Click here to view this media Oh my… George Will doesn’t think Supreme Court Justices should be attending the State of the Union address because it’s just going to be a “pep rally” where they might get their “erogenous zone” stroked. Somehow I doubt he has the same concerns about them attending Koch Brothers’ retreats . AMANPOUR: That was President Obama delivering last year’s State of the Union address. Welcome back. Joined again by our roundtable. George, I know that you have a great, great regard for watching the State of the Union on television. WILL: A, they’re overrated. The next morning, the country is still a complex continental country with muscular interests and politics is its own momentum. Between Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson, no one delivered this in person. They sent their report to Congress in writing. But now we’ve turned this into this panorama in which — in an interminable speech, every president, regardless of party, tries to stroke every erogenous zone in electorate. AMANPOUR: Oh, my goodness. WILL: And it becomes a political pep rally, to use the phrase of Chief Justice Roberts last year. If it’s going to be a pep rally, with the president’s supporters or whatever party standing up and braying approval, and histrionic pouting on the part of the other, then it’s no place for the judiciary, it’s no place for the uniformed military, and it’s no place for non-adolescent legislators.
Continue reading …
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is joining with Martin Luther King III and others affected by gun violence to advocate for reforms to the nation’s background check system. (Jan. 24)
Continue reading …Vinod Khosla’s Biofuels 101 Refresher Course – Sort Out the Hype From the Hope in Liquid Renewable Fuels
January 24, 2011 No Comment
After a good long while in the spotlight, and lots of panacea-like promises that turned out to be pandora’s boxes , biofuels have faded into the green scenery a bit. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a place for them in a future low- or no-carbon energy mix. If you want to catch up on the state of all the various methods of biofuel production, how far away from commercialization they are, what the potential yields are, wh… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …HP / Palm’s 9.7-inch Topaz tablet to use 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8660, Adreno 220 GPU
January 24, 2011 No Comment
Looks like those whispers we heard about HP’s Topaz having a 1.2GHz Qualcomm CPU were true. The folks over at Pre Central just scored an internal document detailing presumed specifications of HP’s forthcoming 9.7-inch tablet, and it looks like the aforesaid CPU will be joined by an integrated Adreno 220 GPU, 512MB of DDR2 memory, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and dual-band 802.11b/g/n WiFi. We’re told to expect an oleophobic Gorilla Glass screen with a standard XGA (1024 x 768) resolution, options for 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, optional WWAN, an accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor, microphone and a battery that’ll last for around eight hours in ideal circumstances. Naturally, webOS will be onboard, and we’re hearing that a WiFi-only model will indeed hit the market at some point. As for the connected versions? HSPA, LTE and CDMA variants are rumored, with the former two likely to be SIM-locked while all three carry A-GPS. It should be noted that these documents were apparently fresh as of last fall, so everything is clearly subject to change. That said, we’re digging the reports that HP will be doing everything it can to fully support Flash on this here slate, and it may also consider a partnership with Blio for the digital bookworms in attendance. Naturally, cloud services is shaping up to be a huge deal, and it’ll definitely support inductive charging via the Touchstone v2. These docs also affirm what we’d heard about integrated Beats Audio technology and Tap to Share, with the second-gen Touchstone to also handle wireless picture sharing, cordless audio streaming and tether-free video beaming (just to name a few). Hit the source link the full skinny, and feel free to pressure HP to move February 9th a little closer to today. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] HP / Palm’s 9.7-inch Topaz tablet to use 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8660, Adreno 220 GPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Authorities in Ohio say a series of fires erupted in a community of 3200 people when pressure built up in natural gas lines. An evacuation was ordered early Monday in Fairport Harbor, northeast of Cleveland. (Jan. 24)
Continue reading …
Oprah Winfrey introduced the world to the half sister she never knew she had on her Monday talk show. (Jan. 24)
Continue reading …The New York Times ’ long-expected paywall is due next month, and details are starting to leak out about the plan. Everyone will have limited free access to the site, sources tell the Wall Street Journal , but once users reach that limit, they’ll have to pony up. Users can buy…
Continue reading …
An explosion ripped through the international arrivals hall at Moscow’s busiest airport on Monday, killing at least 31 people and wounding about 130, officials said. The Russian president called it a terror attack. (Jan. 24)
Continue reading …
It may be bitterly cold in the northeast US right now, unusually frigid along much of the East Coast, but Greenland and the Arctic are practically balmy–15-20°F above normal in December, as the New York Times points out. Going along with that is some new research showing that Greenland’s past ice melt season was exceptionally long, with some areas having an extra 50 days of melting in 2010. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …