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Who cares if you’ve never even heard of the ability to run alternative operating systems on your PS3—you could potentially be in for a small windfall under consumer protection laws. More »

The U.S. government expects General Motors and Chrysler to generate enough profits for it to unwind its equity stakes in both companies, according to a new federal report by the General Accounting Office. However, if both companies unexpectedly fail, the government said that it will consider all options for shedding its stake, including liquidation.

The study done by GAO of the pension funds at GM and Chrysler, said that the U.S. Treasury needs to set clearer standards for measuring its investments in the auto industry to avoid conflicts of interest.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly said that he wants to sell the 60.1 percent stake and the 9.9 percent stake in Chrysler as soon as possible. The U.S. government has dumped $81 billion into rescuing GM, Chrysler, GMAC and suppliers.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Free Press

Republican Justin Bernier, who is running for Congress in the 5th District that touches the New York and Massachusetts borders, is ripping the state Capitol Police for blocking the flying of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag in Hartford.

“The authorities are dead wrong to bow to political pressure from members of the legislature and deny a legitimate request to fly the Gadsden flag over the Capitol,” said Bernier, who served in the war in Afghanistan. “Connecticut citizens have good reason to be upset when the flags of foreign countries are allowed to fly over the statehouse, but not a flag associated with our nation’s founding and with the United States Marine Corps.  This is more proof that the political class in Hartford is completely out of touch with the rest of us.”

Bernier is seeking the Republican nomination at the party’s convention on May 21 in Hartford for the right to battle against incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy in November.

Scrubs star Donald Faison is being sued by a California bank after falling behind on his mortgage for an apartment complex he purchased in Inglewood two years ago for $525,000.

Lawyers for Luther Burbank Savings argue that Faison hasn’t paid the note on the property since November and now owes $514,657.76 in arrears. The bank is seeking a foreclosure judgment in the case.

Faison is reportedly in his final season of Scrubs and was recently cast in The Law, a new CBS pilot comedy premiering this fall.

Apple no va a parar. Más allá de las novedades – interesantes de analizar aparte – del nuevo sistema operativo para iPhone y iPad y de iAd, su sistema publicitario, creo que este es el resumen del mensaje que enviaron Jobs y compañía al resto del sector: nos sentimos fuertes, tenemos un montón de dinero en la caja, el efecto red que antaño juega en nuestra contra empieza a hacerlo a favor, los usuarios buscan experiencia antes que apertura… y todo ello se resume en que, desde el control de la relación con los usuarios, en Apple nos sentimos capaces de asaltar todos los mercados y quien quiera adaptarse a nuestras normas, que lo haga. Al resto lo dejaremos fuera de la fiesta.

Ayer, entre novedades de iPhone 4.0 y demás, enviaron una serie de “dardos” que no tienen desperdicio. El primero y más significativo era hacia Google, cuyo pecado de querer usurpar el rol de “interfaz con el usuario” a través de Android, jamás será perdonado: iAd supone un movimiento muy agresivo de entrada en el mercado publicitario por parte de Apple. A eso hay que sumar que quieren empujar fuera a las redes sociales de juegos para iPhone con la suya propia, que buscan arañar espacio a RIM en el sector de empresas y, sobre todo, que se cierran a que los desarrolladores usen otras herramientas de programación que no sean la SDK oficial (Uberbin).

Además de suponer un nuevo tiro de flotación a Adobe y sus deseos de Flash como el nuevo Java, quiere impactar de una manera perversa en el resto de plataformas de aplicaciones: como las empresas tienen presupuestos limitados y hay muchas plataformas, lo óptimo es utilizar aquellas tecnologías que te permiten ahorrar costes programando una vez y luego “portando” el código a cada sistema. ¿Por qué hace esto Apple? Porque su plataforma es la que mejor ROI tiene a día de hoy y, obligando a las empresas a desarrollar sólo con su SDK, consiguen que se hagan menos aplicaciones para otras plataformas.

iAd

iAd merece un análisis sosegado más adelante. Lo que me interesa, más allá de calibrar cuán de potente es su modelo de Adware (publicidad en aplicaciones ha habido desde hace lustros, estamos probablemente ante una sofisticación más o menos trabajada), es qué van a tener en exclusiva los que usen su plataforma respecto a otras. De entrada, presupongo algo que de cara a futuro puede resultar un campo inmenso de negocio: la integración total con iTunes para que Apple sea el intermediario por excelencia en el comercio electrónico como medio de pago. Si hay algo que necesitan los servicios de pago con el móvil es simplificar la experiencia y ahí los operadores siempre han tenido la ventaja de “pagar en la factura del móvil”; integrando sistema de respuesta directa en iAd posiblemente nos encontremos con que iTunes pueda ocupar el rol de plataforma de pago por cualquier transacción que se haga en un iPhone o en un iPad.

