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The first day of the Google I/O 2010 developer conference was packed with announcements, but much of the two-hour or so keynote speech was dedicated to the enterprise sector. Though Google has been putting a lot of effort into its business services, it looks like the company is now ready for a full frontal assault. Google unv… (read more)

Ok, we’re sure it isn’t technically the weirdest one ever, but the abruptness with which the weirdness takes over at the end of the ad is noteworthy.

Everything seemed normal until I got to the end [Reddit]
$850 Looking for new Roommate [Craigslist]

Posted by Monique Garcia at 12:35 p.m.

Lawmakers plan to return to Springfield early next week to take up the task of finishing the state budget.



House members were sent a memo today saying they should return to Springfield Monday afternoon and plan to stay through Wednesday. Senators also are likely to return during that time.

Unresolved is a spending plan for the upcoming budget year. Negotiations came to a halt earlier this month when Democratic lawmakers who control the General Assembly couldn’t reach an agreement. On the table are a host of unpalatable ideas for lawmakers facing election later this year, including skipping this year’s nearly $4 billion pension payment, increasing the cigarette tax by $1 a pack and making massive cuts elsewhere.

Democrats want to send a budget to Gov. Pat Quinn by May 31. Going past the deadline means Republicans gain a say in budget negotiations.

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has awarded a contract that could be worth as much as $29.5 million through 2015 to San Diego’s Trius Therapeutics to develop novel antibiotics for gram-negative bacterial pathogens. In a statement, Trius says it will use its proprietary Focused Antisense Screening Technology and expertise in structure-based drug design to optimize promising antibacterial compounds for a variety of microbes, including germs that cause Bubonic plague, rabbit fever (tularemia), and Melioidosis.

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If you’ve been following my series on joint mobility you’ll know that I’ve already covered how to improve and maintain joint mobility for the hips, thoracic spine, and ankles and wrists. Today and tomorrow I’ll be going over the shoulder. The shoulder is a tricky joint because it has to provide adequate stability while maintaining full mobility to prevent injury and maximize function and performance. If you look at yourself in the mirror and wave your arms around, you’ll see what I mean. If that doesn’t work, watch a swimmer, preferably one doing the IM, and watch the incredible range of motion in those shoulders. That’s what the human body is capable of.

Know what you’re looking for and you should be able to count ten different types of shoulder articulations. Ten! Contrast that with the hips (eight), the ankles (two), the wrists (four), or the spine (five), and the shoulder is clearly the most complicated joint with the greatest range of motion. Because “with great power comes great responsibility,” the shoulder is also perhaps the joint most vulnerable to injury. You can do a whole lot with a well-functioning shoulder joint, but you can also really mess yourself up and curtail your activity level for a long time if you get haphazard with its maintenance. Take it from a guy who messed his shoulder up more than once: shoulder health is absolutely required for an active, enriched life. And if you plan on attaining any sort of athletic competency on any level, you need good shoulders.

Shoulder Structure

A person’s shoulder joint is composed of the clavicle (collar bone), the scapula (shoulder blades), and the humerus (upper arm bone), along with two joints – the acromioclavicular, or AC joint; and the glenohumeral joint. AC joints exist between the clavicle and the scapula, whereas the glenohumeral joint is the classic ball-and-socket joint responsible for basic arm rotations and hinging. All these bones and joints are in turn supported by the surrounding musculature.

The surrounding musculature is extensive. You’ve got the big boys, like the rear, middle, and anterior deltoids or the trapezius, that get all the credit. They’re the ones that pop out and look great in tank tops. Important? Yes. But there are more important ones, I’d argue. Because for all that mobility and all that muscle mass to work correctly, you need stability. You need a base, something to work from.

This concept isn’t new, and it’s certainly not unique to the human shoulder joint. The entire body’s continuum of joints is governed by this “law.” Mobility-centric joints, like the hips, thoracic spine, and ankles, are connected to stability-centric joints, like the knees and lumbar spine. Each requires the next in line to function correctly and smoothly.

For the mobile shoulder joints to stay mobile and healthy, they rely almost entirely on the proper function of the scapula. Yes, the true key to shoulder mobility is scapular stability. You gotta have strong shoulder blades. You need a foundation.

While doing the bench press, that infamous destroyer of rotator cuffs, a trainee must tighten his scapula to create a “shelf” to lay against the bench. A trainee must also maintain that shelf throughout the set, even (especially) when pressing up. This is scapular retraction, and benching without it – with a loose, rounded back on the press up – will eventually kill your shoulders. It certainly knocked mine out for a good couple of months the most recent (and last) time I tried to max out my bench.

