Author: Serkadis

Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine and a Miracle

So I’m in Barnes and Noble with the boys the other day, sitting at the little kid tables and chairs and this book caught my eye. I started reading it to the baby. Mistake. Bawling in the book store is really just not cute.

What a great book with actual emails from Major Brian Dennis to his family at home and a heart wrenching, but beautiful story. I don’t know why I didn’t know about this book before now…but I’m so glad I happened across it. And I’m heartened by the Marines that all worked to get Nubs to the US. And still a little annoyed with the Soldiers that reported him…

We’ve always felt deprived of FoMoCo’s hot hatchback in the United States and now it seems like Ford is just rubbing it in our faces. According to latest rumors out of Europe, to bid farewell to the current Focus RS, Ford is planning a special-edition stripped-out Clubsport RS and a brand new RS based on the 2012 Ford Focus recently unveiled at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.

The Ford Focus RS Clubsport will make its debut towards the end of the year. Production will be limited to just 500 units with power coming from an uprated 2.5L 5-cylinder turbo making 350-hp. Ford will also strip the hatch to cut weight with new lightweight racing seats and a bunch of carbon fiber. With a lowered and stiffer suspension, the Ford Focus RS Clubsport should go from 0-60 mph in 5 seconds flat.

An all new RS is in the works and sources say that model will drop the current 2.5L 5-cylinder turbo for a new 2.0L EcoBoost direct-injection that will produce close to 300-hp. 0-60 will come in the mid 5-second range with a top speed limited to 155 mph. The next-generation RS is also rumored to get a stop-start system, brake energy recovery and a dual-clutch Powershift box.

Jealous? Yup – so are we.

Click here to see the 2009 Ford Focus RS in action.

2009 Ford Focus RS:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoExpress

HBO still has a lot of love for Mormon polygamy drama Big Love. Just four episodes into the fourth season, the network has already ordered a fifth of the show that centers on Utah’s Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) as he balances the needs of his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin) and their children.

Even the King of Mean comes down with the occasional cold: Simon Cowell pulled out of filming this week for his UK talent series Britain’s Got Talent after falling ill with the flu.

Cowell was due to sit on the show’s judging panel on Wednesday, but show producers had to call in a replacement so the outspoken music mogul could recover from a bad bout with influenza.

A source tells Britain’s Daily Mail: “Simon has been terribly sick thisweek. He has not stopped for months and it has all caught up with him. He just needs some rest and he’ll be as good as new. He has been under the weather for the past week and it was clear that he could not join the judges today.”

Doctors have ordered Simon to rest at home before returning to work later this month.

Volkswagen Group India celebrated today the roll-out of the 11,111,111th Polo ever produced in the world, at the the Volkswagen plant in Pune. The event was attended by Horst Kohler, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and Jorg Muller, President and Managing Director of VW India.

"We are determined to bring the Polo’s European success story to India. Volkswagen will tap its opportunities in India with vehicles … (read more)

If 555-hp from the 4.4L twin-turbo BMW X6 M and X5 M wasn’t enough for you, Lumma has something very interesting in store for you at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show.

Based on the BMW X6 M, the Lumma CLR X 650 M features a very aggressive body kit with a new front bumper, fenders, side skirts, rear bumper and a new rear diffuser. Other modifications include a blacked-out grille, a huge rear spoiler and 23-inch wheels.

Power is expected to come from a modified 4.4L twin-turbo V8 from BMW making 659-hp with a peak torque of 612 lb-ft. That should allow the CLR X 650 M to run from 0-62 mph in 4.5 seconds with a top speed of around 194 mph.

We’ll have more official details from Geneva in March.

Check out the video of the 2010 BMW X6 M in action.

Make the jump for the image gallery.

Lumma CLR X 650 M (BMW X6 M):

– By: Kap Shah

Source: autoblog.nl (via WCF)

New mom Sarah Chalke — who played Dr. Elliot Reid on Scrubs for eight seasons — is returning to ABC with a comedy project executive produced by Arianna Huffington.

The actress has joined the cast of Freshmen, which centers on the friendship of three freshmen members of Congress — two men and a woman — who live together in Washington.

Chalke will play the unlucky in love Jane, a sharp and funny freshman Congresswoman who was the VP at a multi-billion dollar company when she was just 28, and who won her district with the largest margin of any candidate since 1977.

Freshmen is expected to premiere this fall.

