- Now that Verizon has had a couple of months with its own iPhone model on the market, how is AT&T faring with a healthy dose of competition? According to a new user survey from market research firm ChangeWave, there is a relatively similar level of satisfaction between iPhone 4 users on Verizon versus those on AT&T. That fact is curious because, according to the survey, Verizon iPhone 4 suffer fewer dropped calls far less often than their AT&T compatriots. "In terms of overall satisfaction the two iPhones are virtually indistinguishable," according to ChangeWave vice president of research Paul Carton. On a positive note for both side in the battle, 82 percent of Verizon iPhone 4 users reported being very satisfied with the device, while 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users were happy with their phones’ performance. A mere two percent reported any dissatisfaction with the device on either carrier. As for dropped calls, Verizon iPhone 4 users reported a dropped call rate of 1.8 percent while AT&T iPhone 4 users had a dropped call rate of 4.8 percent - more than double that of Verizon iPhone 4 users. Verizon’s dropped call rates for the iPhone reflect the company’s overall superiority, according to the survey, against all of its major competitors. Across all of Verizon’s phones, users reported just 1.4 percent of calls were dropped unexpectedly, while AT&T users reported a 4.6 percent rate and T-Mobile and Sprint fell in between at 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent respectively. Those figures look bad for AT&T, but in reality its rate of dropped calls is actually improving. When it was the only iPhone carrier and the phone’s popularity was reaching its zenith, users were reporting dropped call rates as high as 6 percent. Ultimately, Verizon seems to the best option for smartphone users who use their phones to actually make calls and don’t like having them dropped prematurely…………
- Ready for some über-bad environmental news portending our imminent doom, residents of planet Earth? Honestly, it doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not because THE DEPLETION OF THE OZONE LAYER SHIELDING EARTH FROM DAMAGING ULTRAVIOLET RAYS HAS REACHED AN UNPRECEDENTED LOW OVER THE ARCTIC THIS SPRING BECAUSE OF HARMFUL CHEMICALS AND A COLD WINTER!!!! That uplifting gem of knowledge comes from the U.N. weather agency, which has certainly developed a skill for dropping bundles of bad news on the world. If you believe the men and women in lab coats with serious expressions on their well-educated faces, the Earth's fragile ozone layer in the Arctic region has suffered a loss of about 40 percent from the start of winter until late March, exceeding the previous seasonal loss of about 30 percent. The World Meteorological Organization announced the disturbing discovery and blamed the loss on a buildup of ozone-eating chemicals once widely used as coolants and fire retardants in a variety of appliances, along with exceptionally cold temperatures in the stratosphere, the second major layer of the Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere. The increase in size of the hole in the ozone becomes that much more disturbing when you understand that in some winters, changing weather and temperatures mean little to no ozone loss. This year, the Arctic bucked the trend that the greater part of the United States experienced during the winter, with warmer than normal temperatures prevailing. Combined with colder conditions in the stratosphere than normal Arctic winters, the depletion in the ozone resulted. The results were measured from the ground as well as from balloons and satellites over the Arctic. Scientists studying the ozone layer and global warming tend to focus on the Arctic because it is a region where the effects are expected to be felt first. Ozone losses take place over the polar regions when temperatures drop below -108 Fahrenheit, when clouds form in the stratosphere. “The Arctic stratosphere continues to be vulnerable to ozone destruction caused by ozone-depleting substances linked to human activities," said WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud. "The degree of ozone loss experienced in any particular winter depends on the meteorological conditions." Making the ozone loss all the more frustrating is the presence of the U.N. ozone treaty, known as the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which has - up ‘til now, anyhow - led to reductions in ozone-damaging chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons, halons and other, that were used in the making of refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers and even hairspray. Something tells me that all 196 nations committed to the treaty haven’t been doing their part, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. U.N. officials project the ozone layer outside the polar regions will recover to pre-1980 levels sometime between 2030 and 2040, but unless some serious work is done between now and then, those marks may not be hit…………
- The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is about to get an added dose of color and bizarreness.
