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Yahoo! has bought the Me.Me domain as a part of its strategy to compete with Twitter. This will serve as a nice add-on for its Yahoo Meme service which was supposed to take on Twitter. The domain owes its mane to the country of Montenegro and the particulars of the deal are being kept undisclosed.

This is clearly indicating that Yahoo! has big plans for the Yahoo Meme it had been sitting on it all this long. Antonio Silveira, director of product development and engineering, Yahoo! says,

Thanks to Sedo’s services and the consultation of Sedo broker, Jeff Gabriel, we were able to obtain the Me.Me domain name, which is an essential component of our online branding strategy.

Sedo went the extra mile by proactively recommending the domain for our campaign and utilizing their existing relationship with the .Me Registry to quickly and securely acquire it on our behalf.

About Sedo,

Sedo, an acronym for “Search Engine for Domain Offers,” is the leading domain marketplace and monetization provider. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Sedo has assembled the world’s largest database of domain names for sale, with more than 15 million listings.

Almost every tech giant out there is so much in love with microblogging that they are launching one of their own. Though, they should clearly see it now that Twitter rules the microblogging world. Any attempt to get at Twitter is a waste of time and resource. You need an assured and dedicated future-user base even before a huge investment. Twitter here, already has it.

(Via: BusinessWire and PaidContent)

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A recent GAO study found claims of piracy’s supposedly-devastating impact on the economy (shockingly) usually aren’t based on real science — despite the fact that such claims (which usually originate from the entertainment or software industries) are repeatedly parroted by government officials. The study also found that there were a few instances where file trading could actually be a good thing — and could actually result in increased product sales. The GAO’s overall conclusion? No government agency actually bothers to track piracy statistics, and instead just regurgitates scary industry claims without question. The study also found that there’s so many moving parts involved — that making broad claims about piracy’s impact on the economy (for better or worse) may not even be possible.

In the UK, the recent Digital Economy Bill was rushed through without any real debate — but with plenty of typical claims of how piracy was going to lead to economic armageddon if the bill wasn’t passed. Just like in the States, the UK government never actually bothered to study whether any of these claims were accurate. If they had, they would have found that — also just like in the United States — the claims weren’t based on real science but on the usual combination of flawed logic (assuming a copy shared naturally equates to a lost sale) and skewed, industry-supplied data. Looking more closely at the most recent reports that most heavily influenced Digital Economy Bill voting found that very little (if any) data originated with independent, scientific studies:

"So the net result of this 68-page report, with all of its tables and detailed methodology, is that four out of the top five markets used for calculating the overall piracy loss in Europe draw on figures supplied by the recording industry itself. Those apparently terrifying new figures detailing the supposed loss of money and jobs due to piracy in Europe turn out to be little more than a *re-statement* of the industry’s previous claims in a slightly different form. As a result, as little credence can be placed in the the report as in those criticized by the US GAO."

Of course none of this surprises anybody who watched the BPI manipulate and massage reality in order to get the bill passed. Meanwhile, the passage of the Digital Economy Bill has file traders heading further underground (where they’ll be harder to track), with anonymous BitTorrent protection services seeing a pronounced spike in new users. While the BPI waits for their pet legislation to kick in, they’ve meanwhile announced that they plan to "reluctantly" return to suing potential customers.

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Now even 3M is getting into the solar biz. The huge Minnesota company is famous for the Post-It Note and other mainstays of Western civilization, but now their excellent materials scientists have been put to work creating a reflective foil that can be used to make the  (already rather cheap) mirrors in solar thermal trough technology – even cheaper, through mass production.

They are not the first midwestern US giant of industry to enter this field. Alcoa also has a way to make the mirrors in solar thermal trough technology cheaper,  through the use of aluminum for the mirror.

3M’s solution is to make a sticky-backed polymer sheath that protects a micro-layer of highly reflective copper and silver. Their new film would reflect more light than traditional mirrors, increasing power output in a given area.
(more…)

All the goodness of Mazda’s large hauler, with enhancements.

What Is It?

The CX-9 is Mazda’s largest offering—a three-row, seven-seat SUV that’s powered by a sweet 3.7-liter V-6 that makes 273 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. CX-9s are offered in front- and all-wheel-drive configurations. The vehicle received an extensive refresh for the 2010 model year that included new front and rear lights and the “Mazda family face,” which is the polite way of saying it got a gaping maw planted across its front bumper. Pretty it ain’t. Inside, there are enhanced seating surfaces and richer materials, as well as the liberal use of chrome accents. Active headrests are now fitted to all models. Finally, there are a few changes to the list of available features, among them a redesigned climate-control system for the rear seats and a new, 4.3-inch LCD display that provides a more intuitive interface for the audio and phone systems.

