2012 sustained long-term climate warming trend, NASA finds

Jan. 15, 2013 ? NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis January 15 that compares temperatures around the globe in 2012 to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago.

The average temperature in 2012 was about 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit (14.6 Celsius), which is 1.0 F (0.6 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline. The average global temperature has risen about 1.4 degrees F (0.8 C) since 1880, according to the new analysis.

Scientists emphasize that weather patterns always will cause fluctuations in average temperature from year to year, but the continued increase in greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere assures a long-term rise in global temperatures. Each successive year will not necessarily be warmer than the year before, but on the current course of greenhouse gas increases, scientists expect each successive decade to be warmer than the previous decade.

"One more year of numbers isn't in itself significant," GISS climatologist Gavin Schmidt said. "What matters is this decade is warmer than the last decade, and that decade was warmer than the decade before. The planet is warming. The reason it's warming is because we are pumping increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat and largely controls Earth's climate. It occurs naturally and also is emitted by the burning of fossil fuels for energy. Driven by increasing human-made emissions, the level of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere has been rising consistently for decades.

The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million in 1880, the first year in the GISS temperature record. By 1960, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, measured at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory, was about 315 parts per million. Today, that measurement exceeds 390 parts per million.

While the globe experienced relatively warm temperatures in 2012, the continental U.S. endured its warmest year on record by far, according to NOAA, the official keeper of U.S. weather records.

"The U.S. temperatures in the summer of 2012 are an example of a new trend of outlying seasonal extremes that are warmer than the hottest seasonal temperatures of the mid-20th century," GISS director James E. Hansen said. "The climate dice are now loaded. Some seasons still will be cooler than the long-term average, but the perceptive person should notice that the frequency of unusually warm extremes is increasing. It is the extremes that have the most impact on people and other life on the planet."

The temperature analysis produced at GISS is compiled from weather data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea-surface temperature, and Antarctic research station measurements. A publicly available computer program is used to calculate the difference between surface temperature in a given month and the average temperature for the same place during 1951 to 1980. This three-decade period functions as a baseline for the analysis. The last year that experienced cooler temperatures than the 1951 to 1980 average was 1976.

The GISS temperature record is one of several global temperature analyses, along with those produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. These three primary records use slightly different methods, but overall, their trends show close agreement.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/llWb-0_v6cM/130115190218.htm

eric church world trade center quick silver where have you been rihanna

Facebook?s Bold, Compelling And Scary Engine of Discovery: The Inside Story Of Graph Search | Steven Levy | Wired | 15 January 2013

Writing Worth Reading

Steven Levy | Wired | 15 January 2013

Facebook by _Max-B "A transformative product gets you to do more of something that you wouldn?t think to do on your own. Thanks to Graph Search, people will almost certainly use Facebook in entirely new ways. it expands Facebook?s core mission ? not just obsessively connecting users with people they already know, but becoming a vehicle of discovery" Read full article

Business, Finance & Economics >

Source: http://feeds.thebrowser.com/~r/BestOfTheMoment/~3/rIw8L3OWcys/facebook%E2%80%99s-bold-compelling-and-scary-engine-discovery-inside-story-graph-search

cirque du freak paul pierce pope joan pope joan strikeforce tate vs rousey strawberry festival knicks

NRA president: Gun control will crumble in Congress

(CNN) -

As debate thunders through Washington over a ban on assault weapons, the president of the powerful National Rifle Association said Sunday he believes there's not enough support on Capitol Hill for such legislation to pass.

"I would say that the likelihood is they're not going to be able to get an assault weapons ban through this Congress," David Keene said on CNN's "State of the Union."

However, he qualified, if the president is "willing to expend the political capital" and use "all the power of his office," then Keene doesn't want to make any predictions on what could happen in the coming months. "You don't want to bet your house on the outcome," he told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

An administration official said Friday that President Barack Obama will seek the passage of an assault weapons ban as part of the renewed push for gun control laws following last month's Connecticut elementary school massacre. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has said she'll introduce a bill soon including measures similar to the ban that was in place from 1994 until 2004, when it expired.

