New Day/Time – Future of Charlottetown Ag Research Farm

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

Charlottetown Agriculture Research Farm

Editor – here’s a date and time that will test the audience – Friday night in Charlottetown to talk politics – Wow, takes cajones!

By Phil Ferraro, Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd., Charlottetown, PEI, UPDATED March 31, 2009

On Friday April 3, at 7:00 p.m., the Institute for Bioregional Studies will be holding a public meeting at 420 University Avenue, Farm Centre, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. This is an open door meeting; no secrets; no outside consultants; just an opportunity for neighbours and concerned citizens to get together and share ideas, concerns and visions of the future of the farm and the future of our provincial capital city.

According to media reports, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI recently hosted a closed door, invitation only meeting, to discuss development of the Charlottetown Agriculture Research Farm. Some ideas leaking out include relocating the Fire Hall from its present downtown location and creating a military training centre Continue reading →

YouTube HD uploads that work

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 31, 2009

For the past year uploading HD videos to YouTube has been a bit of voodoo. The protocol that worked last week suddenly goes dead. It takes forever then crashes. Hours are spent after final edits fighting with the system. Arghh! I finally have the painless, no-brainer way to upload videos in no time flat. Use FLV files. Yup, it finally works. YouTube is now accepting wide screen Flash Video 8 700K files without any effort. The wide screen format has to be customized in Adobe Premiere because Adobe likes to make the world complicated. I use 640 x 360 which YouTube likes.
Continue reading →

Honda robot does what you think, scary!

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

Asimo reads your thoughts

Will they ever get Asimo to market?

Honda Motors has developed and demoed a new version of Asimo that will respond to your thoughts – scary eh? Called a BMI or Brain Machine Interface robot, it apparently can accurately respond to 90% of your thoughts. Considering the foolishness that goes on in my brain and everyone’s, that might be dangerous. Lots of checks and balances would be good.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcWNE36NNk8

Honda began developing humanoid robots in 1986 and demonstrated Asimo in 2005. While intriguing, stories filtered out that the first demonstrations were highly structured and took immense computing power to execute. According to Honda, Asimo is a demonstration product and not for sale. Just think, part of every Honda auto, lawn mower and motor boat engine sale is going to research this long term project. Continue reading →

Microsoft IE 8 is released, wait UPDATED

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

Crash, crash, crash

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 31, 2009

Microsoft is shipping Internet Explorer 8 and I installed it yesterday. It’s not ready for prime time unless you are ready for grief. Along with installing their favourite bookmarks over mine, it just doesn’t work. This morning copy and paste stopped working. I wasted 30 minutes trying to figure that out. IE has several bits of animation that would be great for your parents who don’t own a computer yet, if there are anyone’s parents like that. It gets in the way. Continue reading →

Lefsetz on Clapton, with video

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

clapton Bob Lefsetz

Somehow Eric Clapton has become known for a quiet song about his deceased son and a lame, slowed-down version of “Layla”. One has to give him credit for his longevity on his 64th birthday, but the fumes he’s living on are not three-dimensional. Not that we need to blame him so much as his audience. When Eric was God, most people didn’t know who he was. By time Cream announced it was breaking up and embarked on its victory lap the masses had been alerted, but they were celebrating what had already been, and Clapton had his mind on something new.
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Scripps admits didn’t see Internet coming

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

We have the video: trends in business and technology blindside newspaper biz

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 31, 2009
with story from News 14 Carolina

E.W. Scripps media company CEO Richard Boehne admitted his company did no see the internet coming 2 years ago. Scripps is the $1 billion per year media giant that closed the doors recently at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver CO, USA. Scripps told WFU students in Winston Salem on March 31, 2009 “We are in the midst of a story and the end of the story is very uncertain.” Scripps and Boehne’s failure to see the impact of the internet and the recession is typical of most media in the world. Complacent in their position of rich annual profits they scoffed at the Internet which has been around for over 3 decades, and gathering steam for the past 15 years. Continue reading →

VOLCANIC CLOUDS IN MOTION

Posted on March 31, 2009 by NJN Network

From Spaceweather

Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt volcano has erupted at least 19 times since March 22nd, and several of the larger blasts have hurled plumes of ash and gas into the lower stratosphere. The GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) sensor onboard Europe’s MetOp-A satellite is tracking Mt. Redoubt’s sulfur dioxide clouds, colored red in this 5-day animation: Continue reading →

Obama says tighten up auto deal, DOW drops 254

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Stephen Pate

CAW says no deal, what are they thinking about ?

President Obama, who announced the plans Monday with Treasury Secretary Geithner, said the U.S. would not let the auto industry "simply vanish." WSJ photo

Beware the ides of March: phony stock market bubble ended today with the realization Chrysler and GM have to sharpen their pencils more. President Obama is toying with a bankruptcy cleansing to wipe out the old debt, bondholders and retiree pension liabilities from GM and Chrysler. The Wall Street Journal reports

President Barack Obama’s task force has told both companies that the administration prefers this route as a way to reorganize the two auto makers, rather than the prolonged out-of-court process that has thus far frustrated administration officials.

The DOW dropped 254 points to 7,552 and will continue south since their is no good news in this story. The TSX slipped only 224. More to come.

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Fargo may look to Grand Forks and Canada for relief

Posted on March 30, 2009 by NJN Network

Damage a couple weeks after the flood in Grand Forks and a year late

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 30, 2009
with story from Canwest News Service

The Mayor of Winnipeg is not worried. Well he’s worried a little but after spending $400 million for a flood spillway around Winnipeg he knows the worst is in the past for Canada’s biggest city along the ever-flooding Red River. Estimates are the flood way saves Manitoba $10 billion in damage. The countryside is not protected by the spillway only the city of Winnipeg. Continue reading →

Crisis travels down river in North Dakota

Posted on March 30, 2009 by NJN Network

Photobucket Red River at Grand Forks filling up from March 18th, 2009 to March 28th, 2009 (slower large size is on the next page)

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 30, 2009

The Red River flood crisis drags on with each day as the flood peak moves north along the river. Fargo residents are still working the dikes hoping that breaks and seepage don’t worsen the flooding that has already occurred. Down stream rural communities and towns like Grand Forks wait for their big crisis. Snow is forecast for Tuesday and people are simply wearing out from the strain.
Continue reading →