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Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:54:03 GMT

Wildfires Lead to Hasty Evacuations

A lightning near Winnemucca triggered wildfires of varying severity on Sunday as they raged across the western United States. Firefighters found themselves scurrying to prevent the flames as the intense blazes spread across California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

These blazes also necessitated speedy evacuations within the local areas. People had to be evacuated from their homes; the recreational areas and offices had to be shut down temporarily; there were temporary closures of major interstate highways and railways were also blocked in major firezones.

It all happened, when a fire in Utah, kindled by high winds, led to an enormous blaze covering more than 160,000 acres. At the same time a fire burning 30 miles southwest of the town of Winnemucca devoured 152,000 acres. Another lightning in the Inyo National Forest also started fires in California which again led to hurried evacuations of campground.

These two fires were the source of the major devastation that followed across the western United States.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the two incinerations singed an estimated 34,000 acres since Friday.

According to Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management,

“Isolated cells were moving through the area. They had very little moisture but plenty of lightning. There is still the potential for isolated thunder storms with lightning of course this afternoon.”

He further said that,

“People are back in their homes now but we’re keeping a very close eye on this fire”

The Forest Service, a week earlier, had already expected increased fire danger from hot, dry weather and thereby imposed fire restrictions in all Inyo National Forest lands and neighboring Bureau of Land Management lands. As Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman for the Inyo National Forest said,

“Everything is very, very dry.”

She further said that about 500 firefighters have been employed to combat the Inyo fires. They are waiting for peaceful winds after these powerful and irregular blasts of air.

image

source Posted by: Saniya_v      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:50:05 GMT

Stachys 'Hidalgo'

Another thank you to Jacki of Oregon, aka jacki-dee@Flickr for sharing one of her photographs with us (original via BPotD Flickr Group Pool).

There's plenty of confusion surrounding the name of this plant; a glance at search engine results reveals Stachys 'Hidalgo', Stachys coccinea 'Hidalgo', Stachys albotomentosa, Stachys albotomentosa 'Hidalgo', and, for good measure, even Stachys hidalgo (which has never been scientifically published). I've opted to use the name tentatively accepted by the Royal Horticultural Society. The common name is scarlet hedgenettle or seven-up plant. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:53:32 GMT

Ford Eyeing the Hybrid Car Segment

Under pressure of reducing market shares and blitzkrieg of Japanese auto majors in the U.S. Market, Ford is all set to upboost its green credentials. Ford has been competing with Japanese auto major Toyota for the 2nd place in the U.S. auto market, Toyota has topped Ford many times, including June this year.

Fords sales declined by 8.1% in June and also saw a decline in the shares. With the competing Japanese companies investing in hybrid cars and reaping profits, it is about time Ford took the hybrid car segment seriously. Hybrid cars have come in vogue due to the constantly rising oil prices and strong lobbying by environmentalists.

Ford recently announced a joint venture with California based power utility Southern California Edison to develop a new generation of rechargeable electric cars. The Chief Executives of both the companies are expected to make an announcement to the above effect soon.

SCE has been supportive to the cause of plug-in cars and will provide recharge facilities to these vehicles, saying that millions of these cars could be recharged at off peak periods. There is also a possibility that parked plug-ins transfer stored energy back to the electric grids, acting as a potential backup source but this possibility is still in experimental stages.

Ford was the first American automaker to launch a hybrid in the U.S. market (Escape in 2004) but backed off due to declining market shares and high production costs. With some officials at Ford admitting that the plug-in vehicles have engineering problems, the commitment of Ford to this project and the hybrid car segment on the whole may appear questionable.

Also, Ford has to be careful, that whatever they invest in isnt a risky venture by any means. It plans a sale of its British brands Land Rover and Jaguar in a bid to increase profits and lower costs, a failure in a big investment at this time may put the company in dire financial straits.

[Image: Hydrogencarsnow]

Read Posted by: Harshpaul      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:44:07 GMT

Australian Farmers Cut Trees to Protest

Protesting against laws by cutting trees at a time when each needs to be preserved is nothing short of disaster. This can no way be termed as civil disobedience since it is resulting in murder with death to the trees!

Australian farmers are chopping down thousands of trees every day in a dramatic protest against laws intended to curb the countrys fast-rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Fed up with government restrictions on the use of their land they started with one tree on Sunday, two on Monday and three yesterday, about 2,000 farmers began a campaign of killing trees that they have pledged to continue until the authorities relax land-clearing laws.

If the disagreement drags on, thousands of trees could be felled in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The Government says that the strict land-clearing laws are necessary to preserve forests to soak up carbon dioxide. Without legislation, the Government claims, vast areas would be cleared to increase acreage of arable land.

