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On Good Friday the Los Angeles Mission provided Easter Baskets and new shoes to the homeless people of Skid Row.  Volunteers and staff members from the Los Angeles Christian Health Center provided feet washing for several hundred guests on Skid Row.

Despite the economic difficulties, the Los Angeles Mission continued their commitment to feed thousands of unprivileged families.  The Los Angeles Mission severed a ton of sliced ham, several hundred pounds of macaroni and cooked vegetables.  Many volunteers, including Chief Beck, gave their time to make sure everyone was served.  The annual event was a blessing to many.

Ah, the shifting tech world landscape. For the past few years, the monsters of the tech world were considered to be Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, in that all three seemed to be competing in the same arena. However, with Yahoo stumbling and Microsoft still failing to get much traction in the online world (yes, a bit more than in the past, but not enough to be interesting), everyone’s looking for a new fight. Slashdot points us to a story of some analyst predicting (based on nothing, really) that Apple may start its own search engine. It appears that this is pure guesswork, based on the idea that Apple might not want Google paying close attention to what people are doing on their iPhones… especially as it builds up its own mobile device business.

While plenty of virtual ink has been spilled over the Google/Apple device battles, could they be approaching a bigger online battle as well? It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility — and given its control over the devices it sells, perhaps it could get a pretty good starting position with a search engine. Still, it does seem like a bit of a reach for Steve Jobs and company. At this point, it seems more like some analyst just looking for a more interest “Google vs.” prediction than anything serious at this point.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Acura, Honda

Last September, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Honda looking for restitution for 750,000 late model Accord and Acura TSX owners. The suit claimed that a design defect in a new braking system led to excessive force on the rear brake pads that reduced the lifespan of the pads from 70,000 miles to under 20,000 miles. The cost to replace those rear pads? The suit claims the average total is about $150, but if the rotors were damaged, the price can spike to $250 or more.

A report in The New York Times shows that the months of legal wrangling has paid off for 750,000 owners of 2008 and 2009 Accords and the 2009 (plus a few 2010 models) Acura TSX. Honda has reportedly agreed to settle the suit without admitting responsibility or any wrongdoing, while also providing cash to customers with the brakes in question. Owners who have already gotten their brakes done will receive one half of the cost of repairs, or a maximum of $125, whichever is less. The owners in question will also receive $150 towards the cost of a set of new rear brake pads that Honda says will last longer than the units being replaced. The law firm handling the case will reportedly receive $2 million for its efforts. In total, Honda could be on the hook for well over $100 million if all affected owners receive new brakes.

With the class-action suit settled, the next step is for Judge Margaret M. Morrow of the United States District Court for the Central District of California to give the agreement an official seal of approval in May.

[Source: The New York Times]

Report: Honda settles class-action lawsuit over premature brake wear originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I have fond memories of playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on my PlayStation back in high school. I remember trading stories with friends about the biggest tricks I’d pulled, and being astounded at the scores that “a friend of their’s” could pull. I remember single-mindedly trying to beat those trick scores, re-starting a level each time I bailed so that I could achieve that perfect run. Sadly for me, no other Tony Hawk game that I’ve played has been able to capture that magic. So I was very pleased to find out that that classic of classics, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, has now been released for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The $10 iPhone app includes levels, game modes, and characters from the original version, so it should be pretty sweet. The on-screen controls even mimic the original gamepad layout. This is your best opportunity to play the game on the go, short of wearing a PlayStation around your neck, Flavor Flav style. Yeah boy!

Be sure to head on over to Macworld for more screenshots and info.

Nomura’s Richard Koo may be right about the Bank of Japan when he says that “everybody knows that the Bank of Japan has no tools to achieve an inflation target with the monetary multiplier zero negative”, but that observation can’t and shouldn’t be applied to the U.S.

In fact, back in November 2002, then Fed Governor Ben Bernanke gave an entire speech on the topic to the National Economists Club, titled, “Deflation”  Making Sure ‘it’ Doesn’t Happen Here.”  The complete speech is worth reading at http://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm, but all you really need to know is that Bernanke is on record as noting that (a) the Fed’s charter includes fighting deflation as well as inflation, (b) buying government securities of all maturities is only one of many anti-deflationary options available to the Fed when short-term interest rates approach zero and there’s no borrrowing/lending of bank reserves, and (c) “the conclusion that deflation is always reversible under a fiat money system follows from basic economic reasoning”, because all the Fed has to do is create such a massive supply of fiat money that its price falls relative to other assets.  Dr. B goes on to promise that while “of course, the U.S. government is not going to print money and distribute it willy-nilly (although as we will see later, there are practical policies that approximate this behavior.”

We should all hope that the U.S. economic situation never reaches the point where the Bernanke Fed has to launch the black helicopters into the sky filled with bags of currency, but I am highly confident that the Bernanke Fed is all too willing to take any extreme action it thinks is necessary to stop deflation – and unlike Koo, I’m convinced that a Federal Reserve determined to create a higher price level can in fact make it happen.  That said, it’s also highly likely that the side effects from the Bernanke cure for deflation will be almost as bad as the disease itself.

Looking ahead, we’re going to need more words to describe higher price levels than just “inflation”, or maybe “hyper-inflation”.  In this environment, where bank reserves are multiplying like lemmings but there is little borrowing or lending activity to boost the money supply and drive demand, it will be very hard to engineer enough economic activity to avoid deflation.  So traditional inflation isn’t the concern – the problem is that if/when the Fed starts printing fiat money to raise the U.S. price level, the dollar will collapse, interest rates will spike and we’ll get some horribly ugly inflation in between the plain vanilla version and hyper-inflation.

As Woody Allen famously said, “One path leads to utter hopelessness and despair, the other to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

The author is a former healthcare analyst and is a mutual fund industry veteran…

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Predictably, just about every politician out there felt compelled to issue a comment, press release or tweet of congratulations to the national champion UConn Huskies. (You can check out their Twitter feeds on tweetct.org.)

