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An auction for the rights to develop Venezuela's 14.7 trillion cubic foot Mariscal Sucre natural gas project ended Friday night without a single bidder, even after terms were improved.

Perhaps it had something to do with all the recent expropriations of private companies' assets by the Chavez regime.

Reuters: The government this month improved the conditions it was offering companies to help develop the project, but in the end nobody came forward, private sector sources close to the process said on Monday.

State oil company PDVSA has yet to announce the results.

Last year PDVSA invited a group of companies including Japan's Marubeni (8002.T), Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Itochu, Norway's Statoil (STL.OL), Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) to consider taking part in the project. Spain's Repsol (REP.MC) had also shown interest but did not make an offer.

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See Also:

• Venezuela Approaching Humanitarian Disaster As Chavez Expropriates Food Retailers
• Venezuelans Rush Stores For TVs And Video Games, As Chavez Threatens Military Action To Prevent Price Hikes
• Venezuela Bonds Suffer A Rout As Chavez Manufactures A Banking Crisis

Quantum information is the physics of knowledge. To be more
specific, the field of quantum information studies the implications that quantum
mechanics has on the fundamental nature of information.
By studying this relationship between quantum theory and information,
it is possible to design a new type of
computer—a quantum computer.
A largescale,
working quantum computer—the kind of quantum computer some
scientists think we might see in 50 years—would be capable
of performing some tasks impossibly quickly.

To date, the two most promising uses for such a device are
quantum search and
quantum factoring.
To understand the power of a quantum
search, consider classically searching a phonebook for the name
which matches an unknown phone number.
If the phonebook has 10,000
entries, on average you’ll need to look through about half of
them—5,000 entries—before you get lucky. A quantum
search algorithm only needs to guess 100 times. With 5,000 guesses
a quantum computer could search through a phonebook with 25 million names.

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After the tanker company Maran Tankers Management paid a record $5.5 million to free one of its tankers taken hostage by Somali pirates, a fight broke out among the pirates over how to divide the spoils.

The European Navy watched.

NYT: But disputes over the delivery of the ransom and how to divide it touched off fighting among pirates, according to the European Union Naval Force and spokesmen for the pirates. Skiffs carrying rival bands of marauders traded fire on Sunday, even prompting one of the pirate groups to radio naval ships for help.

“Of course, the European Union Naval Force would never intervene in a pirate fight,” said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the naval force, which watched the gun battle from a safe distance. At least one pirate was reported killed in the exchange, but Commander Harbour said he could not confirm any deaths.

Read more here >

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• Pirates Seize Ship Carrying 2,300 Hyundai’s
• Maersk Hires Tanzanian Mercenary Warship As Pirate Situation Becomes ‘Critical’
• Oil Tanker Lays The Smack Down On Somali Pirates

The growing global support for renewable and clean energy is heartening. The third preparatory session of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi received a further boost with Saudi Arabia joining the …

This is a tough category, but I’m very proud to announce that the award for Best Hamster Wheel Sand Printer goes to…this one!

The wheel was created by Barcelona designer Tomás Silva Alonso, for his Zanadesign firm, and going by some of the expression on these kids’ faces, it’s the most fun anyone’s ever had at a beach. Check out the gallery. [Yatzer and MAKE]

As Japan Airlines faces bankruptcy, many of its shareholders have been shell-shocked by the prospect of being completely wiped out.

That's because many Japanese companies have been considered 'Too Big To Fail' in the past, or more aptly 'Too Japanese To Fail.'

WSJ: JAL is scheduled to file for bankruptcy following Tuesday's 3 p.m. Tokyo stock market close. Individual shareholders, who accounted for 60% of JAL's 2.73 billion outstanding common shares as of September, will be the hardest hit by the possible subsequent delisting of the airline's stock, which has plunged from a peak of 200 yen ($2.20) last January to a close of 5 yen on Monday.

Hidetaka Miyai, 34 years old, works for a mobile-phone content provider and spent 500,000 yen to buy 1,000 shares at around 500 yen apiece several years ago. "My purpose to hold JAL shares was purely to get discount coupons," he said. Twice a year, the airline issues flight discount vouchers to shareholders, which make the stock attractive to individuals. "I just missed the timing to sell them," he said. "I didn't think JAL would be facing the risk of delisting because it's the national flag carrier, isn't it?"

