NYTimes: The Trades of a Lifetime in 20 Minutes

By luck, savvy or lightning speed, there were gobs of money to be made from the bargains that came and went in an instant on Thursday.

http://nyti.ms/bhEo3c

On Friday, the Nasdaq market said it would cancel all trades that had occurred in the 20-minute period between 2:40 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday that were 60 percent higher or lower than the last trade at 2:40. "This decision," the exchange noted on its Web site, "cannot be appealed." 

NYTimes: As Kyoto Attractions, Wave Pools vs. Temples

From The New York Times:

As Kyoto Attractions, Wave Pools vs. Temples

Many fear that Kyoto's delicate temples and gardens have been
overwhelmed by modern-day concrete boxes, and plans for more new
construction are raising alarm.

http://nyti.ms/bNgj2L

NYT: Mr. Softee Trucks Tap Ice Cream Market in China

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/nyregion/15softee.html

"Customers like Meng Xiangbo, 19, a college student, have proved Mr. Conway right. He is a regular customer of the Mr. Softee truck that peddles its treats in Suzhou's university district.

One recent balmy afternoon, Mr. Meng ordered a kiwi sundae. "They have six flavors," he said of the sundaes. "I eat a different one every day. On Sunday, I rest.""

Cultivated Play: Farmville | MediaCommons

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville

"...it seems appropriate to examine the most popular video game in America. Farmville is a free, browser-based video game that is played through one's Facebook account. Users harvest crops, decorate their farms, and interact with one another, in what is ostensibly a game about farming. While this may sound like a relatively banal game, over seventy-three million people play Farmville.[7] Twenty-six million people play Farmville every day. More people play Farmville than World of Warcraft, andFarmville users outnumber those who own a Nintendo Wii.[8] This popularity is not surprising per se; even in the current recession, video game revenues reached nearly twenty billion dollars in America last year.[9]"

Adoption, and article: Parents of Violent Adoptive Children Support Torry Hansen, Who Sent Russian Child Back - ABC News

Here are my thoughts. Article at the bottom.

We are the parents of an adopted child from China. When we first started looking into international adoption, we were quite taken with the PR campaigns waged by the Russian adoption agencies. We'd even gone so far as to put down a $500 deposit on an application. But we continued doing research. One troubling tipoff was a quote from an adoptive family in the agency brochure reporting their post-adoptive status: "fine." Just one word. And not a glowing word.

Over the next few months, after more learnings about russian adoptions which 6 years ago were well known as likely to be troublesome due to things like fetal alcohol syndrome, aids, and orphanage conditions worse than most, we switched to China especially after speaking to a couple from my mother-in-law's office who had nothing but great things to say about their agency, the transparency of the Chinese intl adoption process, and the relative health of chinese institutionalized kids.

But we also struggled, post adoption, to find resources to help us with delayed development. What we found were lots of services to help parents without financial resources - basic medical assessment services like vision and hearing. We finally found an organization to help us with a child who at 10 months old was only at a 4-6 month developmental level. She couldn't hold her own bottle, didn't have fine motor control and couldn't manipulate toys, and had a bald patch on the back of her head from lying in a crib all day. To my daughter's credit, with her will to survive and our inexpert but loving care, she was able to progress thru 8 months worth of developmental goals in 4 months. By the time we'd gotten the right help on board, she had pretty much caught up by herself.

We were fortunate. There is this false belief that "love will conquer all". As we all know, love alone can't repair failing marriages or business relationships or parent-child relations. One of the tragedies of the human condition is that adults are required to parent children with unique challenges that sometime exceed the ability of said imperfect, untrained but well-meaning parents.

I have some sympathy for the parents but I have to wonder where was the social services agency in this? The family could not have adopted without a initial homestudy followed by in home visits. They only had the boy since the end of last year - less than 6 months. Did they reach out for help locally? As the parent you are expected to remain the voice of sanity. You are supposed to do something rational before it gets to the point of no return.

It's not just a parenting issue. Adoptions can involve behavioral issues that local social and medical agencies are unfamiliar with. And it's not just an adoption issue - or are all biological kids innately in-tune with their parents and present fewer challenges?

There are millions of kids in orphanages world wide that would be much better off in permanent homes. International adoption should not be the first choice of a country but can be successful. What is needed is two things. One: eliminate the financial transaction aspect of adoptions that prioritizes the completion of "adoption transactions" over the well-being of adoptees. Two: create a mechanism to build a critical mass of knowledge, world-wide, about adoption issues and get it out to prospective and existing adoptive parents.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/parents-violent-adoptive-children-support-torry-hansen-russian/story?id=10372316&page=2

" "We believe there is a culture of secrecy surrounding adoptions so as not to impede the flow of adoptions happening, but in the process, thousands of families are traumatized and scarred," said Skeirik. "We believe it is possible to be both an adoption advocate and honest about the significant costs."

Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, agrees that all agencies, institutions and countries involved in adoption need to be more forthcoming with information about children. He said support is needed for all families -- those with biological, foster and adoptive children.

"There are insufficient resources for parents who need help with their kids, period," he said. "It's not about scaring people off adoption, but helping people do a good job as parents." "

An Apple launch that thought differently | The Social - CNET News

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20001966-36.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheSocial

Have some more Kool-Aid...

"And what first had seemed like a scheduling folly--releasing the device on a weekend, and to boot, a weekend with a major religious holiday attached to it--began to look like Apple's marketing savvy at its best. The iPad, a device meant to live on couches and coffee tables, was riding a wave of word-of-mouth marketing in family living rooms on a holiday. There was something quite brilliant about that."

.

NYT: HP Working on Halfpint Android Tablet

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/hp-working-on-halfpint-android-tablet/

Not really new news, but in the news again. And what is up with the violation of the NDA? Who do they think holds the cards here?

"A senior editor of a major magazine publishing empire working on an internal corporate project, and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure agreement, told me of an array of H.P. tablets. He said, “I’ve seen a much smaller version of H.P.’s tablet that works exclusively with Android. It’s smaller than the Windows 7 version, almost like a half-pint size, or about twice as large as the iPhone.” But this may be one of many projects in development."

