Eco Factor: Sustainable pedestrian-centric sports and recreation development.
NBBJ in partnership with CCDI have designed the Hangzhou Sports Park that is a vibrant, pedestrian-centric sports and recreational development that will be located in the midst of Hangzhou’s new urban environment. The development will provide picturesque and sustainable public spaces that aren’t often found in an urban setting.
Eco Factor: Using sunlight to split water into its constituent molecules.
A team of researchers at MIT have developed a process to replicate the natural process of photosynthesis in plants by engineering the M13 bacterial virus that can split water into its constituent molecules that is hydrogen and oxygen using abundant solar energy. The team hopes that the process can further be used to create hydrogen efficiently from water, which can later be used to produce electricity.
The Atlanta Hawks are not a very good defensive team allowing their opponents to hit on 46% of their shots. This will open up scoring opportunities for John Salmons and for Brandon Jennings to create offense for Milwaukee. Without Bogut in the middle for the Bucks the Hawks will find some good looks around the bucket. Take game 1 over.
Bet Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks over 186 ½ points
Courtesy of Tonys Picks
The US based, California tuners at ARKYM Aerosport have released a new styling kit for the BMW M3 E90 Sedan and E92 Coupe models. Slammed to the ground, this BMW M3 received a new front spoiler to give it an aggressive look and improve downforce. At the back it features a unique rear bumper with carbon fiber diffuser add-on and aftermarket adjustable muffler tips. The aerodynamic kit for the BMW M3 also includes a rear trunk spoiler to complete the exterior car tuning. All parts from ARKYM Aerosport are made from 2×2 Carbon Weave, which is one of the latest methods available in hi-gloss carbon and smoke matte finishes.
[Source: carsroute]
Toyota Canada has just announced a new recall, unique to the Canadian market due to exclusive floor mats only sold in that country. The floor mats are optional accessories for the 2007-10 Tundra, as well as the 2008-10 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid vehicles.
According to AutoNorth, Toyota Canada has just announced the second recall of the day, following a recall for 270,000 2WD Sienna minivans in Canada, this time for 4,774 units of Toyota’s “tray-type” floor mats.
The floor mats being recalled can pin the accelerator and cause unintended acceleration if unsecured, or improperly installed.
The floor mats were only sold for the 2007-10 Tundra full-size pickup, and 2008-10 Highlander and Highlander Hybrid mid-size SUVs.
References
1. ‘No joke – Toyota Canada issues…’ view
2. ‘Toyota Canada launches another…’ view
Source: Leftlane
The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif., “opened” Thursday night with a gala Art Deco affair that did splendid justice to the beautiful cars, photos and furniture inside.
Models dressed in period costume with period ‘dos draped themselves over what are arguably the world’s most beautiful Bugattis, Delages, Delahayes, Talbot-Lagos, Voisins and Hispano-Suizas. Similarly clad guests strolled about the perfect period decor, perfect right down to the Art Deco pillars holding up the ecologically friendly roof. There were even geniune French-speaking members of the real Bugatti family in attendance.
In all there are more than 100 of the world’s most beautiful cars strewn throughout the 50,000-square-foot museum. Cars from the Schlumpf collection make up many of the unrestored Bugattis in the hall’s downstairs, while the upstairs area is given over to racing Bugattis laid out on a faux track. The second floor is also where you’ll find Club Bugatti, an intimate den lined with artworks by various members of the early Bugatti family, reminding us that it wasn’t all about Ettore. Even the elevator to the second floor is Art Deco, or is it Machine Age, and had to be lowered into the building by crane through a hole in the roof.
It is one of, if not the greatest tribute to the age ever assembled.
But the date when the public can get in is still not set. The idea is for the museum to be open four days a month starting this spring, according to a press release. That’s precious little comfort to Art Deco fans who are not personal friends of museum founder and man of impeccable taste Peter Mullin. But good things come to those who wait. We will let you know an opening date as soon as we hear. In the meantime, reread The Great Gatsby and see about renting a flapper costume.
For more
CHICAGO- They call them The Sammies named after Sam Adams, and the contest is are unlike your typical award show. It’s a contest in which people from across the country submit entries for political activism. There are six categories, and the winners selected get a modest monetary award totaling $20,000.
And the winners are-
Watchdog: Brian Costin of Schaumburg, IL. Given for his work on exposing waste with Red Light Cameras.
Video: John Papola of NJ and Russ Roberts of Md. Given for “Fear the Boom and Bust”, a highly viewed You Tube video on complex economic theories.
Town Hall: Keli Carender, Seattle Wa. Given for her work on challenging Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA) on health care.
Tea Party: Jamie Radtke of Richmond, Va. Given for her work on creating a coalition of nearly 40 like organizations.
