ForexLive theorizes that news of the UK’s investigation into Goldman Sachs is causing the pound to be hammered in late Sunday trading. Seems plausible, the idea being that PM Brown’s political needs will prompt him to undermine the country’s safehaven, pro-finance status.
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Chief Justice John Marshall– he only went to William and Mary
There is a very strange consensus developing relating to the next Supreme Court Justice nominee. As Andrew Romano reports over at the Newsweek blog:
Finally, Democrats and Republicans agree on something. Too bad it’s not something worth agreeing on.
In Washington, D.C., a bipartisan consensus seems to be forming around the idea that President Obama should choose a judge without an Ivy League education to replace John Paul Stevens. Last Sunday, Bill Kristol–who went to Harvard (both undergrad and grad), married a fellow Harvard alum, and sent his son to Harvard–urged the president via FOX News to select a non-Ivyite for the post, saying that “it would be good to have a nominee that stood up against powerfulinterests like the elite law schools, which… have done a lot of damage.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported a few days later that “many” Senate Democrats have a “particular preference” for “a nominee who comes from outside the usual background of Ivy League law schools.” As Chuck Schumer–Harvard College, Harvard Law–put it, “I’ve always liked someone with practical experience.”
Read the rest of Romano’s piece to get his specific view on the issue, but let me just add a comment. (And in the interest of full disclosure, let me note that I never attended an Ivy-League school.)
What troubles me is that this would-be consensus seems to be part of a general tend in American politics to reject anything that has the appearance of being elite. And while I believe it is proper to reject leaders or judges that are snobs or disconnected from reality or condescending or patronizing, I think that in our leadership– both political and judicial– seeking the “elite” is not a bad thing. While the word “elite” has come to be associated with snobs, one of its core dictionary definitions is “the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.” Using this definition, don’t we want an elite surgeon to perform our neurosurgery? Don’t we want an elite group of commandos to rescue a person held hostage? In other words, don’t we want to try to get the best for our most challenging tasks? I don’t really care where the next Supreme Court Justice when to undergrad or law school, but I do want to try to get a person that would be among the best– among the elite.
Peugeot cumple 200 años y a lo largo de todo este 2010 veremos acciones comerciales relacionadas con semejante evento. Una de las primeras es lanzar en abril una serie especial en los modelos 207 y 208 llamada “Millesim 200 años”, que incluye diversas modificaciones estéticas destacando un look exterior diferente y la conectividad.
Aquí es donde viene uno de los regalos: incluye un Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, que dispone de pantalla táctil y de navegador GPS. Este smartphone ha sido el más vendido en España el año pasado y tiene gratuitamente no sólo todos los mapas de Europa Occidental, sino que incluye también las licencias de navegación GPS guiada por voz en tiempo real tanto para tráfico rodado como para peatones, información de radares y un zoom fácil de utilizar en su pantalla de 3,2″.
Respecto al vehículo, esta edición especial incluye un equipamiento adicional sobre la base de una versión confort, con paragolpes nivel sport, molduras laterales del color de la carrocería, faros antiniebla, WIP Bluetooth, el logotipo de Millesim 200 años en ambos modelos y el ya citado teléfono móvil de Nokia.
Seguramente no sea la última de las ediciones especiales que veamos este año de mano de Peugeot, 200 son muchos años. El 5800 es un móvil sencillo pero potente, alejado del poderoso iPhone pero que ofrece garantías a la hora de manejar ciertas capacidades exigentes para un móvil como es el GPS o la reproducción de vídeo.
Fuente | Peugeot
![Click here to read "Leady Apple" Phone Shows Off Chinese iPhone Knockoff Industry's Softer Side](http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/04/160x120_oval_lady_iphone_clone.jpg "Click here to read "Leady Apple" Phone Shows Off Chinese iPhone Knockoff Industry's Softer Side")
Is this yet another iPhone knockoff, a cosmetics mirror, or some super-secret prototype that proves Apple is getting into networked birth control case design? Shoot, how about all three? More »
Statement by Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), on the passing of Coimbatore Krishnarao (known as CK) Prahalad, the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan Business School and a longstanding and outstanding member of WRI’s Board of Directors.
“CK Prahalad was a remarkable and inspiring visionary hidden within the gruff form of a business professor. He changed corporate leaders’ understanding of business strategy, and anti-poverty crusaders’ views of markets, and was wonderfully engaged in making the business case for sustainability. For nine years CK brought deep commitment, and compelling intelligence to WRI’s Board of Directors, and we will miss him greatly.”
Now this is some fascinating research on carbon nanotube properties.
From the link:
“For the first time, fields of study relating both to cold atoms and to the nanoscale have intersected,” Lene Vestergaard Hau tells PhysOrg.com. “Even though both have been active areas of research, cold atoms have not been brought together with nanoscale structures at the single nanometer level. This is a totally new system.”
Hau is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. Along with colleague J.A. Golovchenko, and graduate students Anne Goodsell and Trygve Ristroph, who are in her lab at Harvard, Hau was able to set up an experiment that allows for the observation of capture and field ionization of cold atoms. Their work can be found in Physical Review Letters: “Field Ionization of Cold Atoms near the Wall of a Single Carbon Nanotube.”
And:
“When the electron is pulled in, it goes through a tunneling process,” Hau explains. “It has to go through areas that are classically forbidden. The process is quantum mechanical. We can observe the interaction of the atom and the nanotube as the electron is trying to tunnel, and this offers us a chance to peek at some of the interesting dynamics that happen at the nanoscale.”
Another possibility is that this combination of cold atoms with nanoscale structures could lead to new states of matter. “Since we now know how to suck atoms into orbit at such high spin rates, it could lead to a new state of cold-atomic matter that could be super interesting to study,” Hau points out.
Practical applications?:
Practically, this new system has potential as well. “We could make very sensitive detectors,” Hau says. “Things like ‘atom sniffers’ that detect trace gases could be an application for this work. Additionally, the possibility of single nanometer precision means super high spatial resolution. This system could be used in interferometers — interferometers built on a single chip and based on cold atoms, which would be of importance for navigation, for example.”
For the raw material, here’s the release the linked article sprung from.
My parents are visiting this week, and I’m very excited that they are here with me, but I’m really excited that mom is here to cook me all my favorite dishes. I shall share some of those dishes as the week goes on.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this week I’m just going to let myself have a totally guilt-free week with the food and let my mom spoil me. Mom’s cooking is good but some Filipino dishes are just not low in fat. In fact, the fat is what makes the dishes so delicious.
I once tried to make adobo with white chicken breast – no skin, low sodium soy sauce, and organic vinegar. All I can say is um no! There is a reason you use the chicken skin, some dark meat, full sodium soy sauce, and Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar. It’s better to eat smaller portions of the real stuff, than bigger portions of the “healthy” version.
For breakfast today, after a morning 4-mile walk, I ate some odd combo but it was good. From Whole Foods, I had some Red Quinoa salad made with cucumber, carrots, cilantro and red onion in a orange ginger dressing.
Mom had fried some plantains, and I dove in. I love fried plantains. For some reason though, mom likes to cut the plantains long wise versus in circle slices. But whatever, it’s all good and made with mom love.
Thanks to the Grand Forks Herald for picking up the latest cheer for broadband, especially a cheer coming from Minnesota. Here’s what they said…
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar used a committee hearing to encourage federal officials to expand high-speed broadband Internet service to more communities.
“This broadband plan will help ensure that all Americans have access to an open, affordable and high-speed internet,” the Minnesota Democrat said about a Federal Communications Commission proposal. “The FCC needs to remain an effective cop on the beat when implementing the recommendations to create jobs, long-term economic growth, connect rural schools and hospitals, and protect our public safety networks.”
Klobuchar said the plan would require states to install broadband wires at any federally funded transportation project. That is a proposal Klobuchar presented several months ago.
Many teenagers aren’t deterred from drinking alcohol just because it happens to be illegal, but maybe the chance of developing non-cancerous breast disease will make teen girls think twice before picking up that six-pack of hard lemonade: A new study suggests that frequent alcohol consumption could increase the chances that a teen will get benign breast disease in their 20s.