NYT: Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?scp=1&sq=hallucinogens&st=cse

"It was a whole personality shift for me," Dr. Martin said. "I wasn't any longer attached to my performance and trying to control things. I could see that the really good things in life will happen if you just show up and share your natural enthusiasms with people. You have a feeling of attunement with other people."

Chat Roulette

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/tim-walker-chat-roulette-is-like-some-bastard-child-of-skype-and-stumbleupon-1899349.html

"Like some bastard child of Skype and StumbleUpon, Chat Roulette drops you into a face-to-face conversation, via your webcam, with one random stranger after another, at the click of a mouse.

Most Chat Roulette exchanges last only a fleeting few seconds: the time it takes the stranger to see you, decide on the evidence of your face or your wallpaper that you're worth no more of their time, and click onto their next chat. I'm warned that approximately one in every 10 clicks will bring you up against p*nises in various states of tumescence. But approximately one in every 20 will produce an enriching exchange. One friend found himself in a conversation with a naval officer, who'd logged on from his base somewhere in the Middle East; another had a short play performed for her by two Spanish aspiring theatricals."

List of earthquakes

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes#Largest_earthquakes_by_magnitude

75pct of the 20 largest earthquakes happened between nov and march (5 months).

.

Sensorly aims to keep coverage maps honest - Engadget

http://i.engadget.com/2010/02/05/sensorly-aims-to-keep-coverage-maps-honest/

"...do you trust a carrier's coverage map of unknown age, origin, and honesty, or real-world experience? If French firm Sensorly has its way, you'll soon be able to answer the latter thanks to the deployment of an app for your phone that continuously measures cellular and WiFi signal strength at your location and silently reports it back to the company's servers where it's compiled into color-coded maps predicting your ability to connect..."

click the link to see the map you've always wanted to see.
.

Engadget: new iSlate data leaked

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/hp-slate-to-cost-549-have-1-6ghz-atom-z530-5-hour-battery/ (nice comparison slide)

With an SD Card slot, USB2.0 Host port, expandable memory, webcam, Flash support and true multitasking, HP's iSlate would be, in fact, a true laptop replacement for me.

My 3 key computing activities on a laptop are:
- Uploading pictures from my digital camera to our webserver.
- Full web browsing experience
- Photo editing in Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, and Thumbs Plus

iPad supports none of these, but any Windows tablet should support them all. Well, I take that back. There is a Photoshop iPhone app, and interestingly, it is able to condense Photoshop into the 5 tasks you are most likely to do in PS - which suggests that some apps really are overblown and aren't worth multiple DVDs and multiple 100's of $$.

In addition, a plus would be, and it remains to be seen whether any tablet can do this:
- video editing
- digital scrapbooking in PS Elements (processing/memory intensive, file sizes up to 300MB)

Pen support may make extended text entry a joy. I know my 1 year old HP TouchSmart tx2's handwriting recognition is absolutely superb. In addition, it changes the way I write because it forces me to slow down. I can type almost as fast I can compose in my head which isn't necessarily a benefit because it all comes out unedited and out of order. But when I write instead of typing, i fall into a different cadence and I express myself differently.

The wierdest thing that I have to remember about the iPad is that since it has to sync to a PC, you cannot sync your iPhone or iPod to the iPad. You have to sync them all to the laptop/desktop that you couldn't get rid, of which is now just a big iTunes repository.

Back to Photoshop, I first realized the power of the iPhone when I was able to take a picture, crop and colorize it, put a cute frame around it, and post it to my blog - while standing in the middle of Disneyland - all in less than 60 seconds. That is game-changing. I didn’t realize that I had digital workflows in my personal life that were crying out to be streamlined. Even my Blackberry can't do that (crop and colorize). And it remains to be seen in what ways the iPad will also be game-changing but it will probably be just as surprising.

So yes I suppose I'll have to get a 3G iPad or iSlate or somesuch for "research purposes". For now I'll wait to see which one becomes the most compelling.

Forbes: Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd: He Wants It All

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0412/technology-hp-mark-hurd-ibm-cisco_2.html

Below the senior tier, however, HP is more miserable than restless. It consistently ranks at the bottom of its big-scale competitors on Internet sites where employees compare notes. On one (www.proletar.com/by-employees/HP.html) it scores 1.6 out of a possible 5 stars, compared with 3.3 at Cisco and 3.7 for IBM. At Glassdoor.com HP managed a 2.5 out of 5 among 1,045 employees ("If you want to be kicked like a dog, come work here!" is typical), three slots above Countrywide Financial, and Hurd got a 30% approval rating (IBM's Samuel Palmisano, 40%; Chambers, 60%). Common complaints concern overwork, favoritism and managers looking over their shoulders in fear of not meeting Hurd's inexorable goals. "A sweatshop," says one low-level manager who recently departed. "No one wants to quit now, but watch them go when the economy recovers."

The pain seems particularly acute for some of the dwindling population of long-term vets who remember HP, perhaps wrongly, as a warm and caring place. Founders William Hewlett and David Packard devised the cuddly idea of management by walking around and hosted company cookouts to buffer their hard-nosed, hard-driving approach. By contrast, HP's executives staff arrives at headquarters in Palo Alto through a secure entrance, surrounded by barbed wire. Last year at the onset of the downturn, the boss cut salaries by 5% (at lower levels) to 20% (himself), then paid the money back when things recovered.

Hurd knows that morale is down but figures it will rise again as people adapt to the new HP. "Not everyone is comfortable with being pushed," he concedes. "We're still working on things like sales compensation--measuring people on revenues, margins and customer delight--that can create a lot of stress." Still, he adds, "we are trying to move the ball down the field fast--there is so much opportunity. Our competitors aren't waiting."

Princeton News: A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.

...excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.

Document: Toyota warned dealers of throttle surging in 2002

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/22/toyota.throttle.warning/index.html

"If you look at this document, it says electronics," Ditlow said. "It says the fix is reprogrammed in the computer. It doesn't say anything about floor mats."

