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Low prices made grains, especially maize and barley, the most attractive current feedstock for bioethanol production, said Guderjahn. This was also because comparatively high soybean markets meant bioethanol producers were achieving …

Sony Insider’s interview with Sony COO Stan Glasgow turned up two nuggets of gold: Sony’s OLED TV strategy for 2010 is, evidently, not to release any new OLED TVs in 2010; and the PS3 will get Bravia Link video streaming.

That OLED TV innovation is still stalled is no surprise, since during lean economic times, companies—even huge ones like Sony—are hesitant to throw down the capital outlay necessary to ramp up production on larger OLEDs:

We’re working on all sorts of prototypes, but I don’t see production of product in 2010. There’s a wonderful 3D OLED prototype here at CES; that’s the real way to do 3D and TV – because you’ve got direct transmission, rather than back lighting and all the other reflective ways of doing it. But getting it to be commercially reasonable in price, we’ve got a long way to go. That’s the whole problem in OLED, great technology, great feature set, but it’s really hard to get the costs down. Smaller form-factors are easy to do.

We were warned, so the most I can say about that news is that it’s predictably disappointing. But the revelation that the PS3’s video streaming features will be merged with Bravia Link is actually kind of awesome:

We’re beginning to port that network to other Sony products. We’re doing BRAVIA Internet Video Link – which is more of a streaming service than a downloading service. We’ve got that growing at a fantastic rate in our televisions right now, we added it to Blu-ray players, and we’re adding it to the PS3.

Bravia Link currently supports Netflix natively, so this could mean PS3 users get to ditch the disc for Instant Watch. Other than that, it would change a whole lot as is, but the prospect of new streaming widgets being added to the Bravia Link platform—assuming it consistent across hardware—is definitely exciting. [Sony Insider via Engadget]

Forehead lifts and brow lifts are plastic surgery procedures that usually go very well in conjunction with other procedures such as Facelift surgery, Eyelid surgery and many others.

When deciding to get this procedure it is best to learn as much as you can about the procedure so you can know if the procedure is right for you, so you can know which procedures go best with yours, so you can know how safe it is and how it works.

This procedure is best for those who have have deep wrinkles on their foreheads that are usually caused by stress or aging. Other good candidates are people who have a low and heaving hanging brow.

For anyone looking to learn more about this procedure here is some more information that should be useful to anyone who thinks they could be in need of a Forehead or Brow Lift.

The Google-China debacle has finally spilled over into Sino-American relations. The U.S. State Department said today that it plans to demand a Chinese government investigation into the cyberattacks on Google’s (GOOG) computers that the company claims originated in China. “We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early this week,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it.”

What they plan to do about it?

Not much, if yesterday’s comments from Beijing are any indication. Consider this report from Xinhua News, the official press agency of Chinese government:

… cyber attacks are a commonplace issue across the globe even if countries have been making every effort to combat hackers.

On Tuesday, China’s largest Internet search engine Baidu, which is also Google’s major rival in the Chinese market, suffered an hacker attack that paralyzed its website for more than three hours.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has said that “There are attacks every day …We’re attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

So it’s far-fetched to blame China as a scapegoat for cyber attacks just because Google said something about that.

In addition, it’s quite natural for a multinational company to shift its market strategy or even pull out business from a certain area.

Since Google.cn was launched in January 2006, it has seen a continuous rise in its market share in China. But it is still unlikely for Google to rock Baidu’s status quo as a superpower in the Chinese search market.

Baidu and Google took 63.9 percent and 31.1 percent of shares, respectively, of China’s Internet search market in the third quarter last year, according to data from Analysys International, a leading advisor on technology, media and telecom industry in China.

While Google’s global share is over 90 percent, according to web analytics company Stat Counter.

Till now, Google’s real intentions to quit China are still not clear.

There is no sense blowing things out of proportion and turning a business issue into a political or diplomatic dispute.

Above all, Google’s decision is no bigger than a corporate action, no matter where the company comes from or how powerful it is.

