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Solarfun Power Holdings Co. Ltd. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Jiangsu Linyang Solarfun Co. Ltd. has entered into three contracts to supply 12.65 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic modules for projects in China.

Magma Energy Corp. reported this week that is has successfully completed flow testing of its Soda Lake geothermal production well 45A-33, which will have the capacity to produce 3 megawatts (MW) of net power once a turbine system is installed at the site.

One of the world’s leading renewable energy publications has recognized Massachusetts-based Second Wind Inc. as a finalist in its first-ever Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards. Second Wind, a leading provider of wind information technology, was named a finalist last week by RenewableEnergyWorld.com in the category of Innovation in Renewable Energy for its game-changing Triton Wind Profiler.

This guest post is written by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, the founder and CEO of WatchMojo, a leading producer of premium, informative and entertaining video content. The company’s catalog of 5,000 videos has generated over 105,000,000 streams since 2006. Today, WatchMojo streams nearly 10 million videos each month and reaches 20,000,000 consumers online and offline.

Party like it’s 1999?

Online video is where search was in 1999: a major part of the digital media ecosystem is desperately looking for a business model and a leading ad format. We know what happened in search, while the early leaders ditched search-as-a-business for portaldom, Google stayed the course and built a $200 billion company.

Search captures intent, video captures interest. Intent offers advertisers a short-term benefit, interest a more long-term value.  Perhaps that is why it is taking longer for online video revenues are materialize in a major way.

Yet, over the past year, online video consumption has soared threefold and it appears that this might be the year that the medium grows up and sees its revenues take off too (fingers crossed).  This explains why in boardrooms large and small, everyone is trying to crystallize their online video strategy.

Old media and video: Those who can won’t, those who want can’t

When it comes to traditional media companies and online video: those who can won’t, those who want can’t.

Print media would love to ramp up video efforts, but they can’t because it’s not a natural part of their DNA, operations or culture.

Conversely, while television media companies can transition online, they won’t because it cannibalizes their larger offline revenue streams. To TV executives, online video is what the Web was to print media a decade ago: those who embraced it didn’t fare that well; those who shunned it died.

Lost in time

Last year marked the first drop in online advertising revenues since 2002: a 4.2% decline according to eMarketer. Combined with the economic meltdown, media executives had the knee-jerk reaction to knee-cap free, ad-supported content in favor of subscriptions.

Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal was considering going totally free.  Now suddenly everyone wants to erect pay walls. Problem is by the time these tactics are implemented, advertising will return faster than ever and old media will once again find itself on the wrong side of the equation.

The main difference between now and then

In 2000, when the Nasdaq crashed, it dried up the advertising money that venture-backed startups were spending online. Traditional marketers had yet to really experiment with online advertising. Today, as marketers start increasing advertising spending again, they are shifting more money to online at the expense of traditional media: Pepsi will shun Super Bowl advertising in favor of social media.

Social media and UGC changes things, sort of

Social media has changed the rules of engagement in news and publishing. But when it comes to ad-supported models, marketers will never feel 100% comfortable advertising alongside user-generated content.

This is why professional content remains the key ingredient to capturing those advertising dollars.

Where video and text diverge

Unlike articles, you can’t fool audiences as easily with videos.  It’s easier to get away with a slapdash article than with a slapdash video.  Thus, most of the existing online video content relies on “talking head” footage and Q&A formats which are relatively simple to produce. Most of the videos that pass for professionally produced videos should be articles. No wonder marketers remain hesitant to underwrite the genre.

Fiction vs. Non Fiction

Even non-fiction video content needs to be demonstrative (vs. descriptive). Meanwhile, chasing hits with fiction remains too speculative; the risk/reward benefit makes it prohibitive online. Producers who understand this will have an edge over time as budgets shift to video.

Premium vs. Super premium

Naturally, not all online video content is created or valued equally.  Traditional media companies produce super premium content. Web producers try to create premium content. However, both are professional.

