text:
Book Cabs from BTM Layout
- Cab services from BTM Layout - U Taxi Provides Best and affordable cheap cabs service in and around from BTM Layout. We have excellent cab monitoring systems that keep the liability of the cars and well trained, professional drivers.
- Book a U Taxi from Bangalore, We will ensure that you get picked up from any corner of the city at your doorstep. We assure you a premium experience at the most affordable and cheaper rates compared to other taxi services in Bangalore
Airport Pickup Services from BTM Layout
Taxi Service from BTM Layout
|Airport Pickup
|Airport Pickup
|Silk Board Junction
|Airport Pickup
|Btm Lake Road
|Airport Pickup
|Udupi Garden Junction
|Airport Pickup
|Jayadeva Hospital Junction
|Airport Pickup
|Dairy Circle
|Airport Pickup
|Airport Pickup
|Bismilla Nagar
|Airport Pickup
|Airport Pickup
|SG Palya
|Airport Pickup
|NS Palya
|Airport Pickup
|St Johns Junction
|Airport Pickup
|Forum Mall
|Airport Pickup
|Gangothri Circle
Book Cab HatchBack INR 8/km non Ac and 8.5/km AC
INR 8 and 8.5 for one way and round trip for ac and non ac respectively. Our Hatchback vehicles are Tata Indica, Maruti Swift, Maruti Ritz, Toyota Etios Liva. Hatchback vehicles are 4+1 seater and can accommodate 2 bags of luggage maximum. Our Vehicles can be used for both Airport taxi and outstation cabs rentals and Per day 250 average km/250 Driver Bata
Book Sedan Cab Rs.9/km non Ac and Rs 9.5/km AC
Per day 250 average km/250 Driver Bata INR 9 and 9.5 for one way and for round trip for ac and non ac respectively. Our Sedan Vehicles are Maruti Swift Dzire, Renault Logan, Toyota Etios, Mahindra Verito. Sedan models also come with 4+1 seater which has boot space to accommodate 5 bags. Our vehicles used for both outstation vehicles rentals and Bengaluru airport taxi/cabs.
Book SUV Cab Rs.12.5/km Ac for 6 seater and Rs 13/km Ac for 7 seater
Per day 250 average km/300 Driver Bata no any cab service will provide in this cheaper rates and also for average 250kms/day Our SUV Vehicles Toyota Innova, , Mahindra Xylo, Chevrolet Enjoy are the SUV models which has a seating capacity of 6+1/7+1 and luggage space for 6 suitcase or trolleys and also available with top carriers top of the vehicle. Ideal for Family / Small group Rentals.
Book Tempo Traveller Rs.14/km Non AC and Rs.16/km AC
Per day 300 average km/350 Driver Bata If you are a bigger group we have Tempo Traveller vehicles 12+1 Seater which can easily accommodate 12 people and enough luggage on top and back of the vehicle. Since these vehicles are 4 wheel drive they are ideal for hill station trips, trekking groups & camping.
Customer Support 24/7 Taxi Services
Our customer support team works 24/7 for 365 days to ensure door to door pickup and drop from all parts of Banashankari to Bengaluru International Airport our drivers will reach you safely as per your convenient time to catch your domestic or international flight.
Outstation Taxi Service in Bangalore
If you are looking for an outstation trip from Bangalore for a family weekend gateway, office trip or even business travel, Bangalore gives you lot of options, for 2-3 days or even for week long trips. This can be temple tours, weekend getaways to hill stations, trekking places, forests, beautiful waterfalls, or heritage places.
Visiting to these places with family or friends is best done by availing Outstation taxi services in Bangalore. Going for for bangalore outstation cabs helps you easily spend time with family and friends and let the experienced driver manage the driving part.
Outstation Cabs from Bangalore
When you want to travel outstation and look for cab service, there are many things to keep in mind, such as type of vehicle, driver experience and knowledge of the route, agency background, rates, ease of booking, refunds, cancellations. It is not just about choosing less rates but also quality and service matters. Utaxi is developed to serve you this.
To ease this hassle of comparing with tens of operators and not knowing exactly which operator to rely, Utaxi helps by verifying Bangalore operators and getting real time prices from them. At Utaxi, by submitting trip request, you will get up to 10 quotes with operator ratings and prices and vehicle models, so you can easily choose. This way Utaxi makes your booking most easy and get you cabs at best rates.
Distance and time from Bangalore to major cities
Bengaluru (Bangalore) is situated close to the most beautiful cities in Karnataka which includes Nandi Hills, Mysore, Coorg, Chennai, Wayanad, Chikmagalur, and Pondicherry. If you want to have a weekend getaway to any of these places, then hiring outstation cabs in Bangalore is the most appropriate mode of travel as you can reach your destination in optimal time.
The below table highlights the major cities near Bangalore and approximate time to reach.
|Distance from Bangalore
|Time required to reach
|Book Taxi
|Taxi from Bangalore to Mysore
|143 kms
|3 hrs 30 mns
|Book Now
|Taxi from Bangalore to Coorg
|237 kms
|5 hrs 30 mns
|Book Now
|Taxi from Bangalore to Nandi Hills
|60 kms
|1 hrs 15 mns
|Book Now
|Taxi from Bangalore to Ooty
|270 kms
|6 hrs
|Book Now
|Taxi from Bangalore to Wayanad
|277 kms
|6 hrs 30 mns
|Book Now
|Taxi form Bangalore to Tirupati
|250 kms
|6 hrs
|Book Now
|Taxi from Bangalore to Talakadu
|242 kms
|5 hrs 40 mns
|Book Now
Why book outstation cabs in Bangalore with Utaxi?
To book an outstation taxi service in Bangalore online, the most important thing to do is compare prices online! With so many new outstation taxi services in Bangalore hitting the market, you can easily end up paying more than your budget.
Utaxi is your one-stop destination to find the best cab operators/cab rental agencies for outstation taxis in Bangalore, compare the best prices and book your cab online.
This way you can compare and choose the best vehicle at affordable prices from local operators or agencies. Utaxi is the top site in India for comparing outstation taxi prices in Bangalore and booking outstation cabs in Bangalore online.
|Bangalore Airport
|Bangalore Airport Pickup
|Book Now
|Bangalore Airport Drop
|Book Now
|Bangalore Airport Round Pickup
|Book Now
|Bangalore Cab for Outstation
|Book Now
|Bangalore Taxi Services
|Book Now


text:
Learn About the Law
Get help with your legal needs
FindLaw's Learn About the Law features thousands of informational articles to help you understand your options. And if you're ready to hire an attorney, find one in your area who can help.
Since it is not clear whether the California Supreme Court judgment reversing the lower court is based on federal or state constitutional grounds, or both, and therefore whether this Court has jurisdiction on review, that judgment is vacated and the case remanded.
Certiorari granted; 7 Cal. 3d 792, 499 P.2d 979, vacated and remanded.
Petitioner, a California motorist, was involved in an automobile collision on March 18, 1971. Both drivers filed accident reports with the California Department of Motor Vehicles as required by the California Financial Responsibility Laws. Without affording petitioner a hearing on the question of potential liability, and based solely on the contents of the accident reports, the Department found that there was a reasonable possibility that a judgment might be recovered against petitioner as a result of the accident. Since petitioner was uninsured and could not deposit security, his license was suspended. The Supreme Court of California reversed, holding that prior to suspension "a hearing is required and that at such a hearing the licensee is entitled to review the reports or other evidence upon which the department contemplates determining that he is possibly responsible for the accident, and to present reports or testimony to establish his claim of nonculpability, all within reasonable due process procedures which the department may employ." Rios v. Cozens, 7 Cal. 3d 792, 799, 499 P.2d 979, 984 (1972). [410 U.S. 425, 426]
We are unable to determine, however, whether the California Supreme Court based its holding upon the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, or upon the equivalent provision of the California Constitution, or both. In reaching its result in this case, the California court relied primarily upon this Court's decisions in Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535 (1971), and Jennings v. Mahoney, 404 U.S. 25 (1971), but also cited its own decisions in Randone v. Appellate Department, 5 Cal. 3d 536, 488 P.2d 13 (1971); Blair v. Pitchess, 5 Cal. 3d 258, 486 P.2d 1242 (1971); McCallop v. Carberry, 1 Cal. 3d 903, 464 P.2d 122 (1970), and Cline v. Credit Bureau of Santa Clara Valley, 1 Cal. 3d 908, 464 P.2d 125 (1970), which apparently were premised upon both the state and federal provisions. In addition, the court in Rios specifically overruled its own prior decisions in Orr v. Superior Court, 71 Cal. 2d 220, 454 P.2d 712 (1969), and Escobedo v. State of California, 35 Cal. 2d 870, 222 P.2d 1 (1950), which had upheld the procedures here under attack under both the state and federal provisions. Thus, as in Mental Hygiene Dept. v. Kirchner, 380 U.S. 194, 196 -197 (1965), "[w]hile we might speculate from the choice of words used in the opinion, and the authorities cited by the court, which provision was the basis for the judgment of the state court, we are unable to say with any degree of certainty that the judgment of the California Supreme Court was not based on an adequate and independent nonfederal ground." We therefore grant the State of California's petition for certiorari, vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of California, and remand the cause to that court for such further proceedings as may be appropriate. California v. Krivda, 409 U.S. 33 (1972); Mental Hygiene Dept. v. Kirchner, supra; Minnesota v. National Tea Co., [410 U.S. 425, 427] 309 U.S. 551 (1940); State Tax Comm'n v. Van Cott, 306 U.S. 511 (1939).
