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I’m still in the calm before the storm. My power bill hasn’t spiked yet and won’t for another couple months. But I can only fight off the inevitable with open windows and fans for so long. Eventually, I’ll have to crank up my deafening air conditioner to combat the 90 degree F days (or worse).
So what can I do in the meantime to help keep my bills low? An easy start is to unplug those energy-draining appliances and gadgets that suck vampire power from helpless sockets. Vampire power, also known as phantom load, is a result of standby mode, a deceptive, costly state of electronic existence. While gadgets might look like they’re switched to “off,” many continue to supply power to certain systems and display screens. Cell-phone adapters and other chargers give off a constant charge — even if there’s nothing plugged into the other end.
The word is officially out on the swine flu and the danger it could potentially cause the human race. Our science bloggers Robert and Allison have done a nice job covering the issue so far here and here so I won’t cover those details here.
However, I came across this article on Marketwatch today that was kind of interesting. Seems that the swine flu scare has caused oil prices to drop some and has actually boosted the American dollar a bit. The price of oil fell about five percent this morning, settling in at $48.77 per barrell. As concerns of a pandemic spread, risky assets like stocks tend to go down. It turns out that oil traders take the stock market performance as a cue for overall economy, which is why oil prices tend to rise and fall with what’s happening on Wall St.
Sadly, there’s more bad news out of Detroit today. In a statement released earlier this morning, General Motors officially announced “The Pontiac brand will be phased out by the end of 2010.”
I’m sure most of you had heard the rumors circulating last week regarding the Pontiac brand, but I still think it’s worth a few minutes to take a quick look at the official press release from GM.
According to Time Magazine, Moot is the most influential person in the World – he’s winner of the “third annual TIME 100 poll”: The World’s Most Influential Person Is… The 21-year-old college student and founder of the online community 4chan.org, whose real name is Christopher Poole, received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of [...]
SYMHC listener Beka sent us a request for more information about les filles du roi, or the king’s daughters. As far as I can tell, this is a pretty exclusive group today, not unlike the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). If you can prove your direct genealogical connection to a member of les filles du roi, you’re eligible for membership in La Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, Inc.
So who were les filles du roi? In 17th-century New France (comprised of Canada, Acadia, Newfoundland and Louisiana), France had a boomingly successful fur trade. Fur profits almost entirely funded the forts and settlements that were erected in New France. It was a hunter’s paradise, but one thing was missing: women. When the colony was young, men flooded in to establish the shipping and trading posts. By 1663, the population of New France was just 3,000 — occupying about 1 percent of the colony.
U.S. health officials declared swine flu a public health emergency Sunday. According to an article in the New York Times, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quantified that move by comparing it to preparations for a hurricane: The storm might not hit, but everyone needs to be prepared. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also stressed that the situation is still very much evolving — but into what?
Virtual Environment Promises Full XP Compatibility for Windows 7
by Chris Pollette | April 27, 2009
Yes, you read that right. This morning I read on Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows that Windows 7 will have an XP Mode. This will make backwards compatibility an easier leap for Windows 7 users.
As Ina Fried points out in an article on CNET, XPM, as it’s known, is based on the technology that Microsoft acquired from Connectix back in 2003. That software, called Virtual PC, let you run Windows in a virtual environment on a Mac. Thus XPM will be running XP in a virtual environment inside Windows 7. The big difference here is that you won’t be running the virtual environment in a separate window, as usually happens. XPM lets you run XP apps side-by-side.
So it looks like Microsoft is willing to support XP in some form after all, especially since to run XPM, you’d have to have a fully licensed copy of XP running alongside Windows 7.
Benjamin Franklin Letters Discovered
by Jane McGrath | April 27, 2009
A recent discovery having to do with Benjamin Franklin gave me the perfect excuse to satisfy a request from podcast fan Chris for us to cover more early American history topics. Incidentally, a friend of mine, also named Chris, has encouraged me to blog about the awesomeness that is Franklin. So, it must be fate that I write about the famous Founding Father today.
In 1757, Benjamin Franklin traveled to London as a representative of the Pennsylvania assembly to prove to the British that he and the assembly had been loyal to the crown during the French and Indian War. As evidence, he brought with him what he later called in his autobiography a “Quire Book of Letters.” This was a collection of letters to, from and about Franklin concerning his part in the “wagon affair” with British General Braddock. Although historians knew of their existence, until now, the details of these letters have been lost to history.
Have you ever watched an expert pen-spinner twirl a pen in class and wondered how to do it? Here is a tutorial that will lead you through several of the basic moves: See also this pen spinning tutorial for rank beginners: Practice makes perfect… See also: Pentrix.com Other “how to” articles: – How to pick [...]
The tech world is abuzz this morning over the Samsung I7500, a smartphone that will run on the Google Android operating system. According to infoSync, the phone will have a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera with an LED flash, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and an on-screen keyboard. This sets it apart from the first Android phone, the HTC-G1, which had a physical keyboard, no headphone jack and no flash for its camera.
The phone will become available in Europe this summer. There’s no word yet if Samsung will expand the market to other parts of the world. But infoSync reports that T-Mobile customers in the United States may be able to purchase an unlocked version of the phone, slip in a SIM card and use it on T-Mobile’s 3G network in the U.S.
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