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Filed under: Motorsports, Etc., Videos

As the proliferation of LeMons events has proven, there’s a fat vein of crap-box motorsports yet to be mined. Northwestern Wisconsin has its own unique brand of vehicular mayhem called Car Launching. The premise is simple: Jump something fetid and ridiculous off an earthen ramp, headed for certain destruction.

It’s best to tow something that enhances the punchline. Like a dumpster. It’s a much shorter lap than LeMons, but we suppose you could counter that by dragging more than one vehicle with you. Check out the video posted after the jump for the full impact. (We highly recommend clicking the “View Fullscreen” option.)

[Source: Notes from the Technology Underground]

Continue reading VIDEO: Crap Motorsports FTW! – Car Launching

VIDEO: Crap Motorsports FTW! – Car Launching originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh boy! You may have noticed, the site has been down for a couple of days. My hosting service decided to do some behind-the-scenes busy work and we accidentally went back in time to last August for a little while. Needless to say, I’ve been a little stressed out for the last 48 hours! The good news is that it’s all fixed now. The reason for all the commotion is due to the popularity of the site and the traffic it is generating. I’m always glad to see that there are so many people interested in good design for cats!

Due to this little snafu, some of your comments on the holiday giveaways may have been lost. So, if you left a comment since Wednesday, Dec 16, please leave another comment to make sure you’re entered to win. And if you missed any of these the first time around, you still have time to enter!

Sorry for the confusion! There may be a little more technical juggling in the coming weeks to get everything rearranged to accommodate the traffic the site is getting, but I’ll give you plenty of notice.

Holiday Giveaways!

• SnoozePal Cat Hammock in a Box
• Fling-ama-String
• Hepper Holiday Giveaway
• Watson T-shirt Giveaway
• RedTango Watch

Green building of the week from Inhabitat is this solar PV encrusted office building in China – World’s Largest Solar Energy Office Building Opens in China.

A vast fan-shaped compound in China has officially taken the title of “largest solar-powered office building in the world“. Located in Dezhou in the Shangdong Province in northwest China, the 75,000 square meter structure is a multi-use building and features exhibition centers, scientific research facilities, meeting and training facilities, and a hotel – all of which run on solar power.

The design of the new building is based on the sun dial and “underlines the urgency of seeking renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels.” Aside from the obvious sustainable nature of the solar panel – clad exterior, other green features include advanced roof and wall insulation practices resulting in an energy savings of 30% more than the national standard. In addition, the external structure of the building used a mere 1% of the amount of steel used to construct the Bird’s Nest.

Key West, Florida | Unique Collections

On September 4, 1622, a fleet of twenty-eight Spanish ships left port in Havana, Cuba. The ships were transporting the wealth of the Spanish empire from Central and South America to the motherland in Europe. The following day, the fleet was overtaken by hurricane and by the 6th of September, eight ships had found their way to the sea floor, scattered between the Marquesas Keys and Dry Tortugas.

One of the eight ships that went down was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Aboard the Atocha, along with passengers, was a cargo of silver, gold, copper, bronze, silverware, tobacco, jewelry and indigo. The exact amounts were reported in the later translated manifest, but do not include all the extras that were unregistered to avoid taxation.

Of the 265 passengers that went down with the ship, only five survived. After rescuing survivors, rescuers tried to enter into the sunken ship, but due to lack of technology during this time period, were unable to stand the 55 foot depth for long. They marked the location of the Atocha, and vowed to come back to it.

Luck was not with the Spanish, and a second hurricane came through the area, further destroying and scattering the wreck of Nuestra Senora de Atocha. For the next 60 years, the Spanish would attempt to relocate the sunken treasure without any luck.

In 1969, almost three centuries later, American treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his team began an incessant, sixteen year search for the remains of Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Many times, for months on end, the team would go without any luck, struggling financially to keep their search moving forward.

In 1973, a few silver bars were found and matched to Atocha’s manifest and in 1975, a few matching bronze cannons were found. By the 1980s, a large portion of the remains of Santa Margarita was found along with some treasures, securing belief that the hunt was nearing its completion.

However, it was not until five years later that Mel Fisher and his men would stumble upon the Atocha. Within the remains lay gold, silver, jewelry, and gems of all sortss. Fisher’s cache, known as “The Atocha Motherload” was estimated around $450 million and after a few arguments with the state of Florida, the Supreme Court announced that Fisher was indeed the owner.

Today, visitors can view many of the treasures that Mel and his team found at the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum in Key West, Florida. Bars of gold, bricks of silver, Spanish coins, jewelry and gems fill the museum, all dating back to the 1500s. The museum is also home to the treasures of Mel Fisher’s other important treasures and finds, including goods from the Henrietta Marie and St. John’s wreck. Despite having found 450 million worth of treasure, hunters estimate that this is only half of the Atocha treasure. The rest remains beneath the ocean.

Some of Mel’s treasures can also be found at the Treasures of the Sea exhibit at the the Delaware Technical and Community College.

