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Good ol’ VZW just released details about its new unlimited plans and AT&T should probably take notes. The voice-only plan dropped from $99 to only $69 and the voice/text plans is now only $89 instead of $119. The same plans are available on a pre-paid basis for only $5 more per month. The new, lower-priced plans are available today, and just like all of Verizon’s services, current customers can switch to these plans even if they are under contract with another rate plan.

Data packages were also revised, but not nearly as much. The $9.99 for 25MB data package is now available for all VZW 3G multimedia phones. Previously, this plan was only available with select featurephones, but not anymore. Now anyone but smartphone users can opt for that package.

Speaking of smartphones, Verizon didn’t touch the $29.99 per month plan. It’s still the same and probably not going to drop anytime soon. That’s going to be Verizon’s bread and butter as the carrier launches more and more Android and Blackberry devices.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Mary Ellen O’Connell, the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution—Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame, tells the “National Journal” that “there simply is no right to use military force against a terrorist suspect far from any battlefield.” Her comments are featured in the Journal’s January 9, 2010, cover story titled “Are Drone Strikes Murder?”

Link to the full article here: http://www.nd.edu/~ndlaw/news/Drones.pdf

O’Connell is an expert on the international law governing the use of force. She chairs the International Law Association’s Committee on the Use of Force. She is the author of the leading American law school casebook on the subject: International Law and the Use of Force, Cases and Materials (Foundation 2d ed. 2009). She is the lead author of the next edition of The International Legal System (Foundation 6th ed. 2010) as well as the author of The Power and Purpose of International Law (OUP 2008) and International Law and the “Global War on Terrorism” (Editions-Pedone 2007) among many other books and articles.

O’Connell teaches a number of courses in the international law area including international law, international law and the use of force, international art law, international dispute resolution, and international environmental law, as well as the law of contracts.

She is a member of the American Society of International Law, the International Law Association, the Germany Society of International Law, and the International Institute for Humanitarian Law.

For more on Professor O’Connell, visit her faculty profile web page.

It hasn’t taken long after the opening of the App Catalog to all developers to see some new faces in the mix. In fact, yesterday’s app drop brought us ten new developers. Cool, eh? Yeah, we thought so. It’s an exciting time for apps, and in addition to those ten new developers we have some already established ones pushing out new apps and updates to their existing apps. More cool stuff, and it’s all waiting for you after the break.

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Did Taylor Momsen attend The Pat Robertson School of Public Relations? Between shooting scenes for her CW teen drama Gossip Girl and recording her debut rock album, Little Cindy Lou Who (Who’s about two years and a flopped career away from her first stint in rehab….) can hardly be bothered with this week’s tragic Haitian earthquake or the massive relief efforts taking place in the Caribbean. The often-pantless blonde didn’t even feign interest when OK! Magazine quizzed her for her thoughts on the catastrophic 7.0 quake that shook the already impoverished island nation on Tuesday.

“Um, right now I’m trying to just finish my record and getting through the last season of Gossip Girl for right now. So not so much thinking about that,” Taylor said dryly during a promotional event at the Victoria’s Secret store in NYC’s trendy SoHo District yesterday. “But it’s awesome that everyone is ya know working towards a good cause,” she quickly added.

Guess it’s safe to assume she won’t be making a donation! What an Obnoxious Little Twit!

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety

We Americans sure do like our food. Not only does the land of the Red, White and Blue have one of the higher rates of obesity of any industrialized nations, we feed our roads, too. The Missouri Department of Transportation has been solving its road ice problem with the help of beet juice. The product in question, Geomelt, is a sugar beet-based liquid, and according to the Boonville Daily News, MoDOT has increased its use by 700 percent since it was first introduced in the Show Me State in 2006. That’s 242,000 gallons of the nutritious substance used in 2009, or more than 50,000 eight-ounce servings for every staff member at Dunder Mifflin. We’re guessing it takes it takes more than 60 acres of beets to make 242,000 gallons of nature’s de-icer.