Blogger: David Frazier, Boise Idaho. Given for his blog Boise Guardian
Modern Day Sam Adams: Ed Osborne of Wilmington, DL. Given for his work on eminent domain
Watch segments here…
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Not one but two new grades to tackle the extreme demands of titanium milling are now being launched by Sandvik Coromant. Together these grades amount to a new level of reliable long lasting performance. Grades S30T and S40T are available for a variety of CoroMill cutters for face, shoulder, long-edge and high feed milling, plunging, profiling and slot milling.
Grade S30T for speed and tool life
S30T has been developed with productive titanium milling in focus. It combines the properties of micro-grain carbide and a wear resistant PVD coating. This enables very sharp cutting edges that resist fatigue and micro-chipping and result in cutting edges that are preserved for longer times in cut at higher cutting speeds.
Grade S40T for difficult conditions
S40T is developed for difficult conditions. It combines high toughness cemented carbide with a thin CVD coating. The result is a grade that withstands vibrations and other difficult cutting conditions for longer times in cut. The wear is predictable, making the cutting edge gradually duller without breaking.
Contact details for editorial enquiries
Contact: Kent Nordin
Tel: +46 26 266081
Email: [email protected]
Cognex today announced In-Sight® Track & Trace, an add-on software package for Cognex In-Sight vision systems. In-Sight Track & Trace delivers a ready-to-deploy data capture and verification solution designed to help pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers achieve unit-level product traceability. In-Sight Track & Trace combines powerful Cognex code reading and verification software with a pre-configured job file and HMI interface that reduces setup time and makes it easy to exchange data with third party systems as needed for a full serialization solution.
“Track and trace solutions are becoming a high priority throughout the health care industry as a means of preventing counterfeit products from entering the supply chain, and for keeping authentic products from being diverted to unauthorized distribution channels and uses,” said Bhaskar Banerjee, Business Unit Manager for Vision Systems at Cognex. “In-Sight Track & Trace provides the industry’s most reliable code reading and verification performance, and because it can be combined with a variety of third party products, users have the flexibility to customize and scale their serialization solutions to best suit their budgets and needs.”
In-Sight Track & Trace is GS1 and FDA 21 CFR Part 11-ready, and can be used with multiple networked In-Sight vision systems to:
• Read 2D and 1D barcodes, including Data Matrix, GS1-128, GS1 DataBar and Pharmacode.
• Verify correct ID code contents, including compliance with the GS1 Healthcare data standard.
• Grade Data Matrix codes during production to detect changes in print quality.
• Verify the accuracy of printed text.
• Detect label misalignment and skew.
Technical controls needed for FDA 21 CFR Part 11 validation are also provided, including secure user authentication and automatic audit trail generation.
In-Sight Track & Trace is easy to configure and operate using a simple touch screen interface. Developers can integrate the Track & Trace interface into a PC-based HMI or custom application using the included Cognex HMI Display Control for .NET. For a ready-to-deploy solution, In-Sight Track & Trace can also be controlled using the Cognex VisionView 700 Operator Interface panel or VisionView PC software.
Compact, all-in-one In-Sight vision systems are typically easier to integrate, maintain and validate for 21 CFR Part 11 compliance than PC-based vision systems, and are available in dozens of models to deliver the performance needed to meet the requirements of any application or packaging line.
To view a software demo and download a product datasheet on In-Sight Track & Trace visit
Taiyo Yuden Introduces World¡¯s First 100¦ÌF in EIA 0805 Size Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor
Uses Advanced Materials Technology and Thin Layer Technology to Achieve Reduction by about 62% of the Company¡¯s Previous Product Size
TOKYO, March 25, 2010 ¡ª Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. today announced details of the commercial release of the ¡°AMK212BJ107MG¡± (2.0×1.25×1.25mm), achieving an industry-leading capacitance of 100¦ÌF in an EIA 0805 size multilayer ceramic capacitor. It achieves the same
capacitance and performance of the previous Taiyo Yuden model, the EIA 1206 size ¡°AMK316BJ107ML¡± (3.2×1.6×1.6mm) in just 38% of the earlier volume. The product is optimum for IC power lines in smartphones and other high-performance mobile phones, and in notebook PCs, where steady demand for higher performance and expanded functions is coupled
with demand for more compact size.
With this release, the lineup of multilayer ceramic capacitors with 100¦ÌF capacitance has increased, with rated voltage up to 16V for the EIA 1210 size (3.2×2.5×2.5mm), to 6.3V for the
EIA 1206 size, and to 4V for the EIA 0805 size. This lineup should encourage more product substitution away from electrolytic capacitors. Furthermore, the product, together with compact, high-value products featuring 1¦ÌF capacitance in the EIA 0201 size and 10¦ÌF capacitance in the EIA 0402 size, shows that Taiyo Yuden is actively developing high-end multilayer ceramic capacitors.
