http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/85118cf/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn183450Esolar0Esystem0Emay0Ebe0Emore0Ecompact0Ethan0Ethought0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18345

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/o6QMINe8iCs/hangover_cures

http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/hangover_cures?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PoliticalWire/~3/8ztsMWs0bsk/rnc_spending_spree_leaves_coffers_drained.html

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/01/06/rnc_spending_spree_leaves_coffers_drained.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstadopter/~3/Oj4l_7QvXBA/

http://www.firstadopter.com/?p=2080

Bit-tech has a very good interview with Richard Huddy (Link). Excerpts below.

bit-tech: IF - given we don’t know yet - when Nvidia’s Fermi cards finally arrive they are faster than your HD 5970…
RH: Well if it’s not faster and it’s 50 per cent bigger, then they’ve done something wrong.

bit-tech: Well if it is then, do you have something else up your sleeve to compete?
RH: Let me say that I suspect that through 2010 it’s possible there will be moments where we don’t have the fastest graphics card, but I expect that for the majority of 2010 we’ll have the fastest card you can buy. I’ve good reason for believing that but I can’t talk about unannounced products or any of the stuff we’re doing to secure that.

bit-tech: I bet you must sell plenty because we keep getting asked where can we find a HD 5850 all the time.
RH: Actually we’re working really hard on that supply and the numbers are going up quite dramatically - we’ve sold over 800,000 units of DirectX 11 hardware already.

http://www.i4u.com/article29753.html

3D Blu-ray player are the next big thing. Samsung is supposedly the first company to offer a 3D Blu-ray player. According to German Heise, the Samsung Samsung BD-C6900 appeared on a CES 2010 award list distributed at CES Unveiled. Samsung has not yet ...

http://www.i4u.com/article29752.html

Continental announces plans to use Android in cars at the CES 2010. Continental plans to release an AutoLinQ Software Development Kit (SDK) to the Android Development Community in the first quarter of 2010 and intends to unveil an app store in the second h...

http://www.i4u.com/article29751.html

I can see the appeal of a portable TV when you are out on the go. You could watch TV while riding the bus or train to work each day or when sitting waiting for an appointment you could watch some TV. I'm not sure that a dedicated device is the way most of ...

http://www.i4u.com/article29750.html

The new Acer AO532h netbook was unveiled on Monday and uses the new Atom N450 CPU and has a 10.1-inch LED backlit display. The Acer AO532h is available in different battery configurations starting at $299.99. Color options include Garnet Red, Onlyx Blu...

http://www.i4u.com/article29749.html

General Imaging (GIC) and Jason Wu, one of the most highly regarded designers in fashion, announced today at the CES 2010 an exclusive partnership to introduce a unique line of digital cameras. The collection represents Wu’s unique approach to design an...

http://www.i4u.com/article29748.html

Cisco announces to showcase breakthrough consumer video Experiences at the CES 2010. Cisco will share its vision and progress toward developing an entirely new category of video communication, called home telepresence, which uses a consumer's existing H...

http://www.i4u.com/article29747.html

Asus unveiled the ASUS NX90 Bang & Olufsen ICEpower Notebook at the CES 2010. This notebook looks so B&O that I just do not want to know the price of it. Designed by B&O Chief Designer David Lewis, the NX90 is a study in sublime contrasts,...

http://www.i4u.com/article29746.html

Asus is showcasing technologies of tomorrow at the CES 2010 with three Waveface concept designs. Waveface is ASUS' context-based vision of the new digital life. ASUS believes that the future of information technology will be rooted strongly in mobilit...

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/iglRopDCHS0/check-out-googles-other-new-phone-the-fuck+you+iphone

This is basically what Google was really going for with the Nexus One, isn't it? They were just way more subtle about it. [LandlineTV]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/f5djVDpfdGg/d+links-pebble-streams-but-doesnt-skim

Oh D-Link Pebble, media streamer from the Boxee Box people. I think I love you, but you look a bit like one of those ergonomically-designed "back massagers" so popular with coy ladies. $119, so cheaper than this.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KdR945njwbk/guardian-waterproof-case-allows-me-to-get-my-kindle-wet

The Guardian polycarbonate waterproof case is all I need to get my Kindle on vacation to Goa. It won't only protect it against cocktail spillage, but it will make it float on the tub or the sea.

And on top of that, it's waterproof down to one meter, just in case I want to take it from the hammock to a snorkeling swim. Because that's what I really want to do while I'm snorkeling or in the shower: Read The Old Man and the Sea.

My Kindle will also remain fully functional, thanks to the flexible material covering the keys. If I actually had a Kindle, that is. [M-Edge via Slashgear]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/u6fBoXJoPyg/blackberry-powerpoint-presenter-combines-corporate-americas-two-guiltiest-pleasures

Nothing says business like a BlackBerry. Except, obviously, a swanky PowerPoint Presentation. Ok, let me try this again: Nothing says biz-ness like the BlackBerry Powerpoint Presenter, which lets you conduct PowerPoint presentations from your BlackBerry, without a computer.

