Blog

Representatives from Brazil, South Africa, India and China, known as the “BASIC” countries, served notice they intend to reject a Danish draft of a “political agreement” at the Copenhagen climate conference.


The Danish Prime Minister, who has spent the last month circulating the world to talk down prospects of a strong, legally binding deal in Copenhagen was in Trinidad and Tobago for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which recently wrapped up.


“Those who will suffer the most from climate change impacts are sending an ever stronger and clearer message to those who have done the most to cause them” said Kim Carstensen, leader of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Global Climate Initiative.


“We are not surprised the emerging economies have laid down this challenge for the developed world” said Carsetensen. “Quite frankly the Danish proposal is incredibly weak and the developing world aren’t gullible” she added.



Carstensen indicated the position of the BASIC countries is evidence of a “growing rebellion” against the weak commitments on emission cuts and climate financing from the developed world.


“The developed world needs to respond to the science with much deeper emissions cuts, much more new money on the table and much more willingness to share the technologies for low carbon development.


The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen runs from December 7-18, 2009.

share:

related.posts:

1. Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: Nearing The End
2. We Have A Deal: The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference Result
3. Copenhagen Climate Conference: Day 10

Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Hatchback, Alfa Romeo

It’s been a long time in the making. It has changed names several times along the way. But it’s finally here. Well, almost. It’s the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, and it’s coming to the Geneva Motor Show this March to coincide with its phased market launch across Europe next year to coincide with the marque’s centenary.

Positioned just above the MiTo in Alfa’s lineup (and, tellingly, below the anticipated upcoming 159-succeeding Giulia), the Giulietta replaces the 147 as Italy’s answer to the Volkswagen Golf. Since Alfa’s parent company Fiat already targets the Golf with its own Bravo, though, some might consider this more of an aggressively-priced competitor to the Audi A3. The hatchback takes its styling cues from the sumptuous 8C Competizione, but carries it off in a decidedly more aggressive way than implemented on the MiTo. Plenty of glass also make the cabin more airy, with a body-colored panel running across the dashboard.

A range of transverse four-cylinder engines – both gasoline and diesel – will be on offer, producing between 120 and 170 horsepower until a 230 hp Quadrifoglio Verde model comes along. They’ve all got start-stop engine management and Alfa’s DNA adjustable suspension system as standard equipment. Fiat’s cutting-edge MultiAir valve-actuation system will eventually find its way into all of the engines, while the selection of five- and six-speed manual gearboxes is set to be joined by a new dual-clutch transmission as well.

The new Giulietta marks a pivotal product launch for Alfa Romeo, as the company is hoping to make this its volume offering the most prolific model in its history – with production targeted for an ambitious 100,000 units annually. Check out the trifecta of images in the gallery below and the press release after the jump for full details.

[Source: Alfa Romeo]

Continue reading Alfa Romeo previews stylish new Giulietta

Alfa Romeo previews stylish new Giulietta originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

RVANews internship

Internship Position: Marketing Intern

Internship description:

The marketing intern will become in integral part of the RVANews staff, working with our team 10 hours per week to assist in marketing efforts for our website.

His/her responsibilities will include:

1. Maintaining our events calendar, a valuable tool on our site that helps serve our audience and advertisers.

2. Assisting our sales and marketing manager in various administrative tasks, including pulling data and running reports for our advertisers. The intern will also have opportunities to shadow our sales and marketing manager during meetings with clients.

3. Contributing to and helping to implement our marketing plan for 2010 (including new media, print, and online efforts)

This internship requires experience with Microsoft Excel and social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook.

This position will be based out of our office located on the 1500 block of W. Main Street. The intern must be able to provide his/her own transportation. [Note: RVANews is located just a few blocks from the Temple Building.]

The position is unpaid. However, it is eligible for class credit if approved by VCU. Hours are flexible but a minimum of 10 hours per week is required.

About RVANews: RVANews is a Richmond-based online magazine quickly becoming the city’s source for lifestyle, sports, entertainment, and community news. We provide a one-stop online resource where Richmonders can stay up-to-date on what’s going on in their hometown. The format of our site also encourages comments, establishing a strong user voice and a greater sense of community for our visitors.

To apply: Please email a cover letter and resume to Valerie Catrow at [email protected] with “Marketing Intern” in the subject line.