Cautioning that "the president is going to act," Vice President Joe Biden stirred controversy last week when he warned that "executive orders, executive action, can be taken" should Congress fail to move on the issue.

Biden, while meeting with various stakeholders in the gun debate, said other proposals under consideration include a universal background check system for gun buyers and restrictions on high-capacity magazines, devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. He'll be presenting his recommendations to the president by Tuesday.

Keene said he doubts scaled-back attempts targeting only magazines will get far due to their easy access and low cost.

"Even David Gregory could find one," he added, referring to the host of NBC's "Meet the Press," a show that got into trouble for using a high-capacity magazine as a prop during a broadcast - an illegal display of the device in Washington. The incident sparked an investigation by local authorities, and while the act was found in violation of the law, a prosecutor announced Friday there would be no charges.

Since the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, last month, the NRA has added 100,000 new members, bringing its total membership to 4.2 million, NRA officials told CNN. Because of the increased attention on the issue, the officials think the group will soon hit 5 million.

While some speculate the gun lobby is trying to gin up the gun debate to prompt more firearm sales, Keene shot back at the idea.

"The two people who are selling so-called assault rifles are Sen. Feinstein and President Obama - not us," he said. "They're the ones that are scaring American gun owners. It isn't the NRA."

Pressed further about the NRA's ties to the manufacturing sector, Keene said the gun lobby gets "less money from the industry than we'd like to get, but we get more than we used to."

But he further contended that manufacturers are "not our constituency."

"Our constituency is twofold," he said. "It's the American people who want to own guns and use them legally, and it's the Second Amendment itself."

"I'm willing to suggest that gun owners in this country have as much influence as they always have, and perhaps more, because guns are more acceptable now than they were 10 years ago," he said.

-- CNN's Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.localnews8.com/news/politics/NRA-president-Gun-control-will-crumble-in-Congress/-/308336/18114010/-/il1hpnz/-/index.html

blue ivy carter photos purple squirrel blade runner close encounters of the third kind

Broncos, Ravens brace for frigid playoff in Denver

DENVER (AP) ? That glove Peyton Manning has been wearing on his throwing hand will come in quite handy Saturday for what could be the coldest home postseason game in Denver Broncos' history.

Those not playing may want to sit on the heated benches ? or next to the electric heaters ? because the game-time temperature when the Broncos host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC divisional playoffs is expected to be 17 degrees, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kalina.

In other words, "bundle up," Kalina said.

The coldest postseason contest at Mile High was 18 degrees for the 1977 AFC championship game, when Denver beat Oakland 20-17.

The chilliest home game ever in Denver? That would be 9 degrees against San Diego on Dec 10, 1972.

Being such a meticulous planner, Manning left nothing to chance in the weeks leading up this game. To prepare for the possibility of wintry weather, the four-time NFL MVP wore an orange-and-gray glove on his throwing hand the last two games. Manning has been quite effective, too, with the glove ? his completion percentage has been almost 6 points better and his passer rating almost 20 points higher than without it.

The stickiness of the glove also helps Manning better grip the football, especially these days after the multiple neck surgeries he underwent during his season out of football.

"I certainly don't think I would have had to wear the glove had I not been injured last year," Manning said. "It's part of my injury, some things that I've had to adjust. I'm in a different body. Some things are different for me, so that's the reason for that as much as anything."

The cool weather certainly hasn't been friendly to Manning, who's 0-3 in playoff games in which the temperature at kickoff is less than 40 degrees.

And this game will certainly be well south of that number.

"It's going to be very cold," Kalina said. "There may even be a few flakes, but it shouldn't affect the game. Just really cold."

This isn't even close to the coldest game in NFL history, though. That distinction belongs to "The Ice Bowl" on Dec. 31, 1967, when the temperature at Lambeau Field reached minus-13 (with a minus-48 wind chill) in a contest between Green Bay and Dallas.

