Author: Serkadis

from angrynews, 20 January 2010: “Kathimerini newspaper – An extra 700 police officers will be on duty in the town of Amfissa as the trial is due to start today of two policemen charged in connection with the fatal shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in central Athens in December 2008. Police have also set up checkpoints on the three roads that lead into the town, located some 200 kilometers north of Athens, amid fears that anarchists or even urban guerrillas might try to disrupt proceedings…” more

from ainfos, 21 January 2010: “A group of 400 students, leftists and anarchists held a demonstration yesterday in Amfissa, where the trial of two policemen accused of being involved in the shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos was due to begin yesterday. Protesters were involved in minor scuffles with riot police. There were no reports of arrests or injuries. The long-awaited trial of the two police officers charged in connection to the fatal shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in December 2008 was postponed yesterday and instead will start tomorrow…” more

from ainfos, 21 January 2010: “A group of 400 students, leftists and anarchists held a demonstration yesterday in Amfissa, where the trial of two policemen accused of being involved in the shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos was due to begin yesterday. Protesters were involved in minor scuffles with riot police. There were no reports of arrests or injuries. The long-awaited trial of the two police officers charged in connection to the fatal shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in December 2008 was postponed yesterday and instead will start tomorrow. Alfredo & Christos in prison transfer to Korydallos…” more

Simon Cowell is is assembling an all-star lineup of vocalists to record a new charity single to help victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, The Sun reported Thursday.

Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams and Wyclef Jean are expected to contribute to the single, as are former talent show stars Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis.

“I wanted to do something for Haiti so when I had calls from The Sun and the Prime Minister asking if I would get involved I agreed immediately,” the exiting American Idol judge confirmed at last night’s National TV Awards in London. “We are going to do a single. We only made the decision today. I have got to get it together in 48 hours.”

The song is being released in conjunction with The Sun’s Helping Haiti campaign.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate Viewsonic’s new Android tablet while we can, before it gets crushed in the tidal wave of coverage that a certain other tablet’s debut will get next week. And it’s got some things worth appreciating!

The VTablet 101 will come equipped with Tegra T20 graphics, a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, an 8.9-inch (1024×800) display, a front camera, and 4GB of flash storage. You can also make phone calls from it with Bluetooth hooked up. It has Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, though the latter only through an external modem, and will be available for $441 whenever it ends up being released. Android tablets are bound to get it right at some point, right? Aren’t they?

Okay, okay, you can all go back to your breathless iSlate iPad Apple tablet anticipation now. [Cloned in China via Engadget]

Most of you who watch late night talk shows probably know the whole deal currently going on with The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and The Jay Leno Show (we’re not going to get into details). In an effort to anger NBC as much as he can before he leaves, Conan O’Brien is trying to put together little comedy skits that aren’t particularly funny, but ones that are really really expensive.

Last night, he added a new character to his show – a Bugatti Veyron dressed up as a mouse. To make matters worse, the Veyron mouse’s theme song was the original master recording of The Rolling Stone’s classic “Satisfaction.”

The whole skit apparently had price tag of $1.5 million. Gotta love Conan.

Hit the jump for the video.

– By: Omar Rana

Filed under: Hatchback, Fiat, UK

In case British motorists were left with any doubt that the Fiat 500 is targeted mainly at hairdressers and the Sex and the City crowd, Fiat UK has launched the special edition you see here.

Called, appropriately enough, the Fiat 500 Pink, the special retro-mini is, well… decked out in pink. Nothing much more about it than that, really. It’s based on the 1.2 Lounge trim level, and comes with start-stop engine management, a sunroof, a black interior (complimented by the same shade of Pepto as the exterior) and some special badges here and there.

Sorta like the Barbie edition then, only without the Barbie branding. A far cry from an Abarth it may be, but all in all it’s not a bad value, packing £1,500 worth of optional extras for only a £1,000 premium. Details in the press release after the jump.

