There wasn’t quite as much recruiting action over the weekend as I would have liked but Ohio State did pick up TE Jeff Heuerman.

While Heuerman’s commitment was unexpected, it is always nice when kids visit Ohio State and the coaching staff and instantly know that it is for them.

No other players have committed yet, but I think the possibility of a few more deciding within the next week or two is high.

The weekend also created a lot of positive buzz for some highly touted players that I had previously written off. I am still going to write most of them off, but it is good when people say nice things about Ohio State.

Anyways, here’s the breakdown.

QB

Braxton Miller

Braxton Miller will be a Buckeye. The only questions here are when will he commit and if Cardale Jones will get an offer somewhere down the line.

RB

Still nothing.

I have mentioned it before, but the 2012 class has Brionte Dunn, Rushel Shell, and Warren Ball in it. All are elite backs and I would be shocked if Ohio State doesn’t land at least two of them.

Also, there have been some rumblings about ‘10 Mr. Football running back Erick Howard transferring to Ohio State after a year at Fork Union.

I will believe that one when I see it, but the point is that Ohio State does not need a RB in this class anyways and next year is loaded, so no worries.

WR

Evan Spencer, Shane Wynn

I went with these two last week and I am sticking with them until I hear otherwise.

Someone that might be worth keeping an eye on is A.J. Sebastiano. He is close friends with Jeremy Cash and would commit to Ohio State in a heartbeat… if he had an offer.

It seems like Sebastiano is in a similar position to Cardale Jones and will probably have to play the waiting game.

TE

Jeff Heuerman, Ben Koyack/Nick Vannett

With the Heuerman commitment, Ohio State is looking for one more TE in this class and will probably be finished.

Interestingly, Vannett and Koyack did a little role reversal this weekend in terms of who I think will be a part of this class.

Vannett (who I had previously thought was a heavy Notre Dame lean) attended Ohio State’s spring game and came away impressed.

Meanwhile, Koyack (who has cut his list to Ohio State and Notre Dame, and I thought was an Ohio State lean) attended Notre Dame’s spring game instead of Ohio State’s and also came away impressed.

Some interesting goings on for sure, but the bottom line is that Ohio State takes one more TE in this class, and it will either be Vannett or Koyack (most likely whichever one decides first) and whoever doesn’t end up in scarlet and gray will probably be a domer.

LB

Trey DePriest, Conner Crowell

I hedged on linebacker last week by not choosing who I thought would be a part of the class, but what the hell, here are the two that I think will be Buckeyes (subject to change of course).

DePriest is the top target in the state of Ohio right now, and I am banking on the peer pressure from his fellow Ohio commits to bring him home. I am less than sure about that, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Crowell visited for the spring game and came away impressed. So much so that I am willing to call him a Buckeye lean at this point, or at least more of a lean then any other LB prospect at the moment.

There are plenty of other potential LB prospects out there, but right now these are the two that I am getting the best vibe about.

S

Jeremy Cash, Ronald Tanner

Cash is on board already, and Tanner is one of the guys that I think may commit within the next week or two (he says he wants to narrow his list by early summer).

There is still an outside shot that Wayne Lyons joins the class, but for now I will leave him off.

CB

DerJuan Gambrell, Doran Grant, Jabari Gorman

Gambrell is already on board, Grant will be eventually, and new to the list (at least the list of people I think will be a part of this class)  is Gorman.

I have mentioned Gorman previously as a possibility for this class, but recent updates are very positive for Ohio State and I think he will eventually be a Buckeye.

DE

Steve Miller, Kenny Hayes, Chase Farris

All three of these guys are already a part of the class, and unless something changes (which it obviously can) I think that is it at DE for this class.

Bigs

Chris Carter Jr., Antonio Underwood, Brian Bobek, Tommy Brown, Michael Bennett, Aundrey Walker

Walker and Bennett are the only two on this list that aren’t already committed.

