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Jesse Hockett “The Rocket”, died last Wednesday in an accident at his race shop in his hometown Warsaw, Missouri. It was reported that Hockett was electrocuted while getting his hauler ready for the upcoming four- day weekend of racing. He just came from his most successful season where he won 22 times last year. Hockett went to victory lane 130 tiems in his career that included stints with USAC, SCRA, ACSC Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series and the Sprint Bandits. He was a two-time champion (2006 and 2007) and is the current points leader.

Hockett was regarded as a powerful competitor whether he had wings, a 410 or 360 engine or Hoosier or Goodyear tires. He took on challengers like the World of Outlaws of the Weekend Warriors. He also won in big events which included both the Western World Championship in Arizona and the Perris Oval Nationals in California in 2008. He also won last year’s non-wing Ultimate Challenge at Oskaloosa Speedway in Iowa.

The 26-year-old racer left this world as a winner, capturing three features last weekend in his home state, including Friday at State Fair in Sedalia, Saturday at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, and Sunday at the Double X Speedway near the town of California.

Related posts:

1. Brian Vickers Hospitalized, Will not Participate Dover Int’l Race
2. Powerful California Lawmaker Wants To Sever Ties With Arizona
3. Arizona Still In The Cross-hairs Of Liberals

Amazon pitched its Kindle Dx as a perfect replacement from having to lug around heavy textbooks in college, but it seems that the drawbacks to the technology have students pining for the old textbooks (found via Slashdot). In fact, in a survey after using the Kindle Dx for a while, “80 percent of MBA students who participated in Amazon’s pilot program said they would not recommend the Kindle DX as a classroom study aid…” And it’s not that they don’t like ebooks. The same report notes that “more than 90 percent liked it for pleasure reading.” Apparently not being able to “scribble notes in the margins, easily highlight passages or fully appreciate color charts and graphics” is sort of a pain for educational settings. Who knew?

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As we all know the HTC Touch Pro, and Diamond where the best looking, and most innovative devices of their time, and it brought HTC Truly out into the general public, well this concept brings that back. The concept for the Touch Pro3, and Diamond3 was created by my buddy Livven, and wow did he do a good job.

The Touch Diamond 3 is pretty much the same look of the original devices, but it is missing something. It does not have the D-pad, but what it should have is glowing buttons. If I was Windows designer, I would require all devices have the Windows menu button change colors, and it would be blue, green, red, and yellow. These colors would also be used for notifications, and when touch it all glows. That is pretty much my thought on that. The Touch Pro3 is also very cool, it’s pretty much the Diamond but with a Fuze keyboard, which is a bit of a letdown for the concept. I would have gone with the Touch Pro2’s keyboard, or maybe even a virtual slide out keyboard that is all on a big screen, and have 8 finger touch capability. This is possible, and would be really cool that your device slides out, and reveals a new screen that’s a keyboard.

While my ideas are totally unnecessary, and most likely expensive, I think it does not take away from this great concept created by Livven.

Comment below and tell me what you think of it. Don’t worry the HD3 concept is on its way.

Read the thread

Via Economix, the Congressional Research Service report on proposed causes of the “financial crisis” (pdf). They have a long list of candidate contributing factors, several of my 2/2009 items make the list.

My April 2010 list is much shorter — in recent times I’ve stepped back from the intermediate causes and looked to global economic transformation (China, India) and information technology as the true root causes of current and, I expect, ongoing, instability.

The CRS list isn’t terribly interesting. They’ve basically rounded up all the suspects.

To avoid a scenario where there’s a lack of competition, Magna International Inc.’s planned takeover of bankrupt supplier Wilhelm Karmann GmbH’s roof division was blocked by German antitrust regulators.

Last Wednesday, Andreas Mundt, president of the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO), said that the market in Europe for convertible roof systems is “already highly concentrated.” He thinks that a Magna-Karmann tie-up would mean that there would only be two big providers. They worry that if the acquisition were allowed, the market for convertible roofs would be dominated by Magna/Karmann and Webasto. The Germany-based Webasto had recently acquired the roof unit of German supplier Edscha. Mundt said that it’s probable that the lack of competition would lead to higher prices. In 2009, the value of Europe’s convertible roof business was about 600 million euros (about $733 million). In a March interview with Automotive News Europe, Guenter Apfalter, president of Magna International Austrian unit Magna Steyr, was asked if carmakers were concerned about the potential lack of competition. He said that the OEMs, which make convertible cars, are actually supportive of the deal. He added that the OEMs think that the industry needs a “strong company in the roof business with a strong financing backing.”

