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Google is reportedly teaming up with Sony and Intel to create a set top box based on the Android OS to bring home viewers rich web content via Android right on their TV screen.

Set top boxes are nothing new to media savvy homes, and are increasing in popularity–so to see Google branching into this realm does not surprise me. What does, however, is the fact that they are working with Sony, who arguably has a moderately successful media player out already, called the PS3. Whatever the motivation for Sony to work with Google, it is an exciting development both for the Android platform, and for media enthusiasts who have gone to an a la carte method of consuming their media.

There are no specs for the unit as of yet, but it is said to be powered by Intel’s Atom chip. Google is rumored to be hoping that app developers will take to developing for Google TV like they have for Android handsets. They want to deliver web content through lightweight apps similar to what is already deployed for the Android Mobile OS.

If Google can really pull this together and put it out there with a quality front end and at a reasonable price, this may be something worth looking at. As an HTPC user myself, my family uses Boxee as its front end. While it is in Beta stage and has some bugs, it has been one of the best experiences we have had with online media.  I mention this because Boxee has deployed several “apps” on their system, allowing you to reach different web sites and content with one click of a button. Google would be wise to check out what the plan Boxee uses to make their system work, and see if they can implement their front end the same way.

There is no one set top box out there that has yet dominated the market, perhaps the Google TV will finally be the one Box to rule them all.

Might We Suggest…

• Droid Incredible Pre-Order: April 19th!
  The gang over at Phandroid just broke that the Droid (HTC) Incredible will be available for pre-order in just a few days! Over the last week or so there have been brief glimpses of the Incredible bein…

One of our favorite picnic scenes ever is from Charles and Ray Eames’ short film, Powers of Ten. It’s set on the Chicago lakeside, where a young man and woman are enjoying a leisurely outdoor afternoon of food, reading, and napping. Some of our favorite details from the picnic:

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There’s an excellent article on the history of the Multidiscplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organisation that has done much to bring psychedelic drug investigation back into the mainstream of medical research, in that well known bastion of science journalism, Playboy.

I must admit to being a bit embarrassed when I was caught reading the article as I usually only buy the magazine for the photo-shopped pictures of girls in bikinis.

For people who want to avoid such embarrassment the organisation has put a 10Mb pdf of the article online that is mostly safe for work (artistic depiction of flying topless woman with a statue’s head, wings and pills coming out of her ears – sounds better than it is).

The piece weaves together the history of the organisation with a somewhat alarming account of a young woman with terminal cancer being treated by an ‘underground psychedelic therapist’.

The account itself is quite touching, although the fact there are people going around giving terminally ill patients various powerful and illegal hallucinogenic drugs doesn’t inspire me with a great deal of confidence to say the least. However, it is an interesting look into this phenomenon, which, I have to say, was news to me.

In terms of the use of such drugs in clinical research, the article doesn’t really give a good analysis of the likely advantages and disadvantages of such an treatment (the studies so far are promising but small and poorly controlled) but is an interesting insight into how psychologist Rick Doblin make hallucinogenic drug research cautiously respectable again.

There seems to also be a bit of an upsurge in public interest in the topic over the last few days, with an article in The New York Times and a piece in Scientific American discussing these reality bending compounds.

pdf of article ‘The New Psychedelic Renaissance’ [10Mb] (via @mocost)

Pig manure is one step away from a transformation of metamorphic proportions.  The lowly waste product, notorious for its impact on the environment and on human olfactory nerves, is on the verge of becoming an important alternative to petroleum now that scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a process for converting raw pig manure to crude oil.  With further development, the process may even yield biodiesel.

If successful commercially, the process would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from pig farms and many other types of livestock operations.  In particular, it could help protect drinking water supplies in livestock farming areas.

(more…)

Late Late Night FDL: Hurricane
Bob Dylan — Hurricane featuring Scarlet Rivera on violin.

Bob Dylan — Hurricane featuring Scarlet Rivera on violin.

What’s on your mind?

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It was no ‘White-Out’ that’s for sure
The Tea Partiers…whatever.

pic via Rodney White, Des Moines Register

Behold the gathering masses on the Capitol Grounds in my home town.

More than 1,000 Tea Party supporters showed up for Thursday’s tax day rally outside the Iowa Capitol to vent their frustration at the expanding power of government.

The number was fewer than organizers hoped for, but authorities described the crowd as orderly.

Well, there’s a surprise, if there’s one thing right-wingers can do it’s orderly. Maybe they were fewer than last year because the Sky God was angry…or maybe it’s even more overrated than we’ve been overrating it.