Bennett (who has narrowed his list to Ohio State and Northwestern) is competing with Tanner to see who the next Buckeye commitment will be (I think).

Walker will do the usual Glenville thing and wait until late in the process before becoming a Buckeye.

Ohio State will take at least one more ‘Big’ in this class, but who it ends up being is anyone’s guess at this point.

Conclusion

That’s 22 guys, 10 of which are already a part of the class and the rest seem very likely to be (at least at the moment). There will be a few surprises before the ink is dried next February (like who the other ‘Big’ is going to be), but you have to like the way this class is shaping up.

I get the feeling that Bennett, Tanner, and possibly one of the tight ends  will commit within the next week or two (or three). If that happens this class will be in the homestretch (especially when you factor in the Glenville guys) and it isn’t even summer yet.

Very nice.

We’d say the chances of this passing through Apple’s draconian approval process are slim, but we’re highly amused anyway. iPhone app developer tijo has whipped up something we never thought we’d see: a Palm App Catalog browser for the iPhone. And he’s submitted it to the iPhone App Store.

Audacious? Without a doubt. This wonderment of science is of course thanks to the 100% open App Catalog feeds that Palm has made available to all takers (obligatory plug: PreCentral App Gallery). Should this Palm Catalog app ever make it into the iPhone App Store, we’ll start taking bets on how long it takes for Steve Jobs’ head to asplode.

(and no – of course webOS apps won’t run on the iPhone. It’s just a gallery app, people)

Thanks to Colonel Kernel for the tip!

And the suspense continues… Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) has indicated he will wait until Thursday to announce whether he plans to run for Florida Senate as a Republican or switch his party affiliation to Independent, according to The Associated Press, leaving one of the most closely watched congressional races of 2010 up in the air.

Crist faces a seemingly insurmountable primary challenge on the right from Republican former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, with polls showing the governor trailing Rubio by 10 to more than 20 percentage points in a GOP primary match-up. Republicans have encouraged Crist to drop out of the race to save their party a divisive and expensive primary, but now he’s kept them in suspense by failing to state whether or not he’s preparing to launch an Independent bid. The filing deadline by which to make that decision is noon on Friday.

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll showed Crist placing second in a three-way race between Rubio, Crist and the Democratic frontrunner, Rep. Kendrick Meek.

In the wake of the Toyota situation, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee Jay Rockefeller and chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman have announced that they will work together towards legislation to improve automobile safety.

Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he plans to introduce a bill soon “that will hold automakers to a higher standard and strengthen the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ability to more effectively protect Americans on the road.”

No specifics have been addressed by either legislator or their respective staffs, and neither responded immediately to requests for comment. Last month however, Rockefeller did call for legislation that would tighten the 2000 federal law requiring more disclosure about safety-defect information, and said that the legislation ought to require that carmakers provide the computers necessary to read black box data.

Another expected to be addressed by the pair is the revolving door between government and industry, as former NHTSA employees (and their network of connections) went to work for Toyota after their stint in public service. The idea of revolving-door legislation was publicly addressed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

For failure to notify U.S. regulators of safety issues on a timely manner, Toyota agreed thus month to pay a fine of $16.4 million; the largest ever assessed for a safety defect.

-By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News

En Alemania se pueden encontrar diferentes kits de varios preparadores que le dan más potencia y una mejor visual a los vehículos de carga y de pasajeros, como es el caso del Volkswagen Transporter. Uno de esos preparadores, es ABT quien trae la novedad de que ha comenzado un programa completo de personalización del popular vehículo de Volkswagen.

Si bien a algunos no les convence andar tuneando un vehículo de trabajo, a otros el kit de ABT les parecerá una excelente idea. Para ellos, ABT ofrece todo un paquete que mejora la imagen exterior del Transporter con una nueva parrilla y un nuevo spoiler frontal, como también otro deflector trasero en la parte alta del vehículo. Ahora el Transporter luce cuatro salidas de escape, lo cual da que pensar ya que parece un poco… ¿exagerado?