The Court is quite correct in saying that we have vacated and remanded cases from state courts which we took by way of appeal or certiorari, when we were uncertain whether the judgment rested on state or federal grounds. But Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U.S. 551 , shows how unhappy that practice is. 1 Yet, even assuming it is the proper procedure, we should not use it to determine whether we should take a case. No case from a state court can properly reach here until and unless a federal question is presented. Our Rule 19 (1) (a) states as a standard for granting certiorari from a state court the following:
We have at times vacated and remanded prior to our decision to take or deny or to note or dismiss a case, so that the record can be clarified. See Honeyman v. Hanan, 300 U.S. 14, 25 -26.
But we know in this case that a federal question was presented and ruled upon. We know that a state question was also presented and ruled upon. Where arguably "the judgment of the state court rests on two grounds, one involving a federal question and the other not," Lynch v. New York, 293 U.S. 52, 54 , we do not take the case.
The ruling of the Supreme Court of California in the present case involving the revocation of a driver's license without a hearing, was as follows:
The opinion of the Supreme Court of California written by Justice Mosk was agreed to by all. It makes clear that both state and federal grounds were the basis of the judgment. The International Court of Justice that has only a case or two a Term might be tempted to seek a larger docket. Ours is already large; and it hardly comports with the messages of distress which have emanated from here for us to seek to gather in more cases that from the beginning have been sparsely and discretely selected [410 U.S. 425, 430] from the state domain. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, raised a storm of protest against federal intrusion on state rights that has not yet subsided. Minnesota v. National Tea Co., supra, taught me that it is wise to insist that cases taken from a state court be clearly decided on a federal ground and not, as here, on both state and federal grounds, save where the state and federal questions are so intertwined as to make the state ground not an independent matter. See Enterprise Irrigation District v. Canal Co., 243 U.S. 157, 163 -165.
I would deny this petition for certiorari.
[ Footnote 2 ] Title 28 U.S.C. 1257 presently provides as to certiorari:
Was this helpful?
Get help with your legal needs
FindLaw's Learn About the Law features thousands of informational articles to help you understand your options. And if you're ready to hire an attorney, find one in your area who can help.
Search our directory by legal issue
Enter information in one or both fields (Required)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The White House itself once harvested the power of the sun. On June 20, 1979, the Carter administration installed 32 panels designed to harvest the sun's rays and use them to heat water.
Here is what Carter predicted at the dedication ceremony: "In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy…. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."
For some of the solar panels it is the former that has come to pass: one resides at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, one at the Carter Library and, as of this week, one will join the collection of the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou, China. Huang Ming, chairman of Himin Solar Energy Group Co., the largest manufacturer of such solar hot water heaters in the world, accepted the donation for permanent display there on August 5. After all, companies like his in China now produce some 80 percent of the solar water heaters used in the world today.
But they are based on the same technology developed here in the U.S. and once manufactured in Warrentown, Va., by InterTechnology/Solar Corp., the company behind the Carter panels.* Roughly three meters long, one meter wide and just 10 centimeters deep, the blue-black panels absorb sunlight to heat water piped through their innards. The Carter administration set a goal of deriving 20 percent of U.S. energy needs from such renewable sources by the turn of the century. Today, the U.S. gets a mere 7 percent of its energy from renewables, the bulk of that from the massive hydroelectric dams constructed in the middle of the 20th century. Solar thermal and photovoltaic technology combined provide less than 0.1 percent.
By 1986, the Reagan administration had gutted the research and development budgets for renewable energy at the then-fledgling U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and eliminated tax breaks for the deployment of wind turbines and solar technologies—recommitting the nation to reliance on cheap but polluting fossil fuels, often from foreign suppliers. "The Department of Energy has a multibillion-dollar budget, in excess of $10 billion," Reagan said during an election debate with Carter, justifying his opposition to the latter's energy policies. "It hasn't produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal or anything else in the line of energy."
And in 1986 the Reagan administration quietly dismantled the White House solar panel installation while resurfacing the roof. "Hey! That system is working. Why don't you keep it?" recalls mechanical engineer Fred Morse, now of Abengoa Solar, who helped install the original solar panels as director of the solar energy program during the Carter years and then watched as they were dismantled during his tenure in the same job under Reagan. "Hey! This whole [renewable] R&D program is working, why don't you keep it?"
After they came down it took a soft-spoken administrator from a small environmental college in Maine to rescue the Carter panels from being a forgotten curiosity stored in the dark corner of a vast government warehouse.
A long, strange trip
In 1991 Peter Marbach was newly minted development director at Unity College in Maine, which was facing a severe budget crisis. Marbach needed to find a way to bring attention—and hopefully donations—to the struggling college and its mission: environmental education. Leafing through a magazine, he stumbled across a picture. "There was this photograph of the solar panels, but they were all sort of disheveled and sort of tossed in a corner in this government service warehouse in Franconia, Virginia," he recalls. "It was just such a waste."
Marbach, lithe from years of mountain climbing and other outdoor pursuits, seems slow to anger, but his eyes, crinkled at the edges from years of smiling, still flash when asked to recollect what inspired his rescue mission. Yet he doesn't sound angry, so much as bemused. "It was in that instant where I was just so filled with anger and disappointment that: How could this happen?" he says. "Wouldn't it be something if I could somehow find a way to get these panels and resurrect them?"
Marbach wrote to former President Carter, who wrote back: "It would please me very much to see those panels in use again." He also enlisted the aid of Maine's former U.S. senator, William Cohen. Armed with Carter's letter and Cohen's support he contacted the General Services Administration—the independent government agency that is landlord to other government agencies and generally runs the physical stuff of government. The GSA determined Unity was eligible as an institution of higher learning to take the panels for an administrative fee of $500.
The panels weighed more than 45 kilograms each and there were 32 of them. Marbach just had a battered, blue school bus that was mostly used to carry the school soccer team to away games nearby. "The soccer coach was giving me a hard time," Marbach chuckles as he remembers. "He said, 'You realize that if you take that bus and drive it down there I have no excuse to ask the administration to get us a new bus because that will prove the bus can go that far.'"
Marbach pressed on, stripping the seats out of the bus to make room for his cargo and enduring a bumpy and loud trip down the eastern seaboard. Once in Virginia, he pulled up to the grounds of a federal warehouse he describes as much like the fictional one used to store the Ark of the Covenant in the first Indiana Jones movie, "just bigger" and stacked with unused furniture and crates of office supplies rather than mysterious archaeological artifacts. A golf cart and an attendant drove Marbach through the cavernous space, where he found the solar panels in a dim corner gathering dust instead of sunlight. Some were broken. "It just looked like there was not a lot of thought given to taking care of these things," Marbach says.
A new dawn?
There was a lot of thought given to installing the 32 solar panels in the first place, not least because the system could not alter the look or profile of the White House in any way. In fact, Morse, who first got involved with solar during the Nixon administration by being asked to assess its potential, spent years determining what could be installed. Ultimately, he had to make parts of the panels white, rather than a darker (more sunlight-absorbent) color. On June 30, 1979, the panels were unveiled, although they remained invisible from the ground.
