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After we got our hands-on …on, we got Palm to give us a quick and pithy walkthough of the top-line features on the Palm Pre Plus, including 3D gaming, video recording and editing, and Mobile Hotspot tethering.

All we can say is that the Pre Plus seems to perform faster and better than the original Pre. Whether that’s an effect of a clean, fresh device primed for demoing or a real indicator that the Pre Plus really deserves that Plus remains to be seen.

Police have identified a woman found dead and burned beyond recognition in a Miami dumpster on Sunday
as former Playboy model Paula Sladewski.

The charred body of the 26-year-old blonde was found Sunday night after firefighters extinguished flames in a large trash bin near a propane business. Police were able to identify the body using dental records.

Paula and her boyfriend, Kevin Klym, 34, arrived in Miami on Thursday New Year Eve’s with Fontainebleu headliner Lady Gaga. Police are considering him a person of interest, but Paula’s family insists Klym knows more about the model’s disappearance than he has revealed.

“They had a horrible relationship,” says Richard Watkins, Paula’s stepfather. “I have told them from the start that they shouldn’t be together.”

Watkins said the couple, who had been together for two years, argued often. Klym broke Sladewski’s nose during an argument just last month and was arrested.

Luke Timmerman wrote:

The Institute for Systems Biology, a Seattle-based research center known for its entrepreneurial activity, was ranked No. 1 among all U.S. research institutions and No. 3 worldwide in terms of the impact of its scientific publications, according to an analysis by Spain-based SCImago Research Group.

The impact ranking was based on an institution’s total research output, how much it collaborates with other centers, the influence of its publications, how often they are cited by other scientists, and other factors. The full report examined the publication records of more than 2,100 research institutes around the world from 2003 to 2007.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the U.K. was ranked No. 1 worldwide in terms of the scientific impact, followed by the Institut National de Physique Nucleaire in France, and the Institute for Systems Biology—all of whom have impact ratings more than triple the worldwide average. Seattle’s other research institutions were well-represented in the report, too, with both The University of Washington School of Medicine and the rest of the University of Washington campus in the top 20 worldwide in terms of research output, and with scientific impact ratings that were more than double the worldwide average. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s impact rating was also more than double the worldwide average.

“It’s great to see that an independent analysis of outcomes demonstrates that we were on track 10 years ago,” Institute president Leroy Hood said in a statement.

The Institute for Systems Biology was founded in 2000 by Hood, Alan Aderem, and Reudi Aebersold, in order to foster cross-disciplinary research that looks at whole biological systems, rather than single genes or proteins in isolation. While the Institute has worked hard to establish its chops with scientific peers, it also seeks to apply its work in the broader business world. The Institute co-founded the Accelerator for launching new biotech companies in 2003, and has most recently given birth to a new company called Integrated Diagnostics that seeks to detect cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases much earlier through looking for biomarkers that can be found in a pinprick of blood.

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The Best Buy Geek Squad‘s PC and Mac optimization services are worse than a bad deal, since they can actually make your new computer slower. Apparently Best Buy heard our heckling: bullshit optimization is on its way out.

A tipster sent us this memo, which outlines Best Buy’s new Best Buy Installer Software, which is an app that lets customers choose which apps (and bloat) to install on their new computers, excluding Dells and HPs. It’s never good when a store starts adding their own software to new computers, but one preinstalled bloat app is better than 20, even if said app leads you straight to others. Oh, and Best Buy earns about $5 from software companies for each BBIS install, so make of that what you will.

Anyway! Here’s the meat (“this” refers to BBIS): Best Buy’s pitch is that their new service negates their old one, and that Windows 7—which has been out for three months now, by the way—starts up fast enough that optimizing it, whatever that means, isn’t necessary. But remember, their optimizations don’t help in the first place. The Geek Squad optimization brand is tainted, so this smells like damage control more than anything. Full memo below. —Thanks, M!

In anticipation of the expected snowfall forecast for the area this afternoon, CTA is reminding customers to allow extra travel time.

“We recommend customers allow extra travel time as buses travel in the same traffic as other vehicles and can be impacted by adverse weather conditions.

Rail service also can be impacted by snow, ice and extremely cold temperatures,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez.

“During inclement weather, more travelers opt for public transit making buses, platforms and trains more crowded.”

Trains are equipped with sleet scrapers and snowplow blades to remove ice and snow from the third rail.  In addition, CTA has four snow fighter locomotives to clear tracks of ice and snow.

Crews also inspect and activate overhead heating fixtures on platforms at all 125 outdoor rail stations so that customers can stay warm, and restock sand boxes so there are supplies at the ready to keep stairs, platforms and bus areas safe for customers and employees.

As snow continued to blanket the area this morning, the morning commute operated without significant impact from the weather.  All CTA buses and trains operated on their regular weekday schedules with only a few minor delays.

CTA staff will monitor the weather throughout the day and determine if deployment of additional staff or snow clearing equipment is needed for the evening commute.

The CTA’s Bus Tracker is a useful tool for planning the evening commute with the estimated arrival time of buses along a route.  All 150 CTA routes are available on the Web site at ctabustracker.com.

In addition, customers can log onto the CTA’s Web site at transitchicago.com, or call Customer Service at 1-888-YOUR-CTA (1-888-968-7282), to find out if CTA service is impacted by the weather.

It’s about as useful as this thing, but that didn’t stop a group of creative young individuals from coming up with a system that exposes fraudulent handshakes.

We ironed on conductive fabric pads on different parts of the gloves, and read them off like a multiplexed keypad. The pads on one glove are the rows and the pads on the other glove are the columns, and strobing rows and columns sees what combination of pads were connected to each other). The LilyPad then figures out what gesture is being made and transmits a number through serial to a Processing program which displays the gesture on the screen and checks for the correct pattern.

We know ShakeOnIt is made with Polartec Polyester gloves re-sewed with conductive fabric and a Lilypad Arduino, but I lack the skills to make one of these systems myself. That’s too bad—I can’t tell you how many times I have been victimized by a phony high five. [ShakeOnIt via Make]

Filed under: Aftermarket, India, Tata, Specialty

DC Designs came out swinging at this week’s Auto Expo 2010, and in addition to revealing its Imperator and Ying Yang concepts, the Mumbai-based firm’s namesake – Dilip Chhabaria – revealed plans to produce a bespoke Tata Nano that’s set to cost… wait for it… 10 million rupee. That’s $220,000.

How could Chhabari possibly inflate the price of the Nano by some $218,000? According to reports coming out New Delhi, DC plans to completely overhaul the budget runabout, replacing all the body panels, brakes, suspension and interior components, along with fitting 20-inch wheels and replacing the 33 horsepower, 624cc engine with a 1.6-liter mill that’s able to propel the five-seat hatch to a maximum speed of 124 mph. We figure we could do all of that on a LeMons budget, so either something got lost in translation or we’ll have what he’s having.

Chhabari told the AFP that he expects, “…people from Bollywood to be interested in this project, but I think generally it will be people who have a passion for cars.” DC plans to sell between two and five modified Nanos each year and expects to not only market his creation in India, but also export his $200k hatch to outside markets. Hey Dilip, stop hogging the hookah.

[Source: AFP]

$220,000 DC Designs Tata Nano coming this year originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Using the market's view above, here's how the European dominoes could collpase -- first Greece, then Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. 

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Euro Bankers Fly To Greece For Dramatic Emergency Meeting
• What We Can Learn From Europe's $40 Billion Renewable Energy Super Grid
• EU-Imposed Austerity Regimes Creating Anarchy And Terrorism In Southern Europe

According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, Electric vehicles are unlikely to become a mainstream phenomenon by 2020. Price is the main culprit as automakers maintain a long-term cost target of $250 per kilowatt-hour for lithium-ion batteries; the current price is between $1,000 and $2,000.

By the current price, a 20 kilowatt hour EV battery costs about $20,000 and are expected to fall to about $8,000 by 2020, but that is still not enough, according to the study which claims that consumers seek a three-year payback on EVs.

“Nobody so far has found the silver bullet,” Xavier Mosquet, leader of the firm’s global automotive practice, said. “A number of OEMs are going to invest money and not get the return unless there is a new technology or a new oil shock.”

The report also projects however that 265 of cars sold in major markets will derive some power from a form of battery, but these are mostly hybrid vehicles.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Symphony of Science: Carl Sagan and friends sing again
Discovery Space: ‘Wiped out’ by supernova? No way!
Popular Science: Scientists name the era before Earth
ScienceDaily: 8% of our gene code comes from virus …(read more)

The woman who is alleged to have engaged in an affair with a producer during taping on the 14th season of ABC’s The Bachelor has been revealed.

RadarOnline.com has identified Rozlyn Papa, a 28-year-old blonde from Richmond, Virginia, as the woman who appeared on the long-running dating show in hopes of falling in love with pilot Jake Pavelka but instead ended up getting cozy with a member of the show’s staff.

While Rozlyn denies that the relationship was sexual, she does admit to engaging in a romance with the crewmember, who was eventually fired. The two are no longer together.

“I had a relationship with someone on the show that didn’t benefit them,” Rozlyn told Radar. “We remained really close but we are not dating now…..This is a TV show and it’s made for entertainment, but it is a far cry from reality,”

A few months back, a group of scientists got a lot of attention when they published a study that suggested a virus called XMRV could be linked to many cases of chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS.

But as we noted at the time, the study didn’t clearly prove a link between the disease and the virus. Now, in a study published this week in the journal PLoS One, scientists in the U.K. say they looked at samples from 186 CFS patients and found no sign of XMRV.

