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Well, this is the week for hydrogen bikes and scooters as we have two separate developments in these areas. First up is the ACTA hydrogen bike which was exhibited at the EICMA Motor Show in Milan, Italy.

This hydrogen assisted bike can either be motivated by pedal power or fuel cell. The hydrogen is stored at low compression in a small one-liter metal hydride tank behind the seat. In hydrogen mode only the bike can travel around 62 miles at the legal speed limit of 15.5 mph.

ACTA also sells a home hydrogen generator that splits water and uses low energy consumption to recharge the fuel tank in a couple of hours. Now, in other news, engineering students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison have reconfigured a Vespa scooter to run on hydrogen.

According to the U-W Madison News, “The class, with the help of UW-Madison civil and environmental engineering professor Marc Anderson and Beloit public works fleet manager Dan Lutz, has demonstrated a new hydrogen-assisted system that runs a Vespa on a hydrogen-gasoline fuel mix.

“The students have been able to run the Vespa entirely on hydrogen both at idling and high-throttle speeds. Hydrogen also creates more complete engine combustion, meaning the scooter produces fewer emissions than factory Vespas.”

So, there you have it, a bike and a scooter at least partially running on hydrogen gas. What could be next – Razors and Pocket Bikes?

Are you reading Derek Sivers’ blog? He’s really been killing it with good posts lately. The “hippie capitalist” (he’s a musician who founded CD Baby) is a master at offering simple advice that delivers real impact.

Some recent examples:

• Let pedestrians define the walkways
• Present one idea at a time and let others build upon it
• The challenge: Don’t speak in future tense
• There’s no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life.)
• Prob my all-time fave essay of his is Ideas are just a multiplier of execution (which was quoted in Getting Real)

His site also offers detailed notes on books he’s read with a focus on titles about business, investing, and psychology. I’ve found those notes are a perfect match for Instapaper, the iPhone app that lets you read web pages even when you’re offline and saves your place on longer pieces. Together they make a terrific subway reading combo.

The first external builds of Mac OS X 10.6.3, the next incremental update to Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, should arrive this week, AppleInsider has been told.

People familiar with the matter say the forthcoming builds are likely to be released to some developers in the next 48 hours, and carry the expected prefix of 10Dxx. It is not yet known what issues Apple hopes to address with the latest update.

A month ago, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.2, which corrected a guest account bug that could potentially delete a user’s account data, triggered by logging in and out of a guest account on a Snow Leopard machine. The update also included native support for the Mac maker’s new multi-touch Magic Mouse.

That update was in beta for just over a month, before its release to the public on Nov. 9. A timeframe for the potential Mac OS X 10.6.3 release is not yet known.

Read more from AppleInsider

Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly has told his players that he would meet with Notre Dame but said in a Twitter post today that the meeting has yet to take place. Kelly appears to be the hottest prospect for the Golden Dome, but could he possibly be the only one? A source close to the coach says that although he is in contact with officials with the school, but has yet to have a meeting with AD Jack Swarbrick. Both are staying at the same hotel in New York for the College Football Foundation and Hall of Fame banquet, but it appears now that the two will not meet while there.

Still, other sources are saying that an announcement could come as early as Friday, chief among those being Lou Holtz. Said Holtz yesterday on a Chicago radio talk show:

“[Kelly] really wants the job. I think that’s his lifetime job. He would love to be there.He has an Irish name, plus he has all the ingredients the athletic director is looking for. Here’s a guy who’s been prepared every place he’s been. He’s done a tremendous job at Cincinnati.”

The Irish have hired a search firm out of Atlanta to gauge the interest of possible candidates. Iowa HC Kirk Ferentz, mentioned as a possible candidate, denied being contacted by the firm, in spite of reports saying that he had a meeting with them. Likewise said Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who is also at the same banquet in New York with Swarbrick and Kelly. Harbaugh said yesterday that no meeting is to take place between himself and Notre Dame..

What about the oft-rumored run to be made at Urban Meyer? One would assume that had Florida won the SEC CG, any discussion with him would have been postponed until after the BCS title game. But with Florida out of the hunt and no talk of a Notre Dame plane landing in Gainesville, it looks like the Irish are going in another direction.

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Tragically, over the years, we’ve been on the receiving end of an unfair share of totally bogus legal threats from angry individuals and companies. In fact, just last week we got two such threats. We’ve almost never posted any details about the threats, as I prefer to give the threatener (usually someone enraged by something said in the comments, rather than by us directly) the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they wrote the threat in a moment of emotional anger. I hope that when they realize that there is no legal basis for the threat, they’ll back down. So far, no one has gone further than sending a threat. Some ignore our responses, some agree that they have no real intention of suing. But it still amazes me how quickly and how frequently people break out the “we’ll sue you!” with no legal basis whatsoever. Luckily, in our case, we’re pretty sure when we’re in the clear, and (this is important) we have relationships with smart lawyers who do an excellent job representing us when we receive such threats. Not everyone is so lucky, and no matter how “safe” you are, being on the receiving end of a legal threat is never fun, especially if you are a small business or just an individual.

davebarnes alerts us to a story of just such a situation involving an anonymous blogger in Oregon, who had heard about some “embarrassing” videos involving some local TV anchors. In looking for the videos, the blogger discovered the YouTube account in question had been closed, and sent out a Twitter message asking if anyone had seen the videos before the account was closed. In response, the blogger received a legal threat from the news director of the TV station demanding the removal of the Twitter message (which simply asked if anyone had seen the video and linked to a shuttered YouTube account).

There was absolutely no legal basis for the threat, but the blogger admitted:

Her legal threat told me she was unpredictable, and she was the only one in the conversation with the resources to go to court. It didn’t matter that I had done nothing wrong; I would have no way to deal with a lawsuit, frivolous or not, while still finding time to operate my website and work at my paying job.

So, even though the blogger knew the threat was frivolous, he was still in the position of worrying about whether or not it would still be brought to court. That’s a huge problem. Even worse is that the news director of the TV station broke out the ridiculous threat in the first place — especially stunning that a professional reporter would make such a threat. In followup emails, the news director tried to suggest that the lawsuit would have been against the original poster of the video, but that’s not what the original letter said:

The “kointastic behind the scenes video” lifted by one of your followers from YouTube, was stolen.
That is the property of KOIN Local 6. Kindly remove that posting and link so that we don’t have to pursue legal action.

That certainly implies that the “legal action” would be against the blogger for posting the Twitter message. We live in a litigious age, obviously. But pulling out the big guns of threatening legal action on no legitimate basis is becoming way too common. Unfortunately, the reason why it’s so common is that it’s quite scary to receive a legal threat (even one with no basis), and many people quickly cave and give in. Hopefully, as more people are educated concerning their own rights, they’ll push back — but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

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Dennis Gartman addresses the critical issue of Illinois and the downgrade of its debt yesterday by Moody’s.

Essentially, Illinois is in line to become the next California, if not already:

The Gartman Letter: Regarding the Illinois downgrade, Moody’s downgraded Illinois’ general obligation bond rating from A1 to A2 and cited Illinois’ problems stemming from the U.S. recession. Making matters worse, Moody’s also cut other Illinois bond ratings from A1 to A2 including sales tax revenue bonds, also cut to A2 London from A1. In the process, Moody’ has taken Illinois’ rating to the second lowest in the US, ranking it just above California Baa1. In so doing, Moody’s said that the state has not yet taken action of any sort to deal with the budget gap that it is facing… a gap that Moody’s says shall be on the order of $11 billion or more than one third of its total expenditures.

