Steve Pomeranz, of Pomeranz Financial Management spoke with CNBC today about the hidden threats of reverse convertible notes (RCNs), which could be hiding in your portfolio.
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PhoneDog just can’t cram every bit of analysis, in-depth coverage, and tip/trick/how-to goodness onto our home page. So we’ve built a few more home pages to hold it all. Whether it’s Android, BlackBerry, or Apple stuff that makes you tick, we’ve got the goods.
Here’s what’s happening right now on PhoneDog Media’s network sites: Today’s iPhone, BBerryDog and DroidDog.
Sneaky Steve does it again…iPhone OS 4 revealed in 3 days
VID: Apple iPad unboxing & hands-on
RIM Q4 profits lower than expected
Another week’s summary of OS leaks
Twitter for BlackBerry (v. 1.0.0.37) leaked!
Themed Sense virtual keyboards
by Brad Johnson
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room.
Senators drafting comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation are negotiating with polluters, and talking about combining a cap on carbon with public incentives for nuclear plants, “clean coal,” and offshore drilling.
Should supporters of strong, progressive action to solve the climate
crisis give up on Congress and work within the existing legal framework
of the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, and other environmental
legislation?
We would then rely entirely on the Environmental Protection Agency’s
existing authority to set rules for greenhouse gas pollution. However,
the EPA is subject to the same outside political pressures as lawmakers, who control the EPA’s purse-strings. Single members of
Congress or single committee chairmen can interfere quite effectively
with agency activities if they put their mind to it.
In addition, polluters have all kinds of legal tools they can—and
already are starting to—use to tie up, slow down and otherwise impede
the implementation of EPA rules. Without a Congressional mandate behind
it, the EPA will not have the political power it needs to implement
rules with the kind of strength activists want and the science demands.
The success of EPA rules absent Congressional action would depend on
the politics of whatever administration is in power.
By abandoning legislative reform, climate advocates could instead spend their resources on litigating against sources of global warming pollution.
But it also takes a lot of money and time to litigate against a coal
plant, and even more to win at it. Even if we could knock out all the
new coal plants through litigation, that isn’t going to be a workable
strategy for dealing with the ones that are already chugging away, not
to mention the refineries, chemical plants, and the rest of the
industrial sector, or the transportation sector.
If climate legislation reaches President Obama’s desk with a robust
framework, and gets core elements in place, we will come back to it and
keep making it better over time. We couldn’t get Congress to get the
Clean Air Act right the first time. So the original 1967 law was
amended—in 1970, then again in 1977, then again in 1990. This is why
strong—and rapid—scientific review provisions are an important
element.
It is a travesty that political reality makes it is incredibly
difficult to get even a watered-down climate bill even into the
ballpark of passage. To change that situation, we need to mobilize grassroots activism to change the political calculus for key states like Arkansas, Missouri, the Dakotas, Indiana, West Virginia, and so on.
At the same time, the federal legislative push shouldn’t be the
basket where all the eggs are placed either; policymaking at the local, state, and regional levels have always led the federal level, and the traditional Clean Air Act
framework is well-designed and understood. New climate legislation
should integrate with existing policy through amendment, not blanket
preemption.
Anyone who wants to see a stronger bill can help make it happen by putting meaningful pressure on the senators who are sitting on the fence or near it to support strong climate legislation, and being descriptive in naming what you’d like to see legislation do.
That’s the only way to reduce the number of unappetizing deals that
are going to get made. Telling people that the vehicle that’s moving
right now is hopeless and worthless makes the sponsors’ jobs that much harder—which means they’ll just cut more deals in order to get the bill done.
What’s critical for activists—including professional environmentalists—to remember is that the goal of climate activism isn’t comprehensive climate legislation, or strong
EPA enforcement of the Clean Air Act. Our shared, common goal is a
green economy that rewards work, not pollution, and saves the natural
gifts of the world without which we all perish.