Sadness was nationwide…poor Glenn Reynolds was stuck in Cincinnati with a sad or was it the other way around? Oh, Jonah Goldberg was there, so it was clearly both.

Meanwhile, Sean Hannity — who was supposed to do his show from here live — has had to go back to New York on some sort of personal emergency, but the folks here, though disappointed, still seem full of energy.

That personal problem was the Teapartiers thinking they were bigger than Rupert Murdoch.

And no matter where they sort of assembled they are full of awesome quotes:

Johnson expressed opposition to President Obama. “It’s not just because he’s black”

Yeah, that’s only one reason, Andrew Breitbart demands you take note!

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Creaky beds are no fun. So Ben cranks up the cables on the Stora and stops the squeaks.

Ben says, “My son has a Stora loft bed.  We like it, especially as he has high ceilings in his room.  However, even after tightening up the bolts several times, the frame still creaked and moved too much for my liking.  I thought about lag bolting part of the frame to the wall, but that seemed to be painful.

Here’s the original bed:

Here it is, all cabled up:

I decided to put in some cross bracing, but didn’t want to put in some wood diagonals.  My father suggested some cable cross bracing, so I gave it a try.  I went a bit overboard and got stainless steel cable for the looks. Originally I was going to put in lag eyes to thread the cable through, but I decided for the back to go with through bolts – I found 3/8″ stainless steel ones at home depot with bolts to match, as well as the turnbuckles to tighten the cable.

I went on webriggingsupply.com to buy the cable because I didn’t like the options at Home Depot or Lowes. I bought Type 304 very flexible Stainless Steel Aircraft Cable from there (if it’s called aircraft cable why does it say it’s not for aircraft?).  I also bought “eye nuts,” from there, which thread on the other end of the through bolts and let me thread the cable on the inside, and copper duplex sleeves and stops to use on the cable.

The “swager,” is an expensive piece of equipment most places, which allows you to squeeze the sleeves to make them tighten around the cable to form loops.

I was lucky to find one for about 30 bucks at Lowes, about half the price of the other places.  For the front posts (the ladder side) I bought stainless steel eyes, again from Home Depot.  I then threaded the cable around. Instead of having four pieces of cable and two turnbuckles for each “X,” I decided to try running the cable up one post, diagonally to the other post, up the other post, and then diagonally down, with a turnbuckle in between.

There is minimal slippage of cable in the eyes, and this works great – the bed frame is much stiffer and hardly creaks when he goes to bed anymore.

FYI, that’s a Gustav desk under the loft bed that my brother-in-law didn’t want.”

Journalism’s Parasites
It’s time to shame by name the access traders, double agents and watchdog turncoats destroying journalism for their own personal gain. By David Sirota

It’s time to shame by name the access traders, double agents and watchdog turncoats destroying journalism for their own personal gain.

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Icelandic Volcano Grounds Flights Across Europe
A volcano under the Eyjafjallajoekull (got that?) glacier in Iceland spewed a hefty cloud of ash into the air Thursday, turning airports across Europe into no-fly zones and leaving stranded travelers little hope of taking off until midday Friday or later.  —KA BBC: Eurocontrol, which covers 38 nations across Europe, said the ash ejected by the volcano underneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would continue to move in a south-easterly direction. Based on the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, normal air traffic control services could not be provided to flights in airspaces affected by volcanic ash, requiring the temporary suspension of air traffic, it added. Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines. Read more

A volcano under the Eyjafjallajoekull (got that?) glacier in Iceland spewed a hefty cloud of ash into the air Thursday, turning airports across Europe into no-fly zones and leaving stranded travelers little hope of taking off until midday Friday or later.? —KA

BBC:

Eurocontrol, which covers 38 nations across Europe, said the ash ejected by the volcano underneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would continue to move in a south-easterly direction.

Based on the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, normal air traffic control services could not be provided to flights in airspaces affected by volcanic ash, requiring the temporary suspension of air traffic, it added.