Las suspensiones se han endurecido lo suficiente como para permitir una marcha más o menos estable en curvas, con o sin carga, aunque estamos hablando de un vehículo que escapa totalmente a la idea de performance. ABT ha agregado unas bonitas llantas de 19 pulgadas al conjunto, un toque de deportividad a primera vista.

Y llegamos al motor, que por ahora no será tocado por ABT. En esta ocasión los clientes solamente tendrán la opción de personalizar al Transporter pero en el futuro ABT ofrecerá una cierta potenciación del motor diesel, sobre lo que se está trabajando actualmente.

Vía | Autoevolution

On Thursday the Peterson Foundation will host a star-studded summit on fiscal responsibility in Washington, DC. To some readers, that might sound as hallow as the Academy Awards and as thrilling as the International Academy on Financial Management, but this is genuinely important stuff. Ruminating on about how the government collects and spends money is a big think, but as public debt approaches record levels.

Robert Kuttner doesn’t like the thrust of the Peterson summit because, like many liberals, he worries that “fiscal responsibility” is a Trojan horse for gutting Medicare and Social Security. He has a point. There are, without question, some invitees at the summit who see runaway Medicare costs and conclude the quickest solution is to dismantle Medicare. That sort of bluntness would be politically unpalatable and substantively wrongheaded. But Kuttner’s point is incomplete:

Yes, we will have a national debt problem if we don’t get a return to
high growth soon. But the more immediate problem is restoration of
prosperity–and in the near term that will require more public outlay,
not less. Once a real recovery is on track, we need to increase
progressive taxation, both to moderate deficits and to pay for
sustained public spending on things the economy and society need, such
as 21st century infrastructure, a green economy, good jobs, as well as
a national health and pension system.

That’s basically right. But better, perhaps, to say that we will have a national debt problem whether or not we get a return to historically common growth, as the Congressional Budget Office has concluded. Yes, the more immediate problem is the restoration of prosperity. The deficit is probably too low today. But looking at that short-term goal doesn’t preclude acknowledging the long-term challenge. Public debt is in trouble today and it faces remarkable challenges in the 2020s.

Kuttner says “we need a national debate” between the austerity hawks and the social program defenders. Sounds good! So let’s begin where both sides agree. Many Peterson attendees agree that large deficits are necessary now and dangerous in the future. Many also agree that new taxes will have to pay for ongoing spending, and that it would be unwise to enact regressive taxes that over-burdened lower-income families. The “high road” on the deficit is more crowded that Kuttner thinks.

As you know, RIM confirmed the existence of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G (9100 series) and the Bold 9650 yesterday morning.  That takes two devices off of the unofficial “BlackBerry rumor list,” but leaves two up in the air – the BlackBerry 9670 and the Atlas (rumored to be the 8980).  Courtesy of the CrackBerry Forums, we have additional images of the two devices in question, along with new specifications.  Take it with a grain of salt, but rumor has it that the BlackBerry 9670 will be a Verizon exclusive with OS 6.0 and a 5.0-megapixel camera.  The Atlas (8980) is said to offer a trackpad (an upgrade from the original pictures that showed the phone with a trackball), OS 6.0, Wi-Fi, and E-EDGE connectivity.

Do any of the devices (released or unreleased) appeal to you?  Discuss!

Via CrackBerry

Shareholders have filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs over fraud involving their Abacus products, alleging that the bank misled investors about securities and the financial health of the bank itself.

The Goldman Sachs class action lawsuit was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by investor Ilene Richman on behalf of any investor who bought shares in the company from October 15 of last year until April 16, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a fraud lawsuit against Goldman Sachs. The class action complaint names Goldman Sachs, and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chief Financial Officer David A. Viniar and President Gary D. Cohn as defendants.

Two other investors sued the company’s officers on April 22 in state court, and another derivative lawsuit was filed against the company’s officers and directors on Monday in Manhattan as well, Bloomberg News reports.