"It was the oil shock that pretty much caused the government to take a very serious look at its domestic solar resource," recalls Abengoa's Morse, who has spent decades aiding and abetting the still fledgling solar thermal industry both in government and out. "The motivation was energy independence," a motive that remains recognizable in political rhetoric today because, as Carter himself put it, the sun cannot be embargoed, referring to the 1973–74 Arab oil embargo. "We have this big solar resource, we should use it," Morse explains.
Carter was the first president to take that idea seriously, warming the reviewing stand for his inauguration on January 20, 1977 with the sun's heat harvested by roughly 1,000 square meters of solar thermal panels, according to Morse. "President Carter saw [solar] as a really valid energy resource, and he understood it. I mean, it is a domestic resource and it is huge," Morse recalls, although he admits the inaugural solar system left some chilly. "It was the symbolism of the president wanting to bring solar energy immediately into his administration."
That symbolism became more concrete in the form of a vastly increased budget for energy technology research and development (pdf)—levels still unmatched by succeeding administrations—and tax credits for installing wind turbines or solar power that caused a first boom in renewable energy installation. In a sense alternative energy was finally getting the same government support used to develop and maintain other energy technologies, such as oil drilling or nuclear power. "It did not take long for the U.S. government to realize that energy was a great national interest and subsidize it," Morse notes.
But the real symbolism was the Carter family using hot water heated by the sun for some of their daily activities. "It was used for the cafeteria, in the laundry and other parts of the White House," Morse says.
That was symbolism that Morse suggests the Reagan administration did not support as wholeheartedly. "We had a new administration that really did not like renewables very much. I don't know if you remember those days when it was called alternative energy and there was something about 'alternative' that did not sit very well." So when the time came to resurface the roof, the panels were taken down. "It was working fine, but the decision was it was not cost-effective."
Where they ended up Morse still has no idea.
Driving the future
In fact, since 1992 16 of the 32 solar panels have been on the Unity College cafeteria roof, located just 15 minutes from the often overcast coast of Maine, warming water in summer and winter. The rest went back into storage, too big to fit in an area that is much smaller than the White House roof. Once Marbach arrived back at the college, donations flooded in to help refurbish and install them, including a gift of $150,000 worth of pre–Mobil merger Exxon stock, money from actress Glenn Close and a mention by Al Gore during a campaign stop in Maine that year.
"From around the country, we just got lots of letters, phone calls of support, and it just sort of restarted the whole conversation about alternative energy," Marbach recalls. "Imagine where we would be today if those panels were left there, if the Reagan administration had continued the funding."
Instead, it is countries such as Germany and Japan that have taken the lead as far as developing and deploying solar photovoltaics, whereas Italy and Spain now dominate solar-thermal technology, as evidenced by Morse's employment at a Spain-based solar company building power plants in Arizona. "We look[ed] for the bright red spots of high [solar] intensity [in the satellite data] and then we carefully searched for a farmer who wanted to sell his land," Morse says of the Solana concentrating solar-power plant, currently under construction southwest of Phoenix. "What is nice about a farm is that it is previously disturbed land…and we will use less than 20 percent of what the farmer used for water."
And it is China that has taken the lead when it comes to using the sun to heat hot water for daily use, installing roughly two thirds of total global capacity. "In the U.S. everyone already has a hot water system heated by natural gas, oil or electricity," explains physicist C. Julian Chen of Columbia University, who helped arrange the donation of the Carter panel to the Chinese people. "More than 80 percent of Chinese people do not have hot water; they need it. If you start from scratch, the solar water heater is cheaper."
That has made companies like Himin very successful and has cut energy use in cities such as Rizhao—attempting to become carbon neutral—by a third. And Himin's Huang helped author a 2005 Chinese law that calls for 10 percent of Chinese energy to come from renewable resources by 2020—reminiscent of the policies laid out by Carter in a speech on April 18, 1977. Already, China derives nearly 10 percent of its energy from renewable resources, primarily hydropower such as the Three Gorges Dam, although it led the world in installing wind turbines in 2009.
In the U.S. some activists have called on the Obama administration to bring solar back to the White House roof—and solar company Sungevity has offered to install 102 of its photovoltaic panels for free. "I think Barack Obama knows this problem, and he tries to correct that historical mistake," Chen says. "He appointed Steven Chu as energy secretary, and Steven Chu is a well-known supporter of renewable energy."
Of course, solar panels back atop the White House remain merely a symbolic step toward renewable energy. Already, certain buildings on the grounds of the federal landmark employ solar power, courtesy of the National Park Service and President George W. Bush. Yet, the U.S. invests only $5 billion yearly on energy research and development at present—roughly one seventh what China spent last year—and private industry has never filled the gap. And it would take producing roughly a square meter of photovoltaic panels or the mirrors for a solar thermal system every few seconds for the next 40 years to harvest one terawatt of energy from the sun by 2050—using present technologies—according to engineer Saul Griffith of Other Lab in San Francisco. The U.S. presently uses almost four terawatts of energy a year.
In fact, heating hot water alone accounts for 17 percent of U.S. energy use, according to the DoE. Carter's panels no longer cut into Unity's energy budget; the panels operations were shut down in 2005 and the college has donated three to various institutions since 2007, one at time—and plans more donations in future. "We are discussing seriously within our community what the long-term disposition of those panels will be," says Mark Tardif, a spokesman for Unity College. For the moment, most still sit on the cafeteria roof. "They are probably going to come down from that location, probably by the end of summer."
Regardless of their ultimate fate, it took the pluck and initiative of one man to rescue the Carter White House solar panels from the dustbin of political and ecological history. "There was a lot of sweat, a lot of dirt, a lot of struggle, but still just to have your hands on a piece of history and to know that, okay, these things are not going to be just a relic," Marbach recalls. "We were actually going to be able to resurrect them."
And those solar-thermal collectors also symbolize an alternative history. "We certainly didn't address the oil and energy issues going back to when Carter tried," Tardif says. "Maybe it would be different if Americans understood what actually happened. We were poised to achieve 20 percent renewables by 2000. What happened?"
*Correction (8/6/10): This sentence was edited after posting. It originally stated that the White House solar panels were manufactured by Heliodyne Solar Hot Water.
Editor's Note: David Biello is the host of a forthcoming series on PBS, titled Beyond the Light Switch. The series will explore the coming transformation of how we use and produce electricity, along with its impact on the environment, national security and the economy. He conducted the interviews for this article in conjunction with his work on that series.


text:
Simulation Model for High Efficiency of Solar Cells
Simulation model of solar cell device is developed to investigate the optimization of conversion efficiency as a function of its geometrical and materials parameters. An arbitrary profile of impurity distribution in the base region is taken into account by using the method of piece wise integration by exponential approximations .The spatially varying built-in field and mobility are explicitly taken into account. Illustrative numerical computations of quantum & collection efficiencies as well as of solar conversion parameters are presented. Simulation conversion efficiency of mono- crystalline silicon solar cell is in conformity with the 24% efficiency reported in Australia for the PERL structure when reasonably effective (about 2-3%) light trapping is taken into account. The model also supports the structure of multi junction thin film solar cells for ultra high efficiency.
Key Words: Solar cell; Mono-crystalline; Simulation model; Ultrahigh efficiency
Full Text:PDF
[1] Blakers, A.W., & Green, M. A. (1986). 20-percent efficient silicon solar cell. Appl. Phys. Lett., 48, 215-217.
[2] Blakers, A.W., Wang, A., Milne, A.M., Jhao, J. & Green, M.A. (1989). 22.8-percent efficient silicon solar cell. Appl. Phys. Lett., 55 (13), 1363-1365.
[3] Fahernbruch, A.L., & Bube, R.H. (1983). Application of the transport equation, In. fundamentals of solar cells. New York: Academics Press.
[4] Gangadhar, R.B. & Kaushika, N.D. (1992). Energy convers. Mgmt, 33(4), 275-278.
[5] Green, M.A., Blaker, A.W., Zhao, J., Milne, A.M., Wang, A., & Dai, X. (1990). Characterization of 23% efficient silicon solar cells. IEEE Trans ED, 37(2), 331-335.
