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Want a job? Go West, where ads unanswered - Stocks & Economy - MSNBC.com - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/20427902
shared by chasejw on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • Want a job? Go West, where ads unansweredRecord low unemployment has created tough conditions for businesses
  • The owner of a fast food joint in Montana’s booming oil patch found himself outsourcing the drive-thru window to a Texas telemarketing firm, not because it’s cheaper but because he can’t find workers.
  • HELENA, Mont.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • John Francis, who owns the McDonald’s in Sidney, Mont., said he tried advertising in the local newspaper and even offered up to $10 an hour to compete with higher-paying oil field jobs.
  • “I don’t know what the answer is,” Francis said. “There’s just nobody around that wants to work.”
  • Unemployment rates have been as low as 2 percent this year in places like Montana, and nearly as low in neighboring states.
  • The state approached double-digit unemployment levels in the 1980s and began the slow crawl back in the early 1990s.
  • The U.S. Department of Labor reports the mountain West region — covering eight states along the Rocky Mountains — has the lowest overall unemployment rate in the nation. The region hit an all-time low of 3.4 percent in May.
  • The effects are everywhere. Logging equipment in Idaho sits idle as companies have a tough time finding workers. A shortage of lifeguards has forced Helena to shorten hours at children-only pools. A local paper in Jackson, Wyo., has page after page of help wanted ads.
  • Established baby boomers, including retirees, have been moving into Montana for the mountain views and recreation, bringing with them money for new homes that fuel construction job growth,
  • Montana wages have historically been among the lowest in the country, and still rank near the bottom.
  • Now, workers with more options in some places are unwilling to take $12-an-hour jobs.
  • The problem could get worse as more baby boomers retire, Swanson said. By 2030, Montana and Wyoming are predicted to have among the oldest populations in the U.S., with about 26 percent of residents 65 and older,
  • til 2012, bu
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» Are Mac users smug and arrogant? | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com - 0 views

blogs.zdnet.com/Apple
shared by chasejw on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • Are Mac users smug and arrogant?
  • I’ve found that Mac users can’t wait to use their machines (when they get home from work for example) whereas Windows users can’t wait to get away from their computers because they associate them with work.
  • The hoodie-wearing “I’m a Mac” guy (played by Justin Long, right) is only too happy to put down the “I’m a PC” guy (journo-humorist John Hodgman). Perhaps it’s Apple’s portrayal of Hodgman as a dim-witted nincompoop
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Perhaps if Apple used a spokesperson that was more humble and self-deprecating Windows users would be less offended.
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IBM learns how to steer single atoms - USATODAY.com - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...07-08-31-ibm-moves-atoms_N.htm
shared by chasejw on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • CHICAGO — Imagine cramming 30,000 full-length movies into a gadget the size of an iPod.
  • Scientists at IBM said Thursday they had moved closer to such a feat by learning how to steer single atoms in a way that could create building blocks for ultra-tiny storage devices.
  • known as magnetic anisotropy
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • said Cyrus Hirjibehedin, a scientist at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California
  • "If you can keep that magnetic orientation stable over time, then you can use that to store information. That is how your hard drive works,"
  • Understanding and manipulating the behavior of atoms is critical to harnessing the power of nanotechnology, which deals with particles tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. "One of the most basic properties that every atom has is that it behaves like a little magnet,"
  • BM colleagues in Zurich, Switzerland, meanwhile, have stumbled on a way to manipulate molecules to switch on and off, a basic function needed in computer logic
  • Heinrich, who is familiar with the work, said the discovery is especially important because the switching action did not alter the framework of the molecule
  • Switches inside computer chips work like a light switch, turning on and off the flow of electrons that ultimately make up the electrical circuits of computer processors.
  • Molecular switches could be used to store information and would lead to super-fast, super-tiny computer chips.
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BBC NEWS | UK | England | Sussex | Bearded wonders go head to head - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...6972315.stm
shared by chasejw on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • Bearded wonders go head to head
  • Some of the world's most hirsute faces have gathered on the English south coast to see who has the fullest beard or the most stylish moustache.
  • World Beard and Moustache Championships in Brighton.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • being hosted by The Handlebar Club which was set up
  • 60 years ago in a London theatre.
  • Categories include Dali moustache, goatee and full beard freestyle.
  • he contest's aim is to "encourage and celebrate standards of excellence in the growth, design and presentation of facial hair"
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Germany wants to spy on suspects via Web - USATODAY.com - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...31-germany-trojan-horses_N.htm
shared by chasejw on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • BERLIN — German officials on Friday defended a proposal to use "Trojan horse" software to secretly monitor potential terror suspects' hard drives, amid fierce debate over whether the measures violate civil liberties.
  • Carried in e-mails that appear to come from other government offices, the software would allow authorities to investigate suspects' Internet use and the data stored on their hard drives without their knowledge.
  • Use of the government-produced technology for spying on terror suspects "will cover a serious and scandalous hole in our information that has arisen through technical changes in recent years,
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Germany's Federal Court of Justice
  • argued that the legal reasoning used to allow telephone surveillance and other electronic eavesdropping techniques should also be applied to evidence gathering over the Internet.
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Schwarzenegger pushes universal health care for California - 0 views

www.physorg.com/news107861978.html show_9
shared by sirgabrial on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • Schwarzenegger pushes universal health care for California
  • Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday spoke in favor of his plan to provide universal health care for all state residents, where he said some 6.7 million people live with no type of health insurance.
  • "Our health care system is broken, and the people expect us to fix it, and this is exactly what I'm trying to do," said Schwarzenegger
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Schwarzenegger is proposing a system that would be financed by employers, hospitals and the government.
  • In the United States health care needs are covered by employers, and those without jobs must pay a steep price to keep their health coverage or rely on the slow service at the emergency rooms of public hospitals.
  • Every business with more than 10 employees will be ordered to provide health care for their workers, or pay into the state health care system.
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Format War: HD DVD Paid $150 million to Studios for "Promotional Consideration" - Gizmodo - 0 views

gizmodo.com/...ional-consideration-291491.php show
shared by sirgabrial on 25 Aug 07 - Cached
  • The reason we made this decision is simple. After a year of fully experiencing and exploring both formats, we decided to exclusively support HD DVD because of the quality, value and potential the format offers. Beyond that, whenever we conduct co-marketing, production deals or other agreements, we never discuss business terms.
  • "Whenever we conduct co-marketing, production deals or other agreements, we never discuss business terms."
  • HD DVD camp paid Paramount $50 million and DreamWorks Animation $100 million for "promotional consideration.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Paramount and Dreamworks went HD DVD exclusive
  • little green friends
    • sirgabrial
      sirgabrial on 25 Aug 07
       
      i liked blue ray tech
      *it is more expensive at this point
      *kinda like the ps3

  • HD DVD Paid $150 million to Studios for "Promotional Consideration"
  • Sony and Team Blu-ray,
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Scientists: Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html show
shared by sirgabrial on 25 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Scientists: Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years
  • Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."
  • That first cell of synthetic life -- made from the basic chemicals in DNA -- may not seem like much to non-scientists.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.
  • A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.
  • A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.
  • A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.
  • "When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab,"
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BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Pet camel kills Australian woman - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...6954728.stm show
shared by sirgabrial on 25 Aug 07 - Cached
  • A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal may have tried to have sex with her.
  • Pet camel kills Australian woman
  • The woman was found dead at the family's sheep and cattle ranch near the town of Mitchell in Queensland.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The woman had been given the camel as a 60th birthday present earlier this year because of her love of exotic pets.
  • 10 months old
  • weighed 152kg (336lbs)
  • It knocked her to the ground, lay on top of her and displayed what the police delicately described as possible mating behaviour.
  • Young camels are not normally aggressive but can become more threatening if treated and raised as pets.
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Rove to leave White House at end of August - USATODAY.com - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...2007-08-13-rove-resign_N.htm
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Karl Rove said he expects to play an informal role in the 2008 presidential race
  • Rove, 56, Bush's deputy chief of staff, said he wants to spend more time with his family.
  • Rove helped run Bush's successful campaigns for Texas governor and the presidency.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said "goodbye, good riddance," but "the architect" of Bush's campaigns isn't giving up politics.
  • Rove also will write a book, give speeches, help plan Bush's presidential library and might start a company to give strategic advice to corporate clients.
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Back to the Tap - TIME - Mozilla Firefox - 0 views

www.time.com/...0,9171,1651523,00.html
shared by barnaby on 07 Sep 07 - Cached
  • 1.1 billion people around the world lack safe drinking water
  • Turn on a tap almost anywhere in America, and you'll get clean, safe water
  • giant plastic bottles of water that many of us haul around
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Americans drank more than 8.25 billion gal
  • Water sales topped $10.8 billion last year
  • fosters a perception that tap water isn't safe or necessary
  • It takes oil
  • Fewer than a quarter of plastic bottles are recycled
  • 2 billion lbs. (900 million kg) a year to clog landfills.
  • putting stress on the environment
  • aging public-water systems need investment
  • Gigi Kellett
  • "An entire generation is growing up thinking they have to get their water out of a bottle."
  • San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom last month barred officials from using municipal funds to buy bottled water
  • New York City launched a $1 million campaign this summer to encourage citizens to stick to the city's famously clean public water
  • top-flight restaurants that once would never have dreamed of serving tap are ditching the bottles
  • "I think the industry is being targeted unfairly," says Patrick Racz, CEO of Icelandic Water
  • bottled water weans consumers off soda
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Why Bugs Are Not Huge | LiveScience - 0 views