El resto del sector frente a Apple

Si a todo esto sumamos los deseos de Apple de empujar el modelo de las consolas para la informática personal mi conclusión es que ojalá modelos alternativos a los que plantean sean los que se impongan en el mercado. A día de hoy no apostaría mucho porque esto vaya a suceder en los próximos dos / tres años, pero la perspectiva de que las bases del futuro de casi cualquier negocio pase por las normas que marque el farbicante del hardware me resultan funestas. Siempre ha habido tensión entre las plataformas y quienes hacen negocio sobre ellas, lo que plantea Apple es una visión de dominación completa por parte de la plataforma, que gracias a construir buenas experiencias de usuario está haciendo valer el poder conferido por controlar el interfaz con el usuario. A eso y, en parte también, al secuestro ideológico de gran parte de los analistas tecnológicos que sólo hablan de apertura cuando se refieren al resto de compañías.

Otros modelos son posibles y, en mi opinión, muy deseables. Y, si Apple sigue creciendo como lo está haciendo, irá siendo hora de que empecemos a plantearnos hasta qué punto sus prácticas son abuso de posición dominante.

Jeff Yeager after a river cleanup.
(Photo: Denise Yeager)

Ah, springtime, and a cheapskate’s fancy turns to … trash. As Jim Carrey said in the movie The Grinch, “One man’s toxic waste is another man’s potpourri.” Well, not really. But I’ve found some pretty nifty stuff scavenging through what others have cast aside.

In the springtime particularly, I combine my love of trash picking with my passion for being outdoors and helping the environment. This Saturday (April 10th) I’ll be participating in the 22nd Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, sponsored by my friends and neighbors at the Alice Ferguson Foundation here in southern Maryland.

Over the years more than 50,000 volunteers have spent a day picking trash out of the Potomac and its surrounding watershed.

Last year alone, that effort netted 290 tons of trash collected at over 500 sites throughout the region. Not only is it a day to give Mother Nature a makeover — and realize just how much trash ends up in our rivers and other waterways — but it is, at least for me, “My favorite shopping day of the year.” (Check out the photo of some of my prized Potomac finds over the years.)

If you don’t live in the Potomac watershed or can’t join us on Saturday, don’t despair: This spring and summer there will be more than 3,000 river cleanup projects across the country, all looking for able volunteers. The nationwide campaign — 2010 National River Cleanup — is coordinated by American Rivers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring America’s rivers for the benefit of people, wildlife and nature. On their website you can find a cleanup near you.

Or, if you want to organize a river cleanup of your own, you can register it on the site to help generate volunteers and publicity for your project — American Rivers even provides free trash bags and instructional materials to cleanup organizers if you register your cleanup in their database.

June is National Rivers Month, and many cleanups happen during that month or earlier, a sort of spring cleaning as people get outdoors to enjoy nature’s waterways. Since the start of the nationwide cleanup campaign in 1991, more than 600,000 volunteers have cleaned up 100,000+ miles of waterways. All that trash, and still no sign of Jimmy Hoffa.

It’s true what they say: Everybody lives downstream from someone else. The goal of the Alice Ferguson Foundation is to make the Potomac “trash-free” by 2013. I wholeheartedly support that goal and will do my best to make it happen, although when that glorious day comes I’ll need to find another source for occasional anniversary gifts and other trash treasures I’ve been picking up in the Potomac every April.

Jeff Yeager is the author of the book The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches and the forthcoming The Cheapskate Next Door. His website is www.UltimateCheapskate.com. Follow Jeff Yeager on Twitter and friend Jeff on Facebook.

More from The Daily Green

• 10 Ways to Spruce Up Your Outdoors for Spring
• The Best Tips for Gardening Beginners
• 11 Eco-Friendly Volunteer Vacations
• Stunning Photos of Our National Parks
• 15 Things You Should Repair Instead of Toss Out

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

For the NBA’s bench players, playing time is like oxygen.

That naturally holds true for any team’s reserves, but for the Lakers’ bench in particular – sitting behind the league’s most talented starting lineup – PT is like the water’s surface to a diver scrambling upwards with an empty tank.

