You've never heard a conversation like this! Check out this clip from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as heart throb Brad Pitt "talks" to Jimmy from a New York City rooftop.
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
T-Mobile gets the Sony Xperia Z this summer
T-Mobile U.S. has announced that (as was rumored) it'll carry the Sony Xperia Z "in the coming weeks." No pricing was announced. It'll be available in black and, for a limited time, in purple.
The phone looks to be the same that we reviewed some weeks ago -- 5-inch display at 1080p (and with Sony's Bravia 2 engine), 13-megapixel camera and, more important -- it'll work just fine on T-Mobile's fledgling LTE network.
More: Xperia Z at T-Mobile
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/iS-MK1NrcRc/story01.htm
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Best time to drive a hybrid? When traffic is bad.
Hybrid cars can cost thousands of dollars more than their traditional counterparts, but in cities racked with congestion, they can easily save nearly that much in gas, a Carnegie Mellon University study found.
The Toyota Prius C hybrid is displayed on the final press preview day for the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mich., in 2012. The steep cost of a hybrid can be most effectively made up by drivers who spend at least 90 percent of their time on city roads, a study says.
Mike Cassese/Reuters/File
EnlargeShow us someone who actively enjoys getting stuck in heavy traffic and we'll show you someone with nothing better to do.
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But if you have little choice but to sit in that traffic on your way to work, a new study shows you'd be best off with a hybrid vehicle.
You probably didn't need a study to tell you that, of course--a look at the EPA window sticker of any hybrid vehicle will quickly show off its strengths.
The study, conducted by Carnegie Mellon University (via the Pittsburg Business Times), does put numbers on the hybrid car's benefits, showing you just how much better such a car is when faced with a congested commute.
Hybrids aren't bad on the highway either, but there the benefits are much smaller given the cars' extra cost over conventional vehicles.
"Hybrid and plug-in vehicles cost more without much benefit to the environment," said CMU's professor of mechanical engineering and policy, Jeremy Michalek, in a statement.
While some hybrid vehicles do offer impressive highway figures--cars like the Toyota Prius remain right at the top of the EPA's highway mileage lists--the gap to regular vehicles is much smaller than it is in city driving.
Hybrid versus non-hybrid
To offer some perspective, take a car like the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze Eco.
Its 42 mpg highway rating is only 6 mpg below that of the 2013 Toyota Prius--a 12.5 percent drop, while costing $4,000 less to buy. Yet look to city mileage, and the margin is much greater--the Cruze Eco's 28 mpg is a 23 mpg, or 45 percent drop.
Effectively, the Prius driver is going twice as far on every gallon in the city, rather than just a few miles further on the highway. At 12,000 miles per year, with gas at $3.66 per gallon (current average on the EPA's fueleconomy.gov site) and a 90 percent city commute, the Prius would make up $3,000 of that price $4K difference in gas alone.
It's an extreme example (though doesn't take into account an inevitable rise in gas prices), but illustrates the chasm between hybrids and regular vehicles in the city. A plug-in hybrid would save even more.
CMU's data suggests that overall, choosing a hybrid vehicle for use in congested cities could reduce lifetime costs by 20 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions in half.
The study warns against another factor too: Aggressive driving. That can cut a vehicle's range by 40 percent or more, says the study. That does apply to any vehicle though, and will certainly have an effect on battery electric vehicles where every mile counts.
CMU's study was funded by the National Science Foundation, along with Ford and Toyota.
We'd normally advise a pinch of salt when carmakers with a vested interest get involved, but the study's results are simply common sense. As ever, how you drive, what you drive and where you drive all have an influence on just how green your journey is. Buy a vehicle that suits your needs, and remember:
Your. Mileage. May. Vary.
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gt68gO3KQ7Q/Best-time-to-drive-a-hybrid-When-traffic-is-bad
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Monday, June 17, 2013
Shawn Stefani aces 17 in US Open
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) ? Shawn Stefani lost track of the ball as soon it rocketed off his 4-iron.
