Oops! Someone at Lenovo may have hit Publish a tad too soon, and now we have a quick peek at a number of their upcoming laptops, including the ThinkPad Edge, T410s, W510, and more. CES what now? [Lenovo via Engadget]
The leak contains a section called "new product showcase" and was live as of 12 p.m., EST. This here is the t410.
The T410s, featuring "high performance" and an optional touchscreen.
Sleek ThinkPad with a shiny new veneer.
Ultra portable! Also shiny!
Future office workhorse?
An air purifier for pets! What an ingenious idea! It takes that filthy air around Fido's head, sucks it up, and replaces it with clean, refreshing and pet-friendly snake oil!
But wait! That's not all! While the purifier saves your pet from allergens, dander and smoke—possibly from the bong that lead to its eventual purchase—it also coats your dog, cat or small child with spray from a scent dispenser that's meant to relax and calm the little target of your affection. Bonus use: Your roving Rover now doubles as an air freshener. Just ignore the constant sneezing, as that's a feature, not a bug.
All that for a mere $17.20. Vet trips are extra. Total steal. [Technee via Coolest Gadgets]
Just i wanna know the difference between Trivector Meter & Multi Funtion Meter
Sir
I just recently relocated to the UK as a DOD civilian. I'm trying to rewire my 2006 chevy HHR turn,brake and tail light configuration. My turnlight needs to be switched to the backup light area and made amber in color. I need to wire each turn signal from the the front or from the
I was about to throw away a piece of 2½" dia discoloured Hazel.
Could I turn it into a shootable bow in 1 hour with only an axe?
I found the wood lying on the woodland floor, prob cut down by kids, it was begining to rot at one end.
Could I do it in an hour? Yes with 5mins to spar
Can any one help in Sublimation Ink for T-shirt Printing.
Techie people who've been right about Apple rumors in the past have been busy this past week. While there's nothing concrete in either of these posts, their track records speak for themselves, and Apple conjecture is always fun, for some.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball takes the prize for most dedicated. While I was out saying things I could never take back during an uproarious Boston waterfront New Year's Eve party, he was pounding out a thousand or so words about the Tablet, Apple, and why this thing won't be something you just take into the shitter to pass the time with a few graphic novels and TIME Magazine with movies.
Again, conjecture abound, but at the end of it Gruber opines grandly, "I say they're swinging big - redefining the experience of personal computing." I'm forced to agree, not because of some deep, primal urge to support anything and everything Apple does, but because I'm still having a hard time envisioning what a tablet will do that demands people's attention like the iPhone did. Gruber seems to think it's the apps, stupid, and on that point I agree wholeheartedly: Software will define this thing, just as it did the iPhone.
It's on the software front that a far more grounded wave of tablet predictions arrive from ars technica and John Siracusa. Calling his column "cold water" he bats down haptic touchscreens, folding dual screens, and 3D goggles, preferring the software route. And why not? There are already 100 million iTunes customers in place that prove the model works, and they in turn are fed by more than 125,000 App Store developers who currently sell more than 100,000 apps. It's a proven model, and one Siracusa says Apple will rely heavily upon when this thing arrives. For his part, Gruber says "don't bet against" anything Siracusa says. We have an accord!
Siracusa also calls his column an "antacid tablet." As I am unable to traverse the Internet these days without stepping on, consuming, or producing a steaming pile of Apple Tablet news, I am inclined to agree with him. [Daring Fireball, ars technica]
This week’s contribution to The Science of Kissing Gallery comes from a particularly gorgeous woman I adore in the science blogosphere. Thanks to her for contributing what can only be described as the steamiest image so far. Submit your original photo or artwork here.
Good day to you all,
I have recently bought a lawn-tractor (tracker-shaped lawn mower). It has a petrol run engine, but since it's brand new, its battery needed to be charged for the first time. The values given on the battery are: 12V and 16AmpH. I have tried charging it with a battery charger
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
If you are on vacation at the beach in Florida this first week in January 2010, my apologies to you for the weather. High temperatures in much of the state will remain in the 50’s Fahrenheit. That doesn’t happen very often.
If you aren’t on vacation here this week, be glad [...]
Steve Cuno is a skeptic as well as man who knows his marketing — he’s a professional. He’s spoken at two TAMs, both times about how better to market and brand skepticism. His points have hit home with me, because what he says about how we behave as skeptics is something I have seen countless times to be true. He thinks — and I agree — that we need to be more positive about what we know to be true. Instead of only saying "the antivax movement is baloney," (which we know to be a correct statement) we need to promote actual medicine and talk about why vaccinations are important. I try to do that here on the blog, because I know full well how skeptics are seen outside our own circles: naysayers, pointy-headed ivory tower academics, and so on. By being positive, we promote ourselves much better to the public.
