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by Agence France-Presse

PARIS—Global temperatures could rise substantially more because of increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than previously thought, according to a new study by U.S. and Chinese scientists released Sunday.

The researchers used a long-term model for assessing climate change, confirming a similar British study released this month that said calculations for man-made global warming may be underestimated by between 30 and 50 percent.

The new study published online by Nature Geoscience focused on a period three to five million years ago—the most recent episode of sustained global warming with geography similar to today’s, a Yale University statement said.

This was in order to look at the Earth’s long-term sensitivity to climate fluctuation, including in changes to continental icesheets and vegetation cover on land.

More common estimates for climate change are based on relatively rapid feedback to increases in carbon dioxide, such as changes to sea ice and atmospheric water vapour.

Using sediment drilled from the ocean floor, the scientists’ reconstruction of carbon dioxide concentrations found that “a relatively small rise in CO2 levels was associated with substantial global warming 4.5 million years ago.”

They also found that the global temperature was between two and three degrees C (3.6 and 5.4 degrees F) higher than today even though carbon dioxide levels were similar to the current ones, the statement said.

“This work and other ancient climate reconstructions reveal that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than is discussed in political circles,” said the paper’s lead author, Yale’s Mark Pagani.

“Since there is no indication that the future will behave differently than the past, we should expect a couple of degrees of continued warming even if we held CO2 concentrations at the current level,” he said in the statement.

The study was published on the heels of a 12-day U.N. conference in Copenhagen that was aimed at providing a durable solution to the greenhouse-gas problem and its disastrous consequences but was labeled a failure by critics.

The meeting set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees C (3.6 F), but did not spell out the important stepping stones—global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050—for getting there.

The British study released on Dec. 6 had also researched the Pliocene era, between three to five million years ago.

Spread the news on what the føck is going on in Copenhagen with friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, or smoke signals.

Related Links:

What happens now for the forests?

Copenhagen coal in the stocking?

What you need to know following the Copenhagen climate summit

So your family decided to surprise you by arriving a few days earlier. The only problem is that you haven’t prepared a menu yet. Don’t fret because here are three easy recipes that will have your stress levels in check and your family mouth watering.

You have already done so much planning for the big Turkey Dinner and the last thing you want to do is plan anything major prior to this. However, as much as ordering Pizza is appealing your family are all under one roof a few times a year. Make it special with a menu that they’ll never forget.

– Appetizer –

Fruit and Caramel Brie

Warmed Brie is always a crowd pleaser. It will keep everyone busy while you are preparing the main course. It is also something that is quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 round (8 ounces) Brie cheese, rind removed

1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped  dried apples

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 loaf French Bread baguette, sliced and toasted

Directions:

1. Place Brie in a microwave-safe bowl. In a small bowl, combine the caramel topping, cranberries, apples and walnuts. Spread over Brie. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 60-90 seconds or until cheese is heated through and slightly melted. Serve with toasted baguette.

– Main Course –

Veal Chops with Mustard-Sage Crust

The best part about this dish is that it sounds fancier then it really is. In fact it only takes about 15 minutes to prep and about 25 minutes to cook. You’ll also be impressed with the small list of ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 veal chops (8 ounces each)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup soft bread crumbs

3 tablespoons stone-ground mustard

2 tabelspoons minced fresh sage

2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:

1. Sprinkle veal chops on both sides with pepper and salt. Place bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. Combine mustard, sage and garlic; spread over one side of each chop, then coat with crumbs.

2. Place chops coated side up on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake at 450 for 25-30 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 160.

– Dessert –

Chocolate Fondue

You’re probably dreading the idea of coming up with a dessert recipe last minute. Again, there is a really tasty (and easy) solution: fondue! This is also a great opportunity to ask a young one to help (and take some of the weight off of you). It’s also a fun dessert idea that everyone will remember.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups water

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 cup baking cocoa

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

5 squares (1 ounce each) semisweet chocolate, chopped

Strawberries, banana chunks, apple slices or angel food cake cubes

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water and corn syrup to a boil. Reduce the heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. In a bowl, combine the cocoa, cream and half of the syrup  mixture until smooth; return to the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped chocolate until melted.

3. Serve fondue warm with fruit or cake for dipping.

***

Although it’s not as easy as ordering delivery it’s a fairly easy menu that your family will love and remember. The Holidays after all are about family and creating memories!

