We recently deemed the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer the “best Honeycomb tablet yet.” Admittedly that was before we got our hands on the T-Mobile G-Slate , but it’s still an awfully nice hunk of glass, and now we know just how much you’re going to have to pay to get one — and exactly when you can plunk down that credit card. The 10.1-inch Transformer with its 1280 x 800 IPS panel and 16GB of storage will cost you $399, while the 32GB version will set you back $499. That docking station, which kinda sorta turns it into a laptop? That costs $150. Units are expected to hit retail on Tuesday, April 26th, meaning you have just five days to scrounge together four or five Benjamins — plus tax, of course. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer hits US on April 26th for $399 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Many new peers cannot do their job properly if they are turned into ermine-clad battery hens Posh club declares itself closed to new members shock! In other circumstances, it would be right to ask why peers are backing a report that says the House of Lords is full. Are their Lordships struggling to find space in the tearoom or short of sunny spots to sip G&Ts on the terrace? But this report, from UCL’s Constitution Unit and an all-party array of peers and MPs, makes a serious point. It is a pity that it was dismissed, instantly, by Downing Street yesterday morning. Caught in a sort of half-life before promised reform, the Lords was packed by the last government and is being packed again, only partly in the interests of political balance. In the last year 117 peers have been created, including 39 Labour ones, taking the House to a complement of 792 members. If its membership was proportional to the last general election result, as the government wants, 269 more peers would be needed and the Lords would have 1,061 members. This is absurd. Not only is it expensive – many new peers have been vigorous in their take-up of daily expenses – but they cannot do their job properly if they are turned into ermine-clad battery hens. The report also criticises the way peers are appointed: there is too much patronage and too many former MPs, eased into the upper house after an inglorious Commons career. The answer is not just a smaller chamber – the US Senate manages with 100 members – but also democratic reform. In the meantime, “house full” signs should be hung on the door. Lords reform House of Lords Constitutional reform guardian.co.uk
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Economic output will suffer initially due to earthquake and tsunami but will pick up once rebuilding gains pace, report says Japan’s economy will slow significantly this year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, with the government needing to cut spending to rebuild the country’s battered north-east coast and ensure faster growth next year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday. GDP will expand 0.8% this year, down sharply from the 1.7% growth previously forecast. But as reconstruction spending gains pace, the economy will expand 2.3% in 2012, faster than previous estimates for 1.3% growth, the OECD said. Japan still required fiscal discipline and needed to raise sales tax from 5 to 20%, it warned. “The immediate impact of the disaster is likely to be large, extending beyond the areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. The experience of past disasters in Japan and other developed countries suggests that the negative short-term impact on economic output will be followed by a rebound as reconstruction spending picks up,” the report said. Japan is facing its worst crisis since the second world war. The magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami towering more than 10 metres left nearly 28,000 dead or missing and triggered radiation leaks at a nuclear power plant. The government estimates the material damage alone could top $300bn (£181bn), making it by far the world’s costliest natural disaster. Shortages of electricity and parts suggests long disruptions that could harm factories in other countries. Japan’s output could recover by the third quarter of this year, but private consumption could remain subdued due to weak consumer sentiment, the OECD said. The government is likely to submit to parliament a ¥4tn yen (£29.3bn) extra budget to remove debris and build temporary housing. It will avoid issuing new debt but politicians concede bond issuance is needed for future spending. Deflation will prevent the economy from expanding quickly enough to close the gap between supply and demand before the end of 2012, the report said. Global economy Japan Japan disaster guardian.co.uk
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Prime minister appears to make a play for return to presidency as he also promises to boost flagging birthrate by 30% Vladimir Putin has promised to spend £32.5bn on increasing life expectancy and boosting Russia’s flagging birthrate by up to 30% in the next four years. The prime minister made the pledge in a bold address to parliament on Wednesday in which he appeared to make a play for his return to the presidency. During his two-and-a-half-hour annual speech to the state duma, Putin boasted of the country’s economic recovery and promised rapid military expansion while announcing many populist measures aimed at elderly and provincial voters. Russia will hold parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll next spring, so the address was watched closely for signs that Putin wants to recover the job he held from 2000 to 2008. Analysts noticed the prime minister made little mention of President Dmitry Medvedev, the close political ally whom Putin endorsed as his successor, but who has recently hinted he may not be keen to give way to his mentor. Instead, Putin employed his traditional statist rhetoric to promote a strong, confident Russia, able to see off its enemies but unfettered by democratic change. “This