Tue, 03 Jul 2007 04:04:03 GMT

Alfa May, Just May Return To US

[Image Source: DieselStation.com]

MotorAuthority tell us that thanks to Fiat, SpA's miraculous fiscal turn around, Alfa Romeo now is officially slated to return to these United States in the spring of 2009.

Sure, we've heard these tempting declarations before from the Italian marque that's given the automotive world some of the most beautiful cars we've ever known. But with the solid return of Maserati, it just might be so.

Let's hope that the 8C (shown) is one of the first Alfas to arrive on these eager shores.

[Source: MotorAuthority]

Mein Damen und Herren > if you've not seen my latest on-camera creation- please click here >>> Posted by: Gunnar Heinrich      Read more     Source

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:51:14 GMT

Vacancy

No one is home in this small snail shell. I don’t suppose a snail abandons its shell since it can continue to make it larger as needed. My guess is that the former resident fell victim to some bad end, and the shell was all that was left behind.

I don’t find a lot of snails or their empty shells at Roundrock. I’m not sure why that would be (unless I’m just not observant). Could it be that the general conditions there are too dry? Predators? Insufficient food? I don’t know.

I found this shell far up the creek in the Central Valley, close to where it crosses into the property line of Roundrock. The slope is steeper and valley is narrower, so there is a sort of microclimate that is protected from all but the mid-day sun. It seems wetter in this spot, and perhaps that is where snails will do best. I’ve found a couple of other things in this area that I haven’t seen elsewhere at Roundrock including the sole Blackhaw tree and the Wild Hyacinth.

I’ll keep looking.

Missouri calendar:

• Cricket frog breeding at its peak.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:43:23 GMT

Product Overview : Cornelios

Recently someone tipped me on something that is rather unique : Cornelios. CorneliOS is a virtual web based OS that runs in your web browser. now we've seen all kinds of applications ran from your browser, but this is a first, as far as I know. The application demos look very, very promising. It feels as if you are in a local application, but it is an online app. Or actually, it is a suite of apps. Cornelios is built on top of something called the CORA Framework. The CORA framework is a CorneliOS technology that allows to turn common websites into web applications.CORA uses both the CorneliOS system API (which offers common I/O features) as well as the CoSCRIPT language, which offers tags that easily allow to create dynamic content.
Further CorneliOS technologies include CorDoc, a DocBook-like XML scheme to create documentation files, and 3DVR, a web-based 3D environment. (Cornelios)The mix between a desktop and a server environment is something you have to get used to, but it looks an feels pretty cool and comfortable.

I wonder how much time it will take before websites start emerging that are built on this revolutionary system.

Killerapps says it like this :CorneliOS advertises it's facility of use; the combination of easy website management and a collaborative work environment may be quite tempting to those interested in open source projects and web development. Posted by: S.M. Schrama      Read more     Source

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:35:08 GMT

Stunning Tekbright 7 Digital Photo Frame

Don’t you found it cumbersome to keep changing the photos in your photo frame to break the monotony? I bet most of you do! In this digital age, it would be surprising if you don’t have alternatives that rid you of all the manual labor to change and move things. To tie in with this same fact, Toshiba, better known for its laptops and monitors, has unveiled its stunning Tekbright 7 Digital Photo Frame.

It incorporates almost all the features you could ever imagine in a digital photo frame. With a seven-inch frame, the Tekbright 7 has a stylish silver bezel and a beveled surround. Its rear-mounted kickstand ensures that it would stay wherever you place it. With an 800 x 400 resolution and a 400:1 contrast ratio, images will be clearer than ever before. To add to this, it allows you to load up your images via CF, SD, MMC, MS, MSPro, xD, and USB and there’s even a tiny 16MB memory built-in to store your most memorable moments, all framed and beautiful.

The only features missing are WiFi abilities and a wireless remote. However, priced at a reasonable 139 ($186), it still is a steal.

Via: ENGADGET Posted by: Alpheus      Read more     Source

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:02:35 GMT

Will you ever be able to buy fitness in a bottle?

The diet pill industry is worth billions per year in the US alone so there’s huge incentive for companies to market miracle pills and the 1994 Dietary Supplement Act makes it easy. Just ask Bob Park. This means that neither safety nor efficacy need to be proven for “natural” remedies and this has predictable results.

Despite this, the idea that drugs can help with weight loss and even improve fitness is plausible. Indeed, the possibility that some future drug might live up to the claims made by these pill pushers seems ever more likely. Take the recent announcement from Ronald Evans’s lab at the Salk Institute. They are “now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat. Even when the mice are not active, turning on the chemical switch activates the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise.” As we get better and better at controlling metabolic activity with drugs, we will undoubtedly see more applications like this. If life is just chemistry (albeit exquisitely complex and subtle chemistry) there’s nothing stopping us from controlling biology with clever pills. Jake puts it this way at Pure Pedentry:

True, the signaling cascades activated by exercise are just that — signaling cascades. Exercise works because it changes the molecular biology of cells, and there is no reason that we can’t enforce that same type of activation sans all the running around. It also seems probable that something similar will eventually work for muscle building, but do these effects require some exercise or could someone lie in bed for a few months, pop pills, eat chocolate, and emerge a body builder? That’s an interesting question to me not only because I like lying in bed, but also because its answer might reveal an essential role for force in fitness. Put another way, do some signaling cascades critical for fitness involve more than just chemical but physical signals? Maybe that’s why they call it physical activity.

