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Samsung’s following up its 30nm NAND chips from 2007 with some even-smaller 20nm ones. Write-speed is 30 per cent faster than the previous cards supposedly, and are being tested in up to 64GB SD cards before they’re rolled out properly. More »

The folks at PF Flyer are introducing a fun, eye-catching hi top sneaker inspired by the tennis classic Sumfun Lo, originally introduced in 1947.

The saddle of the original Sumfun’s espadrille upper unites with a new high top cuff, featuring an authentic 40s-era PF Flyers ankle logo. The Sumfun Hi features finely sculpted vintage foxing details and a Posture Foundation sole for added comfort.

Constructed from microfiber suede and canvas, the Sumfun is available in black, neutral, and navy/orange for spring 2010 at amazon.com and zappos.com. It’ll run you 75 bucks.

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Middle East Online

The toe of King Akhenaton, which was stolen in 1907 during an examination of the pharaoh’s bones, was returned during a signing ceremony for an agreement with Switzerland over the return of ancient artefacts, the council said.

“The toe is now back in Egypt and will be displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” said the statement, which confirmed that it was from the skeleton of the pharaoh, which had been found in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

The toe’s movements since 1907 were not disclosed.

Frank Ruehli, a scientist at the University of Zurich and a specialist in mummies, obtained it “thanks to his personal contacts” in “another European country,” a diplomat said without elaborating.

The return was thanks to the Ruehli’s “private initiative” and not carried out by the Swiss government, which is the 16th country to sign the accord on stolen antiquities, the diplomat added.

Discovery News (Rossella Lorenzi)

The terminal phalanx of his great toe, probably from the left foot, was taken away in 1968, when the Department of Antiquities in Cairo, under the supervision of the then director, handed it over to the late Professor Ronald Harrison of Liverpool University.

“Since then, the specimen has been held securely in my laboratory, but I decided it had to ‘go home,’ particularly since very few people knew where it was,” Robert Connolly senior lecturer in physical anthropology from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, told Discovery News. . . .

The toe has been returned safely to Egypt by Swiss anatomist and paleopathologist Frank Rühli, who personally handed it over to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, during a signing ceremony for an agreement with Switzerland over the return of ancient artifacts.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

I had an epic shopping trip on Saturday night, using a handful of free product coupons sent by PR firms hoping I’ll post reviews of the products (which I will, eventually). I bought $144 worth of food for $57.00! Chris still can’t believe it, he made sure to tell each of the boys and probably called a few friends 🙂 What was also great was that almost everything else on my list that wasn’t going to be free was on sale at Meijer, and I hadn’t even looked at the sale ad before I made my grocery list!

Based on my shopping trip, here’s what we’re eating this week:

Sunday: Tyson breaded chicken strips (FREE), steamed green beans, flaky layer biscuits

Monday: Hamburger Helper Stroganoff, peas, garlic toast

Tuesday: Tyson breaded chicken patties (FREE) on buns, baked french fries, salad

Wednesday: Beef burritos, chips and salsa, refried beans

Thursday: Cheese tortellini (from frozen), marinara sauce, corn, garlic toast

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Cooks Spiral Sliced Ham (FREE), Betty Crocker Scalloped potatoes, steamed peas

What are you eating for dinner this week? For more menus, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

by Chip Giller

Every year as Earth Day approaches, there’s a moment when we here at Grist stare at each other around a conference table and say, “What the hell are we going to do this time?”

I imagine it’s the same way the window dressers at Macy’s feel when the winter holidays are approaching. How do you make an annual event feel fresh, exciting, and fun?

One obvious solution, of course, is profanity. Last year, our “Screw Earth Day” campaign was a wildly successful reminder that eco-awareness shouldn’t be limited to one day; this week, we’re launching the similarly sailor-worthy “Earth: FML.”

But those are just—well, window dressing. What’s really going on at Grist is a deeper shift toward a different kind of reporting, toward a new sense of promise about this planet, its people, and its prospects.

You see, even though there are plenty of reasons for despair these days—climate change is wreaking havoc, climate skeptics are wreaking even more havoc, and federal politicians are dragging their feet on passing meaningful legislation that would put this country on a more sustainable path—we’re also seeing plenty of reasons to get up in the morning. All across the country, communities are taking things into their own hands, finding ways to build a cleaner, healthier, smarter world.