Interesting announcement from small gold miner Firstgold. A unit of the Treasury department has informed it that it will seek to block a a planned investment from China.:

—-

Firstgold Corp. (TSX: FGD) (PINKSHEETS: FGOC) (“Firstgold” or “the Company”) has been advised by The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) that they will, on Dec 21st, recommend to President Obama that he reject the proposed investment by the China-based company Northwest Non Ferrous International Investment Company Ltd. (“Northwest”) in Firstgold. CFIUS has determined through their investigation that serious, significant and consequential national security issues existed. In particular they noted the proximity of Firstgold’s properties to the Fallon Naval Air Station and related facilities. CFIUS had considered several mitigation possibilities and concluded that none would sufficiently resolve the national security issues.

“This is very difficult news to receive. While we certainly respect the process CFIUS has taken to arrive at their determination, we disagree 100% with their conclusion. We fail to see the connection between US national security and our principal asset the Relief Canyon mine, which has existed at its present location since the early 1980s. Our property is over 50 miles away from the Fallon base and surrounded by several other mining properties. At this stage we understand on Dec 21st that CFIUS will recommend rejection to President Obama. Our hope would be that his review of the matter will lead to a different and positive conclusion,” commented Terry Lynch Firstgold CEO.

“You can imagine how discouraging this is for Northwest. At this stage we do not know what their intentions are although we remain hopeful that we can yet find a way to close the transaction. In the interim Firstgold is reviewing other options to bring Relief Canyon into production and to obtain value for its assets.”

Firstgold has spent $16 million over the last 24 months developing a processing facility at Relief Canyon, located outside Lovelock Nevada, on the site of the previously producing Pegasus Gold Mine. Additional information about Firstgold Corp. can be found by visiting its web site at www.firstgoldcorp.com

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Hires Pimco’s Changhong Zhu To Manage Country’s Giant Forex Reserves
• Niall Ferguson: How China’s Insane Fiscal Policies Pumped Up Chimerica And Crushed America
• China’s Dumping Of The Dollar Has Begun

So far the big storm has been a bust in New York City, although it has been intense south of here. Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for instance, has already seen 14 inches of snowfall.

But the lack of snow doesn’t necessary mean that Super Saturday was salvaged for retailers. The warnings to stay off the roads and fears of blizzard like conditions most likely scared many shoppers out of the stores.

We conducted a brief shopping trip to the Flat Iron and Union Square area today. We found that shops were crowded although not packed to overcapacity. It looked like it wasn’t quite the Super Saturday that retailers might have hoped for but not a complete wipe out either. Here’s the full East Coast report from Stephen Manning of the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — “Super Saturday” may just end up as Snowy Saturday in much of the eastern U.S.

The last Saturday of shopping before Christmas, usually one of the busiest days of the year for retailers, was snowed out on most of the East Coast by blizzard-like conditions that stretched from the Carolinas to New England.

Many retailers were open but crowds were sparse on a day stores count on for a successful season.

Treacherous roads and near whiteout conditions kept many shoppers away from shopping malls and other stores. For retailers hoping for a better holiday season than last year’s dismal sales, the bad weather was especially painful.

“You are looking at your busiest day of the year and taking it away,” said Steven Aarons, manager of Barstons Child Play, a toy store in Washington.

Forecasts for the Washington region called for up to 20 inches of snow. A heavy coat was already on the ground by the time most stores opened around midmorning.

Compounding problems were snow-covered roads and spotty public transportation. Shopping malls were especially affected by bad roads. In Washington, the Metro subway system shut down aboveground stations in the early afternoon, effectively cutting off rail service to many big suburban shopping centers.

In the Friendship Heights section of the city, usually a bustling retail area with big department stores and upscale shops, most foot traffic came from work crews scraping away snow and spreading salt. Some big stores opened on time, but others remained dark after their posted opening hours. Even the Salvation Army stand was unstaffed.

The King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia opened on time at 8 a.m., but traffic was down significantly at the complex’s 365 stores and 40 restaurants, according to a spokesman. The mall’s traffic did get a boost Friday night from people wary of the coming storm.

The holiday shopping season so far has been mildly encouraging for retailers who have suffered due to high unemployment and the weak economy that have made consumers reluctant to spend. Most reports put spending slightly above last year’s levels.

At Tysons Corner Center, a mega-mall in the Washington region, only about half of the stores were open by midday and customer traffic was light. Jeff Hernandez, manager of a stationary store, said he wasn’t able to open until noon and would likely close before the mall shuts down later tonight.

“I didn’t think it was worth it,” to stay open, he said.

It’s still unclear how the storm will affect sales later in the week and whether consumers who stayed home Saturday would shift their shopping to Sunday. Much of the worst weather was expected to be over by late Saturday in the Washington region but last into Sunday morning farther north.

