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Foi confirmado pela Peugeot em um evento que aconteceu na Espanha, que o novo modelo 3008 vai sair no Brasil em 2010. O veículo possui características de uma minivan e um utilitário esportivo, vai estrar no mercado brasileiro no segundo semestre de 2010 e vai aparecer também no Salão do Automóvel de São Paulo em outubro.

O modelo possui quatro tipos de motorização, dois deles a diesel e dois a gasolina. É provável que a versão que virá ao Brasil vai ser a 1.6 turbo a gasolina de 156 cv e câmbio automático. Na Europa, o novo 3008 custa € 23,8 e possui controle eletrônico de estabilidade, freios ABS, air bags frontais, laterais e de cortina, rodas de liva leve 17 pol. e piloto automático.

Agora temos que aguardar maiores informações do lançamento no mercado nacional, pois não existem informações de valores e dos equipamentos que estão inclusos na nossa versão.

Imagens do novo utilitário da Peugeot

Via | Carplace

PALATINE, IL – The Harper College Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of Dr. Ronald Ally as the College’s new Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations, effective July 1, 2010. Dr. Ally has more than 17 years of experience in Illinois community colleges, having served as Vice President for Administrative Services and Treasurer at McHenry County College; Director of Financial Affairs and Controller at College of DuPage; and Controller at Moraine Valley Community College.

He will succeed Judy Thorson, Vice President of Administrative Services, who retired from Harper last year.

Dr. Ally is a Certified Public Accountant and a consultant and evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission, and is a former member of the Finance Advisory Committee of the Illinois Community College Board.

Most recently, he was Chief Financial and Operations Officer for School District U-46 in Elgin. His educational finance experience also includes serving as a manager at a public accounting firm that specialized in working with local and state government units, including community colleges, school districts and municipalities.

Dr. Ally holds a doctorate from Northern Illinois University, and has earned a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He has presented at national and local conferences and workshops on public finance topics, and has been active in professional organizations – serving as Secretary of the Illinois Association of School Business Officers’ Accounting Committee and Treasurer of the Community College Insurance Consortium, and sitting on committees for the Illinois CPA Society and the Central Association of College and University Business Officers. He holds an Illinois Type 75 Chief School Business Official certification.

Dr. Ally was chosen for the Harper position following a national search, and spent two days on campus with administrators, student leaders, faculty and other employees as part of the interview process.

He was formally appointed at the Harper College Board of Trustees’ regular meeting on Thursday, April 15.

From Green Right Now Reports

The Nature Conservancy, which has worked over the years to preserve California’s 278 state parks, wants residents to visit and enjoy these resources, especially as waters warm and flowers bloom this spring and summer.

So this week, the Nature Conservancy presented its picks for the “Ocean Oscars,” highlighting some of the best beach-side state parks. Here, by category, with descriptions written by the Nature Conservancy, are the winners:

• Best Urban Retreat – Eastshore State Park – San Francisco Bay Area.  This seashore is amidst one of the most developed areas in California.  Nestled right outside San Francisco, Eastshore State Park is an urban retreat with miles of walking and biking trails and panoramic views of the bay.  Tidal wetlands, marshes and sandy beaches are home to thousands of birds, delighting any naturalist or photographer.
  

  Point Lobos Natural Reserve

• Best Diving – Point Lobos State Reserve – Carmel. Often referred to as the “crown jewel” of California’s state park system, Point Lobos State Reserve (Point of the Sea Wolves) is truly a gem.  It’s one of the premiere protected dive sites on the famous Central Coast, with access at Whalers and Bluefish coves that are teeming with underwater life.  You’ll only see half of this majestic reserve unless you visit this underwater realm. But, the rest of the park is not half bad either …Whether it’s viewing endangered archeological sites, spotting migrating whales, seals, sea lions and birds, cataloguing unique plants and rock formations, exploring hidden coves, or talking a guided walk, this park has something spectacular for everyone.

