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The KSM Files

Parties Strategize Over Expiring Tax Cuts

Palin, Celebrity in Chief
Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe
TAKE SARAH Palin out of the mix and yesterday’s Boston Tea Party rally loses its flavor.Love her or hate her. John McCain’s surprise running mate was the main media attraction – not the crowd of several thousand who gathered on the Common, holding American flags and hand-lettered signs griping about socialists, taxes, and national health care.For her Boston audience, Palin wore her signature red leather jacket but left most of the political red meat to others. Her speech was a fairly tepid brew. She stuck to standard conservative themes – smaller …

We Need to Focus on Spending
Rep. Paul Ryan, MSNBC
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, talks to the Morning Joe panel about ways to balance the budget.

Climate Change: Always Room for Doubt

The Australian has an article on the opening up of some fairly inhospitable oil exploration regions off the south coast of Australia – Finds fuel deep-sea oil rush.

THREE significant new oil and gas regions have been identified off Australia’s coast, raising the potential for a wave of offshore exploration that could create booming new resources hubs around the nation.

A combination of new technology and the high price of oil has prompted the commonwealth’s Geoscience Australia survey body to push technical limits and explore frontier areas in deep water, turning up startling new resource potential.

One of the regions, the South Australian end of the Great Australian Bight, has been opened for exploration and has already attracted strong bids ahead of the April 29 deadline.

But extracting any oil and gas from this area will mean overcoming significant challenges, including heavy seas and wells deeper than any in operation around the nation.

In addition to the Bight, Geoscience Australia has uncovered strong indications of petroleum in basins near the Lord Howe Rise, 800km east of Brisbane, and on the Wallaby Plateau, 500km off the West Australian coast and next to the existing North West Shelf gas zone.

All three areas are at the deepwater edge of Australia’s vast maritime zone – an area almost twice the size of the continent.

Geoscience Australia is using an advanced aeromagnetic survey also to examine basins to the west and north of Tasmania, recently collecting data over a flying distance of 140,000km. The results are being analysed.

With extra funding for frontier exploration, Geoscience Australia has employed an array of technology in the search for resources and has turned up enticing new evidence. It has found potential source rocks in the Bight, which has never produced oil or gas.

The new evidence has emerged at a time of dwindling oil production in Australia, with reserves equal to 10 years of production. …

Ms Totterdell said the Bight had been regarded as “too hard” by many oil companies, and the rough seas and location of the basin made exploration work in the area “challenging”.

In 2003, Woodside Petroleum, the nation’s biggest independent oil and gas company, drilled the Gnarlyknots well to a depth of 4000m in the seabed, at a cost of $55m, but it had to abandon the project due to 10m swells. But Ms Totterdell’s team was undeterred. They believed the bitumen rocks that washed up on beaches along the coast gave strong indications there was petroleum offshore.

Under Australia’s petroleum exploration regime, all information acquired by companies must be given to the federal government. Geoscience Australia re-analysed Woodside’s data, and then began looking for rocks in an area about 200km west of where Woodside had drilled.

The rocks were dredged from a 5km-wide canyon that enabled geologists to uncover samples that lie thousands of metres below the seabed in the centre of the basin, about 200km to the east. It is in the centre where the exploration blocks have been offered.

The Bight’s water depth ranges from 500m-4000m; the Wallaby Plateau ranges from 2000m to 4000m and Lord Howe Rise ranges from 1300m-2500m.

National oil production has declined from a peak of 35 billion barrels a year early last decade to about 20 billion at present. [BG: these numbers are rubbish – we produce about 210 million barrels of oil per year]

High Speed Rail seems to be a hot topic lately – Inhabitat reports that the South Africans are looking to jump on the bandwagon – South Africa to Unveil Plans for High Speed Rail Network.