[6] Nozik, A.J. (2001). Spectroscopy and hot electron relaxation dynamics in semiconductor quantum wells and quantum dots. Annual Review of Physics and chemistry, 52, 193.
[7] Runyan, W.R. (1965). Silicon semiconductor technology. New York: McGraw Hill.
[8] Shaller, R.D. & Klimov, V.L. (2004). High efficiency carrier multiplication in solar energy conversion. Physics Review Letters, 92.
[9] Wang, A., Zhao, J. & Green, M.A. (1990). 24-percent efficient silicon solar cells. Appl. Phys. Let., 57, 602-604.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.est.1923847920110201.589
DOI (PDF): http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/pdf
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c)
If you have already registered in Journal A and plan to submit article(s) to Journal B, please click the CATEGORIES, or JOURNALS A-Z on the right side of the "HOME".
We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: firstname.lastname@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com; email@example.com
Articles published in Energy Science and Technology are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
ENERGY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Editorial Office
Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com; email@example.com
Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Centre of Sciences and Cultures


text:
|Terms of service
|Terms of service
These conditions apply to this site here after referred to as the "Site".
Access to service and use
Access to the site is in principle free of charge. However, access to certain parts may require registration. In this case, the user must provide certain data and possibly create an access code and / or password. If the user mark his disagreement or does not accept the conditions applicable to the collection and use of these data, it will not use the relevant sections of the Site. Some services or functions can be paid. Dans ce cas, l'utilisateur en sera informé. In this case, the user will be informed. The price, payment method and any specific requirements will be shown. Our company provides the user with a right to use the site, which can in no way be yielding to third. This right of use is set for an indefinite period, but revocable at any time without justification. The content of this site is intended for the personal use of user. It can not be reproduced or distributed in any form whatsoever. It is protected by Belgian law relating to copyright. Any use of the Site for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited except agreement.
Limitation of Liability
Our society can in no way be held responsible for the content of the Website or the direct or indirect use made of it. Our Company therefore disclaim any responsibility and does not guarantee the software, products and services made available through this site. It does not guarantee the accuracy or legality of the information published on the site or proposed through this website (including advertisements which are published under the responsibility of the advertiser). Our Company has the right to change at any time the information presented on the Website and without prior notice to users.
In the event or links would be established to other sites via this Site, Our Company may under no circumstances be held responsible for the presence and content of these other sites. Our Company has no control over these other sites, it can not guarantee the case or even content that the links can not be broken. The presence of links does not imply approval of their content by our Company and the existence of any business relationship with these other sites or their operators.
Intellectual rights
Our Company brings great care to the creation and maintenance of the site.
Contribution of users
The user can be offered to place the content on this site in various forms and non-restrictive as video, audio, text, picture or other equipment.
Nullity of a clause
The invalidity, illegality or non-applicability of one or more clauses of these conditions will not use the invalidity or non-applicability of all these conditions. The provision that would partially or totally illegal, invalid or unenforceable does not non-application of other provisions. The provision declared null and void will be replaced by another with the same effect.
Applicable Law and Jurisdiction
Any dispute regarding on this Site will be governed exclusively by Belgian law. Only the courts of Mons are competent in the event of a dispute.
Done at Ciply, July 9, 2008
|Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 September 2008 23:02
Designed and Copyright 2008-2021 by Edwin2Win srl. All right reserved.


text:
Verizon CEO Fran Shammo told Reuters today that the carrier's unlimited data plans are no more. Verizon will introduce its new pricing strategy this summer, which will now be based on tiered packages – bad news for data hogs.
Shammo says the network will beging to offer family plans for its data coverage. "We had individual minutes for individual users. Then we eventually got to what we call family share where everyone in the family shares the same minutes. I think it's safe to assume that at some point you are going to have mega-plans (for data) and people are going to share that mega-plan based on the number of devices within their family. That's just a logical progression," he says. Shammo didn't give a timeline for when these "mega-plans" might be introduced, but implementing the success of shared family minute plans into how it covers data is an idea most carriers may soon adopt. Smartphones are clearly becoming the handset of choice, and data plans can be the most obnoxious part of owning them. Creating a catch-all system for households
Verizon is following in AT&T's footsteps, capping its data-heavy users by eliminating the unlimited plans. AT&T did the same after its all-you-can-eat data packages were being monopolized by only a fraction of its users. Shammo didn't reveal the new packages' pricing details, but AT&T's plans could be something of an indication: Users pay $15 a month for 200 MB and $25 a month for 2 GB.
Shammo also revealed a few iPhone 5 details. He said it would be a global phone (which Verizon claimed last month) – that it would operate on CDMA and GSM networks. He also mentioned the handset will launch on Verizon and AT&T at the same time, but couldn't give a definite answer about an LTE-capable iPhone 5. Shammo more or less said when it comes to 4G, the ball's in Apple's court.
Editors' Recommendations
- Best Cricket phone deals: Get an iPhone 11 for free and more
- Verizon's cheapest 5G unlimited plan just got even cheaper
- 5 Android camera features that I need to have on my iPhone
- Everything (and we mean everything) to know about 5G on the iPhone
- The best 5G phone plans in 2022


text:
Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Arizona (or other states such as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah which all have some type of tough state immigration laws) have little room to legislate regarding immigration policy. The Supreme Court declared immigration enforcement is a federal issue. However, the Court ruled that law enforcement officials in Arizona could still ask about immigration status if they had reasonable suspicion that the person being stopped was undocumented. I wrote about how this would target Latinos in my first blog on racismreview stating that I would not go visit my parents in Arizona without my passport.
photo credit: Ben Roffer
Based on today's Supreme Court ruling, I will still not travel to Arizona without my passport.
The fact that the arguments of the case turned to issues of federalism rather than arguments about equal protection and/or civil rights violations should come as no surprise. It was set up that way from the start. Solicitor General Donald B. Verilli assured Chief Justice Roberts that this case was not about racism towards Latinos. CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears tellingly states:
Even before the solicitor general began speaking midway through the argument, Chief Justice John Roberts framed the debate away from what has become a major complaint about the law: that it would target mostly Hispanic people for scrutiny and detention. "I'd like to clear up at the outset what it's not about," Roberts said. "No part of your argument has to do with racial or ethnic profiling, does it?" Verrilli readily agreed.
In this context the Court unanimously sustained the law's section referred to as the "show me your papers" policy.
In doing so, it continued the larger policy that says it is okay to subject an entire ethnic and racial group of people to fundamental questions of belonging and acceptance by allowing law enforcement officials to question whether they belong here in this country legally or not.
This perpetuates and contributes to what Professor Leo Chavez refers to as the "Latino Threat Narrative" which situates all Latinos—whether legal immigrants, undocumented, or U.S. born—as outside of the American national community and sees them in a suspicious light. According to Leo Chavez, even U.S. born Latinos are seen as: " 'alien-citizens,' perpetual foreigners despite their birthright". Today's Supreme Court decision reinforces that Latinos are seen and can be treated as "alien-citizens."


text: Facebook has added seven more antivirus vendors to its AV Marketplace, a move that gives the social network a total of a dozen companies whose databases it can tap to identify malicious website links on the site.Facebook identified the additional partners Tuesday. They include avast!, AVG, Avira, Kaspersky Lab, Panda, Total Defense and Webroot. The companies join Microsoft, McAfee, Norton, TrendMicro and Sophos in selling or offering for free antivirus products for PCs, Macs and mobile phones.In expanding the choices on its antivirus marketplace, Facebook is expanding its blacklisting reach with more databases it can use to check that may have been placed there by a hacker. Legitimate links on Facebook are sometimes hijacked by criminalsto direct someone to a website where malware can be automatically downloaded.In 2008, Facebook launched a security system called "the link shim" that checks the URL whenever a link is clicked to check the destination. If it is on a blacklist, then a warning pops up notifying the user he could be headed to a malicious website.\u00a0Bolstering the tool is expected to help businesses, as well as consumers. Many companies have built what Facebook calls Pages on the site for marketing products and building a fan base. Having a better mechanism for catching hijacked links prevents embarrassment."If I was Facebook, I would do whatever I could to publicize [link shim] and to push it to whatever extent I possibly could," said Dan Olds, and analyst for the Gabriel Consulting Group. "It's features like that that will make businesses more confident in giving greater freedom to Facebook users within a company."The effectiveness of Facebook security has been questioned in the past. In August, the company revealed that it found 14 million user accounts it considered "undesirable," meaning they are likely spewing spam or deploying malicious links and content.While the number was a small percentage of the 955 million users of the site at the time, it was still large enough to worry security experts Some recommended better user-verification tools to help combat problems associated with bogus accounts.[See also: 10 security reasons to quit Facebook]Facebook has added security features over time to improve user safety. On Monday, the company stopped letting people find others by using the mobile phone number used for two-factor authentication. The move came less than two weeks after a security researcher disclosed that someone could match randomly generated phone numbers with Facebook users.If businesses using Facebook follow best practices, such as keeping applications and antivirus software up to date, then they are likely to avoid many of the risks on the site, Olds said. Businesses should also educate employees on Facebook how to avoid scams that try to trick them into giving out user IDs, passwords and other personal information."It's hard to believe that there are still people out there that will give up personal information on these kinds of scams," he said. "But if people wouldn't give up information, then hackers wouldn't keep doing it."


