After helping to persuade the House of Representatives to pass a bill to protect our national parks from mining pollution we're asking the Senate to do the same. But the mining industry is mounting a powerful lobbying effort. You can help protect the Grand Canyon and other national parks from toxic mining waste by signing our petition.

[ Home - Environment America ]

Must remember to read this in depth later...

Volkswagen will unveil a diesel-electric hybrid version of their Golf hatchback (known as the Rabbit in North-America) at the Geneva Motor Show. The information that has filtered out so far is promising: Fuel economy of 83.1 mpg imperial, 69.9 mpg US. Only 89 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer (for comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid emits 104 g/km).

[  Volkswagen to Introduce 70 mpg Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf : TreeHugger ]

Honda has announced plans for a diesel hybrid too. The race is on!

I think it's been decided:

After all, a bunch of young hot celebrities, plus Karim Abdul Jabbar and an old guy playing the piano all say that we can...

Now can someone please tell me where I can get that Cherry Ice Cream!?!?!

There were complaints about Super Paper Mario and it's 2D/3D gimmick. You can only do it while playing Mario, and the other dimension was pretty boring. Kokoromi studio in Montreal has done it up right:

Not only does the flipping dimensions go a full 360° but each 2D view is interesting and playable. I hope this finds its way onto the Wii, DS, PSP, or PS3, I don't want to have to buy an XBox 360 just for this...

The founders of Ben & Jerry's endorsed Barack Obama on Monday, and lent his Vermont campaign two "ObamaMobiles" that will tour the state and give away scoops of "Cherries for Change" ice cream.

[ Ben & Jerry's founders endorse Obama - Yahoo! News ]

This is what is wrong with the press, there are dozens of stories across the Internets about this publicity stunt. As far as I can tell not one mentions what the flavor is. Nor do any mention if this is a one-up publicity flavor or if it is going to be available nation-wide. No story mentions the availability, or the ObamaMobile routes, or existence of the flavor outside Vermont, or even why cherries would be for change.

I like cherries. I like Chery Garcia. I like premium ice cream with cherries. Blah blah blah Obama, what about the real story here, it's all about the Cherries! Next time, press, ask what is in the frick'n ice cream already.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market.

[ Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses ]

This leaves BluRay as the only High Def on a Disc format left in the game. I'm a bit surprised how quickly that went. I'm rather sure that there are still some Super Beta people out there who refuse to give up the ghost. What is the actually market condition that hammered the nail in HD DVD's grave?

• Apple rumors?
• XBox rumors?
• Universal and Paramount rumors?
• WB facts?
• Wal*Mart cruelty?
• Netflix joining Blockbuster in support of BluRay?

Who really knows. What I do know is this means that Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount will all be changing their tune to BluRay soon. And that means Back to the Future, Heroes, Shrek, Breakfast Club, and many other goodies coming to BluRay.

Props to KooshMoose for sending me the Kotaku link.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village Nintendo DS Nintendo Everyone A

I generally avoid puzzle video games. Why? Because they generally suck. Usually plagued by few, simple, old, hackneyed, puzzles that I figured out when I was 8. This, however, is an exception. Clearly my many years of experience helped me solve these puzzles, but that doesn't mean that I did them all instantly, or that I didn't sloppily miss a few the first time. There are over 120 puzzles, and apparently a weekly puzzle available for download (for who knows how long, but still that's cool). So lack of puzzles won't be an issue. And the interface is perhaps the best part. Instead of just saying here's 120 puzzles go at them, there is a well written story with decent animation (for a DS) that even has good voice acting. All-in-all it took me about 9 1/2 hours to complete the game and save the day. I've now started to destroy the game by finding every last puzzle and completing them all, and who knows what great "super ending" they have in store for me. Basically if you like puzzles, this is a must buy.

Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned.

[ Amazon.com ... The Kindle Store ]

To hear the guy you'd think we're all headed towards living in caves sealed off from each other only relating via computers and in totally inadequate ways. Sounds like he doesn't like the electronic life, or the always on connection. Read all about it on your Kindle. Yes, he's selling a Kindle version. Hope this sells 0 copies.

Cherry Mash consists of a soft cherry flavored center containing real maraschino cherries covered in a mixture of chopped roasted peanuts and chocolate coating.

[ Cherry Mash: America's favorite cherry flavored candy bar ]

If you watched Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt, you saw him eat this treat and actually like it. So when I saw it for sale at the C.J. Olson Cherry's fruit stand, I knew I had to grab a few. What I didn't know, since I wasn't paying attention, is that it's not a cherry flavored center surrounded by chocolate, but surrounded by peanuts and chocolate. I just may have found a new favorite candy bar (though more of a lump than bar). And living no where near Kansas City, MO I will have to figure out how to secure a steady supply of these cherry-peanut-chocolate treats.

Yum.

The Forbidden Kingdom

Some folks just aren't happy with the Kindle case, and I think I'm among them. A few folks have pointed out that the Kindle stays in the case due to a tab that grabs on to a divot in the back of the Kindle. Due to this design the Kindle may stay in place, or pop out if the angle is just wrong, or the battery cover may stay in place and the rest of the Kindle fall out (happened to me once). Some folks seem to like holding the cover like a book, and it seems to do that OK, but after a week or so I've found that I like to read without the cover, so it served as only a case for me. And not a good one, IMHO.

No company has stepped forward with a replacement case yet, and I guess I'm just itchy, so I went to see what I could find. Cases seem to come in just a few varieties (based on a sampling of on-line shops, Microcenter, Circuit City, Staples...):

• Small Gadget Size: cell phone, iPod, PDA, etc.
• Camera size: a wide range here from point-and-click to pro-sumer SLR sized
• Laptop size: 13"-17"
• Portable DVD player: bigger than a small gadget, smaller than a laptop, thicker than a camera

And that's about it. The small gadget sizes are well ranged, as there are tons of these devices these days. The Kindle, however, isn't one of them. The Kindle could fit into some camera bags, but they are designed to hold a lot more than a small slate, and are therefore very impractical. Laptop bags are a good design for the Kindle, especially sleeves, but no one makes a 7" laptop bag. Portable DVD players are about the right size except way too thick, they seem to be a good alternative for UMPC devices, but not the kindle. Finally I checked container store and found the Baggallini Pocket Bagg. It holds the Kindle with little room to spare, which is exactly the size I needed. However as you can see from the product page there are all sorts of internal bits, which I am concerned could scratch my Kindle's screen. Not wanting to immediately hack up a $35 bag, I decided to augment it without altering the bag or my Kindle, and I did that by asking my wife to make a snap-in screen protector. The bag came with a snap-out key fob, so I bought a sew on snap of the same size and a polyester felt remnant and my lovely wife stitched it together to make this:

Which snaps in to the Baggallini's inside:

I place the kindle inside the bag, upside down, with the screen facing the screen protector and then I can even charge the Kindle right inside the bag. Of course this means I remove it from the bag to read it, but that's the way I like it.

Here are a couple more photos of the bag with the Kindle and my NPS Parks Pass as reference:

 

Perhaps this will help you with your Kindle Case Conundrum, or just add fuel to the fire. (OK, not fire, but certainly a polite discussion...)

Julie was lucky enough to get an order for the Kindle in on launch day — it’s been sold out more or less continuously since then — and I’ve been putting it through its paces for a couple of weeks. A few months ago I reviewed the Sony PRS-500, so the Kindle has made an interesting comparison.

[ The Gadgeteer - Amazon Kindle ]

They really went into great depth here, so much so that I won't try to duplicate their effort (which was on my list of things to do). If you are curious about the Kindle and looking for a good overview, this is the review to read.