www.livescience.com/...070813_big_bugs.html
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Why Bugs Are Not Huge
  • Dragonflies with hawk-sized wing spans and millipedes longer than a human leg lived more than 250 million years ago. Scientists have long wondered why sci-fi bugs don't exist today
  • air pipes
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Unlike animals with backbones, like us, insects deliver oxygen to their tissues directly and bloodlessly through a network of dead-end tracheal tubes.
  • understanding what controls body size in insects,
  • oxygen transport becomes less efficient
  • shining X-rays on four living beetle species
    • sirgabrial
      sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07
       
      used to measure:
      1) oxygen tube connecting to the head
      2) oxygen tubes connecting the the legs

  • Alex Kaiser of Midwestern University
  • the air passageways that lead from the body core to the legs turn out to be bottlenecks that limit how much oxygen can be delivered to the extremities
  • first step toward >
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Metallica Sues Red Octane/Activision & Harmonix for Copyright Infringement :: Daily Gam... - 0 views

www.dailygaming.net/index.php
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Metallica Sues Red Octane/Activision & Harmonix for Copyright Infringement
  • Attorneys for the Grammy award winning heavy metal band Metallica filed a lawsuit yesterday against Harmonix and Activision (who recently acquired Red Octane) for copyright infringement. The suit accuses the three gaming companies of illegally distributing copies of Metallica songs in the upcoming and highly anticipated games Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, both due out in late 2007.
  • The suit alleges that both companies planned to package and distribute Metallica music through their video games in what lawyers characterized as a "licensed music to player" system, or LM2P network. Metallica is fearful that album sales could decline if their fans were able to simply walk into any Gamestop or Best Buy and purchase an $80 video game that contained one of their songs.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "Our company paid a licensing fee to feature the track 'One' by Metallica in Guitar Hero III," counsel for Activision/Red Octane told reporters. "We don't understand why Metallica would turn around and sue us, unless they've gone from insane completely batshit insane since 2001, but we're confident that the law and our contracts will be enough to have this thrown out."
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BBC NEWS | Technology | Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...6947532.stm
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits'
  • An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries.
  • It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president.
  • The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor.
  • include tweaks to the profile of former CIA chief Porter Goss and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.
  • The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work."
  • October 2005
  • Walden O'Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been "a top fund-raiser" for George Bush.
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ScienceDaily: What Makes A Great Movie? - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...070815135034.htm
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • What Makes A Great Movie?
  • A film that wins critical acclaim is likely to be an R-rated drama, adapted from a prize-winning play or book and based on a true story, with the original author or director involved in writing the screenplay.
  • It is unlikely to be a sequel or remake, a comedy or musical, a summer release, a big-budget project, have a PG-13 rating, open on numerous screens or do a big box office on the first weekend. It probably has an excellent score, but it may not have an award-winning song.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Dean Simonton, a professor of psychology at UC Davis
  • has subjected thousands of feature-length, English-language, narrative films to a battery of statistical tests – including Pearson product-moment coefficients and hierarchical regression analyses – to get at the formula for cinematic creative triumph and box-office success.
  • Motion pictures provide a valuable research site for investigating group artistic creativity under real-world conditions."
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Couple tried to name baby @ | Oddly Enough | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSPEK36827920070816
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • Couple tried to name baby "@"
  • A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child
  • The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained
  • While "@" is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta," or "love him," to Mandarin speakers.
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RIAA faces possible class action over suing the innocent - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...s-first-class-action-suit.html
shared by sirgabrial on 17 Aug 07 - Cached
  • RIAA faces possible class action over suing the innocent
  • RIAA learned that its aggressive litigation tactics have placed it on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit.
  • After the case was dismissed, Andersen then sued the RIAA for malicious prosecution, and her attorney filed court documents in an Oregon federal court on Wednesday that seek to elevate the case to class action status.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Throughout the court battle, she maintained her total innocence, a claim given even more plausibility by the fact that she was charged with downloading numerous gangsta rap tracks.
  • Single mom Tanya Andersen, a defendant in a previous lawsuit brought by the RIAA, was one of the first to have her case dismissed with prejudice (it cannot be refiled at a later date).
  • "who were sued or were threatened with sued by Defendants for file-sharing, downloading or other similar activities, who have not actually engaged in actual copyright infringement."
  • Andersen alleges that the RIAA "has engaged in a coordinated enterprise to pursue a scheme of threatening and intimidating litigation in an attempt to maintain its music distribution monopoly."
  • claims against the RIAA have been tried by other defendants
  • first time that a judge has been asked to consolidate such lawsuits into a class action.
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Stabroek News - Mozilla Firefox - 0 views

