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From the article:“Working with RE Is there NOTHING that this company is not willing to dip its fingers into? I’m excited by this news, even though alternative energy companies don’t have a great track record and Google tends to throw money at EVERYTHING.
You may not know it, but there is a battle raging right now — a battle between “Old New Media” (i.e. traditional broadcast content providers) and content delivered via the Internet. The rapid advancement of IPTV methods and technologies
This article is a little long on legalese, but the underlying tone is clear — TV has competition, and it’s not going to get any easier.
From the article:” This is no longer the land of the ABC, NBC, and CBS oligopoly. Apple’s iTunes alone offers dozens of current TV shows, including Desperate Housewives, NCIS, and Prison Break (although the current episodes of some NBC shows are conspicuously absent). Hulu, which launched a test version last month, features high-quality video from the rich archives of News Corp. and NBC (which explains the iTunes absence). Verizon’s Fios fiber service offers hundreds of channels–probably more than many cable companies. Satellite TV companies are Comcast’s most deadly rivals. And while video-sharing sites like YouTube and its many smaller brethren may not be replacing traditional TV, they deserve to be counted in any official survey of the landscape. ”
From the article:“The man, identified only by his family name Suh, was found dead at his workplace in a quarry Wednesday morning and his mobile phone battery was melted in his shirt pocket, a police official in Cheongwon, 135 kilometers (85 miles) south of Seoul, told The Associated Press. “
From the article:” FlashCAM devices sense motion and then flash a bright light, said David Graham, assistant to County Administrator Duncan Ballantyne.
After being activated, the cameras issue a pre-recorded verbal warning to let people know they are under surveillance, Graham said. Sixty seconds later, they start recording.”
You know… there’s really no need to go through all this trouble… Just put the cameras on the Internet, sell subscriptions, and let potential violators know that pictures and videos of their exploits could be splattered across the world.
I know that there are people in the world who think that this is an amazing feat… that it is a youthful thumbing of the nose at authority or a recapturing of the American spirit of freedom…. I am not one of those people.
What these asses did wasn’t just criminal, it was reprehensible. Sure they planned and primed, they got the best equipment money could buy and they took so many safety precautions that you could argue that they were being more responsible than professional racing circuits… but the hard, honest truth is that these guys are no better than the street-racing
From the article:“By Arizona, the pavement is dry. Maher gives it his last surge of energy, climbing to 122 mph, 142, 160 before the gas light demands they stop for fuel. It’s 12:03 am local time. They’ve been on the road for 29 hours and 27 minutes. The effort of this last sprint has pushed Maher to the breaking point. He staggers from the car on failing legs. The Casio counts the seconds as Roy plugs in the nozzle and stands, tweaked and muttering in front of the mini-mart like a meth kid getting a Big Gulp.”
We first saw the QuickPOD Pro at the 2007 International CES in Las Vegas. They came to ShowStoppers and provided everybody with a sample QuikPOD — essentially an expandable monopod that allows you to take a self-portrait or put your camera at an otherwise impossible height or angle.
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I really liked the simple design, but unfortunately I lost my QuikPOD before I had a chance to give it a thorough run through. Thankfully the kind people at Fromm Works were nice enough to send us another QuikPOD Pro to show off on ‘gadget’
From the article:” A two-month old dolphin calf at the National Aquarium is being nursed by three females, the aquarium announced Tuesday.
While it is known that female bottlenose dolphins can spontaneously produce milk if a calf is present, the practice is not well documented and aquarium staff are carefully watching the process.”
To be completely fair, you can’t really call glycerin a waste — it may be the byproduct of biodiesel production and other industrial processes, but the substance itself is quite useful. The problem is that there is too much glycerin and not enough things to do with it. I really like seeing these efforts to make the fuel process even more efficient because of the ideal of “letting nothing go to waste.” — When we can make fuel from a waste, then fuel from the waste product of making fuel from waste, then perhaps a third and fourth cycle of conversion, then we will truly be on the road to energy independence.