Production will commence in March 2010 at the Company¡¯s Tamamura Plant in Gunma Prefecture, Japan at an output pace of 1 million units per month. Sample price is 70 yen per unit.
Technology Background High-performance mobile phones such as smartphones, and notebook PCs, are becoming ever
more compact with increased functions and higher performance. Moreover, such high performance and rich functions need to be incorporated into a limited chassis space. To this end,
the high-value multilayer ceramic capacitor used for the power line also needs to be smaller while also maintaining high performance.
Ever since Taiyo Yuden¡¯s commercialization of a nickel-electrode high-value multilayer ceramic capacitor in 1984, the company has advanced the materials technology of multilayer ceramic capacitors, thin layer technologies, and other technologies to promote ever more compact, higher-value capacitors. The ¡°AMK212BJ107MG¡± is the latest product of this
You know when you get games so dirt cheap that you buy them the moment you see their price? Well, the Madballs in… Babo: Invasion sale on Steam is one of those “games so dirt cheap that you buy them the moment you see their price” moments. For $2.49 you can enjoy this crazy game filled with multiplayer goodness right now on Steam. If you’re willing to shell a little more (88 cents, to be exact), you get two DLCs along with the main game for $3.37. If you are being miserly and want to play it for free, you can do so over the weekend too!
This is the 3D arena shooter with bad-looking orbs with legs that go about shooting things randomly. Being the spiritual successor to the massively popular BaboViolent 2 (which is free, my friends) this game promises oodles of fun while delivering its money’s worth – and that was when it was priced at $9.99.
For 75% off this game is an insane amount of godly awesomeness that you can play when you are bored of hardcore games or spreadsheets. It also has an ‘Invasion’ mode where maps are generated or created by a user on the fly – resulting in absolutely unique gameplay every time! Fun times ahead!
Buy Madballs in… Babo: Invasion on Steam today!
Kyle Bylin, over at Hypebot, has an excellent interview with Yan, the manager of the hip hop band Jedi Mind Trick, where he talks about how the band has embraced the internet to become much more successful. The interview is chock full of the type of thing we write about here. For example, on the band’s response to “file sharing”:
For JMT, it has been more of a blessing. Yeah, they’ve lost sales to illegal file sharing just like everyone else, but the efficiency of those file sharing networks has allowed their music to spread across the world in a way that the physical distribution network never achieved.Those file-sharing networks are definitely part of the reason why JMT can play a show in front of 2,000 kids in Bogota, Colombia or to a similarly-sized crowd in Bucharest, Romania. They may have lost sales, but they have gained new throngs of fans by playing live in places that their music may have never reached without the Internet. With the improvements in digital distribution, the hope is that file sharers will become supporters.
This highlights a really important point that many of the critics to these ideas often miss. They seem to assume a zero sum world, where those who embrace the free distribution of their work are automatically “giving up” sales. But what JMT has discovered is that by accepting this, they’ve build a huge fanbase in places where it wouldn’t have been possible before. As Yan notes later in the interview:
Over the 14 years of their career, the Internet enabled them to take what started as a passionate fan base in say Philly, NYC, Boston, and maybe a few other major cities like Los Angeles and grow that fan base across the world.Without the Internet, they may have been relegated to a regional phenomenon or maybe a group that plays 10-15 shows a year in major markets. With the help of the Internet, they’ve grown from a regional niche into a worldwide niche with a worldwide fan base. They’re 14 years into their career and there are still cities that they haven’t played where there is a demand to see them play, so they’re very fortunate in that respect.
Yan also shows how the band realized early on that the market had changed and (unlike some others) quickly figured out how to use that changing market to their own advantage:
The internet created an opportunity for them to have their music distributed across the world in a way that physical distribution hadn’t achieved. They recognized that opportunity and seized it by developing their worldwide touring business. In the early years, they took low guarantees to go play for their fans; they were confident that they would draw a crowd and get invited back. Now, those tour dates are the anchor of their business. Between the creative accounting of labels and depleting sales, they knew that they had to develop their touring business if they hoped to carve out a sustainable career. Ironically, in this digital age, artists are looking to the analog experience of playing a show to a crowd of actual human beings as the cornerstone of their businesses.
Furthermore, Yan talks about the importance of connecting with fans, and notes how that’s more important in the long run than how many albums are sold — in part because they know that they will get support via other means:
The rise of the social networks has been a great asset for JMT as well. Those networks have created unprecedented access for fans to artists and vice versa. Our business is a customer service business; we care about how the fans feel about the music. We’re always looking for new ways to interact with the fans, because the fans’ reactions to what JMT is doing musically are a better barometer of their success than SoundScan numbers. For a long time now, we’ve chosen to measure their success in the fans’ passion for the music rather than Billboard chart positions.