www.stabroeknews.com/...article_editorial
shared by barnaby on 18 Oct 07 - Cached
  • At the Third PetroCaribe Summit held in Caracas
  • Daniel Ortega made it clear that ethanol diplomacy would not work in his country
  • they could never satisfy global demand
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • he did try to make Mr Lula understand that ethanol production was not high on his agenda
  • Nicaragua's potential for sugar-cane ethanol holds greater promise than corn-based ethanol
  • Brazil is the main producer of ethanol in the world and accounts for about 90 percent of global biofuels
  • seems more inclined to follow his ideological soul mate, Mr Chávez, who has for good measure already promised to finance a petroleum refinery in Nicaragua
  • Ortega appears therefore to be adopting a pragmatic approach to ameliorating his country's energy crisis
  • Ortega made it clear that he prefers the more populist, petro-dollar largesse of Mr Chávez
  • it is vulnerable to a sudden drop in the price of oil.
  • deepen energy cooperation and strengthen multilateral relations in the region.
  • stressed the need for energy security in the face of an "unjust international economic order"
  • Bolivia, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela
  • Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines are flirting.
  • Ten countries also signed on to a parallel Treaty on Energy Security, which Venezuela had already signed with Argentina and Uruguay, and which focuses on: oil and gas; ethanol production,
  • and alternative means of generating electricity.
  • Guyana's interest in developing a large-scale ethanol industry
  • Mr Chávez would appear to have trumped Mr Lula at the end of their week of energetic diplomacy
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The Weather Channel Adopts Sustainable Practices (TreeHugger) - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...the_weather_cha.php show_9
shared by sirgabrial on 02 Sep 07 - Cached
  • This studio is expected to earn the LEED certification with on-air production by April 2008
  • n addition, the network has a few other environmental plans, such as sorting more than half (why not all?) of all disposables and taking them to recycling centers, replacing Styrofoam cups in break rooms and switching to CFL’s.
  • CFL’s
    • sirgabrial
      sirgabrial on 02 Sep 07
       
      *compact fluorcent lamps *use less energy *lasts longer *initial cost is more but over the lifetime of the bulb you save money
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Weather Channel Executive Vice President and General Manager Wonya Lucas said, "Green is really the new black. We look at the world through the lens of weather, and now we're also looking at it through a lens of green."
  • CFL’s
    • sirgabrial
      sirgabrial on 02 Sep 07
       
      *stand for "Compact fluoresent lamp" *uses less energy *lasts longer *initial purchase price of a CFL is higher than an incandescent lamp of the same output
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Cuba Embargo Reasons to End - Portfolio.com - 0 views

www.portfolio.com/...Cuba-Embargo-Reasons-to-End
shared by sirgabrial on 03 Dec 07 - Cached
  • Dump the Cuban Embargo
  • We trade with the tyrants of Beijing and Damascus, so why not Havana?
  • in 2006, when the bearded one became ill and transferred power to Raúl, nothing happened, despite expectations that Communism would fall without Fidel's charisma.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • They have seen a rise in literacy and health-care standards
  • The American embargo of Cuba is one of those things that most of the political elite in Washington privately acknowledge as a failure.
  • We'll talk about easing the embargo if the regime agrees to dismantle itself.
  • Under current law—the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which strengthened the embargo—the next American president is actually forbidden from ending the embargo until Fidel and Raúl are out of power.
  • initiated in 1960 as Fidel Castro's regime began confiscating U.S. assets. During the past 47 years, the embargo has evolved into a slew of restrictions on travel and trade (see slideshow), all designed to bring down Castro.
  • it is hindering opportunities for American industries from travel to banking to agriculture, which is why there's no shortage of U.S. business groups lobbying to ease it.
  • While we grouse, the world sells. Italian telecoms, French hotels, and Korean automakers are more than happy to trade with an island 90 miles off our shores. Of course, Cuba is not a huge market: The island is the size of Pennsylvania, but its population is only 11 million and its G.D.P. a mere $46 billion.
  • By comparison, Vietnam, the last Communist country with which we ended a dubious embargo, is 85 million strong, with a G.D.P. of $262 billion.
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