 The Obama administration promised $8 billion in funding for cities and states to build high-speed, intercity rail projects back in January. This week, the Department of Transporation issued its specifications for the manufacture of new fast trains, namely double-decker coach, dining, baggage, and business class passenger rail cars that can travel between 79 MPH and up to 220 MPH. Bi-level rail cars not typical in the US today, would accommodate more passengers, and hopefully alleviate congested roads and some resulting air pollution...
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AP - In the end, Hurricane Earl wasn't even as bad as some of the no-name nor'easters that pound New England from time to time.
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Remember that iriver Story Touch Edition e-reader we spied last month? Well, iriver is showing it off at IFA this week, with plans to release the little 6-inch touchscreen device in Europe and Korea in the next week or so. We played around with it a bit, and while the 800 x 600 E Ink screen resolution is a little disappointing, and the resistive touchscreen layer impacts readability in a small but noticeable way, the software is certainly pleasant, and iriver is up to its usual standard in hardware design. There's a small included stylus that slots in at the top of the screen (or the bottom, the screen auto-flips vertically based on how you hold the device) but while the stylus is fun for drawing notes, all you really need is a light tap or swipe with your fingers to operate the device. With 2GB of storage, a €229-ish pricetag for the WiFi-free version (there's another WiFi version coming with an email app and a lightweight browser), and that low resolution screen, iriver probably wouldn't have much luck going up against the Kindle and its ilk in the US, but they're hoping to carve out a niche in Europe and Asia, and we can't begrudge them that. Gallery: iriver Story Touch Edition preview      iriver Story Touch Edition preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments
    
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Officials declared a state of emergency Saturday after a powerful predawn earthquake struck near Christchurch, New Zealand, sending people into the streets as windows exploded, water mains broke and buildings crumbled.     
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Reports of the number of people that attended Glenn Beck's Aug. 28 rally have varied wildly. How is crowd size estimated – and who does the counting?
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AP - BP crews worked Saturday to slowly raise the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, careful not to damage or drop a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation.
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 It's a beautiful combination, really -- lower power consumption, and support for high bandwidth applications. That marriage is evident in Samsung's newest Wireless USB chipset, which was built around Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology and designed to enable high-def streaming between a mobile host device and a tethered device for viewing. According to Sammy, the two-chip solution will be aimed at cameras, camcorders, TVs, PCs, tablets, beam projectors, portable HDDs, Blu-ray players and handsets, and given that it can handle a theoretical high of 480Mbps with an average power consumption of less than 300mW, even the weakest smartphone battery should be able to stream at least a single episode of Family Guy to the tele. Mum's the word on who all will be lining up to adopt this stuff, but since it's slated to hit mass production in Q4, we'd say those details should be worked out right around CES 2011.Continue reading Samsung's new Wireless USB chipset enables HD streaming with less power Samsung's new Wireless USB chipset enables HD streaming with less power originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments
   
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 image credit
A photo of a young woman with bacon tied to her feet standing in a giant skillet holding a huge spatula. This photo was taken in November 1931 in Chehalis, Washington, USA, at the town's Egg Festival.
The occasion was a try to break the world record for largest omelette. Two women tied bacon to their feet and skated around the warming skillet to grease it. Then a team of chefs cracked and beat 7,200 eggs and made a breakfast delight.
(via Everlasting Blort)The Presurfer 
 
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For the most part, we've come to terms with the fact that pretty much anything goes on the Internet. But there are still some websites that we can't believe anyone actually had the audacity to create.
From a site that enables married people to cheat on their spouses to a database of made-up companies that allows job applicants to falsify their resumes, check out these outlandish websites that we can't believe actually exist.
(thanks Jessie)The Presurfer 
 
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Also known as The Maid of Orléans, Joan of Arc (in French, Jeanne D'Arc), a hero of the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc remains a French national hero six centuries later. As a teenager she heard voices from on high urging her to save France from English domination.
Despite being a young woman, she was placed at the head of an army; she attacked the English and forced them to retreat from Orléans. Later she was captured by the English, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake.The Presurfer 
 
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AP - Anti-war protesters hurled shoes and eggs at Tony Blair on Saturday as he held the first public signing of his fast-selling memoir.
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Police made a "small number" of arrests in Dublin where former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was due to sign copies of his autobiography Saturday, a spokesman for Ireland's national police service said.   
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The Walkman section of Sony's booth at IFA this week has an automatic information system that pops up specs on a central display for each model as you pull it away from its base, but there was one unknown model chilling out that popped up nothing more than a "coming soon" message when you yanked it out. What gives, Sony? Why the mystery and suspense? Why are you doing this to us? Well, a little digging through the menu system reveals that it's the NWZ-S754, presumably the follow-on to last year's S745. Given the lack of specs we weren't able to glean much, but both the black and silver units on display were 8GB models; naturally, we'd assume larger capacities are also in the cards when it launches. The display was contrasty enough so that we're thinking it could be OLED, which would make sense -- they do OLED on a number of other Walkmen models already -- and the "Mickey Mouse effect" of the button layout has been diminished a bit. That's good or bad, we suppose, depending on just how hardcore of a Disney fan you are. More details when we have 'em.
Gallery: Unannounced Sony Walkman NWZ-S754 unearthed at IFA      Unannounced Sony Walkman NWZ-S754 unearthed at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 06:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments
   