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Winners from the first eight seasons of American Idol — sans Idol 7 champ David Cook — united to perform “We Are One” during Wednesday night’s Idol 9 Grand Finale.

Jukka Perttu wrote:

Chemically fueled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are one of the deadliest hazards to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and incidents like the Oklahoma City bombing and the Sarin gas attack in Tokyo have demonstrated that civilians, too, can be the targets of chemicals and explosives. Now two organizations with Massachusetts roots are collaborating to offer a tool to protect professionals trying to identify explosives and other hazardous and toxic substances.

The Wilmington, MA-based Ahura sensor division of Thermo Fisher Scientific and the mobile robot division of QinetiQ North America, acquired in 2004 from Waltham, MA-based Foster-Miller, are equipping QinetiQ’s Talon robots with a powerful chemical detector. Ahura developed the laser-based instrument, called “FirstDefender RMX,” as a handheld device, and appropriately enough, the Talon robot carries the sensor on its gripper arm.

Sold to military organizations, bomb squads, police, hazmat specialists, and fire departments, the robot-sensor combination can quickly identify suspicious chemicals from a library of more than 10,000 substances, including explosives, toxic industrial materials, and chemical-warfare agents, according to the companies.

Foster-Miller introduced the Talon in 2000. The model, which carries the FirstDefender RMX, costs about $100,000, with options such as a gas and radiation detector kit adding to the cost; the Ahura sensor package costs an additional $50,000 to $65,000.

But despite the serious price tag, demand for the combined product is strong, especially because of the growing IED threat, says Duane Sword, vice president of marketing and international sales at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The total cost of $200,000 to $250,000 for a FirstDefender-equipped Talon is “a small price to pay for saving just one soldier from getting injured or worse,” Sword says.

The companies won’t talk much about exactly who buys the robots. These are sensitive devices, not sold to suspicious customers or countries.

Ahura’s FirstDefender sensor proved itself in the field last Christmas Day, when it was used by the Warren, MI, fire department at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport to confirm that the substance that the notorious “underwear bomber” had attempted to ignite on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was a chemical called PETN.

Founded in 2002, Ahura specializes in the development of rugged, ultra-compact, field-enabled optical systems for the immediate identification and verification of liquid and solid chemicals. Using a “point and shoot” laser, the FirstDefender RMX system can identify chemicals through sealed glass or plastic containers, protecting personnel from exposure to harmful substances. If you can see the substance with your eyes, Sword says, the instrument can identify it.

To develop its technology, Ahura raised venture funding totaling $29.5 million from venture capital firms that include Arch Venture Partners, Castile Ventures, Fuse Capital and …Next Page »

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UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

If you’ve been waiting to get the Nook experience on your iPad, your wait is over. Barnes&Noble just announced the availability of their Nook app, available free from the App Store.

Nook is behind in the race to ereader hegemony so they’ve decided to add a few iPad specific including eight different fonts, customizable line spacing and margins, different font sizes, and themes. In short, B&N reps said, “It’s a giant canvas.”

The app has two book “views:” grid – showing all of the covers and split which shows details of the book on a split screen with the cover. You can also lend books to friends by shooting emails to contacts using the built-in contact book interaction.

The app supports in-book search, bookmarks, and syncs among devices. It also supports ePub formats. They also said the Android App is arriving this summer.

Click through to read the full release.

Barnes & Noble Introduces BN eReader for iPad™,
The Most Easy-to-Use, Customizable iPad App
for Reading and Buying eBooks and Periodicals
Free App Offers Access to Company’s Expansive eBookstore Featuring More Than

