About a year ago, Saab got 500,000 eyeballs on its 9-3 Convertible using an online game tied to the show “Burn Notice”. Ford is now doing the online game dance with the USA Network – the very same channel that aired “Burn Notice” – this time based on its new show “White Collar.” The vehicle of choice: the Taurus.
You’ll be using that Taurus – which is actually black, not red – to chase The White Shadow, the evilest white collar criminal around. And you’ll need a suite of Ford features to do it: SYNC, SecuriCode, Collision Warning and Adaptive Cruise Control, among others. The game will take seven weeks to solve, so you’ll be spending a lot of time in your sedan, but every week five winners will get a White Collar “gentlemen’s bag,” and the grand prize winner will get a new Ford Taurus. That one will probably will be red.
You can find the press release after the jump, or you can get straight to playing by clicking the link below.
The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) held its 10th national conference on science, policy, and the environment at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.. NCSE offered a stellar set of speakers, including EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, as well as a range of symposia, breakout sessions, workshops for the more than 1,000 environmental policymakers who attended. Bill Spriggs, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson kicked off today’s discussions with an outline of the Obama administration’s green economy policies.
Bill Spriggs, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Labor Department: The U.S. lost 3 million jobs in 2008 at a rate of more than 700 thousand per month. Now, economic output is rising, but unemployment remains stalled. Furthermore, Spriggs said some jobs are “disappearing,” and permanently moving overseas. While these jobs “aren’t coming back,” they can be replaced through new investments in green technologies. “Low-hanging fruit” includes housing weatherization, which will create jobs that “can’t be exported,” argues Spriggs. “Creating new batteries for electric vehicles will lead to jobs. Also, auto part workers can turn into wind turbine workers.”
The U.S. Labor Department has recently finished doling out $700 million in stimulus funds aimed at spurring green job creation. “We are the only department to have finished giving out funds.” Labor has given grants to unions, community groups, and business leaders. “Our goal is to build capacity within local communities so they can retrain workers for green jobs.” More than 190 million has been spent on building state-level energy partnerships focused on forging deeper linkages between state programs, educational systems, and industry.
Spriggs added that the Labor department was fearful of “creating structural unemployment” by retraining workers for green jobs, and then leaving them without job opportunities. “We don’t want to exacerbate the problem.” However, he said the lack of skilled labor can’t be the bottleneck in the transition to a green economy.
Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator: Jackson said her goal was to rebuild the integrity of the Environmental Protection Agency and increase public faith in the agency. She plans to do this through focusing on “science, transparency, and following the law.” “We need to shift the dialogue away from politics and towards science. The EPA must be seen as an independent agency and arbiter.” In terms of recent successes, the EPA administrator pointed to new standards on ground-level ozone, which will significantly reduce health problems for a range of vulnerable populations.
Jackson outlined four arguments for investing in a new green economy:
A green economy is a strong economy: “President Obama has said the choice between good jobs and a clean economy is a false choice. We can have both.” To illustrate her argument that “smart environmental decisions can be smart economic decisions,” Jackson pointed to the environmental degradation that has stunted economic development on the New Jersey waterfront. Once New Jersey dealt with the environmental problems in some areas economic development returned. Jackson pointed to the Gold Coast, where rehabilitated brownfields contributed to positive economic growth and increased real estate values.
The moment compels us: The U.S. is facing both an economic and environmental crisis. Any recovery needs to be a green recovery. “We’ve invested billions in water infrastructure, and this has been a wise investment both environmentally and economically.”
Clean energy is a global growth industry in the 21st century: The U.S. needs to take leadership or it will fall behind. China is “investing like crazy” in clean energy, and is the first to come out of recession. “This is no accident.” President Obama has pledged to double clean energy in three years. Clean energy needs to be the “center of a green economy” – America’s economic engine needs to be wrapped around this sector.
We can move from negative to positive externalities: Negative externalities related to economic growth include pollution, river and lake destruction, and adverse health effects. However, all green economy paths create positive externalities — higher energy efficiency savings, lower energy costs, reduced healthcare costs, and strengthened national security. A McKinsey report cited by Jackons argues that a $25 billion investment in clean energy R&D can lead to $1.5 trillion in future energy savings. “We need to increase our efforts on wind, solar, and smart grid development, but we’ve laid the foundation.”