According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs created a synthetic collateralized debt obligation (CDO), called Abacus 2007-AC1, which was backed by subprime mortgage securities. The SEC claims that Goldman Sachs said that the securities were selected by a third party called ACA. However, the SEC says that Paulson & Co., a hedge fund that was betting on the failure of subprime mortgage securities, heavily influenced which securities went into the portfolio.

The charges claim that Paulson picked securities doomed to fail, and Goldman Sachs packaged them and sold them to unwitting investors. Paulson bet on the securities failing and made $1 billion. Those who bought into Abacus on the belief that it was a sound investment lost about $1 billion.

The company has denied the charges, saying that it lost money as well and made full disclosures about the selection of the securities.

The class action fraud lawsuit accuses the bank of misleading investors about its financial condition after it became aware that it was under investigation for the Abacus CDO. Following the SEC’s announcement that it had filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs on April 16, the company’s shares fell 13 percent.

The lawsuit says that the company initiated an advertising campaign last October heralding that it adhered to responsible business practices, at the same time that it knew it was under investigation, in order to counteract negative media about the $16 billion in bonuses it was preparing to dole out to employees.

Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., GM, Saab

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Trollhättan fans aren’t quibbling in light of the gallows rescue Saab recently received from Spyker Cars, so perhaps everyone got distracted letting out a collective sigh of relief instead of checking the lineup’s option sheets carefully. Whatever the reason, it turns out that Saab is back to relying on four-cylinder engines for all its 9-3 and 9-3X powertrain needs.

Never a stranger to odd powerplants or engines from disparate manufacturers, Saab’s long tenure as a ward of General Motors led to the appearance of Ecotec four-cylinders along with a version of GM’s “high feature” V6. The LP9 turbocharged 2.8-liter V6 was a delightful mill in the last Turbo X we tried, but there’s plenty right with the four cylinder engines that remain standing.

At this point, we’re just chomping at the bit to try out the new 2010 9-5, a model slated to come to market soon with the 2.8-liter turbocharged V6 Aero first, followed by a 2.0-liter turbo four model shortly thereafter as a 2011 model.

How’d we miss that? No V6 for 2010 Saab 9-3 range originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Merkur Long Handled Safety Razor has a chrome finish. Its double edge design provides a very close shave. Its comfortable extra long handle is designed for a non-slip grip and works well with all hands especially larger hands.

View Merkur Model 180 Long Handled Safety Razor Details

For some reason most Android internet tablets doesn’t come with the ability to access the market. This factor is the reason why most people shy away from buying them. To try an offset this, the maker of the tablet usually tries to install a lot of apps that they think will be useful to the user. Now there’s a work around for this on the Archos 5, you can install a hacked version of the Market and have access to mostly ever app.

It really sucks to have to do this but at least it gets the job done for the most part. Even after performing this hack the hardware limitations of this devices doesn’t allow access to some apps. One catch is for this hack to work properly you have to be on the latest firmware for the Archos 5 which is firmware version 1.7.99. so, if you have one of these devices and would like Market access, click this link and get started.

[via liliputing]

Serving and protecting your country is never a bad thing, but it only gets better when your cruiser is a hot car – we’re pretty sure it makes a tiring day on any job go by quicker. Well, if there is one place we’d love to serve and protect, it will have to be the Midland. The Central Motorway Police Group, which patrols motorways across Staffordshire, Mercia and the West Midlands, has bought seven high-performance Police vehicles based on the Jaguar XF Diesel S model.

The model comes fitted with a roof mounted light bar with 3600 blue flashing lights and integrated side alley lights, blue and white flashing LED lights inside the front grille, side mounted blue flashing LED lights, blue and red flashing LED lights integrated in the rear light clusters and a Home Office-specification electronics ‘Police pack’ that powers a full suite of electronic equipment that help make these cars the ultimate Police vehicles.

Power for the XF Diesel S comes from a 3.0L Diesel S engine making 275-hp with a parallel sequential turbocharger system. 0 to 60 mph comes in 5.9 seconds and fuel-economy figures are estimated at 42 mpg (35 mpg in U.S. terms).