While marketers will pay more for super premium content (which explains why Hulu commands a large premium in ad rates over the industry standard), online audiences tend to favor Web content whose format and style is more in tune with their more fickle tastes.

As such, those who mold their Web content offerings by mapping out super premium catalogs will also create more valuable libraries. While you cannot match production values, you should offer marketers the same value proposition, adjusted for the ROI that advertisers have come to expect from digital media.

The branded content hype

Branded content holds much promise. But it might be myopic to think that audiences will remain engaged with marketing videos disguised as entertainment. Advertorials in print media have long been a part of the magazine experience, but audiences have learned to bypass them.

Over time, the content itself filters audiences for advertisers. Advertising cannot fully replace or become the content outright. But producers who tastefully weave commerce into content will win.

Ultimately, the Field of Dreams approach might be more realistic: create content that you are passionate about and people want to watch, build an audience and then monetize it. We all want advertisers to pay for content before it’s green lit, but that doesn’t mean it will happen.

Licensing vs. Ad-supported

Of course, getting paid for content is ideal. But consumers will never pay for it online, so find other media companies who will.  To be able to become a supplier of content to other media companies and maintain the Field of Dreams philosophy, producers need to balance a) quantity, b) quality, c) frequency and d) consistency.

Getting paid for content by other companies is especially important with video content because even large media businesses are having trouble generating meaningful video advertising revenues.

Finally, to position for the day when video advertising becomes material, producers need to consider e) timeliness. Returning to the search parallel, what good did market share do in 1999 when queries weren’t being monetized? Creating so-called evergreen content gives one’s catalog a longer shelf life, which in turn protects against the short-term weakness in revenues and the long-term “build vs. buy” dilemma that old media (and eventual M&A acquirers) need to go through.

Even if you don’t take advice, learn from it

But that’s not enough. Companies will pay a supplier if they also offer f) variety.

About.com founder Scott Kurnit once gave me the best advice I didn’t fully heed. He cautioned me against covering too many categories. I didn’t take his advice, but made sure that if we did want to offer clients variety, then each category’s clips should be as good as what any best-of-breed producer offers.

Today, I think we do that. As we mark WatchMojo’s four-year anniversary and celebrate crossing the 100,000,000 cumulative video stream mark, we’ve learned that sometimes, you really have to go against the institutional imperative and find your own path in order to survive.

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

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Mobile app tracker Flurry has raised a $7 million second round funding. The round was led by InterWest Partners, along with existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and Draper Richards. The funding comes after a year of rising app growth. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) recently said that three billion apps have been downloaded, and the App Store is growing at a rate 15 times faster than the iTunes store over the same time period. Flurry will use the round’s proceeds towards building out new services related to driving app developer revenues. The company wants to add staff as well and improve its technology.

Flurry has been pretty active lately. The San Francisco-based company is currently beta testing a targeting tool called Flurry AppCircle. But the big news was its merger last month with fellow apps analytics provider Pinch Media. Together, the two say they can cover 80 percent of all iPhone, iPod Touch and Android handsets.

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• Flurry And comScore Partner On App Audience Measurement
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• Mobile Email Provider Flurry Gets $3.75 Million In First Round Funding

Nowadays hair loss is a very common problem not only among males but among females too. Hair loss is a source of great anxiety for many, directly affecting their self-confidence and causing feelings of mental and emotional humiliation.

With such a high level of anxiety among hair loss sufferers, it is only natural that the hair loss market be filled with a wide selection of effective and not so effective hair loss products.

There are plenty of effective hair loss products and hair regrowth products to choose from, such as natural essential oils, natural herbs, conventional drugs, shampoos, serums, lotions and conditioners.

Finasteride, Minoxidil, and Rogaine are the more popular hair loss drug products available today to stop or prevent hair loss. Finasteride is sold in pharmacies as Propecia, and this hair loss product is recommended only for men. Like Finasteride, Rogaine is available only through drugstores. Rogaine has to be applied twice daily for 3 to 4 months to get any positive results.