All week, Broncos players boasted about wearing short-sleeves despite the cool conditions. It was simply a matter of convincing the mind it really wasn't all the frigid.

"Once you get out there, you're on the field, you're just fine," Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas said earlier this week. "But if you're just sitting around, that's when it gets to you. As long as you're out there on the field and warm, you're good."

The field should be in solid shape, though, with more than 20 miles of water-heated tubing under the field to keep it from freezing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/broncos-ravens-brace-frigid-playoff-denver-191741752--nfl.html

one direction tulsa news scalloped potatoes the ten commandments charlton heston moses tulsa shooting

Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

Jan 10 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions

and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Thursday:

** IntercontinentalExchange would consider selling

Euronext as an alternative to floating it if bids for the

European stock market emerge during ICE's planned $8.2 billion

takeover of NYSE Euronext, three sources close to the exchange

said.

** Greece's top three lenders, National Bank,

Eurobank and Alpha, will not submit binding

offers for troubled Hellenic Postbank, a banker close

to the procedure said on Thursday.

** Spain's Telefonica said on Thursday it had

agreed to sell its 13 percent stake in satellite operator

Hispasat to Spanish infrastructure company Abertis and

Paris-listed Eutelsat for 101 million euros ($132

million).

** Supervalu Inc struck a $3.3 billion deal to

reduce its burdensome debt by selling five retail grocery chains

to an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management LP

, the No. 3 U.S. grocery store operator announced on

Thursday.

The transaction will be valued at $3.3 billion, in which the

buyer will take on $3.2 billion of Supervalu's debt.

** British semiconductor materials maker IQE Plc

said it would buy a unit of U.S.-based Kopin Corp for

$75 million to strengthen its position in the wireless industry.

** Legg Mason Inc has been approached in recent

months by some of its senior managers and private equity firms

with plans to take the struggling asset manager private, but the

board has decided against exploring that option at least until

the company has a new chief executive, three sources said.

** Italian milk group Granarolo, a competitor of

French-controlled dairy group Parmalat, said it had

agreed to buy French cheesemaker CIPF Codipal from holding

Compagnie du Forum SAS as part of its strategy to grow

internationally.

** China's insurance regulator said it has conducted a

preliminary review of HSBC Holdings Plc's

planned sale of its $9.4 billion stake in Ping An Insurance

to Thailand's CP Group and is seeking more

information from the Chinese insurer.

** Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi extended his

$7.2 billion offer to take over Singapore property and drinks

conglomerate Fraser and Neave Ltd (F&N) for the sixth

time, until Jan. 15.

** Sprint Nextel Corp is under no pressure to raise

its $2 billion offer for Clearwire Corp to beat a

higher bid by Dish Network Corp as it holds several

trump cards it can play to thwart its rival, three sources close

to the matter said.

** BlackRock is to buy Credit Suisse's

exchange-traded fund (ETF) business that will give the U.S.

asset manager greater scale in Europe.

The price tag on the deal, announced on Thursday, was not

disclosed, but two sources familiar with the matter put it at

between $200 million and $300 million.

** Sony Corp has put one of its main buildings in

central Tokyo up for sale in a deal that could raise up to 100

billion yen ($1.14 billion) as the company seeks to sell

non-core assets to boost its balance sheet, five people with

direct knowledge of the deal said.

** General Motors Co's European division Opel is not

up for sale, Steve Girsky, vice chairman of the U.S. car maker,

said on Thursday.

Parent GM will continue to invest in Ruesselsheim-based

Opel, Girsky, who is also head of Opel's supervisory board, said

at an event at the company's Eisenach, Germany-based plant.

** Lafarge, the world's largest cement maker, has

now hit 80 percent of its 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) asset

sale target for 2012 and hopes to meet the remainder soon, it

said.

** Switzerland's Astra Oil Trading (AOT) has won Libya's

sell tender for gasoil for the full year of 2013, traders said.

