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January is National Radon Action Month. I know that your home radon level is not the fun kind of thing you want to think of every day, but it’s one of those things you need to give a little attention to if you want to protect your health and the health of your family.>/p>Radon is an odorless, tasteless and invisible gas produced by the decay of naturally occurring uranium in soil and water. It accumulates in homes, buildings and drinking water, and causes lung cancer. It is responsible for an estimated 21,000 deaths per year in the United States.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that if you have radon in your home, like I did, you can correct the situation. If you’re wondering if there’s radon in your home, first you need to test your home. The tests are very inexpensive and simple to perform. Just open the canister and walk away from it for a few days. You send the canister off to the lab and they mail you your results. We were shocked to learn that our home had pretty high radon levels, so we wasted no time in contacting a local certified radon mitigation company. The installation of the mitigation equipment took a little less than a day, so that wasn’t so bad.

The best part is knowing that we can breathe easy in our (virtually) radon-free home. So if you don’t know what the radon levels are in your home – get testing!

Recently, bank lending in China has hit an all time high.

In one week alone, Chinese banks lent over 600 billion yuan.

Regulators are again freaking out, and taking hard steps to limit leverage. 

Bloomberg: China raised the proportion of deposits that banks must set aside as reserves to cool the world’s fastest-growing major economy as a credit boom threatens to stoke inflation and create asset bubbles.

Reserve requirements will increase by 50 basis points from Jan. 18, the central bank said on its Web site this evening. The existing levels are 15.5 percent for big banks and 13.5 percent for smaller ones.

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See Also:

• The Trade War Just Got Real: U.S. Steel Makes New Anti-Dumping Complaint Against China
• Krugman’s China Hit-Job Is More Blame-The-Victim Nonsense
• China’s Year Of Executing White Collar Crooks

Katy Perry has further fueled rumors that she is pregnant with her first child with fiance Russell Brand after the newly-engaged pair were spotted seen looking at baby clothes on Sunday.

Katy, 25, first prompted baby rumors by posting several cryptic messages on her Twitter page earlier this month, including this one: “It’s noon on Jan 1st here in the future, let me tell you 2010 is BUMPIN! (sic).”

The “I Kissed A Girl” singer — who recently announced her engagement to the once sex-crazed comic –showed off her diamond and took a stroll around some children’s shops in Hampstead, London over the weekend.

“Russell and Katy had a wander around Hampstead. They visited children’s shoe shop Cubs and had a lot of fun checking out all the little bootees,” a tipster told The Sun early Tuesday. “They then went to Cafe Rouge for a bit of lunch. Katy ordered scrambled eggs and asked for the eggs to be ‘well done’. And when Russell asked for a portion of chips she loudly announced to the waiter, ‘Hold the mayo.;”

Pregnant women cautioned against eating freshly made mayonnaise because the recipe contains uncooked eggs, which are considered a health risk to unborn babies.

Last week, I attended the Google Android “Nexus One” event. As you may have heard, they gave many of us in the audience the device to try out. I decided that before I wrote anything about it (other than saying on television that it’s a “nice little device“), I would give it a real shot, so here I am, a week later, with my thoughts on it. To be clear, this isn’t meant to be a full review or overview, for that, see our review here. Instead, I’m going to come at this from the perspective of a pretty hardcore iPhone user of the past two-plus years.

I’ll come right out and say what everyone will want to know: Do I think the Nexus One is better than the iPhone? No. There are certain things it does better (I’ll get to that), but overall, if I had choose one, I would still choose the iPhone — specifically, the iPhone 3GS. Is that my bias talking as someone who has used the device on a daily basis for over two years? Maybe a bit, but overall I do believe that while the Android phones are rapidly catching up to the iPhone, they are still not quite up to that device’s quality.

Lest you think I’m a complete newbie to the Android platform, I’ve actually had and used a number of Android devices over the past year or so. I still have a G1 unit, as well as the myTouch3G. I’ve also used the Droid quite a bit since its release. Each of those devices is solid in their own regard when compared to 99% of the phones on the market. And the Nexus One is the best yet. But none are the iPhone.

I’m going to focus on the three biggest things that stand out in my mind about the Nexus One as compared to the iPhone (both good and bad).