USAToday discusses the study’s research, which was published online recently in the journal Pediatrics. The study found that the diagnoses of BBD like fibroadenoma, a noncancerous tumor, in women under 30 rose as their consumption rose “to a 5.5 times greater risk for drinking six or seven days per week, when compared with those who never drank or who drank less than once per week.”
Study co-author Catherine Berkey, a biostatistician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, explains that the experiment was unique because it relied on girls reporting their drinking habits while they were still teens, as oppose to other studies that use information from women simply recalling their drinking habits years later.
“Our new study is the first in which alcohol data were collected during adolescence, with continued follow-up in the females as they develop disease,” she said, adding that having a benign breast disease is known to also raise the risk for breast cancer.
Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, says the new study is “excellent,” but that it shouldn’t necessarily be used to warn kids against drinking.
“I wouldn’t scare (teens) and say, ‘You are going to get breast cancer if you drink,’” Ganz told USA oday. But, duh: “The public health message is, these young girls shouldn’t be drinking anyway.”
Teen girls’ drinking may lead to breast problems later [USAToday]
… is already giving me a headache.
The conceit behind the patent app is a pair of glasses you attach an iPhone, iPod or similar Apple device to watch video in high-def equivalent 3D. Just imagine the neck strain of having the weight of an iPhone resting on the bridge of your nose for an extended period of time, not to mention the eyestrain.
I wonder if this patent application entered the system on April 1, or maybe Navin Johnson is now an Apple engineer.
(All blockquotes are from the first link.)
Here’s a look at an illustration of the concept:
And here’s a little more detail:
Apple has filed a patent application for electronic video spectacles that will allow wearers to watch films in 3D on the inside of the glasses. Fans have already nicknamed the gadget iSpecs.
Users would attach their iPhone, iPod, or other device to the spectacles, which have a special lens that can split the image into two frames — one for each eye — and then project the image onto the spectacles. The two images would create a stereoscopic effect since they would appear to have been taken from slightly different angles, and this would simulate 3D.
According to the patent application (number 20100079356) the images would be equivalent to high definition in quality, and sensors inside the spectacles would detect the precise location of the wearer’s eyes to ensure the image is projected at exactly the right place and is comfortable to watch.
Filed under: Truck, China, Plants/Manufacturing, Chevrolet, GM, GMC
General Motors‘ Shreveport, Louisiana plant has apparently been hit with another bit of bad news out of China. Shreveport’s KSLA TV is reporting that a batch of contaminated microchips from China will halt production at the plant the week of April 19. Not only that, the chip issue is also expected to impair GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado production in Europe and at the Ramos Arizpal plant in Mexico.
A supplier in North Carolina provides brake control modules for the trucks, and that supplier gets chips for the modules from a supplier in China. It was the North Carolina company that informed GM of the contaminated parts. Even when Hummer had a chance of continuing, Shreveport was headed for closure and “bad asset” status, but this news doesn’t help.
[Source: KSLA TV]
Report: Bad Chinese parts force GM to idle Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Using mysterious-yet-well-known medical knowledge about negative suction healing and a $3 plunger I swore I just helped my friend buy for his new apartment, MIT Grad Student Danielle Zurovcik may have invented something truly special. More »
Sara had been suffering with neck pain for over 4 weeks. She tried a number of different pillows and neck pillows to help relieve her neck pain. It wasn’t until she tried the cervical linear traction pillow that she awoke for the first time in weeks with no neck pain.
Some people, like Sara, may get results almost immediately, others it may take some time. In this individual’s case, she has tried neck pillows before and she has also seen a chiropractor. So, for Sara, it will be able to adjust to a new neck pillow or neck roll.
For a customer that has never used a neck pillow or neck roll, he or she may have some neck soreness when they first start using the traction pillow. It will also depend on the severity and amount of time of their condition.