Keep Reading: 2010 Mazda CX-9 AWD – Quick Test

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3. 2008 Mazda CX-9 AWD – Long-Term Road Test Update

State lawmakers are still pushing for municipal and state workers to join together to try to lower the cost of health care.

In years past, health-care “pooling” bills would have opened up the state employee’s insurance plan to municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit organizations, but Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed them because of financial concerns, and the General Assembly did not have enough support for a override.

Rell’s back-to-back vetoes caused lawmakers to rethink their approach, and this year, they crafted a bill that is thought to be health-care pooling on a smaller scale.

The bill was unanimously passed by the House Tuesday and would require the comptroller to open up the state employee’s self-insured prescription drug plan to nonstate public employees, such as municipal workers and workers for other state political subdivisions, such as school boards, quasi-public agencies and public libraries. Participation would be voluntary.

The bill would also require the comptroller to establish procedures for opening up the drug plan.

The legislature’s budget office says the state and cities and town could potentially save money coming together to purchase prescription drugs, but it has not determined how much the savings would be.

Many groups, including the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, testified in favor of opening up the state’s drug plan at an insurance and real estate committee public hearing in February. Only Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield had reservations. One of the insurance company’s concerns was that if the state’s plan was opened up, the state would initially attract groups that carry a higher monthly claims expense, which could threaten rate adequacy and pool viability.

In the bill passed Tuesday, cities and towns would only partner with the state for purchasing purposes. Risks would not be pooled.   

And we’ve reached the final installment of the From Eternity to Here book club. Chapter Fifteen is entitled “The Past Through Tomorrow,” in an oblique allusion to Robert Heinlein, my favorite author when I was younger. We’re going to throw in the Epilogue for good measure.

Excerpt:

What we’ve done is given the universe a way that it can increase its entropy without limit. In a de Sitter universe, space grows without bound, but the part of space that is visible to any one observer remains finite, and has a finite entropy—the area of the cosmological horizon. Within that space, the fields fluctuate at a fixed temperature that never changes. It’s an equilibrium configuration, with every process occurring equally as often as its time-reverse. Once baby universes are added to the game, the system is no longer in equilibrium, for the simple reason that there is no such thing as equilibrium. In the presence of a positive vacuum energy (according to this story), the entropy of the universe never reaches a maximum value and stays there, because there is no maximum value for the entropy of the universe—it can always increase, by creating new universes.

This is the chapter where we attempt to put it all together. The idea was that we had been so careful and thorough in the previous chapters that in this one we could be fairly terse, setting up ideas and knocking them down with our meticulously-prepared bludgeon of Science. I’m not sure if it actually worked that way; one could argue that it would have been more effective to linger lovingly over the implications of some of these scenarios. But there was already a lot of repetition throughout the book (intentionally, so that ideas remained clear), and I didn’t want to add to it.

Of course my own current favorite idea involves baby universes pinching off from a multiverse, and I’m certainly happy to explain my reasons in favor of it. But there are also good reasons to be skeptical, especially when it comes to our lack of knowledge concerning whether baby universes actually are formed in de Sitter space. What I hope comes across is the more generic scenario: a multiverse where entropy is increasing locally because it can always increase, and does so both toward the far past and the far future. While there’s obviously a lot of work to be done in filling in the details, I haven’t heard any other broad-stroke idea that sounds like a sensible dynamical origin for the arrow of time. (Which isn’t to say that one won’t come along tomorrow.)

Chapter 16 is the Epilogue, where I reflect on where we’ve been and what it all means. I talk a little about why thinking about the multiverse is a very respectable part of the scientific endeavor, and how we should think about the fact that we are a very tiny part of a very big cosmos. Finally, I wanted to quote the very last paragraph of text in the book, at the end of the Acknowledgments:

I’m the kind of person who grows restless working at home or in the office for too long, so I frequently gather up my physics books and papers and bring them to a restaurant or coffee shop for a change of venue. Almost inevitably, a stranger will ask me what it is I’m reading, and—rather than being repulsed by all the forbidding math and science—follow up with more questions about cosmology, quantum mechanics, the universe. At a pub in London, a bartender scribbled down the ISBN number of Scott Dodelson’s Modern Cosmology; at the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago, I got a free drink for explaining dark energy. I would like to thank every person who is not a scientist but maintains a sincere fascination with the inner workings of nature, and is willing to ask questions and mull over the answers. Thinking about the nature of time might not help us build better TV sets or lose weight without exercising, but we all share the same universe, and the urge to understand it is part of what makes us human.

Among those people who share a fascination with the inner workings of nature, I of course include people who regularly read this blog. So — thanks!

The Carnival of Space # 149 is up at Starry Critters, and you can catch up with the best astronomy and space bloggy goodness of the past week there. And if you go now, you’ll win a pony^*.

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^*Offer not valid in The Local Group.

The harmful effects of a vitamin D deficiency have been well documented over the past few years. Low blood levels of the nutrient have been linked to an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and bone loss.

According to a recently released study, inadequate vitamin D levels are also associated with inferior lung function and increased medication use in asthmatic children.

"Asthmatic children in our study who had low levels of vitamin D were more allergic, had poorer lung function and used more medications," said lead author Daniel Searing.

"Conversely, our findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation may help reverse steroid resistance in asthmatic children and reduce the effective dose of steroids needed for our patients," he added.

For the study, Searing and his colleagues from the National Jewish Health Center analyzed the medical data of 100 pediatric asthma patients, finding that 47 percent of the group were suffering from a vitamin D deficiency. After examining each respondent, the research team found that patients with low nutrient levels had higher allergy markers, decreased lung function and responded positively to more allergens in a skin prick test.

Following the successful passage of a new state law designed to protect Arizona residents from a recent wave of illegal immigration, the states two Republican Senators John McCain and John Kyl sent a proposal to Washington April 19 calling for 3,000 more National Guard troops to be deployed along the Mexican border.

The 10-point plan also asks the federal government to increase aerial surveillance, construct new fences along the border and hire 3,000 more Customs and Border Protection agents for Arizona, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Furthermore, Kyl and McCain proposed the expansion of the Operation Streamline program, which forces illegal immigrants who committed low-level crimes to spend time in prison rather than simply being deported. The senators noted that the program has significantly reduced illegal border crossings in the areas in which it is enforced.

"The communities in Arizona that suffer the negative impacts from illegal border crossings and the lawlessness along the southern border deserve the full support of the federal government," McCain said.

He added that of the 600,000 people who were recently detained while trying to illegally cross into Arizona, a total of 17 percent had previous United States criminal records, the Agence France Presse reports.

Google buzz fell flat after 10 weeks of its launch. The current state of Google Buzz is such that there are fewer people using it, more of them leaving it and even fewer bothering to try it out. Google Buzz had initial problems with exposing contact lists and probably, this has taken a toll on the awesome tool launched by Google.

Postrank blog writes,

we were really excited about the buzz around Google Buzz (pardon the pun), as it meant more social engagement data that we could integrate into our system. Which we did. PostRank now tracks all of the public Buzz feeds. However, after doing some careful data analysis, the quality of the Buzz feeds is, well, questionable.

Google Buzz has around 60% of its content coming from Twitter and almost 27% of it is from automated RSS feeds. That leaves a mere 11% of content which is purely typed in by the user. These statistics show that Buzz is losing out. This makes the Buzz it button on websites useless as there is no-one to buzz the topic. It is only going into the Buzz stream one-time.

Though in my opinion, it is too early to call this service a flop. Google has integrated this service into Gmail and if done right, it has a huge potential. It is powerful enough to thrive in a world of Twitter and Facebook which are its direct competitors. 10% of original user generated content in 10 weeks cannot be called bad if not impressive enough.

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Filed under: Truck, Videos, Ford, Off-Road

The 6.2-liter V8-powered Ford F-150 SVT Raptor went on sale less than two weeks ago and Ford tells us that it already has 3,000 orders signed, sealed and awaiting delivery. While that would spell disaster for the Blue Oval if we were talking about the run-of-the-mill F-150, we’re talking about a purpose-built performance truck brandishing Fox shocks and massive 35-inch tires. Given the vehicle’s niche audience, those kind of early sales numbers have Ford officials pretty excited. Make no mistake, the reason for all that interest has everything to do with the extra 91 horsepower under the Raptor’s beefy hood, and the folks at Hennessey dyno’d the Little Mule to see just how much power transfers to those massive rear wheels. If you’re wondering why Hennessey is interested in the Raptor, remember that the super tuner announced the 500 horsepower VelociRaptor back in February.

The post-jump video shows that, on the Hennessey dyno, the Raptor managed 326 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque. Keep in mind that the 326 ponies are measured at the rear wheels, where drivetrain losses zap power. Ford quotes 411 hp and 434 lb-ft at the flywheel, which means the vehicle Hennessey dyno’d experienced a 19.5 percent loss from the flywheel to the rear wheels. Hit the jump to watch the video, which includes a zero-to-60 time of less than eight seconds.