“By winning their 2nd straight and 7th overall national championship, our unbeaten Lady Huskies have shown the country what it means to be the ‘Top Dog’ of women’s college basketball,” Joe Lieberman said in a press release that is typical of the accolades heaped on the Huskies. 

Among those lauding the team is Peter Schiff, the guy who famously told Hearst Newspapers’ Neil Vigdor  on Sunday that he is running a national campaign.

“It’s not Connecticut focused because what I want to do affects the entire nation. Some people might think, `Why are people in California concerned about Connecticut?’ Well, because the vote of a Connecticut senator affects them,” said Schiff, who has raised significant sums from out-of-state donors.

But today, Schiff bleeds Husky blue just like the rest of Connecticut. “UConn defeats Stanford 53-47 for NCAA women’s title and 78th straight win. Way to go Huskies!!” he said on Twitter.

By the way, the broker/pundit/author from Weston lived in California for a time and is a graduate of UC Berkeley, across the bay from Stanford.

 

One of the underrated pleasures of this modern world is developing more intimate relationships with one’s appliances and household objects–via Twitter.

Innovators have already connected rice cookers, toasters, house plants, and even a toilet to Twitter so that people can get crucial updates on these objects’ status. For example, MyToaster updates its twitter feed with messages like “toasting” and “toasted” so the toaster owner knows when to go pop that bread out.

The latest product to join the list of socially networked appliances is the Twettle–the tea kettle that tweets when the water is boiling and the time is right for steeping tea bags.

Developed by Ben Perman and Murat Multu, the Twettle comes in bright, happy colors; the British designers hope the product will eventually take off in the United Kingdom, where tea is a cornerstone of culture and life.

The idea behind Twettle is that it would connect to the local wi-fi network and tweet when the tea was ready. For example:

The creators say the kettle could also throw in a few weekly stats about the number of cups of tea consumed.

Gizmodo sadly reports that the Twettle isn’t a real product yet, but the designers are looking for an investment of $500,000 to get the $115 kettles onto the production line.

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Image: MobileInc

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) frequently cracks down on advertisements from consumer technology companies, asking companies to fix commercial claims that are confusing or misleading.

In 2008, the ASA requested that Apple remove or change iPhone 3G television advertisements because their claims that the device was “really fast” were exaggerated and misleading.

Now, Motorola is being cited for a television ad which says “HOW SOCIAL IS YOUR PHONE? Introducing MOTOROLA DEXT with MOTOBLUR. THE FIRST PHONE WITH SOCIAL SKILLS.”

INQ Mobile Ltd a subsidiary of Hutchinson Whampoa, challenged Motorola’s claim that Dext (aka Cliq) was the “first phone with social skills,” because INQ released an entry-level phone in 2008 called the INQ1 which it billed as “The World’s First Social Mobile.”

That device integrated Skype, Facebook, Myspace, Last.fm and Windows Live Messenger and was given the “best handset” award at the 2009 Mobile World Congress.

Motorola responded to INQ’s complaint by saying the concept of “social skills” was too vague to be objectively measurable, and that it could have easilly referred to good manners or etiquette and consumers aren’t likely to be misled into thinking an inanimate object has social skills like that. Furthermore, they said they did not intend to say the phone was the first to integrate with social networks, but rather that Motoblur presents a unique way to interact with them.

The ASA, however, has upheld INQ’s complaint.

“Although we noted there were differences in the way the Motorola Dext and INQ phone functioned, because we considered the ad implied the Motorola Dext was the first phone to integrate social networking applications in one place, but that was not the case, we concluded the claim was misleading,” the ASA’s announcement says.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The iPad represents many things: a potentially lucrative opportunity for developers, Apple’s next gold rush and catnip for 300,000 Apple fanboys, to start. According to Luke Schneider, chief technology officer for Zipcar, the device also has implications for fleet management and car sharing, affecting how vehicle networks operate and how consumers interact with organizations that offer alternatives to personal vehicle ownership — from transit agencies to nonprofit car- and bike-sharing networks to a for-profit company like Zipcar with its 6,000 vehicles and 350,000 members.

Hooked up to communications networks and often used by eco-minded and urban consumers, car-sharing networks may offer a prime testing ground for early generations of plug-in vehicles (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) — as well as for the apps and services that may help to pave their way into the mainstream. Already, many car-sharing networks have hybrids in their fleets (it makes sense, given that the organizations running the networks generally pay for fuel).

According to Schneider, the bulk of Zipcar’s members still make reservations and manage their accounts using a personal computer. However, the number of users connecting with Zipcar (the world’s largest car-sharing network) via smartphones is “growing at an incredibly rapid rate, steadily increasing every month,” said Schneider. Up to a third of Zipcar users now own an iPhone he said, and a little less than two thirds own a smartphone. He added, “As folks increase the mobility of their lifestyles, we want to be there,” and as users adopt new mobile devices including the iPad, “we need to be there to keep those numbers growing.”

Beyond the iPad, Beyond the Car

Zipcar has been “watching the tablet computing segment for some time,” said Schneider. But Apple’s entry has made the company take notice. He described two possible use cases that stand out for a tablet with rich media and high processing capabilities in the fleet management and car-sharing environment. While declining to provide more specifics, he said fleet managers could use the iPad to gain a “more powerful tool to ensure all vehicles are in the condition we want them to be in,” and to let drivers know “when they’ve done something well.”

Customers who rent a Zipcar for a few hours or a weekend, on the other hand, could turn to the iPad for help getting oriented in an unfamiliar place, finding relevant attractions and planning multimodal transit routes that incorporate cars, buses, trains, bike sharing or other transportation options (see: Mobility on Demand Takes Aim at Transport Networks’ “Last Mile,” GigaOM Pro).

For Zipcar, Schneider said a key question will be how to balance different services and media for a tablet interface, or as he put it, “How much of the web app to port down, how much of the phone app to port up.” Schneider said it would be “premature” to equip cars in the Zipcar fleet at this point with the tablet, but the company is looking at how to serve customers who own the tablet.

