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The readers of this blog are probably far to well-informed to take part in the “electromagnetic allergy” FUD and NIMBYism. I’m sure it’s clear to you guys that we’re all saturated with various forms of radiation all the time, and having a radio tower by your house isn’t likely to do anything other than mess with your reception. But the residents of Craigavon, a town in Northern Ireland, seem to think otherwise. In fact, they directly attributed lack of sleep, headaches, rashes, and a whole swath of vague complaints to a wireless broadband tower set up by iBurst.

The usual ignorance and hysteria, yes, but here’s the fun part. After confirming that the residents had been having the same symptoms over the last couple months, iBurst revealed that the tower had been turned off the entire time. I would have liked to see their faces.

iBurst CEO Jannie van Zyl says:

At this point it became apparent that the tower can, in no way, be the cause of the symptoms, as it was already switched off for many weeks, yet the residents still saw symptoms that come and go according to their proximity to the area.

The mind is a powerful thing. It can produce psychosomatic rashes, worry you into insomnia, and I don’t know if the Craigavon residents know this, but it can also be filled with knowledge so you don’t go through life as dumb as a chicken.

[via Reddit]

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Found under: iPhone, 4G, Case, Touch-friendly,

Apple will launch the next-generation iPhone this summer and it might go to ATT Verizon or both. We dont necessarily care about that sort of thing right now as we are more interested in features and specs. And you already know that Cupertino is not talking and it wont do so in the near future either. An analyst from Goldman Sachs Robert Chen has apparently more knowledge about the upcoming Apple phone. Not only did he tell Bloomberg that the new phone is coming with a 5-megapixel

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Bangkok, Thailand | Miniatures

Ancient City, or Ancient Siam offers something few other places can. A tour of Thailand’s greatest architecture…via golf cart.

A park of reduced scale and full size replicas of the important buildings in Thailand, the park’s goal is to bring the Thai people back to their roots, that of the ancient Siam Kingdom. You can ride bikes (2 and 3 seaters as well) or speed around in a golf cart through the park which, besides having copies of Thailand’s landmarks, is also Thailand-shaped.

Some buildings are duplicated from the original, others are recreations of buildings that have since been destroyed or have fallen into ruin, and the rest are simply creative design. Not all the buildings are fakes however, and at least one wooden temple was moved from north Thailand and reconstructed. A good place for lunch is the Thai floating village.

One particularly interesting (and totally made-up) building is set in the water and has a huge open mouthed fish wrapped around it. Another high light is the reproduction of Sanphet Prasat Palace in Ayutthaya. It’s a huge replica with intricate and ornate decoration. One can walk around the beautiful grounds, and through the large palace hall. Though in spite of it being a copy, you still aren’t allowed to sit on the thrones.

Found under: Motorola, Droid, Multitouch, ,

You simply have to admire Motorola. The manufacturer has quickly returned to the complicated world of mobile phones and it has done so with a bang. Motorola has relied heavily on Android to return in the spotlights and the company will launch more Android phones in the near future.After the Motorola Cliq the Droid and the upcoming Backflip Motorola seems ready to make even more Android handsets and luckily for us they are all going to offer us multitouch support. Motorolas i

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Filed under: Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone

Quite a few people have been asking me what app it was that I used in that post the other day about the rumored new iPhone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an app (although the jailbreak apps LockInfo and Intelliscreen offer similar features) — it was one concept among many that have been suggested for a potential new homescreen on the iPhone’s next OS revision. There have been a lot of great ideas bouncing around for the kinds of information Apple could put on a completely revamped iPhone homescreen: an easier-to-read clock, a list of received push notifications, easy access to contacts and/or email, and more.

It seems as though Apple is experimenting with some of those things as well: the company recently filed a patent for including a contact, with picture, on the iPhone’s home screen as an icon. Rather than navigate through the system to find your aunt that you call all the time, you could save auntie’s picture on the home screen, and then hit one icon to call her up.

Unfortunately for Apple, as Engadget points out, the Android OS actually lets you do this already, so the chances of their getting this patent approved are low. But it does tell us that Apple is at least thinking about how they could make the homescreen a little more useful. They may still be tied to the icon scheme, but at least they’re looking at adding a little more functionality.

TUAWApple gets one-upped on homescreen contact patent originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Author of Four Steps to the Epiphany and blogger Steve Blank has not only been an entrepreneur in several startups, he also teaches entrepreneurship in universities. In his latest blog post entitled, “A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company”, Blank argues that the process of transition from “garage to Google” is a bumpy ride that requires more than just agile development and team building.

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Last week ReadWriteStart published an article asking the question: Are You Hiring the Right People at the Right Time?. We wrote it in the belief that most startups go through several different stages and each stage may be best lead by a different type of executive.

Blank takes this idea one step further and notes the distinction between each state of business saying, “In the Middle Ages children were considered to be smaller versions of adults. We now know that the human life cycle is more complex; children aren’t just small adults, and adolescents are not simply large children. Instead each is a unique stage of development with distinctive behavior, modes of thinking, physiology and more. The same is true for startups and companies.”