From the US to the UK to China, countries around the world getting in on the high speed rail bandwagon. The latest country to announce plans for a network is South Africa, which is now looking into a high speed rail line that connects Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Right now a journey from Durban to Johannesburg can take up to 12 hours, but with a high speed rail line the trip would only take 3 hours. This vast improvement is what South African officials feel is necessary to improve economic development and modernize the country.

South Africa has nearly finished construction on a small high speed rail line, which is set to open in May — just in time for the 2010 World Cup. The Gautrain (a combo of Gauteng province and train) will link Johannesburg to Pretoria and the international airport and have a top speed of 100 miles per hour. Testing for the rail line is ongoing and officials have high hopes for the train’s usefulness during the games this summer.

EDITOR WES RAYNAL: The CX-9 and its smaller CX-7 brother are two of my favorite utes, and at $35,000, this is more than a competitive price, especially with all the stuff it has on it.

The car moves along well with the V6’s 273 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. Compared with other midsize utes, the CX-9 is responsive and has great steering. It almost feels sporty, but not quite though. I liked it a lot.

COPY EDITOR CYNTHIA L. OROSCO: The CX-9 was a good ride over the weekend, although I noticed how much I was having to duck to get into the driver’s seat. Very annoying. I would like to be able to adjust the seat more downward so that the ducking wasn’t necessary.

This ute was pretty zippy on the expressway, but it must have quite a gas tank, because with about a quarter of a tank left, it took $41 to fill it up. Fuel economy wasn’t great. Overall, though, the CX-9 is a good ride with lots of room for carting groceries and various other cargo.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR ROGER HART: I really, really like the Mazda line of crossover utes. The CX-7 and the CX-9 are both excellent examples, with the 9 offering a seven-seat vehicle that doesn’t drive like a large, lumbering ute. Mazda remains one of the best companies in delivering the company DNA across the entire range of vehicles.

I was able to haul a full load of girls to a dance and then off to the movies. No one complained about room, and with the Bose sound system, everyone–including the driver–was well entertained.

2010 Mazda CX-9 Touring

Base Price: $32,745

As-Tested Price: $35,727

Drivetrain: 3.7-liter V6; AWD, six-speed automatic

Output: 273 hp @ 6,250 rpm, 270 lb-ft @ 4,250 rpm

Curb Weight: 4,546 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA/AW): 17/17.5 mpg

Options: Moonroof/Bose package including power moonroof, satellite radio, premium audio ($2,255); power liftgate package with advanced keyless entry, power open/close hatch ($617); rear-bumper step plate ($150)

For more

Source: Car news, reviews and auto show stories

At long last Friday rolls around, and that can only mean it’s time to think back on the week. The home office, Mobile Tech Manor, was as busy as can be with some new gadgets arriving. I bought too many RSS readers for the iPad and am waffling between two of them. I have been on a quest to find me some 4G in the area, with no luck. Come on in and let’s visit for a while.

Enter the Gadgets

A couple of toys showed up at the Manor and I had fun playing with them. Sort of. The first to arrive was the Sprint Overdrive, the 4G capable modem that functions as a Wi-Fi router to share the 4G. I’m sure it would share it fine if I could just find some.

The Sprint 4G coverage map shows the area around Mobile Tech Manor to be blanketed with 4G, but I haven’t been able to connect successfully to it. There is a small area that is 3G only on the map, and my office is right on the fringe so I’m not surprised I can’t see 4G here. That sent me out over the surrounding area which is all blue on the map (4G) but I can’t connect anywhere. The Overdrive shows decent signal, says it is “connecting to 4G” for a good while, and then eventually falls back to the Sprint 3G network.

The 3G (EVDO) works just fine, it’s not fast but better than nothing. The Verizon 3G (EVDO) network gets faster speeds almost everywhere compared to the Sprint network, though. I get around 500 kbps on Sprint and 1.2 Mbps on Verizon, almost everywhere.

I may be dealing with a defective 4G modem here, at least that’s what I think. I’ve heard from Sprint 4G customers who are getting good 4G connections in the immediate area, so perhaps it is the modem. I’ll have to track down the Sprint folks who sent this evaluation unit to find out.

