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The intersection of the classical instrument known as a guitar and the modernist urge to modify everything has resulted in plenty of nutty, zany, and just plain questionable products in its time. It’s quite a pleasure, therefore, to point you in the direction of a so-called Digital Guitar that keeps the axe looking refreshingly familiar, while turning into something that poses a legitimate threat of actually being useful. Essentially a MIDI controller, the Misa guitar has 24 frets and a large multifunctional touchscreen, which you can use to interface with the appropriate software on your pc. We’ve got a video demonstration after the break, and you can hit up the source link for more info including details on how you might be able to buy one for yourself.

Continue reading Misa Digital Guitar cuts the strings, brings the noise

Misa Digital Guitar cuts the strings, brings the noise originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2010 year will be a major year for the wireless standard WiMAX and the smart grid, says Sprint’s national program manager for utilities Robert Gustin. Sprint, the third largest phone company in the U.S., owns a joint venture with carrier Clearwire focused on WiMAX, a nascent, high-speed wireless technology that has morphed into an alternative […]

I loved the Citroen DS3 photo shoot in the gallery below, and the anti retro message in the DS3 promo videos works for me, as well. I’m not always convinced by using past, deceased celebrities for marketing, but the idea is crystal clear: move over the retro obsessed Mini and Fiat 500, the Citroen DS3 is modern, chic and very cool. Who needs the 60’s when you’ve got this? The first video above features John Lennon, and after the jump you can see how Marilyn Monroe fits the anti retro bill for Citroen. Enjoy.

Wired has an excellent report on abuses in China’s ‘internet addiction’ boot camps in the wake of the death of a young man from a beating only hours after he was admitted to one of the facilities.

As we reported last August, after years of promoting the ‘psychiatric dangers’ of the internet, the Chinese government has started to rein in its own clinics after criticisms of its treatments (that included electroshock) and has begun to crack down on the numerous private clinics after reports of widespread abuses.

The Wired piece follows the story of Deng Senshan, the young man who was beaten to death in one of the camps, and explores how the rise of the treatment clinics have followed the increase in anxiety about young people using the internet.

The article also pulls out some of the cultural factors that drive the concept of internet addiction in China, which are quite different from those that are common in the United States.

In fact, this was discussed in a study by anthropologists Alex Golub and Kate Lingley, who noted that in America, parents typically take their children to internet addiction clinics because they don’t spend any time outside or don’t socialise, whereas in China, people take their children to Internet addiction clinics because their children are playing basketball, dating, and playing video games instead of studying.

Link to Wired article ‘Obsessed With the Internet: A Tale From China’.
Link to our previous report on China’s ‘net addiction’ clinics.
Link to study on cultural factors behind Chinese ‘net addiction’.

Yes, it is time for another installment of my video series! In this episode I decided to review a spy watch with a hidden digital video camera in it. i first mentioned it last month in my Top 10 Geeky Christmas Wish List post. Back then it was going got about $75 on Amazon, now they have it listed for about $199.

The watch is called the CVSL-I21 DVR watch. I wanted it because I am a huge James Bond fan and I love gadgets that are similar to stuff Bond might use. I thought this watch would be just like that. It looked nice in the pictures, and it had some cool features like 8 GB of USB storage, 640 x 480 AVI video at 20FPS, and it even tells time! But alas, it wasn’t exactly the best watch. In fact, I will go ahead and say it is a piece of complete junk!

I wore it for only a week, and not only did the glass face crack, but a day or two after that my watch band broke too! What a piece of crap! Take a look at my video review:

Know of a similar watch with better quality? Perhaps something in HD and has a working microphone! If you know of a better Spy Watch, hit me up in the comments!

Catch all the previous Bauer-Power videos on our Blip.TV Channel!

This horrific incident is simply beyond words. A 15-year-old Romanian boy stabbed his adoptive mother to death after she refused to pay the Internet bills. The boy, Ionut, is addicted to online video games.
 
 
 

With refueling ban being the most important change in the 2010 rulebook of Formula One, fuel consumption will become crucial in the teams’ strategies for the upcoming year. While building larger fuel tanks for their 2010 challengers, the teams will also have to work very close with their fuel & lubricant suppliers in order to improve in-race fuel consumption.

And here’s where it becomes tricky for Ferrari. The Italian team has been known to benefit from quite hungry powerplants, as their V8s … (read more)

Overpayment likely as old-fashioned bidding war for Cadbury heats up

By Edward Helmore
LAST UPDATED 6:44 AM, JANUARY 18, 2010

The battle for chocolate supremacy is set to take a new turn when Hershey bids at least $17.9 billion this week for Cadbury. The entry of the US chocolate giant into a bidding war for the British company comes as a deadline for Kraft to raise its $17.2 billion offer approaches.