The BlackBerry PowerPoint presenter is a gadget with a singular focus: it stores up to 100 slides of PowerPoint presentation, which it can display through any projector or TV that can connect to a VGA or S-Video source, and which operates without the need for a PC running PowerPoint; nearly any BlackBerry handset can serve as a remote. Release date hasn't been solidified yet, nor has pricing but hey, totally just expense that shit, brah! Right. More details forthcoming later today. UPDATE: It'll cost around $200, later this year. Youch. [BlackBerry]

The Houston Chronicle brings us the latest lack-of-sportsmanship news:

The Yates High School boys basketball team set a state record and set itself up for controversy Tuesday night at Butler Fieldhouse.

The Lions beat Lee High School 170-35, setting the single-game state scoring record. Hardin-Jefferson had owned the record of 166 points since 1992.

But the Lions' brush with history was marred by a second-half scuffle and questions of sportsmanship.

In the third quarter, a fight erupted after an intentional foul was called on a Lee player. After breaking up the fight, the referees told both coaches they would have to play just five players the remainder of the game. The other players for both teams spent the rest of the second half sitting in the stands.

“I feel very disrespected right now,” Lee coach Jacques Armant said. “I don't understand why Yates just kept scoring and pressing when they were up so much. These are kids. It isn't good to do that to other young men.”

Yates, which led 100-12 at halftime, is 14-0 this season and has won 39 consecutive games. The 100 points in the first half is also a state record and the second-most ever in a boys high school basketball game.

It was the eighth time this season Yates scored more than 100 points and the sixth time the Lions won by more than 60. It was the first time this season Yates' margin of victory topped 100.

http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/850c4a5/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A10A0C0A10Canti0Ewhaling0Eship0Ecut0Ein0Ehalf0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/01/anti-whaling-ship-cut-in-half.html

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scotusblog/pFXs/~3/xxUVsCNWc2M/

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/?p=14442

The National Rifle Association asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow its lawyer to take part in the oral argument March 2 in the case testing whether the Second Amendment restricts the power of state and local governments to pass gun control laws. It sought 10 minutes of time allotted to the individuals and groups that are pursuing the Amendment’s extension, to put more stress on an alternative constitutional argument.  The request, the NRA noted in its motion, is opposed by the lead parties in McDonald, et al., v. Chicago (08-1521).  Those parties are expected to file a written opposition shortly.  The Court will consider the NRA request at its private Conference on Jan. 15.

The Court in the McDonald case will consider two main arguments for applying the individual right to possess guns to state and local laws: first, that gun rights should be protected at those levels by the 14th Amendment’s “Privileges or Immunities” clause; and, second, the protection should come under the Amendment’s Due Process clause.   Both of those arguments are at issue in the question presented by the petition.  The NRA said it wants to put stress on the due process argument.

In their merits brief in the case, the NRA noted, Otis McDonald and the others appealing “have concentrated their argument on a Privileges or Immunities Clause theory that would require overruling at least three of this Court’s precedents.”  And, the motion added, only 7 pages of the 73-page McDonald brief discuss the Due Process Clause.

The Due Process Clause, former Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said in the NRA motion, “presents the most straighforwad and direct route to reversal of the decision” of the 7th Circuit Court against extending the Second Amendment to the state and local level.   “Because the Due Process Clause represens a route to reversal that does not necessitate the overruling of this Court’s precedents, it would be particularly unfortunate if that argument was not adequately presented at oral argument.”

The NRA maneuver brings further out into the open the strategic differences in pursuing the two alternative arguments. 

A leading reason for pressing the Privileges and Immunities Clause approach is that it could give the Court a chance to overrule the 1873 ruling in the SlaughterHouse Cases — a ruling that made a nullify of that Clause.  It has long been a goal of some advocates to revive that Clause, as a firmer foundation for weighing government power against individual rights.  Conservative advocates, in particular, argue that the use of the Due Process Clause has given judges too much latitude to invent new rights that exist nowhere in the Constitution.

The leading reason for pressing the Due Process Clause is, as the NRA motion noted, that the Court could do extend the Second Amendment without having to overrule prior decisions — something that the Court usually does reluctantly.  Moreover, the Due Process approach has been the one that the Court has routinely taken in extending most of the other parts of the Bill of Rights to state and local levels.  The NRA motion pointed to that, saying the issue in McDonald is “whether the Second Amendment is somehow bizarrely limited to the federal government and federal enclaves or whether it is a fundamental guarantee of liberty that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment envisioned.”

The NRA motion is one of two requests before the Court to divide the argument time on the Otis McDonald side.  Thirty-eight states, led by Texas, have asked for ten minutes of time to argue from what they say is the states’ special perspective.  That has the support of the McDonald petitioners. While the city of Chicago and the village of Oak Park, Ill. (on the other side of the case) do not oppose giving the states some time to argue, Chicago and Oak Park have filed a response to the Texas-plus motion disputing some of the 38 states’ claims as to the interests they seek to represent.

If those states are concerned that local governments will curb gun rights, they already have the power to stop that without needing the Supreme Court’s support to do so, the response argued.  The city and village also noted that not all states share the views of those 38, saying that the state of Illinois is going to enter the case to support Chicago and Oak Park, and may be joined in that by additional states.

Normally, the Court gives each side 30 minutes in an oral argument.  And, normally, when it divides one side’s argument, it does so for only two counsel — one for 20 minutes, the other for 10.  However, the Court also has the option of expanding the hearing beyond an hour to provide additional time for a case to be heard.