Super Saturday usually accounts for $15 billion worth of sales nationwide, according to Scott Bernhardt of weather research firm Planalytics. The storm’s current track means it will likely impact about a quarter of the U.S. population. Those that do shop will likely make their trips short, he said.

“They are going to dash in and dash out. They aren’t going to do any impulse buying,” he said.

Retailers with an especially high concentration of stores in the affected region include Bon-Ton stores, DSW Shoe Warehouse and Kohl’s Inc.

The effect on retailers is likely to be less than it would if the snow hit even later in the season, said Michael Niemira, chief economist of the International Council of Shopping Centers. They still have several days to make up the sales. And while the storm hit the heavily populated East Coast, most of the rest of the nation was unaffected by bad weather.

The storm didn’t lead Niemira to change his estimate that November and December spending would rise 1 percent from last year.

Online shopping also could get a boost as consumers buy from home rather than brave the bad weather.

“People may just sit at home and shop,” said Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, a global management consultant.

In New York, shoppers were trying to wrap up ahead of the storm.

At Manhattan Mall, a few blocks away from Macy’s flagship store in New York, stores like J.C. Penney were still bustling at midday, when snow hadn’t yet materialized. But even shoppers who took the train in to the city were wary.

Natalie McCann, of Edison, N.J., said she would probably cut short her annual trip into the city on the last Saturday because of the building storm. But it wasn’t the snow that was keeping her from spending big on gifts.

“I’m just not that enthusiastic this year,” said McCann, 47, who says she’s cutting her spending significantly to about $750.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Winter Storm Threatens To Bury "Super Saturday"

Don’t forget about this one. 

It may be nothing, but it hasn’t gone away yet.

—–

By LARA JAKES (AP) – 1 hour ago

BAGHDAD — Iraq deployed security forces Saturday near a remote oil well seized by Iran, officials said, and its government pressed Tehran to withdraw its forces from the area along their disputed southern border.

U.S. officials applauded Iraq for standing its ground against Iran — an uneasy ally that analysts said was aiming to remind its neighbor of its economic and political pull in its takeover of the oil well Thursday. The site is located in one of the largest oil fields in Iraq and has about 1.5 billion barrels in reserves.

The standoff was a dramatic display of the occasionally tense relations between the two oil-rich nations that fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but now share common ground in Shiite-led governments.

“Again, we ask Iran to be committed to the good relations that they announced with Iraq and its nation, and to withdraw its forces immediately,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiyah TV. “This is the demand of Iraq, and we call Iran to be committed with that.”

Iran, however, appeared undeterred.

In a statement, the Iranian military denied it violated Iraq’s sovereignty and cited a 1975 border agreement in claiming the oil well as part of Iran’s territory.

“Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran,” the Iranian military said in a statement to Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.

Iraqi army and police reinforcements were sent to a staging ground about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, according to two Iraqi officials close to the site. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

One of the Iraqi officials said Iranian soldiers came and went from the oil well throughout Saturday. They were gone by the evening, leaving behind an Iranian flag mounted at the well, the official said.

The oil field, parts of which both countries claim as theirs, is located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear how many troops were involved, and Iraqi forces barred journalists from approaching the area.

The standoff spurred an emergency meeting of Iraq’s national security council and high-level diplomatic talks between Baghdad and Tehran. U.S. officials, already worried about Iran’s growing influence in the region, praised what they described as Baghdad’s quick but measured response to the dispute.

“It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran,” U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told reporters.

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said he would use “diplomatic and technical mechanisms” to soothe tensions. And a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused foreign media of trying to “disrupt good relations” between Tehran and Baghdad.

Experts said it is doubtful that Iran is seeking to provoke Iraq, its only other Shiite-led ally in the Middle East.

Instead, Iran appears to be reasserting its place as having the world’s second-largest oil reserves at a time when Iraq is looking to cash in on their own, said Alex Vatanka of the Mideast Institute, a Washington think-tank.

Oil fields along the disputed border have been frozen for years because of Iraq’s longtime inability to entice investors to drill. Iraq is planning to open some oil fields over the next decade and has held two rounds of bidding this year — the first since the war — to develop some sites. Al-Fakkah was among three fields that were combined in one offer in the first round of bidding in June, but the proposal fell through.

At the same time, Iran’s leaders may be feeling more isolated as the result of its domestic political unrest and international disapproval of its nuclear program.

“They are not looking for conflict — this is their way of projecting power,” Vatanka said. “They are saying, ‘Because we’re isolated, because we have internal problems, it doesn’t mean you can go in here and sign a deal on an oil field that is very close to our border without consulting us.’”

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, albeit tenuous, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. military officials say Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq and send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.

Adm. Mike Mullen, America’s top military official said the oil well incident must be resolved between Iran and Iraq, and there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

In Baghdad during a two-day visit to Iraq, Mullen said Saturday that he remains worried about Iran’s influence in the Middle East.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Iranian Forces Cross Border And Seize Iraqi Oil Wells
• Iraq Denies Well Seizure

So there’s now about a 90% chance that the health care bill will pass.