Clearly, Beijing has no plans to compromise — at this point, anyway.

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If John Hunter—a former physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—is successful, the International Space Station may start receiving their supplies from a cannon. No, it’s no joke.

First postulated by Jules Verne in his novel From the Earth to the Moon, the idea of space cannons is not new. Many engineers have toyed with the concept, but nobody has came up with an actual project that may work. Hunter’s idea is simple: Build a cannon near the equator, submerged in the ocean, hooked to a floating rig. At the cannon’s bottom there is a combustion chamber, which uses natural gas to heat hydrogen up to 2,600ºF, increasing the pressure 500%. When released, the gas will launch a capsule with half a ton of material into space, at a swooshing 13,000mph.

The project itself would only cost $500 million, which is a really stupid amount considering the potential benefits: A system like this will cut launch costs from $5,000 per pound to only $250 per pound. It won’t launch people into space because of the excessive acceleration, but those guys at the ISS can use it to order pizza and real ice cream. [Popsci]

According to Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow involved in Google’s real-time search efforts, the way the company ranks Twitter updates in its search results is “definitely, definitely” more than a popularity contest. This quote came during an interview with MIT’s Technology Review where Singhal stressed Google’s focus on a Twitter user’s overall reputation as a ranking measurement as opposed to simply tallying follower counts. That being said, it still sounds as if Google rewards Twitter’s more popular users – that is, the heavily followed accounts on the service. Not only do these accounts have more value than many others, they have a lot of power, too. According to Singhal, when a popular user follows someone else, that other person’s reputation increases as well.

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Based on this news, it sounds like racking up follower counts may soon fade as a mechanism for ranking a Twitter user’s popularity. That seems smart since so many followers these days are spammers, bots and other shady marketing types hoping for a return follow. Similar to how spammers send out thousands of emails hoping to get that small percentage of responses that makes their efforts worthwhile, Twitter spammers blindly following thousands, too, in order to increase their own follower numbers.

In addition, a select number of Twitter accounts have been rewarded with followers by way of Twitter’s suggested user list. This list, presented at registration to the site’s new users, offers suggestions of popular Twitter accounts to follow. This heavily debated feature remains controversial since it bestows a large number of followers on those fortunate enough to make the list. However, the list isn’t based on any impartial algorithm but is editorially selected by Twitter company employees instead. (Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb’s Twitter account is included on this list). Despite reports that many of these followers are of little value – they don’t tend to engage and respond to tweets the way an organic follower would – it’s still somewhat of a boasting point for some who use their follower count to prove their social worthiness and popularity.

Granted, Singhal doesn’t come out and say how exactly Google’s algorithm is rewarding these heavily followed users with better rankings in the new real-time search results, only that you earn reputation if “lots of people follow you.” Those popular Twitter users can then help increase other users’ reputation by following them. And even if that new user being followed doesn’t have a high follower count of their own, their reputation increases through association.

We hope that looking at follower counts is only a part of Google’s overall ranking mechanism. A company as savvy as it is has surely learned a thing or two about ranking algorithm. But as with their PageRank technology for ranking web pages, details on their Twitter ranking algorithm is probably not something it plans on revealing anytime soon.

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Zero is back! Not in a new game, though. Capcom Japan has announced a new DS title that packs the four Mega Man Zero GBA titles into one DS cart.

For the first time in months, we will have two weekends in a row without major MMA on television. To help you through the withdrawals, we have Takanori Gomi’s extra-long, uncomfortable on-screen moment from UFC 108 and some links. 

