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March is an interesting time to release Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver in the US, especially if you consider that a lot of other big releases are slated that month. Perhaps to put the Pokemon in

By Brian Miller, New America Media

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a society worthy of the principle in
its founding declaration that “all men are created equal.” But he did
not live in such a society, and he did not act as if he did. His life’s
work was dedicated to bringing the nation closer to that dream. While
we have made progress, the dream remains elusive.

Last year, after Barack Obama’s historic election, many pundits
declared that the victory had ushered in a new “post-racial” era. But
just as the civil rights victories of the 1950s and 60s did not end
racism, the election of our first African American president does not
create a post-racial society.

During his first year in office, President Obama, along with Congress,
has governed as though the myth of a post-racial America were true.
Faced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, both
Congress and the president have pursued universal, broad-spectrum
solutions designed to lift up “all Americans.”

But a post-racial America and colorblind policies are ideas that can’t
stand up to the facts of persistent, and even growing, racial economic
disparities.

As detailed in the newly released “State of The Dream 2010: Drained”
report, racial economic inequities have worsened over the last year as
people of color have taken the brunt of layoffs from this Great
Recession. The unemployment rate for blacks jumped 4.3 percent to the
devastating height of 16.2 percent, while the white unemployment rate
stands at 9 percent, up only 2.4 percent by comparison from a year
earlier. And African Americans who are employed still earn less than
their white counterparts in similar jobs.

Racial disparities of wealth are even more persistent and severe than
income and employment disparities because unlike most jobs, wealth can
be passed from one generation to the next. So, families and communities
that are wealthy tend to stay that way, and those who are not wealthy
tend to stay that way, too, generation after generation.

Because African Americans hold only 10 cents to every dollar of white
net wealth, they are less able to cope with the loss of income and jobs
that have come with the Great Recession. Exacerbating the problem, most
of the wealth that is held by African Americans is held in the form of
housing that has collapsed in value due to the foreclosure crisis and
the predatory lending that fueled it.

It’s important that we get the recovery right. The Great Recession
began with the collapse of the predatory subprime mortgage market. Our
immediate policy response was to bail out the banks under the Toxic
Asset Relief Program. This did shore up their profits and ensured the
outlandish bonuses of executives, but it failed to bring relief to
where it is needed most.

As more predatory and adjustable rate mortgages reset to higher
payments and joblessness increases over the coming year, more families
will be forced into foreclosure. Foreclosed properties bring down the
value of homes near them, further reducing the wealth in communities of
color where foreclosure rates are the highest. Many homeowners,
regardless of being current on their loan payments, are left owing more
on their mortgage than their home is worth.

Last year’s stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
certainly did more to shore up the broader economy than the bank
bailout. It did not, however, effectively reach the communities most in
need of recovery and reinvestment. Less stimulus funding has gone to
areas with higher rates of unemployment than to areas with more jobs.
And the sectors that have benefited most from stimulus money are
industries that have traditionally not been major sources of African
American employment.

MLK’s dream of racial equality cannot be realized until the economic
divide between races is addressed. The Great Recession and our policy
responses to it have proven once again that we cannot address racial
inequity by ignoring it. With colorblind policies, the people in the
worst economic position stay that way.

The “State of the Dream” report recommends targeted solutions to end
the foreclosure crisis, to bring jobs to where they are needed most,
and to bring opportunity where it is most lacking. These
recommendations will address the particular plight of African
Americans. Proponents of a post-racial or colorblind society will no
doubt be pleased that these solutions will also raise up all poor and
working class families regardless of race.

Brian Miller is executive director of United for a Fair Economy
(UFE), a national non-profit organization working to promote more
broadly shared prosperity and to end extreme inequalities of wealth and
income. Miller is co-author of UFE’s new report, along with Ajamu
Dillahunt, Mike Prokosch, Jeannette Huezo, and Dedrick Muhammad,
entitled “State of the Dream 2010: Drained – Jobless and Foreclosed in
Communities of Color,” available on-line at
http://www.faireconomy.org/dream

Q: We recently received some daikon radishes in our winter CSA box. We live in an area in which Asian ingredients are hard to come by and I don’t especially like them raw on salads, etc.

Do you have any other suggestions? I hate to let local, organic produce to go waste.