That’s similar to the approach that Ford Motor is taking. With its onboard communication system — Ford Sync, developed by Microsoft — the automaker aims to accommodate the slew of gear and gadgets that consumers might adopt over the eight years or more that they hang onto a car, without investing in hardware that can quickly become obsolete. (Nancy Gioia, the head of Ford’s sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs, has told us the automaker learned this lesson the hard way, after jumping on the mobile phone installation bandwagon in the 1970s and ’80s.)

The Cool Factor

The simple buzz factor of the iPad could be enough to get the attention of some automakers hoping to shake stodgy reputations. As Ford’s Doug VanDagens, who leads the automaker’s connected services group told us, Ford had a simple objective in opening up the Sync API to some third-party developers earlier this year: to “make Ford cars really cool” and boost vehicle sales.

Already, Hyundai has tried to bask in some of the iPad’s glow. The South Korean automaker announced plans last week to include an iPad with the purchase of its upcoming Equus luxury sedan. Actual utility for drivers, however, is limited to a digital owner’s manual and a tool for booking maintenance appointments via the iPad’s Wi-Fi connection.

Hurdles to Larger Impact on Greener Transit

In the transportation sector at large, the iPad may not leave as much of a mark as the smartphones and app stores that are now helping to usher in a world of digital tools meant to help us get around with less fuel and fewer emissions. When it comes to the market for MPG-boosting apps and services, adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles, the iPad seems an unlikely candidate to provide much of a jump start.

Despite some excitement this week about the potential for in-dash installations of the iPad, at least a handful of hurdles stand between the device and a meaningful impact on vehicles’ software, entertainment, information and IT systems (exception: DIYers like these guys in Santa Clarita, Calif., whose video of an iPad installed in a Toyota Tacoma truck has drawn more than 86,000 views on YouTube this week). Here’s four of those hurdles:

Distraction: The iPad is designed to provide an immersive, engaging experience — exactly what you don’t want the driver in the lane next to you (or your newly licensed kid) to have tempting their gaze from the road. For apps and devices meant for use when you’re on the road, convenience and hands-free controls take priority over the “finger-friendly interface” that makes more sense for stationary settings.

As Schneider put it, “Better media inside cars can always lead to safety issues.” This still leaves room for non-distracting apps on the road, which can use innovative methods to minimize the amount of attention required to operate them. As VanDagens put it to us, the 2 million Ford vehicles equipped with Sync can gain “connectivity to the cloud through phones” while letting drivers interact with apps using buttons on the steering wheel, for example, and voice commands.

No Multitasking: Want to listen to Pandora and get real-time feedback on your driving behavior or fuel efficiency at the same time? It’s easy to take multitasking for granted in personal vehicles, but the iPad will use only one app at a time.

Displays in the Queue: Much of the upcoming generation of plug-in and hybrid vehicles will come equipped with a fairly large display screen in the center stack, and onboard communication systems can provide access to smartphone apps. So while aftermarket retrofits like the one in Santa Clarita may appeal in some niche markets for people who crave a big screen but have either a lower-end or older vehicle, the generally high-earning crowd of early adopters buying the first iPads and alt-fuel vehicles can get a built-in screen with much less hassle.

Embedded vs. Mobile: One of the biggest selling points for the iPad is the physical design, and how it opens a world of comfortable surfing in more leisurely settings. As Slate’s Michael Agger quipped, “The iPad world is like an opium den, where one is always reclining, the better to enjoy its strange, new, vivid wonders.”

But EV-centric apps and services (for checking battery charge levels, for example — a function of the apps unveiled for plug-in vehicles from Nissan and General Motors) won’t necessarily be enhanced by the iPad’s lounging potential, larger size or rich media capabilities (the point is to have basic access on the go). Many other core functions, such as battery notification systems, and charging station locators will likely remain embedded in electric vehicles (GigaOM Pro) — no matter how sophisticated and slick mobile devices get. So similar to the way Zipcar is still negotiating how to balance features and services for personal computers, mobile phones and now tablets, it’s unclear at this point that the iPad or other tablets will offer the right balance for EV-centric apps.

America’s most famous teen mom Bristol Palin has partnered with The Candies Foundation to launch a campaign to prevent other young women from entering motherhood too soon by revealing the realities behind being a teen parent and delivering a latent message of abstinence.

“What if I didn’t come from a famous family?” the daughter of famed Republican Sarah Palin asks in a new 30-second PSA, which also features Bristol’s one-year-old son Tripp. “What if I didn’t have all their support? What if I didn’t have all these opportunities? Believe me, it wouldn’t be pretty. Pause before you play.”

The PSA will run through May to coincide with Teen Pregnancy Month.

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Cheating — lots of men do it. Not just on annoying, nagging girlfriends with a few too many extra pounds, either. Sometimes, for mysterious reasons, men cheat on beautiful and intelligent women who look like the perfect package to any outsider. Even more strange is their choice of mistresses. The men straying from their gorgeous gals often seem to choose dilapidated women well past their sell-by date to cheat with. From a one-time fling to a serial sex addict, or a beautiful younger woman versus a scary looking street hooker, a lot of these extra-marital activities make you wonder “what was he thinking?” Here are some of the hottest women to ever get cheated on.

Sienna Miller

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Sienna Miller is a drop dead gorgeous model and actress who had a tumultuous and controversial marriage to actor Jude Law. Their relationship was under constant scrutiny from the tabloids after Law’s affair with the family nanny surfaced. Daisy Wright had a months-long affair with Law in Miller’s house, and although Wright says she was ’swept off her feet’ by Law, she realizes that he was strictly using her for sex. Law encouraged Wright to have a threesome with him, and she kept a detailed diary of the whole affair. Law even tried to convince her to see him after the affair was discovered — and he had issued a public apology to Sienna. He was busted with his fling when one of the couple’s children discovered Law in bed with the younger woman and tattled to mommy.

The couple tried to work out their differences, but ultimately went their separate ways less than a year later.

Elin Nordegren

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Most people know her as “Tiger Woods’ Wife.” Elin Nordegren is a smoking hot Swedish model who recently discovered Woods was having an affair with a trashy looking porn star. She proceeded to chase him with a golf club, causing lacerations to his face and breaking the back windshield of his Escalade as he tried to escape.

Woods was found to have cheated with a number of women, claimed he had a ‘problem’ and entered sex rehab. He later faced accusations that his rehab stint was for drugs, and not sex at all. Either way, Woods’ real problem was ruining his relationship with one of the hottest girls on the planet for sex with a few greasy looking money grubbers.

Vanessa Bryant

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Vanessa Bryant is a former music video girl, which is how she met husband and Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Bryant was working on his own album — which was never released — and noticed the seventeen year old Vanessa dancing at a video shoot. They married in 2000, when Bryant was only 22.

In 2003, Kobe was accused of rape against a young hotel worker named Katelyn Faber. He denied the allegations, but admitted to consensual sex with the girl. His cheating — and possibly raping — ways not only put incredible emotional strain on his relationship, but cost him sponsorships from McDonalds and Nutella. In 2008, Kobe became the subject of controversy when he was accused of having an affair with former Lakers Girl, Vanessa Curry. What was he thinking?

Lauren Conrad

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Lauren Conrad may be an annoying, bratty, air-headed debutante, but there’s no denying that she’s super hot. In an interview with Us Magazine, Conrad admits turning a blind eye to boyfriends who she knew were cheating on her while she appeared in MTV’s The Hills. Much of that show is so staged that it’s almost insulting, but Conrad claims that her feelings and low self-esteem were all too real; the former reality TV starlet says that the ‘backstabbing’ wouldn’t go unnoticed again.

Halle Berry

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R&B singer Eric Benet checked into rehab for sex addiction after accusations that he had been cheating on total sexpot actress Halle Berry. Benet later claimed that he wasn’t addicted to sex, after all, but had simply made some ’stupid-ass mistakes.’ Stupid ass is right, Benet — there are armies of men who would kill for a chance to merely speak with Berry. Although Berry went out of her way to celebrate his one year anniversary of breaking free from sex addiction, the couple split six months after he ‘relapsed.’ One of Benet’s first excuse — that he cheated in an attempt to save the marriage– clearly failed.

Denise Richards

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Denise Richards split with Charlie Sheen for more than just cheating. Richards claimed that he frequently bought prostitutes — a baffling act, considering Richards’ amazing body and gorgeous face. The remainder of her complaint list is bizarre, to say the least: verbal abuse, 9/11 conspiracy theories, gambling addiction, prescription pills, and an “abnormal fascination” with Nicole Simpson’s death all made it impossible for Richards to remain in the marriage.

The accusations don’t stop there. Richards accused Sheen of assault, having a fetish for pornography bordering on pedophilia, and a strong desire to purchase gas masks and firearms. She also filed a restraining order against the man she described to sound like a meth addict in 2006.

Reese Witherspoon

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Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon were a picture-perfect, Barbie-and-Ken Hollywood couple. Both American actors, Witherspoon met Phillippe at her 21st birthday party. After seven years of marriage and countless sessions in marriage counseling, Witherspoon filed for divorce and cited ‘irreconcilable differences’.

Phillippe had cheated with his co-star from the romantic drama Stop-Loss, a woman named Abbie Cornish. Witherspoon found out about the affair when Phillippe left his Blackberry unguarded in the bathroom; his wife’s prying eyes uncovered messages Phillippe could only explain by saying he “didn’t mean it.”

Tea Leoni

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Tea Leoni is part of another couple involved in multiple extra marital affairs which eventually led to sex rehab for someone. David Duchovny, in this case, cheated on Leoni for years before she demanded he enter rehab if their marriage were to be saved.

Duchovny is the star of Californication, a Showtime series about a writer who frequently has flings with sexy younger women in California. Ironic or typical?

Elizabeth Hurley

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Elizabeth Hurley is a beautiful English model who became known for her movie roles, which were earned by her stunning looks alone. She’s also been on the cover of the British Vogue three times — Hurley is undoubtedly gorgeous. But the famous arm-candy wasn’t enough for British actor Hugh Grant, who was arrested for soliciting sex from haggard looking prostitute. The woman, nicknamed Divine Brown, was solicited by Grant for a $60 blow job. At least she made a little more by selling her story to the tabloids. Hurley and Grant split ‘amicably’ in May 2000.

Jennifer Aniston

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Jennifer Aniston is a girl-next-door type hottie who has been under the public eye for the last few years regarding her break up with ex-husband Brad Pitt. Before their divorce, Aniston claimed Pitt was cheating on her with just-as-beautiful actress Angelina Jolie on the set of a movie they were filming together. Although Pitt denies ever having cheated, he moved on to be with Jolie, and they now have several children. Since then, Aniston has bounced from guy to guy looking for her perfect match. John Mayer, her on and off again boyfriend, is also accused of cheating on the starlet. Photographs of Mayer in a hot tub with another woman turned out to be harmless, but his reputation and trustworthiness had already been ruined by the time Aniston saw them.

Sandra Bullock

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Sandra Bullock is an Academy Award winning actress whose versatility has earned her roles in just about every genre of film. Bullock is a classy beauty who manages to make even her goofy moments appealing and sexy. Bullock has just recently left her husband, motorcycle mogul Jesse James, for cheating on her with up to 11 women.

The first mistress to crawl out of the woodwork was Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee, a fetish porn star experienced with foot fetish and goo fetish porn. Not only did Jesse lower his standards a considerable amount, but the woman looks like a scary tranny with hard-as-rock implants. Also, she’s a Nazi and enjoys dressing the part.