Jaguar XF Diesel S Police Patrol Vehicle:

– By: Kap Shah

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The Symbian Foundation’s 100% open source mobile operating system Symbian^3 has officially made its debut today on the new Nokia N8 handset.

Unlike Google’s Android, which launched on a mid-range smartphone in late 2008, Symbian^3 is being ushered into the market on a device with cutting-edge equipment.

The N8 is built from a single piece of anodized aluminum and has a 3.5″ (640 x 360) OLED touchscreen. It has a 12 megapixel camera with 28mm wide-angle Karl Zeiss optics, a xenon flash, and the ability to capture 720p HD (16:9, 25 fps H.264/MPEG-4) video. There is also a forward-facing VGA camera for video calling.

It has 16 GB of internal memory, and a MicroSD slot with support for cards up to 32 GB in size.

In terms of wireless standards, the Nokia N8 supports quad-band GSM and WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100, Wi-Fi with support for 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and A-GPS receivers, and an FM radio/transmitter.

Physical I/O on the device includes Micro USB with support for USB on-the-go (a.k.a., phone-to-phone connections) HDMI, and a 3.5mm AV jack. It also includes an accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light detector, and magnetic compass.

Despite all of the top-notch accessories, the N8 is reportedly based on a 680 MHz TI OMAP processor with 256 MB of RAM. It’s by no means a weak foundation for Symbian^3, but it’s not quite up to the latest gigahertz-level ARM processors being employed by other high-end smartphone manufacturers. We’ve contacted Nokia this morning to find out exactly which chip the device is based upon, and we’ll let you know what we find out.

The N8 will be available for €370 in the third quarter of this year, reflecting Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s statements last week that the company “will not ship [Symbian^3] before the quality meets the end user’s needs and demands.”

However, Nokia’s video preview today shows a bit of what users can expect from Symbian^3 when the N8 is released later this year, including a three-screen home screen layout with drag-and-drop personalization, multitouch, 3D gaming and a unified social networking and Ovi service interface.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The drug maker Pfizer gave at least 13 children overdoses of its antipsychotic drug Geodon during clinical trials, according to federal investigators. 

The FDA issued a warning letter to Pfizer earlier this month, accusing the company of failing to properly monitor a clinical trial that resulted in “widespread overdosing” of children with the powerful antipsychotic drug. The children suffered tremors and restless legs, but have not suffered any apparent long-term injuries as a result of the overdoses, investigators say.

Late last week, Pfizer responded to the charges, with a statement on its clinical trial procedures. The company has promised to provide an outline of processes aimed at preventing similar problems from occurring during its clinical trials in the future.

The agency blasted the company in its warning letter for failing to correct or detect Geodon overdoses being given to children in a timely manner. According to the letter, adults and children alike received significant drug overdoses daily on consecutive days, with some being subjected to overdoses of the drugs for 16 consecutive days. One subject received 30 days of total overdosing and experienced sleep problems, facial tics and chemical imbalances.

“The final Clinical Study Report submitted to the FDA lists 40 total subjects reported to have had a protocol deviation related to dosing error, including 20 subjects who exceeded the maximum protocol dose,” the warning letter states. Nine site visits by a Pfizer data management team failed to detect the overdoses, the FDA found.

Geodon (ziprasidone) was approved by FDA in 2001 for the treatment of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in adults. It is an atypical antipsychotic. The clinical trials, which took place in 2006 and 2007, were part of an ongoing effort by Pfizer to gain approval to market Geodon for use by children.

FDA staff members have said that the side effects of Seroquel, Geodon and other antipsychotics need to be further studied due to the possible weight gain and diabetes effects on children.

Last year, Pfizer plead guilty to charges that it illegally promoted Geodon and several other drugs for off-label uses not approved by FDA. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice in a settlement that included a corporate integrity agreement.

