police requesting a press liason, only to get routed to voicemail for “Melanie” with BP. I call the police back and ask why they gave me a number for BP; they blame the fire chief.
I reach the fire chief. “Why did the police give me a number for BP?” I ask.
“That’s the number they gave us.”
“Who?”
“BP.”
McClelland’s piece goes into much greater depth, so read the whole thing, and then get her updates here.
Meanwhile, at least there are no questions about who’s really running the show.
Vlingo Corporation has formally announced the availability of their first Android widget application today. Called Vlingo for Android, it lets users speak to their handset in order to get it to carry out commands. For example, one could press widget button and send a text message, email, or tweet. Other options include searching Google Maps, Google Search, or simply dialing contacts.
Another great feature of Vlingo for Android is SafeReader, an option which lets users hear their incoming text messages and emails while driving or otherwise occupied. This too is as simple as pressing a button. Once activated, all incoming messages are read out loud to the user.
Vlingo for Android runs on handsets with 2.0 or higher and is available in the Android Market for a one-time $9.99 purchase. According to the company, this price is a limited time offer. It’s not know what the cost will be once the introductory period is over. Look for Vlingo to arrive later this year as a pre-loaded feature on a number of devices!
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We’ve been using Vlingo during its brief beta process, and now you can too, as it’s finally in the Android Market. In a nutshell, Vlingo takes the place of Google’s built-in voice-to-text service, but it goes even farther (and dare we say, at times works better). In addition to allowing you to dictate just about anything to your heart’s content, it also will read incoming text messages and e-mails, which is great for when you’re driving. (Though let’s hope we get some better voices for that in the near future.)
Vlingo’s available now in the Android Market [link] for $9.99. Check out video of it in action after the break.
Who’s nailed peer-to-peer live streaming video on smartphones such as iPhone and Android? It’s not Qik, Ustream or Justin.tv, it’s Knocking Live, an application by bootstrapped Point Heads Software. Interestingly enough, Knocking Live reached 1 million users faster than Foursquare or Gowalla did (see graph).
Pointy Heads released Knocking Live in December in collaboration with Sourcebits, and have since amassed 1.6 million downloads. They’re here at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley, among a plethora of other great companies.
The app has all sorts of uses, but one crazy guy decided to strap their iPhone to an RC Airplane and stream a live feed of the view from the sky. It’s as cool as it sounds. Hit the jump for the video.
Knocking Live is the first (and only, to my knowledge) peer-to-peer video sharing. You can use it to stream a live video feed from your iPhone’s camera to another iPhone (or Android) anywhere in the world. You don’t need an iPhone 3GS, you can have a 3G.
Here’s the video of streaming video from hundreds of feet up using an RC Airplane and an iPhone with Knocking Live:
[JURIST] The Netherlands District Court of Rotterdam [official website, in Dutch] on Tuesday commenced [press release, in Danish] the first European trial of Somali pirates [JURIST news archive] under charges of “sea robbery” for hijacking a cargo ship registered in the Netherlands Antilles. The five accused Somali pirates were arrested last year during an attempt to forcibly board the cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden after a Danish navy frigate sunk the pirates’ boat. One defendant wept during his testimony, claiming [AP report] that the severe poverty in Somalia had driven him to piracy. The trial is scheduled to last five days, and the judgment is scheduled to be handed down in June. If convicted, the pirates could face a maximum of 12 years in prison.
The international community is supporting actions taken against piracy. Yemen’s Ministry of Defense announced last week that a Yemeni court sentenced six Somali pirates to death [JURIST report] and six additional pirates to 10-year jail sentences for the hijacking of a Yemeni oil tanker in April 2009. Earlier this month, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [office website] announced that the island nation of Seychelles will create a UN-supported center [JURIST report] to prosecute suspected pirates. This will be the second such court established for the prosecution of pirates, following only Kenya. Last month, the UN Security Council approved a resolution [JURIST report] calling on member states to criminalize piracy under their domestic laws and urging Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] to consider an international tribunal for prosecuting piracy. The Security Council resolution came the same week the UN announced that a trust fund established to combat piracy will be funding five projects [UN News Centre report] aimed at piracy committed in the waters around Somalia.