Finally, Jackson argued we need “simultaneous, game-changing solutions” to move the U.S. towards a green economy.
George Clooney is donating $1 million to Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, the multi-network telethon he is co-organizing this Friday, Jan. 22, The Insider has learned. Hope for Haiti Now will also feature more than 100 of the biggest names in entertainment throwing their support behind the citizens of the earthquake-ravaged island nation.
Press Release – SPB Software, a leading mobile applications and games developer announces that one of its most sophisticated solutions, SPB TV has been licensed to become a part of StarHub TV on Mobile – mobile television from the major Singaporean cellular network operator. It is not only the client-side application that is being licensed but also the server-side software installed and integrated with the carrier’s billing system. With this move, StarHub is now ready to supply their subscribers with 24 TV channels in demand (such as CNN, BBC and Bloomberg), all with best possible picture quality and followed by such unique features as picture-in-picture, fast channel switching, integrated TV guide and more.
The new TV solution currently supports Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Android-based smartphones, with support for Symbian-based Nokia phones and Apple iPhone to come soon. Several handset vendors, including Acer, HTC, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have acted as launch partners. Complete list of supported handsets is available at www.StarHub.com.
"Working closely with award-winning software developer SPB, we have empowered our mobile TV customers with the ability to better control their mobile TV viewing with a user-friendly interface and powerful features, – says Mr. Chan Kin Hung, StarHub’s Head of Products and Solutions, – With 24 cable TV channels on mobile, it is important for us to make TV-viewing on mobile as simple as that on television for customers… In a way, we are putting [together] the best of both worlds – rich cable TV content and mobile convenience."
"SPB Software is proud to have our award-winning SPB TV solution selected by StarHub to enhance their TV on Mobile service. StarHub stands out as one of the leading 3G telcos in terms of mobile TV service and now with the solution from SPB, StarHub’s customers will benefit from the unique user-friendly interface making it one of the most usable mobile TV service available globally today," – concludes SPB Software CEO Sebastian-Justus Schmidt.
For SPB Software this is the second joint project of SPB TV implementation with a major cellular carrier, the first one being Russian operator SkyLink. Several more similar projects are to follow in the coming months of 2010.
As we reported last week, Honda Motor Co. CEO Takanobu Ito has confirmed that the company’s luxury brand, Acura, will be receiving hybrid models. This news comes in the wake of an announcement by the Acura brass that the company will no longer be carrying V-8 engines.
An Acura dealer who wishes to remain anonymous, has said that a hybrid version of the TSX is planned for 2011 and that two other hybrid models are to follow. Honda has yet to fully develop a hybrid system for larger vehicles. This plan has been in the making for quite sometime, said American Honda Motor Co. executive VP for auto sales John Mendel. There in fact had been plans to reintroduce the V-8 to the Acura line in order to challenge top-tier luxury brands, but they were scrapped in the wake of the economic meltdown in 2008.
“There will be more than one.” Mendel said in regard to the Acura hybrids, declining to give technical information or identify which models were targeted for hybrid variants.
Company spokesman Gary Robinson had noted that gone are the days of the visually aggressive luxury vehicle, and that consumers are showing interest in a more well-rounded vehicle, and specifically alternative energy vehicles such as the $87,900 Fisker Karma and $109,000 Tesla electric Roadster.
The Science and Public Policy Institute has published an analysis of the leaked climategate emails. This 149-page document takes the emails in chronological order and shows, with comments on each message, how science was perverted.
In the introductory material the report says:
The entire industry of “climate science” was created out of virtually nothing, by means of a massive influx of funding that was almost universally one-sided in its requirement that its recipients find evidence for man-made climate change—not investigate whether or how much mankind had caused climate change.
Many “climate scientists” built their entire careers on this funding; and so it is not surprising that they became so completely reliant on this conditional lifeline, that they became single-mindedly focused on achieving the ends for which they were commissioned—and viciously attacking any intruders who may threaten that lifeline.
The PDF file may be download from either of these links:
Beyonce and Madonna have been added as performers to Friday’s multi-network “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon, and Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and former president Bill Clinton are among the participants. A statement released Thursday said Beyonce would perform from London, and Madonna from New York City. The list of musical performers already includes such heavyweights as Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban.