As we stared into the fridge the other night, begging the contents of its shelves and drawers to resolve themselves into dinner, we started wondering how many other people were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Do you cook spontaneously or plan ahead? How do you decide what’s for dinner?

Read Full Post

Wall Street analysts simply don’t believe in AOL’s media strategy, and many are recommending that investors only buy AOL on the merits of its dial-up Internet service provider business, which still throws off tons of cash each year.

The WSJ’s Martin Peers isn’t even that optimistic. He suggests that AOL isn’t cheap compared with its ISP competition.

Given the latest restructuring, which involves $200 million of charges likely to be taken mostly next year, [Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson’s] estimate of about a 25% drop in Ebitda to $743 million in 2010 seems reasonable. That means AOL is trading at 3.4 times 2010 Ebitda. That isn’t cheap compared with the other two publicly traded dial-up providers. Earthlink‘s valuation is 2.6 times and United Online is at 3.5 times.

Continue reading at the WSJ >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Problem With AOL’s Media Strategy (TWX)
• AOL’s Editorial Process — Revealed! (AOL, TWX)
• AOL Reveals Its Master Plan: Robot Editors

By Rick Edmonds
Poynter.org

The remarks below were prepared for testimony offered Dec. 1, 2009 at the FTC workshop “How Will Journalism Survive The Internet Age?” and have been adapted for this format.

My assignment is to talk about the state of the news business, newspapers in particular, right now and in the near future. I guess that makes me the Ghost of Christmas present. And there are some unfortunate parallels between the finances of the industry and those of Bob Cratchit’s family. The health of several once robust metropolitan newspapers is now as fragile as Tiny Tim’s.

I am not among those who think that newspapers are dying. But these have been excruciatingly hard times for the news business, and more of the same is in prospect for at least the next six to nine months. . . .

. . . By necessity, newspaper organizations have cut deeply just to stay in business, even more deeply if they are to maintain profitability. Newspapers have been busily outsourcing all sorts of things from office functions to printing. Many metros have cut circulation to outlying areas and spend much less than they used to on selling new subscriptions. As a result, paid daily circulation was off more than 10 percent year-to-year in the most recent reporting period.

Also, at a time when aggressive investment in new ventures is clearly indicated, newspaper organizations have scarce resources for start-ups and limited access to capital.

But the visible edge of the cutting is in the newspapers themselves — many fewer reporters and editors, downsizing of the physical dimensions of the paper, sharply curtailed space devoted to the news report.

Several months ago I sought to quantify these losses, using available data on lost revenue and some survey information on news budgets as a percentage of revenue.

The result: By a conservative calculation, newspapers are generating $1.6 billion less in annual spending on news, headed into 2010, than they were three years ago. Granted, some of that spending may have been inefficient, even unnecessary. But one alarming implication of that number is that we really don’t know what investigations, insight and basic civic coverage simply didn’t happen and won’t. A second is that the explosion of exciting new ventures, still finding their way to sustainability, does not match the scale of the work lost. . . READ FULL STORY

Despite numerous attempts, Yahoo has failed to create a true social experience for its services. Of course, Yahoo Mail is the most popular webmail client in the world and Yahoo Messenger is one of the top instant messengers, but social networking has been a disappointment so far, to the point where it has pretty much given up. In fact, not only is it not trying to compete in the space, it has now launched a wide project to integrate Facebook with most of its big products like Mail and Flickr.

“With this integration, we are opening the door for two of the Internet’s largest online communities to make it easier for people to stay connected,” Jim Stoneham, vice president of Communities for Yahoo, said. “It also enables us to further the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which is aimed at making experiences dramatically more open, social and personally relevant for the more than 500 million people that visit Yahoo! each month.”

Yahoo will integrate Facebook Connect functionality with most of its products, allowing users to connect with their friends from the social network from places like the Yahoo homepage its webmail client. This partnership works both ways and will enable users to get updates from Facebook while they’re on a Yahoo page but also to push status updates to the soc… (read more)

 Koei has officially marked down March 2010 as head explosion month. That’s when Hokutou Musou, the Fist of the North Star game they announced ba…

Alternate Data Streams is a feature of the NTFS filesystem. In essence they were created to provide compatibility with HFS, or the old Macintosh Hierarchical File System. The way that the Macintosh’s file system works is that they will use both data and resource forks to store their contents. The data fork is for the contents of the document while the resource fork is to identify file type and other pertinent details.

How do you create an ADS? Wonderfully easy: All you need to do is have the two files, and then send the file to be hidden to the ADS of the host file with a simple type command:

type file_to_be_hidden> host_file:name_of_file_to_be_hidden

The most frequent use of ADS for malicious purposes is to conceal the executable of a trojan/rootkit as an Alternate Data Stream (ADS) to a perfectly safe file. For instance, once an attacker penetrates a Windows system, he can easily hide the malicious payload for further access into an executable which is fairly frequently used – like Calculator.

Alternate Data Streams may also be interesting as a mechanism to hide and transport information out of an organization:
Once you include an ADS into a file, there is no visible change in filesize of the host file, only the modified date is changed. This makes it quite difficult to detect the Alternate Streamed file. Also, the ADS file does not change the MD5 hash of the original file, which may prevent systems which control file modification through hashing from detecting the hidden file. Here is an example:

C:\Users\user\Desktop>md5sum test.txt
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e *test.txt

C:\Users\user\Desktop>type image.jpg>test.txt:image.jpg

C:\Users\user\Desktop>md5sum test.txt
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e *test.txt

One would think that this method of information hiding is great to transfer any amount of information with an inconspicuous carrier file being sent over a network. But there is a catch: most data carriers will ignore the Alternate Data Stream, and here is the summary list:

• Zip, RAR or ARJ will simply compress the host file and disregard the ADS
• MIME and Base64 encoding (e-mail) will ignore the ADS entirely
• FAT32 (mostly used on USB flash drives) will loose the ADS since it’s not supported.
• Steganography programs will read the bytes of the host file and stop at the EOF
• FTP and HTTP transfer ignores ADS entirely
• Recording the

But all is not lost. There are still ways to transfer data with ADS:

• Transferring the host file over SMB network to an NTFS target retains the ADS hidden file
• Copying the host file to an NTFS file system transfers the ADS hidden file

So the information theft scenario with ADS is mostly available to employees or trusted persons:

1. The malicious user will create a legal host file and ADS a file with information to be stolen.
2. He will convince the manager to take the legal file home to work on over the weekend.
3. Upon the manager’s request, even if USB drives are restricted, IT will copy the file over SMB and onto the employee’s USB – which is sparkling clean and conveniently formatted with NTFS.
4. All logs of the transfer will contain the transfer of the original approved file to the USB

What will you do in such a scenario? Talkback is most welcome!

Related posts
Be Aware of Security Risks of USB Flash Drives
5 biggest mistakes of information security

Based on pricing from British online broker Ladbrokes.com, punters have placed 2-1 odds that Brent oil will break $147.27 by the end of 2012.

This would be a record high and represent almost a doubling in price from today.

While Ladbrokes is primarily a site for sports betting and mainstream gambling, they’re increasingly adding financial markets products.

One wonders when the regulators will come a-knocking…

Reuters: Ladbrokes spokesman Ciaran O’Brien said it was still a niche product for them, but they were seeing more and more interest from gamblers.

“Most are not professionals or city workers, but are people who are amateur enthusiasts who have an interest in the markets,” O’Brien said. “Volumes are slightly ahead of last year with oil the fourth or fifth biggest market.”

Ladbrokes said the level of interest from financial punters was only higher on some of the world’s biggest stock and currency markets, like Britain’s FTSE 100 or the changing value of sterling and the dollar.

These online betting markets can’t be very efficient, or at least far less efficient than professional financial markets. While they’re too small for investment funds to take advantage of, there might be room for arbitrage by high net worth investors. Just watch out for the trading expenses, also note we don’t vouch for Ladbrokes in any shape or form.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mexican Oil Production: From Bad To Worse
• Powerful Oil Sands Miners Hijack Canadian Government
• Oil Tanker Lays The Smack Down On Somali Pirates

We’ve just updated our "Content Technology Vendor Map" for 2010.

The overall landscape has changed only a little — most notably Interwoven and Vignette now go away as separate stops. And in their place we’ve been able to add some additional vendors. These remain very dynamic marketplaces.

You can download higher-resolution versions here.

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has announced, on 27 November 2009, the portfolios responsibilities for the next Commission. They will take office in January, after the audition of each member by the European Parliament, from 11 to 19 January 2010.

Changes in the Portfolio

The new College will have 7 Vice-Presidents, including Vice-President Baroness Catherine Ashton who will be the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December.

New portfolios have been created: Climate Action; Home Affairs; Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, in addition of the new reconfiguration of other ones: Industry and Entrepreneurship, Research and Innovation Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth; Health and Consumer Policy; International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. In particular, the state aid competencies currently in DG TREN will move to DG Competition (COMP), whereas Climate Directorate ENV C moves to the new DG for Climate Action (except the Clean Air Unit C.3).

Who are the new Commisioners

For DG Transport, former Estonian Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud Siim Kallas (ELDR) succeeded to Antonio Tajani (Italy, EPP), who will be in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship.

Günther H. Oettinger (Germany, EPP), replaces Andris Piebalgs (who moves to Development) at Energy directorate while Janez Potočnik moves from Science and Research to Environment, in place of Stavros Dimas. Oettinger is former First Minister for Baden-Württemberg.  He has an academic background in law and economics and has held a series of political roles since the early eighties. In 1991, he became president of the CDU group in the State Parliament. In response to his appointment, Oettinger rejected claims that he would campaign for nuclear power, but would rather advocate an “energy mix that would enable the EU to be as self-sufficient as possible”.

For his part, Potočnik will focus on issues such as environmental protection, preserving biodiversity and furthering environmentally-friendly industry which he believes will also be an important contribution in the fight against climate change. In response to fears that his portfolio could be overshadowed by that of the Climate Change Commissioner, Potočnik stressed that it will enable all environment-related issues to receive the attention they deserve.

Johannes Hahn (Austria, EPP) takes the  succession of Pawel Samecki who made an interim at Regional Development, after the election of Danuta Hübner at the European Parliament. The former Austrian Minister for Science and Research highlighted the importance of pursuing a cohesive policy with a particular emphasis on regional research activities aimed at enhancing Europe’s regions.

The head of the new Directorate General for Climate Change, is attributed to Danish Minister of Energy and Climate, Connie Hedegaard, who will, first, lead the negotiations at the COP15.

The commissioners chosen by José Manuel Barroso are the following:

Joaquín ALMUNIA (Spain): Competition. Vice-President of the Commission

László ANDOR (Hungary): Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Baroness Catherine ASHTON (UK): High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security and Vice-President of the Commission

Michel BARNIER (France):  Internal Market and Services

Dacian CIOLOŞ (Romania): Agriculture and Rural Development

John DALLI (Malta): Health and Consumer Policy

Maria DAMANAKI (Greece): Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

Karel De GUCHT (Belgium): Trade

Štefan FÜLE (Czech Rep.): Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy

Máire GEOGHEGAN QUINN (Ireland): Research and Innovation

Johannes HAHN (Austria): Regional Policy

Connie HEDEGAARD (Denmark): Climate Action

Rumiana JELEVA (Bulgaria): International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response

Siim KALLAS (Estonia): Transport. Vice-President of the Commission

Neelie KROES (Netherlands): Digital Agenda. Vice-President of the Commission

Janusz LEWANDOWSKI (Poland): Budget and Financial Programming

Cecilia MALMSTRÖM (Sweden): Home Affairs

Günther H. OETTINGER (Germany): Energy

Andris PIEBALGS (Latvia): Development

Janez POTOČNIK (Slovenia): Environment

Viviane REDING (Luxembourg): Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. Vice-President of the Commission

Olli REHN (Finland): Economic and Monetary Affairs

Maroš ŠEFČOVIČ (Slovakia): Vice-President of the Commission for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration

Algirdas ŠEMETA (Lithuania): Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud

Antonio TAJANI (Italy): Industry and Entrepreneurship. Vice-President of the Commission

Androulla VASSILIOU (Cyprus): Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Sedan, Infiniti, Electric

Although the 2011 Infiniti M was the star of last night’s show, as suspected, the wraps came off the 2010 Infiniti G37, a mid-cycle refresh of the automaker’s bread-and-butter model.

It’s far from a radical redesign, but as previously spied, the fog lamp clusters moved further down the reworked fascia, a new grille sits front and center and a tweaked rear bumper joins a new set of 17-inch, five-spoke wheels.

Inside, it’s more of the same, with a nip here and a tuck there. White gauges and an LCD screen are the most obvious changes, along with a new center console, aluminum trim and available Maple accents. Real-time traffic and weather are included in the navigation system (XM subscription required), and everything’s accessed through a seven-inch touch screen monitor that carries forward for 2010.

While we didn’t see the new QX, Infiniti announced that its redesigned SUV is due to hit the U.S. early in 2010 and execs re-confirmed Infiniti’s plans to offer a fully-electric vehicle in the future. They were mum on details, only saying that the EV would be ideal for a “dual vehicle family.” Expect to see the all-new EV within the next year or two, but in the meantime, you can check out the 2010 Infiniti M at dealers in a few weeks after you’ve gotten an eyeful in the galleries below and read up on the details in the press release after the jump.

Continue reading LA 2009: 2010 Infiniti G37 unveiled, 2011 QX coming and EV re-confirmed

LA 2009: 2010 Infiniti G37 unveiled, 2011 QX coming and EV re-confirmed originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Through the Libraries, you now have full text (PDF) access to over 1 million titles in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.  For more information:  http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/dissertations.

Boulevard Beer has just hit its 20th anniversary here in Kansas City, Missouri. They started out small and have grown over the last two decades, to be the largest craft brewer in the Midwest and largest independently owned brewery in Missouri. We only have one conflict with this local beverage institution and that’s between which is more beautiful, the beer they make — or the actual brewery itself. Join us for a tour!

Read Full Post

If you’ve been reading The Kitchn for awhile, you know we aren’t driven by trends. We appreciate the really useful, the enduring, and good flavors regardless of popularity. But we aren’t immune to curiosity when it comes to “in” and “out” lists, so we enjoyed reading the new Epicurious predictions for Top 10 Food Trends for 2010…

Read Full Post

Currently Kemtron has 7 frame styles available from stock. To keep down production cost, vent panels made with styles 1701, 1703, 1705, 1706 & 1707 are normally supplied with 3 corners notched and the 4th joined corner welded. If required, all 4 corners of the panel can be supplied fully welded. Frame styles 1702 & 1704 are always supplied with fully welded corners.
All frame styles are supplied with a conductive gasket to provide the best electrical contact between the frame and mating metal surface. (See options for further information)
Standard tolerances for overall Finished Vent Dimensions are +/- 0.8mm
Standard tolerances on Hole Centres are +/- 0.4mm
Typical corner radii on frame styles 1701, 1703, 1705, 1706 & 1707 are R3.0mm

The analysis of polymers is executed with the aid of gel permeability chromatography.

This process is a kind of liquid chromatography similar to the HPLC. Due to the size of the molecules the separation takes place in the solution. Depending on the detector, the average value of the mol mass, polydispersity and the viscosity of the polymer sample are determined.

Here suitable sample preparation is important in order to dissolve the polymers. The degradation – the destruction of the characteristics of the material – has to be avoided though. An ideal solution of the sample preparation is the Variable Speed Rotor Mill PULVERISETTE 14. Here a final fineness of < 80µm ís achieved. An embrittlement of the polymere with liquid ntirogen or the grinding while adding dry ice avoid the degradation. The following graphics illustrate the analysis of PE (polyethylene) and PP (polypropylene).

FRITSCH Particle Sizing Instruments offer state-of-the-art laser technology for an unique price performance ratio, for each particular area of application and utilization. An extra plus: the special, patented FRITSCH measuring method by laser diffraction inside the convergent laser beam. Your advantage: a simple continuous adjustment of the measuring area as well as up to now unknown number of measuring channels.

The ANALYSETTE 22 NanoTec offers with the measuring range of 10 nm to 2000 µm true entry into the nano range. This is achieved through the use of a second laser beam that is directed at the sample from behind, allowing for detection of the back-scattering light.

The patented capability to move the measurement cell within the beam path of the optical system during the measurement also results in a very high number of effective detection channels, which can be over 500 for the NanoTec model, which leads to a correspondingly high number of particle size classes and therefore a very high resolution. The special shape of the detector combined with intelligent evaluation software MaS control also allows information to be obtained about the particle shape.

The Laser Particle Sizer ANALYSETTE 22 NanoTec is an instrument with universal applications for the determination of particle size distributions and particle shape. It is used in research and development, as well as in quality control and process control. The ANALYSETTE 22 is the only instrument in the world with which particle size distribution and the particle shape can be analysed in a single measurement.

Through combination of corresponding components, you can configure a measurement system that is precisely adapted to your needs, with reliability and efficiency guaranteed by FRITSCH as a specialist in particle measurement technology.

FRITSCH Laser Particle Sizer: Sizing with competence.

Catch up on the state-of-the-art laser technology by FRITSCH!
www.fritsch-laser.com