U.N. report: Let's turn foul water from mass killer into global treasure

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/22/united.nations.water.report/index.html

According to the report -- titled "Sick Water?" -- 90 percent of wastewater discharged daily in developing countries is untreated, contributing to the deaths of some 2.2 million people a year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene. At least 1.8 million children younger than 5 die every year from water-related diseases, the report says.

"If the world is to thrive, let alone to survive on a planet of 6 billion people heading to over 9 billion by 2050, we need to get collectively smarter and more intelligent about how we manage waste, including wastewaters," said Achim Steiner, U.N. under-secretary general and executive director of UNEP.

think-your-recalled-toyota-is-fixed-well-maybe-not

http://consumerist.com/2010/03/think-your-recalled-toyota-is-fixed-well-maybe-not.html

"On 2/12/10 my 2010 Toyota Camry received an acceleration fix. In addition I was informed a fail-safe computer program was put in. On 2/17/10 as I was entering my parking slot, the car did an unintended sudden acceleration without my foot being on the accelerator. I was pressing the brake. I jammed both feet into the brake. After 3 seconds, as my car was climbing up a snow bank, it stopped. The engine was idling while my gear shift was in drive. This is the second level on the fail-safe system. This means that: "If both accelerator position sensors fail, or if one throttle position sensor fails, the ECM will...return the engine to idle speed." Had the incident happened one minute earlier, I would have been in a high car/pedestrian area and would not have been able to avoid an accident. The whole event took 5-6 seconds before the car suddenly stopped. The fix done by Toyota is not the fix for the acceleration problem."'

Complaints like these lend credence to reports claiming there might be more to the sudden acceleration issue than bad floor mats and "sticky" gas pedals."

NYT: Learning From the Sin of Sodom

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=5E6EE0F2621272690FC2365A5191FB65.w5?a=558533&single=1&f=28&sub=Columnist

"A growing number of conservative Christians are explicitly and self-critically acknowledging that to be "pro-life" must mean more than opposing abortion."

Sophisticated Review Fraud Hits TripAdvisor

http://beatofhawaii.com/sophisticated-review-fraud-hits-tripadvisor/

"On a small scale, the photo example above points to a job offer to sculpt fraudulent TripAdvisor reviews. You won't find hotel marketers offering these services on Google. They use other, less traceable means to engage prospective properties. It is hard to imagine many hotels which wouldn't at least want to listen to such a potentially lucrative ploy."

AP Mobile News story - Worst rush-hour spot in county goes to … 78E at Barham

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_8545/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=pmqMfThu

And...I-15 N will experience delays at Citricado thru the end of next year (2011)???!!!

http://apacificview.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-we-really-get-up-to-at-summit.html

Astronomer's comments on the Bud Light "Asteroid" Super Bowl commercial:

The most fundamental [inaccuracy] is that I know no astronomer or astrophysicist who drinks Bud Light.

NYT: Microsoft's Creative Destruction

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html

Internal competition is common at great companies. It can be wisely encouraged to force ideas to compete. The problem comes when the competition becomes uncontrolled and destructive. At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence. It's not an accident that almost all the executives in charge of Microsoft's music, e-books, phone, online, search and tablet efforts over the past decade have left.

Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03intel.html

But Mr. Blair began his annual threat testimony before Congress by saying that the threat of a crippling attack on telecommunications and other computer networks was growing, as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies had "severely threatened" the sometimes fragile systems undergirding the country's information infrastructure."Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication," he told the committee.His emphasis on the threat points up the growing concerns among American intelligence officials about the potentially devastating results of a coordinated attack on the nation's technology apparatus, sometimes called a "cyber-Pearl Harbor."

He said that the surge in cyberattacks, including the penetration of Google's servers from inside China, was a "wake-up call" for those who dismissed the threat of computer warfare. "Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private-sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems, and in the very information these systems were intended to convey," Mr. Blair said.

guns, comments, hello kitty

i guess this is only funny if youre not a gun nut. my uncle wanted me to carry, but its just not my style. maybe if it were a pearl-colored hello kitty gun with some of them sparkly blingy adhesive jewels...

ive found over the last year that the comment section can yield some pretty interesting and funny posts. i especially like the irreverent comments on digg that are already sorted by their snicker-worthiness. the following comment is reposted from engadget. i used to be a gun nut myself, until schoolkids started shooting other schoolkids. no freedom is worth paying that price.

http://m.gizmodo.com/site?t=RiAslaOnmf0b9I.iM0yk3g&sid=gizmodoip

(missing attribution)

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:58:28

"@Badlands99: 'A firearm is THE greatest equalizer. Two large young men attacking an elderly woman is a foregone conclusion. Unless she has a pistol. Then their advantage disappears.' 

Can I join in here?... let me finish that paragraph for you. 

"Unless those two large young men also have a gun each - another forgone conclusion. Unless she has two big guns & has been practicing to some old school Clint Eastwood movies." 

Wait... 

"(cont...) Unless those two guys happened to be die hard fans of 50(fitty) cent, carrying a couple of pieces themselves..." 

and then... 

"But what if the elderly woman was actually the 'Old Woman' from Worms 2 (I'm sure someone will get the reference)... then uh-oh" 

...in the (distant) future 

"... Unless the two cybernetically enhanced guys happened to have a portable version of the laser just demoed by NIF and threatened to turn the old lady into a small star through readily available Nucleur Fusion technology... it'd be a forgone conclusion... we could use elderly women as a clean source of energy" 

All humour aside... I'm sure you can see my point... it'd be great (?) for only old (and otherwise defenseless) people and oppressed groups to own guns, but sadly in your country (I'm in Australia - we don't have such liberal gun laws... thankfully) and in any country for that matter, guns aren't restricted to those that need them... those that already have an edge have equal access to them to gain yet more power. 

For every instance that a weak person has a gun to protect themselves... how many are there that the antagonist has the gun to intimidate their victim. As unlikely as it may sound, imagine a scenario of an elderly woman with a gun attacking a couple of fit young men... the guys could just back off and escape quite easily if little miss pensioner wasn't brandishing a pistol in their faces. 

