More details on the leaked iPhone 4 that keeps leaking and leaking: Taiwanese site Apple.pro says that the next generation iPhone may come in an completely white version. These are the photos that, according to them, prove it. More »
IPhone – Apple – Smartphone – Handhelds – IPad
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget designed a budget simulator. Awesome. Now everybody can stabilize U.S debt in the comfort of their homes.
The goal is to achieve a debt level less than 60% of GDP by 2018. You should try it. I did. Below you can read up about how I stabilized the U.S. debt by 2028 (sorry I can’t find a better way to capture all the answers on one page without screen shots).
Some notes on my quick budget plan: the decision to curtail the state and local tax deduction and limit the mortgage deduction would be contingent on a recovery in the housing market and lower unemployment contributing to higher state taxes. This is one of the difficulties of designing a debt-busting plan in a recession. Some of the most valuable items would probably lead to you to double-dip if you passed them too quickly. I would also like to see a higher rate on the VAT and a carbon tax option.
Ultimately the real lesson you learn as you play is that stabilizing debt, even when the method is box-checking, is painful.
United States – Gross domestic product – Value added tax – Recession – Unemployment
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It’s getting pretty hard to argue that America is at risk of high inflation, especially after today’s April consumer price data.
Despite some of the loosest monetary and fiscal policy America has ever seen, and even the current economic rebound, U.S. inflation appears more than merely under control… it’s dying.
The chart below shows the year over year percentage change for both the overall U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the ‘core’ index stripped of food and energy costs.
One can see that core inflation, in red, is at the lowest level it has been since at least 2000. Total inflation, in blue is also trending downwards. Thus at its current level, the CPI data isn’t quite showing deflation yet, but it is reporting clear disinflation (falling inflation). A few more months like April and we’ll see literal deflation.
Join the conversation about this story »
Erin Kutz wrote:
Terrafugia, a Woburn, MA-based company out to make the first practical flying car, has landed a $2 million equity offering from 20 investors, an SEC filing shows. CEO Carl Dietrich said the funding represents the company’s Series B round, and will go to developing the next generation of its flying car, which it will publicly discuss in late July. We covered Terrafugia in March when it held an event to update local stakeholders on its plans, and expressed the possibility of moving its production out to Kentucky, Ohio, or Michigan. Dietrich said today that the company is still exploring potential manufacturing locations, and that Massachusetts is not out of the running.
UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS
Via Prison Planet.com » World News
Breitbart/MSNBC
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The New York Times: As they retreated, protesters set fire to the country’s stock exchange and a number of buildings including a major shopping mall, two banks, a movie theater and a television station.
But the crackdown did not appear to have become the large-scale bloodbath that many had feared. By dusk the government said five people — including an Italian news photographer — had been killed and 52 injured, some critically.
With landmark elections and an important referendum approaching in Sudan, immediate action is needed to bolster the fragile peace process. Caroline Gluck visits communities who have faced violence and displacement.
Five years after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, Sudan is once again at a crossroads. The next 12 months will be critical, with landmark elections and a referendum where southerners will decide whether they want to remain part of a united Sudan or secede. There are fears that unless the international community acts now, Sudan could once again face serious instability. A new report from Oxfam calls for immediate action to bolster the fragile peace process.
Last year saw a major upsurge in violence in southern Sudan, with more than 2,500 people killed and over a quarter of a million displaced. In December 2009, Oxfam spoke to communities living in Western and Central Equatoria and Lakes State, who have faced violence and displacement.
White House arrival ceremony for President Mexico Felipe Calderon (Photo by Lynn Sweet)
First Lady Michelle Obama and Margarita Zavala at an elementary school on Wednesday morning. (Photo by Lynn Sweet)
WASHINGTON–With booming cannons giving a 21-gun salute and full military honors, President Obama welcomed Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the White House for a state visit on Wednesday morning.
Joining them in the outdoor arrival ceremony–the first of the Obama administration–were First Lady Michelle Obama and Margarita Zavala, the former Mexican lawmaker who is Calderon’s wife.