Much of this work is taking place in cities, which cough up an estimated 70 percent of our greenhouse-gas emissions. That makes them climate bad guys, but it also means they have enormous potential to ameliorate the mess we’re in. With a world populationd that’s increasing, and increasingly urban, cities will make or break our success as a species. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s 9 billion people are expected to be living in urban areas. If humanity is to guide itself into a sustainable relationship with the planet, that’s the place to do it.

The good news is, it’s happening. And not just in Portland and Seattle and Berkeley and Boston. It’s happening in Detroit, in Kansas City, in Milwaukee, in Louisville. People are banding together to bring solar power to their neighborhoods, and creating programs that provide fresh, organic food to inner-city families, and devising transportation policies that leave cars in the rearview mirror. This year, Grist will focus on the very real progress taking shape all around the country. We’ll connect the people who are making it happen, and accelerate this movement.

And what better time to kick off this work than Earth Day? This week, we’re publishing a list of forty people who are out to save our asses, people who might not call themselves environmentalists, but who are working hard to create a more sustainable world. We’re also launching Hopensource.org, a Twitter-fed site where we invite you and everyone you know to submit tangible signs of progress. We’re ramping up our coverage of urban agriculture, energy, transportation, design, and green jobs. (Yes, they’re real!)

We’re launching this effort because incredible work is happening right here, right now, all around us. Sustainability is not some misty notion of a down-the-road utopia. Quite the contrary: a greener world is taking shape right before our eyes. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for your family’s health, and yes, it happens to be good for the planet.

Grist is going to document this transformation, shining our beacon in the smog on the path to a truly sustainable society and giving our readers the tools to become a part of the action. We hope you’ll join the conversation. Tell us what you’re doing, what you’re seeing, and how your community is becoming a more sustainable place to live, on Earth Day and every day.

Just try not to swear too much, OK? That’s our job.

Related Links:

The Perils of ‘Green Watching’

Obama’s Earth Day message: ‘Change won’t come from Washington alone’ [VIDEO]

Earth Day on Every Block

Forget our environmentally conscious society, it seems the world just can’t get enough of SUVs. The new low-cost Dacia Duster of the Renault group has already sold 5,000 units in just two weeks from the launch date. The Duster is definitely the poor man’s SUV as, at a starting price of nearly 12,000 euros, it has no other SUV competitors in sight of this price point.

Dacia is originally a Romanian brand, and the Duster is made in its home country, ready to produce about 150,000 units a year. The Duster SUV should also be made available in markets other than Europe, including Russia and Colombia where about 60 to 80,000 units will be dedicated.

The entry level Dacia Duster has a 16V, 1.6-litre engine that is then available in 4WD for a cost of about 2,000 euros extra. Other engine options include the 1.5 dCi available in 85 or 105 hp, and the top of the range 1.5-litre in 4WD option.

Carrier: AT&T
Retail Price: $39.99
Phone Price: $9.99
Hot Features: 3G device, video share, AT&T Mobile music, Bluetooth technology, 1.3MP camera 

	Greenlings: Who will be the main players in the electric vehicle space? Who’s worried, who’s not.		Report: U.S. Postal Service says it might cut Saturday delivery to curb emissions Spend an extra $1,000 up front, get $3,000 later.
	Shocked by your outrageous electrical bill? Electric vehile owners might be (for a while) We’ll get used to it, for sure.	Other news: Plug In America test drives the Chevy Volt Report: Toyota Prius minivan coming in 2011 Report: Meeting new CAFE requirements will require strict diets, airplane-like aerodynamics and slippery tires

AutoblogGreen for 04.19.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube made somewhat of a splash when it announced that it would be streaming all the matches from the Indian Premier League cricket 2010 season. It was a pretty big announcement, the first live sports event to be carried by YouTube, and it proved to be a very smart move. The IPL matches were very popular, attracting quite an audience … (read more)

Heritage Key (Owen Jarus)

A large new church, monastic burials and a vaulted room filled with Coptic wall paintings – new excavation work at the Monastery of Saint Apollo at Bawit is yielding a wealth of remarkable finds. One of the team members, Dr. Ramez Boutros of the University of Toronto, discussed some of the finds at a recent lecture and Heritage Key followed up with an interview.

