Kaufman Bros. analyst Aaron Kessler upgraded his rating on Internet search engine giant Yahoo to buy from hold Friday morning.
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Filed under: Motorsports, Peugeot
Motorsports of late have been gripped by the crossover of racing drivers from one discipline to another, but one of the most established migrations in motor racing has always been between Formula One and Le Mans. The great (but unrelated) Hills – Phil and Graham – both won the F1 championship and Le Mans, but none have done so since Jochen Rindt in 1970. Lately, Peugeot especially has been seeking F1 drivers to pilot its 908 HDi against the venerable Audis at the famous 24-hour race, but that could step up a notch if the latest rumors from France hold any Evian.
Peugeot has registered three factory works cars to challenge Le Mans next year, plus one mystery car that has only been listed as a privateer entry. According to the latest reports, that entry could be fielded by Red Bull. The energy drink company has one of the most comprehensive networks of racing talent under its wings, but what’s catching the most attention is three of its most prominent drivers.
Six-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, whose Citroen C4 rally car is sponsored by Red Bull, has raced Le Mans previously, and has been linked to a return to the endurance race. 2007 Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen will likewise be driving next year in a Red Bull-sponsored C4 fielded by Citroen (Peugeot’s sister company). Finally, David Coulthard was largely responsible for Red Bull’s foray into F1, and though retired from actively racing, remains an advisor and test driver for the team.
While these rumors could prove nothing more than exactly that, if Red Bull were to bring these three talents to La Sarthe, they would surely be a force to be reckoned with.
Gallery: Peugeot 908 HDi
[Source: AUTOhebdo via Le Blog Auto and Axis of Oversteer]
REPORT: Red Bull to place Raikkonen, Loeb and Coulthard in Peugeot 908 HDi at Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s no secret that many book publishers are somewhat uncomfortable with the ebook market, fearing that it will cannibalize the existing book market, with lower expected prices or (gasp!) piracy. Still, you would think they would know better than to repeat the mistakes of other industries. Copycense alerts us to the news that some ebook publishers are copying the movie studios with their obsession with windowed releases and are delaying the release of ebooks by as much as four months after the release of the hardcover book. Amazon’s response to the news sums up why this is a huge mistake:
“Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can’t get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all.”
Or they might just get an unauthorized digital copy. Hard to understand businesses that think it’s reasonable to not offer customers what they want (especially when they’re willing to pay for it).
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America’s weaker dollar has begun hollowing out Germany’s manufacturing industry.
German-made machine tools, jet parts, steel, and even autos are no longer cost competitive vs. American manufacturing these days.
Der Spiegel: Workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen outside Munich aren’t usually the rebellious types. They are proud of their jobs and of the cars they build. But last Wednesday workers at the plant were nothing but angry.
After their foremen had informed them, shortly before 10 a.m., that the next generation of the company’s C-Class model series will no longer be produced in Sindelfingen, they walked out of the factory buildings en masse and headed for Building 1, where plant management has its offices. But the plant manager didn’t have the courage to face his employees, and even Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche chose to have a member of his staff inform them why assembly of the C-Class is being shifted to the company’s US plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The employees were left with anger and a sense of helplessness. They had already prevented the outsourcing of production twice in the past by agreeing to do without breaks and supplementary benefits to bring down labor costs. But this time management wasn’t even willing to discuss cost savings at the German plant. It was already clear that employees couldn’t possibly take a pay cut large enough to offset the decline of the dollar.
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Courtesy of FT Alphaville, this may be your chart of the week, as the yield curve is steeper than it’s been at anytime since 1980, according to Bloomberg.
The pessimistic interpretation: the short end is near zero due to the flight-to-safety, and the long end is “elevated” (though not that high) due to debt fears.
The optimistic interpretation: the short end is near zero due to end of the year hedging issues that don’t have anything to do with the flight-to-safety and the long end isn’t that elevated.
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Music education advocate John Benham explains to MENC staff the financial ramifications of teacher and student music education statistics he collected for Fairfax County, Virginia.
John L. Benham is an enthusiastic advocate for music education programs — so much so that he criss-crosses the United States, helping music educator and parent groups present a strong case to school officials that keeping school music programs operating is fiscally responsible.