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The new Apple TV, a box that costs $99, is expected to challenge Google TV in a classic battle for the living room this holidays season. Who has the edge and why? - When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new Apple TV Sept.1 in one of his patented oh-there's-one-more-thing-moments, analysts rushed tocompare the digital TV service to the forthcoming and ballyhooed Google TV. The freshened Apple TV is like the old hobbyist passion,albeit streamlined and sa...
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AP - Kara DioGuardi is following Ellen DeGeneres and Simon Cowell out the door at "American Idol."
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A United Nations representative on Saturday pleaded for more international aid to help the millions of Pakistanis displaced from flooding that has ravaged the country for more than a month.   
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Embattled online classified service Craigslist apparently made a change to its website early Saturday, censoring its adult services section.   
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AP - A claim by Arizona's governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up.
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AP - Environmentalists on Saturday praised Burger King's decision to stop buying palm oil from an Indonesian company accused of destroying rainforests.
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An American's cartoon showing the eagle in the Mexican flag dead in a pool of blood is drawing criticism.   
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 The Funded founder Adeo Ressi was arrested and briefly detained earlier this evening over an altercation with a flight attendant. The airline? Virgin America, which I've been holding up as virtually the only airline that doesn't suck (See Virgin Airlines Fails To Commit Atrocities On Flight VX746 and Delta Flight 1843 From JFK To Hell). Ressi's description of the incident is below, and he has sent this to Virgin, he tells me. I've reached out to Virgin America for their position. I can't help but note the similarities with Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater, who has now been rewarded for his behavior with a reality tv show. The worse the flight attendant, the better the chance for fame and glory, I guess.
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Apple announced just a few hours ago that it’s new music-centered social network Ping has surpassed 1 million users in a mere two days. While the announcement may seem impressive, if you consider that iTunes has over 160 million accounts tied to credit cards (and certainly a lot more if you include accounts without cards), I’m honestly surprised Apple didn’t hit the 1 million line in 24 hours. According to Apple, one-third of people who downloaded iTunes 10 have signed up for Ping. If we’re counting 1 million users out of 3 million, Ping definitely appears to be more of a success. But it remains to be seen if that momentum will carry through as more users upgrade. As a somewhat related comparison, Google’s Buzz social network for Gmail — which had around 170 million users at the time of Buzz’s release — saw tens of millions of users in two days. Before you accuse me of fanboyism, let me note the following: Yes, it was certainly easier for users to sign up for Buzz since it didn’t require downloading and installing new software, as well as going through a registration process. Buzz is also admittedly in no way a success for Google. But at the same time, Buzz and Ping shared the same problem many budding social networks do — nobody knew what to do with them when they launched. Buzz was clearly a stab at Twitter-meets-Friendfeed conversations in Gmail, but aside from importing their current social networks into the service, I didn’t see many conversations actually taking place on the service. It was one of many services I’ve signed up for, but was never motivated to actually do something with it. Ping, meanwhile, suffers the same “what now” problem. It’s easy enough to sign up for it, but then you’re faced with searching for your friends, and finding artists that you like on the service. Once you’re following people, you’re mainly seeing artists recommend their albums — something which I don’t think fans really need help with. Artists can also post photos and post cute messages, but at this point that’s something they can do better on MySpace or Facebook. I wouldn’t be surprised if many users are signing up for Ping, but remain clueless with what to do with it. Apple needs to get its Facebook friend importing up and running again, and clearly define what people can do with Ping, before it can become a thriving social network. Tags: Buzz, Google Buzz, Ping, social network Companies: Apple, Google
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 Bad news for Craigslist users who like to peruse the Erotic Services Adult Services section of their site. It's gone, replaced by a large black and white "censored" logo. I've reached out to Craigslist for comment and await their reply. But the choice of words is significant - the section wasn't simply removed, the censored word was used. The site has been embattled as old press and state attorneys general use any excuse to blame sex crimes on the site. From South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster's failed crusade against them to a variety of press stories about sex and other crimes. If it's just a sex crime it isn't a story. But if a listing on Craigslist was involved, it's a big story.
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  Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Steve Jobs: iTunes 10 Icon Does Not ‘Suck’ — While winding down from Wednesday's iPod announcements, Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears to have taken some time to respond to an e-mail criticizing the new look of the iTunes icon. — Joshua Kopac, who oversees design work for advertising firm ValuLeads …
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HealthDay - FRIDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A new report casts doubt on the argument that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that plays a major role in leading people to try other illegal drugs.
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HealthDay - FRIDAY, Sept. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Feeding obese mice omega-3 fatty acids reduced inflammation that can lead to diabetes, a new study finds.
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AP - What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling.
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It has been revealed that the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is conduction an investigation of Google over complaints of antitrust and anti-competitive behavior, and the search giant is responding. According to Search Engine Land, the…
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Even though only four issues were published, Daniel Raeburn's 'The Imp' is widely regarded as a classic publication of comics criticism. Long out of print, he has now put them online for free. The four insanely comprehensive issues each cover Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Jack Chick and Mexican Historietas (violent and bizarrely sexual comics-NSFW).
Ira Glass comments.. "It was clearly the work of an obsessed person, in the very best way possible. A really smart obsessed person. There was a kind of Talmudic completeness to the whole thing, in a way that journalism rarely even aspires to. Not much journalism tries to be so emotional, and funny, and analytical, and thorough. There's really very little like it out there. The closest you get is one of those big stories they used to do in the old New Yorker, where at the end you feel like there's nothing else that needs to be said on the subject. I read it admiringly and jealously. In the years since I read the Chris Ware issue I've actually become friends with Chris Ware, real friends, we talk all the time, and probably a third of what I know about Chris still comes from that issue of The Imp. It was that complete and emotionally insightful."
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