A bright red notebook that I was excited to get arrived, but unfortunately the display was DOA. It was the Acer Ferrari One notebook, a little (11.6-inch) speed demon that looks pretty sexy for a laptop. The Ferrari One was sent over by the AMD folks, who make the processor in the laptop. They were understandably embarrassed that the evaluation unit had a dead screen, and to their credit they sent another one the very next day.

I’ve been playing with the Ferrari One and am duly impressed with it. The high-res screen is sweet, and the small size makes this thing easy to toss in a little bag and hit the road. As expected, the AMD processor, while fast, runs hotter and uses more battery than an Intel processor. I’m still seeing about 4.5 hours on the 6-cell battery, and while it does run warm it is not alarmingly so. This thing is just so sexy, every time I take it out of the bag folks stare.

Paper Mister?

I live in RSS feeds all day, every day. I follow hundreds of sites through the RSS feeds, and on the desktop I have Google Reader open all day. I like working with Google Reader, and I can access my feeds on any device using any web browser. The only device that falls short with Google Reader is the iPad, sadly.

Oh Google Reader works well enough on the iPad, and there are two ways to work with it. The desktop version in the browser on the iPad is just like the regular desktop version, but the Next/Prev item buttons are too darn small. The fact the buttons are at the very bottom of the screen doesn’t help, as it is hard to tap them. The mobile version of Google Reader works well, but it only shows a short preview of each item. I can tap one and see more of it, but I need to see more when I am skimming to decide if I want to give it more time.

There are already lots of nice iPad apps in the App Store, and I have purchased and downloaded two of them so far. Both of them are pretty nice, and I am waffling over which of the two I will settle down with. The most important feature for me is for the app to sync with Google Reader, so that items marked read in the app will be marked as read in Google Reader too. I use a lot of devices both in the Manor and outside, and this is crucial. Both of these apps sync with GR just fine.

NetNewsWire is a good reader, and the first one I tried on the iPad. It makes good use of the big iPad screen, and works well in portrait orientation. Portrait is my preferred screen orientation when working with feeds, as I hold the iPad like a tablet. Reading items in the feeds is enjoyable and easy to do, but NNW fails in one area. It lacks an Unread Items filter to keep stuff I’ve already read out of my sight. It marks them clearly, so I can easily tell read items from unread, but with the number of items I skim I need the unread ones totally out of the picture. I hope they address this in a future update.

The other reader app I am trying is NewsRack. It is very similar to NetNewsWire, and has the unread filter I wish NNW had. Where NewsRack falls short compared to NetNewsWire is in the interface department, and it’s driving me batty. In portrait orientation NewsRack displays one item at a time on the whole screen. This is the same as NNW and is good as I can scan the entire item. The problem is the prev/next item buttons are on top of the screen on the left. This would work if I was left-handed, but I’m not. To tap the Next arrow to go to the next news item, I have to reach up, across the screen, and tap that button. It is not comfortable and is an interface failure in my view. These buttons need to be on the right of the screen (or configurable, even better) to put them where the user finds them comfortable.

Even worse is using NewsRack in landscape orientation. The feed window appears on the left of the screen, next to the full item window on the right. This would be good except the developers decided that if the feed pane is open, the prev/next item buttons aren’t needed. Yep, they go away, and the only way to advance from one item to the next is to tap the next item in the feed pane on the left. There’s that right-handed problem again, as I must reach across the screen, obscuring the item pane, and uncomfortably tap in the left pane. This is a design failure, a shame as NewsRack is otherwise a better app than NNW.

Want a Faster Network for Free?

This week saw the rare occurrence that still has me grinning like a fool. I got an email from Comcast, my ISP, that informed me its network in my area had been upgraded. I assume this is the DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade they are referring to. The notice told me that my 20 Mbps network was now clocking in at a blazing 40 Mbps, and at no additional charge.

