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Mucho se ha hablado hasta ahora de la acidificación de los océanos por el aumento de las emisiones de dióxido de carbono y sobre el impacto devastador que este fenómeno tiene sobre los arrecifes de coral.

Sin embargo, un nuevo aspecto hasta hace muy poco tiempo desconocido es el efecto del incremento del dióxido de carbono en la capacidad de las aguas oceánicas para absorber el sonido.

Esto podría tener serias consecuencias no sólo para la fauna marina sino también para todos los sistemas que se basan en tecnología acústica, como los sonares o los aparatos para detectar la presencia de movimientos telúricos.

Explicación
Según un estudio llevado a cabo recientemente por Richard E. Zeebe y Tatiana Ilyna de la Universidad de Hawai, la concentración de sustancias químicas que absorben el sonido en los océanos del globo terrestre ha disminuido y continuará decayendo a raíz de la acidificación de los océanos.
Al haber menos sustancias químicas que amortigüen los ruidos, estos pueden viajar más lejos y por lo tanto, el espacio marino se torna más ruidoso.

Fuente Bibliográfica

Cuando supimos que muchos modelos Fiat pasarían a formar parte del catálogo de vehículos de Chrysler en EE.UU. aparecieron algunos renders de modelos Lancia remarcados, y curiosamente eso es lo que ha hecho el grupo Fiat con el Delta, solamente cambiarle la parrilla delantera y ponerle los logos de Chrysler.

En el marto del Salón de Detroit se ha presentado está sopresa de Chrysler, y el Delta americano contará con los nuevos motores multiair de 170 CV, motores que también llegarán a los Dodge Avenger y Caliber. De todas formas no se si es por costumbre o por lo qué, yo me quedo con el modelo de Lancia, y además el Delta no tiene un diseño muy americano que digamos por tanto habrá que esperar a ver si tiene éxito como modelo al otro lado del charco.

Chrysler-Lancia Delta

Vía | Diariomotor.com
Fotos | Autoblog.com

If you trust abstract concepts like “trends” and “evidence,” it’s clear that the desktop is heading for extinction. But wait! There may be an upward spike in the PC’s downward trajectory, according to dutifully optimistic desktop chipmakers! They’re probably right.

The arguments fall into two categories, which I’ll call “the American Renaissance” and “Asia is HUGE.” First, America. Says AMD VP Patrick Moorehead, via NYT Bits:

I think you will see the resurgence of the small form-factor desktop.

The reasons? They’ve gotten very small, very cheap, and to people “in the middle of America,” where desktop PCs are more popular than on the coasts, tiny, powerful, and extremely cheap desktops represent a decent value proposition. But more than consumers, enterprise buyers, who had a five-year tryst with laptops during more plentiful times, are looking back to desktops as an austerity plan:

Desktops offer better value, they’re harder to lose and they’re harder to steal.

“Companies are tending to go back to desktops,” said Richard Brown, a vice president with Via. “That’s certainly what we’re seeing.”

Not to resort to another but, but but: neither of these factors really matter. The real source of the possible desktop resurgence, and pretty much every other movement in anyone’s economy anywhere, if I’ve been watching my cable news right, is the Asian market. China’s upwards development curve is going to plow straight into the desktop PC’s death spiral, at least for next year:

In China and elsewhere, those people have started to desire a real computer when they get home,” Mr. Brown said. “They want a bigger screen and more power. The desktop offers that.

Milk it while you can, guys. [NYT Bits]

The music-streaming service Spotify is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and, despite delays, it is set to hit the US shores soon enough. It enables users to listen to a huge library of songs for free and even take them on the go, though only with the paid version.

Despite its popularity though, most people have their mu… (read more)

British retail giants Topman have unveiled a sneak preview of their upcoming collection, entitled ‘Indigo Farm’. Paying homage to the classic fashion staple that is denim, ‘Indigo Farm’ draws influence from classic Scandinavian looks with subtle blue, grey, and purple colours appearing on the majority of the pieces. Apparel such as shawl-collar cardigans, blazers, and chambray shirts add to the sophisticated nature of Topman’s newest line, available in retailers on the 4th of March, and online on the 4th of February.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: The Malcolm

El ave símbolo del Ecuador marca con su majestuosa presencia los cielos de los Andes. Sin embargo, cada vez se ha tornado más difícil la observación de uno de estos ejemplares volando en libertad, ya que según los últimos estudios realizados por la Sociedad para la Investigación y Monitoreo de la Biodiversidad Ecuatoriana (Simbioe), el número en todo el país no supera los 50.

“Debemos mantener ese símbolo patrio que está en nuestro escudo”, comentó Danilo Silva, director de EcoFondo, cuya entidad está apoyando al Grupo Nacional de Trabajo del Cóndor para “la investigación y monitoreo en diferentes áreas protegidas del país y en un sistema de capacitación a comunidades rurales que viven alrededor de los sitios de anidación del cóndor”.

Un aporte
La reproducción en cautiverio es una de las alternativas que el Grupo maneja para ayudar a incrementar el porcentaje de estas aves, por lo que Sergio Lasso, responsable de Gestión del Cóndor Andino del Ministerio de Ambiente, ejemplificó que están trabajando las fundaciones ‘Zoológica’ y ‘Galo Plaza Lasso’, para transferir la tecnología empleada en el Zoológico de Guayllabamba hacia la ‘Casa del Cóndor’ en Zuleta, donde hay tres parejas de estos animales.
Pero un factor importante que deben controlar para introducir los especímenes nuevos a su hábitat es el desconocimiento de las personas sobre esta ave.

“Suelen pensar que es cazadora, que mata al ganado, pero esto no es así”, explicó el ornitólogo Juan Manuel Carrión, quien agregó que esta es la principal causa por la que suelen cazarlos.

Es así que esperan mejorar la capacitación de la gente para que no acaben con esta especie, como manifestó Joep Hendriks, director del Parque Cóndor.

Se pintó un mural
Como parte del proyecto para conservar al cóndor andino, el Grupo Nacional de Trabajo del Cóndor, realizó ayer en Quito (Av. 6 de Diciembre y Gaspar de Villaruel) una actividad para repintar una enorme pared con representaciones significativas de esta especie.
Participaron de esta iniciativa varios deportistas, grafiteros, pintores y conservacionistas, quienes se unieron por una misma causa: concienciar sobre la importancia del cóndor.
Parte de ellos fue Edwin Valle, un artista plástico que se ha planteado pintar 100 m sobre biodiversidad en diferentes lugares del país. Su proyecto se denomina ‘Pescadores de Sueños’.

Características
Lo que debe saber

• Patas con musculatura poca desarrollada.
• Uñas cortas con punta redondeada.
• El dedo posterior está atrofiado y más arriba que los restantes, lo cual impide que se una con los dedos delanteros.
• Cabeza y cuellos sin plumas que facilita su limpieza una vez que se alimentó del animal en descomposición.
• Pico alargado con borde cortantes.
• Ojos hacia los costados que le otorgan una gran amplitud visual para encontrar con mayor facilidad los cadáveres.

TOME NOTA
Para solicitar capacitación sobre el cóndor comuníquese a Simbioe al: (02)-290-53-46 (02)-290-53-46 .

Fuente Bibliográfica

Reader Daniel Nitsche suggests checking out this lecture by Don Watson (MP4 file: 139MB / 41 minutes) on the absurdity of corporate speak.

There are some great points in there, sprinkled with humour.

Powerpoint is the ultimate in the depletion of English. It just doesn’t approve of sentences. It makes them into dot points.

On politicians: we’re now more interested in the questions being asked by the interviewer because we know the interviewee won’t answer the questions anyway.

On private organisation speak: “Dear Valued Customer”—would you write to your mother that way? (Dear Valued Mother).

The invention of a mission statement is too late. The worst companies in the world are using mission statements.

Fun example from the lecture: Someone wrote a letter to Watson’s 90 year old mother that began “Dear Applicant.” Unclear what it was all about, she passed the letter to him. He wound up responding with a letter that started “Dear Bureaucrat.”

Here’s an interview with Watson.

The language I think is poisoned, generally. And it’s poisoned in the name of efficiency for some strange reason. It’s as if the whole culture has been corporatised in one way or another. Does it really matter? Well I think it does. I think language is how we know each other. Speak that I may see thee.