Benham was on one such mission the week of December 7. He traveled to Fairfax County, Virginia, to help the Fairfax Arts Coalition for Education (FACE) prepare a presentation for the Fairfax County School Board. According to FACE, "The [Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)] Elementary Band and String programs were named in a Strawman Poll as possible cuts to this year’s FCPS budget. This cut would entirely eliminate the elementary band and strings programs, and consequently would destroy band and strings on all levels in Fairfax County." Benham visited MENC at the National Center for Music Education (located in Fairfax County’s Reston) and previewed for the MENC staff the case he had built using statistics on teacher hours and student involvement. He was accompanied by MENC member Keith Taylor, a K-12 music specialist for the Fairfax County school system.
Benham discussed the Fairfax County situation in particular, but he suggested any music educator look at the big picture as budget cuts threaten school music programs. In addition to lost teacher jobs, and the fact that the students who no longer have music programs have to be taught something by someone else, lack of music programs means students don’t buy or rent instruments locally, causing a loss of potential tax revenue. Government officials understand that kind of reasoning, he said.
Benham also said that "a financial crisis always exposes an educational philosophy." Challenging the idea that cutting a music program saves money — by showing that it doesn’t in the long run — uncovers what is really important to the decision-makers. "Do they really care about the kids, or is it just numbers to them?"
"Get your [music] boosters involved. You have to convince them this is just as important than all of the fundraising they do," Benham advised.
He said he suggests that concerned citizens also let students help make the case. Students can attract publicity for the cause in creative ways. He mentioned band students who marched down the street holding radios blaring marches by John Phillip Sousa. At a school board meeting, a student played "Taps" to protest the potential demise of his music program.
In addition, said Benham, it’s imperative that music teachers themselves "stick together" when programs are under fire, and they must remember that cuts to one part of school music ultimately affect them all.
President of Music in World Cultures, Inc., Benham consults as an advocate for music programs throughout the United States and the world. He is also director of graduate studies in music at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he developed a masters of arts degree in Ethnomusicology. Benham is a Lowell Mason Fellow, recognized by MENC for his advocacy on behalf of music education.
Advocacy Resource:
The "Make Your Case" database, powered by SupportMusic.com, will help you build a case for your music program when it’s threatened.
—Roz Fehr, December 10, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education
A lot of the Final Fantasy XIII vids that we’ve looked at for the past year have bits and pieces recycled from older ones. This new TV spot may be short, but it’s dense with new clips
Many years ago, some jerk smashed in the rear quarter panel of yours truly’s 1985 Pontiac Parisienne Safari with a hockey stick. How do we know they used a hockey stick? Because we found the hockey stick in the back of the Pontiac. At that point in time, the poor Parisienne was only running on seven cylinders (we know that because of a compression test) and got parked for the rainy season. Our girlfriend at time was concerned that our weather-sealing method wasn’t very sound. But what do girls know about Glad bags and duct tape?
It then rained from November to March without pause. When we finally decided to open the engine up come Spring, we found mushrooms — actual mushrooms — growing all over the Pontiac’s expansive carpeting. And before you ask, no, we didn’t eat the mushrooms.
We mention all this because according to Metro UK, a Chinese trucker named Sing Li lost his windshield, replaced it with cardboard and then drove 500 miles with his head sticking out the window. Trouble is, by the time the police pulled him over, his head had turned blue and one of his eyes had frozen shut. Says the trucker in his defense, “I didn’t want to fall behind in my delivery schedule and I couldn’t afford a repair.” Turns out that defense didn’t work, and a court took his license. Maybe he should have tried Glad bags?
[Source: Metro.co.uk]
PSA: Cardboard is probably not the best replacement material for your rig’s windshield originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Twitter may not be growing too much in the US lately, in fact its user base even shrank in October, but it’s doing alright internationally, and this without having a localized version in any other language, besides Japan, until very recently. Now though, Twitter has started focusing more on its international users and has released versions of the site in Spanish and French. The most recent addition is Italian which is now the fifth supported language.
“We’re excited because today with the launch of the Italian version of our site becomes even more a platform for global communication. As always, we wish to thank all the translators who have participated in the project and who have shown us their skills,” Twitter announced, in Italian of course, which Google Translate did a surprisingly good job at making sense of.
“Now that the conversations on Twitter are enriched with increasingly diverse viewpoints on a global level, the network information will continue to grow in every nook and crevice of the planet. More events will be shared more knowledge and awareness will spread and the millions of people that feed Twitter will affect millions more people with their tweet,” Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson added.
There’s not too much to the update, if you want to change your language to Ita… (read more)
The iPhone, unlike the HTC Imagio, is not evolved enough to have a kick stand, resulting in developments such as the above foldable stand that will fit easily in your wallet also.
It will however probably work perfectly well for your HTC HD2.
