image credit wikivisual TreeHugger has published a lot of posts about absorption refrigerators; they are common in off-grid situations and because they run on heat, they are possibly key to the holy grail of solar powered air conditioning . Jennifer Ouellette explains on io9 that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard developed and patented an absorp… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Click here to view this media [h/t Heather ] I’m speechless. This little rant by Kate O’Beirne at a Republican strategy session is so evil, so incredibly cold-hearted, and so predictably right-wing that it makes me want to shove a big bowl of cereal and a big banana right down her chicken-hearted little gullet. Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud of his progeny. O’BEIRNE: And then the title of our gathering is so crucial; “Less of Washington and More of Ourselves”. The federal school lunch program and now breakfast program and I guess in Washington DC, dinner program are pretty close to being sacred cows… broad bipartisan support. And if we’re going to ask more of ourselves, my question is what poor excuse for a parent can’t rustle up a bowl of cereal and a banana? I just don’t get why millions of school children qualify for school breakfasts unless we have a major wide spread problem with child neglect. You know, I mean if that’s how many parents are incapable of pulling together a bowl of cereal and a banana, then we have problems that are way bigger than… that problem can’t be solved with a school breakfast, because we have parents who are just criminally… ah… criminally negligent with respect to raising children. And yet, that’s the kind of program that has huge bipartisan support with very little thought about why we’re now feeding children. Talk about a fundamental parental responsibility. In what sense can we begin asking the “more of ourselves” piece to go with this less government? Obviously she never met Jaelithe , who relied on the school lunch program to survive because her mother was young, single and poor, struggling to raise her daughter and get an education to better herself. Are these the words of an abused child, or just one raised in a world where the only outstretched hand was the government’s? Exactly what part of Jaelithe’s mother’s “self” should have given more? But going hungry — that is a different story. That’s waking up in the morning hungry. Feeling, throughout the day, hungry. Lying in bed not able to sleep just yet because you are hungry. Dreaming about feeling hungry. And there is not any trip to the taco place down the street and not a trip to McDonald’s instead and not a trip to the farmer’s market or the grocery store, either, because there is no money for those things. There is not even the option of a trip to the backyard for some homegrown tomatoes or cucumbers or strawberries because there is no yard when you live in a run-down apartment or a shelter or a car. There is only your hollow-eyed mother who is hungrier than you are dividing the last stale crackers to make them last. Assuming that you are lucky enough to have a mother. And crackers. This goes so far beyond the sacred right-wing cow of personal responsibility. It’s outright cruelty. These pigs are out there shouting to give zillionaires a fat year-end bonus and extend it for a couple of years while sticking it to poor people who rely on programs like the school lunch and breakfast program to survive. Lest you think this was just a slip of the tongue, here’s more of her teabagging nonsense: Click here to view this media Maybe she should shut up and listen to what’s going on around her for a change. If she did, she might not, miss the fact that food banks are struggling to meet demand as more and more families struggle to keep roofs over their heads, sacrificing other necessities like food and clothing. Since 2006, the need for some form of assistance has tripled . Tripled. Here’s an example of someone O’Beirne considers a child abuser : Elizabeth Brown looked tired. When her husband, “the main money-maker” died three years ago, she was left with a 10- and a 5-year-old. She worked part time at Allegheny General Hospital in housekeeping with help from her family, “but they couldn’t help that much. They’re having hard times themselves.” She couldn’t afford child care on her earnings, so she left the job and is now, at 40, raising a 13-year old and 8-year old on food stamps worth $550 a month. There’s a profile of a child abuser for Ms. O’Beirne. Only in her little imaginary world. That’s the only place that everyone has enough to eat and to feed their children. Anyone who doesn’t must be a child abuser, because they should be able to slap together a banana and cereal in the morning. If they had cereal. Or a banana. Or the money to buy cereal and a banana. This is the world of the heartless and the selfish, the teabagger. They trot through life making pronouncements on others with mighty conviction without ever having walked in the shoes of the poor and likely profiting from the sacrifices yanked from the vanishing ranks of the middle class. There is no humanity, no compassion, no understanding. Just a pair of bootstraps to beat up anyone less fortunate. After watching this I’m feeling the need to make a donation to a nearby food bank to offset this woman’s evil. Here’s a tool to find one near you , should you feel the same way. If anyone knows where Robin Hood is hiding, perhaps they could direct him to Kate O’Beirne’s house as a first stop?
Continue reading …It seems that folks hoping for the Apple’s Camera Connection Kit to solve all their USB-related iPad problems just can’t catch a break. First the kit was nearly impossible to find , and now we’re seeing a slew of user reports saying that iOS 4.2 has made the USB portion of the camera kit nearly useless for many USB devices that were previously supported. As 9 to 5 Mac reports, the problem seems to boil down to the amount of power that can be emitted from the iPad’s 30-pin connector — it used to be 100mA, but iOS 4.2 appears to have cut that down to just 20mA, presumably in an attempt to conserve battery life. The big issue there, of course, is that everything from USB keyboards to microphones and even some cameras no longer work, and there isn’t much for users left to do other than to hope that Apple brings back support in a future update. Feel free to share your own tales of woe in comments, or let us know if you’re having problems with the iPad camera kit. iOS 4.2 said to blocking iPad Camera Kit from supporting some USB devices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Siren sounds near southern city of Ashkelon, followed by explosion; no injuries or damage reported
Continue reading …Authorities say an Ohio teen stole a dump truck and led police on a 52-mile chase before a flat tire sent him crashing into a guardrail. (Dec. 6)
Continue reading …Photo via KQED video While they might look like flocked Christmas trees, these albino redwoods are anything but. The very rare “ghost trees” lack chlorophyll, the necessary chemical that makes plants green and helps them convert sunlight to food. So, the trees feed off energy from a host redwood. There are as few as perhaps 25 albino redwoods around the world, and eight in the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park in Northern California. Check out a video from KQED explaining how these albino trees function. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Christina Aguilera and her ‘Burlesque’ co-star Cam Gigandet talk about the singer’s dance skills at a press conference for the film in Japan. (Dec.6)
Continue reading …A pair of suicide bombers disguised as policemen killed 50 people Monday when they attacked a government compound in northwestern Pakistan where tribal elders were meeting to discuss the formation of an anti-Taliban militia, officials said. (Dec. 6)
Continue reading …You hear about this whole e-books thing? We hear it’s gonna be a pretty big deal . Google, always with its finger on the pulse of our ever-evolving digital lifestyles, has decided to take a wild stab at this nascent market, and is launching Google eBooks today. Formerly known as Google Editions , the Google eBooks ecosystem is actually a pretty grand gesture, and seems to combine most of the positives of the primary e-book contenders ( Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Apple , naturally), while skimping on the UI flourishes, in traditional Google fashion. Books you buy are stored in the cloud, with your progress synced Whispersync-style, and can be read on your choice of native Android, iPhone, or iPad apps; from your browser; or on any device that supports the Adobe Digital Editions DRM for PDF and ePub files, which includes the B&N Nook and the Sony Reader (and plenty of other devices). Google is also trading on its vast repository of public domain books, with 3 million free eBooks on offer at its Google eBookstore, in addition to traditional paid fare. It’s certainly a crowded market, full of sharp elbows, but it seems Google is having no trouble adjusting. Continue reading Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren’t enough Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren’t enough originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …When our body is exposed to certain threats, a certain cell in our body copies the proteins of the virus or strain that causes the illness hence creates a special defense that will protect our body from future same disease affliction.However, in the case of seasonal influenza, our body is not able to produce a Past Flu Exposure Exacerbates Susceptibility To Flu Virus is a post from: Daily World Buzz
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