Google Apps

Praise of the iPhone aside, there is no question what the Nexus One does better: Google apps. Every single Google app is better on the Nexus One (and all Android phones, for that matter, but on the Nexus One it’s more obvious because this device is the fastest). Gmail, Maps, and Google Voice in particular absolutely blow away their counterparts on the iPhone (of which only Maps is a native application, and Google Voice, famously, isn’t available).

It’s hard to describe just how great Google Voice is on Android. When I set it up, I had to confirm maybe three or four things, and I was all ready to go. In two minutes, my Google Voice number completely took over my Nexus One. This included getting not only getting all Google Voice incoming calls and voicemails, but doing outbound calls with my Google Voice number as well. This is absolutely the future of number portability, and that no doubt has the carriers — and likely even Apple – spooked.

Gmail is also ridiculously better on Android because it includes things like native support for starring messages, labels, and threading. Again, this is true of all Android phones, but the Nexus One showcases how much better Gmail is on Android than on the iPhone because it’s the fastest. If there is one thing that makes me want to use Android every day, it’s Gmail. And that won’t change unless Google ever (or ever is allowed to) build a native Gmail app for the iPhone.

Maps offers a number of features on the Nexus One that aren’t on the iPhone native version. This includes Latitude (which can run in the background), and Navigation. Other Google apps, like Google Sky Map and Google Goggles are also pretty cool, and useful to varying degrees, and again, only available for Android.

Third Party Apps

Maybe the hardest thing (or Apple’s greatest strength, depending how you’re looking at it) in using an Android device after being accustomed to the iPhone is the app difference. Simply put, iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps. Maybe that’s because Android apps aren’t quite as mature yet. But I don’t know. The Android Market has been around for over a year now, and the fact that there still isn’t a Twitter app that’s as good as the top five iPhone Twitter apps is a bit odd to me. Seesmic for Android is the closest yet, but it still gets blown away by the polish of apps like Tweetie on the iPhone.

That said, there are a number of apps that are useful on the Nexus One in ways they couldn’t be on the iPhone. That includes the instant messaging apps (again, Google’s own seems to be the best), and Pandora. Pandora on the iPhone is great, but you have to it open at all times. On the Nexus One, it’s brilliant because it can play music in the background while you do other things. Obviously, this issue (background apps) has been talked about in the past ad-naseum, so I won’t dwell on it here.

Again, it’s worth repeating that the best Android apps are all Google-made. That’s not true on the iPhone where most of the best apps aren’t Apple-made. To me, that speaks to the power of Apple’s platform. Android’s platform will continue to mature no doubt, but so will the iPhone’s. It has to be worrisome for Google that the divide is still this wide.

Hardware

The Nexus One hardware is in some ways superior to the iPhone. For example, I’ve never been a fan of the iPhone’s plastic backing, which it received after the first generation (which had an aluminum back). The Nexus One has more of a solid rubber and aluminum back that feels nicer. HTC, which makes the device, has also finally managed to get a removable battery backing that isn’t awful or ugly.

The front of the Nexus One leaves something to be desired in my opinion. It’s the closest yet to the iPhone in terms of sleekness, but whereas the iPhone is almost one smooth surface except for the one button indent, the Nexus One has a face that is broken up by its frame and the silly trackball that Google keeps insisting manufacturers include. I have never once used the trackball, nor do I intend to. It’s a waste of space, and makes the device look and feel cheaper.

While the Nexus One does have a nicer screen than the iPhone, it has a downside too. The OLED screen is much harder to see in daylight when compared to the iPhone’s screen. This is the same problem the new Zune HD has, and it really is a problem. In the dark, these screens look beautiful, better than the iPhone’s — but it’s not always dark. And when outside during the day at time, it’s almost unusable.

Instead of the one button that the iPhone employs, the Nexus One sticks with the standard 4-button (not including the scroll ball) Android approach. These buttons take a little getting used to, but can be powerful if used correctly. That said, I’m still not sure Android’s hardware wouldn’t be better served if these were software-based. There are a number of ways to get to Search via these buttons, for example. And while I get that this is Google’s thing, I find this repetitive, and in some cases confusing. One method to do that would be fine.

The Nexus One’s 5 megapixel camera does seem to take significantly nicer pictures than the iPhone’s 3 megapixel variety. But the biggest advantage of the camera pay be its LED flash, which is pretty powerful (though not fantastic for taking pictures in dark rooms still). I’d be shocked if the next version of the iPhone didn’t gain both of these upgrades.