country requires decades of steady, uninterrupted development,” he said. “Without sharp changes in course or ill-thought through experiments based so often in either unjustified liberalism, or on the other hand, social demagogy.” Putin said 1.5 trillion roubles (£32.5bn) had been allocated to “demographic projects” which would increase the birthrate (as measured in 2006) by 25-30% by 2015, and boost average life expectancy from the current 69 years to 71 in the same period. Preliminary results of a nationwide census taken last year showed that since the last figures were taken in 2002 Russia’s population has fallen by 2.2 million to just under 143 million as a result of low fertility and a high mortality rate among men. It was unclear exactly what “projects” Putin had in mind to stimulate the birthrate but Russia makes cash payments to mothers when their children are born and other more imaginative measures have been used. In September 2007, the city of Ulyanovsk organised a day of conception, when workers were encouraged to go home and have sex. Prizes including a 4×4 car were given to those who gave birth on 12 June, Russia Day, the following year. Putin indicated that fertility was already on the rise. “The main thing is to keep up the tempo,” he said. Modernisation of healthcare would lead to greater longevity, he added. Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Russia Childbirth Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
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Marine Conservation Society urges public not to use toilet as a bin, after cotton buds and condoms make return to coastline The amount of bathroom rubbish spread over Britain’s shoreline has risen by an average of 40% in the past year, a survey has found. Cotton buds, condoms, sanitary towels and tampon applicators were among the items recovered at the Marine Conservation Society’s Beachwatch Big Weekend last September. Overall there was a 6% increase in average litter levels on Britain’s beaches compared with a similar survey in 2010. Marine Conservation Society beachwatch officer, Lauren Davis, urged people to stop using their toilet as a “wet bin”. She said: “[Bathroom rubbish] is being flushed away with an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ perception. But sewerage networks and waste water treatment works are not designed to remove these sort of items and, unfortunately, more and more are ending up in our rivers and beaches.” Almost 5,000 volunteers cleaned 376 beaches across the UK for the Big Weekend, covering a total of 167km. Over 330,000 items of litter were collected; 7% of it was bathroom waste, which included almost 16,000 cotton buds. Only the north-west of the UK and Northern Ireland saw a decrease in the amount of bathroom rubbish found on beaches compared with the previous year. The largest increases were in the north-east, where levels tripled, and Wales, where they doubled. UK water companies backed the Marine Conservation Society’s push for people to stop flushing rubbish. Edmund Bramley, Yorkshire Water’s environmental regulation manager, said: “We support the Marine Conservation Society’s call for people to dispose of bathroom waste responsibly, by placing it in the bin, rather than flushing it down the toilet. By flushing things like baby wipes, cotton buds or nappies down toilets, people can end up causing damage both to their homes and the environment.” Hugo Tagholm, director of the clean water campaign Surfers Against Sewage, said: “We of course see this first-hand on lots of beaches around the UK, and it’s unfortunately no huge surprise to us. It’s worrying to see the continuing trend of increasing litter on our coastline, and it’s something we’re actively tackling with our nationwide supporter and membership base.” Pollution Waste Coastlines Marine life Ben Bryant guardian.co.uk
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Federal Aviation Administration takes steps to reassure public after a series of embarrassing incidents The US Federal Aviation Administration has fired two air traffic controllers for sleeping on the job and ordered a higher level of supervision over aircraft carrying the first lady or vice-president after a series of embarrassing incidents. The new air traffic rules and the firings come as the FAA struggles to reassure the public that air travel is safe. The agency has been shaken by five cases of controllers falling asleep on the job , a controller caught watching a DVD movie at his post and an aborted landing this week of a plane carrying Michelle Obama and vice-president Joe Biden’s wife, Jill . The controllers fired on Wednesday were assigned to radar facilities in Miami and Knoxville, Tennessee. They had been found sleeping during overnight shifts, according to the FAA. Under the new air traffic rules, flights carrying Michelle Obama or the vice-president will be handled by an air traffic supervisor rather than a controller, the agency said. The new rules apply to approaches and departures handled by a regional air traffic facility in Warrenton, Virginia, and takeoffs and landings at Andrews air force base in Maryland, where the presidential fleet is based. Flights with the president on board are already required to be handled by a supervisor. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it has opened an investigation into the aborted landing of Michelle Obama’s plane. The FAA moved swiftly in the case of the Miami controller, who the agency said was found sleeping at about 5am on Saturday at a regional radar facility that handles high-altitude air traffic for portions of Florida, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. A preliminary review of air traffic tapes indicated he did not miss any calls from aircraft and there was no impact on flight operations. The Knoxville incident occurred on 19 February at a radar facility at McGhee Tyson airport. Officials said the controller made himself a makeshift bed and deliberately slept for about five hours despite attempts by a co-worker to wake him. The aborted landing involving Michelle Obama’s plane occurred on Monday at Andrews air force base just outside Washington. While aborted landings are not unusual, and the first lady was apparently not in serious danger, the episode became another embarrassment for the FAA. The incident occurred at about 5pm, when a Boeing 737 belonging to the Air National Guard, one of several guard planes used by the White House, came within about three miles of a massive C-17 cargo plane as the planes were approaching Andrews to land, according to the FAA and a base spokeswoman. The FAA requires a minimum separation of five miles between two planes when the plane in the lead is as large as the 200-tonne military cargo jet, in order to avoid dangerous wake turbulence that can severely affect the trailing aircraft. Andrews’ civilian air traffic controllers initially ordered the first lady’s plane to conduct a series of turns to bring it farther from the military jet. When controllers realised there still might not be enough time for the cargo plane to clear the Andrews runway before her plane landed, they directed the pilot to circle the airport. This “go-around” is considered a type of aborted landing. The required separation between the two planes “was compromised,” the NTSB said in a statement. The White House continued to refer questions about the incident to the FAA, although press secretary Jay Carney told reporters travelling aboard Air Force One with the president to California that he understood there was “no imminent danger for the first lady or Dr Biden or anyone else on the plane”. Carney said he had not spoken with the president about the incident. The FAA is also investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at the Warrenton regional facility. United States Air transport Michelle Obama guardian.co.uk
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Bruce Boudreau Pregame Press Conference April 17, 2011 History Will Be Made – Bruce Boudreau The Odd Men Out Bruce Boudreau Took Another Page From Rex Ryan's Playbook, But … The Capitals coach got plenty of attention over the past couple of days. The “ Bruce Boudreau Is A Fat Canadian” Live Blog! Barstool Sports … MSG better be louder than it has ever been tonight. Because there. Boudreau | Your Clock Store Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau hаd a few things tο ѕау аbουt Madison Square Garden οn Monday morning. Theres nο room fοr anything. Written bу Ben Koo 19 April 2011. Thеn again hе knows thе. Cаn yesterdays relative lack οf … Rangers News: Bruce Not So Chatty – Blueshirt Banter Read More: new york rangers, bruce boudreau , rangers vs. capitals, new york rangers blogs, 2011 nhl playoffs, new york rangers playoffs, 2011 stanley cup playoffs, 2011 rangers vs capitals, Alex Ovechkin (LW – WAS), Eric Fehr (RW – WAS) … The BrooklynTrolleyBlogger: N.Y. RANGERS ~ Boudreau vs. The MSG … I’m not quite sure what Coach Bruce Boudreau set out to accomplish by saying what he did, but I’m positive the hospitality he’ll receive at Madison Square Garden tonight, won’t be something he’ll find pleasant. Then again, he knows the … JPGuerette says: OT at the Garden. Bruce Boudreau can still hear you, Ranger fans. But you're not making any noise…hmm…
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British tourists James Cooper and James Kouzaris were shot as they tried to escape gunman, says eyewitness Two British holidaymakers killed in a Sarasota street tried in vain to run away after they were shot, according to a new eyewitness. James Cooper, 25, was shot three times in the chest, ran from a driveway, ducked under a clothes line and tripped on tree roots before sitting down on a patch of grass where he died, the witness said. Cooper’s friend, James Kouzaris, 24, was shot in the head and ran across the street in the opposite direction before collapsing and dying in front of a pickup truck, according to the report published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper. The graphic account of their final moments would seem to support growing speculation that the two Britons, who were on a three-week holiday in Florida with Cooper’s parents, were victims of a robbery. Their bodies were found at 3am on Saturday, about 15 metres apart on Carver Court, a street in the Newtown neighbourhood of the city where the anonymous eyewitness lives. Cooper, of Warwick, and Kouzaris, from Northampton, are known to have been drinking in a downtown Sarasota bar less than two hours before they were shot, but Sarasota detectives admit they have little idea how or why they went to Newtown, a violent neighbourhood a couple of miles away, notorious for gang activity. Police have not corroborated the account, and the Herald-Tribune article states that the witness, who has been interviewed by investigators, saw only the aftermath of the shooting, not the shots being fired. But his testimony could yet be crucial in the case against 16-year-old Shawn Tyson, a Newtown resident who was arrested 24 hours after the double shooting, and who will face trial as an adult on two counts of first-degree homicide. “I haven’t slept since it happened because I feel I was the last person to see these guys alive,” the witness said, recalling that he heard five shots. “I thought it was a 9mm or .38 calibre.” The newspaper said the witness asked for his identity to be withheld because he feared retribution. It has also emerged that nine CCTV cameras that were due to have been working by the end of last year around The Courts public housing complex, where the killings took place, were never installed. Detectives say it has denied them a crucial opportunity to see who was in the area in the early hours of the morning. “Even if it’s not the suspect, even if it’s not the victims, that may give you people we need to talk who are potential witnesses to the crime,” said Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department. Police on Wednesday released the recording of a frantic emergency call made by a woman who saw one of the bodies lying in the street. “We seen a white dude laying, he’s … blood everywhere, he’s just laid out,” she is heard telling a 911 operator in the call received at 2.56am on Saturday. “I don’t know if he’s dead or not.” Cooper’s parents, Stanley and Sandra, paid tribute to their son in their first comments since returning from the Florida holiday to their home in Warwick. “As his parents, our lives have been shattered, but through us and his friends and family he will live on. God bless you, son, heaven has another angel, but this world is a colder and poorer place without you in it. He was gentle, kind, compassionate, clever and an athlete, but beyond all his achievements he was full of love.” Florida United States Crime Gun crime Richard Luscombe guardian.co.uk