AOT won the gasoil cargoes at around a $20-22 premium to

Mediterranean gasoil prices, traders said. The company will lift

around 60,000 tonnes of gasoil per month.

** TV station operator Fisher Communications Inc,

under pressure from billionaire investor Mario Gabelli, said it

is exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale.

** Hermes is taking over d'Annonay tannery, one of

its key providers of calf leather, becoming the latest luxury

brand to buy up a supplier in an increasingly competitive

environment for quality raw materials.

** The French state could take part in the purchase of

Alcatel-Lucent's submarine cable unit in a deal aimed

at easing financial pressure on the indebted telecoms gear

maker, French business newspaper Agefi reported.

** Ahli United Bank, Bahrain's largest listed

lender, has sold most of its 33 percent stake in Qatar's Ahli

Bank to sovereign fund Qatar Foundation.

The sale, involving all but 1,000 of Ahli United's 37.38

million shares, still requires the approval of Ahli Bank

shareholders, an Ahli Bank filing to the Qatar bourse said.

** Shares in Italian defence group Finmeccanica

rose for the second day on Thursday after a report said

negotiations on the sale of its AnsaldoEnergia unit are warming

up.

** Finnish forest group UPM-Kymmene said it was

looking for a buyer for its sawmill in Pestovo, Russia, as it

seeks to improve profitability in its timber business.

UPM, one of Europe's leading sawn timber companies, said it

also plans to cut Pestovo mill's output to a level that only

fulfils existing contracts.

** Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas group has agreed to a deal

that could see it take a stake in the Nabucco pipeline to

transport the country's gas to Europe, boosting the project's

chances against a rival plan.

** China Investment Corp, the country's sovereign

wealth fund, is among three big funds competing for a stake in

Australian dairy producer Van Diemen's Land, a newspaper

reported.

** The second largest U.S. pension fund decided to sell its

investments in manufacturers of firearms that are banned in

California, like the assault rifle used in the Newtown,

Connecticut, school massacre.

** Private equity firm CVC is in exclusive talks to

buy a majority stake in SPi Global Holdings, a business

outsourcing unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co

, for about $320 million including debt, a source

familiar with the matter told Reuters.

** Copper and gold miner PanAust Ltd is Australia's

top contender to be taken over in 2013 in another year likely to

be dominated by acquisitions of resource companies, according to

an annual report from JP Morgan's specialist sales desk.

** India's Punj Lloyd Ltd stepped up its offer for

the construction business of Macmahon Holdings Ltd,

looking to trump a current deal with Leighton Holdings Ltd

.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deals-day-mergers-acquisitions-103947554--sector.html

zipper armenian genocide asteroid mining memorial day ivan rodriguez planetary resources mothers day gift ideas

How 'Anodyne' Communication Destroys Societal Trust ? Playing ...

A few months ago I went to an all expenses paid job interview in another city. The interview went well and I was one of the top 2-3 candidates. However I did not get the job, which is fine by me for reasons that I will mention later on in this post. I did however find the ?rejection? email interesting because it is one of the better examples of what passes for communication in the corporate environment today.

Here is the name-redacted email..

Dear AD,

The ?Acme Gadget Group? interview team wants to thank you for taking the time to participate in our hiring process through the on-site interview stage. This letter is to let you know that despite your impressive experience, after long consideration we have decided to go with another candidate.

Again, thank you for your time and efforts to come to ?AGG?. We enjoyed meeting you and our discussions indicate that you have much to offer your next employer.

We wish you both personal and professional success in your future endeavors.

Regards,

Chris

While such emails or letters sound polite and to the point, the reality is rather different. To understand what I am talking about, let me ask you a question.

Would you communicate like that to a person you seriously considered having a personal relationship with?

