Again realize that this effect is done entirely with html.

According to a press release, 14.3 Kindle books have been sold for every 10 hardcovers in the past three months, and that ratio is a more impressive (9:2) if you only look at this past month. Before you start asking the obvious questions, the data includes sales of both hardcovers where no Kindle equivalent exists and exclude free Kindle downloads — meaning if those weren’t considered, the ratio would be even greater.

I don’t want to burst Amazon’s bubble, but I really don’t buy a book unless I’ve read the first couple of pages (which buying eBooks let’s me do). If I do buy hardcovers online, it’s because someone(s) has recommended it to me.  Fact of the matter is, hardcovers are bought a lot more often in actual stores. I’d like to see figures with Barnes & Noble’s Nook versus their stores. Call it whatever you want though, but congrats Amazon.

On July 16, the company announced that it received its final order from the phone’s manufacturer, HTC. The phone that was supposed to change the way you buy wireless phones. On release, the Nexus One was available in three different options. One was with a service contract with T-Mobile, one with Verizon & another option to buy it without a contract. Personally I loved the concept, many people are blinded by the subsidized price of cell phones & don’t realize how much they are actually paying. Besides the fact that the Nexus One, aesthetically, was my favorite Android phone.

On the positive side of that I think Google released this phone to give hardware companies like HTC & Motorola a outline on how to build Android phones.

Nokia’s statement:

Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.

Nokia didn’t call Apple out by name but I believe they took a stab at them by insinuating that they “prioritize antenna design over physical design,” as apposed to Apple. (?)

Blackberry’s statement:

Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.

That sounds like Blackberry is declaring war. Shame on Apple for trying to drag other people into their mess.

Either way, Apple has come up with a “solution” for the “not-really-problem.” FREE BUMPERS!

Taking a break from posts dealing with both white and black bigoted idiots… Get ready for the Cryptogram Challenge: Cell Counting! Decipher the hidden message and enter it into the sweepstakes for a chance to win a spectrometer or a cell counter (I need one of both for the home lab I’m building! So if you win, I’ll buy it from you.).

Clue 1: The number of cells in the overall image is unimportant.
We will provide another clue on July 19 if the contest remains unsolved.
Good Luck!

Decipher the hidden message and enter it at http://www.genengnews.com/cellcountingchallenge/TheClues.aspx.

So… the email-gate that was hailed as the deathblow to climate science’s declaration of global warming has now been thoroughly reviewed and the original math and statistics underpinning the messages have been found to be intact and significant (otherwise known as proof of climate change sans any hocus-pocus). Let us all take a moment and re-read the sentence above then call in your family and look them in their faces. We are fully responsible for future generations. And through pure group-think induced ignorance that embraced, and even at times trumpeted, a lack of understanding of the scientific method, an ignorance of basic math and statistics mixed in with a healthy dose of conspiracy paranoia, we’ve lost another year of proper focus being placed towards prioriterizing the research and development that will drive society towards renewable energy – which will literally save our collective asses.

Originally I was angry at the CRU and the email authors. In a past post, I literally called for them to be “exterminated” for allowing this to derail attention from what is important. However, they are scientists and not PR experts. I owe them an apology and even a debt of gratitude.

It is at moments like this that I work to restrain myself in order to increase the chance of allowing my message to soak in. My impulse is to flame everyone and pepper the content with expletives along with a .jpg of a butthole or something. I won’t. All I will do is ask you (“you” being defined as: Conspiracy Theorists, Ultra-right-wing Douche Bags, and Wacked-out Religious Phuckers) to look at your young son or daughter in the eyes and admit to yourself what you’ve done to their future.

I pity the human race based on your existence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/07/findings-muir-russell-review

Also called the “tundra mammoth,” mammoths roamed cold, dry grasslands, open tundra, and steppes (treeless plains) millions of years after, what is commonly thought of as dinosaurs, went extinct (I don’t have the time to delve into specifics regarding the avian-dino theory here… I know you’re disappointed). This was during the Pleistocene epoch: 1.8 MYA to 11,550 years ago. Evidence tells us they were about ten feet (3 m) tall, measured up to 11 feet (3.5 m) long, and weighed around 10,000 pounds (about 4,536 kg). From morphologic studies of their bones, mammoths are thought to have lived to be about 60 to 80 years old. Just like modern-day elephants, they died when their last set of teeth wore away and they could no longer chew their food.

Mammoths are thought to have become extinct approximately at the end of the last Ice Age (~12,000 years ago) – with one exception that most people aren’t aware of. A separate wooly mammoth population is believed to have lived on Wrangel Island – located in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi and East Siberian seas – until approximately 1,700 B.C. These wooly mammoths were smaller – only about 6 feet (2 m) tall which speaks to successful evolutionary adaptive strategies taking hold.

The suspected reasons for mammoth extinction include both man and nature (I contend a combination of both took there toll).

“Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the natural environment altered by contaminants to its original condition. Bioremediation may be employed to attack specific soil contaminants, such as degradation of chlorinated hydrocarbons by bacteria. An example of a more general approach is the cleanup of oil spills by the addition of nitrateand/or sulfate fertilisers to facilitate the decomposition of crude oil by indigenous or exogenous bacteria.”