Support for 'national companies' extends far beyond Japan, even if Japan is an extreme example. China has droves of government controlled companies, and many investors put blind faith in the Chinese government's ability to protect them and boost share prices with asset injection hand-outs.

Europe has its corporate holy cows as well. It's widely assumed Deutsche Bank would be supported by the German government for example. We barely need to mention the U.S. these days. The financial crisis unearthed a whole host of ultimately government-back-stopped companies.

Now, for a long time the above assumption works. Private shareholders repeatedly dump their companies' mistakes onto the taxpayer and are saved by the public purse. But eventually, even governments have their spending limit, once debt burdens reach mammoth proportions.

That's what's happening in Japan. Had it been better days, when the Japanese government had less debt, a JAL bailout would have been a done deal and easy to pass onto the taxpayer. Yet today even the historically docile Japanese taxpayer is growing intolerant of such irresponsible and unjust government behavior.

Thus Japan is beginning to show us how the false assumption of Too Communist To Fail, Too Nationally-Endeared To Fail, or even just Too Big To Fail can unwind. Suddenly, all Japanese companies appear far less stable than previously assumed. Anyone who bets on government support for their investments pay heed -- As government debt around the world explodes ever higher, your days are numbered.

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See Also:

• Kyle Bass: I Don't See How Japan Has A Way Out
• Here's What Will Trigger Japan's Hyperinflationary Fiasco
• Why A Hyperinflationary Fiasco Is Brewing In Japan

Nokia patent application points to flexible phone displays originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

• January 14, 2010 — MacLife Magazine Reviews the ‘Droid. (9)
• January 8, 2010 — Dell Hearts Android in a Big Way (2)
• December 29, 2009 — Will the Carriers be Android’s Downfall? (11)
• January 21, 2010 — Glyph Launches Free Mobile App Localization Program (1)
• January 20, 2010 — Create Customized, Branded Android Apps with iSites (1)

International agencies are on their way to Haiti with food, water and medicine, but victims require something more to gather energy to start again. To keep alive the faith in God, a U.S. based group is sending Bibles to Haitians. These are not simple books, but are in the form of an audible device that runs on solar power. Called “Procalimer,” the holy book is essentially intended towards those who are not able to read. About 600 of these audible bibles are on the way to Haiti and more will be delivered soon.

(more…)

First California proposed closing state parks due to budge cuts, now Arizona has actually done it. 21 out of 30 Arizona state parks will be closed as a result of a unanimous vote by the Arizona State Parks Board. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Wrestling with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, Arizona decided Friday to close nearly all of its state parks, including the famed Tombstone Courthouse and Yuma Territorial Prison.

The State Parks Board unanimously voted to close 13 parks by June 3. Eight others had already been closed, and the decision would leave nine open — but only if the board can raise $3 million this year.

The action represents the largest closure of state parks in the nation, although several other states are considering similar moves.

What happens to closed state parks? Are you people no longer able to visit them or are they simply not staffed? Are trails closed?

One of the more stunning realities that has become clear in watching the entertainment industry, as it responds to people who are actually impacted by ever more draconian copyright laws, is the fact that the industry doesn’t view other positions as worth hearing at all. To the industry, copyright law has one purpose and one purpose only: to protect the big players in the content making business. Everyone else is secondary. Unfortunately, those big industry players have powerful lobbyists. That’s why it was so nice to see Canada at least hold an open process to hear from the public. Of course, we were skeptical if those voices would really be heard, and stories about the industry itself stacking the deck at public gatherings did not bode well.

Separately, with so much pressure coming from other countries, we wondered if Canada would be able to resist implementing ever more draconian copyright laws, which would be a serious drain on the Canadian economy. So far they have resisted, but the pressure from outside continues to be fierce. We recently noted that US lobbyists and lawyers were insisting that Canada needed to be dragged into the 21st century, and now European trade negotiators are pushing hard on Canada to change its copyright laws despite no actual evidence of any problem with existing laws.

But what’s most troubling of all is that these trade reps don’t seem to care at all what Canadian citizens had to say. Despite receiving thousands of well-argued, well-thought-out statements concerning Canadian copyright law, EU trade negotiators are dismissing the whole process as “a tactic to confuse.” To confuse who? About what? Holding an open discussion with citizens, rather than just backroom deals to protect a small group of companies? I’d argue that’s the very opposite of a tactic to confuse, but rather it’s a tactic to enlighten.