The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is not a fire-breathing devil as many have described it… but it will become one – in a bad way. The 599 came from above as an archangel. It can take human passengers under its gentle Grand Tourer arms and almost fulfill one of man’s most ancient dreams… flight. But being much more than a simple angel the 599 will also zap anything in its (driver’s) way when necessary. Any road creature which dares to disobey will be sent straight to its rear-view mirror instantly…. (read more)

We once again we bring you the manliest pit stops on the Internet superhighway:

Super Bowl XLIV Cheerleader Showdown (see above) [COED Magazine]

How To Become the Go-to Guy at Work [Art of Manliness]

Valentine’s Day Gift Guide [Cool Material]

Five Reasons Pigs Are More Awesome Than You [Double Viking]

Super Bowl XLIV Betting Guide [EgoTV]

What Google Looks Like In 5 Different Countries [College Humor]

14 Things Scaring Off the Ladies [MadeMan]

Why stylish men don’t tie a Windsor knot [StyleCrave]

Super Bowl XLIV Drinking Game [Living With Balls]

Best NASCAR fan video – ever [All Left Turns]

Australia Bans Itty-Bitty Titties [Gunaxin]

Odds for Si Swimsuit Issue 2010 Cover Girl [YepYep]

The 10 Most Dangerous Sex Mistakes Men Make (Part 1) [TSB Magazine]

Know It All: What’s the Longest Word in the English Language [Primer Magazine]

WILL TRADE; Left Testicle For Super Bowl Tickets [TastyBooze]

Related posts:

1. Your Mantelligence Briefing for February 11th
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3. Your Mantelligence Briefing for October 30th

There comes a time in every smartphones life when, after a long and illustrious career in which it has accomplished many things, it just wants to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of daily life and bow out gracefully. According to T-Mobile, the latest to do so is the BlackBerry Curve 8900 as T-Mobile which is now residing in a retirement community in Florida having reached the “end of its life cycle”. It remains to be seen whether its son, the Curve 8520, will take up the family business, but rumor has it that its grandson is just about to come of age and make a splash.

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In proof that celebrities are just like us, only dumber, the gang of Los Angeles teenagers who robbed Young Hollywood blind last year, have revealed how they managed to get into Paris Hilton Hollywood Hills mansion – they walked through the front door using a key the heiress left under the doormat.

The group of five teenagers and a man in his 20s dubbed themselves “The Bling Ring Gang” and managed to steal around $2 million worth of cash, jewelry, clothes, and souvenirs from the homes of celebrities before police began making arrests last fall.

While the kids also snuck into the homes of Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, and Audrina Partridge, but say Paris’ place was the easiest target thanks to the conveniently placed key. The group say they chose to hit the heiress’ house first because she is “dumb.”

In an interview Wednesday, Nick Prugo — an aspiring actor who is in custody for masterminding the crimes — said the group used gossip web sites to track celebs and chided P.H. for her lax approach to home security: “Like, who would leave a door unlocked? Who would leave a lot of money lying around? Stupid.”

Undeterred by internal and external criticism, Italy is moving ahead to make the internet a lot less open. The plan is to make video-hosting sites abide by the same regulations as TV broadcasters, meaning the government would be able to hold these sites accountable for what the users upload. A draft decree is set to become mandatory this … (read more)

We don’t have pricing, we don’t have specific dates, we just thought we’d let you know that Sony Ericsson’s already outdated Android phone is arriving in the UK in April. This agrees with the release schedules for Japan and Germany, making the fourth month of the year seem like a certainty for the global launch of what is still a hotly anticipated device. Just why the X10 engenders such fervor, we’re not really sure, but it still marks Sony Ericsson’s most aggressive plunge into the smartphone shark pool yet. We’ll just have to wait another couple of months to find out how well that Donut-based OS swims.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Xperia X10 lands on Vodafone UK in April originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re generally reluctant to cover purely promotional stunts like these, but when you decide to jack up a house-sized arrow on a crane and hang it next to London’s Thames river, well, exceptions can be made. Nokia’s big push to inform the world that Ovi Maps is free — now and forever — has culminated in the above sign, whose most appealing feature must be that it allows commoners like you and us to control it. People can send in a missive and coordinates via text or email, and then watch as the giant pointer rotates to the given direction and displays their wisdom to the world. See it in action after the break.

Continue reading Nokia mounts huge Ovi Maps signpost on a crane in London (video)

Nokia mounts huge Ovi Maps signpost on a crane in London (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, after closing 18% of its manufacturing facilities and cutting 20,000 heads across its global organization, Sony just posted a profit for the quarter. We’re talking an operating profit of ¥146 billion ($1.5 billion) for the quarter on ¥2.2 trillion in sales. Sony’s net profitability came in at ¥79.2 billion after three straight quarters of losses, handily beating The Street’s mean estimate of ¥33.73 billion sending stock up some 4% at the time of this post. Unfortunately for us gadget nerds, Sony’s return to prosperity is largely due to a doubling of sales at Sony’s financial unit and a 16% rise in its movie business — sales from its consumer products and devices division were off 11% thanks to flat-panel TV price competition and component costs. VAIO PC sales were up a slight 2% worldwide while sales of its venerable PS2 (2.1 million units vs. 2.5 million a year earlier) and PSP (4.2 million vs 5.1 million a year earlier) were both off for the quarter. At least the price cuts on the PS3 helped push sales up to 6.5 million from 4.5 million. Still, profit is profit and profit must grow regardless of crummy consumer sales, you know.