[Source: Hennessey via YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Hennessey gets Ford’s SVT Raptor 6.2-liter rippin’ on a dyno

Video: Hennessey gets Ford’s SVT Raptor 6.2-liter rippin’ on a dyno originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple just blew out the quarter, and guidance is strong, too. Earnings, revenue, and iPhone sales all beat expectations by a mile.

Most impressive: Apple shipped 8.75 million iPhones last quarter, versus expectations around 7 million.

On the company’s earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook says the company is “shocked” by initial demand for the iPad. He also added, “I’m personally addicted to mine and couldn’t live without it.” (See our live notes below.)

Last quarter’s Mac sales were solid: 2.94 million shipped, versus expectations around 2.7 million. And Apple’s iPod business is still showing signs of life: 10.89 million units shipped vs. 9 million Street consensus.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the opportunity to tease new products in the company’s earnings release. “We’ve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year,” Jobs said in a canned quote.

Apple shares traded up 7% in after-hours trading.

Key Stats:

• Revenue: $13.5 billion vs. $12.06 billion consensus. $13.25 billion high Street estimate, $11.0-$11.4 guidance. Anything above $12.5 billion would be solid.
• EPS: $3.33 vs. $2.44 consensus, $2.72 high Street estimate, $2.06 to $2.18 guidance, $2.95 “real” guidance (based on Apple’s historic outperformance of its guidance). Anything above $2.50 would be solid.
• iPhone units: 8.75 million vs. 6.8 million Street consensus, 7-8 million implied by Jobs during iPhone 4.0 keynote in early April. Anything above 8 million would be impressive. Anything below 7 million would be disappointing.
• Mac units: 2.94 million vs. 2.7 million Street consensus, 2.8 million to 2.9 million implied by NPD data, says Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. Anything above 3 million would be impressive.
• iPod units: 10.89 million vs. 9 million Street consensus, 9 million to 10 million implied by NPD data, says Munster. Anything above 9 million is fine for this slowly dying line. Above 10 million would be impressive.
• June qtr. revenue guidance: $13 billion to $13.4 billion vs. Typical “comically conservative” guidance expected. Could swing widely depending on iPhone 4.0 launch targets (June vs. July) and possibly iPad supply/demand. Munster expects $12.37 billion, well below the Street’s $12.94 billion consensus. Anything approaching $12.75 billion midpoint would be considered strong.
• June qtr. EPS guidance: $2.28 to $2.39 vs. Typical “comically conservative” guidance expected. Could swing widely based on iPhone. Munster expects $2.33 midpoint, well below Street’s $2.69 consensus. Anything approaching $2.70 would be considered strong.

LIVE Conference Call notes: (Paraphrased unless in quotation marks.)

4:54 Waiting for call to begin at 5 p.m. ET.

5:00 Just thinking, Apple’s strong revenue guidance suggests the new iPhone will launch in June, not July. Right?

5:02 Call begins. Standard disclaimers. Steve Jobs not announced to be on the call. (He’s not expected to be there.)

5:03 Peter Oppenheimer gives introductory remarks. Thrilled to report March quarter results that exceeded expectations. Reporting best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings ever, highest iPhone quarter ever, new record for Mac sales in March quarter.

5:04 Oppenheimer is reading stats from the release. IDC says PC market grew 24% during March quarter, but Mac sales up 33%. Began and ended quarter with 3-4 weeks of Mac channel inventory.

5:05 Sold 10.9 million iPods, iPod touch units grew 63% year-over-year. Overall iPod revenue growth of 12%. Over 70% of U.S. market share for MP3 players.

5:06 $1.1 billion in sales for the iTunes store thanks to music, App sales. Well over 4 billion App downloads to date. Very excited to have launched the iBookstore, plus more than 3,500 apps for iPad. Ended quarter with 4-6 weeks of iPod channel inventory.

5:06 Thrilled to sell 8.75 million iPhones, an all-time high. Grew sales about 3X the rate of the market. iPhone ASP about $600.

5:08 Excited about iPhone OS 4. Turning to iPad, extremely pleased with sales results over past couple of weeks. On track to begin shipping 3G version around April 30, 9 more countries at end of May.

5:09 $1.68 billion in retail revenue, a 22% increase. 606,000 Macs sold in stores. Increase of 38%. About half Macs sold were to customers who’ve never owned a Mac before. 286 stores. With avg 284 stores open, Avg. rev per store was $5.9 million. On track to open 40-50 new stores in total during fiscal 2010.