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Read more

Related Entries

• April 15, 2010 A Supreme Court Choice We Can Believe In
• April 15, 2010 Journalism’s Parasites

Tom Vander Ark: The New Learning Landscape
This week I talked to: â?¢ an education author, a blogger, and consultant; â?¢ two districts executing a multi-provider portfolio strategy; â?¢ a charter management…

National Day of Prayer Unconstitutional, Judge Rules
WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal district judge in Wisconsin has ruled that the 1988 law creating the annual observance of the National Day of Prayer is…

Steve King Grabs Cameraman After Questions On IRS Attack (VIDEO)
Congressman Steve King (R-IA) grabbed Think Progress’ Victor Zapanta Thursday at a tax day tea party rally and argued with the cameraman, after being asked…

Obama Orders Hospital Visitation Rights For Gay, Lesbian Couples
WASHINGTON (AP)â?? In a move hailed as a step toward fairness for same-sex couples, President Barack Obama is ordering that nearly all hospitals allow patients…

Right-wing class warriors launch Tax Day offensive

In recent days, right-wing media figures have stoked class warfare while discussing taxes, asserting that it’s not “fair” for the government to “steal” money from those who “succeed” and give it to — in the words of Wayne Allyn Root — “those who couldn’t care less, sit on the couch, and watch Oprah all day.” These media figures have suggested that those without federal income tax liability or those who benefit from tax credits or government assistance are “freeloaders” who don’t work hard or succeed.

Right-wing media mark Tax Day by attacking less fortunate as “freeloaders”

Stuart Varney: Is it “fair” for government to take “half” of money earned by those who “succeed” and give it to others because they make less money? On the April 15 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Fox Business’ Stuart Varney said: “Just think of the fairness issue. Is it fair that you go out, start a small business, you work hard, you save your money, you don’t spend lavishly. You succeed, and then the government takes half your income — and that’s what’s happening these days — the government takes half your income and gives it to other people, solely on the grounds that they make less than you do. So it’s only fair for you to share. I maintain that’s not fair.”

Wayne Allyn Root: “It’s greedy to ask government and the IRS at gunpoint … to steal [money] from others” and give it “to those who couldn’t care less, sit on the couch, and watch Oprah all day.” On the April 15 Fox & Friends, former Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root said: “It’s not greedy to want to keep more of your own money. It’s greedy to ask government and the IRS at gunpoint and the threat of prison to steal it from others who earn it and redistribute it to those who don’t. That’s the definition of greed.” He later stated: “I am diametrically opposed to my old college classmate Barack Obama, who seems to think you take it from the people that work all day to earn it, and you redistribute it to those who couldn’t care less, sit on the couch, and watch Oprah all day. That’s not my crowd.”

Wall Street Journal op-ed: “Why should I have to carry so many people on my back?” In an April 14 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Mike Donahue, “a financial adviser in La Jolla, California,” wrote: “I have more than most only because I’ve worked harder than most and because I am a saver. It was not easy.” He continued:

Why then does the government feel so entitled to take my money and give it to others? Why should I have to carry so many people on my back? Call me cruel. I don’t care. I give to whom I choose — but since so much is confiscated (and wasted in the process) I have little left I wish to give.

During the 1990 recession I could have qualified for state and federal assistance, but my wife and I managed to get by as she worked nights while we juggled our infant daughter between us. It was hard. However, it never occurred to us to take from others to subsidize our shortage. It’s not our way.

Phyllis Schlafly: Tax Day “divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders.” In an April 13 column, Phyllis Schlafly wrote: “Income tax day, April 15, 2010, now divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders.” She later wrote: “The bottom 40 percent not only pay no income tax, but the government sends them cash or benefits financed by the taxes dutifully paid by those who do pay income tax.”

Bernie Goldberg: “If we continue down a road where we’re giving half the country free stuff, they will continue to take it, and they will drive us and this country into bankruptcy.” On the April 12 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Bernie Goldberg said: “You can’t have a system where you give people — half the country — free stuff, because they’re going to take it. And the other half of the people are pulling the wagon while the half that gets free stuff is sitting in the wagon. They’re going to take the wagon right to the poorhouse.” Goldberg later called for a flat tax and stated, “If we continue down a road where we’re giving half the country free stuff, they will continue to take it, and they will drive us and this country into bankruptcy.”

Only Dead Fish: In Handling Finances, Palin Appears To Be Looking Out For Number One
It looks like the guiding principle behind Sarah Palin’s handling of her finances is: Look out for number one.

Koch Industries: We Don’t Fund Tea Parties (Except For The Tea Parties We Fund)
Koch Industries, a major backer of myriad right-wing causes, has never provided funding “specifically to support the tea parties,” said Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia in an unsolicited message that landed in our inbox last night in advance of Tax Day.

ResearchBlogCast is now on iTunes. You can search for it under “ResearchBlogCast” in the iTunes store and subscribe, or, just subscribe via this web page. We’re talking about the DASH diet next. Feel free to suggest ideas if you have anything clever, or want to hear our opinions on a specific topic. Just not something weird like Calvinist soteriology where there’s no chance that any of us are going to be able to follow the lingo.