Sony returns to profitability as core electronics business struggles originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first test meeting of the year in the MotoGP championship finally started in Sepang, with Italian Valentino Rossi clearly the rider to beat on Thursday. Only hours after FIAT Yamaha presented their brand new MotoGP challenger for the 2010 championship in Malaysia, the Italian ace took the YZR-M1 to the track and broke the circuit’s record by setting the best time of 2:01.411.

Actually, Rossi was only one of four drivers to drop under the circuit’s initial lap record, previewing what will … (read more)

Next week at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, Kia will show its new concept called the Ray. So far we don’t know anything about the car except that it was “undertaken to demonstrate how Kia’s evolving design direction would be applied in the packaging of a plug-in hybrid vehicle

In statement released last month, Kia said that it has “pioneered potentially real-life fuel cell vehicles and has working prototypes operating in California and Korea.” It said that it also has numerous test-hybrid vehicles that are currently providing feedback to its engineers in various locations.

Kia plans to commercialize Liquefied Petroleum Gas hybrid vehicles in Korea within the next 12 months.

Kia Ray Concept:

– By: Omar Rana

El continuo crecimiento de Facebook como fuente de tráfico (Hotwise), viene a confirmar lo que se ha venido barruntando desde 2009, los sitios sociales como una alternativa a los grandes intermediarios de tráfico, buscadores y agregadores. No sólo hablamos de que los usuarios compartan enlaces en estos sitios, sino que empiezan a utilizar Facebook y Twitter para suscribirse a publicaciones. Ambos factores sumados hace tiempo que les impulsaron por encima de los lectores de canales RSS en lo que a fuentes de tráfico en Estados Unidos se refiere.

Los datos de Hitwise apuntan a que Facebook es mucho más relevante en lo que a fuente de tráfico se refiere. Eso es una mala noticia para las publicaciones. Mientras Twitter ofrece una experiencia perfecta para ellas, Facebook es mucho más cerrado a enviar tráfico: compartir titular más enlace es lo natural en el primero, mientras que el segundo facilita el consumo completo dentro de su plataforma; el contexto del usuario en Twitter es “que me cuenten cosas interesantes”, el de Facebook es más cercano “estoy divirtiéndome con mis amigos”; no se sabe cómo será la comercialización final de Twitter, Facebook anima a que contratemos anuncios que promocionan páginas… sin que el usuario salga de su red, algo que penalizan a veces advirtiendo de que “te vas fuera de Facebook”

En mi opinión la ecuación está clara, Twitter tiende a distribuir tráfico, Facebook a que la experiencia completa se desarrolle dentro de él. Para las publicaciones sería genial que Twitter tuviese una adopción masiva, tanto por su naturaleza como por el contexto en que se encuentra el usuario, pero los números siguen apuntando a Facebook

I’ve been flying across the world recently, which has given me a few quiet moments to read a real bona fide book, and the one I have been busy with is Peter Bernstein’s Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk (Wiley, 1996). It’s aclaimed all over the place, particularly in risk management circles, but I’d never quite got to it.

Anyway, this is in the intro (p5), and I found it a perfect encapsulation of a core problem in foresight thinking — quantitative vs qualitative methods — well worth retyping out to have on hand for reflection. Here goes:

“The story that I have to tell is marked all the way through by a persistent tension between those who assert that the best decisions are based on quantification and numbers, determined by the patterns of the past, and those who base their decisions on more subjective degrees of belief about the uncertain future This is a controversy that has never been resolved.
The issue boils down to one’s view about the extent to which the past determines the future. We cannot quantify the future, because it is an unknown, but we have learned how to use numbers to scrutinize what happened in the past. But to what degree should we rely on the patterns of the past to tell us what the future will be like? Which matters more when facing a risk, the facts as we see them or our subjective belief in what lies hidden in the void of time? Is risk management a science or an art? Can we even tell for certain precisely where the dividing line between the two approaches lies?
It is one thing to set up a mathematical model that appears to explain everything. But when we face the struggle of daily life, of constant trial and error, the ambiguity of the facts as well as the power of the human heartbeat can obliterate the model in short order.”

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