Kim Kardashian

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Kim Kardashian is famous for her role in a few insignificant reality television series, but she’s mostly known for her gigantic ass. Everyone loves Kardashian’s butt, but it apparently wasn’t enough to fill the needs of ex-boyfriend Reggie Bush. Bush, a professional football player, avoided issues in the relationship by having an affair with a waitress called January Gessert until his sneaky ways were discovered when photos were snapped of the two on a date. Bush had attempted to use multiple cell phones to hide his cheating, but was pretty much screwed when Gesserts stumbled over her words when explaining her connection to Bush an interview — she changed her story three times in the same sentence. Although Gessert is the most noteworthy girl Bush had on the side, she wasn’t the only one. He’s accused of hooking up with at least two other girls while maintaining a monogamous facade.

Sophia Bush

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Sophia Bush is the hottie from One Tree Hill who married her co-star, Chad Michael Murray, in 2005. For Murray, this ten just wasn’t enough; he cheated on Bush, leading her to file for divorce after only five months of marriage. The reason cited: Fraud. Bush had no trouble moving on, and was said to have been dating two other co-stars from One Tree Hill shortly after the split.

Jennifer Lopez

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Bootylicious J-Lo was the victim of cheating when then-boyfriend P Diddy strayed with Kim Porter on multiple occasions. Kim’s relationship with Diddy defied the laws of cheating, according to the multi-millionaire rapper. “It wasn’t cheating to me,” he said in an interview with the Power 105.1 radio station. Diddy also claimed that Lopez was guilty of cheating as well, and the couple split in 2003. Diddy went on to marry Porter, who is the mother of his three children.

Rihanna

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Rihanna’s cheating story pales in comparison to the real reason behind her breakup with singer Chris Brown. The drool-worthy pop star was the subject of controversy when her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, beat the living hell out of her outside of his car. The couple had gotten into an argument regarding flirtatious text messages from Brown’s 40-year-old manager when he lost his temper and things got violent. Brown repeatedly struck Rihanna in the face, causing lacerations and bruises that would last for days. This gross-looking older woman isn’t the only place Brown strayed to; he’s rumored to have had multiple one night stands while claiming dedication to the stunning and talented songstress.

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British photographer Sarah Pickering likes to see stuff burn. So much so that she melted some of her equipment while lingering overlong in the doorway of a burning room while shooting forensic fires at the Fire Service College in Gloucestershire. Sarah Pickering once considered becoming a forensics photographer, but quickly realized she didn’t have the stomach for it. Fortunately for us, Pickering explored her fascination through other routes. The first photo here was made at the Fire Service College and documents a forensics training exercise. The sets, called burn units, are meticulously constructed inside shipping containers, and planned according to a narrative that points to the cause of the conflagration. The fire investigators must uncover the cause afterwards, by clues left in the ashes. In the case of the first photograph here, the cause of the fire was a cigarette.

The following explosion photographs were made during “shopping trips” in Kent and Lincolnshire where bombs and other devices were set off for groups of potential buyers from the military and police. Sarah shot the explosions relatively slowly, at ¼ of a second. This allowed for recording the trajectory of the explosions, but meant that she had to rely on her intuition and experience to time the exposures to the silence following the countdown and before the blast.

All images here are from the new book of Sarah Pickering’s photographs from Aperture, “Explosions, Fires and Public Order.” Sarah Pickering is also currently having an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

Images courtesy Aperture

Cigarette, 2007

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I do not enjoy commuting, which is why I don’t do it. Here in Connecticut we have terrible traffic… pretty much every day, despite my state being so far spread out. Actually, that is the problem. Most people have relatively long commutes for such a small state, and since there are only a few highways, they get clogged rather quickly.

But to commute an hour and a half or more to and from work every day? That seems insane… and yet, according to one study, almost 3.5 million Americans are doing this every week, a number that has almost doubled in the past twenty years.

(more…)

The country’s top climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, writes in HuffPost:

The predominant moral issue of the 21st century, almost surely, will be climate change, comparable to Nazism faced by Churchill in the 20th century and slavery faced by Lincoln in the 19th century. Our fossil fuel addiction, if unabated, threatens our children and grandchildren, and most species on the planet.

I have no doubt that this will be the predominant moral issue of the 21st century.  In general, though, I don’t think it’s a good idea to compare un-comparable things, like unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions and slavery and Nazism.

That’s especially true in a blog post (on a highly trafficked website) that doesn’t actually make the scientific case or even link to the scientific case, either of which HuffPost would have allowed.  I wish Hansen would spend more time articulating the science, where he is a credible expert and where the public polling has dipped a tad, and less time opining on policy, where he isn’t an expert and where public support remains high (see “Memo to policymakers: Public STILL favors the transition to clean energy“).

Hansen has long decried cap-and-trade, and so his strong criticism of cap-and-dividend, while it may be surprising to some, is at least consistent:

But so far Congress has been steamrolled by special interests. Congressional leaders add giveaways in their bills to attract industry support and specific votes. The best of the lot, the Cantwell-Collins bill, returns 75 percent of the revenue to the public. But it is still a cap-and-trade scheme, and its low carbon price and offset-type projects create little incentive for clean energy and would have only small impact on carbon emissions.

I and others have criticized the low carbon price, but I was wondering when somebody would point out that Cantwell-Collins uses offset-type projects.

That said, making compromises to attract “support” and “votes” to pass legislation is something politicians must do, but scientists don’t.  By rejecting this core component of our political process, Hansen renders himself irrelevant.  It does, however, leave Hansen free to propose something that is politically inconceivable.

The fundamental requirement for solving our fossil fuel addiction and moving to a clean energy future is a rising price on carbon emissions.

Can’t argue with that.

An essential corollary to the rising carbon price is 100 percent redistribution of collected fees to the public — otherwise the public will never allow the fee to be high enough to affect lifestyles and energy choices. The fee must be collected from fossil fuel companies across-the-board at the mine, wellhead, or port of entry. Revenues should be divided equally among all legal adult residents, with half-shares for children up to two per family, distributed monthly as a “green check”. Part of the revenue could be used to reduce taxes, provided the tax reduction is transparent and verifiable.

He’s starting to lose people here.

