pul.se results for University of ALBERTA

Open Court

smyles62 — 2010-03-11 13:06:00 GMT

BNP Paribas Open

Indian Wells, California
Dates: March 10-21, 2010
Tier: Premier (joint event with the ATP Tour)
Prize Money: $4,500,000 U.S.
Surface: Hard / Outdoors

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010

The ladies were all over the stadium court Wednesday in their first day of play. Today, it's the men who get a little more face time as they start their main-draw play, and there's a night session for the first time.

Start time is 11 a.m. in the desert (2 p.m. here).

Repentigny's Marie-Eve Pelletier, as reported here yesterday, has indeed made it to the doubles main draw. She and partner Julie Coin will play Petrova and Stosur, later on after Coin plays her singles match.

The weather has warmed up slightly, although it's still cool. But the serious winds that have made tennis a challenge the first few days should die down by late morning.

ORDER OF PLAY
Stadium
1. [Q] Karolina Sprem (CRO) vs. [Q] Shenay Perry (USA)
3. Roberta Vinci (ITA) vs. Melanie Oudin (USA) (right)
6. Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) vs. [WC] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)

Stadium 2
2. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) vs. [Q] Sloane Stephens (USA)
4. [WC] L Safarova (CZE) / V Zvonareva (RUS) vs. [WC} T Garbin (ITA) / J Jankovic (SRB)
5. Alizé Cornet (FRA) vs. Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP)

Stadium 3
1. Lucie Safarova (CZE) vs. Julia Goerges (GER)
3. S Borwell (GBR) / R Kops-Jones (USA) vs. A Medina Garrigues (ESP) / C Wozniacki (DEN)
5. Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) vs. Sybille Bammer (AUT)

Court 4
2. [4] L Raymond (USA) / R Stubbs (AUS) vs. M Kirilenko (RUS) / A.Radwanska (POL)
4. [2] N Llagostera Vives / M-J Martínez Sánchez (ESP) vs. L Dekmeijere (LAT) / P Schnyder (SUI)
5. Alberta Brianti (ITA) vs. Petra Kvitova (CZE)

Court 5
1. Julie Coin (FRA) vs. [WC] Tamira Paszek (AUT)
2. V Uhlirova / R Voracova (CZE) vs. G Dulko (ARG) / F Pennetta (ITA)
4. [3] N Petrova (RUS) / S Stosur (AUS) vs. [ALT] J Coin (FRA) / M-Eve Pelletier (CAN) (left)
5. [Q] Chan Yung-Jan (TPE) vs. Stefanie Voegele (SUI)

Court 6
2. Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) vs. [Q] Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR)
4. [Q] Petra Martic (CRO) vs. [WC] Ajla Tomljanovic (CRO)

Court 7
2. Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) vs. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)
4. V Dushevina (RUS) / A Rodionova (AUS) vs. V Ruano Pascual (ESP) / M Shaughnessy (USA)

Court 8
1. Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) vs. Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)
2. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) vs. Andrea Petkovic (GER) (right)
3. [Q] Viktoriya Kutuzova (RUS) vs. Sara Errani (ITA)

(Open Court photos from the Australian Open. To access the complete and exclusive Oz gallery, click here.) XX

NPL Npindex top stories

2010-03-11 00:00:00 GMT

iLounge | All Things iPod, iPhone, iTunes and beyond

jesse@ilounge.com (Jesse David Hollington) — 2010-03-11 16:16:06 GMT

The City of Edmonton, Alberta has announced plans to sponsor an application development contest. Scheduled to be formally announced later this month, the Apps4Edmonton contest will aim to encourage local iPhone developers to create apps that improve municipal information sharing and communications. The contest will offer $50,000 in prizes and the winning application will be showcased at the 2010 Canadian Government Technology Conference (GTEC) in…

Nickle's Daily Oil Bulletin

2010-03-11 19:00:00 GMT

Paramount Energy Trust is set to acquire additional production of 1,685 bbls of oil equivalent -- 80% of it natural gas -- having entered into an agreement to acquire oil and natural gas assets in the Edson area of west-central Alberta from a Canadian intermediate producer for $126 million.

ATP Men's Tennis

noreply@blogger.com (WTA and ATP Tennis Blogs) — 2010-03-11 11:10:00 GMT

2010 Indian Wells Order of Play Thursday March 11 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Stadium 1 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Karolina Sprem vs. Shenay Perry
2. ATP: Moyá vs. Smyczek
3. Roberta Vinci vs. Melanie Oudin
4. ATP: Berrer vs. Fish
5. ATP: Dent vs. Harrison (NB 19.00hrs)
6. Yaroslava Shvedova vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Stadium 2 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Starace vs. Chardy
2. Lucie Hradecka vs. Sloane Stephens
3. ATP: Reynolds vs. Ancic
4. Safarova/Zvonareva vs. Garbin/Jankovic
5. Alizé Cornet vs. Carla Suárez Navarro
6. ATP: Chiudinelli vs. Gulbis

Stadium 3 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Lucie Safarova vs. Julia Goerges
2. ATP: Cuevas vs. Gil
3. Borwell/Kops-Jones vs. Medina Garrigues/Wozniacki
4. ATP: Ram vs. Koellerer
5. Katarina Srebotnik vs. Sybille Bammer

Court 4 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: O.Rochus vs. Fognini
2. Raymond/Stubbs vs. Kirilenko/A.Radwanska
3. ATP: Mayer vs. Dabul
4. Dekmeijere/Schnyder vs. Llagostera Vives/Martínez Sánchez
5. Alberta Brianti vs. Petra Kvitova

Court 5 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Julie Coin vs. Tamira Paszek
2. Dulko/Pennetta vs. Uhlirova/Voracova
3. ATP: C.Rochus vs. Petzschner
4. Coin/Pelletier vs. Petrova/Stosur
5. Chan Yung-Jan vs. Stefanie Voegele

Court 6 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: Falla vs. Serra
2. Alexandra Dulgheru vs. Michelle Larcher de Brito
3. ATP: Delgado vs. Beck
4. Petra Martic vs. Ajla Tomljanovic
5. ATP: Alves vs. Schuettler

Court 7 (from 11.00hrs)
1. ATP: García-Lopez vs. Lacko
2. Tsvetana Pironkova vs. Akgul Amanmuradova
3. ATP: Phau vs. Anderson
4. Dushevina/Rodionova vs. Ruano Pascual/Shaughnessy

Court 8 (from 11.00hrs)
1. Anastasija Sevastova vs. Nuria Llagostera Vives
2. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova vs. Andrea Petkovic
3. Viktoriya Kutuzova vs. Sara Errani

OIL INDUSTRY NEWS - Google News

2010-03-12 02:16:22 GMT

CBC.ca

Energy industry awaits changes to Alberta's oil and gas royalty regime
The Canadian Press
CALGARY — The Alberta government is poised to make changes to the royalties it collects from oil and gas companies in the province, amendments a major US ...
PREVIEW-Alberta readies new royalty regime for oil industryReuters
Province will make changes to its royalty structureCTV.ca
Alberta to announce royalty changesCBC.ca
Montreal Gazette -Calgary Herald -iNews880.com
all 196 news articles »

The Oil Drum - Discussions about Energy and Our Future

Leanan — 2010-03-11 14:06:42 GMT

John Michael Greer: Barbarism and good brandy

Think of it this way. The individual photons that heat the planet Mercury each contain, on average, the same quantity of energy as the individual photons that heat the planet Neptune. Is Neptune as warm as Mercury? Not hardly, and the reason is that by the time they get out to the orbit of Neptune, the Sun’s rays are spread out over a much vaster area, so each square foot of Neptune gets a lot fewer photons than a corresponding square foot of Mercury. The photons are less concentrated in space, and that, not the quantity of energy they contain, determines how much of the hard work of heating a planet they are able to do. There are stars in the night sky that produce photons far more energetic, on average, than those released by the Sun, but you’re not going to get a star tan from their light!
This may seem like an obvious point. Still, it deserves restatement, because so many contemporary plans for using solar energy ignore it, fixating on the raw quantity of solar energy that reaches the Earth rather than the very modest concentration of that energy. A habit of comforting abstraction feeds that sort of thinking. It’s easy to insist, for example, that the quantity of solar energy falling annually on some fairly small fraction of the state of Nevada, let’s say, is equal to the quantity of energy that the US uses as electricity each year, and to jump from there to insist that if we just cover a hundred square miles of Nevada with mirrors, so all that sunlight can be used to generate steam, we’ll be fine.
What gets misplaced in appealing fantasies of this sort? Broadly speaking, three things.