Bob Shamrock, the father of MMA legends Ken and Frank, passed away at 68. He and his wife ran a home for trouble youths, which is how he first came in contact with Ken and Frank. He legally adopted both men, and they changed their last names out of respect for him. (MMA Mania)

The 10 worst mismatches in MMA history. The one that always makes me giggle is Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben. Every time I see that bout in Silva’s record, it blows my mind that the match was ever made. (Cage Potato)

Monday night’s Ultimate Fight Night 20 may have been on basic cable, but it was hardly free. (Fightlinker — naughty language at that link)

One writer says that MMA has some serious issues that need to be resolved before the sport can grow … (Sports Illustrated)

… while another thinks that Dana White’s prediction about MMA’s growth in the next 10 years is underselling it. (Fight! Magazine)

Finally, remember our friend Conner from MMA Religion, the one who is going to prom with UFC Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste? He asked Georges St. Pierre for advice, and Rush delivered. (MMA Religion)

Thanks for reading Cagewriter this week, and don’t forget to follow the MMA team on Twitter: Kevin Iole, Steve Cofield, Maggie Hendricks and Yahoo! Sports.

“The hardest thing is going to be to change the mindset here. For the first time in a long time the city is going to be forced to change the way it does things. The most fundamental thing is to change the mindset of those who work in the city. We serve business. They’re our customers as opposed to the other way around.” — Austin Beutner, Economic Czar for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

With all his experience and business acumen, financier Austin Beutner is off to a roaring start as LA’s economic czar — the man entrusted by the political, business and civic elite with the task of creating thousands of jobs using the vast resources the city.

Beutner acknowledges it is an impossible job without getting the mayor and other elected officials to reverse the direction of their politics and policies to create a business-friendly city as his paraphrase of President Calvin Coolidge’s famous quote that “the business of America is business” shows.

But Coolidge, in his 1925 speech on freedom of the press, provided a very different context to his remark than is generally understood:

“We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever give any strong and lasting reaction.”

I have no idea whether Beutner embraces the point Coolidge was making but it is precisely why LA is in the economic fix it is in.

The people have been and still are left out in the cold.

The truth is the political, business and civic elite have for too long operated as if they can build a great city without appealing to the idealism of the people.

We can build skyscrapers and luxury entertainment districts. We can build a hundred new schools. We can pour our wealth into massive public works projects and subsidies to developers. But we can’t get traffic moving, or educate our children or create good-paying jobs or healthy neighborhoods.

In fact, we have done the opposite.

Unemployment and poverty have soared, good businesses and middle-class residents have fled the city and the discontent of the people is fueling a movement for change. City Hall may have no way out of its financial crisis without filing for bankruptcy and the feeble steps that have been taken have caused chaos in nearly every city department.

All that we know about what is planned is that Beutner will have the wealth of the DWP, harbor and airport at his disposal and the authority to force planners, code enforcers and other city workers to speed approval of whatever job-creating efforts he can develop.

What’s missing is what has always been missing: The people.

Nothing succeeds in any enterprise without a shared vision that grows out of a dynamic dialogue that energizes everyone involved and energizes their creativity.

City Hall is afraid of the people because it doesn’t want to do what the people want. So our officials play political games and manipulate the issues to disarm the populace and keep the people weak and disorganized.

But it isn’t working anymore. The people are getting stronger and better organized, anger and frustration have a way of causing that to happen.

The result is we are headed for a collision that will not solve our problems.

It’s all so unnecessary.

Beutner has reached out to the business community. You can be sure he will talk to labor leaders. It isn’t too much to ask for him to start to listen to the people, to bring them into the conversation about how we save LA.

He can do what our elected officials have failed to do, tap into the idealism of the people and make their needs and values part of the agenda to turn LA around..

I implied — er, by outright stating — in a previous post that Sarah at Knopf did the artwork for the cover of Mamba Point. Sarah is a designer, and while I originally assumed there was a different painter involved, I somehow got confused along the way and thought she had in fact also done the artwork. The actual artist is Lisa Congdon, whose other works you can peruse via that link. She does a lot of great work involving animals and nature. She also has an etsy shop with lots of cool stuff. Anyway, I love the painting and the whole book design; so thanks and congratulations to both Sarah and Lisa.

Mercedes-Benz has introduced two new special edition versions of the SL-Class and the SLK-Class. Known as the SL Night Edition and the SLK Grand Edition, both models feature stylish interior and exterior upgrades.