Minoxidil is a common and effective hair loss treatment method among younger men. However, continual use of hair loss drug products such as Minoxidil may lead to side effects such as a itchy scalp, or even more serious complications such as low libido if these hair loss treatment products are used over a long period of time.

With these possible side effects linked to hair loss drug products, more and more hair loss sufferers are turning to natural hair loss remedies to prevent or stop hair loss. Dr Proctor, Thymuskin, Viviscal, Hair Genesis, Revivogen, Tricomin, and Nisim products are just some examples of the best hair loss products available on the market.

Dr. Proctor’s Hair Regrowth shampoo is one of the more popular natural hair loss products, as it has no chemical ingredient. Its Regrowth shampoo is widely used by hair loss sufferers due to its easy application, while its Life Extension Shampoo supports healthy hair.

Thymuskin is more effective (95%) in female than male (67%) for treating hair loss. This hair loss shampoo clears the hair follicle of debris, dirt, oil and other waste. It consists of thymus peptides that diffuse deep into the hair follicles to clean them.

Viviscal shampoo helps to maintain healthy hair. Apart from this, the shampoo treats hair loss and hair thinning. Viviscal products are available in all forms including scalp lotion, conditioner and tablets.

Hair Genesis products are also available as conditioners, topical serums, oral supplements, and hair regrowth shampoo. Hair Genesis is especially favoured by women, and it works mainly by stopping the DHT blockers.

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Wrestling 2010 Mid-Season Report

According to Head Coach Dan Loprieno, the 2009-2010 Harper College wrestling team has the possibility of being anywhere from a good team to one of the best teams in the country. “We have a lot of potential and talent on this year’s team,” says Loprieno, “but that only takes you so far. We need to put in the effort to reach our potential.”

As we enter 2010, the team has several meets wrapped up and Coach Loprieno is looking to key wrestlers to power his squad into Districts and Nationals.

At 125 pounds, Eduardo Dominguez (Freshman – Mundelein) has already placed.

Nate Stadeker (Sophomore – Rich East) at 147 pounds won the Triton tournament and was a national qualifier in ’08.

PJ Starnes (Sophomore – Schaumburg) will be at 157 pounds and was an All-American in ’08.

Another All-American (’07) is Mike Dace (Sophomore – Grant) will be at 165 pounds.

Jordan Bakley (Sophomore – Huntley) is at 174 pounds and has won the Missouri Open and was also a national qualifier in ’08.

Arber Bebo (Freshman – Addison Trail) is one of two wrestlers competing for the 184 pound slot. Bebo has won at Triton.

Shae Geradot (Sophomore – Columbia City) is the second wrestler competing for the 184 pound slot and he was an All-American in ’07.

“The Triton meet is a good indicator of the wrestlers in the area,” says Loprieno. “The majority of schools in the region participate in the Triton meet, so we can get a good feel for how things will shake out during the season.”

“We’ve had 4 or 5 kids hurt, but if we can get them healthy and back on the team, we have the potential to have a very successful season,” concludes Loprieno. Among the injured wrestlers attempting to return are John Grubisich (Freshman – Argo), Mike Lukowski (Sophomore – Dundee Crown), Matt Boggess (Freshman – Prospect) and Josh Kratovil (Lincoln Way).

With a full roster that is healthy, Coach Loprieno believes his team can make a strong run for a national title.

Time to save the date! Word is out that the sequel to the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie will be out on July 29th, 2012. What we don’t know as of yet is exactly who the director will be.

That’s right, despite the fact that JJ Abrams pretty much made the Star Trek relaunch work through pure force of will, he will not be returning to direct. That’s a bit worrisome, considering the quality of the script that he was able to polish up a bit. Of course, it’s just a little bit early to start being cynical so we should probably just sit back and wait it out.