ANALYSIS - OPEC may face Iraq challenge sooner than expected

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - The storm brewing on OPEC's horizon over future Iraqi oil output could engulf the producer group sooner than it would like.
OPEC was unlikely to discuss Iraq at its meeting on March 17 but it may need to do so within a couple of years.
"There's only one issue, but it's a big one. It's a tsunami. Iraq," said Leo Drollas at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.
After years of sanctions and war, Iraq is exempt from the output targets OPEC uses to set supply levels.
But as Baghdad embarks on an unprecedented oil industry development, OPEC will at some point need to bring Iraq back into the fold to prevent millions of barrels of new oil supply undoing its work to balance markets.

Drilling starts on Saudi ‘supergiant’ Manifa oil project

Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with the biggest offshore oil development in its history, despite having about 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of idle crude production capacity.
Development of the “supergiant” Manifa oilfield, containing an estimated 10 billion barrels of reserves, is “on time and on budget”, said Mohammed al Abdulkarim, the manager of the Manifa project for Saudi Aramco, the national petroleum company, on the sidelines of the DrillTech conference in Abu Dhabi.
According to a statement on Aramco’s website, oil production from Manifa will start in 2013, two years before the project’s scheduled completion. Manifa is one of several oil developments the kingdom is pursuing to maintain its production capacity at the record 12.5 million bpd reached last June.

Shale gas could supply 100 yrs of consumption

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The natural gas shale boom in North America has more than doubled discovered gas resources and can supply more than a century of consumption at current rates, an IHS CERA study released Wednesday said.
As recently as 2007, it was widely thought that natural gas was in tight supply and the U.S. would need to import gas, said Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS CERA.
But a long-lasting "shale gale" has squashed that outlook, he said at the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston.

Ecuador Oil Min sees no OPEC production change

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador Oil Minister and OPEC President Germano Pinto said Thursday that OPEC has no need to change output policies at its meeting on March 17 and sees oil prices stable in the range of $70 to $80 a barrel for the rest of 2010.
"Right now there is no change planned for (OPEC) production policy," Pinto told reporters.

Iran Oil Fund to Expand If Crude Stays Above $65

(Bloomberg) -- Iran, holder of the world’s second- biggest oil and gas reserves, will add to its oil stabilization fund if crude prices remain over $65 in the coming 12 months, the deputy central bank governor said.
“As long as the price of petroleum is over $65 per barrel Iran will gain extra petroleum revenue, which will find its way into the oil stabilization fund,” Hossein Ghazavi said in a phone interview from Tehran late yesterday. He declined to comment on the current balance of the fund, which is aimed at providing protection for the economy should oil prices slide.

FACTBOX - China in Central Asia: latest investments

(Reuters) - Energy-hungry China is stepping up its presence in former Soviet Central Asia by handing out billions of dollars in loans, snapping up energy assets and building a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan.
Below is the list of recent Chinese investments.

ExxonMobil plans 4% spending boost

US supermajor ExxonMobil will increase its capital spending nearly 4% this year to $28 billion as it evaluates new fields around the world, but it cautioned that the global economy remained unsteady.

Venezuelan president says government not to blame for energy crisis

President of the Republic Hugo Chavez Frias rejected accusations by industrial sectors in the country blaming his government for the energy crisis and he called them irresponsible for the recent comments by the leaders of Fedecamaras [Venezuelan Federation of Associations and Chambers of Commerce and Industry].
The president asked for understanding from the country's different sectors during the ceremony to see off the Venezuelan team that will travel to the South American Games.

Mindanao now under state of calamity

President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday placed Mindanao under a state of calamity as the region continued to reel from the effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon. Defense Secretary and National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Chairman Norberto Gonzales proposed to President Arroyo on Wednesday the declaration of the state of calamity in Mindanao to counter the effects of El Niño in the region.

Now, that's how you treat the 'won't pays'

Spare a thought for three protest leaders in Mexico who've been jailed for contesting electricity charges. Not sent a final demand, mind, nor had their electricity cut off - sent to jail. It happened after residents of the state of Campeche in the east of Mexico refused to pay electricity bills, which they claimed were unreasonably high.

Is Saudi Aramco laughing off clean tech?

Saudi Arabia faces a conundrum on renewables. It is a wealthy country thanks to its oil exports, and its own domestic economy also benefits from heavily-subsidised oil, which is used in electricity generation. But i does share some common interests with the renewable energy industry - and not just building the odd solar plant.
Because of its role as the swing producer of the world’s oil, Saudi Arabia is more responsible for keeping oil prices high than any other country.
Without Opec’s production quotas - even with compliance levels falling - it’s widely believed oil prices would be much lower than they currently are. That almost certainly would have made the slump in renewables investment that began in 2008 much worse.

Nukes in my backyard

(Fortune Magazine) -- Long left for dead, the U.S. nuclear power industry appears poised for a comeback.
President Barack Obama earlier this year announced an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help the Georgia utility Southern Co. build two large reactors, and he wants to triple the amount of federal loan guarantees for plant construction to $54 billion. Obama hopes a slew of new plants will create jobs and lots of affordable, clean electricity.
The problem: Even with the help of loan guarantees, full-scale nuclear power plants remain insanely expensive to build (conventional plants start at $5 billion, industry executives say).
Some industry players, such as Toshiba, Hyperion Power Generation, and NuScale Power, think they have a better idea: small, distributed units designed to power the equivalent of a midsize town.

How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions ... all at once!

Who does that leave out? Who doesn't have upfront capital and doesn't live in a city with money to spend on PACE? You guessed it: rural homeowners.
This matters for several reasons. First off, rural homes -- over 20 percent of which are manufactured homes -- are substantially less efficient than their urban and suburban counterparts. That's why, even though their homes are generally smaller and their electricity is generally cheaper, the average rural household pays $200-$400 more a year on energy bills than comparable urban households. And given that they make roughly $10,000 less per year, that's not chump change.
Second, rural Americans are precisely the ones most politically hostile to climate action, which they see as a liberal political program that primarily benefits cities and coastal elites. Direct energy benefits to rural homeowners could help change the political landscape and ease further action.

James Howard Kunstler in Cleveland

Sunday, March 14 - The incisive social critic known for "The Long Emergency" and "The Geography of Nowhere," a widely taught book on suburban sprawl, makes a rare appearance to discuss his ideas, and his first novel, "World Made by Hand," which debuted to mostly strong notices in 2008.

Sprawling Misconceptions

James Howard Kunstler doesn’t think highly of libertarian newsman John Stossel. Assuming this is what Kunstler is talking about (see No. 2), you can’t blame him. Stossel defends suburban sprawl and accuses its opponents — like Kunstler — of forcing lifestyle choices onto others “by limiting where they can build.” The fallacy of this view has been pointed out about 100 times. For the 101st time: sprawl — an umbrella term for the pattern of development seen virtually everywhere in the United States — is not caused by the free market. It is, rather, mandated by a vast and seemingly intractable network of government regulations, from zoning laws and building codes to street design regulations. If Stossel wants to expand Americans’ lifestyle choices, he should attack the very thing he was defending, namely, suburban sprawl.
It’s odd that self-described libertarians such as Stossel are so slow to grasp that government planning makes sprawl ubiquitous. You would think that libertarians would instinctively grasp the deeply statist nature of suburban development. First of all, with a depressingly few exceptions, virtually every town in America looks the same. That is, it has the same landscape of arterial roads, strip malls, and residential subdivisions, accessibly only by car. Surely, given America’s celebrated diversity, you would also see a diversity of places. As it turns out, all but a few people live the same suburban lifestyle. Government, as libertarian assumptions would predict, is the culprit.

Are "More Jobs" Sustainable or Necessary in the Post-Peak Oil World?

What was required for a growing economy, that was supposed to uplift all of modern humanity, is at root a false notion for the manipulated public: the overwhelming majority must work for others to enrich the few so that all of society benefits through unlimited expansion. This problematic profit-scheme is failing to hold up, what with general economic uncertainty on the rise (apart from “Hope”) and the advanced depletion of easily extracted, cheap oil.
To put even greater pressure on our bankrupt (in so many ways) system, the ecological crisis is knocking at the door ever more threateningly, demanding not mere policy adjustments but a radically different approach to treating the Earth and all its people and species.

How Your Twitter Account Could Land You in Jail

The raid occurred just as the protests were starting, but even as Madison and Wallschlaeger were arrested, the information flowed from the other tweeters without a blip. "A comms facility was raided, but we are still fully operational please continue to submit reports" stated one subsequent tweet.
The real-time updates were available to anyone who followed the feed, allowing protesters to see the theater of operations and add information to the picture. It was as if the demonstrators had gotten their own helicopter. Tin Can Comms sent out messages such as "SWAT teams rolling down 5th Ave towards Schenley" and "40 cops, w/ bus, headed towards friendship park." The police knew they were being outflanked, but could do little against a decentralized foe: "SCANNER JUST SAID: BE ADVISED WE'RE BEING MONITORED BY ANARCHISTS THROUGH SCANNER," noted one Tin Can tweet.
...Madison calls the arrest an attempt to "stifle dissent" and says his actions were "perfectly legal." His lawyer, Martin Stolar, calls them "absolutely protected speech." Madison also points out the irony that last June the State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance so as not to interrupt Iranian protesters tweeting from the barricades.

The curious story of Chinese oil refining

The narrowing gap between current and forward crude oil contract prices in recent weeks has been been widely attributed to two things.
OECD oil storage, the story goes, is falling and oil stored at sea is also widely believed to be declining - both paving the way for Asian demand growth to really kick in, in terms of prices. Yet it’s not completely clear cut: crude inventory volumes are mostly a pretty opaque affair, and the all-important Chinese demand for crude and products is particularly fuzzy. In fact the IEA pointed out in November that uncertainty over demand for, and storage of, refined products in China was such that it made the entire worldwide demand outlook rather challenging.
Now, Olivier Jakob of PetroMatrix makes a strong case that, far from using up its product inventories, China is awash in product - so much so that it’s exporting it.

Oil near $82 as traders eye weak US demand

Oil prices hovered around $82 a barrel Thursday in Europe as traders weighed stagnant U.S. crude demand against a gradual global economic recovery.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up 20 cents to $82.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 60 cents to settle at $82.09 on Wednesday.

IEA’s Oil Demand Forecast Will Be Little Changed, Tanaka Says

(Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency’s global oil demand forecast will likely be little changed this month, as economic uncertainty in developed nations overshadows emerging-market growth, Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said.

The AGE of ENERGY SCARE city

There is an assumption many on this Earth share: one that says the world revolves around money. It doesn’t. It revolves around oil. Cheap oil. And without it, the gears that run this current globalized economy will come screeching to a halt. Over the last few decades, we were warned about a time when the demand for petroleum would outpace supply.
Unfortunately, this time will soon come: it’s called peak oil.

Natural gas industry charged with making case to policymakers

The emergence of natural gas shales could extend U.S. energy supplies for decades and help address climate change concerns, but the industry faces what one executive called a “promotion challenge” in convincing policymakers and the public of the fuel’s benefits.
The industry must do more to make the case, oil and gas leaders said Wednesday at the CERAWeek energy conference. That means dispelling what they consider myths about the ability of renewables to quickly replace fossil fuels and about environmental dangers of new natural gas extraction techniques.

No ‘crude expropriation’ of BP gas field

MOSCOW - A top Russian official said Thursday there should be no ‘crude expropriation’ of a huge Siberian gas field owned by a unit of British energy giant BP amid a dispute over its license.
The dispute over the Kovykta field — seen as a potential source of energy to China — should be resolved amicably, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

India Seeks Partnerships With Rosneft, Gazprom for Russia Areas

(Bloomberg) -- India will seek stakes in Russia’s oil and gas fields in partnership with Rosneft Oil Co. and Gazprom OAO during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi, a government official said.
The South Asian nation wants stakes in fields in the Yamal Peninsula, East Siberia and the Sakhalin-3 project for state- owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp., the official said in New Delhi today, asking not to be identified before the talks.

Russia may invite India ONGC to energy projects-govt

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is considering inviting India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp to develop oil and gas fields in Russia, the government said on Thursday, ahead of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India.

BP wins foothold in Brazil with £4.7 bln deal

LONDON (AFP) – Oil giant BP said Thursday it will pay US firm Devon Energy $7 billion (£4.7 billion) for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.
The London-listed firm will pay US firm Devon Energy in cash for the assets, the group said in an official statement, which announced the "broad-ranging deal."
"BP today announced a transaction that will deliver a material exploration position in ... deepwater offshore Brazil and significantly enhance its position in core strategic areas," the company said.
The Brazilian assets will mark the British group's first foray into the emerging market country.

Brazil Lawmakers Pass Bill to Boost Some States’ Oil Royalties

(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian states and cities that don’t produce oil would get a bigger share of revenue raised from offshore output under a measure passed by the lower house.

Shell confirms shift away from oil sands

EDMONTON - Royal Dutch Shell's apparent change of investment emphasis away from the oil sands could put future Canadian projects in jeopardy.
In yesterday's edition of London's Financial Times, chief executive Peter Voser said future oil sands developments would be "very much slower."
Shell shelved long-term planning in late 2008 for new projects, and has not revisited the decision.

Alberta’s Tar Sands and the Dead Duck Trial

In an Alberta court, the oil sands giant Syncrude Canada has entered the second week of a high-profile case brought by federal and provincial prosecutors over the widely publicized deaths two years ago of 1,600 migrating ducks that were trapped in the toxic sludge floating on one of the company’s vast tailings ponds.
Insisting that the failure of its bird-deterring air cannons doesn’t constitute a crime, Syncrude has pleaded not guilty.

Texas earthquakes may be linked to wells for gas mining

Saltwater pumped deep into the earth in a natural gas mining operation offers a "plausible," though not definitive, explanation for small earthquakes in Texas in 2008 and 2009, scientists say.

Middletown Building Official Declares 6 Major Buildings At Kleen Energy Power Plant Unsafe

MIDDLETOWN — - The owners of the Kleen Energy power plant, extensively damaged in a Feb. 7 natural gas explosion that killed six people, face a substantial rebuilding project.
Six major buildings at the site have been declared unsafe by Middletown's building official, John Parker. These include the plant's central core — the power block building that houses the three turbines, the generators and the pair of 220-foot high stacks that make up the heat-recovery system.

