Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons Since the 1970s, the population of Galapagos penguins —the only penguin species to reside in the northern hemisphere—has decreased by more than 50 percent . Habitat loss and competition from invasive species are thought to be the two drivers of this decline—which, if left unchecked, is expected to lead to extinction before the end of the century. Fortunately, a group of conservat… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees
October 28, 2010 No Comment
Did we say Verizon would dole out $90 million in credits? It seems we spoke too soon, because the US Government is taking its cut of the carrier’s apology after charging for data that customers didn’t actually use. Verizon says it’s settled with the FCC for $25 million and will cut a check to the US Treasury, and put the remaining $52.8 million towards the bills of 15 million affected customers in the form of $2 to $6 credits each. Verizon’s not taking any blame in the matter, mind you, as it says the original data charges were “inadvertent” and caused by software pre-loaded on some phones. Yet another reason to ditch the bloatware, we suppose. PR after the break. Continue reading Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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photo: Nicholas Doumani / Creative Commons Just days after Syncrude was fined over C$3 million for
Continue reading …Northrop Grumman’s CaMEL ‘bot features one .50 caliber gun, loads of class
October 28, 2010 No Comment
When the dream factory that is Northrop Grumman needed to up the “wow factor” at its Association of the U.S. Army’s Washington conference booth, it did what plenty of CES exhibitors wished they could do: it weaponized. Hence, the deadliest CaMEL yet. The acronym stands for Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover — think of the BigDog robot, but with treads instead of legs. The motorized platform will hump up to 1,200 pounds of gear at seven miles per hour, and as Spencer Ackerman at Wired points out, over sixty of them have been sold to the Israeli military. But the above pictured CaMEL is the only one floating around with armaments: in this case, a .50-caliber M2 machine gun. The gun is fired remotely, via touchscreen controls, and the platform itself could support any number of weapons including the M249, the MK19 grenade launcher, or 30mm cannon. Which kind of proves a pet theory of ours: if you build it, eventually someone will mount a gun on it. Northrop Grumman’s CaMEL ‘bot features one .50 caliber gun, loads of class originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Joy Behar Chides: ‘Bitch’ Insult Was ‘Mistake,’ ‘I Reserve That Word for People I Know and Love’
October 28, 2010 No Comment
Joy Behar admits she made a “mistake,” sort of. After angrily denouncing Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R) as a “bitch” who will “go to Hell” for her “Hitler youth commercial” in which she criticizes Democrat Harry Reid's position on illegal immigration, “The View” co-host sarcastically retracted part of her joyless insult. “I really shouldn't have called her a bitch because to me that's a term of endearment,” snickered Behar. “I reserve that word for people that I know and love. That was a mistake and I take it back. I mean, the fact that she approved a racist ad, that is the point that I wanted to get through to the people – not the word bitch.” Video embedded after the page break: read more
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Allow us to clarify, the colors are “fresh” as in “new,” not as in ” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .” Don’t get us wrong, though: white almost always looks fresh (in the Fresh Prince sense) on a phone, and the Torch seems to be no exception — partly thanks to the matching white keyboard. Both red and white will be available on November 7 (a day before the HTC Surround and Samsung Focus , interestingly) at the same time as a sweet new promotion that’ll allow folks to buy any two accessories from AT&T and get a third one of equal or lesser value for free. Don’t violate any fire codes stuffing yourselves into your local stores, alright? Follow the break for the press release. Continue reading BlackBerry Torch coming to AT&T in two fresh colors next month BlackBerry Torch coming to AT&T in two fresh colors next month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The death toll was climbing from this week’s deadly tsunami in Indonesia, and rescuers fear many were swept out to sea. Between the deadly wave and the volcano erupting across the country, officials said more than 400 people were killed. (Oct. 28)
Continue reading …Pennsylvania Township Bans Fracking Wastewater Disposal – Defies State Government
October 28, 2010 No Comment
If you only thought fracking was an expletive on Battlestar Galactica, watch this trailer for the documentary Gasland for a bit more info Defying the state of Pennsy… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Alaskan underdog and U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller scored a startling victory over incumbent Lisa Murkowski in August’s Republican primary, but in political time during an election year, August was eons ago, and now Miller needs another boost from Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and other tea-party-friendly conservatives to carry him through Tuesday.
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Yes, that’s right, just “Venue,” not Venue Pro — and from a glance, it looks to us like this might be the new name for the Thunder Android phone we played with a little while ago judging by this FCC filing that just crossed the wires. As far as we can tell, this thing is basically a carbon copy of the Venue Pro, except it’s running Android instead of Windows Phone 7 and drops the sliding portrait keyboard in favor of a full-touch setup. Notably, the curved glass 4.1-inch AMOLED display carries over, so that should make the design nerds in the audience swoon a bit. Additionally, turns out there’s a Bluetooth SIG certification under the same model name — V03B — that confirms the display’s specs and the fact that it’s a “smartphone” (whew!). Stay tuned on this one — something tells us we won’t be waiting terribly long for an announce. Dell Venue hits the FCC: is this the Thunder’s new name? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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