Moody’s said that The downgrades are the result of high structural imbalances and little time to effect modifications to the budget in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010, as well as evidence of significant weakening in the state’s 2009 results. The problem here is not just one that Illinois is suffering through, for if Illinois, with a double digit unemployment rate is downgraded, what then of Michigan; what then of Nevada; what then of Ohio perhaps? The point here is that “There is never just one cockroach.” This problem in California, now in Illinois, is going to spread to other states very, very quickly, for once Moody’s has the courage to make the credit change there, it will be swift to make the same changes to the credit ratings of these other states too.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Illinois Attorney In Trouble For Craigslist Ad Seeking Secretary…And Sex
• John Mauldin: Here’s Why Our Massive Debt Mountain Will Kill Us In The End
• California: Another Budget Crisis As Soon As This Spring

The Le Web conference is now underway in Paris and hot Internet companies as well as startups are vying for the media’s attention. Twitter though doesn’t really need to try to hard to get headlines but it still had several big announcements to make geared especially towards developers who use the platform. With Twitter owing much of its success to third-party developers it’s no surprise that the service wants to make sure they’re being catered to, though this may be getting harder now that 50,000 apps have been built around the platform, as Twitter revealed.

Despite the obvious success of the API platform Twitter stresses the importance of further development of the features to ensure growth. Twitter says it will soon launch a new developers site and also extend the capabilities of the APIs already available. Ryan Sarver, Twitter’s Director of Platform, shared with the audience some of the stats concerning the product.

In just two years developers have created 50,000 apps using the APIs, a number which Sarvers says is testament to the power of the platform. He also said that about 50 percent of Twitter’s traffic comes from these apps, a number which has been estimated before. It’s rare that a service would be so dependent and opened to third-party developers and Twitter now says it will open up even more.

In early 2010 every developer will get a… (read more)

Nintendo hard? Try Atlus hard. Japanese gaming mag Famitsu has revealed another entry in Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey hardcore dungeon crawling series. The new DS game, Sekaiju no Meikyuu III: Hoshimi no Raihousha (Etrian Odyssey III: Caller of the Starry

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Ford, GM

The first quarter of 2009 could best be described as the worst of times in the auto industry. With the full weight of the global financial collapse weighing down on the industry, sales dropped like a stone and production screeched to a halt. General Motors and Ford produced only 371,000 and 349,000 vehicles respectively during Q1 2009, a mere fraction of the industry giants’ overall capacity. One year later, the auto industry here in the U.S. is still far from healthy, but many industry experts feel the market has stabilized.

Evidence of that fact presents itself when looking at production data for the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the first quarter of 2010. Automotive News is reporting that Ford plans to build 550,000 cars and trucks in the first quarter while GM plans 650,000 units. While that’s a bump of 58 percent and 75 percent versus Q1 2009, respectively, the numbers are within a few thousand units of Q4 production. But even compared to Q4, production is up around four percent for both Ford and GM – a hopeful sign for the industry.

But while GM and Ford appear to have good production news, AN is reporting that the forecast is a bit cloudier for Chrysler. The Pentastar’s recent announcement that it would prolong shutdown over the holidays throws some doubt on the Auburn Hills, MI-based automaker’s reported plan to increase Q1 2010 production by 56% versus Q1 2009. While Chrysler was supposed to up production to 376,000 units, the shutdown could drop production by up to 30,000 units.

[Source: Automotive News – subs req’d | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

REPORT: GM, Ford to dramatically increase Q1 production versus year ago numbers originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you are a good programmer and have lots of time on your hand, Envato has just released a brand new e-commerce tool to help coders around the world make more money during their spare time. The latest release to its marketplace family, CodeCanyon is a website where subscribed users have the chance to submit plugins or snippets of code and have them promoted and sold on one of the world’s biggest web-related marketplaces.

Currently, the CodeCanyon website is helping developers of JavaScript, PHP, Java and ASP.NET in selling scripts to a wide base of users. This project was originally spun-off by the ThemeForest website, a place where web designers were able to sell web templates for various platforms.