He suggests that in addition to exploring new management, companies should reassess their culture, sales, marketing and strategy during the transitional period. In the coming weeks, Blank will present us with a multi-part look at how small companies grow into large ones successfully. If this series is anything like his post entitled, The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas are No Longer Free he’ll share a management model that allows our companies to grow while successfully retaining trusted employees.

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The Guidos have gotten to the babies! Even kids are caught up in the phenomenon of MTV’s trashiest ratings winner: Summer at the Jersey Shore officially kicks off when eight kids move out of their bunk beds and into their summer share.

I just wanted to put a little attaboy in here for Google. The quake in Haiti will of course prompt a humanitarian response, and accurate aerial imagery will help get it to where it needs to be most. Helicopters are probably occupied ferrying passengers and supplies, so I’d imagine few can be spared for reconnaissance; satellite imagery is the best way to go for a snapshot of the area, and Google contracted GeoEye to shoot some shots for just that purpose.

Check out Google’s Haiti relief and imagery page here. It’s good to note every once in a while that the technology we take for granted can actually be used for things other than finding the nearest coffee shop. This kind of quick and helpful response (thanks as well to the mobile companies and their texting donations) is heartening.

If you want to help, and I know you do, then text HAITI to 90999 to donate ten bucks to the Red Cross.

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MySpace is obviously a social network, but in terms of being talked about these days on the social web it has lost a lot of steam in recent years. To help with that, they’re bringing in Sean Percival to be the service’s new Director of Content Socialization.

Percival, who was apparently one of the first 3,000 people to ever sign up for MySpace, had previously been consulting for the company and has written a book about what he’ll now be preaching: MySpace Marketing: Creating a Social Network to Boom Your Business. He’ll report to Angela Courtin, the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Entertainment & Content for MySpace, and will work with the editorial and content teams to try to help kickstart talk about the service on the web.

Percival, who lives in LA, is also known for starting the Southern California tech/gossip blog Lalawag. Previously, he’s worked at Mahalo, Docstoc, and Tsavo, under Mike Jones who is now the COO of MySpace. Jones was MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta’s first hire when he took over that role last year.

As he notes on his blog, this is a good week for Percival, he also just announced that his wife is pregnant. Read more about Percival’s new gig on the MySpace Blog.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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Major disasters can kill thousands of people in one instant, but their deadly effects can continue to last, perhaps killing more people after the event than during it.

When an area experiences a major disaster as Haiti did earlier this week, the infrastructure breaks down and this usually includes the availability of safe drinking water. And, if the area hit is as poorly off as Haiti was before the earthquake, then the living conditions are going to change from poor to unimaginable. Before the earthquake, more than half the population had access to clean drinking water and there was no public sewage.

Urgent emergency response is needed to help save lives in the moment, but also to save lives by preventing diseases from taking hold. Diseases like cholera and dysentery, which are water-borne diseases, can spread like wild fire, taking lives along the way.

The country is already struggling with health issues. Not many of the children are vaccinated against diseases that we rarely see in the developed countries. In situations like this, the poor conditions, the cramped quarters, the lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation, children are prime targets for disease.

As well, experts say that there already is a high rate of contagious illness in the country, namely HIV and tuberculosis.

Another big fear is death from dehydration and malnutrition, although dehydration is a much more dangerous risk. The heat in the Haitian climate, combined with lack of drinking water, can and will affect the most vulnerable: children and the elderly.

