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Sega has revealed that the Aliens vs. Predator Hunter Edition, announced originally for Europe earlier this month, will be hugging the US in the face as well. That’s a good thing. Details after the jump.

Michigan is truly in a state of economic turmoil.

The population of the entire state has dropped below 10 million amid rising unemployment and falling job availability.

Detroit News: Economic woes continued to force thousands of Michiganians to leave the state, leading the overall population to drop below 10 million for the first time since 2000, according to population estimates released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.

…

Michigan has been bleeding people since 2005, and at the heart of the decline has been the growing exodus of people moving out looking for work. The current estimate puts Michigan’s population at 9,969,727, down from 10,002,486 in 2008. The state has seen a net loss of more than a half-million people to other states since 2001 — a number that swamps the natural increase from a greater number of births than deaths.

Read the whole story >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Michigan Financial Worker Can’t Even Get A Job At Burger King
• Underwear With "Wild Thing" Written On It Is The Hot Christmas Present At The Detroit Dollar Store
• Detroit’s Unemployment Nears 50%

Thief Dressed As Santa Claus Robs Bank
Kris Kringle Look-Alike Armed With 9-Millimeter Handgun
Reported By Deanna Lambert 

“It was a little unbelievable. He was actually jovial, which is scary. He explained that he was robbing the bank because Santa had to pay his elves,” said witness Richlyn Jones.

read the whole thing at  WSMV TV Nashville

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

From my earliest memories, I have had an interest in art and its various media.

I was raised in the Chicago area and remember many trips to the Art Institute of Chicago. They had a large collection of paintings from the Impressionists through the modern era. Picasso and Dali were my favorites! Picasso’s blue period, and Dali’s “Persistence of Memory” stand out in my mind.

As a child, when I thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had two dreams. One was to be a doctor, and the other to be an artist! Since art was offered earlier in my schooling, and playing doctor was fraught with risks, I began my artistic voyage as soon as I could.

My slice of the creative pie

However, I was not very good. This never stopped me from trying to be an artist, and with years of practice, though I’m still not good, I have gotten a lot better!

In many ways, I have learned to hide my artistic deficiencies. Recently I had the occasion to be visited by a very good artist. In my opinion, he had no deficiencies. He was a portrait painter from California and had painted many famous people over the years. I must admit I was a bit nervous, as I felt with his talent, his time could be better spent.

I was quite surprised with his reaction to my work. He kept asking, “Where did you get that idea, and how did you think of using those colors?” as he was intrigued by my creativity. I realized that in art, as in many areas of life, most of us have a slice of the pie. It is the rare artist or individual who possesses the skills and the creativity of the whole pie!

Opening up to criticism

One of the early lessons I learned as an artist was that criticism seemed to play a large role in the art world. We have heard of art critics, but I don’t think I have ever heard of anybody having the job of a doctor or medicine critic! (And complaining about doctors does not count!)

Really, do any of us like being criticized? I had a friend who was taking an art appreciation course (they don’t call it artist appreciation for a reason). She asked me to bring in a piece I had done so “the class could criticize it.” Now there was something I was really looking forward to! Maybe we need mal-artist insurance, except for the artist, not the viewer.

Yet being open and vulnerable, whether to criticism, or to life, is so very important for all of us.

It can be hard, being the artist, putting your work out there for others to see and react to. I know people who have stopped doing art because they couldn’t take the rejections that come with that tender territory.

Does it hurt? It sure does. My work has been rejected more times than I care to remember, but I have never given up. Perhaps I have a poor memory. Perhaps the desire to be an artist chose me rather than the other way around, and I have no other choice. Nonetheless, the rewards of being creative, whether to exhibit in a gallery, or decorate my home, have been worth the voyage.

The photo that accompanies this column is my sculpture, “Take another piece of my art,” a reflection of my feelings on the vulnerability of the artist.

To be vulnerable is to be human

There is a price to pay for being unwilling to show vulnerability. It is a loss of the humanity that comes along with being real. It also involves the loss of opportunity. The opportunity to grow, to love, to be all that one can attain. Always playing it safe, never putting oneself out there, is very limiting. Safety is numbing. Life is for those who will take that chance, run that risk, go for the gold.