Toyota could face criminal charges related to safety recalls

Toyota could be the first automaker to face tough penalties enacted after rollover recalls involving Ford autos and Firestone tires in 2000.

Oil Execs Chortle as Obama Admin Promotes Renewables

HOUSTON -- Renewable energy is being praised in Washington, but it is generating snickers here in the nation's traditional energy capital, where oil, gas and utility leaders are gathered for a major industry conference.

The Lithium Chase

For many years, few metals drew bigger yawns from mining executives than lithium, a lightweight element long associated mostly with mood-stabilizing drugs.
Suddenly, the yawns are being replaced by eurekas. As awareness spreads that lithium is a crucial ingredient for hybrid and electric cars, a global hunt is under way for new supplies of the metal.

China Idles 40% of Windpower Turbine Output Capacity

(Bloomberg) -- China is idling as much as 40 percent of its wind-turbine factories following a surge in investment driven by the government’s renewable-energy goals, the vice president of Shanghai Electric Group Corp. said.
Prices of turbines have tumbled more than 30 percent from 2004 levels in the world’s third-biggest windpower market by generating capacity because there are “too many” plants, Lu Yachen said in an interview in Beijing today.

Developers Lament Loss of Federal Wind Subsidies in Canada

The Canadian Wind Energy Association is expressing disappointment with the federal government’s recent decision not to expand or extend the so-called ecoEnergy program — which delivered subsidies to renewable energy developers — in its new budget.

Solar power could provide 10% of US energy: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States could source 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, a report said Tuesday, winning support from a US lawmaker who wants to boost the number of US solar panels.
The report, produced by the independent environmental group Environment America, was presented to Congress with backing from Senator Bernie Sanders who in February introduced legislation to install 10 million solar panels across the United States within a decade.

Solar Prospectors Chase Italian, Israeli ‘Gold Mines’

(Bloomberg) -- Olivier de Vergnies quit managing family fortunes at Dexia Private Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. in 2008 to run a New York start-up at 100 Wall St. that’s trying to tap riches in solar energy.
The chief executive officer of two-year-old Prime Sun Power Inc. is hiring hundreds of workers to build solar plants in Italy, where he can sell electricity for about six times the price paid to coal- and natural gas-fired generators.

Los Angeles Electric Rate Linked to Solar Power

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a year, and it often seems as if environmentalists outnumber rattlesnakes in many parts of the sprawling city. It would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here.
But that has never been the case, and experts cite cost as the main reason.
Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the United States, is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on electricity use. The proceeds would be earmarked for renewable energy purchases and programs, including one that would repay people or businesses that use solar panels to contribute to the power grid.

California Utility Regulators Not Quite Ready for Fuel Cells

While Google, Wal-Mart and other corporations have embraced fuel cells, California regulators have turned down requests from the state’s two biggest utilities to install the technology.
In a preliminary decision, an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission found unwarranted an application from Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California to spend more than $43 million to install fuel cells that would generate six megawatts of electricity.

Coffee, an alternative fuel? "Car-puccino" runs on espresso

The car, averaging 56 espressos per mile, has a system that converts used coffee grounds into flammable gas.

More maize ethanol may boost greenhouse gas emissions

In the March issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of maize-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for maize, farmers convert additional land to crops, and this conversion can boost carbon dioxide emissions.
The analysis combines ecological data with a global economic commodity and trade model to project the effects of US maize ethanol production on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from land-use changes in 18 regions across the globe. The researchers' main conclusion is stark: these indirect, market-mediated effects on greenhouse gas emissions "are enough to cancel out the benefits the corn ethanol has on global warming."

City sets out healthy amibitions for local food

Bristol City Council has launched its first ever Food Charter, setting out its ambitions for healthier and more locally produced food.
The charter aims to promote Fairtrade and locally produced food, encourage people to get their ‘five a day’, and deal with the impact of Peak Oil and the challenges it presents our food supply.

Increasing Yields and Decreasing Fertilizer Waste on Subsistence Farms

A new agricultural technology that cuts nitrogen fertilizer waste in half while increasing rice yields is spreading quickly in Bangladesh and is being investigated by 15 other nations, including more than a dozen in sub-Saharan Africa.

The water-energy nexus

Available water, says Simmons, is increasingly brackish or saline, which is energy-intensive to convert to drinkable water.
And energy - particularly some newer sources, such as solar thermal and shale gas, are extremely water-intensive:
Simmons is not alone in this view. At the CERA Week conference under way in Houston, the water problem was addressed in a panel on Wednesday.

Cyprus conflict closes leaders' eyes to water shortage

Water has been rapidly disappearing in Cyprus since the 1970s, but conflict between Turkish and Greek communities means fixing the problem is not high on the political agenda. The BBC's Alex Bell finds that Cypriots are now struggling for control of land that is slowly dying.

No longer the great white north

The future presents lots of things to worry about -- melting glaciers, giant asteroids, Iranian nukes, peak oil. The smart futurists, however, know that nothing is as scary as the declining birthrates in western countries like Canada. Without people we won't have workers, and without workers we won't have an economy.

Arctic 'doomsday vault' growing

A "doomsday" vault storing crop seeds in an Arctic deep freeze is surpassing 500,000 samples, to become the most diverse collection of food seeds in history.
Set up on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard two years ago, the vault aims to store seeds of all food crops deep beneath permafrost to withstand threats ranging from a cataclysmic nuclear war to a mundane power cut.

How Green Is My Mansion?

MITCH KAPOR, the software mogul and philanthropist, has given millions of dollars to environmental groups.
Now Mr. Kapor wants to build a 10,000-square-foot house, complete with a 10-car garage, in Berkeley, Calif.
When the house won planning approval earlier this year, many neighbors were surprised — not so much by the size of the house, or by its sleek design, but by the fact that, under Berkeley regulations, the house will qualify as “green.” In Berkeley, building proposals are evaluated on a “green point” scale, earning credit for such eco-conscious features as low-flow shower heads and insulation. A house with more than 60 points is labeled green, regardless of its size.

Noel Kempff project is 'saving the forest' by forcing destruction elsewhere

It is the ultimate greenwash nightmare. A tough international deal to curb emissions of greenhouse gases is passed in Mexico later this year. Companies then meet their targets not by cutting their own pollution but by buying into hundreds of forest "conservation" projects round the world. But those projects then fail to deliver real benefits for forests or staunch the flow of carbon into the atmosphere.
Some big-time green groups prosper but the planet burns.

UN is not working, says Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday demanded a revamp of the United Nations and urged negotiations under a small group of countries to accelerate efforts to fight climate change.
Sarkozy, in a speech to open a one-day conference on fighting deforestation, stood by the UN, saying there was "no alternative strategy" to a forum that gave all nations, rich and poor, a voice in a global arena.
But he said changes to the UN were way overdue.

Industry slow to sell biocharcoal climate merits

LONDON (Reuters) - Industry has struggled to commercialize a charcoal technology which some say could reverse the effect of manmade carbon emissions, as countries fail to implement incentives and technical problems nag.

Questions about research slow climate change efforts

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The violent threats are not what bother Michael Mann the most. He's used to them.
Instead, it's the fact that his life's work — the effort to stop global warming — has been under siege since last fall. That's when Mann suddenly found himself in the middle of the so-called "climategate" scandal, in which more than 1,000 e-mails among top climate scientists — including Mann — were obtained illegally by hackers and published on the Internet.

Japan weakens climate bill after industry pressure

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan watered down legislation to fight climate change on Thursday after weeks of wrangling within the government over plans for an emissions trading system that has met stiff opposition from industry.
The climate bill, set to be enacted by parliament by mid-June, said the government would consider using emission caps per unit of production in the planned trading scheme, which would allow rises in emissions when output grows.

Emissions figures don't stack up: professor

THE Rudd government ramped up the environmental benefits of its botched $2.45 billion home insulation scheme by grossly overstating the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that could be achieved by households, expert independent analysis says.

Greenhouse gas limits to change ops

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz. - In June, the air station will know how much it needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and that could lead to some big changes in station operations.
The Department of Defense is expected to soon release reduction goals for military bases after President Barack Obama tasked all federal agencies to establish new greenhouse gas policies in an executive order, released Oct. 8, 2009.

Business: Oil | guardian.co.uk

Tim Webb — 2010-03-11 18:41:45 GMT

• Firm buys 10 exploration blocks from Devon Energy
• Oil fields give BP up to an extra 40,000 barrels a day

BP has bought into the Brazilian oil rush with a $7bn (£4.65bn) deal that will boost the group's potential reserves by about 2bn barrels of oil.

The deal, with Devon Energy of the US, will also create a joint venture to develop BP's controversial oil sands in Canada.

A number of recent huge finds in water up to two miles deep and below a thick layer of salt on the seabed off the coast of Brazil has made the country the focus for international oil companies looking for new sources of oil and gas.

By 2020, Brazil hopes to produce almost 6m barrels of oil a day – triple the country's current output.

BP is one of the few major oil companies not to have any assets in Brazil. The deal means Brazil is likely to provide a major source of future production for BP, depending on how successful its exploration there is. BP has total global potential reserves of 64bn barrels of oil and gas.

In total, BP will pay $7bn cash for Devon Energy's interests in 10 exploration blocks in Brazil, as well as deep-water exploration acreage and prospects in the US Gulf of Mexico, and an interest in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan. The Brazilian assets are the most valuable part of the deal, which will immediately add 20,000–40,000 barrels a day to BP's production.

Andy Inglis, BP's chief executive of exploration and production, said: "Through our entry into Brazil, BP will add a major position in another attractive deep-water basin. Together with the additional new access in the Gulf of Mexico, it further underlines our global position as the leading deep-water international oil company."

BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, added that the deal was in keeping with the company's avowed aim of focusing on "high margin" oil in relatively low cost locations. BP assumes an oil price of $60 a barrel when investing in projects, but a spokesman declined to give estimates of production costs from its new fields.

BP is also selling a 50% stake to Devon Energy in its Kirby oil sands interests, which are not yet in production, in Alberta, Canada, for $500m. Devon Energy already has a neighbouring oil sands block in operation and BP wants to tap its expertise to bring Kirby onstream.

The oil rush in Brazil began in earnest in 2007 when the Brazilian state-owned firm Petrobras discovered the Tupi field which may have as much as 8bn barrels of oil. This would make it the largest find in the Americas for over 30 years. The British firm BG has a stake in the Tupi field, as well as Guará field, which holds as much as 2bn barrels of crude.

The oil industry is expected to invest between $150bn and $200bn in exploration and production over the next decade to tap Brazil's new-found reserves.

Analysts warned that challenges remained to start production. The new oil finds are known as "pre-salt" because they lie as much as four miles below the seabed beneath a massive layer of compacted salt. It is harder to drill through salt rather than rock because the salt is more unstable and can shift. The pre-salt cluster lies in an 500 mile strip lying about 170 miles off the coast of Brazil in the Altantic Ocean. Estimates of these pre-salt reserves range from 60bn to more than 150bn barrels.

Juliette Kerr, analyst from IHS Global Insight, said: "There has been deep-water exploration for quite some time, but as technology has developed in recent years, companies have been able to go deeper and deeper and get more of an idea of the potential reserves.

"But technical challenges remain for the pre-salt fields: temperatures tend to be higher, which can damage drill bits, carbon dioxide levels are higher too, while they are further away from the coast than Brazil's other offshore fields."

Tim Webb

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 14:04:49 GMT

Alberta's conservative movement is now uneasily divided into two factions, Tory and Wildrose, that have settled into a pattern of roughly equal support.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 14:01:30 GMT

As Alberta Tories today unveil a new royalty plan they hope will boost their political fortunes, the governing party remains almost neck-and-neck with the sparkplug Wildrose Alliance Party in public support, according to a new Environics poll.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 21:02:33 GMT

The lawyer representing the parents of a baby fighting Alberta Health Services to keep their baby on life support will be speaking to the media Thursday afternoon to explain why a morning court appearance was cancelled.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 21:15:29 GMT

A four-month-old baby at the centre of a legal battle between his parents and Alberta doctors died Thursday after being taken off life-support.

National Post - Top Stories

2010-03-10 23:02:48 GMT

A provincial judge ruled Wednesday that statements made by Syncrude employees to government investigators following the deaths of 1,600 ducks on the company’s northern Alberta tailings pond must be subject to a hearing to determine whether they are admissible during the oil giant’s ongoing trial

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-10 23:30:39 GMT

An Edmonton couple — including a man who escaped from an Alberta jail last year — are facing counterfeiting charges after being arrested at an apartment in Surrey, B.C.

CBC | Canadian News

2010-03-10 23:53:54 GMT

Police in Surrey, B.C., have busted a counterfeiting operation they say was run by an escaped Alberta inmate and seized $75,000 US in fake U.S. bills, fraudulent credit cards and drugs.

PARENTING NEWS - Google News

2010-03-11 03:43:35 GMT

Hockey Alberta to offer online parenting resource
CTV.ca
Hockey Alberta says the 'Respect in Sport Parent Program' will serve as a proactive approach to educate parents on how to react to different situations. ...
Hockey Alberta announces Respect in Sport Parent ProgramEdmonton Journal
Hockey Alberta Launches the Respect in Sport Parent ProgramCanada NewsWire (press release)

all 4 news articles »

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 00:02:31 GMT

Provincial politicians agreed Wednesday to rejig the order of questions asked in the legislature each day, allowing Alberta’s two smallest parties to get equal access to Premier Ed Stelmach.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-11 00:02:35 GMT

The demand for electrical power in Alberta, and the price consumers will pay, are both likely to grow slowly but steadily as the provincial economy begins to heat up, say Capital Power officials.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-10 23:02:05 GMT

The government of Alberta had its highest land sale of the year on Wednesday, attracting $167.6 million in bonus bids although the total was far less than the $1 billion some analysts had hoped for.

PARENTING NEWS - Google News

2010-03-11 01:48:40 GMT

Hockey Alberta announces Respect in Sport Parent Program
Edmonton Journal
The Respect In Sport Parent Program was announced Wednesday at Rexall Place, with some backing from two former NHL players — Sheldon Kennedy and Craig ...
Hockey Alberta Launches the Respect in Sport Parent ProgramCanada NewsWire (press release)

all 2 news articles »

This Bird's Day

Sheri (ThisBirdsDay@gmail.com) — 2010-03-10 11:13:00 GMT

It's that time of year again where I get to post about birthday freebies. Yup, you guessed it, my birthday is coming up fast... this Sunday to be exact.

I was talking to Papa Bird last night and I was telling him about the coupon I got in the email from Joey's Only. Here's how that went.

Me: "Hey I have a coupon where we can get the percent equivalent of my age off of our entire bill up to a maximum of $25. So we would get 36% off of our order!"

Papa Bird: "Ummm... You mean 37%."

Me: "You suck!"

Papa Bird: "Maybe, but you're still going to be 37!"

So this brings me to my wonderful list of Birthday Freebies (BDF). This is what I have received from emails so far:

Sephora - This is always my favorite BDF because I don't get the chance to buy a LOT of makeup and these are always good for when we travel or for putting in my purse. Go to the Sephora Beauty Insider site and check out this years birthday gift. It is a Beautiful Eyes Kit complete with shadow, liner and mascara. There is no purchase necessary to redeem this BDF.