The Mercedes-Benz SL Night Edition gets a designo magno night black matte paint finish with 19-inch two-tone 5-spoke light-alloy wheels, silver-painted front brake calipers with the Mercedes-Benz logo, smoked out headlamps and tail lamps and a badge on the front that identifies the Night Edition. Inside, the SL Night Edition gets black nappa leather, shining chrome trim, a black sports steering wheel, shift lever and roof lining and a high-gloss finish on the silver-colored AIRSCARF vents.

The SLK Grand Edition gets much of the same interior touches but is finished in designo graphite paint on the outside. Other exterior modifications include 18-inch light alloy 5-spoke wheels, a third brake light and headlamps that match the paint finish.

Click through for the press release and European pricing details.

Mercedes-Benz SL Night Edition and SLK Grand Edition:

Press Release:

Mercedes-Benz SL Night Edition and SLK Grand Edition
Two new Roadster editions from Mercedes-Benz

Stuttgart – Mercedes-Benz is now offering special editions of the SL and SLK, both of which feature a stylish interior with numerous sophisticated highlights. The optional designo magno night black matt paint finish accentuates the exclusive, sporty appearance of the SL Night Edition, while the special designo graphite paint finish makes the SLK Grand Edition a real eye-catcher. Both of these new special models combine the advantages of a roadster with those of a coupé, and are both thoroughbred sports cars and comfortable everyday cars.

Masterpieces to dream of – the theme for the two new special editions of the Mercedes-Benz SL and SLK sports car series. The special designo magno night black paint finish specially developed exclusively for the SL Night Edition is particularly effective with the dramatic design of the SL. 19-inch AMG five-spoke light-alloy wheels in a two-tone, high-gloss finish, silver-painted front brake callipers with the Mercedes-Benz logo and darkened headlamps/tail lights accentuate the exclusive status of these special models. A badge on the front wings identifies the Night Edition.

Black nappa leather and shining chrome trim provide striking contrasts in the interior, with numerous fine details interacting to produce an intriguing effect. The newly designed seats have arrow-shaped seams and silver-coloured contrasting features. The sports steering wheel, shift lever and roof lining are in black. The trim strip of the draught-stop has a high-gloss finish complemented by the silver-coloured vents of the AIRSCARF® system, which bathes the driver in warm air when the soft top is down in cool ambient temperatures.

SLK Grand Edition – in stylish grey

The exclusivity of the SLK Grand Edition is underlined by the elegant designo graphite paint finish. Other highlights include exclusive 18-inch light-alloy wheels with five triple spokes, silver-coloured fins on the bonnet, headlamps matching the paint finish and a third brake light.

In the interior of the SLK Grand Edition, the AIRSCARF® system included as standard ensures that the open-top season can last all year. The driver and passenger are cosseted by finely coordinated materials in a restrained, stylish grey. The newly designed seats are upholstered in basalt grey nappy leather, with arrow-shaped seams and designo pearl leather on the side bolsters. The effect is complemented by the tone-in-tone, grey seat belts. Basalt grey nappa leather is also used for the door linings, with a harmonious contrast provided by the designo pearl leather armrests. Finely executed, red topstitching on the seats and door armrests create a special look. Colour-coordinated trim in designo pearl leather – with the embossed Grand Edition emblem above the glove compartment – rounds off the interior. The floor mats bordered in the same shade of grey also bear this logo.

The SL Night Edition and SLK Grand Edition can be ordered now. Depending on the engine variant, the additional cost for the special model is between 3700 and 5200 Euro for the SL Night Edition and between 2300 and 3500 Euro for the SLK Grand Edition. The special paint finishes cost an additional 3640 Euro for designo magno night black and 1800 Euro for designo graphite (German list prices incl. VAT).

– By: Kap Shah

This morning’s most fascinating read in Scatterville was Michiko Kakutani’s review in the New York Times of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, the new book by Silicon Valley insider Jaron Lanier.

