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Lindsay Lohan returned to Los Angeles on Saturday night from France, two days after missing a hearing on her probation that made the judge to issue an arrest warrant against the actress.

Wearing a dark hat and sunglasses, Lohan, 23, flew to Los Angeles after a week of parties in the Cannes film festival.

The actress from “Mean Girls” was missing on Monday a hearing in a court of Beverly Hills, called after not completing a course on alcohol education that was imposed after being arrested for drunk driving  in 2007. Lohan claimed that her passport has been stolen.

Judge Marsha Revel on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Lohan, but later reversed because the legal team of the actress paid a deposit of $ 100,000 (79,000 euros).

Lohan has banned from drinking alcohol, the court ordered her to undergo random alcohol tests, and also to wear a bracelet to monitor her consumption.

The judge extended the probation last October and warned Lindsay that she was in danger of being sent to prison.

Education classes on alcohol are part of the sentence she received after her arrest for drunken driving in a reckless manner and under the influence of illegal substances.

Lohan was considered one of the most talented young actresses in Hollywood thanks to films like “Freaky Friday” and “Bobby.”

Because she has gone to rehab three times in 2007, her career has fallen and her habit of going to parties has become a frequent topic of celebrity magazines.

Related posts:

1. Lindsay Lohan missed mandatory court hearing
2. Lindsay Lohan Story
3. Lindsay Lohan back in L.A

St Mary’s University Sustainability plan …

Since last June after the death of brother Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson stayed away from the screen. 44 year old singer / actress said, she had a tough time while shooting for her last movie “Why did I Get Married too?” But somehow she was strong enough to do this and she also stayed in touch with the family.

While talking at the Brixton Ritzy Cinema, London, Janet said, “it was really tough for her, but she tried her best, it was very draining sometimes. She said, the incident never left her mind and she always kept thinking about how could this happen.

Her ex boyfriend, Jermaine Dupri said Janet no longer wanted to make music because her albums do not sell anymore as they used to in past.  He also said “She wanted to just do singles every once in a while. She’s looked at the marketplace -albums are not really doing what they usually do when you put this entire budget out there”. From last couple of years, Janet’s albums are not doing well in the market and she is figuring out her landscape. Since Michael’s death Janet is not doing so well in anything. We really hope Janet will come back in full energy once again.

Related posts:

1. Janet Jackson: Michael’s Death was the toughest Times
2. Janet Jackson’s new Haircut
3. Janet Jackson’s New Super Short Hair

Pac-Man 30^th Anniversary free download is now available! Pac-Man 30^th Anniversary Free Download has flooded the web in commemoration of Pac-Man 30^th Anniversary. Google Pac-man is on its way to its fourth day and is about to end. Pacman game fanatics will now have to rely on “download Pacman game” searches. This Google playable logo became a viral game has given Pacman a great patronage and promotion.

Google is obviously a Pacman fan as it brought us the “Pacman 30th Anniversary Game Edition” on its browser as a Google Doodle. Many are searching websites to download Google Pac-man. Google Pac-man received massive positive response fron net surfers even to those that are not Pac-man game fanatics.

Stay tune for of Pac-Man 30^th Anniversary Free Download. Pacman is not yet done to give its fans perks such as free “download Gogle Pacman”, “download Pac-man game”, and more..

No related posts.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti [official website] announced Saturday that the mission has launched an investigation into the shootings of dozens of prisoners in a jail riot following the January 12 earthquake [JURIST news archive] which killed over 200,000 people and left some 1 million homeless. An earlier investigation [NYT report] by the New York Times [media website] alleged that Haitian police officials opened fire on unarmed prisoners during the riot and sought to cover it up by claiming that prison ring-leader, Ti Mousson, murdered any inmates who refused to cooperate in his escape plan. According to the Times report, police officials raided the jail during the riot shouting for prisoners to lie down, but instead of securing the area began shooting the inmates, including those that had surrendered. One witness claims that some prisoners were killed systematically to “settle scores.” Following the shooting, police authorities failed to notify inmates’ relatives of the deaths, buried bodies without conducting autopsies and burned the surviving prisoners’ bloodstained clothing. Prison authorities deny the allegations and claim that no shots were fired by police officers.