A research institute that was part of the earlier study fired off a press release that faulted the methods used in the new article, arguing that the techniques “not only explain their failure to replicate” the earlier findings, “but also render the conclusions meaningless.” Needless to say, the U.K. scientists defended their work. (For more on the technical back-and-forth, see this article from ScienceNOW.)

A lot is at stake here, because there’s no test to determine whether someone has CFS; it’s diagnosed based on a patient’s symptoms, which the CDC says include six months or more of incapacitating fatigue, along with other problems. So finding a physiological link — like a viral infection — would be an important advance.

Image: iStockphoto

We might complain about the amount of work we do here at CES, but nothing puts life in perspective like a man forced to soberly sing karaoke in the wilds of south hall all day long. Stay strong, karaoke man.

Just got finished with some hands-on time with the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. So far the verdict is: a better Pre and a better Pixi. No surprise that there are few physical changes to see here. The Pixi Plus, in fact, is identical to its Sprint cousin on the outside, differing only in that it has WiFi on the inside. As you can see in the gallery after the break, these new battery door colors are bright.

The Pre Plus, though, has nice touches all around. Palm pulled the center ‘navigation’ button and it makes for a much prettier device all around. The keyboard is also white and gray now instead of white and orange. To our fingers the keyboard on the Pre Plus feels slightly better than the original Pre. The keys are a little firmer, but unfortunately they don’t have the awesome clickiness you get on the Pixi.

A quick look around the devices show that beyond the coming Video Recording and Hot Spot to Go tethering, the only new software we could track down was Verizon Navigator. Good to know that Pre Plus  and Pixi Plus owners on Verizon will be able to get their free turn-by-turn directions on.

The only X factor is the precise specs of both the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, processor and RAM-wise. We know that Palm doubled the memory and the storage space on the Pre Plus, but somebody also mentioned that the Pre Plus might have a slightly faster processor. Don’t take that last as Bible truth, though, as we have yet to confirm.

Hands-on video soon!

read more

One of the complaints we’ve heard often from Pre and Pixi owners is that the only way to browse the App Catalog is on their devices. Today we’re pleased to announce that those complaints can be set to the side, as we at PreCentral have partnered with the good folks at Palm to bring you the PreCentral webOS App Gallery.

Palm has been gracious enough to provide us with a free and open feed to the App Catalog, and that just makes them pretty much awesome. We’ve taken that feed and converted it into something that you can easily browse on your desktop machine, as well as in the webOS web browser. Right now you can check out the latest updates, search for apps, browse the various categories, and check out screenshots. This is in beta from both ourselves and Palm, so don’t be surprised to see more exciting additions in the days and weeks ahead (once we recover from the excitement that is CES). [Note from Dieter: Very beta, we’re working on improvements, thanks to everybody who has sent in suggestions!]

Want to check it out? Of course you do. Just point your browser to http://www.precentral.net/app-gallery

Nearly three years after Viacom (VIA) first sued Google (GOOG) over copyright infringement, the case may finally be ready to start moving again. Both sides have asked a federal court for summary judgment, which means there’s an opportunity for the legal system to actually make a decision in what could be a landmark case.

Both sides filed the requests, which have been expected for sometime, at the end of last month. Which means that years of laborious discovery and depositions have come to a close.

There’s not much to the filings themselves:

• Google’s document reiterates its initial argument. The search giant says that it doesn’t knowingly store or play copyrighted clips on the site, and if it does, it’s protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It also cites last fall’s ruling in the Veoh/Universal Music Group case, in which a court ruled in favor of the video sharing site.
• Viacom’s document reiterates its initial argument, which is that Google and YouTube knew what they were doing and profited from it, which means the DMCA doesn’t protect them . And perhaps it says  something more interesting. Hard to tell, since US District Court judge Louis Stanton has redacted more than a page of the document, as you can see here:

Wonder what that says? Me too.

Viacom filing:
Via 1710
Google filing:
Goog1710

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Sick of CES news? In Washington DC tonight? Feel like some ambitious party-crashing? Here’s a dinner to get yourself into: The one that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is hosting for Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt and a group of digital doers and thinkers.

Other luminaries on the guest list:

• Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey
• Howcast CEO and co-founder Jason Liebman
• Clay Shirky, author and NYU professor
• Jared Cohen, Member of Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff
• Andrew Rasiej, founder Personal Democracy Forum
• Shervin Pishevar, founder Social Gaming Network
• Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webbys
• Luis Ubiñas, President of the Ford Foundation
• James Eberhard, pioneer of mobile content and services

What’s on the agenda? Dunno. But I imagine we’ll see a lot of chatter about it during and after the fact. Here’s Dorsey’s self-portrait, taken while en route to the event today:

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