[via ScifiSquad]

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Three weeks ago, a federal appeals court ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word with Custom XML as of today due to patent infringement, and now we see that the company has struggled to meet the deadline for its many SKUs and versions. Microsoft previously said that it would be able to meet the kill date for Office 2007.

On the Microsoft Store, there are 32 results when you choose to display All Office Products, but the majority of them are not available for purchase today. Generally speaking, all individual Office applications excluding Word are still being sold. In terms of Office suites, all of which include Word, availability depends on how quickly Microsoft has rolled out the versions without custom XML. For example, at the time of this writing, Office Standard 2007, Office Small Business 2007, Office Standard 2007 Upgrade, Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, and Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition are not available, while Office Ultimate 2007 Office Professional 2007 and Office Professional 2007 are available.

On the online store, Microsoft does not give an explanation as to why the products are not available: “This product is currently unavailable while we update versions on our site. We expect it to be available soon.” The “Not available” messages will soon show the correct price tags again, but the software giant refused to disclose what deadline it has given itself.

Meanwhile, the company managed to re-release Office 2007 (Professional, Professional Plus, Ultimate, and Enterprise) for its MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Friday, just in time for Monday’s deadline. An Office 2003 edition with Custom XML was not so lucky and unsurprisingly Microsoft didn’t give the older version the same priority as Office 2007, though a Custom XML removing patch for Word 2003 was posted on the Microsoft Download Center over the weekend. Microsoft also managed to get a patch out for Word 2007 last week, but notes to users that neither are mandatory unless the company communicates otherwise in a separate message.

“We’ve taken steps to comply with the court’s ruling and are introducing the revised software into the US market,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with Ars. “Only Office 2003 Professional edition was temporarily removed from MSDN/TechNet as part of this process and will be back up soon. Office 2003 Standard is still available to MSDN/TechNet subscribers.” Microsoft only needs to modify versions of Word and Office that include custom XML and were sold before January 11, 2010 before it reintroduces them into the marketplace as newly compliant products. Office 2010, which is set to arrive in June 2010, does not include Custom XML.

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Most arguments in favor of net neutrality regulation focus on fairness to the public. Definitions of “net neutrality” often characterize it as a principle that fosters free speech on the Internet. But a new study contends that barring ISPs from favoring certain content providers is more than a good concept—it’s also sound economic policy.

“Without net neutrality rules, new technologies could lead to pricing practices that transfer wealth from content providers to ISPs,” warns the Institute for Policy Integrity, “a form of price discrimination that would reduce the return on investment for Internet content—meaning website owners, bloggers, newspapers, and businesses would have less incentive to expand their sites and applications.” 

Such a reallocation of resources would hobble investment in the ‘Net overall, concludes Free to Invest: The Economic Benefits of Preserving Net Neutrality (cheat sheet version here).

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More and more big movies—Where The Wild Things Are, to name the latest—are coming out in a single package that includes Blu-ray, iTunes-friendly Digital Copy and DVD. This proves DVD is still the best way to sell movies.

I naively enjoyed the Blu-ray/Digital Copy combo for a while, during the period I was still trying to see the point of Apple TV, and didn’t mind the rights-managed movie files. Now that Apple TV is dead to me, and I use other media players, I prefer a clean Handbrake rip to a DRM-shackled digital download. I am not a pirate; I just like being able to do what I want with a movie I buy.

Sell me a Blu-ray disc, solo, and I can rip it, maybe even downrez it. But melting a hole in my laptop trying to rescale 1080p to DVD-standard 480p is a thousand-hour pain, and trying to play a movie at my in-laws when all I have is a Blu-ray disc (and they don’t have a player) is annoying too. Combining Blu and the DVD solves these problems, so it’s the best, but it does render the Digital Copy totally pointless.