From the article:“Glycerin is a clear, odorless, viscous liquid found in animal fats and vegetable oils. It’s used, in a refined form, in hundreds of products, including soap, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The supply has skyrocketed with growing biodiesel production in the United States and Europe. Asia’s chemical industry has compounded the situation by making more glycerin for domestic use. As a result, prices have dropped 80 percent in the past two years to about 5 cents a pound.
The trend hasn’t curbed biodiesel production. But with U.S. refiners expected to produce 1.4 billion pounds of glycerin between now and 2015, the industry is eager to find a use for it all. Domestic consumption of glycerin has ranged from 400 to 450 million pounds annually in recent years.”
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Want a little solar in your life? |
While it isn’t a multi-gigawatt solar farm or Sci-Fi Space-Based Solar Array the Sun Jar from ThinkGeek is nonetheless cool and eco friendly.
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Ah yes…. it’s the age-old tale of party fauxpas::: Friends gather for dinner and to talk story, everybody is enjoying the evening, then totally out of the blue somebody brings in a tiger. — Yup… heard it a million times.
For me, the story here isn’t that there are complaints against the TSA… I mean seriously, an agency that looks through your personal belonging, no matter how good a job it does, is going to get complaints. As air travel rises, so will the number of complaints. Compound this with Bush & Co’s policies which have turned the TSA and its employees from “men and women protecting us from terrorism” to “fools who only exist to confiscate my 3.2 ounces of shampoo” and you and understand why complaints are piling up.
No… the REALY story is the way that the TSA responded to the rising complaints, saying that the number of complaints has not risen… it’s just that they were previously loosing, not counting and under-reporting travelling grips. — WHAT? — Is that supposed to make me feel better? It’s as if the TSA has said, “Oh… our service really hasn’t changed, we just decided to stop throwing away all the negative comments.” — Hmmm… did these guys used to work for Enron?
From the article:“Recent tallies of complaints about TSA service (not counting baggage-damage reports) suggest the agency did have a difficult time keeping up with big crowds this past summer. Complaints to the TSA about security courtesy, procedures, processing time and personal property fell sharply during the first five months of the year, but began climbing in June, with a 9.2% jump in the total number of complaints, compared with June 2006. By August, total service complaints were 88.1% higher than a year earlier, and September, the most recent month reported by the government, saw a 71.4% increase in TSA complaints.”
From the article:“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC’s members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a “worthless piece of paper…
“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He blamed U.S. President George W. Bush’s policies for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries. “
I hate to get nationalistic, but I think it might be called for here. If this isn’t a kick-in-the-butt to our national energy policy, I don’t know what is. What we really need here is a massive push for scientific development in the field of alternative energies and a sustained national resolve to wean ourselves from foreign oil.
It’s about time we accept the fact that our dependence on the oil of other countries has caused a phenomenal amount of suffering and ill-will throughout the world. A self-sustaining energy policy might mean a lower standard of living for most Americans and a severe hardship for the wealthiest among us, but isn’t it time that we accept that burden?
This Helmet Mounted Display System provides the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting the aircraft. It will even superimpose infra-red imagery onto the visor which allows the pilot to ‘look through’ the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.”
My only question is… when can airplane PASSENGERS get something like this? I would TOTALLY pay extra to be able to look through the skin of the airliner. — Now if they can only do something about the snoring man next to me who keep falling onto my shoulder.
ATP has a reputation for making high-quality, nearly indestructible flash drives with blazingly fast speeds. Episode 2 of ‘gadget’ reviewed the ATP Tough Drive and we were duly impressed by the robust construction and raw performance of the device. The Tough Drive managed to survive several washer/dryer cycles without so much as a lost bit or a corrupted file.
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ATP took what they learned from making the Tough Drive and put it into their new line of mini-flash drives: The Petito. — The basic specs of this drive are what you would expect from a leading manufacturer or performance solid state storage. However, what makes this drive special isn’t what’s inside, but what adorns the drive on its exterior: The Pink Ribbon. ATP has pledged to donate 10% of the retail price of each Pink Ribbon drive sold to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation against Breast Cancer.
Seriously… I need to add a WTF section to TheTechStop — So this wife and mother of three sons has permanent brain damage and is wheelchair-bound after being involved in a collision with a Semi-Trailer — The trucking company settled for $700k — the Lawyers took $300k — and now WALLMART wants the remaining $400k because it spent money on her care? Isn’t that what employee health insurance is SUPPOSED to do?
Wallmart says that they’re simply enforcing a clause in the employee contract that insurance critters call “subrogation” — We have another name for it “Douchbaggery.” — Way to go Wallmart . It seems as if Low Prices really are just the beginning, shortly followed by betrayal, legal slime and profit before humanity…
From the article:” A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank’s care.
Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank’s former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.”
From the article:” The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments. To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.”
File this under, “Are you KIDDING me?” — These young men and women have been injured in the service of their country and now the military wants then to pay back some of the money that doesn’t even BEGIN to compensate them for what they have given up for the US. What happened to all the “unwavering support of our troops” and “commitment to those who have braved death for their country” rhetoric that we always hear when Bush and Co are seeking more money for our wars. (And yes… I said OURS… that applies to everybody who lives in the US.)
From the article:” Google said on Friday it has hired game-theory specialists to help plot its January auction strategy, and in a statement reiterated that “[its] goal is to make sure that American consumers have more choices in an open and competitive wireless world.”
Here’s a cheat-sheet for those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the FCC auction of the 700Mhz spectrum.
Back in 1927 the US federal government began regulating the airwaves by handing out chunks of wireless spectrum to radio broadcasters: gratis… free… no charge. By 1934, when the FCC was formed, the National Association of broadcasters had formed to keep their hold on those frequencies and they have been quite successful until recently. This spectrum is PRIME “wireless real-estate”, often compared to the spectrum equivalent of beachfront property because the 700Mhz spectrum is intrinsically better at maintaining signal at long distances, passing through solid objects and otherwise being more usable by communications devices.
More after the Jump »
From the article:“Under law in Saudi Arabia, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and a requirement that they get a man’s permission to travel or have surgery. Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote.”
I kept reading this article looking for the Saudis to actually explain their decision, but their entire defense seems to center around… “This is just the way we do things.”
From the article:“Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens said the owner of 4151 Thunderbird Drive told the water department he didn’t know how bad the water crisis was. He’s now vowing to comply with Cobb’s strict new water policies and the numbers show he’s making progress
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Officials just read the meter again during a spot check and Carlos is using 2,000 gallons a day. Instead of gulping enough water for 60 homes, it’s down to about 9 homes.”
Wow… almost half a million gallons a month at a time when the entire region is scrambling to save water by letting landscaping die? Take a look at this guy’s house…
Does it seem like he could possibly NOT know of the severe water shortage? All the houses around him have brown lawns and even the local country club is letting the grass go without water. And yet his backyard is a luscious green.
From the article:“While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.”
This article is a little alarmist — I personally have visited several recycling organizations in the SF bay area that responsibly break down and dispose of old electronics. However, there is no doubt that there are more than a few recycling companies that have capitalized on the “Planet in Peril” scare: touring the “greeness” of recycling while using the “out of sight, out of mind” business plan. — Toxic, obsolete technology is a problem, but why should the poor and developing countries of the world pay an environmental price AGAIN (after all, they are the same countries that are polluting their environment to make the gear in the first place) for our technologies.
As a big fan of electronic gadgets and technological wonders, I believe that it is my PERSONAL responsibility to ensure that I am responsible in the use, reuse and disposal of the technologies and equipment with which I am entrusted. We Jesuits call it stewardship, some call it “living green” — no matter what you might call it, we need more of it.
