Article Tags: ClimateGate, Steven Milloy, YouTube
If you’re in Washington DC tomorrow, you won’t want to miss this one.
Hockey stick inventor and Climategate figure Michael Mann has apparently threatened to sue Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW)over its “Hide the Decline” YouTube video.
M4GW is holding a press conference about Mann’s threat on Tuesday, April 20 at 10am at the National Press Club (529 14th St, NW, Washington, DC).
Steven Milloy
Publisher, JunkScience.com
CHICAGO, April 19 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Family offices, real estate funds, and private investment partnerships are the likely buyers of distressed real estate assets. Institutional money will be slower to get back into the market and will stay focused on existing performing loan opportunities. Money for new construction, vacant land, and other more speculative real estate opportunities will also have to come from private funding sources, such as private investors and family offices. Access to the capital markets will depend upon whether or not Wall Street can restore investor confidence in the market for Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS).
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100419/CG89050LOGO)
Three of the biggest factors that will impact the market for commercial real estate in the balance of 2010 include:
Increases in all of these factors will drive more commercial real estate activity. One of the remaining issues facing real estate investors is determining whether or not distressed properties can be turned around to create additional value. Experts disagree on whether or not we are in store for another round of devaluation. Many predict that interest rates will determine whether or not properties take another valuation hit. Higher interest rates will cause more defaults and make new financing more difficult, putting downward pressure on real estate values. Legislative changes, November elections, and other factors will also contribute to an interesting year in real estate.
“The bid/ask spread between distressed buyers and sellers is still too far apart to see a significant amount of real estate trading,” noted Steven J. Thayer, Chairman of the Commercial Practice Group at Handler Thayer, LLP. Mr. Thayer also noted, however, that “we will see a flurry of activity once community lenders are forced to liquidate their real estate assets.” Handler Thayer’s real estate practice includes the representation of family offices, real estate funds, banks, and private investors in the acquisition, development and disposition of real estate assets.
Mr. Thayer will be speaking at the Opal Financial Group: Real Estate Investors Summit: Dealmakers Conference, in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, at the Trump International Beach Resort, on April 25-27, 2010. Mr. Thayer will be moderating a panel of leading commercial real estate professionals discussing the current state of the market for commercial financing.
The conference is being offered to developers, investors, banks, family offices, and other real estate participants and will focus on financing solutions for residential and commercial real estate markets. Registration information for the conference is available at www.opalgroup.net. You may also register for the conference by contacting Kim Tedaldi, at 212-532-9898, extension 272.
About Handler Thayer, LLP
Handler Thayer, LLP is one of the premier private client law firms in the U.S. Its national and international practice, based out of Chicago, Illinois utilizes interdisciplinary teams of advanced planning attorneys. Handler Thayer, LLP is dedicated to providing distinctive, technologically-current and responsive services to affluent families, privately held businesses and family offices. The firm’s practice is concentrated in Corporate, Real Estate and Securities Law, Sports & Entertainment Law, Federal, State and International Taxation, Trusts & Estates, and Financial & Estate Planning. Firm clientele include foundations, multinational corporations, professional athletes, prominent entrepreneurs, celebrities, and family offices.
For More Information Contact: Handler Thayer, LLP, 191 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 2300, Chicago, Illinois 60606, Telephone 312-641-2100, Firm Web Site: www.handlerthayer.com.
SOURCE Handler Thayer, LLP
http://www.handlerthayer.comhttp://www.opalgroup.net
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
Today marked an exciting day for the Reform Movement and for the RAC in particular. At Israel’s Independence Day ceremony today, Rabbi Richard Hirsch, the RAC’s first director and longtime head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) became the first Reform rabbi to receive the honor of lighting a torch during the evening ceremony opening Israel’s Independence Day
celebrations on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. He was one of 14 Israelis invited to participate.
The torch-lighting honor, bestowed upon Rabbi Hirsch by a committee within the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recognizes his key role in the Zionist movement, as chairman of the Zionist General Council, and in strengthening ties between Reform Judaism and the Zionist movement.
In 1962, Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, President of the URJ (then called
the UAHC) appointed Rabbi Hirsch to direct the newly-formed Religious
Action Center. he served as director of the RAC until 1973, when he
moved to Israel and became executive director of WUPJ. He is largely
credited with influencing the organization’s decision to relocate its
headquarters to Israel, solidifying the commitment of Progressive
Judaism and its adherents to Israel and the Zionist endeavor. He became
a major figure in Zionist politics, serving as chairman of the Zionist
General Council.