Some of you might say- ?but it is work, not a relationship?. My point is that work in the current setup is a relationship if you consider the time and effort you put into it- never mind the amount of communication with those who work around you. People spend more time around the people they work with than members of their own family. While you might trust your family members (hopefully) more than your coworkers, it is hard to get around the fact that your frenemies at work are members of your extended social circle- for better or worse.

For most of human history the people who worked around, or with you, were also your kith and kin. While that could be boring and sometimes problematic, it placed hard limits on how your coworkers or employers could treat you. Thoughtless or sociopathic behavior had consequences, both immediate and delayed. You just could not get away with certain behaviors without accepting a significant personal risk.

The industrial revolution started changing that, though not as much as most people think. People still mostly worked with or around people from similar backgrounds to whom they were often related- if somewhat distantly. Jobs and careers were still decades long and people had enough time to develop some sort of ersatz relationships with their coworkers.

However things started changing around the late-1970s and early-1980s. While there are many reasons behind the socio-cultural shifts that occurred around that time, this post will focus on the results. Prior to the late-1970s, most people around the world could look forward to a fairly stable local environment. Sure, there were wars and other large-scale events, but these events were infrequent and of a very large magnitude.

We never had a world where the big picture was reasonably constant but the local environment around almost every individual was in a state of constant flux.

The real problem with such constant changes in the environment around individuals is that, sooner or later, most people stop caring about the people around them. This extends to both personal as well as ?work? relationships. While societies in which interpersonal relationships have deteriorated might appear normal during times of economic expansion, prolonged slowdowns or economic contractions reveal the massive fault lines within that society and exposes its true fragility. While dysfunctional societies become fragile over decades, the actual process of implosion or collapse is rather fast and triggered by seemingly minor and often unrelated events.

But what does all of this have to do with anodyne corporate language? and how does it contribute to the destruction of social trust and why is it important?

Exchanging information for the purpose of maintaining function, stability and order in the dynamically unstable system also known as human society is probably the most important function of communication. However any useful exchange of information requires certain preconditions. For example- It is hard to have a decent and long-lasting personal relationships with another person if you both spend most of your time lying or being selectively truthful with each other. I am not implying that people have to be totally truthful to each other all the time, but it is equally clear that lying and selective truthfulness beyond certain levels is incompatible with any degree of future inter-personal trust.

But what about modern corporations, large businesses and impersonal institutions that are run for the sole benefit of a few connected sociopaths? Do they understand, let alone care about, the necessity for minimal levels of sincerity and useful information content in communications?

The simple answer to that question is.. NO! Modern organisations and institutions are dominated by impersonal sociopaths, careerism-driven managers, scummy human resource types and lawyers who want to make a quick buck while showing everybody that they are so clever. Unlike their counterparts from the pre-1980s era, none of them have any medium-term (let along long-term) plans or involvement with the organisations and institutions they hollow out for short-term gains. Their modus operandi is rather similar to a virus infecting a bunch of healthy cells or cancerous cells metastasizing in an otherwise healthy individual. Sadly these individuals do determine the tone and tenor of contemporary institutional policies and communications. It is therefore no surprise that institutional communications have become increasingly vague, non-specific, full of ?hope? and ?optimism? without any actionable or concrete suggestions or plan of action.

The nature of corporate communication has now become disturbingly similar to the fake biochemical signals used by metastasizing cancerous cells and viruses to use, abuse and subvert the host.

But there is another dimension to this issue which makes it far more problematic in human societies. People, unlike cells, emulate and imitate strategies which are seen as successful for the individual, even if doing so destroys the social system that keeps things going. Consequently the ?corporatese? lies and selective truths that permeate large institutions and organisations seep into smaller versions of them and ultimatey into general society. Soon almost everyone is communicating to each other with the same attitudes, mindsets and expectations as impersonal sociopathic corporations.

It is common for the hacks who pass off as ?respected? journalists to bemoan the rapidly increasing amount of general flakiness in society, the unwillingness to keep even simple promises, outpouring of fake emotions to incidents and other instances of social phoniness. But they rarely ask why so many unrelated people are behaving so similarly. I mean.. why are they all following the same basic script? I believe that anodyne styles of communicating and the ?corporate? mindset has completely permeated general society in North America, Western Europe and increasingly other parts of the world.