The ceremony was full of flourishes–including a U.S. Military fife and drum corps dressed in U.S. revolutionary-era garb. Obama and Calderon inspected the troops–from the five U.S. Military branches standing at attention in formation.
Obama called Calderon a “neighbor, friend and partner.”
Calderon said the U.S. and Mexico can “overcome” challenges of major cross-border concerns, “migration,” organized crime, and climate issues.
FOOTNOTE: Mrs. Obama wore a rasberry outfit from Calvin Klein.
Less than two percent of the human genome is made up of protein-coding genes. Fifty years ago, scientists launched an expedition of the other 98 percent. It has been a slow march for much of that time, but in recent years the pace has picked up, thanks to advances such as new ways to sequence DNA. Scientists are now generally agreed that some of the non-coding DNA falls into several categories, including
–sites where proteins can bind in order to switch nearby genes on and off
–genes for RNA molecules. Instead of just serving as a template for turning genes into proteins, RNA actually plays lots of roles in the cell, such as sensing levels of different molecules in the cell and interfering with other RNA molecules to control levels of protein.
–old viruses and other genomic parasites. Some viruses can insert their genetic material into our genomes so that it becomes a permanent part of our DNA. These viruses and other parasitic stretches of DNA can, from time to time, make copies of themselves, which then get inserted back into the genome. In a few cases, these genomic parasites may be domesticated, evolving to do valuable things like help build placentas or fight off viruses. But for the most part they’re either useless or downright harmful–just like any other source of mutation.
–Hobbled or dead genes. Sometimes mutations strike genes so that they can no longer produce proteins. Sometimes these mutations are fatal. Other times, we’re able to survive without a particular gene. The pseudogene, as it’s known, may linger on in the genome for millions of years. In a few cases, pseudogenes may still be able to produce useful RNA molecules. But for the most part, they’re just baggage.
The first two categories include stretches of DNA that are useful. The second two include stretches that are useless. Now comes the hard part: figuring out just how much of the genome is made up of each. The question goes beyond mere census-taking, because it will help us understand how the genome works, in its entirety. And it will also reveal how much of the genome provides no benefit at all.
I wrote an article about this line of research for the New York Times in November 2008. I described some scientists who were betting that most of the genome wouldn’t be good for much, and others who believed that most of it was serving important functions. The latter group pointed to studies in which scientists tallied up all the RNA transcripts produced by one chunk of the genome. They found that most of the DNA they analyzed produced RNA. John Mattick, a member of the research team who works at the University of Queensland in Australia, claimed that most of that DNA encoded useful molecules. “My bet is the vast majority of it — I don’t know whether that’s 80 or 90 percent,” he said.
But it was just a bet. A lot of work remained to figure out what all that RNA really signified. This week scientists at the University of Toronto published a study that suggests, contrary to Mattick, it’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. They used new methods to survey the RNA produced by the genome and compared their results to the ones from older methods. They found that most of their RNA came from regions of the genome that are already known to be protein-coding genes. Very little RNA came from elsewhere in the genome. They argue that the older methods were crude, so studies based on them were loaded with false positives. Protein-coding genes are not the only source of RNA transcripts in the genome, but a lot of the extra ones may just be the result of sloppiness. When proteins slide down DNA, making RNA transcripts, they sometimes grab onto the wrong stretches. The extra RNA gets broken down quickly–as useless and as inevitable as sparks flying off a grinding wheel.
Nature News has a nice write-up, as does PLOS Biology (from which I shamelessly lifted my Macbeth).
The 27-year old Australian Victoria Secret Angel Miranda Kerr is GQ’s flaring cover girl for June 2010 issue. With the release of Miranda’s photo shoot teasers, many has already speculated that this could be the sexiest pictures the admired men’s magazine will ever produce.
Top celebrities and god-like figures have posed for GQ in recent years. Faces like Rihanna, Jennifer Aniston, Christina Aguilera and once hailed as the most beautiful and sexiest woman Megan Fox in the world also graced the covers of the magazine. Undoubtedly, a magnificent line-up. But with charm and body like the one owned by Miranda, you will not qualm on why her snaps are considered the hottest of the land.
Miranda’s friends from the modeling business also poised GQ’s pages lately. Supermodels like Alessandra Ambrosio, Seal’s better half Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima have all their faces and almost-nude frames seen in the magazine. Even with this assembly of heavenly bodies, Kerr’s are still on top of the fanatics’ list. You could not agree more.
A little comparison from back issues to June’s material won’t hurt. See for yourself why Miranda Kerr’s GQ photo shoot has been the banner story and talk of the tinsel town recently.
Related posts:
Serious question: Has there ever been a situation in baseball history — or in the history of any sport — where a team installed an in-stadium countdown to an individual milestone, but the player never made it?
Did the Rays have a countdown to Fred McGriff’s 500th homer? (He finished with 493). That seems possible. But I can’t specifically recall any cases where a team launched a countdown that a player couldn’t finish.
In Miller Park, however, they’ve been tracking Trevor Hoffman’s(notes) progress toward career save No. 600, and it’s not at all clear that he’ll get there. He’s at 596 right now and he’s blown three of his last five save chances. On Tuesday he was rocked by Cincinnati, allowing four hits, one walk and three runs without retiring a batter.
Hoffman has kept hitters off-balance brilliantly over his 18-year career, but not this season. Today, opposing batters are perfectly balanced against him. He’s allowed 21 hits and 19 earned runs in just 13.0 innings. At 42 years old, he simply has not been able to string together three consecutive outs in the final frame. These were his comments after Tuesday’s blown save, via MLB.com:
"I’m not getting outs," said Hoffman. "There’s not a lot to analyze about it. It’s pretty obvious that I’m not getting it done. If there was an answer at this point in time, we would’ve found it."
It’s an awful situation for manager Ken Macha, who now has the unenviable task of … well, of doing his job. Hoffman has to be replaced. As the all-time saves leader, Hoffman has had a very long leash, but we’ve apparently reached the end. He’s had rocky starts before, sure, but nothing like this. Macha wasn’t ready to reveal his plan — assuming he has a plan — following Tuesday’s loss. This from the Journal Sentinel:
Macha was evasive when asked if Hoffman would be removed from the closer’s role, saying he wanted to discuss it with pitching coach Rick
Peterson. There is no obvious Plan B because LaTroy Hawkins(notes), who has closing experience, is on the disabled list.Hoffman also dodged a question about his future.
"I can’t worry about that," he said. "I feel prepared and ready to go out there. I’m just not getting it done."
Mr. Pianowski already discussed Milwaukee’s replacement options on Tuesday, and a few of the names are sketchy. Todd Coffey(notes) has pitched the eighth with Hawkins on the DL, but he was mauled by the Reds on Monday (5 ER) and hasn’t recorded a K in his last six appearances. Carlos Villanueva(notes) is the only Brewers reliever I’ve stashed in any league; he has a closer-quality strikeout rate (11.8 K/9), and he’s posted the best fantasy ratios in the Brewers’ bullpen (3.05 ERA, 1.06 WHIP). If you’re speculating, Villanueva offers the greatest potential for an extended, successful run.
He gets the "Threatening" spot below…
• No, Aaron Heilman(notes) does not seem like the ideal candidate to pitch the most important innings for a team that was supposed to contend for a playoff spot. But he’s presently the only guy in Arizona’s ‘pen with a sub-4.00 ERA. Chad Qualls(notes) has been unusually bad (7.62 ERA, 2.08 WHIP), and his most recent blown save resulted in this comment from his manager: "All bets are off as far as the bullpen goes. I’ve tried to remain as patient as I can, and it just hasn’t really worked." Heilman finished off the D-backs’ most recent win, although it wasn’t a save situation (and he allowed two hits and a run). Saul Rivera(notes) isn’t the answer, and none of the Triple-A options really leap off the page.