In a statement today, Albert Vorspan, Senior Vice President Emeritus of the URJ, said, “Dick Hirsch led the Religious Action Center during this
country’s historic and tumultuous struggles for civil rights and peace
in Vietnam. He helped to mobilize the coalitions of decency which
secured passage of milestone civil rights laws and Great Society
programs in America.”
Echoing Vorspan’s sentiments in today’s statement, Rabbi David Saperstein, who is
Hirsch’s successor as Director of the RAC, said, “Rabbi Hirsch is one
of the great institution-builders in Reform Jewish history. His
world-wide reputation as an influential Zionist leader makes our work
so much easier, and we congratulate him on this wonderful honor. When I
arrived here in the mid-1970s, Dick had set a remarkable standard as
the RAC’s first director. A respected friend of Israeli Ambassadors,
Members of Congress, and interfaith leaders during his tenure in
Washington, he helped set in motion the trademark social justice
programs and advocacy efforts that have helped define the Reform Jewish
Movement in America and across the globe.”
On behalf of the RAC staff, a hearty mazel tov to Rabbi Hirsch on this great honor!
Photo credit: Sasson Tiram and the Jewish Agency for Israel
Mazda ha cerrado este año fiscal, que transcurre desde abril de 2009 hasta marzo de 2010, con unas cifras muy buenas, como están haciendo el resto de marcas en el comienzo de este periodo afortunadamente para la economía mundial y en concreto la española, que sufre la crisis de una manera algo más intensa.
14 países nada menos incrementaron la cantidad de vehículos de Mazda que matricularon en este período respecto al año fiscal anterior, incluyendo buenos resultados en Polonia, que es el mercado más reciente de Mazda, con 420 unidades (un 14% más que el año pasado y con una cuota de mercado del 1,4%) y Hungría, que consiguió su mejor porcentaje de cuota de mercado mensual con un 3,1%.
Respecto al mes de marzo también Mazda tiene buenas noticias respecto a sus vehículos: en España por ejemplo logró matricular 1.300 coches, un 35% más que el año anterior, mientras que en Suiza subió un 40% y en Holanda un escandaloso 112% hasta los 950 coches. En Inglaterra se logró la segunda mejor marca del mes de marzo con 10.200 unidades, un 20% más que el año anterior.
En la parte norte de Europa Dinamarca lideró la zona escandinava con un 7% de incremento hasta lograr 570 unidades vendidas, mientras que Suecia vendió 490 y Noruega 390, con incrementos del 1,2% y del 22% respectivamente. Un gran mes y un gran año para la marca japonesa que invita a la esperanza generalizada del repunte del mercado automovilístico.
Fuente | Mazda
By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews
Facebook’s privacy policy, like its services, is an evolving organism. Recently, that evolution has been reactive rather than pro-active. Another reaction may be in the works after today’s announcement of a new Facebook feature that enables users to subscribe to personal interests or “likes,” officially called “Connections,” the way they connect to other users.
The company said today there’s a new way for a Facebook user to block others, including friends, from seeing one’s “connections” — the list of pages that represent things one likes to do (e.g., snowboarding) or to partake in (e.g., classical music), or people they may enjoy who may not be represented by their own Facebook pages (e.g., Bertrand Russell, Elvis Presley). But someone who’s perusing the page for people or things that Facebook users vote that they “Like” (which replaces “Become a Fan Of” today) may still see the list of everyone who has voted she likes something, the company also said — indicating that one’s likes may never be completely private.
“Within your Privacy Settings under the Account menu, you have a section called ‘Friends, Tags and Connections.’ Adjusting the drop-down menus beside each field let you determine who can see those parts of your profile,” reads a post on Facebook’s blog this morning from software engineer Alex Li. “These visibility settings are a direct response to your requests to be able to hide more information on your profile. Specifically, the most requested feature a few weeks ago was to enable you to hide your friend list on your profile from your friends. As part of today’s changes, you can do that.”
As of today, Facebook’s Help Center still explains that folks who are on your friends list will be able to read the contents of the friends list. That explanation will likely change as this addition to the system filters through to users.
However, a user may find he can be discovered after all, by someone who notices his name attached to the “Connection” page for the thing he likes.