If you’re thinking about taking to the highways of Venezuela any time soon, here’s a little tip for you: don’t speed. Evidently the country’s roads are known for the kind of highway craziness that would make Miami look conservative. While recently driving his own personal motorcade, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was harassed by a pickup truck whose driver thought Chavez was going too slow. The driver blew his horn and flashed his lights before passing the president on the shoulder.
According to reports, Chavez proceeded to personally chase down the driver and reprimand him for being such an ass behind the wheel. The whole incident caused el Presidente to address the nation’s lawless road system on his weekly broadcast, and to charge the South American nation’s police with doing a better job of enforcing the local traffic laws.
[Source: Fox News | Image: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images]
Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that programming from HBO, the premium cable television network, is available starting today in the USA on the PlayStation 3 (PS3), making it the first gaming system to offer HBO original television programming.
“The HBO library of premium original content is a perfect example of how PS3 has become the most content rich entertainment platform in the living room,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “When you combine the iconic programming from HBO with the existing TV, film, live sports and original programming available on PlayStation Network, our customers have access to the content they want, when they want it, at home or on the go with the PSP.”
The following popular shows from the award-winning cable network are available on the HBO section of PlayStation Store (navigate to the HBO section by selecting TV Shows> Networks> HBO), with more titles and additional seasons to be added each week:
True Blood (season two in addition to season one)
Big Love (seasons one through three)
Entourage (seasons one and two)
Eastbound and Down (season one)
Multiple seasons from HBO signature shows such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Rome, Da Ali G Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Flight of the Conchords.
“We’re extremely pleased to offer our premium programming on Sony Computer Entertainment’s PS3 system,” said Henry McGee, president, HBO Home Entertainment. “This premier gaming system will offer an exciting new way for consumers to purchase HBO’s award-winning programming.”
“HBO’s innovative and popular programming rounds out Sony’s premium TV content offering and enables consumers to enjoy an even wider array of award-winning mini-series and episodic content,” said Michael Aragon, general manager, Global Digital Video Distribution and Operations for Sony Network Entertainment.
U2 frontman Bono has been released from Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich after doctors say the rocker experienced temporary paralysis brought on by the onset of a sudden illness. The band has cancelled their headlining slot at Britain’s 40th anniversary Glastonbury Music Festival this weekend after the singer was told to rest for at least two months following emergency surgery on his back last Friday.
Bono — an devoted humanitarian — is devastated to have to “let down” his British fans.
In a statement on the band’s website, Bono said: “I’m heartbroken. We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the festival….”
U2 has also been forced to postpone 16 shows on the North American leg of their forthcoming U2360 Tour.
Yesterday, I talked about an alternative hydrogen refueling infrastructure for cars and today I would like to talk about a “standard” hydrogen refueling infrastructure for long-haul trucks.
A couple of weeks ago I went to the NHA Conference and took a look at the Vision Tyrano hydrogen fuel cell hybrid class-8 truck firsthand. The idea at that point for Vision was to introduce a zero emissions heavy duty vehicle into the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, Ca in order to help clean up emissions.
Over a year ago I talked about Asemblon’s plans to introduce Hydrnol, a hydrogen rich liquid chemical carrier that can be used to produce pure hydrogen and that is easily transported and recycled. Now, I’ve learned that the two companies have teamed up in order to establish a nationwide hydrogen refueling infrastructure for trucks. In fact, Vision Industries has signed an agreement in an exclusive licensing agreement to sell Hydrnol to the trucking industry from coast to coast.
Vision and Asemblon don’t see the rollout of a nationwide hydrogen trucking infrastructure anywhere as daunting as one aimed a passenger cars. According to Vision, “While that may be the case for an infrastructure rollout for fuel cell passenger vehicles, Vision looks at the big rig market from a different perspective. In 2006, the U.S. consumed 180.2 billion gallons of transportation fuels, of which 23.8 billion gallons (or 13.2-percent) were diesel consumed by combination highway trucks. There are approximately 1,200 diesel truck stops in the U.S., with Pilot Travel Center and Flying J established as the two largest truck stop chains, each utilizing approximately 300 stations to cover the U.S. from coast-to-coast and border-to-border.