One Million Digital Titles and Personal Barnes & Noble Digital Library
Only iPad eReading App That Allows Sharing eBook with Friends
Free Classics and Bestseller Samples Pre-Loaded for New BN.com Customers
New York, New York – May 27, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today launched its free BN eReader app for iPad™, offering
the most personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for Apple iPad owners. BN
eReader for iPad users can customize the way they read with professionally designed or
completely personalized themes, shop more than one million eBooks, newspapers and
magazines in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and access their personal Barnes & Noble
digital library, including most periodicals. BN eReader for iPad is the only eReading app
that offers eBook sharing with friends.
BN eReader for iPad is designed to offer an easy, yet sophisticated, customizable reading
experience. Users can choose from multiple ways to view their library, including
professionally designed themes with elegant and complementary text and page colors, as
well as fonts; and instantly switch between portrait and landscape views based on
personal preference. BN eReader for iPad users can further personalize their reading
experience with unparalleled options: literally millions of colors for text, pages,
highlights and links; eight typefaces and five text sizes; and a variety of margins and
customizable spacing options. Learn more or get the new application at
www.bn.com/iPad.
“We’ve designed the most easy-to-use, highly customizable eReading experience for the
iPad. Ours is the only app that enables iPad users to share eBooks with friends, shop
Barnes & Noble’s vast catalog of eBooks and periodicals and access your personal
Barnes & Noble digital library across multiple devices.,” said Douglas Gottlieb, Vice
President, Digital Products of Barnes & Noble.com. “We believe our customers will
appreciate the book-centric touches we’ve incorporated into our iPad app experience –
including some extra large text sizes, ample margins, and line lengths and spacing
inspired by classic book design conventions – along with the opportunity to fully
personalize that experience to enjoy reading books whichever ways they like best.”
Lend to Friends
Using Barnes & Noble’s breakthrough LendMe™ technology, BN eReader for iPad
customers can share eligible eBooks with friends who can enjoy the titles on a NOOK™
eBook Reader, iPad, iPhone®, iPod touch® and PC enabled with free BN eReader
software. Last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks will also sync across BN
eReader for iPad and PC, and in early summer, with iPhone and iPod touch, with more to
The LendMe experience was designed to be seamlessly integrated with the iPad. BN
eReader for iPad users can simply choose an eligible eBook flagged with the LendMe
icon, then access their existing contacts in iPad’s onboard address book, tap the contact
and send the lend offer — all without needing to type a single word. The friend can accept
the offer and enjoy the eBook for up to 14 days, a unique feature offered only by Barnes
& Noble. And BN eReader for iPad users will receive LendMe offers from friends within
the application, showing them the eBook’s cover and the message from their friend.
Additional features available in the BN eReader App for iPad include:
Shop the expansive eBookstore: Search, explore and browse through the Barnes
& Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, magazines and
newspapers titles at www.bn.com/ebooks directly by touching Add Books from
the Library. There are more than a half-million free eBooks available, and free
samples are available for all eBooks. Learn more from thousands of editorial and
customer reviews. Pick a current bestseller, a classic or anything in between and
download it wirelessly in seconds.
Access your personal digital library: All eBooks and most newspapers, and
magazines purchased through the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, including those
purchased on NOOK, are at your fingertips in your Library. Customers with large
digital libraries will appreciate the search option that helps them find the desired
book quickly.
Choose from two views: Library Grid view displays big, beautiful covers that are
large and easy to read. Library List displays a column with digital content titles
and eBook covers next to a second larger section that provides rich product details
for the selected eBook including the synopsis and more books from that author.
Sort by recently read, author or title.
Get to your content, faster: The most recently read titles appear on top to easily
get you back to your last great read. And an in-book search also helps you locate
a particular word or phrase.
Take notes: Bookmark pages, make highlights and write notes. Simply tap a
word or drag your finger across a section to highlight it or make a note. In
addition to appearing on your iPad, your bookmarks, highlights and notes will
also appear on iPad and PC enabled with BN eReader software. iPhone and iPod
touch will be added soon, followed by other devices.
Read across multiple devices: Sync the last page read of the last eBook, magazine
or newspaper opened on your iPad with BN eReader software-enabled PCs.
Coming next month, both will sync with BN eReader enabled iPhone and iPod
touch with more devices to follow.
Learn more: Tap a word on the touch screen and the in-text dictionary offers you
the word’s meaning. Want to learn more? Simply tap one of the options to take
you to the Google or Wikipedia page on that word or term using the Web
browser.
Follows the standard: Read eBooks, magazines and newspapers formatted in
ePub, quickly becoming the industry standard.

Barnes & Noble’s free eReader app is here, and shockingly, it’s probably the best ebook app on the iPad, for now. Better than Kindle, and better than iBooks. More »










Barnes & Noble – IPad – E-book – nook – Apple

Every time the last Thursday of the month rolls around, I’m reminded of the fun and interesting crowd that gathers at the Hoxton Hotel in London for the Last Thursday CMS social events

In this bonus lesson for How to Cook Real Food, the online cooking class hosted at Nourished Kitchen, you’ll receive a quick, sneak-peak into the cooking class through this brief video covering how to properly prepare nuts and seeds including recipes for a basic pesto sauce and a basic fruit and nut snack bar. Please note that videos in the online cooking class will be more comprehensive than the brief look at nuts and seeds you see below here.