What can you say to the people of a country that had little to lose and now have lost what little it did have?

~~~

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

Disease Lurks in Stricken Haiti

Update on 1/15: I’m providing some more context to the layoffs Seyfarth made yesterday.

The firm laid off 50 attorneys and staff in May. And a year ago it cut about 60 lawyers and staff. The grand total: 150 attorneys and staff, which is about 10 percent of the firm. Did the cost-cutting measures drive up the firm’s profitability in 2009. We’ll see.

Above the Law is reporting that Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell had a 4 percent increase in net income in 2009 compared to 2008.

End

Seyfarth Shaw laid off about 40 attorneys and staff on Thursday.

The firm said in an internal memo that the the reductions were made to meet anticipated workloads in 2010. In addition, some of the approximately 20 lawyers let go were targeted because of poor performance. The layoffs were spread across offices and practice groups. The firm has a total of 1,500 attorneys and staff.

The reductions were made despite the firm exceeding its financial forecasts in 2009, the memo said.

Please continue reading to see the full memo.

By all accounts, 2009 was one of the most challenging years in generations for our clients, our peers in the legal profession and for our firm. Our overall performance in 2009 exceeded our forecasts and was strong in comparison to many other firms. We thank our Firm members for their efforts and contributions.



Nevertheless, while we all hope that 2010 will be a year of economic recovery, we must be poised to be even more efficient and competitive in how we deliver the level of counsel and service that our clients expect. We see opportunities for creating or strengthening client relationships in all of our departments; however, we also know that we must approach these opportunities with the most effective use of our people and their skills.   

 

As a result, we implemented today a separation of approximately 20 attorneys and approximately 20 staff members from a total of about 1,500 people nationwide. In some cases, these decisions were made to better match current or anticipated workloads; others were made as a result of our annual performance management process for attorneys. The separations were spread across multiple offices and practice groups. We have talked to each person affected prior to the distribution of this e-mail.



We believe that these decisions are an appropriate adjustment to meet the challenges of the year ahead with confidence and momentum. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your OMP,  Department Chair, Office Administrator or manager.



We appreciate your understanding and continued support.

This idea blows my mind: An electric guitar tuner that analyzes a full strum all at once, telling you which individual strings need tuning. Brilliant!

I love this—it’s so simple, but for a casual guitarist like myself (and, um, every male who went to college in the past three decades), it sounds like a perfect way to tune up quickly. The PolyTune is also able to tune all kinds of drop tunings, alternate tunings, open tunings, and probably even whatever the hell weird tuning the guitarist from My Bloody Valentine uses. It’s apparently accurate to 0.5 cents, which is good enough for my ears, and works with both guitar and bass. We don’t have pricing or availability info yet, but it should come pretty soon, since it’s being shown at the NAMM audio expo today. [TC Electronic via DVICE]

The Jordanian government has ruled that electronic communication like websites will be subject to the country’s Press and Publications Law, prohibiting speech that insults religion, according to reports from the region.

Jordanian blogger Gaith Saqer covered the news in English this afternoon on his blog Arab Crunch.

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Critics of the ruling worry that the law will be widely applied to social media, possibly even SMS and to websites that allow reader comments to be posted. Supporters appear to argue that free speech comes with responsibilities along these lines and that the legal framework actually facilitates online communication.

More information is available from the large Jordanian site AmmonNews or translated in English here.

Saqer contacted Google regarding this new front in the battle over censorship and democratized publishing online; he reports that a spokesperson said the company had no comment at this time.

Jordan isn’t unique in having a law that prohibits publishing words critical of religion. The Egyptian government has now held blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman in prison for more than 3 years for contempt of religion and defaming the president of Egypt on his blog. The international watch-dog group Reporters Without Borders issued a press release yesterday saying the Egyptian government has now blocked Suleiman from meeting in jail with his lawyers for a third time.

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Little Girl, this is not appropriate…..Just last month, Noah Cyrus, age 9, lit the web aflame when she debuted her disturbing, arse-slapping cover of Akon’s sex-charged hit “Smack That.” Well, Little Noah isn’t done entertaining the pedos just yet. This week, the tot is singing about partying and gettng “crunk” with an inspired parody of “Tik Tok,” a club banger from pop newcomer Ke$ha.

We blame the parents.

O modelo foi apresentado nessa semana no Salão de Bruxelas (Bélgica). Segundo a marca o modelo foi feito como um apelo ecológico.

Esse apelo foi para Europa, pois em alguns países o modelo já é vendido, como no mercado brasileiro, onde o modelo foi lançado a alguns meses atrás.

A nova versão EcoSport, trata-se do i30 com um motor movido a diesel de 1.6 litros que rende pouco menos que 90 cavalos de potencia. Segundo a Hyundai o que chama a atenção no modelo não é a potencia, mas sim a baixa taxa de emissão de poluentes.

Fonte: Auto Esporte

No, he isn’t but ever since the age of 2, this little boy has got the pat down treatment at every plairport he’s been to. Why? Because of his name,Mikey Winston Hick. Apparently he, as well as

13,500 other people share the same name as a terrorist. So whenever the name pops up it shows a high security risk and even though he’s a little boy he still gets the same treatment.

I can only imagine the horror his parents were under the first time this happened….at the age of 2! Could you imagine having to have your child scanned and given a pat down because his name is the same as a terrorist? I mean isn’t it obvious he’s a baby? Check out his mother’s first sign of trouble:

NYPost:
His mother tells The New York Times she sensed trouble when her son was a baby and she couldn’t get a seat for him at a Florida airport. She says airline officials explained his name “was on the list.”

Here’s the funny part, he’s a junior and his father has never been flagged down on a flight. Check out what WIRED.com had to say:

He was recently frisked aggressively when his family flew to the Bahamas for vacation on Jan 2, just days after the so-called “underwear bomber” attempted to ignite explosives on a flight from Amsterdam to Michigan.

“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mikey’s mother told the newspaper. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”

Mikey’s mother, Najlah Feanny Hicks, is a photojournalist who was cleared by the Secret Service to travel aboard Air Force II with Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.

She said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked at the airport but was told it was prohibited. She said that while her son “may have terroristic tendencies at home, he does not have those on a plane.”

You know I totally support adults having to go through this, but a 2 year old? Or even an 8-year-old. Wow. I’ve noticed many are commenting on other blogs/news sites and asking how a toddler could be stopped, but not a terrorist or how 2 strangers could walk into a White House Party without being noticed? I think we definitely need security, but when you can recognize by sight that a 2 year old is NOT a terrorist then you shouldn’t pat them down.

Today, this “possible terrorist” is 8 years old and a Cub Scout…he will forever have to go through the security check point with all eyes on him if he ever plans to fly anywhere. What are your thoughts on this? Should they have done this to a toddler? An 8-year-old?

Post from: Blisstree

Can an 8-Year-Old be a Terrorist?