As time passed by, more and more members started submitting simple jQuery plugins, PHP scripts and CSS tools. While their numbers grew, Envato management thought it would be a good idea in expanding its current services to a wider base of users. After releasing 3DOcean into beta, a couple of days ago, the team announced the official coming out of beta for the 3D graphics-inclined marketplace.

As a surprise, and also well kept secret, the team also released the CodeCanyon website, moving all content from the ThemeForest JavaScript and PHP Scripts categories into the new website. While the Java and ASP.NET cate… (read more)

I am wondering what would be the perfect gift to get my cousin who is in her second to last year in Vet School. She hasn’t decided small or large animal yet, but last I heard she was leaning towards large. Seeing as you are a Vet, what would you have liked to receive as a present when you were in Vet School? Thanks JR, Massachusetts

Dear JR,

What a fun question! I spoke with my husband about this, since he’s also a veterinarian, and here’s the list we came up with together:

1. Money—I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but most vet students are coming out of school with more than $100,000 in debt and spend their entire careers working just to pay this off. Maybe a Visa gift card?

2. Food—We ate a lot of Ramen noodles in vet school, so your cousin would probably appreciate a gift card to the local grocery store. Better yet, purchase or make a gift basket full of goodies such as cheese, chocolate, crackers, chocolate, pasta, chocolate . . . you get my drift.

3. Gas—Another boring suggestion, but next year she’ll be involved in externships at other schools or private practices and will need to get around.

Okay, now for some more specific suggestions:

4. Books—veterinary textbooks are expensive, so I’m sure she would appreciate help purchasing reference materials that she can use now and once she graduates. I love my collection of Veterinary Clinics of North America published by Elsevier. They come in equine, small animal, exotic and food animal. A one-year subscription (you get three small hardback books) is $111 if she lets you use her student discount. Otherwise is $222

5. Clothing—Who says you can’t be fashionable while attending vet school? www.veterinaryapparel.com has the latest in scrubs, jackets and even footwear for the most discerning doctor-to-be.

6. Pet gifts—Finally, every vet student I know has a menagerie of dogs, cats, pocket pets (or in my case, horses). Why not ease the financial burden of caring for these creatures by giving her a gift certificate to her favorite pet store? Might I suggest SmartPak?

Have fun with these ideas and Happy Holidays!

Natural gas has rallied lately, even while many other commodities were falling, partly due to expectations of a cold winter in the U.S..

Still, for investors in Unites States Natural Gas (UNG) and other gas-related investments, here are four threats to watch out for, courtesy of ETFdb:

1. A massive South China Sea discovery.

“Calgary-based Husky Energy announced this week that it made its second major natural gas discovery in the South China Sea, a field that could ultimately yield more than 140 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The new well was just 23 kilometers from the Liwan gas reservoir that the company discovered in 2006. Husky is planning to drill an appraisal well early next year in order to gauge the new well’s potential.

Production at the well likely wouldn’t begin until 2013 at the earliest, but expectations for a major increase in global supplies could weigh on natural gas prices long before then. The world’s proven natural gas reserves are believed to be in excess of 175 trillion cubic feet, so the additional South China Sea supply isn’t exactly a drop in the bucket….” Read more here at ETFdb.

2. Exxon’s LNG projects.

“Last month Murwab, a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, carried enough gas to the U.S. to heat nine million homes for a day, adding to inventories that are already at record levels. Tony Regan, a former executive for Royal Dutch Shell’s LNG business recently described the U.S. as “the sink for cargoes that can’t go anywhere else,” suggesting that increased LNG activity could translate into even bigger supplies to U.S.-based users of natural gas.

Exxon Mobil announced on Tuesday that it will move forward with a $15 billion liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea. The project’s approval now hinges on securing sales agreements in Asia, which is expected to be completed sometime next year according to Exxon….” Read more here at ETFdb.

3. Low rig counts.

“As of late November, the domestic oil and gas rig count was down about 44% from its peak in September 2008 but 30% above the bottom experienced in June 2009. Looking only at U.S. natural gas rigs, the count stood at 748, up only about 10% from the June lows… ” Read more here at ETFdb.

