Monthly Archives: March 2010
Mar 31 2010
Russia Suicide bombings kill 12 in Moscow

Suicide bombers killed 12 people in double strikes targeting police in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus, shaking the country just two days after attacks in Moscow left 39 dead.

Speaking on this issue, the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the latest attack in the North Caucasus region may be linked to the strikes on the Moscow metro by two female suicide bombers, as the authorities moved to prevent a resurgence of militant violence.

Nine police including a local police chief were among the dead in the double attack in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, a region on the Caspian Sea already wracked by an Islamist insurgency.

Wednesday’s first blast was caused by a car occupied by a suicide bomber that blew up when police tried to stop it during a regular check in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan, officials said.

The force of the first blast left a massive crater in the road and reduced surrounding cars to burned-out wrecks, television pictures showed.

After 20 minutes, another blast was triggered by a second suicide bomber wearing a police uniform who approached law enforcement officials working at the scene of the first blast, a spokeswoman for the Dagestani interior ministry told AFP.

The spokesman Nizami Radzhabov said the first blast was caused by explosives of 200 kilogrammes of TNT equivalent stuffed into a Niva jeep “in which there was a suicide bomber”, Interfax reported.

The investigative committee of Russian prosecutors said in a statement that 12 people were killed, nine of them police, and 23 were wounded.

The new attacks were the latest blow to Russian leaders who pledged after Monday’s Moscow metro blasts to hunt down and destroy the organisers of the suicide bombings who they said had links to North Caucasus militant groups. Muslim Dagestan has been one of the Caucasus regions most troubled by militant violence, along with Chechnya and Ingushetia.

As per the reports, militants had recruited 30 potential suicide bombers in recent months, with 21 still at large after nine already blew themselves up.

The Moscow female suicide bombers blew themselves up within 40 minutes of each other in the morning rush hour at stations in the centre of the city.

The latest explosions come as Russia buried the first two victims of Monday’s blasts, with an increased police presence tangible in the still tense capital.

Police were searching for a possible male accomplice who is reported to have accompanied the female bombers to Moscow and was photographed by surveillance cameras.

Russian police have also released grainy but grisly photographs to media showing the severed heads of the two bombers’ corpses.

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Mar 31 2010
A new painless blood sugar level monitor for diabetics

If you’re a diabetic sufferer or know of anyone that has this condition then you’ll know that measuring your blood sugar level on a daily basis is vital, or risk serious side affects. To help diabetics deal with this need, special hand held meters with a small needle at the end is used several times a day to take readings. Most people with diabetes will tell you with a brave face that this ritual is all part of their life, though having to constantly prick your finger to draw blood each day must make for an uncomfortable routine.

Fortunately a helpful new device has been designed to make this process pain free and effortless. The new blood sugar measuring product is called the ‘Symphony tCGM’ and is a Transdermal continuous glucose monitoring system manufactured by Echo Therapeutics based in Franklin Massachusetts. This new monitoring machine is a wireless device that consists of two parts, a small skin patch the size of a small coin and a central glucose biosensor, which gives you your body’s glucose reading.

To use this device a person attaches the small skin patch directly to a freshly shaved bit of skin, which is then worn on the body through out the day. The hand held biosensor device can then give the person constant accurate readings of their blood sugar level. This system works using electrical pulses emitted by the small skin patch; these pulses penetrate the skin and measure the amount of glucose that the body has while leaving through the body’s capillaries. Tests have shown that the detection accuracy is roughly 97% accurate, the same as the needle monitoring device. The skin patches can be left on your body while you sleep and shower, but must be replaced every two days.

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Mar 31 2010
RegCure: Optimize your PC speed and performance

You must have heard about ParetoLogic earlier. Well this famous software publisher has recently brought a new product, which excelled in all expectations with its performance. It brought ‘RegCure’.

RegCure is a software program hard coded to clean your registry entries and optimize your PC performance. You will no longer experience the simultaneous freezing or slowing of your PC speed. You will get them back on track to perform their best.

Simply buy, install and hit the run to scan your PC. RegCure will do the rest for you. It is a registry cleaner that back ups and restore your PC registry. You will have the program to run manually or automatically and it comes with built in scheduler. It organizes your start up items and removes unnecessary shell and class key extensions.

Easy to customize and with a user friendly control interface RegCure will help you to remove all the invalid entries along with DLL entries. Soon you get the program run on your PC, you will see its optimum performance. No more freezing, no more slow performance. Your PC will be geared for faster operation with RegCure.

Get RegCure now, help your PC from frequent crashing!

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Mar 31 2010
Online Community Unconference

I’m writing to let you know that the early bird pricing of $145 for the Online Community Unconference ends on April 23rd. The Online Community Unconference is a low-cost, high-value opportunity to connect with other smart online community and social media pros. Join us on June 9th, in Mountain View, CA for an energizing day of networking and discussions on timely and relevant online community and social media topics. Go here to register.

Current attendee organizations include social media and community practitioners from Genentech, Panasonic, Linden Lab, Wells Fargo, LinkedIn, Google, Microsoft, Skoll Foundation, NetApp, Autodesk, SEGA, Jigsaw, Flickr, Rosetta Stone, Care2.com, and many more.

More details below:

*****

EVENT REGISTRATION PAGE: https://ocu2010-m2.eventbrite.com

*****

The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community professionals – managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors – to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community and social media development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.

The Online Community Unconference is inspired by the emerging “open space” conference format. Go here for highlights our recent Unconference in New York. You may also download the Book of Proceedings from last year’s Online Community Unconference, which includes a summary of the event, notes from many of the sessions, and photographs from the event.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View is a unique venue with plenty of parking and WiFi. Lunch and snacks will be provided, and the museum exhibits will be open to the group during the breaks. We also have a fabulous new Open Space facilitator this year: Heidi Nobantu Saul.

Register by April 23rd and take advantage of the early bird rate of $145. The admission price is $195 April 24th through May 26th, and $250 on or after May 27th. On-site registration is $295. Fee is fully refundable prior to May 9th, not refundable after (but admission is transferable). Click here to register.

An extensive FAQ has been posted here: https://www.forumonenetworks.com/ocu_faq

EVENT REGISTRATION PAGE: https://ocu2010-m2.eventbrite.com

Please contact me directly for more information about the event and for sponsorship opportunities.

If you have any difficulty in registration, please contact me directly.

Best,

Jim Cashel
Chairman

Forum One Communications

Phone:  703.652.4374
Twitter:  @cashel

www.forumone.com

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Mar 31 2010
Facebook Apple iTunes Page

If you like the App Store, you’ll be no doubt thrilled to know that you can now Like it. Similar to its previous Facebook page for iTunes, Apple has now launched an official App Store page where the company plans to dish out “free exclusive offers.

Check it out here:

If you like the App Store, you’ll be no doubt thrilled to know that you can now Like it. Similar to its previous Facebook page for iTunes, Apple has now launched an official App Store page where the company plans to dish out “free exclusive offers, hot tips, tutorials, and more.”

Website:
https://www.itunes.com/appstore
Company Overview:
From business to games, education to entertainment, finance to health and fitness, productivity to social networking, there’s an app for just about anything. Find them all on the App Store. And you can download many for free. Search and browse apps just as you would music or movies. Use Genius Recommendations for apps on your iPhone or iPod touch to find new apps based on ones you already have.
Mission:
Join the App Store page on Facebook to get free exclusive offers, share your favorite apps with friends and get hot tips, tutorials, and more.
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Mar 31 2010
Beer Caves

Aging your ale.

The surly Goat in West Hollywood

27 beers on tap

LA Chess Boxing – 5 years ago, road of chess and a round of boxing

Brains and Brawn

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Mar 31 2010
A new chapter in the endless war on drugs

Meow, Mkat, drone, there are many names for this popular designer drug which has been making the headlines recently. mephedrone has been reported to have similar stimulating affects as the popular party drug ‘ecstasy’, users feel excitement, euphoria, an increased heart beat, and rushes of energy; the one major difference is that mephedrone is a legal high. It made an appearance on the underground club scene several years ago; no one knows where it originated from, though they speculate that certain people are designing substances that can get around the government restricted lists.

Currently mephedrone has been made illegal in the U.S, Canada, Sweden and Finland, but still remains legal and available for purchase in the United Kingdom. After reports of the drug being linked to the deaths of 27 people globally and most recently two teenaged boys in the U.K. its status as a legal drug is now being quickly reassessed. There is no doubt that mephedrone is a potentially harmful substance, as there have been no medical tests conducted to find out what the long term and short term side affects are. In fact it hasn’t been around long enough for the side affects (if any) to become visible in regular users. The biggest worry regarding the criminalization of mephedrone is whether it will do more harm than good; as history shows that making drugs illegal creates a stronger demand for them and puts the production into the hands of criminal cartels, essentially worsening the situation. Currently this drug is being produced legally under controlled conditions in laboratories in China; the upside to this is that the quality is guaranteed to be a high percentage.  

Human beings have been taking drugs for recreation in some form or other for centuries and more likely then not, will continue to do so. Perhaps the solution to the dilemma lies in the reasons why humans choose to use chemical substances to escape from life and reality.

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Mar 31 2010
LA Garden Show 2010

Just when you thought you had enough tomatoes…you might find four, or five, or fifteen you’ve got to grow at the TOMATOMANIA! booth at the LA Garden Show! You know you can find more room.

We’ll aim for the weirdest and most wonderful this weekend at the Arboretum. You just won’t be able to resist. Time to rip out more of the lawn!

April 30 – May 2

LA Garden Show
Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden
301 Baldwin Ave.
Arcadia, CA
626.821.3222
www.arboretum.org

TOMATOMANIA! • The World’s Largest Tomato Seedling Sale
CONTACT US: Scott Daigre
137 N. Larchmont Boulevard, #510
Los Angeles, CA 90004
tomatomaniahq@aol.com

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Mar 31 2010
Jesse James Checks into Rehab

Jesse James Checks into Rehab.
Also photo coming out with wearing a Nazi outfit.

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Mar 30 2010
AT&T Poor Network Coverage for iPhone 3G Network Los Angeles

AT&T Poor Network Coverage for iPhone 3G Network Los Angeles

Reports continue to circulate that Apple and AT&T are working to improve the well documented troubles with the AT&T network ability to maintain support for Apple’s every popular iPhone 3G devices.

I have been on the AT&T network for about a month after switching over from t-Mobile and have to admit that AT&T is barely better in some respects in terms of coverage in the Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale areas.

I drop calls in just about the same areas as I did with t-mobile. For instance tonight at the Americana at Brand, for at least 15-20 minutes I had full bars with 3G service but could not connect to any data services, Google was not working, email was not working, it was quite frustrating. All the while the phone is draining power as fast as one can count. The battery drain is quit quick with 3G turned on.

As reports roll in that AT&T is working on improving their network, this comes after a blitz by Verizon to prove that it has a better network.
It is pretty common knowledge that Verizon has a more reliable network based on CDMA and EVDO for data. Where as AT&T is based on GSM and HSPA 7.2 for 3G data services.

What do we expect with the new release of iPhones reported to be coming out in June – July 2010 time frame?

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