Any overhead work, whether it’s pressing a barbell, lifting a growing child, or moving luggage into the overhead bin on an airplane, requires scapular elevation to help the acromion clear the rotator cuff. It moves, ideally, smoothly, but if you’ve got poor scapular function (say, from kyphosis, or poor thoracic mobility), the upward rotation is halted, and impingement syndrome can result.

Back squats work best with a close grip and strong scapular retraction in order to urge the rest of the torso to stiffen and create that “shelf” for the bar to lie on. Try doing back squats with a wide grip and lax shoulder blades to see what I mean. Actually, don’t; it’ll just hurt your shoulders.

Rowing (machine, boat, or barbell) is all about scapular retraction. You’re not just going to yank on a cable or work a paddle by flailing your arms wildly. Well, you could, but you’d injure yourself. Setting your shoulder blades back and keeping them tight creates a safe, linear path for your primary rowing muscles to travel.

Pull-ups and chin-ups are all about scapular stability, very similar to the rows.

The shoulders figure into every upper body exercise. If your arms are moving, that movement is occurring along the joints that comprise the shoulder. Bench presses, dips, overhead presses, and anything else involving your arms depend on healthy shoulders and good scapular function. Tomorrow, I’ll explain more about the scapula, how to target its supporting musculature, and how it all figures into overall shoulder health and mobility.

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Related posts:

1. The Importance of Thoracic Spine Mobility
2. The Importance of Mobility: The Hips
3. The Importance of Wrist and Ankle Mobility

The highway to the danger zone will soon lead over to the PlayStation Network and the skies will be your playground. In other words, Top Gun is getting another release and it will soon be available for

[JURIST] A member of the newly formed UK coalition government indicated Thursday that the extradition of alleged hacker Gary McKinnon [BBC profile; advocacy website] to the US will be delayed. Home Secretary Theresa May [official profile] considered an adjournment request from McKinnon’s legal team and agreed to delay [press release] a scheduled judicial review in order to determine if he is medically fit for extradition. McKinnon was arrested by British police in 2002 and indicted [text, PDF] by US authorities later that year on charges of hacking NASA, Department of Defense, Air Force, Army, and Navy computers in violation of US computer laws [18 USC s. 1030 text]. The British government granted the 2005 US extradition request, but McKinnon’s lawyer appealed, alleging that US authorities had told McKinnon that if he did not plead guilty to the charges, he could be sentenced to life in prison since each of the seven counts against him is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine [indictment press release]. McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, lost an appeal [JURIST report] to the UK High Court in London last July. May has indicated [Times Online report] she will carefully consider the UK’s extradition treaty with the US as well as McKinnon’s medical history before she determines if the extradition order should stand.

The UK’s new coalition government has shown a willingness to reexamine existing legislation. On Tuesday, the government announced they will review [JURIST report] the country’s Human Rights Act [BBC backgrounder] after two Pakistani terror suspects successfully avoided deportation by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission [official website] due to concerns for their safety. The Human Rights Act has been a point of contention between liberal and conservative groups in the UK. In 2006, then-prime minister Tony Blair called for an amendment to the act to allow the government greater discretion to protect public safety, while conservative leaders called for the act to be repealed [JURIST reports]. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged the new UK government to continue its support of the act last week in addition to a request for the government to set up a judiciary inquiry [JURIST report] on torture [JURIST news archive] allegations. The rights group claimed that allegations of complicity in the torture of terrorism suspects have badly damaged the nation’s reputation and that steps need to be taken to restore the nation’s reputation as “a nation that respects human rights.”

Lindsay Lohan, after missing her mandatory court hearing which stemming from her DUI case in 2007, received a warrant of arrest issued by Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel. Shawn Chapman Holley, Lohan’s lawyer, said that she had a good reason for not showing up to court. The reason was that she was stuck at the Cannes Film Festival where her passport was stolen. “She has filled out police reports in Cannes,” Holley said. “She intends to fly back form Cannes at the earliest time.” However Revel was not receptive to any excuses. “She has a history of, from her prior alcohol program, not attending. Last time she was supposed to report at 8:30, she didn’t come until 10 or 10:30. She should have made sure that she either didn’t go to Cannes or if she went there, that she would be back two days before the hearing. If she wanted to be here, she could have been here. There’s really no valid excuse,” Revel replied.

The actress Lindsay Lohan, 23 years old, is currently on her third year of probation. She pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine, no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08 percent and one count of reckless driving last August 2007. A judge had extended her probation for another year in October, and a prosecutor warned the actress that she will be facing jail time if she violated her probation.

Related posts:

1. Will Lindsay End Up Again in Jail?
2. Lindsay Lohan Suspect in Watch Theft
3. Lindsay Lohan have a new romantic relationship

Filed under: Europe, Technology, Videos, BMW

BMW has an Environment Test Center (ETC) that can test a car in a variety of environments – sun, ice, snow, rain – all of them indoors. As great as that would be for parties, they appear to put it to actual work, testing the engine and cooling systems in roadsters like the Z4 in 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The facility can also get down to 14 degrees, conjure wind up to 150 miles per hour, and even mix it up with snow and wind and rain.

Icemistress Katarina Witt dropped by to take a tour, and while they did make a bit of ice and snow for her, they also took a lot of simulated sunny day pics and made a little movie. Follow the jump to watch the video (auf Deutsch), and have a look at the photos in our high-res gallery below.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading Ice skating beauty Katarina Witt checks out BMW test center [w/video]

Ice skating beauty Katarina Witt checks out BMW test center [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Dollar Index (DXY) is in the green at 86.45, near a 52-week high, as the dollar seems to be gaining from the market riot.

The ten-year treasury has rallied and yields just 3.2%. Interestingly, the spread between inflation protected bonds (TIPS) and plain-vanilla ones is now just 1.93%, which shows timid inflation expectations. Gold is falling, down to $1,183.

The market continues to expose its bluff against the USD. At least with the USD you know who ultimately is backing it, unlike the euro.

Most importantly, it’s going to be hard for your boss to blame you for being in this ‘safe haven’. If you get killed in here, everyone will be.

Join the conversation about this story »

The CEOs of Google, Sony, Adobe, Intel, Logitech, Best Buy, Dish stand (or rather, sit) together. More »

Probably not, but her jewelry may be. Miley Cyrus’s entire line of necklaces and bracelets has been pulled from the shelves of Wal-mart after tests determined that they contain high levels of the toxic metal cadmium. This is an awful scandal for both Cyrus and Wal-mart.

First, how did this oversight occur? According to the Associated Press, which broke the story, the jewelry was imported from China. The article explains that Wal-mart began a policy last month to require suppliers to prove their products contain little or no cadmium, but this jewelry must have slipped through the cracks.

According to Wal-mart, the jewelry is probably not a threat. Cadmium is only known to be toxic of ingested. But the retail giant tells AP that the jewelry was not intended for children. That claim, however, borders on preposterous, considering that virtually all of the teen star’s fans are kids. But Wal-mart probably means that very young children, who are more likely to bite or suck on a product, wouldn’t generally wear the jewelry.

Still, the damage is done. Events like these can cause some customers to lose trust in large retailers like Wal-mart. Product safety is generally something of a base-motivation for consumer purchases. Just ask Toyota. Even if no lawsuits come from of this incident, it could result in a pretty bad tarnish on the firm’s reputation — especially given parents’ likely reaction since the product has a hugely popular child star’s name attached.

This incident should also serve as a lesson for entertainers turned retailers. What’s a great way to anger your fans? Sell them harmful products. You shouldn’t put your name on a product without doing significant due diligence first. In the case of Cyrus, it’s hard to imagine that at 17-years-old, she should have been expected to ask her distributor if the products contained cadmium. But celebrities need to keep in mind these kinds of concerns when pedaling products bearing their name. In the case of Cyrus, she should be concerned about losing the trust of parents, in particular. They, after all, are the ones who pay for her movies, music, and now retail products that are making her rich.

EUR/USD (short term):  The pair has fail to break resistance. Sell under 1.2445. TP 1.2260 and 1.2150. Key levels:  1.2100, 1.2150, 1.2260, 1.2310, 1.2445, 1.2520, 1.2605

GBP/USD (short term):  The pair is under pressure. Sell under 1.4355. TP 1.4235 and 1.4175. Key levels:  1.4090, 1.4175, 1.4235, 1.4258, 1.4355, 1.4440, 1.4510

EUR/JPY (short term): The pair is capped by medium-term bearish channel. Sell under 112.00. TP 109.50 and 108.20. Key levels:  106.50, 108.20 ,109.50, 110.13, 112.00, 113.50, 114.80

GBP/JPY (short term): Support has been broken. Sell under 129.00. TP 126.00 and 124.50. Key levels:  123.00, 124.50, 126.00, 127.00, 129.00, 130.00, 131.50

Click for Economic Calendar

Source: Forexyard

Related posts:

1. Technical Analysis /11:35 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 20.05.2010.
2. Technical Analysis /16:15 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 22.04.2010.
3. Technical Analysis /17:20 GMT/ (EUR/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, USD/JPY) 21.04.2010.

