Petzl lights on sale at GearToGoOutfitters.com

February 12, 2010

GearToGoOutfitters, offering a range of Petzl lights:

As well as on Marmot Minimalist Jackets (men's and women's)

Also the Marmot Leadville Jacket - and a wide variety of Gregory Packs.If you're in the greater New York City metro area (delivery area map - they'll deliver as far south as Monmouth County, NJ, as far north as Putnam [...]

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NREL: “30% Wind Power by 2024″

February 12, 2010

NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a branch of the Department of Energy, released the findings of the "Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study, (Summary) that said:
"wind energy could provide 20 to 30 percent of the eastern half of the country’s energy needs by 2024: here's how ... "
Rush Holt, the Democrat who represents the [...]

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Google says e-mail traffic down in Iran

February 11, 2010

"Whenever we encounter blocks in our services we try to resolve them as quickly as possible because we strongly believe that people everywhere should have the ability to communicate freely online," Google said in its statement about Iran. "Sadly, sometimes it is not within our control."
According to Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post's Tech Blog, [...]

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Toyota Recalls and the Dept of Transportation

February 10, 2010

“Safety is our No. 1 priority when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles,” said Dept. of Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, in his interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News 2/10/10. Secretary LaHood also said,
"I've been in this job a little over a year. On my watch,  we have not been asleep at the switch [...]

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BBC: Lord Chief Justice orders release of CIA document on torture of British citizen

February 10, 2010

From Government loses Binyam Mohamed torture appeal:
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has lost a bid to prevent the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of a UK resident.
Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed says UK authorities knew he was tortured at the behest of US authorities during seven years of captivity.
Mr Miliband had said releasing the [...]

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Energy and Green Business – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

February 9, 2010

Lars Kroldrup reports, on the Green Inc. blog at the Times, that Siemens has announced its intention to expand in the United States market. From Siemens Touts Growth in Renewables and the Value of the American Market:
Since acquiring the Danish wind turbine company Bonus Energy in 2004, the German industrial giant Siemens AG, has become [...]

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Brad Horn: Alexander Kendrick invents low-frequency antenna which works in caves

February 7, 2010

We're tempted to follow the editorial lead of others who've covered this story - emphasizing that Alexander Kendrick is 16 years old and won a science fair prize for his new low-frequency radio system. We agree that it's more remarkable that he's only 16 - but think this would be a remarkable achievement if he [...]

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Entergy official “relieved of duties” for false statement about Vermont Yankee nuclear plant

February 7, 2010

There's no question that nuclear power will be part of our energy supply mix for the foreseeable future.  The United States has 104 nuclear power plants in operation at present, according to Matthew Wald on the Green Inc. blog of The New York Times, relying on NRC data. Incidents like this - in which a [...]

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Toyota Recall: Instructions and Observations

February 4, 2010

If your car is accelerating out of control, whether it's a Toyota, a BMW, or any car,

Put your foot on the brake – and press the brake with a steady pressure.
Put the car in Neutral. (Just like manual tranmissions, automatic transmissions have a “Neutral” setting. You shouldn't drive if you don't know this.)
Turn on the [...]

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US: “We’re Prepared to Listen” – to possible Iranian compromise on uranium

February 4, 2010

Laura Rozen reports on Politico.com:
In what was being reported as a potentially significant shift, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranian State Television today that Iran is ready to send its uranium abroad.
"We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad," Ahmadinejad told state television, according to Reuters.
"We say: we will give you our 3.5 percent enriched [...]

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KE2YK Reports on Ham Radio in Haiti

February 4, 2010

[Many thanks to Bill Seidel of Revanche, a long-time ham operator, for his infinite patience in explaining ham and RF operations. We're going to try to keep reporting on ham operations in, to, and from Haiti.]
KE2YK's Random Oscillations reports on ham radio efforts in Haiti. From ARRL Sends Ham Aid To Haiti:

Even though the communications infrastructure [...]

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Canadian controversy about Afghan torture

February 2, 2010

Via PiePalace.ca: Sorry to say that we've just become aware that, last November, a

career Canadian diplomat blew the whistle on Afghani torture of prisoners turned over by Canadian troops.
a senior Canadian diplomat, Richard Colvin, who told a parliamentary committee last week that “the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured” during [...]

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119 Researched GTD Software Programs and Counting

February 1, 2010

Priacta.com has, at least for the last eight months or so, maintained a list of GTD (an abbreviation of "Getting Things Done" and near-GTD-compliant applications - searchable/sortable, by OS, price, and each accompanied with a very concise description of the critical characteristics of each application.  119 Researched GTD Software Programs and Counting.

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Drobo external storage devices

January 30, 2010

Via GDGT:
This is one of a family of devices from DROBO - (DROBO page on gdgt.com) external

storage arrays. The DROBO 2nd Gen, pictured at right, has four hot-swappable drive bays with a maximum capacity of 16TB (In/out ports include Firewire 800 and USB 2.0). Current street price about $200 USD.
The DROBO S, has five swappable [...]

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Barack Obama, a Systems Thinker in the White House

January 29, 2010

In his State of the Union Address <video, transcript Englsh, en español>, President Obama said “The best anti-poverty program is a world classeducation.” He described a positive, or reinforcing, feedback loop. Education enables people to accomplish more, earn more, and better educate their children, who also accomplish more and earn more. It is one of [...]

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