The single biggest problem I have with the Nexus One hardware is likely a combination of hardware and software. I mis-click on things way too often on the Nexus One. While the device’s touch screen is obviously a huge improvement over the original G1’s, it’s still nowhere near as accurate as the iPhone’s. I’m not the only one who has noticed this. I often find myself mis-hitting icons, mis-typing letters, and the touchscreen mixed with the Nexus One web browser is simply not very good at all (try the menu system on espn.com to see what I mean). Apple is great at nailing the little things, and I’m not really sure why the touchscreen mechanics are so much better on the iPhone. But they are.

Speaking of the touchscreen, whereas before it was just odd that Google wouldn’t include multi-touch support in its apps, now it’s just annoying. The little “+/-” magnifying glass that shows up when you should just be able to pinch to zoom is beyond lame. And it may be even worse when viewing/manipulating pictures on the Nexus One. I’m not sure if Google still has their gentlemen’s agreement with Apple not to use the multi-touch gestures, but Palm seems to be using them just fine.

One Device To Rule Them All

If you were to ask me to describe in general terms why I like the iPhone more than the Nexus One, it would be hard to do. On paper, Nexus One seems to have a lot going for it, including a nicer screen, a better camera, a faster processor, etc. But using them side by side, when it comes to regular, everyday use, the iPhone (again, the iPhone 3GS) still wins.

Perhaps the single biggest reason that I like Apple products, and their software, in particular, is the attention to detail the company puts in. In my mind, that’s exactly what still separates the iPhone from all the Android phones. It’s the little things. The things that are almost too small for you to even notice, but the make the experience subtly better.

Android is like a very nice painting done entirely with broad strokes. The iPhone is more like a masterpiece in which every little detail has been meticulously defined. Just as people have different tastes in art, people will have different tastes when it comes to the iPhone versus the Nexus One. But that doesn’t change the fact that some pieces of artwork are considered to be a masterpieces, while some are considered to be merely very good.

If you’re an iPhone user who is sick of AT&T or just looking for a new device, I’m not sure that the Nexus One will be enough to satisfy you. Both Jason and Mike of TechCrunch have successfully switched from the iPhone to the Android platform, but both will admit that there were speed bumps (well, Jason will anyway — while Mike will privately, then deny saying such things).

Jason made some compelling arguments a few days ago about that switch, and how it takes time to get used to Android. I definitely agree with that. And think I could get pretty comfortable with Android. But the point is, I don’t really want to. In my mind, the iPhone is still the better device. Not better in every regard, but better overall. The Nexus One comes close, closer than any Android phone yet, but it cannot snatch the iPhone’s cigar.

Further, the problem with switching to something like the Nexus One now is that even if you think it’s better than an iPhone, a new iPhone is inevitably coming in another 6 months or so that will be much better than the Nexus One. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see it on Verizon this year, which would negate at least half of the complaints about the device.

And, of course, there will be better Android phones coming down the pipeline as well. So if I were an iPhone user thinking about switching (which again, I’m not), I’d probably wait to see what Apple announces in June and then see what Android phone is available by then if the next iPhone doesn’t blow you away.

It’s impressive how far these Android devices have come in a year. But the software/hardware combination still lacks the refinement of the iPhone. Maybe by this time next year, with Google now taking a more hands-on approach, they’ll have a device that can match Apple’s. But they’ll still likely lack the apps. And the iPhone will still likely lack the best Google apps. But it’s good to have competition. And it’s good to have two companies that can play off each other and push innovation — while at the same time, changing the industry. It’s becoming very clear that Google and Apple will be those two.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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If I were to pen my own list of products I love and use every day, Streamy would be somewhere up top. I only started using it 8 months ago when the Web-based personalized news network / social network aggregator added more communication features like instant messaging, and it instantly became my new start page.

Sadly, the team behind the application secured only a modest round of angel funding in 2007 and again in 2008, and has been unable to raise follow-up funding last year. The fledgling company is now running out of cash, and is looking for another party to keep it alive and continue development on the app. And boy, do I hope someone ends up doing just that.

The reason why I like Streamy so much is because of its versatility. The service basically marries two daily routines of mine, RSS reading and social networking, fits both of those activities in a single, attractive user interface and bolts a ton of sharing and communication features on top of it. Think FriendFeed on steroids.