It is important to move through our fears. Often our greatest joys can be found on the other side of our greatest fears. I am reminded of a friend’s story about how her father’s greatest fear was that his beautiful daughter would get pregnant! Well, she did! Now her father has a granddaughter who is the apple of his eye!

Vulnerability is one of the more highly valued, authentic, mysterious and yet obvious characteristics that makes a human being human. It is necessary for our true human development. Vulnerability is that genuine human characteristic that rather than a weakness, is a strength. Never mistake softness for being weak.

After all, “Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.” (Theodore Roethke)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: Take another piece of my art

A lot of fuss has been made about the First Dog Bo Obama’s first snowfall this past week, and for good reason: Dogs and snow are a lot of fun to watch!

The presidential pooch, a one year old Portuguese Water Dog, romped around the grounds of the White House with reporters and photographs capturing his every move. He played fetch and took breaks to investigate the white stuff.

Are you or someone you love a Bo fan? Check out some cute stocking stuffer and gift ideas!

~ Bo Obama Official Ty Beanie Baby
~ First Dog
~ Bo, America’s Commander in Leash
~ Fuzzy First Dog Doll
~ First Dog T-shirt

Post from: Blisstree

Presidential Pup’s First Snowfall

Once upon a time Nokia made the coolest high-end mobile phones on Earth. I remember reviewing the camcorder-shaped N93 during a vacation to Hawaii back in ’06 – I shot video clips and emailed them to family back on the mainland, and despite it taking about nine hours to send each movie over T-Mobile’s EDGE network (okay, slight exaggeration), it was still just about the neatest mobile phone trick I’d ever seen. Back then, Nokia’s S60 Web browser was the state of the art, their N-Series devices defined the intersection of luxury and killer technology. I’ll never forget watching a clip of Howard Chui (he of HowardForums) on some news talk show being grilled about iPhone Fever a few years back. When the host asked him if he, of course, used an iPhone he very matter of fact-ly pulled an N95 out of his pocket and explained how it better suited his needs.

Three years later, it’s a different story for the Finnish phone giant. Nokia is stumbling. While the company retains a huge user base across the globe, including strong footholds in emerging markets and die-hard fans of both its top-shelf Symbian devices and low-end voice-and-text-only handsets, Nokia is losing the race for the hottest segment of the mobile market: the mainstream smartphone user. Like RIM in the U.S., Nokia remains strong in the European business geek sector, but when it comes to Digital Moms and mobile twenty-somethings with money to burn on monthly data plans, phones like the N97 and 5800 rarely enter the conversation. It’s an iPhone and Android world, and Nokia’s just playing catch-up in it.

Nokia still sells a ton of phones – even a stumbling giant is still called “giant” for a reason, mind you. But during Q3 of this year, Apple surpassed Nokia in total handset revenues by a half billion dollars, and Nokia posted an $834 million loss before canning its CFO. That’s a bad sign for the one time king of the cell phone jungle, particularly considering that Apple took a product made for the US market and went global with it in the most successful of ways, whereas Nokia’s struggles to break through in the US market are well-documented.

Missing The (Trendy) Boat

In a word, Apple prompted the touchscreen smartphone revolution, and everyone except Nokia jumped on board. As such, we’ve got a revitalized Motorola, we’ve got Palm sitting on the best OS in the mobile game, and we’ve got HTC building one-offs for Google. And we’ve also got trainwrecks like the Nokia N97 and 5800 which are examples of powerful multitasking computers rendered useless by entirely unusable touch-screen interfaces.

So what’s Nokia to do in 2010? Their recently released N900 shows promise in the high-end market with its new Maemo 5 operating system, but the device is quite honestly for geeks only (even by Nokia’s admission). There’s nary a hardware button on the phone’s front bezel, and the UI is so lacking in user-friendly icons and labels that the process of jumping out of an app or Web browsing session to make a phone call would literally be impossible for more than half of the US consumers used to their iPhones and Droids. 