5:11 Why stronger than expected margins? Stronger product mix including iPhone and accessories. Lower cost. Fixed costs.

5:11 Cash totals $41.7 billion at end of quarter, an increase of $1.9 billion.

5:12 Looking ahead to June quarter, expect revs between $13b-13.4b, vs. $9.7b last year. Expecting margins to decrease. Expect about 25% of GM decline to be driven by iPad sales. Very aggressive with pricing and delivering tremendous value, want to capitalize on first mover advantage. The other factors: Stronger US dollar, Mac portable transition, education buying season beginning, and a future product transition. (Oooooooh.)

5:13 Thrilled with record March quarter results, etc.

5:14 Q&A to begin. Gene Munster is on the line.

5:15 iPad cannibalization on other lines? None yet. Why step down in March? Base quarter compared to, announced new iMac and new Mac mini. Compare point was to month we announced two new products. Can’t really judge the Mac business on a month by month basis. Internal expectation was that comps would come down through the quarter.

5:17 iPad mix 3G vs. wifi? Too early to tell. Need to be selling both models side by side before we’re able to know what the mix will be.

5:18 Thrilled with performance of our business. In coming up with that, several points into the guidance, including sequentially lower ASPs, other costs listed above. And lower iTunes, lower accessory. Expect to see sequential increase in Mac unit sales, because of edu season and new MacBook Pros. For iPod, sequential decline. For iPhone, don’t really know because we don’t have a comp with same distribution. For iPad, thrilled with customer response.

5:20 Why iPhone so good? Channel inventory essentially flat. Geos, some staggering growth rates. Asia Pac, iPhone units grew 474% year-over-year. Japan 183%. Europe 133%. Incredible demand. Some led by adding 8 carriers in some key countries, Vodafone in UK, some others in key countries in Asia. Widespread and just generally terrific results. China has been interesting. If you look at greater China, iPhone were up over 9X year-over-year. (Including Hong Kong and Taiwan.) Revenue through first half of fiscal year, revenue from greater China was almost $1.3 billion. Up over 200% year-over-year.

5:22 Data points from success of the App Store? Higher ASP apps from the iPad? Thrilled with App Store and customers are loving it.

5:25 Sorry, got disconnected. Now back. Pressure on components? DRAM market is constrained. NAND and others generally in balance. Other components expect to decline consistent with historical trends.

5:25 iAd profit vs. breakeven? Putting our toes in the water, so don’t expect much from us this calendar year. We think that we will learn a lot and build a foundation for the future. Where is AT&T with its network improvement plans? Tim Cook: I think they continue to work very hard, and we look forward to continued improvement. Made big strides and I think it will continue.

5:27 Update us on your thinking about incremental distribution for the iPhone? Three main countries where Apple has contractual exclusive: US, Germany, and Spain. Some smaller countries where we have exclusive or co-exclusive. Over the past year, have moved a number of markets from exclusive to non-exclusive. Have seen unit share, market share improve. Don’t mean to say that formula will always work. We think very carefully about each of these are country level to figure out what’s in best interest.

5:30 iPad DRAMATICALLY lower margin than the rest of the company? Or just higher volume than expected? When we priced iPad, we priced it very aggressively to deliver tremendous value to customers. We think the market size for the iPad is very large. As we’ve done with other products, you can see we have a good track record of riding down the cost curves, or at least that’s been our experience with other products.

5:34 Plans for additional store openings in China this year? Very excited for China. Revenue up 2x year-over-year. Opening two stores in Shanghai this summer. Targeting 25 by end of calendar 2011.

5:35 Roughly 58,000 iPhones per operator. How do you drive those up on a per-operator basis? Not a very meaningful number because variance between one particular carrier that does a few million, others do very small numbers. Things we do to drive overall iPhone demand is to focus on product innovation. Software, new hardware and new products, additional carriers and geographic expansion, which we’ll continue to do, and great marketing. Apple has been a little more aggressive with patent suits, how should we think about legal expenses? We certainly have factored that into guidance, results, etc.

5:37 Learned any lessons as to how international markets have ramped up? I think the key thing is that the smartphone category is a great market to be in. Great growth rates, Apple outgrew the market by 3X. Those numbers even better outside the US than inside.

5:40 Apple TV market is tiny. We continue to think there’s something interesting there and continue to invest in it.

5:40 iAds significant source of potential incremental earnings? Don’t expect much this year.

5:42 To me it’s a no brainer that someone would buy an iPad instead of a netbook. I can’t think of a single thing the netbook does well. “I’m already personally addicted to mine and couldn’t live without it.”