You really have to try it to get a feel for it, but for me Streamy is the main reason why I stopped using desktop applications for keeping track of Twitter, Facebook and my RSS feed subscriptions. It’s far from perfect, but there’s a lot of potential to the idea, and in fact I don’t understand why players like Seesmic and TweetDeck haven’t tried combining classic RSS feed reader functionality alongside the aggregation of social networks. Contrary to what others claim, I don’t believe Twitter and Facebook is the death of RSS, and Streamy is a great example of how the two could (and should) be able to co-exist.

Anyway, 2009 sucked Streamy dry, and co-founders Don C. Mosites and Jonathan Gray have given up trying to convince investors to inject capital into the startup. Mosites also tells me they had a bit too much ambition for Streamy, and that the product as it is know is still far from what he and Gray had envisioned when they kicked off development.

Fortunately for me, the service won’t be shut down in the near future, and apparently some potential buyers are already in discussion with Streamy about a potential purchase of the technology, team and brand. I’d be hard-pressed to find a single application that can replace Streamy for my own content consumption and social networking needs, so here’s to hoping one of the interested parties comes through. Pretty please?

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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We’re a little embarrassed to write about this coffee cake today. Not because it wasn’t good – because it was. Crazy good, in fact! No, we’re sheepish about how quickly we absolutely devoured the entire loaf…in about five minutes. Check out the gallery for the incriminating photo evidence.

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Audi unveiled the newest color and a tweak in the designing of its E-Tron electric concept supercar at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. This car kisses the environment and has a wheelbase of 95.67 inches. This car also uses just two motors unlike the previous E-Tron vehicles that powers up its rear wheels. This helps maintain Audi’s 40:60 weight distribution. Weighing 879 pounds, the battery pack is nestled in front of the rear wheels. The supercar also boasts LED headlamps and taillights, a trapezoidal grille and a curvy body. The car has body made of reinforced composites with aluminum and carbon fiber. This helps the new E-Tron shed weight. The car can shoot up to 62 mph in a mere 5.9 seconds which is a bit lesser then the concept vehicle displayed at Frankfurt. This simply means that Audi is now stressing more on range than speed performance. This car can cover up to 155 miles and has a top speed of 124 mph. as you watch this car zip by, make sure you spot its awesome 19 inch spoke wheels! The E-Tron supercar, packed with these features crosses the checkered flag in style.

[Motorauthority]

Eraser (1996) m-720p
English | Subtitle: English, Czech | 1h 54mn | 1280*528 | 23.976 fps | x264 ~ 2100 Kbps | AC3 6ch ~ 384 kbps | 1.99 GiB
Genre: Action | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

John Kruger is a U.S. marshal who is assigned to protect Lee Cullen, who works for the Cyrez Corporation, a company that manufactures top secret weapons for the military. Lee knows about a scam going on within Cyrez Corporation, and the man behind it is determined to silence Lee, because without Lee, the FBI has no case against the Cyrez Corporation. After taking Lee to New York City to hide her, John discovers that his friend, U.S. Marshal Robert Deguerin, is the mastermind behind the scam!

Toshiba in Japan announced the Portaro SD-P12DT [JP] today, a new portable DVD player. The main selling point of the device is the 12-inch LCD screen that features an LED backlight and 1,366×768 resolution. Sized at 342×73×326mm (weight: 2.8kg), the Portaro is available in black or white.

Apart from video DVDs and music CDs, the device supports DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW (there’s also an SD card slot). It also has a built-in digital TV tuner (that will work only in Japan). Toshiba says the lithium-ion battery has a life span of four hours.

The Portaro will go on sale in Japan on February 1 for $550, which is a pretty steep price considering you can’t watch Blu-rays on it. Panasonic’s portable Blu-ray/digital TV hybrid, the DMP-BV100, for example (which we blogged about last year), currently costs just $600 [JP].

Toshiba hasn’t announced yet whether the Portaro will ever be available outside Japan as well, but that’s highly unlikely.

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Egypt State Information Service

A collection of tombs that belong to workers who built Khufu’s pyramid has been discovered in the area of the workmen’s tombs on the Giza plateau, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday 10/1/2010.

Hosni added that the tombs were found by an Egyptian excavation team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Dr. Hawass said the tombs are dated to the 4th Dynasty and belong to workmen who built the pyramids of Khufu (2609-2584 BC) and Khafre (2576-2551 BC).