Steve Cuno wrote an article for the JREF’s Swift blog which has many excellent points about how we as skeptics need to think about ourselves and our behavior. I think everyone who has ever sat next to an astrology buff at a dinner party or written anything on the web dealing with skeptical topics should read what Steve wrote, and pay attention to it. We could do a lot worse than to follow the lead he’s laid out.
Ready or not, 3D HDTV is going to take the television scene by storm in the coming decade, at least according to our buddies over at HDGuru. Here's why they think the future is more Avatar than anything else:
First, even though manufacturers might be rushing things, considering their last lovechild, Blu-Ray discs, hasn't really taken anything by a storm, let alone a slight tropical depression, there are some consumer-friendly caveats to consider before grinding those teeth in anger.
Take price, for example. HDGuru predicts set prices will be largely in line with current HDTV offerings. Initial pricing for a 40-inch 3D-ready 240Hz LED LCD will check in at about $1300, whereas a similar non-3D set from Samsung is currently for sale is $1,250.
The other elephant in the room, as least when it came to HD, is programming. While full-time HD programming has been around since HD Net launched in September 2001, it took until the end of the decade before this particular TV watcher could safely say all he watches on TV anymore are HD-only channels. Luckily—if you like where 3D is going anyway—that shouldn't be a problem for 3D in the 2010s. HDGuru assures us that the influx of PS3s on the market, coupled with 50 DirectTV 3D channels before the end of 2010, will ensure there's ample 3D TV available for the new sets that Sony, et al, will demand you buy for the best viewing experience. Sports, the original driver of HD content, will also come into play here, no pun intended.
As for HDTVs, 3D aside, the future is unsurprisingly cheaper, thinner and more portable. That's kind of how tech works, and beyond 2010 you can expect to see an influx of thin, LED edge-lit TVs that go larger than 60-inches. On the opposite end of the spectrum, expect more Zunes. That is, "Zune" in the sense that portables sporting HD visuals will become ubiquitous—who knows what fate will befall Microsoft's shiny player.
Lastly, this one's for Mark Wilson, who got headaches watching a great Avatar flick in 3D: HD glasses might eventually become unnecessary. At an expected $70 a pair, they won't be missed, but this prediction may take a while and will arrive first in the form of a single-viewer laptop at the end of 2010.
Again, predictions all. Nothing firm, but nothing too unbelievable either. There are more at HDGuru to parse and dissect and flame. Why don't you leave a few of your own in the comments? [HDGuru]
Violence stems from mass immigration from Northern Africa
From Eric Dondero:
According to LaDepeche.Fr (Times) the final number of vehicles burned across France on New Year's eve totalled 1,137.
The number of burnings in Paris itself seems to have decreased, while in the "banlieues" (outskirts of the city), and other French cities, the number has held steady or increased.
Straussbourg, for instance, is seen as "hotbed for Muslim activity," with a North African immigrant population of nearly 20%. The eastern French city saw an increase in car burnings and overall violence. (Source - Blogger Dinah Lord)
USAToday reports:
Car burnings have become common in poor suburbs that ring France's big cities, such as protests last summer shown in the photo above.
But fails to identify the culprits as mostly Muslim immigrants from North Africa (Algieria, Tunisia, Morocco).
The French press is more explicit.
From NovoPress - France, Dec. 31:
The Services Department of General Information (SDIG) have listed the areas where the outburts may be particularly violent. Coincidentally, these hot spots are areas of multi-ethnic cities in Corbeil, Argenteuil, Trappes, Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, etc.. Burning cars, defacement of public property, aggressiveness towards the French people, is particular to New Year's Eve ... this phenomenon dates back two decades.
It is registered in the logic of attacking some of the symbols of France and moments of celebration of the French people: La Marseillaise, the national holiday, the feast of music, etc.. A clash of cultures directly related to mass immigration from outside Europe in France.
Translation by Eric Dondero
hi,
I have a basic doubt. Which do they design first? O-ring or o-ring gland?
Please Help?
I was wondering who made the gear box and drive drums for this fabulous invention,and if they still available.I would love to fabricate one of these.
We live in the age of high tech mechanical and engineering marvels. We have lifts that look and act like spiders. We have backhoe attachments that can mimic the powerful jaws of a T-Rex. We even have remote controlled earth movers. Yet one of the oldest and most basic of construction tools remains n
Imagine science described using only a microphone and hand-held props. There was no Grim Business here — in fact, taking things seriously was against the rules at CellSlam, during the American Society of Cell Biology Meeting in December. Participants had a microphone and exactly three minutes
Countries around the world are fighting for a piece of the nanotech pie. Russia could sell as much as $29 billion of nanotech products by 2015, says the chief of a Russian nanotechnology firm. As we head into the next decade, where do you think the center of the nanotechnology market will be?