As Li (who “likes” Roger Federer, but is now “connected” to Johannes Brahms) explained, “Keep in mind that Facebook Pages you connect to are public. You can control which friends are able to see connections listed on your profile, but you may still show up on Pages you’re connected to. If you don’t want to show up on those Pages, simply disconnect from them by clicking the ‘Unlike’ link in the bottom left column of the Page. You always decide what connections to make.”
Community pages are the destination points for connections, or likes (the terminology here could perhaps be streamlined just a bit). Based on the prototype picture supplied by Facebook, they appear to be crosses between the typical Facebook fan page and a Wikipedia entry. Current Facebook users may have already begun to see messages from the service asking them whether they’d like to connect to certain existing Community pages gleaned from the likes and affiliations already on their profiles, including their hometowns, their alma maters, and their bio entries. In any event, the message from Facebook’s Li made clear, if you don’t want people discovering you like something or someone…you can just stop liking her.
“Profiles no longer are a static list of likes and interests,” writes Li. “Now, they are a living map of all the connections that matter to you.”
Just exactly how community pages…get there, and what happens to them after they’re there, may be a bit up in the air, even after Facebook’s explanation. As the official invitation page for creating an “Official Page” or a “Community Page” or a “Group” suggests, someone creating an Official Page needs to be a representative of the subject at hand — for example, he needs to not be a fan of Roger Federer, but to be Roger Federer, or his authorized agent. A Facebook group (something which the service has had for years) continues to be an access point for multiple folks engaged in the same hobby or interest.
But a Community Page is supposed to be an entity in itself — something which a person can plant on his own, which can sprout forth through nurturing from whoever passes by, and can eventually be adopted by someone else entirely. “Generate support for your favorite cause or topic by creating a Community Page,” the invitation reads. “If it becomes very popular (attracting thousands of fans), it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.”
Facebook’s own developers — who happen to be meeting next Wednesday at the f8 developers’ conference in San Francisco — aren’t having much more luck than we are discerning the distinction here. A developer with the Facebook app builder Inside Network, who goes by the handle s2facebook, asked the company earlier this month and got a response…but he says it wasn’t much of one.
“Facebook hasn’t explained clearly what it means when it says ‘adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.’ When we asked, Facebook only told us that ‘if, over time, it gains a large fan base, it will be adopted by the community and it will not have one specific owner,’” s2facebook wrote.
Having more hands-on knowledge of how Facebook apps operate, s2facebook came to this conclusion: While a “Group” maintains its own privacy settings, and may thus be protected from complete public exposure, a “Page” is designed to present some level of public information. “Group owners can’t message members if it has more than 5,000 people; Pages provide more customizable options, designed for marketers; Pages include the Insights analytics tool; because Pages are public, information in them appears in search results,” the developer wrote. “Community Pages are another way, then, that Facebook can get more content in search engines while maintaining its goals for Official Pages.”
Anticipating today’s initial rollout of Connections/”Likes”/Community Pages, the Financial Times ran a story this morning that said Facebook was using this new system to assemble a behavioral advertising platform. This way, the story (in its original form) said, Facebook would be able to gather more discrete data about its users to help advertisers better target services to them.
The FT later revised (extensively) that story; and a Facebook spokesperson told Betanews this afternoon that the original form of that story was incorrect. However, the spokesperson’s explanation was noteworthy not for saying that Facebook isn’t building such a system, but rather that no such system was being announced today.
“The Financial Times story incorrectly suggested that Facebook is launching behavioral ad targeting at f8, their upcoming developer conference,” the spokesperson told Betanews. “The FT story has been corrected. As Facebook has said previously, they are moving from ‘Become a Fan’ to ‘Like’ to make the language on the site more consistent, but they have no announcements or changes planned to their ad offering or ad policies.”
While the data being gathered through the creation of Community pages may not be expressly assembled for marketing purposes, it appears the ability to do so remains feasible — something which an enterprising developer may discover as soon as Wednesday.
A guy walks into a bar, but instead of the customary lame joke or flat beer, this guy actually finds the next, unreleased generation of the iPhone, according to Gizmodo.
The phone, apparently retrieved from a bar in Redwood City, California was camouflaged to look like a regular 3GS phone. Since reports later surfaced that Apple was indeed missing an experimental iPhone 4 from its offices, Gizmodo is now convinced that this is the missing prototype.