At this point, the thing is more than a little inexplicable.  Democrats are on a political suicide mission; I’m not a particularly accurate prognosticator, but I think this makes it very likely that in 2010 they will lost several seats in the Senate–enough to make it damn hard to pass any more of their signature legislation–and will lose the house outright.  In the case of the House, you can attribute it to the fact that the leadership has safe seats.  But three out of four of the Democrats on the podium today are in serious danger of losing their seats.

No bill this large has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote, or even anything close to a straight party-line vote.  No bill this unpopular has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote.  We’re in a new political world.  I’m not sure I understand it.

The irony of this is that this bill is great for me personally.  I’m probably uninsurable, and I’m in a profession where most people now end up working for themselves at some point in their career. So mandatory community rating is great news for me and mine. But I think that it’s going to be a fiscal disaster for my country, because the spending cuts won’t be–can’t be–done the way they’re implemented in the bill.  We’ve just increased substantially the supply of unrepealable, unsustainable entitlements.  We’ve also, in my opinion, put ourselves on a road that leads eventually to less healthcare innovation, less healthcare improvement, and more dead people in the long run.  Obviously, progressives feel differently, and it will never be possible to prove the counterfactual. 

So there you are.  Alea iacta est. I sure hope I’m wrong.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Democratic Senators Say They Have 60 Votes For Health Care Reform
• Healthcare Stocks On Fire As Investors Wake Up And Realize Healthcare "Reform" Is A Giant Sellout
• Senators Forced To Fly Blind To Beat The Christmas Healthcare Deadline

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Convertible, Coupe, Budget, Sedan, Performance, Etc., Crossover, Hatchback, Buick, Chevrolet, GM, Rumormill, Luxury, Off-Road

It seems as though it’s just about impossible to keep an embargo in place these days. A Canadian outlet just spilled the beans on a couple of GM reveals set for Detroit next month. They say they were invited to a sneak preview Wednesday evening and although they couldn’t take pics, they felt free to tell us about the whole array of models. Some have been loosely-guarded secrets, but a couple are unknowns, so we’ll quote CanadianDriver on those until we get confirmation from GM.

Apparently, The General will have a slew of new model introductions in the D next month, including the much-anticipated Camaro Convertible, the new, upsized Aveo, a substantially-revised Malibu, production versions of the Spark and Orlando, and two models we hadn’t heard about until now: A GMC version of the Orlando dubbed the Granite, and a “sport version of the Buick Regal” that should get “many of its performance parts from the 325-hp Opel Insignia OPC.” Hot dog, the Regal GS is apparently more than a wet dream. Bring on the Stage 1 and GNX.

The Regal was just introduced in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, so the announcement of a performance model so soon thereafter seems a little strange — not that we’re complaining, mind you. The Granite is described as an “urban utility vehicle” and will be the smallest model in GMC’s history. A Denali edition can only be around the corner. We’ll get you more details as they are released and we’ll be sure to have the whole field covered when the Big Top opens at Cobo in January.

[Source: CandianDriver]

REPORT: GM to show Chevy Orlando-based GMC Granite and hi-po Buick Regal in Detroit originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Raúl Pierri and Daniela Estrada

COPENHAGEN (IPS/TerraViva)  COP15 proved to be a “spectacular failure even according to its own terms,” but civil society had “some successes,” such as the inclusion of certain issues on the climate agenda, and making the voice of the South heard loud and clear.

That was how activists assessed their efforts at COP15 as the climate change talks came to an agonising end Saturday in Copenhagen.

Barred from the Bella Center, the official venue, and treated harshly by security forces at some of the massive demonstrations held throughout the two weeks of the conference, representatives of civil society – gathered simultaneously in the Danish capital at their own people’s climate summit, Klimaforum09 – highlighted a series of victories achieved.

“Despite the lack of transparency, civil society organisations have given visibility to positions that are more in line with climate justice, which we see as the only way to move towards a sustainable planet,” Eduardo Giesen, Latin American and Caribbean coordinator for Friends of the Earth International’s Climate Justice and Energy Programme, told TerraViva.

“We focused our efforts on supporting developing countries so they could present a united front against the demands of the industrialised world, and not give in to pressures that in some cases bordered on colonialism,” he added.

Klimaforum09 closed its two weeks of activities with a concert and a ceremony where this year’s organisers transferred organisational duties to representatives of Mexico and Latin America, where the next parallel summit will be held in 2010.

“The general sensation is that what wasn’t achieved at the Bella Center was achieved at Klimaforum” in terms of content consensus and forging of alliances, Giesen said.

For her part, Canadian journalist and researcher Naomi Klein called on activists to not give up hope. “I think it’s really important to make sure that we don’t leave this gathering feeling discouraged,” she said.

According to Klein, the fact that negotiators at the Bella Center were unable to reach an agreement even within their own conception of how to address climate change is proof that it is a failed model.