Related Links:
Lindsey ‘Green Economy’ Graham bashes the Clean Air Act
Reminder: the U.S. already has cap-and-trade—in the Northeast
American Enterprise Institute accidentally makes the case for climate legislation
An off-duty Westminster police detective and a California corrections officer were arrested late Saturday in connection with the alleged kidnapping and rape of a 25-year-old woman in Ontario.
According to Sgt. David McBride of the Ontario Police Department, the woman was walking to her car in the parking lot of Ontario Mills Mall when Westminster police Det. Anthony Nicholas Orban and California Corrections Officer Jeff Thomas Jelinek approached her.
As the woman got in her car, Orban slid into the passenger side, pointed his service gun at her and told her to drive, McBride said. Jelinek allegedly stood by and watched.
Orban then ordered the woman to drive to a commercial complex, where he raped her at gunpoint, authorities said. At some point, the woman was able to get out of the car and ran to a local business, where she summoned police.
Authorities said Orban ran after her, leaving his gun in her car. He later called Jelinek, who picked him up and took him back to the mall, police said.
Orban then called his wife and told her he’d lost his gun in Ontario, McBride said. Orban’s wife, police said, called the Ontario Police Department and officers responded to the mall to help. But at the same time, the 25-year-old woman was talking to Ontario police officers, who began investigating the alleged rape.
The police detective and the corrections officer were identified and arrested, McBride said.
Orban, 30, has been with the Westminster Police Department for five years, assigned to investigations, McBride said. He has been relieved of active duty pending the outcome of the investigation and was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape and carjacking. He is being held in lieu of $1 million.
Jelinek, 30, is a corrections officer assigned to the Chino Institution for Men. He also has also been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation and was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of carjacking and being an accessory to the crime. He is also being held on $1-million bail.
— Paloma Esquivel
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To our graduating students … Congratulations on your impending graduation. The College is pleased to announce our special commencement event — the Order of the Engineer and the Professional Order of Engineering Technology ceremony. We will continue the tradition of this event for graduating engineering students, both undergraduate and graduate, this May. Engineering’s program will be held Friday afternoon, May 7 at the General Lectures Building, immediately after the General Commencement. It will start with a special lunch at approximately 11:30 a.m., with assembly of graduates at 12:30 p.m., and the ceremonies at 1. The ceremonies usually last about an hour. Newly degreed undergraduates and graduate students (including PhDs) are invited to participate. Friends, relatives and classmates are invited to join the celebration. Dress is business casual – there is no need for students to dress in regalia. The cost to undergraduates, graduate students and PhDs is $15, which includes the cost of the engineer ring or pin (in the case of ET students) and a digital photo. Guests are $25 each. We are encouraging all engineering faculty and alumni to become ringed if they have not already done so. All graduates will need to register by filling out a reservation form that is linked below, printing out and completing the form, and mailing it along with your check or money order to Public Affairs Office, Rm. 1153, College of Engineering, Detroit, MI, 48202. Engineering Technology graduates will be receiving separate invitations and instructions. For more info, email Marsherry Jarrett at: [email protected] Registration deadline is Friday, April 30. Reservations must be received by this date or they will not be accepted. Watch the College homepage for updates on this event. All the best to you. And congratulations on your well-deserved achievement. From the College of Engineering Public Affairs Office For the registration form, click here |
Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber and the award-winning cast of the FOX musical comedy Glee got their Easter egg roll on with The Obamas and tens of thousands of the nation’s youngsters this Monday.
Kids from across the country basked in 80 degree temperatures and descended on the White House’s South Lawn to play football, basketball and golf and watch performances from the cast of Yo Gabba Gabba, Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno, and Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay.
President Obama at the Easter Egg Roll. (photo courtesy Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obamafoodorama
White House basketball court (photo by Lynn Sweet)
The White House Easter Egg Roll featured booths with healthy foods. (photo by Lynn Sweet)
by Jonathan Hiskes
As an antidote to news of the oil spill on the Great Barrier Reef, here’s Paul Hawken giving last May’s commencement address at Portland University. From the entrepreneur, author, and ideas guy:
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refugee camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement.
Full speech here. Big tip of the hat to the wonderful Portland magazine for reprinting Hawken’s address.
Related Links:
One more blow to the ailing Great Barrier Reef
Coal freighter rams Great Barrier Reef, spilling oil into pristine waters
After Copenhagen setback, U.N. seeks way forward on climate
The Harvard College Library (HCL) and MIT Libraries have launched a pilot program that extends reciprocal borrowing privileges to undergraduates.
“This program offers students the best of both libraries’ collections, with MIT’s rich in science and engineering and HCL’s in humanities and social sciences,” said Marilyn Wood, associate librarian for collection management. “It gives Harvard undergraduates access to an expanded range of materials and supports cross-enrollment programs. Reciprocal privileges also provide an opportunity for students to work collaboratively with their peers at MIT.”
Harvard students can enroll for borrowing privileges at Massachusetts Institute of Technology either online or in person at the Library Privileges Office in Widener Library. A valid Harvard ID is required to enroll. Students will receive an authorization form, which they must complete and take to the Hayden Library at MIT. Once enrolled, students will receive a library pass that will be valid through the spring term. Students can borrow from the Dewey (social sciences and management), Hayden (humanities), Lewis Music, Library Storage Annex (by appointment only), and Rotch (architecture and planning) libraries.
MIT students will have a similar registration process and will be given a borrowing card when they visit the HCL Privileges Office. The card will allow them to borrow from the Cabot, Fine Arts, Harvard-Yenching, Loeb Music, Tozzer, and Widener libraries. They will have in-library privileges at Houghton, the rare books and manuscripts depository, and at Lamont, where the collections support Harvard’s undergraduate curriculum.
Undergraduates aren’t the first to benefit from a reciprocal borrowing program between HCL and MIT. Faculty, staff, and graduate students have had reciprocal borrowing privileges since 1995. The pilot program for undergraduates will be assessed after 14 months.
For Harvard undergrads such as Elizabeth Bloom ’12 and Ana Enriquez ’10, the ability to borrow from MIT libraries opens the door to collections unavailable elsewhere.
“We tend to think of Harvard’s libraries as boundless, but even such a large collection has its limits,” Enriquez said. “I think this program will be a great opportunity for undergraduates, especially students concentrating in the sciences or taking courses at MIT, to access materials not held by Harvard.”
“This program means Harvard undergrads will now have more resources at their fingertips,” Bloom said. “I appreciate that MIT and Harvard are using their proximity to each other for undergraduates’ sake. I can imagine that Harvard thesis writers, especially in math/science, will reap many benefits.”
For additional information about MIT borrowing privileges, visit the HCL Web site, or call 617.495.4166.
In the parched moonscape of the Abu Dhabi desert, plans for the world’s first carbon-neutral city are disintegrating. Masdar City was the centerpiece in Abu Dhabi’s attempt to transform itself from oil powerhouse to the Silicon Valley of renewable energy. Global financial woes, however, are undermining the project’s ambitious scope and putting its 2016 completion target in doubt. Developers are now planning to test-drive a portion of the city in 2013 and base further development on commercial response.
The original city plans were a dream for sustainable design nerds, which perhaps should have been the first warning. Walled and carless, it was to have relied on the region’s biggest solar farm for power. In answer to the perennial Middle Eastern water problem, Masdar City was designed to house a desalination plant 80 percent more efficient than existing plants, quenching the thirst of 50,000 residents. The most futuristic tidbit — and a tell-tale sign of an unobtainable urban utopia — involved an underground network of sensor-driven “podcars.”
Now, the only certain part of the development is the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a science and engineering university with a focus on alternative energy and sustainability. The institute’s funding and governance is separate from the city’s, though the two entities were intended to be closely linked. MIT has been a partner in the Institute from the beginning, and the head of its work with Masdar told the New York Times that students are still slated to move in this August.