Posted by John Byrne at 10:20 a.m.; updated at 11:00 a.m.

Rahm Emanuel said today during an appearance in Chicago that he doesn’t "want to be disruptive" to Mayor Richard Daley, a week after the White House chief of staff mentioned that he’d like to be Chicago mayor.

"It’s great to be back in Chicago, and I don’t want to be disruptive to what the mayor’s doing here," Emanuel told a throng of reporters crowded around him as he tried to leave a panel discussion at the University of Illinois-Chicago. "It’s great to be home. As you know, we have our home here. And we can’t wait — at some in the future, don’t over-interpret anything, don’t everybody get excited — at some point we will come back, which was always our goal, which was why we rented (our North Side) house."

Emanuel drew a wave of attention last week after he said during a TV interview that he’d like to run for Chicago mayor if Daley doesn’t seek re-election and that he’s always aspired to the job.

Responding to a reporter’s question, Emanuel also said he has not been subpoenaed by the defense team for ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in his upcoming federal corruption trial.

Before he left, Emanuel stopped to talk with Mayor Daley, who was sitting in the front row with wife Maggie, brothers Bill and John, and other family members. The event was the Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, named after the family patriarch.

During the panel discussion, Emanuel took some gentle ribbing about his mayoral aspirations.



While introducing Emanuel during a discussion panel about promoting innovation in local government, moderator Judy Woodruff of PBS detailed Emanuel’s list of prominent public positions, from the Clinton administration to North Side congressman to President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

Then Woodruff noted Emanuel recently said he would like to be mayor of Chicago. "But the consensus is, before that happens, he has to get some real experience," Woodruff said.

"I’m smiling," Emanuel said, and let out a laugh.

"I have two brothers, so ribbing’s fine," Emanuel said afterward when asked about Woodruff’s introduction. "I’m used to ribbing."




Emanuel told the audience that cities need to stretch resources by partnering with private companies and making regional deals with suburban governments.



"We need to end the traditional divisions between cities and suburbs," Emanuel said.



He also pointed to the "re-invention of public housing in Chicago," using federal money, as an innovative way to leverage federal subsidies to handle a local problem.



Public housing residents were understandably cynical about the process, Emanuel said. But by bringing them into the process, the city was able to make them partners.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Research In Motion could deliver sixteen completely new smartphones with built-in telekinesis amplifiers, but it would not satisfy the legions of BlackBerry users who depend on its reliable messaging ability, who need a real Web browser that shows real Web pages, and who would appreciate a media player that doesn’t look ported from a Commodore 64.

Why RIM officials can’t just deliver the news to WES conference attendees directly is puzzling, but during this second day of the three-day event, the Day 2 keynote offers RIM users a two-minute quick-cut video of BlackBerry OS 6.0, alongside a parade of new enterprise apps. Granted, enterprise apps are important, but what BlackBerry has been lacking this past year is a proper platform for them.

In an either ingenious or perverted scheme, the two-minute video released today only shows the new BB OS 6 environment in a semi-transparent frame, floating freely in front of the torso of someone who, to paraphrase the show’s name, thinks he or she can dance. We’ve cleaned up some of the images and straightened them out as best we can, and what we find are many of the now-basic smartphone features that BB users have been screaming for, presented in a classy, but tasteful motif complete with BlackBerry’s typical lack of useless frills or adornment.

We’ve tried as best we can to normalize the images from the “BlackBerry 6 Sneak Peak” [sic] video (the dancers still appear behind them…trust me, they’re not included). Users of other smartphones may snicker a bit as BlackBerry users (including myself) rejoice at the inclusion of the following built-in features, for the first time:

• A media player with downloadable album covers and categorical media library.
• A YouTube app with searchable video.

• The ability to play back said video in landscape mode and stereo sound.