• Baltimore manager Dave Trembley has semi-officially declared that Koji Uehara(notes) is Plan B, should Alfredo Simon(notes) struggle. "He usually gets three outs with a minimum of pitches," said Trembley, "so I could see it." Simon rebounded nicely from Saturday’s blown save, however, pitching 1.2 innings against the Royals on Tuesday, earning a win. Michael Gonzalez(notes) recently threw BP to live hitters, but he’s no threat to rejoin the O’s until June.
• Bobby Jenks’(notes) last two appearances have gone reasonably well (2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K), but the most recent save belongs to Matt Thornton(notes). This may already be a committee; when there’s no margin for error, Thornton is clearly the better option.
• Brad Lidge(notes) (elbow) received a cortisone injection, and he’s eligible to return from the DL next Tuesday. An MRI indicated that there was no structural damage in his surgically repaired elbow. There’s very little chance that Lidge can pitch as effectively as Jose Contreras(notes) has so far, but he somehow kept the closing gig last season, despite the 11 blown saves. Logic may not apply here.
• As we mentioned on Sunday, Huston Street(notes) was removed from a minor league rehab appearance over the weekend due to a groin strain. But he’s already back to playing long toss, and it sounds like the groin injury isn’t too severe. It was a setback, but not the worst possible news.
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Photo via Getty Images
This is the moment you have all been waiting for. Google I/O is finally here and the first keynote is just hours away. We are live at Moscone West in San Francisco and ready to bring you the inside scoop on this week’s biggest stories.
First up is the day 1 keynote. Google is streaming the entire thing via YouTube, so be sure to tune in and watch live.
Keynotes are available at http://www.youtube.com/GoogleDevelopers
Here is the schedule for the keynotes at I/O 2010:
After the keynote is over, we will head to the press briefing room so we can ask questions on whatever is revealed. If you have your own questions about the keynote, just leave a comment and we will scan over them before the press briefing.
We will also be sending live updates to our Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube account. Follow these is you want to check out what’s going on behind the scenes before we update the main site.
I notice that a peculiar piece of datum from First Things contributor David Goldman is being passed around, repeated by Ross Douthat no less. Goldman states:
Beinart offers a condescending glance at the “warmth” and “learning” of Orthodox Jews, but neglects to mention the most startling factoid in Jewish demographics: a third of Jews aged 18 to 34 self-identify as Orthodox. “Secular Jew” is not quite an oxymoron–the Jews are a nation as well as a religion–but in the United States, at least, secular Jews have a fertility barely above 1 and an intermarriage rate of 50 percent, which means their numbers will decline by 75 percent per generation. It is tragic that the Jewish people stand to lose such a large proportion of their numbers, but they are lost to Judaism in general, not only to Zionism. That puts a different light on the matter.
A reader of Goldman’s who happens not to be stupid and can actually read observes that 34% of Orthodox Jews are 18 to 24 according to the original source Goldman was citing. No surprise that Goldman makes such an error, he has a way with faux erudition which amazes the dull and dumb. In fact, the American Jewish Survey reports that 16% of Jews between the ages of 18 to 29 self-identify as Orthodox.
With that small error out of the way, in regards to the future of the American Jewry I think the story outlined in Amos Elon’s The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933 may serve as a possible vision of the future. Elon notes that almost the whole of the German Jewish elite of the late 18th and early 19th century converted to Christianity. Moses Mendelssohn’s last Jewish descendant died before the 20th century; the rest of his descendants had become Christians. Karl Marx and Heinrich Heine were not atypical. But there was a large German Jewish community in the early 20th century, though even that was being eroded by intermarriage and conversion. If Elon is correct that the bulk of the 19th century Jewry became Christian, where did the Jews of the 20th century come from? It seems that as the German Jewish burghers abandoned the Reform temples for Lutheran churches, their spots were filled by assimilating Eastern European Jews who were immigrating into Germany and taking over the institutions which the earlier community had built. They were heirs in spirit, if not blood, to Moses Mendelssohn. In other words, a large bumper crop of Orthodox youth may be the salvation for the Reform and Conservative movements. There may be no third generation Reform, but not all third generations beyond Orthodoxy remain Orthodox either.