Therefore … I mean, If you talk like this to your friend down the pub you won’t see him there next week.

Watson’s Weasel Words site collects awful yet funny examples of managerial language. Why Weasel Words?

‘In 1916 Theodore Roosevelt declared that the ‘tendency to use what have been called weasel words was “one of the defects of our nation”.’ ‘You can have universal training or you can have voluntary training, but when you use the word “voluntary” to qualify the word “universal”, you are using a weasel word,’ he said: ‘it has sucked all the meaning out of “universal”.’

Words that suck all the meaning out. Good way to put it.

It’s all a reminder to give anything you write a decent bullshit test before sending it out. Would you ever talk to your mother or your friend that way? If not, why is it ok to talk to a customer that way?

On Friday, President Barack Obama announced the recipients of the  $2.3 billion Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits program to boost renewable energy manufacturing. The tax credits will directly be funded via the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. See here for a complete list of projects and go below the fold to watch President Obama’s statement.

This is an altogether separate funding stream from the direct cash grant program administered by the Treasury Department or the Investment or Production Tax Credits.

President Obama says AEMTC will “help close the clean energy gap that’s grown between America and other nations.”  The White House makes no bones that it wants to beat China in the ongoing global cleantech race.

The AEMTC, according to a White House press release, are worth up to 30 percent of each project, and “will leverage private capital for a total investment of nearly $7.7 billion in high-tech manufacturing.” Approximately 30 percent of the projects backed by this funding will be completed in 2010, according to the White House.

Watch:

More action today on how governments are dealing with falling demand for the H1N1 (swine) flu vaccine.

The U.S. cut its order from the Australian manufacturer CSL by more than half, to 14 million doses, Bloomberg reports. The U.S. is allowed to change the quantity of its order under its contract with CSL, a company spokeswoman told Bloomberg — though not all countries have similar terms in their contracts with the company. The U.S. placed orders with multiple manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the U.K. is trying to recoup some of the £500 million it spent ordering H1N1 vaccine from Baxter and GlaxoSmithKline, the Financial Times reports. The government initially ordered enough vaccine to cover the entire population. But the relatively mild nature of the pandemic, among other factors, has led to low demand.

Several other European countries are also canceling orders, as we noted last week. Besides the vaccine manufacturers we already mentioned, the cancellations may affect Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.

Photo: iStockphoto

I haven’t blogged on this subject in a while, due to the kinds of comments/blitzkrieg it always evokes. And I’m sure I’ll be accused of “arguing from authority” here, simply because I’m quoting someone I find particularly eloquent and persuasive.

But so be it: When I saw Chad Orzel’s post last week explaining why it is that science and religion can be compatible, I couldn’t help linking, as it so perfectly summarizes my own view, and in better terms than I myself can probably put it:

OK, fine, as a formal philosophical matter, I agree that it’s basically impossible to reconcile the religious worldview with the scientific worldview. Of course, as a formal philosophical matter, it’s kind of difficult to show that motion is possible.

We don’t live in a formal philosophical world, though, and the vast majority of humans are not philosophers (and that’s a good thing, because if we did, it would take forever to get to work in the morning). Humans in the real world happily accept all sorts of logical contradictions that would drive philosophers batty. And that includes accepting both science and religion at the same time.

So, in my view, it is not in any way an “unconscionable” political statement for professional scientific organizations to state that science and religion are compatible. It’s a statement of fact, an acknowledgment that in the real world, there are numerous examples of people who are both personally religious and successful, even prominent scientists. Guy Consolmagno, George Coyne, Bill Phillips, Francis Collins, and many more.

How do these people deal with the philosophical contradiction inherent in there beliefs? I have no idea. I don’t really care, either, any more than I care how philosophers resolve Zeno’s paradox. Religious scientists exist, and I can move from one side of the room to the other in finite time. End of debate, let’s talk about something that actually matters.

There is nothing unconscionable, in my view, in professional organizations stating publicly that these people exist. What would be unconscionable is the reverse–a public statement that science and religion can never be compatible amounts to a denial of the existence of the many men and women who find some way to reconcile science and religion in their own lives. I find that sort of rhetoric deeply insulting even on blogs, let alone from a professional organization.

Amen amen amen….and now, let the wild ruckus begin.