Happy Holidays!

Follow me on Twitter @missbrittanydow or @Blisstree for recipe ideas!

Image Credits: iStockPhoto

Recipe Sources:

Fruit and Caramel Brie by Tracy Schuhmacher

Veal Chops with Mustard-Sage Crust by Taste of Home Test Kitchen

Chocolate Fondue by Jane Shapton

All from The Taste of Home Cookbook

Post from: Blisstree

Last Minute Holiday Recipe Ideas

Filed under: Classics, Auctions

One of our favorite cars from 2009 is the Blastolene Peterbilt hot rod. You know the one with two (count ’em, two) superchargers bolted to its Detroit Diesel V12. Hubba hubba,. And if we had access to a time machine, our very favorite car from say 1933 might just be this firetruck speedster, that’s quite possibly a direct ancestor of Blastolene. For certain the two are related in the chutzpah department. As the owner states, “You don’t know what ‘awesome’ is until you drive this car.”

Where to even start? First of all, brass era cars rule. Even if this particular American LaFrance bucket isn’t exactly 100 percent of the period. The chassis is from 1921 type 14-6 short wheelbase firetruck. The motor is out of a 1918 type 31-6-75 front drive aerial ladder, while the aluminum cowl comes from another American LaFrance firetruck built between 1927 and 1930. The speedster just looks like it hails from 1915 (the year which it’s coincidently registered). Pretty amazing, no?

Let’s talk motor for just one moment. The six-cylinder powering this particular rat rod is a 14.5-liter inline-six (that’s 820 cubic inches) good for 105 horsepower. Not oodles of power, but with twelve spark plugs (six off the distributor, six off the magneto) and all that displacement, you can bet this guy is torquey enough to pull stumps. Need more convincing? The differential takes 600 weight oil. Currently, the speedster’s sitting at $50,000 (reserve not met) with a buy it now price of $149,000. Serious bidders only, and good luck!

[Source: eBay Motors]

eBay Find of the Day: Brass Era American LaFrance firetruck speedster is a prehistoric Blastolene originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zipper Interactive has announced that MAG has gone gold in North America, Japan, Korea, and the rest of Asia. Righ on schedule for its January release. Best of all, they also announced that the free open beta

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It seems as though many folks have concluded that last week’s incursion by Iranian forces into Iraq, and onto an old oil well, was a minor, meaingless story.

A popular, benign, interpretation is that it was just a few, rogue Iranian forces foolishly hoisting a flag onto a well that wasn’t pumping oil, with absolutely no consequence whatsoever.

Not so say the independent geopolitics analysts at Stratfor.

Multiple sources have reported that Tehran ordered the incident. The Iranian government is aware that Washington has said the end of 2009 was to be the deadline for taking action against Iran over its nuclear program — and that according to a White House source, the United States could extend that deadline to Jan. 15, 2010.

That postponement makes an important point. The United States has treated the Iran crisis as something that will be handled on an American timeline. The way that the Obama administration handled the Afghanistan strategy review suggests it assumes that Washington controls the tempo of events sufficiently that it can make decisions carefully, deliberately and with due reflection. If true, that would mean that adversaries like Iran are purely on the defensive, and either have no counter to American moves or cannot counter the United States until after Washington makes its next move.

For Iran, just to accept that premise puts it at an obvious disadvantage. First, Tehran would have to demonstrate that the tempo of events is not simply in American or Israeli hands. Second, Tehran would have to remind the United States and Israel that Iran has options that it might use regardless of whether the United States chooses sanctions or war. Most important, Iran must show that whatever these options are, they can occur before the United States acts — that Iran has axes of its own, and may not wait for the U.S. axe to fall.

The incursion was shaped to make this point without forcing the United States into precipitous action. The location was politically ambiguous. The force was small. Casualties were avoided. At the same time, it was an action that snapped a lot of people to attention. Oil prices climbed. Baghdad and Washington scrambled to try to figure what was going on, and for a while Washington was clearly at a loss, driving home the fact that the United States doesn’t always respond quickly and efficiently to surprises initiated by the other side.

Between this incident and the mounting concerns over Greece (et. al.) it’s obvious that the conventional wisdom is that the dominant concerns of 2010 will involve sovereign risk and geopolitical risk.