We already know of examples of cryptic sites in proteins involved in signaling that are exposed in response to force (check out this interesting work from Harold Erickson’s lab available freely from Pubmed) and if some of these processes are also activated during exercise it might not be possible even in principle to use pills to develop good overall fitness. But don’t despair, maybe a combination of fat burning, muscle building drugs and a therapeutic stretching rack would do the trick… Posted by: Andre      Read more     Source

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:28:07 GMT

Baby Boom: Julia Roberts Delivers a Baby Boy

Julia Roberts and her husband Danny Moder have become proud parents one again, when Hollywood actress delivered a baby boy on June 18 in LA. The boy has been named Daniel Moder. Both mother and infant are believed to be doing well and soon they would be discharged from maternity home. At the time of birth the baby was weighing 8 1/2 pounds. This is the third baby in the family. The couple has two-year-old twin kids, son Phinnaeus and daughter Hazel.

Julia Roberts tied the nuptial knot with husband Danny Moder in 2002 and since then the couple appears to be in love. After a hiatus Julia would appear on silver screen along with Tom Hanks in the forthcoming movie Charlie Wilson’s War, that is slated to release on Christmas.

But as for now she wants to nurture her family and enjoy the fun and frolic of the new born.

Source: Msnbc Posted by: Fineblog      Read more     Source

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:21:02 GMT

Europes Largest Solar-powered Office Complex

Europe, in its bid to lower its greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Kyoto Protocol standards is venturing into producing renewable power from alternative energy sources. With wind as the key energy source at the coastal regions, sunlight seems to be growing as major inland sources of energy that can replace inefficient energy consumption derived from fossil fuels.

A new office complex in Madrid becomes the largest such solar-powered building in a bid to help save the planet from global warming — these inefficient and greenhouse gas emitting fossil-fuel power plants produce.

The Spain-based new office complex is Telefonica. This new Madrid office complex will be possessing more than 16,000 solar panels, as reported by the Cellular-News. The solar panels will be arranged along the length of the rooftops of the buildings entire office complex.

These panels, in all, will be able to generate approximately 3 mega-watts at peak power. This amounts to over 3.6 giga-watt hours per year!

This design will be able to reduce Telefonica’s winter heating bill by 15 percent. And, the summer months will see a 34 percent reduction in air conditioning.

This is a huge production for powering a building a year-round.

Via: Treehugger

Image Posted by: Irani      Read more     Source

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:29:17 GMT

World’s Biggest CO2 Emitter

China has become the worlds biggest carbon dioxide emitter, leaving behind the United States. China has surpassed the US by 8% in 2006 carbon dioxide emissions.

The unexpected announcement will fuel the anxiety about Chinas increasing contribution to man-made global warming. This will further put pressure for Chinas inclusion in a new global agreement on climate change. The developing countrys emission was not expected to overtake the US for several years.

According to the Neatherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the staggering increase in use of coal for power generation and cement production have helped China overtake the US in carbon dioxide emissions.

Chinas emissions were 2% lower than that of the US in 2006. But per head emissions of China is far below that of the US–about one-fourth of the US.

The new figures include carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production but does not include other sources of carbon dioxide like aviation, shipping, deforestation and underground coal fires. The figures also exclude other greenhouse gases emission like methane from agriculture and nitrous dioxide from industrial processes.

The emergence of China as the top carbon dioxide will bring lot of troubles for not only China but also India. Both India and China have so far been exempted from any cut in carbon emissions in Kyoto protocol and similar relief was not unexpected in Kyoto successor. But the displacement of the US by China to become the top Carbon dioxide emitter will only make the US stand more vehemently to the demand of including India and China in any global treaty on climate change.

Both the countries are not ready to accept any cap on their emissions owing to their developing country status and low per head emissions. Though the developing countries have a right to development and prosperity but it should be avoided at the cost of adding to the already worsening climate change. All countries should look for cleaner fuels and should reduce their emissions. The developing countries can easily do it if they can use fossil fuels more efficiently efficient. In India, the fuel consumption is quite high but is far less efficient than the developed countries.

Hope the developing countries can give up their attitude of taking steps to alleviate climate change but not at the cost of their growth and development. Even if the countries have to do with slow growth rate, a clean environment is worth that. After all if climate change continues, there shall be no use of growth.

Source: Guardian
Image Source: Tektra.com.cn Posted by: Bahadurshahzafar      Read more     Source

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:07:01 GMT

Spit

No, I didn’t do this. I simply took the picture. This is the domicile of a spittle bug, which is also known as a froghopper. There is an insect within that white foam (which is not spit, by the way).

When we were last at Roundrock, we saw dozens of these little frothy nests on some of the grasses. This one happens to be on Libby’s Island, but we had seen them nearly everywhere the grasses grew. I have seen these in past summers (okay, late springs), but they were never in the number I saw them on the last visit. I hope it is not a sign of an infestation.

I understand there are more than 23,000 varieties of spittle bugs, so which one this one is, I can’t tell you. (I didn’t even bother to part the foam to have a look at the insect within.) These bugs will suck the juices out of plants, and they build up such a supply of liquid that they secrete it (or is it excrete it? I’m not sure) and then whip it into this froth. After that, they arrange the bubbles around them and continue to eat happily. The foam protects them from predators as well as help them regulate heat and cold.

Most interesting is a recent finding that these are the champion jumpers in the insect world. Spittle bugs (at least some varieties) can jump as high as two feet. If you don’t believe me, trust NPR. They wouldn’t get it wrong.

Missouri calendar:

• Orioles begin building a gray woven nest; takes about a week.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:04:25 GMT

What Does the Internet Weigh?

I never gave it a thought. How much can pulses of energy moving across space and wires actually weigh? Here's an article about another article that attempts to answer the question of how much the Internet weighs.

Read along and follow the directions closely as you can. If you're a math genius then this might be a fun experiment to work through. You try to guess what the Internet weighs by reading through what the author has to say. The answer is at the bottom. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source