Almost a year ago, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of the Starry Skies was released in Japan. Since then, it has sold 4.26 million copies and is Square Enix’s second best seller from last year, next to Final
Just a quick note to direct folks to our Twitter account for up to the minute news on Google IO this week. Today at 9am Pacific, we’ll be live tweeting the keynote speech that kicks off the conference.
Of course, we’ll post any big news out of the conference here, too!
Google’s big developer conference, Google IO, kicks off today. For smartphone fans, our pals at AndroidCentral will bring you wall-to-wall coverage of Google IO, including a keynote liveblog at 9 PDT today. Google is expected to unveil the next version of the Android smartphone OS, Froyo, which could put some pressure on webOS.
IO isn’t just about Android, though, and so Palm is there too. They have a booth in Google’s "Developer Sandbox," where lots of vendors can show off their wares. Presumably they’ll be showing off how nicely Google integrates into Palm’s Synergy sync system. If you’re at Google IO, stop on by, say howdy, and take a look at Project Ares, the web-friendliest mobile app development environment around.
We’ve long felt that Palm and Google go well together – heck, webOS seems to jive with Google’s overall web-centric philosophy better than Android itself does. We do wish that we could see some improved Google services on webOS – Gmail and Google Maps in particular could use a little love. What Google products would you like to see work better in webOS?
Just in time to try and distract us from the poor Windows Mobile showing in Q1 2010, Microsoft has shown off the LG Panther to the PocketLint crew in UK.
They report the handset worked smoothly, and that many of the major features were up and running, and that the handset will be one of the launch devices. We have heard separately that September is still being mooted as a possible date for the Windows Phone 7 coming out party. The handset was at the stage that the Microsoft exec was using it as his main device. ElectricPig, who also had a hands-on, report the device felt “finished, with a sturdy sliding mechanism and decent landscape keyboard”.
Alex Reeve, the organisation’s UK Mobile Business Group director, also confirmed the Zune Music Store will be available in UK before the release of Windows Phone 7 handsets.
One nice feature they also revealed is that the Zune app will add meta data, including album art, to mp3s which lack them.
See the gallery after the break.
Press Play to start the Gallery
Read more and see more pictures at PocketLint here and ElectricPig here.
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[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced Tuesday that the Philadelphia Immigration Court [official website] has ordered the deportation [press release] of former SS guard Anton Geiser to Austria for serving as an armed guard at the Sachsenhausen and the Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II. Geiser, who has been living in southwestern Pennsylvania since 1960, admitted to the allegations in the charging document. The court found that Geiser is removable under the 1978 Holtzman Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act [text] because a visa may not be granted to anyone who was involved in persecutions based on race, religion, or national origin. Assistant US Attorney General Lanny Breuer [official profile] said, “[a]s a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II, Anton Geiser must be held to account for his role in the persecution of countless men, women and children. The long passage of time will not diminish our resolve to deny refuge to such individuals.” Geiser is currently not in custody and can appeal his case to the Board of Immigration Appeals [official website] in Washington, DC.
In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit revoked [JURIST report] Geiser’s US citizenship because he had obtained it illegally. The DOJ alleged [complaint] that the US government mistakenly granted him a visa in 1956 and then citizenship in 1962 without knowledge of his affiliation with the Nazi regime. In 2006, a district court judge ordered the revocation [opinion, PDF] of Geiser’s citizenship, writing that it was legally necessary [8 USC s. 1451] because the citizenship was based on a visa he was ineligible to receive [Refugee Relief Act of 1953 s. 14]. The DOJ’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) [official website] handles cases, including Geiser’s, aimed at denaturalizing or deporting former Nazis who participated in wartime persecutions.
Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Congress will save us from Wall Street, Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address. The bill in Congress will curb predatory lending practices, prevent banks from taking on too much risk, and give shareholders more of a say, Obama insisted. “Put simply, Wall Street reform will bring greater security to folks on Main Street. My responsibility as president isn’t just to help our economy rebound from this recession; it’s to make sure an economic crisis like the one that helped trigger this recession never happens again,” he said. “That’s what Wall Street reform will help us do.”
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| The Democrat Borg collective show its support as Obama visited Buffalo, New York. | |
Right. And I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.
In fact, the Senate “financial reform” bill does almost nothing to “reform” Wall Street. It leaves the derivatives market in place. It does nothing to address the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives crisis threatening to smash the global economy like a bug. Derivatives and securitization are the primary toxins at the core of the current crisis. The Senate has fashioned a bill with a loophole you could drive a Mack truck through — a truck loaded up with derivatives.
How will the Democrats protect us from Wall Street? Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s “reform” bill claims the government will crack the whip over the derivatives market by mandating that most trades go through a clearinghouse, a scheme that will supposedly shed more light on secret market trading and allow for government regulators to more effectively police derivatives.
But there is a problem. There is absolutely no consequence if firms evade the requirements. The bill “includes a brief section that completely undercuts that new rule,” writes Zach Carter. “Under the current bill, there is no penalty for anybody who fails to centrally clear their trades — even though the bill labels this activity illegal. What’s more, even though this behavior is illegal, the trade itself is still valid. In other words, banks are required to bring their trading into the open. But if they don’t shed light on their trades, nothing will happen to them. I wonder what banks will choose.”
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
In short, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo — representing 97 percent of the total activity in the U.S. banking system and the equivalent of 60 percent of GDP — will continue to trade derivatives under the cover of darkness. It will business as usual on Wall Street. The engineered destruction of the economy will continue unabated.
The snake oil salesman and teleprompter reader Obama will do nothing to save you and your family from impending doom. If Obama was serious about reforming Wall Street, he’d show Larry Summers and the other bankster operatives in his administration the door. Summers and his pal Robert Rubin were responsible for killing off the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act during the Clinton administration.
Repealing Glass-Steagall allowed monsters such as Citigroup to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and deliver the economy to the periphery of destruction.
Microsoft has filed suit against Salesforce for infringing the following patent:
Lest you think these are just the headlines and that the abstracts are better. Check out the one for System and method for providing and displaying a web page having an embedded menu:
A method for providing a web page having an embedded menu to a web browser and for displaying the web page to a user of the web browser are provided. A request for a web page is received from a web browser In response to the request, a web page and an applet associated with the web page are packaged for transmission to the web browser. The web page and the applet are then transmitted to and downloaded by the web browser. When the web page is displayed and the applet is executed by the web browser, the applet creates and manages an embedded menu in the displayed web page under control of the applet . This embedded menu provides a user of the web browser with a plurality of links through one action in the displayed web page.
Software patents are a despicable tax on innovation. Companies that use them in aggression are pathetic.
Big companies where both sides have huge patent inventories might have fun with this sort of sue and counter-sue, but when the titans reach outside of their country club gardens to pick on someone a spec of their size, it’s truly disgusting.
These patents are so generic that Microsofts suit against Salesforce is purely selective enforcement against a competitor. What would we do if we were sued in a similar fashion? Probably the same thing a shop keeper on a street run by mobsters would do: Pay up or loose a limb. Extortion at its best.
But hey, maybe five years from now a cut-off-the-air-supply email can emerge, then the justice department can spend another half a decade pursuing a slap on the wrist, and in 15 years we’ll have some “justice”.
Fucking patent trolls. Fucking Microsoft. What a sad day.
Reeling from revelations about Blumenthal’s military embellishments, Democrats are going on the offensive. And that means going back to the YouTube vault, scouring the site for unflattering videos of the McMahons.
That’s where they found this little nugget, starring Linda McMahon’s husband, Vince.
![[Image: MIT]](http://tsgphysics.mit.edu/pics/B%20Dynamics/B103/B103-GrindingWheel-ed-800px.jpg){kind=link}