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Have you been eagerly saving your pennies for a Vertu Constellation Ayxta, but haven’t been sure of the $7,000 commitment? Do you want a little assurance that the feature phone of your dreams really is the luxury item that the price demands? What’s that? No? Me neither. But for those that live such a life (or those that are merely curious) the Vertu Constellation Ayxta has finally had its first unboxing. What a precious moment.

Gear Diary have the low-down on what to expect in the box. Spoiler: it comes with two leatherette boxes to hold both the phone and the cables separately. Now don’t say that Vertu aren’t looking out for you…

Found under: Symbian, S60 5th, Phone, Calls, Sounds, Alibi, Lie,

Call cheater is program for Symbian S60 5th edition phone which can give you alibi and save you from undesired phone calls. With this program you will be able to play different sounds during a phone conversation i.e sounds of street traffic jam building site garden airport etc.Call cheater Features Configurable sound rules for contacts groups phone numbers and other situations Easy to use and intuitive user interface Possibility to add any sound in amr format to sound lis

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If you’re thinking of getting a pet, consider the numerous abandoned foreclosure pets in animal shelters waiting to be adopted and loved. The number of families sending their pets to shelters are ever increasing. This heart-wrenching decision is one of the many unfortunate results of foreclosure. Most people whose houses have been foreclosed move to buildings that do not allow animals and they are left with no choice but to give up their pets for adoption. Still many people can no longer provide the needs of their pets due to monetary constraints.

If you adopt a foreclosure pet you help ease the grief of families that have been forced to abandon their pets due to their difficult financial situation. Whereas if you buy a pet from a store there is a higher chance that the animal you get would have health and behavioral probles as most breeding facilities where these animals come from keep their animals permanently caged. If consumers cease buying pet from stores affiliated with puppy mills, then they would stop this inhumane practice of breeding animals.

The spokesperson for the Humane Society of the U.S., Beau Archer belives that commercial animal breeders do not care much for the general well being of their animals.These businesses only adhere to the minimum requirements of the United States Department of Agriculture to save on operational costs.

Abandoned foreclosure pets are in better shape and have better temperaments than pet store animals because they have experienced the care of loving owners. Experienced animal behaviorist Lore Haug from the South Texas Veterinary Behavior Services said puppies that have had no interaction with other animals or people, and had no exposure to various sights and sounds take a long while to adjust to a new environment.

The Humane Society’s web site provides information on how to support the fight to stop the cruel practices in commercial animal breeding. Other than donating money or adopting a pet, there are several options for people to lend their support and care for the abandoned foreclosure animals living in local animal control centers or the animal shelters in their area.These facilites have need all the help they can get in caring for these pets that were discovered by homebuyers occupying a foreclosed property.

Article Tags: You could not make it up

President Obama, finally, took a get-involved get-tough approach to negotiations on health care legislation and the arms control treaty with Russia — with success. Could this be the turn-around for what might still be a great presidency?

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.

Yet the president, addressing climate in the State of the Union, was at his good-guy worst, leading with “I know that there are those who disagree…” with the scientific evidence. This weak entrée, almost legitimizing denialists, was predictably greeted by cheers and hoots from well-oiled coal-fired Congressmen. The president was embarrassed and his supporters cringed.

This is not the 17th century, when “beliefs” trumped science, forcing Galileo to recant his understanding of the solar system. The president should unequivocally support the climate science community, which is under politically orchestrated assault on the legitimacy of its scientific assessments. If he needs reassurance or cover, the president can ask for a prompt report from the National Academy of Sciences, established by Abraham Lincoln for advice on technical issues.

Why face the difficult truth presented by the climate science? Why not use the president’s tack: just talk about the need for clean energy and energy independence? Because that approach leads to wrong policies, ineffectual legislation larded with giveaways to special interests, such as the Waxman-Markey bill in the House and the bills being considered now in the Senate.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its promised guidelines for mountaintop removal coal mining last week, and they’re getting praise from environmental advocates.

The new guidance would “severely limit the impacts on water caused by mountaintop removal in central Appalachia, an important step forward for protecting communities from the environmental and health impacts of mountaintop removal,” according to a statement from the Alliance for Appalachia.

On Thursday, EPA announced a set of actions to strengthen permitting requirements for Appalachian mountaintop removal and other surface coal mining projects. The guidance sets out benchmarks for preventing damage to watersheds from what are known as “valley fills,” which involve the dumping of mining waste into streams below.