• Best Adventure – Montana de Oro State Park – San Luis Obispo. The Conservancy worked with California State Parks to expand the magnificent Montana de Oro (Mountain of Gold), named for the golden wildflowers that carpet it every spring.  People looking for solitude and freedom come to this rugged and secluded spot to get away from it all. The beaches, especially Spooner’s Cove, coastal plains, canyons and streams are the perfect backdrop to have a weekend adventure. Some of California’s best camping, horseback riding, hiking and fishing can be experienced here, as well as guided tours, tidal pool exploring and charming historical sites.
  

  Huntington Beach State Park (Photo: California State Parks)

• Best Surfing – Huntington State Beach – Orange County. Southern California is one of the most famous places on Earth to hang ten, and Huntington State Beach is right at the epicenter offering world-class surfing and competitions. After catching some waves, you can hang out by a bonfire and watch the sun sink into the Pacific. This popular beach is also a nesting sanctuary for the California least tern, a rare and endangered species. The beach is also home to the threatened snowy plover. The park offers other activities, including a bicycle trail, volleyball, basketball, skating, and surf fishing.

• Best Walk on the Beach – Manchester State Park – Manchester. With five miles of gentle, sandy beach stretching out towards the Point Arena Lighthouse, Manchester State Park is the perfect place to take a long stroll with someone special.  The San Andreas Fault meets the sea, creating a dramatic backdrop. This park has over 18,000 feet of ocean frontage which includes flat grassland, sand dunes, and two outstanding steelhead streams, Brush Creek and Alder Creek.  Every spring coastal wildflowers dot the park, including sea pinks, poppies, lupines, baby blue eyes and blue irises.  Visitors can come for the day to hike and view wildlife, or stay overnight in the campground.

Tree at Tomales Bay State Park (Photo: Oscar Vasquez, California State Parks)

• Best Windsurfing – Tomales Bay State Park – Inverness. Just a short day trip from San Francisco, Tomales Bay State Park is a windsurfers’ mecca.  It is ideal for riding the wind, with four gently sloping, surf-free beaches protected from unmanageable winds by Inverness Ridge. Tomales is the backbone of the Point Reyes Peninsula.  And, the park boasts one of the finest remaining virgin groves of Bishop pine and an abundance of wildlife like foxes, bobcats, monarch butterflies, puffins and great blue heron.  It is a popular place for hiking, picnicking, swimming, clamming and boating.

• Best Swimming – Will Rogers State Beach – Los Angeles County. Not far from the bustle of Los Angeles and just off Pacific Coast Highway, Will Rogers State Beach is recognized all over the world as an iconic California beach.  It’s named after film legend Will Rogers and is where Baywatch was filmed.  It is also one of the nicest beaches in California to take a dip in the ocean and bask in the sunshine on a beach towel. Other activities include skin diving, horseback riding, surfing, volleyball, hiking and guided tours.

• Best Beachcombing – Andrew Molera State Park – Big Sur. In the heart of magical Big Sur, Andrew Molera State Park is still relatively undeveloped and offers some of the best beachcombing in California. Natural treasures are cast up from the sea and waiting along the tide line for the adventurous to claim. The park, a 7 1/2–mile jewel that was first protected by the Conservancy in 1965, offers some of the state’s best of surfing, camping, fishing, hiking, and biking. Miles of trails wind along Molera Ridge through chaparral and then drop into oak woodlands, redwood groves and stands of sycamores and madrones. Keep walking and you’ll find yourself at the beach, where the Big Sur River empties into the Pacific Ocean and the sun sets slowly into the horizon.

[JURIST] The Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General’s Office announced Friday that the son of deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Maksim Bakiyev, faces charges of abuse of power and misuse of state credit. Maksim Bakiyev ran Kyrgyzstan’s Central Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation and is accused of transferring USD $35 million of a $300 million loan from Russia into private bank accounts. In separate criminal cases, Maksim Bakiyev, along with his brother Marat and paternal uncle Janysh are also facing three charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
Also Friday, Kyrgyzstan interim leader Roza Otunbayeva announced that the government is working on a new constitution that will provide for a parliamentary democracy for the country. Kurmanbek Bakiyev officially resigned from the presidency on Thursday after a week of political chaos following violent political protests.Earlier this week, Otunbayeva said that Kurmanbek Bakiyev should stand trial for the recent violence. The protests, prompted in part by a drastic increase in utility costs, led to at least 84 deaths and many more injuries. On Tuesday, Kyrgyzstan’s interim government announced that the country’s highest court will be suspended until a permanent government is established. Roza Otunbayeva launched the interim government last week after violence forced Bakiyev to flee the capital. The protests came just one week after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Kyrgyzstan to protect all forms of human rights, including “free speech and freedom of the media.”