The company’s line of Symbian S60 smartphones has long been showing its age, and while Nokia has promised an overall to the OS’ look and feel, the company’s recent attempts to graft touchscreen functionality onto the platform resulted in the aforementioned trainwreck devices. And I haven’t heard much about release schedules for Symbian Foundation devices beyond a steady uptick in OS version numbers (i.e. S^2 OS phones coming in 1H 2010, but just you wait for the killer S^3 phones later next year!). 

But Nokia still knows how to build a smartphone. The E72 is getting solid early reviews as the successor to the BlackBerry-alternative E71 (which was one of my favorite devices of 2008), and the N86 is widely considered one of the top two or three cameraphones in the world. The hardware on Nokia’s N-Series devices is by and large excellent, even if the design and OS behind the phones is getting stale.

Eroding in All Markets

To make matters worse, Nokia’s bread-and-butter, those low and mid-range voice/text phones, are also seeing competition. As BusinessWeek pointed out a few weeks ago, “The company’s main business of mid- and low-end handsets, which accounts for 55 percent of devices revenue, is also being eroded by Chinese and emerging market rivals.”

So what’s next for our Finnish friends? I’m not really sure. On the one hand, it’s not like the company’s about to go bankrupt. And with every character of this post that I type, I can hear another Nokia fanboy throwing darts at my picture on his wall – the company has legions of users, and loyal ones at that, who aren’t about to give up their rock-steady, multitasking E- and N- Series devices in favor of some touchscreen trendmaker. Or, if they do want to go capacitive-touch, they can now do so via Nokia’s own X6 music-centric smartphone.

On the other hand, however, Nokia’s in some serious trouble. The global phone market is moving towards smartphones for everyone, as evidenced by Apple’s leap to the top of the US market and huge gains gains globally, and both them and RIM grabbing big chunks of the “dual mode” handset market (phones with cellular and WiFi data capabilities) from Nokia this year. As smartphones go more and more mainstream, high specs and hardcore multitasking need to be matched by ease of use, style, and trendy features. Apple, Palm, and HTC/Motorola are rising to that challenge, matching sophisticated operating systems with sleek, finger-friendly hardware that’s easy to use. Nokia’s still trying to figure out how to catch up without losing their geek cred.

What’s Next? 

I hope they figure it out, and soon. My first cell phone ever was a Nokia (I forget the model number, but I bought it at Radio Shack in Manhattan and I could play “Snake” on its greyscale screen), and like I said, when I first started working at PhoneDog, I was floored by the likes of the N93, E70, and – as recently as last year – E71. I’d really love to see Nokia get back to the top of the mobile handset game. I mean, come on, it’s where they belong.

Isn’t it?

The ReadWriteWeb team will be live today for a 45-minute discussion about the year’s best products and biggest trends.

You can listen to the show at noon today on Blog Talk Radio. We will post the recording after the live event.

Show Details:

RWW Live Special: 2009 Year in Review

Time: Noon PST, (GMT -8)

Link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/readwriteweb

Sponsor

Mercedes-Benz officially announced today that Michael Schumacher will return to Formula One in 2010 with the Silver Arrows team. Schumacher, 40, has signed a three-year deal with Mercedes GP and will reunite with Ross Brawn, with whom he won all 7 of his World Championships.

The winner of 91 F1 races will partner up with Mercedes GP team driver Niko Rosberg.

Schumacher originally retired at the end of the 2006 season, 11 years after racing with Ferrari.

Click through for the official press release.

Press Release:

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER JOINS MERCEDES GP PETRONAS

The MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team can confirm today that seven-times Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher will make his racing return in 2010 with the Silver Arrows team.

With seven Drivers’ World Championships, 248 Grand Prix starts, 91 victories, 154 podium finishes and 68 pole positions, the 40-year old German needs no introduction following an illustrious and record-breaking Formula One career from 1991 to 2006 at the Jordan, Benetton and Ferrari teams.