On the other hand the farmers insist that they have been trying for five years to have the land-clearing laws changed with no response and so have had to resort to this campaign.

Illegal land clearing has been an acute problem in the large states of New South Wales and Queensland. A WWF study in New South Wales estimated that in the seven years to 2005, 80 million reptiles and 13 million birds had been wiped out because of loss of habitat. About 340,000 hectares of land were cleared in Australia in 2005.

Its a sad state of affairs in a country, which has already started witnessing the harsh effects of global warming with severe droughts. Even then they do not seem to realize that their short-term goals will make them dig future graves.

Image credit: Darijus Strasunskas

Source: Telegraph Posted by: Kanchan      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:03:38 GMT

MINO Wireless Wants to Give Your Blackberry VoIP

Here's an excerpt from an email I received from MINO's Monica Appelbe:
MINO's technology blends both VoIP and standard line architectures by implementing call back technology, ensuring that the quality and reliability of mobile VoIP calls is comparable to cell calls. Since MINO does not rely on end-to-end IP, calls are just as safe as typical cell calls.

MINO's offering is available to both consumer and enterprise Blackberry users. MINO provides enterprises with pooling plans. With rates as low as 3.3 cents per minute to more than 40 countries around the world, businesses can save 70 to 80% on international calling. Businesses can easily deploy and manage MINO centrally, and securely.
In layman's terms, MINO Wireless wants you to know that with their service, you can make international calls from your Blackberry smartphone. In a much clearer, cheaper and more secure way, at least compared to other mobile VoIP services. Oh, and businesses can easily manage their employees' MINO usage through their Blackberry Enterprise Server.

MINO Wireless promises a more affordable of calling up foreign contacts, and are accepting trials for interested parties. Check out their website for more info.

Thanks for the heads-up Monica! Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:00:40 GMT

Bedrock

So many years ago, when Libby and I were in land-acqusition mode, we saw an ad for an 80-acre bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks and decided we wanted to see it. So we called the realtor and arranged to meet at a certain gas station beside the highway — it was only two lanes then — and follow him to this intriguing forest.

And we did. And then we followed him into this intriguing forest. At the time, Roundrock was a trackless wilderness. The road we rely on today wasn’t built, and the most obvious way into the woods (and allowing an obvious way out) was to follow the creek that more or less began at the corner of the property and more or less went down the center of it.

This was a hot day, and being fools, we hadn’t brought along any water. Nor had the realtor, who should have been experienced in this sort of thing.

But we pushed our way down the creekbed until we came to the spot you see above. That is actually some bedrock, exposed by the flow of the intermittent creek passing over it. This is a different part of our forest, which I wrote a bit about yesterday. Anyway, on our long-ago walk, the realtor stopped at this point, and we all commented about the heat.

Whether his next act was stage managed or whether it was spontaneous, I don’t know. He bent over this bit of exposed bedrock and dipped his hands into one of those standing pools of water. (Hard to see in the photo.) Then he splashed across the back of his neck to cool off. He said he wasn’t sure but he thought that this spot might actually be a spring. (The rest of the creek we had crunched down was dry at the time.)

To a couple of naive land buyers, this sounded magical. I’m sure he realized it. I think I had enuf savvy at the time to realize that he was probably trying to entice us, and I noted at the time that his “discovery” was tentative — that it might be a spring.

Our hike continued down the creek for a ways, and we had circumscribed the entire 80 acres later, so we eventually knew we wanted this woods, but as you might guess, this “spring” never turned out to be a spring. (There is a small seep spring farther down the creek, but it hardly qualifies, and he hadn’t pointed it out to us as we passed, so I don’t think he knew about it.) But in our many treks about our woods, we sometimes come to this spot, and unless it has rained in recent days, there is no water on this bedrock.

Missouri calendar:

• Dog-day cicadas begin to sing.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:58:30 GMT

Dangers of File Sharing

"The data was grabbed from a Pfizer employee's computer through peer-to-peer file-sharing software that was installed by the employee's spouse." ~Baseline Security (June 14)

Be careful when setting up your peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Make sure you lock out all non-essential files. If you don't then you to will be a victim of file theft. It's easy for other people on your peer-to-peer network to get into your computer and download whatever they like.

Security should be your number one concern when doing anything online. File sharing is no different, it may be even more important. It opens your computer up to all sorts of people. They may do more than just steal files too. They could essentially get into your computer and delete important file. They could even plant a virus. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:56:56 GMT

How to Deal with a Client with an Attitude

If you are running a business, then you are obliged to meet up with clients, discuss money matters and even seal deals. If you are running a home business, you may chance upon a client who's apprehensive of your services or just about any reason.

Call center agents may have some tactics on how to deal with irate clients.

But how about you? You're doing your thing as a home based businessperson and you suddenly encounter a client with an attitude. How do you deal with frank clients who can be fussy, or clients with an attitude? Such clients can give you a lot of stress - and raising your stress levels can lower your effectiveness as a manager, or even as a customer service representative who has to deal with clients all day.

So how do you deal with a client with an attitude? According to studies in risk perception, eighty percent of your body language gets the message across, so if you want to calm your client down, you have to be as calm yourself. If your client is angry or loud, be as calm and collected as possible.

Show your client that you are listening. Avoid crossing your legs or crossing your arms about your chest: this can make you appear stubborn and unwilling to help your client out. The key to effective client relations is showing how much you care for what your clients need, and what they think about your products or services.

Risk perception studies also show that we are least perceptive to information when we are panicking, so think that your client may not be in his or her right mind to make business decisions. Override this lack of perceptivity by explaining things slowly, using only a few words, and providing visual aids to help you out.

Last, compromise! You have to set standards to keep your business intact, but listen to clients, too. They may have an attitude, but they might have something valuable to say that can help you in the future. Posted by: noel      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:53:03 GMT

Four Tips for Not Wasting Your College Degree

I just ran across this article "Six Tips for Success Right Out of College," and I thought it was pretty good. Not being so young myself anymore, I realize that maybe I too have some advice to impart to those just getting started in the work world. I know I'm not sickeningly successful, but I make OK money, have a wife and kids that aren't starving, and I'm the author of this blog, so I can do what I want anyway so even if you don't want to listen to my wisdom I'm shoveling it upon you.

I've titled it "Four Tips for Not Wasting Your College Degree" because the truth is that once you have your first job, no one gives a rat's can about your degree or your GPA. It's all about what you can deliver. You're a rookie again. So, here's how to not blow it:

1. Think Like An Owner - If you have ever owned any type of business, as small as having a lemonade stand or a garage sale, you have in your head the many thoughts of an owner---"how much are we making?" and "how much are we spending?" being the most important. Just because you now have a job where someone else pays your salary doesn't mean you should sit back and forget these things. When you think like the owner of the business, you'll make better decisions about everything, including how long to dawdle at lunch and how many office supplies to squander. And those around you will notice, especially if you work for a small company where the owner him/herself might see your work.

2. Toot Your Own Horn - Do good work, and then let someone know about. Silent people at work will end up suffering in silence. Don't be an egomaniac or a blowhard, but let someone know about both the big things and the little things you've accomplished. Bosses tend to concentrate on what's NOT done instead of what IS done, so be sure to point out the many things you did---because no one else is going to point them out.

3. Make Connections - I've never been great at this, but it's so easy to look back and see where others helped you in your career once you've got a decade or so under your belt. Start making connections immediately, both with the oldsters at work and with those who are your own age. You never know when they will be in a position to help you, or you will be in a position to help them (just as important in terms of long-term career karma).

4. Ask What Else You Can Do - Oftentimes your first job isn't overly difficult, and it's tempting to just be a clock puncher. After all, you're making some money for the first time, you're young, so let's party. I know this because this was my attitude. I can't say it hurt my career, but when I see stories of people 5 years younger than me that are VPs at some big company, I know they didn't leave the office as soon as they could every day. So---ask what else you can do. Your older colleagues have work coming out of their ears, and they'll be grateful if you offer to take a little off of their hands. Plus, they'll remember you versus the other new recruits who are off at happy hour while they are just trying to get the heck out of the office so they can see their kids for 15 minutes before bedtime. This is a no-brainer way to differentiate yourself right off the bat.

I could probably think of more, but I gotta get out of here because my kids want to go see fireworks tonight. Posted by: Justin McHenry      Read more     Source

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:50:38 GMT

UNICEF: Pro-reading Campaign

UNICEF had launched this unique print advertisement campaign with a view to urge teenagers to develop habit of reading. The campaign is apparently making use of the general tendency of teenagers to try out those things that are forbidden or which are not considered appropriate.

UNICEF published this advertisement campaign in a time when teenagers are increasingly turning towards drugs and other bad habits and a book for them just meant for taking cocaine or joint. The advertisements are showing a book is being used for taking joints and cocaine and the correct use of those books is being grossly ignored.

The campaign has attempted to raise a question among teenagers that if reading were forbidden like drugs would they be tempted to try. However, the presentation of the campaign seems to be struggling to bring out the real idea to urge teenagers to read books rather spending time in worthless activities.

The copy of the campaign reads, If reading were be forbidden would you be tempted to try. The campaign is credited to MC/CD Advertising.

Via twenty Four Posted by: Balendu      Read more     Source