Tinkering around with the prototype, Gizmodo found a lot of new and improved features. The happy investigators report that the prototype not only sports a front-facing camera for video chats, but also boasts an improved regular back camera with a flash and larger lens. The display is reported to be better, and the unit pops out a Micro-SIM instead of a standard SIM card. Gizmodo adds that there are split buttons for volume, and notes that the power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic in color.
Sadly, they didn’t get a chance to suss the operating system out, as Apple remotely disconnected the phone.
So, what else can you expect from the new iPhone? Gizmodo describes:
The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
Gizmodo says it is confident that the lost and found phone is the 2010 model of the new iPhone, as the device behaves like an iPhone when connected to a computer, but has obvious hardware differences from existing iPhones. What’s more, when the tinkerers disassembled the phone, they found “multiple components that were clearly labeled APPLE.” And they believe this to be the 2010 model because they say it’s too early for Apple to be testing out its 2011 model in such a finished form.
With its sleek looks, flash, better back camera, and another microphone for superior voice clarity, Gizmodo’s final verdict was that the upgraded phone is a winner.
People who bought the 3G two years ago and are now in the perfect position to upgrade and get a dramatically different, and better, phone.
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As we chugg along into whatever alternative transportation and energy future we’re creating for ourselves, it is clear that it shouldn’t involve such a singular dependence on one energy source as we’ve had. If anything, our last 100 years have taught us that relying so completely on oil can have many disastrous effects, ranging the gamut from economic to social to environmental. And, while plentiful access to oil has clearly brought about an unprecedented amount of good, at this point we know that we can build a better and more sustainable system.
So the discussions going on right now at the highest levels of government on how to structure any future energy and transportation framework highlight the pitfalls that lie ahead in weening ourselves off of our stubborn and all-encompassing addiction to oil. (more…)
Honda confirmed today that it will discontinue production of the 4-door Civic Type R at the end of August, 2010.
“A purist’s sports car featuring precisely tuned vehicle dynamics, the Civic Type R creates a unity between car and driver for exceptional driving pleasure,” Honda said in a statement. “The first-generation model launched in 1997 and was produced at Suzuka Factory. The second-generation model following in 2001, was produced at Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing Ltd. For the current, third-generation Civic Type R that was released in 2007, the production has returned to Suzuka Factory.”
Click here to get prices on the 2010 Honda Civic Si.
Yes, after that bit of history we were pretty saddened since we love the power and style of the 225-hp Honda Civic sedan. Oh well, at least we still have our Honda Civic Si in the United States.
– By: Kap Shah
NEW YORK, April 19 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — ( http://www.myprgenie.com ) — MyPRGenie, the world’s premiere do-it-yourself PR platform and newswire, was slated to be honored today as one of the OnDemand Top 100 winners selected by AlwaysOn. As part of the OnDemand Top 100, MyPRGenie was recognized by the AlwaysOn judges for its leadership among its peers, and for its game-changing approaches and technologies that were deemed likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players.
“This is a tremendous honor, and we humbly accept it,” said Miranda Tan, Chief Executive Officer of MyPRGenie, Inc. “It’s very gratifying for our staff to be recognized for its hard work and innovation. It’s also nice to have an independent third-party evaluation confirm what our clients have already been telling us: that MyPRGenie, by far and away, is the most advanced, effective online do-it-yourself public relations toolkit out there.”
Using MyPRGenie, clients can create an online business profile, upload their press release in any language and significantly increase their exposure online. With the MyPRGenie platform, it takes only an instant to connect to thousands of journalists and automatically post on 28 social media sites. MyPRGenie currently has thousands of clients ranging from large companies to small businesses to public relations professionals who are using the MyPRGenie platform to drive their PR business.
The OnDemand 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists, and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2010 list.
MyPRGenie and the OnDemand Top 100 companies will be honored today at AlwaysOn’s OnDemand event at Hewlett-Packard’s Worldwide Headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.
To see press release go to http://myprgenie.com/5538
Contact: Miranda Tan, [email protected], 212.807.8300
SOURCE MyPRGenie
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
April 19, 2010. Chicago, IL.
U.S. Rep Mark Kirk (R-IL) today announced that he released his 2009 taxes on Friday and urges his challenger in this falls Senate election, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) to do the same.
Watch the video below.
