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Do you love the environment? Are you scared that your pizza delivery guy will probably burn a load of fuel on his way to your doorstep? Well, you won’t have to worry anymore about how much fuel your pizza guy uses. He might simply show up on the EV-neo electric scooter by Honda! The Japanese motor company, Honda, unveiled a prototype of their electric scooter, the EV-neo in Tokyo. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, powerful enough to match up to a 50cc petrol engine, this scooter can go 19 miles on a single charge, noiselessly, at a speed of 30kmph. The scooter’s battery can be rapid-charged up to 80% in just 20 minutes by plugging it into a regular power socket.

Honda is currently targeting business customers like pizza delivery services. Hopefully, this clean, noiseless and non-fuel-guzzling scooter sees a lengthening of its ride-able range in future.

[Physorg]

Hundreds of Rockford Education Association (REA) members, along with community members, rallied Tuesday in support of the estimated Rockford 573 teachers and staff who have received layoff notices for the next school year.

The SOS (Save our Schools, Save Our Staff) rally preceded a special meeting of the Rockford Board of Education, at which 50 district employees were reinstated.

According to the Rockford Register Star, REA members met with district officials last week and urged that employees in hard-to-fill positions, such as special education, bilingual and early childhood, be reinstated.

It often takes half the school year to fill those positions, said REA President Molly Phalen. She wasn’t informed of the union employee changes before the vote.

“Why would you dismiss teachers in those positions?” she said.

Read more about this story.

(Photo: Matthew Johnson)

Technology: GSM
Possible U.S. Carrier: AT&T 
Rumored Release Date: Available Globally in Q2 2010

The Nokia C6 offers a full QWERTY keyboard underneath a 3.2″ touchscreen.  Other features include instant access to your favorite social networks, a 5MP camera, customizable homescreen, Ovi Maps, and Nokia messaging.  We will update the complete specifications when they become available.

Google is constantly tweaking their Gmail for mobile site, adding nifty little features here and there to improve the experience.  Last week saw some subtle changes to the page for composing new messages.  One of the new features is that the address field automatically expands, allowing users to see all email addresses entered.  When adding names to your email, an autocomplete dropdown window provides contact choices, similar to the desktop experience.  Once selected, the full address is hidden with only the name shown in the address field.

Other features found in the new Gmail for mobile experience:

• Remove the contact you just added by tapping Backspace.
• Press the ‘+’ button to see your top contacts, or hide them by pressing the ‘–’ button.
• If for some reason autocomplete fails you and the person you are trying to reach is a Gmail user, just type their Gmail username and a comma, and we’ll take care of the pesky @ sign and the rest (so [hikingfan] becomes [[email protected]].)
• The page now fills the entire screen, giving you more space to see what you’re writing.

How many of you are using the mobile site over the native client found in Android?  Are there any features you’d like to see integrated into the mobile version?  What’s missing from the native app?

Might We Suggest…

• Gmail for Mobile Adds Buzz Integration to Inbox
  

  Yesterday it was announced that the latest version of Google’s Gmail for Mobile website h…

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released new findings Tuesday April 13 that global oil demand will reach a record high level in 2010, as the world economy recovers and developing nations’ demand for oil grows to new heights.  IEA forecasts that average annual world oil demand will have rebounded 2% from 84.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2009 to 86.6 mb/d in 2010.  Susan Lyon, Special Assistant on CAP’s Energy Opportunity team, has the story.

In its April 13 Oil Market Report, a monthly update on world oil market trends, IEA forecasts world oil demand growth this year at 1.67 mb/d, up by 100,000 bpd from its previous forecast.  Accordingly, the agency finds that “crude oil futures hit 18-month highs in early April, with expectations for an accelerating economic recovery.”  Since the last oil market report, global oil demand has been revised up by 30,000 barrels per day (b/d).

The report warns that rising oil prices may threaten continued economic recovery:

Ultimately, things might turn messy for producers if $80-$100 per barrel is merely seen as the new $60-$80, stunting economic recovery while prompting resurgent non-oil and non-OPEC supply investment.