The GoGostand can be purchased here for $4.99 with free shipping.
Via PDA.PL
Filed under: Motorsports, Etc.
Between the Carrera and the Monaco, TAG Heuer has plenty to offer anyone in the market for a classic driver’s watch. But if you’re having some trouble deciding between the two, the Swiss watchmaker has announced the re-release of the classic Silverstone Chronograph.
Originally introduced back in 1974, the Silverstone is inspired by the British circuit by the same name, with a rounded-square case inspired by the track’s curves. It featured the first automatic chronograph movement, and earned a following all its own.
The re-release will be available with a brown or blue face with coordinating perforated alligator leather strap, and bears the classic Heuer logo before TAG took over. Only 1,500 examples of the re-issue will be released, with a price tag of approximately $6,500 apiece.
At the same time, TAG Heuer has announced a renewal of its partnership with the McLaren team that launched twenty-five years ago, marking it one of the longest-standing sponsorships in the sport’s history. Follow the jump for press releases on both developments.
Gallery: TAG Heuer Silverstone Chronograph
[Source: TAG Heuer]
Continue reading TAG Heuer re-issues the Silverstone Chronograph, renews McLaren sponsorship
TAG Heuer re-issues the Silverstone Chronograph, renews McLaren sponsorship originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Hoy fui a dar con Abduction! un excelente plugin para firefox que nos da la posibilidad de guardar una pagina completa o una parte de una pagina en formato png.
Una vez que instalamos el plugin nos aparece en el menú “Archivo” la siguiente opción “Save Page As Image” que al activarla nos abre un cuadro de selección traslucido para así poder decirle al plugin que parte de la web queremos guardar, tal cual lo ven en la siguiente imagen..
Una vez seleccionado, en la esquina superior derecha nos aperecera la opción de guardar la imagen..
Lo bueno del cuadro de selección es que nos permite seleccionar cualquier parte de la web que queramos de punta a punta como en la siguiente imagen..
Lo malo es que no permite guardar en otro formato que no sea png, motivo por el cual en la imagen anterior tuve que abrir otro editor para optimizar un poco la imagen y cambiar de formato.
Via | howtogeek
FIMAT presents a brand new grinding machine for CV Joint cage windows.
After the new requirement of grinding cages with 4 up to 12 windows, even with different shapes on the same cage, FIMAT has designed a new grinder with 4 independent spindles (each driven by a controlled axis) and adjustable according to the type of cage to machine.
The new grinder will be able to machine cages with:
* 4 windows in 1 step (4 at once)
* 6 windows in 2 step (3 at once)
* 8 windows in 2 step (4 at once)
* 10 windows in 5 step (2 at once)
* 12 windows in 3 step (4 at once)
with cycle times ranging from 12 to 45 seconds according to the cage type.
As well as 4 spindle axes, 1 controlled axis is used for the cage vertical position and 1 rotational axis for oscillation and window pitch.
Moreover, the automation for workpart loading/unloading has been inproved by implementing a 3 axes gantry, also allowing a more compact and efficient machine layout.
Two main features of the standard machines have been kept: workpart automatic positioning and the simultaneous dressing of the 4 wheels by a motorized diamond roll.
The whole system is controlled by a Siemens 840D SL NC.
Contact us for further information.
The South African government has released fresh statistics that dovetail nicely with a current topic of fascination — peak gold, the ongoing and permanent decline of global gold production.
South Africa is the world’s #1 gold producer, but its production of gold, and as this data shows all minerals, has been on the decline for some time.
From the perspective of world mineral values, this would seem to augur tigher supplies (and higher prices?) going forward, but beyond that it would also appear to be a major headwind for South Africa — one of Africa’s brightest lights going forward.
And here’s the visual for total mining
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Some strong comments from an analyst at UK Standard Bank (via Bloomberg)
“We question the ability of countries like Ireland and Greece to grow out of the current crisis,” Steve Barrow, head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy in London, wrote in a note today. “With interest-rate cuts, exchange-rate depreciation and significant fiscal support all off limits for these countries, it seems likely that bailouts, or even pullouts from EMU, are likely” before the end of 2010, he said.
If this really does happen — the first departures from the European Monetary Union since its inception — it’s hard to see that not being the chief economic story of the year. After all, there was once talk about the euro being a replacement for the dollar, and really, we haven’t heard anyone explain how this would work.
If people were worried about Dubai ripple effects, the effect of this would be way, way bigger.