“That’s why it is very important to go forward and tell a different story of what happened here in Copenhagen. That story must be that their model reveals itself to be a spectacular failure even according to its own terms,” she said.

“And because their model failed, it’s our turn now. So don’t allow yourselves to get depressed,” she added.

In Klein’s view, the model has failed because of its emphasis on the carbon market and other market-based mechanisms.

“Discourse about climate change has been really taken over by technocrats, (it’s become) very bureaucratised, and has been extremely exclusive. This is actually similar to the discussion on trade a decade ago, where it was all acronyms, all incredible impenetrable long talks,” she said.

“And many people felt: I can’t be part of the discussion, I don’t have an advanced degree on economics, I can’t participate,” she added.

Klein underlined the need to reject “the model” in which negotiations are conducted under the Convention.

“We need to reject any measure that allows the countries that created the problem to evade their responsibility, (which is) that they need to cut their emissions,” she stressed.

For his part, Giesen condemned international NGOs that “toe the line” of industrialised countries and back counterproductive mechanisms.

“Our NGOs work with communities to achieve environmental justice. We haven’t turned into consultancy firms seeking to finance their activities by any means, like certain multinational NGOs who have found in the carbon market a way to make a lot of money. They’ve bought into capitalism,” he said.

Klein, meanwhile, highlighted what she saw as the “successes” of the last two weeks. “The rich world can no longer claim not to know (what) failing to act (entails). The voices of the South, the cost of millions of lives, the disappearance of countries and cultures – all that has landed on the agenda,” she said.

Changing the system

“System Change – Not Climate Change,” is the title of the final statement from Klimaforum09, signed by some 360 organizations from around the world.

Drafted months ago and discussed over the last week in the Danish capital, this “People’s Declaration” argues that “there are solutions to the climate crisis,” and puts forward six demands.

“What people and the planet need is a just and sustainable transition of our societies to a form that will ensure the rights of life and dignity of all people and deliver a more fertile planet and more fulfilling lives to present and future generations,” it states.

The signatory organisations called on governments to take urgent climate action, most importantly the “complete abandonment of fossil fuels within the next 30 years, which must include specific milestones for every five-year period.”

They also demanded “an immediate cut in GHG (greenhouse gases) of industrialized countries of at least 40 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2020,” and “recognition, payment and compensation of climate debt for the overconsumption of atmospheric space and adverse effects of climate change on all affected groups and people.”

The statement goes on to reject “purely market-oriented and technology-centred false and dangerous solutions,” such as “nuclear energy, agro-fuels, carbon capture and storage, Clean Development Mechanisms, biochar, genetically ‘climate-readied’ crops, geoengineering, and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).”

The “real solutions” are “based on safe, clean, renewable, and sustainable use of natural resources, as well as transitions to food, energy, land, and water sovereignty.”

The signatory organisations also proposed that an “equitable tax on carbon emissions” be established instead of “the regime of tradable emission quotas,” and that multilateral financial bodies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund “be replaced by democratic and equitable institutions functioning in accordance with the United Nations Charter.”

They also demanded a “mechanism for strict surveillance and control of the operations of TNCs (transnational corporations).”

“Irrespective of the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, there is an urgent need to build a global movement of movements dedicated to the long-term task of promoting a sustainable transition of our societies,” the statement concludes.
(END/2009)

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Japan, Asia | Unusual Monuments

Located in Aomori, at the Seiryūji (Blue-Green Dragon) Temple is a colossal likeness of Dainichi Nyorai completed in 1984. This particular Buddha, known primarily as Vairocana in the sanskrit, is the principal deity of the esoteric Shingon sect of Buddhism. This particular Daibutsu is the tallest seated bronze statue of the Buddha in Japan, taller even than the famous Daibutsu of Nara.

Shingon Temples hold light ceremonies during the Bon Festival, in mid-August, to help those in a liminal state between life and death successfully transmigrate. Often, during this time, parents of a recently departed child will pray for the pacification of their own souls, and for that of the child’s. The Seiryūji Temple is no different in this respect, holding grand light ceremonies for the entirety of the Bon Festival.

Holidays can be a tough time for those of us with startup companies. While the rest of the world is carving turkeys, lighting Menorahs and singing carols, we’re sneaking moments away from family to check our messages. You’ve created your vacation responses, forwarded your phone to voice mail and emailed your emergency contacts to clients. But a good business person makes sure services run smoothly, even during the holidays. Twilio may be one company that can help.

Sponsor

Twilio is a web-service API that allows businesses to build their own customizable phones services and communications apps. Hosted on Amazon Web Services, Twilio’s infrastructure grows depending on customer demand. The company’s per-call pricing model is affordable and after watching CEO Jeff Lawson demo the service, we were surprised to see how user-friendly it truly is. At this week’sSF New Tech Event, Lawson was given 5 minutes to set up a conference call. After 10 lines of code he had a call-in number, mute settings, admin prompts and more than 50 members of the audience calling in during his live demo. After seeing the audience respond to the service, we realized that Twilio would be a great for putting your company on holiday autopilot.