Guns (like any weapon) give an advantage to he/she that wields the weapon. Period. Furthermore the bigger/better/more efficient the weapon (or better trained the individual)... the bigger the advantage... 

I'm not saying I know or have thought of a magic solution to world peace... i don't know any stats, but I get the feeling gun related "incidents" are a lot higher in the US than they are in OZ... because (as I understand it) you guys have "the (consitutional) right to bear arms"... 

Don't get me wrong, I've held guns in my hand before aand I freely admit to enjoying an afternoon at the shooting range (and I'd like to go hunting as well)... but I also have a healthy respect for their destructive capabilities... As a (hopefully) future (geeky) LEO myself, I can train in hand to hand... I can even train against knife attacks... but guns are a whole different kettle of fish... 

IMO guns don't belong anywhere in public unless there's a target or game animal involved... With the exception of LEOs - who (here at least) use them as a final resort... not the "primary weapon" you make it out to be. Outside of the aforementioned "guns-for-sport" domain... guns only beget more guns. 

This isn't a personal attack on you, but your argument has a gaping hole when the gun is in the wrong hands - which can so easily be the case."

CES2010: Temple of Sony

First off, let me say that I can spend all day watching movie trailers on the gorgeous Sony displays. Ultra high contrast ratios, eye popping color, the deepest blacks, WOW.

Sony was showing off their new Exmor digicam processor. New must-have feature: Intelligent Sweep Panorama Mode. Click the shutter then sweep the camera to the right about 180deg, and the camera creates a perfect panorama for you IN the camera. No software required! Now that is worth paying for. If you have ever tried to create your own panorama you will know what I mean. The more I think about this, the more I think I have to have it.
Sony Panorama Image contest.
Description on Amazon.uk

If Canon abandons their SD-series high end digicams, will Sony fill the gap? Their top of the line Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V has HD video mode, twilight mode ("twilight mode takes six images and combines them to create a single optimized image with lower noise levels"), the aforementioned Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode, and it accepts SD cards!! CES gave this an award, maybe to welcome Sony back from their parallel universe where everyone (no one?) uses Memory Stick.

Sony showed a prototype web-connected photo frame, sorry, "DASH personal internet viewer", that had very nice graphic design for showing weather and news widgets. Didn't have time to survey all the internet photoframes at the show, I really do want a kitchen clock replacement. Yes! Now that I think of it, an extension of a kitchen clock is much more compelling to me than extending the picture frame concept. To get my kid off to school on time, I need the time, the weather, real-time traffic (e.g. Google Maps), and Google Calendar (e.g. is today Wildcat Wednesday?). Don't need to see pictures. I give the DASH the edge over HP's DreamScreen which can only display Pandora, internet radio, and Facebook along with your pictures and video, but no traffic, no 3rd party apps, and no web browser.

I am a news and FB junkie, so I really like the idea of internet widgets on my TV, and several TV manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, and Sharp have incorporated Yahoo's Widget Engine into their HDTVs. This showed up at last year's CES, so it's not new. Sony claimed that they did not have to downgrade the picture quality, like their competitors, in order to display the widgets. This feature is only in Sony's lowend EX TV's, not in their high-end TVs, humph. As my world includes more and more online content, I do want to see it on all my screens (tv, computer, phone, etc), but it needs to be customizable with a wide array of apps, or include a web browser. The Boxee Box puts a full keyboard on the back of their TV remote control - genius!!

Casio - showed off their 240frames per second video mode. Here's a sample video. Pretty cool if your kid is in karate or sports.

Ok my feet hurt. I'm done with show for this year. I saw only a fraction of what was at the show. But I found several things I "need" to purchase this year like:

- Sony DSC-HX5V digicam (because my Canon is on its last legs after several repairs)
- LCD TV with internet capability (we currently have a 36" HD tube TV if you can believe it)
- and if Yahoo Widgets isn't complete enough i'll take Boxee
- portable external charger for the Crackberry, something like the Just Mobile Gum

We ate really well on this trip:
- Cantor's Deli at Treasure Island - desserts and sandwiches were fantastic
- Paris buffet, almost as good as Bellagio's buffet for a third less ($25 instead of $35)
- Red Rock Casino buffet, a steal at $17

See you next year, Las Vegas!

CES2010: Green power

A few items I saw:

Solar/wind:

The Hymini Biscuit, powered by either solar or wind, uses 2 AA batteries as power reservoir. To charge 2 900mAh batteries, takes 12 (12??) hours of 9 mph wind or 6 hour of solar. Usb connector.

Solio battery pack, with 3 big dragonfly-wing solar panels that are collapsable, 1650mAh. Usb connector

The Surge solar case for iPhone. Puts a Solar panel on the back of your iphone. 1500mAh capacity. Couldn't find out how long it takes to charge but the booth rep said it takes 2 hour to charge 30min talk time. Sounds slow.

Hmmm. Personal portable solar is a nice idea, but for one thing I'm never outside for that long, my office is not near a window, and a power source that takes longer to charge, than my phone takes to discharge, is a non-starter. But a cool concept. I think community solar farming - where a group shares the output of a large solar array - is probably more efficient for a technology with a high install cost.

Fuel cells:

Horizon Minipak Fuel Cells, for consumers. You could not get near this booth. Fuel Cells is such a buzzword right now. The hydrogen cartridges are slightly larger in diameter than a AA battery (22mm), and about 3.5" (81mm) long, weighing 90g, storing 12Watt-hours. This would charge my blackberry's 1200mAh battery about 10 times!! The Metal Hydride "creates the highest volumetric energy density of any form of hydrogen storage, including liquid hydrogen." The odd thing is the cartridge charger that delivers the hydrogen gas to the cartridge is...wall powered?! This doesn't get you off the grid exactly but does give you fairly high-density and "portable energy in one package, at a lower cost than existing rechargeable battery-based options." A solar front end is in the works, but I wonder how big a solar panel would be needed to capture 12Watt-hours in, say, a day.