Michael’s return to racing with MERCEDES GP PETRONAS sees his return to Mercedes-Benz Motorsport where he began his racing apprenticeship as part of the Junior Programme in 1990, racing in Group C sports cars and DTM, and sees Michael renew his partnership with Ross Brawn with whom he won all seven of his World Championships.

Today’s announcement confirms the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS driver line-up for the 2010 season with Michael partnering his compatriot, 24 year old Nico Rosberg, in the Silver Arrows cars.

Michael Schumacher: “MERCEDES GP PETRONAS represents a new challenge for me both in a sporting and a personal context. It is a new chapter in my racing career and I am really looking forward to working with my old friend Ross Brawn and my companions from my days with the Mercedes Junior Programme. I am convinced that together we will be involved in the fight for the Formula 1 World Championship next year and I am already looking forward to getting back onto the race track. For me, this partnership closes the circle. Mercedes supported me for so many years when I began my Formula 1 career and now I can hopefully give something back to the brand with the star.”

Nico Rosberg: “It is fantastic that Michael is returning to Formula One and will be my team-mate at MERCEDES GP PETRONAS. It’s a great challenge for me to be up against one of the best drivers of all time. I’m sure that we will form a very strong partnership as he will have lost none of his speed! It is also great news for our sport and the fans.”

Ross Brawn, Team Principal of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS: “I am delighted that we can confirm today that Michael will make his much-anticipated return to Formula One next year and drive for our MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team. As seven-time World Champion, Michael’s outstanding record in Formula One speaks for itself and I am looking forward to working with him again. With the completion of our driver line-up, I believe that we now have the most exciting partnership in Formula One with Michael and Nico, who provide the perfect mix of talent, experience, speed and youth. We can now turn our full attention to the preparations for the new season and everyone at MERCEDES GP PETRONAS is extremely excited about the challenge ahead. With the investment and support in our team provided by Daimler, Aabar and our new title partner Petronas, and with two such exciting drivers, we have all of the building blocks in place to have another successful season in 2010.”

Norbert Haug, Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports: “In April 1991, when I had been in charge of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport programme for just six months, Michael was standing beside me on the balcony one evening. Without the slightest doubt, he said in a low voice: “It’s about time that I got into Formula 1″. Michael had just turned 22 years of age and four months later, he made his debut at Spa in a Jordan. Mercedes-Benz helped him to this point and the rest is history: seven World Championship titles, more than any racing driver, 91 Grand Prix wins, more than any racing driver. Michael has more of everything than every other driver. As part of the Mercedes Junior Programme, Michael had raced in Group C sports cars and competed in a few DTM races. Ross Brawn, then our opponent at Jaguar, quickly realised Michael’s talent and they went on to win all seven of his Drivers’ World Championship titles together at Benetton and Ferrari. Our sporting ambition has always been that Michael should drive again where his professional career had started and Michael knew that. We often joked about it after the races and discussed the prospect seriously several times during the last 14 years in Formula 1. It didn’t happen in 1995, it didn’t happen in 1998 and it didn’t happen in 2005. I am delighted that it will now happen in 2010. I am very much looking forward to working with Michael and everybody at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler extends a very warm welcome to our ‘apprentice’ of 19 years ago. That apprentice is now the most successful racing driver of all time.”

– By: Kap Shah

Filed under: Performance, SUV, Videos, Audi, BMW, Land Rover

If you’re like us – and odds are very good you are – you have an evergreen problem. Namely, getting your significant other to feel one-tenth of the excitement about cars that you feel. Sure, you’ve tried explaining that while you almost drove off the freeway, it’s okay because you were trying to catch up with a 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Indy Pace Car. Or that waking up at 5:30 am on a Saturday to stand around in a parking lot drinking coffee and gawking at old cars is a perfectly normal family activity. You’ve probably even suggested that she might be happier driving to work in a Citroën DS. Maybe that last part is just us. But maybe not.