I stopped at the Don’t Fah Get™ booth at the International Home & Housewares Show because I wanted to know what it was exactly that they wanted me not to “fah get”, and learned that Don’t Fah Get is a line of very cool products. Don’t Fah Get freezer bags have a patented labeling system with spaces to write in the contents of the bag, and then the year, month, date, day of the week, and time you froze it. 

This is perfect for people who do bulk freezer cooking, or for freezing leftovers, and you’ll always know that your frozen food is safe to eat.   The freezer bags are designed to protect food from freezer burn, and have a secure seal to prevent leaks. And best of all, they aren’t expensive.  20 quart size freezer bags are $3.49, 15 gallon size freezer bags are $3.49. Other sizes are available, as well as food storage bags in sizes ranging from snack size to gallon size.

Visit Don’t Fah Get’s freezer bag page to see a complete list of sizes and prices. You can even pay with PayPal!  Although I did snag a sample freezer bag from Don’t Fah Get’s VP of Sales & Marketing during the home show, I’m not being compensated in any way for this post. I just really think this is a cool product! Check it out for yourself 🙂

Several publishers now set their own price for Kindle books, not Amazon. Which often means pricier than what Amazon was charging. And now Amazon says they’re adding sales tax on any book where the publisher sets the price. More »

[JURIST] A German court ruled Thursday that persons from the former East Germany do not constitute a unique ethnic group for discrimination prevention purposes. The matter arose when an East Berlin woman sued a Stuttgart company after the company rejected her employment application and returned her resume with the term “Ossi,” a derogatory term for someone with ties to the former East Germany, written alongside a minus sign. Though admitting the term’s negative connotation, the judge concluded that place of birth alone is inadequate to qualify as an ethnic group. Additional attributes such as tradition, culture, language, and religion must be considered, and the former East Germany is not sufficiently disparate from West Germany, per the court.
Many Germans believe that, though the physical barriers that once divided Germany no longer exist, a “wall in the mind” persists that leads to continued prejudice. A 2008 study concluded that 64 percent of those from the former East Germany believe they are regarded as “second-class citizens,” while 77 percent believe that those from West Germany receive preferential treatment. The same study revealed that 59 percent of those surveyed feel the country continues to consist of two distinct communities.

by Todd Woody

Dropping my son off at school on Wednesday, I ran into Danny
Kennedy, a fellow parent and veteran Australian Greenpeace activist turned
solar entrepreneur. How’s business? I
asked. Pretty bloody good, as it turns out. Kennedy’s startup, Sungevity, took in more orders for rooftop
solar systems in March than in all of 2009.

That solar flare is being fueled in large part, according to
Kennedy, by a new lease option Sungevity recently began offering its customers.
The option is financed through a $24 million deal with U.S. Bank. Rather than
purchasing a solar array, customers can lease the system through Sungevity for
a monthly fee, thus avoiding the considerable capital costs of buying the
system outright. The popularity of lease options, which are also offered by
bigger installers such as SolarCity, is another indication that creative
financing is as key to getting people to go solar as the performance of the
hardware.

As it happened, the Solar
Energy Industries Association annual report landed in my inbox later that same
day. It showed that Sungevity isn’t the only solar company looking at a very
good 2010.

Although the United
  States solar industry’s overall growth for
all types of solar energy slowed somewhat as the Great Recession reached its
nadir in 2009, residential rooftop installers had a record year. Companies like
Sungevity installed 156 megawatts of residential solar panels in 2009, up 101
percent from the previous year.

