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[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] announced Friday that it has acquired new evidence to support allegations of wartime abuses [press release] against civilians by both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [JURIST news archive] during the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war [JURIST news archive]. HRW examined more than 200 photographs taken during the last months of the civil war, which ended one year ago, and discovered several photos depicting human rights violations, including a five-photo array of an LTTE loyalist allegedly being executed by government combatants and a deceased woman in an LTTE uniform whose corpse appeared to be sexually abused or mutilated. HRW holds that this fresh evidence further demonstrates the need for an independent investigation into war crimes violations. A committee established by the Sri Lankan government in November to investigate the abuse has yet to report any findings. The HRW claims that Sri Lanka has a long history of setting up ad hoc commissions to deflect international scrutiny, but the intended goals rarely come to fruition.

Sri Lanka has faced numerous allegations of human rights violations originating from incidents that took place during the final months of the civil war. On Monday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) [official website] accused Sri Lankan security forces of war crimes, claiming that the violence of the 30-year civil war, which ended one year ago this month, escalated in January 2009 leaving thousands more dead than projected by the UN. The ICG went on to state that it had acquired enough evidence supporting allegations of shelling civilians, hospitals, and environmental facilities to warrant a independent inquiry by the UN on war crimes in Sri Lanka during the law months of the civil war. In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] reaffirmed his plan to set up a UN panel [JURIST report] to investigate allegations of human rights violations during the civil war. Earlier that month, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official profile] rejected [JURIST report] Ban’s plan to appoint a panel of experts to look into alleged rights abuses in the island nation’s civil war, saying it “is totally uncalled for and unwarranted.”

The Japan based tuning company, 3D Design, has launched a custom styling kit for the BMW Z4. The latest project for the BMW Z4 E89 includes a full body kit to make the car more aggressive and transform it into a true head turner. Included in the new BMW aero package is a front spoiler lip, redesigned front bumper, rear diffuser finished in 1×1 twill carbon, and a trunk spoiler. The tuners then customized a third brake light cover that raises the housing so it can be seen with the aftermarket rear deck lip. Under the carbon fiber diffuser you will find four stainless steel exhaust tips from the high performance muffler system. 3D Design still leaves room for the customers to modify their BMW Z4 even further, while they also offer BBS and Work Brombacher wheel packages to give it a finishing touch.

[Source: carsroute]

Source: Fancy Tuning – the latest car tuning news

Palo Alto-based Tesla is the only company currently building real four- wheeled electric cars in the US that can go at freeway speeds (and much faster). Its plan has always been to leverage the initial luxury Roadster into funding increasingly affordable models  – and it has hit all its goals so far. With a new affiliation with Toyota, Tesla moves one step closer to that goal.

Toyota is investing $50 million in Tesla, and the two will cooperate on developing electric vehicles, parts, production systems and engineering support. California’s Governor Schwarzenegger told the Sacramento Bee some of the details during an environmental event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

“Today is a very exciting day for me because … I am also going over to the Bay Area to talk about Tesla and Toyota forming a partnership, where they take one of the Toyota cars and make them electric,” Schwarzenegger said.

“And again, they’re going to do that here in California,” he added. “Because in California, we have the laws in place, the laws are consistent and this is why one company after the other is coming into our state and producing those electric cars, and doing innovative stuff with solar, innovative stuff with windmills.” (more…)

More than perhaps any other joint in our bodies, the shoulders demand close and careful attention. We use them on a daily basis and they travel a wide-ranging path; it’s in our best interest to assure that the path is the one of least resistance.

The tricky thing about maintaining good shoulder function is that it doesn’t just require strong deltoids or big traps. Those are important for moving big weight and being strong enough to handle anything life throws at you, but real shoulder function – pain-free, unimpeded shoulder function – depends on certain supporting muscles and joints of which most people are simply unaware. I mean, did you realize just how integral the scapular are? And because the shoulders’ function seems relatively straightforward and because we can work out for years without lending serious thought to how our joints move and work, now’s the time to start thinking about proper joint function before it’s too late.

What I’m trying to say is this: you may be neglecting your shoulders and putting them at risk, even if you focus on only the classic multi-joint, compound exercises, like overhead presses and pull-ups, and even if you’re using good form. It’s difficult to admit this to ourselves, but doing the right things the right way may not be enough if we’ve lived regular lives hunched over keyboards, sitting in chairs, wearing shoes, and emulating incorrect posture (masquerading as good posture). Modern nutrition and fitness advice, coupled with the mundane realities of everyday life (chairs, shoes, eight hour workdays, etc) (unwittingly) has the effect of undoing millions of years of evolutionary pressures. It’s true that we’re born with predispositions – toward certain foods, movement patterns, joint articulations – but a few dozen years of doing precisely the opposite sets us on a different path. Deviating from that path is difficult, but it must be done.