On the supply side, due to lower OPEC output, global oil supply fell by 220,000 b/d in March as well.  The new data also reveals a new trend in global oil refinery throughput: “While China, India and Russia all posted record highs in February, European throughputs fell to their lowest level in 17 years.”

IEA’s report comes on the heels of last week’s 2010 Joint Operating Environment (JOE) report by  the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) lays out the energy crunch that lies before us and its likely consequences.  The projected growth of overall energy demand for decades to come, led by oil and coal, is alarming to the U.S. armed forces:

By the 2030s, [energy] demand is estimated to be nearly 50% greater than today. To meet that demand, even assuming more effective conservation measures, the world would need to add roughly the equivalent of Saudi Arabia’s current energy production every seven years.

Without tremendous energy efficiency efforts and a massive shift toward renewable energy, they note that the U.S. and world economies may suffer production bottlenecks as well as regional instability due to resource scarcity and price volatility.

Furthermore, the JOE (!) also pinpoints climate change as a top 10 security issue: “one of the ten trends most likely to impact the Joint Force.”  Previously, the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review argued that climate change is a “destabilizing agent” and the Center for Naval Analysis convened a board of military officials who concluded in 2007 that climate change is a “threat multiplier.”

To face the dual challenges of energy and climate, we must pass a comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that will reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil while also putting a limit on carbon pollution.  The IEA reminds us that the “return of economic growth” is delicate and requires reducing our vulnerability to oil price spikes and supply disruptions.

Related Post:

• Deutsche Bank: Oil to hit $175 a barrel by 2016, which “will drive a final stake into long-term oil demand,” spurred by a “disruptive technology” — “the hybrid and electric car, that will very likely have a far greater positive impact on oil efficiency than the market currently expects”

Don’t tell me you’re still using that clunky old Xbox? And actually using Live on it? From today, old-console-clingers will be cut off their online supply by Microsoft. More »

We’ve heard of the XOF1’s adventures before. Well, this solar powered flying-saucer-lookalike car has jumped yet another hurdle on its solar powered journey. Driver and project leader, Marcelo da Luz, drove across the treacherously frozen Arctic Ocean on a biting cold journey that lasted around 9.5 hours.

Travelling at 70kmph over smooth ice, the solar powered car had to slow down to 30-40kmph though over the Arctic Ocean stretch, due to terrible road conditions. A 1.5-2 meter ice layer was all that separated the XOF1 and Marcelo da Luz from the chilling Arctic Ocean beneath. Powered by 900 solar cells, this 20 kilogram car has broken the record for the longest distance covered in a solar vehicle, by travelling 15,000km in 140 days. Hopefully, the Arctic sun behaves like it is expected to on the cars journey back to Inuvik from Tuktoyatuk.

[EnergyMatters]

Cameron Diaz is dating Alex Rodriguez.

The Charlie’s Angels actress has reportedly embarked on a low-key romance with the New York Yankees third baseman previously romantically-linked to Madonna and Kate Hudson. Tabloid tattles claim Cam has been hooking up with Alex ever since the two met at a Creative Artists Agency Super Bowl Party in February.

Life & Style Magazine writes: “A-Rod’ is with Cameron. They’ve been keeping it quiet, but they’re totally together.”

The romance is described as “casual” and said to be in its early stages.

Cameron has previously dated a host of famous men including Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 star Adam Levine, musician John Mayer, and British model Paul Sculfor.

What do you think of A-Rod and Cameron as a couple?

I am not very active at Twitter and do not update my Twitter profile throughout the day. However, Twitter is a great place to spot breaking news, interesting stories and if you are a blogger or a writer, you can’t ignore the tweets.

One of the problems with Twitter is the “Signal to Noise ratio”. Sometimes the Tweets are really interesting but most of the time, your timeline is flooded with irrelevant tweets such as “I am having Coffee ” or ” I am watching a movie”.

If you are like me and use Twitter to consume content, you might want to try a simple way to find the most interesting and popular links in your Twitter timeline. You don’t want to unfollow people in bulk but just need a way to mute the less important updates. Check out SiftLinks – a simple web based Twitter app which filters important Tweets from your Twitter timeline and presents the most popular links in reverse chronological order.