The fee-and-green-check approach is transparent, fair and effective. Congressman John Larson defined an appropriate rising fee. $15 per ton of carbon dioxide the first year and $10 more per ton each year. Economic modeling shows that carbon emissions would decline 30 percent by 2020. The annual dividend then would be $2000-3000 per legal adult resident, $6000-9000 per family with two or more children.

I suppose as an intellectual exercise, this might have value, though again it would be nice if he actually linked to a study.  In any case, as a contribution to public policy, this is just wasting everybody’s time.

This bill wouldn’t get double digit support in either the House or the Senate.  It is just brutal to businesses, among other things.  Here’s the kicker:

The public, if well-informed, can be expected to support this policy.

Damnit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker!

Seriously, though, this single sentence explains why Hansen is wasting his time with this blog post, indeed with focusing virtually all of his piece on policy.

The scientific community has utterly failed to inform the public well, as Hansen knows better than most (see “Publicize or perish: The scientific community is failing miserably in communicating the potential catastrophe of climate change“).  Yes, much of this is the fault of the status quo media and a staggeringly well-funded disinformation campaign that borrows the best of the tobacco industry’s tactics to blow smoke in the public’s eyes.

But scientists need to go back to job one — messaging well on science.  And that is something Hansen has been doing longer and better than most:

• Right for 27 years: 1981 Hansen study finds warming trend that could raise sea levels
• Stabilize at 350 ppm or risk ice-free planet, warn NASA, Yale, Sheffield, Versailles, Boston et al
• Drilling off-shore is a “crazy thing” says Hansen on 20th anniversary of his famous testimony
• ‘Tipping Point’ — A non-technical Hansen piece
• Hansen’s plea for leadership to Nevada Gov.
• Hansen: Yankee Ticket Prices and Fossil Fuels
• NASA’s Hansen responds to NYT’s Revkin
• Hansen (et al) must read: Get back to 350 ppm or risk an ice-free planet
• Hansen throws cold water on cooling climate claim
• Hansen: The Shadow on American Democracy
• Dr. Hansen to Dr. Merkel: Carbon is forever — so ban new traditional coal plants now
• Hansen’s op-ed advice to Massachusetts
• Hansen apologizes, warns against “averting our eyes”
• Hansen’s final Iowa testimony
• More swiftboating of James Hansen
• Another “Must Read” from Hansen: ‘Long-term’ climate sensitivity of 6°C for doubled CO2
• A Must Read: “Global Temperature Change,” by James Hansen et al.
• Hansen 1: Sea Level Rise
• Hansen 2: Iowa Edition of Declaration of Stewardship
• Hansen on “civil disobedience”
• Hansen on “Fossil Fuel Subsidies”
• NASA’s Hansen on Live Earth, Gore, and Coal

Whether you’re a committed vegan or just trying to eat lighter and healthier with less meat, eggs, and dairy, you don’t have to worry about going hungry – or lacking flavor. In this roundup of vegan breakfast ideas and recipes, we’ve got everything from sweet breakfast bars to savory tempeh bacon, plus a book recommendation.

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Email #1 is from mkubuwa:

Hi R.,

Recently came across your blog; in one word…eye-opening! You seem to be a sage in these matters, so I have a girl issue that may just be down your alley of expertise…

I recently saw a girl on the train, a solid 9 if I’ve ever seen one. Problem is I’m not sure exactly how to open her. Trains are notorious for being conversation dead-zones as most people just tune out once they get on. She’s always frowning out of the window (hard day at work?) and sitting too far in the seating row for me to get to without making it obvious.

I could just walk up to her direct but I get the feeling that her defence shields would be up before I could even open my mouth. I’ve thought about giving her a written note “Frowning = Wrinkles. You’d look better with a smile” while getting off at my stop, but the problem is we both get off at the end of the line.

Any thoughts on how to get over this problem? I can handle bar and club openers, but public transport is a first for me. I only see her once in a while on the train, so the next time I see her I’ve got to make it count…

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Never tell a girl to smile as part of a pickup gambit. This will always backfire on you. It’s not because girls don’t like to be reminded they look dour; no, it’s because girls will rightly perceive such a gambit as a beta attempt to manufacture positive rapport. Never push rapport before its time.

A good opener is what you wrote in your second paragraph. “Do you ever notice how people on trains just tune out once they get on? It’s gotta be the most anti-social environment on earth.” Obviously, you have logistical problems on a train that you won’t have in a bar. Namely, lots of people in a cramped space between you and her. Walking up to a chick on a packed train will look and feel weird, no way around that. Your best bet is to be standing near where she’s sitting, so that you can look over your shoulder at her. Or get a seat next to her.

***

Email #2 is from R.:

I’ve stumbled on a form of game even more potent than Hangover Game…New Crib game, and it goes something like this;

Suppose you move, it doesn’t matter when, but you have a new place to bring your girls, here’s a sample text;

Me: Whats up?
Her: (blah) (blah) (blah) (blah)
Me: That’s cool, you should come check out my new place soon, its dope.
Her: Ooh a new place where?
Me: (XXX) (XXXXX) Street in (XXXXX)
Her: I’ll try to swing by this weekend

New Crib game seems temporal, but that’s totally up for debate.  I’ve been at my new spot for two weeks and have had five girls over.  I’ll need to wait a few months to see if any girls I haven’t spoken to in a while text or run into me, and I will try to run this new game on them.

New crib game. I like it. It sounds like a solid ploy for getting girls back to your place, as long as you use it on new girls. There’s no reason why a place you’ve been living in for years can’t serve as a “new pad” for girls who don’t know any better.

***

Email #3 is from The Hungry One:

A friend of mine is one of your regular readers, and pointed out something you’d written a few days ago, about signs your wife is about to cheat.  Enough of it rang true to worry me – though she’s actually sexually dead most of the time, and I have objective proof that she hasn’t been screwing around.  Yet.  But something has to be done, or my marriage is done.