It’s a bit different for each player: Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown always want more minutes, but at least they can expect relatively consistent burn in their defined roles; Luke Walton’s eager to get into the rotation after battling back issues all season; Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga work hard in practice daily to stay ready for spot duty behind L.A.’s three star bigs; Adam Morrison covets the chance to show he can still play.

And boy, does Sasha Vujacic want to be on the floor.

After falling almost completely out of Phil Jackson’s rotation this season after a diminished role in post-Machine 2008-09, Vujacic certainly wasn’t expecting to start for just the 12th time in his career and first time since 2006-07 on Friday night in Denver.

But when Kobe Bryant decided not to play in order to rest his body (knee, ankle, finger, etc.), Jackson called on the Slovenian, and played him for 25 minutes and 39 seconds, by far the most run Vujacic had received all season and only the third time he’d played at least 20 minutes.

While the 6-7 guard didn’t have the kind of game he’d hoped for from a shooting standpoint – he made only 3-of-12 attempts from the field (2-of-7 from three) – just being on the floor for an extended run was for Vujacic like opening a packet of Lucky Charms featuring only marshmallows.

“Today was an important game for me to get a feel for things,” said Vujacic, who added three boards and an assist. “I was a little too passive (to start), but it was great to be out there for a long time.”

Understandably, getting into an individual rhythm heading into the playoffs isn’t easy for someone who’d played a total of 96 minutes since the All-Star break (that’s less than three games for Bryant), even if finding a way to contribute regardless of how limited the role is incumbent upon every pro player.

“I just want to be able to help the team,” said Sasha. “Tonight I got a feel for the game. The (missed) shots I’m not worried about, it’s just getting in the flow. I’m mad we lost, but it’s a great opportunity for guys to get it going.”

Since Vujacic hadn’t been playing much of late anyway, his 26 minutes in Bryant’s place didn’t necessarily increase the burn for the rest of the bench in his stead. Still, Brown scored 12 points with a block in his nearly 27 minutes, Farmar scored seven points with three boards, Powell managed four points with five boards in 21 minutes and Mbenga a basket and four rebounds in only 4:29. In sum, 25 points and 13 boards from the bench wasn’t bad.

It was Brown, not Vujacic, who started the second half. The unit featuring the high-flier and the rest of the starters played so well that Jackson didn’t make a substitution in the quarter, as L.A. went on a 27-11 run after Denver scored the first five points to turn a 10-point halftime deficit into a 1-point lead into the fourth. Vujacic then returned with Farmar and Powell, and promptly sank two 3-pointers in a 2-minute span, the second after he’d grabbed an offensive rebound and then spotted up in the corner before catching Powell’s nice skip pass.

Vujacic is hoping, and planning, to bring some of that to the Lakers in Minnesota on Friday night, a game in which Bryant is not expected to play.

“Of course I’d love to play more minutes again,” Vujacic said. “I’ve been eager for a long time. I just want to carry on. Today wasn’t a great shooting night, but I’m not worried about my shots. Tomorrow I want to do different things, mix it up, but keep going and keep it consistent up to the playoffs.”

Getting Kobe well-rested for those playoffs exists in its own vacuum, surely, but if Vujacic can use even a brief absence from No. 24 to find a semblance of rhythm, the Lakers are the beneficiary.

Sure enough, just a bit of oxygen can go a long way for a bench player in the NBA.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2010

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010

In the morning, the President will hold a bilateral meeting with President Klaus of the Czech Republic at Prague Castle. There will be a pool spray at the top of the meeting.

The President will then depart Prague. The departure from Prague Ruzyně Airport is open press.

The President will return to Washington, DC in the afternoon. The arrival on the South Lawn is open press.

Out-of-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: FOX
Print: New York Times
Radio: CBS

In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: FOX
Print: MediaNews
Radio: SRN

CEST

9:30AM THE PRESIDENT holds bilateral meeting with President Klaus of the Czech Republic
Prague Castle
Travel Pool spray at the top

10:25AM THE PRESIDENT departs Prague, Czech Republic en route Andrews Air Force Base
Prague Ruzyně Airport
Open Press

EDT

1:05PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at Andrews Air Force Base
Travel Pool Coverage

1:20PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at the White House
South Lawn
Open Press (Pre-set 12:50PM – Final Gather 1:05PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)

##

My neighbor was telling me about her daughter’s excitement over her upcoming prom. I felt a tug of regret. I never went to my high school prom. I’ll be honest, I was never asked. I was not the type of girl to inspire crushes from guys in high school. I like to think of it as being a late bloomer. I figure I will begin to bloom when I am 80… just in time for the “senior” dance!