That’s an amazing number, considering one could reasonably
expect that putting a $25,000 solar array on one’s roof would fall to the
bottom of the home improvement list during the greatest economic downturn since
the Great Depression.

But there were other incentives. The Obama stimulus
package’s lifting of the $2,000 tax credit cap on home solar systems certainly
helped. As did solar panel makers’ price slashing due to the oversupply that
resulted from a ramp up in production. Solar module prices fell more than 40
percent in 2009, according to the SEIA report. That led to a 10 percent decline
in the cost of an installed solar array. (Installation costs typically account
for half the price of a solar array.)

As photovoltaic power has gotten cheaper, solar panels have
come off the roof and are being planted in the ground in huge solar farms. The
dramatic price declines in solar modules got the attention of California utilities in 2009. The utilities signed
power purchase agreements for hundreds of millions of megawatts’ worth of solar
power plants.

Utilities have also initiated huge solar distributed
generation programs. California’s
two biggest utilities, PG&E and Southern California Edison, last year
announced that, over the next five years, they would install a total of 1,000
megawatts on rooftops and in ground arrays near substations and cities.
(SunPower, the San Jose, Calif.-based solar module maker, recently won a
200-megawatt contract with Southern California Edison). When the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District put 100 megawatts of distributed solar up for bid,
the program sold out within a week.

All the activity attracted the attention of Chinese solar
module makers, whose California
market share more than doubled (to 46 percent) in 2009. One company, Yingli, arrived
in California
at the beginning of 2009 and ended the year with nearly a third of the market
share.

No surprise then that California
remains the solar capital of the country. In 2009, the state installed 200
megawatts of solar capacity, nearly four times the amount of New Jersey, the No. 2 solar state. (It’s no
coincidence that both states offer the nation’s most generous solar
incentives.) Altogether, California now boasts
a total solar capacity of 1,102 megawatts—10 times that of New Jersey. (That’s impressive, but still
less than about half of California’s
wind energy capacity.)

Once you get past California
and New Jersey,
however, the numbers drop dramatically. The third biggest solar state, Nevada, had just 100 megawatts of solar capacity
installed in 2009; No. 10, Massachusetts,
had 18 megawatts.

Still, the growth in the solar industry meant more green
jobs. Solar added 10,000 jobs plus 7,000 indirect jobs in 2009, even as the
overall unemployment rate soared. According to the SEIA, total solar employment
in the U.S.
stood at more than 45,000 last year, about evenly divided between direct and
indirect jobs.

The need to ramp up solar power is thrown into sharp relief when
you compare how much capacity the U.S. added in 2009 compared to
other countries. Germany,
the world’s biggest solar power thanks to years of generous subsidies,
installed 3,800 megawatts last year, according to the SEIA. That’s nearly twice
the total U.S. capacity and
eight times what the U.S.
installed in 2009. Germany
now generates 9,677 megawatts of solar electricity. (Even the Czech Republic
installed nearly as much as the U.S.
in 2009, putting 411 megawatts online.) Solar currently supplies less than 1
percent of America’s
electricity.

However, if you consider the huge numbers of massive
megawatt solar thermal power plants planned for the desert Southwest, the U.S. is poised
to become a solar superpower. (Solar thermal plants use arrays of mirrors to
focus sunlight on liquid-filled boilers that create steam to drive
electricity-generating turbines.)

The SEIA says there are 10,583 megawatts of solar thermal
power plants in the pipeline. Licensing those big solar farms—and securing
the billions of dollars needed to build each one—has proven to be a laborious
process. Only 81 megawatts in the pipeline are currently under construction.

But to put things in perspective, the solar thermal project
closest to being licensed—BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah plan in Southern
California—will generate nearly as much electricity as all the photovoltaic
panels installed in 2009.

Given the trends in the solar industry, the SEIA says
prospects in 2010 are looking bright, with growth continuing. Expect a big bump
in rooftop solar thermal systems, which collect sunlight to heat water, as a
new California
subsidy program kicks into gear.

All of which is good news for Sungevity’s Danny Kennedy. The
boom in demand has him scrambling to secure supplies of solar panels. That’s a
nice problem to have in the Great Recession.