A few "old skool" chargers:

MiPlus keychain charger - tiny box approx 1" cube, holds 320mAh. Mini usb jack to plug directly into your device. Low capacity but the perfect size. I can't find this item on the internet but iLounge has already identified a much higher capacity USB charger, the Just Mobile Gum that stores 2200mAh in a device the size of a pack of gum.

HyperMac Nano iphone/ipod battery. Not solar, just an external battery pack in colors to match your Nano, with Ipod connector built in which is pretty handy. 1800mAh - charges an iphone twice.

CES2010: World's thinnest LCD panel - 6.9mm

From LG. LG had a nice "wall of monitors" at the front of their booth too but *nothing* like Samsung's tour de force. LG, you better pay more for your competitive intelligence next year.

CES2010: Panasonic 153" Super High Def HD plasma display

The current champion of ridiculously large screens. This is a "4k display" 4096 x 2160 - 8M pixels instead of the normal 2Mpixels.

I saw a Buddhist monk in orange robes walking around in the Panasonic booth. He was smiling and shaking his head. He was probably thinking "here's a bunch of people that need salvation - look at all the false idols they are bowing down to." A Buddhist would not use these Christian terms but you know what I mean. :P

P.S. Don't get me wrong, I have been dedicated to the false idol of consumer electronics for many years.

CES2010: I put 3D glasses in the same category as this monstrosity

Geeks, listen up: people are not willing to sacrifice their cool for a better viewing experience. Again I call FAD on 3D glasses. 3D will only succeed if it becomes direct-view (no glasses). If you think this TV Hat won't fly, but that people will wear 3D glasses - how much difference is there really. We'll come back to this post next year and see if I am right.

Here's a review of this crazy "TV Hat" product that lets you view your iPod hands-free. The hat even comes in camoflauge color! How American is that!

AsSeenOnTVHat.com

CES2010: Sony Bravia widgets

I don't even *watch* TV and I'm ready to throw down for a Bravia XBR-HX900 LCD tv!!

CES2010: Friday: Samsung

I have SERIOUS monitor envy after going to the Samsung booth and seeing the beautiful monitors.

The Samsung booth design was incredible. Huge as always. The traditional "wall of TVs" was more like a futuristic cathedral-like cylindrical structure plastered with TVs, reflected in the mirrored ceiling above. Almost as entertaining as going to Cirque du Soleil! (Oh, the blasphemy!!)

Amazing range of devices on display, you can't spend just 5 minutes in the Samsung booth, it'll suck you in for an hour.

- NX10 14MP hybrid digital system camera, with no mirror in the body - resulting in a body only ~1" deep, with a big 3" AMOLED display. Samsung lenses only for now. "Hampered by the lack of any meaningful photographic 'pedigree' Samsung has to prove itself worthy of a seat at photography's top table, and on first impressions the NX10 is an incredibly promising start: only time (and sales figures) will tell if its enough." -dpreview.com

- tiny "chiclet" TicToc mp3 players in Hello Kitty colors with single button operation. When the button faces up, clicking it raises the volume. Flip it 180 degrees, clicking now lowers the volume
- IceTouch mp3 player with *transparent* display
- Lay your index finger on the MyFit's sensor to read your heartrate. Reads your fat level and it's a pedometer too.
- a display with 178deg viewing angle - which gave it the appearance of paper, not electronics
- what seemed like dozens of models of TVs, all subtly different & impossible to tell apart!!

CES2010: Friday: Panasonic 3D

The show is very crowded this year but we were still able to get tickets for Love just a few days in advance. Woo hoo!

OK let's start with the obvious. 3D TV - everyone was showing it. Panasonic was showing the world's first 3D live feed from DirectTV. The question was asked, what has to change for consumers to get 3D in their living room. Well, only: the feed (the content), the converter box, the cables, the TV, AND you need 3D glasses. The 3D image does look terrific (and even more so on OLED displays), but the ugly 3D glasses are a nonstarter. I call FAD on this one. Technology that makes you look ugly won't last. Maybe I'll be wrong but don't underestimate the vanity of human beings.

This is also, of course, the year of the app. The booths are full of big signs extolling apps, with teeny tiny devices on pedestals (Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola). Very few paper brochures being handed out. Almost makes the booths look empty. Could be the bad economy forcing manufacturers to cut costs and slim down the booths? Mot and Nokia were openly soliciting developers for their devices. Where is HP in this race to grab mindshare of developers??

One group of people noticed my badge and asked me where the HP booth was and where they could see the new tablet. It was embarassing to say that we didn't have a booth. At least we couldn't find it. Only an HP meeting room... I assume that HP's booth commitment would have been made about a year ago when the economy was in total paralysis - but then how could we be the only major manufacturer to have not signed up again once the $$ started to flow again?? I am baffled.

HP Slate teaser video


Back to Nokia: The Ovi mapping app is pretty cool - it shows major landmarks which I'm not sure google maps does.

Blackberry was showing some great apps, some a repeat from last year like Schlage internet locks and Slacker, but the 2 coolest ones I saw were:

- Xobni, somewhat similar to Motorola's Blur. Aggregates & timelines emails, MSC conversations, tweets, and FB updates, apparently inside Outlook. Won't replace facebook as a single place to go to see everyone's status updates, tho. Found out Xobni for Blackberry is in Beta and is not widely available. Ugh - vaporware!!!

- Poynt, location based searching. Similar to Where on the iPhone. Uses your gps to display cheapest gas stations near you; best sushi restaurant near you. One-click integration with google maps. Displays Citysearch reviews - but not sure how accurate those are or whether their review database is large enough to be statistically meaningful. So I downloaded Poynt and played with it in Vegas and on the drive back home. The percentage of businesses that have reviews is shockingly low, like less than 10 percent, and the number of reviews per business is very low (1 - 10). Why would I switch to this from Yelp??

- Urbanspoon finally comes to BB - nice app, I enjoy it on my iPod Touch, but I prefer to understand all my choices, this control freak doesn't like to do things at random.

Nice to see that *some* key apps are being replicated for Blackberry. In the 1.5 years since I got my Blackberry, it's fallen from the number 1 smartphone platform to #3 behind iPhone and Android...

Blackberry also showing the Presenter, $99 adaptor to allow a BB to stream powerpoints to a projector. 1024x768 resolution did not seem high enough for technical presentations - image looked blurry.

I've been trying to convince my husband to get a Droid. Got a chance to play with it at the Mot booth -- and kudos to Mot for having, like, 50 Droids on display to reduce wait times... Some notes:

+ built-in external speakers sounded nice and loud
+ haptics (that little buzz under your fingers when you actually connect with a button) - iPhone *needs* this
+ smaller than iphone
+ google maps seemed to run fast
- no Blur app yet for droid
- physical keyboard is not centered on device, making typing surprisingly awkward for the right hand unless you have long fingers.

Also at Mot - the Backflip phone has a small square area on the backside called Backtrack, a touchpad that enables you to control the controls on the screen without your fingers getting in the way of your view.

Kodak booth - pretty much the only things in their booths were tables for salesmen, and Microsoft Surface tables to display product information - no paper collateral in the booth at all. There was a long "river" (great pictures here) of Surface panels flowing down a column, turning 90deg to flow across horizontally, then another 90deg turn over the edge towards the floor.

Saw an ad for a bar at the Rio Hotel that uses Microsoft Surface tables, including overhead cameras to spy on other tables and send them messages...

CES2010: We are here to serve you.

One of my favorite signs in Las Vegas.

CES2010: Another busy show

Fwd: Nexus One vs iPhone, Droid & Palm Pre - Total Cost of Ownership

great display of information.

http://www.billshrink.com/blog/nexus-one-vs-iphone-droid-palm-pre-total-cost-of-ownership/

CES2010: the evolution of the CES experience

going to CES is very different these days. today, all the cool stuff is leaked days in advance on engadget, etc. i mean come on, who can keep up with the cnet and engadget army - they know everything about everything, immediately. so we sit in our las vegas hotel room and surf the web, reading up on all the cool stuff and make plans to search it out at the show. kinda kills the joy of going to ces. back in the day, i really enjoyed the serendipitous nature of ces, where my posse and i would discover cool stuff that much of the world did not know about, and we'd discuss and debate it endlessly over the crap cafeteria lunches at the show. did you see so-and-so's such-and-such? was it cool? was it crap? why? what are all these new terms and acronyms? it all used to culminate in "geek dinner" that i would schedule for friday or saturday night at Quark's in the Las Vegas Hilton. then we'd go invade an arcade and play the daytona racing games. But now Quark's is gone, few of my friends come to CES anymore, maybe because of the big dry spell at CES over the last 5-6 years after the big wave of HDTV crested. CES may be getting more interesting with 3D TV (don't all new technologies seem ridiculous at first?) and perhaps other things ??? we shall see if there is anything really exciting that will make us say "we've got to come back to CES next year to witness the unfolding revolution!"

NYT: China, Willing to Spend, Wins

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=521074&f=110

That exploration - a detailed overflight of much of the country by American surveyors in middecade - showed Afghanistan to be far richer in oil, natural gas, iron, copper and coal than anyone had imagined. Aynak, in particular, was judged a world-class copper deposit, not just huge but of unusually rich quality, and the government chose it as the first major mineral concession to be auctioned to developers.

Guardian.co.uk: How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas

All this raises the question: what is China's game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, "not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?" The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".

This does not mean China is not serious about global warming. It is strong in both the wind and solar industries. But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Another brief chat with Randall Stephenson

http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/another-brief-chat-with-randall-stephenson.html

He says he has no idea what I'm talking about and I said, Dude, I'm talking about the fact that over the past eight quarters you've reduced your capital expenditure even while we've been sending you loads of new data subscribers. Last quarter you spent $4 billion on capex, which was $1.6 billion less than you were spending two years ago, at the end of 2007. Meanwhile your data revenues in the most recent quarter were $3.6 billion, up from $2.0 billion at the end of 2007. In other words, you took in $1.6 billion more on data plans, mostly thanks to iPhone, and then you boned us by slashing your capex. What the fuck, dude?

Which Is the Top Tech Company to Work For?

http://gigaom.com/2009/12/15/which-top-tech-company-to-work-for-not-google

Looking for a tech job? Well read on for the results of a new poll from Sausalito, Calif.-based Glassdoor.com as to the best — and worst — tech companies from which to draw a paycheck. I had expected Google to take top honors given its stock performance, not to mention what it spends on food and other amenities for its employees. I guess money really doesn’t buy happiness — the search giant ranked No. 3 on the list, while Apple came in at No. 5. The top-ranked company? Router maker Juniper Networks. (Full results of the survey will be released tomorrow.)

Lowest-Rated Tech Companies

Rank	Company	Company Rating	CEO	CEO Approval Rating
1	Xilinx	2.3	Moshe Gavrielov	12%
2	Affiliated Computer Services	2.4	Lynn R. Blodgett	21%
3	Hewlett-Packard	2.4	Mark V. Hurd	22%
4	Avaya	2.5	Kevin Kennedy	24%
5	Real	2.5	Rob Glaser	12%
6	NVIDIA	2.5	Jen-Hsun Huang	52%
7	Infosys	2.6	Kris Gopalakrishnan	35%
8	Nortel Networks	2.7	Mike S. Zafirovski	2%
9	Perot Systems	2.7	Peter A. Altabef	35%
10	Dell	2.8	Michael S. Dell	28%

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Re: our patent application for an evil advertising scheme

http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/11/re-our-patent-application-for-an-evil-advertising-scheme.html

Thus Apple now becomes the cable company. And the cable company dies. Yes, friends, another enormous, ridiculous, old-fashioned, greedy, fat, slow-moving, change-averse, stupid industry falls before the power of Steve. Or, as we call it, "Internet + Steve = you're dead." We did it to music retailers. Doing it now to mobile phone companies. Why not cable TV? These guys are ripe for a takedown.