text:
Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Susan Arden and her new book, "Collared by the Cowboy"! For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post – except the Available at Amazon picture.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card! Also, come back daily to interact with Susan and to increase your chances of winning!
This book is on sale during the book tour for ONLY $0.99!!! See below for more details.
This book is on sale during the book tour for ONLY $0.99!!! See below for more details.
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!
Collared by the Cowboy
by Susan Arden
GENRE: Erotic Romance (Western)
Bound and determined to break free of a small town, Mia isn't about to let a little thing like a bondage club or a cocky cowboy stand in her way. Not when it means unearthing the truth. Undercover, she enters an elite world defined by sex, subs, and power. What can happen? It's just for a night...
Out of necessity, Brandon guards his privacy. Tall, dark, and frowning--he gives Mia a run for her money when she almost blows her cover. He's one hot piece with a very dominating streak. Think hair pulling, panty-dropping! He's gorgeous, built, and makes her want things. Dirty, dark, and not part of Mia's plan.
Brandon is down for the chase, and catches the dark-eyed beauty in a lie. The little researcher needs to be taught a lesson. Pretty with curves galore, yet it's her smart-mouth that forces his hand. If Mia wants to learn about his club, he'll teach her every dirty detail of what it means to surrender. To him.
Their raw chemistry is undeniable. Mia is more than a tantalizing and temporary diversion. She becomes the woman he can't let go.
As Brandon and Mia explore falling in love, they reveal their darkest secrets. From the shadows, a stalker with a taste for revenge is just waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Little Red Dress
Dani called from down the hall. "Did you find a pair?"
"Operation stiletto was a six-inch success." Rolling onto her elbow, Mia snagged the bag and pulled out the shoebox. In a few hours, she'd hit the doors of the S & L in these unless she took a spill—
"Here. Knock 'em dead." Dani commanded her attention with an outstretched hand. Over her roommate's finger hung a hanger, and she waved a tiny scrap of red leather in Mia's direction.
"Interesting. But no." Her brow knitted as she stared at the crisscrossing laces of the tiny corset. "When I said outfit, I was thinking something larger than a rubber band."
"This dress will help you fit in." Tutting, her roommate thrust the fetish dress into her hands. "Thank me later when you land your first job."
"By chance does that job involve a street corner?"
"Funny," Dani replied. "You're stalling."
"You do realize that I'm the one who's gotta fit into this little number. Operative word: little." Mia rose and held up the dress probably two sizes too small. "Just where am I supposed to fit my boobs?"
"Okay, I can see you're going to overanalyze this into the ground." Dani snapped her fingers. "Let's go. Time to change. Stat."
Rather than waste time arguing, she'd just try on the dress and make her point when a body part or two sprang loose.
Susan's sweet-n-sexy stories ignite a reader's imagination. Her style of red-hot romance stars dirty talkin' alpha heroes and feisty quirky women. Over several series, she crafts heartwarming fiction, filled with realistic details, and developed multicultural characters that are relatable to readers worldwide. So much, her books are international bestsellers.
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Susan is married to an incredible man who puts up with a fly-by-the-seat zany wife. And why not? They write in partnership and live near Nashville. Besides writing, they're involved in environmental engineering, have three daughters, and lots of pets. Giving back to the community is a big part of their writing and publishing, and includes funding a student robotics program, giving to We Need Diverse Books, and supporting Semper Fi to assist Marines.
These bestselling sexy cowboy romances, the Bad Boys series will continue to grow with more releases. To stay abreast of Bad Boys' steamy romance happenings, stay in touch via Susan's RED-HOT ROMANCE newsletter. Sign up for freebies, releases, and sexy cowboy news!
Simon & Schuster:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
Susan will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.


text:
More Coverage of Denise Scott Brown
Pritzker Architecture Prize Committee Refuses to Honor Denise Scott Brown
Pritzker Prize Jurors Decline to Discuss Denise Scott Brown at Ceremony
Architect Interview With Denise Scott Brown
Media Ratchets Up the Pressure on Pritzker Prize Jury
Reconstruction and Symbiosis: Fixing Past Mistakes
Pritzker Architecture Prize Committee Mulls Petition for Denise Scott Brown
In almost every regard, Wednesday evening's Pritzker Architecture Prize ceremony in honor of Japanese architect and 2013 laureate Toyo Ito was charmed. Dreary morning rains in Boston gave way to clear skies by the afternoon, offering glowing views of the harbor from inside the I.M. Pei–designed John F. Kennedy Library, where the event was held. The speeches were short, gracious, and heartfelt. Ito made an eloquent case for a greater consideration of nature in design and construction, stating that he regularly visits the site of Japan's tsunami, where he is reminded of the "powerlessness of technology." In a nod to the profession's collaborative nature, he asked that his current and former staff members stand and be recognized. A hearty round of applause ensued. The gesture also drew attention to everything the Pritzker committee hasn't said about the case of architect Denise Scott Brown.
The day before the ceremony, The Boston Globe published an editorial calling for the Pritzker committee to belatedly recognize the work of Scott Brown, FAIA, who was snubbed in 1991, when the $100,000 prize was awarded solely to her husband and long-time design partner, Robert Venturi, FAIA. "In a field where talented women's contributions have long been overlooked," stated the Globe, "this snub continues to cut deep 22 years later and should be rectified."
This follows a piece, published May 24, by architecture critic Sarah Williams Goldhagen in The New Republic, which also calls for Scott Brown to be retroactively honored. "Venturi was awarded what's come to be known as architecture's Nobel Prize for work he did not do, could not have done, and would never have conceived without Scott Brown," she wrote. "So, if the Pritzker Foundation is going to stand behind its having celebrated this kind of work, then for god's sake, give the prize to what is literally in this case the firm's better half."
Whether and how the Pritzker committee will address the controversy remains to be seen. In late March, executive director Martha Thorne told ARCHITECT that the matter would be referred to the jury at its next meeting. That meeting—albeit an informal one—occurred this week, when the jury gathered in Boston for the ceremony in honor of Ito. Yet no announcement has been forthcoming. Approached at the event, Thorne said only that the issue would be addressed "in due course." It is unclear whether the committee is waiting for the ceremonies surrounding Ito's selection to conclude before issuing its verdict, or whether it intends to drop the matter entirely. The Pritzker jury will not reconvene again until January.
In the meantime, the hubbub surrounding Scott Brown shows no sign of subsiding. The matter has earned coverage in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, and Bloomberg. (ARCHITECT featured an extensive interview with Scott Brown back in April.) A Change.org petition started by Arielle Assouline-Lichten and Caroline James, a pair of students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, has garnered more than 12,500 signatures in support of Scott Brown since it was launched earlier this spring.
Read the Q&A with Denise Scott Brown
That petition has been signed by a number of prominent Pritzker Prize–winning architects, including Rem Koolhaas, Rafael Moneo, Richard Meier, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (who jointly received the 2001 award). Last year's laureate, Wang Shu (whose wife and design partner Lu Wenyu was left off the award), also supported the petition—as did Zaha Hadid, a Pritzker Prize–winner who has also served as a juror. Even Venturi himself has signed on, with the short and sweet statement, "Denise Scott Brown is my inspiring and equal partner." At press time, the petition continues to garner signatures: in the vicinity of 100 in the 24 hours beginning Wednesday afternoon.
