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Hertfordshire, Acre Resources

The UK’s leading and most innovative sustainability consultancy in the built environment is looking for a talented Sustainability Consultant to join their busy team.

Due to the high volume of work your initial focus will be the project delivery of BREEAM assessments and energy strategies. It will be your responsibility to provide sustainable building design consultancy to a broad range of top clients.

A background in building services consultancy together with experience in applying BREEAM will be invaluable in project managing the complete BREEAM advisory and assessment process.

In this client facing role, the successful candidate will be educated to degree level in a suitable scientific or engineering discipline. It is essential that you are able to demonstrate a breadth of practical experience in BREEAM and that you are BREEAM qualified. Additionally, you will hold a broad understanding of sustainability as you will be working across individual specialist teams within the business.

This is rare opportunity for a proactive, organised and dynamic consultant to join a consultancy truly dedicated to sustainability; a company who encourage their staff to develop their career and broaden their skills.

Our client is only able to consider individuals with the right to work in the UK or EU.
 

OK, you guys really have to try this. I was at the Alemany Farmer’s Market recently and Jerusalem artichokes (also known as sunchokes) are in season. I’ve never tried this sunflower tuber, and I always enjoy trying new vegetables, so I grabbed a couple. They were quite cheap at 50 cents a pound. Once I had them in my kitchen, I decided I wanted to roast them, so I sliced them thin, added salt, olive oil, and fresh rosemary, and wow, welcome to flavor country!

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The Economist declares 2010 “the year of the paywall.” Newspapers will try to make readers pay for news next year, it predicts, because … well, they have no choice. Online advertising pays pennies to the dollars publishers get from print ads, classifieds are doomed, and total advertising has been in a free fall for the last year. What’s more, newspapers that are charging readers, like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, are generally considered success stories.

I’m interested to watch the paywall revolution for two reasons: (1) The future of online journalism has a not-insignificant impact on my rent money; and (2) I would consider this a good business move even if I wasn’t in this business.

Although the WSJ and FT are considered successes, they’re also
considered islands. “Those are just the financial newspapers,” other
publishers tell themselves. “They can support a different model because
they have a different audience.” So this is what I think will happen.
One major publication — possibly a Murdoch paper — will announce that
it will give readers 10 or so free articles a month, and then it will
shut down free access to your IP address unless you register and pay a
small fee. Other publishers will wait to see what happens with traffic
and revenue. If the results aren’t disastrous, another big paper will
try something similar. And then another. And then another.

As for readers, I don’t think this should seem terribly apocalyptic. As Marion Maneker points out,
millions of Americans choose to pay for cable TV, because it offers
content they want to watch. This is how media works, and how it has
worked for hundreds of years. The ’00s represented a brief vacation from
history where consumers learned to expect that reading news should
be entirely free online. Fifty years ago, that would have seemed crazy.
Fifty years from now, I think it will seem equally crazy. But before
the journalism business loops back to history (and hopefully to
something resembling profitability) we need more walls.

Lee Noble, el fundador de Noble Automotive, ha revelado una serie de fotos renderizadas de su siguiente superdeportivo. El modelo será producido por Fenix Automotive, nueva compañía de Noble, que abrió sus puertas dos años después que Noble Automotive.

Las fotos muestran un frontal redondeado y un poco voluptuoso con un aspecto convexo. Los faros leds y la parrilla trapezoidal dotan al concepto de un aspecto realmente amenazador acrecentando así la línea deportiva del modelo. Los indicadores parecen estar acoplados en los espejos retrovisores, mientras que la vista superior muestra una cabina biplaza con un espacio limitado.

Todavía sin nombre oficial, los compradores tendrán la opción de dotar al modelo de un motor LS3 de GM de 480 CV o un V8 LS9, el mismo que monta el Corvette ZR1, que ofrece un rendimiento superior a 638 CV con el que podrá alcanzar 160 Km/h en menos de 7 segundos.

La clave de esta brutal aceleración, fue mantener un bajo peso, unos 1.200, que además le permite alcanzar más de 320 Km/h. El modelo tendrá un precio de partida de unos 81.000 euros y saldrá a la venta a finales de 2010.

Vía | World Car Fans

We have seen a number of game related PlayStation 3 bundles, however this one is different and if you are an MJ fan and have not got your PS3 – this is it, this PS3 bundle is for you and it’s bad. However you may have to travel to the country of the rising sun to get it, no release of this bundle has been confirmed for the US or Europe. We’ll ping our contacts at Sony to learn if it ever makes it here. We also wish the hardware itself had some kind of MJ graphic to distinguish it from all other PS3s, but alas… Read on the official press release below and check out a cool Rolly video too (oh and I almost forgot to say, I want an Avatar PS3 bundle with 3D, not a bad idea Sony?)

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), a division of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. responsible for business operation in Japan, today announced that a “PlayStation®3 ‘Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT’ Special Pack” will become available in Japan on January 27, 2010, concurrently with the release of Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT on Blu-ray™/DVD discs. This special bundle pack, produced in collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment, will include the PlayStation®3 (PS3®) computer entertainment system with 120GB Hard Disk Drive and Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT on Blu-ray Disc and will be a limited offer at a recommended retail price of 33,500 yen (including tax).

Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT is a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his final concerts that were to be held in London from summer of 2009 to 2010. This blockbuster film was drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scene footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show. The disc also includes Blu-ray Disc exclusive vignettes of Thriller and Smooth Criminal which were re-taken specifically for the concert as well as a special wallpaper for the PS3 system.

With the “PlayStation 3 ’Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT’ Special Pack”, SCEJ continues to deliver the entertainment experience only possible on the PS3 system and further expands the platform to the gaming fans as well as to those new audience who are seeking for the ultimate entertainment platform for their home.

Check out this Rolly trio doing their moves to MJ song:

Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends, Internet, Apple

This is a pretty wandering post over at the NZ Herald (it starts out with a screening of Avatar, and drops a few local actor names before getting down to business), but it eventually gets to an interesting premise: what will Apple’s hardware look like not in 2010, when we’re all breathlessly awaiting the tablet, but in 2020, ten years from now? Of course we’re talking about complete speculation here — not even Apple knows what they’ll be doing in ten years. But it’s not like we haven’t done it before: Apple’s devices are smaller, faster, and more powerful than ever. What will they be like ten years down the line?

More gesturing and intuitive human interfaces seem like a good guess — with the iPhone, the accelerometer has been used in all sorts of interesting ways, and it’s probably not far until Apple figures out a way to track movement in 3D space, either by moving an iPhone or a controller around, or as the piece suggests, by tracking our body in some way. Slimmer display screens and extra battery life will be in the future as well. And the article mentions solid state storage, but if our predictions for this year are any indication, Apple will try to move off the hard drive as much as possible, and start placing data for multimedia and other files in a cloud server, accessible via Internet whenever they’re needed.

Like I said, interesting thought experiment. What do you think Apple will be like ten years from now?

TUAWApple ten years on originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Three of the world’s leading media, technology and entertainment companies – Discovery Communications, Sony Corporation and IMAX Corporation – today announced a joint venture to be established to develop the first 24/7 dedicated 3D television network in the U.S. The partnership brings together three leaders with an extraordinary collection of award-winning 3D content, technology expertise, television distribution and operational strength to deliver a high-quality three-dimensional viewing experience to home television audiences.

“Discovery’s business strategy has always focused on delivering groundbreaking content through new platforms, including the first suite of digital channels launched in 1996 and the first 24/7 basic cable HD channel in 2002,” said Discovery Founder and Chairman John Hendricks. “Now, as Discovery celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2010 as the world leader in satisfying curiosity and bringing audiences the most realistic viewing experience, we continue to change the face of television with the launch of the first-ever 24/7 dedicated 3D television network.”

“Sony is the only company with expertise in every part of the 3D value chain,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation. “We are delighted to be partnering with Discovery and IMAX, two premier companies also dedicated to leadership in 3D, in this groundbreaking new venture. It is clear to us that consumers will always migrate to a better and richer entertainment experience, and together we are determined to be the leader in providing that around the world.”

“By partnering with Sony and IMAX on 3D, Discovery will lead the way in revolutionizing the next-generation home viewing experience in the U.S. and around the world,” said Discovery Communications President and CEO David Zaslav. “Today’s announcement is the next step in fulfilling Discovery’s mission of providing groundbreaking content for our affiliate partners and enlightening viewers with the most immersive and realistic viewing experience available anywhere.”

“IMAX has been a pioneer and recognized leader in 3D technology for more than twenty-five years, delivering the premium in-theatre experience to audiences around the world. We’re reaching more and more consumers with the recent expansion of the IMAX® theatre network and the growth of 3D movie content,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. “This new business venture is the first step in our strategic effort to take 3D into the home and extend the IMAX brand. We’ve already had strong collaborations with Discovery Communications and Sony in the past on IMAX event film titles, and we are thrilled to work with such strong partners to be the first to make in-home 3D a reality.”

Discovery, Sony, through its U.S. affiliate, Sony Corporation of America, and IMAX each will be equal partners in the joint venture. It will be launched in the U.S., with a goal of driving consumer adoption of 3D televisions and giving the network long-term leadership in the 3D home marketplace. In the future, the companies also will explore international distribution opportunities in selected markets.