Palin and the Pope Circling the Drain

Reid Loses Full Ballot Test
A new Mason-Dixon poll shows Sen. Harry Reid (D) losing to challenger Sue Lowden (R) even when third-party and nonpartisan candidates are included on the ballot.

Lowden leads Reid, 47% to 37%, with the other candidates getting very little support.

Said pollster Brad Coker: “The bottom line is that adding all these minor candidates won’t really bleed support away exclusively from the Republican. They’re not really bleeding much support from either candidate, Reid or Lowden, and if they do siphon off votes, it’ll probably be about half and half.”

Freedom Federation Summit: A Sleepy Awakening

The Freedom Federation Summit taking place April 15-16 at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia was billed as the next Great Awakening, the inaugural gathering of “a new movement [that] is forming in America comprised of people of all races, ethnicities and generations.” With the mobilizing power of dozens of religious right organizations behind […]

They’re Trying to Call HIV-Positive People Bioterrorists?
HIV-positive Daniel Allen was charged with ‘possession or use of a harmful biological device’ after biting his neighbor during a neighborhood fight.

HIV-positive Daniel Allen was charged with 'possession or use of a harmful biological device' after biting his neighbor during a neighborhood fight.

Who Are the Hutaree Militia, And Why Do They Want to Kill Cops?
Christian Soldiers of the Apocalypse have been running around the woods of Michigan planning attacks on federal law enforcement in their war against the Antichrist.

Christian Soldiers of the Apocalypse have been running around the woods of Michigan planning attacks on federal law enforcement in their war against the Antichrist.

The Future of American Jobs
Many of my students at Berkeley who will be graduating in June are worried about the job market. I understand their worries. But they and other new college grads have less cause for concern than most American workers. Let me…


United States – Labour economics – Great Recession – Employment – Latin America

A Successful Summit
Yesterday’s meeting on nuclear security in Washington was that rare bird — a successful summit meeting. Not only did the 47 participating nations endorse the Obama administration’s general goal of securing all nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials in four years,…



Nuclear weapon – Nuclear – International Atomic Energy Agency – Presidency of Barack Obama – Summit

Ways and Means Testimony
Yesterday I testified to the House Ways and Means Committee regarding clean energy finance and tax policy. You can find my testimony here….



United States House Committee on Ways and Means – Economic – House Ways & Means Committee – National Budget – Taxation

Birther Website WND Worries Its Credibility Will Be Hurt If It Doesn?t Get More Seats At Correspondents? Dinner
The far-right “news” website World Net Daily (WND) announced late Tuesday night that the organization is suing the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) for “doing the bidding of the Obama administration in trying to belittle, exclude and irreparably harm” the website, which dubbed itself, “a leading Internet news outlet.” WND asserts that it sought to […]

The far-right “news” website World Net Daily (WND) announced late Tuesday night that the organization is suing the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) for “doing the bidding of the Obama administration in trying to belittle, exclude and irreparably harm” the website, which dubbed itself, “a leading Internet news outlet.”

WND asserts that it sought to purchase three tables for the White House Correspondents’ dinner (which will take place on May 1), but the WHCA allocated the organization only three seats at one table. The complaint claims that the rejection is part of a scheme the Obama White House orchestrated to exclude WND, which is in turn damaging its credibility:

News outlets who do not get sufficient access to the event are seen as “lesser” and unimportant in the media world. […]

On information and belief, after the WHCA accepted WND’s order for one table for the event, the Obama administration and White House intervened and put pressure on the WHCA to reneg on even this commitment. As a result, and in an insulting manner, WND was then informed that it would only get three seats at the event, and not even its own table.

WND adds that the alleged snub “harmed and continues to harm WND’s ability to celebrate” the tenure of the website’s White House correspondent Les Kinsolving. It’s comical that WND thinks it has some sort of stellar journalistic record that allows it to complain of feeling “unimportant in the media world” because of its seating allocation at the dinner.

In fact, WND’s quality journalism consists of peddling conspiracies. This lawsuit is coming from a website that has been leading the charge on the “birther” movement — regularly jumping at any opportunity to “report” false claims that President Obama was not born in the U.S.

WND also “reports” all kinds of wacky far-right trash like calling for “death to the U.N.” and claiming that Obama “supports ethnic cleansing” against Jews, that he “hates white people,” and that he may secretly be a Muslim — not to mention numerous columns and stories featuring any number of homophobic slurs.