While using food to combat road ice might not be ideal for the environment, it’s likely better than the salt most states use. Salt gets into fresh water supplies, which can wreak havoc on groundwater quality. Besides, this is the only good use we can think of for beet juice, and we’re thinking our man Dwight wouldn’t be able to maintain his prized 1987 Pontiac Trans Am without the extra income.

[Source: Boonville Daily News | Image: NBC]

Missouri reportedly combating icy roads with beet juice, Dwight Schrute pleased originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The effects of circumcision on the penis microbiome.

“METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We assessed the penile (coronal sulci) microbiota in 12 HIV-negative Ugandan men before and after circumcision… …Among the 42 unique bacterial families identified, Pseudomonadaceae and Oxalobactericeae were the most abundant irrespective of circumcision status. Circumcision was associated with a significant change in the overall microbiota (PerMANOVA p = 0.007) and with a significant decrease in putative anaerobic bacterial families (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test p = 0.014)…. …[The] reduction in putative anaerobic bacteria after circumcision may play a role in protection from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.”

Next they should sequence the micropenis microbiome.

Thanks to Matt for today’s ROFL!

I just read Cherie’s article about not celebrating Valentine’s Day and I wanted to share the alternative way that my family celebrates the infamous February 14.   I completely agree that a boyfriend who feels obligated to buy you a cheesy teddy bear attached to flowers and chocolates just doesn’t really feel that great.  Some girls probably love it, but I’ve just never been that into it.  We all know that no guy (no matter how loving) really wants to go shopping for a plush teddy bear holding a plush heart…and it will probably just turn into a dog toy anyways.

While Valentine’s Day is not a romantic day for me, it is a day to remember the people in my life who I love!  A special day that can only be celebrated by people in romantic relationships doesn’t really make sense, but everyone in the world has family and friends who they really love and care about.

This year if you want an alternative to the romantic idea of Valentine’s Day, instead focus on the “love” aspect and how it relates to special people in your life.  Make phone calls or send emails (or even those old-fashioned handmade paper Valentines!) to the people in your life who are special to you.  Make a special effort to put your feelings into words and remind them that you hold them close to your heart.  It might sound cheesy, but you always get more sentimental than you think you will when you are expressing your feelings towards your closest family members and friends.

But most importantly, if you don’t feel it, don’t force it!  Just like the heart-wielding teddy gift, don’t feel obligated to send something that has no meaning.  Any day can be your special day to express your feelings to the people in your life who you care most about, and February 14 just might not be the right day for you.

Post from: Blisstree

Another Way to Celebrate Valentine’s Day

Democrats and the White House reached a deal with unions over the excise — or “Cadillac” — tax. The unions pushed back against the original tax, having fought for years to move more compensation into plush insurance plans. So Democrats had to broker a deal to win their approval. Now they have. Here’s what the deal does:

Two things that stay the same are:
1) The 40% tax rate
2) The rate at which the tax threshold grows

Three things that change are:
1) The threshold goes up (barely!) from $8500 to $8,900 for individuals and $23,000 to $24,000 for families.
2) The tax threshold won’t count vision and dental coverage; and there are additional adjustments for age and gender.
3) Unions get a five year exemption from the tax.

In the long run, the tax is basically the exact same — same rate, similar threshold, same inflation indexing. In the short run, the deal is a little uglier. First, there’s the money. The changes add $60 billion to the bill, cutting the excise tax’s expected savings by 40 percent. The administration now has to track down some of that money by. Second, there’s the optics. The unions say they needed the exemption to renegotiate their compensation, but the excise tax wasn’t going to kick in until 2013 anyway. Now they have 10 years to negotiate with not only employers about compensation but also their representatives about delaying the excise tax further and further into the future. I’m worried about Megan making sense here: “If you think that the Nebraska deal was unpopular, just wait until the
administration announces higher taxes on everyone but its friends in
the labor movement.”

Some good news for health reform: The deal allegedly extends the exchanges to include unions in 2017. The exchanges would create a managed marketplace where consumers could shop for state and/or nationally approved health care plans (with community rating, no pre-existing conditions, penalties for rescission, and so forth) that break down their benefits as clearly as a Best Buy page breaks down a Dell computer’s specs. In theory, this would provide transparency and competition and innovation. Transparency would help families pick the right plan, competition would control health care inflation, and innovation might help change the way we pay for care, entirely.