Th
No longer a Conspiracy Theory
Michigan Attorneys Kurt and Lori Haskell who were on board the infamous Flight 253 from Amsterdam, have repeatedly claimed in media interviews since the attempted Christmas Day bombing, that a second suspect had been detained by Federal authorities.
A Federal spokesman initially denied the claim. And then repeated the denial days after to a number of reporters.
A Patriot's Journal provides some background:
In the days following this failed attack, the FBI has stated that only one person was arrested despite Mr. Haskell’s eyewitness account, which has been supported by others on the flight. After going public with his story, he has been visited by the FBI.
And asks:
Why are we being lied to? What does the government have to hide? What could possibly be so damaging that they would contradict the eyewitness account of everyone on the flight? Scarier than having enemies who want to kill us is having leaders who lie boldly to cover up their actions.
Randall Smith, spokesman for the Obama administration, has now reversed himself.
From the Detroit News:
Detroit -- A federal customs and border protection official reversed himself today, admitting a passenger from Northwest Flight 253 was placed in handcuffs, searched and released after a canine alerted officers to his carry-on luggage.
Ronald G. Smith, chief U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit area, sent an email to The Detroit News late Thursday apologizing that the information on the passenger -- which was reported to federal investigators by a pair of Taylor attorneys who were passengers on the flight -- was not made available earlier.
Federal officials had denied the details of the incident despite repeated accounts by attorneys Kurt and Lori Haskell of Taylor who say they saw a man get questioned by federal officials and be led away from the airport baggage area in handcuffs after a sniffer dog reacted to something in the man's carry-on luggage.
Among Haskell's eyewitness accounts, he described an older Indian man being led away at the Detroit Airport. This was a different Indian man than described as the "well-dressed man," at the Amsterdam airport, who allegedly assisted Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab onto the flight. Haskell asserted that the "well-dressed Indian man," told a ticket counter agent, yes he doesn't have a passport, but he's from the Sudan, and "we do this all the time."
A second witness named "Bo" from Tennessee, corroborated much of the account.
Continuing:
"I just want them to look into our claims," Lori Haskell said. "Our story has been the same since Day One because we are telling the truth. This is the FBI's fourth story."
Christian libertarian Blogger Mark Epstein sums up the feeling of many on the Right:
One has to wonder if the FBI lied on its own or if the Obama administration instructed this member of the DHS “team” to do so. Although it’s perfectly acceptable to withhold information during an ongoing investigation, it is unacceptable to blatantly malign eye witness accounts that are repeatedly corroborated by passengers who witnessed the events under investigation.
He goes on to assert that Kurt Haskell:
is an “officer of the court” and, as such, his reputation for honesty is inextricably linked to his “bottom line” as an attorney. Moreover, now that the Haskells have been vindicated, the public has even less reason to trust Obama and his “Idiot in Chief,” Janet Napolitano.
Six years after New York City passed a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, it is easier than ever to find smokers partying indoors like it’s 1999, or at least 2002. In November, Eater.com called it “the worst kept secret in New York nightlife” that “smoking is now allowed in numerous nightspots, specifically just about any and every lounge and club with a doorman and a rope.” A few weeks later, GuestofaGuest.com, a blog about New York clubs and bars, posted a “smoker’s guide to N.Y.C. nightlife.”
“Everyone looks the other way,” said Billy Gray, 25, a reporter for Guest of a Guest, who says that he knows precisely which high-end bars and lounges, most of them in the meatpacking district or Lower East Side, will let him smoke inside. Far from deterring smoking indoors, the ban simply adds an allure to it, said Mr. Gray, a half-pack-a-day smoker.
“It’s more of an illicit thrill now,” he said. “Like when you were a teenager and snuck a beer in your parents’ basement.”
Thus, as with other prohibitions, smoking bans breed disrespect for the law.
Is a prohibition ever the right policy? What about the ban on murder? Take as given that this one is a good idea. So what's the difference between banning murder and banning smoking in restaurants?
Everyone agrees that murder inflicts grave harm one someone who cannot easily avoid that harm. Smoking in restuarants does not share this feature. Even taking the evidence on second-hand smoke at face value, the effects from occasional expsoure are trivial, and anyone who wants to avoid them can stay home or patronize non-smoking restaurants.
Smoking bans are also miguided because they assume restaurants and bars are "public" and should therefore be subject to regulation by government. Instead, any privately owned establishment should be regarded as fully private, with owners allowed to offer smoking versus non-smoking experiences, as they wish.
