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Short and sweet article + cool interview video by Calgary Avenue Magazine, “10 Calgary Tastemakers: Brett Wilson of Dragon’s Den“. Great job.

P.S. Here are some previous interviews and blogs entries I’ve posted about Brett.

Filed under: Business, Calgary, Canada, Fashion

That, according to Ray Fair of Yale University. Other private estimates put the number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.  AEI’s Phil Levy explains the methodology involved:

Our more aggressive bidders use a crude approach. They look at the trade gap, assume that every billion dollars of trade deficit equates with a certain number of jobs, and multiply. Fair, in contrast, uses years of data to estimate a detailed model of how the global economy works. Then he reruns the model under the assumption of a 25 percent appreciation in China’s exchange rate. His model contains the same effects that the others rely on—increased demand for U.S. goods as Chinese imports become more expensive. But he sees offsetting effects as well: decreased Chinese output and imports; increased U.S. prices; decreased U.S. wealth and wages; increased U.S. interest rates. He finds the latter effects more than outweigh the former.

We’re big fans of YouTube user caybat‘s video of a cat who simply must clean its dog friend’s face (even if it has to wait until the dog’s asleep to do it).

We’re not sure if the dog would be as inclined to sit still for a thorough bathing if it were awake — but we suspect it’s used to receiving its share of attention from this affectionate cat.

If your own pets — awake or asleep — are as friendly with each other as these two, we’d love to see it! Share your photos and videos in the Four-Legged Friends
album at Your Scene, The Times’ photo-sharing site. Be sure to include a
caption that tells us about your pets!

RELATED:

Your morning adorable: Gentle horse nuzzles cat

Your morning adorable: A cat masseur in action

— Lindsay Barnett

Video: caybat via YouTube

by Julian Ku

Walter Russell Mead has an illuminating post on the liberal internationalist tendencies of the Obama Administration.  Putting aside whether or not liberal internationalism is, as Mead puts it, ”a strategic mistake that leads a lot of people inside the administration and well beyond it to make consistently bad decisions about American foreign policy.”, I find his post fascinating for its classification of different approaches to foreign policy and international law.  According to Mead, foreign policy decision makers in both the Bush and Obama administration arein favor of the promotion of liberal democracy and human rights. The real difference is how to do so: neoconservativism tends to support unilateral or at least liberal coalitions acting alone whereas liberal internationalists are deeply committed to international institutions and their legal processes. Anyway, something worth keeping in mind. I wonder if “liberal internationalism” will ultimately acquire the same kind of negative connotation that neoconservatism currently has.

Nick Brandt has been photographing the wild animals of East Africa for the past ten years; these images are from his new collection, A Shadow Falls, out now from Abrams.

“My images are unashamedly idyllic and romantic, a kind of enchanted Africa,” Brandt has written. “They’re my elegy to a world that is steadily, tragically vanishing.” Brandt approaches his work in a manner unlike almost any other contemporary photographer of wildlife—not after the “dramatic single moment” of an animal in motion, he refuses to use a telephoto lens. Instead he prefers to get very close to his subjects, using a medium-format camera to photograph them “in the same way I would a human being, watching for the right ‘pose’ that hopefully will best capture his or her spirit.” In these portraits and panoramas we see elephants, zebras, giraffes, and other animals at rest, “in the state of being.” While there are no people in his photographs, Brandt’s introduction describes their impact on this parched landscape, where to provide water for their domesticated cattle, the Maasai depend on the same scarce resources that these wild animals need to survive.

A photograph from A Shadow Falls, showing a lioness feeding her cub, accompanies Tim Flannery’s review essay on animal behavior, “Getting to Know Them,” in the April 29 issue of The New York Review. For more about Brandt’s work, including his earlier collection, On This Earth, see www.nickbrandt.com.

Nick Brandt has been photographing the wild animals of East Africa for the past ten years; these images are from his new collection, A Shadow Falls, out now from Abrams.

“My images are unashamedly idyllic and romantic, a kind of enchanted Africa,” Brandt has written. “They’re my elegy to a world that is steadily, tragically vanishing.” Brandt approaches his work in a manner unlike almost any other contemporary photographer of wildlife—not after the “dramatic single moment” of an animal in motion, he refuses to use a telephoto lens. Instead he prefers to get very close to his subjects, using a medium-format camera to photograph them “in the same way I would a human being, watching for the right ‘pose’ that hopefully will best capture his or her spirit.” In these portraits and panoramas we see elephants, zebras, giraffes, and other animals at rest, “in the state of being.” While there are no people in his photographs, Brandt’s introduction describes their impact on this parched landscape, where to provide water for their domesticated cattle, the Maasai depend on the same scarce resources that these wild animals need to survive.