Twilio offers a variety of usages including notifications, phone polls, call forwarding, voice transcription and triaging. If a client needs a reminder during the holidays you can automate a message and pre-program it to call them on a specific date. If you want to remain available in case of an emergency, you can forward a list of pre-determined numbers to your mobile while leaving the rest in voicemail. And if you’re looking to create a simple directory, you can use Twilio to create a list of people, options or customer service contacts.

In late September ReadWriteWeb covered Buzzeromatic’s latest Twilio-based door application. In this case, users can grant timed building access to visitors by programming the door buzzer with a password. Rather than waiting for deliveries, Twilio ensures that you’re warm at home when deliveries arrive to your building entryway.

At this early stage, we know we’re just scratching the surface on all of Twilio’s capabilities. If you’ve hacked together a cool application or holiday game plan using Twilio or a similar service, let us know in the comments below.

Discuss

Yesterday it appeared a lot had happened in Copenhagen. World leaders arrived at the Bella Centre in a flurry of convoys, and addressed the Conference of Parties and the world with aims to move forward. No sooner had they arrived and delivered their speeches, than they had disappeared again. As the dust settles the ‘Copenhagen Accord’ appears and as I read the text with no targets I realise that our future is not in their hands, but in ours.

 

Today we will pick up the pieces our leaders couldn’t put together and tidy the mess they made and didn’t clean up. Today youth from around the world will begin the world of educating on climate change and greening the global environment. Today we will decrease carbon emissions by empowering individuals and communities around the world. Today we will educate people with logical solutions to decrease carbon emissions and dependency on fossil fuels.

 

Am I disappointed by what was put on the table? Yes, but I am not surprised. Nor am I disheartened by it. That’s because today we will go further and make sure, top-down and bottom-up, that we will address this global challenge. We will empower everyone and, together, secure everyone’s futures.

 

Yesterday, when a call went out to the leaders of the world to lead on tackling climate change, no-one put their hands up.

 

Today I put my hand up.

 

Warhammer Online’s latest Developer Letter has been released. It is Keg’s End time again in Warhammer and Release 1.3.3 has just been released. Enjoy the Warhammer Online 1.3.3 Developer’s Letter.

(Community Team Note: We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Bruce Maclean as the new producer for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Bruce has a long history with Mythic Entertainment, having previously worked on Dark Age of Camelot in multiple capacities. Please join us in welcoming Bruce.

If you’re wondering about Jeff Skalski, not to fret as he is still here in the studio working hard on Warhammer.)

Hail!

Everyone here at Mythic would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season, filled with the things that make this time of year extra special – and by special we mean the taste of beer, the sounds of battle, and the sight of your enemies weeping on the forums!

That’s right, Keg End is upon us once again, and whether you are a grizzled veteran, a raw recruit, or someone who has been following the action from the sidelines, there has never been a better time to play WAR.  Before we head off to battle seeking our own personal keg-toting servant to help us ring in the New Year, take a seat and share some brew with this grizzled old veteran for a moment as we reflect on the year now behind us.

It truly is the Age of Reckoning and the past year has been filled with amazing Live Events, awesome new dungeons, scenarios, and new zones, with grim new foes and fantastic rewards to earn.  We have survived the Night of Murder and seen the arrival of the bitterest of rivals, the Slayer and the Choppa.  We have seen the portents and events surrounding the Rise of the Tomb Kings and the expedition to the Land of the Dead. We have witnessed the Demon Moon Rising, and partaken in the ancient and challenging Wild Hunt.

In the past year, the Realm versus Realm war has also seen significant action and change: Zone Domination, the Keep Upgrade Ordnance systems, RvR Quartermasters, two-ramp Keeps, City Invasion improvements, a Keep Rating System, the WAR Report, and the recent Realm Underdog System.  Countless other changes too numerous to cover have also elevated the RvR experience from good to incredible, not the least of which are significant performance and stability gains.

A toast for stability!

While lowering the bar to enable computers to run higher graphics settings, we also improved the game’s look with HDR and bloom.  Suffice it to say, the RvR battles of this winter season are more engaging, more visceral, and more fun than anything else out there. Raise a toast to the veterans here, they know what I mean!

Since we consider WAR to be the best-in-class RvR experience and we wanted to share it with everyone. Thus we’ve launched a Macintosh Version, brought WAR to our Russian friends, and unleashed the mighty WAAAGH! in Taiwan.  We also launched our Free Endless Trial, complete with a streaming client, so fresh meat, err, new players can play forever (for free!) and bolster the ranks of our armies.

Here’s a toast to the fresh meat!

Looking back at past accomplishments is all well and good, but we’re not resting on our bloodied laurels here in the land of WAR! Next year is going to be an exciting one, and I am looking forward to sharing more of our plans during the frigid days and long winter nights of January.  We’ll have exciting new Live Events, new weapons and cloaks earned by spilling the blood of your enemies in RvR, a new Scenario structure, economy and loot drop improvements, adjustments to the King and Warlord encounters to convert them to RvR-only battles, UI customization enhancements, Tier 4 RvR campaign improvements, daily quests and so much more –  and that’s just our near term plans for 2010.

Farther into the year we’ll see…oh but you’ve heard me ramble enough! It’s time for that drink, battle, and crying enemies!

Happy Holidays and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Bruce Maclean, WAR Live Producer

It is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But at least it is the end of the beginning. – Winston Churchill, 1941

Ah, but for a Churchill to help us tackle climate change. Sadly, not even President Obama – otherwise a master of inspirational rhetoric – could put the ‘hope’ back into ‘Hopenhagen’ as the climate talks drew to a close this weekend.

So where do we now stand? Planet saved or world in crisis? I won’t beat around the bush – things aren’t great. The Copenhagen Accord is a weak and timid document that lacks many of the crucial details that observers were hoping for. The Danish organisers wanted this conference to be remembered as historic: it will be, but not in the way they dreamed of. Rather than a decisive summit, think Munich 1938, with Chamberlain waving his flimsy piece of paper in the face of the gathering storm of fascism. Or as this sharp cartoon has it, Versailles 1919, when world leaders sowed the seeds of an earlier global crisis.

On the other hand, many people – myself included – invested too much hope in what Copenhagen could realistically achieve. I’ve been planning and preparing for the talks for so long (since last December, in fact) that I’ve been too keen to view it as a seminal moment, if only to get some closure. But as the dust has settled today I’ve tried to get some perspective on what’s happened. So let’s take a closer look at what has emerged after two weeks of wranglings, coffee-fuelled late nights and a lot of talking.

First of all, what we have in the Accord is not a legally-binding agreement, nor even a political statement approved by all countries. It took Ed Miliband’s last-minute intervention this morning to get it approved as a UN document but it carries no obligation upon countries to sign up, and various Latin American and African countries are overtly hostile to doing so. The Accord sets no clear process for how to continue negotiations, and since we have now concluded COP15 without fulfilling the provisions contained in the (legally binding) Bali Roadmap, we are entering uncharted waters. The world is drifting loose.

On the subject of targets, the Accord is most disappointing. A statement committing Annex I (developed) countries to 80% cuts by 2050 was removed at the last minute – which is bizarre, since the G8 have already agreed on this target in a previous communique. As for 2020 targets, all that the Accord contains is a blank table at the back, awaiting submissions from each country “by 31st January 2010″. This do-it-yourself, fill-in-the-blanks approach doesn’t inspire confidence after two years of talks, but at least it sets a deadline for submissions. If there’s one ray of sunshine, it perhaps suggests an early passage of the US climate bill through the Senate, in order for the US to submit proper targets.

On finance for mitigation and adaptation, the Accord does much better. We’ve got $30bn of ‘fast-track funding’ promised yearly between 2010 and 2012, in order to kickstart work to decarbonise and build resilience in  developing countries. Good stuff, and good also that the US (again, last-minute) bought into the pledge to secure the longer-term funding target of $100bn annually by 2020. Interestingly, the Accord sets up a High Level Panel to investigate sources of funding: this could include Tobin taxes on the banking system, a levy on maritime and aviation bunker fuels, or auctioning of excess AAUs, to name a few options.

Perhaps the most contentious issue that has hung over the Copenhagen climate talks is burden-sharing: who bears the most responsibilities for cutting emissions. Ultimately this is a standoff between the US and China, as the world’s two biggest emitters and biggest powers. China is still nominally a developing country (with plenty of poverty within its borders) but Western countries are increasingly loathe to treat it as such. The US rejected Kyoto because it didn’t bring in China, and Obama has pressed hard in Copenhagen for China to submit to international monitoring of its emissions reporting. The Chinese, for their part, continue to resist absolute emissions caps, but have set a carbon intensity target for 2020 that meets IPCC recommendations.

The Accord includes a number of other provisions, but the most important one is the review date. Thankfully, this reached the final draft, ensuring that the agreement and international progress will be reviewed by 2015 at the latest. However, given the Accord’s limpness, this is less meaningful than it could have been. It could also be too late to do anything by then: the IPCC recommend that global emissions peak by 2015.

So much for the slim content of the Accord. What of the process that produced it? Extraordinarily, despite two weeks of intense dialogue in Copenhagen and two years of talks preceding it, the Accord itself was thrashed out in the last two days outside of the formal UN process. The crucial meeting, according to the Guardian, was a 90-minute almost-accidental meeting between the American, Chinese, Indian and Brazilian heads of state. So much for inclusiveness: this sounds like Great Power machinations as usual. On the other hand, it’s clear that the UNFCCC system of consensual decision-making, whilst allowing small states to have a voice – such as Tuvalu – is very slow (hence Papua New Guinea’s proposal on day one to adopt decision-making by voting). Maybe we should be re-evaluating our basic approach to global governance, and moving to have a directly elected chamber for the UN. Or perhaps, as Bolivian President Evo Morales has suggested, we ought to hold a global referendum on how to tackle climate change.