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Photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros are among those killed in latest attacks on rebels’ western stronghold Misrata, the besieged rebel stronghold in western Libya, has come under heavy mortar fire, killing at least 10 civilians and leaving more than 100 injured, according to medical staff. Among those killed were Tim Hetherington, a British-born photographer and Oscar-nominated documentary director, and Chris Hondros, a US photographer for Getty Images . Seven Libyan civilians and a Ukrainian doctor have also died in the most recent fighting, doctors told Reuters, with around 120 people injured. Three rebel fighters died and 17 were wounded early on Thursday in a mortar attack on Tripoli Street, a major thoroughfare in the town that has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent days. Weeping rebels stood over the bodies of their dead comrades in the town hospital. “Some of us were standing outside in the street and some in buildings when the mortars landed,” a rebel spokesman clutching part of a mortar bomb told Reuters. The Mediterranean port of 300,000 people, Libya’s third-largest city, remains divided into zones controlled by rebels and government forces amid a siege by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi which has lasted seven weeks. Residents accuse Gaddafi’s forces of using mortars, tank shells, rockets and cluster bombs , as well as snipers, to terrorise the population of the city, where the current civil war erupted in February. The UN’s human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, has said government troops may be committing war crimes in the way they are targeting civilians with heavy weaponry. Since the siege began at least 365 people have been confirmed killed and around 4,000 wounded. Among those injured on Thursday were two other foreign photographers, Guy Martin, a British national from the Panos agency, and Michael Christopher Brown. Residents say the intensity of the fighting has increased, making life almost impossible. “The number of artillery shells and mortars is truly amazing,” Abdul-Athim Salim, a professor of geography at the local university told the Associated Press. “The only break is when they are changing ammunition. Other than that, it’s continuous. It just keeps going.” The danger was constant, he added: “About three times, I have just been out driving my car and a mortar has landed in front of me on the road.” Mohammed al-Fagieh, chief surgeon at Misrata’s Hilal hospital, told the Associated Press that on Wednesday the facility had received three bodies, 12 badly injured people and about 25 others who were less badly hurt, saying this was about average. Fagieh, formerly an oncologist whose specialist hospital was destroyed earlier in the fighting, described treating a woman hit by shrapnel while praying. He said: “Most of the injuries are civilians who are in their own homes. There are some injured in the battles, but most of those die right away.” Residents and rebels complain that Nato should be carrying out more air strikes against government positions but the alliance says it can do little when these are nestled so closely against civilian homes, though it claims to have destroyed more than 40 tanks in the city so far. “There is a limit to what can be achieved by air power to stop fighting in a city,” said Brigadier General Mark van Uhm in Brussels. France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has pledged more Nato support after meeting the leader of the opposition Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in Paris. “We are indeed going to intensify the attacks and respond to this request from the national transition council,” Sarkozy told him, according to officials. France has also joined Britain and Italy in saying it will send up to 10 military advisers to help train and assist rebel forces. Despite concerns about “mission creep” for Nato, no member of the alliance plans to despatch fighting troops as yet. Very little ordinary life is taking place in Misrata, with most shops closed and long queues at petrol stations. With minimal mains electricity there is increasing demand for generators. Other than Misrata, Gaddafi’s forces control the bulk of western Libya while the rebels are dominant in the east. A rebel spokesman said there had also been fighting around Zintan and Nalut in the west of the country, Reuters reported. He said: “Clashes are currently occurring in Nalut and have been going on since Monday. The Gaddafi forces are using Grad missiles and mortar rounds to attack Nalut. It’s not an even battle. The rebels are not well-armed.” Early on Thursday, Libyan state TV said there had been more Nato air strikes on the capital, Tripoli, killing seven people. The report could not be verified. Libya’s government has repeatedly denied it is shelling Misrata or using cluster bombs, saying it would welcome “any objective investigation of the actions of our army, our government and our officials”. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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