Commercial real estate? That’s so autumn 2009.

Read the whole analysis at Stratfor.com –>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• It’s Not Over: Iraq Sends Forces To Oil Well Seized By Iran
• Iranian Forces Cross Border And Seize Iraqi Oil Wells

by Agence France-Presse

LONDON—British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday accused countries of holding the U.N. climate summit to ransom as bitter recriminations swirled over the outcome of the negotiations.

British Prime Minister Gordan Brown. While China’s Premier Wen Jiabao insisted his government had played an “important and constructive” role, Britain said the meeting had lurched into farce and pointed the finger of blame at Beijing.

And the summit host, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, rapped the lower-level negotiators for failing to make headway in nearly two weeks of talks and then leaving their masters with too much to do at the climax.

Brown said lessons must be learned.

Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down those talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries.

While Brown refrained from naming countries, his climate change minister Ed Miliband said China had led a group of countries that “hijacked” the negotiations which had at times presented “a farcical picture to the public.”

The agreement finally put together by a select group of leaders set no target for greenhouse-gas emissions cuts and is not legally binding—omissions Miliband blamed on Beijing.

“We did not get an agreement on 50 percent reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80 percent reductions by developed countries,” he wrote in the Guardian.

“Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries.” Miliband’s aides told the daily that Sudan, Bolivia, and other left-wing Latin American governments were included in the criticism.

China, the world’s top polluter, doggedly resisted pressure for outside scrutiny of its emissions.

Wen however rejected any suggestion it had played a negative role and said China had “expressed its fullest sincerity and made its utmost effort.”

The Copenhagen Accord set “long-term goals” for the global community in addressing climate change, Wen said, according to comments released by the foreign ministry.

This is the result of the efforts from all sides and has wide approval. This result did not come easy and should be cherished.

France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon, on a visit to Beijing, trod delicately but showed Europe’s frustration with the outcome.

“France, like all of the European Union, would have wanted the Copenhagen Accord to go a bit further,” he said.

His comments echoed those of U.S. President Barack Obama who acknowledged that all of the world’s polluters would quickly have to do more after the “extremely difficult and complex negotiations.”

Rasmussen, heavily criticized for his stewardship of the summit of around 130 leaders, said the agreement was “better than nothing.”

The Dane said the conference had become quagmired before the arrival of the leaders for Friday’s finale with negotiators having made negligible progress since its start on Dec. 7.

“When the leaders arrived, there was not even a framework agreement to discuss and we had 24 hours, which is too little time, to create a text which should have been negotiated during the two weeks of the conference,” he told Danish television.

As failure loomed, Rasmussen helped steer negotiations involving the leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and major European countries that resulted in the final agreement.

The accord promised $100 billion for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of the global warming fallout, and set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees C (3.6 F).

That however stopped short of the demand for a 1.5 degree limit low-lying island nations whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels.

Scientists say hundreds of millions of people are threatened in the next few decades by worsening drought, floods, storms, and rising sea levels as a result of rising temperatures.

Spread the news on what the føck is going on in Copenhagen with friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, or smoke signals.

Related Links:

What happens now for the forests?

Copenhagen coal in the stocking?

What you need to know following the Copenhagen climate summit

MÉXICO, TIERRAMÉRICA

La empresa mexicana BioFields producirá desde 2014 biocombustible a través de algas en una planta de gran escala situada a 300 kilómetros de distancia de Estados Unidos, que será su principal cliente.

Antes de fin de año, BioFields comenzará a construir una central piloto para obtener etanol a base de algas en Puerto Libertad, un poblado de casi 3 mil habitantes ubicado en el municipio de Pitiquito, en el norteño estado de Sonora, dijo Sergio Ramírez, director de asuntos corporativos.

¿Cómo?
Las algas producen etanol naturalmente y la técnica aplicada optimiza el proceso para que sea directo y a escala industrial. El etanol resultante podrá mezclarse con gasolina en distintas proporciones, reduciendo las emisiones de gases invernadero causadas por el transporte.

“El gran éxito de esta tecnología es que encontramos un alga que secreta el etanol naturalmente, ahorrándose dos procesos industriales: la fermentación y la síntesis en etanol. Eso hace que cada microorganismo sea una minifábrica”, señaló Ramírez.