5:43 Why do you think iPad is huge independent market? If a product category were to exist between notebook and smartphone, would need to do some things better. (Repeating Steve Jobs keynote talking points.)

5:46 Katy Huberty wants to know when iPhone service plans are coming down in price. Tim Cook says Apple does everything it can to get best deal possible for consumer. When we dropped subsidized price to $99 last year, we were actually surprised that the mix to the 3GS was very very high, and as you know that one starts at $199. I think it’s important — the price is important of the device, but there’s other things people want, like an extremely innovative product.

5:48 Accessory portfolio is good for us. Lots of iPhone accessories work on the iPad. Developer community is rallying around it. Let’s give it a little time; presumably some great things will happen there.

5:49 Was retail driven by new store openings? Or something else going on? Average increase of revenue per store up. Mac did incredibly well, up 38%. Same store Mac sales up 20%+. Think store will be great place to look at and buy iPads. Very confident in retail stores. Average store up 8%. If you annualize it, that’s incredibly high.

5:51 For future earnings releases, iPad will be a line item on revenue summary, like the iPhone. Apple won’t bury it in iTunes like it does with Apple TV.

5:52 We are not focused on trying to make a lot of money on the App Store, have run it a bit over breakeven, just want to over tremendous value to customers. Europe seems to be doing well. Halo effect from iPhone there? Tend to not break it down by country.

5:53 How shocked in terms of customer penetration? Any iPad buyers completely new to Apple? Numbers right now are so preliminary that we don’t read a lot into those.

5:55 No evidence we’re losing market share in education. Now entered the education buying season. Looking forward to competing.

5:56 Call over.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Don’t Buy An iPhone Until June
• Here’s Apple’s Next iPhone
• CHART OF THE DAY: Apple’s REAL Earnings Expectations

Click Here to read the letter President Obama sent to retiring Justice John Paul Stevens who turned 90 years old today. Interestingly, the letter is date last Friday. But today is his birthday.

As the letter notes, only one other sitting justice in history has lived as long as Justice Stevens.

Before I get too far removed from the rest of my recent Kauai trip, I can’t resist mentioning a quick visit I made to Lappert’s Hawaii Ice Cream. Not to be confused with an ice cream shop with the same name on the mainland, Lappert’s Hawaii was founded on Kauai in 1983 and is based in Hanapepe. Their super premium ice creams come in both classic and island flavors, and all are produced in small batches right there on the island.

As much as I like shave ice, you can’t miss out on a scoop while you’re there, not with flavors like Kona Coffee, Coconut Pineapple, Lilikoi (passionfruit) Sorbet and – one of my favorites – Kauai Pie, which is Kona coffee ice cream swirled with chocolate fudge, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts and a vanilla cake crunch. The scoop pictured at the top of this post is Caramel Coconut Macadamia Nut, which tastes every bit as good as it looks.

Lappert’s has several locations to visit on Kauai, including stores in Kapa’a, Koloa, Princeville and their original store in Hanapepe, and also has a shop in Honolulu, Oahu and one in Wailea, Maui. Again, fans of Lappert’s should note that there is a company making Lappert’s Ice Cream on the mainland that is NOT affiliated with Lappert’s Hawaii. The Hawaiian Lappert’s does ship all their products out if you’re looking for a fix once you get home, however.

Filed under: Concept Cars, Podcasts, Etc., Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, GM, Subaru, Earnings/Financials, Celebrities, Design/Style

Chris Shunk, Sam Abuelsamid, Chris Paukert and Dan Roth are joined by the car executive we all wish we could be when we grow up, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. After an hour of peppering Bob with questions about his career, we come away better informed as to where the man stands on the industry’s future, how GM will fare, his favorite concept cars, what he plans to do in his retirement, and – pivotally – how to get your wife to let you buy a MiG fighter jet. It’s a hour and thirteen minutes of class lecture from Mr. Lutz. Enjoy!

Autoblog Podcast #175: Bob Lutz!

In the Autoblog Garage:

Long-term Subaru Legacy 2.5GT
Chevrolet Camaro V6 6MT
Buick Enclave
Mini John Cooper Works Cabrio

Hosts:
Chris Shunk, Chris Paukert, Dan Roth, Sam Abuelsamid

Guest:

Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors

Runtime: 1:13:46

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Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com
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Autoblog Podcast #175 – Bob Lutz joins in originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Jonathan Hiskes

Conservative Party’s “Vote blue, go green” logo.The United Kingdom holds
its general election in two weeks, and Jeremy Lovell of Climatewire runs
down the plans of the three largest parties for tackling climate change and
switching to a low-carbon economy.