“This is the first time to uncover tombs like the ones that were found during the 1990’s, which belong to the late 4th and 5th Dynasties (2649-2374 BC),” asserted Hawass, pointing out that this group of tombs can be considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th and the 21st centuries, as they shed more light on the early period of the 4th Dynasty.

“These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves. If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king’s,” concluded Hawass.

The most important tomb is the one belonging to Idu. It is rectangular in structure with a mud brick outside casing covered with plaster. It has several burial shafts cased with white limestone, as well as niches in front of each shaft.

The area in which the new tombs were found is the beginning of the one kilometre long necropolis, and Dr. Hawass pointed out how this discovery highlights the religious life of ancient Egyptian workers who built the pyramids.

Evidence uncovered also revealed that the families in the Delta and Upper Egypt sent 21 buffaloes and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the workers. Hawass pointed out that the families who sent these were not paying their taxes to the Egyptian government, but rather they were sharing in one of Egypt’s national projects.

The number of workers did not exceeded 10,000, said Hawass, contradictory to Herodotus, who recorded that the number of workers reached 100,000.

Hawass said that this discovery demonstrates that the workers came from top families of the Delta and Upper Egypt. Workers rotated every three months, and those who were buried there died during the construction process.

Dr. Hawass asserted that according to science and archaeology one cannot fix a time for the construction of the pyramid. Limiting it to a specific season is wrong as it was based on incorrect information that the construction process was only executed during the three months of the flood.

The transportation of the granite, basalt and limestone blocks used in the construction was only conducted during the flood season, but the construction work was not limited to this season, and lasted for the whole year. The blocks used in the construction of the body of the pyramid were brought from the Giza plateau itself.

The discovery of the cemetery of the pyramid builders occurred in 1990 when a horse was stumbled on top of a mud brick structure ten meters far of the necropolis located to the south of the wall.

The necropolis is composed of two levels connected by a ramp. It is composed of different shapes and styles of tombs, some are pyramid shaped while others are vaulted and some contain false doors.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

German carmaker Volkswagen announced that, starting yesterday, the Eos White Night is available for purchase in Volkswagen dealerships across Australia. With retail prices of AU$53,990 for the 103 TDI model and AU$55,990 for the 147 TSI, the Eos White Night comes with a price premium of just $3,500 above the relevant series model.

The car is basically a contrast of black and white: the body is painted in white, while elements such as the roof, radiator grille and mirror covers are… (read more)

Five years after infidelity led to a highly-publicized split, Jude Law and former flame Sienna Miller are again making plans to march down the aisle, The Mirror claims.

The Sherlock Holmes actor was engaged to wed Sienna before confessing that he was having an affair with the nanny of his three children in November 2005. However, tabloid spies claim that after reconnecting during their recent Broadway tours in New York City, Jude and Sienna have decided to give love a second chance.

“Sienna was always the one. And now she is back in his life he never wants to let her go again,” says a source. “Jude was a lost soul without Sienna. They have ironed out their old differences and are ready to move on. Sienna’s fed up of the single life and wants to be with Jude for good,” the insider blabs.

“Jude and Sienna have realized that they’ve exhausted all other avenues, have both screwed and screwed over all other options and have finally realized that they truly, truly deserve each other….”

Jude and Sienna spent the holidays on the Caribbean island of Barbados with the actor’s three children, from his marriage to ex Sadie Frost; Rafferty, Iris, and Rudy.

Q: I’m trying to get an honest opinion on concrete countertops. Everything I’m finding on the web is written by the manufacturers — I need something a bit more honest.

My husband and I cook a lot so I need to know how concrete actually holds up in a well-used kitchen. I’ve also heard that it’s terrible for rolling out dough; if anyone has any experience with that it would be incredibly helpful.

Sent by Amber

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The BMW Group has announced the U.S. pricing for the 6-cylinder 7 series sedan at NAIAS. The 740i will have a starting price of $71,025* and its long wheelbase sibling, the 740 Li, will retail from $75,425*. Both of them will be available for U.S. customers starting this Spring.

The nonidentical twins are powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0 liter straight six engine delivering 315 HP and 330 lb-ft of torque (available form 1600 to 4500 rpm), which features direct fuel injection, an… (read more)

Last week I spent an intensive wine tasting week in London. As I flew back to New York, my brain drifted back to a very familiar topic: the factors that influence our choice of wine to buy. How do you decide what wine to buy? Do you always use the same criteria? Or does it depend on the situation?

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