3D television?

Who would want to spend even more money for the glasses or the programs when it delivers so little? Besides, those glasses are too uncomfortable for more than a few minutes at a time. I enjoyed Avatar (outside of the bad acting and script) but the 3D was really not that impressive. Would you really want to spend so much cash on this passing fad?

Panasonic's version went on sale days after Samsung's, with models from LG and Sony expected to follow in the summer. The industry hope is that consumers, many of whom have only just made the costly upgrade to high-definition TVs, will want to ratchet up their home entertainment options once more and shift to a telly that costs at least £1,200 for the lowest specification. (And that's without factoring a 3D-equipped player to watch Blu-ray films). It is a big ask, but one that Samsung and its rivals hope will be off-set by the "wow" factor of 3D which impressed those who saw Avatar in the cinema and spent 160 minutes pawing at colourful objects that weren't there.

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Limbaugh says to leave oil slick alone: 'it's as natural as the ocean water is'

Ah yes. The voice of the Republican party is at it again. Of course, not before he suggested the oil rig explosion could have been an eco-terrorist. Why not ask the Republicans on TV if they agree with Limbaugh's statements?

Pundit Rush Limbaugh, who has a home on Florida's Palm Beach, suggested that the explosion could have resulted from Earth Day eco-sabotage by one of the rig workers. Limbaugh also said a cleanup was unnecessary.

"The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there," Limbaugh said. "It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."

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Warren Buffet offers defense of Goldman and Blankfein

Say it ain't so, Warren. Then again, he did invest a substantial chunk of cash into Goldman when their price was a lot cheaper than it is now. The billions are clouding his judgment.

"We have had a lot of very satisfactory transactions with Goldman Sachs," Mr. Buffett said.

The billionaire investor said he fully supported Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Asked if he could choose a successor for Mr. Blankfein, Mr. Buffett said: "If Lloyd had a twin brother I'd go for him."

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VIDEO: Former DNC chair Howard Dean joins 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' protest in front of White House, speaks

Shortly after Dean spoke, several activists handcuffed themselves to the White House gates. Dean was not a scheduled speaker at the protest, but rather, found out about the protest that morning, and said he'd like to attend. Read the rest of this post...

One third of bee colonies in US failed to make it through the winter

This is potentially very bad news for crops and of course, for all of us.

Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

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Oil slick the size of Puerto Rico

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is saying that the spill threatens "our way of life" though somehow we might be hard pressed to find such concern for the environment over business prior to the disaster. Meanwhile, many of us are still wondering where good old "drill baby, drill" is during this crisis. After all, she's such an expert on oil and Discovery is paying her to do a nature show. Let's hear more, Sarah. How often has she managed to stay out of the news for so many days? BBC:

The US Coast Guard initially estimated about 200,000 gallons of oil a day were gushing from the well, but conceded on Saturday it was nearly impossible to be sure how much is leaking.

Satellite images analysed by the University of Miami suggest the slick has ballooned to an area the size of Puerto Rico.

Hans Graber, a professor of applied marine physics based at the university, estimates the slick has expanded three-fold in just days to some 3,850 sq miles (9,900 sq km).

"The spill is... expanding much quicker than they estimated," he told AP news agency.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Good morning.

The focus of the shows today is the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration, which recently stated its support for offshore oil drilling, is sending out its Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and its Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar. They're on ABC and CNN. The chairman of BP, Lamar McKay, is also on ABC, this morning.

Several elected officials from the Gulf Coast states are on the shows, including the leading cheerleader for offshore drilling and the oil industry, Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

I suspect Napolitano will also be discussing the attempted car bomb situation in New York City. (Coincidentally, I'm in NYC for the 50th birthday party of my friend, Emily. Last night, she had a dinner for her out-of-town guests at a restaurant in Times Square. When we got there at 8ish, a number of streets were blocked off, but no one seemed to concerned. It was just a traffic mess and the buzz was that there was a bomb scare. The mood had changed considerably when we left the restaurant at 10 PM when it was clear there was a car bomb.)

Here's the lineup. Read the rest of this post...

Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

The video is from a studio session in 1967. Another video with similar footage said it was filmed by Andy Warhol though I don't know for sure if that's accurate or not. Lou Reed looks like such a young kid there.

The rain is coming down over here which is great news for the garden. Most everything has been planted and one fuchsia that looked dead following the hard winter is coming back strong. Our favorite jasmine (a specific type of jasmine) is on its last leg after another infestation of mealy bugs. The last few years have been a back and forth battle against them but we're inches away from ceding this wonderful bush to those nasty little things. They sap the life out of the branches and are so difficult to remove.

As soon as the rain stops it will be time to squeeze in one more ride before heading out for the week again. Yesterday I made it out to Marne-la-Vallée and watched some people playing water polo in kayaks on the Marne. Looked like fun but maybe the water is a bit chilly. Euro Disney is out there and that's about as close to it as I plan to get. I went once with free tickets (and family pressure) and left with food poisoning. It was filthy as well. Yuck. Read the rest of this post...

The Guardian supports Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrats in election

Considering how The Guardian has traditionally been a heavy Labour lead, this is enormous. It also shows you how badly Labour has been performing in recent years. The British newspapers are much more associated with particular political parties than in the US. (Something like Fox News and their obvious support of the GOP.) It still looks like a stretch for the Lib Dems to either come in first or even outright win the elections though they will likely be in a position of power to moderate the hard right turn of the Tories.

David Cameron may be a softer, gentler face to the Tories but there are plenty of creepy types holding power including yet another gay bashing loon such as Philippa Stroud. She previously ran prayer sessions at church that were going to "cure gay people." That gives you a pretty good idea of what the social agenda will look like in a Tory government since she's hardly the only leading party member with bizarre views on gays. And then there are the flat earth, climate change deniers along with the normal right wing self regulation types.

Labour has lost the plot.

But ideally the Conservative proposition should be met with a positive and radical alternative. Nick Clegg's party offers the prospect of political renewal that David Cameron used merely as camouflage. There is a moral imperative to consider in this election, distinct from the old Labour-Tory contest. Opinion polls throughout the campaign suggest that the country wants the Lib Dems to take a place of equal standing alongside the other main parties. A grossly unfair voting system has historically deprived them of that right. It is vital this time that they win a mandate for real change expressed in the overall share of the vote, not just in the discredited distribution of seats in parliament.

There is only one party on the ballot paper that, by its record in the old parliament, its manifesto for the new one and its leader's performance in the campaign, can claim to represent an agenda for radical, positive change in politics. That party is the Liberal Democrats. There is only one way clearly to endorse that message and that is to vote Liberal Democrat.

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Americans are spending on travel again

It's an encouraging sign to see Expedia's business growing so quickly last quarter. People don't travel when they're worried about their job and businesses scale back travel when they go into the bunker mentality of counting pennies. While I have less direct exposure to the US, over here in Europe business in my area (corporate software) is about as strong as I've seen in years. After a painful patch during the crisis, I see lots of spending out there. I don't know whether it's due to the complete shutdown of spending at the peak of the crisis or because spending was cut to the bone, but the Expedia results are a potentially interesting story about the recovery. Read the rest of this post...