[Source: Fiat UK]

Continue reading It’s a Barbie World: Fiat UK launches special-edition 500 Pink

It’s a Barbie World: Fiat UK launches special-edition 500 Pink originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Save Duckie!! Two and a Half Men actor Jon Cryer believes his ex-wife hired a hitman to kill him.

Last Friday, production on the CBS series had to be sent down after an unidentified party made a death threat against Cryer. The cast was later able to resume taping — but did so without the usual presence of a studio audience. The 44-year-old star and his former spouse Sarah Trigger have been embroiled in a bitter custody fight over their son, Charlie Austin. The legal wrangling has turned particularly ugly in recent months — Jon’s convinced there’s now a mark on his head.

Cryer, who stars in the hit sitcom with accused batterer Charlie Sheen, alerted authorities of his suspicions last Friday, and sources tell TMZ.com that the FBI has been investigating the allegation for the past week.

The FBI declined to comment but sources say the agency has no suspects.

from olympicresistance, 19 January 2010: “As the Olympics approach, American and Canadian Border Services Agencies (Homeland Security and CBSA) have teamed up to tighten what they call “security,” particularly along the BC/Washington border. This means not only an increased level of militarization at border crossings, but also an intensification in the profiling of “suspicious persons.” Border agencies are working hard to expand their range of targets from migrants, people of colour and indigenous people, to political dissidents at large…” more

As you have gotten used to by know, we here at autoevolution write just about everything even remotely connected to the automotive world. That includes, at times, writing about some really unpleasant (even nasty) things, like the piece here. As you read in the title, this little writing is about garbage or, to be more precise, the tools which make garbage magically disappear from sight: garbage trucks.

Oddly as it may seem, garbage trucks have quite a reputation. While madly googling "g… (read more)

Now this is one treasure stash that Nate and Sully would definitely put on their hitlist. Uncharted 2 is about to get even more awesome as Japan says hello to a big DLC schedule and a fancy

Box.net acquired a young company last October called Increo Solutions. The features that this young company provided allow for viewing content of most any file and the ability to share and embed files across the Web.

Today, Box.net is announcing the integration of these features. Available today is the ability to upload and view most any file inside the Box.net environment. This is a feature similar to what is provided by Google Docs.

What appears to be a bit different is the embedded viewer, which allows people to share and embed all types of files anywhere on the Web.That feature will be available over the next few weeks.

Sponsor

The experience for the new service is pretty smooth. The viewer loads nicely. You can see all the files, much like you would in Google Docs.

We’re curious about the ability to embed files anywhere on any web site. It seems like we are seeing the next generation of the extranet, where files and documents can be shared in a player that people can access online.

This can be helpful as most anyone can access online documents. But to download them poses issues for the enterprise and end user.

The enterprise does not always want its documents to be downloaded. Often, the person viewing the document would prefer just to view it online.

The workforce is changing. More people are working at home. Smartphones make it easier to get to documents, email and all the productivity and collaboration applications available to us. At IBM’s Lotusphere conference, we talked to one senior IT executive who said that collaboration applications are a necessity as about 10 percent of its 380,000 employees now work at home.

And that’s the value and huge potential for services such Box.net, Google Docs and the any other number of offerings from both enterprise collaboration companies and enterprise content management providers.

The people at Box.net have cleverly coined a new phrase for this new hybrid environment that allows for content storage and collaboration. They call it “Cloud Content Management.” It’s jargon for sure. We’re getting to that point where buzz word bingo can make you go nuts if you have to endure it for three days at a conference.

But for now, it seems to work.

Discuss

Everyone knows about China’s population problem, but here’s another angle.

In a society that promotes communities of extended family to care for its elders, the sibling-less offspring of the One Child Policy are facing a crippling burden. Which means that the country’s future taxpayers are at a severe disadvantage.

This criticism is one of many that are emerging as the plan enters its 30th year, according to Caing.

Other challenges of the 4-2-1 program are the threat of declining population and a dramatic reduction to the labor force — as the population between 20 and 24 years of age may drop from 125 million in 2010 to 68 million in 2020.

