Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Amazon Appstore for Android goes live, welcomes newcomers with free Angry Birds Rio
In spite of Apple's grumbling, Amazon's proceeding full steam ahead with the rollout of its Appstore for Android. The switch has just been flipped and early adopters will be welcomed with a free copy of Angry Birds Rio, whose Android launch Amazon scooped all to itself. Beyond day one, Rio will be a $0.99 app, but others will take its place as the online retailer is aiming to serve one usually-paid app for free each day. A total of around 3,800 applications are available at launch and you'll be able to get on board via either a dedicated Appstore app on Android (sideload link available below) or Amazon's web interface. The latter offers you a 30-minute Test Drive facility, where you can try out a program you might fancy for your phone before purchasing. Service looks to be US-only for now -- sorry, international users.
Update: The web Appstore has gone down. Don't panic, we're sure it's just teething troubles and not a smiting by the Cupertino ninja collective. In the mean time, the app still looks to be working okay.
source
China warns of "humanitarian disaster" in Libya
China "opposes causing even more civilian casualties through the use of armed force", Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing. "We again call on all sides to observe an immediate cease-fire."
"We've seen reports of how the use of armed force is causing civilian casualties, and we oppose the wanton use of armed force leading to more civilian casualties and more humanitarian disasters," she said.
Western powers began strikes against Libya over the weekend in a U.N.-mandated campaign to target air defences, enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
Jiang would not say directly whether the air attacks on Libya were in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution.
In last week's vote, 10 countries supported the resolution and the other five council members abstained. Those included China and Russia, which refrained from using their veto power.
China's official newspapers on Monday stepped up Beijing's opposition to the Western air attacks on Libya, accusing nations backing the strikes of breaking international rules and courting new turmoil in the Middle East.
Though Beijing is unlikely to go beyond verbal sparring with Western governments over the strikes, its opposition could win points with Arab and other nations that may become more alarmed if the air attacks continue and bring more casualties.
China's handling of Western pressure on Libya has laid bare the quandaries facing Beijing in the Middle East, an important source of oil for the world's second-largest economy.
At the weekend, Saudi Arabia's Aramco announced its latest proposal to supply crude oil to a refinery in southwest China, where Beijing is building an oil pipeline that slices through Myanmar.
About half of China's crude imports last year came from the Middle East and North Africa.
China wants to diversify its supplies, but Arab countries and Iran hold so much of the world's reserves that they are sure to remain major suppliers.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Writing by Ben Blanchard, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Source
Sunday, March 20, 2011
prevue fetal visualization device by melody shiue
Melody Shiue, an industrial designer of the University of New South Wales has designed a product called, PreVue. It is an e-textile based device that employs latest stretchable display technology over the abdominal region, letting other family members to connect with the fetus in its context. Not only PreVue gives you the chance for interacting and watching the baby's growth inside, it as well serves as a tool to understand the personality of the baby. You can see the baby rolling, snoozing, yawning and smiling, bringing you closer until the day it finally lies into your arms.
Designer : Melody Shiue
Designer : Melody Shiue
The product represents design excellence and certainly deserves an Australian Design Award as it paves way for fetal-maternal bonding in order to keep the mothers in an optimistic state of mind. Establishing early bonding essentially sustains the maternal relationship post-birth and helps delivering a healthy child. The father also gets an opportunity to watch the current activity of his child and participate in the process of bonding. The fetus will be able to recognize the mother's voice by the 18th week. Studies reveal that when mothers sing a specific song throughout pregnancy, they can use the same tune to appease a crying baby. This means, adaptive learning starts effectively in uterus, so mothers can stimulate a mild extent of education to the fetus via music and gently tapping over the belly and watch the responsive expressions as well as reflexes of the fetus through a contextual screen.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
"Supermoon": Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Saturday
It may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but tomorrow the moon will make its closest approach to Earth in 18 years—making the so-called supermoon the biggest full moon in years.
And despite Internet rumors, the impending phenomenon had no influence on the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami (see pictures).
The monthly full moon always looks like a big disk, but because its orbit is egg-shaped, there are times when the moon is at perigee—its shortest distance from Earth in the roughly monthlong lunar cycle—or at apogee, its farthest distance from Earth.
Likewise, because the size of the moon's orbit varies slightly, each perigee is not always the same distance away from Earth. Friday's supermoon will be just 221,566 miles (356,577 kilometers) away from Earth. The last time the full moon approached so close to Earth was in 1993, according to NASA.
The March 19 supermoon, as it's called, will be visible "pretty much any time during the night," said Geza Gyuk, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
"Look for the full moon as it rises above the eastern horizon as the sun sets below the western horizon—it will be a beautiful and inspiring sight," he said via email.
(See "Year's Biggest Full Moon, Mars Create Sky Show [2010].")
Though the supermoon will be about 20 percent brighter and 15 percent bigger than a regular full moon, the visual effect may be subtle, added Anthony Cook, astronomical observer for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
"I doubt that most people will notice anything unusual about this full moon," Cook said.
"Because the total amount of light is a little greater, the biggest effect will be on the illumination of the ground—but not enough to be very noticeable to the casual observer."
Japan Earthquake Not Linked to Supermoon
Such a lunar close encounter can cause slightly higher than normal ocean tides and localized flooding—especially if there is already a storm surge, astronomers say.
A supermoon may even have some impact on seismic activity because of the stronger gravitational interaction between the moon, the sun, and Earth.
Even so, there is no clear evidence that any of these phenomena influenced the Japan earthquake and tsunami.
(Read more: "Can the Moon Cause Earthquakes?")
"The earthquake in Japan happened when the moon was close to its average distance to Earth—there was nothing extreme about its position or phase," Cook said.
"While some earthquakes seem to have tidal connections, this isn't one of them."
(Take a moon myths and mysteries quiz.)
There's no need to get worked up over a supermoon, Adler Planetarium's Gyuk added.
"We survived 2008 [an almost supermoon year] and 1993 just fine," he said by email.
"Just keep in mind even this 'extreme' supermoon is not really that extreme!"
source
Mega Millions winning numbers worth $172 million
BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey's lottery players will be thinking green two days before St. Patrick’s Day. A whole lot of green.
The grand prize in Tuesday’s Mega millions drawing stands at $172 million. A winner would have the choice to take annual payments of roughly $6 million for 26 years or walk away with a cash option lump-sum payment of $108.9 million.
In this past Friday night's Mega Millions drawing, there was no jackpot winner, but according to lotterypost.com, 11 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize, one of them coming from New Jersey.
The 40-year-old New Jersey Lottery outdoes many other states’ comparable operations in sales and in the amount of revenue it provides to the state. In 2010, despite a poor economy that has hurt casino and racetrack gambling, the state lottery broke all of its previous revenue records.
MEGA MILLIONS WINNING NUMBERS FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011:
10, 11, 12, 28, 43 and Mega ball 45
In June 2010 the state Treasury Department and acting director of the state Lottery Commission, Carole Hedinger announced that total profits for the previous 12 months had exceeded $2.6 billion for the first time.
Not all states shared such good fortune: The Press of Atlantic City reported last year that a study by the Rockefeller Institute for Government, based in New York, found in the same period that some lotteries, such as those in Oregon and West Virginia, lost as much as 15 percent of their revenue. Neighboring Pennsylvania, which has expanded casino gambling, saw a drop last year, too, of about $22 million, or nearly 1 percent of revenue.
But money can create just as many problems as it solves if you’re not careful. There are too many stories of people winning the lottery which turn into nightmares.
Craig Wallace, a senior funding officer for a company that buys lottery annuity payments in exchange for lump sums, told bankrate.com, "In New Jersey, they manipulate the reality of the situation to sell more tickets. Each winner takes a picture with a check that becomes a 3-foot by 5-foot stand-up card. The winner is photographed standing next to a beautiful woman and the caption reads: 'New Jersey's newest millionaire.'"
Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey twice in 1985 and 1986, for a total of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer.
"Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out. I never learned one simple word in the English language — 'No,' said Adams.
Tuesday's Mega Millions jackpot will be the 12th drawing since the last jackpot prize winner. If no one wins on Tuesday, Friday’s Mega millions drawing could conceivably approach $200 million.
Source
Friday, March 18, 2011
The Ab Hancer
I suspect that this is not a real product, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. It’s probably as effective as a six pack abs tattoo.
Source
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
RSS Feed (xml)