“The people of Appalachia shouldn’t have to choose between a clean, healthy environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “We will continue to work with all stakeholders to find a way forward that follows the science and the law.”

Noting that a growing body of scientific literature shows significant damages to streams from mountaintop removal mining, EPA has identified an acceptable range of electrical conductivity — a measure of salt in the water — to protect freshwater streams and their aquatic life.

The EPA intends to limit conductivity to between 300 and 500 microSiemens per centimeter — about five times normal levels. Appalachian streams impacted by valley fills typically have conductivity upwards of 900 microSiemens per centimeter.

The guidance will take effect immediately on an interim basis while EPA solicits public comments. The agency is also awaiting the results of a technical review of its scientific reports.

While Jackson said no existing operations would be canceled, 79 major surface mining permits now under review would have to comply with the new standard.

“Either no or very few valley fills are going to meet standards like this,” Jackson said at a press conference on the new guidance.

The National Mining Association, a group that represents mountaintop removal operators, said it was “deeply concerned” by the impact the policy would have on Appalachia’s economy as well as the price of electricity.

U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) met with Jackson several times to request a clear set of parameter for issuing mining permits in order to end uncertainty in the coal fields.

“I am pleased that EPA Administrator Jackson took our concerns about the need to provide clarity seriously and has responded with these guidelines,” he said.

The guidance won praise from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), whose coal-mining state already bans valley fills.

“Coal is an essential part of our energy future, but it is not necessary to destroy our mountaintops in order to have enough coal to meet our needs,” he said.

Vivian Stockman with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in Huntington, W.Va. said EPA’s action shows it’s finally listening to the voices of people impacted by mountaintop removal mining. However, she also observed that the effectiveness of the guidelines will depend on how well they’re enforced.

Meanwhile, Appalachian Voices — an environmental advocacy group based in North Carolina, the state that’s the biggest consumer of mountaintop removal coal — urged Congress to follow the administration’s lead by passing the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696), which is co-sponsored by Sen. Alexander.

“Change in Appalachia is now inevitable, and the time for Congress to pass this legislation is now,” the group said in a statement.

(Photo of a mountaintop removal mining site in Logan County, W.Va. by Kent Kessinger, taken during an Appalachian Voices flight courtesy of SouthWings. Part of the National Memorial for the Mountains photo stream.)

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• comScore: Android Continues Rapid Gains in Market Share
  The latest comScore report is out today and is details various trends in the mobile industry here in the United States. Guess what? Android is doing well. In the time from October ’09 to January ’10…

Rhapsody has officially become an independent company, two months after former parent RealNetworks revealed plans to cede majority control of the music subscription provider. Now a standalone entity in which RealNetworks and Viacom possess equal minority stakes, Rhapsody also said today that it will offer a $10 monthly subscription service in an effort to better compete with several innovative and inexpensive rivals that have sprung up in recent months.

The new price point reflects an industry-wide drop in the cost of all-you-can-eat music services, which deliver access to a large library of songs for a monthly fee, even as their providers add mobile functionality. Rhapsody has taken steps to evolve alongside newer subscription services such as MOG and Thumbplay, which offer cloud-based streams to both desktop PCs and mobile devices for about $10 per month, as well as free alternatives. Rhapsody traditionally delivered streams to the desktop, along with “tethered download” files that can be loaded onto certain mobile music players, for about $15, but added cloud-based access through its iPhone app beginning last September.

Rhapsody has also recently renegotiated its licensing fees with content owners, representing more realistic expectations from labels. While confidence in free streaming models is fading, Warner Music Group chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. said recently that the label is increasingly willing to experiment with paid subscription models.

Along with the ownership change and price cut, Rhapsody introduced an application that runs on Android phones, along with a new logo (pictured). Despite the overall reboot, existing subscribers will have to contact the company’s customer service department to sign up for the new pricing plan; otherwise they’ll continue to be billed at the old subscription rate.

Although some of its upstart rivals have garnered more attention lately, Rhapsody is still among the largest subscription providers in the market with more than 675,000 subscribers as of the end of 2009, according to RealNetworks, down from a peak of 800,000 earlier in the year. Competitor Napster, owned by Best Buy since fall 2008, no longer reports the size of its subscriber base, but was last known to have 708,000 subscribers around the time of its acquisition; Spotify recently said it had signed up 325,000 paying customers in Europe, and is still planning a U.S. launch, originally slated for late 2009.

Rhapsody’s spokesman said the company is forecasting profitability by the end of 2010, with revenues near $130 million. RealNetworks invested $18 million in cash as the company was spun out, while Viacom said it will contribute $33 million worth of advertising inventory to promote Rhapsody on its properties, including MTV Networks.

De acordo com a estratégia do governo australiano para reduzir direitos de importação durante o ano de 2010, a Lotus da Austrália anunciou uma interessante redução no preço de seus modelos, onde as quedas chegam a ser de $18.500 em seus carros. O diretor da Lotus Austrália, John Startari, explica a razão disso:

“Os a redução dos direitos de importação do governo no início de 2010 ofereceu alguma ajuda, embora as taxas de câmbio favoráveis tenham sido um catalisador para essas mudanças de preço que foram anunciadas”.

A montadora britânica começou a redução de preços com o novo Elise 2011, que antes era conhecido como Elise S, e custava AU$69,990. Agora, os modelos R e SC do Elise 2011 terão uma redução no valor base do carro, chegando a AU$10,000, bem como os modelos Exige S e Cup 260. Mais reduções estão previstas pela montadora, atingindo toda a sua linha de veículos.

Imagens dos carros Lotus

Via | Carscoop

Accessorize summer’s dreamy palette of nudes and pastels with a pair of circuit board heels from little-known designer Steve Rodrig. While kitten heels are the height du jour this season, Rodrig’s jade pumps redefine modernism. [XactStudios via Make via UberGizmo] More »

It’s no secret that WellPoint (WLP) CEO Angela Braly has been front and center during the long healthcare debate. In late February, she was summoned to Washington to testify before Congress and explain why some customers of WellPoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross were expected to see their premiums jump by 39%. In posts like this one on Firedoglake, Braly and her company were virtually hung in effigy.

So perhaps it’s not much of a surprise to read about sharply increased security costs for Braly in the proxy that WellPoint filed late Friday. Last year, the company spent $151K to provide additional security to Braly “in light of growing concerns regarding the safety of Ms. Braly and her family as a result of the national health care debate.” The $151K covered “personal security during travel, a security-enhanced vehicle and in-home security.” A quick skim of the 2008 proxy shows that these expenses appear to be new.

Of course, these additional expenses weren’t just approved after a quick skim of some liberal blogs. Consultants were hired, who, needless to say, concluded that the expenses were in fact necessary. Here’s a snip from the filing:

In 2009, we consulted with external security experts and reviewed the personal safety and security policy in effect for our executives. As a result of this study, the Committee approved enhanced safety and security benefits for Ms. Braly including travel security, home security and an increase to her cash Directed Executive Compensation benefit in order to generally cover her personal costs related to these additional security measures.

Still, given that Braly’s public profile and subsequent flogging didn’t really become significant until February once Anthem customers began receiving notices of those hefty premium hikes, one can only imagine how much higher those security costs will be for 2010.

Image source: Department of the Interior

We’ve established that most of us are starting the day off right with a breakfast meal, so we went to Flickr to see what everyone else was eating. We have to warn you — we found some mighty tasty and inspirational photos. Make sure to let us know which is your ideal breakfast — that is, if you can choose just one!

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Renovalia Energy SA, is planning an IPO for 25 percent of the company worth about €250 million (USD $334 million), Bloomberg is reporting this morning.

The Spanish renewable energy company, which is more than 90 percent owned by Juan Domingo Ortega and his sister, plans to start selling shares to institutional investors within the next few weeks, according to an e-mailed statement.

Renovalia runs wind, photovoltaic, solar thermal and hydroelectric plants in Spain and elsewehere.

It has 300 megawatts of capacity and another 252.5 MW under construction.

Renovalia posted an opertaing profit of €55.9 million (USD $75 million) last year.

BNP Paribas and Banco Espirito Santo SA are joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners on the IPO and Banco Espanol de Credito SA and La Caixa are co-lead managers, Bloomberg reports.

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LiveSide.net reports that Microsoft is finally responding to demands for a mobile calendar access using their Windows Live for Mobile service. 

The next release of Windows Live, the so-called Wave 4, will include mobile access to your Live Calendar, meaning consumers can finally now have a relatively full PIM solution (Contacts, Calendar and E-mail) for free from Microsoft all from their mobile phone.

LiveSide.net has shown of screen shots of the mobile web client – it is not yet known if the service will also bring calendar syncing to the native Windows Mobile client also.