SDSJ: Why Mainstream Media is Dying

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheSecretDiaryOfSteveJobs/~3/FzWGCAUikW0/why-mainstream-media-is-dying.html

Um, New York Times? If you guys are still wondering why people are dropping their subscriptions and getting their news from blogs instead of you -- this is why.

...As for the newspapers: Faced with their own demise, fearful of losing even more advertising, newspapers have made the huge mistake of becoming ever more timid, more cautious, more in bed with the companies they cover.

It's the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The truth is, if newspapers want to survive they should go back to doing what they started out doing -- muckraking, stirring the shit, calling bullshit.

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NYT: The Motorola Droid

Almost makes me want to switch from my BB bold:
Because not only iPhone'rs are sick of AT&T!!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=483933&f=24
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100,000 apps - 2B downloads - 50M devices

actually the math on 2B downloads doesn't add up to me. that means every device has downloaded 2000 apps on average. we dont use every app we download but we've only downloaded 93. in fact, those 93 take up about 1G of space on my device. assuming those are average-sized apps, 2000 apps would require 20G of space which some devices dont even have.

and even if you downloaded 5 per day, and didn't use them cause they were junk (entirely possible), it would still take you over a year - 400 days -to get thru 2000. i just dont see it.

CORRECTION - math is wrong. 50M devices/2B downloads = 40 downloads per device. now you're talking. 2000 is the average # of times each app was downloaded - not a very interesting stat, unless you're selling apps for a dollar. Hmm - wonder how much Apple takes as their cut? Even 50% of $2k is not bad. Maybe i *should* go back to programming...

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/11/04appstore.html
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Toyota Accelerator Problems

http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/section/topstories/8980479_1?&page=5
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Facebook is the "other Internet": 1 in 4 pageviews

lots of interesting stuff going on these days, or maybe i just have less homework...

How to Spam Facebook like a Pro

The underlying premise of all the advertising techniques we’ve discussed so far is that trickery is profitable. Fool them into thinking the new friend request is from Facebook, lie to them that the miracle skin crème is actually free, tell them they’ll earn points if they just click this button – which then puts their email address on a list that’s resold to the top spammers in the world. Incidentally, if you hate someone, sign them up for one of those free offers – it will burn their email to a crisp. Just kidding – don’t do that. The local and big brand advertisers are slow to react, but will eventually shift their ad dollars to Facebook, as they figure out how to advertise effectively. Facebook is the “other Internet” and represents 25% of all pageviews in the US.

Say that again: Facebook Now Accounts for 1 in 4 Internet Pageviews
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The Droid you've been waiting for (I love saying that)

A few good Droid reviews. It sounds like this *is* the Droid we've been waiting for -- all the features you want, on a network that might actually work (although it remains to be seen whether Verizon's network can really withstand a true smartphone that keeps people online virtually continuously like the iPhone). Told DH to pick one up pronto!! He's still using his LG Dare - a dumbphone trying to act like a smartphone.

Best review so far, because the reviewer is a long-time iphone user and not an apple fan-boy: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/10/30/smartphone-showdown-iphone-3gs-vs-motorola-droid/

Other good reviews:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/30/more-on-the-droid-thoughts-from-the-rest-of-engadget/ :

At the end of the day, realities of the US wireless industry are as likely to decide whether you're getting a DROID as anything else. For Verizon -- historically known for one of the worst smartphone selections of any carrier in North America -- the DROID instantly vaults to the top of the heap, so if you're on Big Red or you want to be, the phone may very well be a no-brainer.

http://cellphoneforums.net/cell-phone-reviews/t304605-motorola-droid-review.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354951,00.asp
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NYT: Family Fights Odds, Retrieving Child from China

Http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=480868&single=1&f=22

In the end, it took an extraordinary international effort, including months of legal and diplomatic advocacy, criminal investigation and Internet sleuthing, to locate the child - who was found on Sunday, abandoned in an orphanage many miles from Beijing - and bring her safely home to New York. She and her mother arrived at Kennedy International Airport on Thursday night, amid balloons and tears.

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NYT: New (and Improved) Models From BB, Mot, HTC

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=479310&f=24&p=1

Alternatives to the iphone: Mot Cliq, HTC Hero, BB Storm2

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The iPhone juggernaut

even more amazing of course - the iphone juggernaut, these 2 slides tell the story:





read more at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/how-the-iphone-is-blowing-everyone-else-away-in-charts/
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Droid vs iPhone vs...RAZR?

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/28/forget-the-iphone-can-droid-top-the-razr/

Can today’s Droid phone top the world’s most ubiquitous mobile gadget (>100M Motorola RAZR's) on its path to crush the iPhone? Can it even get close to the (34M) iPhone(s)?

cellphone statistics are just astounding. the industry ships ~1 billion cell phones per year.

IDC data

Vendor	Q1 2009 units shipped*	Q1 2008 units shipped*	Q1 2009 market share	Q1 2008 market share
Nokia	93.2	115.5	38.1%	39.7%
Samsung	45.9	46.3	18.8%	15.9%
LG Electronics	22.6	24.4	9.2%	8.4%
Motorola	14.7	27.4	6%	9.4%
Sony Ericsson	14.5	22.3	5.9%	7.7%
Others	53.9	44.9	22%	18.9%
Total	244.8	290.8	100%	100%

*Units shipped in millions
Source: IDC, April 2009
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augmented reality

Augmented Reality was not meant to hit the iPhone 3GS until at least the release of iPhone OS 3.1. Augmented reality uses your iPhone’s camera, GPS, and compass to show virtual items in the real world. Put your camera in front of a restaurant and it will come up with info, or use it to find nearby Twitter users. The potential is endless.

yelp can do it, so can urbanspoon. and wikipedia. you've got to see the pictures in the articles. or better yet, watch the wikitude video at the bottom of this article.

this is really cool, except i have an ipod touch and not an iphone, so i'm missing the GPS and camera...