The new 3D network will feature high-quality premium content from genres that are most appealing in 3D, including natural history, space, exploration, adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion pictures and children’s programming from Discovery, Sony Pictures Entertainment, IMAX and other third-party providers.

Discovery will provide network services, including affiliate sales and technical support functions, as well as 3D television rights to Discovery content and cross-promotion across its portfolio of 13 U.S. television networks. Sony will provide advertising/sponsorship sales support, and will seek to license television rights to current and future 3D feature films, music-related 3D content and game-related 3D content, while providing cross-promotion at retail stores. IMAX also will license television rights to future 3D films, promotion through its owned-and-operated movie theaters across the U.S., and a suite of proprietary and patented image enhancement and 3D technologies.

Governance for the joint venture will be handled by a board of directors comprised of members from each of the three companies, with the day-to-day operations run by a separate staff and management team that will report to the board. A search for the venture’s general manager will begin immediately.

The parties have signed a non-binding Letter of Intent. Specific financial terms of the venture were not disclosed. The parties will work towards prompt execution of definitive agreements, subject to any necessary regulatory approvals.

Now that Google’s Nexus One “SUPERPHONE” has officially launched, along with the far more interesting a carrier-independent smartphone store through which it is being sold, what can we expect from it — bottom line? In a note to clients this morning, Barclays Capital analyst Doug Anmuth hazards a guess: 5 – 6 million units sold in 2010, based on distribution through T-Mobile at launch and Verizon Wireless (VZ) by spring. That’s quite a number, considering Motorola’s (MOT) 2010 global smartphone shipments are expected to be somewhere around 13 million units. And, according to Anmuth, it should allow Google (GOOG) to book incremental revenue of $2.6 billion–$3.2 billion. Not bad for a first retail effort from a company that’s not exactly known for retailing. After all, cell phones are not an easy business to get into …

[Image Credit: Search Engine Land]

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European Central Bank leaders are flying into Greece today as the debt crisis continues to escalate.

Jurgen Stark, an excutive board member of the ECB, started another scare this morning with his quote in the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. “The markets are deluding themselves when they think at a certain point the other member states will put their hands on their wallets to save Greece,” he said.

This, coupled with already established fears on the issue of Greek fiscal security, led to a decline in the Euro in trading this morning.

Greece is now facing an evaluation by ECB leaders as to whether or not they can stay true to their deficit cutting measures aimed at keeping it within the Eurozone’s strict budgetary guidelines. Debt markets are also being rattled by this escalation increasing the yield on Greece’s ten year treasury bonds. Martin Tyler of the Financial Times added fuel to the fire in terms of Eurozone security today by emphasizing the hardships built into the Euro setup for smaller states and how their escape from these is vital for the Euro’s long-term success.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Gartman: Greece’s Prime Minister Doesn’t Realize How Much Trouble He’s In
• Moody’s Downgrades Greece, As Civil Servants Union Threatens To Go On Strike To Protest Budget Cuts
• Desperate Greek Minister Tries Instilling Confidence On CNBC, Doesn’t Get Interrupted By News Of A Governor And Prostitute

-Here’s a preview of the eagerly-anticipated How I Met Your Mother musical episode….

-Check out a few sneak peek clips from James Franco’s appearance on 30 Rock Jan. 14…..

–Bachelorette Jillian Harris sets a wedding date…..

–DWTS champ Donny Osmond dives into radio…..

–Biggest Loser contestant Shay Sorrells is earning $1,000 for every pound she sheds, courtesy of Subway…..

-Hundreds of Essence Magazine subscribers and website commentors are crying foul over the magazine’s decision to put NFL star Reggie Bush on the cover of its February “Black Love” issue. The ladies are particularly pissed because Kim Kardashian’s Other Half has a reputation for romantically-snubbing women of color. In other words, “he don’t do Black….”

-Speaking of sports, 7′6″ NBA hoopster Yao Ming is going to be a dad!

-Viola Davis will join Denzel Washington in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Fences…..

–Sam Mendes is a candidate to direct the next 007 feature…..

-How much does newlywed Vince Vaughn know about cheating…..

-Mos Def, Talib Kweli “History” Music Video Premiere…..

Luke Timmerman wrote:

Some of the best-selling drugs in the pharmaceutical industry are what biotechies call “naked” antibodies. These are engineered Y-shaped proteins that zero in on markers of diseased cells, while sparing healthy ones. They generate an estimated $30 billion in annual sales, from big names like Roche’s trastuzumab (Herceptin) for breast cancer.

But to hear one of the nation’s leading developers of antibody drugs talk today, those treatments aren’t really on the cutting edge anymore.