So I read a couple dozen of your other articles, and while most of it is about landing new girls, you hint at relationship game, but always from the point of view of having someone interested in sex but not in her current man.  What I have is the inversion:  she’s disinterested in sex generally, though not actually frigid (she can, but doesn’t much want to), and in all other ways her usual self.  Price of motherhood, sure, and depressed libido is common as dirt after bearing a couple kids… but either this stops, or I do.

Refocusing her sex drive wouldn’t be much of a problem, as your earlier posts agree, but waking it up in the first place is an issue.  Alcohol often works, but I can’t realistically get her blitzed every couple days.  Clearly, proper game is the correct approach to the problem.

Give a brother a hand, Dark Master.

Objective proof she isn’t cheating? Is she in your field of vision 24/7? If not, then you have no proof. What you have, perhaps, is a lack of evidence that she’s cheating, but absence of evidence is not evidence of faithfulness. If my wife were frigid, the first thing I would suspect is cheating.

The second thing I would suspect is an abnormally low libido. Though I have never personally been acquainted with a girl suffering from such a debilitating affliction, I have heard tales of horror from friends recounting their wive’s utter disinterest in sex. Scientific studies of a dubious sort have identified anywhere from 10-30% of women have extremely low libidos. Woe to the man stuck with one of these sandpaper snatches. Your pain echoes throughout the universe.

If it’s well-lubed, exciting sex you want from her, then it’s almost irrelevant whether the cause of her dreary desiccation is unfaithfulness or physiology. Your mission will be the same.

Run relationship game. Teasing, push-pull, heavy doses of dominance, condescension, and mysterious disappearances will work best. If she’s cheating, or thinking about cheating, this will help lure her back into your orbit.

The next step, should the above fail to thaw her out, is a long, grapeseed oil massage. Don’t tell her it’s a prelude to sex. Just command her to lay on her stomach naked and give her the massage, then when she’s fully relaxed begin stroking her labia, inner thigh, and side boob. Stop after ten minutes, and tell her to get dressed, you’re done for now.

There is nothing wrong with getting her blitzed. A week after the massage, ply her with a couple glasses of red wine, then inform her it’s time for another massage. When you’ve massaged her labia to a screaming red crescendo, enter her from behind as she lays on her stomach. If, after all this, she resists, you my friend must get yourself a mistress. Or leave her. No man deserves such a miserable fate. When the kids ask why you left, tell them Mommy didn’t respect the cock.

***

Email #4 is from Chad:

Think you can say a word about “promise her the world” game, for those times when you’re slumming it and need some serious downward calibration?

“Promise her the world” game, also known as “I’ll show you the end of the rainbow” game, is a risky ploy. Pimps are masters of promise the world game, but pimps juxtapose their promises with pimp slaps. A beta playing promise the world game with a hot chick is going to get chewed up and spit out for shits and giggles. Hell, he might even get embarrassingly rejected by a war pig.

Remember, if you’re going to effectively play “promise the world” provider game (and provider game is a close cousin of vulnerability game) you have to have already established your alpha bona fides. Telling a girl you’ll show her the moon from a position of neediness will taint the moon for her. She wants to go to the moon with a man who might very well jettison her like a second stage rocket during the trip. When you make yourself scarce, your promises will have more meaning.

That said, if you really are slumming it, (and the widely accepted definition of slumming it is banging girls 3 or more points below your rank), then you don’t need much game at all. Be all the beta you can be! Let your herb flag fly. Caress her hair while you talk to her with the greatest earnestness about teaching boys to play with dolls. Tell her you’re falling for her… after the first drink (which you bought her of course). Remind her incessantly how much you love kids and how your greatest talent is your loyalty to girlfriends. Proclaim yourself a feminist. Laugh at every one of her dumb jokes. Compliment her eyes, hair, lips, body, and legs. Ask her if she’d like to go on a date with you in three hours.

In this scenario, promise the world game can work very well, if you deliver it with the romantic bravado of a Romeo in love. If the girl is a fatty and hasn’t seen cock in years, then expressively emoting about the wonderful journeys you two will take together, and the experiences you will share, just you and her against a cold, cruel world, will cause her to swoon like a toad in the midsummer heat. Detail is the key. You must learn to speak with efflorescence. Romantic minutiae is chick crack.

Filed under: Reader Mailbag

A New Jersey judge is calling for a statewide consolidation of all Reglan lawsuits, which involve claims that the heartburn drug causes a rare movement disorder, arguing that the New Jersey court system can better handle the growing number cases if they are centralized in one court. 

Judge Eugene J. Codey, Jr., presiding judge of the Essex County Superior Court, filed a request last month with the administrative director of the courts of New Jersey to centralize all Reglan movement disorder lawsuits pending throughout the New Jersey state court system.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which is the primary defendant in the Reglan litigation is headquartered in New Jersey, leading many cases to be filed in the state’s court system.

In a letter dated March 16, Codey warns that there may be a flood of new cases involving the gastrointestinal drug on the way, all of which similar allegations that side effects of Reglan caused tardive dyskinesia, a rare movement disorder involving involuntary twitches or movements that can affect the face and body.

“Cases have started coming to Essex on a weekly basis,” Codey wrote in his consolidation request. He indicated that two law firms are planning to file between 75 and 100 cases, and a number of other Reglan lawyers are advertising on the internet for individuals who have experienced problems with the drug.

Acting Administrative Director of the Courts in New Jersey, Glenn A. Grant, has issued a notice to the state bar indicating that they have until May 14, 2010 to comment on or object to the application for consolidation.

Reglan, which is also known as generic metocrlopramide, is a drug approved for the short-term treatment of gastrointestinal disorders like diabetic gastroparesis, gastroesphageal reflux (GERD) and delayed gastric emptying. However, it is often prescribed for longer periods of time due to the often chronic persistence of those ailments, which has been shown to increase the risk of tardive dyskinesia and other injuries.

