What do you think?!?!?!?!?!! Leave a comment!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR TONS OF PICS OF THE NEW APPLE IPHONE 4G!!!

“You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. It’s the real thing, and here are all the details.

While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it’s clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here’s the detailed list of our findings:

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Why we think it’s definitely real

We’re as skeptical—if not more—than all of you. We get false tips all the time. But after playing with it for about a week—the overall quality feels exactly like a finished final Apple phone—and disassembling this unit, there is so much evidence stacked in its favor, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none. Imagine someone having to use Apple components to design a functioning phone, from scratch, and then disseminating it to people around the world. Pretty much impossible. Here are the reasons, one by one.

It has been reported lost
Apple-connected John Gruber—from Daring Fireball—says that Apple has indeed lost a prototype iPhone and they want it back:

So I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from Apple — a unit Apple is very interested in getting back.

Obviously someone found it, and here it is.

The screen
While we couldn’t get it past the connect to iTunes screen for the reasons listed earlier, the USB cable on that screen was so high quality that it was impossible to discern individual pixels. We can’t tell you the exact resolution of this next-generation iPhone, but it’s much higher than the current iPhone 3GS.

The operating system
According to the person who found it, this iPhone was running iPhone OS 4.0 before theiPhone 4.0 announcement. The person was able to play with it and see the iPhone 4.0 features. Then, Apple remotely killed the phone before we got access to it. We were unable to restore because each firmware is device specific—3GS firmware only loads on 3GS devices—and the there are no firmwares available for this unreleased phone. Which is another clue to its authenticity.

The New Industrial Design

At first sight, this new iPhone’s industrial design seems so different from the previous two generations that it could be discarded as just a provisional case. Even while the finish is so perfect that it feels right out of the factory, some of the design language elements that are common to all Apple products are not there. Gone is the flushed screen glass against the metal rim. Gone is the single volume button, replaced by two separate ones. Gone is the seamless rim, and gone are the tapered, curved surfaces.

Despite that, however, this design is not a departure. Not when you frame it with the rest of the Apple product line. It’s all the contrary: This new iPhone gets back to the simplicity of the iMac and the iPad. In fact, you can argue that the current iPhone 3GS—with its shiny chrome rim and excessively curved back—is out of place compared to the hard edges and Dieter-Ramish utilitarianism of the iMac and the iPad. Next to the iPad, for example, the new iPhone makes sense. It has the same feeling, the same functional simplicity.

Why the plastic back?
The plastic back is the most obvious of the design choices. The iPad, with its all aluminum back, has seen its Wi-Fi reception radius reduced. The 3G version comes with a large patch on the top, probably big enough to provide with good reception. But the new tiny iPhone doesn’t have the luxury of space: It needs to provide with as much signal as possible using a very small surface. I’m sure Jon Ive is dying to get rid of the plastic back, and go iPad-style all the way, but the wireless reception is the most important thing in a cellphone. A necessary aesthetical-functional trade-off.

Why separate volume buttons?
This new iPhone uses separate buttons for the volume instead of the single button that you can find in the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It’s one of the factors that may indicate that this is a provisional case, until you think about one of the most requested features for Apple’s phone: A physical button for the camera. The new iPhone has a bigger sensor and a flash, which means that the camera function keeps gaining more weight. It’s only logical to think that Apple may have implemented this two-button approach to provide with a physical shutter button. It makes sense.

Why the seams?
The seams are perhaps the most surprising aspect of the new design. They don’t seem to respond to any aesthetic criteria and, in terms of function, we can’t adventure any explanation. But they don’t look bad. In fact, the whole effect seems good, like something you will find in a Braun product from the 70s.

It’s doubtful that the seams are arbitrary, however. Either they will disappear from the final product, or they have a function we can’t foresee at this time.

Why no tapering or curves?
As you will see in a future article, the new iPhone is so miniaturized and packed that there’s no room for the tapered, curved surfaces. Everything is as tight as it could get, with no space for anything but electronics.

The hardware specs

The phone measures 4.50 by 2.31 by 0.37 inches. It weighs 140 grams. The 3GS weighs 137 grams on a postal scale (and 135 on Apple’s official measurements). So, in comparison, it’s 3 grams heavier. The battery is 5.25 WHr at 3.7V, compared to the 3GS battery, which is 4.51 WHr at 3.7V. On the back of the phone, it said it was XX GB, but since we were unable to get the phone to a running state, we couldn’t see exactly how large it was.

What all this means

Apple has updated the exterior drastically different from the 3G and 3GS. That design is old, it felt out of place compared to the rest of their products and needed desperately to be killed. Now you have a thinner body, a much more pleasant form factor with no wasted space and lots of hard lines. But the design isn’t the most important part that’s changed.

They’ve delivered many of the features people have been waiting for—that damn front camera!—while at the same time upgrading everything else. Flash, better back camera, better battery life and another microphone for better voice clarity. People who bought the 3G two years ago and are now in the perfect position to upgrade and get a dramatically different, and better, phone. If confirmed this summer, and if it performs as we expect, this next-generation iPhone looks like a winner.”

This article is taken from gizmodo.com

Through the years since it’s final abandonment, the CSX rail bridge connecting the West Side and South Charleston has been the subject of a lot of interest from groups seeking to rehabilitate it into a pedestrian bridge. As I was biking down the Boulevard this week, I stood and admired it for a moment and thought “why?”

I think that since we gutted many of the truly charming and historic buildings in Downtown through the 70’s and 80’s that the area, collectively, has been paralyzed with fear of removing the old. There’s a big difference between an old home and a historic home. As a point of reference: Sunrise is a historic property. Many of the larger Sears kit homes that dot the East End and other early developed high wealth areas in the valley are pretty historic properties. These nasty woodframes that have been demolished recently on Dixie Street are just old. And the CSX bridge is just. . . old.

It’s not a nice bridge. It doesn’t get you anywhere in particular as a pedestrian. It connects an active rail line to an active rail line, which isn’t exactly the safest place for pedestrians and bikers. It’s not even really aesthetically pleasing as a part of the cityscape. It’s just been there a long time.

I won’t argue that the region really needs a more adequate network of mapped routes for pedestrian and bicycle transportations. But not long ago a citizen group and the Charleston Area Alliance trotted out a plan in the multiple millions of dollars (and yet, you can’t find a solid web link on this project) to rehab this bridge. Just tell me guys: Why? 10 million dollars could do so much more to improve pedestrian and bicycle transportation through our city, but instead we want to save this antiquated eyesore? No, thank you.

UPDATE 04/05/2010
Someone shot us a link to the main site for this project: http://kanawhatrestletrail.org
According to their blog:

Through the leadership of Congresswoman Capito an $800,000 federal transportation appropriation has been obtained
The city of Charleston has pledged $475,000.00 to the Kanawha Trestle Trail project $500,000 is being requested from Transportation Enhancement funds through the WV Division of Highways An additional $80,000.00 is being requested from Recreational Trails funds through the WV Division of Highways $60,000.00 was donated by The Greater Kanawha Valley To date over $70,000 in state budget requests have been obtained for preliminary work related to the trestle trail Several thousand dollars have been donated by individuals and community organizations

Funding (Phase 2) Funding requests are being made to city, county and state agencies. Other funding is available through Groundworks USA, Land & Water Conservation Funds, Historic Preservation, Safe-Routes-To-School, Bikes Belong, and many other sources, including future requests for Transportation Enhancement and Recreational Trail funds through WV DOH

Huggins, who is affectionately known as “Huggy Bear,” arrived by helicopter Wednesday.

The families have been waiting word on their loved ones since Monday’s blast at Upper Big Branch Mine. Twenty-five miners have been killed and two are injured. Rescue crews are working to try to reach four who are missing.

Huggins is among the state’s most recognizable and perhaps popular residents. Last week, he led the Mountaineers to their first Final Four since 1959.

The Mountaineers lost 78-57 on Saturday to eventual champion Duke.

Courtesy of AP

Come play with me on Xbox Live!!! Add my, “Gamertag” from your Xbox Live Dashboard!

Bill O’Reilly is backing a bereaved father’s bid to sue a Church who picketed his son’s funeral

Albert Snyder is suing the Westboro Baptist Church and its pastor, Fred Phelps, for picketing his son’s funeral after he had been killed in Iraq.

But Snyder said he couldn’t afford the legal fees which is where O’Reilly stepped in.

Talking on his show last night, O’Reilly offered Snyder $16,000 out of his own pocket to pay for the case.

O’Reilly said he fully backs Snyder and will will pick up the tab for the appeals that have been ordered by a federal court.

Snyder’s son, Matthew from Maryland, was a Marine who died in the line of duty last year.

After O’Reilly’s generous offer, Snyder received over 4,000 calls and emails also offering monetary support.

A federal court ruled that Snyder must pay the court costs of the Westboro Baptist Church, who he sued for protesting his son’s funeral.

Westboro is infamous for protesting the funerals of American servicemen with signs saying God killed the soldiers because of homosexuality.

We heard that there was a picture of JESSE JAMES wearing a Nazi officer’s hat and giving a Nazi salute. Well, it’s true . . . and now the picture is out there for everyone to see.

It was taken in either 2004 or 2005, during a party at Jesse’s house. Jesse and SANDRA BULLOCK were dating, but not yet married.

Some of Jesse’s friends are defending him . . . saying that he just did it for, quote, “shock value”, and meant nothing by it.

One of those friends says Jesse is NOT anti-Semitic . . . quote, “He had a stepmom whose father lost family in the [concentration] camps, and they’d talk about it growing up. Jesse’s not a white supremacist.”

As for why Jesse would be messing around with Nazi memorabilia, the friend says he’s just a HISTORY BUFF.

And another friend adds, quote, “Gearheads are fascinated by war machines, including those of the Third Reich. But he’s far from a neo-Nazi.”

Click the link below to join!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=370528617592