In February the acting head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti [official website] urged Haitians to turn in prisoners who escaped [JURIST reports] when the earthquake destroyed prisons and jails. The aftermath of the earthquake also placed a strain on detainees arrested since the disaster, as limited space and limited access to judges burdened the country’s already tenuous criminal justice system.

Last year, at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, I met a young skeptic who went by the handle Nobby Nobbs on the fora. His real name is Michael Strieb, and he has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is the same condition Stephen Hawking has.

In Michael’s case it confined him to a wheelchair and at TAM it was very difficult for him to speak. I just read from Rebecca at Skepchick that his condition has progressed, and now it’s impossible for him to talk. His mind is healthy and sharp, but his body is making it extremely difficult to communicate.

Because of this, a group has set up a page where people can donate so that they can buy Michael an Eye Gaze System, an incredibly cool setup where a machine can measure where his eye is pointing, and use that to guide a cursor on a computer screen, allowing Michael to once again communicate. The device costs about $3200.

Update: Someone who knows Michael has let me know that this is not the only source of their financial need. As you can imagine, his situation can put a strain on anyone’s budget. So please give what you can, and help out a guy — and his family — who could use a little relief.

Michael’s one of the good guys. I just sent in my donation, so please, if you can, help him out.

Aconteceu hoje dia 23, a corrida de Stock Car no circuito de Jacarepaguá, onde o piloto Felipe Maluhy obteve sua primeira vitória na categoria. O pole position, Allam Khodair liderou uma boa parte da corrida, mas cometeu um erro e caiu para a 3ª posição. Enquanto Maluhy e Ricardo Maurício estavam na frente, e após a primeira parada, Átila Abreu ficou em 2ª lugar.

Depois de um acidente entre Thiago Marques e William Starostik, o Safety Car entrou na pista e acabou com a vantagem que Maluhy tinha sobre Abreu, faltando dez voltas para o final da corrida. Depois da relargada, Átila ficou na 1ª posição mas Maluhy o pressionou a ponto de tomar a liderança da corrida.

O piloto Ricardo Maurício tentou ultrapassar Gomes, mas houve um toque entre os carros e acabou perdendo seu capô durante a corrida, faltando duas voltas para o final. Maurício ainda chegou na 2ª posição, mas foi desclassificado por ter completado a prova sem o capô. Então, os cinco primeiros colocados foram: Felipe Maluhy, Marcos Gomes, Átila Abreu, Allam khodair e David Muffatto. Maluhy, emocionado, diz o seguinte:

“Estou muito feliz, minha equipe fez um trabalho maravilhoso e não fizemos a pole por muito pouco. Dedico esta vitória ao meu pai, que faleceu há cinco meses”.

Via | Terra Racing

Let’s play choose your own adventure, MLB-style.

Here’s the situation: There are two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, your team has a four-run lead, the greatest hitter who ever lived is at the plate, a pitcher with a 4.44 career ERA is on the mound, and there’s a runner at first base. And let’s just say, hypothetically, that the baserunner is 0-for-2 on steal attempts this season and 16-for-30 lifetime.

The St. Louis Cardinals found themselves in precisely that situation on Friday. Albert Pujols(notes) was facing Angels reliever Jason Bulger(notes) while Ryan Ludwick(notes) stood on first. That’s obviously a terrific setup for Pujols, the reigning National League MVP.

But on Bulger’s first pitch, Ludwick took off for second — and he was thrown out by a mile. (Or if not literally a mile, then a significant percentage of a mile. It wasn’t close). The inning thus ended, and Pujols was denied a chance to extend the Cardinals lead. He was not pleased.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers these details:

Pujols flipped his bat and helmet as he returned to the dugout then smacked two trays of gum from a bench against the Cardinals dugout wall.