How can that be used on oceanic based oil spills? Again we turn to wikipedia – “Bioremediation Accelerator: Oleophilic, hydrophobic chemical, containing no bacteria, which chemically and physically bonds to both soluble and insoluble hydrocarbons. The bioremedation accelerator acts as a herding agent in water and on the surface, floating molecules to the surface of the water, including solubles such as phenols and BTEX, forming gel-like agglomerations. Undetectable levels of hydrocarbons can be obtained in produced water and manageable water columns. By overspraying sheen with bioremediation accelerator, sheen is eliminated within minutes. Whether applied on land or on water, the nutrient-rich emulsion creates a bloom of local, indigenous, pre-existing, hydrocarbon-consuming bacteria. Those specific bacteria break down the hydrocarbons into water and carbon dioxide, with EPA tests showing 98% of alkanes biodegraded in 28 days; and aromatics being biodegraded 200 times faster than in nature they also sometimes use the hydrofireboom to clean the oil up by taking it away from most of the oil and burning it.”

BUT THRAXXUS THAT IS WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE AND WE ALL KNOW THAT IS BUNK RIGHT?!!?

True statement – wikipedia is known to be fallible thus my reason for using wikipedia as only a definition source for the process as after much reading on the subject I found the descriptions to be simple and relatively accurate. Let us delve further.

Does Bioremediation work and does it have any bad side effects? Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills PDF.

Has it ever been used successfully?  Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - Bioremediation was used and the video below gives a nice bit on it being used elsewhere.

If it is as good as is implied why aren’t we using it in the Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Spill epidemic today?

This is just Thraxxus talking out of the wrong side of his body and playing devil’s advocate for a moment – but here is something to consider – these microbes – they EAT THE OIL – which means the oil is GONE FOREVER. Now who would not want all that oil to be gone forever?

DUM DUM DUUUUUM! No idea.

Sometimes we report on something before MSM picks it up, these are the moments when we are most picked apart about being conspiracy theorists – again realize two things:

1. A Conspiracy is something that is intentionally hidden. The stuff we talk about here isn’t, ever – it just normally isn’t in MSM.
2. Why doesn’t MSM pick up those stories? Because lots of what we talk about here is not what many MSMs find to be interesting enough for the “normal” person to make money on – so they don’t report it. Recently Newsweek, which I have mentioned, has gone after many of these stories – something I have given them major kudos for.

Why do I say any of this? In recent times the Gulf Oil spill has been a hot topic here, we BB guys talking about it constantly, and we have mentioned either directly or indirectly a few times that things in the Gulf are far worse than most people realize. The real problem that we researched is what a few scientists were talking about – the possibility of a cave in at the hole site on the ocean floor. Newsweek just broke this story (which by the way has previously been on many “conspiracy theorist” websites) about the very problem I am referring to.

I will sum it up for you – although I suggest you read the story and do some research of your own. When drilling an oil well the driller must fill in said hole they leave behind – often times this is done while collecting the oil. Oil comes out, something goes in to replace it else you end up with a rather large cavern. On dry land this isn’t nearly as dangerous, but it can be. On the ocean floor if you do not fill in the hole it can be catastrophic. Why?

The well in the Gulf is down some 5,000 feet – that is quite a bit of pressure pushing down. The well is spilling out its contents but nobody is filling it in. One could argue that the ocean will at some point – and that my friends is the crux of the problem. If the water pressure of the ocean topples that of the oil pressure underneath you can get a massive cave in – shooting the rest of the oil in the well directly into the ocean. This is what has so many people “in the know” so freaked out.

“The likelihood of a complete collapse is difficult to assess, in part, engineers and legislators say, because BP hasn’t shared enough information to evaluate the situation. But a handful of clues suggest that the company is concerned. On Friday, BP spokesperson Toby Odone acknowledged that the 45-ton stack of the blowout preventer was tilting noticeably, but said the company could not attribute it to down-hole leaks. “We don’t know anything about the underground portion of the well,” he said. But, the stack “is tilting and has been tilting since the rig went down. We believe that it was caused by the collapse of the riser.” The company is monitoring the degree of leaning but has not announced any plans to run additional supports to the structure.”

Will it happen? I am no expert and can’t tell you that – all I can tell you is what other “experts” have been saying and are concerned about. Ask Newsweek – I am sure they know more than I do and are far more credible. MSNBC.com has reported this fine story about people working on the project and the effect it is having on them. Probably also made up.

Loved this part of the story:

“”We’re helping cover up the lie. We’re burying ourselves. We’re helping them cover up the [expletive] that’s putting us out of work,” said a 27-year-old deckhand who was working for Kruse on Wednesday and spoke on condition of anonymity. He said Kruse was facing the same problems as others in his business: “It’s just setting in with ‘em, you know; reality’s kicking in. And there’s a lot of people that aren’t as happy as they used to be.”"

(The Picture included here is for EXAMPLE only. Please understand that this is not an image of the rig in question in the Gulf of Mexico.)

Instead of arguing semantics maybe these scientists and scholars could pitch in their brain power on solving the oil spill.

Le Sigh.

http://mp2.mars.asu.edu/