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One of my friends recently was criticized because she mentioned on her blog that she was a stay-at-home mom rather than stay-at-home parent.  Can’t she be a mom as well as a parent?  It seems this is taking “political correctness” to the extreme. 

Parents & Child Image:sxc.hu

Apparently the blog reader felt stay-at-home dads were being neglected.

However, since the blogger was writing about herself, a mom, and not dads, on this occasion, she certainly wasn’t neglecting dads.  Does this mean people feel slighted if we are gender specific?

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “All that I am, all that I hope to be, I owe my angel mother.”  He didn’t say father or parent; he specifically mentioned his mother and went on to list her qualities.  He probably learned from his father, too.  But not the same as from his mother, who actually was his step-mother, as I recall.

We learn from many people in our lives, but do we have to lump them together?  Can’t we praise each for their own qualities?  Can’t we be a specific person for our children instead of being lumped into a general category?

Our lives have become too concerned about not categorizing people and not pointing out their qualities and talents and contributions.

Let’s be a Mom, a Dad, a Grandma, a Grandpa, an Aunt, an Uncle….not just a person, any person!

Post from: Blisstree

Are You a Mom or Dad or Parent?

 Today we sit down with Majority Caucus Whip Terry Link to get his priorities and overview of the coming legislative session

Bloomberg: Funding the carry trade with the greenback lost money in December for the first time since February as the U.S. currency gained 4.8 percent against the euro amid growing confidence in the U.S. economy and expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise borrowing costs by June. Futures trading on Dec. 31 suggested a 62 percent chance the Fed would increase its benchmark to at least 0.5 percent by mid-year from a range of zero to 0.25 percent, up from 30 percent in November, Bloomberg data show. The Bank of Japan’s target rate is 0.1 percent.

Buying and selling high- and low-yielding currencies to take maximum advantage of global rate moves gained 19 percent from February to November, the carry trade’s best nine months since 2003, a Royal Bank of Scotland Plc index shows. The index fell 0.9 percent in December.

Few engaged in such an arbitrage will want to hang around should last year's prevailing weak-dollar expectations be substantially reversed by persistent dollar strength.

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See Also:

• Morgan Stanley: The Dollar Will Rally Because Europe And Japan Are Such A Disaster
• Dollar Freak-Outs Happen Every Ten Years They're Always Overdone
• One In Eight Dollars In Receivables During The November Collection Period Has Been Written Off As Uncollectable

Voici la discrète vedette de ce site, c’est en effet lui qui capte le plus grand nombre de requête entrantes via les moteurs de recherche, preuve s’il en fallait de l’attente qu’il a créé dans le public. Il nous revient aujourd’hui sous forme de video.

Le Duster sera présenté en mars au salon de Genève et commercialisé dans la foulée sous les marques Dacia ou Renault selon les marchés. Vous retrouverez ses caractéristiques ici. Dacia vient de présenter une seconde video promo (la première était vraiment minimale).

Retrouvez également plus bas la galerie du Duster, et notamment les premières photos disponibles de l’intérieur.

The hand-built Slayer espresso machine is not brandspankinew, but it is still exceedingly uncommon—fewer than 20 exist in coffee shops—and this one, residing at freshly opened RBC NYC, is the first east of Michigan. It costs $18,000.

The reason coffee nerds are hyped about the Slayer isn’t just because it’s obscenely expensive, or because of the way wood meshes with contoured metal to create a hulking, beautiful gadget, but mostly because of the way it allows a barista to easily play with pressure to do some interesting things—like start with a low pressure extraction, ramp up to full pressure, then back it down to get different textures or flavors—using the wooden paddles on top of the groupheads that adjust the mechanical valves which control water flow, which is what’s unique about the machine. (More on the Slayer and pressure here, and more of our own espresso coverage and explainers here and here.)

It’s somewhat finicky, and different from other espresso machines that RBC’s director of coffee (yes, that’s her title) said it took her two months to really master the machine. Interestingly, they’re testing out using the Slayer to do brewed coffee, to create something really different, but they’re not sure when they’re gonna offer it up. For now though, they’re pulling some of the best espresso shots in New York, at least judging by the two drinks I’ve had. [Slayer, RBC NYC, Full-Size Photos]