CITSens Bio allows real-time analysis of the measurements relevant to the cell culture process. Glucose, glutamate and lactate are measured in situ directly in the disposable bioreactor. CITSens Bio helps to ensure long-term stability and sterile conditions of the cell culture. It is particularly suitable for 3-D cell cultures, development of new cell-line cultures and applications, and cell cultures with limited volumes. The CITSens Bio sensor is a screen-printed electrode that can be used with all standard disposable bioreactors such as roller bottles, Erlenmeyer flasks, and bag reactors.
The sensor is connected to the radio transmitter Biobeamer. The measured data are transmitted wireless to the radio receiver ZOMOFI and transfered to the PC my means of RS232 or LAN.

A Aatelec-Telec, manufacturing flexible heating components and elements presents it’s drum heater

Description
3a drum heater is a flexible panel with two coated fabrics : an heating side and an insulated side.
3a drum-heater is supplied with eyelets which, laced with an elastic rubber, lets the barrel heater lie flat on the barrel, essential condition for a good heat exchange.

Advantages
In comparison with heating belts which need several main supplies and do not wrap totally the barrel, 3a barrel heater totally wraps the cylindric part of the barrel, allows smooth and homogeneous warming and, thanks to the insulated face, is maintaining temperature in the barrel for hours after you switched it off.
A utility is accessible (www.aaatelec.fr) to determine the time of heating necessary for the application.

Technical data
Standard output : 575W
Standard voltage : 230 V
HORNF 3×1,5 main supply cord : L2m
Outside dimensions : 0,85X1,90m
Heating side color : rouge
Insulated side color : bleu
protective index IP54
Heat self-protection +80°C
Max maintenace T° (switched on) +60°C
Max exposure T° (switched off) +80°C

The CSP 2008 Universal Controller is used for the evaluation of up to six sensor signals. Two sensors can be directly connected to the controller. Four other sensors are connected to the controller via separate Ethercat modules.

The CSP 2008 provides extensive arithmetic calculation options and is ideally suited to measuring thickness, planarity, etc. The controller offers real-time capability due to the Ethercat bus system.

KINTO is the leading supplier in China for manufacturing of flexible insulated busbars. Such busbars consist of several layers of uncoated or tinned copper strips and are insulated with flexible high quality PVC compound.

The main features of flexible insulated busbars:
– Easy assembly.
– Possibility of reducing sizes of the equipment.
– The bending-radius could be smaller than that of normal cable or solid copper bars, so that the connections could be more simple and short, and visually it could have better effect.
– Lower temperature rise on the flexible insulated busbars than on normal copper bars.
– High flexibility: no problem with vibrations or thermal expansions.

Technical data of electrical conductor
Copper strips (>99.9%Cu).
Surface: uncoated or tinned.
Electrical conductivity: >56 Sm/mm2.
Tensile strength: >200N/mm2.
Extensibility: >30%.

Technical data of insulation
Material: PVC.
Color: black.
Thickness: 1.8-2.1mm.
Shore hardness: A70-80.
Electrical strength: >23kV/mm.
Oxygen index: 30%.
Flame retardant; self-extinguishing.
Elasticity: >180% after 7-day aging-test under 135 degree celsius.
Tensile strength: >20MPa.

Technical data of flexible insulated busbars
Operating temperature: -30 degree to +105 degree celsius.
Operating voltage: 750V.
Voltage withstand performance with 15min / 50Hz AC:
– between flexible insulated busbar and earth: >15kV.
– between two flexible insulated busbars: >30kV.

Maximum Performance, Minimal environmental impact

New Trailer Refrigeration Product Range From Thermo King

The SLX range delivers reduced fuel costs, whisper-quiet operation, efficient load protection and unmatched ease of use. By minimising fuel consumption, engine emissions and operating noise, the SLX provides you with the ideal temperature control solution, for an environmentally-responsible operation.

Reducing environmental impact and cost
From the start of the SLX development project, a key deliverable was reduction of environmental impact.
The design team conducted a life-cycle assessment of the SL range to identify areas where the greatest gains could be achieved without compromising cost of ownership or performance.
The result is a product range with a substantially reduced environmental footprint.

Easy to operate and optimal data management
Driven by growing concerns over product quality, governments and customers worldwide are demanding tighter control and more accurate monitoring of temperatures throughout the cold chain. Raw cooling capacity is only one factor determining the performance of a temperature control system.
The Smart Reefer 2 (SR-2) controller protects loads by simplifying the user interface and employing the latest technology to monitor system performance.
It is the most user-friendly control system in the industry, with an easy-to-read display, large buttons, simple and logical menus and a choice of 21 languages.

Load Protection
To protect the load, temperature variance throughout the trailer must be kept to a minimum. To help the system move more air through the load, the SLX features a larger evaporator air-intake and a more efficient evaporator blower this means more heat is removed from within the load space and more efficiently.
Variations in temperature can significantly affect the shelf-life of produce. With the SLX range, you get the power you need, when you need it, to ensure protection of the most delicate and valuable cargo.
Good Temperature control is vital for perishable products, we have to ensure that we are controlling air temperature and humidity both of which are vital when safe guarding the shelf life of the produce carried. The SLX delivers maximum cooling capacity when you need it: during temperature pulldown for rapid pre-cooling and during temperature recovery after door openings.

Minimising downtime
The challenge in developing the SLX range was to reduce down-time and maximise equipment utilisation. This has been achieved by a process of evolution: retaining the best features of the SL while applying innovative design and material solutions to further raise standards of reliability.
Individual components are now even more rugged and their operating environment more benign. Our most rigorous test programme ever has included years of non-stopmore benign endurance runs.
Customer field trials were held in the most adverse conditions, from Pole to Pole. These have amounted to the equivalent of over 11 million kilometres.

Life time Care
Thermo King Dealers have been servicing Transport Temperature Control equipment for over 70 years now. More than 250 service points across Europe, all within 2 hr driving and at your service 7 days – 24 hrs.
TotalKare is a single source service contract designed for fleets operating nationally or internationally. The contracts are designed to optimise the efficiency of your fleet, minimise operating costs, and maximise the resale value of your equipment.
Our tailored solutions range from those designed to remove the non core tasks from your daily business operations such as maintenance planning, scheduling, invoice interpretation, and general fleet administration to the ýall risks covered packageý which offers complete peace of mind and agreed fixed costs

Japan Steel Works, Ltd (JSW), which has been cultivating the solid technology and know-how through the production of plastic injection molding machines and magnesium alloy injection molding machines, has newly started to produce the cold chamber die-casting machines for light metals including aluminum and magnesium in alliance with Bühler Druckguss AG, Switzerland. We offer high quality and high efficient molding machines corresponding to not only plastics but also light metals amid emerging concerns about the global environment.

We supply the die-casting machines through JSW & Buhler Machinery, Ltd. (JSW Bühler) which is a joint venture between JSW and Bühler.

Broadband field meter with data logger for electric and magnetic field measurements from RF to microwave

Features
– Available with isotropic probes to cover 100 kHz to 60 GHz
– Large graphical display
– Plug-and-play probe interface with automatic probe parameter detection
– Fully automatic zeroing
– Extensive memory for logging of up to 5000 results

Options
– GPS interface and mountable receiver for positioning data documentation
– Voice recorder for adding comments
– Conditional logging, threshold controlled

KELLENBERGER was established in 1917 and is specializing in the development and production of hydraulically and numerically controlled precision grinding machines and systems for the application in the field of medium and high technology.

By the use of most modern manufacturing means future-oriented technology is being created, which can meet the customers technical and economical requirements today and tomorrow. Wherever highly accurate grinding is required, KELLENBERGER precision grinding machines are in use.

For the toughest requirements, with 28 different wheelheads the machine specifications can be optimally adapted to your needs. The best shape accuracy in the interpolation of the X and Z axes due to hydrostatic guides, for contour grinding or form truing.

Unround, thread and tapered grinding in one setting. Comes optionally with loader. Distance between centers up to 1500 mm, height of centers 175 to 250 mm, weight of workpieces 250 kg.