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Oil Spill Commission Finds Obama Admin Downplayed Estimates, Acted Incompetently

Photo: World News On May 22, 2010, just a few weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig had exploded in the Gulf and unleashed the biggest environmental catastrophe in American history, President Obama established a National Oil Spill Commission to investigate the event. Yesterday, that commission issued a report on the effic… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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BP Sponsors an Entry About the Gulf Oil Spill on Digg

Image: Digg.com screen grab Can You Guess What it Says? This screen grab of the Digg ” Top News ” page (found on competing site Reddit , but it’s not a Photoshop job as far as I can tell) pretty much speaks for itself. The sad part isn’t so much that BP is spending money on PR damage-control – that was expected – but rather that it is featured on Digg mixed-in with the user-submitted content in such a way that it’s easy to mist… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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New Senate Map

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Karl Rove & Co. has their new Senate map out. R-47, D-49 with 4 toss-ups.

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Apple afraid of a shattering followup to its Antennagate woes?

Apple weathered that Antennagate storm surprisingly well, but now there’s another potential cloudburst on the horizon, and it’s been pre-named for your convenience: “Glassgate.” Or maybe “GlassThatShattersIfScratchedByACasegate.” Ryan Block has just posted a story on gdgt citing sources “inside and outside Apple” claiming that Apple has discovered a different flaw — or weakness, shall we say — in its iPhone 4 design. The basic problem seems to be with non-bumper cases, specifically ones that slide on to the phone, and the danger of trapped particles scratching the back of the phone while taking the case on and off. Case-caused scratches are nothing new (though still annoying), but the big problem seems to be that these scratches can lead to cracking and even full-on shattering of the back panel. Apparently this lead to Apple severely limiting its reselling efforts of third party cases for a time (which you might have noticed), and while Apple currently has some third party cases online and in its stores, none of the hard cases are of the slide-on variety. Apple also purportedly has a new test program set up to understand this specific issue. Of course, plenty of questions are raised by all this: is this a widespread problem with folks that have managed to acquire a slide-on case? We haven’t really heard of such a correlation so far. Do the snap-on folks, many of whom received their cases free of charge from Apple, have anything to worry about? And does Apple have any intention of warning its consumers about this potential danger? Apple didn’t respond to Ryan’s request for comment, and we doubt they’ll respond to our own until they’re good and ready to talk — let’s just hope there’s not another faux hat-in-hand press conference in our future! View Poll Apple afraid of a shattering followup to its Antennagate woes? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Heh : Irony alert. The American Postal Workers Union has extended its internal election after thousands of ballots appeared to have gotten lost . . . in the mail. The union’s election committee was supposed to be counting those ballots this week in downtown Washington, D.C., following a tradition mail-in election. But the union announced that only about 39,000 ballots were turned in — and that “a large number of union members had not received their ballots.” Maybe next time they should email them.

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Cherrypal announces $188 CherryPad America Android tablet

You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later — low-cost computer maker Cherrypal has gotten into the tablet game. Its first entrant is the CherryPad America, a $188 tablet that packs a 7-inch resistive touchscreen, Android 2.1 (a 2.2 update is promised later this year), an 800MHz ARM11 processor, 2GB of flash storage, a microSD card slot for expansion, built-in WiFi, and a 3200 mAh battery that promises six to eight hours of use. What’s more, unlike some other low-cost Android tablets , Cherrypal says that the CherryPad will have full access to the Android Market, and it insists that it’s “neither an iPad killer nor an iPad clone, it’s a completely different product designed for a different market.” Perhaps most surprising, however, is that the tablet is actually available right now through a partnership with online retailer Zecozi. Head on past the break for the full press release, along with a second, less polished image — and hit up the source link below if you’re ready to take the plunge. Continue reading Cherrypal announces $188 CherryPad America Android tablet Cherrypal announces $188 CherryPad America Android tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Today on Planet 100: Toxic Sludge Floods Hungary (Video)

Visit link: Today on Planet 100: Toxic Sludge Floods Hungary (Video)

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Providing meaningful work for atheists (from the Volokh Conspiracy ): You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus. We are currently active in 24 states. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet’s natural life…. For $110.00 we will guarantee that should the Rapture occur within ten (10) years of receipt of payment, one pet per residence will be saved [I take it that’s not in the theological sense of “saved” –EV]…. Since I’ve heard talk of an imminent Rapture since the late 60′s this company is probably making a pretty safe bet with their 10 year limitation. However, this is what you’d call a classic unenforceable contract since should the Rapture occur the contracting parties won’t be around to make sure the company upholds their end of the deal. I sounds to me more like cleverly disguised mockery of Christians than anything else. By the way, it’s not currently available in California.

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Augen Android tablet bonanza: Espresso Doppio dual boots Ubuntu, Firma packs magical pen powers

Whoa there Augen , you may want to slow down on the artificial sweeteners. Stealing a page from Archos , the company that brought us that unforgettable $150 Kmart tablet is prepping six (yes, half a dozen!) Android 2.2 “Espresso” / “Latte” tablets to launch before the end of the year, and while some are your run-of-the-mill pads at this point, the Espresso Doppio and the Espresso Firma are all sorts of mind blowing. The $599.99 10.2-inch Doppio has a 1024×768-resolution capacitive touchscreen, an accelerometer, 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU, and a 3 megapixel front facing cam, but most interestingly, it’ll dual boot Android and some version of Ubuntu . But it gets even zanier — it comes with a dock that has a backlit keyboard, multitouch trackpad, and a 160GB hard drive. And apparently both components contain separate 6000mAh batteries, which should bring the runtime up to 15 hours. Bold, indeed. The Firma, on the other hand, is priced at $349.99, but seems like a science project at this point. According to the company, it will come with a “magical wand” or ink pen that’ll be able to write on regular paper, but instantly bring that handwriting to the 7-inch resistive tablet. It’s evidently using RF technology with some sort of proprietary software. To say we’re intrigued would be an understatement, but, of course, with the company’s history we’d say we’re somewhat skeptical. Obviously, Augen’s got more affordable and realistic options scattered throughout the lines. There’s the $199 7-inch resistive touch Latte, which in all honesty doesn’t sound all that different from the original Gentouch 78 , though there is an included stylus and 2GB of storage. However, the $249.99 Latte Grande steps it up with an 800MHz CPU, 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, accelerometer and an ambient light sensor. The rest of the Espresso line is a lot stronger (pun sadly intended!) — each have 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 / A9 processors, capacitive screens and accelerometers. The entry level $349.99 7-inch Espresso will have a Cortex A9 processor, 8GB of memory, and a 3 megapixel front facing camera, while the $429.99 10.2-inch Espresso Dolce gets a larger 1024×768-resolution screen, but drops down to an A8 CPU. We understand that it’s a lot to digest, but there’s always the press release and renders below to help you make more sense of this highly caffeinated company. Continue reading Augen Android tablet bonanza: Espresso Doppio dual boots Ubuntu, Firma packs magical pen powers Augen Android tablet bonanza: Espresso Doppio dual boots Ubuntu, Firma packs magical pen powers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Hungary Toxic Sludge Flood Reaches Danube River

photo: AP Photo/MTI, Sandor H. Szabo The flood of toxic red sludge, which burst forth from a containment pond in Ajka, Hungary and covered several villages earlier in the week, reached a branch of the River Danube today. According to the head of the local disaster relief services, it remains about 10 kilometers from the main branch of the river as of this morning. There are reports of “sporadic fish death” there; all the fish in the Marcal River, which was hit first, have been killed (

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