Author: Serkadis

A report made by the Road Safety Foundation and paid for by UK’s Highway Agency shows that two-thirds of the one-lane roads are below acceptable in terms of safety standards. The report which is part of the European Road Assessment Programme rates most of UK’s A-road network with two stars out of the possible four, says pistonheads.com.

"Single carriageways lack most of the safety features that would protect road users and almost two-thirds (62 per cent) get an overall rating of two sta… (read more)

Italian shoemakers Santoni recently launched a line of shoes specifically made for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG owners. The company is already selling a line of shoes inspired by the Mercedes AMG range with a sole designed to offer the most grip on AMG brake and gas pedals.

The Santoni driving shoes are certified by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile and are inspired by the design of the SLS AMG interior and exterior. They are made with leather and alcantara like the interior of the n… (read more)

Google puts speed high on its agenda, from its web browser, to its web apps, to the underlying technology it uses to serve data to millions of people everyday. But it can only do so much with its own products and many times the issues affecting the performance of its apps are out of its hands. That isn’t stopping it though, as Google h… (read more)

Commodities took a hit yesterday, along with equities.

But this morning, the Bulls have bounced back, with oil currently trading at $74.21 a barrel.

Gold and silver are up too. Gold is currently up $7 to $1092/ounce. Silver is up $0.27 to $16.71/ounce.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Commodities Tank, Oil Dropping Below $74 A Barrel
• How China Will Blow Past India And Control The Gold Market In 2010
• Ten Blasphemous Trade Ideas That Spit In The Face Of Conventional Wisdom

Ford posted $2.7 billion in 2009 earnings, making it its first full-year of profits in four years. [ABC]

Demi Moore is in negotiations to play Miley Cyrus’ on-screen mother in the forthcoming comedy L.O.L.: Laughing Out Loud, Variety said Thursday. The movie will be an American adaptation of a 2008 French coming of age film, about a 15-year-old girl struggling with her first broken heart and a strained relationship with her divorced mom.

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“My friends at Bic razors say they will donate $50,000 to your Haiti relief fund if you let me shave it (goatee) off right now.”

Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara helped raise $50,000 for relief to earthquake-ravaged Haiti after she coaxed late night host George Lopez into letting her shave off his goatee on Tuesday’s live edition of Lopez Tonight……

Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Toyota

If you need to announce another recall around the same time a controversial president is making his highly anticipated State of the Union address, you probably won’t curse that particular luck. That is exactly what Toyota felt it needed to do, revealing yesterday evening that it’s recalling a further 1.1 million cars to fix “pedal entrapment problems” caused by floor mats.

This action is tied to Toyota’s largest recall ever last year of 4.26 million cars for the same issue, but is different than the recall of 2.3 million cars for a sticking accelerator announced last week. The new models in question are:

• 2008-2010 Highlander
• 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Venza
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe

Toyota reportedly has a number of fixes planned for all of the issues. Now it will just want the time to be able to focus on fixing them, without any more surprises. Hat tip to JT!

[Source: The Detroit News]

BREAKING: Toyota adds another 1.1M cars to floor mat recall originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if Peter Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill proposal wasn’t bad enough, Dave sends in yet another problem with it. While it does include a process for appealing if you are cut off for accusations (not convictions) of unauthorized file distribution or reproduction, you will have to pay up to appeal. So even if you are innocent, it will cost you money to make your case for why you shouldn’t have been cut off in the first place.

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Golden Globe-nominated actress Jane Lynch will live the dream of many a pop music lover when she performs her rendition of Madonna’s “Vogue” on the hit TV musical Glee.

Lynch, 49, has been a Madonna fan since The Material Girl burst onto the scene more than a quarter century ago. The star will finally have a chance to put her pop skills to work when she sings Madge’s 1990 dance anthem in character as tough-as-nails coach Sue Sylvester. The actress’ tribute will debut as part of Glee’s buzzed-about all-Madonna music episode, airing later this year.

“I’ve just been kind of up on Madonna these days. I’m loving her. I grew up in the ’80s, so she provided the soundtrack to my life.”

If recent whispers are to be believed, Jane’s got plenty to Vogue about. The celeb is apparently set to marry her partner, psychologist Lara Embry, in ceremony this May.

Big media coverage here, here, here and here.

Bloggy reax here, here, here and here.

FDL’s live blogging here and here.

What did you think of the speech?

For my money, it was too kumbaya and not enough brass tacks, but that’s what I usually think about Obama’s speeches.

I did like this, though.

So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.

I wish he would’ve just said this directly to the Republican side, again and again for an hour.

Is that just too good to be true? A crazed Kos Kid sending out letters defending his man?

Forget the Kos minion for a second though…What does that say about the dead tree editors? You can read the infamous email here. Personally, I didn’t find it to be any literary wonder and hardly some prolific gem to be read and re-read. It was published 69 times because the editors of all of those papers AGREED with the sentiment.

Back to the Kos Freak. You couldn’t be more of a Obamatron than to take the time to send letters to 69 publications (possibly sent to more that didn’t print them), 31 states, 3 national publications and a Yahoo link AND 2 foreign publications. What a LOSER, right? Geez. That’s even more than the 13 year old ALa penned to Diamond David Lee Roth… This dude definitely wins the Kathy Bates ‘Biggest Fan’ award.

So, Fifty-one year old Winston Steward came forward after his wife was accused. And turns out –surprise, surprise– he had a Daily Kos Diary.

And, I saved the best for last:

And WND reports that he’s also a HuffPo member. And not surprisingly, he only has 14 friends on Facebook (where the pic is from).

Of course, all of those publications will write a quick little apology blurb that no one will ever see and this will all go away…

La cara que se le debería haber quedado al operador de la grua del camion debe de ser de cine. Y es que no todos los días alguien tira de culo un Ferrari F430 desde una altura de 3 metros.

Este accidente a ocurrido en un concesionario de coches de lujo a las afueras de Boston y ha llamado tanto su atención que hasta se ha difundido un video desde un helicoptero en las noticias en la Fox.

Related posts:

1. un Ferrari F430 en llamas
2. Un buque con 2.400 coches de Kia y Hyundai es raptado por piratas somalíes
3. Ferrari F70, nuevas recreaciones

Does anyone find it strange that a company would name a product Aciphex? And then have things on their website like:

New to ACIPHEX?
Get a free trial of Aciphex.
In adults, the most common side effects with ACIPHEX include pain, sore throat, gas, infection, and constipation.

Weird?

…or am I just really, really immature?

Reunited and it feels so good…..

Young Hollywood exes Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift have reportedly “recently reconnected” – more than a year after the country superstar publicly shamed the boy bander for breaking up with her over the phone.

The Jonas Brothers singer dated Swift, now 20, for several months in 2008 but the pair bitterly split that November. Taylor then went on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to blast Joe for dumping her in favor of actress Camilla Belle. Swift even used the heartbreak as inspiration for her popular song “Forever and Always.”

However, Joe insists the exes are now back on speaking terms.

“We’ve actually recently reconnected, which is good. I hope she gets a Grammy. She deserves it,” Joe told E! News on Tuesday.

In fact, he’s rooting for Taylor to win big at Sunday’s 2010 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. With 8 nominations, Taylor trails only Beyonce (who has 10 nods) as this year’s most nominated artist.

Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends, Surveys and Polls, Apple

Okay guys and gals,

After (in some cases) years of speculation, the Apple tablet iPad is finally here. What we want to know is, based on what you’ve seen of it so far, will you be getting one? Is it everything you’ve always dreamed of? Or were you disappointed by what you saw?

Vote in the poll then hash out your thoughts in the comments!

View Poll

TUAWWill you be getting an iPad? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wall Street had the right idea yesterday. At least when it came to the iPad: Investors watched the unveiling, shrugged their shoulders, and left Apple (AAPL) shares more or less unchanged.

That’s a pretty reasonable approach, since it’s impossible to gauge the gadget’s chances based on Steve Jobs’ demo yesterday. As Walt Mossberg notes, it really is all about the software. And a lot of the iPad’s software doesn’t exist yet.

Now that Apple has shown off the device to the world, developers can start working on great software in earnest. But my hunch is that if we are going to see really impressive stuff, it won’t be ready when the first iPads start shipping this spring.

That’s partly because you almost never see really innovative software for new devices out of the gate. Developers need time to dream up things you can do with the new hardware, and they need time to see what users want to do with the thing.

But it’s also because a lot of the device’s performance will hinge on what media companies  — the people the device was built for, in many ways — end up delivering.

Magazine executives, for instance, have big plans for the iPad. But those plans include charging customers more for a subscription than the $10 to $12 a year most people pay for their magazines. If so, they’re going to have to come up with some pretty extraordinary stuff — not just swapping print for pixels, like Conde Nast’s GQ app does.

Similarly, book publishers want to charge you more to read a digital tome on the iPad than you would on Amazon’s Kindle (AMZN). That’s going to require something special, too.

Meanwhile, Apple’s plans to shake up the TV business via a subscription offering, and perhaps to do the same to music with a streaming offering, aren’t supposed to be tethered to the iPad specifically. But if they do materialize, they’ll certainly make the gadget that much more attractive.

Steve Jobs, who you can never accuse of underselling, says the iPad is a “magical and revolutionary device“. But that’s only going to be true if people who don’t work for Apple dream up some magical and revolutionary software. Give them a little time to deliver before you render a verdict — like Wall Street has.

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