Sent by Katie

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Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Chevrolet, GM, Earnings/Financials, Electric

$40,000. That’s the potential price we’ve heard for the first-gen Chevrolet Volt for ages, and it’s the number we get again, now that the recent “low 30s” price rumor has been put to rest. Again.

General Motors spokesman Dave Darovitz confirmed to Green Car Reports that GM CEO Ed Whitacre’s recent statement that the Volt would be priced “in the low 30s” and be profitable was misleading/inaccurate. The reality is that the car will cost around $40,000, and a possible $7,500 tax credit from the federal government would move the price into the low 30s. Specifically, Darovitz confirmed to GCR that, GM “has not officially announced final Volt pricing, a price in the low 30’s after a $7,500 tax credit is in the range of possibilities.” We knew that. Why would we think it was anything else?

[Source: Green Car Reports]

GM clarifies Volt’s “low 30s” price is only possible after tax credit originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Menswear designer Sjaak Hullekes was the winner of last year’s Dutch Fashion Award 2009. Entitled “Small Town Boy,” his Fall/Winter collection is identified by its modern Dandy looks. The styles are relaxed and unique and seems to reflect the current styles of Western Europe. Chunky knit sweaters become outerwear, and the blazer and trousers combo contain a nice pastel color. According to Hullekes, his collection emphasizes fragility and efficiency in men’s clothing, all while bringing together a sense of romanticism for the collection.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: Trend Land

For the third year running (see 2008, 2009) I’m going to aggregate stats in the social networking space on a single blog post, and update it through the year.  Data fiends should bookmark this post for future reference.

Stats are important –but on their own, they don’t tell us much
Stats on social networks are important, but don’t rely on them alone. Data is like fire, it can be used for good and bad, proper insight and analysis is always required. Beyond that, you’ll often see conflicting stats across the industry as everyone has different methodologies, as a result, this listing will help you to see the greater trends –not numbers without context.

How to interpret stats
Numbers don’t tell us much without insight and interpretation, in fact, you’re going to see conflicting numbers of usage from many of the agencies and social networks themselves. The key is to look at trend movements, don’t focus on the specific numbers but the changes to them over time. Put more weight on active unique users in the last 30 days vs overall registered, in fact, the actual active conversion rate will often range from 10-40% of actual users sticking around and using the social network, so don’t be fooled by puffed numbers. No single metric is a good indicator, you have to evaluate the usage from multiple dimensions, so you also have to factor in what are users doing, time on site, interaction, and of course, did they end up buying, recommending products, or improving their lives.

A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2010
I’ll be updating this post throughout the year, bookmark it, and share it with others.

Comparison: All Social Networks

• “The data doesn’t deny that Facebook has come to dominate social networking in the US, and overtook MySpace in 2009. But MySpace’s 57 million US unique users are nothing to sneeze at – it’s still a top web property with users who are highly engaged. The second tier networks, such as Tagged, Hi5, MyYearbook and Bebo, still receive an impressive 3-6 million uniques per month, and users spend a fair amount of time on those sites. BlackPlanet users spent 3.6 minutes longer interacting with the site than the average Facebook visitor. MyYearbook and Tagged users were on these sites more than 3 minutes longer than the average MySpace visitor. There is definitely addictive behavior occuring on these other sites.” LeeAnn Prescott (Someone I personally trust), Feb 2009

By Region and Geography

• Japan: This slideshare has data on Japan’s mobile behaviors, and demonstrates how most social networks are accessed through mobile devices, and discusses Twitter, Facebook, and other social network adoption. Japan’s Cellphone Edge, 2010.

Facebook

• Facebook keeps it’s stats page updated, and boasts over 350mm users. Facebook, ongoing
• Facebook has announced 400mm users, Feb 5, 2010.
• Infographic on Auguts 2009 Facebook stats, including usage, size, adoption rates by Mashable, on Feb 12.
• Facebook demonstrates growth in total number of visitors (now over Yahoo, for second place) and a high degree of attention (time on site) “Facebook has surged past Yahoo as the number two most popular site in the U.S., drawing nearly 134 Million Unique Visitors in January, 2010. It’s been two full years since we’ve seen a shakeup at the top – In February, 2008, Google overtook Yahoo as number one, and never looked back.” Compete, Feb 18, 2010
• Usage of casual gaming (Farmville, mafia wars) is suggested to be by moms.  A PopCap survey reports that “The PopCap study showed that 55 percent of all social gamers in the U.S. are women, as are almost 60 percent of those in the UK. The average age in the U.S. is 48, which is substantially older than the 38-year-old average in the UK, and 46 percent of American social gamers are 50 or older, compared with just 23 percent in the UK. Only 6 percent of all social gamers are age 21 or younger.”  Via GigaOm, Feb 18