4. Rising natural gas inventories in the U.S..

“The Energy Information Administration’s report for the week ended November 27 showed that inventories actually increased by 2 billion cubic feet over the previous week, the first time in several years that inventories have increased this late in the calendar year….” Read more here at ETFdb.

Also, check out why Exxon sees a mega-trend for natural gas ahead.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Exxon: The Natural Gas Mega-Trend Starts Today (XOM, UNG)
• Gazprom: Shale Is A Joke, And It Can’t Possibly Compete With Gas
• Cnooc Doubles Down On Oil And Gas Production Off South China Sea

Analyst Timothy Ash today explains how despite the languishing problems associated with Greece and Dubai, the global recovery is finally beginning to take shape, due in part to the amount of cheap money being tossed around:

RBS: As the global real economy has begun to respond to easy money, and fiscal  stimuli globally the focus on cleaning up after the crisis has begun, with Dubai  and Greece in this latter camp, as both are arguably unfinished business.

In the heat of the crisis, almost everyone was too big to fail, and the sovereign support  umbrella was wide, now as recovery suggests that systemic risks are more manageable, there is an incentive to address moral hazard plays more aggressively, and closing the umbrella of sovereign support is part of this  process.

Indeed, this is part of the medicine for countries like Greece, which  need to be weaned off the belief that they can always rely on support from the centre in the EU. 

Ultimately we doubt that Greece will default, but allowing that greater degree of  uncertainty as to whether the EU/EC/ECB and big wealthy EU member states will  step in to help Greece is part of the solution.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• US Futures Keep Head Above Water Despite Overnight Selloff And Fears About Greece
• Dubai World To Sell Overseas Assets, Retain Private Equity Arm
• Bill Gross: Systemic Collapse Would Be A "Gray Swan" Event (DUK, T)

We have all felt the pangs of a grumbling stomach, but how many of us know what it’s like to be truly hungry, to not be able to afford enough food or nutritious food? More than you may think. According to the USDA’s annual Household Food Security report, a staggering number of Americans – over 49 million – are food insecure. The new Feed A Neighbor program suggests several ways to help…

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The UK daily The Guardian, an IPS columnist client that over the last years also linked to some of our Africa stories, has now started to publish IPS stories on its environment website. IPS has become a partner in the Guardian Environment network. For a trial period of three months, the Guardian can publish up to two IPS environment stories a week. If the cooperation is successful, the agreement can be continued.

Among other issues, the Guardian is interested in IPS coverage of climate change and the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen. The first story that appeared on the Guardian site was written by Claudia Ciobanu from the Danish capital “Brazil defends biofuels at Copenhagen summit – As the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol, it’s no surprise the Brazilian government advocates biofuels as the only real alternative to fossil fuels”.

From IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network.

My daughter wants to know why most dogs’ eyes are brown. TH, Michigan

Dear TH,

For help with this question I turned to my ophthalmology instructor in vet school, Ralph Hamor, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVO, Clinical Associate Professor of the Comparative Ophthalmology Service of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Here’s his reply:

Eye color in dogs is related to their coat color. As most dogs have darker coat colors, their eyes are often some shade of brown. The eye color is related to the amount of pigmentation within the eye. Blue-eyed dogs have pigment just in the deepest layers of the iris so their eyes appear blue. Dogs with brown irises have more pigment scattered throughout their iris which makes it appear more brown with more and more iridial pigmentation. Multi-colored (merle) dogs can have multi-colored eyes . . . again all related to their coat color.

For more information on multi-colored dogs and their multi-colored eyes, visit www.ashgi.org/color/aussie_eye_color.htm. Did you know Australian Shepherd eyes can be golden, lemon yellow, amber, light brown, dark brown, green, orange or blue? I also learned from their website that research shows livestock are quicker to retreat from the predatory threat of a dark color dog with light eyes that to dogs with eyes that don’t stand out from their coat as much. Interesting!