With the right gear and software, I can watch movie files pretty much wherever. But so many people don’t rip movies and don’t download them either. Combo packs solve a huge headache, but again, Digital Copy is the odd man out.

A DVD can be portable-ish, playing on laptops, little LCD DVD players, and—especially for family stuff where these combo packs first appeared—in-car entertainment systems. There aren’t many Blu-ray players in cars, and unless each of your kids gets their own iPod Touch, iTunes DRM video isn’t gonna work either. Maybe someone has a Blu-ray player in the home, connected to an HDTV, but that Blu-ray disc is never really portable. Hollywood backs into these problems, then brings its ace out of retirement to solve them. DVD proves it’s still the best.

Warner Home Video is delivering the monster pack of Where The Wild Things Are on March 2, 2010. It’s priced at $36, steep but it will no doubt be reduced by a lot when it arrives at Amazon. The Pixar movie Up! is selling in a triple combo pack for $18, while Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs sells in combo for $25. The Bourne trilogy will be out in three separate $20 combo packs on January 19.

I would argue that Hollywood cares less about people ripping DVDs than confusing (and losing) the mini-van set. Everyone will benefit, as more and more high-profile films get the triple-combo-pack treatment. Hell, I will gladly pay $18 for a movie if I get to keep all of that stuff—that’s not even the price of two theater tickets, and I pretty much hate movie theaters these days. But at $18, Hollywood’s “upsell” for the included Blu-ray and iTunes download is gone. It’s less what they gain than what they don’t lose, I suppose. So where does that new dual-sided Blu-ray/DVD combo disc fit in? I doubt it’ll go far. It costs more—and confuses more—than good old standalone DVD. Hail to the king, baby.

Jay Leno is dealing with his show’s cancellation like a true comedian — he’s making fun of “The Man.”

The comic took jabs at NBC in his first monologue since the cancellation of his primetime flop, The Jay Leno Show, was announced on Sunday.

“Welcome to the Jay Leno Show. As you know, we’re not just a show anymore, we are now a collector’s item,” Leno opened, cracking jokes about the end of his primetime experiment and his future at the network. “As you may have heard, our show has been canceled. Fired again! That shows you that NBC’s got nothing. Even when they fire people it’s a rerun,” he continued. “Didn’t we just get fired in May?”

During the Television Council Association’s conference over the weekend, NBC confirmed that it will axe Leno’s primetime program at the end of the month to pave the way to tentatively push it back to 11:35, moving Conan O’Brien’s show to midnight. Conan took over The Tonight Show from Leno late last year, losing millions of viewers in the switch.

In tonight’s monologue, Jay confessed that he isn’t sure where his show will end up.

“Supposedly we’re moving to 11:30, but even this is not for sure,” he told the audience. “My people are upset. Conan’s people are upset. Hey, NBC said they wanted drama at 10. Now they’ve got it — everyone’s mad.”

Leno ended the monologue with a final poke at The Peacock: “I take pride in one thing. I leave NBC prime-time the same way I found it — a complete disaster,” he laughed.

Anytime you fight a Diaz it can turn ugly. Nate and his brother Nick, have a way of throwing guys off their games physically and mentally. Nate threw a wrench into Maynard’s smooth path to a UFC lightweight title shot. "The Bully"  became a one punch fighter and brawler but it was just enough to eek out a split decision win 28-29, 30-27 and 29-28. The former Michigan State wrestler remains unbeaten and he may have earned himself a shot against B.J. Penn.

"The gameplan and technique went out the window once I saw that dude across from me and I just wanted to throw," said Maynard. "I saw his face and I wanted to fight. It was stupid but I hope you guys enjoyed it."

Maynard and Diaz gestured at each other, dropped their hands and often raised them to the crowd in the middle of the action. The fight featured a lot of wild swinging from Maynard while Diaz employed his pawing style with lots of pitter, pat shots. Maynard did land some big shotss and put Diaz down momentarily on several occasions. 