Google announced a lot of goodies in the second day of Google I/O 2010 with Android 2.2 officially launched, Google TV and all 5,000 attendees will receive an HTC Evo 4G for Sprint in addition to the Android phone received the day prior!

So jealous… but we are awaiting on details of non-Sprint customers who received it. If you are there and plan to sell it, we’re buyers to hit us up on the Contact form!

The iTunes movie store just got a lot more usable thanks to a small but significant update that went live today. As of now, the iTunes movie store features Top Critics’ reviews and the Tomatometer rating score from Rotten Tomatoes prominently displayed above customer reviews on every movie page. It’s the only review source I really trust when deciding whether or not to see something, and now I don’t even have to leave iTunes to check it.

As an example of why this is such a handy thing to have, take Valentine’s Day, a movie well recognized as one of the great stinkers of the year so far. But if you check it out in iTunes, at least here in the Canadian store, the average rating is four stars. iTunes alone would’ve steered you wrong. The Tomatometer rates it 18 percent rotten, and the Top Critics all pan it. Saved from a bad purchase.

The Rotten Tomatoes features will also let you know when a movie is exceptionally good. The screenshot that accompanies this article shows the Rotten Tomatoes box for Office Space, a modern classic by Mike Judge that you really should see if you haven’t already, especially if you’ve spent any time working in a cookie cutter cubicle-farm type office. Note the “Certified Fresh” award icon next to the Tomatometer rating. This is an honor bestowed upon especially awesome films.

You can also click through to see the actual Rotten Tomatoes page for any movie (so long as it’s actually been rated on RT, of course), which will give you access to full-length reviews from users and critics, more information, and the ability to buy it in physical form or add it to your Netflix queue.

Kudos to Apple for introducing a small, simple change that has a significant positive effect on overall user experience. But will it encourage you to buy movies on iTunes?

Related TechUniversity Screencasts: iTunes 101 and Smart Playlists (subscription required)

A fire that damaged the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society caused a dozen of cats; however, a woman, who lives above the animal shelter, thanks her pit bull boxer mix dog who woke her up which saved her life. Assistant Fire Chief Sabina Imrie said that a dryer that was running almost at midnight had caused the fire at 2700 Ninth Street in west Berkeley. The blaze killed twelve cats who were not yet adopted. The estimated damage costs up to $500,000. When word came out that there was fire, 10 shelter volunteers went to the scene and together with the firefighters, they were able to save about 10 cats and 14 dogs at the facility. Imrie added, “It was an immediate response by the volunteers, who worked side by side with fire and evacuated animals.”

Johanna White, who lived in the apartment above the shelter, was sleeping when her dog began barking after the fire broke out. The woman had been sick and was unable to hear the smoke detectors in her home. Her dog, Baby, a pit bull  boxer mix started whimpering and jumping on her. White said, “I’m just so grateful that my dog woke me up. I’m just so lucky that I have a good dog. I was not a dog fan, either. She’s my husband’s and my daughter’s dog. I might have to re-evaluate my stance.”

Fire Department Fire Chief Donna McCraken said, “I had to make the determination we could not risk ourselves to save the animals. We assessed where they were in the building and attempted a shelter in place. Most of them fared very well. But it was a hard decision to make.” “It started in an unattended dryer. We don’t know what ignited the fire. We don’t know if there was lint inside or some kind of electrical failure,” she added.

Related posts:

1. Seattle man, 67, died underneath the car
2. Fire in China Town
3. The Event: Pacquiao vs. Clottey

Cinemax After Dark almost killed Bret Michaels.

The rockin’ Celebrity Apprentice finalist — who made a miraculous recovery after suffering a brain aneurysm last month — remembers the exact moment he knew something had gone terribly wrong underneath his trademark bandana, because his hemorrhaging brain rudely interrupted his evening with cable porn!

“I was going back and forth from SportsCenter to Busty Cops 3,” the Poison star, 47, admits. “Maybe that’s what did it!”

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

This just out: The Washington Post is reporting that EPA has given BP 24 hours to identify and locate a supply of a less toxic dispersant to be applied to the Gulf oil spill, and to begin using it within an additional 72 hours.

As noted in my last post, EPA has identified numerous alternative dispersants that are both less toxic and more effective than those on which BP has been relying to date — more than 600,000 gallons of which have already been released into Gulf waters. The Post also notes that some forms of the initial dispersants, sold by Nalco under the trade name Corexit®, were banned by the British government more than a decade ago.

You think 3D TV is impressive? Japan wants to broadcast 3D holograms to stadiums all over the world for the 2022 World Cup. Yes, 3D holograms. More »