The Monastery of Saint Apollo was founded by the saint around 385-390 AD. It’s slightly north to the site of Asyut, which can be seen on the map below.

Saint Apollo was a hermit of sorts who lived out in the desert. Dr. Boutros told me that fourth century Palestinian monks record that they met with him and that he was “already surrounded by a few disciples.” Two companions were particularly close to him – Phib and Anoup.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Toyota is working hard and fast to seek a fix for the Lexus GX 460, which was identified as a “safety risk” by Consumer Reports last week.

The publication issued a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk,” which is rarely given by the magazine. Shortly after Consumer Reports issued the warning, Toyota stopped sales of the large luxury SUV to come up with a fix.

Toyota said Friday that its engineers are reproducing the same “slide” that the magazine found in its tests.

“We’re going to work on a countermeasure” to eliminate the handling issue on the GX, said Bill Kwong, a U.S. spokesman for Lexus. “It’s too early to say exactly what that will be.”

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Times Online

Two hundred years after the death of Rameses II, one of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt, his high priest Iufenamun decreed that his mummified body be moved to a secret location to keep his tomb safe from robbers.

Now the priest’s own coffin, snatched from its last resting place, is to be displayed in public for the first time since he died 3,000 years ago. Inside is Iufenamun’s mummy and a cast of his face.

These relics of one the world’s greatest civilizations have been uncovered among the collection of the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, as its £46 million refurbishment continues. For conservators and curators, their encounter with the priest has been not only a professional challenge but almost a supernatural experience as the ancient remains of Iufenamun began to take human form again.

Lynn McLean, head of textile and paper conservation at the National Museum of Scotland, said: “That was the only moment I felt slightly odd – when I saw his face.”

She had spent weeks stabilising the delicate linen tape wrapped round the priest’s body. Ms McLean, who usually deals with costume or clothes, said: “It feels different, handling a mummy. It’s not just an object, it’s a person. You have to treat him with respect.”

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Reuters

With thanks to Tony Marson for sending the link.

Video coverage of the recent Bahariya Graeco-Roman tomb discoveries.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Archaeology Magazine (Mark Rose)

It was all settled. CT scans revealed that Tutankhamun had a nasty leg fracture, and in 2007 Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, rendered his verdict: “He was not murdered as many people thought. He had an accident when he was hunting in the desert. Falling from a chariot made this fracture in his left leg and this really is in my opinion how he died.” Septicemia (blood infection) or a fat embolism (release of fat into the blood stream) was to blame, and science had, through Hawass, spoken.

Everyone duly recalibrated their images of Tut. Long dismissed as a minor, ineffectual child pharaoh, the “Boy King” was reimagined as an avid sportsman. Now, further analysis of Tut’s CT scans, those of close relatives, and DNA studies may require another image makeover, thanks to results just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Hawass, Carsten Pusch (a DNA specialist from the University of Tübingen), and colleagues. But did the researchers get a little ahead of the evidence in some of their interpretations?

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

By Matt Hawes

With Goldman Sachs in the news due to SEC complaints, we’re sure to hear even more about how President Obama is a crusader for the little guy against Wall Street interests.

The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney thinks otherwise, and this recent article lays out how Goldman Sachs is standing behind financial reform legislation.

The nation’s largest investment bank, famously cozy with top government officials in both parties, has tipped its hand to its shareholders, indicating that major financial “reform” proposals will help Goldman’s bottom line.

“Given that much of the financial contagion was fueled by uncertainty about counterparties’ balance sheets,” Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn wrote in a letter at the beginning of the annual report, “we support measures that would require higher capital and liquidity levels, as well as the use of clearinghouses for standardized derivative transactions.”…

If you take Blankfein and Cohn’s word, stricter federal liquidity and capital requirements would amount to regulators doing Goldman’s work for Goldman. They want Uncle Sam to mitigate “uncertainty about counterparties’ balance sheets.” That is, they want the government to reduce the risk that Goldman’s debtors or insurers will run into trouble.

This is an odd function of government: Making Goldman Sachs feel safer in its business dealings….

