Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Classics, Motorcycle

When you think of a classic road-going Mustang, visions of Blue Ovals and good ol’ Carroll Shelby likely begin dancing in your head. But there was a highly collectible Mustang in America way before Ford decided what we really needed was an inexpensive sportscar for the masses. Instead of four wheels, the first Mustangs needed only two to get the job done.

The original Mustang motorcycle was introduced in 1947 by a small company in Glendale, California. The diminutive machines used a small 122cc two-stroke engine from Villiers and wheels measuring a scant 12-inches in diameter. They weren’t exactly performance machines, but the Mustang got around pretty smartly nonetheless and allowed 20,000 new riders to hit the wide open road.

Now, California Scooter Company plans to launch a new Mustang to the American market, this time using a more environmentally friendly 149cc four-stroke powerplant, though still retaining the original dinner plate-size wheels. Three versions will be available; one standard model that’s tough to distinguish at first glance from the original, a (completely unfortunate) pink Babydoll version and a flat-black bobber called the Greaser. Alternatively, you can order a custom model just the way you want it.

Production bikes are scheduled for availability in March for a starting price of $4,995 for all three models. Check out the image gallery below and click past the break for a couple videos showing the bikes in action.

[Source: California Scooter Company via Motorcycle Classics]

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If you’re planning to wait in line for BioShock 2 come launch day, make sure you know where the nearest Best Buy or GameStop is. Oh, and get some sleep first. 2K has announced that the game

We’re excited to announce four new speakers at our second annual game conference, GamesBeat@GDC, which takes place on Wednesday, March 10, during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

First, a word about our theme, Disruption 2.0. At GamesBeat@GDC we’ll focus on the next disruptions that will happen in the video game industry. In the past couple of years, social games with virtual goods business models have proved themselves and shaken up the status quo. The iPhone has become a hot platform and Apple hopes to extend further into games with the iPad. Digital distribution and online games are growing. Will these trends gather more momentum and prove to be sustainable, or will new platforms and business models disrupt the disruptors? The big game companies and brands are maneuvering into the space, even as successful startups are consolidating their gains and acquiring companies. Are console game makers poised to make a comeback as the recession ends? Everyone is looking to define the next-generation of games. Our conference will have the speakers from game companies that are doing the disrupting, adapting and growing.

Our newest speakers include:

Tomoko Namba, chief executive of Japan’s DeNA. She will speak on a panel on international game markets, dubbed Games Without Borders. Namba, who was a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and holds an MBA from Harvard,  founded DeNA in 1999. The company operates Mobage-town, a mobile social networking service that has a 70-percent penetration rate among Japanese teens. The service has 250 free-to-play games that generate hundreds of millions of page views per day. DeNA’s Mobage-town generates $200 million in annual revenue.

The panel is a recognition of the fast growth for games on a global basis. In the past, Japan, the U.S. and Europe were all that mattered. But now players in countries such as Korea, China, and Russia have all experienced rapid growth. Japan itself is years ahead of the West in its development of mobile games. As those markets race ahead, will investors shift their attention to foreign investments? Will foreign companies invest in the U.S. market? Or will something get lost in cross-border translation? What can we learn from the success of some of the world’s new titans in games?

Klaas Kersting, chief executive of Germany’s Gameforge, a pioneer in free-to-play online games. Kersting will join Namba on the Games Without Borders panel. While American game companies have debated the value of free games with virtual goods business models, Germany’s Gameforge has gone headfirst into making these games. The 400-person company has grown its revenue 6,261 percent in the past five years. Gameforge specializes in making browser-based massively multiplayer games. It operates 18 of them in 50 languages and has more than 100 million users.

Alex St. John, president and chief technology officer of social network hi5. St. John likes to rattle cages and shake things up, as we saw on our panel on at DiscoveryBeat. He has big plans for hi5, a social network with 60 million users but which is an underdog competing against giants such as Facebook and MySpace. St. John intends to shift hi5’s game platform into high gear. Before joining hi5, he was the founder of online game firm Wild Tangent and was also the game evangelist at Microsoft that got the company to create the DirectX multimedia technology that became the foundation for games Windows and the Xbox.

St. John will speak on a panel about disruptive game platforms. It will focus on what the owners of game platforms, from the consoles to the social networks, can do to foster the growth of games. Is the winner of the game wars going to be new social game platforms like Facebook, or will it be the traditional companies backing console and web site games?

Brian Reynolds, chief designer at Zynga. Reynolds has been in the game business for 18 years and is widely recognized as one of its most talented game designers. He played a big role founding two successful game studios, Firaxis and Big Huge Games. At Firaxis, he worked along legendary designer Sid Meier, creating games such as Civilization II and Alpha Centauri. At Big Huge Games, he created Rise of Nations. I recall doing multiple interviews with Reynolds over the years. When he demoed Alpha Centauri to me, I remember how he guffawed when he showed off a nuclear bomb. (It was all pretend, of course). Now Reynolds is taking his experience as a hardcore game designer and applying it to the new market of social games on Facebook. At Zynga, he is running the Zynga East studio on new kinds of social strategy games.

GamesBeat@GDC’s previously announced speakers include keynote speaker Steve Perlman, chief executive of OnLive, who will talk about his company’s games-on-demand service and how it could disrupt the retail distribution of games as well as the sale of high-end hardware for playing games.

Our other previously announced speaker is John Schappert, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts. In a moderated fireside chat, he will discuss how developers, publishers and investors can navigate the risks of the digital transformation.  How quickly is the game industry evolving to a totally online model, and what will it look like when we get there?  Does this mean that the shiny disc is dead?  And, does social gaming really break all the rules, or will it follow an orderly progression toward big brands like mobile and smart phones?

Please note that early bird pricing for GamesBeat@GDC ends at midnight on Feb. 4. To register for the conference, follow this link and click on the registration tab.

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Kia’s tagline “The Power to Surprise” will live up to its name at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in March when the Korean brand unveils the new Sportage SUV.

“Embodying Kia’s newfound visual dynamism, the new Sportage is a fresh, bold, athletic and sporty design that successfully blends the key features of an SUV – the commanding driving position and heightened sense of security and raised ground clearance – and envelopes them in a sleek and urban-friendly design with global appeal,” Kia said in a statement. “Longer, lower and wider than the previous generation model, the new Sportage will offer more space for people and cargo, with an improved ride quality thanks to a longer wheelbase.”

The 2011 Kia Sportage will go on sale later this year in North America. We’ll have more U.S.-spec details in the near future.

2011 Kia Sportage:

– By: Kap Shah

Fall Out Boy has apparently fallen out.

In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, Pete explained that he and his bandmates desperately needed a break from each other after performing together since 2001. In a series of recent updates to his Twitter.com account on Tuesday, the bassist confirmed that the band are currently on hiatus — and hints that the break may be permanent.

He wrote: “I don’t know the future of Fall Out Boy. It’s embarrassing to say one thing and then have the future dictate another. As far as I know Fall Out Boy is on (a) break…..” Pete later added: “As much as I don’t have a solo project, I also can’t predict that I’d ever play in Fall Out Boy again.”

Lead vocalist Patrick Stump has also seemingly confirmed the end of Fall Out. In recent statements to Spin, Stump, 25, remarked:

“I’m not in Fall Out Boy right now….But one way or another, the band will always be around. Steven Tyler isn’t in Aerosmith anymore, but his gravestone will probably say something about Aerosmith. Whether we play again or not, I don’t know. If we do, it will be for the right reasons. If we don’t, it will also be for the right reasons.”

Appeals judges ordered the International Criminal Court on Wednesday to reconsider its decision not to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur. The ruling could pave the way for al-Bashir to be indicted with humanity’s worst crime — attempting to wipe out entire ethnic groups in the war-ravaged province….

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Illinois’ primary election produced virtual ties in the Democratic and Republican races for governor.

Gov. Pat Quinn held a tiny lead Wednesday over Comptroller Dan Hynes in the Democratic primary. The margin of less than 1 percent was enough for Quinn to claim victory, but Hynes insisted the fight was not over.

Three Republicans were in a near deadlock.

State Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard, along with businessman Andy McKenna, were within about a percentage point of one another.

Brady, a legislator from Bloomington, was not among the leaders in most pre-election polls but benefited from being the only downstate candidate in a crowded field.

“You had five or six other guys from the Chicago area. It left the door open for us,” he said.

Quinn insisted he was the Democratic winner in the governor’s race. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he led Hynes by 7,202 votes out of more than 896,000 cast.

“It was a close election, but one more than the other guy is a landslide in my book,” Quinn said.

He said the remaining votes were from Chicago precincts friendly to him, leaving Hynes with no way to make up the gap.

The Hynes camp said that with absentee ballots, tens of thousands of votes remained to be counted.

“If democracy means anything, it means we need to count all the votes,” Hynes said. “All the votes.”

One or both of the governor races could wind up going to a recount. Illinois law doesn’t require recounts in close races, so the candidates would have to decide whether to request one and cover the costs.

Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary did decide the field in the race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Obama until his presidential victory. Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer and a basketball buddy of the president, will face five-term U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk.

Republicans hope to win the Senate seat and the governor’s mansion in November by exploiting Democratic turmoil and scandal, including former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s ouster over corruption charges that include the allegation he tried to sell Obama’s seat. The victories in an increasingly Democratic-leaning state would be another blow to Obama, already stinging from the Republican victory in a Massachusetts special election for Edward Kennedy’s former Senate seat.

The inconclusive results in the governor’s races postpones the GOP push to retake the governor’s office. Republicans don’t know who will ultimately be their nominee or their opponent.

Two months ago, it appeared Quinn would easily win the Democratic nomination. But he was weighed down by the baggage of his two campaigns with Blagojevich, his support for a major tax increase and a botched program that granted early release to some violent prison inmates.

The Blagojevich scandal could play a role in the Senate race as well.

The incumbent, Roland Burris, chose not to run because Blagojevich appointed him to the seat, sullying his reputation so badly he could find little political support. Obama, who cast an absentee ballot, tried to recruit some big-name Democrats but came up empty.

The Democrats who did get in the race had their own troubles. Giannoulias’ only previous job was working for a family bank that is now in financial trouble, and a treasurer’s office investment program lost millions of dollars for families saving for college.

Kirk is likely to question Giannoulias’ judgment while linking him to larger Democratic troubles.

“We know that one political party cannot hold all the answers and that one political party should never hold all the power,” Kirk said.

Republican leaders rallied around Kirk as their choice for the party nomination, despite complaints from some GOP activists that his support of gun control and abortion rights makes him too liberal.

Giannoulias signaled he will go on the offensive.

“As we saw in Massachusetts, voters are angry,” Giannoulias said. “For the past decade, Congressman Kirk has been a huge part of the problem.”

Victims of the Trafigura toxic waste disaster have told of their desperate and anxious wait to find out if they will get any of the $45 million compensation owed to them.

The prospect of receiving nothing has left victims feeling devastated.  

In the latest development in the ongoing legal battle, the Ivorian Supreme Court has issued a temporary stay on the money being transferred to a group falsely claiming to represent the victims.

There was an international outcry following an appeal court decision in late January that ruled that a group, known as the National Coordination of Toxic Waste Victims of Côte d’Ivoire (CNVDT-CI), should receive the compensation money.  

Several victims had earlier gone on hunger strike to draw attention to their plight.

Karim Kourouma, a victims’ representative, told Amnesty International: “The victims are very anxious, they are desperate.”

“If this money falls into the hands of CNVDT-CI, there is a real risk that victims won’t receive their money. It is a fictitious organisation which does not have a legal mandate and was formed suddenly last year.”

“Over 20,000 victims presented a petition to the appeal court stating that CNVDT-CI does not represent them.”

Genevieve Diallo, who is entitled to compensation said: “We were completely shocked by the decision. Justice has become blind. How is this possible? We are now very anxious and anything can happen.”

The Supreme Court will now decide on the 8 February whether the stay on the money being transferred should remain in place. If the court decides to remove the stay, the money is once again at immediate risk of being transferred to CNVDT-CI’s bank account

“This is the final chance for justice for the thousands of people that have suffered in this toxic waste tragedy and who are owed the compensation money that is legally theirs,” said Benedetta Lacey, a special adviser at Amnesty International who has worked closely on the case.

In late 2009 CNVDT-CI claimed that it represented some 30,000 victims who had brought a court case against Trafigura in the UK. The claimants and Trafigura had reached an out-of-court settlement for $45 million in September 2009.

All of the claimants in the case are actually represented by law firm Leigh Day & Co, and under the terms of the UK settlement, endorsed by the UK High Court, only Leigh Day has the mandate to distribute the money to each and every one of the victims.

“Leigh Day & Co was ready to make payments to each of the victims in October last year,” said Benedetta Lacey.

“Then suddenly this group emerges demanding that all of the money be paid into its bank account.  It is shocking that this false claim has been allowed to get so far.”

In August 2006, toxic waste was brought to Abidjan on board the ship Probo Koala, which had been chartered by oil-trading company, Trafigura. This waste was then dumped in various locations around the city, causing a human rights tragedy.

More than 100,000 people sought medical attention for a range of health problems and there were 15 reported deaths.
 
On 23 September 2009, the High Court of England and Wales approved a $45 million settlement between nearly 30,000 victims of the toxic waste dumping and Trafigura.

It’s still amazing that anyone thinks that organizations like the RIAA or any of the record labels actually represent the best interests of musicians or even the music industry, when they have such a long history of doing things that go against the musicians best interests — and this goes back decades. A bunch of folks have sent in this amazing recording of Buddy Holly negotiating with his record label after the label recorded a song but refused to release it. The label, Decca, had dropped him from his contract and was refusing to release the songs, including the song “That’ll Be The Day.” According to the story, the producer wasn’t a fan of rock music, and did a terrible job on the song, and Decca refused to release it. So Holly went to re-record it at a different studio, and since Decca had dropped him from his contract, he wanted to clear the rights to use that song, but Decca refused, claiming it had money “tied up” in the recordings… even though Holly clearly offered to pay up to reimburse Decca for the costs, the label refused. Holly apparently recorded his phone call with the label discussing this:

Of course, the story is that Holly went on to release the re-recorded version against his Decca contract, but did so under a group name (The Crickets) rather than as Buddy Holly to avoid the contractual issue — but the success of the song resulted in Decca coming back to Holly and signing a new contract. Either way, the phone call highlights how labels have treated musicians for ages — forcing them into terrible contracts.

There still is a role for labels to play in the music industry, but one of the more exciting things that’s happening is that with greater alternative options, musicians are able to sign deals that are much more favorable, and are less likely to get them locked up in a situation where the labels have too much control.

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AOL announced its first quarterly earnings today as a newly public company. Fourth quarter revenues dropped 8% to $471.6 million, and turned a profit of $1.4 million (see the slides below). Notes from CEO Tim Armstrong’s first conference call are below. He laid out AOL’s strategy, warned that sales would probably be dampened this quarter as a result of reducing a third of its workforce and noted that “AOL is not a quarterly project.”  He emphasized Aol’s content strategy, with the build out of AOL’s new content management system Seed and acquisition of StudioNow on the video front.  Armstrong went into some detail about AOL’s nichebuster strategy, noting that “fragmentation is our friend.”  He also said that AOl will pursue new paid subscription services in the future.

The sales team is now given incentives to sell more premium ads on site than across AOL’s ad network.  AOL plans on closing money-losing international operations, which will result in a $125 million hit to revenues, but Europe alone lost $50 million so its income statement will look healthier after the exit. Display advertising is forecast to remain flat, but the mix will shift from network to premium ads on AOL’s owned properties.

Here are my live notes:

Tim Armstrong:

We have an aggressive strategy, starts and ends with execution,

We have gone through major cost reduction, reducing one third of workforce
built and designed Seed, our new content management system
cleaned up Mail (fewer ads)
adding to management team,
recent acquisition of StudioNow
a new middle market sales team
redesigned sales process,
reignited AOl’s brand with agencies,
completed spinout from Time Warner.

Most important thing, we put the heartbeat and will to win back into AOL

Strategy we are going after
1. in content, building content platforms for journalists on the web, matching technology with content can capture large audiences.
2. In advertising want to help brand advertisers transition to the Web
3. Communications, working on new platform
4. Paid services, we will be testing services and subscriptions in 2010

Some major items on the checklist

• scale content production and content partnerships
• launch anew brand platform
• scale the number of local communities
• stop decline of communications products and launch new ones
• launch paid services

It is difficult to remove a third of workforce without some impact, may see some dampening on ad sales, AOl is not a quarterly project.

Q&A

Q: What are new lines of business AOL is launching?

Armstrong

One is ion conetnet, Seed is largest cross company prject in a few years, formulation of a product we hope to bring to market over the course of 2010. StudioNow acquisition on video side is similar ro Seed. You will see us bring projects that help us scalle teh conetent on teh Web and loosk different than the contenet you see on eth Web today.  We continue to work with advertisers and ad agencies. new ads platform will have some new features oin it.  In tehlocal area, we continue to launch Patch. The Q for us is how much we scale it in 2010.

The most important new things will be the new ad system, how we launch and grow that in 2010, and the content system, how we produce and aprtner for great content to a tract users to AOL properties

Q: Why does niche at scale stratgey make sense now. Seems like it depends on doing well in search.

Armstrong, niche at scale is actually quality at scale. What uou consider niche, we don’t. Some people may look at Engadget as niche, but that blog won blog of the decade and also was the official blog covering CES. We had a partner in Sprint that saw that as attractive.  It is a scale advertisers find very attractive. A content strategy that people relate to.  We are able to bundle those audiences together and create scale for advertisers. Seed and StudioNow wil help us fuel more properties like an Engadget.

Second Q, are these properties created for search?  Search si an important part of it but if you look at referral traffic, it is other things, Twitter, Facebook, other things, our own properties in recirculation, we look at the mix.  Our strategy around distribution is not reliant on search. It is a part of it. Internally we say fragmentation is our friend

Q: Audience numbers, paid services?

Armstrong: You might see bumps in total uniques, but company is getting healthier underneath as we shift our content strategy. Will shut some properties, open new ones. Will audience grow overall?  I am not sure, but focussed on growing audiences in specific category?

People look at paid services as dialu-p access, there are other paid services, where people bring their own access.  It is an interesting asset as paid services are becoming more viable. We look at services and subscriptions as areas we will be testing this year.

There were a number of deals before that were unprofitable for us. The company was hooked on pageviews. We are now focussing on net revenue.

Q: Technology toolkit

A: first and foremost we have to be clear about which platforms we are betting on. Second is what are clear and differentiated parts of those products. Who is building those products. the product team was disbanded at AOL a couple years ago. We are bringing in product people and engineers. We have had very good success bringing people into the company. Third thing is to open up the platform to external developers. AOL is not necessarily the most open platform. In the process of looking at the infrastructure and relationship with outside

on acquisition,$37M StudioNow, I have said this before, we are out of the Hail Mary business. I think StudioNow is great example of what we would hope to do in the future in M&A. They have great group of people,strong leadership and strong engineers.

On search deal, we have had a great partnership with Google, we continue to be close to them. What we are expecting to get out of search deal is longer-term partnership where we are both aligned. We have along partnership with Google. Marketplace is more competitive. First and foremost if you are looking for us to squeeze more dollars or pennies out every quarter, you are going to be disappointed. Looking for a deal that helps our strategy, a reasonable deal for us and the partner. We are a content focussed company, distribution is almost as important to us as money, we will look for distribution as much as money in the deal.

Q: divestitures, what are non-core?

CFO: likely we will trade some assets away if we can get a good deal and they are non-strategic.

Q: How will brand advertising on the Web grow? Also international shutdowns, more color?
Armstrong: I think there is less apprehension from brand advertisers moving to the Web. The reality is that brand advertising online or offline hasn’t really changed. Brands like to connect themselves to stronger brand experiences. If your P&G or someone like that you want to put yourself with other brands of the same quality. That is what we are about, high quality content and sites that are transitional for high quality brands to go from offline world to online world.

I had an experience last ten, 15 years doing advertising every single day, advertising that was accountable, clickable, fortunately for my last company we got the whole industry thinking that way. If you are a consumer walking down the aisle and there is a generic and branded detergent, our job is to put that brand around quality content to make that consumer believe it os worth it to pay more for that branded detergent.

Q: you have very attractive margins in access and search, display is less, what is overall profit margin you are looking at and what is the key driver of margins in display? How do you drive margins in the display side?

CFO: the good and bad news in display is there is a lot of operating leverage, we’ve seen the downside as we’ve gone through the ad recession. As we come out of that we should be able to drive incremental OEBITDA conversion. We do see benefits on the pricing side, saw it in the 4th quarter. We have a compelling product to sell to advertisers, added more than 150 new advertisers in the fourth quarter

Armstrong: What it comes down to is user engagement, our ability to do high-quality content.

Armstrong: I would highlight from 2009, we are very happy with how we did, when you layer on a global cost restructuring and a spin-off from Time Warner. We care more about execution than you do. We have a clear strategy we want to deliver on. We are not focussed on quarter over quarter results, but how does AOL become a very valuable property on the Internet. I would like to thank the employees of AOL, everyone worked exceptionally hard, pulling double duty.

Request-AOL Q4 2009 Earnings Presentation

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IBM has acquired Chicago-based software firm Initiate Systems. Initiate helps healthcare providers and other government organizations manage and organize data across various sources. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It appears that the acquisition is aimed at boosting IBM’s healthcare offerings. According to IBM, Initiate’s software us currently in use at more than 2,400 healthcare sites, over 40 health information exchanges and multiple government health systems around the world including CVS/Caremark, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Initiate speeds the adoption and exchange of electronic medical records by allowing medical professionals to access to complete medical histories of patients quickly and easily. The software also caters to government organizations to help share data across multiple agencies.

Initiate will be IBM’s 30th acquisition in the information management and analytics segment and Big Blue’s 90th acquisition since 2003. Last year, IBM acquired six companies, including Guardium, RedPill Solutions, SPSS, Ounce Labs, Exeros and Outblaze.

While IBM is kicking of 2010’s shopping spree with Initiate, it should be interesting to see the other buyout Big Blue has up its sleeve.

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While the 2011 Infiniti M is still more then a month away from its March 18th scheduled launch, Infiniti today announced pricing details for the newly designated 2011 M37 and M56 models.

Prices start at $46,250 for the 2011 Infiniti M37, which is powered by a 3.7L V6 that makes 330-hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. The all-wheel-drive M37x starts at $48,400. Infiniti says that that is “$450 more than the 2010 M35 and M35x, despite added content and features including.”

The big story for the Infiniti M lineup this year is the all-new 2011 M56, which is powered by a 5.6L V8 that produces 420-hp and 400 lb-ft. Prices start at $57,550 for the M56 rear-wheel drive and $60,050 USD for the M56x with Infiniti Intelligent All-Wheel Drive. The M56 gets the $3,350 Premium Package as standard equipment, adding a Infiniti Hard Drive Navigation with 8-inch VGA color touch screen, Bose 2-channel 10-speaker audio system, 9.3GB Music Box hard drive, streaming audio via Bluetooth, Climate controlled front seats and a heated steering wheel.

We’ll be heading down to San Diego later this month to test-drive the new 2011 Infiniti M so stay tuned for our first drive feature.

Follow the jump for the press release for more details.

Click here for more Infiniti M news.

2011 Infiniti M:

Press Release:

Infiniti Releases U.S. Pricing on All-New 2011 M Sedan Six Weeks Ahead of Launch

Greatly Enhanced Content, Special Introductory Lease Programs and Early Order Availability Expected to Build Momentum Toward March On-Sale

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (Feb. 3, 2010) – In response to strong consumer interest, Infiniti released pricing for the all-new 2011 Infiniti M performance luxury sedan more than a month ahead of its scheduled March 18th launch. Along with the next-generation M’s greatly enhanced style, performance, luxury, craftsmanship and technology, the newly designated M37 and M56 models will debut with special lease offers designed to reward early buyers of popularly equipped Infiniti M models.

“We want to take advantage of the high levels of customer interest in this completely redesigned Infiniti M, kick-starting the launch with select lease offers and high-value content-to-price MSRPs,” said Ben Poore, vice president, Infiniti Business Unit. “In addition, we’ll bring attention to the story behind the new M’s inspired design and performance with a new, comprehensive marketing campaign that begins during the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Basketball Championship.”

Prices for the 2011 Infiniti M37 start at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP)* of $46,250 USD for the M37 rear-wheel drive and $48,400 USD for the M37x all-wheel drive. These prices are just $450 more the 2010 M35 and M35x, despite added content and features including:

* All new exterior design providing sportier, more aggressive overall proportions
* 330-horsepower 3.7L V6 with VVEL technology which generates more power with better fuel economy than the 3.5L V6 it replaces
* Infiniti Drive Mode Selector
* Power-folding side view mirrors
* Front door handle courtesy lights
* Active Noise Control
* RearView Monitor

Enhanced Intelligent Key memory (now includes audio, navigation and climate control settings)

The MSRPs for the 2011 Infiniti M56 start at $57,550 USD for the M56 rear-wheel drive and $60,050 USD for the M56x with Infiniti Intelligent All-Wheel Drive. Like the M37, the new M56 includes extensive additional content, starting with the $3,350 MSRP Premium Package’s advanced technology features as standard equipment:

* Infiniti Hard Drive Navigation with 8-inch VGA color touch screen,
* Bose® 2-channel 10-speaker premium audio system
* 9.3GB Music Box® hard drive
* Streaming Audio via Bluetooth®
* Climate controlled front seats
* Heated steering wheel

Other added content for the 2011 Infiniti M56 and M56x includes:

* All new exterior design providing sportier, more aggressive overall proportions
* All-new 420-horsepower 5.6L V8 with VVEL and DIG (Direct Injection Gasoline™) technology – generating 95 more HP than previous model as well as better fuel economy
* Infiniti Drive Mode Selector
* Power-folding side view mirrors
* Front door handle courtesy lights
* Active Noise Control
* Rearview monitor now standard
* Enhanced Intelligent Key memory (now includes audio, navigation and climate control settings)

New Technologies

The 2011 M also offers a wide array of impressive new available features and technology. These include:

* Blind Spot Warning (BSW) and the industry’s first Blind Spot Intervention™ (BSI) System (available as part of the Technology package)
* Forest Air™ system – the most advanced climate control system ever developed by Infiniti (available as part of the Deluxe Touring and Sport Touring packages)
* Active Noise Control (standard) generates sound waves which help to reduce undesirable low-frequency engine sounds in the cabin
* Infiniti Drive Mode Selector (standard) – four selectable modes (Eco, Standard, Sport Snow) adjust throttle sensitivity and transmission shift points to optimize performance
* Enhanced Intelligent Key Memory (standard) – now includes memory function for audio, navigation and climate control settings, in addition to seat, steering wheel and side view mirror
* Enhanced Navigation System – now includes XM NavWeather™ with Real-Time weather and 3-day forecast and Zagat® Restaurant Guide (available as part of the Premium package)

“The all-new M represents the kind of inspired design, performance, technology and craftsmanship that luxury buyers are asking for,” said Poore. “Along with our other great vehicles, the 2011 M puts Infiniti right in the sweet spot of today’s performance luxury market.”

– By: Omar Rana

SlideShare, the “YouTube for presentations,” has been steadily ramping up its offerings for business users. Last year, the startup unveiled two premium services for businesses, LeadShare and AdShare. SlideShare lets anyone share presentations and also serves as a social discovery platform for users to find relevant content and connect with other members who share similar interests. Today, the startup is launching another business-friendly offering, branded channels.

Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare’s co-founder and CEO, says that much of the startup’s community is composed of businesses users, and SlideShare is increasingly becoming a vehicle for businesses to socialize and share their content, from documents to webinars to presentations. Branded channels help users find this content easily and in a more organized manner. Ogilvy, Microsoft, and even the President Obama’s White House have all created branded channels for their content.

SlideShare’s branded channels can be fully customized, with pricing ranging depending on the businesses’ preferred layout. Sinha declined to share the pricing range for the channels. As SlideShare continues to attract business users, the startup has been rolling out premium services to not offer compelling features to users but to also monetize the platform. LeadShare is a self-service tool that businesses can use to capturing leads from documents and presentations and AdShare allows users promote their content via ads on SlideShare’s platform.

Competitor Scribd also offers branded readers. In the past year or so, SlideShare has unveiled a mobile-friendly site, launched a free Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 plug-in that allows for one-click publication of your presentations to the cloud, and support for embedding YouTube videos in SlideShare-hosted presentations. The company is based out of San Francisco and raised over $3 million in capital to date, from VC firm Venrock and a number of prominent angel investors like Dave McClure, Mark Cuban, Saul Klein, Jonathan Abrams, Hal Varian and others.

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by David H. Moore

[David H. Moore is a Professor at J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University]

The Supreme Court’s decision in Medellin v. Texas has understandably generated substantial debate on the status of treaties in domestic law. Medellin has significant implications for three other areas of foreign relations law as well: Alien Tort Statute litigation, the domestic legal status of customary international law, and the development of a uniform doctrine governing the domestic status of both treaties and customary international law.

ATS Litigation

While most ATS claims are grounded in CIL, treaty-based claims are also raised. Treaty-based claims will not succeed, however, unless the treaty is self-executing and the plaintiff has a cause of action. By endorsing a broad notion of non-self-execution and by endorsing the presumption that treaties do not create domestic rights of action even when treaties “directly benefit[] private persons,” Medellin restricted prospects for treaty-based claims under the ATS. Medellin also undermines the more common CIL-based claims. In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, plaintiff Alvarez cited the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as evidence that CIL prohibits the type of arbitrary detention he suffered. The Court discounted the evidentiary value of non-self-executing treaties like the ICCPR in identifying actionable norms of CIL, stating that even if Alvarez properly represented the ICCPR’s content, he had mustered “little authority that a rule so broad has the status of a binding customary norm today.” Medellin’s broad view of non-self-execution reduces the evidence available to establish viable CIL-based claims.

The Domestic Status of Customary International Law

Medellin also bears on the more substantial question of CIL’s domestic legal status. That question has split scholars into two primary camps: a modernist camp that perceives CIL as federal common law that the federal judiciary may apply in the absence of positive authorization, and a revisionist camp that maintains that the political branches or Constitution must authorize federal judicial use of CIL as a rule of decision. I have argued, based on Sosa, that the Supreme Court favors the revisionist perspective. Medellin strengthens that argument by displaying the same separation of powers vision evident in Sosa. In that vision, which is consistent with the revisionist view, the political branches take the lead in making domestic law based on international law and in conducting foreign affairs. The vision is evident in the considerations Sosa provided to guide lower courts in identifying actionable norms of CIL in ATS cases—the intent of the political branches, specific definition, wide acceptance, practical considerations, effects on foreign affairs and the political branches’ foreign affairs authority, and alternative means of enforcement. The vision is also evident in the Sosa Court’s comments on the limited role of the judiciary in exercising common law powers and managing foreign relations.

Medellin manifests the same separation of powers vision. In deciding whether the relevant treaty obligations were self-executing, the Court considered the intent of the U.S. treaty makers, the specificity of the treaty obligations, other state parties’ understanding of the treaty obligations, the potential consequences of classifying ICJ judgments as inscrutable federal law, the effects on foreign affairs and political branch authority of eliminating political discretion to reject ICJ judgments and of rendering self-execution a case-by-case judicial question, and the existence in the Security Council of an international alternative to domestic judicial enforcement. These considerations reflect the view that Congress and the executive should have “the primary role in deciding when and how international agreements will be enforced.” In short, the separation of powers vision that undergirds both the revisionist position and Sosa appears in Medellin.

Medellin supports the revisionist position in two other ways as well. The Court’s repeated (and confusing) suggestion that non-self-executing treaties are not domestic law and not merely judicially unenforceable, evidences a view that international law, absent incorporation, generally resides outside domestic law. And Justice Breyer’s divergent conclusions in Sosa and Medellin—favoring a more limited role for CIL than the Sosa majority allowed but a more expansive role for treaties than the Medellin Court permitted—indicates that he, at least, may appreciate the revisionist suggestion that treaties should, absent statute or constitutional amendment to the contrary, have a broader domestic role than CIL.

A Developing Uniformity

Not only do the considerations that Medellin invoked to determine self-execution reveal a separation of powers perspective similar to Sosa’s, those considerations significantly resemble the guidance Sosa provided for the creation of common law causes of action based on CIL. With regard to both treaties and CIL, the intent of the political branches, specificity, mutuality, practical consequences, foreign affairs effects, and alternative means of enforcement (at a minimum) affect the domestic legal import of international law. The Supreme Court’s most significant explanation of self-execution analysis thus supports the notion that a uniform doctrine governing the domestic status of both treaties and CIL is developing.

iPhone sales may be nearly doubled Christmas 2008 to 2009, but the smartphone is facing increasing competition, and has suffered a significant loss of market share in Q4 2009.

Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in Q4 2009, which was below analyst expectations.  According to ABI Research this represents a drop in market share form 18% in Q3 to 16.6 % in Q4.

The stumble can be attributed to increasing competition from high end handsets like the Motorola Droid and devices such as the HTC HD2 and a rather stale device line-up.

Michael Morgan, an analyst at ABI Research, says Apple could be running into a case of “Razr burn”, referring to the meteoric rise and as precipitous fall of the iconic handset which remained essentially unchanged for two years.

Analyst Rob Endele noted "Even in the pain, Apple is realizing a much higher level of profit than any of the other handset vendors. Clearly, Apple is favouring profit over market share,"  "That is consistent with Apple’s strategy. The company may very well continue to drop market share, but you will see them hold viciously on the profits."

With Apple insisting on a high profit margin and carriers increasingly having alternatives to spur consumer data usage demand, it is likely the iPhone will dwindle into a niche market just like Apple computers

Read more at Newsfactor here.

We’ve been aware for some time that the EV race is on. And we’re not talking about a WRC style race, but about a race to find the proper solutions in order to transform EVs in usable cars. While the answer could come from a mass producer, sometimes the little companies can do wonders.

UK-Based Electric Car Corporation, the producer of the Citroen C1 ev’ie just announced it’s partnership with Dundee based Axeon, Europe’s largest independent lithium-ion battery systems supplier. After a success… (read more)