For those who are looking for a great Instant Messaging app – no need to look further. eBuddy is your personal communication companion that helps link all of your Instant Messaging handles into one convenient app, with added support for popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace that feature their own chat portal.
Anyone who has used a desktop program such as Trillian will feel right at home with eBuddy. Users create a single screen name unique to the eBuddy app, which in turn houses all of your other accounts so users need only to sign on once and remember just one username and password. The UI has also been refined for larger WVGA screens (with support still for HVGA) and features 3 tabs for your contact list, current open chat logs and a collection of currently added IM accounts. The simplicity and elegance of the interface make for a fluid experience that really makes the app a joy to use.
eBuddy can run in the background and alert users of new incoming IMs with a notification similar to text messages, and the notification bar icon will change to indicate an alert as well. This is especially useful for when the phone is either on silent or being used in another app. Switching back to eBuddy is seamless.
Pros:
Needs Improvement:
Final Verdict: This is probably one of the easiest and best looking Instant Messaging apps on the Android Market, and best of all it’s free. For someone who has a lot of different screen names across different services, bringing them all together under one experience is very convenient.
Note: This review was submitted by Eric Johnson as part of our app review contest.
A new report from Forbes is suggesting that Samsung will launch their Galaxy S phone on all four of the largest U.S. carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon) this year. We have already seen evidence the device was coming to AT&T and maybe T-Mobile, but this is the first mention of a possible CDMA version for Sprint and Verizon.
In a recent research report, Broadpoint.AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie said he expects the Galaxy S to be sold at AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint by the end of June and to be carried by at Verizon “sometime later in the year”. The report suggest Samsung was unable to lock up an exclusive deal after they failed to impress with their previous Android handsets.
“It’s a pretty impressive Android-based phone with a great display, but Samsung doesn’t have the same brand strength as Apple or even Motorola,”Mark McKechnieBroadpoint.AmTech analyst
Samsung is the world’s second largest cellphone maker, but they trail behind HTC and others in smartphone shipments. It is their goal to triple smartphone shipments this year, so bringing the high-end Galaxy S to all big carriers would set them in the right direction.
Google’s Nexus One is still the only Android phone which has been announced to arrive on the four largest nationwide carriers. If the Samsung Galaxy S can achieve the same feat (and actually be available in retail stores) it will be interesting to see which one comes out on top in sales.
Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times spoke with Bloomberg Television about the Goldman Sachs SEC charges. She had quite a bit to say about where the story is headed next and what it is going to take to take down Goldman.
Join the conversation about this story »
Think it was weird that we rallied despite the volcano and Goldman Sachs (GS) and all that jazz?
It wasn’t.
It was a Monday.
And as The Pragmatic Capitalist has been pointing out, nothing has been more consistent than a Monday Melt-Up, as stocks have gained 26 of the last 33 Mondays. Steady as she goes.
Join the conversation about this story »
‘Mandatory overtime’ not appealing as it sounds
Editor, The Times:
Yes, garbage workers are lucky to have jobs in these tough economic times. But The Times seems a little tone-deaf with such statements as “incomes are even burnished by mandatory overtime” [“Quit talking trash; sign a fair contract,” Opinion, April 15].
You try working “mandatory overtime” at a physically demanding job and see if you would rather have that time to be with your families or just to live your life instead of having that extra money.
Regarding your “puzzlement” at the garbage haulers trying to look after their benefits and look to their futures when their bodies will be worn out from doing these physically demanding jobs: How about aiming some of your potshots at companies that use these tough economic times to bust unions and squeeze hardworking people in order to make a little more profit?
Just a thought.
— Kirk and Mary Claire Duncan, Seattle
Empty your wallets, executives
Why should workers in the fifth-most-dangerous job in the United States give concessions (recession or not) to a company that made more than $11 billion dollars last year?
Why is it OK for the company to eliminate retiree health care, refuse to match the benefits other sanitation companies provide, force employees to work 12-hour days and harass them when they get injured?
Why does The Times insist on saying the only issues are over-improvements in benefits? Not only is this erroneous, but if true, it could hardly be a crime.
I am tired of hearing that employees should surrender their health and income to huge corporations that pay big CEO salaries and fat shareholder dividends from the labor of those workers. Every wage and benefit increase won by rank-and-file workers helps others —even in other industries. The workers raise the bar of prevailing wages. U.S. employees have been taking a hit for years. It is time for the fat cats to pay for a change.
