Archive for September, 2009
Patrick Swayze Dies After Long Battle with Cancer
September 14th, 2009 | 
Author: Patrick Swayze (Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — Actor Patrick Swayze has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Swayze’s publicist Annett Wolf says the 57-year-old “Dirty Dancing” actor died Monday with family at his side.
He went public about his illness last spring, but continued working as he underwent treatments.
Swayze was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in early 2008. Doctors later determined the cancer had spread to his liver.
This January, he was admitted to a hospital for pneumonia, which was reportedly the result of his chemotherapy treatments.
He had to miss an appearance at the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles as a result. He had been scheduled to talk about his new A & E show, “The Beast.”
In March, a picture in a tabloid magazine showed a gaunt and seemingly hairless Swayze with the headline, “Patrick Swayze: THE END.”
The article stated that the actor weighed only 105 pounds.
Swayze remained remarkably upbeat during his brave battle and said he had so much to be thankful for.
He also kept busy and continued to work.
Swayze was perhaps best-known as a romantic leading man in the films Dirty Dancing (1987) and Ghost (1990) for which he received Golden Globe nominations.
Swayze is survived by his wife of nearly 34 years, Lisa Niemi.
He was 56-years-old.
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New hybrids proclaim their German engineering
I’m a big fan of “German engineering”–that combined focus on power and precision that distinguishes the better automobiles designed or manufactured in Germany.
At Frankfurt’s International Motor Show, BMW will be showing off two new hybrid cars intended to deliver the full promise of German engineering. This is no small thing because most hybrid cars to date have been lightly built and somewhat underpowered in order to improve fuel economy.
The two new BMWs are more like previous offerings from that company: big, solid cars with lots of power to maintain performance in spite of the weight. They’re also real cars, not just prototypes.
Fortunately, I don’t need to describe these new cars here; there’s a great article by Antuan Goodwin over on CNET’s Car Tech blog that does a fine job of that (see “BMW unveiling two big hybrid models at Frankfurt“). What I would like to do instead is to drill down into their respective powertrains, which represent two different solutions to high-performance hybrid design, using images provided by BMW.
The ActiveHybrid X6, due to go on sale in the U.S. later this year, represents one end of the spectrum: higher-power electric motors and a larger battery pack. As the first image shows, the new X6 model has a twin-turbo V8 gas engine with 400 horsepower. Though this is a reasonably efficient engine for its size, it certainly wasn’t chosen primarily for its fuel economy.
BMW’s ActiveHybrid X6 uses a large NiMH battery pack and a new transmission with two integrated electric motors to augment its 400-horsepower gasoline engine.
Are cell phones safe? Researchers still uncertain
WASHINGTON, D.C.–The question over whether cell phones pose a health risk has been debated for years, and researchers say the final answer could still be years away.
Since the wireless industry’s early days, there have been fears that cell phones could be harmful to your health. Some 600 studies have been conducted on the health effects of cell phone use, but the results have been conflicting.
Several reputable organizations, including the World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute, say there’s no conclusive evidence that using cell phones can harm your health. Other independent research, meanwhile, indicates a link between health problems and cell phone use.
The Interphone study, which began over a decade ago involving 13 countries and has been funded in part by the wireless industry, was supposed to settle the dispute. But the report’s publication has been delayed as researchers disagree over how to interpret the data. Some countries have ended up publishing some results on their own. Much of it indicates there is a link between brain tumors and cell phone use of 10 years or more.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10351577-266.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in cell phone, Communication, evironment, Health | 
Tags: cancer, cell phones, Health | 
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Solar start-up squeezes more juice from silicon cells
1366 Technologies, a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it can produce a very efficient solar cell from silicon which will be in the market in two years.
The Lexington, Mass.-based company on Monday plans to disclose the details of its Self-Aligned Cell (SAC) architecture, a set of technologies it has developed to convert 18 percent of sunlight to electricity with polysilicon, the most common solar cell material. Engineers forecast that they will be able to hit 19 percent efficiency in the next nine months without adding significant cost to existing processes, said Ely Sachs, chief technology officer.
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10350957-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Beware of pricier mobile Internet data plans
Prices for cell phone voice services may be dropping, but consumers are likely to be forced to pay a lot more for mobile Internet data plans in the future.
It’s no secret that the price of voice services for cell phones is falling. Just last week Sprint Nextel announced it was offering a new $69.99 a month, Any Mobile, Anytime plan that allows subscribers to call any cell phone in the U.S., regardless of the carrier, in addition to such things as unlimited text messaging and data services.
Analysts are predicting a price war in the mobile market as national wireless carriers will soon be forced to offer more minutes of voice service or unlimited voice services for equal or lower prices to compete with each other.
To make up for the shortfall in revenue, these analysts also predict that wireless operators will start reconfiguring Internet data service plans to make up the difference.
“Voice revenue is declining for the carriers,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “And the vision for the future is to use data revenue to make up for the shortfall and to kick ARPU (average revenue per user) into growth mode.”
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http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10351105-266.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in cell phone, Communication, Internet |
Tags: cell phones, mobile Internet |
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