I’m of the opinion that everyone should be doing shoulder mobility and stability work, even if you’re otherwise totally healthy and pain-free. Shoulder issues have the nasty tendency to develop gradually due to a deficiency. They don’t always happen immediately (unless we’re talking acute trauma like dislocations or sudden tears); as you read this, shoulder pain could be welling up beneath the surface, growing strength and gearing up to burst through and manifest as a conscious debilitating sidelining injury. Get on the prehab now, not after it happens. You know how it goes: better safe than sorry, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and any other bit of folk wisdom elevating careful prudence and preparedness over convenient short sightedness. And if you’re suffering from shoulder pain or poor mobility and stability, by all means, get on the rehab!

Self-evaluation

First, evaluate yourself. Stand up straight and relaxed – just assume your normal stance and posture. Grab two long, straight items to hold in each hand. Pencils, pens, rulers, sticks will all work. It’s got to be straight is all. Hold them in your fists and let your hands drop by your sides. Again, relax.

Your items should be pointing straight ahead. They should form an angle perpendicular to your body. If they’re angling inward, your shoulders are slumping forward, and you probably need to work on your scapular retraction.

Next, raise both arms as if you were waving goodbye. Your hands should be about ear height, and your elbow should be bent around 90 degrees. Maintaining that arm position, push your arms and elbows back by retracting your scapula. Ideally, both arms should go back equal distances. If one arm lags behind, you probably need extra work on that side.

I’m going to do drill recommendations a little differently than I have in past mobility posts. Before, I listed various exercises one could do to help with joint mobility, but there exists a totally free, public domain shoulder rehab program that gets rave reviews from pretty much everyone: the Diesel Crew Shoulder Rehab Protocol (Video).

This is the essential program for anyone currently suffering from, worrying about, or speculating on the development of shoulder issues. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s all laid out for the user. It follows a seven day schedule. If you’re injured and taking time off, do what you can without causing pain. If you’re otherwise healthy and looking to shore up your shoulders, do the drills after your workouts. Once your shoulders are feeling better, don’t stop the drills altogether. Keep doing them, perhaps on a truncated schedule, but make sure you maintain your shoulder health.

Of course, not everyone requires the DC protocol. I would advise everyone to at least sample the routine, and even go through the full seven day cycle once in awhile to keep things fresh and fluid. I do like some other shoulder drills. The DC protocol can be a bit time-consuming, and I’m pretty pleased with my shoulder function, so I’m okay with basic maintenance. A few good ones:

Basic Maintenance Drills

Scapular Wall Slides (Video)

Stand with your back to the wall and your feet about eight inches away from it. Lean back into the wall and maintain contact between the wall and your head, hips, and back. With your hands over your head, press your forearms against the wall, squeezing your shoulder blades together. Slide your arms up the wall. Maintain contact the entire time.

Scapular Push-Ups (Video)

Get in the “up” push-up position: straight arms, tight core, straight legs. Retract your scapula, then protract it. (Tighten your shoulder blades, then spread them apart.) Keep your arms straight the whole time. Range of motion will be extremely short in this exercise.

Shoulder Dislocates (Video)

Using a flexible band, a broomstick, a piece of rope, a ribbon, a sedate pet snake, or even a dog leash, hold both ends with straight, locked arms. Starting at your hips, bring the band (or whatever you’re using) behind your head until you reach your hips on the other side while keeping those arms straight. At this point, you can go back the way you came, but I find going forward hurts the shoulders, so I just bring it back over with bent arms and go backwards again with straight arms. Your choice. Just avoid pain. Do shoulder dislocates as part of a rehab program or as a dynamic warm-up to loosen up your shoulders.

Tips for Avoiding Shoulder Issues

Scapular Retraction During Bench Press

This is essential. You’ve got to create the shelf when you press. Tighten your shoulder blades, have a buddy help lift the bar off the supports, and maintain the tight shoulder blades for the duration of the set. Too many people neglect this essential portion of the bench press. It helps to arch your lower back a bit (which is why you see the experts arching during the bench).