Related Links:

Pollution limits are essential for clean energy investments

Know your solar

China’s changing energy economy

Yesterday evening, we posted a handful of images that were going around the Internets, purportedly showing the back of the next-gen iPhone (iPhone 4, iPhone HD, whatever you want to call it.) We spent more than half of the post decrying them as fakes — and it looks like we were right.

A french 3D modeler going by Jpog has fessed up, claiming that he made the images with 3DS Max. That explains the Photoshop meta-data that was floating around inside the images; after rendering, he presumably went in and added a bit of noise to simulate the grainy feel of a crummy camera in a low light situation.

To prove that it was his work, he provided a snapshot of his workspace showing the quick render sans lighting effects. Seems like a lot of work to make a bit of fuss on some blogs — but hey, it got his work out there. Lets just not make a habit of crying wolf, kay Jpog?

[Thanks Andrew!]

Sony Ericsson today posted their Q1 results for 2010, and the results are… good!
Despite most analysts predicting a net loss (a recent Reuters poll of analysts showed an average estimated loss of €157m), Sony Ericsson have gone and surprised everyone by turning a €18m profit.

This time last year they posted a €370m loss, and have posted losses for the last 7 quarters. Needless to say, this is a great turn-around for the company.

Staff cutbacks and a shift of focus to higher-margin smartphones are to thank, with this profit coming despite selling about 28% less handsets than they did in Q1 2009. Their new strategy has meant their average price of handset has now increased from €120 to €134, and their margins have shot up from 8% to 30%.

With this strategy proving a success, expect Sony Ericsson to continue to release high-end handsets like the Xperia X10 and Vivaz/Pro in the future.

[via The Register]

On Twitter today geographile linked to some pareidolia that I simply have to keep you abreast of. I won’t post the picture; instead I’ll just send you to the article and note that it is very mildly NSFW and NSF people with grown up sensibilities.

But it made me smile.

Oh– keep the comments clean, folks!

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has voted to create a new database of consumer complaints that will allow consumers to “see complaints of injuries or potential harm that are filed to the commission by consumers, safety groups, health care professionals and others,”
says the Chicago Tribune. Previously this information only became public after it led to a recall.

When a new complaint is filed, the CPSC will give the manufacturer 10 days to review it before it goes public. This, of course, is not hugely popular with manufacturers.

“Our primary concern is that information might be provided to the public which is not accurate or which might even be malicious,” said Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association, which represents more than 530 toy manufacturers and importers. “The damage that could be done to a company’s reputation and sales could be irreparable.”

The CPSC is like, yeah, sorry, too bad:

“We’re not going to make everybody happy,” CPSC commissioner Bob Adler, an avid database supporter, acknowledged at a recent agency meeting. “It will be an incredible balancing act.”

New database to help people make ‘safe’ choices when buying strollers, grills and more [Chicago Tribune]

“The most important thing is to understand that before we do a military operation in Afghanistan, we really have got to get the consent of the people who are going to be affected by that operation,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal told Pentagon reporters in March, previewing his efforts to secure the support of Afghans in Kandahar before a scheduled June push to take the city out of insurgent hands. Recent complications between the Obama administration and President Hamid Karzai appeared to contribute to Karzai raising the stakes: he told a Kandahar council recently that the operation wouldn’t take place without local support, as McChrystal watched on the sidelines.

All that raised questions about whether or how McChrystal could in fact secure the local support he desires, and whether he would scotch the operation if he couldn’t. To clarify, I asked his spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis.

“We remain committed to political dialogue in Kandahar and elsewhere: through the discussions that coalition officials have with Afghans in shuras and meetings with Afghan officials, and through the discussions that Afghan officials have with other Afghans,” Sholtis said in an email. “No one of those events is decisive, but cumulatively they should help develop a measure of consensus on the way ahead — measured, as in most domestic policy decisions, with some respect for available numbers (polls, tallies of key community leaders) but largely through the judgment of Afghan government leaders and their coalition partners.”