After picking myself up off the floor, I jumped online to see how it would affect my connectivity. I am online all day, every day, and this could be significant. Sure enough, my real-world bandwidth is a cool 30+ Mbps download and around 4 – 5 Mbps upload. This was totally unexpected and a wonderful upgrade. Thanks, Comcast. I take back almost all the bad things I’ve ever said about you.

e-Books of the Week

I have been using the iPad as my primary e-book reader all week, and I am happy with the result. I enjoy holding it like a book and reading for hours at a time. The big screen is pleasing to the eye, and it’s working well for me.

I finished Jeffrey Deaver’s book Roadside Crosses, the book I started last week. I bought it through the iBooks app on the iPad, and I found the app to be a decent reader. I prefer Kindle for the iPad, as I find it easier to use for reasons I can’t put my finger on (pun intended), but iBooks is OK. Roadside Crosses is a good mystery novel done in typical Deaver style.

Wrap-up

That’s my week as it went down, and as always I enjoyed sharing it with you. Until next week, stay safe.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Hot Topic: Apple’s iPad

[JURIST] The Nova Scotian government officially pardoned and issued an apology to Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond in a ceremony Thursday attended by Premier Darrell Dexter and Minister of Justice Landry Ross. Desmond, an African-Canadian woman who died in 1965, was fined $20 and jailed overnight in 1946 on charges that stemmed from her refusal to leave an area of a theater reserved for white patrons. Dexter apologized to Desmond’s family, including her sister Wanda Robson who was at the ceremony, and all African Nova Scotians for the government’s actions against Desmond. Dexter stated:
The arrest, detainment and conviction of Viola Desmond is an example in our history where the law was used to perpetuate racism and racial segregation – this is contrary to the values of Canadian society. We recognize today that the act for which Viola Desmond was arrested, was an act of courage, not an offence.Robson said her parents would be proud to know that Desmond had become a Canadian hero and urged people to learn from the incident to prevent similar situations. This marked the first posthumous “free pardon” in Canadian history, recognizing that Desmond was innocent and her conviction was in error.Last year, Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Barry Langford pardoned about 2,500 people arrested for non-violent civil rights protests in the city during the 1960’s. In April 2006, Alabama Governor Bob Riley authorized pardons for Rosa Parks, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other civil rights activists convicted of violating Jim Crow laws in the state. Parks helped trigger the civil rights movement across the US after she was arrested in Montgomery, AL, in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Parks died in 2005 at the age of 92.

Technology Review has a post looking at a “preliminary analysis [which] suggests that natural gas could contribute far more to global warming than previously thought” – Natural Gas May Be Worse for the Planet than Coal.

This week the U.S. Congress heard testimony supporting a bill that would push to replace diesel with natural gas in heavy vehicles. It’s an attempt to cut oil imports, and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the argument is that natural gas is substantially cleaner than diesel, and results in the emission of about 25 percent less greenhouse gas.

But experts are warning that natural gas might not be as clean as it seems.

In fact, using natural gas rather than diesel in vehicles could actually increase climate change, says Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University. “You’re aggravating global warming more if you switch,” he says.

Howarth is basing his conclusion on a preliminary analysis that includes not only the amount of carbon dioxide that comes out of a tailpipe when you burn diesel and natural gas, but also the impact of natural gas leaks. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is much more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, so even small amounts of it contribute significantly to global warming. When you factor this in, natural gas could be significantly worse than diesel, he says. Using natural gas would emit the equivalent of 33 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule. Using petroleum fuels would emit the equivalent of just 20 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule.

Howarth goes further, suggesting that natural gas could even rival greenhouse gas emissions from mining and burning coal–the dirtiest of fossil fuels. He says it’s “not significantly better than coal in terms of the consequences of global warming” and is calling for a moratorium on extracting natural gas from shale, which requires more energy (and so emits more greenhouse gases) than extracting it from conventional natural gas sources.