LinkedIn

• Now has 60mm users, “Over the past year, network has seen a significant amount of growth, especially internationally. As of last December, the network had 55 million members, so its grown by 5 million in less than two months. In October, LinkedIn’s network’s CEO, Jeff Weiner, said in the post that half of LinkedIn’s membership is international. ” reports Techcrunch, Feb 11

Twitter

• Hubspot luanches a report of Twitter.com registrations and shows a decrease in rate of adoption. There’s also useful data within the report about followers and their behaviors based on a sample methodology. Hubspot, Jan 19, 2010.
• Sysmos launched a report about global usage of Twitter, with most adoption in US. Interesting that the key nugget is “… the number of U.S. unique users was 50.8%, a sharp drop from 62.1% in June. This suggests the use of Twitter outside the U.S. has experienced significant growth over the past six months.”, Jan 14th, Sysmos. Thanks Jean in the comments for the submission.
• Data indicates that many Twitter users are not active. read “The number of Twitter users has climbed to a lofty 75 million, but the growth rate of new users is slowing and a lot of current Twitterers are inactive” ComputerWorld, Jan 28
• Twitter themselves finally publish numbers indicating there are 50mm tweets created each day.  ”Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second. (Yes, we have TPS reports.)” Twitter, Feb 22

YouTube

• Find out who is creating the top YouTube videos and who is embedding them. “The study also looked at the demographics of bloggers who embed these videos. In general, 20-to-35-year-old bloggers embed most of the videos (57%), followed by teenagers (20%) and bloggers over 35 (20%).” Including stats on average number of comments, duration and other tidbits, Read Write Web, Feb 15.

Mobile, Desktop and Social Networks

• There’s a sea change in more people using social networks from mobile devices rather than desktop clients “more people are using the mobile web to socialize (91%) compared to the 79% of desktop users who do the same. It appears that the mobile phone is actually a better platform for social networking than the PC.”  Ruder Fin via Read Write Web, Feb 2010

I’ll continue to update this page over time, please leave a comment if you have 2010 submissions, I’ll credit you.

Fourteen Chicago public schools will be either closed, consolidated or undergo extensive personnel overhaul this year, officials said today.

The latest moves are part of the system’s continuing efforts to shut down and consolidate failing and under-enrolled schools.

Four schools–Las Casas, McCorkle Elementary, Prescott Elementary and Paderewski Elementary-will be closed due to inadequate facilities and low enrollment.

Another four schools will be consolidated into nearby facilities. These are Marconi Elementary, Curtis Elementary, Guggenheim Elementary and Mollison Elementary.

One school, Schneider Elementary, will be phased out.

Five schools in the district will be the subject of turnaround operations. That means staff will be fired and a new operator will come in to run the school.

Two elementary schools, Gillespie and Bradwell,  will be operated by the successful Academy of Urban School Leadership. A third, Deneen, will be run by the office of school turnarounds at Chicago Public Schools.

Two chronically underperforming high schools will be turned around, Phillips High School by AUSL and Marshall High by the district office.

School closings have been immensely unpopular since the district began shutting down facilities several years ago when Arne Duncan, now U.S. secretary of education,  led the system.

–Azam Ahmed

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

We may be among the handful of people in this country that has never watched American Idol, but we do know something about SEC filings and the 8-K that CKX Enterprises (CKXE) filed at 5:30 pm on Friday — timed perfectly to avoid being picked up over the long holiday weekend — certainly caught our attention.

As even non-American Idol fans probably know, Simon Fuller, the creator of the worldwide Idol juggernaut, announced last week that he would be stepping down from both CKX and 19 Entertainment and that CKX had reached a new agreement with Fuller. Of course, the press release didn’t have any of the juicy details. That was left to the 8-K, which included three separate contracts — a consulting agreement, an option agreement and a compromise agreement — with Fuller and/or various entities owned by him.

Under the consulting deal, Fuller will get a $400K signing bonus plus 10% of the net profits for three different programs: American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and If I Can Dream for the lifetime of the shows, assuming he remains involved. He’ll also get a $5 million advance (the contract oddly uses pounds and dollars interchangeably) for 2010. There’s also a $2.5 million fee for something called “general consulting services”. In exchange, Fuller is required to provide six months of services, which makes it one of the priciest consulting deals we’ve seen.

The option agreement gives CKX the ability to purchase part of Fuller’s new company, called XIX Entertainment Limited (as opposed to 19 Entertainment Ltd., the old company). That option, which expires next month, enables CKX to buy between 10 and 33% of the new company. In exchange, they paid Fuller $815K for that option.

The last part of the deal is the so-called compromise agreement, which pays Fuller another $1.6 million for Fuller’s “ongoing confidentiality”. That agreement also provides for the accelerated vesting of 260,000 shares of CKX. Here’s a snip from that part of the filing:

In connection with this transaction, management will be conducting a thorough review to determine the profitability or applicability of each of the businesses currently conducted by 19 Entertainment. If management determines that it would be in CKX’s and 19 Entertainment’s best interests to discontinue any of 19 Entertainment’s business activities, management may determine to sell or transfer such business to XIX. If XIX elects to pursue any such business, CKX will not profit on any future development of such business, except to the extent that it may benefit as a shareholder in XIX if CKX elects to exercise the Option. Both the exercise of the Option and the transfer by 19 Entertainment of any of its rights with respect to any business activities that may be assumed by XIX will require approval of the majority of CKX’s independent directors pursuant to CKX’s policies on affiliate transactions.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this multi-faceted and extremely lucrative deal to retain Fuller is that despite the success of the Idol franchise and the various other shows (which we also don’t watch), CKX’s stock hasn’t exactly been a great investment. Indeed, the last time we footnoted CKX, the stock was trading at around $11 a share — close to the price following the reverse-merger that essentially created the company in March 2005.

I was surprised to learn from Nordhaus and Shellenberger’s recent piece in Foreign Policy that WRI has magical powers. In that piece the authors write:

Green groups insisted that the bill would reduce emissions and pointed reporters and green donors to allegedly independent analyses by the World Resources Institute (WRI). But the WRI, a major party to the cap-and-trade agreement negotiated by the EDF and NRDC with energy companies, simply used a magic accounting trick that was visible in plain sight: counting carbon offsets as real reductions of U.S. emissions.

Offsets typically fund activities such as tree planting and methane capture from landfills, and have proven over the last decade to be extremely unreliable, when they have not been outright fraudulent. The extensive offsets in Waxman-Markey would have allowed U.S. emissions to rise at business-as-usual rates over the next decade rather than declining to 17 percent below 2005 levels, as proponents of the bill claimed. Nevertheless, the WRI created graphs showing U.S. emissions magically going down 17 percent by 2020 and nearly 80 percent by 2050; the New York Times duly reprinted them; and partisans on both sides of the debate tacitly agreed to pretend as if proponents’ farcical claims about the bill’s mandated emissions reductions were true.

The authors’ claim that WRI is overselling the merits of climate legislation in Congress and that the analysis is “allegedly independent” is way off the mark.

While WRI is a member of the US Climate Action Partnership, the analysis in question is our own. Beyond the facts that our analysis is independent, non-partisan and is the product of a rigorous review process, it is clear that neither Nordhaus nor Shellenberger had actually read my analysis where it’s clearly stated that:

If the environmental integrity of offsets were not completely real, permanent, and additional then the emission reduction estimates included in this analysis would be diminished proportionately.

The quality of offsets is a critical component of the environmental effectiveness of any emission reduction program that incorporates them. WRI’s principal focus is on environmental integrity. A critical component of WRI’s climate strategy is working to ensure that any offsets allowed in a U.S. program are indeed real, verifiable, permanent and additional. This is reflected both in WRI’s published analyses and in conversations with congressional staff.

The suggestion that the integrity of WRI’s analysis was undermined for political gain or compromised due to on-going associations with private sector and civil society partners, or the philanthropic community that supports our work, is incorrect. Even more unfortunate is the suggestion that WRI fed this analysis to the press to aid passage of the bill. Their odd reading of the facts turns on its head a major tenet of WRI research by suggesting that it is a bad thing to share our research publicly. In fact, our research is not proprietary and always publicly available.

Second, the article suggests that Nordhaus and Shellenberger lack a fundamental understanding of the Waxman-Markey bill itself. They assert that the bill invests almost nothing in new clean energy technology:

The green giants in Washington – the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Center for American Progress (CAP) – claimed that cap and trade would constitute a breakthrough, and Chu dutifully defended the legislation, expecting it would include his $15 billion for R&D.

But Waxman and Markey ended up using virtually all of the money raised from carbon auctions to buy off fossil fuel interests, leaving virtually nothing for technology innovation… In the end, Waxman-Markey would give R&D $1.1 billion a year, less than a third of current levels, and would give coal and utility companies $32 billion.

This is hardly the case. Here’s a brief and hardly exhaustive list of the investments and new requirements for clean energy technology the bill requires that they missed (more details are here):

• About $4.5 billion a year for state renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment programs,
• $1.5 billion a year for clean vehicle manufacturing ,
• Half a billion dollars a year for state home heating oil and propane efficiency programs,
• Half a billion dollars a year for international clean technology deployment,
• $2 billion dollars a year for natural gas efficiency programs,
• $2 billion per year for clean coal technology deployment,
• Plus new, strict appliance standards,
• New federal building codes with carrots to get states to adopt them,
• GHG emissions standards for new coal fired power plants,
• Requirements for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment,
• GHG emissions standards on non-fossil fuel sources such as landfills and coal mines,
• $1 billion a year for clean coal R&D, and
• plenty more including billions to help our country and the world adapt to unavoidable climate change impacts.

All of this is above and beyond the billion dollars for R&D that they reference in their article. It is unclear what legislation Nordhaus and Shellenberger are referring to: the version of Waxman-Markey that the House of Representatives passed in June represents an impressive investment that will do a lot to get the U.S. onto a completely new path to a clean energy future. Waxman-Markey is not a magic trick – it represents a major commitment to the kinds of technology-forcing that Nordhaus and Shellenberger say they want.

Finally, asserting that WRI would ruin its reputation by conjuring up numbers to sell a bill that does nothing goes directly against our mission. WRI exists to solve the most pressing environmental problems facing the world, including climate change, and will continue to examine policy issues with our independent, analytic approach. No wands, just empirical evidence.

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First Rocket Glider Launched Successfully in Actual Tests

THAT the ground crews hitherto needed for glider flying may soon be dispensed with in many cases was proved recently by William G. Swan, who before a crowd of 2000 persons succeeded in launching a glider by rocket power.

The glider was equipped with two sets of rockets—six to a set— carrying a pushing velocity of fifty pounds each, the ignition apparatus being controlled from the pilot’s seat. Despite a strong wind the craft took off at 35 miles an hour and attained a height-of 200 feet. No attempt was made at continuous flight, the rockets being used as a launching medium only.

Porkers Fed by Automatic Mother
FINDING himelf confronted with the task of providing nourishment for a litter of little porkers that had lost their mother, a Glens Falls, New York farmer rigged up an automatic mother which seemed to fill the bill quite satisfactorily. The squeals of hunger were quieted by means of a bottle and siphon arrangement, and now the little pigs suckle contentedly from a nipple, as you can see from the photo below.

“The Spiderwick Chronicles” was released in 2008. It is a fantasy film based on a book with the same title.

“The Spiderwick Chronicles” tells the story of three children, Simon, Jared and Mallory, who move into their great aunt’s mansion with their mother. Jared is upset as his mother and father have recently divorced.  Later, in the mansion, Jared finds a key, which he uses to open a chest. Within the chest, he discovers a guide to faeries, which as been written by Arthur Spiderwick, who was the owner of the mansion. The book is not meant to be read by anyone, but Jared reads it anyway.

Later, he encounters a creature called Thimbletack. Thimbletack changes his appearance whenever he gets angry and tells Jared that there are magical creatures in the area, that can be seen whenever they decide to show themselves. He informs Jared that the mansion is protected by a circle that Arthur Spiderwick placed around it. To help Jared see the creatures, Thimbletack gives him a stone.

A creature named Mulgarath discovers that Jared has the guide to faeries, which he wishes to obtain so that he can be the ruler of all magical creatures. He sends a group of his creatures to obtain the book, but they kidnap Simon, thinking that he is Jared due to the fact that they are identical twins. Jared immediately sets out to save Simon and is helped by a creature named Hogsqueal, who helps him to see the creatures without the stone. Jared manages to save Simon, but they are chased by the creatures back to the house. As they are trying to escape, Mallory intervenes. The boys explain about the monsters and she initially doesn’t believe them, but then realises they are telling the truth when Jared makes her see the monsters by giving her the stone.

Later, the children go to see Lucinda. She tells him that the book must be destroyed, but to that, the children must first find Arthur Spiderwick. It is revealed that Lucinda is Arthur Spiderwick’s daughter and he was taken away from her by faeries when she was just a child. Later, Mulgarath manages to obtain pages of the book that will allow him and his goblins to break the protective circle around the house by the time the moon arrives.

Jared, Mallory and Simon go to see Arthur, using his pet griffin to travel there. When they arrive, Arthur seems confused and does not realise that he has been held captive by Sylphs, a kind of faerie, for years. Arthur gives them advice about the book and with his help, the children manage to distract the Sylphs so that they can return home.

When they arrive back at the mansion, they immediately begin preparing for the arrival of Mulgarath and his goblins. Their mother, Helen, is confused as to what the children are doing but they explain what is happening and help her to see the goblins by using the stone, just like Jared and Simon did with Mallory. As they kill as the goblins, Jared is momentarily distracted by the arrival of his father, who has come to apologise for previously letting Jared down and not being there for him. As his father speaks, Jared realises something isn’t right and discovers that it is not his father, but in fact Mulgarath using a disguise. Jared stabs Mulgarath, and runs off with the book. Mulgarath uses he shape-shifting ability to transform into a raven. Unfortunately for him, ravens are one of Hogsqueal’s favourite food, and as Mulgarath flies past him, Hogsqueal eats him.

In the final scenes of the film, Lucinda is brought back to the house just as Arthur is brought back by the Sylphs. There is a tearful reconciliation between father and daughter and Lucinda chooses to go back with the Sylphs with her father. She is then transformed back into the child she was when Arthur first disappeared and the two leave Mallory, Jared, Simon and Helen and travel back with the Sylphs.

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The Amateur in the Making

By Walter Burnett

Illustrations by Kneeland L. Green.

WHEN Marconi completed experiments a number of years ago, which made wireless telegraphy practicable, an unbelieving world sat up and gasped.

The wonder of his achievement lingered in the minds of many for a few days and then died. In certain young men, however, it created the spark of ambition, which flared up into an irresistible desire to enter into this new and practically unknown field. As a result nearly every city in the country boasts (or tolerates) its wireless amateurs.

Wireless amateurism is a craze of high order and rather difficult to sustain. The enthusiastical effect of crashing sparks and the lure of hidden potentialities, are neutralized when confronted by unexpected technicalities and the prospect of never-ending study. But he who survives the first six months of groping into its mysteries is doomed to success.

An aspiring wireless amateur’s first desire is to “pick up” messages. With this end in view, every piece of stray wire, scraps of brass, and homeless insulators are gathered together for use in the construction of a receiving set. Frequent trips to electrical shops serve to increase the supply of “junk.” Choice bits of brass and wire are utilized in constructing the first detector and loose coupler. The remainder is preserved for future use. But the supply of “junk,” gathered from everywhere, soon displays alarming proportions, with the result that mother, sisters and sundry other relatives hold a council of war in order to take drastic action. The verdict of the assembly, in effect, is that rooms were designed to harbor human beings, so the wireless “fiend” constructs a “shack” in the back yard and moves his “junk” therein.

This shack is shunned by all except wireless experimenters. None others dare venture within. Huge coils of wire, mysterious looking instruments, odorous chemicals and seemingly omnipresent electric shocks strike terror to the heart of uninformed transgressors.

Undisturbed in his new quarters, the amateur continues to construct his instruments. Soon a towering aerial stretches majestically skyward and numerous guy wires branch out as if their sole purpose in existence was to trip up unwary pedestrians. Several shelves in the shack sag danger- ously under their load of electrical magazines, catalogs and technical books, unceremoniously crowding out dime novels and other useless literature. These latter books, relics of bygone days, are used in the air-tight heater at times when the sun has failed in its efforts to keep ”jack frost” in submission.

The “gang” nightly assembled at the corner miss one of their former members. Whispered conversation indicates that he has degenerated into one of those “scientific ginks” wasting perfectly good time on such useless fads as wireless. The appearance of an aerial confirms their suspicions. Little concerned, though with an inward feeling of pity for one who devotes his time to study, they go their way, discussing such weighty matters as the latest style in sporty sox, or why certain seemingly intelligent young ladies reject their uninvited advances.

Although left strictly alone by his former associates the amateur soon finds new friends among the workers in his chosen field.

Then comes the thrill of his first message!

Many assembled instruments, the result of weeks of labor, are carefully connected in order. Eagerly he places the head ‘phones in position and throws the aerial switch, then the loose-coupler is carefully manipulated, in changing from wave to wave. But not a sound, as yet, can be heard. A little sigh of tired toleration escapes his lips. Disappointments are becoming remarkably commonplace. Some defect must have occurred in construction.

But wait! He has found it! Dominated by excitement he had neglected to “set” the detector. This trifling, though necessary, detail is attended to, and again he is on the alert. Then, in the ‘phones, a faint grating sound is heard. He breathes a sigh of relief. That feeble splash of static indicates that the set is in working order. With nerves on edge he waits and hopes. Then his efforts are rewarded. From out of the stillness of the night comes a faint purring string of flickering dots and dashes. Snatched from the vibrating ether by his aerial and made audible by sensitive instruments, they whisper that his toils have not been in vain.

His first message! The light of victory shines within his eyes. The blood surges through his arteries. His soul thrills with joy. Hours of study and work have been consumed; disappointments have been choked down; seeming impossibilities have been overcome, and now success is his. An unbounded, passionate, hope-inspiring feeling of pleasure dominates his spirit.

The little message speeds on its way, and the cold, practical, commercial operator, shooting it out on his key, little dreams of the joy he has induced into the heart of a tireless student.

Not a word is deciphered by the amateur, nor a single dot or dash understood. The mysteries of the continental code have yet to be fathomed. But that does not trouble him. Operating will come by practice. The climax of his ambition has been attained in the voice of the invisible ether.

Little does the amateur dream of the long hours of study to which he will fall heir in the struggle to become an operator.

The first message acts like a tonic, inspiring hope to a starving ambition, as does dry land to a sea-sick voyager. But when the thrill of it wears off, a tumble is taken back into the old rut of discouragement. Messages are numerous. They become commonplace. Where, before, the chief desire of the amateur was to receive messages, now he longs to read them.

A code-card is dragged from its place of concealment and diligently studied. “A” is a dot and a dash—and all the rest of them, are repeated over and over in the mind of the amateur until, at last, he commits them to memory. A key and buzzer are installed and nearly worn out in an effort to learn continental. The amateur dreams dots and dashes in his sleep, thinks of them while at work and eats with a rhythmical dot and dash movement of his jaws. At times his tired brain seems to revolt, but still he keeps on—and learns.

At first several easy and uncomplicated calls are interpreted. Gradually, by slow and painstaking effort, a word is deciphered from the confusing tangle of code. Then success begins to steal in almost unnoticed. Perhaps a half-formed sentence will be eagerly scribbled down, giving just a taste of what the message contains, and then, spurred on by a desire to ascertain what is being said, at last, some of the sense and the general drift of a message is obtained.

Still another desire now assails the slowly improving amateur. It is to send. To converse, by wireless, with other amateurs in his vicinity. To make the crashing, leaping sparks of energy obey his mind and hand. Instead of merely listening to the messages of others, he will formulate messages of his own, and flash them into the ether from his aerial.

Incidently, several hard-working and much-aggravated commercial opera- tors in the neighborhood will profoundly and in a very emphatic manner denounce all amateurs. This, more especially, was the case before the recent Government regulations went into effect.

The amateur must first construct his transmitting apparatus, which he proceeds to do. A bulky, out of proportion transformer, questionable looking condensers, a ridiculously ill-designed, small-wire helix, and a spark-gap constructed to produce deafening noise, are gradually assembled.

Proudly he sits before his table: sending instruments to the right, those for receiving to the left, and the key within easy reach. With the headphones in position, the amateur waits for a favorable opportunity. When all is quiet he sends out the call of some friend. A smile of triumph lights his face as the answer comes flashing back. The first conversation is the fore-runner of innumerable others. One needs no introduction in the wireless game. Similarity of purpose is sufficient. Utter strangers soon become fast friends by the aid of the blue-white sparks. Amateurs, hearing each other for the first time, will exchange confidences, arrange to meet and become acquainted. In this way the majority of the amateurs within their sending range become friends.

By continual practice the amateur is soon able to read and copy commercial and naval messages. When this stage of development is reached wireless becomes highly interesting. To “listen in,” with first-class instruments, is like entering into a new existence where one can reach out and feel the pulse of the world for a thousand miles around. Ships hundreds of miles to the north or south, or far out at sea, are heard giving their positions and weather reports. Perhaps, at the amateur’s station, the weather may be clear and calm, with myriads of bright stars shining overhead, while far, far to the north a report portrays to the mind a ship floundering along in a heavy sea, with the rain beating upon her decks, and the sky dark, forbidding and cloud-bound. The next moment, a ship far in the opposite direction will report a high temperature, causing one to think of lounging on deck sipping cooling drinks.

Sometimes, in the silent night, far away, will be heard the frantic SOS distress call of a helpless vessel. Instantly the ether vibrates with action. Ships and land stations alike, keep in touch with each other; the ships reporting their progress, as tearing along through the waters they rush to the rescue. The vessel may be burning at sea, or breaking to pieces on the rocks, and a sigh of relief goes up from the many listeners, some hundreds of miles away, when the first relief ship reports reaching the scene of the disaster.

The amateur has now developed into a reliable operator, his one ambition being to receive “long-distance.”

Along about midnight, when the busy world lies sleeping, all long-distance work is performed. At this time, the rays of the sun, far out of sight, no longer interfere with wireless ether oscillations. The amateur, developed into an operator, sits alone in his silent little room. The head-phones are pressed tightly against his ears; his hand slowly tunes the instruments to different wave lengths. Everything is set to marvelous sensitiveness. In absolute stillness he listens. Then a faint, almost inaudible whisper vibrates within the phones. Scarcely breathing for fear of making a sound, he waits for the “sign.” If no other disturbances occur, he receives it, and a thrill of satisfaction takes place when he realizes that a station two thousand miles away has been heard. On exceptionally good nights these messages can be copied, but at times they are so faint that the scratching of a pencil on paper drowns out the sound. The amateur is satisfied if the “sign” can be read, as that discloses the identity of the station.

When this stage of the game is reached—a matter of years if the amateur is self-taught—he is in his glory. His ambition has been realized. But with its realization new ones are born and the amateur works on and on.

Anyone following the BitTorrent scene has been noticing some interesting developments lately and three new technologies in particular have stood out. A couple of them, DHT, PEX, are new ways of finding peers (users with copies of the file you want to download) without relying on the old BitTorrent tracker system. These are very important to the actual download… (read more)

ESPN.com reports: Chan Gailey, the former Dallas Cowboys and Georgia Tech coach, will be introduced Tuesday as the new coach of the Buffalo Bills, a team source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Bill Cowher — whom the Bills had been courting to replace the fired Dick Jauron — highly recommended Gailey to the Bills.

Get the full story: ESPN.com

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

The Chevy Volt is in many ways GM’s flagship into the future. Many people are critical of the car, saying it doesn’t go far enough on electric power. Others are critical of its cost, which—between media speculation and hints from GM execs—has ranged from below $30,000 to more than $40,000 before tax breaks. In the past, even GM has seemed rather resigned to lose money when the Volt first comes out, rather than expect to turn a profit.

But in a recent interview with GM-Volt.com, GM CEO Ed Whitacre revealed that GM will sell the Volt in the low $30,000 range, and they will make money off of it. Imagine that… GM making money!

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