However doing so on a large-scale results in a particular self-protective response aka social atomization.

I see social atomization as the result of individuals trying to protect themselves from a constant barrage of half-truths, lies, general phoniness, legalized scams and ?official? abuses of power. People isolate themselves from, and limit communication with, those they cannot trust. In the past, this meant a few especially dishonest acquaintances and strangers. Today that means all of society- including members of your innermost social circle.

People don?t spend ever-increasing amounts of time checking their social media feeds or doing something else on their shiny electronic toys because the online world is better. They do that because the so-called ?real? world is too toxic to engage with other than when absolutely necessary. People are just not interested in becoming the next victim of another persons lies, business scams, confidence tricks, fake emotions or carefully measured communications.

What do you think? Comments?

Like this:

Be the first to like this.

Source: http://dissention.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/how-anodyne-communication-destroys-societal-trust/

brandon lloyd celtic thunder fabrice muamba collapse

'Smart' potty or dumb idea? Wacky CES gadgets

16 hrs.

LAS VEGAS???From the iPotty?for toddlers to the 1,600-pound mechanical spider and the host of glitch-ridden "smart" TVs, the International CES show is a forum for gadget makers to take big ? and bizarre ? chances.

Many of the prototypes introduced at the annual gadget show over the years have failed in the marketplace. But the innovators who shop their wares here are fearless when it comes to pitching new gizmos, many of which are designed to solve problems you didn't know you had.

A search for this year's strangest (and perhaps least useful) electronic devices yielded an extra-loud pair of headphones from a metal band, an eye-sensing TV that didn't work as intended and more. Take a look:

Motorheadphones

Bass-heavy headphones that borrow the names of hip-hop luminaries like Dr. Dre have become extremely popular. Rock fans have been left out of the party ? until now. British metal band Motorhead, famous for playing gut-punchingly loud, is endorsing a line of headphones that "go to eleven" and are hitting U.S. stores now.

Says lead singer and bassist Lemmy Kilmister, explaining his creative input: "I just said make them louder than everybody else's. So that's the only criteria, and that it should reflect every part of the sound, not just the bass."

The Motorheadphone line consists of three over-the-ear headphones and six in-ear models. The initiative came from a Swedish music-industry veteran, and distribution and marketing is handled by a Swedish company, Krusell International AB.

Who's it for: People who don't care about their hearing. According to Kilmister, the headphones are ideal for Motorhead fans. "Their hearing is already damaged, they better buy these."

Price: Prices range from $50 to $130.

Eye-sensing TV

A prototype of an eye-sensing TV from Haier didn't quite meet viewers eye-to-eye. An on-screen cursor is supposed to appear where the viewer looks to help, say, select a show to watch. Blinking while controlling the cursor is supposed to result in a click. In our brief time with the TV, we observed may quirks and comic difficulties.

For one, the company's demonstrator Hongzhao Guo said the system doesn't work that well when viewers wear eyeglasses. (That kind of defeats the purpose of TV, no?) But it turns out, one bespectacled reporter was able to make it work. But the cursor appeared a couple inches below where the viewer was looking. This resulted in Guo snapping his fingers to attract the reporter's eye to certain spots. The reporter dutifully looked, but the cursor was always a bit low. Looking down to see the cursor only resulted in it moving further down the TV screen.

Who it's for: People too lazy to move their arms.

"It's easy to do," Guo said, taking the reporter's place at the demonstration. He later said the device needs to be recalibrated for each person. It worked fine for him, but the TV is definitely not ready for prime-time.

Parrot Flower Power

A company named after a bird wants to make life easier for your plants. A plant sensor called Flower Power from Paris-based Parrot is designed to update your mobile device with a wealth of information about the health of your plant and the environment it lives in. Just stick the Y-shaped sensor in your plant's soil, download the accompanying app and ? hopefully ? watch your plant thrive.

