President Obama signed a controversial, bipartisan bill Friday extending Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans as well as unemployment benefits. He praised the new law as a boost for the middle class. (Dec. 17)
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We’re assuming it would still prefer you use Internet Explorer for all your web browsing needs, but Microsoft is now lending something of a helping hand to Windows 7 users that insist on using Firefox for one reason or another. It’s just released a plug-in that gets around Firefox’s current limitations in handling H.264 -encoded videos on HTML5 pages by taking advantage of the H.264 support built into Windows 7. On a more technical level, that means the plug-in parses HTML5 pages and replaces the Video tags with a call to the Windows Media Player plug-in, which then allows the content to be played right in the browser. Sound like just what you’ve been waiting for? Hit up the link below to download the add-on and try it yourself. Microsoft releases H.264 video plug-in for Windows 7 Firefox users originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …A vote for sanity: DREAM Act should be a no-brainer for anyone with an ounce of sense and decency
December 18, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media There were students out today on Capitol Hill, trying to make the final push for the DREAM Act, the cloture vote for which is tomorrow. In a normal political environment, this bill would be a no-brainer. I called the offices of Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, one of the Democratic holdouts who is reportedly planning to vote no, because I still have a lot of family ties back in Montana, including some political ties, and voiced my extreme disappointment at his betrayal. I was told the senator doesn’t support “amnesty”; I answered that it’s obvious the senator has swallowed the outpouring of lies about the act. It’s also obviously making the nativists nervous — which is why they’re pulling out all the stops. (See the utterly mendacious Mickey Kaus in Newsweek today, regurgitating just about every falsehood about this bill and giving it the patina of mainstream mediahood. And oh yeah — Mickey’s a liberal. Uh huh. Sure. He just never seems to find any liberal position he actually agrees with. Anyway, keep the phone calls up. Here are the numbers: D’s fence sitting: Claire McCaskill (MO) 202-224-615 Mary Landrieu (LA) (202) 224-5824 Kay Hagan (NC) 202-224-6342 Mark Pryor (AR) 202-224-6342 Joe Manchin (WV) (202) 224-3954 Kent Conrad (ND) (202) 224-2043 R Leaning yes: Lisa Murkowski (AK) (202) 224-6665 D’s likely voting no, who should feel pain: Tester, Baucus, Nelson Max Baucus (MT) – (202) 224-2651 Ben Nelson (NE) – (202) 224-6551 Jon Tester (MT) – (202) 224-2644
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Gaza sources say Navy fired at boat; army spokesman says IDF not familiar with incident
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In a surprising finding, a large study suggests that women with early breast cancer who undergo breast-conserving therapy live longer than those who have a mastectomy.
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The widow of a Florida philanthropist who had been the single-largest beneficiary of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme has agreed to return $7.2 billion in bogus profits to the victims of the fraud. (Dec. 18)
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AstraZeneca’s new blood thinner Brilinta worked better than Plavix in a head-to-head clinical trial — but not in U.S. and Canadian patients. The FDA won’t approve the drug without a new analysis of the study.
Continue reading …Hyundai shows off Equus iPad owners manual, available for test drives in the App Store (video)
December 17, 2010 No Comment
Yeah, we know, you’re still having a hard time thinking of Hyundai as a luxury car brand. Get with the times, man. The Equus (“echoos”) is legitimately high-end, and not just because each and every one comes with a 16GB WiFi iPad pre-loaded with the car’s owners manual. Naturally this isn’t just a boring stack of info that you’ll only pull out to look up tire pressures and engine oil capacity — oh no. This is a properly interactive experience showing you how the directional headlights work, providing videos of various interior configurations (including the reclining “First Class” rear seats with legrests), and even offering what looks to be something of a driving game. Sure, it’s no Real Racing , but it is free, and you can check it out in the App Store now. Or, you can just live vicariously through the video below. Continue reading Hyundai shows off Equus iPad owners manual, available for test drives in the App Store (video) Hyundai shows off Equus iPad owners manual, available for test drives in the App Store (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Some supplements reportedly boost mood — but what does the evidence show for mood enhancers?
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In Internet-ese, one possible response to a couple of President Obama’s more intriguing justifications for passing the contentious tax-cut bill on Friday might be O RLY? This is because the president declared later that same day that the new measure will “protect the middle class, grow our economy … and create jobs for the American people.” Meanwhile, Reuters characterized the bill as “a grab bag of goodies for investors, the affluent and workers, but the richer you are the more you get.”
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