The plans are all
imperfect, but they all exist. The U.K. Conservatives don’t deny climate change
because solving it might require responses other than cutting taxes and
boosting military spending. Instead, they support creating a Green Investment
Bank to boost clean energy projects. They support the carbon-pricing plan in
the country’s Climate Change levy and even want to add a floor price, which
would encourage investors. Their slogan: “Vote blue, go green” (blue is the party’s color). (Johann Hari has a more
skeptical take on party leader David Cameron’s allegiances.)

From an American
perspective, it’s interesting to see all the major parties take the climate problem
seriously. This is what competitive
elections look like in most modernized countries. The U.S. is the exception.

A close election is likely to require a coalition government in Britain for the
first time since 1978, so it’s a good thing each party has something to offer
to the energy
quest.

Then again, maybe the environment just isn’t much of a priority for the parties, as the reliably discontent Guardian columnist George Monbiot argues:

They’re all making vaguely appropriate noises, but it’s obvious that the issue is off the agenda…

It’s partly because there’s not a great deal that divides these parties that the environment has featured so little in the election campaigns. It’s also because economic issues have distracted them, while Labour and the Conservatives are both desperate to prove that they are the party of big business. All three parties want to rescue the economy by increasing consumption, while crossing their fingers and hoping that this won’t clash with their environmental aims. [Emphasis mine.]

Related Links:

U.S. military shrinking its carbon ‘boot print’

Colorado Springs experiments by slashing public services

U.S. lowers expectations for climate treaty this year

Brian Fuentes(notes) is expected to return from the disabled list on Wednesday, and he’ll reclaim the closer’s role for the Angels. Here’s manager Mike Scioscia via the Los Angeles Times:

"Right now, Brian is going to pitch the ninth," Scioscia said. "If we have to adjust, we will."

If they adjust, they’ll clearly lean on Fernando Rodney(notes). He’s pitched five perfect innings in Fuentes’ absence, earning a win and four saves while striking out four.

Everyone knows that Rodney has his flaws — he’s 33 and his career WHIP is 1.41 — but he filled in for Fuentes admirably. Don’t cut him loose too quickly. According to the terms of Fuentes’ deal, he’ll trigger a $9 million vesting option if he finishes 55 games this season. The Angels can’t reasonably allow that to happen. Fuentes led the majors in saves in 2009, but he staggered across the finish line, posting a 4.81 ERA and 1.68 WHIP after the break.

Here’s the minty fresh Tuesday closing grid, now with three times the cavity fighting power…

• Yes, Franklin Morales(notes) has blown consecutive save opportunities for Colorado, but the second of them was severely umpire-aided. He can’t lose the job under these circumstances. Huston Street(notes) has been throwing off flat ground, but we’re still waiting for a rehab timetable. 

• Chad Qualls(notes) received a vote of confidence from his manager after back-to-back blown saves against the Dodgers: "Qualls is our closer. It’s been a couple of rough games for him, but Qualls is our closer." Juan Gutierrez(notes) has given up three hits, six runs and three walks in his last two appearances, so he hasn’t exactly demanded Qualls’ job. And the Diamondbacks’ defense didn’t do Qualls any favors in Thursday’s blown save at L.A.

• Michael Gonzalez(notes) (shoulder) will pay a visit to Dr. Andrews for a second opinion, but Andy MacPhail found a complicated way to reassure us that nothing is wrong: "I have no reason to believe that the original prognosis is not the one that comes to fruition, which is to expect him back in like three weeks." Jim Johnson(notes) successfully converted a two-inning save against the A’s on Sunday after blowing a save on Saturday. Koji Uehara(notes) remains a darkhorse closing candidate, though he’s still DL’d.

• Brad Lidge(notes) (knee, elbow) finally figured out how to retire the opposing hitters at Single-A, so he’ll make the jump to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Assuming that he absolutely dominates there — safe assumption, no? — Lidge could return by the end of the month, following the Phillies’ nine-game road trip.

• Kerry Wood(notes) (back) is throwing bullpen sessions, awaiting a rehab schedule. Chris Perez(notes) has saved four games in Wood’s absence, but he’s also shown us Bad Perez. (Marson shoulda blocked that wild pitch, though). Like Fuentes, Wood has a vesting option for his team to fret about, but it could be out of reach by the time he returns. 

—

Photo via AP Images

Google has rebranded its Local Business Center and launched it as Google Places. There are million and ever rising searches on local business and business owners are looking for ways to stay on focus and on top of Google search results for local business. Google Places will help businesses connect with users from the real world.

John Hanke, VP Google Maps, Earth and Local says at The official Google,

We launched Place Pages last September for more than 50 million places around the world to help people make more informed decisions about where to go, from restaurants and hotels to dry cleaners and bike shops, as well as non-business places like museums, schools and parks. Place Pages connect people to information from the best sources across the web, displaying photos, reviews and essential facts, as well as real-time updates and offers from business owners.

Places promises to help business owners manage their online presence and claim their place in the niche. There are millions of businesses already on the Place Page through the Local Business Center. According to the blog post, you can get your business on Google Places too by “verifying and supplementing your business information to include hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons, product offerings and more”.

Some new features available in Google Places are Service Ares depicting geographic areas you provide services in, advertisements on Google search and Google Maps and business photo-shoots where businesses can get their work features as a photo-shoot for free. A new feature of real-time updates is also available for the last few months. Thus, you can easily promote a sale or discount day.

The final verdict is, if you have a business; do not forget to get it listed on google.com/places.

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Yahoo Says, We Had Yahoo Updates for A Year Before Google Buzz
• Google Reader Allows to Follow Webpage Updates for Websites Without Feeds
• Google Maps Just Got a ‘Labs’ Feature, Expect New Things
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• Google Launches Real-Time Search [Breaking News]

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(For the context of the Starlink “split-approval” debacle , the mistake by the US EPA that is here being repeated by EU rgulators, see
3.5—Starlink corn was successfully recalled, caused no allergies).


Potato-Head Regulators

– HENRY MILLER, MD, Wall Street Journal, * OPINION EUROPE* APRIL 19, 2010, 5:27 P.M. ET

…The circumstances surrounding the European Union’s recent approval of cultivation of a genetically engineered potato—its first approval for any genetically engineered plant in 12 years—are reminiscent of Beckett and Ionesco: abstruse and bewildering.

…European officials approved the potato, called Amflora by its German creator BASF, only for commercial production of starch for industrial purposes, not for food use. The product is excellent but this “split approval” by regulators is a disaster waiting to happen.

… the split approval—which permits a product for animal feed or industrial uses but not human consumption—invites all sorts of mischief. Consider for instance the debacle surrounding a similar decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than a decade ago on a genetically engineered corn variety called StarLink, which contains a bacterial protein, Cry9C, toxic to certain insects.

Because of unresolved, dubious concerns about the possible allergenicity of the novel StarLink protein—which takes slightly longer than most proteins to be digested in a laboratory simulation of human digestion, a characteristic it has in common with many known allergens—the EPA approved the variety only for animal, but not human, consumption.

Following StarLink’s commercialization, an activist organization paid a laboratory to test a large selection of packaged food products made with corn (including corn chips, tortillas, and taco shells) and found the unintended presence of small amounts of the Cry9C protein in some of them. After sensational newspaper and television news reports announced that the unapproved protein—which the EPA regulated as a pesticide—was found in food products on grocery-store shelves, 28 people reported that they had experienced allergic-like reactions after eating food products that contained corn. (Perhaps these are some of the same people now claiming that their Toyotas experience “spontaneous acceleration.”)

However, an intensive investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control was not able to confirm a single allergic reaction: “Although the study participants may have experienced allergic reactions, based upon the results of this study alone, we cannot confirm that a reported illness was a food-associated allergic reaction.”

Despite the absence of evidence of harm of any kind to a single person, because there was no regulatory approval for StarLink in human food, a class-action lawsuit alleging that consumers ate food unfit for human consumption was successfully concluded with a settlement against Aventis, producer of the StarLink corn variety.

The EPA has since decided that it will never again approve a genetically engineered crop for split use. Any crop intended for feed or industrial uses that could conceivably find its way into the food supply has to meet standards for human food use in order to gain government approval.

The StarLink saga should provide a cautionary tale for BASF and its Amflora potato: Genetically engineered crops not approved for human consumption present the risk of legal liability even if no consumer has suffered any toxic, allergic, or other health-related harm. This should also concern EU regulators but likely will not: For decades, they have been largely brain-dead on issues concerning genetic engineering applied to agriculture.

The bottom line is that the StarLink contretemps resulted from a fault not with the product itself or the legal system that decides liability, but from flawed regulatory policy and an unwise series of decisions by EPA officials. Such problems are the inevitable result of a regulatory approach that treats genetically engineered products as though they pose some inherent, unique risks, although all the evidence is to the contrary. Some regulators, like some children, insist on making their own mistakes rather than learning from others’.