The Obama administration today undid an eleventh-hour rule enacted by George W. Bush that gave health workers the option to refuse to perform a litany of procedures they objected to on moral, religious, or cultural grounds. Declaring the so-called “conscience” rule “unclear and potentially overbroad in scope,” the administration trimmed…
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We were quite bedazzled by the HTC Incredible S after our hands-on at MWC , but it’s the auto-rotating icons for the capacitive buttons that left us most intrigued. So we went back to the HTC booth to try to make sense of it all. From what we were able to observe, there’s some optical trickery happening here: the icons appear to be glittering and shimmering depending on viewing angle as if lit through a prism, half-mirror or grate of some kind. We think that a pair of LED s are used to project the intended icon onto the glass surface via either a combination of prisms and half-mirrors, or via horizontally and vertically polarized grates. Watch our video after the break, and let us know in the comments how you think this actually works. Continue reading HTC Incredible S auto-rotating buttons explained? (video) HTC Incredible S auto-rotating buttons explained? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Wisconsin’s weird version of a filibuster continues with no end in sight. The Democrats who fled the state to delay a vote on an anti-union bill say they’re willing to stay on the lam for weeks, protesters clogged the capital for the fourth straight day, schools remained closed, and the…
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The Engadget Show – 018: GM’s Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G
February 18, 2011 No Comment
Humans, allow us to present the latest episode of The Engadget Show — you won’t want to miss it. First up, Josh and Tim Stevens sit down with GM’s chief electrical engineer Micky Bly for a frank conversation on the future of automotive technology , chatting about everything from networked vehicles (with a surprise visit from the unmistakable EN-V prototype), electric cars, advancing smartphone integration, and a world without stoplights. Then, Micky announces and demos Chevy’s new MyLink infotainment system, in a world-first, Engadget Show-exclusive look at the new technology. Fresh off a resounding victory over mankind, IBM’s Watson researcher David Gondek joins Josh and Paul for a breakdown of Watson’s Jeopardy domination and an in-depth conversation about machine-learning, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and the meaning of love. Last up, Josh, Paul, and Nilay bust out the Motorola Atrix 4G and break down the week in news, including Nokia’s Windows Phone announcement , the rise of Honeycomb tablets , and everything worth talking about from Mobile World Congress . This is one you absolutely should not miss. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! Hit up the video stream after the break or download the show in HD below! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Special guests: Micky Bly, David Gondek Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger Edited by: Danny Madden Music by: Note! Visuals by: Batsly Adams Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec Taped live at SIR Stage37 Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 018 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 018 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 018 (Small) Subscribe to the Show: [ iTunes ] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (MP4). [ Zune ] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (MP4). [ RSS MP4 ] Add the Engadget Show feed (MP4) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically. [ HD RSS ] Get the Engadget Show delivered automatically in HD. [ iPad RSS ] Get the Engadget Show in iPad-friendly adaptive format. Continue reading The Engadget Show – 018: GM’s Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G The Engadget Show – 018: GM’s Micky Bly, Watson researcher David Gondek, EN-V demo, Atrix 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Wisconsin Budget Law Would Put Governor In Charge Of Medicaid — So He Can Stop Health Care Law
February 18, 2011 No CommentIt’s pretty clear that the end game for all this is to defund state Medicaid programs and make it impossible to serve as part of the new health care safety net. What, you thought Republicans were above dirty tricks like playing with people’s lives? CHICAGO — The 14 Democratic state senators who left Wisconsin to avoid a vote on Thursday said that they will only return when Gov. Scott Walker is ready to talk. That’s according to Sen. Jon Erpenbach, of Middleton, one of the absent lawmakers, who is currently in Chicago. Earlier on Thursday, all 14 senators had been together at the Clock Tower Resort hotel in Rockford, Ill. The legislators were fanned out across Illinois on Friday morning. “This is an extreme piece of legislation, and this was our only option, as extreme as it was,” he said. Walker said he’s looking at legal options to bring the missing lawmakers back to the Capitol, but no Wisconsin law can compel Erpenbach and the other 13 Democrats who fled the state to return. “(Walker’s) job is to lead responsibly; his job is to lead by consensus, if at all possible. It’s his job to sit down and talk to people about here’s where we are, how are we all going to get where we all need to be”, said Erpenbach. He’s concerned about what many protesters may not know, that the budget bill does more than strip away public workers’ collective bargaining rights and increase their contributions to their health care and pensions. It also leaves the future of the state’s health care programs up in the air. “There are some substantial Medicaid changes in here where the governor, all of a sudden, is in charge of Medicaid, which is SeniorCare, which is BadgerCare. And he has never once said what he intends to do,” said Erpenbach. For those who felt the move by the group, now dubbed the “Wisconsin 14″’, was a sign of their unwillingness to bend, Erpenbach said this: “In the end, what’s going to happen is the public employees are going to pay on their pension and pay on their health care. We all know that, they all know that. They’re OK with that. The one thing the public employees do not understand is why (Walker) is going after unions.”
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Throwing good money after good, StartingBloc brainstorms green investments. Photo by Yomanimus via Flickr It’s called SIC – the Social Innovation Competition. Teams of six players will collaborate and brainstorm real solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. This weekend, StartingBloc holds its Institute for Social Innovation , an event in which participants will play a “Long Game” with the object of designing the most resilient strategy to manage the global long-term effect… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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LegendaryWriter says: Prince William Kate Middleton send wedding invites http://exm.nr/eJshe0 -=
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Think the Atrix 4G might be a critical launch for Motorola right now? A fresh regulatory filing by Motorola today revealed that the company got a whopping 28 percent of its cash from Verizon last year — up from 17 percent in 2009 — a pretty powerful testament to the “Droid effect.” The company goes on to say that “the loss of, or a significant reduction in revenue from, one or more of these customers could have a negative impact on [its] business,” and it’s pretty clear that the launch of the iPhone on Verizon will have at least some impact this year. Question is, can they make up for the loss with a harder push on other carriers like AT&T? Motorola: 28 percent of 2010 revenue came from Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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