Guest Post – Page 1061 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

MasterCard and Amazon.com Present the 2010 Holiday Toy List

By Guest PostNovember 1, 20101 commentTechnology2010, Amazon, barbie, books, electronics, holiday toy list, kids, leapfrog, lego, mastercard, movies, music, nintendo, sarah wood, sporting goods, toys, video games

*Holiday toy shopping just got easier – customers get FREE Two-Day Shipping when they use their MasterCard*

SEATTLE, Nov 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com, Inc. today unveiled the annual 2010 Holiday Toy List (www.amazon.com/holidaytoylist), where customers can find this season’s hottest toys, video games, sporting goods, electronics, music, movies and books for kids. New this year, customers can get FREE Two-Day Shipping, or a $10 credit towards a future purchase for Amazon Prime members, when they use a MasterCard to purchase $75 or more in eligible items from the Holiday Toy List. Visit www.amazon.com/htl-promo for details.

“At Amazon we are focused on making holiday shopping simple and cost effective for parents, friends and family members,” said Sarah Wood, director of the Toy & Games Store for Amazon.com. “We know saving money is very important to our customers, and now when they use their MasterCard to purchase select items from the Holiday Toy List they can get faster shipping at no additional cost.” (more…)

Customer Spotlight: Windows 7 Platform to Push the Boundaries of Innovation for 3M

By Guest PostNovember 1, 20101 commentTechnology3m, employee, it resources, john turner, Microsoft, pc startup, windows 7

*Windows 7 streamlines PC management and boosts employee productivity, driving 3M’s decision to implement a companywide upgrade.*

Image credit: Microsoft

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 1, 2010 —

Microsoft Corp. today reported that 3M has deployed Windows 7 to nearly 7,000 of its 75,000 employees and plans a complete rollout over the next three years to help employees be more productive and IT resources be more efficient.

As a leading innovative company that produces products across diverse markets, 3M needed an operating system that allowed its employees to be productive, while at the same time tightening network security and reducing costs of PC management. Since deployment, 3M management has reported a sizeable decrease in computer startup time, greater ease in navigating on the company’s computers at work, advanced data protection and a lower cost of compliance. In addition, the new operating system deployment has enabled a shift in how 3M employees view the company’s IT efforts. (more…)

Haiti Quake Risk May Still be High

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2010Environment, Sciencecalifornia, carol prentice, earthquake, enriquillo plantain garden fault, epg fault, fault, geology, haiti, haiti earthquake, january, loma prieta quake, paleoseismology, ruptures, san andreas fault, seismic hazard, strain, U.S. Geological Survey

The fault initially thought to have triggered January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti is likely still under considerable strain and continues to pose a significant seismic hazard, according to a study published online in Nature Geoscience Sunday.

U.S. Geological Survey geologist Carol Prentice led a team of scientists to Haiti immediately after the earthquake to search for traces of ground rupture and to investigate the geology and paleoseismology of the area. (more…)

Charges of Political Corruption Have Little Impact on Voter Opinion

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2010Politicscorruption strategy, effective electoral strategy, north Carolina, political corruption, political scandal, public opinion

Republican claims of political corruption in North Carolina’s Democratic Party have made little impact on public opinion among potential voters in the state, according to new polling data analyzed by North Carolina State University researchers. The findings show that highlighting actual corruption is not necessarily an effective electoral strategy. (more…)

A Wiki for the Biofuels Research Community

By Guest PostOctober 31, 20101 commentEnvironmentbiofuels, biorefinery, blake simmons, carbon neutral, daniel klein marcuschamer, gasoline, global warming, green, harvey blanch, jbei, joint bioenergy institute, lignocellulosic biorefineries, parameters, piotr oleskowicz popiel, sustainable fashion, technoeconomic model, wiki based platform

Blake Simmons (left) and Harvey Blanch of the Joint BioEnergy Institute led the development of a technoeconomic model for optimizing biorefinery operations. Image cedit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have created a technoeconomic model that should help accelerate the development of a next generation of clean, green biofuels that can compete with gasoline in economics and well as performance. This on-line, wiki-based model enables researchers to pursue the most promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations by simulating such critical factors as production costs and energy balances under different processing scenarios.

“The high production cost of biofuels has been the main factor limiting their widespread adoption,” says JBEI’s Daniel Klein-Marcuschamer. “We felt that a model of the biorefinery operation that was open, transparent about the assumptions it uses, and updatable by the community of users could aid in guiding research in the direction where it is most likely to reduce the production cost of biofuels.” (more…)

Nature’s Backbone at Risk

By Guest PostOctober 31, 20101 commentNatureconservation efforts, endangered species, global biodiversity, threatened species, vertebrate species

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— One-fifth of the world’s vertebrate species are threatened with extinction, but the situation would be worse if not for current global conservation efforts, a new study finds. (more…)

Picture Perfect: Windows Live Photo Gallery and Foursquare

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2010Technologyfoursquare, foursquare experience, live photo gallery, windows, windows live, yerba buena gardens

Announcing a new Windows Live Photo Gallery experience on foursquare that helps users discover some of the best photo spots in their city

About the image: Yerba Buena Gardens. Located at Fourth and Mission Streets in San Francisco, Yerba Buena Gardens features public art and five acres of gardens. Image credit: Microsoft (more…)

Origin of Skillful Stone Tool Sharpening Method Pushed Back More Than 50,000 Years

By Guest PostOctober 30, 20101 commentScienceancient horses, blombos cave, france, hard stone hammer, mammoths, mastodons, middle stone age, paleoindian, paola villa, pinnacle point site, prehistoric people, pressure flaking, quartz grains cemented by silica, silcrete, South Africa, spain, spearheads, stone artifacts, stone knives, upper paleolithic solutrean culture

A highly skillful and delicate method of sharpening and retouching stone artifacts by prehistoric people appears to have been developed at least 75,000 years ago, more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The new findings show that the technique, known as pressure flaking, took place at Blombos Cave in South Africa during the Middle Stone Age by anatomically modern humans and involved the heating of silcrete — quartz grains cemented by silica — used to make tools. Pressure flaking takes place when implements previously shaped by hard stone hammer strikes followed by softer strikes with wood or bone hammers are carefully trimmed on the edges by directly pressing the point of a tool made of bone on the stone artifact. (more…)

Author Archives: Guest Post