"I think we've already made an impact, by calling out the fact that the recognition of women is a problem," petition co-founder James says. "Our Women in Design student group [at GSD] will have some very considered events this fall to discuss the issues of partnership and collaboration. What we're doing is developing a long-term dialogue about collaboration and creativity."
The whole fracas continues to shine a somewhat glaring spotlight on the clubby male world of architecture. Only 17 percent of all AIA members are female, and no woman has ever won the organization's Gold Medal award. Only two women—Hadid and Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA—have won the Pritzker. And though the prize was launched in 1979, no woman served on the jury until 1987, when critic Ada Louise Huxtable joined the committee. Other women have been appointed to the jury since (including a record three in 2005.) But this year's jury—the one that selected Ito as the 2013 laureate—was all male until curator and critic Kristin Feireiss was appointed this month.
Moreover, the controversy raises longstanding questions about the nature of the prize itself—on whether it makes sense to continue to bestow an award on individuals in a field that requires a high degree of creative collaboration. As the Globe editorial put it: "The myth of the architect as a singular male genius—the Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's Fountainhead—feels increasingly antiquated in a world where design has become less about skyscrapers and more a tool to address global issues, including climate change, water scarcity, and poverty."
Scott Brown, for one, says this is an opportunity for the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the Pritzker, to reconsider the nature of the award. "I think they need to think about what it means to be creative," she says. "They have a right to say that the award is about creativity in design. But there is also creativity in analysis, in engineering, in planning, in all sorts of other things." Ultimately, all of these factors go into producing good architecture, she says.
Scott Brown has not heard from the Pritzker committee and has no idea whether her case will be publicly addressed. In March, when she casually told the Architects' Journal, in videotaped comments, that she was owed a Pritzker inclusion ceremony, she had no idea that it would lead to media coverage and a petition. "A ceremony is a public event that affirms community values," Scott Brown says. "I called for a ceremony of inclusion. The truth is that, minus the Pritzkers, the petition has given me that."
Find out more about 2013 Pritzker laureate Toyo Ito. Watch his interview with 2013 AIA Gold Medal winner Thom Mayne.


text:
Expert's Rating
- Very good read and write speeds
- Support for multiple RAID levels
- Noisy
- Web interface has problems with Safari
- Heavy for a portable device
- Some setup quirks
Our Verdict
While EZQuest's Thunder RAID eSATA/USB 2.0 Portable System weighs in at a hefty 16 pounds, this portable external RAID storage device has a rather compact build, considering it houses four hard drives that can hold all your striped or mirrored data. It even features a hard aluminum handle so you can lug it around when you're out of the studio and in the field.
The four hard drives in the Thunder RAID comes pre-configured as RAID 5 (formatted for the Mac), but there are several different supported RAID level options: 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10, as well as JBOD (the unit we tested had four 1.5TB drives).
The Thunder RAID has a dual-interface that allows for a slower-but-convenient USB 2.0 connection, or a speedy eSATA connection. The two included Ethernet ports are used for administration, not for data transfer. The Thunder RAID also has 128MB of DDR2-400 SDRAM and a 400MHz storage I/O processor.
After turning the device on, a loud beep occurs and the fan will immediately begin whirring. Although EZQuest says the fan operates on an "ultra low decibel," it's actually quite loud. To help you with setup, the drive also features an LCD display that can show the status of the drive and will indicate to you if a drive failure has occurred, along with a few navigating buttons.
For our tests, copying a 1GB file through a USB 2.0 connection took an average of 53 seconds, and our file duplication test took 1 minute and 7 seconds. In our low-memory Photoshop test, the Thunder RAID took 1 minute and 37 seconds over USB. Using eSATA, copying and duplicating the 1GB file took 23 and 22 seconds, respectively, and the Photoshop test took an average of 51 seconds.
We also ran the AJA system test, which mimics writing a full scale, high quality, HD video. We set the video frame size to 1920-by-1080 10-bit RGB and the file size to 2GB. With the USB 2.0 connection, the Thunder RAID performed at 28.3MBps for writes and 31.0MBps for reads. An eSATA connection shows 107.3MBps with writes and 121.7MBps for reads.
When we wanted to reconfigure our settings to RAID 0, navigating through configuration menus using the small LED screen proved to be very difficult. Using the Web interface, however, was fairly easy-once we read the note in EZQuest's documentation regarding possible incompatibilities with Safari. We connected the drive to our office network with an Ethernet cable, opened Firefox, typed in the IP address that was displayed on the drive, and after entering in the given username and password, we were able to access the RAID console and maximize the capacity of our EZQuest drive.
Under RAID 0 configurations, times remained relatively similar. The only result that was significantly different was when we copied a 1GB file through USB; on average, it took 13 seconds faster with RAID 0 settings than with RAID 5. All other tests yielded times that were about 1 or 2 seconds faster than the RAID 5 times. Our AJA system tests for a USB connection gave us write and read speeds at 28.4MBps and 31.4MBps, respectively. With eSATA, write speeds were 108.1MBps and reads were 123.5MBps.
Timed trials: RAID 5
|Copy 1GB file to USB 2.0
|Copy 1GB file to eSATA
|Duplicate 1GB file via USB 2.0
|Duplicate 1GB file via eSATA
|Low-memory Photoshop: USB 2.0
|Low-memory Photoshop: eSATA
Scale = Minutes:Seconds
AJA tests: RAID 5
|28.3 MBps
|31.0 MBps
|107.3 MBps
|121.7 MBps
Timed trials: RAID 0
|Copy 1GB file to USB 2.0
|Copy 1GB file to eSATA
|Duplicate 1GB file via USB 2.0
|Duplicate 1GB file via eSATA
|Low-memory Photoshop: USB 2.0
|Low-memory Photoshop: eSATA
Scale = Minutes:Seconds
AJA tests: RAID 0
|28.4 MBps
|31.4 MBps
|108.1 MBps
|123.5 MBps
Although we don't often review four-drive RAID devices, the Thunder RAID's performance was impressive. Through the USB connection, the drive was 10 seconds faster copying and duplicating a 1GB file than CalDigit's VR mini (), a two-drive RAID device. Copying and duplicating via eSATA yielded faster results as well, taking 8 and 4 seconds faster, respectively, compared to the CalDigit.
The Thunder RAID, is also faster than G-Technolgy's G-RAID mini2 SSD (), another two-drive enclosure, which took 12 seconds longer to copy a 1GB file with a USB connection, and 9 seconds longer to duplicate the 1GB file than the Thunder RAID. With eSATA, times were comparatively closer, but the Thunder RAID was still faster, taking 10 and 7 seconds less to copy and duplicate a 1GB file than the G-RAID mini2.
We took a look at our AJA test results and compared it to Ci Design's iStoragePro iT1 Dock 2TB (), as well. While holding similar write and read scores with the USB connection, the Thunder RAID held noticeably faster speed scores with eSATA.
Macworld buying advice
The Thunder RAID eSATA/USB 2.0 Portable System is great for multi-stream video playback. The multiple RAID configurations give it an available degree of fault tolerance and reliability. At around 26 cents per gigabyte, we find the Thunder RAID well worth the few kinks we experienced during our RAID reconfigurations.
[Lynn La is a contributor to Macworld Lab.]


text:
PHAI senior staff attorney Lissy Friedman and executive director Mark Gottlieb collaborated with Lori Dorfman, Andrew Cheyne and Asiya Wadud of the Berkeley Media Studies Group to produce this article published today in PLoS Medicine.
Soda companies' PR campaigns are bad for health:
Health advocates need to organize strong public health campaigns to educate the public and policymakers about the dangers of both sugary beverages and the misleading industry corporate social responsibility campaigns that distract from their products' health risks, according to US experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine.
In a Policy Forum article, the authors (media and public health experts from the Berkeley and Boston, USA) examined prominent campaigns from industry leaders PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, that, according to the authors, have embraced corporate social responsibility (CSR) with elaborate, expensive, and multinational campaigns.
The authors say that while soda companies may not face the level of social stigmatization or regulatory pressure that now confronts Big Tobacco, concern over soda and the obesity epidemic is growing.
