Look, we’re not saying that FlipStart is on the way out, but when your “store” page tells people that the stock of your device has been “sold out” and then directs them to a third-party retailer for accessories, things might not be looking so good.
[Thanks, Marke]
According to Jenn Lee over at Pocketables, Sony’s recently introduced “Fresh Start” — the crapware-killing do-over it’s charging $50 for on VAIO TZ2000 setups — will be making its way to all of the company’s Windows devices very soon. Apparently, Sony Senior Public Relations Strategist Jon Piazza told the site that, “Fresh Start will be rolled out to the entire product line by the end of this summer,” after being asked about the possibility of a UX180P getting a new lease on OS life. It sounds like a lovefest, certainly, but wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to pay a premium for our systems to be free of mucky bloatware and storage-hogging garbage? You listening Sony?
source:engadget
Canada’s contentious seal hunt starts on Friday with new rules requiring hunters to make extra sure the animals are dead before they are skinned.
The move, however, has done little to curb protests by animal-rights activists.
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Phil Jenkins on Tuesday outlined the new directives for the largest marine mammal hunt in the world.
The new rules demand that hunters, after clubbing the animals on the head or shooting them, sever the arteries under the seals’ flippers as a condition for getting a sealing licence.
“We’re just trying to make sure there is no possible way that a seal could be skinned while it was irreversibly unconscious but not dead,” Jenkins said.
“It’s really going an extra distance to make sure that it’s humane as it can be.”
Animal rights groups were not mollified.
“They’ve added bleeding to the killing process,” said Rebecca Aldworth, the director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States.
“This won’t change anything.”
This year’s total allowable catch has been set at 275,000 seals, up from 270,000 last year. The total allowable catch was 335,000 two years ago, but poor ice conditions led to the change last year.
Seventy per cent of the seals will be taken in an area off Newfoundland’s north coast known as the Front, while 30 per cent will be taken in the Gulf of St Lawrence - the first stage of the hunt.
“People around the world are shocked to know that Canada, which is perceived as one of the most progressive nations in the world, allows this outdated, archaic slaughter to continue,” Aldworth said.
The European Union banned the white pelts of baby seals in 1983 and is considering a ban on all seal products.
The Netherlands and Belgium already ban seal products. The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972.
Animal rights groups say Canada’s seal hunt is cruel, difficult to monitor, ravages the seal population and does not provide a lot of money for sealers.
But sealers and the federal Fisheries Department have defended the hunt as sustainable, humane, well-managed and a necessary source of income for hunters.
“There is an awful lot of diplomatic activity going on,” Jenkins said. “We’re doing our best to make sure that the facts and the science of this issue are put squarely in front of European politicians and not the emotion.”
The department estimated the total harp seal population to be 5.9 million in 2004, the last time it conducted a seal population survey.
The Government says there were about 1.8 million seals in the 1970s. The population rebounded after Canada started managing its seal hunts.
Fishermen sell seal pelts mostly for the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China, as well as blubber for oil, earning about $US78 ($85) a seal.
The Canadian Government and isolated fishing communities say they need the supplemental income because cod stocks have dwindled.
The slaughter of some 335,000 seals in 2006 brought about $US25 million.
Registered hunters are not allowed to kill the seal pups before they moult their downy white fur, typically when they’re 10 days to three weeks old.
source:smh
You might recall The Onion breaking the news back in October that the Apple backlash was set to begin as of today, and if The Onion says it, it’s got to be true. Right? Sure, the Cupertino fruit company’s been riding high as of late, but if America’s Finest News Source has it, we’ll all be looking at our iDevices like bellbottoms and Betamaxes soon enough.
source:engadget.com