Tratamiento
Para que las algas crezcan y se reproduzcan, las colocarán en estanques con bolsas de plástico llenas de agua salada que bombearán desde el Mar de Cortés, distante a unos metros de la planta, explicó Ramírez.

Las algas se alimentarán de radiación solar, nitratos y el dióxido de carbono que arroja una de las termoeléctricas más contaminantes de México, ubicada en Puerto Libertad.

Para absorber ese dióxido de carbono, la planta piloto será construida en un terreno de una hectárea y media dentro de la termoeléctrica, propiedad de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), entidad generadora paraestatal de México.

Si el proyecto marcha como esperan, la CFE se quedará con los recursos que genere la captación de dióxido de carbono a través del Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio previsto en el Protocolo de Kyoto sobre el Cambio Climático.

Más detalles
Una vez probada la fórmula, se construirá una gran planta industrial junto a las instalaciones de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad, en un terreno desértico de 22 mil hectáreas. El objetivo es producir más de 946 millones de litros para 2014, y cerca de 3 mil 800 millones de litros en 2020.

La inversión será de 850 millones de dólares, provenientes del fundador y director general de BioFields, Alejandro González, propietario de Grupo Gondi, una de las mayores empresas de reciclaje de cartón en México.

Fuente Bibliográfica

Back in 1999, playwright Lisa Kron applied for a grant from a new arts organization called Creative Capital. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. When Kron learned that she would be receiving a few thousand dollars, her initial reaction was, “Great!” And then Creative Capital staff kept asking her, “When are you coming in to talk with us?” Kron demurred, saying: “I’m fine. Really.” Privately, she fretted about wasting her time “on help I didn’t need,” she says. When she heard that the organization was planning a retreat for its artists, all Kron could think was, “Leave me alone.” The plot changed when Kron discovered that there was more money in the pipeline—up to $50,000, available at milestones in the life of her project. This unusual cash flow wasn’t the whole story. As her three-year fellowship unfolded, Creative Capital offered Kron a range of career-boosting benefits, including help with marketing her work and practical advice about budgeting. Kron went on to earn a Tony Award nomination for Well, the autobiographical play produced while she was a grantee, and today credits Creative Capital with taking the “beggar mentality” out of arts philanthropy. Instead of offering her a…

BBC
Tras nueve meses de investigaciones, los vulcanólogos estadounidenses Minard Hall y Patricia Mothes anunciaron el descubrimiento de cinco volcanes en el oriente ecuatoriano, ubicados entre las localidades de Cosanga y Baeza, a unos 75 kilómetros en línea recta al sureste de Quito.
Los científicos dieron a conocer que investigan la existencia de más de estas elevaciones de formación joven en la zona.

Más de ellos
Los investigadores pertenecen al Instituto Geofísico de la Escuela Politécnica Nacional de Ecuador y destacaron que al menos uno, al que lo bautizaron como Centro Pumayacu, es potencialmente activo. Los otros cuatro han sido denominados por los vulcanólogos con los nombres de Lavas de Bermejo, El Dorado, Domos de Huevo de Chivo y Centro Cosanga.

Minard Hall dijo que aún se deben profundizar las investigaciones para determinar el nivel de actividad potencial de las otras formaciones.

Además es necesario obtener mayores precisiones sobre la antigüedad, actividad sísmica y composición química de los descubrimientos, a los que Hall llama los Volcanes de Cosanga.

TIP ECOLÓGICO
El vidrio se demora un millón de años en degradarse y es responsable del 20% de la contaminación del aire y del 50% de la del agua.

Fuente Bibliográfica

A few weeks back, I shared my video on the innovator’s dilemma (based on Clayton Christensen’s work). The key point could be summarized as noting that legacy industries are fine with incremental improvements, but they run into a huge roadblock when it comes to transformative changes — such as disruptive innovations that change the very way that business is done. It’s just really really difficult for legacy businesses to comprehend, let alone adapt, to true transformative (or disruptive) innovation. Musician Steve Lawson recently had a fantastic writeup discussing the difference between transformative and incremental change in the music industry, and why it’s been so difficult for many of the “old guard” to understand what’s happening. He discusses how previous innovations that the record labels are used to were incremental changes:

The invention of cassettes, and 8-track cartridges was an incremental change – suddenly there were more ways of selling hard copies of recorded music. More places to play them, new machines needed, new possibilities for the length of music that could be issued in a single entity (90 minute cassettes were pretty standard, and some enterprising labels took to reissuing 2 albums as one on cassette, thus breathing new life into back catalogue.)