Kraft’s bid was undermined by shareholder Warren Buffett’s opposition to raise further financing through a share-offering.

Hershey chief David West, who has been against the company’s bid for Cadbury, has been promised the chief executive slot of a combined company. As planned, Hershey will bid 800 pence to 820 pence a Cadbury share, compared to a 770 pence price now offered by Kraft.

Cadbury shares, boosted by expectations of a Hershey bid, are currently trade at about 794 pence.

But can Hershey succeed? Cadbury board members say they won’t recommend a price of less than 850 pence to shareholders. If Kraft raise their bid to 800 pence before the Tuesday deadline, Hershey will likely demur from entering the contest.

Hershey can’t go above 850 without jeopardising it’s credit rating. Even Hershey’s former chief of acquisitions is doubtful about the financial wisdom of the bid. Cadbury’s price tag has already put off Italy’s Ferrero, maker of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

The Wall Street Journal says Kraft remains in the stronger position. Its market value is five times that of Hershey and the firm could, the paper says, “take this from a beatable bid to an unbeatable one”.

As it stands, Cadbury is unlikely to accept Kraft’s bid either. “It materially undervalues Cadbury in our view and I think just about everyone’s,” says Peter Langerman, chief executive of Mutual Series, a subsidiary of Franklin Resources that owns more than 100 million Cadbury shares. “The owners of the company aren’t forced sellers. If there’s no deal, there’s no deal.”

Two months into the Cadbury acquisition saga, the situation is clear to one fund manager: “I’d be surprised if somebody didn’t overpay.”

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	The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition by Warren E. Buffett Buy new: $26.01 / Used from: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours
	Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements: The Search for the Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage by Mary Buffett Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $15.69 Usually ships in 24 hours

American manufacturer Chrysler, in partnership with Dick Clark Productions, NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press, took advantage of the 67th edition of the Annual Golden Globe Awards to donate several of its vehicles to charity, including to the worldwide Haiti relief effort.

As the sponsor of the event, Chrysler provided the Chrysler 300 vehicles in which celebrities came to the event. The cars are powered by the 5.7l HEMI V8 engine with Multi-displacement System (MDS) and are painted differ… (read more)

The environmentalists and scientists from all over the world are busy researching to develop methods to avoid the energy crisis as well as to fight the problem of gradually growing carbon emissions. However, there is one more aspect that is an integral part of human life – aesthetics. To preserve this very aspect in a green way, Beth Deutch and Larry Rubin in Rumson have designed a charming solar powered kinetic sculpture that they hope to complete in 2010.

(more…)

By Simon Kennedy

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Swiss Re said Monday that it’s agreed a resinsurance deal with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that the Swiss group said would help improve its capital efficiency. The firm said it will receive a ceding commission of 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.26 billion) for the deal, which involves reinsuring a closed block of yearly renewable term individual life reinsurance business with Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Co. Swiss Re said the deal will also free up around 300 million francs of capital. “This is a significant step forward in Swiss Re’s strategy to increase capital efficiency,” said Christian Mumenthaler, the group’s head of life and health. “The transaction puts us in an excellent position to redeploy the capital at more attractive returns,” he added.

Share Investor Links

Share Investor Blog – Stockmarket & Business commentary
Share Investor New Zealand Business News– Get more business news
Discuss this topic @ Share Investor Forum – Register free
Share Investor’s Daily Forex Updates

Recommended Amazon Reading

	The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition by Warren E. Buffett Buy new: $26.01 / Used from: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours
	Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements: The Search for the Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage by Mary Buffett Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $15.69 Usually ships in 24 hours

Amid rumors and artifacts of Twitter’s testing accounts managed by multiple users, we’ve found a startup focusing on precisely that problem.

The biggest and perhaps best known competitor in this space is CoTweet, a truly enterprise-scalable solution for Twitter accounts with multiple users. It’s well-suited to brands or news organizations in particular, but BirdHerd might provide a low-cost alternative for small- to medium-sized businesses or other groups.

Sponsor

Here’s how it works: Users sign in via Twitter’s OAuth feature. They then choose which other Twitter users should have the ability to tweet from the chosen account.

The other users they choose can then direct message the original Twitter account at any time. The DMs appear in the original account’s timeline with a slash-via attribution system that lets users know who sent the tweet.

For example, I gave @Eston access to my account tonight, and he DM’d me this message, which was immediately broadcast to all my Twitter followers:

The BirdHerd website states, “At some point in the future, we will offer paid ‘pro’ plans with extra features, interesting stats and quicker response times.” At the moment, all accounts are free with an invite code, and future accounts will always be available free of charge to any user. Additionally, beta testers will receive 2 months of “pro” features free.