NYT: Is It Safe to Post Children's Pictures on the Web

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=476442&f=24&p=4

The possibility always exists that pedophiles are lifting such pictures, Professor Finkelhor says, but it is not something he has encountered. And, he said, it's unlikely for a discomfiting reason: actual child pornography is so readily available that pedophiles aren't likely to waste time cruising social networks looking for less explicit material.

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NYT: Safety Nets for the Rich

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=473518&f=28&sub=Columnist&p=2

"Enough! Goldman Sachs is thriving while the combined rates of unemployment and underemployment are creeping toward a mind-boggling 20 percent. Two-thirds of all the income gains from the years 2002 to 2007 - two-thirds! - went to the top 1 percent of Americans.

We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid - which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so - while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.

That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it."

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NYT: After New Ads, iDoubts Grow About Verizon iPhone

Could it be the iPhone is NOT coming to Verizon?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=1CC1802220D011BCA753FE6F00F3B01A.w5?a=472322&f=24
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Difference between H1N1 and regular flu becoming clearer

Deaths in children from H1N1 have already claimed twice the typical number of victims for an entire flu season. A WHO symposium addressing the management of pandemic influenza confirms the ability of the new H1N1 virus to directly cause severe pneumonia. In severe cases, patients can progress to respiratory failure within 24 hours. 30% of these cases are complicated by secondary bacterial infections, some of which are antibiotic resistant. “Prompt treatment with the antiviral drugs, oseltamivir or zanamivir, reduces the severity of illness and improves the chances of survival. These findings strengthen previous WHO recommendations for early treatment with these drugs for patients who meet treatment criteria, even in the absence of a positive confirmatory test.”

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/h1n1_clinical_features_20091016/en/index.html

Participants who have managed such cases agreed that the clinical picture in severe cases is strikingly different from the disease pattern seen during epidemics of seasonal influenza. While people with certain underlying medical conditions, including pregnancy, are known to be at increased risk, many severe cases occur in previously healthy young people. In these patients, predisposing factors that increase the risk of severe illness are not presently understood, though research is under way.

In severe cases, patients generally begin to deteriorate around 3 to 5 days after symptom onset. Deterioration is rapid, with many patients progressing to respiratory failure within 24 hours, requiring immediate admission to an intensive care unit. Upon admission, most patients need immediate respiratory support with mechanical ventilation.

Participants agreed that the risk of severe or fatal illness is highest in three groups: pregnant women, especially during the third trimester of pregnancy, children younger than 2 years of age, and people with chronic lung disease, including asthma. Neurological disorders can increase the risk of severe disease in children.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_SWINE_FLU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-10-17-12-07-17

Eighty-six children have died of swine flu in the U.S. since it burst on the scene last spring - 43 of those deaths reported in September and early October alone, said Schuchat.

That's a startling number because in some past winters, the CDC has counted 40 or 50 child deaths for the entire flu season, she said, and no one knows how long this swine flu outbreak will last.

NYT: Darkness on the Edge of Monotowns

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=469650&f=28&sub=Contributor&p=4

According to the World Bank, this year the number of Russians below the poverty level has grown by 7.5 million to 24.6 million, or 17 percent of the population. An additional 21 percent, or almost 30 million, have incomes less than 50 percent over the poverty level. Together, that's 4 out of 10 Russians. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions predicts that up to 400,000 more Russians may become unemployed in the next three months, while the World Bank projects that the unemployment rate there will reach as high as 13 percent by the end of the year.

There may, in fact, be nothing that can be done to prevent these ticking time bombs from exploding. And as the Iranian protests recently proved, in an age of cellphone cameras and the Internet, one demonstration in one monotown could ignite a wave of nationwide protests that Russia's news media could not cover up, its riot police could not properly contain and its government may not be able to survive.

Certainly, this crisis sends a message of utmost urgency to a country still groggy from the oil-boom intoxication of the past eight years: go back to the decentralization and democratization reforms of the 1990s and early 2000s - or face the political, economic and social calamity of the monotowns on a national scale.

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NYT: Disney Plans Extensive Overhaul of Retail Stores

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=455478&f=23

The company followed his advice, working for the last year on a full-scale, fully stocked store inside an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, Calif. The prototype was crucial to shaping an overall philosophy, Mr. Fielding said, noting that he discovered the shops needed more "Pixar-esque winks and nods." To that end, one sales area is now labeled "WWTD: What Would Tinker Bell Do?"

Disney will adopt Apple touches like mobile checkout (employees will carry miniature receipt printers in their aprons) and the emphasis on community (Disney's theater idea is an extension of Apple's lecture spaces). The focus on interactivity - parents will be able to book a Disney Cruise on touch-screen kiosks while their children play - reflects an Apple hallmark. Employees can use iPhones to control those high-tech trees.

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Zakaria: Nobel rewards Obama's 'big, bold gambit' - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/zakaria.obama.nobel/index.html

Zakaria: It may not influence the far right, but it may make clear for many other undecided Americans what President Obama hopes to achieve. Obama's outreach to the world is an experiment: He wants to demonstrate at home that engagement does not make America weak.

For decades, it's been thought deadly for an American politician to be seen as seeking international cooperation. Denouncing, demeaning and insulting other countries was a cheap and easy way to seem strong. In the battle of images, tough and stupid always seemed to win.

President Obama is gambling that America is now mature enough to understand that machismo is not foreign policy, and that grandstanding on the global stage just won't succeed. In a new world, with other countries more powerful and confident, America's success -- its security, its prosperity -- depends on working with others. It's a big, bold gambit.

The Nobel committee wanted to encourage this sentiment. I hope Americans will see that and encourage the path President Obama is taking

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NYT: In Rural Africa, a Fertile Market for Mobile Phones

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/science/06uganda.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market worldwide. Entrepreneurs and development organizations are eagerly seizing the opportunity presented by such growth. They are creating mobile phone applications for profitable and nonprofit ventures across the continent. Millions of Africans, for example, now use their mobile phones to transfer money, turn on water wells, learn soccer game scores and buy and sell goods.

NYT: Woman's Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html