In response to health concerns about their products, the authors argue that soda companies have launched comprehensive CSR initiatives sooner than did tobacco companies but that these campaigns echo the tobacco industry's use of CSR as a means to focus responsibility on consumers rather than the corporation, bolster the companies' and products' popularity, and to prevent regulation.
However, unlike tobacco CSR campaigns, soda company CSR campaigns explicitly target young people and aim to increase sales.
The authors say: "It is clear that the soda CSR campaigns reinforce the idea that obesity is caused by customers' "bad" behavior, diverting attention from soda's contribution to rising obesity rates." They continue: "For example, CSR campaigns that include the construction and upgrading of parks for youth who are at risk for diet-related illnesses keep the focus on physical activity, rather than on unhealthful foods and drinks. Such tactics redirect the responsibility for health outcomes from corporations onto its consumers, and externalize the negative effects of increased obesity to the public."
The authors argue: "Emerging science on the addictiveness of sugar, especially when combined with the known addictive properties of caffeine found in many sugary beverages, should further heighten awareness of the product's public health threat similar to the understanding about the addictiveness of tobacco products."
They conclude: "Public health advocates must continue to monitor the CSR activities of soda companies, and remind the public and policymakers that, similar to Big Tobacco, soda industry CSR aims to position the companies, and their products, as socially acceptable rather than contributing to a social ill."
This article is one in a PLoS Medicine series on Big Food that examines the activities and influence of the food and beverage industry in the health arena. The series runs for three weeks beginning 19 June 2012 and all articles will be collected at www.ploscollections.org/bigfood. Twitter hashtag #plosmedbigfood
Funding: This research was supported by the Healthy Eating Research program (http://www.healthyeatingresearch.org/) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, grant #68240. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


text:
Over 150 people gathered to hear the benefits of buying a share in a local organic farm at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York's Community Supported Agriculture fair held at Polish Hall in Riverhead last weekend. This was the second time such a fair was held on Long Island, and the first time it was held in Riverhead.
"I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of people here," said Fred Lee, owner of Sang Lee Farms in Peconic. "If they could join a CSA, it would help that farm tremendously."
Members of the community buy a farm share in the late winter, and during summer and into fall they receive a season's worth of fresh farm produce in return.
"CSAs are very beneficial for the farms," Mr. Lee said. "By taking payments up front, it produces a lot of up-front capital we can then use for fertilizers, land rent, to pay workers and things like that."
"We've been doing this for eight years now," Mr. Lee said. "Last year we had over 600 shares."
Farm shares range from about $400 to $600 a season, and buyers will receive fresh produce for about 25 weeks through the summer and fall, said Nicole Dennis, CSA fair coordinator. Each farm handles shares individually, and produce ranges depending on what each farm grows, she said.
"We like to think of ourselves as a specialty vegetable producer," said Mr. Lee, whose vegetables include bok choy, Asian radishes and snow peas. "Things that may not be in other shares."
Steph Gaylor, owner of Invincible Summer Farms in Southold, said she plants 350 types of tomatoes and 250 kinds of peppers, and says that diversity is what sets Invincible Summer Farms apart. Ms. Gaylor said she offers 40 shares, providing shareholders fresh produce weekly for 20 weeks.
"I think this is great. CSAs on the East End have been around for a while. I think it needs to travel west," Ms. Gaylor said.
"Long Island has some of the best soil in the U.S.," said Roxy Zimmer, representing KK's Farm in Southold. "I think people are discovering that the taste of food grown on local farms is more delicious. It's a step away from the lack of quality in industrial agriculture." She said KK's Farm offers what's called a Gourmet CSA that has no up-front fee.
"The people that take advantage of the farms out here really benefit," said Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht, owner of Garden of Eve in Riverhead. "Our goal is that you get more than what you paid for."
Ms. Kaplan-Walbrecht said shareholders get seven to 9 different types of produce a week depending on what's in season.
"I got a few people to sign up," said Phil Barbato, owner of Biophilia Organic Farm in Jamesport. "It's very nice to see all these people interested in organic local food." Mr. Barbato said he only offers 50 farm shares a year.
"I think the fact that [my program] is so small, I get to know everyone personally," he said. "I really enjoy that part."
Mr. Barbato said he sends his shareholders weekly newsletters with updates and information about the farm. He also started a young farmers program so the children or grandchildren of his CSA members can learn about agriculture. The children plant seeds in his greenhouse, and when those seeds grow into a seedling, the kids get their own space to plant them on his farm, Mr. Barbato said.
"I want them to see what it's like; they can see how wonderful it is," said Mr. Barbato, who hopes to get other children in the community interested as well.
Elena and Ron Dobert of Mattituck made their way around the fair, hearing about the different types of produce each farm offered.
"We have a garden and we are trying to eat more healthy," Ms. Dobert said. "This seemed like a good opportunity to have organic vegetables."
About an hour later she and her husband chose to sign up with Mr. Barbato, saying the location, price and the way he would keep them informed and educated about the farm is what set Biophilia Organic Farm apart from the others.
"And he has flowers," Ms. Dobert said with a smile. "We are looking forward to it."
To find out more about purchasing a farm share visit farms individually or log on to nofany.org/csafair.


text:
Our Cookie Policy
Like many companies, we use "cookies" or similar objects on our website.
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the users' hard drive while they are visiting certain websites. It contains simple information about the users' identity but no personal information. The benefit of using cookies is that it allows us to monitor website traffic and record user's preferences. They tell us, for example, whether you have visited our website before or if you are a new visitor and to help us identify site features in which you may have the greatest interest. Specifically, we use Google Analytics on our site to do this. Importantly, Google, acting on our behalf, subscribe to the same "best practice" rules of data protection in processing personal data. Please see section on "Your rights and preferences." Cookies may also enhance your online experience, for example, by remembering your passwords and viewing preferences, whilst you are visiting a particular site.
We acknowledge and comply with changes to the rules and regulations in regards to using cookies and similar technologies for storing information. We will ensure that the use of cookies is managed in accordance with national and legal guidelines, such as those that require the consent of website visitors for their use.
By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to do so or to notify the user when a cookie is being sent. If you wish to disable cookies, refer to your browser help menu to learn how to disable cookies. Please note that if you disable cookies, you may be unable to access some customised features on our website.