Lanier, one of the people who brought you virtual reality, has been worrying the past few years about something he calls “digital Maoism,” the sort of edge-polishing collectivism driving Wikipedia and the Google search engine. Lanier argues some interesting things:

• Basic software engineering decisions shape how we use and think about the Internet, so it’s good to get them right.
• Free is not necessarily a very good price: It can kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
• Anonymity undermines the Web, and probably the culture at large.

Kakutani expounds:

“(A)nonymity has helped enable the dark side of human nature. Nasty, anonymous attacks on individuals and institutions have flourished, and what Mr. Lanier calls a ‘culture of sadism’ has gone mainstream. In some countries anonymity and mob behavior have resulted in actual witch hunts. ‘In 2007,’ Mr. Lanier reports, ‘a series of Scarlet Letter postings in China incited online throngs to hunt down accused adulterers. In 2008, the focus shifted to Tibet sympathizers.’ “

Lanier and Kakutani and probably all of you reading this know a lot more about these issues than Mr. Scatter does. The proprietor does not Tweet, does not have a Facebook account, and, let’s face it, basically publishes dead tree-style ramblings in cyberspace (for free). What Mr. Scatter does not understand about computer engineering and even the possibilities of his woefully underutilized “smart” phone is pretty much everything.

Yet parts of this argument make sense — the dangers inherent in the loss of authorship, for instance, in an online world in which the going price for any and all information is free. Or the triumph of marketing over value in a world where worth is measured in number of hits (although marketing has had a huge impact on intellectual and popular success since long before the Internet). Certainly in the sobering spectacle of new media eating up old media and spitting it out, even though new media relies for most of its content on the production of old media, which it is killing off. How much sense does that make?

The collectivism that Lanier sees in the cyberworld is reflected in our broader cultural and political lives, as well. Surely this sort of mob mentality contributed to our squishy, nobody-likes-it response to the global economic disaster: Good and possibly superior ideas from isolated corners were steamrollered in the rush to create something that the majority, or a majority of prominent stakeholders, could reluctantly agree on. Ditto for health care reform. Then again, is any of this new?

For a counterbalancing view on Lanier’s book, take a look at Michael Agger’s review in Canada’s National Post. Agger isn’t drinking the Kool-Aid, at least not more than a few sips:

Lanier has good instincts: We need to be wary of joining in the wisdom of the crowds, of embracing the growing orthodoxy that making cultural products free will benefit the actual producers of those cultural products. But his critique is ultimately just a brand of snobbery. Lanier is a romantic snob.

That’s the nut. But Agger’s overview is much more nuanced, and worth a look.

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Goodbye, Teddy Pendergrass: The great, smooth soul singer from Philadelphia died Wednesday night. He was 59 and had been treated for colon cancer. Paralyzed in a 1982 car accident, he never stopped bringing what Jon Pareles, in his obituary for the Times, called his “gospel dynamic to bedroom vows.”

He was a great popular singer, and he’s going to be missed in a lot of ways. How many children owe their existence to Teddy Pendergrass’s voice spinning on the turntable in the background?

Yes Sprint HTC Touch Pro2 users, you too will be able to upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 in the coming months.

Making it the last Touch Pro2 to receive the update, Sprint seemed to be a bit vague in regards to a release date, telling customers that it will be available for download “by the end of first quarter, 2010.”  The good news?  Sprint says their Touch Pro2 update will go above and beyond and offer “significant enhancements to the Touch Pro2 user interface which will allow additional customization / personalization options and more integration with the applications users access most.”  Sounds like a bit more than the stock 6.5 improvements, in my book.

The Sprint thread can be found here.  Sure, Windows Mobile 7 is far more exciting, but 6.5 is a nice little step up from 6.1.  Who’s excited?

Via Engadget Mobile

If you haven’t used already any of these online donation methods, Apple just made it even easier: Just click on this link and send your contribution—from $5 to $200—to help the American Red Cross in Haiti. [Donate]