"It basically is a Bluetooth smart low-energy sensor. It senses light, sunlight, temperature, moisture and soil as well as fertilizer in the soil. You can use it either indoors or outdoors," said Peter George, vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas at Parrot. The device will be available sometime this year, the company said.

Who it's for: "Brown-thumbed"?folk and plants with a will to live.

Price: Unknown.

HAPIfork

If you don't watch what you put in your mouth, this fork will ? or at least try to. Called HAPIfork, it's a fork with a fat handle containing electronics and a battery. A motion sensor knows when you are lifting the fork to your mouth. If you're eating too fast, the fork will vibrate as a warning. The company behind it, HapiLabs, believes that using the fork 60 to 75 times during meals that last 20 to 30 minutes is ideal.

But the fork won't know how healthy or how big each bite you take will be, so shoveling a plate of arugula will likely be judged as less healthy than slowly putting away a pile of bacon. No word on spoons, yet, or chopsticks.

Who it's for:?People who eat too fast. Those who want company for their "smart" refrigerator and other kitchen gadgets.

Price:?HapiLabs is launching a fundraising campaign for the fork in March on the group-fundraising site Kickstarter.com. Participants need to pay $99 to get a fork, which is expected to ship around April or May.

iPotty
Toilet training a toddler is no picnic, but iPotty from CTA Digital seeks to make it a little easier by letting parents attach an iPad to it. This way, junior can gape and paw at the iPad while taking care of business in the old-fashioned part of the plastic potty. IPotty will go on sale in March, first on Amazon.com.

There are potty training apps out there that'll reward toddlers for accomplishing the deed. The company is also examining whether the potty's attachment can be adapted for other types of tablets, beyond the iPad.

"It's novel to a lot of people but we've gotten great feedback from parents who think it'd be great for training," said CTA product specialist Camilo Gallardo.

Who it's for: Parents at their wit's end.

Price: $39.99

Mondo Spider, Titanoboa

A pair of giant hydraulic and lithium polymer battery controlled beasts from Canadian art organization eatART caught some eyes at the show. A rideable 8-legged creature, Mondo Spider weighs 1,600 pounds and can crawl forward at about 5 miles per hour on battery power for roughly an hour. The 1,200-pound Titanoboa slithers along the ground at an as yet unmeasured speed.

Computer maker Lenovo sponsored the group to show off the inventions at CES.

Hugh Patterson, an engineer who volunteers his time to making the gizmos, said they were made in part to learn more about energy use. One lesson from the snake is that "side winding," in which the snake corkscrews its way along the ground, is one of the most efficient ways of moving along soft ground, like sand.

Titanoboa was made to match the size of a 50-foot long reptile whose fossilized remains were dated 50 million years ago, when the world was 5 to 6 degrees warmer. The creature was built "to provoke discussion about climate change," Patterson said.

The original version of Mondo Spider, meanwhile, first appeared at the Burning Man arts gathering in Nevada in 2006.

Who it's for: Your inner child, Burning Man participants, people with extra-large living rooms.

Price: The spider's parts cost $26,000. The Titanoboa costs $70,000. Engineers provided their time for free and both took "thousands of hours" to build, Patterson said.

Ortutay contributed from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson and Luke Sheridan from AP Television contributed to this story from Las Vegas.?

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/smart-potty-or-dumb-idea-wacky-ces-gadgets-1B7915621

september 11 2001 dr oz

Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Toshiba's Scott Ramirez

At 6:30, our resident HD expert, Richard Lawler, will be talking TVs with Scott Ramirez, Toshiba's VP, Product Marketing and Development, Visual Products. Join us after the break, won't you?

January 9, 2013 6:30 PM EST

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Toshiba's Scott Ramirez

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2E-DSqFQXg4/

Alison Pill Sam Bacile sprint britney spears At&t Wireless