— Megan Cornish, Seattle
When companies make bank, where do workers come in?
I object to the “Quit talking trash; sign a fair contract” editorial, which indicates that in a time of economic uncertainty, workers with “good-paying jobs and steady employment” are obligated to give up those advantages in solidarity with the underpaid and unemployed.
No, that is not how it works. Over and over again, we have seen workers give back for the sake of the company. But when those companies post record profits, there is no corresponding giveback to the workers.
The way workers such as the garbage haulers — who are putting up a great fight against the mega-rich Waste Management corporation — could help their less fortunate fellows is to stand up to preserve income and safety standards.
The so-called “jobless recovery” we are experiencing simply means that corporations have rescued their profits by driving down wages and conditions. Talk about trash.
— Helen Gilbert, Seattle
Geoffrey L. Goetz
An overwhelming feeling of “Jamais Vu” is how I would best describe the experience of re-entering both the mobile as well as the development scenes since the advent of Apple’s iPhone SDK. Ground breaking new technology, ever-expanding features and capabilities in each new SDK. Innovative and hip company in Silicon Valley calling all the shots. And like a moth to a flame I just have to be there no matter what. Writing about it, speaking about it, teaching, mentoring, and building solutions with it.
That was me in a nutshell back in 1997 when Java took off and Borland was the hip company in Silicon Valley (actually Scott’s Valley, on the other side of the mountain, but close enough) that I could not help but fall in love with. Everything then feels like everything now, and is best described in Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm.
I may have cut my teeth on a Commodore in grade school, but Apple has been the dominate computing platform throughout my education. Upon entering the corporate world, it was all Mainframe, Unix, Microsoft and even OS/2. Then with Java and the JBuilder IDE from Borland, I slowly started to re-enter the Apple platform professionally. I now live in a completely Mac household, work day in and day out solely on Macs, developing applications for the iPhone and other mobile platforms.
At home, I fancy myself an amateur photographer with a decent array of prosumer Canon products. I take on average 25K photos annually and spend a good amount of time organizing, printing and getting creative with the image library I have managed to create. The subjects in the majority of the photos I take are my two children, who are also growing up Mac. My now six-year-old received her first iMac at the age of three, and my two-year old is perfectly at home watching his favorite YouTube videos of trains and race cars on either the iPhone or iPad.
So what has changed? Why are things different now compared to then? I wish I knew exactly, it just feels very different somehow. Hopefully blogging about it will help me figure it out.
Earlier this year a school outside of Philadelphia was busted giving students laptops that included hidden software that covertly allowed school officials to turn on the cameras and monitor the students — no matter where they were. The not-so-brilliant scheme came to light when one child was disciplined for behavior that was only captured thanks to these laptops. Not surprisingly, a fairly huge scandal was born, followed by a lawsuit against the school district. The school district has long claimed that the surveillance system was only used to locate missing laptops. But a new motion (pdf) filed as part of the lawsuit now claims that not only were thousands of photos taken, many were taken of students who never reported their laptops missing. Meanwhile, the lawyer claims to have e-mails from the plan administrator (who has been pleading the fifth) highlighting how she was really having a great time watching student "soap operas" unfold:
"Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program. "I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied."
One family involved in the suit provided evidence that their 15-year-old son was photographed more than 400 times over the course of two weeks last fall (his laptop was neither missing or stolen), but their lawyer provided just one surprisingly well lit and framed (for a laptop) photo taken of their son sleeping. The school district has subsequently issued a statement admitting the system took photos, but denying that they engaged in any deliberate wrong doing or that the photos were used for any "inappropriate purposes." Senator Arlen Specter, engaged in a heated battle for re-election, used the story as a springboard to call for tougher federal wiretap laws. Specter went so far as to hold a hearing near the school, where one parent insisted that warnings would be enough:
"Bob Wegbreit said a warning might suffice to let families know the district might activate webcams without a student’s knowledge. Students could then choose to keep the computers in other parts of the house, instead of their bedrooms, said Wegbreit, whose group fears the lawsuit will damage the upscale district’s finances and reputation."
It might be a little too late for that, Bob (besides, "warnings" don’t trump that whole Fourth Amendment thing). Even if you could somehow argue the project didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment, it remains mind boggling that anybody, at any level in the district, would think that off-site covert photography of students was a bright idea for any reason. As more and more schools offer kids laptops and netbooks, this case acts as a reminder to parents and students to ask questions as these kinds of programs are developed elsewhere. It’s also a warning shot to administrators who think protecting their property (or personal amusement) trumps a student’s right to privacy at home. You do start to wonder where people could possibly be getting the idea that surveillance with no recourse to law or common sense is a good idea.