text: The unique identifiers of 1 million Apple iOS devices that hackers leaked last week were stolen from the servers of a Florida-based digital publishing firm called Bluetoad. \n\nBluetoad develops digital distribution technologies. Its products include custom iOS and Android apps that magazine and newspaper publishers use to distribute their titles to mobile users. The company claims that the hundreds of iPad and iPhone apps it developed for its customers are used to publish more than 2,000 titles in digital format every month.\n\n"A little more than a week ago, BlueToad was the victim of a criminal cyber attack, which resulted in the theft of Apple UDIDs from our systems," Paul DeHart, CEO and president of Bluetoad, said Monday in a blog post. "Shortly thereafter, an unknown group posted these UDIDs on the Internet."\n\nOn Sept. 3, a group of hackers claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous and its Antisec hacking campaign released a file containing 1 million Apple unique device identifiers (UDIDs) together with their corresponding Apple Push Notification Service tokens and device names.\n\nThe hackers claimed the leaked data was part of a database of more than 12 million UDIDs, which also included zip codes, cellphone numbers and addresses, that they stole from the compromised laptop of an FBI agent.\n\nThe FBI dismissed as false the claim that the laptop of one of its agents had been compromised. The agency said it never sought nor obtained the data released by the hackers.\n\nIn describing the theft from its servers, BlueToad downplayed the risk to information types other than UDIDs.\n\n"BlueToad does not collect, nor have we ever collected, highly sensitive personal information like credit cards, social security numbers or medical information," DeHart said. "The illegally obtained information primarily consisted of Apple device names and UDIDs -- information that was reported and stored pursuant to commercial industry development practices."\n\nOver the past several years, iOS app developers have used UDIDs to identify and track devices in their systems. Some of them associated UDIDs with other information about device owners and even used these identifiers for user authentication.\n\nBecause of the privacy concerns associated with these practices, Apple has started to phase out the use of UDIDs. Since March, the company no longer accepts App Store submissions for apps that access UDIDs.\n\nBluetoad followed Apple's recommendation, and its new apps no longer report UDIDs back to the company's servers, DeHart said. "We have now also discontinued storing any UDID information sent to our servers by apps that have not yet been updated to the new code base."\n\nBluetoad discovered the security breach after David Schuetz, a consultant with mobile security assessment firm Intrepidus Group, informed the company that it might be the source for the leaked UDIDs.\n\nSchuetz started suspecting that the leaked data originated from Bluetoad after finding UDIDs that were listed multiple times in the leaked file and appeared to be linked to the company.\n\nThe UDIDs corresponded to devices such as "Bluetoad iPad," "Client iPad BT" and "BT iPad WiFi," and were listed multiple times with different Apple Push Notification Service tokens.\n\nThis suggested that those devices were running multiple apps from the same developer -- the developer that was probably the source of the leaked data.\n\nAfter discovering that Bluetoad is a mobile app developer, Schuetz realized that the listed devices might belong to Bluetoad employees who were testing the company's own apps.\n\n"By the time I went to bed [on Tuesday], I had identified nineteen different devices, each tied to BlueToad in some way," Schuetz wrote Monday in a blog post. "One, appearing four times, is twice named 'Hutch' (their CIO), and twice named 'Paul's gift to Brad' (Paul being the first name of the CEO, and Brad being their Chief Creative Officer). I found iPhones and iPads belonging to their CEO, CIO, CCO, a customer service rep, the Director of Digital Services, the lead System Admin, and a Senior Developer."\n\nSchuetz informed Bluetoad of his findings on Tuesday. The company asked for some time to investigate and confirmed on Friday that it was the source of the leaked data, Schuetz said. The two parties then agreed to make coordinated public disclosures on Monday.\n\nBluetoad has notified law enforcement about the security breach and is cooperating with their ongoing criminal investigation of the parties responsible, DeHart said.\n\nThe company has fixed the vulnerability exploited by the hackers and engaged an independent security assurance company to help it ensure that such an incident doesn't happen again, he said.\n\n"We understand and respect the privacy concerns surrounding the data that was stolen from our system," DeHart said. "BlueToad believes the risk that the stolen data can be used to harm app users is very low."\n\nWhile some security researchers agree that the privacy risk associated with the leak of Apple UDIDs is low, some claim otherwise.\n\nSome app developers have undisclosed vulnerabilities in their platforms that could allow attackers to extract more user information based on UDIDs, Aldo Cortesi, a security researcher who investigated the privacy risks of UDIDs in the past, said last week. Cortesi called the leak a "privacy catastrophe."


text:
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor had one of the most melodramatic love stories of the 20th century, right up there with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. In the early 1930s, the Prince of Wales became smitten with international socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson—drawn by her sharp wit, imagination, and generosity, even though she was still married to her second husband.
Less than a year after he became King Edward, in 1936, he shocked all of England by abdicating his throne, throwing away his reign as King of Britain and Head of the Commonwealth, just so he could marry "the love of his life," an American woman who'd been divorced twice. His brother, George VI, who became king, created the Duke of Windsor title for him.
The Windsors documented their passionate love affair throughout the rest of their lives by trading extravagant and deeply personal jewelry—many of these tokens of affection will be auctioned off on November 30, 2010, at Sotheby's in London. Of course, with all the gold, diamonds, emeralds, and rubies involved, the auction prices are bound to reach the stratosphere—some are expected to sell in the millions. Nonetheless, it's a stunning collection to gawk at, and it's hard not to get swept up in the overt sentimentality of it all.
"The nice thing is, yes, there is the jewelry, wonderful jewelry, which covers the great Cartier jewels," says Alexandra Rhodes, the senior director of Sotheby's in London. "But equally, it covers a lot of the jewels with inscriptions and dates which obviously follow the love story of the Windsors."
The romance is spelled out in a chapter of the recent book, "Famous Jewelry Collectors," by Rhodes and her former colleague Stefano Papi. Years before they were married, the Prince fawned over Wallis, lavishing her with ornate jewelry, many pieces of which he had specially commissioned for her. She responded in kind. These gifts of platonic friendship are thought to have been coded with secret meaning.
For example, a gold cross-shaped pendant Edward gifted to Wallis in 1934 was inscribed with "WE are too," believed to mean "Wallis and Edward are also in love." That cross was attached to a 1935 diamond Cartier bracelet, eventually adorned with eight other crosses, all of them set with jewels and engraved to commemorate life events like the couple's wedding, her appendicitis operation, and even an assassination attempt on the king.
In the early days of their courtship, Wallis also gave Edward a token of their secret romance—a gold cigarette case featuring a map of Europe and North Africa. Enameled lines show the route of trips the two took together, and gemstones mark special places. Sometimes, Rhodes explains, the jewelry was inscribed during a time of turmoil, when it seemed the forces of their lives would keep them apart. More than one piece is engraved with the words "hold tight."
But these romantic, indulgent gifts didn't end after the two were married. In fact, the couple doted on each other until the duke passed away in 1972. In addition, because the Duchess of Windsor was considered a fashion trendsetter, when the duke had a piece of jewelry commissioned for her, she would then have a dress designed to match it.
For their 20th anniversary, the duke gave the duchess a heart-shaped diamond brooch with an emerald pattern script "W" and "E" intertwined and a ruby crown on the top. Edward always regretted that Wallis was never bestowed the designation of Her Royal Highness, so the crown was a part of their lifelong love code spoken in jewelry.
"Take the Cartier pavé-set cufflinks, which Wallis gave to the then Prince of Wales in 1935," Rhodes says. "They are very unique because she's obviously asked the designers to either put an 'E' or a 'W' on each of the links. This stands for Edward and Wallis, or Edward of Wales. The letters could stand for him alone or for them both. They were often called 'WE', and they called themselves 'The Royal WE.'
"She had those specially designed for him," Rhodes continues. "Then around the sides or around the backs, she had engraved significant dates, including her birthday. When he put his pair of cufflinks on, it would remind him when her birthday was coming up, that he needed to buy some extravagant present, I think."
Outside of this blatant mushiness, the Duke of Windsor gave the duchess many unengraved pieces that stand out simply for their creative designs and craftsmanship, including much of Cartier's famous "great cat" menagerie. This collection was inspired by high-end jewelry director Jeanne Toussaint, who was nicknamed "The Panther" by her good friend, and employer, Louis Cartier because of her fascination with panthers, whose skins she enjoyed as rugs. Toussaint worked with Cartier's designer Peter Lemarchand to design the jewelry line.
The Windsors commissioned the first, a 3D gold panther pin embossed with black enamel and sitting on an emerald barrel. Wallis continued to collect these cats; many, like the onyx and diamond bracelet in the auction, wrap around the wrist in a slinky, organic way. Rhodes says she believes Wallis was so fond of these pieces, "because at the time she was the first to have a cat jewel."
"They are very beautifully made, very finely designed," Rhodes says. "They're also very flexible; they literally move. For the designs that Cartier did, like the one in the auction, he used to go to the zoo in France where he would watch the panthers pacing so he'd get the movement. All these cat jewels look like the real thing, striding around, almost about to pounce. It was very much a jewel that had style and taste. It would be a jewel that you would want to have."
So are these two almost-royal lovers to blame for the romantic mystique surrounding diamonds and jewelry? That would be hard to prove, but the auction does offer a glimpse into the Windsors' rarefied, glamorous world—the adoring inscriptions, the crosses, the cigarette case, the love heart, the cufflinks, the cats, and even a stunning bejeweled '40s flamingo the ever-elegant Wallis wore to all the major balls in Paris.
"In the war days, jewels were often unmounted and remounted," Rhodes says, describing the flamingo. "We've got a drawing of the original design, which Cartier kindly allowed us to reproduce in our catalog, which shows that several pieces of her jewelry were unmounted to make this one. So you not only have a wonderful bird jewel inspired by Jeanne Touissant, but you've also got the fact that jewels from the duchess's own collection were used in conjunction with other jewels and gemstones from Cartier to create it. That, to my mind, is a very unique piece."
In November, bidders will have their chance to decide just what all that history, artistry, and romantic display of affection is worth.
The Duchess of Windsor's jewels will be on view at Sotheby's in New York from October 29 – November 2 and in London from November 26 until the auction date of November 30, 2010.
(All photos courtesy Sotheby's)