On the other hand, China has no kind of infrastructure to deal with unchecked population growth, so it’s a rock and hard place scenario for the new superpower.

Read more challenges to 4-2-1 at Caing.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China GDP +10.7%
• China: Here’s 10 Ways We’re Kicking The World’s Ass Right Now
• Here’s How China Came To Kick The World’s Ass, And Dominate The Global Rare Earth Metals Industry

RM Auctions revealed that a rare example of Ferrari 400 Superamerica, one of only six SWB examples coachbuilt by Pininfarina, is set to go under the hammer in Monaco on May 1, 2010. The Sporting Classics of Monaco auction will offer 80 of the world’s finest motor cars, among which there will also be the aforementioned 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica Cabriolet Pininfarina.

During the model’s lifetime, only 46 examples were built, with only six being short wheelbase convertibles. The car is the … (read more)

Budding US-based Ghanaian fitness and sports model, Evans Amoako is committed to working hard, staying in shape and becoming one of the best fitness models out of Africa. Born in Ghana, Evans was always very passionate about sports. It is therefore no surprise that at age 24 he has been involved in college cross-country, track & field as well as soccer. He has been working out for nine years with dreams of becoming a fitness and sports model, drawing inspiration from fellow models, Obi Obadike and Sebastian Siegel.

Evans Amoako

His love for fitness and sports began during his school years in Hawidu Agogo back in Ghana, where he started playing neighborhood football matches. His skills made him very popular and his physical education teacher took a special interest in him. Evans soon joined the school soccer team and made a little magic until he moved to the United States at the age of 12 years.

In Houston, Texas he attended Fondren Middle School where he joined the soccer team and, at age 13, won the Most Valuable Player Award. When he began high school at Westbury, he played for a year and quit because he noticed that soccer wasn’t given as much attention as it was back home in Ghana. He decided to join cross-country and the track & field team instead. It was on the track team that he developed his commitment to hard work, dedication and discipline.

“Because I wanted to be the best at Westbury School, I woke up at 4 a.m to practice before I went to school. People began to notice me so I got more disciplined and dedicated; I was running 10 miles and doing 600 push-ups a day and spending one hour at the gym”, comments Evans. Due to such determination, his teammates named him ‘The Machine’.

Jamati Online got in touch with ‘The Machine’ to find out more about sports and fitness models, his aspirations as well as some quality tips to stay in shape and live a healthy life generally.

Jamati: What exactly does a sports and fitness model do?

Sports and fitness models can be used for all types of jobs like fitness magazine, sports TV commercials, sports advertising; and general TV commercials, pop videos, film, theatre, advertising. They are the kids that usually work for companies like Nike, Adidas, and Under Armor. Basically, you have to stay on your game and be in top physical condition all year round to be a sports and fitness model.

Jamati: How long have you been doing it?

I have been doing fitness and sports modeling for about 6 months. I’m still new to the game. I’m trying to get my name out there so companies can notices me. In this short period some of my highlights including winning second position as fitness model in my first competition, Fame USA in Houston, Texas. I also did some few sports stock photos ad and some locate ad. My biggest accomplishment is the people all over the world that I have inspired to start exercising, and that lot to me.

Jamati: Have you modeled for any sports company?

Since I started, I have not gotten any opportunity to work for any company as fitness and sports model. I am currently seeking agency representation that will allow me to work in the commercial print field as well as TV and web advertising. Still very new to the industry so I pray that one day, a company or agency gives me an opportunity to work with them.

Evans Amoako

Jamati: What else do you do beside modeling?

I just started my own business called Body Fitness. Body Fitness principally runs a strengthening and conditioning program for people of all shapes and sizes. I educate, motivate and support my clients with a positive attitude in a relaxed atmosphere throughout the entire program. Body Fitness is dedicated to serving my clients and providing them with the motivation to stay fit, have fun, and further their health and fitness education.

Jamati: What is a routine day like for you?

I wake up early in the morning at about 5 a.m and I go for 4 miles and hit the gym for 2 hours. After the workout I will get ready to train my clients. When I get home from work I go to the gym and spend one hour doing 500 push ups and 500 sit ups.

Jamati: How do you stay fit all year round?

Staying fit requires a lot of hard work and commitment. I work out 5 days a week. I’m very disciplined when it comes to nutrition because food plays a very important part for me to stay in top shape. It is about eating healthy as well. My meals include low calories, low fat, lots of vegetables and fruits, fiber and lean protein and I drink plenty of water. Sleep and rest is another vital aspect for me in staying fit and healthy so I make sure that I get 8 hours of sleep everyday. I stay in shape all year round with 1 to 3% body fat. I always want to make sure that am ready for a photo shoot. One thing I don’t do is protein shakes or supplements; I’m 100% all natural.

Jamati: what benefits have you gained from staying fit?

Staying in shape has prevented me from getting all kind of sicknesses. For me, taking care of my body gives me higher self-esteem which leads me to feel good physically and mentally. Most importantly, my goal as a fitness and sports model is to inspire others to stay in shape and lead a healthy lifestyle. The benefits are endless. Being fit is just a great way to live your life.

Jamati: what kind of food do your recommend for staying fit?

The quote I go by when it come to healthy food is: “Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

1) Brown Rice, 2) Oatmeal, 3) Salad and Vegetables, 4) Baked Chicken, 5) fish

Jamati what are some 5 basic exercises to do to stay in shape?

1) Push ups, 2) Abdominal exercises, 3) Running or Walking, 4) Sports, 5) Maintain a healthy diet

Jamati: what are some quick  dos and don’ts in staying healthy?

Do’s

Try to exercise at least 4 to 5 times per week, drink plenty of water, eat a healthy diet, and get enough sleep.

Don’t’s

No fried food, no smoking, no alcohol.

At the 2010 Chicago Auto Show next month, Kia will unveil a new concept called Ray (teased above), a study that looks into the plug-in future of the automaker.

“Styled by the team at Kia Design Centre America, the Kia Ray project was undertaken to demonstrate how Kia’s evolving design direction would be applied in the packaging of a plug-in hybrid vehicle,” Kia said in a statement. ‘The actual car will form the centre-piece of the Kia Motors America display at Chicago and the vehicle will contribute to Kia’s on-going development of alternative-fuel vehicles.”

Kia said that it has already “pioneered potentially real-life fuel cell vehicles and has working prototypes operating in California and Korea.” It also has various test-hybrid vehicles providing feedback in various locations around the world and plans to commercialize Liquefied Petroleum Gas hybrid vehicles in Korea within the next 12 months.

Kia Ray Concept:

– By: Kap Shah

Last night it seemed like a surprise when the WSJ reported that Obama was about to wage war on Wall Street with new limitations on bank size, leverage, and prop trading.

But it wasn’t a surprise to everyone!

Regional banks made a monster move yesterday — defying the market selloff — and though it was hard to explain at the time, in retrospect it makes absolutely perfect sense.

A crackdown on big, conglomerate financial institutions benefits smaller, plain-vanilla banks, and boring trust companies.

Here, take a look at the state of financials as of 2:00 yesterday. You’ll notice that all the winners are winners of today’s news:

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Tim Geithner: Now Officially A Lame Duck Until November 3, 2010
• Is The New Battle Against Wall Street Why Elizabeth Warren Met With David Axelrod Today?
• Obama’s Assault On Wall Street Begins: New Limits On Size, Leverage, And Prop Trading Coming

The pause and play radio introduced by GM in 2008 allows drivers (and passengers, of course) to record live transmissions and listen to them later.

GM’s pause and play radio is integrated in the high navigation radio in the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX and, of course, on the Cadillac CTS Jukebox and Navigation radio, on which it made its world premiere in 2008. The feature is also on its way to the Buick Regal and the Chevrolet Cruze.

In a similar way th… (read more)