So, in a lot of cases, people will take to this pillow right away, but it is also completely normal to have soreness in the beginning with this neck pillow too. In fact soreness or feeling good are both good signs that change is occurring. People with neck pain that are the same day after day is often a sign it will take longer to fix the pain.
Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.
I have been told that .999… = 1. I don’t mean .999, but .999…, the ellipsis denoting a limitless series of nines following the decimal point. I remember somebody trying to explain this to me once. My feeling was that somewhere way at the back of the number there was a mote of a missing number, that no matter how many 9s you added to the end it still slightly defective. He said — I remember this well — he said he would explain it to me “as if I were a child.” I wasn’t a child at the time. He did some formula showing it to be so (10x – x = 9x; 9x/9 = x; do where x=.999…), but I felt like it was trickery. I’d seen a similar stunt to prove that 1=2 (never mind that one; it depends on a divide by zero error).
Nevertheless, I have come to accept that .999… = 1, because the mathematicians say so. It’s an article of faith. I recently saw mention of the fact that while many adults do know that .999… = 1, and may be able to do the mathematical computations to “prove” it, that the proofs themselves are not explanatory, they show “that” .999… = 1 in our notation, but not “why” .999…=1, which is locked up in the true meaning of infinitely repeating decimal points. The article quoted some math professor expressing frustration — that people have basically just memorized the factness of the formula, but don’t really grasp it. I imagine he loses sleep over this, that grown ups don’t get the absolute value of decimals. They insist that an infinite series is a process, their intuition is that “you keep adding nines,” but for him they are already there, all the way to the end of the universe and back. It must be a tough life, seeing all those nines when other people can’t. Even when they say “if you say so,” and accept the factology of the fact, he grimly considers that they don’t know it. Not the way he knows it.
Well, I’m part of the problem. I’ve seen and accepted the proof, but to me those nines will always be trailing along after the decimal point, trying to catch up to the numeral 1… who I’ve come to think of as glib and self-assured. Maybe it’s because I’m aware of my own perpetually dwindling non-quite-thereness. Or maybe I’m just not smart enough.
Los brotes verdes de la economía española dicen que se los han comido los animales: sin embargo en la economía mundial y europea sí que vemos un crecimiento de las ventas y de los ingresos. Es el caso de Volkswagen, que es el fabricante de automóviles más grande de Europa y que en el primer trimestre de 2010 ha vendido nada más y nada menos que un 27% más que el año pasado, el peor de la crisis.
En concreto 1,73 millones de vehículos en todo el mundo han sido vendidos por la marca alemana. Los directivos piensan que la tendencia positiva de la marca refuerza la idea de que Volkswagen puede crecer más que el mercado, que está creciendo también a buen ritmo en todas las líneas.
En la región del Pacífico Asiático han incrementado sus ventas en un 59%, incluyendo un 61% de China, junto con un menor crecimiento pero también sustancial de un 13% en la región sudamericana, con un 8% de subida en Brasil, mercado emergente del cual comentamos que puede que este año matricule más vehículos que Alemania.
Además el resto de marcas del Grupo Volkswagen también han informado de subidas en las ventas: Audi logró un notable 26% de subida en todo el mundo, el mejor en el primer trimestre de la historia de la marca. Seat logró incrementar sus ventas un 15% hasta los 88.300 vehículos y los números de Skoda, con un 25% de subida, están analizados en este post.
Fuente | Volkswagen
In Firefox, you can switch to full screen mode by hitting the shortcut key “F11″. The full screen mode removes all the toolbars, panels, status bar, address bar and presents a clean and clear reading environment. For example: whenever I am writing something or watching a YouTube video, I normally use the full screen mode to avoid distractions.
But there are some problems with the full screen mode in Firefox. The full screen mode hides everything, which is often a barrier for quick browsing. Let’s see some common examples:
1. Can not copy the URL from the address bar: You may want to hide only the toolbars and might want to keep the address bar intact so that you can copy the URL of the page in full screen mode. You don’t want to revert to the normal mode again, just for copying a URL.
2. Can not switch tabs: The full screen mode also hides all the tabs, so if you want to switch tabs – you have to come to the normal mode, change the tabs and then go to the full screen mode again.