I asked Sholtis to clarify how McChrystal is collecting information and measuring the local sentiment in advance of the possible offensive. He didn’t want to get into detail — “it might endanger the sources” — but he indicated that the command has launched a fairly intense period of Afghan solicitation. “There are multiple discussions on the way ahead in Kandahar on
any given week at the national, provincial and local level among ISAF representatives, Afghan government officials and Kandaharis,” Sholtis said.

ISAF, the formal acronym for McChrystal’s NATO command, believes it’s already achieved “current community consensus” around a need to improve security for Kandaharis and reduce the influence of the local Taliban. “What remains to be done is determining the nature and scope of the effort to do that,” Sholtis said. So does that mean the operation could be called off? “We haven’t eliminated any options from consideration with respect to securing Kandahar.”

On Monday, a disaster on the roads outside Kandahar occurred when ISAF forces mistakenly opened fire on a civilian bus that, it was later determined, posed no threat to a military convoy. Joe Klein reports from Afghanistan that the commander of the soldiers involved in the accident went “stall to stall” at a local bazaar to try to earn back local trust. How the civilian deaths — and the prospect of more Kandaharis caught in the crossfire of a major offensive — will impact what McChrystal hears from the locals, and what he does as a result, remains to be seen.

Parliament is closed, manifestos are being published, and some serious analysis of who is wearing what colour tie has begun. Welcome to the general election 2010.

For campaigners like myself it is actually the election campaign period that is more interesting than the result. We hope that our supporters use this vital period to raise some key questions about poverty and climate change. The more our supporters do that the more a new government – of whatever tie-colour – will make those issues their priority.

If you haven’t already, contact your local candidates on the issues you care about.

If you have already lobbied local candidates then its time to move straight on to party leaders! In a first for a UK general election, the three main party leaders are going to be facing each other in a series of televised debates. Yesterday was the first, on domestic affairs, and it’s created a real buzz in our office (and not just about the colours of the ties). Undoubtedly these debates will be a highlight of the campaign, with some commentators stressing that this could be a real make-or-break moment for the three men hoping to be named Prime Minister next month.

We need the leaders to be talking about poverty and climate change in these debates and you can help make this happen. Here are the details of the debates, how to submit a question, and also some ideas for what to ask:

The debate on international affairs is happening on Thursday 22nd April
Why not ask:
All the main parties have committed to spending 0.7% of national income as overseas aid by 2013, but will you commit to making annual increases in the aid budget from this year, towards meeting that target?

Climate change is already having an effect on the world’s poorest people. Will you commit the UK to providing its fair share of the money needed – $200bn each year by 2020 – to help poor countries adapt to climate change and move towards low carbon development. Will you ensure that this is additional to existing promises to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid?

Submit your question

The final debate on the economy is taking place on Thursday 29th April
Why not ask:
The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on banks that could raise billions for fighting poverty at home and abroad, and to tackle climate change. Will you support a unilateral tax on sterling currency transactions of 0.005%, and international calls for a tax on all financial transactions of 0.05%?

Submit your question

Good luck getting your question asked and don’t forget to watch on the night!

KNOXVILLE — A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, undergraduate student and a 2009 graduate have been given the tools to grow their own business, thanks to the Vol Court program at UT.

Daniel Smith, a senior in aerospace and engineering, and David Teeters, a 2009 graduate of mechanical engineering, won the April 13 competition that concluded Vol Court, a series of nine free how-to seminars led by entrepreneurs and business experts from across the state.

Smith and Teeters’ business, “Boulder Booties,” beat out seven other teams of budding entrepreneurs to win $1,000 to launch their business, space at the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) business incubator, mentoring from Technology 2020’s Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (CEG) and 10 hours of legal advice from Miller & Martin PLLC — a prize package worth more than $20,000.

During the competition, teams had eight minutes to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges that included a local venture capitalist, current and former entrepreneurs and a lawyer. The program is a joint effort of UTRF, the College of Business Administration’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and the CEG.

As recreational and competitive rock climbers, Smith and Teeters saw a problem that needed a solution. Climbing shoe soles are easily damaged by dirt and debris and are not meant to be worn on the ground. This damage degrades the “stickiness” of the shoe, making it less safe. Yet, taking the shoes off is not a convenient option since climbing shoes are typically very tight-fitting. “Boulder Booties” slip over rock climbing shoes and protect them, thus solving the conundrum.

“‘Boulder Booties’ started out as an idea on a napkin in a fast food place, but we really thought that it was an innovative product and that people would buy it,” Smith said. “We were brainstorming ideas over Christmas break and decided that ‘Boulder Booties’ had the most potential.”

With the winnings, the pair’s first priority is to begin purchasing the intellectual property rights for the company. Smith and Teeters aim to sell their product nationwide in retail stores and at popular climbing sites. Currently, the booties can be bought for $30 online at http://www.boulderbooties.com.

Smith and Teeters launched “Boulder Booties” in January, before the Vol Court began, but they feel the program has given them the tools they need to make this business venture, and any future venture, a success.

“We have both learned an immense amount from this process and feel that if either of us comes up with another great idea, that it would be easier for us to replicate this success,” Smith said. “Business planning, market research, intellectual property, Web design, graphic design and financing are all skills that we have learned and will apply to other projects in the future.”

For more information on Vol Court, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu/news/.

The CEI facilitates entrepreneurial knowledge creation and dissemination through research, teaching and practice in the area of entrepreneurship. It strives to develop entrepreneurial talent who will start businesses or contribute to the success of existing technology-driven businesses. The center provides experiential learning activities that enhance classroom instruction in entrepreneurship and innovation, offers links between the regional entrepreneurial community and the university, and acts as a hub for cross-campus initiatives that foster the growth of entrepreneurial research and commercially viable enterprises. For more information, visit http://cei.utk.edu/.

The CEG is an entrepreneurial support organization within Technology 2020, one of the primary drivers of innovation and economic development in the region. The CEG helps entrepreneurs develop an execution strategy that leads to a sustainable company. In addition to its strategic planning process, the CEG develops and delivers entrepreneurial training seminars. For more information, visit http://www.tech2020.org/ceg_about.html.

UTRF helps turn the ideas and discoveries that emerge from the University of Tennessee into products and services that benefit society. In addition to supporting the growth of research at UT and commercialization of the resulting inventions, UTRF champions entrepreneurship and drives state and regional technology-based economic development. UTRF serves all seven of the UT campuses and institutes across the state. For more information, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu.

—

C O N T A C T:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, [email protected])

When Microsoft wants to you hire you, it drops a “love bomb” on you, according to a person we spoke with who Microsoft wooed. More »

Today marks Rosh Chodesh Iyar, the beginning of the Hebrew month of Iyar. Rosh Chodesh, which literally means “head of the month,” is the holiday that marks the beginning of each month in the Jewish calendar.

Throughout the year, we have been covering the events surrounding the Women of the Wall (WOW), a progressive prayer group that meets at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem to pray together each month on Rosh Chodesh. In late 2009 Nofrat Frenkel was arrested for wearing a prayer shawl, or tallit, while praying at the Wall, and in January 2010, Anat Hoffman, who serves as director of the Israel Religious Action Center and leader of Women of the Wall, was interrogated and fingerprinted due to the actions of this group.

Yesterday, the Women of the Wall celebrated the new month of Iyar at the Kotel. Iyar is the month of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which falls next Tuesday. The Women of the Wall gathered in prayer, singing melodies that reflect Israel’s struggle for independence. A record 150 women and men participated in today’s service.

I had a chance to speak with both Anat and Michelle Handelman, the Public Relations coordinator for Women of the Wall, about their experiences at Rosh Chodesh services yesterday. Read on for their stories, successes, and more photos from this month! Below, a wife and husband pray on either side of the mechitzah at the Women of the Wall services for Rosh Chodesh Iyar yesterday. (AP)

In the past, the Women of the Wall were hassled by police officers at the entrance to the Kotel when they tried to bring a Torah scroll with them to pray. As Anat and Michelle explained, this month, the police did not allow WOW to bring its Torah scroll into the women’s section; instead, one of WOW’s supporters, Matan Glazer, brought a Torah scroll in a duffel bag into the plaza area behind the women’s section. According to Glazer, a border police officer informed him that their orders were that women could not hold the Torah during the services at the Western Wall. Further, the police officer told him that if he gave the Torah to a woman, the officer would put him in jail.