The same happened again with CDs – more incremental change – the chance to pretend it was higher resolution than vinyl (a lie) that it was indestructable (a lie) and that you could take it anywhere with you (true). CDs were a breath of life to a fairly static industry – suddenly, all the people who were teenagers in the 70s at the dawn of stadium rock were now successful 30-somethings with disposable cash and a deeply fragile sense of self.

But, of course, what we’re seeing now is totally different. The internet presents a disruptive or transformative change.

When you take an industry that has 4 big costs – recording, manufacture, distribution, promotion – and remove 3 of them, that changes everything. All of the assumptions about how much it costs to make a record, what infrastructure is needed to make a sales team effective, who needs to own the trucks and delivery guys who take your product to shops – they all disappear. They are all now choices that you make, not assumptions.

The problem for the industry is that it structured its entire business around the idea that those four big costs are a big problem that any musician needs help with — and they’re willing to sign their lives away to get that help. But the transformative change that occurs with the internet is that much of that becomes significantly less expensive, and the need to sign your life away becomes not a need, but a choice — and the businesses that were built to only work if musicians signed their lives away suddenly find themselves in trouble.

As in the innovator’s dilemma, however, the labels still don’t recognize this. They can only think in terms of the incremental change of “how can we sell more units of music.” That’s the only change they’ve ever really known. They’re not prepared for a situation where the selling of music may not even make sense, and the level of control over an artist has changed dramatically. But they still view — as is often the case in the innovator’s dilemma — as something to be dismissed. The fact that musicians can record for less money… well, it’s not as good as having a record label bankroll you hundreds of thousands of dollars. True, but it’s pretty damn good and getting better. The fact that you don’t have to go through an expensive processing plant to print CDs? Well, it may not look quite as nice, but the technology again gets better and cheaper everyday. The fact that the music can be distributed and promoted for free online? The labels really still don’t quite get that part of it, but it’s been working great for musicians who know how to use it to their advantage.

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MANAOS, EFE

El pirarucú o paicha, un pez gigantesco del Amazonas y uno de los mayores de agua dulce del mundo, aporta además de su sabrosa carne, su cuero escamoso para la producción de bolsos y zapatos de alta costura.

Fuente Bibliográfica

Location-based social network Brightkite announced this morning that it has added what it calls the first mobile Augmented Reality advertising for U.S. markets to its AR layer in the Layar augmented reality browser. Augmented Reality (AR) is a class of technologies that place data from the web on top of a camera view of the physical world. Layar is a browser for a wide variety of AR data layers, from real-estate listings to government data to messages posted to networks like Brightkite. It is available for Android phones and was available on the iPhone until it was withdrawn from the marketplace last week due to excessive crashes.

The Brightkite ads appear to be just for electronics retailer BestBuy so far, and are displayed as unique markers in your field of view when pointed towards one of the stores.

Sponsor

Big round circles have been added to Brightkite camera-view annotations, designating the location of nearby BestBuy stores. The circles join the clearly different annotations for text messages and photos posted by nearby users. The ads are relatively unobtrusive for now.

These ads appear in all search results pages, whether they are relevant or not. For example, no one has posted on Brightkite about “pizza” within miles of me for the last three days, but a search for pizza displays a number of search results on my phone’s radar. It turns out those are the BestBuys in my area. The same results appear in searches for “love” and “flatulence” – it’s all BestBuy. If advertising proliferates on platforms like this then it’s going to have to become contextual.

These are the early days in mobile Augmented Reality advertising, but the field is expected to be big. AR has been become increasingly common in recent months as a gimmick in print ads that can be held up to a webcam to display a 3D image, but we’re unaware of previous experiments like what Brightkite is doing on Layar.

Is the advertising industry excited about mobile AR advertising? Blake Robinson, director of research and measurement at social media marketing firm Attention, says he is. “If the question is whether or not money will be pumped into mobile AR advertising,” he says,”I’d say it’s not a question of if, but when – and I’d say soon.