A photograph from A Shadow Falls, showing a lioness feeding her cub, accompanies Tim Flannery’s review essay on animal behavior, “Getting to Know Them,” in the April 29 issue of The New York Review. For more about Brandt’s work, including his earlier collection, On This Earth, see www.nickbrandt.com.

TO BRING housing market discussions back to a more practical level, have a look at Felix Salmon’s write-up of Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey, a detailed look at American views on the housing market. What it indicates, in a nutshell, is that after an extraordinary housing bubble and massive crash, Americans have basically learned nothing about the risks of homeownership. It’s hard to know which of the charts Mr Salmon reproduces is the most stunning (go look at them all), but this is certainly a candidate:

So to recap, home prices in almost every market in America have fallen over the past three years, and in the hardest hit markets, home values have declined by 50% or more from their peaks. One in four mortgage borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, and millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure. And yet Americans consider homeownership to be only slightly less risky than putting money in a savings account. Homes are highly leveraged and undiversified assets, and yet Americans—including those currently delinquent on a mortgage—think homeownership is safer than a diversified equity portfolio.

It wasn’t clear to me that American households would be as chastened by this crisis and recession as was the Depression generation, but I thought that having been bitten they’d be at least a little shy. Instead, they’re just waiting for the good times to get rolling again.

Andy Greishop and Ben Murphy call themselves underdogs.

“A few years ago when we presented our research… people would just stare at us blankly,” Andy recalled.

But now, several years and publications later, the skeptical tone has changed. During a presentation at the 2010 AAAR conference in San Diego, audience members seemed encouraged by what they saw.

Andy and Ben are two members of a group of Carnegie Mellon scientists who have spent years trying to fill a big blind spot in atmospheric modeling.

Historically, most models of atmospheric air pollution significantly underestimated the amount of a specific kind of particle, called secondary organic aerosol (SOA).

“What we actually observe in the atmosphere is a factor of 3 – 100 times more than the SOA traditional models predict,” Greishop explained.

This means that the information used by scientists and policymakers to make important pollution control decisions is not representing everything that people breathe.

According to Greishop and Murphy, the traditional models overlook some key reactions and processes that take place as particles age and transform in the atmosphere. Most people do not breathe particles emitted directly from a tail pipe, they explained. People breathe in particles that have spent time in the air, moving and reacting with other chemicals.

“When particles dilute, evaporate and then condense back to particles, a lot about them changes,” Murphy said.

Some of these changes could be important to human health.

“Health researchers need accurate models to understand what people are actually exposed to,” Murphy said.

If SOA, as some preliminary studies suggest, is more toxic to people, the new models could be critical for protection of public health.

The new model incorporates atmospheric processes that contribute to SOA formation and does a much better job of predicting what people breathe.

“It’s pretty close to right-on,” Greishop said, “in terms of matching what we observe in the atmosphere.”

Though more research needs to be done to “drill deeper” into atmospheric processes that may change particles, both scientists agree that this finding could have a big impact.

Their research is already being incorporated into state and local air quality models that are used to manage and control pollution.

“You never really expect that your specific research in atmospheric chemistry may be important for national policy so early on in your career,” Greishop said excitedly.

“This has been a really great opportunity for us to make a difference.”

About the Author: Becky Fried is a science writer with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research. Her OnAir posts are a regular “Science Wednesday” feature.

Shares in Allied Nevada Gold Corp. are expected to get a boost now that the company has sped up implementation plans at its wholly-owned Hycroft
mine in Nevada.

Brian Christie, a Desjardins Securities analyst, raised his price target on Allied Nevada to US$20.75 from US$18 after the company announced an optimized oxide production plan and a sulphide scoping study that would significantly increase production at Hycroft. Mr. Christie also maintained his Buy rating.  

"We view the new mining plan as a positive development for Allied Nevada," he said in a note to clients. "Although the estimated cash costs are higher than we were anticipating, we believe the company will benefit from front-loading its production at Hycroft during peak years for the gold price."

As a result of its accelerated oxide mining plan, average annual gold
production is expected to increase to approximately 250,000 ounces by
2012, with the peak years producing in excess of 300,000 ounces in 2013
and 2014. Average annual silver production is expected to be in excess
of 1 million ounces.

Cost of sales per ounce of gold sold, assuming
silver as a byproduct credit, is expected to average between US$425 and
US$450 per ounce.

In addition, the sulfide scoping study shows expected average annual production of
275,000 ounces of gold and 6.5 million ounces of silver.

David Pett

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

For those of you interested in Thea’s story yesterday on the effort to bring the land speed record to Washington state, we have another treat for you. KUOW 94.9 FM is doing an interview with the North American Eagle “turbojet car” co-leader and driver, Ed Shadle, in just a few minutes, starting at 12:00 pm PT today.

