Author: Serkadis

{img align=left}At the annual general meeting in Stuttgart, Porsche presented the preliminary sales reports for the first half of the 2009/10 which started on the July 31, 2009.

The 25 percent decrease registered in the first four months compared to the previous year has been brought down to a figure of 3.1 percent for the full six month period.

This can be translated into a figure of 33,200 units, which will bring the revenue 3.3 percent down to 2.9 billion Euros, as CEO Martin Winterin… (read more)

It seems like every year there’s some sort of controversy over trademarks and the Superbowl. Of course, the NFL has been famous for aggressively defending trademarks. For example, it’s been so aggressive in claiming that no one other than official sponsors can even mention the word Superbowl (even though it should be legal if used descriptively and accurately), that when many advertisers started switching to the euphemism “The Big Game,” the NFL tried to trademark that too, even though it wasn’t even the one who had come up with the phrase. This year, apparently, the big issue is over who owns the phrase “Who Dat” which is apparently a catch-phrase associated with the Superbowl- Big Game- Final Sporting Event Of The Football Season-bound New Orleans Saints. The NFL apparently claims that it holds the trademark on the phrase and is threatening some retailers who were offering “Who Dat” merchandise. Only problem? There’s a company called WhoDat Inc., and it claims to own the trademark. a-dub points us to an interview with the brothers who own WhoDat Inc., who also recorded the Who Dat song back in the 1980s. It appears the issue, from the NFL, may be with the use of a fluer de lis with the phrase, since the NFL owns the trademark on the fleur de lis in association with the Saints. But the WhoDat folks say even there the NFL is overstepping its bounds:

“Sure, a fleur de lis can belong to the Saints, but in very specific usage, and everybody knows what that is,” Monistere explained. “If you go back to 1967, to date, they have registered and used the fleur de lis in a very specific way. They put it on the Saints helmet and on the Saints ‘shield.’ Its colors are very specific — they’re ‘old gold and black.’ But for the NFL to expand that definition and say that no matter what color and what style of fleur de lis, if you put it on an item, it means Saints, it is, as many believe, is just not correct. The fleur de lis belongs to everyone including the people of New Orleans.

The Monistere brothers seem particularly annoyed by the NFL bullying small t-shirt makers, saying that they’re more than happy to grant licenses to those folks to produce Who Dat merchandise, and merchants have said that the NFL communication has been tremendously threatening and aggressive, while the Monistere’s have been quite friendly and accommodating. In fact, the Monistere’s seem particularly annoyed that the NFL is bullying small shop owners like Fleurty Girl, who received a cease-and-desist:

“Here we are going to the Superbowl for the first time in 43 years and these NFL guys are here harassing the local small businesses,” Monistere said. “Their merchandise sales are well over $320 BILLION a year! The NFL has become an intellectual property company. They make money selling their logos and image. With that kind of money coming in, they focus their attention on Fleurty Girl? I don’t have a problem with them protecting their intellectual property, but when they do it to the extent of trying to intimidate people into believing that the Fleur de lis is theirs — well, that’s just a bullying technique.”

As for the New Orleans Saints themselves? The organization there has apparently publicly said that WhoDat holds the rights on the trademark.

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As if not having the Volkswagen Golf R on the stateside wasn’t depressing enough, tuner B&B has put together a new three-part performance package, giving the hot-hatch more power than it already has.

B&B’s three-part performance upgrades allow the Golf R to produce 310-hp, 324-hp or 362-hp. Details are a bit limited but we do know that the range topping model gets a bigger turbo, a sports exhaust system with a larger downpipe and a racing catalyst, revised engine ECU, a new air intake, a new intercooler and a Slim-Line oil cooler.

All those modifications allow the 362-hp Golf R to go from 0-62 mph in 4.8 seconds with a top speed of 174 mph. Other upgrades include a high-performance braking system, adjustable coilover suspension, a body kit, and 19 to 20-inch wheels.

B&B Volkswagen Golf R:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: B&B (via WCF)

Might We Suggest…

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The US economy expanded 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009, making it the second straight quarter of growth, and the fastest in six years. However, it’s important to remember that for 2009 overall, real GDP shrank 2.4%, the largest decrease since 1946. So, it’s a gain for sure, but starting from a very low place and there’s a long way to go. Like jobs. Some jobs would be nice. [Bloomberg]

Wade Roush wrote:

Framingham, MA-based IT consulting company Glasshouse Technologies, which registered for a $100 million initial public offering in October 2007 and then nixed the plan in March 2009, citing unfavorable market conditions, is plunging back into the fray. In forms filed yesterday with the SEC, Glasshouse said it hopes to raise up to $75 million in an IPO, and that it plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GLAS. Glasshouse has raised venture backing from Sigma Partners, GrandBanks Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, and Cisco Systems, among other investors.

The Highway Loss Data Institute decided to bust another contemporary myth: banning cellphones use while driving does not reduce the number of accidents. The study was done by analyzing insurance claims for crash damage in 4 US jurisdictions before and after such bans.

"The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," says Adrian Lund, president… (read more)

Search engines have come a long way since the early days of AltaVista. The issues Google, Yahoo and Microsoft tackle these days are very complex in some instances, yet one problem has lingered as technology progressed. In fact, it’s precisely because technology progresses that search engines have this problem. Even now, a significant porti… (read more)

If authorities needed a search warrant in the early morning hours, former DuPage County Circuit Court Chief Judge Edward Kowal would make himself available.

“You could call on him for everything,” said DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett.

“We could go to his house in the middle of the night and he would have coffee brewing for the officers, and his wife Mary Lou was there to treat and take care of us.”

Kowal, a Glen Ellyn resident, died Tuesday at 85 after a lengthy battle with cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

“I appeared before Judge Kowal a few times when I was in private practice and I always found him to be a knowledgeable judge and man of great dignity,” said current DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis.

“He knew how to manage a courtroom and was always respectful to people who appeared before him. He had great knowledge of the law and was a dedicated jurist.”

Birkett said he argued several high-profile murder cases before Kowal and always found him “very fair.”

“Defense lawyers and prosecutors alike had great respect for him,” he said.

But perhaps Kowal’s most notable trial was one that still haunts the county’s legal community.

Kowal presided over the original trial of Rolando Cruz, Alejandro Hernandez and Stephen Buckley in 1985.

They were wrongly accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville two years earlier. Cruz and Hernandez were convicted and Kowal sentenced the two to death. Buckley’s case ended in a mistrial.

The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the convictions against Cruz and Hernandez, saying Kowal should have separated their trials and ordered the men to be retried. Much later, prosecutors and sheriff’s detectives were accused of fabricating evidence in the case.

Kowal – as one of his last acts before retiring as chief judge in 1995 – appointed a special prosecutor to try the case against the accused authorities who would become known as the DuPage 7.

The seven men were all eventually exonerated. However, the county settled a $3.5 million civil suit brought by Cruz, Hernandez and Buckley in 2000. Serial killer Brian Dugan was sentenced to death late last year for Jeanine’s murder.

Kowal began his law career in 1951 after graduating from John Marshall Law School. He later attended Harvard University and The National Judicial College, according to his family.

He served in the DuPage State’s Attorney’s office and eventually ascended to an associate judge’s seat in 1974 where he served in every division of the court system.

He was appointed to full circuit judge in 1984 and elected to the post two years later serving in criminal courts for the duration of his career. He was elected chief judge in 1993 and retired two years later.

But Kowal was also a decorated war veteran, having served in the Marines as a radio operator, navigator and rear gunner on attack missions over the Marshall Islands in the Pacific theatre during World War II.

He is survived by his wife Mary Lou, five children and eight grandchildren.

A memorial service is at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at Grace United Methodist Church, 300 E. Gartner Road, Naperville.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Filed under: Sedan, China, Peugeot, Beijing Motor Show

In another sign of China’s growing importance as an automotive market, Peugeot will use the upcoming Beijing Motor Show to debut its new midsize 408 sedan. The 408 was jointly developed by Peugeot stylists in Europe and China with the aim of appealing to the latter market. The mid-sized segment where the 408 competes comprises 45 percent of the market in that country, so this car could represent a major growth opportunity for the French brand if it succeeds. Peugeot is hoping to follow up its 44-percent sales growth in China last year with another 30-percent jump in 2010.

Aside from the 4.68-meter length, Peugeot hasn’t revealed any other technical details at this time. The new sedan will be produced in China by the Peugeot Dong Feng joint venture for the local market. The press release is after the jump.

[Source: Peugeot]

Continue reading Beijing Preview: Peugeot to debut new 408 in the middle kingdom

Beijing Preview: Peugeot to debut new 408 in the middle kingdom originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here is something to start your morning with a little chuckle. Usually, when we get to see spy videos and spy shots, all you see is a vehicle traveling through desert or blistering cold conditions. Well, you can bet Mercedes-Benz engineers were a little annoyed when a spy photographer caught them trying to pull out an CL AMG out from a ditch with a prototype for the new 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML SUV. When the power of the all-wheel-drive ML wasn’t enough to get the CL out of the ditch, the engineers brought in a S-Class AMG equipped with snow chains.

Hit the jump for the video to see how it all played out.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: YouTube (via AMS and CarScoop)

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Naturtint Permanent Hair is a post from the Vegetarian Vitamins Guide blog where you can find suggestions and advice from vegetarians and vegans on vegetarian diets, supplements, vitamins and overall nutrition.

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This year does not seem to be one of Toyota’s best, as the Japanese manufacturer becomes more and more controversial by the day. Impressive recall numbers come up every 24 hours and it seems like every car they sold for the past few years has some kind of a flaw. Unfortunately, actions always have consequences. And Toyota’s actions have serious financial consequences.

Toyota Motors shares have plunged for the sixth day as a result of recall of million of automobiles. The recalls are necessary… (read more)

U.S. fourth quarter GDP grew 5.7% based on Commerce Department data released today, blowing away the consensus expectation of just 4.7%.

Note this is the first estimate of fourth quarter GDP so far, subject to future revision.

It looks hard to blame Cash for Clunkers this time around given that motor vehicle output only added 0.6%:

"The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, exports, and personal consumption expenditures (PCE).

Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an upturn in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decelerations in federal government spending and in PCE.

Motor vehicle output added 0.61 percentage point to the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 1.45 percentage points to the third-quarter change. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.03 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.08 percentage point from the third-quarter change."

Gdp4q09 Adv

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See Also:

• Bill Miller Makes Or Breaks His Career With This Call: U.S. GDP Will Grow 7-10% And Stocks Will Melt Up
• China GDP +10.7%
• The Next Wave Of GDP-Killing State Budget Slashing Begins

Though it has been on the market for two years, the Fiat 500 continues to gather trophies. This year, the little crowd pleaser managed to win the BusinessCar "City Car" award for the second consecutive time.

In the Italian’s trophy case for the Fiat 500 also lies one of the most important awards from UK’s auto industry: Car of the Year 2008. Alongside these awards, you’ll be able to see several distinctions from the UK’s leading consumer and trade.

Fiat looks like it’s now secur… (read more)

Filed under: Toys/Games

As a society, we seem to like our possessions as small and portable as possible (unless of course we’re talking about food portions). Hence, we buy laptops instead of desktops, MP3 players instead of boomboxes and chihuahuas instead of great danes. Or something like that. As such, it’s not terribly surprising to see the World’s First Foldable R/C Car, made by the toy-crazy folks at Mattel.

As the company behind the classic Hot Wheels series of toy cars and trucks, Mattel has more than a little experience miniaturizing four-wheelers. This time, though, the vehicles are as small as a credit card and about as thin as a cell phone. In other words, small enough to fit in a kid’s pocket. One button press is all it takes for the car to unfold itself into a fully functional remote control car.

Called Stealth Rides, these toys are scheduled to debut in February at the Toy Fair in New York in five different models, one of which is a Batmobile Tumbler. One full battery charge is said to power the toy for up to 30 minutes of play time, though we don’t yet know how long that charge will take. Sales will begin in August and each machine will cost about $25.00, says Mattel. Yep, that’s just in time for the Christmas season, naturally.

[Source: CNNMoney.com]

Pocketable Play Time: Mattel Stealth Rides are World’s First Foldable R/C Cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ferrari will not debut their F10 model on the track this weekend, as poor weather near Maranello forced the Scuderia to cancel their promotional drive of the car on the Fiorano circuit. The drive was scheduled to take place yesterday, but was also postponed due to poor weather conditions.

Following the car’s revealing during yesterday’s presentation event in Maranello, Ferrari announced that Felipe Massa will take the new car to the track either on Thursday afternoon, or on Friday morning. N… (read more)

What you are looking at is Chevrolet Camaro Convertible sitting in luxury car dealership in Abu Dhabi and affectionately called ‘Princesscar.’. Now we just heard earlier this week that GM just picked Magna to supply them with tops for the convertible Camaro and that production has been pushed back to the second half of 2011 – meaning there are only two explanations for this.

First, someone in Abu Dhabi has enough money to convince GM to build them the Camaro Convertible before it even comes out (which is highly unlikely). Second, what you’re looking at is the works of an independent coachbuilder like NCE or Drop Top Customs. It’s most likely the latter.

Chevrolet Camaro Convertible in Abu Dhabi:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Princesscar (via CarScoop)

According to DigiTimes, we’ll be seeing both AMD Thuban and Intel Gulftown six-core desktop processors hitting in just a few short months.

It’s all from anonymous sources, but at least on the Intel side the information matches up with what we’ve seen previously. Gulftown (aka the Core i7-980X) will apparently be available as early as this March, although at a hefty $1,000 or more per chip. Gulftown is also rumored to be the processor for the next Mac Pro, so it’s encouraging to see it nearly ready to debut.

On the AMD side, you’ll have to wait a little longer. According to DigiTimes, the Phenom II X6 1075T, 1055T and 1035T, all 45nm process chips, will be available in May. [DigiTimes]

An Aurora attorney and former judge who is running in Tuesday’s primary for a seat in the 16th Judicial Circuit, says he’s “learned from” a black mark on his legal career that resulted in a 30-day suspension of his law license five years ago.

But former Kane County associate Judge Fred Morelli continues to deny a conflict of interest in that matter.

“I’ve got a lifetime of experiences. Some good, some bad,” Morelli told the Daily Herald. “This is one I hope never happens to me again, and I’ve learned from it.”

Records show the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission suspended Morelli’s license for 30 days in March 2005.

The sanctions stemmed from a complaint in late 2001 accusing him of a conflict of interest related to an early 1990s drug case and, separately, of inappropriately contacting a defendant who was already being represented by a public defender in 1997.

In the 1991 case, Morelli represented a drug dealer and the man’s ex-wife and had a then-undisclosed sexual relationship with the woman, the complaint stated.

In an interview, Morelli admitted to the accusations involving the public defender but said, “I still don’t think I had a conflict of interest” in the other matter.

“I never said I was perfect. No one is, though I know some people who claim to be,” he said. “I think the public needs a judge who doesn’t believe he’s perfect, recognizes his faults and learns from his mistakes.”

Morelli, an appointed Kane County judge from 1976 to 1981, is running against fellow Republican and Associate Judge Kevin Busch of Batavia in the Feb. 2 primary for a circuit-wide judgeship in the 16th Judicial Circuit, which includes Kane, Kendall and DeKalb counties. He said media attention to the suspension so soon before the election is suspect.

“I’m disappointed the campaign has come to this,” Morelli said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where this came from.”

Asked to comment, Busch said, “I’d rather not, because I believe the facts speak for themselves.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.