In this video and using these downloadable print materials.

Preparing Nuts and Seeds Traditionally

Nuts and seeds can be a powerfully nutritive food: rich in minerals, vitamins and antioxidants. However, as is the case with many foods, nuts and seeds are also potent sources of antinutrients: particularly food phytate which binds up minerals preventing their full absorption and enzyme inhibitors which makes them difficult to digest. Fortunately, the simple act of soaking nuts and seeds in slightly salty water overnight improves not only their digestibility but also the availability of minerals naturally found in these foods.(…)
Click here to read the rest of Video: Pestos and Fruit & Nut Snack Bars (186 words)

Wondering where your full feed went? Click here to learn why The Nourished Kitchenmoved to summary feeds. Don’t forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and
© Jenny for The Nourished Kitchen, 2010. |
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The world of Mobile tech is always a great and unpredictable world; well I made a new place for those that are considered “Tech Freaks.” This new group I created on XDA for those that are into Technology, and would like to talk to others like themselves. The group is mostly about mobile phones, mostly HTC devices, but you can start your own conversation, and see what people say about it.

I would love to see how many people will join us and speak about their awesome love of technology. If you are interested in technology, please join the group, and I would be very happy because my personal goal is 2000 people in the group. If I get to that number I would be very happy, and might even throw in a giveaway item to one of the members.

So please join me at XDA and let’s talk tech.

Join the Group *Here*

Article Tags: Lawrence Solomon

90 top global warming scientists have turned their sights on the biomass energy industry, until recently seen as allies, warning that biofuels sometimes increases rather than decreases greenhouse gas emissions.

“There may be a public perception that all biofuels and bioenergy are equally good for the environment and are all lower in carbon emissions than fossil fuels, but that’s not true,” said one of the signatories, Dr. William Schlesinger of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in a press release yesterday aimed at the U.S. Congress. “Many produce just as much or more carbon pollution than oil, gas, and coal. If our laws and regulations treat high-carbon-impact bioenergy sources, like today’s corn ethanol, as if they are low-carbon, we’re fooling ourselves and undercutting the purpose of those same laws and regulations.”

That ethanol in your gas tank, the climate change scientists are telling us, could be bringing us closer to Armageddon by undercutting their efforts at saving the world. “Many international treaties and domestic laws and bills account for bioenergy incorrectly by treating all bioenergy as causing a 100% reduction in emissions regardless of the source of the biomass,” the scientists explain.”Under some scenarios, this approach could eliminate most of the expected greenhouse gas reductions during the next several decades.”

The letter by the 90 scientists is a response to the American Power Act, which was recently introduced by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman. This proposed legislation promotes the bioenergy sector while downplaying wind and solar. Under the Kerry-Lieberman proposal, the National Academies of Sciences would study the role that biomass could play in reducing greenhouse gases while contributing to energy independence. The Environmental Protection Agency would then submit recommendations to Congress based on the NAS study and another study, this one a joint effort by EPA, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture Congress would then act on the basis of the new information before it.

Source: opinion.financialpost.com

Read in full with comments »   

Team17 Software has announced the upcoming release of Alien Breed: Impact for the PS3 and PC. Set for release this summer, the highly explosive science fiction arcade-shooter promises to resurrect the classic franchise with brand new features

Bionic star Christina Aguilera joined the ladies of American Idol Season 9 for a performance medley of some of her biggest hits — including “Beautiful,” “Fighter,” and “You Lost Me” — during the Idol Grand Finale at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday night.

Michael McDonald performed last night in one of television’s biggest event, American Idol 2010 Finale Episode.

The gold and platinum-selling American singer and songwriter is described as a “blue-eyed soul” singer and said to have a range of “husky”, “soulful” yet baritone range.

McDonald started his performance in the show with it’s official, “We’re taking a trip back to ’80s AC radioland“.

Judges on American Idol and fans selected last night winner from the final two contestants, Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze. The episode was also the final appearance of the long time judge Simon Cowell. Fans awaited as Simon gives his final critique. The former judge Paula Abdul made her appearance later on the show, and vocalist Christina Aguilera also performed.

As for the result, Lee DeWyze wins American Idol. After the show, he said indeed he intends to sing.

Related posts:

1. Who won American Idol 2010?
2. Say ‘Hallelujah’ to Lee Dewyze
3. Judges Pick Songs for American Idol’s Top Three