The hall’s 2011 class announced on Monday at the Final Four and among the inductees is Dennis Rodman, he of the rainbow-colored hair, scores of piercings and once wearing a wedding dress to announce his impending marriage to himself. Despite his odd and colorful career and lack of ability to do the one thing that typically makes a basketball player successful - score - Rodman is now part of an induction class that includes former Dream Team member Chris Mullin, Stanford women’s coach Tara VanDerveer, coaches Tex Winter, innovator of the triangle offense, and Philadelphia University's Herb Magee and longtime NBA and ABA star Artis Gilmore. "It's just unreal," Rodman said of the honor. The two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and five-time NBA champion was certain his off-court activities would make him too odious for the hall to induct. "I looked at the way I am, and I thought I wouldn't get in," Rodman said. In fact, when he was first informed of the honor last week, Rodman thought it was a prank. "They looked past all the negativity and thought 'Wow, he actually did change the game a little bit,'" he marveled. "I wasn't a good scorer. I wasn't the best athlete. But I was part of the machine." Yet even after being assured that the honor was legitimate and being asked to show up for the ceremony at the Final Four Monday night, Rodman refused to stray from his usual ways and conform. All of the other inductees showed up in suits, but he wore wore sneakers, jeans, a black ball cap, shades, a tan vest with leopard and tan scarves, with his white shirt with gold sequined cuffs unbuttoned and knotted at the waist. Expect more of the same when the class is formally inducted in Springfield, Mass., in August, as Rodman has already warned that his personal designer is going to "make a lot of crazy stuff." On one hand, a cynic could argue anything that takes away from the specialness of the day for all inductees and focuses attention on Rodman alone would be inappropriate, but given the way he conducted himself and lived his life during his playing career, it just wouldn’t make sense for him to act any other way now that he’s about to receive his sport’s highest individual honor……….
- Do the selectmen in Brookline, N.H. know how hard it is to find and afford a good pair of Ugg slippers? Clearly not, because if they did, then three of them would not be voting to fire a police sergeant who admitted spending the department's money on personal items, specifically Ugg boots. Sgt. Michael Kurland had been on paid leave since December, but is on paid leave no longer after admitting that he used money from the department's uniform account to buy a pair of Ugg slippers. Why Ugg slippers aren’t counted as a potential part of an officer’s uniform, I’ll never know. Let’s say you’re out on patrol, it’s a quiet evening and your feet are aching from hours in uncomfortable shoes. Who wouldn’t love a comfy pair of Ugg slippers to, well, slip into? Instead of understanding this fact, the selectmen voted to fire him by a 3-to-2 vote. They did so despite Kurland explaining that he was simply reimbursing himself for out-of-pocket expenses for the town's DARE program. "The process that led us here was riddled with mistakes," said Brookline selectman Darrell Philpot. "If Sgt. Kurland had simply provided that detail, admitted to what he had done right away, we probably wouldn't be here, possible, today," added selectman Tad Putney. In the end, Kurland was the victim of the overzealous efforts of Brookline's new police chief, William Quigley. Quigley pressed the case even after Kurland paid the department back because he believed Kurland was less than forthcoming when he was initially confronted. Oh, and there’s also the blatant conflict of interest presented by the fact that testimony before the council in hearings on the case revealed Kurland had a traffic stop confrontation with Quigley's son years ago. Would a member of law enforcement dare hold such a grudge over these many years? Heck yes. "We have an officer who gives years and years of service to his community. The support through the hearings was obvious; a new chief comes in, and all of a sudden this happens. I think it's obvious what's going on," said Kurland's attorney Raymond Mello. Mello’s words hit their mark with selectmen Karl Dowling and Philpot, who voted against Kurland's termination. "There's a couple of things that will come back to haunt us out of that," Philpot said of the punishment handed down to Kurland. He believes that Kurland may sue the city and judging by the fired officer’s comments after the decision came down, that wouldn’t be a huge surprise. "I don't think today was any resemblance of justice of any kind," Kurland said, adding that he and his attorney will be closely evaluating their options in the coming days…………
- At least it’s not another Hollywood remake of a film that was released less than 20 years ago. That’s the best anyone can say about the possibility of a third Bill & Ted film, which Keanu Reeves clearly believes is going to happen. The acting-talent-deprived actor has mentioned plans for a third installment of the “dude” style comedy that he and Alex Winter starred in more than two decades ago. The difference this time is that Reeves has a general concept for the film. "They're [the writers] going to try and see if they can write something. To me, I'd love to play the role. I'd love to work with Alex and Chris and Ed again," Reeves stated. Given the element of time travel present in each of the first two films, any questions about how Reeves could possibly star in a prequel dealing with what happened after the second film, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, in which a tyrant from the future created evil android doubles of the main characters that need to eliminate the originals isn't an issue. “When we last got together, part of it was that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written the song that saved the world, and it hasn’t happened," Reeves said. “So they’ve now become kind of possessed by trying to do that. Then there’s an element of time and they have to go back.” If this sounds like a pie-in-the-sky dream that is still a long way off, just know that Reeves expects the first draft of the script will land on his doormat in six weeks. Left unsaid was whether Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other totally awesome historical figures will be making an appearance in the third film, but judging by the high-level creative content, plot complexity and sophisticated dialogue in the first two films in the series, expect nothing less than the best………….
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