Hearing about prom put a bee in my bonnet and I announced to my husband that I had a new life goal… to go on a prom date. My husband was horrified at the implications of that statement. In order to avoid the inevitable rental of a tuxedo, he offered a kid down the street 50 bucks to take me to his high school prom! Unfortunately, for my husband, Logan had a prom date already. LOL!

All kidding aside. Going to the prom is a right of passage for many teens, but it is not without its risks. It makes sense for parents to talk with their kids about situations that could crop up on prom night, but parents can only do so much to make sure their kids are safe. No
one wants to seem uncool, especially on prom night, but teens can do things to help protect themselves.

Ask your teen to set up a buddy system amongst his/her friends to follow some common safety rules:

• Don’t let your friends go off alone or with strangers.
• Don’t pressure your friends into doing something they don’t want to do.
• Don’t let your friends get into a car with someone you know has been drinking, and stop your friends from driving if they have been drinking.
• If your friends are doing something that is stupid and dangerous, speak up!
• If something bad is going down or something feels wrong… trust your instincts and get out of there.
• Carry your cell phone with you at all times in case you need to call for help!

Here are some prom safety resources that may be helpful:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have put together Prom Health and Safety Tips, Safe Driving to the Prom and Beyond, and a Prom Podcast that discusses various aspects of risks associated with going to the prom.
• De-stressing the Prom
• Make Prom Night Your Best Night
• Parents Can Help Prevent Prom Night Drinking
• Prom Anxiety
• Prom + Graduation + Senior Beach Week = Underage Drinking Mayhem?
• Prom Safety – What Parents Worry About
• Prom Safety Tips

After a lot of pleading, attempted bribery, and crying (geez, he sure can turn on the waterworks
when he is desperately trying to get out of doing something), my husband has accepted his fate. He is taking me on a “prom date”. We will be dressing up for an elegant evening of dinner and dancing! Do you have a prom story you want to share?

Camping equipment is turning greener with every new innovation, making sure you don’t burn a hole in the atmosphere while enjoying nature. Here’s another addition, the BioLite stove. What you probably don’t know is, toxic smoke from cooking indoors using solid fuel kills around 1.6 million people annually and causes a significant amount of harm to the environment too. The BioLite stove reduces emissions by 95% and uses half the fuel required by a regular fire. It also boils water faster than a normal petroleum stove. This portable, efficient and eco-friendly stove can burn a load of substances you’d come across while camping and weighs just a pound and a half.

On connecting it to a thermoelectric generator, the stove powers a small fan that blows air to improve combustion. It also creates enough energy to power up a USB device through its USB port. You can buy yourself one of these for just around $80.

[Ohgizmo]

Credit Derivatives Research has warned in a report that while all eyes were on Greece’s financial problems, sovereign default concerns have been skyrocketing for some of world’s largest economies in just the last month.

Streetwise:

“While headlines focused, rightly so, on the debacle that is Greece, it is much more of a systemic crisis in developed nations than most would like to believe,” said CDR chief strategist Tim Backshall in a note highlighting a surge in sovereign risk.

CDR’s Government Risk Index jumped almost 40 per cent in the last month, its highest since Feb. 25. The GRI is made up of credit default swaps on seven of the largest sovereign debt issuers: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.A.

Read more here >

Join the conversation about this story »

On Wednesday, President and First Lady Obama filmed a taped message that will appear as part of American Idol’s annual global fundraising event later this month, FOX News reports.

Idol Gives Back is a two-hour charity event that raises money for international non-profit organizations. This year’s beneficiaries include Children’s Health Fund, Feeding America, Malaria No More, Save the Children, and the United Nations Foundation.

Idol Gives Back 2010 will air Wednesday, April 21 @ 8 PM ET.