“For the first time in a long time local businesses could be given opportunities by advertisers to reach not just potential patrons but people who are literally at their doorsteps. There is a lot of potential for good here, a lot of potential for irritation too, but I’m more excited than daunted.”

Will consumers find the ads more useful than invasive? That’s an age-old question in the relationship between advertisers and consumers.

Discuss

Basha Nut is a diet pill that claims you will “Start losing 1-2 kg each day as soon as you start taking Basha slimming capsules” (website). There is no proof to show Basha Nut will do anything for weight loss. In addition, the marketing and website for this product are atrocious. They even publish hundreds of bad reviews about the product on their own website! This Basha Nut review will reveal all the pathetic sides to Basha Nut to (hopefully) keep you from buying it.

Basha Nut Ingredients

Basha Nut contains the following ingredients:
Basha Fruit extract
Lotus Leaf extract
Cassia Seed

None of these ingredients has been proven to cause weight loss in humans. If you want to lose weight, go with a diet pill that contains clinically proven ingredients in the necessary amounts.

Basha Nut Free Trial

The Basha Nut website touts a free trial (actually it says “free trail”). They give a 5 minute countdown, making you think you only have 5 minutes to cash in on the trial. However, if you refresh the page the countdown starts over.

The website hides the details of the trial in the fine print. Here is the scoop: you have 15 days to cancel your free trial. If you do not cancel within the 15 days you are enrolled in autoship (meaning they automatically ship you more Basha Nut diet pills every month and charge your credit card) and charged $79.95 per month. This is WAY too much money for a diet pill that has no science behind it.

Basha Nut Marketing

The Basha Nut website has several before and after photos of people who have supposedly lost weight using Basha Nut. However, the heads are either cropped out of the photos or the faces are blacked out.

There is no way to tell if it is even the same person in the before and after photos.

Much of the Basha Nut website is dedicated to convincing prospective customers they should distribute Basha Nut (to earn money). If you get your friends to sign up you get 2 free boxes of Basha Nut.

The Basha Nut website claims, “As of December 18, a total of 8500 customers shared their experiences of Loss weight.” The interesting thing is that when you look through the posts from customers, nearly all are negative reports about Basha Nut. What company litters their website with degrading comments? It just makes no business sense.

The Basha Nut website also seems to have been made by someone who does not speak English. There are dozens of blatant spelling and grammatical errors on the website.

Basha Nut Customer Service

I attempted to contact the Basha Nut customer service department. The website lists no customer service phone number, only an email address. I sent an email with questions about ingredients, but several days later they still have not replied.

Basha Nut Conclusion

This Basha Nut review finds Basha Nut diet pills are not worth your time or money. There is no scientific evidence to show Basha Nut will actually cause weight loss. It is far too expensive. The website is pathetic and there is no customer service. Do not bother with this product.

Fred Anderson is providing an inside look at COP-15 in Copenhagen to The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) World Climate Change Report. 

Today, Anderson’s Notebook (12/21/09), discusses what we can make of the Copenhagen Accord.

To read the full entry, please click here.  

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos

No climate control. No sat-nav. No ABS. No ESP. What the Noble M600 lacks in luxury and safety amenities it makes up for in raw, mechanical brutality. And you know what? That’s okay.

With curb weight of 2,810 pounds, a row-your-own six-speed manual and 650 horsepower and 618 pound-feet of torque on tap from its Volvo-sourced, twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8, the M600 is a purist breath of fresh air in an era of tech-laden, heavyweight supercars. But stats (0-60 in three seconds, top speed of 225 mph) only tells half the tale.

Clarkson and the crew take the all-new, £200,000 Noble around the Top Gear test track and the results are predictably deranged. Not only does the traction control only have two settings – on and off – but keeping the mid-engine beastie in check proves too much for TG’s ham-fisted frontman. That means it’s a job for the Stig. And you can check out the results and its supercar-crushing lap time after the jump.

Continue reading VIDEO: Noble M600 attempts to kill Clarkson, embarasses Enzo

VIDEO: Noble M600 attempts to kill Clarkson, embarasses Enzo originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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En primer lugar, recordemos que el Alfa Romeo Giulietta no será mostrado de forma oficial al público hasta el mes de marzo en el Salón de Ginebra. Aun así, Alfa Romeo acaba de lanzar el sitio web oficial del Giulietta en donde podemos ver a este modelo desde todos los ángulos y algunas de sus características.