La Russa reprimanded Pujols, saying, "That’s enough."

Pujols responded and, according to eyewitnesses, the exchange escalated with La Russa telling Pujols at one point, "I [expletive] know how to manage."

No one can dispute that La Russa knows how to manage, obviously. He’s won five pennants and two World Series titles. But that’s just a crazy spot to attempt a steal. If Ludwick would have been successful, Pujols probably gets walked. Only Ludwick’s fantasy owners appreciated the decision.

Albert has been in a semi-slump — at least by his ridiculous standards — batting .267/.396/.400 so far in May. He hasn’t driven in a run in his last eight games. His between-innings reaction was either A) evidence of his frustration with his recent performance, or B) a total condemnation of gum.

Both La Russa and Pujols have downplayed the incident, and it sounds like nothing more than typical heat-of-battle bickering. These were Albert’s comments:

Pujols didn’t dispute that the incident happened but considered it
insignificant.

"I was hitting and we got thrown out stealing. I wanted to hit. That’s
all it was," he said.

Pujols added, "It’s over. We said what we said. It’s over."

Such things happen when you trail the Reds in the N.L. Central. 

Not to be out-done (or out-outed), the Angels allowed Erick Aybar(notes) to lay down a bunt in the ninth inning, trailing by four. (He was credited with a sacrifice, though he was no doubt looking for a hit. Aybar has a bit more speed than Ludwick).

No word on whether objects were attacked in LA’s dugout, or whether Mike Scioscia declared that he [expletive] knows anything.

—

Photo via US Presswire

Filed under: China, India, Tata, Geely

Tata Motors has milked the Nano minicar’s “most affordable” status for a ton of press, but it might soon hand the title belt over to a new challenger. According to a report at TopNews.in, Geely’s reportedly got its own ultra-frugal compact in the works for 2010. Called the IG, it’s expected to bring a $2,250 price tag and a 1.0-liter, 70 horsepower motor to the party.

We have no idea what to expect from a new car that’s priced like a lawn tractor, but word is that Geely aims to surpass the Nano from a quality standpoint. We already have a good idea of what the IG might look like if/when the Chinese microcar hits crowded city streets in a couple years, since Geely showed off the IG Fantastic concept car at last year’s Shanghai Motor Show.

While we’re certain the concept’s gullwing doors will never see life outside an exhibition hall, we’re thinking that a cute little runabout could fare quite nicely with a $2,250 price tag. We’ll likely never see the IG here in the States, but the folks in China and India will probably love it.

[Source: TopNews]

Geely to build car cheaper than Tata Nano? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 May 2010 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Week of May 17 – to – May 21, 2010

Could the House help siphon off the venture capital dollars, which over the past few years have helped sustain cutting-edge renewable energy companies?  As Congress pushed this week to pass legislation that would tax the gains partners at private equity and venture capital funds earn for their investors, also known as carried interest, the private capital industry was fighting back. Lobbyists in Washington warned that the tax hike would swamp growth of startups developing much-needed technologies.  As is carried interests are taxed at the low, 15 percent capital gains rate. Congress wants to change that (and it’s looking more and more like it will) and tax these profits at the higher 35 percent income tax rate.

On the specifics of the legislation being debated in Congress, PeHUB Editor Dan Primack notes that under the House bill 25 percent of carried interest would be taxed as capital gains and the remaining 75 percent as ordinary income. The new tax regime would not go into effect until the beginning of 2013.

Primack says the tax hike could push PE and VC firms to  “accelerate their attempts to exit existing portfolio companies.” That would not be good for cleantech companies, which are largely dependent on venture capital these days to support their R&D. A recent PeHUB Top 10 ranking, where five of the 10 largest VC investments were cleantech companies, underscored that reality. Cleantech companies are a long ways from being commercially viable and if anything requires more private financing rounds to turn their technologies from R&D wonders into viable businesses.

In terms of exit, a look at the performance of cleantech companies that have recently exited via IPOs is far from glowing. Shares of Battery maker A123 systems (NASDAQ: AONE), which issued shares last fall, are currently trading far below their introductory price. Shares of second-generation biofuel maker Codexis (NASDAQ: CDXS) have flatlined since the company’s IPO a month ago. Jinko Solar (NYSE: JKS), the Chinese PV maker that did an IPO last week, is also trading below its $11 introductory price. There is a lot of buzz around cleantech but that’s not enough to convince investors to buy the shares.

The steep capital-dependence of renewable energy companies was again highlighted this week with solar power plant developer BrightSource Energy’s Series D $150 million raise. Stepping in, as equity holders were a couple of heavy weight investors, including the California State Teachers Retirement System and Alstom, the French power and transportation company. BrightSource says it will use the cash as equity to structure the  financing to support the development of up 14 solar power plants in the U.S. Southwest. Earlier this year, BrightSource also received a $1.37 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. With the Series D the company has accumulated $300 million in equity financing.

BrightSource shareholder Google shared some more insight this week on its ever-evolving clean energy strategy. Besides North America, the company will also consider making investments in European renewable energy projects, said Google head of green business Ben Kott at a conference in London. The comments came a couple of weeks after the Mountain View, Calif., company announced a $39 million investment in a NextEra Energy Resources wind farm in North Dakota.

As we report on Google’s cleantech developments we keep asking ourselves: “Is there a business strategy there?” It’s hard to say. The company has definitely become a pivotal player in the industry. Put a Google executive on the dais at an industry conferences and you can bet you’ll have a packed room. But what is the company trying to do? Is it looking to repeat in clean energy what it did selling sponsored links? Or is Google just a renewable energy do-gooder that’s less concerned about generating profits and more focused on raising awareness about climate change issues. As is, right now, it seems that for the time being, it’s a little of both.

VC and PE Watch

Half of the deals listed in a Top 10 ranking of the year’s largest venture capital deals involved cleantech companies. Better Place, the battery service provider, lead with $150 million raised.

Infinis, the clean energy company backed by London private equity firm Terra Firma, announced its acquisition of Scottish and Southern Energy’s (SSE) wholly-owned 30-megawatt Ardrossan Wind farm for £28.1m ($40.5 million) in cash and outstanding debt of £25.7m.

Solar power plant developer BrightSource Energy tapped the deep pockets of the California State Teachers Retirement System and French transport and power company Alstom, among others, for $150 million in equity financing.

Cleantech-focused PE firm Arborview Capital has completed a recapitalization of Paragon Airheater Technologies, a provider of solutions that reduce fuel consumption and emissions of fossil fuel-fired power plants. No financial terms were disclosed.

Mid Europa Partners, a London-based private equity and buyout firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe, invested €60 million ($76.19 million) for an undisclosed stake in Energy 21 a Czech developer and operator of PV-solar power plants. The investment marks Mid Europa’s entry into the cleantech business.

Pattern Energy Group secured more than $800 million in equity funding. It expects to use some of that cash to fund acquisitions of wind projects. Of the $800 million, about $400 million come from investment funds controlled by New York-based private equity firm Riverstone Holdings.

Rambling

The United Nations has a new climate change negotiator. She is Costa Rican and her name is Christiana Figueres. She’s a well-tested international beaurocrat who has been a member of her country’s climate change negotiating team since 1995.  The appointment by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was a surprise. The betting money was on South African Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk. Figueres takes over as the head of the Bonn, Germany-based United Nations’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) less than a year away from the next major climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. There is growing skepticism — especially amongst developing nations — that the UN system is the appropriate body to roll out a comprehensive climate change agreement. The international body is too rigid, centralized and is not able to provide the sort of flexibility nations like China or India are asking for in dealing with their Co2 and green house gas cuts. It will be up to Figueres to come up with a strategy that’s able to bring back some credibility to the UN as the PLACE able to forge a comprehensive, global climate change agreement.