Howarth’s analysis, however, is just a preliminary one. He’s already found one major error in his original calculations. “I blew it,” he says, by not including the impact of methane leaks from coal mining. (Here’s a link to his original, which contains the error; and here’s the updated version). But he still says the gap between coal and natural gas is far smaller than generally thought. And his numbers are significantly different than those researchers at MIT came up with a year ago. (On a CO2 equivalent grams per megajoule basis, they scored diesel at 10.7 and gasoline at 14.4, with natural gas splitting the difference at 12.5). The two studies make different assumptions about the strength of methane as a greenhouse gas, and the amount of methane leakage, for example. A complete analysis should also look at the different efficiencies of natural gas and gasoline or diesel vehicles. The MIT study concludes that there is a benefit from switching to natural gas, all told, but it might not be worth the cost or the hassle. Making more efficient gasoline and diesel vehicles might work better, and be a faster way to reduce greenhouse emissions, it suggests.

Party leaders are expected to make Sunday April 18, this election campaign’s ‘World Poverty Day’ by setting out their parties’ plans to help the world’s poorest people.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam Chief Executive, said: “In the understandable desire to focus on challenges facing us here in the UK, it is vitally important poor people around the world do not become the forgotten faces of this election.

“Every year, millions of children around the world die unnecessarily and 1.4 billion people – almost triple the entire population of the European Union – live on less than 75p-a-day.

“Britain has been playing a leading role in tackling these problems and I am delighted that all parties are commmited to meeting the UK’s aid promises. It is vital that whichever party wins the next election ensures that Britain continues to lead the world in the face of the fresh challenges posed by the economic crisis and climate change.

“A Robin Hood Tax on banks’ financial transactions would raise the hundreds of billions of pounds needed to tackle these problems without hurting ordinary people.”

 

Barbara Stocking is available for interview to arrange or for further information:

Lucy Brinicombe: 07786 110054

Jon Slater: 07876 476403

Bill Gross agrees with his colleague Scott Simon that U.S. real estate may soon be bottoming, but apparently he’s more bullish on the prospects for a recovery in prices.

While Mr. Simon recently said that “If one labels recovery as prices rising dramatically, we do not foresee that anytime soon,” Bill Gross seems more optimistic that it could happen:

CNBC:

Both commercial and residential real estate are reaching a bottoming point and possibly even prepared to turn higher, said Gross, CIO of Pacific Investment Management Co., or PIMCO, the world’s largest bond fund.

With stocks likely to return 5 to 6 percent and bonds 3 to 4 percent, he said, investors would be wise to start looking at real estate opportunities.

“Ultimately the riskier assets will be the less the risky assets,” he said. “I wouldn’t suggest moving into those particular sectors at the moment but ultimately risk and reward go together.”

So start sniffing around, even if the exact bottom is hard to call.

Join the conversation about this story »

Renault with a little help from Japanese partner Nissan has pulled the veil off the design for its new electric car, Fluence Z.E. This electric car’s total costs of ownership will be similar to a diesel powered vehicle. The car is powered up by a synchronous electric motor with rotor coil. With a maximum torque of 226 N·m (167 lb-ft), this car nestles a 22kWh lithium-ion battery in its belly. The car has a drivable range of 60 km (99 miles) and a top speed of 135 km/h (84 mph).

To charge up, the car can be hooked up to a power supply of 10A or 16A, 220V that will have the car juiced up in 6 to 9 hours. We are eagerly awaiting this car’s launch. The new electric Renault Fluence Z.E. is sure to win hearts world over with its sleek, sweet, energy efficient design.

[Treehugger]

Fisker Automotive announced today that it will be launching a North American tour to introduce its Karma premium plug-in hybrid sedan to local markets, and support the company’s new retail network.

“Scheduled to kick off Tuesday, April 27 from the company’s Irvine, California headquarters, the two-month program will stop in 42 cities in 26 states and three Canadian provinces,” Fisker said.

While the Karma is on tour, it will give the 1,600-plus people who have deposited $5,000 for the sedan, the first chance to see the Karma in person. Fisker expects the customers who put down the first 1,600 deposits to take delivery on their Karmas in the first quarter of 2011.

Hit the jump for the complete list of Fisker Karma tour dates.

Click here for more news on the Fisker Karma.

Refresher: Power comes from Fisker’s Q-DRIVE system, which is made up of two 201-hp electric motors that are powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. That allows the 2010 Karma to travel up to 50 miles without the use of any gasoline. A generator attached to a 260-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec direct injection gasoline engine by General Motors provides an extended range of up to 300 miles. 0 to 60 mph comes in 5.8 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph.

2011 Fisker Karma:

Tour Dates:

4/27 Irvine, CA — Depart Fisker Automotive
4/28 Las Vegas, NV – Gaudin Automotive
5/1 San Antonio, TX – Barrett Holdings
5/3 Austin, TX – Roger Beasley Highline Group
5/4 Houston, TX – McDavid Auto Group
5/5 Fort Worth, TX – Frank Kent Motor Co.
5/6 Plano, TX – McDavid Auto Group
5/7 Tulsa, OK – Don Thornton Cadillac
5/10 Huntsville, AL – Century Automotive Group
5/11 Atlanta, GA – Classic Cadillac
5/13 Tampa Bay, FL – Elder Automotive Group
5/14 West Palm Beach, FL – Palm Beach Motor Cars
5/15 Miami, FL – Warren Henry Automobiles
5/17 Orlando, FL – Fields Auto Group
5/19 Winston Salem, NC – Flow Companies
5/20 Greenbelt, MD – Capitol Cadillac
5/21 Fairfax, VA – Ted Britt Auto Group
5/22 Wilmington, DE – Union Park Automotive
5/24 Langhorne, PA – H.A. Ott Motor Cars
5/25 Paramus, NJ – Bergen Jaguar
5/26 Great Neck, NY – Jaguar Great Neck
5/27 Greenwich, CT – Miller Motor Cars
5/28 Norwood, MA – Jake Kaplan’s Ltd.
6/1 North Olmsted, OH – M2 Motors, Inc.
6/2 Grand Blanc, MI – Serra Automotive
6/3 Toronto, ON – Dilawri Group
6/7 Glencoe, IL – Fields Auto Group
6/8 Schaumburg, IL – Patrick Dealer Group
6/9 Neenah, WI – Bergstrom Corp.
6/10 Minneapolis, MN – Borton Automotive
6/12 Saint Louis, MO – Plaza Motor Group
6/15 Denver, CO – Rickenbaugh
6/18 Calgary, AB – Dilawri Group
6/21 Centerville, UT – Hadley Auto Company
6/24 Vancouver, BC – Fields Auto Group
6/25 Bellevue, WA – O’Brien Auto Group
6/26 Portland, OR – Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships
6/27 Marin, CA – Price Family Dealerships
6/28 Sacramento, CA – Price Family Dealerships
6/29 Silicon Valley, CA – Price Family Dealerships
6/30 Santa Monica, CA – Sullivan Luxury Cars
7/3 Irvine, CA, Orange – Shelly Automotive Group
7/5 San Diego, CA – Marvin K. Brown Auto Group

– By: Omar Rana

If you rely on the US Postal Service for your snail mail delivery, you probably won’t receive any on a Saturday, thanks to global warming. Probably another effort to save up on costs, the dying postal service could do with the power grid connection we reported on before. Anyways, this proposal of a Saturday off will help the USPS cut CO2 emissions by around 503,000 metric tons per year.

This equals pulling off 60,000 to 96,000 cars annually. The already financially suffering USPS will benefit from such steps, taken that a day off will help save up on fuel consumption costs, at the same time doing the environment a huge favor with reduced emissions. Electric delivery trucks may be expensive at first, but could help the USPS profit in the long run if the fleet is overhauled.

[Examiner]

While we in the U.S. have become accustomed to getting things before the rest of the world, that doesn’t seem to hold true for Toyota recalls. Documents show that the car maker issued a recall for their Venza vehicle in December, but decided to wait six weeks to make the same decision stateside.

Toyota opted for the Canadian Venza recall after determining that the floor mats could slip forward and trap the accelerator. However, the company told NHTSA at the time that it wasn’t recalling Venzas in the U.S. because they claimed those vehicles were not imported with the all-weather floor mats.

But then on Jan. 27, Toyota went ahead with a U.S. recall anyway. Though they maintain their stance that the Canadian mats are different from the ones in the U.S. model, Toyota admits that both mats could slip forward and trap the gas pedal.

According to Toyota the mats used in the Canadian model are made by a company in Tennessee. The L.A. Times says the car maker declined to identify the manufacturer of the mats in the U.S. model.

NHTSA, as always, is taking it seriously:

NHTSA continues to investigate the timeliness of Toyota’s pedal entrapment recall… We will continue to hold Toyota accountable for violations we find.

In other Toyota news, the car company has until Monday to respond to the record-setting $16.375 million penalty NHTSA slapped on them earlier this month.

Toyota delayed Venza recall in U.S. for six weeks, records show [L.A. Times]

Last nights fundraising group meeting proved to be a great success. With nibbles, wine and a great talk from John Cropper about what Oxfam is currently doing about gender inequality the meeting was big hit.

 

We all got to know each other a bit, spoke about possible fundraising ideas and talked about some cash collections that are coming up from next week.

 

Cash collections are a really useful way to raise money as the collectors have a great time outside (certainly preferable to my desk) and people donate their spare change into buckets. Another thing is you don’t have to do it all day; it can be a couple of hours here, or a lunch hour there. It’s totally flexible.

 

As community fundraising is a totally new dimension to the Oxfam way of fundraising it’s so exciting being a part of it, at it’s beginning. If anyone else want to get involved just get in touch by giving me an e-mail on [email protected].

 

The collections are on the:

Thursday 22^nd April at Kings Cross Station

Friday 23^rd – Sunday 25^th April at Camden Morrison’s

All are welcome, so get in touch!

 

Be aware, be moved, be involved. Be Humankind.

Google Maps is a great tool by itself, having access to quite accurate maps of most of the world, satellite imagery, terrain, and so on, which is pretty nice. But one of the most useful features consists of driving directions, enabling people to use Google Maps as a navigational utility, to plan trips and get around foreign … (read more)

What’s in your lunchbox today? A sandwich, an apple and, what’s that? Something written on your paper towel? Aww. We might have been a little embarrassed by lunch notes as a kid, but now we think anyone who receives one should count themselves doubly lucky. Because not only did someone make your lunch for you, they cared enough to send a little extra love your way. Feeling all warm and fuzzy yet?

Read Full Post

My nephew was making my sister and her husband crazy. He was fidgety, he couldn’t keep his hands to himself, and he was always losing things. His grades weren’t very good and his teachers were frustrated because he was constantly
distracting other kids. He would do impulsive things that ended up with him breaking things or getting hurt.

My sister took him to be evaluated. It was determined that he was suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and he was put on medicine to help control it. That was several years ago. He is a sophomore in high
school now and he is doing much better. On occasion, he still does impulsive things that get him into trouble. My sister isn’t sure if that is due to his ADHD or just that he is a teenager doing teenager things.

When I decided to write on this topic, I called him up and asked him about his ADHD. I asked him to think
back before his diagnosis and what that was like. He said it was like his mind was bouncing around a lot. It was really difficult for him to stay on one topic. School was torture for him. The teachers would want him to do his work, but his mind was off somewhere else. He would try to bring his focus back, but then his thoughts would turn to something else.

I asked him if he ever felt that something was wrong or not normal. He said at times he couldn’t understand why he kept doing things that were getting him in trouble. It was upsetting to him when everyone was angry with him. He was
angry with himself whenever he got in to trouble, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It wasn’t until he was put on medicine that he finally felt like he could think more clearly. He was surprised at how much easier it was to keep his focus on his tasks. The fact that his teachers and parents aren’t getting angry with him so much anymore is a relief.

Finally, I asked him how he felt about having to take medicine to control his ADHD. He admitted he does not like taking the medicine, but he knows that the medicine is important to help him keep in control. He feels good when he gets good grades now. He likes that he can stay focused enough to be on sports teams and participate in other school activities. If it hadn’t been for the medicine helping him to stay focused, he doubts that his parents would have trusted him to get his driver’s license.

As of 2006, 4.5 million children 5-17 years of age have been diagnosed with ADHD. It isn’t just kids who suffer from ADHD. Adults do too. If you, or someone you know has been diagnosed with ADHD, you may want to check out these resources:

• Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention has information on Diagnosing ADHD, Data and Statistics, and Take the Next Step After Diagnosis.
• Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) has a list of blogs on ADHD, a finding support section, and a list of conferences and training programs to help professionals, parents, and individuals dealing with ADHD.
• Medlineplus.gov has compiled ADHD resources for you, including information on Managing ADHD, Treatments, and Related Issues. They also have many links to materials written in Spanish.
• National Institute of Mental Health has publications on ADHD.
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has information on ADHD.
• National Resource Center on ADHD has an “Ask the Expert” Online Chat where you can get answers to your questions. Or you can call 1-800-233-4050. They have an FAQs section, and a large library of books, scientific articles and other materials so you can conduct your own research. Sometimes kids grow into adulthood having not been diagnosed. If you are an adult who suspects you may be suffering from ADHD, here is an article on Diagnosing ADHD in Adults.
• Usa.gov’s ADHD results page.

The University of Queensland will soon bask in the sun’s glory, with the largest solar panel array in the whole of Australia, to be set up at the St Lucia campus. Costing around $7.75 million, this project will save up on around 1750 tons of greenhouse gases annually. This solar array will cover up an area as big as a rugby field and a half.

According to physicist Paul Meredith, the project is part of a large scale overhaul of the university’s campuses to have them use renewable energy. With, %1.5 million invested by the government in this project, Australia will soon have more of its campuses go green with renewable energy. Taken that Australia has an extent of open spaces, wind energy harvesting could be up for grabs too!

[Heraldsun]

Dances with Wolves is hitting the bright lights of Broadway in a new dramatic musical.

Acclaimed Broadway producer Matt Murphy has acquired the stage rights to Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar-winning film — which was adapted from the 1986 bestselling novel by Michael Blake — and is in the early stages of bringing the period piece to the Broadway stage.

“Dances With Wolves will be a uniquely spectacular and dramatic new musical,” Murphy told BroadwayWorld.com this week. “I envision a score that is inspired by Appalachian, folk, Civil War era, and Native American music, coupled with a production design that celebrates the spirit and ceremony of Native American culture amidst the awe-inspiring landscape of the American frontier I am seeking a creative team who can make the epic story of Dances With Wolves sing for a new medium and a new generation of audiences.”

Wolves sweeped the Oscars in 1991, taking home prizes for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. Costner played Lieutenant John Dunbar, who became accepted by the Sioux Indians, in the film, which he also directed.

	Quick Spin: Toyota FCHV-adv tempts us with smooth driving, reminding us that hydrogen is still years away Man it’s smooth – and very far away.		U.S. military warns of oil production shortage by 2015 But who’s going to believe them?
	Pininfarina sets yearly target of 60,000 Bluecar EVs by 2016 Could be tough.	Other news: Pickens pushing for NAT GAS plan, wants to move semis to natural gas Germany commits $2 billion for at least 1,000 hydrogen stations Renault finalizes design of Fluence ZE and Kangoo ZE, starts taking reservations

AutoblogGreen for 04.16.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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