See many more screenshots at LiveSide.net here.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits During a visit to five former Soviet republics, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon encouraged Central Asian leaders to work together to keep the Aral Sea from disappearing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the diminishing Aral Sea “one of the worst environmental disasters in the world” and asked regional leaders to come together to solve the crisis during a visit to Central Asia, Reuters reports. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the sea has been shrinking for the past 50 years.

Ban flew over the basin in a helicopter to witness the arid salt flats left by the disappearing sea.

The sea began decreasing in size since the 1960’s, when Soviet planners began siphoning off water to increase irrigation for cotton production in Uzbekistan. Since then, the sea has decreased in size by about 70 percent with the remaining water has become more saline, consequently damaging the area’s fishing industry.

“It was a vivid testament to what happens when we waste our common natural resources, when we neglect our environment, when we mismanage our environment,” Ban said, according to United Press International.

The evaporation process has left layers of salty sand in the area, which has plagued residents with health problems reports The Huffington Post. The salty dust can be carried as far away as Japan and Scandinavia by the wind.

Ban was on a visit to the five former Soviet Republics that surround the Aral Sea, to discuss regional cooperation regarding climate change, development and nuclear non-proliferation. Many of these countries sit on some of the world’s largest untapped oil, gas, uranium and gold reserves.

“I urge all the leaders [of Central Asia] including President Karimov of Uzbekistan to sit down together and try to find solutions,” Ban said.

However, resource tension in the water-scarce region cooperation may stand in the way. Before Ban’s visit, Uzbekistan officials made a presentation to the Secretary-General regarding the negative effect dam projects in Tajikistan may have on their country.

While in the Uzbek town of Moynak, a once coastal city of the Aral Sea now surrounded by sand, Ban was met by a group of about 20 townspeople who spoke about the problems the Rogun hydroelectric power plant project in Tajikistan could cause in the area, Reuters reports.

“If Rogun is constructed, we will be in a much more difficult situation,” local teacher Zhanabay Zhusipov told Ban.

Tajikistan wants to build the hydroelectric power plant to help solve the country’s chronic lack of power. The project could nearly double the electrical output in the impoverished country and could be a key source of revenue, reports The Huffington Post.

Sources: Reuters, The Huffington Post, and United Press International .

Filed under: Convertible, Performance, BMW, Toys/Games

It’s never too early to learn the fundamentals of car control, kids, and BMW‘s new entry-level single-seat roadster is just the ticket. Constructed of light-weight composites and equipped with real rubber tires, a speedometer and a tach in the cockpit, the BMW Baby Racer II Motorsport ditches traditional pedal power in favor of the more experimental leg-scramble technique. Interestingly enough, the company choose to forego brakes all together.

Is this the face of things to come from BMW? Probably not, but if you know a fledgling racer between the ages of six months and three years-old, we know the perfect birthday gift. What do we have to do to get BMW to send over a crate load of these things for cubicle races?

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading Inexpensive new single-seat BMW roadster set to scream in the corners

Inexpensive new single-seat BMW roadster set to scream in the corners originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The nearly $500 million stake of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in a huge mortgage loan block sold last week to North Carolina-based Roundpoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation included Atlanta pre foreclosure homes.

The FDIC stake consists of residential mortgage loans acquired from 19 failed banks in Georgia, Florida and Arizona. The loans, almost 3,400 in total, cover properties in these states. Of the 19 failed banks, seven were in Georgia, and another one, Magnet Bank of Utah, had substantial operations in Georgia.

The Georgia banks, which failed due in part to foreclosures in Atlanta and to foreclosure multi family properties, were Freedom Bank, HavenTrust Bank, Community Bank, Omni National Bank, First Georgia Community Bank, First City Bank and FirstBank Financial Services. These banks failed within the period from August 2008 to March 2009.

The FDIC stake in the loan portfolio, which consists of $490.7 million worth of residential loans, was sold for $34.4 million to Roundpoint, in addition to $137.5 million in guaranteed notes written by the FDIC as loan receiver.

According to the FDIC, nine bidders were qualified to buy the mortgage loan portfolio, which included Atlanta pre foreclosure homes, but Roundpoint presented the best offer that would result in greater returns for the loan receivers.

The loan assets will be transferred to a newly-formed limited liability corporation that will be run by Roundpoint. The FDIC would retain a 50-percent share in the earnings that Roundpoint can generate from the loans, but the percentages of both the FDIC and Roundpoint can be adjusted depending on how the loans perform.

The Roundpoint deal is not related to the plan of the FDIC to auction off whole loans from one of the failed banks, Silverton Bank. This auction, which involves $416 million worth of loans, includes stakes in the Allen Plaza and in the W Atlanta hotel.

The Freedom Bank of Georgia, which was shuttered on March 6, 2009, had $161 million in total deposits and $173 million worth of assets as of March 4, 2009. It was acquired by Northeast Georgia Bank in a loss-share contract with the FDIC.

FirstCity Bank, which was closed on March 26, 2009, had $278 million in deposits and $297 million in total assets.

Georgia has the highest number of failed banks in the nation, due largely to residential and commercial foreclosures, including Atlanta pre foreclosure homes. Just last week, two Georgia banks, Unity National Bank and McIntosh Commercial Bank, were shuttered.

The University of Tennessee Libraries and the UT Knoxville Office of Research will recognize and celebrate university faculty who have written books during the last year with a special faculty authors reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 8, in the first-floor galleria of Hodges Library, 1015 Volunteer Blvd.

Media are invited to cover the event. Copies of the books will be on display in the galleria.

The reception will begin at 3 p.m. At 4 p.m., author and Cormac McCarthy scholar Christopher J. Walsh will discuss his experiences publishing a book with a digital press. Walsh published his book “In the Wake of the Sun: Navigating the Works of Cormac McCarthy” with Newfound Press, the UT Libraries’ digital press.

Parking is available in the University Center parking garage on Phillip Fulmer Way and Andy Holt Avenue.

—

C O N T A C T :

Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, [email protected])

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, [email protected])

[JURIST] Two separate court-martial proceedings against former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka were adjourned Tuesday. The trials, originally set to resume Tuesday, were postponed due to an ongoing case in the Sri Lankan Court of Appeals, which is examining the legality of the court-martials. Fonseka faces two separate court-martials, charging him with participating in politics while in uniform and with improperly awarding army procurement contracts. Fonseka maintains that the allegations are a politically motivated effort to bar him from participating in the nation’s upcoming elections. Fonseka is scheduled for a hearing before the Sri Lankan Supreme Court on April 26, where he will challenge his detention.
Fonseka was arrested by the military in February after losing presidential elections held the previous month. In March, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court criticized the government’s treatment of the general. Sarath Nanda Silva, who retired from the Sri Lankan Supreme Court last year, accused the government of using the military justice system to prevent Fonseka from participating in the upcoming elections, and of violating Fonseka’s civil rights. Silva also said that Fonseka’s arrest was made in violation of the country’s constitution.

“On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.

Last week, Rasmussen Reports released data showing that 47% of voters felt closer to the views of Tea Party members than to Congress. Only 26% felt closer to Congress.” (source)

This poll really does make me feel better. I’m happy to know more Americans feel aligned with the Tea Party principles than with what’s going on with the current administration…

I have to find a way to shake this political depression…I can’t walk around with this feeling of foreboding until November 2012… This article was suggested in that regard: A Word to the Weary.

…though with The Man going on his fifth week of being laid off (for the first time ever), it’s hard not to be angry and bitter about the CHANGE.

Whoa, what’s all this stuff on cable news about President Obama’s forthcoming revision to U.S. nuclear-weapons strategy? You’re not surprised. You knew all about the substance of the Nuclear Posture Review on Friday. Well, except for one aspect of it.

Obama gathered some reporters at the White House yesterday to unveil a big change in nuclear strategy, contained in the document that the administration will release at noon. As The New York Times puts it, the Nuclear Posture Review will explicitly forswear the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear attacks:

It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

That’s something arms-controllers have wanted to see for a long time, especially since it recognizes a truth that is key to maintaining a credible non-nuclear deterrent: it’s inconceivable that the U.S. will actually use nuclear weapons unless it’s been struck by them.

What’s more, it appears the document’s abandonment of nuclear retaliation for non-nuclear assault is a clarification, teasing out the implication of one of its central aspects: declaring that the principle nuclear threat to the U.S. is from proliferation — that is, not just from a nuclear-armed enemy, but from the existence of the weapons themselves. Maybe this quote in a Friday piece from the Arms Control Association’s Daryl Kimball will clarify things:

“What will be a transformative shift is to say that the purpose of U.S. nuclear forces is to deter nuclear use against us and our allies,” Kimball said. “That would implicitly eliminate from the roles and missions [any] potential use of nuclear weapons to fight a conflict that begins as conventional or to counter chemical or biological forces.”

Apparently the document will make that explicit.