Image: Charlie Rose

The growth of the cloud community and the appetite for cloud-based software options over the past few years has been remarkable, although not unexpected. The SaaS model offers two distinct competitive advantages for software developers — massive economies of scale and sustainable profit streams –- over the traditional model. Yet astoundingly, many firms take the plunge into providing SaaS without understanding the underlying requirements necessary to ensure success.

In order to become a sustained market leader in SaaS, software companies need to focus on building and delivering a highly efficient service to their customers without spending significant money on the underlying infrastructure (cloud or otherwise). A poor architecture will underutilize server resources, making software costly to deliver.

Feature-wise, most SaaS applications have the ability to quickly provision new customers to the system as well as to manage subscriptions in order to identify the types of application functionality they’ve purchased access to, metering systems to track what was used so they can be billed appropriately, and the ability to roll out upgrades to a live environment. The addition of such features could take anywhere from six months if the goal is to “just to get by” to well over a year if it’s to reach full SaaS stack maturity.

To be a market leader, however, companies must be willing to go the distance and attempt to reach full maturity as quickly as possible. Architecturally, this means:

• Handling multitenancy: The days of managing and executing data for a single customer at a time are over. To succeed in the cloud, software companies must be able to simultaneously recognize and handle requests from many customers (and their associated end users) at once. From a delivery standpoint this means one instance of your SaaS offering must segregate customers efficiently and offer them their own unique experience, despite sharing an instance of the software and the underlying resources. From a technical standpoint, this massive efficiency of scale adds significant complexity, and, as with most fields, complexity is money.
• Scale-out: In order be able to meet the aggregate demand of all customers, not just the largest, the software has to be able to utilize the elastic capacity offered by cloud infrastructure such as EC2, to give them the ability to scale-out each of their components independently. Simply running on EC2 doesn’t mean your application can scale infinitely, but that your application has infinite resources at its disposal if it knew what to do with them and how to manage them. And knowing what to do with an infinite number of resources requires highly complex software architectures that most applications simply don’t have. Maintaining a level of abstraction from the underlying hardware, and being able to dispatch requests from any user to any part of the network provides the foundation for such scale-out.
• Customer management: Of all of the cloud’s distinct advantages, among the most prominent are its superior operations and customer management tools such as customer provisioning, upgrade engines and monitoring. Granted, such tools have to be built into the core architecture, but by allowing customers to track their end users’ activities, they provide a path to stable and recurring revenue streams. Customer provisioning systems even allow a software vendor to seamlessly “turn on” a new customer without impacting existing ones.

This is far from an exhaustive list, and software architectures built for cloud-based delivery can be extremely costly. But any software vendor serious about becoming a sustained market leader needs to be able to offer these features in a fashion that keeps operations and maintenance costs as a single-digit percentage of revenue.

Doing so can be especially difficult when combined with a fundamental shift in the services paradigm. If not managed properly, however, an entire SaaS offering’s future can be put in jeopardy.

Make no mistake. The cloud’s superiority is undeniable. But such advantages require a commitment to go the extra mile in terms of service. For those willing to make that commitment, SaaS offers a path toward long-term prosperity.

Sinclair Schuller is co-founder and CEO of Apprenda. He will be speaking at our cloud computing-focused conference, Structure, which will be held June 23 & 24 in San Francisco, on the panel “Hybrid Clouds — The Best of Both Worlds.”

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There are a variety of reasons why stretching your neck is good for your body. Whether it is before an exercise program, as part of a rehabilitation program, or simply a way to relax your body, stretching your neck muscles is highly beneficial. It helps to prevent injury or re-injury during and after workouts. However, if done incorrectly, stretching can do more harm than good. The following is a list of things to remember when doing your stretching routine:

1. Perform your stretches slowly, and fluidly. Don’t jerk your muscles.

2. Hold each stretch for 10-20 seconds.

3. Perform each stretch 3-5 times.

4. Stretch until you feel a pulling sensation in the neck muscle you’re targeting. Do not push yourself to the point you feel burning, tearing, or pain of any kind.

5. Stop immediately if you do feel any neck pain.

6. If you are unsure about a stretch, ask your doctor for a demonstration to make sure you are doing it correctly.

Stretching is a great way to keep your muscles safe and relaxed before and after a workout, while on the computer at home or at work, during a break from a long drive, even a stressful situation. It’s also a great way to warm up your body after first waking up. However, it’s important to always make sure you are taking your time and performing each neck stretch correctly so you won’t injure yourself.

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

After 800 years of discouraging foreigners, Japan is opening the floodgates to tourists — especially the Chinese. The government relaxed visa requirements for Chinese nationals last summer and now plans to give out ten times as many visas to China.

What deflationary Japan wants is more of this:

(AP) Foreign tourists, especially from China, have boosted sales at major department stores across Japan amid their dwindling overall sales after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008, the Japan Department Stores Association said Saturday. 

The combined sales of each department store was 2.2 times higher in February, the month embracing the Chinese New Year holidays, compared with the same period last year. The figure in April rose 37.3 percent to 2.4 billion yen as well.

But is it a healthy relationship like the good old days of Chimerica?

The China Bubble inflated prices enough to drive Chinese shoppers to Japan. Chinese money may inflate Japanese prices and skewer Japanese consumer spending. Chinese inflation promotes Japanese deflation, and a crash in either country brings them both down. This is what psychologists call codependency.

Scary when you read Hugh Hendry says the major collapse that spurs global hyperinflation will be Japan or China.

Don’t miss: China’s 14 Dominoes Of Destruction

Join the conversation about this story »

As the hot summer days are drawing faster again, there are many people who prefer to go the swimming pool and have their time of relaxation there. But, the customers should take some precautions about the dangers related to swimming especially when it comes to using the public swimming pools.
There are some reports by the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) that swimming pools that are being used by the public are not safe. They said that the bacteria in these places are high and could be risky to one’s health. As the CDC went around for some investigations, they have reported that 1 in 8 public swimming pools hold violations on the health and safety code. Some of these pools are too dirty that could threaten the public health, while others had other problems like missing safety equipments. According to the CDC, kiddie pools have the most disinfection problems where they found some bits of fecal matters.
In 120,000 public swimming pools that the CDC investigated, 12% of these public swimming pools are for immediate closure due to some serious violations. The public swimming pools that they have investigated came from public park, hotels and also motels.

Related posts:

1. CDC Finds Public Pools Highly Unsafe
2. CDC recommendations in swimming pools and water parks
3. Worst Mine Explosion in West Virginia kills 25

Bad timing. A new international airport opens up in Panama City, Florida today — only 100 miles away from the notorious BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. Instead of celebrating, the area’s visitor’s bureau is trying to convince tourists that the water is still clean.

“We’ve been getting calls ever since the oil spill occurred,” said Dan Rowe of the Panama City Visitors’ Bureau. “You know, wondering about their vacation plans.”

Tourism, Rowe said, is the largest industry in Panama City. The $318-million Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport is the first international airport to open in the country since 1997.

“It is really going to be an economic driver for all of northwest Florida’s economy for years to come,” he said.

The new airport is expected to generate approximately $80 million in new state revenues over the first 20 years of operation.

But the challenge, now, is to convince tourists that the water is clean.

“We’ll get through the oil spill,” Rowe said. “There’s no oil on Panama City Beach or any of the beaches in northwest Florida.”

Tarballs, (big globs of emulsified oil) have been seen washing up on the shores of Mississippi and Alabama, however.

Florida officials hope oil spill fears won’t keep tourists away [CNN]

Los Angeles Lakers lead 3-0 against Phoenix Suns in NBA Western Conference Finals. Boston Celtics in control of Eastern Conference 2-0 against Orlando Magic.

Fans clamor for a possible rematch Lakers vs. Celtics since 2008 in this year’s NBA Finals. Lakers’ coach Philip Jackson is thinking head on saying, “We can’t worry about anything besides this one right now (Suns). We’re just playing to see what happens here.” Kobe Bryant is looking at the game just the same, with his team focusing at the moment for there are still games to win. Meanwhile, on the eastern court Celtics are taking the game on stride to win the championship despite Magic’s home court advantage. Celtic’s coach Doc Rivers avoids any comparison with the 2008 finals because a lot of changes have been going with his team. They are hard on practice now after losing against the Cavaliers in Game 3 semi-finals 124-95. Rivers wants to go for the gold. “This is not a team to rest on its laurels. We got 2-0 lead with home court, but we don’t look at it like that. We look at this as a must win.”

Lakers in the past finals had lost to Celtics three times. It was a mismatch, a sports commentary adds.

But that was before. It could be different this time.

Related posts:

1. Empty-handed Orlando Magic Faces Game 3
2. James Lebron’s Hard Court Tantrums
3. Paul Pierce’s Twitter Account Hacked

Fish gasping for oxygen flapped helplessly around George Arnesen’s shrimp boat off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Arnesen said he’d never seen anything like it in his 15 years working on the Gulf.

“It’s real emotional for me being a commercial fisherman knowing that my livelihood, way of life altogether, is in great danger of being destroyed,” Arnesen said. “A whole industry is in danger of being destroyed.”

Arnesen dipped a large bucket into the water. When he pulled it back into his boat, the bucket was filled with thick, black sludge.

Echoing the sentiments of other fishermen, Arnesen complained about a lack of adequate protective measures along the coast.

“We just rode the whole beach and there’s no boom,” he said. “There’s no absorbent. They’re not out there trying to close off any of the gaps. We’ve seen one spot that had some sand bags in it.”

In addition to the effects of the oil, federal regulators had raised concerns about potential hazards associated with the record quantities of chemical dispersant BP has been using to break down the oil near the site of the spill. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a directive instructing BP to seek less toxic alternatives.

But BP officials said some of the other chemical dispersants are not available in the amounts they need, or haven’t been fully tested for effectiveness in the type of setting of this deep water spill.

In a letter to the EPA and U.S. Coast Guard, Douglas Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production writes:

“Based on the information that is available today, BP continues to believe that COREXIT was the best and most appropriate choice at the time when the incident occurred, and that COREXIT remains the best option for subsea application.”

BP has applied a total of 715 thousand gallons of dispersant on the Gulf oil spill, including 85 thousand gallons underwater.

Today, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson returns to Louisiana to monitor the response to the oil spill. This marks Jackson’s third visit to the region since the oil spill in the Gulf began just over one month ago.

Remember all of last week ago, when we first spotted what could have been a white iPhone 4G? It happened again! Leading many to believe that, yes, Apple is going to release two versions of the phone later this year. More »










iPhone – Handhelds – Smartphones – Apple – Wallpapers and Themes

The World Bank has created a new Web site, data.worldbank.org, to make available for free online more than 2,000 statistics on development that previously had been available only to paying subscribers. Some of the databases include data that is more than 50 years old. The data for more than 200 countries covers such topics as infant mortality, life expectancy and educational achievement. The data is accessible in English, Spanish, French or Arabic.

The World Bank’s decision to make much of its data available for free is part of a global movement, according to Beth Noveck, director of the White House Open Government Initiative. Data.gov, formed a year ago to boost access to federal data, and other public agency efforts to increase data availability are designed to empower individuals and communities to take action on issues of importance to them

[Source: Federal Computer Week]