At previous meetings of the Women of the Wall, those gathering in prayer have faced insults and harassment from ultra-Orthodox men who do not believe that women should be allowed to wear tallitot, or prayer shawls, or read from the Torah while at the Kotel. When WOW held services during the middle of Passover a few weeks ago, several men shouted insults and threw chairs over the mechitzah, or dividing wall, that separates the men’s and women’s sections of the Kotel.

This month, services progressed smoothly until the Sh’ma, at which point an ultra-Orthodox rabbi on the men’s side began shouting, “You are not Jewish! You have come from abroad to destroy pure Judaism.” The Women of the Wall responded by focusing on their prayers.

While many participants in WOW services have made aliyah or are students at Hebrew Union College, the Reform Movement’s seminary, Anat emphasized the importance of the groundswell of support from progressive Jews around the world, including many of our URJ congregations.

Anat went to speak with the Chief of Police of the Kotel, Raphael Malichi, about the man who shouted at them. Malichi told her that the individual was a paratrooper who had participated in liberating the Western Wall during the reunification of Jerusalem, so he was able to do “whatever he wanted.” As Anat aptly commented to me today, “he liberated the Wall, and now we [the Women of the Wall] are trying to liberate the wall from him!”

In a new development Malichi did permit the thirty women in tallitot to wear them, but instructed them to conceal the tzitzit, or the fringes of the tallit. Further, Malichi explained that the women were permitted to wear tallitot as long as they “were not black and white…if they were colorful and looked like scarves” then the women were permitted to wear them.

Overall, Anat believes “we are making advances on the ground,” both for religious freedom for the Women of the Wall and more broadly for religious pluralism in Israel. Anat is especially encouraged that 30 women were able to wear tallitot and more than 20 male supporters joined the Women of the Wall this month. Anat was also proud to share with me that six women were called for their first every aliyah to the Torah during the Torah service, which she described as a “very moving moment.” (Photo courtesy of Michelle Handelman)

As a final note, Anat emphasized that “it is of extreme importance that we continue our guard of the Wall. [Not all] people think that the Wall is a place we should focus on, but I believe that it is.” Although only one of many battlegrounds in the fight for religious freedom in Israel, the actions of the Women of the Wall and their supporters are a quintessential example of the advances made by progressive Judaism. This month, as we celebrate Israel’s Independence, we also celebrate and work toward greater freedom of religion for all Jews.

Are you holding your own Rosh Chodesh Iyar event in solidarity with Women of the Wall? If so, email a description and photos to me and [email protected]! You can also follow the Women of the Wall on Facebook or Twitter (@womenofthewall) for more information and photos. Finally, the URJ maintains a clearinghouse webpage for news, educational resources, and blog posts about the Women of the Wall at http://urj.org/israel/wow/. Chodesh Tov!

On Monday, April 19, from 12:00pm – 1:00pm, the Center for American Progress Action Fund will host the launch of my new book, Straight Up: America’s Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions.

Everyone can watch the webcast here.  Details below:

As we approach the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the scientific realities about the warming of our world are becoming increasingly dire, an epic legislative battle looms in the Senate over whether the United States will be part of the solution or perpetuate the problem, and the mainstream media—hemorrhaging qualified science and environmental reporters—is paralyzed and unable to effectively inform a public that increasing seeks out information from online sources and the ever-expanding blogosphere.

Amid this backdrop, please join Dr. Joseph Romm in conversation with Center for American Progress Action Fund President and CEO John Podesta as they take on the science, the politics, the solutions, and the media.

Featured Author:
Joseph Romm, author, Straight Up; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Moderated by:
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress Action Fund

The event is already SRO, so there’s only room for journalists, who can Click here to RSVP for this event.