After running exceedingly hot for a few days here with new apps and updates, the pace slowed a bit yesterday. But not by a lot, as we still got a decent handful of new apps and at least one bucket full of updates. And there was some useful stuff in there, such as Torrent Remote for remotely controlling uTorrent, or MoBill for using Authorize.net to send bills to customers from your phone. And Richard Buckminster Fuller Quotes. Oh, wait. Sure, it’s one of four quotes apps from Brighthouse Labs that landed yesterday, but that we have these apps is a sign of the freedom that developers have been granted for the webOS App Catalog, unlike what our friends over at TiPb are witnessing. The great holy list of app freedom, listed after the break as usual.

read more

Summer comes early now, and it’s not global warming’s fault. It’s the annual kickoff of the warm-weather blockbuster cross-promotion season. Since Hollywood decided a few years back that "summer" should officially begin in early May, promo-partner programs start launching just after Easter. In the case of the upcoming Paramount Pictures/Marvel flick Iron Man 2, retail partner 7-Eleven is rolling out its Slurpee, Big Gulp and movie-themed merchandise programs this week. They’ll be in stores for the next two months. There’s also a "Collect Like a Superhero, Live Like a Billionaire" sweepstakes that sends winners to Los Angeles for a peek into the Tony Stark lifestyle, complete with a Rodeo Drive shopping spree and dinner at Spago. (Iron Man hero Stark, who loves the paparazzi, would actually do those things, making this one of the more logical contests of late.) 7-Eleven stores will be hawking DVDs of the first movie, which became a surprise $585 million global success in ’08, and animated shorts from Marvel Entertainment. And there will be enough movie-themed cups—heroes and villains!—for even the thirstiest fan, along with a specially created Invincible Orange Slurpee flavor and character straws. And a new twist: The domed lids on the cups have been crafted to look like Iron Man helmets. (Couldn’t they have found a way to make Scarlett Johansson’s cup curvy and voluptuous like the actress herself? Just curious.) The action flick, also starring Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle, opens May 7.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

	Greenlings: Which is greener, having two wheels or four? Not as easy a calculation as it could be.		Think wants to hear your suggestions for upcoming City EV Who wants a less-powerful battery at a lower cost?
	Video: Robert Llewellyn’s Gearless looks into quick charging for his i-MiEV At least he got to eat a bacon sandwich.	Other news: Electrification Coalition says U.S. would “benefit substantially” from plug-in vehicles Nissan gives Plug In America $25,000 grant for more education and outreach Report: Next Range Rover goes on a diet, loses 1,000 lbs; could get 33 mpg!

AutoblogGreen for 04.09.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We see them every where, warning us about upcoming “dangers” and “hurdles” that we should stay away from while driving. If taken seriously, traffic signs can keep away those shocking moments of being taken unawares and hitting a speed breaker. Keeping a look out for the speed limit sign will also save up on your monthly pile up of tickets. Well, here’s a bunch of traffic signs that you’re bound to look at. These illuminated signs will grab attention on the most crowded street. These traffic signs power up using solar energy and were unveiled by the company ENLIGHT at the Green Energy Expo 2010 in Dae-gu, South Korea. Packed with a battery to store the energy collected in the day time, these signs will help keep drivers informed during the night too!

The last time we heard of illuminated road information displays was the Solar Roadways innovation, also powered by solar energy.

[Aving]

The Guidos and Guidettes are heading back to their Home Turf in the Garden State: The Jersey Shore cast began filming Season 2 in Miami in this week, but the series will return to the state where it all began once the boardwalk of Seaside Heights opens for the summer season at the end of next month.

“It’s official, the ‘Jersey Shore’ cast began filming Season 2 in Miami,” MTV rep Emily Yeomans said on Thursday. “Once the boardwalk heats back up, the series will return to the Jersey Shore to complete the season.”

Show producers say Snooki, The Situation, Pauly D, J-Woww, Sammi, Ronnie, Vinny and even Season One castoff Angelina will be back beatin’ the heat in the Jersey resort town of Seaside Heights.

Jersey Shore’s second season will premiere on Thursday, July 29.

Check the ingredients label on a food product, and there’ll likely be a dozen words you can’t recognize—causing havoc for vegetarians. I know how bad it is, I’m one of ’em. More »

Audi passed Mercedes-Benz in global quarterly new-car sales for the first time ever. The Volkswagen owned luxury brand outsold Stuttgart’s Mercedes-Benz 264,100 to 248,500 during the first three months of 2010. The quarterly sales result was a new record and 25.9 percent above the same period last year for Audi.

The move brings Audi closer to its goal to become the “most successful luxury automaker in the world by 2015,” at which point it hopes to sell 1.5 million cars a year.

Audi came in at third place for all of 2009, behind Mercedes-Benz. BMW was ranked No. 1 for 2009. Analysts say that Mercedes-Benz may have trouble regaining second place as the year progresses.

“We expect continued growth compared to last year in the second quarter of 2010,” Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer said in a statement.

We’re guessing the new compact Audi A1 will also help boost 2010 sales.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)