WHCA President Ed Chen said the organization “has seen countless and creative efforts to improve one’s circumstances at the dinner; all of them have been futile. This latest ploy will end with the same result.” Indeed, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington wound up getting the same treatment from the WHCA. Huffington asked for three tables for the dinner and “only got one.”

The 15-inch MacBook Pro, with all-new Core i5 chip, got ripped to shreds by iFixit, who found…not much difference between the previous model, really. More »

Materials: Malm/ Mandal? plus Expedit, Traby and Snack. Plus large screws.

Description: The aim of my latest hack was to give myself lots of storage and a better view of the river from my bed. An expanding family meant storage in my small flat was ever decreasing and I had bought a very low, superking size bed in a sale, which was about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The simple plan then was to raise the bed up to kill two birds with one stone…

So keeping the original mattress, I bought what I believe is either a Malm or Mandal bedframe- I think this is now discontinued which would explain the cut price cost that I bought it for. Also part of the puzzle was an Expedit bookcase and two Traby shelf units.

The bed frame was put together in the usual way, except the small feet were left off. Instead, the Expedit bookcase was bolted to the bottom of the bed, and the Two Traby units to the top two corners, facing outwards to provide storage. For extra support I made a leg to support the central bedrail on the floor. 3 Snack boxes on castors look and work well, and leaves a massive storage space under your bed for all sorts of junk…

~ Pods, Newcastle

General Motors has just released a short video of the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze undergoing some track testing. The video features Chuck Russell, Vehicle Line Director at GM, talking about the reliability and durability of the Chevy Cruze, along with its European-like ride and handling capabilities.

Watch as the Cruze darts around traffic cones on the test track as part of its extensive testing process.

Make the jump for the video.

Click here for more news on the Chevrolet Cruze.

Refresher: The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze’s base LS model is powered by a 136-hp 1.8L 4-cylinder engine, while the Eco, LT and LTZ model get a 1.4L turbo 4-cylinder Ecotec engine making 138-hp and a maximum torque of 148 lb-ft. The 1.4L turbo modes are expected to have a cruising range of more than 500 miles and the Cruze Eco is estimated to get an EPA fuel-economy rating of 40 mpg on the highway. All 2011 Cruze models will be available with a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission.

2011 Chevrolet Cruze:

2011 Chevrolet Cruze:

– By: Kap Shah

Here’s what you need to know this morning:

• GE reported earnings this morning and they’re down 18% year-over-year, according to WSJ.com. Profits beat estimates, but sales came in somewhat lower than expected.

• Bank of America has beat first quarter earning estimates, reporting profits of $0.28 a share. Street projections had the firm at $0.10 a share, according to Bloomberg.

• Emerging market stocks are getting battered this morning due to China clamping down on real estate speculation and less than expected growth at Google, according to Bloomberg. The MCSI Emerging Markets Index has declined today as a result.

• Europe continues to be at the mercy of Thursday’s Icelandic volcano eruption, as airspace remains closed across the continent stranding travelers. Now Europeans are being warned not to go outside if the volcanic ash starts to settle as it could be a threat to their health.

• The EU has other problems beyond volcanoes this morning, with the continent’s sovereign debt crises threatening Germany’s place in the euro zone. Some say the chance of the continent’s most powerful economy leaving the currency union is now 10%, and with Portugal now being mentioned as an imminent debt threat, concerns are rising.

• Key Goldman Sachs real estate investment group, Whitehall Street International, has been hit by losses on properties in Germany, Japan, and the U.S. Now the fund only has $30 million in equity remaining, down from its highs of $1.8 billion.

• Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta announced in March that he would not be running for his position again, as he was informed of the government’s increased monitoring of his connections to the Galleon Group insider trading scandal.

• Last night’s UK debate saw a surprising performance from third party candidate Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal-Democrats. As a result of the country’s first ever televised debate, the Lib-Dems have gained on the Conservatives and Labour in overnight polls. The pound is flat.

• South Korean authorities have determined that the sinking of one of its military vessels last month came at the result of an exterior attack, ratcheting up tensions between North Korea and South Korea.

• Unemployment benefits are back for many Americans as Congress passed and the President signed a bill yesterday extending jobless aid. Hundreds of thousands of unemployed individuals are impacted by this signature.

• Bonus: Paris Hilton has broke up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Doug Reinhardt. Reinhardt is CEO of Fugen Mobile and Fun Factor LLC, and has appeared on MTV’s The Hills.

Join the conversation about this story »