Well friends, we have found the solution. The following ten minute clip of Jeremy Clarkson waxing extra poetic about three “mad” SUVs is practically guaranteed to delight even the most fervent, dyed-in-the-wool car hater. It’s simply brilliant. Why? Because it’s Jeremy at his very best. Yes, of course, he insults stewardesses, environmentalists and the mentally ill all the while powersliding around an abandoned air strip. But he does it all in his 100-percent totally lovable way that frankly we find impossible to resist. Even those spouses that think your big, fat V8, “sounds wasteful” are sure to become fast fans. How could anyone argue with “sliced dolphins?” Make the jump to watch the video.

[Source: Top Gear via YouTube]

Continue reading VIDEO: Top Gear pits BMW X5 M against Audi Q7 TDI and Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged

VIDEO: Top Gear pits BMW X5 M against Audi Q7 TDI and Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Declining underwriting standards are back! – Are Declining Downpayment Standards a Good Idea? – Tiam Iacono – refers to a WSJ aerticle – The changes, which are being done on a market-by-market basis, mean buyers in some parts of the country can now borrow 95% instead of 90% of a property’s value. Until recently, mortgage companies had tighter standards for these markets because of falling home prices. … Earlier this month, MGIC removed New Orleans, Dover, Del., Akron, Ohio, and four other areas in Ohio from its list of restricted markets. The moves followed the company’s decision in September to loosen restrictions on 11 markets, including Denver and St. Louis … – TheMessThatGreensapnMade

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***   Bank of America sells exec’s house for substantially less than asking price – By David Mildenberg – Bank of America, the biggest U.S. home lender, sold a home for its top housing executive for 44 percent less than its initial asking price set last year, property records show.  Barbara Desoer, head of the bank’s home-loan and insurance unit, put her 4,500-square-foot house in Charlotte, N.C., on the market Aug. 1, 2008, for $1.675 million. The home sold on Nov. 22 for $930,500, according to a Multiple Listing Service report. – Seattle Times

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Fannie’s Christmas Present – A Delayed Repo – Bruce Krasting – … Assume that all of the lenders followed Fannie’s lead and suspended foreclosures from the 19th to the 3rd. That would be a pretty big deal. The number of foreclosure has now reached a level of 11,000 per day. So this break in the action by the lenders would defer as many as 160,000 homes from foreclosure. But that is only for two weeks. It just means the January/February numbers will have a bulge … other thoughts – Zero Hedge

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new reverse mortgage hybrid products? – Hybrid Concepts Look Good on Paper, Regulatory Approval Could be Lengthy – Combining a reverse mortgage with other financial products continues to be a topic debated in our industry and in the halls of Congress.  An article from Investment News describes how companies like Sun Life Financial are developing a hybrid benefit linked products which could involve a reverse mortgage … – Reverse Mortgage Daily

has link – MetLife Releases Reverse Mortgage Guide for Consumers – MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) announced the release of The Essentials: Reverse Mortgages to help consumers make informed decisions regarding the use of home equity to help fund one’s retirement. – Reverse Mortgge Daily

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(MBS) The Inflation Bomb Hiding On The Fed’s Balance Sheet – John Carney – … Think of it this way. If the Fed bought a mortgage backed security for $100 but can only sell it for $90, there’s a 10% inflationary discount occurring. Which is to say, the Fed’s MBS has inflation built right into it. There’s no way out … –   The Money Game @
Business Insider

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Mortgage Meltdown Continues – by Larry Doyle – While the equity market continues its ascent into the heavens, our housing market continues its descent into hell.  How long can these two indicators continue their contradictory movements? – Sense on Cents   

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lots of neat charts – Last chance for a 5% mortgage – Scott Grannis – Calafia Beach Pundit
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Thousands May Incorrectly Be Using Stimulus Tax Breaks – By LYNNLEY BROWNING – Thousands of American taxpayers incorrectly claimed more than $500 million in tax benefits under the Obama administration’s tax break for first-time home buyers, a government watchdog report said Tuesday. … The report said that as of July 25, 73,799 taxpayers had incorrectly claimed $504 million in credits in the program for first-time home buyers. … – NY Times
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Nearly 40% of Mortgages are now FHA, says NAR – By AUSTIN KILGORE – HousingWire

San Francisco, California | Fascinating Fauna

The first bison, named Ben Harrison, was purchased by Park Superintendent John McClaren on February 26, 1891. His arrival in San Francisco coincided with the historical nadir in bison population, a time when the species’ risk of extinction loomed large.