• A categorical, searchable library for photographs.
• A calendar with usable meeting data that appears to sync not just the data, but the connections (who’s invited, where’s the location), very likely (though not officially confirmed) with Microsoft Outlook. Yes, BlackBerry does already have a reliable manual sync function, and enterprise users can deploy ActiveSync over the air. But Outlook 2010 expands users’ capabilities to organize meetings, and it’s important that this extra level of functionality be added to synchronization as well.



• A tabbed Web browser. No, not Opera Mini, but something that has fluid scrolling and that’s plainly legible at a distance of 18 inches. A RIM spokesperson did confirm to Betanews this morning that the new browser does use the WebKit engine (also found in Safari for iPhone), and that for multitouch-capable models, pinch-to-zoom will be supported here and throughout the system.

• A single application for maintaining multiple social network feeds, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and BlackBerry Messenger. We don’t know at present whether this list is extensible with add-ons, to support other services such as LinkedIn and Plaxo.
• Individual apps for social network services including Twitter. This particular picture (above right) is important because it also demonstrates how BB OS 6 replaces the PC-style popup context menu with this graphical, more touchable, easier to interpret version.

Though we have no official confirmation of this yet, much of the BB buzz is centering on the platform’s apparent new use of “flick gesturing” or “gesture flicking.” Here, models that include the new mini-trackpad (for instance, the Pearl 9100 and Bold 9650, introduced yesterday) should interpret flick movements as commands. The video showed dancers trying to demonstrate this kind of jerky, flicky motion, though it’s possible some viewers mistook those motions for choreography.

The running live blog of this morning’s keynote event where the video premiered, on the forums of CrackBerry.com, indicate that very little new information about the platform itself was revealed today. RIM’s platform VP is scheduled to speak tomorrow, and hopefully he doesn’t dance.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

There’s no going wrong with HDR photography. At its most sensitive, the technique allows for color/tone gradients rarely appreciated by anything but the naked eye. At its most aggressive, HDR’s a hyperreal spectacle. This week’s Shooting Challenge celebrate both schools: More »

If you thought a cow was good only for its milk and meat, then we’d have you know that somewhere between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas, there is an Amtrak train chugging along on moo-power. Amtrak is currently running its Heartland Flyer train on a mix of traditional diesel fuel and biodiesel produced from cow products, in an experiment that Amtrak argues could make railroads more eco-friendly. The Heartland Flyer uses about 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year to move 84,000 people. For this one-year test run, Amtrak will replace 20 percent of that fuel with biodiesel, produced from tallow from Texas cows. The fat from the cattle, which is normally used to make animal feed and soap, will now instead help power a train. According to Fast Company:
Amtrak says that the cow tallow (read: rendered fat from cattle) fuel reduces hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 10%, cuts down on particulates by 15%, and reduces sulfates by 20% compared to standard diesel.
But if the idea of whizzing across the heartland in a cow-powered train makes you uneasy, then you’re not alone. The animal rights organization PETA isn’t too hot on the idea either, with PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich telling Fast …

Carl Levin is asking the same silly question that I’ve heard over and over:  shouldn’t Goldman have told buyers that it was short?

The presumption is that Goldman has some sort of godlike knowledge that it was concealing from its customers.  It’s not Goldman’s responsibility to tell its customers what they should want to buy (or at least, not on the trading/ABS side), or what Goldman wants to buy.  It’s Goldman’s responsibility to make sure that its clients have all the relevant details about the securities.  Clients buy stuff from Goldman all the time that some part of Goldman is short; differences of opinion are what make marriages and markets. 

It is true that clients would like to know what Goldman is doing, but it’s also true that the seller of the house I just bid on would like to know what my reservation price is.  That doesn’t mean that I have some obligation to disclose this information.  These are large securities firms that are presumed to know how to evaluate a security; if they can’t, they should turn in their charter and disband.

Goldman was making a bet.  That bet could have gone wrong  (not in this case, but in many similar).  Other firms had different opinions of the market.  Goldman was under no obligation to disabuse them of their opinions.  They’re not investment advisers; they’re securities issuers.

(Nav Image Credit: Mike52ad/flickr)