Joey's - So as I stated before, you can get the percent equivalent of your age off of your table's entire bill up to a maximum of $25 when you sign up to join their club online. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Reb Robin - Red Robin Gourmet Burgers are located in Alberta and BC (and most US States). You can join their eClub to receive a coupon for a free burger each year on your birthday. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Boston Pizza - You can join their email club to receive a coupon for a free gourmet pasta or dessert each year on your birthday. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Tony Roma's - You can join their Roma Rib Expert club and receive a coupon for a free entree each year on your birthday. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Orange Julius - You can join their OJ Quench Club and receive a coupon for a free 16 oz Julius Fruit Drink each year on your birthday. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Dairy Queen - You can join their Blizzard Fan Club and receive a coupon for a free 16 oz Blizzard treat when you purchase another blizzard treat each year on your birthday. Your coupon will be emailed to you one week before your birthday and is good for about 2 weeks from the date sent.

Let me know if you know of any others...

Hip Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Michelle (noreply@blogger.com) — 2010-03-10 08:29:00 GMT

We rarely get out to the Lake Minnewanka area in Banff National Park. I'm not sure why this is, but any chance to hike near a large (for us) body of water is a treat in southern Alberta. C-Level Cirque is near the historical site of the abandoned coal mining town of Bankhead (the trailhead is actually located right where the town's residents used to live), and the trail itself has its origins as

nurses - Google News

2010-03-10 09:16:40 GMT

CBC.ca

Alberta nurses say employer wants cuts in salaries, benefits in next contract
Winnipeg Free Press
EDMONTON - Negotiations for a new contract between Alberta's nurses and their employer are off to a rocky start. The nurses union says in a release that the ...
Contract talks between province and nurses off to rough start660 News
Nurses must confront realityCalgary Sun
Nurses warn of historic 'rollbacks'Calgary Herald
iNews880.com -CBC.ca
all 29 news articles »

nurses - Google News

2010-03-10 18:45:19 GMT

CBC.ca

Proposed contract cutbacks 'unprecedented,' nurses say
Edmonton Journal
comMarch 10, 2010 6:44 AM EDMONTON — Alberta's nursing union says a contract proposal put forward by Alberta's health superboard calls for "historic" ...
Alberta nurses say employer wants cuts in salaries, benefits in next contractWinnipeg Free Press
Contract talks between province and nurses off to rough start660 News
Nurses must confront realityCalgary Sun
iNews880.com
all 29 news articles »

Digital Home Thoughts.com

Jason Dunn — 2010-03-10 08:00:00 GMT

Product Category: Wireless streaming audio player

Manufacturer: Logitech

Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]

Price: $333.99 USD

System Requirements: 802.11b/g network or hard-wired Ethernet, and a computer (Windows or Mac OS X) to host the Squeebox software.

Specifications: Available at the Logitech Web site.

Pros:

Powerful audio streaming system capable of many tasks;
Attractive design, small shelf footprint with multiple audio outputs;
Excellent audio quality.

Cons:

Expensive;
Total reliance on WiFi makes for a bumpy experience;
Incompatible with some (most?) 802.11n routers;
Complex setup and overall operation make it for experienced users only.

Summary: The Logitech Squeezebox Duet is a potent combo that makes for a powerful home audio solution for music, podcasts, streaming radio, and more. Unfortunately, because it's such a complex product, it's not overly user friendly. In the many months I've been using it, I've felt like I've had to fix problems with it every other week. It's more like a computer and less like an appliance, with all the dubious reliability implications that statement implies. Still, it has great potential and when it works, it works really well.

I Had It Easy Before

My first experience with a streaming home audio solution was a Roku Soundbridge M2000. I used that product for years, and it was amazingly fast and easy to set up and start using. It detected the music on my network without requiring any extra software. The remote control was a simple tool that used infrared, so changing the volume or pausing the music was immediate - even if it was only line of sight. The remote would run on two AA batteries for six months at a time. The M2000 was as reliable as the clock radio in my bedroom, and I would have kept using it if the shelves I had built for my digital wall project could accommodate it. Unfortunately, it was a very wide piece of hardware and I needed to replace it. I looked at a few different options, and thought that the Logitech Squeebox Duet looked like a compelling alternative. Little did I know I was in for quite the adventure with this product!

Figure 1: My first network music player, the Roku M2000.

When trying to find a solution to some of the troubles I'd have with this product, I came across a quote that summed up my experiences with it perfectly: "...this is not an appliance, it's a science project, albeit a really good one." This couldn't be more true. The Squeezebox is like a buying a chemistry set - you have all the tools to create some really interesting things, but you have to put in some serious work to get what you want...and things might just blow up in your face if you're not careful.

Getting It Set Up

Logitech really went the extra mile with this product from a packaging perspective. The unboxing experience was great; it had high-quality packaging, with nice presentation of the hardware. I unpacked it, then connected the Squeezebox receiver to power, and saw a red light blinking on the front of it. Now's a good time to explain that the product consists of two parts: the Squeezebox controller, and the Squeezebox receiver. The controller has a 2.4-inch color LCD TFT display with backlight, a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and built-in 802.11b/g wireless. It has several front buttons, including volume up, volume down, next, previous, and pause.

There's also an iPod-style scroll wheel surrounded by four buttons; home, back, play, and add. The scroll wheel is every bit as twitchy as it is on an iPod - it's easy to move quickly through a long list of items, but it takes effort to precisely select an item as it's easy to overshoot. I'd have preferred a Zune 120-style control pad. The back of the remote is a high-gloss black material that's unfortunately prone to scratching - between the scroll wheel and the easily-scratched back, it's like Logitech tried to make it as iPod-like as possible. The back of my remote looked pretty beat up after only a week, and I was gentle with it.

On the top next to the headphone jack there's an infrared port - unfortunately there's nothing about the software that uses it, which is a shame. It does give me hope that at some point they'll start using it, which might fix the biggest problem with this product (see below). The remote also has a built-in speaker on the back. For the most part, it's only used for sound effects from the remote - thankfully the sound effects can be toggled off and on individually.

Figure 2: The Squeezebox Remote.

The receiver has digital optical, digital SPDIF, and analog connectors for audio output. It uses a high-fidelity 24-bit Wolfson DAC to play MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, and WAV music files - as long as there's no DRM involved. It also has built-in 802.11b/g wireless and a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port on the back. And somewhere on the front of the receiver is an infrared receiver...I think. The remote has an infrared port, so it stands to reason that the receiver would as well.

Figure 3: The front and back of the Squeezebox Receiver.

Figure 4: The charging cradle for the Squeezebox Remote.

Getting the whole thing set up took a bit of effort. First I put the battery in, and the remote powered up and started a start up wizard - it was easy to follow the steps required. The remote found my 802.11n network, so I entered my WPA key, and it logged on successfully. It then tried to find the receiver, but was unable to. I fought with it for a while, and then switched my Linksys WRT310N (with the latest firmware) from 802.11n mixed mode to forced 802.11b/g mode. Surprisingly, it worked. Once the remote found the network, it gave me a PIN number and directed me to go to www.squeezenetwork.com where I registered a free account on my desktop PC. Now that both pieces of the Squeezebox hardware were connected to WiFi, I could use it for streaming radio, etc. But what about my music?

Unfortunately, the Squeezebox system doesn't work any of the music sharing protocols that modern Windows computers or Windows Home Servers use. This means there's an additional software install required, and if you've got your music on a NAS drive, you're out of luck (unless the Squeezebox Server software happens to support it). Initially when I first set this product up months ago, they didn't have a version of the software for Windows Home Server, so I found a 30-step tutorial that walked me through the process. It was frustrating and hard to get it working. Thankfully, Logitech now has a version of the Squeezebox Server software that installs easily and quickly onto Windows Home Server. Unfortunately the version I'm currently using has a bug where, if the Windows Home Server is rebooted, the Squeezebox Server software will not automatically re-start, even if the check-box for that feature is checked. And since my Windows Home Server reboots itself after patches after week or two, the Squeezebox setup will stop working until I log into my Windows Home Server and start up the service. That's as frustrating as it sounds, especially with the wife factor. "Honey, why won't the music work?" "Hold on, I need to log into my Windows Home Server and re-start the Squeezebox service." I've recently (as of last week) installed a Squeezebox software update on the Windows Home Server that might fix this problem - only time will tell.

Once I had the software installed and working, it kicked off a scan of all my music. The initial scan took 26 minutes, which was followed by an "artwork scan" that took another 12 minutes. Total time for it to scan my 13,016 tracks was about 39 minutes. Not bad, but while the scan is happening you can't play any of your music via the remote control.

So now that I had it all set up, how did the Squeezebox Duet work? Quite well - but not without some glitches here and there.

Using the Squeezebox Duet

Like I mentioned earlier, the Squeezebox Duet is a powerful system capable of some pretty impressive things. After your music has been indexed, you can access every album and song from the remote. If you want to add something to the queue, pressing the plus sign on the remote will add it. This means you can build a playlist as you listen to music, which is great. The screen on the remote shows you the album art of the song that's playing, though I noticed the album art sometimes looked pretty bad - whether this was a result of the screen being limited to 256 colours or compression artifacts of the album art being re-saved, I can't tell.

Figure 5: The Squeezebox receiver is on the shelf on the right, just to the left of the Audioengine A5 speaker. It's nice and small and blends in easily.

Figure 6: The Now Playing view; album art, album name, track number, song name, song progress, time, battery life, WiFi connection, play/pause status, and repeat on/off...a lot of information at a glance!

On the remote, you can browse to Internet Radio > Local and, impressively, it will present you a list of local radio stations that are streaming their signal. They must do an IP address lookup and pull from a database. Unfortunately for me all the radio stations in my city seem to broadcast at between 24kbps and 32kbps, so the quality is atrocious, but the feature is still impressive. The remote also has a number of applications, some of which are useful and some of which seem to be there because it's technically possible. On the useful side of things, there's a Napster app that allows you to access your Napster subscription music account, and a Podcast Player app that allows you to directly play back your favourite podcasts after you've added them via www.mysqueezebox.com. There's an Amazon app that will let you tag music and have it add it to your shopping cart via a Squeezebox Web service. Useful? Perhaps for some.

Figure 7: The menu options from the home screen. This can be completely customized; items can be added or removed.

Figure 8: Browsing into the My Music menu item. There are many ways to access your music.

From the remote you can select Turn Off Squeezebox, and the logo on the Squeezebox will fade to black. I was able to turn the Squeezebox back on and be listening to a streaming music station within only a few seconds, so the Squeezebox has a very rapid resume sequence and also re-establishes its WiFi connection very quickly. The remote itself can be turned off as well by pressing and holding on the Home button. Turning the remote back on takes about 45 seconds, so this isn't something you'll likely be doing very often. The remote is designed to be left on. It has two suspend states: the first is when the screen turns off, which happens in about one minute. When you pick up the remote from this state, the motion sensor kicks in and the screen will come back on immediately. You'll have instant control over your music. The second state is when the remote goes into a deeper suspend state, which seems to be after about 30 minutes or so of not using it. It takes a good 20 seconds or so to come out of this state and re-connect to the WiFi network, which presents a host of problems I'll dig into below.

Pressing pause fades the music out, pressing pause again fades the music back in. There's a slight warble when this happens, but it's still a nice touch. When you pause the music playback, and leave it paused for perhaps 15 minutes, it will cause a speaker crackle as it powers down the amp on the receiver - at least it did with my AudioEngine A5 speakers. This is a conversation stopper every time it happens and is quite irritating.

How does the Squeezebox sound? I'm not audiophile, but to my ears, it sounds great. When I connected the Squeezebox to my AudioEngine A5 speakers and S8 sub-woofer, I spent some time tuning the subwoofer volume and frequency cross-over. I listened to a lot of different music at high volumes, and the Squeezebox delivered great-sounding audio.

WiFi: Weakness and Strength, All Wrapped Into One

By using WiFi, Logitech makes the Squeezebox a non line-of-sight solution, which has some great advantages over infrared. WiFi is also the greatest weakness in this solution though, because WiFi simply isn't as reliable as consumer technologies such as infrared. A perfect example of this occurred when I was testing the system at high volume, then wanted to reduce the volume rapidly - I held down the reduce volume button, and while the remote indicated that the volume was going down, it didn't change the volume on the Squeezebox for at least 20 seconds. That's with the Squeezebox saying it was already connected to the network.

The more frustrating problem is when you've been listening to music for a while, and the remote goes into the deep sleep mode. If you want to change anything about the music playback, you have to pick up the remote and wait as it wakes up and re-connects to WiFi. You can probably imagine this scenario in your own household: you're listening to music, the phone rings (or your spouse walks into the room and wants to talk to you), and you need to pause the music before you pick up the phone...but you have to wait 20 seconds until you can do so. It feels like an eternity. Or, if something happens to your WiFi connection or router (and it will), be prepared to pull the plug on the Squeezebox in order to stop the sound from coming out of your speakers. Sounds really irritating, right? It is. To me, that's a significant problem because WiFi simply isn't as reliable as infrared or a dedicated RF signal.

Sometimes there's serious lag in the connection - several times I've picked up the remote, started a song, then tried to adjust the volume and waited a good ten seconds before the volume changes. Pressing play or pause sometimes takes so long to be executed you'll think it didn't send the command, so you'll press the button again - and 15 seconds later the music will pause. And sometimes the volume indicator will be out of sync with the volume level on the Squeezebox - the volume level will be all the way down, but the speakers are still kicking out sound.

Other weirdness abounds: you'll press play after looking up an album, and there will be 10 to 20 seconds of silence - the track progression is going along on the remote, but no audio is coming from the receiver. Then suddenly the song will be heard through the speakers - and you'll have to use the back arrows to re-start the song to hear it again.

Ultimately one of the problems then is that you have a remote control that's essentially the same as an MP3 player - it has to stay powered up for you to control anything. Unfortunately, it's an MP3 player with fairly poor battery life. I find that I have to place it back onto the charging cradle daily if I've been listening to music, and I've had it happen more than once when I'll be listening to music, I'll grab the remote to pause it, and find the remote is dead. I'll then need to drop it in the cradle, wait for it to boot up, and finally be able to pause my music. Quite the hassle!

My last thought about WiFi is that the Squeezebox doesn't seem to be very compatible with many WiFi routers. I had a fair amount of success using it with my Linksys WRT54G, only getting the occasional disconnect. I had nothing but headaches when trying to connect it to a Linksys WRT310N, a Linksys WRT610N, and a D-Link router I no longer own. I'd get dozens of disconnects, but only with the receiver, not with the remote. Ultimately I grew weary of having to fight with it, so I hard-wired the receiver with Ethernet and everything has been working perfectly since. I moved back to the WRT610N and have had no issues. It seems like the remote has a stronger WiFi connection back to the router than the receiver does.

Slightly Screwy Software

Sometimes the Squeezebox Server software doesn't find new music - I put a new album on my Windows Home Server after downloading it from Amazon.com's MP3 store, and more than 24 hours later, the Squeezebox wasn't showing it to me as a listening option. I had to log into my Windows Home Server and initiate a manual re-scan of all my music (which took 10+ minutes) using the Squeezebox software before I could see the new album on the Squeezebox remote. When I pick up the Squeezebox remote I'm never entirely sure if my newly purchased music is going to show up on it. The lack of confidence in the product is a problem.

The Squeezebox software is also a bit peculiar when it comes to processing metadata - for instance, I browsed via Artist and selected Third Eye Blind, expecting to hear songs only by that artist. I was surprised to hear an A Capella cover of a Third Eye Blind song. Looking at the metadata for that song, the only place it says Third Eye Blind is in the composer field. I wasn't browsing by composer, I was browsing by artist - so why would the Squeezebox software add it to my playlist? Another mystery. There's an issue where it splits up albums - it doesn't seem to read album and artist metadata the way other applications do. I'm a metadata Nazi, having poured over every song (all 13,000+) I own to ensure that the metadata is correct. I never see any of these metadata problems in the Zune software or Windows Media Center, but I routinely mutter the words "Huh?" when browsing music on the Squeezebox remote when I see music being displayed in strange ways.

The software on the remote is also a bit problematic. Sometimes the remote will just reboot - once I picked it up, it said "Please Wait" as if it was waking up from the sleep mode, then I saw the Logitech logo and watched it do a complete reboot. For a while there was a firmware version for the remote that would reboot it every few days and congratulate me on installing the 7.4 firmware. Eventually this was fixed with another firmware update. It wasn't much of a bother to me, but for a less experienced user, it would be disconcerting to say the least.

On the plus side, new features get added to the Squeezebox remote from the firmware updates; the current firmware has a nice large digital clock view that's better than what it had when I first set it up.

Wrapping It Up

As you can tell, I'm a bit conflicted about this product. It's a powerful, versatile network music player. It's capable of some impressive things, yet when it comes right down to it, the things I want the most from the Squeezebox Duet are the same things my old Roku M2000 delivered: fast, easy networked music playback. If a future firmware update can enable that infrared port on the Squeezebox remote to allow instant pause/play to work even when the remote is in the deep sleep mode, it would go a long way toward addressing my chief complaint with this product. And if the client-side software can be improved to accurately and reliably find new music and display the metadata properly, it would address my second main complaint. I'd also like to see the price come down - at over $330, it seems expensive for the hardware you get since there's no local storage. $249 or $199 would be a more natural price point for a product like this.

All the pieces are there for this product, but it needs to mature before I'd recommend it to anyone other than geeks who like to experiment with gadgets. Keep working on it Logitech; you're close...

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wishes companies thought more about ease-of-use and less about cool-awesome features.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

At The Point Of A Gun

Dave C (noreply@blogger.com) — 2010-03-10 10:39:00 GMT

This should be a very simple concept to grasp. A handful of government employees produce a manual saying that drug A can only cover for X, Y and Z ailments. So when an average citizen becomes sick and can be treated by drug A but his ailments are W, he's out of luck. It's no longer a matter between him, his doctor and his insurance provider but with a government bureaucracy as well.

Via Hot Air.

Kent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is trying to either kill him or bankrupt him.

No sense mincing words.

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.

Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug — $4,555 per treatment, two times a month — would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP.

Be sure to read the rest and then ask yourself if there really are 'Death Panels'.

Just Jared

Just Jared — 2010-03-10 12:47:21 GMT

Gerard Butler grabs hold of Jennifer Aniston as they turn up the heat on the April 2010 cover of W Magazine, on stands March 17.

The Bounty Hunter co-stars, both 40, were photographed by Steven Klein on a ranch about 45 minutes outside of Los Angeles in mid-January. Can’t wait to see the 13-page pictorial (seven photographs)!

Tomorrow night, Jen and Gerry will hit the red carpet at the UK premiere of their new comedy Bounty Hunter, which opens in theaters nationwide next Friday (March 19).

FYI: Jen is wearing an Alberta Ferretti silk chiffon dress, Carine Gilson Lingerie Couture’s silk bra and silk lace briefs, Stella McCartney garters and Lanvin shoes.

Bigger cover pic inside…

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-10 14:25:53 GMT

For Calgarians concerned about four medical mix-ups at Alberta Children's Hospital last year, here's some good news: no one died.

Calgary Herald - News

2010-03-10 14:20:39 GMT

An independent investigation into four serious medical mistakes within 54 days at Alberta Children's Hospital -- including two non-fatal medication overdoses -- suggests poor communication and improper use of equipment triggered the problems.

RedState

() — 2010-03-10 14:02:44 GMT

…as per the first comment in this Hot Air post about Kent Pankow. But that’s absurd: we’ve been told by all sorts of people that such things could never, ever, ever happen under a government-run universal health care regime.

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.

And why would it never happen? Because the Master loves us and would never hurt us… look! A squirrel!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Indy Transponder™

XPDR Admin (IndyTransponder@gmail.com) — 2010-03-09 21:24:00 GMT

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Warbird Airshow, this years show theme is "Honoring The Memory" and is dedicated to those that served and sacrificed in the Vietnam War, the show also includes wide variety of vintage warbirds from other eras as well. There will be exhibits, displays including USN FA-18 Super Hornet Demo team, USAF A-10 Demo team, the USN FA-18 Demo team; the F-86 Sabre Jet, the F-104 Starfighter, the T-33 Shooting Star , vendors, WWII re-enactors, a terrific airshow and plenty to do for the whole family.

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Wyo. Guard grounds annual air show from Air Force Times - News
The Wyoming Air National Guard won't host its annual air show this July because of deployments, construction at the airfield and other issues, but the performance by the Air Force Thunderbirds will go on as planned July 28.
Both shows usually run during Cheyenne Frontier Days.
"It was a tough decision, but we would not have been able to provide the top-notch air show the community deserves this year," Col. Dennis Grunstad, commander of the 153rd Airlift Wing, said in a press release. "We decided to not lower the bar."
Other factors cited in the decision to cancel were several major inspections of the field this year and less money available because of military assistance in Haiti. ...

Daily Headlines from the IndyTransponder can now be heard on...

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Just as there's no arguing what he does and where he does it are much different than what most people do to earn a buck.
But what he does comes as natural to him as, well, as walking does to others.
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Wright "B" Flyer Inc. volunteers showcased Dayton's aviation heritage in San Antonio, Texas, last week by deploying two of the organization's Wright Model B Flyer lookalikes for the Military Flight Centennial celebration on Fort Sam Houston.
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Flying a B–24 from Planenews Aviation News
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March Hangar Happenings from hosted.verticalresponse.com
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Quote: The Turkish air force has received its first of 16 McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms to be upgraded under a $24 million deal with local supplier Aselsan.
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nurses - Google News

2010-03-10 02:21:12 GMT

CBC.ca

New contract has 'rollbacks,' Alberta nurses say
CBC.ca
The president of the United Nurses of Alberta, Heather Smith, is shown here in a photo from Oct. 2008. (CBC)The president of the province's nurses' union is ...
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Digital Home Thoughts.com

Product Category: Wireless streaming audio player

Manufacturer: Logitech

Where to Buy: Amazon.com [Affiliate]

Price: $333.99 USD

System Requirements: 802.11b/g network or hard-wired Ethernet, and a computer (Windows or Mac OS X) to host the Squeebox software.

Specifications: Available at the Logitech Web site.

I Had It Easy Before

Getting It Set Up

Using the Squeezebox Duet

WiFi: Weakness and Strength, All Wrapped Into One

Slightly Screwy Software

Wrapping It Up

At The Point Of A Gun

Just Jared

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RedState

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Indy Transponder™

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