Por otra parte, también podremos descargar nuevas imágenes y algunos fondos de pantalla para adornar nuestro escritorio. Uno de los nuevos datos confirmados es que habrá una versión Quadrifoglio Verde con motor 1750TBi de 235 CV.

Además, habrá hasta cuatro propulsores más para elegir. También se ha confirmado para toda la gama y acabados la tecnología D.N.A., el diferencial Q2 y el VDC. Se pueden apreciar en las imágenes la utilización de LEDs tanto en las ópticas delanteras como traseras. Por el momento, la única carrocería confirmada es la de 5 puertas.

Related posts:

1. Alfa Romeo Giulietta, imágenes oficiales
2. Alfa Romeo 147, imagen filtrada
3. Fotos espía del Alfa Romeo Milano

A clear picture of the Motorola Backflip has surfaced, and as you can see from the the logo on the keyboard, it appears to be headed to AT&T.  The MOTOBLUR-equipped Backflip sports quite the unique design, with the keyboard and attached camera (see bottom left hand side) acting as the back of the phone.  Think enV3, but imagine the keyboard to be where the camera is.  One thing is for sure: It’ll certainly be a love or hate design.

No timeframe has been given as to when the device will launch, but based on information circulating around the internet, I would expect a Q1 2010 release.  AT&T subscribers, are you interested?

Via: PhoneMag

COPENHAGUE, EFE
El proyecto de declaración que discutieron ayer los negociadores internacionales en la Cumbre de la ONU de Copenhague (Dinamarca) omite el año 2010 como fecha tope para firmar un nuevo acuerdo sobre cambio climático.

El borrador, que consta de 12 puntos, fija dos grados centígrados como la subida global de temperaturas máximas para evitar graves interferencias en el clima, aunque señala que el acuerdo será revisado en 2016, cuando se podría limitar esa subida a 1,5 grados, una petición de los países más amenazados por la transformación climática.

Más compromisos
El documento propone una reducción global de emisiones del 50% en 2050 por debajo de los niveles de 1990 y no señala una fecha para que las emisiones alcancen su pico máximo antes de comenzar a descender.
Además, las naciones desarrolladas acuerdan proveer los recursos financieros, tecnología y capacitación adecuados, predecibles y sostenibles para ayudar a los países en desarrollo a adaptarse a los efectos del cambio climático, sobre todo a los más vulnerables.
Los territorios ricos se comprometen a reducir sus emisiones individualmente o conjuntamente en al menos un 80% para 2050 y a fijar recortes para 2020 sin especificar, con respecto a los años 1990 ó 2005.

Países en desarrollo
Llevarán a cabo acciones para mitigar sus emisiones que serán hechas públicas a nivel nacional cada dos años, apunta el texto. Aquellas actividades de mitigación que cuenten con apoyo del exterior estarán sujetas a una verificación internacional.

El borrador confirma una ayuda para la mitigación y la adaptación de 30 mil millones de dólares en el periodo 2010-2012, mientras que los países desarrollados se comprometen a movilizar 100 mil millones de dólares anuales con este fin para el año 2020.

Fuente Bibliográfica

Once again, the U.S. economy faces disaster should we not enact more stimulus. Joseph Stiglitz has warned that the U.S. economy could contract again in the second half of 2010 without additional government stimulus.

Canadian Press: “The likelihood of this slowdown is very, very high,” Stiglitz told reporters in Singapore. “There is a significant chance that the number will be in the negative range.” Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, called on Washington to make more funds available to state governments who face a drop in tax revenue. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, must grow at least 3 per cent to create enough jobs for new entrants into the labour force, he said.

…

“If you don’t prepare now, and the economy turns out to be as weak as I think it’s likely to be, then you’ll be in a very difficult position,” he said.

Thing is, at the very least, shouldn’t we first wait until the majority of current stimulus is spent? The U.S. has barely done 30% so far. The rallying dollar probably doesn’t expect much influence from Mr. Stiglitz next year.

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See Also:

• How Joseph Stiglitz Blew It On Fannie And Freddie
• Stiglitz: Banking Industry In Worse Shape Than Ever
• If You Thought The Economy Was Being Inflated By The Stimulus, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet