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Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or חנוכה, I’d like to invite you to Margie Gelbwasser’s week-plus-a-day of festivities. Margie is the author of Inconvenient, a debut novel which will get published by Flux in 2010. She’s invited a spate of her fellow 2010 debut authors to share their writing tips, and thrown my own guest entry in the middle like the big candle in a menorah. As a sophomore, I should be hazing these frosh, but I like them all so I’ll be cool. For now, at least. Tomorrow, who knows? I’m as unpredictable as a dreidel. Yes, I really had to work to set up that last simile. Zot, you think Hanukkah similes are easy? They’re a latke of work.

With only a short working week left to hammer out a deal, one has to wonder just what are we going to get.


The mood at the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference last Monday was said to be optimistic and positive.


How quickly it changed.


It only took a day or two before China and the United States, the two largest polluters in the world accounting for over 40% of emissions were in a “war of word” exchanging barbs and questioning each others commitment to the sincerity of their positions.


Drafts started to appear, indicating back room deals and alliances of various developed and developing countries were starting to form. Negoiaters walking out of talks.


This past weekend saw nearly 1200 activists detained as they marched to voice their concern over the lack of progress.


But progress has been made.



Late Friday, word came out a draft that could form “the core” of a document to replace the Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2012, was released.


It is far from perfect, but it is a start and one that should not be dismissed. There is a lot of expectations from this summit, and with only a week left before over 110 heads of state or their representatives converge on Friday to vote, it is time to put the petty politics of last week on the shelf and get down to business.


AFP reports that a select group of environment ministers from 48 countries met over the weekend to review a draft deal.


“The core discussions have already started” a spokesman told AFP, adding that “we still have a daunting task in front of us over the next few days”.


Indeed. Would you want to be charged with the responsibility of saving the planet?


In the end, there will be an agreement. Will it be perfect? No. Will it be enough? Probably not, and that depends on who you ask. Most importantly it will be a start. It will be an acknowledgment of governments from around the world commitment to curbing what has been done. But it won’t enough, to sit back and let our elected officials implement this deal.


It is incumbent on all of us to advance this agreement by continuing to put power on our respective governments to both adhere to the terms and to fulfill the commitments they have made.


If we don’t, if we let the deal slip to the back burner, then that is our opportunity lost.

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related.posts:

1. Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: Nearing The End
2. Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: Day 9 Recap
3. Copenhagen Day 2 – Climate Change Conference in Denmark

Reader Amy just sent us a great tip for the holidays and all those nuts you’re probably chopping this time of year. It has to do with a very seldom-used tool in our kitchen: the pastry blender.

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“Imminent breakout

A year ago, we noted that the rise of Justin.tv and other “live streaming” services was going to put some pressure on things like exclusive “broadcasting” deals for sporting events. Already, some sports leagues have threatened live streaming sites. For the most part, rather than looking for ways to use this to their advantage and to recognize that fans are helping promote these events, the sports leagues have been freaking out, because all they see is that multi-million dollar exclusive broadcasting rights contracts may be harder to come by.

And, when big entertainment operations feel threatened, who do they turn to? Congress of course. The House Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing about “piracy” of live sporting events, and have asked the CEO of Justin.tv to come defend himself. This will not end well. These sorts of hearings are not about actually hearing all sides of an issue to better understand them. They’re usually for show, so that some politicians can scold some company they don’t like, and then push legislation forward that favors their campaign supporters.

Justin.tv should have a clear DMCA defense here — and that’s what the company appears to be planning to express. But, my guess is that Congress won’t care very much. Rather than differentiate between users and platforms or technologies, they’ll claim that this is “A Problem” that needs to be “Solved.”

But is it really? The ability to “live stream” is something that’s almost entirely brand new, and it really does change the way people can interact. But, live streaming will almost always create some sort of “copyright infringement” or “piracy,” which suggests the real problem isn’t with live streaming, but with copyright laws. The sports leagues and entertainment companies are freaked out for the same reason they’re always freaked out. This new technology, which allows many wonderful things, also takes away their control, and it’s that control that they use to set up artificial barriers, which is what they use to claim monopoly rents. Basically, their markets are being changed by new technologies, and rather than realizing there are ways to embrace that, they instead are running to Congress to try to break the technology.

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Our holiday guests today:

• On Chocolate Cake, Candied Oranges, & Hilarious Disasters by Hannah of Honey & Jam

• Add an Extra Ingredient to Your Holiday Recipes: Love by Art of Pleasant House

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Our holiday guests today:

• King Cake, Boiled Codfish, and a Portuguese Christmas by Gasparzinha of No Soup for You

• Christmas Croquembouche by Liz of Zested

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Filed under: Etc., Technology

RoboVault says its mission is “To protect your most valuable possessions from… Everything!” Run more like an automated shipping port than your typical storage unit, the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based company seems to have the kit to live up to its motto. First you pull your car onto the receiving pallet, then go through a host of security measures including retinal scans and a heartbeat detector. Once you’ve been approved by the system, a robotic arm comes for your car and removes it to your assigned steel mesh container in the bowels of the building.

Those 465 units are surrounded by a concrete-and-steel-reinforced building that can withstand bullets, fires, Category 5 hurricanes, and 200-mph winds. When the inevitable hurricane does come in for a landing, power outages are countered by RoboVault’s back-up generator, which maintains 100 percent of the building’s systems including the HVAC, motion and infrared detectors.

There are safe deposit boxes for smaller items, storage for 4,000 bottles of your finest hooch and a wine tasting operation if you have some time to kill after parking your exotic. And with all that, your Ferrari might be better prepared — and more comfortable — than you are the next time Mother Nature decides to bring the nasty.

[Source: MotoBullet]

RoboVault protects your car from hurricanes, floods, Apocalypse originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why do so many oppose a state income tax?

Editor, The Times:

State Sen. Rosa Franklin’s support of a progressive state income tax [“Washington state’s regressive tax system needs an overhaul,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 14] helpfully notes that it could save us from having to choose between cutting vital services and increasing taxes on those already struggling with tax burdens.

Despite its persuasiveness, Franklin’s proposal will no doubt call forth the endless theoretical arguments opposing a state income tax.

One wonders how many would so strenuously object to an income tax if the scheme would not raise their own taxes now or in the future. Viewed from this perspective, much opposition to an income tax owes less to theoretical arguments than it does to a simple effort to preserve a personal advantage.

There is nothing wrong with preserving a personal advantage. But this principle — like all principles — must have limits. Franklin’s bill, based on the 2003 Gates Commission recommendations and countless other reports, is sensible, tested and fair. It reflects considerations broader than mere personal advantage.

It is long past time to bring these more-inclusive principles into our debates over tax policy. We are, after all, passengers on the same train.

— William R. Andersen, Seattle

Time to repeal current system

Sen. Rosa Franklin reiterates what we all know to be true. The time is now for Washington state to repeal our regressive tax system.

What if the people who earn less than $20,000 annually and are forced to pay 17.3 percent of their family income in taxes rise up and demand that our governor and legislators do the right thing and revise our regressive and outdated tax system without further delay?

In fact, why don’t those who earn between $99,000 and $198,000 join in and together form a majority to demand a fairer and more-just tax system in our state.

— Kristin Distelhorst, Seattle

People who make more, spend more

With all respect to Sen. Rosa Franklin, she skewed her numbers to fit her proposal of a state income tax. Percentages are one number, the actual dollar amount is another, much higher number in actual money.

People who make more money, spend more money in housing, cars, entertainment, etc., which all relate into tax for all the state, not just that proposed by the people in Olympia. More than an income tax, we need Olympia to live within the means we vote to give them and stop growing the state spending to six times the CPI rate for the Seattle area.

I totally disagreed with Franklin when she said, “In fact, if we’d adopted the commission’s recommendation years ago, we’d be in much less of a recession in our state today.”

Hogwash, if Olympia spent less than every dollar they took in, provided a larger rainy-day fund, hadn’t given extremely high raises, etc., we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now.

— Jerry Oaksmith, Edmonds

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1    Modern Warfare 2
2    Halo 3
3    Call of Duty: WaW
4    Call of Duty 4
5    Left 4 Dead 2 (Download the Demo)
6    FIFA 10
7    Assassin's Creed II
8    GTA IV (Purchase the full game)
9    Madden NFL 10
10  Gears of War 2 (Download the demo)

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1   Trials HD   
2   Call of Duty Classic
3   Madden NFL Arcade
4   Castle Crashers 
5   Magic: The Gathering
6   Sonic The Hedgehog 2
7   A Kingdom for Keflings
8   Hasbro Family Game Night **
9   Shadow Complex
10  Battlefield 1943 

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.
**Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)

1    Halo 2
2    Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3    Counter-Strike
4    Fable
5    Conker: Live Reloaded
6    Splinter Cell Chaos
7    Star Wars: Battlefront
8    Doom 3
9    Call of Duty 3
10   SW: Republic Commando

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1    The Impossible Game
2    myChristmas
3    Avatar Drop
4    Head Shot 2
5    I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
6    Avatar Avenue
7    Dont B Nervous Talking 2 Girls
8    Inside Lacrosse's CL2010
9    A Killer's Dream
10   Miner Dig Deep

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade and Indie Games, full versions purchased during the week.

LIVE Activity for week of Nov. 9th

Plan on being in the car with the little ones on Christmas Eve? If so, are you an OnStar subscriber? Then you’ll want to hit that blue OnStar button and ask for a Santa update, because OnStar is teaming up with NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) to keep tabs on Santa’s location as all times through the evening. Oh, what’s that? You find that to be almost as ridiculous as the Necky?

Hey, we agree, but let’s not let the silliness of this promotion get in the way of…no, you’re right. It’s silly. Silly enough that we want to try it.

Tags:
christmas,
december 24,
gps,
norad,
north american aerospace defense command,
onstar,
santa,
santa clause,

Filed under: Budget, China, GM, India, Rumormill

Though the minuscule Tata Nano hasn’t even been on the market for a complete year, the impact it’s had on the automotive world may be exactly inverse to its size and price. In other words, it’s had a huge effect, proving to the world that it’s possible to build a business plan around selling super cheap cars in rapidly expanding markets.

You can reportedly add the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and General Motors joint venture to the list of automakers that have taken notice of the Nano. According to reports rolling in from China and India, the 50:50 JV is considering a vehicle that would be positioned below the Chevy Spark/Daewoo Matiz that would sell for as little as $3,500.

So far, GM/SAIC isn’t commenting on the reports, but has indicated in the past that it plans to build small vans, SUVs and cars for emerging markets like China and India.

[Source: WheelsUnplugged | Image: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images]

REPORT: GM-SAIC pondering Tata Nano fighter? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Scott Bendlock, Special Education Teacher, Brevig Mission

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings you can find two dozen or more students waiting outside of school at 5:30 p.m.. Why? Open Gym you might ask? No. These students are waiting to improve their math scores! For an hour and a half, three nights a week, any elementary student may come in and work math programs that will improve math skills. Way to go kids!!!

How can we keep jobs, businesses in Washington?

Mike Brown ends his column with the insightful notion that “it is ironic indeed that the cloud-computing centers that power it are being located elsewhere despite our natural competitive advantages right here at home” [“State must remove barriers that send jobs elsewhere,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 12].

Yes, there is a wealth of vision and leadership of homegrown Washington companies that create the new economy, but when local companies move jobs to Charleston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oregon, Texas and North Carolina, then it’s hard to argue that our state truly possess natural competitive advantages.

Visionaries often have a bloated sense of entitlement that because their ideas or movements started through them, they should automatically reap the benefits of success that result from their creativity and sweat.

Granted, it’s nice when that happens, but as Brown’s commentary attests, it currently takes more than initial brilliant ideas, especially when barriers block the further progression of those ideas locally. People don’t have time to wait for barriers to be removed; they’ll simply implement stage two of their ideas where costs are cheaper and where there are less hindrances.

It’s no secret that focusing on retaining good jobs and attracting the new jobs of the new economy is absolutely imperative. But the most relevant question is, “How?”

— Steve Goodman, Mountlake Terrace

The right companies will come along soon enough

It’s curious how businessmen like Mike Brown get weak-kneed at the thought of a state or region having to compete on merit for new business and good jobs.

Our challenge isn’t to emulate South Carolina, which attempts to obtain by bribery what it could never win by merit.

South Carolina is doing what a state falls back on when it undervalues and underfunds education for a century or more, isn’t progressive and proactive, and gets tired of always losing to more attractive states — sort of like what eventually happens if everybody thinks like Tim Eyman.

If you believe that less government is better, end corporate welfare. Do the dull stuff — education and infrastructure — but do it just as well as you possibly can.

The right companies will figure out often enough that we’re the best place for them. Else we might wind up beggars like South Carolina.

— Steve Garber, Seattle

Our state’s battle for data centers

Mike Brown recently suggested that the sales tax be eliminated on equipment purchases for data centers.

It sounds like a practical way to create jobs in Washington. With low power rates, our state is an obvious location for data centers. However, the sales tax on equipment is a huge and ongoing cost so many companies build their data centers elsewhere.

Not only is Washington not receiving sales-tax revenue, but the state is forfeiting good-paying jobs.

Other states recognize the economic value of data centers and are aggressively competing for these facilities. Washington must do the same. We don’t need to provide huge economic incentives, we just need to remove barriers, like the sales tax, that make it too expensive for companies to locate here.

Building data centers will help stimulate the economy, increase property-tax revenues and, most important, create good-paying jobs — all without a huge government subsidy.

— Eileen DeArmon, Seattle

Wall Street bailout: the lesser of evils?

It appears David Sirota has misinterpreted what economists mean by moral hazard [“Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: the mother of all moral hazards,” Opinion, syndicated column, Dec. 14]. Moral hazard exists when one is motivated to behave in a way that is contra to what is best.

For example, the Wall Street bankers were rewarded to take excess risk because it meant that their individual bonus for the year would be greater and that any fallout from the excess risk for the bank would not be felt for years into the future. Just because one makes an error in judgment does not mean that a moral hazard exists.

Sirota suggests that by rewarding Ben Bernanke by renominating him represents a moral hazard because he has admitted to an error in judgment. That is not a moral hazard as seen by economists.

Politics are also involved here. It may have been politically impossible for the Federal Reserve to have done more at the time.

The bailout of Wall Street was not done to reward Wall Street for the errors of its ways. Rather, it was the lesser of evils. Should one allow the entire financial system to collapse to simply punish Wall Street? No, instead, we should change the rules so that in the future the current moral hazard is no longer present.

— Larry Hegstad, Tacoma

Let’s ensure this doesn’t happen again

The many expressions of love and compassion shown by the greater Puget Sound community, and by those from across the country and Canada, following the recent slaying of the four police officers in Lakewood, show the deep respect we have for those who enforce the laws of the land [“Two weeks after killing, community reclaims cafe,” NWSunday, Dec. 13].

The memorial service itself was an impressive display of community, sympathy, solidarity, tenderness and love in action.

Here are a few suggestions that, if implemented, might prevent such horror in the future: Increase taxes so that every police department in every community is fully funded every year. Enforce and enact gun-control laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who cannot handle them. Ensure that those with mental illnesses get proper treatment when needed, as long as needed, and include in that treatment a healthy dose of love and a sense of worth. Improve our criminal-justice system so that our jails are not overflowing with those whose crimes hurt no one, and keep locked up those who really do pose a threat to others.

All this takes money, that’s for sure. But what is the cost to a community of one dead police officer, let alone four?

— Jim Rettig, Woodinville

Huckabee and the difference between commuted and released

What part of commuted, but not released, don’t readers understand [“Excuses, excuses, excuses,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 11]?

It appears that those who wrote blaming former Gov. Mike Huckabee for the release of cop killer Maurice Clemmons were way off base. Also, it was nine years ago when then-Gov. Huckabee commuted — not released — Clemmons. Clemmons’ sentence was commuted from 100-plus years to 45-plus years.

It was the Arkansas courts that released him, and it was a Pierce County judge who set Clemmons free.

Maybe those who want to play the blame game should get their facts straight before they play the blame game. I also saw Fox News blaming Huckabee for the deaths of these fine, hardworking officers.

Once and for all, it was Clemmons who pulled the trigger. So don’t let him off the hook.

— Pat Gee, Federal Way

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The best inventions make our lives easier. Often so simple in concept as to be beautiful and brilliant, these break-through ideas become an “overnight” success when a confluence of factors intervene to create a perfect storm of benefits to the customer. Is Rentcycle on the verge of such success?

Rentcycle officially launched in October 2009. The brainchild of founder Tim Hyer, their mission is to facilitate the business of renting “stuff”. Recognizing that the process of renting equipment is both painful to customers and highly inefficient to business, Rentcycle developed a model that creates efficiencies through online scheduling, tracking and inventory management. Customers can get info, pricing and check availability of the equipment they want to rent while niche boutique business owners are finally able to create a streamlined rental process that has been up til now, a giant time suck due to the laborious manual processes of every step.  

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Someone just made 3 attempts to reset my Google Password. The reset notice I received includes this statement …

… If you’ve received this mail in error, it’s likely that another user entered
your email address by mistake while trying to reset a password. If you didn’t
initiate the request, you don’t need to take any further action and can safely
disregard this email….

A mistake. Suurre it’s a mistake.

I have a robust Google password, but the risk here is that someone has access to a secondary account that receives my Google password reset requests. Those have robust passwords too, but there are always weaknesses.

Just to be on the safe side I’ve reviewed my Google accounts password recovery options and they look good.

Brrr. I hate passwords. I’d have bet good money in 1996 that we’d have robust biometric authentication by now. I’d have lost every penny. A good lesson about predicting the future.

Update 11/18/09: Amit Agarwal was hacked around the same time I was attacked. It’s not clear how they hacked in.