The app is a collaboration between self-described “code ninja” Colin Brumelle of Mixed Content and design studio twothirty.

To access the site and use its awesome, group- and team-friendly features, use the code “rww” to login and set up your account. That code will work for the first 200 users; after that, you’ll have to put yourself on a waiting list and hold your breath until the site goes public.

And do let us know what you think of the app in the comments.

Discuss

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Renault recently introduced the new TomTom version of the popular Kangoo, a limited series based on the Privilege that also adds a number of exclusive features. The TomTom Edition flavor is the fifth Kangoo available in France, in addition to Access, Authentique, Expression and Privilege.

It comprises features such as the built-in Carminat TomTom navigation system, Climate Control Pack – automatic climate control, automatic windscreen wiper and headlamp activation, panoramic glass sunroofs, … (read more)

Aol’s answer to Wikipedia is Owl, a new site described as “a living, breathing library where useful knowledge, opinions and images are posted from experts the world over.”

Owl seems more of a testbed for Seed than anything else. Seed, of course, is Aol’s new
low-cost content management system for soliciting articles and photographs for its network of existing Websites. Owl will crowdsource freelance work from “experts” who submit articles about movies, books, health, sports, money, parenting, computers, and other topics.

An “expert” is anyone who gets approved through Seed. Contributers get paid a little bit and the articles tend to be more how-to advice such as “How To Survive A Long Flight”, “The Right Way To Pop a Zit,” and “Top 5 Ways To Score Free Food.” It’s all very search-engine friendly.

Actually, Owl is less like Wikipedia than it is like Helium, which also pays for expert articles and has been around for more than three-years. Right now, Owl is rather spare. Most of the articles still seem to be written by Owl/Aol staff instead of contributors. That should change once more people find out about it.

Owl fits neatly into Aol’s plan to create as much content as possible on current topics or evergreen interests so that it can throw more ads against those Web pages. Even if Owl is way late to the game (see About.com, Helium, eHow, wikiHow, HowStuffWorks, Instructables, Expert Village, and so on), AOL operates a big enough network that it can just cross-promote Owl from its own sites. And, as I mentioned, search engines love that type of content.

The only question is whether or not Seed can feed Owl with enough articles to keep it healthy.

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what is foursquare?
foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways.

why use foursquare?
to share your favorite venues with friends and discover their venues that you have never been to. giving your tips such as recommended drinks, food or things to do, as well as getting from others.

how to use foursquare?
just head out to register at foursquare.com, then you can select platform you are using whether it’s android, palm, or iphone, or you can go for m.foursquare.com which works on most of the phones out there. now you are ready to “check-in” to the venues, add new venues, add new tips, and add friends to your list.

what to add?
any interesting venues that you feel like you want to share with the whole world. do not forget to add information or tips about the places that you check-in or add because mostly people simply cannot comprehend what the venue is about by judging from its name.

i do appreciate people who are constantly trying to localize foursquare by adding thai titles and addresses, but it is better that you use english along with thai ones if possible since foursquare is not about thais, and we actually want to share the informative data to those who cannot read or understand thai language.

what not to add?
there are no actual rules about what not to add. but the essence is pretty simple…

“if you cannot think of a single tip to recommend others to do at that place, then it probably should not be added since it would be useless for others”

soi, junction, bridge, road, atm, home, gas station,7-11, bts, mrt… it is amazing how thai people try to check-in everywhere pointlessly. we do not want to know exactly where you are at all time in foursquare. imagining a person checking-in to every bts and mrt station or passing through soi and bridge. the idea is just absurd.

please do search for the existing venues before adding new one. and make sure that you add the correct name of the venue or you might end up shining ingloriously at byte me, bkk.

The following is from the British National Archives Website:

… BMDRegisters.co.uk has added records of births, deaths and marriages of passengers at sea to its online service.

The records give detailed information compiled from ships’ logs by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor. The registers cover 1854 to 1908 and include over 150,000 individuals. They were previously available only on microfilm at The National Archives.

• BT 158 – Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages of Passengers at Sea 1854-1890
• BT 159 – Registers of Deaths at Sea of British Nationals 1875-1888. The name of this series is misleading as it includes other nationalities
• BT 160 – Registers of Births at Sea of British Nationals 1875-1891

It is free to search on the website but there is a charge for downloading images of original records.

Background
From 1874, the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen was required to report births and deaths at sea aboard all ships registered in Britain or its colonies and on foreign-registered ships carrying passengers to or from the UK, to the Registrars General of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland (the General Register Offices).