“It’s unlikely in the future of Seattle Genetics that we’ll put another naked antibody into the clinic,” CEO Clay Siegall says. “The future will be with antibodies that are empowered.”

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) has come to that conclusion after it has spent more than a decade trying to make antibodies more potent. The company, founded in 1998, has never been able to take a naked antibody drug all the way through to FDA approval, and it has shelved a number of candidates over the years—SGN-10, SGN-15, SGN-30. But Seattle Genetics has generated its most promising data yet from a next-generation “empowered” antibody for Hodgkin’s disease. The technology that makes this possible—linking a regular antibody to a toxin that can give it extra-tumor killing punch—has now been licensed to eight other drug companies. More data emerged this year from competitors Roche and ImmunoGen that suggests they, too, have found a way to link an antibody with a toxin to create a souped-up antibody drug that beats the original. And Seattle Genetics has designs on pushing the envelope further in the future with another next-generation technique for making antibodies more potent.

Clay Siegall

Scientists have been dreaming about creating powerful targeted therapies, known as antibody-drug conjugates, for three decades, but the efforts usually failed because the linkers weren’t stable, and the toxins broke off in the bloodstream before they could reach the intended target, causing side effects. Seattle Genetics’ technology is built on the idea that its synthetic linkers remain stable until the antibody reaches the tumor and unleashes its toxic payload.

The lead drug candidate at Seattle Genetics, brentuximab vedotin, opened the eyes of cancer researchers a little more than a year ago with its data. Scientists said that 17 of the 44 patients (38 percent) had their tumors completely disappear or mostly go away after they took the drug. When they looked at patients who got higher doses that are more likely to be tested in late stages, the data look even better. Of the 28 patients who got those doses, about one-third had their tumors completely disappear, while 93 percent had at least some measurable tumor shrinkage. That drug is now in a pivotal clinical trial that could produce results by the end of this year, and may reach the U.S. market by the end of 2011.

While Seattle Genetics still has a couple of naked antibodies moving through clinical trials, Wall Street isn’t counting on them. Last month, Roche pulled the plug on a partnership to develop …Next Page »

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2009 was the year that issues like local food, sustainable food systems, and agriculture reform went mainstream, and we expect this national conversation to intensify in 2010. Unfortunately, much of the time it looks less like dialogue and more like, as LA Times food editor Russ Parsons writes, “two armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other.” How can “hard-line aggies” and “know-nothing urbanites” create meaningful discussion and change?

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KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provides students one of the best values in public education according to the latest rankings from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

The magazine’s annual “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” ranks American colleges based on academic quality and affordability. The Best Values program this year evaluated 120 public colleges and universities. UT was the only Tennessee public university to make the top 100, placing 58th overall, up six spots from last year.

Kiplinger’s considers characteristics including entrance exam scores, admissions and retention rates, graduation rates, student-faculty ratios, total cost for in-state students and average debt of students upon graduation. Academic quality measurements make up two-thirds of the total score, while costs and financial aid factors count for one-third of the scoring.

“We strive to make the University of Tennessee an affordable and accessible institution and are proud to be nationally recognized for our efforts,” said UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “We have continued to increase access by creating need-based scholarship programs so that we can offer the best education possible for the best and brightest students.”

The HOPE Scholarship is available to Tennessee high school graduates who earn at least a 21 on their ACT and have an overall weighted grade-point average of 3.0 or better. About 95 percent of UT Knoxville’s in-state freshmen received the HOPE Scholarship in 2009.

In recent years, UT Knoxville has created several need-based scholarship programs that supplement the HOPE Scholarship and help ensure that money isn’t a stumbling block for academically eligible students who want to attend.

The Tennessee Pledge scholarships help students from low-income families attend the university and allows those students to graduate debt-free by paying for mandatory college costs not covered by other federal or state aid. The Tennessee Promise scholarships target students from high schools that have not traditionally sent many of their graduates to UT Knoxville.

In addition, the university has launched the “Achieve the Dream” program that makes grant money available to Tennessee students from lower-middle-income families whose incomes are too high to qualify them for Pell grants or the Pledge scholarship, but who still need financial help with college costs.

For more information about Kiplinger’s 2009-2010 Best Values in Public Colleges rankings, visit http://www.kiplinger.com/reports/best-college-values/.

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C O N T A C T :

Kristi Hintz (865-974-3993, [email protected])

While 2009 was a horrible year for the auto industry, there was hardly a shake up on the list of Top 10 cars sold when compared to the previous year (2008).

Of course, the Ford F-Series is still the top seller in the United States. Honda Accord 290,056

Check out the full list.

– By: Omar Rana