3. Can not open a bookmark: Since all the toolbars are hidden, you do not have one click access to the bookmarks. You have to come to the normal mode again, load a bookmark and then switch to the full screen mode.
This is when you need the Minimode add-on for Firefox. The add-on helps you to customize the full screen mode according to your needs. Once the add-on is installed, restart Firefox and open the add-on preferences from “Tools > Add-ons > Minimode > Options”.
As you can see, you can choose the elements you want to hide by selecting the appropriate checkboxes in the add-on settings. The keyboard shortcut is Control + F11, which will hide all the toolbars except the tab bar and the title bar. This is useful, because I can switch the tabs even in the full screen mode. From the add-on preferences, you can choose to show any combination of toolbars in the full screen mode.
Here is how my WordPress writing pane looks, after I have installed the add-on and writing this article:
The Minimode add-on lets you customize the full screen mode in Firefox. You can choose which elements to show and which elements to hide, thus making it a very handy extension for productivity. One flaw spotted: don’t try to hit F11 after the add-on is installed, it freezes the screen. Hit Control + F11 instead.
Techie Buzz rating: 3.5/5 (Very Good).
[JURIST] A prominent Iranian journalist and filmmaker was sentenced on Sunday to three-and-a-half years in prison and 50 lashes for his activities after the disputed 2009 presidential elections. Mohammad Nourizad was sentenced by Judge Pyrbasy, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Court Branch 26 for “distributing propaganda against the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and desecrating the image of thirty years of the Islamic establishment,” and insulting the supreme leader, the president, the head of the judiciary, and Ayatollah Elmolhoda of the Assembly of Experts. Nourizad was initially arrested in November after writing an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticizing the Iranian government for its crackdown on protesters following the disputed presidential election, which resulted in more than 80 deaths. Nourizad was a writer for Kayhan, a publication under the direct supervision of the Khamenei, but Nourizad distanced himself from the paper following the election unrest.
In March, Iranian authorities jailed reform movement leader Hossein Marashi after an appeals court upheld a one-year sentence for spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic. Marashi was a leading supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi who opposed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed presidential election. The court also upheld a ban on Marashi from participating in party political activity for six years. Also in March, an Iranian appeals court upheld the death sentence for a 20-year-old student who took part in anti-government protests in December. Mohammad Amin Valian was convicted of Moharebeh, which means waging war against God and is punishable by death under Iranian law. In February, a joint US-EU statement condemned Iranian action against protesters and other critics of government policy. The Iranian government responded strongly to opposition following June’s disputed elections, prompting additional criticism from rights groups and advocacy organizations.
When it comes to phones, especially major releases, we are always counting down. Counting down to the next big release. For most, the Droid Incredible by HTC is one of those devices. Speculated for the last few months, and teased with an assortment of screenshots and other leaks, it’s been a long time coming, but the newest (official) Android-based handset is on its way to Verizon Wireless in just a couple of weeks. And, we thought you might like a video.
Seeing a phone in action is one thing, but we know it won’t do much to satiate you. Especially if you’re planning on actually getting the 1GHz Snapdragon powered handset. Of course, if you were waiting for the Nexus One to show up, some would argue that this, the Droid Incredible, would be your better choice. It features the same 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and Android 2.1 goodness, but there are some key differences. Like the inclusion of HTC’s Sense UI and the 8MP camera on the back. All good additions. And thanks to NerdStalker, who caught up with HTC at the 99% conference, we can check out the video below to see the new FriendFeed in action, along with those great weather animations.
And, if you like what you see, then you should pre-order. Best Buy is featuring a pre-order system right now for those that want to pull the trigger. All you need to do is fill out a form when you go into your local store, and hand over a cool $50. They’ll give you a gift card, and that’ll be your ticket to your new phone when it launches April 29th. Keep in mind, though, that if you go through Best Buy you won’t have to deal with any mail-in rebates. So, something to think about. Anyone out there going to pick this beast up?
Click here to view the embedded video.
[via NerdStalker TV]