There are separate volumes for England, Scotland and Ireland, corresponding to the general register office to which the details were to be reported. The registers for Scotland and Ireland contain details where the deceased was a ‘Scotch or Irish subject of Her Majesty’. The registers for England include all events not reported to the GROs for Scotland and Ireland and thus contain entries for foreign nationals as well as those for English and Welsh subjects.

Disasters at sea
Included in these records are 288 death records for the Royal Charter, which was traveling back from Australia in October 1859 when it became caught in a storm just miles from home off the coast of Anglesey. The ship was carrying a great number of prospectors who had gone to Australia to find their fortune, so when the ship sank on 26 October it took over 67,000 ounces of gold with it. Many inhabitants of nearby coastlines became rich overnight as the gold began to wash up on the shores.

Also included are the casualties of the biggest marine disaster of the 19th century, the sinking of the White Star Line’s passenger ship SS Atlantic, which struck rocks off the coast of Nova Scotia on 1 April 1873. Of the 562 people who died, 508 are recorded within BT 158 and BT 159.

Happier times
As the majority of the ships included were passenger ships, which would travel across the world to and from America, the UK and Australia, people met, fell in love and often married onboard. Babies born at sea were often named after the ship, such as the daughter of welsh miner William Brown, born on 2 December 1883 onboard the Waroonga, who was named Elizabeth Waroonga Brown.

Search for your British ancestors who been born, married or died at sea.

FTC Statement: GenealogyBlog has no affiliate relationships with the the British National Archives or BMDRegisters.co.uk.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Verdell Jones made a 12-foot jumper with 32.8 seconds left in overtime to give Indiana the lead and freshman Christian Watford made two free throws to seal the Hoosiers’ 81-78 victory over Minnesota.

Jones finished with a career-high 24 points. Watford had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The victory ended Indiana’s three-game losing streak and sent students onto the court.

The Hoosiers (8-9, 2-3) have now won more Big Ten games than they did last season.

Minnesota (12-6, 3-3) lost for the third time in four games. Devoe Joseph led the Golden Gophers with 19 points. Ralph Sampson III had 17.

The Hoosiers never trailed in regulation and Minnesota couldn’t tie it until Joseph hit a 10-footer with 9.6 seconds to go.

Photo: Indiana’s Verdell Jones celebrates. (AP / Darron Cummings)

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Hi, folks, this is Ren from Edible Aria, covering for Jenny as she winds up a much-deserved vacation.

Local, pastured pork is pan-seared then braised until tender in a thin paste of red chilies, garlic, Mexican oregano and pineapple juice before being served on top of fresh corn tortillas, silky guacamole and fresh pineapple habanero salsa..

Red Chili Pork with Pineapple Habanero Salsa, Guacamole and Fresh Corn Tortillas

For the Salsa

2/3 cup fresh pineapple, diced, juice reserved
1 orange or red habanero, stemmed, seeded and minced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon piloncillo (substitute demerara or other coarse, unrefinded sugar)
fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and chill thoroughly.

For the Tortillas

1/2 pound fresh smooth-ground corn masa for tortillas
1 cup hot, filtered water
1 teaspoon minced cilantro and/or green onion tops (optional)
pinch of salt
pinch of aluminum-free-baking soda (optional)
lard or bacon fat for the griddle

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Knead by hand until smooth (neither stiff nor sticky). Cover with a towel and let stand 15 minutes. To prepare, pinch off pieces of dough about the size of an avocado pit.  Roll into a smooth ball, then press between your palms to form a 1/4 inch-thick disk and set on top of a piece of waxed paper and roll out into 1/8 inch-thick tortillas.  Place on a hot comal or griddle that has been very lightly greased with lard or bacon fat and cook for 30 seconds.  Flip and cook another 30 seconds, then flip once more and cook for another 30 seconds (90 seconds in all).  Stack finished tortillas on top of one another and keep warm until ready to use.

For the Guacamole (mild version)

1 large, ripe avocado
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
sea salt

Thoroughly mash the avocado in a small bowl, then add cilantro, garlic salt and lime juice and continue to mash until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Chile Sauce

8-10 New Mexico chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon pineapple juice or raw apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup filtered water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Toast cumin and chiles until fragrant, then transfer to the bowl of a food processor along with oregano, vinegar and salt.  Pulse into a thick paste, then add water in a slow stream until a spoon-able consistency is reached.

For the Pork

Rinse and pat dry pork cutlets.  Season on both sides with salt and pepper, then quickly brown in a tablespoon of lard or bacon fat. Cover with chile sauce, reduce heat and simmer until fork-tender, about 25 minutes.

To Serve

Arrange pork cutlets on top of corn tortillas.  Dress with hot chili sauce, pineapple salsa and guacamole.  Offer diced, rinsed white onions on the side if desired.

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