A female mate by the name of Sarah Bernhardt soon followed, and the two bison began one of the longest-running efforts to breed bison in captivity. Over the last 120 years, more than 500 bison have been born from the Golden Gate herd, and due to efforts throughout the country, the animals are no longer at risk of extinction.

If the animals’ names, Ben Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, seem strangely delicate for the hulking beasts, the tradition of the time dictated that the bison receive the monikers of their political contemporaries. The original herd included superstars such as Grover Cleveland, Bill McKinley, and Bill Bunker.

Recent years have brought changes to the bison’s naming practices. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the animals had borne royal Shakespearean handles. As of 1993, the bison have been reclaimed and renamed with Native American names bestowed by the “Watchbison Committee,” a Native American Advisory Committee, and one of their current caretakers, the San Francisco Zoological Society.

In 1980, seven elderly buffalo contracted tuberculosis and were subsequently exiled from their Golden Gate haunts to a paddock at the San Bruno county jail by 1984. As the Democratic convention approached, then-mayor Dianne Feinstein, “didn’t want these buffalo out in the park, so she bought some new ones and sent the mangy ones down [to the jail].” The irony was not lost on the other simian inmates that their new, albeit entertaining, cellmates only included more of the same: Feinstein’s “rejects.”

Among the transplanted animals were King George, Lady Di, and Romeo. Despite having been, quite literally, put out to pasture for a non-contagious, non-life-threatening affliction, the relocated bison were treated well. The guards took pleasure in feeding the bison treats, inmates gawked at the creatures, and the bison didn’t seem to mind as it was reminiscent of the attention at their previous home.

Technically, the “new” herd consists of twelve American Bison given to Mayor Feinstein by her husband in 1984 as replacements. But no matter, the bison seen today in Golden Gate Park are well cared for by staff from the San Francisco Zoo, the aforementioned Zoological Society, Recreation & Parks Department specialists, and have two separate advocacy groups dedicated solely to their well-being.

For Immediate Release: December 23, 2009
Contact: Michael Mascari; (303) 236-4336; [email protected]
Sharon Rose; (303) 236-4580; [email protected]
FFS #R6BK/JG

Green River, Wyoming – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has awarded $2.27 million for the construction of three residential buildings and a bunkhouse on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. The project is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

McMillen LLC, of Boise, Idaho, will use the ARRA funds to construct the buildings to replace existing rodent-infested structures. The new facilities will be substantially safer and up to 80 percent more energy-efficient. They will have solar heating with radiant floor heating systems. The existing propane-heating system for the two usable houses can cost up to $500 per month to heat.

“The stimulus funds are helping to improve the environment, enhance our facilities, and create job opportunities with projects like this one,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “With this investment, we will help the habitat and benefit the region for years to come.”

The Bureau of Reclamation built the existing structures as temporary housing for workers constructing the Flaming Gorge and Fontenelle Dams for the Colorado River Storage Act in the early 1960s. They moved the houses to the refuge after completion of the project. Over time, the buildings became mice-infested, making them unsafe to occupy. The Service attempted unsuccessful pest mitigation projects in the past and two of the buildings are condemned.

“This is a great example of how Recovery Act funding can benefit the economy, and the environment. To be able to make safe, efficient housing for our employees and visitors while providing jobs and infusing money into the economy creates a win-win situation,” said the eight-state Mountain-Prairie Regional Director Stephen Guertin.

Mara McMillen, owner of the McMillen LLC, said the project would employ dozens of people. In addition to the 40 employees who work for the firm, the project will provide jobs for local plumbers, electricians, suppliers and other workers from the refuge area.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year gave $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. The ARRA funds represent an important component of the President’s plan to jumpstart the economy and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so the country can thrive in the 21st century. Under the ARRA, Interior is making an investment in conserving America’s timeless treasures – our stunning natural landscapes, our monuments to liberty, the icons of our culture and heritage – while helping American families and their communities prosper again. Interior is also focusing on renewable energy projects, the needs of American Indians, employing youth and promoting community service.