(via @_alea)
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Google is always updating the satellite imagery in Maps and Earth to provide its users with updated or better quality images. This comes in handy in a lot of cases, so it’s obvious why the company is investing so much in acquiring the imagery. If it were only that Google would be like any other company, but it also does things that most companies don’t and that don’t really have a clear financial incentive behind them. Google Earth has added Mars as a destination for a while now, and Google has just updated some of the imagery and also added some new information on several locations.
“The updates are from the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. With these updates, nearly half of the martian surface is covered by imagery having a nominal resolution of 25 meters per pixel. As such, there are many exciting, newly-visible surface features to see,” Eric Kolb, a Googler with a very nice sounding title, geo data strategist, wrote.
You can see the new data either in the embedded Google Earth gadget, if you’re on Windows or Mac, as there isn’t an Earth plugin for Linux yet, or you can download the KML file provided and view it in the desktop version of Google Earth. The new images are highlighted with a red frame while the 3D terrain data updated is marked with a … (read more)
Jim Rogers has been doing the media rounds lately, and yesterday evening he showed up on CNBC talking to Maria Bartiromo.
He remains — not surprisingly at all — bullish on gold and silver.
CNBC: With central banks now buying gold and many people worried about paper money, gold will be a great investment over the next decade and relatively few people are invested in it, he said.
At a speech in Prague Rogers surveyed about 300 people, including big money managers, and 76 percent had never owned gold, he said.
“So when you say it’s a bubble … nobody owns gold yet,” Rogers said.
Still, silver is preferable, with silver 70 percent off its all-time high and gold near it’s all-time high, he said.
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El primera netbook de Acer basado en la próxima generación de procesadores Atom de intel asoma cabeza.
El fabricante aún no ha anunciado oficialmente al Aspire One 532H, pero la netbook ya aparece en el sitio de soporte de la compañía.
La maquina esta dotada de un procesador Intel Atom N450, gráficos integrados GMA 3150, 1GB de ram y una pantalla LED retroiluminada de 10 pulgadas a 1280 x 720 pixeles; con un precio estimado de 350 dolares..
El N450 es el primer procesador en integrar en el mismo encapsulado el chip gráfico junto al controlador de memoria DDR2 y el CPU. Y al parecer la Acer va a ser una de las primeras en usarlo..
La fecha de lanzamiento de la Aspire One 532H seguro coincidirá con el lanzamiento del Atom N450 el 10 de enero de 2010.
Via | laptopadvisor
It was rumored recently that some politicians were going to investigate Wikileaks for some leaked documents that were posted there. The details weren’t clear, and I was hoping something was lost in the translation, and they meant that the politicians would be investigating the leaks not the site Wikileaks for posting it. No such luck apparently. Three Congressional Reps have apparently asked Homeland Security what can be done about sites that post leaked documents, including not just Wikileaks, but Cryptome as well. In the letter to Homeland Security, they basically suggest that if needed, they’ll put forth legislation that would make reposting such content illegal, which could create one hell of a First Amendment legal battle at some point. Either way, these politicians are focused on the wrong things. The problems aren’t these sites, which are just service providers for the information. The problems are the leaks of info themselves.
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Strong, no-nonsense, independent Kanna takes center stage again in volume 06 (that’s her in color on the cover), in a world shrouded by the choking control of the all-powerful Friends. When bumbling Detective Chono comes looking for drag queen Britney, Kanna know she’s got to find her friend before the dirty cops get to her. Together with fellow queen Mariah, Kanna does everything she can to protect Britney, especially when the threesome discover a horrific plot involving an impending Papal visit. Chono desperately wants to help – hoping to become a hero like his late grandfather who was erased for knowing too much – but wishing doesn’t always make it so, especially if you’re a bit of a gullible young fool …
Meanwhile, manga artist Kakuta whose only crime is … well … just drawing comics … lands in the infamous Umihotaru (with great irony, the pastoral name means ‘firefly of the sea’) Prison, home to “the most dangerous criminals in the country … who have committed the most heinous crimes.” Bewildered and lost, Kakuta, now just “1498,” ends up in solitary confinement for a minor infraction, where he comes to face-to-face with “the monster” who bears the number 3 … could he actually be a divine savior? Time is running out. Kanna is the final hope … and she’s facing down some major trouble …
The latest volume is over way too soon because you won’t be able to put it down … alas, alas, the next installment isn’t due out until February!
To check out the previous volumes of 20th Century Boys, click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2009 (United States)
20 SEIKI SHONEN © Naoki Urasawa/Studio Nuts
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.