You can listen to it here.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Filed under: Etc., Videos

For those of you that roll like this – and we know you’re out there, so stand up – Motionlite retractable lighting provides another way for you to accessorize your alloys. Wheel illumination is exactly what it sounds like: an LED mounted on a power telescoping six-inch arm in the wheel well throws photons in seven different colors on your rims. The system is remote-controlled and universal, so it’ll work anywhere, anytime. All you need is $499 to make it yours.

If you need to see it in action before you pull the trigger, check out the gallery of photos below and the videos after the jump, or you’ll find them on Unique Autosports: Miami.

[Source: Motionlite]

Continue reading Motionlite retractable wheel puts the spotlight on your dubs. Yes, really. [w/video]

Motionlite retractable wheel puts the spotlight on your dubs. Yes, really. [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Found under: BlackBerry, Freeware, Photos, Photo Frame, Slideshow,

iGallery is application for BlackBerry phones that turns it into a digital photo frame allowing you to play photo slide automatically and view your favorite pics. iGallery Features- Play photo slide automatically.- You can customize the play period.- Password support. Make sure your phones security. Download iGallery

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Read more in mobile format

Found under: BlackBerry, Social, Freeware, LinkedIn, Professional,

LinkedIn for BlackBerry is application that lets you browse tha famous social network. It gives you the option to look up the details and connect with over 60 million professionals worldwide in real-time. Works with BlackBerry Contacts Calendar and Messaging. Along with that you have instant access to the professional identity of anyone you know meet or email. You will also get the latest updates from your contacts send the info they need congratulate them on a recent promotion and more.

Read More

Read more in mobile format

MSNBC anchor David Shuster has been suspended from the network indefinitely after the journalist violated his contract by participating in a pilot for a new show headed to rival network CNN, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

“David has been suspended indefinitely,” an NBC spokesperson confirmed this morning.

Shuster has been a correspondent and anchor for MSNBC for eight years, and has covered such major events as Hurricane Katrina and Presidential campaigns. His contract with the network ends in December.

From the office of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) comes this statement, in which the nine-term senator vows to discover “who was responsible” for yesterday’s explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine, and to “hold those parties accountable.”

That’s about the same message coming from the other West Virginia lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the wake of the disaster. But then Byrd goes a step further, blasting Massey for its history of violations at the Upper Big Branch:

At least 25 coal miners have died inside a mine that has over time amassed scores of safety violations, including 57 citations just last month. West Virginia’s coal miners are the backbone of a great nation that depends on their work. They deserve nothing less than a safe working environment, and an employer who respects and values their safety.

We must reexamine the health and safety laws we have put into place and what more may need to be done to avoid future loss of life.

The Charleston Daily Mail reported today that inspectors have found more than 3,000 violations at the Upper Big Branch in the last 15 years, most recently being last month.

Four miners are still missing, but rescue workers have delayed their search due to high levels of methane gas in the mine.

Luke Timmerman wrote:

Stratos Genomics, the Seattle-based developer of low-cost gene sequencing technology, said today it has has added Heiner Dreismann, the former CEO of Roche Molecular Diagnostics, to its board of directors. Dreismann, 57, is known for pushing for wide adoption of polymerase chain reaction technology as a basic research tool in the 1990s. Dreismann said in a statement that Stratos Genomics “has the potential to radically transform the molecular diagnostics industry.”

comScore has released its U.S. Mobile subscriber market share report for February 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone platforms in the U.S. according to their share of usage by current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone.

The February report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.3 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 42.1 percent market share. Palm meanwhile held to its ~5% position, down marginally from January.

Olive oil ice cream with blood oranges, inspired by these olive oil recipes, recently found its way to our kitchen with our first bottles of fresh, raw milk for the year.  In this recipe for olive oil ice cream, the inclusion of a good quality unrefined, extra virgin olive oil is essential.  The flavor of a good olive oil lingers, enhanced by fruity notes and an almost floral perfume.  It is fresh and vibrant.  Good quality olive oils are available in specialty food stores, health food stores and online (see sources).

In my version of olive oil ice cream is further complemented by the inclusion of blood oranges, though any orange should do.  Blood oranges, with their customarily maroon-colored flesh, offer a unique flavor profile that is decidedly more complex than that of standard oranges. A good blood orange is tart, sweet and imbued by subtle floral notes which make it a nice pairing for olive oil – especially  in this recipe for olive oil ice cream. Now that winter has receded, blood oranges are at the end of their season, finding a good blood orange may prove challenging.  Indeed, the oranges at my store lacked the brilliant deep red flesh I’d hoped for and, instead, revealed an orange flesh speckled by dots of maroon.  Nevertheless, that classic blood orange flavor remained and flavor, after all, is the key to a good dish.  When selecting blood oranges for this olive oil ice cream, try to find those with the ruddiest rind as the redder the rind of the orange, the redder the flesh is likely to be.(…)
Click here to read the rest of Recipe: Olive Oil Ice Cream with Blood Oranges (778 words)

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