Author Archives: Guest Post

IBM Provides Smartphone Data Services for Solar-Powered Robot Car Journey From Italy to China

*Smartphones to Collect and Tweet CO2 Levels as Part of Environmental Research Project*   

MILAN, Italy – 26 Jul 2010: The VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge (VIAC), an epic 13,000km journey from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China using unmanned, solar energy powered vehicles, aims to showcase the benefits of green transport.    

Over the course of the trip, the automated vehicles will use IBM Human Centric solutions to collect data on CO2 pollutants in the regions covered along the way – Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and China – using the data to assess the health and environmental impact of CO2 in these areas.

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Study of Death Penalty in North Carolina Shows That ‘Race Matters’

A new study examining death sentences in North Carolina over a 28-year period ending in 2007 shows that among similar homicides, the odds of a death sentence for those who are suspected of killing whites are approximately three times higher than the odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing blacks.

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Berkeley Lab Part of California Team to Receive up to $122 million for Energy Innovation Hub to Develop Method to Produce Fuels from Sunlight

Washington, D.C. – As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman announced, on July 22, an award of up to $122 million over five years to a multidisciplinary team of top scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight.

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Microsoft Reports Record Fourth-Quarter Results

REDMOND, Wash.Microsoft Corp. announced (July 22) record fourth-quarter revenue of $16.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, a 22% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period. (more…)

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Expedition to Mid-Cayman Rise Identifies Unusual Variety of Deep Sea Vents

*Method included first use of Nereus hybrid vehicle in ‘autonomous’ mode*

The first expedition to search for deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Cayman Rise has turned up three distinct types of hydrothermal venting, reports an interdisciplinary team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Iconic Books, Such as John Updike’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Rabbit Series and Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” Now Available Electronically for the First Time Ever, Exclusively in the Kindle Store

*Amazon’s Kindle Store now exclusively offering 20 books from The Wylie Agency’s new Odyssey Editions imprint*


SEATTLE, Jul 22, 2010 – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that The Wylie Agency is publishing 20 books from some of literature’s most influential authors through its new Odyssey Editions imprint (
www.odysseyeditions.com) and making them available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore).  

This is the first time any of the titles–which include Norman Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead,” Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”–have been available electronically, and all of the books are exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years.

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