Without the magic of relativity, a car’s starter motor would not turn
ALBERT EINSTEIN never learned to drive. He thought it too complicated and in any case he preferred walking. What he did not know—indeed, what no one knew until now—is that most cars would not work without the intervention of one of his most famous discoveries, the special theory of relativity.
Special relativity deals with physical extremes. It governs the behaviour of subatomic particles zipping around powerful accelerators at close to the speed of light and its equations foresaw the conversion of mass into energy in nuclear bombs. A paper in Physical Review Letters, however, reports a more prosaic application. According to the calculations of Pekka Pyykko of the University of Helsinki and his colleagues, the familiar lead-acid battery that sits under a car’s bonnet and provides the oomph to get the engine turning owes its ability to do so to special relativity. …
Concerns are growing in the U.S. over the installation of the next generation of airport body scanners.
Some passengers are so worried over the invasive nature of the resulting images they are dubbing the machines “naked†body scanners.
SOLO DEBUT OUT ON JOSH HOMME’S REKORDS REKORDS
 Spark |
“Lock up your auto tune. Hide your American Idol dolls. Burn your dream journal. Alain Johannes is releasing
his musical Kraken, Spark. It will destroy all manufactured, contrived, 2% music in the land. Spark is undeniable.”
-Joshua Homme
Alain Johannes‘ gorgeous,
unflinchingly raw album Spark hits stores this Tuesday,
October 5 on Queens of the Stone
Age/Them Crooked Vultures
frontman Josh Homme‘s label, Rekords Rekords (co-released by Ipecac Recordings). However, as an early
treat Alain is giving his fans not one but two new tracks for free. Click here to
stream/download “Return To You.” The other song is a non-album bonus track called “Fall To Grace.” Click here to download it for free by entering an email
address. Starting @ 10am tomorrow you can also listen to Spark in its entirety on www.alainjohannes.com
and www.rekordsrekords.com.
Alain Johannes
Tour Dates
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Storage giant EMC announced this week that it plans to acquire data warehousing vendor Greenplum. Analysts say the move could be a harbinger of more acquisitions in the data warehousing space. – EMCs plan to buy data warehousing specialist Greenplum may be a harbinger of more acquisitions in the data warehousing space, analysts say.
According to EMC, the deal will help lay the foundation for a
new data computing product division within EMC’s Information
Infrastructure business. Greenplu…
As Turkey reels from the fallout of an alleged plot to unseat the government, politicians and military men have dominated the headlines.
But what do ordinary Turks think about the showdown between the country’s Islamist-rooted government and secular armed forces?
Chevrolet Spark is an interesting vehicle and the latest instalment in the ambitious Chevrolet project. The thing with Chevrolet is to look at the global scale of sales for the value brand. There is a lot of volume for the BRICs, naturally.
And in Western markets – like the UK? The Aldi of the automotive world? UK MD Mark Terry spins an upbeat tale of not having enough Captivas to meet demand last year, of getting into new segments. The Orlando will be an interesting one.
I still don’t quite get how Volt works as a Chevrolet in markets outside the US where Opel/Vauxhall is selling it as Ampera. Well, they don’t sell fresh lobster in Aldi or Lidl do they? Actually, I’m told, they do. With more people from the more upscale supermarkets downtrading in the recession, they found demand for it. Brands and the way people perceive them aren’t set in stone.
Incidentally, I stayed in a prison cell for the Spark launch – well, it was once a prison but has been converted into a hotel. Cool place. You know that prison scene in the movie The Italian Job? When Noel Coward’s Mr Underworld walks down the staircase in the prison gallery to a rousing chorus of ‘England!’ from the other inmates. That was filmed there.
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I’m up to Wellingborough (Northants, southern fringes of the English midlands) today for a Chevrolet Spark drive event. The Spark, you may recall, is the small car that was picked for production by the public from three concepts. The styling certainly looks very interesting, though I note the car has already received some criticism for its drive in some quarters. I guess that depends to some degree though on what you are comparing to; eg new Fiesta or the outgoing Spark/Matiz…
I’ll be interviewing Chevrolet UK MD Mark Terry later on today.
Besides the usual drive in the car, the Chevrolet PR people have set up a ‘Spark and Ride’ depot at the home of the Chevrolet World Touring Car team where they have commandeered a warehouse for the week. There are some interactive product presentations and we are also promised ‘monkeys, bananas, Welsh footballers and magic pianos’. That’s some combo. Ryan Giggs on acid?
Microsoft is investigating claims from irate users over allegedly poor battery life for laptops running Windows 7, an issue that primarily seems to be affecting users who upgraded from either Windows Vista or Windows XP. While the number of users affected is unknown, complaints about battery life as low as 15 minutes have been reported on Microsoft forums as far back as June 2009. Microsoft has seen the adoption rate for Windows 7 steadily climb since its Oct. 22 release, with one research firm suggesting that 7.5 percent of PCs now run the operating system.
– Microsoft is investigating user complaints related to the
battery life of laptops running Windows 7, a problem that apparently
existed
even before the operating systems Oct. 22 launch. The issue seems to
primarily
affect those users who upgraded their system to Windows 7 from either
Windows Vi…
Experts say the mobile ad market is too immature, small and fragmented for antitrust regulators to quell Google’s bid to buy mobile ad exchange AdMob. AdMob could give Google 30 to 40 percent of the mobile ad market overnight if the deal passes muster. Given that position, it’s tempting to think antitrust groups would be concerned with this buy. IDC analyst Karsten Weide, Kelsey Group analyst Michael Boland and Greystripe CEO Michael Chang all say the deal is good for the mobile ad space, which has been stymied by the recession. That could be Google’s pass with the DOJ and FTC.
– Experts say the mobile ad market is too immature, small and fragmented for
antitrust regulators to try to quell Google’s bid to buy mobile ad exchange AdMob.
When Google bid to buy AdMob for $750 million in stock Nov. 9, the search
engine made sure to position the buy as a complement to its exist…
Microsoft reached its financial bottom over the summer, according to an analyst with Jefferies Co., but could be positioned to take advantage of improving economic conditions in both the PC market and at large. The Oct. 22 release of Windows 7, generally viewed as successful, provides some hope for Microsoft that business and consumers will purchase its new operating system along with new PCs, boosting revenues for both Redmond and its manufacturing partners.
– Microsoft likely hit its financial bottom over the summer, suggested analyst Katherine
Egbert from research firm Jefferies amp; Co., and has a strong chance of
rebounding as both the economy and the tech sector continue to dig themselves
from a longstanding economic recession.
quot;Strong C…
Although not as nightmarish as David Duval’s turnaround in form after winning the 2001 Open Championship, Padraig Harrington’s career seems to be following a similar script ever since he won the PGA Championship last year. The win in Oakland Hills – which made him the first European champion of