Obama has emerged from Copenhagen diminished in stature, with many former supporters feeling bitter. I was  disappointed too by Ambassador Di-Aping, the head negotiator for the G77 block whom I met at the talks, when he alleged the provisions in the Accord amounted to a new Holocaust; it was an unnecessary comparison. But our own Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband emerge from Copenhagen as the good guys. They appear to have done everything they can; let’s hope the UK can continue to lead in 2010, starting with committing unilaterally to 42% cuts by 2020, in order to encourage the rest of the EU to go to 30%.

Most of all, Copenhagen has demonstrated the strength of civil society’s response to global warming. Just as at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, a huge panoply of NGOs and social movements gathered in the city over the past fortnight, forging closer bonds as a result of the experience. But NGOs’ exclusion from the last days of talks was frustrating and unfair. On the other hand, we can’t escape some self-criticism: the alternative summits organised by civil society, such as Klimaforum, have proven very disconnected from the UN process and more concerned with blaming governments than coming up with better solutions. And whilst I enjoyed taking part in the mid-week actions to create a ‘people’s assembly’ on the fringes of the Bella Centre, I couldn’t pretend it presented a serious challenge to the established system.

Where next? A ‘COP-bis’, or special midway summit, has been scheduled to take place in Bonn in June 2010. If used productively, the next six months could see further details agreed upon that are missing in the current Accord. Domestically, the UK has an election scheduled to take place sometime between March-May 2010. We have some exciting ideas brewing for how to use this opportunity to push climate change up the political agenda: watch this space!

And perhaps, instead of reaching for Churchillian rhetoric for inspiration, we should remember one of the great man’s earthier phrases. Legend has it that, during the height of the Blitz, he would end every phone call with the cryptic words ‘KBO’. When asked what it stood for, he replied: “Keep Buggering On.”

For some reason, an unexpected snow day doesn’t fill people with a burning desire to rehab their family rooms. They do tend to wish they had the fireplace sleeve put it, but they don’t actually do something about it. No, they tend to go play in the snow with their kids, drink tons of cocoa and then go off four wheeling with their friends. Two snow days in a row? That starts people thinking. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, though. When there are two feet of snow on the ground, you don’t want to have to call in reinforcements. Here are ten snow day activities you can do around your home that won’t have you calling for the plumber if you mess up the repair:

• Check for drafts. A blustery snow day is the perfect time to find out whether windows are well caulked and to discover if the doors need weatherstripping.
• Test how much energy different appliances are guzzling with a watt checker.
• Change out your old light bulbs for energy efficient bulbs.
• Organize your pantry and box up any items that you aren’t going to use that are getting near their expiration date to give to someone else.
• Fix every squeaky door in the house.
• Wax the edges of old fashioned drawers that don’t slide well. Tighten screws on drawers that use drawer slides.
• Mend that pile of broken things you’ve been meaning to super glue together.
• Repair chips in wooden furniture with wood putty or stain crayons.
• Install that  safety bolt and a sensor on the door leading to your pool that didn’t get put up last summer. Then, hop online and buy a surface sensor to put in your pool when spring rolls around.
• Sort out your linen closet and give old linens you don’t want anymore but are in good shape to a local charity. Put the ones that are in bad shape in your rag bin.

Still need something to do? Pull out your bread machine if you’re running low on bread and make your own. We made some chocolate bread and are waiting for it to finish up so we can taste it. Hopefully, it tastes as good as it smells.

Photo: K. Thomas

Post from: Blisstree

Ten Household Chores for Snow Days

Filed under: Aftermarket, Ford, Design/Style

At the LA Auto Show this year, Ford showed off several North American-market Ford Fiestas. The cars themselves received a warm reception, as did the customized versions on hand to show off the possibilities. One Fiesta in particular caught our eye: It was a fairly stock-looking white car with some outrageous black graphics on its flanks. We came to learn that this wasn’t just a one-off. It was, in fact, part of a new Ford program to allow buyers to similarly customize any Ford in the vehicle lineup.

The generically-named Ford Custom Graphics are a series of vinyls that can be used to add a little extra something to your blue oval beauty. Ford says the graphics are scratch-resistant and weatherproof, and retain the car’s 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty. They will be sold exclusively through Ford dealers. Although the Fiesta designs are the only pages open right now, there are previews of other planned graphics on the FordCustomGraphics.com website. We’ve assembled some of them here for you in the gallery below. The lower camo on the F-150 is particularly eye-catching, but there are similar treatments for every single vehicle in the Ford family brochure. Check ’em out.

[Source: Ford]

Fancy a camouflage F-150? Graphics for entire Ford lineup coming soon originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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