Scapular Retraction During Rows

Same goes for rows. If you’re doing bent over barbell rows, keep your scapular retraction going during both the concentric and eccentric motions of the lift. Everyone retracts the scapula during the concentric portion, but most protract the scapula at the end of the eccentric. Don’t. Instead, maintain those tight shoulder blades at the bottom. Straighten your arms, but do not let your shoulder blades drift forward, too.

Avoid the Wrong Types of Movements

Avoid upright rows. They are almost universally bad for your rotator cuffs, and they don’t work anything you can’t reach with better lifts. Besides, hoisting heavy weights up to your shoulders while standing by using just your upper body is ridiculous and inefficient; the hips are far better at propelling weights up to the clean position.

Another common mistake is doing lateral raises with your arms directly at the sides. I doubt most of us are even doing lateral raises (I find them unnecessary, but bodybuilding types will find them useful). This is unnatural and can pinch your rotator cuff. Instead, move your arms forward about 30 degrees and lift them that way.

You might also avoid the bench press altogether if you can’t seem to avoid shoulder pain. You could do floor presses or weighted push-ups instead.

Avoid Pain

Soreness is okay. Pain is not. Avoid the movements that cause pain in your shoulders.

Oh, and you’ll want to maintain good thoracic mobility, too.

Eric Cressey has a fantastic series called “Shoulder Savers”. Here are parts 1, 2, and 3. Between his recommendations for avoiding shoulder injury, the DC Rehab Protocol, my advice, and remembering to be conscious of your scapular function, you have everything you need to take care of those relatively minor, nagging, persistent shoulder issues that almost everyone seems to have these days. For more serious, acute injuries, consult with a professional.

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Related posts:

1. The Importance of Shoulder Mobility and Scapular Stability
2. How to Regain and Maintain Hip Mobility
3. How to Improve Thoracic Spine Mobility

In the first of three blogs, Jane Barrett meets the herders selling their animals to buy grain, and Oxfam’s partners working to support them, during the West Africa food crisis.

A herd of cattle on the way to Dakoro. Photo: Jane Barrett

The dirt road towards Dakoro is a rollercoaster ride. I meet two people from our partner, AREN in Maradi, the commercial capital of Niger, and we set off north for the pastoral region. Among other things, AREN do food distribution and form economic groups in NIger. We pass herders with huge herds, mainly of goats or cattle. These, I’m told, are already sold and are being transported to Nigeria, a major buyer of Niger’s animals because they are of good stock and cheap at this time of year, when the herders don’t have enough to feed themselves, let alone their animals.

On our left we see a camp of nomadic herders. I approach carefully, as they tend to be shy. But this young mother of a boy and three girls, one of whom is a tiny baby, is forthright. Zainabu has come south from Amoules, about 80km north of Dakoro, in search of fodder for their animals (ten camels and six goats). Her husband is in town looking for work. They have had to sell many goats as there is no fodder. She and her family are planning to return to the north, which puzzles me, as there is even less fodder there. Later I’m told that there’s a reserve where herders often secretly take their animals to feed – at the risk of a huge fine.

We move on and pass a market, Sacabal, where Zainabu had sold her animals. The commercial traders, in their aviator sunglasses and slick tracksuits, are a stark contrast to the herders in their long cloaks and swathes of turban. Most of the animals are female – an indication that the herders are desperate to sell their animals, as they otherwise wouldn’t be selling their only reproductive capital. A member of our team, a vet we call “le docteur”, tells me that on a scale of 1 to 4 from weak/sick to strong/healthy, these animals rate a 1, as they are so emaciated.

As we drive further north, the landscape loses all its bush and becomes entirely sand. It’s hard for me to imagine that most years this is covered in fields of wheat and millet.

We arrive in Tascha Ibrahim just before sunset, with just enough time to set up camp. As nightfall comes, I’m relieved by the cool breeze after the 44 degrees we endured throughout the day, and I’m looking forward to sleeping under the stars.

The next day we wake up to the call to prayer. Today, hundreds of herders from the nearby villages are expected to descend upon Tascha Ibrahim to buy wheat and millet that AREN is selling at subsidised prices.

After breakfast we walk to the well, which is a buzz of activity. Some herders have been here since four in the morning to get their turn feeding their animals. Donkeys pull the water up while the women and children scurry to fill their yellow jerry cans.

A consensus must be reached among the herders about how to proceed. A prior survey identified those that were vulnerable and needing these grains at a reduced price. Elders have been chosen to confirm that herders are who they claim to be as they’re called up from the list of those eligible. The herders agree that the sale must happen in a calm and ordered way so that no disrespect is brought upon the village. Some dare to express the hope that more grains might be made available next time, and there’s a broad nod of agreement.

The herders wait all day in the sweltering heat as one-by-one they’re called from the list to pay for their grain. Some particularly vulnerable people, such as a widow and a blind girl, have been chosen to receive the grain for free.

At nightfall our partner finishes up and returns to the camp, where the villagers, full of gratitude, have produced an excellent meal.

Where we work: Niger

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) (EPA/ZUMAPRESS.com)

From Pennsylvania to Arizona, incumbent Republican senators are increasingly under siege from their right flanks, where Tea Party activists have mobilized to challenge every establishment candidate within charging distance. Tea Partiers rightfully took credit for Rand Paul’s recent upending of the Republican establishment in Kentucky. And they’re not done yet. Next on the list: longtime Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Image by: Matt Mahurin

The first electoral jolt signifying that times have changed came at the state Republican convention in Salt Lake City on May 8, where three-term senator Bob Bennett was forcefully knocked off the November ballot in two rounds of voting. So too were a number of other Republican incumbents deemed too moderate in style or substance by the convention’s 3,500 delegates.

Press accounts of Bennett’s defeat have generally focused on the state’s peculiar nominating system, in which an otherwise popular candidacy can be derailed at precinct-level caucuses that elect delegates to the closed party convention, from which only the top two candidates survive to face the voting public.

The state’s caucus-and-convention system, however, tells only half the story. Bennett and his fellow GOP casualties did not fall victim to Utah’s election system alone. Nor were they felled simply by some vague anti-incumbent mood. Rather, they were victims of a well-organized and increasingly dominant Tea Party coalition that over the last year has established a tightening grip on Utah’s Republican Party—and that has big plans for the rest of the country as well.

At the vanguard of this Beehive State conservative revolt is a states’ rights organization called the Patrick Henry Caucus (PHC). Along with better-known groups such as the 9.12 Project and Eagle Forum, the PHC mobilized enough activists at the precinct level to deny Bennett and a handful of others another election. Now they are preparing to do the same with Hatch.

“The Patrick Henry Caucus is leading the groups now dominating the conventions and determining who will run for the state legislature and national offices,” says Troy Williams, director of political programming at KRCL, a radio station in Salt Lake City. “They have effective control of the direction of the state party, and have a Mormon missionary zeal when it comes to spreading the gospel of states’ rights around the country.”

The Caucus was founded in May 2009 by five Republican state legislators united by their opposition to what they consider unconstitutional federal power as embodied in everything from the Department of Education to affirmative action laws. Since announcing itself to the world with a promotional video that looks like it was shot by an ex-intern of Jerry Bruckheimer, the group has emerged as a powerful force in Utah politics. Between 60 and 70 Utah government officials and representatives have signed up with the Caucus. The governor and attorney general, meanwhile, have attended meetings and spoken at Caucus-sponsored events. At the recent party convention, between one-third to one-half of delegates were PHC members.

“A large number of the delegates at convention belonged [to the Caucus],” says Stephen E. Sandstrom, a Utah state representative and founding member of the PHC. “Many others were sympathetic and have since joined. Our information booth was one of the most popular at the convention.”

Gayle Ruzicka, President of Eagle Forum Utah, predicts that “well over half” of the state legislature will be made up of PHC members by 2012.

With just $60,000 in the bank and occasional profile-boosting appearances on “Glenn Beck,” the group has established a national network of likeminded state legislators and activists. In September, the PHC will host a national states’ rights convention in Salt Lake City. “We’re inviting a broad spectrum of people and aiming for 20,000 participants,” says Carl Wimmer, a Utah state representative and PHC founder.

Many of the attendees will come from other Western states, eager to learn from Utah conservatives on the issue of attempting to wrest federal lands from Washington’s control.

“We get a lot of calls from groups in western states seeking advice about taking back our federal land through eminent domain,” says Wimmer. “In Utah, we have a long history of challenging the federal government, which owns 70 percent of state territory.”

In their first year, PHC-affiliated state legislators have emerged as the leading lights of the burgeoning states’ rights scene. Ken Ivory, a Utah PHC candidate who knocked out a long-time Republican state representative at the recent GOP convention, was a keynote speaker at first annual Tenth Amendment Summit in Atlanta. Through such events, the PHC has established working contacts with state legislators in 30 states, from North Dakota to New York.

“The goal has always been to organize states’ sovereignty activists nationwide. If we only fought health care and gun laws here in Utah, people would just dismiss us as ‘Oh, that’s just rightwing Utah,’” says Sandstrom, the Utah state representative and PHC founding member. “But if we get it done nationally, coordinating with like-minded people across the spectrum, we can truly have a huge impact.”

Some observers say the group is digging its own grave, and will not have a lasting impact, in Utah or anywhere else.

“The [Patrick Henry] Caucus is promoting leadership that is about banging its chest and pounding the desk,” says David Litvack, a five-term Democratic state representative from Salt Lake City. “There’s a huge disconnect. The further they push politics to the right, the more people are going to be looking to the Democrats as the mainstream party and the moderate option. They’re already creating divisiveness among Utah conservatives.”

For the founders of the Caucus—known among their local supporters as the “fab five”—the future is a busy one, full of promise.

“The number one goal for our second year is to become more organized nationwide,” says Wimmer. “You’ll probably see us going around the nation shoring up some of the Patrick Henry Caucus groups in other states. With so much success in such a short amount of time, we have to be careful about a letdown, especially after such a big victory as defeating Bob Bennett.”

Alexander Zaitchik is a freelance journalist in Brooklyn and the author of the new book “Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance.”

I’m a bit of a smoker – cigars, mostly, and only when I feel like alienating all my friends – so I figured I’d try out some of these “electronic” cigarettes. I’ve already reviewed one similar to Green Nicotine, the SuperSmoker. However, Ploom is a bit different.

Ploom uses a little butane heater ignited by a piezo spark generator that heats the smoky goodness and vaporizes it. Obviously you have to use the pods so you can’t put your own stuff in there – I’d use fiberglass, personally – and the flavors include Cafe Noir and Blue Tea. Pretty hippy dippy.

Ploom is aiming for the fancy pants alterna-crowd – it costs $39.95 and pods cost about $5.95 for 12 – while GreenNicotine is going for the “folks who want to smoke on a plane” crowd. It costs $149 and each 10-pack of replacements costs $39. They also have a disposable cigar model for $40 which comes from crazy town.

If you’re a smoker and you’re trying to quit or you’re a smoker and you’re jonesing for a cig, these things make work for you. Check local laws and bylaws before you start blowing Blue Tea fumes into cops faces, however, friend.

As a bonus, I’ll send the GreenNicotine kit to a random commenter. I won’t send the Ploom because I already sucked on it.

Video music by The Underscore Orkestra.

A montadora chinesa Geely exibiu um vídeo na internet que faz inveja a muita gente que “subestima” a qualidade dos carros chineses, mesmo que eles tenham um design idêntico aos carros europeus mais famosos.

O vídeo faz um desafio para o Mini, querendo mostrar qual é o melhor carro de se pilotar, então podemos ver várias manobras bem feitas com o pequeno Panda e sua equipe de pilotos, realmente é um show bem interessante.

Vejam a demonstração de habilidade logo acima, e vamos ver se alguma resposta dos concorrentes europeus vai acontecer em breve. Os chineses mostraram que, pelo menos no volante, são bem criativos.

Via | Pistonheads

Turck’s new DX80 from Banner Engineering replaces costly wiring in wide area installations
08/10 – May 11, 2010

A scalable wireless network that can monitor and control I/O functions or provide serial communication at up to 56 locations has been introduced by Turck and Banner Engineering. The new SureCross DX80 product line replaces costly wiring in a wide range of industrial, agricultural, power generation, water supply and waste disposal applications. Discrete, serial and analog devices that can be controlled by the network include ultrasonic and photoelectric sensors, pumps, counters, thermocouple and RTD temperature sensors. The remote nodes gather data and transmit control commands between the sensors or other devices and a central Gateway. The Gateway maps inputs from the remote nodes and interfaces with a PLC or HMI via RS-485 modbus or Ethernet/IP.
Designed for applications where wiring is impractical or unaffordable, DX80 nodes and the devices they monitor can be powered by 10-30 VDC, battery or solar panels. This capability can eliminate the need for power wiring as well as control wiring, providing significant cost reduction and ease of installation in situations that cover wide areas. Banner’s unique power management capability and low power consumption enable a node and sensor to operate for years on a single battery power supply. Almost all units have industry standard robust IP67 housings. Models with Intrinsically Safe and Class I Division 2 (Atex Zone 0) approvals are available for extreme environments. Node to gateway transmission range using license-free radio is 3 km at 2.4 GHz. The signal range can be extended by adding DataRadio modules as repeaters.

Turck’s new DX80 Industrial Wireless Network from Banner Engineering includes one Gateway and up to 56 remote nodes for I/O monitoring and control

This infrared thermometer is the ideal tool for troubleshooting and inspections and for checking any temperature.
The Laser Temp 301 combines safety with accuracy: safe remote infrared measurement for burning, dangerous or relatively inaccessible objects and accurate measurement thanks to its contact sensor.
Its measurement range in infrared mode extends from -50°C to +850°C.
With its elaborate optical system, it allows easy and precise measurements on small and remote targets.
Its high degree of accuracy is guaranteed thanks to its excellent distance-to-target ratio of 30:1, adjustable emissivity and serial wire probe.
The measurement response time is very quick (less than 1 second).
Light, ergonomically pistol-shaped and robust for industrial use, it is extremely simple to use and can be easily set for °C or °F operation.
It has numerous options and an internal memory, capable of saving up to 20 measurements.

The new range of NTN-SNR greases has been specially developed for bearings and is satisfactory in more than 95% of normal applications.
This extremely high-performance range is available to suit your application and allows you to extend the life of your bearings while lengthening the time between maintenance operations.

– UNIVERSAL: General-use grease for industrial and automotive applications.
It provides good mechanical stability, good resistance to water and excellent protection against wear and corrosion.

– HEAVY DUTY: Top-quality grease, containing additives for extreme pressures. Multi-purpose, it is intended for heavily loaded intensive applications (steel industry, construction, transport, etc.) It has excellent anti-wear and anti-corrosion properties.

– VIB provides perfect lubrication for parts subject to high-amplitude vibration or impacts. It is recommended for quarries, cement works, agriculture and loaded applications in damp environments such as paper mills, well drilling, etc.
It has excellent resistance to impacts, vibrations and heavy loads. Because of its excellent adhesion and resistance to water, it guarantees long-term lubrication.

– HIGH TEMP: The ideal solution for long-term, high-temperature lubrication up to +150°C. It will accept occasional peaks up to 175°C.
It resists high temperatures for a very long time and provides excellent protection against wear and corrosion for ball and roller bearings in horizontal or vertical axes.

Oak Ridge, TN – This year, the ORTEC Products Group of AMETEK Advanced
Measurement Technology celebrates 50 years as a major supplier of nuclear detection instruments and systems to the nuclear industry.
Originally named Oak Ridge Technical Enterprises Corporation, ORTEC wasfounded in 1960 by a group of businessmen and scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory interested in developing silicon surface-barrier detectors for detecting atomic
particles. At the time, its founders believed their idea had limited market potential but would “afford them an outlet for fun and provide employment for skilled and retired workers from the Oak Ridge area”.
ORTEC first became known to the nuclear industry beyond Oak Ridge when it exhibited at the IEEE conference in Gatlinburg, TN, near Knoxville, in October 1960.
This year, 50 years later, the IEEE conference again will be held in Knoxville. This time chaired by ORTEC Senior Scientist Dr. Ronald Keyser.
Over the course of its first five decades, ORTEC gained a reputation for developing innovative high-quality and high-performing products for the nuclear industry. Among its first customers were the Argonne and Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratories; General Electric and Philips Petroleum Companies; Iowa State, RiceUniversity, Iowa State University and Texas Christian Universities.
Acquired in 1967 by EG&G, Inc., which later became Perkin Elmer, ORTEC was sold in 2002 to AMETEK, Inc. and is now a unit of its Advanced Measurement Technology division. Today, ORTEC is probably best known for its high-purity
Germanium (HPGe) crystals and ultra-sensitive gamma detectors. It is one of only two manufacturers worldwide with the ability to produce HPGe crystals and manufacture
high-resolution radiation detectors from them.
These detectors are widely used in scientific research, health physics and waste assay. In particular, ORTEC pioneered the use of miniature cryogenic coolers in portable lightweight detectors used by Homeland Security and other agencies to detect and identify potentially harmful nuclear materials.
Virtually every major nuclear facility and research institution now owns one or more of ORTEC’s products. Its nuclear security products are deployed worldwide by government agencies, the military and others to protect against nuclear terror. It also is
a leading supplier of digital signal processing electronics and software associated with high-resolution spectroscopic applications in many fields.
ORTEC next plans to showcase its latest product line at the Health Physics Society June 28-30, in Salt Lake City.

You’ve certainly read Jason Toon’s work: he’s head writer for Woot.com. But you might not have thought about the staggering amount of copy he has to write. And the first time he did a Woot-Off, neither did he. More »










Woot – Arts – Hack – Writers Resources – Woot.com

Filed under: Motorcycle

American touring motorcycles, including the Road King from Harley-Davidson or the Vision from Victory, are built for the kind of vast stretches of wide-open roadways America is known for, and such machines are perfect to watching the miles roll by in open-air comfort. For those looking to add some additional sport to their touring rides, though, Triumph has cooked up something that may very well be of interest.