Not only that, but Yan also demonstrates how fans like supporting the indie bands and artists that they find. We’ve been hearing from some lately, who claim that no musician will be able to make money in the future because there will just be too much competition. But that assumes, incorrectly, that fans don’t want to support bands — they just need a good reason to buy:
It seems like human nature to root for the underdog. Fans of independent music are typically a different breed of music fan, because they generally have to work to discover you and they’re actively seeking out music rather than waiting for it to be spoon-fed to them through traditional radio, TV, etc. outlets, so when they discover you they wear it like a badge of honor. JMT has fans that send them pictures of themselves with tattoos of JMT’s logo or lyrics — they’re literally wearing the music as a permanent badge of honor. That type of passion isn’t measured by a Billboard chart, but we’re fine with that. We’ve built a business model that exists outside the gates of that hierarchy.
Great interview by Kyle, and it’s great to see yet another band that has this all figured out. In fact, they’ve got it so figured out that they’ve set up an artist management business to help other artists do the same thing as well.
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Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This
Looking for a superfood that is as effective at lowering cholesterol as cholesterol drugs, but with none of the associated side effects such as joint pain, muscle atrophy and degradation, weakness, liver or kidney failure? Look no further than … Read more
This week has been profitable for Open Source. We have seen the open sourcing of two software products and a lot more.
Lightworks is an academy award winning non-linear video editor. It has recently been open sourced by the holding company Editshare. Editshare has released Lightworks as a platform. This allows developers to write code for Lightworks plugins as well. We had covered the news of this open-sourcing. Also see OMG!Ubuntu.
Nvidia has released its first OpenGL driver for Linux. This driver is labelled 195.36.07.04 and will support all Fermi GPUs. The deprecated functionalities of older drivers will not be discarded though. Read more here.
Newteevee has shed light on the possible open-sourcing of the On2 video codec Google acquired earlier this year. Currently, H.264 and Ogg Theora are fighting to get the open-web standard. If this goes through, Google will introduce an unbeatable contender in the video codec race. Read more here.
Oracle has stopped distributing free OpenSolaris CDs. Though, you can still download the CD image from the website. The OpenSolaris community is also planning on forking OpenSolaris. Read more at the H-Online.
Connecting Tata Photon Whiz with Linux is easy. You just need to install wvdial and proceed with the tutorial given here.
As if it’s not enough that he turned his iPad into an overpriced name tag, this guy had to go a step further and let it dangle precariously from his neck. Geez. There are classier ways to announce your name. More »
We’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Iron Man 2, which will hit theaters on May 7. Audi has just released a new commercial featuring Tony Stark driving and showing off his new convertible R8.
Click here for prices on the 2010 Audi R8.
Check out the commercial after the jump.
Refresher: Power for the Audi R8 Sypder 5.2 FSI quattro comes from a 5.2L FSI direct-injected V10 making 525-hp and a maximum torque of 391 lb-ft. Mated a 6-speed manual (with an available 6-speed R tronic automatic), 0 to 62 mph in 4.1 seconds with a top speed of 194 mph. Fuel-economy comes in at an estimated 16 mpg when mated to manual transmission and 17 mpg when mated to an automatic.
– By: Omar Rana
The House Energy and Commerce Committee and its subcommittee on oversight have asked Toyota to present more information on what causes unintended acceleration of their vehicles. They scheduled a hearing for May 6. Rep. Henry Waxman, D – California, and Rep. Bart Stupak, D – Michigan wrote to Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales USA, asking him to testify.
Lentz was also asked to provide all contracts, correspondence and emails relating to unintended acceleration between Toyota and Exponent, a company hired recently by Toyota to test its vehicles.
Toyota said that it is “more than willing to meet with the committee and discuss the ongoing testing related to our electronic throttle control system, as well as the steps we are taking to improve our quality assurance processes.”
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive,” said Toyota spokesman John Hanson.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Detroit News
With its core employess gone, an insider source close to Infinity Ward says that the Call of Duty studio is now basically “dead” and will continue to crumble as the day goes by.
A judge in Ireland has ruled that plans by ISP Eircom to use a three-strikes system to yank file-sharers’ internet connections don’t violate the country’s privacy laws, and can move forward. Eircom instituted the plan after it was sued by a music industry trade group for not stopping file-sharing from occurring on its network, and the extreme language used by the judge would indicate that the group’s efforts to force other ISPs to play along have gotten a significant boost. The judge in the case said that copyright was “a fundamental right” under Irish law, and that “The right to be identified with and to reasonably exploit one’s own original creative endeavour I regard as a human right.” That’s a huge hole for record labels to drive their agenda through: now they’re fighting for human rights, like people trying to stop genocide, hunger, discrimination and other noble pursuits. U2 manager Paul McGuinness, an outspoken supporter of three-strikes rules, is understandably thrilled. But he still can’t explain how kicking people off the internet — and pissing off customers — is a viable business model.
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