“With its investments of Recovery Act funds, the Department of the Interior and its bureaus are putting people to work today to make improvements that will benefit the environment and the region for many years to come,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery.

Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force to work closely with Interior’s Inspector General and ensure the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency set by President Obama.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For questions, comments or concerns email us at [email protected]. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

Thanks to our sweat, anxiety—and maybe also other emotions—can be chemically transferred between people.

Image Credit: Gearlog

Eric Zeman pieced together some CES 2010 meeting requests and deduced that Sprint could be introducing an LG handset that runs Windows Mobile and supports WiMAX. Eric’s a bright cookie and has his pulse on the phone market, so I’m inclined to agree with him. Last year Sprint had a big CES splash with the introduction of Palm’s Pre, and the carrier needs something big for this year’s show. It all makes sense to me — a capable smartphone that supports Sprint’s investment in Clearwire and the national 4G network. Such a phone would surely use 3G when outside of the 4G coverage area, just like the new hybrid USB adapter that Sprint is offering. Hopefully, a plan for this smartphone offers unlimited 4G usage to supplement the 5 GB cap on the 3G network. Even better would be the ability to tether the phone for use as a WiMAX modem — Windows Mobile supports such functionality, but carriers sometimes remove it.

The funny thing is — a Windows Mobile phone from LG that supports WiMAX was seen at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show. That particular model supported seamless transition between GSM and WiMAX networks, but LG stated that there’s no reason CDMA couldn’t be substituted for GSM. This actually lends even more credence to Eric’s thoughts — WiMAX is available in many more markets this year, so the timing is far better for such a device in 2010 than it was in 2009. The lack of coverage for WiMAX this year earned it a negative spot on our GigaOM Pro Mobile Winners and Losers (subscription required) but perhaps that changes next year. While a WiMAX phone might offer cutting-edge wireless technology, it’s sure to only run an older-feeling Windows Mobile 6.5 — the next release of Microsoft’s mobile platform, version 7, isn’t due out until the second half of 2010, which could spell trouble.

Craig Mod writes in:

I took a trip to the Himalayas about 2 months ago and brought a new camera with me.

I had such a blast using the camera I thought it would be fun to review it.

But I wondered why are camera reviews always so clinical? We don’t use cameras in clinical settings.

As an experiment I decided to combine a camera review with a travelogue. After all, we use cameras on the road, not in a laboratory.

I thought you might be interested in the final result.

In hindsight it was an obvious idea but I’ve yet to see anyone else do something like this before.

Neat idea and executed really well. Plus the photos are terrific.

La pasada semana, el Tribunal del Distrito de Seúl aprobó el plan de reestructuración de SsangYong lo que ya confirma al completo que la marca no desaparecerá. Todos sus problemas comenzaron cuando se declaró en suspensión de pagos a comienzos de este mismo año seguido de una complicada huelga y un complicado proceso económico-laboral de negociación, que ha llegado a buen puerto.

Tras la jubilación anticipada de casi el 40% de la plantilla los tribunales han considerado que se ha mejorado productividad y eficiencia, con lo que no pondrán obstáculos a su resucitación económica. Entre sus principales objetivos, está una refinanciación de las deudas y una dilución del accionariado: SAIC pasará a controlar sólo el 11% del capital de SsangYong, frente al 51% previo con el que obtenia el control total.

A día de hoy, el fabricante coreano sigue centrado en el desarrollo de SUV y monovolúmenes, pero ahora más enfocado a lo que el mercado quiere, modelos más compactos y a la vez eficientes. Toda esta reestructuración costará unos 300 millones de euros, pero garantizará la vuelta a los beneficios antes de 2011.

Related posts:

1. El SsangYong Rodius contará con navegador de serie
2. SsangYong C200 estará en el Salón de Barcelona
3. SsangYong ofrece descuentos durante el mes de Septiembre