People can start donating even before the start of the 8 p.m. EST concert via phone and text. The two-hour telethon will be shown on all the major networks and a host of other channels. It will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti.
General Motors is on its way to sell more vehicles in China than it does in the United States. Shanghai GM made that move more possible today by introducing a new entry-level small car called the Chevrolet Sail. The 2011 Chevrolet Sail will be sold in China and will also be exported to other emerging markets.
“Several years ago, Shanghai GM made the strategic decision to broaden our customer base by developing the New Sail,” said Shanghai GM President Ding Lei “We improved cost efficiency while setting new quality, fuel efficiency and value standards for economical family cars. With the arrival of the New Sail, we now have an entry in every major passenger car segment.”
Power for the new Chevrolet Sail comes from a 85-hp 1.2L S-TEC II and a 101-hp 1.4L S-TEC III. The 1.2L model will return best in-class fuel-economy averaging 41 mpg while the 1.4L model will average 40 mpg.
Prices for the 2011 Chevrolet Sail range from RMB 56,800 ($8,400 USD) to RMB 68,800 ($10,100 USD).
Follow the jump for the press release and the high-res image gallery.
2011 Chevrolet Sail:
Press Release:
Shanghai GM Introduces Chevrolet New Sail Small Car
– First car developed in China by a joint venture
– Best in class fuel economy
– Will be sold in China and exported to other emerging markets
Shanghai – Shanghai GM today introduced the Chevrolet New Sail sedan, the first passenger car created in China by a Sino-foreign joint venture. The new small car was developed by Shanghai GM and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), both GM-SAIC joint ventures. In addition to being sold in China, the New Sail will also be exported to other emerging markets.
Shanghai GM offers five variants of the New Sail with the base model priced from RMB 56,800 (US$8,400) to RMB 68,800 (US$10,100). This marks a breakthrough in the under-RMB 70,000 (US$10,300) small car segment, where Chinese brands have traditionally been dominant. Shanghai GM also began taking orders for the New Sail today.
“Our mission has always been to enable more individuals and families to realize their dream of owning a car,” said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “With the New Sail, we are setting a new standard for the lower-end small car segment while fully living up to the global standards of Chevrolet, one of the world’s leading vehicle brands. The fact that the New Sail will be exported is a testament to the capabilities of our product development organization in China.”
Class-Leading, Fuel-Efficient Powertrains
The New Sail is available with a choice of class-leading 1.2-liter S-TEC II and 1.4-liter S-TEC III engines. The 1.2-liter engine achieves best in class fuel economy under comprehensive road conditions of 5.7 L/100 km. It also generates power of 64 kW, enabling the New Sail to go from 0 to 100 km/h in 12.9 seconds. The 1.4-liter engine offers power 76 kW, goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 11.9 seconds, and has fuel economy under 5.9 L/100 km.
The engines incorporate the Variable Geometry Intake System (VGIS), which provides smooth power delivery and torque across all engine speeds. Lightweight materials are used in the engine, transmission and body, further increasing fuel efficiency. The optimized friction coefficient in the transmission and tire rolling coefficient reduce energy loss caused by mechanical operation. In line with Shanghai GM’s Drive to Green strategy, both engines meet China’s Phase IV emission standard (as well as the Euro IV standard) and can be upgraded to meet China’s Phase V emission standard.
Even though it is classified as a small car, the New Sail ensures a fun driving experience. Its five-speed manual transmission offers smooth gear shifting. The sporty-looking steering wheel provides pinpoint handling and easy control, while the sporty yet solid chassis provides comfort and excellent handling. The driver enjoys maximum visibility courtesy of the New Sail’s large windshield, seats designed for local users and no-blind-spot rearview mirror.
Stylish Exterior, Spacious Interior
Like other vehicles wearing the Chevrolet bowtie, the New Sail is sporty, enjoyable to drive and offers good value for money. The New Sail features Chevrolet’s trademark horizontal split grille with the gold Chevrolet emblem showcased in the middle. Three muscular sidelines provide the car a three-dimensional look. A unique short-in-front, long-in-back suspension brings a sporty edge to the exterior. The streamlined shape of the vehicle adds a dynamic styling element while reducing drag, for lower fuel consumption. The New Sail is initially available in six exterior colors: Crescent Silver, Jasmine White, Sky Blue, Coral Red, Amber Orange and Starfish Blue.
The interior is likewise unique and all Chevrolet. It includes the brand’s twin-cockpit design as well as a flexible, modern central control panel equipped with a radio, CD player and MP3 interface. Designers have added a sporty touch through a double-digital screen and chrome plating. The New Sail’s adoption of a central fuel tank, a short front and rear suspension, and arch-shaped doors maximizes interior space for up to five people. There are 24 interior storage compartments for added convenience.
Advanced Safety
The New Sail is expected to achieve four stars in China New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP) testing. The New Sail’s safety cage construction with crumple zones offers class-leading passenger protection. A steel frame surrounds the fuel tanks, for added safety. Dual air bags in front, a retractable steering column, antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution, child safety locks and a stronger child seat system are standard. The New Sail also offers outstanding pedestrian protection.
Developed in China for Emerging Markets
The New Sail was jointly developed by Shanghai GM and PATAC off a new architecture in accordance with GM’s Global Vehicle Development Process (GVDP) and worldwide standards for engineering and quality. The development team for the New Sail factored in local climate and driving conditions as well as local fuel quality and Chinese driving habits in the new model’s design. The vehicle’s assembly followed the DTS global C-BOB (best of best) standard.
The New Sail was put through more than 2 million kilometers of testing in extreme hot and cold weather conditions.
To ensure that parts and components meet Chevrolet’s international standards in terms of quality, service, technology and price, 95 percent of components were supplied by members of GM’s global supply chain, with more than 40 percent coming from industry-leading component groups or their joint ventures.
GM’s global quality management processes and regulations were also applied in R&D, procurement, quality recognition and manufacturing. Shanghai GM’s paint shop adopted Generation 6 Zero-Emission Painting for the New Sail. The vehicle meets all European Union environmental protection standards in terms of heavy metal proportion and the recycling rate of the full vehicle.
World-class Chevrolet Gold Tie Service will be offered to New Sail buyers by Shanghai GM. Approximately 380 dealers in more than 200 cities across China will offer customers nine free services as well as 24-hour emergency assistance.
General Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM is the joint global automobile partner of World Expo 2010 Shanghai along with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group (SAIC). More information on the new General Motors can be found at www.gm.com.
At this point, we’ve probably discussed the newly planned NY Times paywall enough, but a blog post by Reuters’ Felix Salmon made such a good point that it’s worth highlighting. In talking about the paywall, he notes, as I did originally, that people have a lot less incentive to link to the NY Times as they know it will be harder for others to make use of that link. That I understood, but Salmon made a key point that I hadn’t really thought about:
I suspect that what’s going to happen now is that as the moment of truth approaches, bloggers will increasingly search around for the NYT’s replacement as online paper of record: the way that blogs work is that they’re backed up by links to reliable sources, and a link is worthless if the person clicking on it risks running straight into a paywall, unable to read the information in question. The NYT’s journalism might well continue to be reliable, but its website won’t be, any more.
That point highlights the difference between valuing the content vs. valuing the conversation (or even valuing enabling the conversation). The top folks at the NY Times (and many other publications) seem to over-value the content and undervalue the conversation. Thus, they think that the content needs to be paid for, but don’t realize that they devalue their role in the conversation.
If you want to make the bet that the internet is more about content delivery than conversation and communication, then perhaps this makes sense. But, almost all signs point to the fact that it’s the conversation that’s the really important thing online, and devaluing that is almost certainly a mistake.
Last month Sony launched a new tool you can access on any mobile browser (iPhone, Android, WebOS, etc) called SonyStyle Mobile Reviews – m.sonystyle.com – which displays customer product ratings & reviews from SonyStyle. Similar to the site, you select the product category you’d like to research and see various gadgets by star rating. It also has a built in search function that allows you to easily insert the model name of the desired item and find reviews accordingly.
We really like this idea from Sony, and feel that the first version of this site is pretty strong. We’ve love to see the ability to write reviews from this mobile site, perhaps the ability to upload video reviews, and purchase products from a mobile enhanced site in the future, though. Perhaps a link to the SonyStyle blog would be good, too!
Okay, we know that Apple will be launching their new tablet device at their January 27th event next week, and the hype for the device is unlike anything we’ve experienced in the tech world, and that includes the pre-iPhone hype. We just wanna get a gauge on what you guys are thinking right now. So tell us, would you pre-order the Apple Tablet/iPad/iSlate today if you could, with no concrete knowledge of what exactly it does or how it will work?
Aydin Displays delivers rugged flat panels for U.S. Navy CDS program
Rugged/COTS Military
Model 4424S 24″ Console Mount Color Flat Panel Display
• 24.0” Color Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD)
• High Resolution 1920 x 1200
• Attractive Console Mount
• Convenient Front Controls
• Designed and Built to Military Standards
• Anti-Reflective Protective Window (Standard )
• Wide Viewing Angle ± 89° (Typical All Directions)
• HD-15 (VGA), and DVI-D
• Optional Touch Screen
• Flicker Compensation for Display of Sonar Acoustic Data (Optional)
Aydin Displays delivers rugged flat panels for U.S. Navy CDS program
U.S. Navy officials needed rugged, flat-panel monitors for the Common Displays System (CDS) program. They found their solution at Video Display Corp.’s Aydin Displays Inc. subsiduary in Birdsboro. PA.
Aydin Displays Inc. won a multiple-year contract to supply the U.S. Navy with the 24-inch rugged, flat-panel monitors for the CDS program. The Aydin displays are being incorporated into the Navy’s CDS consoles in support of DDG and Aegis Modernization.
Displays in the CDS program are being employed across platform systems on Navy surface ships, submarines and aircraft.
CDS solutions are designed to offer an open architecture, standardized inter-changeable components, minimal lifecycle costs and the ability to handle frequent technology updates, says a company representative.
Intended for a service life of 30 years, the CDS displays must also meet the Navy’s current and future needs for open systems, security features and cost effectiveness.
For more information, visit Aydin Displays Inc. online at www.aydindisplays.com
Even if the Store has a section dedicated to new releases, it just isn’t as easy and convenient as looking at a list just like this one. Speaking of which, here’s the latest batch coming to the
Beaverton, OR — Ethernet motion controllers by Pro-Dex, OMS were selected by a bio-medical research facility in Canada for a prostate cancer surgical device (PCSD) that provides absolute positioning for a surgical cancer procedure.
The success of PCSD will result in a more efficient surgical procedure for prostate cancer patients by means of flawless accuracy and instrument reliability. Only the most precise motion control technology could be considered. With this uncompromising criterion, within two months of the project’s launch, the Canadian facility selected and integrated the right motion control solution. The solution was to maneuver the four absolute positioning motors to align the scalpel for precise positioning combined with the ability to remember the scalpel’s last location exactly. Precision, support, simplicity of integration, ease-of-use and reliability were critical. In the end, the research group selected Pro-Dex, OMS to provide the necessary components, which includes a combination of 4-axis absolute encoder synchro-serial interface (SSI) interface with the MAXNET4000 ethernet motion controller.
One of the reasons for using Pro-Dex, OMS controllers was that the instrument requires feedback via a 9 and 12 bit resolution absolute encoder SSI, a standard motion encoder data format. The Pro-Dex, OMS controller accepts this signal format as a standard option, which makes it easy to configure in the controller’s program.
It helps to imagine the actual surgical robot itself: three or four mechanical arms holding the scalpel and surgical instruments. The movement of these robotic arms is controlled solely by the surgeon, who sits at an attached computer console and manipulates the arms with two precise joysticks.
The robotic technology gives laparoscopic surgeons more precise control and magnified vision. Because the surgeon is moving the instruments indirectly through the robot, any slight tremors of the surgeon’s hands are eliminated. In addition, an automobile stick-shift-type control on the robotic console allows the surgeon to reposition his or her hands to a more ergonomic position during surgery, reducing operating-room fatigue. The screen that displays the details of the robotic surgery through a small video camera inserted into the patient’s abdomen shows a three-dimensional image that can be magnified up to 12 times.
IPTE has been designing and manufacturing customspecific electronic and mechatronic test applications for a huge variety of products and printed circuit board assemblies for more than 15 years. These encompass, for example, single solutions, test racks and stand-alone measurement and test work stations and also fully automated in-line test stations which include the
handling of the test objects.
The longstanding and farreaching experience of the IPTE test engineers forms a reliable and excellent center for the advancement of a completely new test strategy: the IPTE ILAN module technology.
With the LAN (local area network) -based ILAN (instrumentation on LAN) IPTE is going to turn over a new leaf in the domain of test technology.
As a matter of course the IPTE ILAN modules are designed and manufactured according to highest industry standards in quality and reliability. In a nutshell: these are exactly the type of efficient test solutions that the market expects right now.
The fundamental idea here is as simple as it is efficient: small but powerful instrumentation modules generate the required stimuli signals and provide the conditioning of the measurement and test signals so that evaluation and control can be carried out using just a conventional Ethernet interface.
Consequently, test solutions can be set-up more easily, faster and more cost-efficiently. Using ILAN, existing measurement and test applications and instruments can also be completed and integrated in order to form new and effective solutions.
2011 Chevrolet Aveo spy shots – Click above for high-res image gallery
The Chevrolet Aveo RS concept received a fairly warm reception at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. The question now is how closely will the production version adhere to what we saw in decidedly unsunny D? Here are some fresh spy shots of the production Aveo to help us answer that.
The quick and dirty answer is that the production Aveo will stick close to the basic proportions of the RS concept, and the sharply tapered nose combined with miniscule front and rear overhangs appear intact as well.
Camouflage obscures much of the car’s exterior, but our spy photographers did manage to get a clear view of the interior, which appears to be remarkably faithful to the concept. Chevy designers kept the trick dual analog/digital gauges perched atop the steering column, and the center stack retains the same flared out shape. The big difference we’re seeing are the radio controls, which in this prototype appear to be from the GM parts bin. The concept featured a better integrated set of buttons that fit well within the console’s layout. The production version? Not so much.
Stay tuned as we’re likely to see the production version make its official debut for the end of this year’s auto show season.
Motorola has formally announced their new SHOP4APPS store for Android-based Motorola phones in China. Aside from being “just another store”, SHOP4APPS is designed to give developers tools to help promote their app(s) in the Chinese market through the MOTODEV developer program as well as other development ecosystems.
For consumers, SHOP4APPS will help users find apps based on preferences, region, or carrier. Similar to the Android Market, once you purchase an app, it’s yours to keep. Move to another handset or wipe your phone clean? No problem, just grab it out of the cloud again.
The store is also set up to support other handset makers or partners in China who wish to license it. The plan is to have SHOP4APPS ready to roll in time for the upcoming Chinese New Year.
In addition to the store news, Motorola is announcing a new feature to built into That gives users the ability to choose their favorite search provider. Don’t like Google? Swap it out for your preferred search tool.
If you’re an Android developer and want to take advantage of the services, you can submit your app immediately at http://developer.motorola.com.
This should be good for a laugh: Caitlin Upton, the geographically-challenged Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007, is hoping to redeem herself with a trek around the world. The blonde and her boyfriend Brent Horne will compete for $1 million dollars on the 16th edition of CBS’ The Amazing Race. Caitlin rose to YouTube infamy with her awkward response to about question about American’s ineptitude with geography during the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant. The gaff garnered over 39 millions views online that year, but Caitlin’s hoping her first soiree on reality TV will help change public opinion about her.
“People always picture me as the typical pageant girl, and I’m not at all,” she told The Associated Press. “I’ve only been in five pageants. I’m actually a very athletic person. I’m just tired of being represented from that standpoint. I want to show people who I really am as a person, that I am capable of accomplishing anything and doing anything I put my mind to.”
The Amazing Race 16 premieres Feb. 14 @ 8 PM EST on CBS.
Refresher: The base 2011 Mini Countryman will be available in the U.S. with a 1.6L 4-cylinder engine making 120-hp and a maximum torque of 118 lb-ft. The Mini Cooper S Countryman model will be powered by a 1.6L twin-scroll turbocharged 4-cylinder engine making 180-hp and 177 lb-ft (192 lb-ft with Overboost) of torque. Both models will come standard with a 6-speed manual transmission. A 6-speed automatic will be available as an option.