• Key Competitors: Acura TL, Saab 9-3, Audi A4, Lexus IS.
• Power: 2.0L Ecotec turbocharged 4-cylinder – 260-hp / 260 lb-ft.
• Transmission: 6-speed manual.
• Performance: 0-60 mph in less than 6 seconds.
• Production: 50/50 or 70/30.

Ask and you shall receive – well, almost. While GM listened to us when we asked for a Buick version of the Opel Insignia OPC ever since the Regal sedan made its debut last year, the company kind of ignored us in terms of performance. Yes, while the Buick Regal GS Concept looks like every bit of Insignia OPC, under the hood, it’s a completely different car.

Unlike the Opel Insignia OPC, which is powered by a 325-hp 2.8L V6 turbo, the Regal GS Concept rolls into Detroit with a 2.0L Ecotec turbocharged 4-cylinder making 260-hp. That’s just 40 more horses than the top-of-the-line Regal without the GS badge. With that in mind, the all-wheel-drive Buick Regal GS seems to compete with entry level luxury sedans like the Acura TL, Audi A4 and the Lexus IS to name a few.

Either way, GM isn’t saying anything about a production version right now, but we wouldn’t discount the possibility even a little. Stay tuned to see what Buick will offer.

Follow on through for more high-res photos from the Detroit Auto Show.

2010 Detroit: Buick Regal GS Concept:

All Photos Copyright © 2009 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.

Buick Regal GS Concept:

– By: Omar Rana

This BBC clip isn’t just funny because a reporter breaks an unbreakable phone, it’s that the company’s CEO just starts laughing like, “You got us!” Meanwhile, the phone will probably be relabeled, “unbreakable by anything but edges of fish tanks.”

[BBC]

Reader Gillian sent in pictures of her new locker pantry!

“During the renovation of our kitchen, we made the choice to only have lower cabinets. We love the look but soon found ourselves short on space, specifically pantry space. Instead of adding the upper cabinets we had avoided, we sunk a set of six half sized lockers into the wall between our kitchen and powder room.”

• Read the full post at Apartment Therapy

Read Full Post

David McKay / NASA

This photomicrograph focuses on a large “biomorph” from a Mars meteorite fragment known as Nakhla e4150ed. Its chemical spectrum appears to be primarily iron oxide but with a carbon content slightly greater than the underlying matrix.

Do rocks from Mars bear the tiny fossilized signs of life? Scientists who think so say they’ll subject meteorites from the Red Planet to a new round of high-tech tests in hopes of adding to their evidence.

For years, only one meteorite has figured in the controversy: ALH84001, a rock that was blasted away from Mars 16 million years ago, floated through space and fell through Earth’s atmosphere onto Antarctica about 13,000 years ago. Scientists reported in 1996 that the rock contained microscopic structures that looked like “nano-fossils,” but skeptics said the structures could have been created by chemical rather than biological reactions.

In November, the scientists who were behind the earlier research reported fresh findings that they said answered many of the objections from the skeptics – and they said two other space rocks traced to Mars seemed to have “biomorph” structures similar to those found in ALH84001. Pictures of the biomorphs were spread across a couple of Web pages back then, but generated relatively little attention at the time.

Over the weekend, the Spaceflight Now Web site provided further details on what the scientists saw and what they think it means.

Lenovo LePhone seen again, OS cues taken from Skylight? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t want to get our hopes up again, after having them repeatedly bashed against the rocks by a merciless Microsoft that’s spoke quite highly of the potential synergy of its brands and yet so far held its mobile and gaming segments far apart, but this sounds promising. Apparently a slide from some internal Microsoft marketing material is making the rounds that says Xbox Live Games is the “mobile version” of Xbox Live for Windows phones, speaking in the not-yet-accurate present tense, and matching up with a recent job posting we’ve seen. Of course, that seems a completely obvious move for Microsoft, particularly with Windows Mobile 7 right around the corner, and we would assume it would bring along with it not just the social features of Xbox Live but also some gaming for these next-gen smartphones that can most certainly handle it. Shoot, there we go being logical again.

[Thanks, Philip]

‘Xbox Live Games’ to plug Windows Mobile into Xbox ecosystem at last? Wouldn’t that make too much sense? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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