Cell Phone Marketing Gone Mad

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Success in the cell phone industry is based on continually selling innovative services on the phones, so customers always need a new one. Buyers perceive they are getting new handsets for free — thanks to subsidies that hide the cost of the phone in monthly fees — so they don't value it

Video on the Go

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In the next few years, online video content is projected to grow 10x from its current levels. Mobile video viewing is expected to account for the biggest jump by far. Is the idea of watching TV on tiny iPhone or Blackberry screens appealing to you — for engineering business and/or personal use

Is Science Serious Bizness? Is Beauty Truth?

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Does public outreach by scientists have to dumb things down? In the case of cable television stations, it certainly seems to. And humor aimed at a science audience can leave the general public confused — or worse, feeling snubbed. But maybe art and comedy are different ways to inspire, if not

No Longer a Dream?

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After two years of delay, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner completed its maiden flight in December, but another ten months of testing are still slated. Has the aircraft — which can seat as many as 300 passengers, and is made mostly of lightweight composite materials — lost some of it's initial lu

Fox and Time Warner Reach Agreement: Your Guilty Pleasure Shows Are Saved [Cable]

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Late last night, Time Warner Cable and Fox Networks Group reached an agreement on subscription fees, ending their very public stand off and guaranteeing Time Warner subscribers their American Idol, Glee, and House fixes in 2010.

The spat over carrier fees that had Time Warner threatening to drop Fox's stations altogether has been resolved. The details of the agreement are as of yet unspecified, but let's see if we can't figure out whose ego seems more intact from these statements.

Chase Carey, deputy chairman and president and COO of News Corp, Fox's parent company, said:

We're pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Time Warner Cable — one that recognizes the value of our programming.

Glenn Britt, top dog at Time Warner Cable, said:

We're happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers.

Hmmm. I'm reading Carey's claim that Time Warner finally "recognize[d] the value of our programming" as finally "coughed up enough money to keep its customers from rioting." [ABC News]



How Not to "Fix" the Housing Market

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The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.

Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes.

As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished while falsely assuming that loan modifications involved no negative reports to credit agencies.

Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

All these criticisms are dead on.  Keeping people in homes they cannot afford makes no sense, so policies that attempt to prevent foreclosure are guaranteed to generate perverse side effects.  The horrifying fact is that policy is still subsidizing high-risk mortgages.

Bellows Seal

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Please explain to me how does a bellows seal works in the bonnet of a valve? Why is it needed? What are the factors in choosing the right one?? The simpler, the better.

Terrorist attack in Denmark: Muhammed Cartoon-related

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Just Breaking...

From Eric Dondero:

The man whose name you see at the bottom of this cartoon-graph was attacked last night by a knife-wielding Somali man, at his apartment in Copenhagen. (UPDATE: Reports now say 3 Somali men were involved). This comes one day after a gun-wielding Kosovo Muslim man stormed into a shopping centre in Finland, dressed in black and gunned down 4 Finnish citizens, and killed one more in a nearby apartment complex.

From Fox News:

COPENHAGEN — Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife after he broke into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's intelligence agency said Saturday.

Jakob Scharf said in a statement that a 28-year-old man with ties to Al Qaeda entered Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus Friday night. But Westergaard pressed an alarm and police arrived minutes later.

The attack on the artist, whose rendering was among 12 that led to the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in predominantly Muslim countries in 2006, was "terror related," Scharf said. He said the man would be charged with attempted murder.

Libertarian-conservative Michelle Malkin blogs this morning, "Muhammed Cartoon Redux":

How about kicking off the New Year with a stark reminder that jihadists don’t just hate us because of Iraq and Afghanistan? The Religion of Perpetual Outrage hates all infidels.

The attack is eerily similar to the knifing of Dutch free speech advocate, and film artist Theo van Gogh in 2005 on the streets of Amsterdam. Van Gogh was murdered by an immigrant Muslim extremist upset with his film depiction critical of Islam. (photo below)

Sudden increase in Muslim attacks around the World

Since the Christmas Day Muslim bomber attempted to blow up an American airline over the skies of Detroit, there's been a noted uptick in Islamic acts of violence around the world.

On New Years Day, a suicide bomber drove a truck onto a volleyball field in Pakistan, killing 93, mostly children. In Afghanistan, 8 CIA operatives were killed on a base in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber who they believed to be friendly.

Meanwhile Jihad Watch reports on Militant Muslim attacks in Thailand on New Year's Day:

For a jihadist, nothing says "Happy New Year" like a few drive-by shootings! "Six killed in new attacks in Thai south: police," from AFP, December 31 (thanks to Maxwell):

PATTANI, Thailand -- Suspected Islamist militants killed two soldiers and four civilians in drive-by shootings in the latest violence to rock Thailand's insurgency-hit south, police said Thursday.

More than 4,000 people have been killed and thousands more wounded

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, asks in an editorial "Jihad 101," is this all coordinated? From Muslims Against Sharia:

The question must be asked: Are we seeing a dramatic increase in violent jihadism in America - National Public Radio reported on Saturday that there had been fourteen attempts in 2009 (compared to two or three in recent years) and that they had been increasingly "operational" in character, not just "aspirational" - because violence is now seen to be practicable here?

Specifically, could it be that jihadists have been emboldened by what they see as weakness and/or fecklessness on the part of the U.S. administration?

Bit of Excel help

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I am trying to make an excel worksheet that will summarise entries to other worksheets in the workbook. My problem is that I can find no variable reference methods ie I want the summary to list the next piece of data in a column taken from a monthly worksheet. The Monthly worksheet may have 1 to 3 h

Quality of water for concreting

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I have sampled a source of water for concreting. The analysis is as follows:

pH-7.4; TDS- 626ppm; Total hardness- 220; TSS- NIL; Inorganic impurity- 516ppm; Organic impurities- 110ppm; Chloride content-180ppm; Phosphate content- Nil.

Please advise on the suitability of this water for concr

Finding Natural Gas Velocity

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Dear all,

Request a simple answer for how to calculate velocity for natural gas in 2" inch SS316L pipe with 3164 kg/hr flow, inlet pr. of 30 barg & exit pressure of 24 barg, with route lenght of nearly 30 mtrs.?

how to read electrical schematics

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I have been in the construction field for a couple of years as an electrical engineer. I have worked with electricians quite a bit. I have always been curious to learn how to read the electrical schematic drawings that they use. I know enough to understand what is meant when they are given a f

fire figthing calculation

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Hi! I am a guest here in this forum. I was given the task of a fire fighting calculation. I am using elite software for this calculation. I am new in fire fighting design, My problem is where can I search for the value of, Static pessure test, residual pressure test and flow rate test. Is some one i