A roaring U.S. Open gallery tracked it for him.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!"
It did Sunday when Stefani aced the 17th hole, making him the first golfer to make a hole-in-one at any U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, which is hosting the major for the fifth time.
"When the crowd went crazy, I knew it went in," he said.
His shot bounced out of the rough and rolled some 50 feet toward the pin before falling in the cup.
Stefani raised his arms and hopped around the tee in celebration. Caddie Chris Callas gave him a playful hug and a slap on the back.
"I didn't know what to do but jump up and down for joy," Stefani said.
Then he walked down the 229-yard, par-3 hole and planted a kiss on the sweet spot where it landed.
"We're in Philly. There's some great fans up here and I know they can be tough on you and they can love you forever," he said.
USGA Museum officials waited for Stefani near the scorecard trailer and hoped to acquire the ball. Stefani declined.
"It's hiding right now," he said. "I'm going to save it."
But he did pull the ball out of his pocket and showed it off. He also inquired about getting some sort of commemorative plaque from Merion.
The USGA's Far Hills, N.J. museum didn't go home empty-handed ? Stefani donated a signed glove and scorecard.
His only other ace came when he was 13 at Goose Creek Country Club in Baytown, Texas, his hometown.
It was the first ace at Merion, but not at a Philadelphia Open. The first U.S. Open hole-in-one came in 1907, when Jack Hobens aced the 147-yard 10th hole at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shawn-stefani-aces-17-us-open-182341789.html
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Ark. Sen. Pryor hit from right, left before 2014
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) ? The conservative Club for Growth tags Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor as President Barack Obama's "closest ally" in the state. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun-control advocacy group says Pryor "let us down."
Pryor's re-election race is 17 months away, but the Democratic incumbent seen as perhaps the most vulnerable in 2014 is already taking hits from the right and the left. That's forced the second-term senator to aggressively defend himself and step into re-election mode sooner than planned, even though he has no Republican opponent.
"My goal right now is to put the campaign off until the election year, 2014," Pryor told reporters recently. "They keep dragging me back into the politics, they keep running ads and trying to keep it stirred it up here."
Republicans are trying to unseat Pryor and three other Democratic incumbents who represent states that Republican Mitt Romney won in last year's presidential race: Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Democrats need to defend 21 seats, including seven in largely rural states that Obama lost in 2012.
Republicans need to pick up six seats to regain Senate control. But the GOP is defending fewer incumbents and could benefit from history: The party controlling the White House usually loses seats during the midterm election of a second-term president.
Pryor, who began airing his first television ad last month, faces pressure especially early in Arkansas. He's trying to survive in a state where Republicans enjoyed widespread gains over the past two election cycles, fueled by Obama's unpopularity.
The GOP controls both chambers of the Legislature and all four U.S. House seats. In 2010, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln lost her bid for a third term. Last year, Republicans swept all four House seats and won control of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.
National and state Republicans are eager to topple Pryor, whose father, David, was a senator and governor. It's a turnaround from 2008, when Republicans were unable to find anyone to challenge Mark Pryor and he easily won a second term.
"When you hear Arkansas Democrats try to spin things for Mark Pryor, the only things they can point to is he's raised a lot of money, he's got a high name ID and the fact his father is popular," David Ray, a spokesman for the state GOP. "That's not a very strong place to start."
Among Republicans, U.S. Reps. Tom Cotton and Steve Womack are widely viewed as potential challengers.
So far, Pryor is taking heat from outside groups rather than a challenger. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee, has begun airing $320,000 worth of television ads criticizing Pryor's 2009 vote for the federal health care law and calling him too liberal.
The conservative Club for Growth, which backed Cotton last year, has aired ads linking Pryor to Obama.
At the same time, Pryor has absorbed criticism from the left after voting against expanded background checks for firearms purchases.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Bloomberg group, is airing television and radio ads criticizing Pryor for the vote. The ad invokes the shooting death of Bill Gwatney, the state Democratic Party chairman who was killed in his office in 2008. Bloomberg has also urged New York donors to not contribute to Pryor or the other Democratic senators who voted against the background checks measure in April.
"When my dear innocent friend was shot to death, I didn't blame guns. I blamed a system that makes it so terribly easy for criminals or the dangerous mentally ill to buy guns," Angela Bradford-Barnes, who worked with Gwatney, says in the ad. "That's why I was so disappointed when Mark Pryor voted against comprehensive background checks. On that vote, he let us down."
Robert McLarty, a Democratic consultant in Little Rock who's not affiliated with Pryor's campaign, said the senator's biggest challenge right now is that he doesn't have an announced opponent while he's fending off attacks from both sides.
"He's not able to direct a compare and contrast style campaign," McLarty said. "He's not able to take a candidate on the other side and say this is how we differ."
But McLarty and others say Pryor is in a better position than Lincoln was in 2010.
She survived a bruising Democratic primary with the help of former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for her. But she lost handily in the fall of 2010. Pryor has higher approval figures than Lincoln did and appears unlikely at this point to draw a serious primary challenger next spring.
Clinton headlined a March fundraiser to kick off Pryor's re-election bid, helping him raise more than $1 million in a night. Pryor reported having more than $3.4 million in the bank for the 2014 race.
"The reason this is a race of national significance is because it's about whether a senator who cares about his own people more than ideological purity can be financed, elected, lifted by the people he has served in the face of all these crazy currents that are taking America and tearing it to shreds," Clinton said at the event.
Pryor is trying to find middle ground on issues such as gun control, where he contends his vote represents a constituency that values hunting and gun rights. He's also argued that a competing measure he supported that was endorsed by the National Rifle Association would have done more to address gun violence.
The NRA has also stepped in to help Pryor, with a radio ad airing in the state thanking the lawmaker for his vote.
Without an opponent, Pryor is casting the fight over gun control as one with Bloomberg.
"The mayor of New York City is running ads against me because I opposed President Obama's gun control legislation. Nothing in the Obama plan would have prevented tragedies like Newtown, Aurora, Tucson or even Jonesboro," Pryor says in his television ad. "I'm committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our Second Amendment rights."
When Bloomberg's group ran ads before the background checks vote, Pryor responded: "I don't take gun advice from the mayor of New York City. I listen to Arkansans."
He's also distanced himself from Obama and national Democrats on other issues. He's opposed gay marriage despite a growing chorus of support from lawmakers from his party in other states and criticized the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups.
Pryor said he's trying to keep his focus on Arkansas.
"All I can do is be the very best senator I can be. I wish these outside groups would let me do that and not have to fool around with the election," Pryor said. "People in Arkansas are tired of the election. They want us to get up to Washington and take care of the nation's business."
___
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
___
Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ark-sen-pryor-hit-left-2014-085128242.html
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Spurs, Heat defined by stability at the top
Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra walks the sideline against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half at Game 4 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Thursday, June 13, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra walks the sideline against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half at Game 4 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Thursday, June 13, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich watches his team during NBA basketball practice, Saturday, June 15, 2013, in San Antonio. The Spurs host the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, with the best-of-seven games series even at 2-2. (AP Photo/El Nuevo Herald, David Santiago) MAGS OUT
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, left, Vice President Basketball Operations Nick Arison, center, and Miami Heat President Pat Riley walk to the court before Game 3 in the NBA basketball finals series between the Heat and the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. (AP Photo/El Nuevo Herald, David Santiago)
San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt reacts during during the second half at Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Miami Heat, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? Front offices across the NBA seem to be panicking a bit these days. Job security has long been an oxymoron for coaches in this league, but even by that what-have-you-done-for-me-lately standard, this offseason has been a particularly volatile one.
Twelve coaches have been fired since the season ended, including the coach of the year and five others who led teams to the playoffs.
Setting franchise records for victories in a season gets you fired these days. Leading your team to the Western Conference finals gets you fired these days. One tough season coaching a roster full of dead-legged journeymen and still-learning rookies gets you fired these days.
"Coaching has never been valued less and blamed more," said ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy, former coach of the Knicks and Rockets. "Failure gets you fired and success gets you fired."
While the ground all around them has never been more unstable, the last two coaches standing this season have found the kind of level footing that has become increasingly rare. The San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat, tied 2-2 in the NBA Finals heading into Sunday night's Game 5, have become the models for stability and managed to rise above the chaotic fray engulfing much of the rest of the league.
"I think it's a terrible state for the profession right now," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We see it differently, the San Antonio organization and the Miami Heat organization. (To have) true success in the NBA you must have consistency of culture. When you see that type of turnover over and over and over, it's impossible to create any kind of sustainable consistent culture."
The Nuggets, Clippers, Grizzlies, Bucks, Nets and Hawks all fired their coaches after playoff runs this season. The Bobcats fired Mike Dunlap after one season on the job, while Mike Brown made it all of five games into his second season with the Lakers before he was run out of town.
Brooklyn owner Mikhail Prokhorov fired two coaches this season ? Avery Johnson less than a month after he was the Eastern Conference coach of the month and P.J. Carlesimo after the Nets lost to the Bulls in the playoffs.
"It's disappointing that Lionel Hollins takes his team to the Western Conference finals and they are going to go in another direction," Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Magic Johnson said last week about the situation in Memphis. "You can't get better than Lionel Hollins, and you can't get better with what you have; just a tremendous season.
"Do I like what's going on today? No."
Warren LeGarie represents some of the biggest names in the coaching business, including Hollins. He said he doesn't see a crisis brewing, but he does believe periods of upheaval like this "are going to become more common than not."
"No matter what, you've got to keep your seat belts fastened because there's a lot of turbulence out there," LeGarie said. "I tell my guys to try to improve their relationship with the front office as much as possible and keep the lines of communication open. No one likes surprises."
George Karl led the Nuggets to the playoffs in all eight of his seasons and earned coach of the year honors this year after helping a starless team set a franchise record with 57 victories. He told The Denver Post that he thought the decision to fire him was "very stupid," and Gregg Popovich won't argue with him.
In his 17th season as coach of the Spurs, Popovich is the longest tenured coach in the league. The manic approach that many NBA owners take to changing coaches, in his eyes, runs counter to the philosophies that made many of them successful in other pursuits.
"As you think about it, it seems like it would apply no matter what your business is," Popovich said. "If you can have continuity, a good group, a team, so to speak, and all that that entails and keep it in a continuous manner so that it grows more or less upon itself, within itself and the knowledge and understanding continues to grow you have a pretty good understanding. You can deal with adversity and you cannot get too pumped up about success but just enjoy it and realize how fleeting it might be.
"But the change, change, change, change, change thing doesn't really work. You can see that in a lot of organizations."
Spoelstra has only been on the job five seasons, but that makes the baby-faced 42-year-old a relative gray beard in this business. He is the third-longest tenured coach in the league behind Popovich and Boston's Doc Rivers.
It all starts at the top, with Spurs owner Peter Holt and Heat owner Micky Arison long considered two of the more level-headed owners in the league. Arison has worked with President Pat Riley since 1995, while Holt, GM R.C. Buford and Popovich have been the power trio in San Antonio since 1997.
"The continuity I think breeds, it breeds trust, it breeds camaraderie, it breeds a feeling of responsibility that each member holds towards the other," Popovich said. "The ability to be excited for each other's success, not to develop territory and walls, but to stay participatory. To be able to discuss, to argue and come out at the end on the same page with the same passion and the same goals."
"And I think without continuity that's pretty impossible, because all the immediate tendencies of instant success starts to take over and that just breeds failure."
The tranquility, and volatility, seems to trickle down to the players. Before coming to the Heat three years ago, Chris Bosh spent seven seasons in Toronto. He played for three different coaches and five different general managers in that time and only made the playoffs twice.
"I've been a part of organizations where the GMs and coaches have been like musical chairs," Bosh said. "It's hard to get stability. The players are in and out. Here it's comforting to know you can work with the same people and get to know the same people."
If there was any team that could be tempted to bow to public pressure it is the Heat. Playing under a white-hot spotlight ever since LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Bosh teamed up in the summer of 2010 has brought unparalleled scrutiny. Spoelstra was deemed by some not experienced enough to coach such a star-laden roster, and Bosh has heard calls for him to be traded for two years.
The Heat ignored all of that and now find themselves in their third straight finals, two victories away from their second straight championship.
"When people don't see success right away, they just want to fire everybody and trade everybody and move on from there," Bosh said. "It takes patience. I think a lot of people up top understand that. The coaching staff understands that. I think now we're in a position to really be successful, hopefully, for a while."
___
Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
World's deepest ERT imaging system for CO2 sequestration developed
June 12, 2013 ? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have broken the record for tracking the movement and concentration of carbon dioxide in a geologic formation using the world's deepest Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) system.
The research provides insight into the effects of geological sequestration to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gases.
The team led by LLNL's Charles Carrigan obtained time lapse electrical resistivity images during the injection of more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) more than 10,000 feet deep in an oil and gas field in Cranfield, Miss., which represents the deepest application of the imaging technique to date. The previous depth record of about 2,100 feet was held by the CO2SINK Project Consortium in Ketzin, Germany.
"The images provide information about both the movement of the injected CO2 within a complex geologic formation and the change with time of the distribution of CO2 in the porous sandstone reservoir," Carrigan said.
Deep geologic sequestration of CO2 is being evaluated internationally to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gases produced during oil- and coal-based energy generation and manufacturing. Natural gas producing fields are particularly appealing sites for sequestration activities because the same geologic barrier or cap rock permitting the subsurface regime to act as a long term natural gas reservoir also can serve to permanently contain the injected CO2.
ERT allowed Xianjin Yang, another member of the LLNL team, to make a movie of the expanding CO2 plume as it fills the sandstone region between the two electrode wells. To do this required analyzing months of data and using only the highest quality results to produce the images.
The team reports on the design, placement and imaging from the world's deepest ERT system in the June 1 online issue of the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. The research also will appear in an upcoming print copy of the journal.
ERT can potentially track the movement and concentration of the injected CO2 as well as the degree of geologic containment using time-lapse electrical resistivity changes resulting from injecting the fluid into the reservoir formation.
Installing each ERT array in the sequestration reservoir required designing all cabling and electrodes, which were externally mounted on the borehole casing, to survive the trip more than 10,000 feet down a crooked borehole with walls made jagged by broken rocks.
The team then used the ERT array in a challenging environment of high temperature (260 degrees Fahrenheit), high pressure (5,000 psi) and high corrosive fluids to effectively detect CO2 breakthroughs and CO2 saturation changes with time.
"This is a near-real time remote monitoring tool for tracking CO2 migration with time lapse tomographic images of CO2 concentration," Carrigan said.
When converted to CO2 concentration, the images provided information about the movement of the injected CO2 within a complex geologic formation as well as how the storage of the CO2 changed with time.
Carrigan said that given concerns about injection-induced fracturing of the cap rock seal causing leakage of CO2 from the reservoir, higher-resolution ERT also may have an application as an "early-warning" system for the formation of fracture pathways in cap rock that could result in environmental damage to overlying or nearby water resources. Another potential application involves monitoring the boundary of a sequestration lease to ensure that CO2 does not migrate across the boundary to an adjacent parcel.
The ERT project is part the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB) Cranfield project near Natchez, Miss., which has become the fifth ERT system worldwide and the first in the United States to inject more than a million tons of CO2 into the sub-surface.
The Cranfield study, which was led by Susan Hovorka of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, was funded by Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory under contract to the Southern States Energy Board.
Video: https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/Jun/attach/cranfield.mov
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