“Since Hydrnol is an easy-to-handle liquid, an infrastructure roll-out utilizing existing fueling equipment is very straightforward. Installing Hydrnol storage and dispensing infrastructure at an existing truck stop is estimated at $200,000 to $300,000 per station. Therefore, a 300 station, nationwide Hydrnol infrastructure rollout, accessing 13.2-percent of the U.S. transportation fuel marketplace can be completed for less than $100 million.”
The pairing of these two partners may not be perfect but it’s pretty close. Vision Industries needs a hydrogen solution for propelling long haul trucks 650 miles at highway speeds before refueling and Hydrnol provides this. Asemblon needs a commitment from a major hydrogen vehicle maker in order to manufacture, distribute and recycle its product and Vision Industries provides this.
Like I’ve stated before, the national hydrogen car infrastructure may be the last domino to fall. Before it does, hydrogen powered forklifts, trucks, boats, planes, UAVs, trains, motorcycles and other vehicles may already have been commercialized and provided adequate H2 refueling infrastructure. A nationwide hydrogen truck refueling infrastructure and the reduced emissions and reduced dependence upon fossil fuels that it would provide will certainly be a giant leap for mankind in the right direction.
This is exactly the sort of thing we hoped would happen when Google announced GoogleTV: according to The Candler Blog, Boxee, beloved makers of Home Theater PC software, is working on an Android app. More »
Because the Intrade price can be interpreted as an estimate of the likelihood that the bill will pass, a sharp fall in the price could indicate new information reaching the market suggesting the bill will fail. In the manipulation story presented by Othman, a new perception the bill is failing could be used to pressure the weakest members of the coalition supporting the bill to drop out (Maybe the argument goes, “Why go down with a sinking ship, when you and your constituents never wanted the ship in the first place?”). As support actually falls, the likelihood the bill passes drops with it. The manipulated price becomes, with a little lobbying, a correct prediction.
While Othman recognizes that the purported manipulation failed this time, he wonders whether prediction market prices will become sufficiently trusted that such a manipulation will work. In fact, he predicts, “It’s only a matter of time, a couple years I would guess, before the kind of manipulation I’ve described actually works.
I disagree.
While it is true that a trader can often move the Intrade price relatively cheaply, because the markets often are thin, it is well known that a trader can move the Intrade price. No half-way sophisticated interpreter of Intrade price data would take a sudden sharp move based on a few trades as proof of changing fundamentals, at most it might inspire the viewer to scan for new news. It was only a few hours after the March 17 episode before bloggers were calling “manipulation!“ Are observers going to become less willing to call “manipulation!” in a couple of years? No.
While it is true that a trader can often move the Intrade price relatively cheaply, because the markets often are thin, holding the market to the manipulated target price can get expensive. A manipulator can’t buy the price signal, he just rents it for a while. And the rental rate will tend to rise over time because the mis-pricing will attract informed traders to trade against the manipulator.
Maybe this gets interesting. So long as the markets are thinly traded then the market signal can be rented cheaply, but observers treat the signal as cheap talk. What if talk is not cheap? Can a deep pockets manipulator actually buy the market price? That is to say, can the manipulator rent the signal long enough to overcome the “cheap talk” dismissal and change the likelihood of the outcome? I’d say this would work only in a world in which enough market observers trust the market price summary more than all of the other information available about the subject of the prediction market, but this is unlikely to be the world we live in.
I predict: this kind of manipulation will not happen within the next several years.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has given us our first (tiny) glimpse at yet another Motorola smart phone. Known as the XT502, the phone may also go by the codename of ‘Greco’. The picture associated with the product detail carries the name greco1.jpg so we’re assuming that comes from the handset maker.
There’s been a lot of talk about HTML5 replacing Adobe Flash for online video, but there are plenty of other applications where the emerging standard could be used instead of the proprietary Flash platform. One website that has, very successfully it seems, adopted HTML5 is Scribd. The document-sharing site started converting its inventory to HTML5… (