The British motorcycle company has seen fit to update its Sprint sport tourer for the 2011 model year with a 1050cc inline-triple powerplant that puts out 130 horses, five more than before. Anti-lock brakes are standard, as are 8.2-gallon saddlebags and a 12-volt power port. Optional amenities include heated grips, a taller windscreen, gel seats and a large top case for additional storage.

Styling is slightly revised as well, with a smoother fairing, new optics up front and the addition of a single low-mount exhaust in lieu of the previous underseat system. For whatever reason, the name of the bike is now the Sprint GT, not ST. Check it out for yourself in our high-res image gallery below.

[Source: Triumph]

Triumph updates 2011 Sprint GT with emphasis on touring over sport originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 21 May 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First things first, these screen shots are really easy to fake. Ridiculously easy. With that out of the way, it looks like a settings screen shot is showing a T-Mobile Motorola Cliq running Android 2.1. As in the 2.1 you guys hope and dream for. We know that Motorola has planned for the Cliq to get Android 2.1 in Q2 2010 sometime but as all Android users who’ve been waiting for 2.1 know, you never really know until the update is right there on your phone waiting to download. Maybe it’s T-Mobile and Motorola testing it out? Or a rogue user finding a way to update himself. Hopefully it’s coming soon. Because by the end of today, you guys will all be clamoring for 2.2. What a vicious cycle. [android community]

by Kenneth Anderson

In the category of advertisements for myself … Julian was kind enough to mention that EJILTalk is hosting a discussion of an article of mine called The Rise of International Criminal Law, which appeared in EJIL last year as part of its 20th anniversary issues.  It was a relatively short, but wide-ranging essay trying to assess, twenty years on, where ICL has gone and is likely to go, on a whole series of otherwise unrelated issues.  EJIL ran a response in the print edition by Amrita Kapur, and in addition responses at the online blog by her and by Brad Roth.  I have finally managed to get a response together, which is quite long and will run in three posts.  The other responses are linked at the beginning of that post, as well.  I have to thank publicly EJILTalk for running such a long response, which in many ways is practically a new essay – but especially Amrita Kapur and Brad Roth for reading so closely and with such nuance my original article.  I’m very grateful to them for so much close reading and thought.  Below the fold is a bit from my response.

I have no idea what History will bring, and it is possible that the institutions of ICL will consolidate themselves into something resembling what Kapur offers.   Or Isaiah, or Tennyson, for that matter, or even the worldwide ummah; others in the world also have eschatological visions.  I do not think the historical evidence that it will consolidate itself in these ways is very persuasive at this point, but one can differ about its persuasiveness, of course.  But given how long the history of failed attempts here, surely those arguing for today’s version of it ought to be willing to accept a bit more of the burden of proof that this one will succeed?  Is that so much to ask?

Then there is ICL’s constant plea for more time.  Kapur says this again in her blog response; with respect to R2P, for example: “how much can we realistically expect this early in the reconceptualization process?”  Give us more time, on this, on that – in a perhaps overly-accommodating desire not to prejudge historical outcomes, The Rise of International Criminal Law grants lots and lots of time for these institutions to prove themselves.  Quite possibly more than it ought.  As I tried to suggest (rather gently) in the original article, time turns into something like a universal solvent that, just so long as it is granted, permits the tensions inherent in all these international law and politics agendas to not have to confront each other and, possibly, spark each other to death, because it turns out that some of these projects are not reconcilable one with another, and the result is, what, Alien v Predator?  …

Time is what Kapur’s responses most seek.  Well, okay, says my article – take your time.  But in this reply, perhaps it bears asking, could we have some indication of how much time is too much?  How much time must go by, without reaching the happy system of justice promised by ICL, when we are entitled to say, well, it didn’t work?

Surely there is some concern that that “time” is simply a way of forestalling accountability, a way of putting one’s institutions beyond falsifiability.  What, even in principle, would demonstrate that the ICL approach to international justice is a mistake?  What would represent a fair test?  It seems odd that no one seems to raise this in scholarship in which, I would have thought, setting forth tests of success and failure would be an indication of confidence in the long term prospects of the project.  Time is something that my article grants – but I hope it is not out of bounds to ask, when does the sense of ‘in time’ become ‘only in the fullness of time’ – which is to say, eschatological?

Maybe time will do its work and institutions will eventually draw close enough to satisfy my quite undemanding and pragmatic standards.  The point is, however, maybe they will and maybe they won’t.  I don’t think the evidence that they will is persuasive, and moreover I do think – speculatively, sure – that the rise of Asia, China above all, is likely to undermine these institutions.  I think it is likely to show them to be a discourse of universalist superstructure built atop the structure of a loose American hegemony that, if it goes into decline, takes much of this stuff with it.

The best-known hero of early video games turns 30 today. Because the yella fella figured large in my own transition to young adulthood, so he does in the coming-of-age of Linus Tuttle, the hero of Mamba Point. In honor, here are two short scenes from the final draft — they both made it to the book, but might have changed in copy-editing.

First, a few days into his African experience, Linus gets a wonderful surprise:

After lunch we went home and unpacked our air freight, which was some of our stuff that we needed right away like clothes and dishes. The rest of our stuff was coming later in what they called sea freight. I put everything away really quickly. Mom popped in, and I was worried she was going to see that I’d crammed all my clothes into the drawer without folding them—you could see a sleeve here and there leaking out—but she didn’t.

“We need you in the family room,” she said.

Oh, no. I followed her to the second-biggest bedroom that Mom and Dad had decided would be a family room. I didn’t know what she needed me to do—the TV was already set up, along with the VCR and the Atari.

Wait. We didn’t have an Atari. I’d begged for an Atari back home and my parents said I couldn’t have one because they didn’t want me to go blind or turn into a drooling idiot. There was one now, though—a black box about the size of an encyclopedia, and two joysticks waiting to be used. We even had two games: Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Who needed anything else? I stared at it, stunned. Video games… at home. It was absolutely the greatest thing I could imagine. I looked up and saw Mom and Dad grinning at me.

Law came in, noticed the game, and grinned. “Neat! Thanks!”

“Surprise,” Mom said with a voila gesture.

“Thanks.” I hugged her and Dad, then turned everything on so Law and I could play. I guess Mom and Dad figured moving to Africa meant we needed entertainment more than we needed vision or brains.
I went first, navigating my yellow hero through the maze, chomping dots. It was easier than the arcade version. Pac-Man was faster, and the ghosts were dumber.

“When do I get to go?” Law asked.

“When I get eaten.”

“You mean like now?” he asked, taking a swipe at my joystick.

“Knock it off.” I pulled away from him, and barely managed to make my Pac-Man turn the corner instead of sailing into the mouth of the pink ghost.

“How about now?” Law waved his arm in front of the TV.

“Jerk.” I tried to read the screen in between waves of his arm, but missed the chance to nab the apple before it disappeared.

“How about now?” Law covered my eyes from behind.

“No! Argh!” I heard the familiar downward musical spiral and double-blip of a Pac-Man biting the dust.

“You’re such a jerk.” I gave him the joystick anyway, so he could have a try.

“Nah, you go again. It’s more fun to watch you.”

I didn’t argue. I grabbed the joystick and played.

Later, Linus shares the game with some younger Liberian boys he’s befriended:

We went into the family room and I showed them how to navigate the yellow hero through the maze.

“Why do those monsters eat the lemon?” Tokie asked. I started to explain that we were only on the cherry level until I realized he thought Pac-Man was a lemon. Actually, Pac-Man did look like a lemon.

“Those monsters love to eat lemons,” I told him.

“But how come the lemon eats the monsters sometimes?”

“When he eats the power pill, he can eat the monsters.”  I showed him how it worked, waiting for the ghosts to get lined up before I steered through the power pill and got all four of them. After that, Tokie was obsessed with eating the ghosts, but couldn’t seem to time it right and kept getting chomped.

“Just eat the dots,” Gambeh told him. “The goal is to eat all the dots.” He was right. It was a rookie mistake, obsessing on the ghosts. Gambeh was better at the game, even clearing the maze once or twice. He loved the teleport chamber where Pac-Man goes off one side of the screen and comes back on the other. “Where am I?” he would ask in the split second when Pac-Man was invisible, then scroll back on to the screen. “Here I am!”

“Does the lemon never get full?” Tokie asked.

“I guess not.” It was some life, wasn’t it? Always on the run and hungry. I felt sorry for the lemon.

Filed under: Mamba Point

Rock Band has been getting a lot of classic metal tunes as DLC in the past few months, but for next week Harmonix is giving gamers something comparatively more recent: Pantera’s 1996 album, The Great Southern Trendkill.

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