Now the question is, did Maynard (9-0, 7-0 UFC) do enough to secure that fight against Penn on Apr. 10 in Abu Dhabi? Maynard asked the crowd if they wanted to see him fight Penn. He got a mixed reaction.

"I ain’t gonna make a cheesy speech about students and masters. If they want it, I’m here for him. UFC if you want me to do it, let’s fight." 

Maynard and Diaz had a history dating back to their stint on Season 5 of "The Ultimate Fighter." Diaz bested Maynard via submission in the semifinals. There was plenty of heat going into the fight as Diaz mocked Maynard’s improvement and called him a white belt.  

Rita will no longer be “rockin’” on Lifetime. The Network for Women has cancelled Rita Rocks — a quirky comedy featuring Nicole Sullivan — after two seasons, The Hollywood Reporter said Monday.

Rita, which starred the Mad TV alum as a mom who launches her own garage band, premiered to solid ratings in Oct. 2008, with 1 million viewers tuning in for the show’s debut episode. It was Lifetime’s first original comedy series in over 10 years. However, ratings fell significantly in its second season, with the Oct. 13 season finale attracting just 489,000 viewers, according to Futon Critic.

Bavaria, Germany | Unique Collections

King Ludwig I of Bavaria had a thing for the ladies, and he filled a hall at Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace near Munich, with portraits of his favorites.

Ludwig I (grandfather to “Mad King” Ludwig II, builder of Neuschwanstein Castle, who was born at Nymphenburg Palace) was a passionate admirer of classical beauty. Not so hard on the eyes himself, he passed his time collecting Greek and Roman statuary, designing neo-classical buildings around Bavaria, and collecting classically beautiful women. He was married to the fetching Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen at the age of 24 in October, 1810 in a wedding which set the president for Octoberfest celebrations ever since.

There are 36 portraits of young women in the king’s special collection in the Southern pavilion. Most of the paintings in the gallery were created by the court portraitist Joseph Karl Steiler, with a few additions by Friedrich Durck. They include local beauties like Helene Sedlmayr, whom the king happened to meet when she came to the palace to deliver some toys the queen had ordered for the children, and became known as the “Schöne Münchenerin”, setting the standard of loveliness for Munich girls for a generation.

Lola Montez, the mistress that cost him his crown, is less innocent.

Born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, by the time she met Ludwig in Munich at age 25, Lola Montez had already been shuttled around family in India, England, and Scotland, scandalized London with her “Spanish dance” burlesque, been married and divorced, and hooked up with both Franz Liszt and Alexander Dumas in Paris. She was known for her darkly glamorous looks and her feisty temperament, alternately described as violently obstinate or merely mischievous – possibly depending on whether the speaker was sleeping with her at the time.

She met Ludwig in 1846 and they quickly became a couple to the general displeasure of his family and country, particularly when he made her “Countess of Landsfeld”. He abdicated the crown in 1848 as riots broke out in Munich, at least partially because of his unpopular and public affair. Afterward he attempted (unsuccessfully) to follow Lola out of the country. She came out of the scandal none the worse for wear, however, and was married again shortly thereafter. She went on to stir things up elsewhere in Europe, then in Australia, San Francisco, and New York City, where she died in 1860.

Another less-famous woman of derring-do who graces the walls of the Schönheitengalarieis is the English adventuress Jane Digby, a striking blonde beauty, daughter of a daring sea captain, and friend of Sir Richard Burton. She not only took up with Ludwig I, she later had an affair with his son, King Otto of Greece. After other assorted affairs and marriages, she set off for the Middle East, she eventually settled in Damascus with a dashing sheikh half her age.

On a more tender note, another notable entry is another mistress, the Florentine Marianna Marquesa Florenzi, a gifted and intelligent women known for her translations of European philosophical works into Italian who was the king’s lover, friend, and confidant for some forty years. Some 4,500 letters passed between the two of them survive to this day.