Here is how my Twitter timeline looks after using SiftLinks:

SiftLinks also provides an RSS feed for the most popular links in your Twitter profile so it might be a good idea to copy the RSS feed and subscribe in your news reader. Doing that will allow you to check important Twitter updates from your Feed reader (e.g Google Reader, Feeddemon etc).

Also do check out this guide on how to create RSS feed of Twitter lists.

Techie Buzz Verdict

SiftLinks removes the unnecessary updates and shows only the tweets that matter. The RSS feature is really useful as you can read the tweets as well as blog posts from one central location – your feed reader. One addition would have been perfect – the ability to see the number of RT’s and mentions. This way, we can know how much is the influence and reach of a particular tweet right from the feed reader and without having to go to Tweetmeme.

Techie Buzz rating: 3/5 (Average).

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Twitter Times Converts Your Twitter Timeline Into A Newspaper
• Filter and View Links in your Twitter Stream in RSS using ReadTwit
• Twitter’s New Retweet API
• View Another User’s Timeline in Twitter.
• Twitter HoverCards: Preview a User Profile Without Leaving Your Timeline

Join Techie Buzz on Your Favorite Social Networking Sites

• Become a Techie Buzz fan on Facebook
• Follow Techie Buzz on Twitter

38 Degrees Manifesto Writers Debate

At lunchtime next Monday, 19th April 2010, 38 Degrees will be hosting a live phone-in debate with the Manifesto Writers of the three main political parties. That’s Danny Alexander for the Lib Dems, Ed Miliband for Labour and Oliver Letwin for the Conservatives.

38 Degrees is an organisation that brings people together to campaign on different issues, including the Robin Hood Tax and climate change.

All questions will be taken from 38 Degrees members and Guardian readers. To submit your questions, go to the 38 Degrees webpage.

Stumped for what to ask? Why not Ask the Climate Question. For more inspiration, check out Oxfam’s election website or download this Oxfam election toolkit.

The Disney Store is doing its bit towards spreading environment awareness with its new line of “Save Planet Earth” products. In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the line includes a bunch of stuff made out of recycled products. The aluminum bottles by Disney Store can be reused, doing away with the possibility of them ending up in your bin. Made out of seven recycled bottles each, the “Save Planet Earth” tote bags are up for sale too.

The “Save Planet Earth” journals are made of recycled paper. And if that’s not enough, the Disney Store also has a hoard of T-shirts made of 100% organic cotton, sporting slogans like “Love” and “Save Planet Earth”. To top it all, Disney’s very own delightful three-eyed alien from the “Toy Story”, will mascot these products. Disney sure thinks it’s about time we realize the need to save planet earth.

[Disnology]

The winners of the 2010 GreenLight and GreenBuilding awards save up to 85% of their energy consumption. During the "Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings" conference in Frankfurt, 24 participants from all over Europe received recognition for their results or their innovative projects. These initiatives count over 700 participants in total, who save approximately 545 GWh each year. This is equivalent to the energy used by two mid-size European cities over the same period.

Managed by the JRC’s Institute for Energy (IE), the GreenLight and GreenBuilding programmes are voluntary schemes that invite private and public organisations to reduce their energy consumption in their premises. GreenLight encourages partners to install energy-efficient lighting, while the GreenBuilding initiative promotes improved energy efficiency in buildings through several measures such as thermal insulation, efficient heating and cooling, intelligent control systems, solar panels etc.

Hartford Courant cartoonist Bob Englehart weighs in on the April 15 tax deadline.

http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/2010/04/april-14-2010.html

That’s ‘Miss Tequila’ to You! Tila Tequila — Who you may know as “The Reality Star With The Longest 15 Minutes of Fame Ever! — has revamped her look as she skates across the Big Apple on a promotional tour for her repugnant new single, “I Fucked A DJ 2010″ — which explains a lot because she has to be fucking somebody to remain this relevant on Hollywood’s radar.

(If you can come up with a more ghetto ass name for a song, I’ll give you a cookie — but I suspect you’ll have your work cut out for you.)

The sleazy minx, who now wants to be known as “Miss Tequila,” is also working on a new celebrity gossip blog and reality series.

Nathaniel Tapley, an award-winning comedy writer, writes “Yesterday, I wrote a blog post disagreeing with [Bernie Corbett,] the General Secretary of my union, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, who was defending the Digital Economy Bill. Surprisingly, he emailed me with a full response, which I have now posted at the link above, and I’ve answered a couple of his points in the comments section. Anyway, I thought it might be of interest to some of your readers, as it’s a detailed response from a supporter of the Digital Economy Bill.”

Tapley joins the many creatives that oppose the Digital Economy Bill. His original post that spurred Bernie Corbett’s response is a worthwhile read, as is his response to Corbett’s email. Tapley’s main point of contention is that it is stupid to disconnect anyone if they are suspected of violating copyright:

Internet disconnection works directly against writers, musicians and artists being able to get their works in front of audiences, and paying audiences. In the last five years a number of models have emerged for ‘monetising content’ (ugh!) At present, the residuals and tips and ad revenues make up a small but growing part of many creators’ incomes, and more sophisticated models are being developed.

Reducing the number of people who have access to my work is not the same as working on my behalf, Bernie.

It’s great to see more people come out of the woodwork who seem to understand how to approach new challenges as opportunities and not threats. That said, while it’s great that there is this discussion between people who disagree about the bill, it’s very unfortunate that the bill was rushed through Parliament with such haste.

After all, soon, for anyone suspected of copyright infringement, Techdirt will look like this. At that point, continuing such discussions online will be slightly more difficult.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

The Chairman of McLaren Automotive, Ron Dennis, recently said that the Bugatti Veyron is “a complete piece of junk.”

“The Bugatti Veyron is a complete piece of junk. I think it is. I believe I can look at a range of women and I can see beauty in most of them, but I can look at a Bugatti and I think it is pig ugly,” Dennis said. “The Veyron doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve been looking at it for years, and I don’t see one single thing that makes me feel good.”

Dennis also criticized BBC’s Top Gear and their recent road race organized in Abu Dhabi between a Bugatti Veyron and the McLaren F1. He said that the race had to be rigged to make the Veyron look quicker than it was.

“I know that they have to cut the car open to take the engine out. To make an engine in that configuration, you know, it doesn’t go around corners. When we did the race in Abu Dhabi, we beat it off the line so many times that the film crew was getting frustrated because the outcome was supposed to be for the Bugatti to win. So we had to do that whole thing about ten times before it managed to get off the line cleanly and catch us up. Because every time they dropped the clutch it bogged down and we were gone.”

Ouch – we are waiting Bugatti’s and Jeremy Clarkson’s reply.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: ArabianBusiness (via Jalopnik)

Usually, shoeboxes are either thrown away, or end up being used for science projects or at times for making Formula 1 car models. The next time you buy yourself a pair of Pumas, remember that the shoebox in your hands took 3 years to design and is eco-friendly! The guys at Puma and Fuseproject racked their brains and came up with this ingenious packaging that has helped the sportswear brand save up on material costs.

Tightly secured in a bag, the shoebox decreases the use of cardboard by 65%. Doing away with tissue paper, plastic bags and the laminated cardboard exterior, the Puma box uses the PET made bag instead, making it easily recyclable. The company estimates the new box-bag will help save up on energy, water, fuel consumption during manufacturing by a sweet 60% (8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, 264,000 gallons of fuel, and 264 gallons of water). Expect this shoe packaging on store shelves from next year. Who’d think modifying packing material could help save so much!

[Fastcompany]

The Bugzilla Project is announcing that Bugzilla 3.6 has been released and is now available for install or upgrade. With Bugzilla 3.6, the development team focused on improving the existing components and features, but it also comes with a few big, new features. Notable is the new extensions system that enables developers to quickly build new functionality on top of the ex… (read more)

A tuna fish sandwich is a classic lunch choice, but for a variety of reasons some people are staying away from tuna these days. Here’s a vegetarian (and vegan) alternative version for those who miss that tangy, creamy lunchtime treat. Ask any mermaid you happen to see, this version is a winner!

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