Abu Dhabi’s race for green-tech prominence is a smart strategy, even for a country with almost a tenth of the world’s oil reserves. Few other nations have the ability to funnel billions of government funds into high-tech experimentation. Despite the lamentable lack of podcars, Abu Dhabi’s newly modest ambitions of boosting green research should help make the Emirate’s pursuit of this pipe dream worthwhile in the end.
If the soda tax won’t get men to cut back on cola intake, the results of a recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology just might. According to researchers, there may be a direct effect between heavy consumption of caffeinated cola and reduced sperm count.
Over the course of four years, researchers in Denmark looked at semen samples from over 2500 young men and compared to the levels of cola and caffeine that the men were consuming each week.
Neither moderate nor low consumption of caffeine and cola showed a correlation to sperm count or semen quality.
Meanwhile, those consuming over 7 liters of cola/week and/or 800mg of caffeine/day demonstrated “reduced sperm concentration and total sperm count, although only significant for cola.”
State the researchers on the study:
Therefore, the authors cannot exclude the possibility of a threshold above which cola, and possibly caffeine, negatively affects semen quality. Alternatively, the less healthy lifestyle of these men may explain these findings.
Caffeine Intake and Semen Quality in a Population of 2,554 Young Danish Men [AJE]
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we first saw the amazing moment between Miller the boxer and 7-month-old baby Peyton shown in YouTube user defrostyman’s video. (Hat tip to "The Bonnie Hunt Show" for airing defrostyman’s video in a televised segment, which initially brought it to our attention.)
We’ll be the first to admit it: We are suckers for animals that are great "big brothers" or "big sisters" to the human children in their families, and for animals that help children in other ways, like so-called "reading dogs" whose calming presence can encourage young children to read aloud to them.
If your own animal friend is great
with kids, we’d love to see it! Share your photos or videos in the Best Babysitters album at The Times’ photo-sharing site, Your Scene. Be sure to include a caption that tells us a bit about your pet!
RELATED:
Your morning adorable: Husky ‘big brother’ cries along with baby
Your morning adorable: Patient dog meets duckling
— Lindsay Barnett
Video: defrostyman via YouTube
This August I will be teaching a week-long writing course on Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine. Last year, the first time around, we had a blast, embarking on an Ahab-like quest for hagfish, observing the role played by mind-controlling parasites in the ecology of the island’s tidal zone, learning how to use broken 300-year-old pipe stems and cod ear bones to reconstruct American’s first economic boom, and much more. (Here are some articles the students wrote about their experiences.)
This year promises to be just as much fun (and intense).
The deadline for registering is April 16. You can reigster and get more information on the course page at the Shoals Marine Lab web site. (Shoals is jointly run by Cornell and the University of New Hampshire.) For those beyond college interested in the class, here are some details about taking the course non-credit.
The latest version of the ZuneHD firmware, version 4.5, is now available, bringing the announced SmartDJ and Marketplace for TV support. There are also a more expanded collection of codecs, including Xvid support and part of full compatibility with MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile, meaning even less video need to be converted before it can be viewed on the device.
In the above video by Engadget we have Micheal Yaeger, Zune marketing manager, taking Engadget through the new features
Hopefully Microsoft will maintain consistency and make sure these features make it to Windows Phone 7 also.
ZuneHD owners can get the update via their PC client.
Photo: Will Ainsworth
So you’ve just hit the mega-million lottery and you want an ocean view lot in Malibu. You’re conflicted, because you also want a place to start your new car collection; fear not, because RideLust has found the perfect new hacienda for you.
Sure, it’ll set you back $4.4 million, but all that coin nets you a 5,834 square foot love shack on a half acre lot, with enough garage space to park 13 cars (12, counting the F40 that the current owner is throwing in, gratis). It’s got five bedrooms, five bathrooms and (of course) a pool. Since it’s not on the ocean, it’s quite a bargain; the house across the street is listed for $50 million, and that one doesn’t include a Ferrari.
The F40 appears to be mint, with less than 800 miles on the clock. I presume it’s seen regular servicing, so it’s not likely you’ll have to dump a ton of money into it. Don’t like F40s? You can flip it at Barret-Jackson Orange County if you move quick enough; it should net you around a $700k rebate.
The house has one too many lion statues and Swarovski chandeliers for my taste, so I won’t personally be bidding on it. Like any good deal, this one has a time limit; if you want the house AND the F40, you’ve got to close the deal by June 30.
Source: Wallet Pop
I’ll be doing a weekly podcast with Kevin Zelnio & Dave Munger which we’ll post online early every week. The first one is up over at Research Blogging. Dave will probably set it up on iTunes at some point.
Filed under: Aftermarket, Truck, Technology, Videos, Toyota
You knew it wouldn’t be long before somebody tried to install the new Apple iPad in their ride. Well, it’s already happened, and the “somebody” in this case is Doug Bernards of SoundMan Car Audio in Santa Clarita, California. The team’s ride of choice for what is claimed to be the world’s first automotive iPad install is a Toyota Tacoma pickup. SoundMan decided to use a McIntosh amp for the build, naturally. The team was among the first to receive an iPad, and they got to work immediately. The video chronicling the installation is after the jump.
Besides the iPad, the system consists of an Audison Bit One processor, the McIntosh six-channel amplifier, an Onkyo ND-S1 and “a special iPod dock which allows the digital signal to be pulled from the iPad and distributed to the BitOne via optical output.” As the blurb on the company’s website puts it:
We chose to use the iPad as the only source for the vehicles entertainment system. The dock connector will plug into a cable that runs to a Onkyo ND-S1 which will send the digital signal from the iPad directly into an Audison Bit One. The Bit One will then act as the D/A converter, and will also process the audio signal. The Bit One also has a great controller for adjusting the volume and audio settings. The amplifier we chose is the McIntosh MCC406M. Stay tunned for the rest of the build. You’ll be able to find all the pictures and videos on this page as they become available.
Follow the jump to follow the installation from unboxing the components to firing it up. While the screen looks enormous in the dash, it actually doesn’t look out of place and at first glance, it almost appears factory installed. The placement of the controller is a bit of a tell, and the rounded edges of the iPad need a bezel perhaps, but job well done on job number one. The team still needs to fully wire it up, but the mockup is finished. Stay tuned for part two after the rest of the components arrive. Great tip, VJ!
[Source: YouTube]
Continue reading Video: World’s first Apple iPad in-car installation looks pretty clean
Video: World’s first Apple iPad in-car installation looks pretty clean originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This post was originally supposed to be a nice little summary of how AT&T would be bringing the 2010 Masters Golf Tournament to their wireless customers.
Then we remembered that AT&T bailed as a sponsor of Tiger Woods, a Masters golfer, after something from his personal life became public knowledge.
While we don’t support infidelity, we also don’t support companies knee-jerking over the goings-on in someone’s private life just because the media has decided to obsess over it.
Since AT&T is supporting Tiger’s efforts at the Masters as little as possible, we’re supporting AT&T’s efforts at the Masters as little as possible. If you’re interested, here’s the press release.
Finland isn’t exactly a tour de force in the automotive industry. The small, scrappy Scandinavian country is mostly known for its exports of electronics and ships, as well as the tenacity of its Skiing soliders. But cars? That’s for the Swedes!
Though maybe not anymore. Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has unveiled its Electric Race About electric car, which will be competing in the Automotive X-Prize competition this fall.
Mercedes probably has better green cred than most people give them actual credit for. Sure, they are over-complicated, full of production-intense technology and luxury, and they offer V8 engines with pretty much every car. But they also produce lots of clean-diesel engines, and 40% of their models are powered by such fuel-efficient engines.
Still, that might not be enough to meet increasing fuel efficiency standards the world over. So could the brand’s flagship vehicle, the S-Class, become a hybrid-only nameplate… even including the AMG performance models?