Tardive dyskinesia is a neurological movement disorder that causes repetitive and involuntary movements of the lower face and limbs. Symptoms can include grimacing, chewing, smacking of lips, rapid eye movements and impaired finger movements. There is no known effective treatment of the disorder, and involuntary movements can become permanent, persisting after use of the drug has stopped.

The lawsuits over Reglan all involve common allegations that the manufacturers failed to adequately investigate and study their drugs, or warn about the potential tardive dyskinesia side effects of Reglan associated with use over longer periods of time. In June 2009, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation denied a request to consolidate the federal Reglan litigation. Therefore, all federal cases are proceeding in individual courts across the country.

It turns out that Star Trek Online won’t be boldly going to the console front. Developer Crytic Studios has confirmed that the MMO’s console versions have been scrapped. The problem lies not with the studio’s tech, apparently, but

Lady Gaga. Gossip Girl. Assassin. Polaroid. What do these things have in common? I asked myself that question during Monday night’s episode of Gossip Girl on the CW. (Big fan—don’t judge me.) And I’ve started to connect the dots, so try to keep up, OK? Lady Gaga had a much-buzzed-about cameo on the soapy series last fall. Then, a couple of months later, she became Polaroid’s creative director and inventor of specialty products. On Monday’s GG, Serena organized an elaborate game of Assassin for hot boyfriend Nate’s birthday. Centerpiece of the game: Polaroids hanging around every player’s neck. Lose your pic, lose your "life." The camera dispensing the photos got screen time, as did plenty of Upper East Siders’ mug shots on Polaroid instant film. Coincidence? I think not. Maybe one of Lady Gaga’s job responsibilities is to get Polaroid placed on as many hip, young TV shows as possible. She already did her part in her own new music video for the single "Telephone." (Or more likely, there’s a deeper relationship between network and brand.) Bloggers and fans are chattering about the episode—"Blair and Chuck broke up? What, what, what?"—but mostly about whether rich prep schoolers in Manhattan would play a nerdy game like Assassin. (Consensus: Sure, why not?) I say it was a prime opportunity for Polaroid placement, and the CW, keen on such deals, took full advantage. Also Monday night: a cool, vintage-looking vignette of Chuck Bass, the ultimate ladies man, sponsored by Vitaminwater, a brand that’s had prominent placement on the show before. CW integration folks, give yourselves a raise!

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the formation of the local, state, tribal, and federal Preparedness Task Force—a council of experts charged with assessing the state of the nation’s disaster preparedness and making recommendations to Secretary Napolitano about ways to build resiliency in communities across America.

“Enhancing preparedness across our nation requires close collaboration between all levels of government,” said Secretary Napolitano. “The recommendations of this Task Force—comprised of emergency management and homeland security experts from states, cities and tribes across the country—will help guide our ongoing efforts to ensure the resilience of communities throughout the nation.”

The Task Force is comprised of 35 members of local, state and tribal governments—many of whom have also served within federal government—offering a diverse cross-section of experience in homeland security and emergency management missions. The Task Force will also engage Congressional partners, as well as the private sector and non-governmental and development organizations through a variety of outreach activities.

The Conference Report accompanying the 2010 DHS Appropriations Act called for a Task Force responsible for “making recommendations for all levels of government regarding: disaster and emergency guidance and policy; federal grants; and federal requirements”—with an emphasis on identifying preparedness policies, guidelines and grant programs that should be updated and recommending paths forward to improve the nation’s collective capabilities for preparing for disasters.

The Task Force will conduct regular meetings and expects to deliver recommendations in September 2010.

Local, State, Tribal, and Federal Preparedness Task Force Members

Charles H. Ada II, Administrator, Guam Office of Civil Defense

Karen Baker, Secretary of Service and Volunteering, State of California

John Cary Bittick, Sheriff, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia

Dave Bunce, Fire Chief, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Fire Department, Arizona

Jeffery C. Cash, Fire Chief and Emergency Manager, City of Cherryville Fire Department, North Carolina

Salvatore Cassano, Commissioner, City of New York Fire Department

Nicholas Crossley, Director, Johnson County, Kansas, Emergency Management and Homeland Security

Edward F. Davis, Commissioner, City of Boston Police Department

Robert DesRosier, Director, Blackfeet Nation Homeland Security Program and Emergency Services Program, Montana

Patricia Dukes, Chief of Emergency Medical Services, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii

Brigadier General Donald P. Dunbar, Adjutant General, State of Wisconsin

Angela English, Executive Director, Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities

Charley English, Director and Homeland Security Advisor, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, State of Georgia

Anthony H. Griffin, County Executive, Fairfax County, Virginia

Dwight E. Henninger, Chief of Police, Town of Vail Police Department, Colorado

James D. Himes, Assistant Director, Metro Nashville and Davidson County Department of Public Works, Tennessee

Hubert Douglas Hoell, Jr., Director, North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, State of North Carolina

Jeffrey D. Johnson, Fire Chief/Administrator, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Oregon

Hans Kallam, Director, Colorado Division of Emergency Management, State of Colorado

Ron Lane, Director, County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services, California

Joseph Laporte, Public Safety Director, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan

John. W. Ledbetter, Executive Director, Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, State of Mississippi

Pamela L‘Heureux, Director of Emergency Management, Waterboro, Maine

John Madden, Director, Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, State of Alaska

Raymond Orozco, Chief of Staff, City of Chicago, Illinois

Jim Page, Executive Director, Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System

Kerry Pettingill, Director, Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security

Mary Selecky, Secretary, Washington State Department of Health

David Taylor, State Chief Information Officer and Executive Director, Agency for Enterprise Information Technology, Florida

Lyda Ann Thomas, Mayor, City of Galveston, Texas

MaryAnn E. Tierney, Deputy Managing Director for Emergency Management, City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Alan Dennis (A.D.) Vickery, Assistant Chief of Risk Management, Seattle Fire Department, Washington

John Wageman, State Hazard Mitigation Officer, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division, State of Iowa

John Wheeler, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, State of New Mexico

Thomas Wyss, State Senator, Indiana State Senate