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These wooden chairs and coffee tables are about as far-removed from the antique wooden furniture lining your grandparents’ house as possible. With resin strips glowing brightly, they look like zebra poo—or at least something from the ’60s. More »
Filed under: Performance, Hatchback, Ford, UK
Ford committed an outright insult to humanity when it only produced 101 examples of the Focus RS500. Even at over $54,000 at current conversion rates, the cars sold out licked-split in the UK, leaving plenty of diehard Blue Oval fans without the hottest of the company’s hatches. In an attempt to right that wrong, Ford has released an upgrade kit that will give the standard 305 horsepower RS the teeth it needs to run with the big-daddy RS500.
The engineers at Ford have managed to pull an extra 45 horsepower from the turbo I5 by swapping out the stock intercooler and air box for trick Ford Racing pieces, bolting on a higher volume fuel pump and remapping the stock ECU. The whole kit will set you back around $3,000, which means you could be in an RS500 clone for nearly $10k less than what the real deal would cost you. We’ll take ours in Frozen White, please. Hop the jump for the press release.
Gallery: 2009 Ford Focus RS (green)
Gallery: 2009 Ford Focus RS (blue)
[Source: Ford]
Continue reading With the Focus RS500 sold out in UK, Ford creates official upgrade kit for RS
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ABU DHABI, April 19 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Rapid urban growth in emerging nations has rarely been accompanied by foresight and planning. As economies expand, sucking more and more people
into towns and cities in search of jobs and prosperity, the up-shot has too often been uncontrolled development, scant regard for building standards and an ugly urban sprawl.
But in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates and home to its capital city, municipal authorities are showcasing their vision for a future marked by structure and enlightened regulation, underpinned by quality municipal services.
Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipal Affairs and the emirate’s three municipal authorities at Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Western Region will be unveiling 30 projects at Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2010.
Primary among these are new building codes demanding improved construction standards across the emirate, creating more cost effective structures of greater longevity and higher energy efficiency.
The codes are supported by a new addressing system for the city of Abu Dhabi, providing new, clear and concise street signage for the expanding capital, while a new Municipal Spatial Solutions Infrastructure (MSSI) has been commissioned to collate geospatial data.
Municipal services focused on enjoying enhanced urban living include the addition of a further 12 parks in Abu Dhabi during 2010 as well as the Corniche water front development, offering public beaches and leisure facilities.
In Al Ain, Abu Dhabi’s second city, new roads, parks, city centre landscaping and the addition of 132 public toilets conforming to the highest international hygiene standards are planned.
In the country’s Western Region, new designs for a full range of family facilities at Delma Beach join plans for new public parks including the Zayed Park at Liwa, a landmark development aimed at giving this desert area a sustainable, high-quality green space.
The new projects and services will be exhibited at a state-of-the-art stand. Themed on a membrane allowing external influence while protecting the culture and well-being of those the municipality system serves, the stand includes a 4D virtual theatre allowing visitors to swoop across the region, gaining a panoramic view of Abu Dhabi’s future.
“We are tremendously proud of our achievements so far in establishing Abu Dhabi as a great emirate in which to live and work,” said H.E. Rashid Mubarak Al Hajeri, Chairman of Department of Municipal Affairs. “Cityscape and the high-tech stand we have created will allow visitors from across the region and the world to come and see what we have done and what we intend to do in the most exciting way possible,” he added.
The Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) commenced operations in May 2007, following the Abu Dhabi Executive Council’s decision to integrate the Emirate’s municipal system. As a new government entity, the Department of Municipal Affairs was created to lead, coordinate and oversee three municipalities in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region. The DMA has a regulatory role while the service delivery and operations are at the
municipality level.
On the 5th of May 2008, the Department of Municipal Affairs along with the Abu Dhabi Municipality, Al Ain Municipality and Western Region Municipality embarked upon a new municipal services journey, with the signing of the historic Municipal Charter which aligns the DMA and three municipalities towards greater collaboration and cooperation.
Department of Municipal Affairs
Mrs. Amal Al Jarwan
Tel: +971-2-4030311
Email: [email protected]
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