Also at play in Goldman’s call for stricter capital requirements and standardization of derivatives: the confidence game. Much of America has lost some faith in the markets. Regular investors are still a bit scared of the stock market. Financial firms are lending less. Goldman thrives on free-flowing capital.

If Obama signs a financial “reform” and declares that it now safe to enter the waters of the stock market, that’s good news for Goldman.

Restoring public confidence in the markets should be the job of those who profit from your investing in the market — it should not be the job of the federal government….

Read the rest.

Egypt Today (Nadine El Sayed)

Egypt owns two thirds of the world’s monuments.” So says the government’s state information service. It doesn’t go into detail. But when you consider the abundance of national icons — the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, the Valley of the Kings — that draw thousands of visitors every year, the richness of the country’s past can be overwhelming.

It is precisely this illustrious history, in the form of exquisite relics, excavated ruins and secrets yet to be unearthed beneath the sands, that is the subject of a new amendment to the antiquities law that has caused much debate in the People’s Assembly (PA).

Approved early last month after a year of discussion in Parliament, law 117/1983 is being amended in a bid to preserve the nation’s documented archeological heritage and prevent the expatriation of any future discoveries.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

A new survey by Coller Capital and the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) has found that 57% of private equity investors are planning to increase their focus on emerging market companies over the next two years.

This is especially good news for the stocks of companies with relatively stable businesses and low amounts of debt (the perfect targets for leveraged buy-outs).

Reuters:

“Investors are clearly drawn to markets with strong underlying growth, which trumps leverage in driving returns,” said EMPEA President and Chief Executive Sarah Alexander.

…

Many investors see emerging market investments outperforming European and U.S. markets. Over three quarters expect emerging market net returns to exceed 16 percent over a three- to five-year period, compared with 29 percent seeing similar returns from their global portfolio, the survey found.

“In a number of these markets, particularly China, India and Brazil, the environment has changed; there’s more stability, there’s better governance, there are more factors allowing for those returns to be generated,” said Coller partner Erwin Roex.

More stability and better governance? Not only have investors started to see emerging market bonds as less risky than some developed nation ones, but they’ve begun to see emerging market companies in a similar light.

Join the conversation about this story »

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Lucia Criscuolo)

Paul McKechnie, Philippe Guillaume (ed.), Ptolemy II Philadelphus and His World. Mnemosyne Supplements 300. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008.

Table of contents available at the above address.

The volume offers the proceedings of a conference which took place in Auckland in July 2005, with two later additions, by S. Burstein and S. Pfeiffer. The topic chosen by Paul McKechnie and Bridget Buxton was strikingly new, as stressed in the preface: despite the importance of the character and the strategic leading position kept by Ptolemy II in the political chessboard of the second generation of Alexander’s successors, no monographs have been dedicated to him until now. Moreover, as the title reminds us, Ptolemy Philadelphus was also the protagonist of the remarkable period of building up and developing that exceptional cultural centre which made Alexandria the capital of the Mediterranean for at least two centuries. The conference and consequently the proceedings were conceived under the sign of interdisciplinarity, as the editor McKechnie declares in the Introduction, the aim being to look for and find out the different “facets of the gem”, Philadelphus’s world, a paradigm of the multiculturalism which represented and included the main features of the Hellenistic world.

The result of such an enterprise is uneven, though the intention of balancing the issues is well expressed by the subdivision into five chapters named by the districts of Alexandria, from Alpha to Epsilon.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Michelle “Bombshell” McGee — the first woman to step forward claiming to have had an affair with biker enthusiast Jesse James — will perform topless at the Deja Vu Showgirls Club in Las Vegas this Friday night.

McGee is set to sign autographs, pose for pictures, and dance topless during a one-night event at the club on April 23.

“We’re just cashing in on her celebrity right now,” Larry Beard, the club’s advertising and marketing director, told PEOPLE Magazine over the weekend.

And the club is expecting a huge turnout of Bombshell supporters — who are largely unfazed by the heavily-inked stripper’s romance with Sandra Bullock’s husband.

“There’s actually a group of tattoo enthusiasts that are all going to show up. She’s a dancer. This is right down her alley. Good publicity, bad publicity, it’s all publicity to me. I mean, I don’t expect Sandra Bullock to show up,” Beard added.