Author: Serkadis

Tower Light S.r.l. is a young and dynamic factory European leader in the production of lighting towers and pumps. Tower Light S.r.l. is able to develop in autonomy all the structures studying every component, planning and realizing it inside, with the most modern robotized and numerically controlled machinery.
To guarantee to our clients an extreme quality products, every lighting towers and pumps are tested singulary and equipped of all necessary documentation for use it in autonomy.

Tower Light S.r.l. has always believed in the quality of own lighting towers and pumps and in the correct management of all the working phases.
In 2002, Tower Light S.r.l. has obteined the Certification of Quality ISO 9001:2000 and in 2004 of the VISION 2000

The range of Tower Light lighting towers is divided as follows:
Lighting towers with manual raising
Lighting towers with hydraulic raising
Lighting towers with halogen floodlights
Lighting towers with metal halide floodlights
Lighting towers indipendent feeded by external source
Lighting towers coupled with generating set
Lighting towers studied for building, army, civil protection, shows, event application, etc.

Thanks to experince of three generations pump’s building, Tower Light ‘s range is composed by:
Self priming pumps
Vacuum assisted pumps
Electric pumps
Diaphragm self priming pumps
Electric submersible pumps

Filed under: Hybrid, Hatchback, Chevrolet, GM, Electric, Quick Spin

Three years ago this December we first walked into a Manhattan conference room for a background briefing on a new concept being developed by General Motors for the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. Earlier that year, the release of a documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car made the then largest automaker in the world the subject of some well deserved criticism for its handling of the end of the EV1 program. The movie and announcement of the all-electric Tesla Roadster lit a fire under GM to get back into the plug-in electric vehicle game.

What we saw that day in NYC was a description of a new powertrain architecture then dubbed E-Flex. GM folk on hand that day included vehicle line executive Tony Posawatz and former VP for environmental affairs Beth Lowery. They explained that among the biggest lessons learned from the EV1 program were that range anxiety and lack of practicality would make a car like EV1 nearly impossible to sell in the mass market. The engineers went back to the drawing board to address those issues and came up with the extended range electric vehicle, or ER-EV. The Volt concept was approved for production mere months after it was revealed at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. At this week’s LA Auto Show, GM is publicly showing the production intent version of the Volt. Before that, however, we were among the first to drive a Volt with its range extender running. Read all about it after the jump.

Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: 2011 Chevrolet Volt charges toward production

Quick Spin: 2011 Chevrolet Volt charges toward production originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smart Colon Cleanse is a diet pill that claims it will do the following:

“Flatten Your Stomach
Lose up to 30 Pounds
Decrease Gas and Bloating
Improve Your Skin Quality
Look and Feel Great” (website).

This Smart Colon Cleanse review will explain the ins and outs of this product and help you determine if Smart Colon Cleanse is the product for you.

What ingredients are in Smart Colon Cleanse?

This is a great question. We contacted customer service with Smart Colon Cleanse to find out (since they do not list the ingredients on their website). There is a “live chat” on the Smart Colon Cleanse website that allows potential customers to ask questions. When we asked for an ingredient list, we received the following message:

“Smart Colon Cleanse contains the most powerful and effective ingredients for internal cleansing available anywhere on the market today. Smart Colon Cleanse will help you to rid your body of all that excess buildup in your digestive tract and prevent future buildup from occurring.”

When we asked where we could see an ingredient list they gave us the same information. Obviously our “live chat” was with a computer.

The only way to learn what the ingredients are is to purchase Smart Colon Cleanse.

What are the details with the Smart Colon Cleanse Free Trial?

Smart Colon Cleanse offers a 14 day free trial. If you choose to cancel your free trial before the 14 days are up, return the unused portion and you will not be charged. Otherwise you will be enrolled in autoship (they automatically send you more pills each month and charge your credit card for it).

How much does Smart Colon Cleanse Cost

The cost of Smart Colon Cleanse is $84.71 per month. Considering the company is unwilling to reveal what ingredients are contained in Smart Colon Cleanse, there is no way of knowing what effect it will have on weight loss or what the potential side effects might be. This Smart Colon Cleanse review finds that $84.71 is far too expensive for this product. If you really want to lose weight, you can find a much less expensive option that is truthful about the ingredients it contains. Choose a product that contains proven ingredients in the necessary amounts.

Is Smart Colon Cleanse Really Endorsed By Celebrities?

The Smart Colon Cleanse website contains a clip of Katie Couric talking about colon cancer and how to increase colon health. However, there is no mention of Smart Colon Cleanse in the clip. Therefore, while some celebrities are endorsing awareness and good health, there is no specific celebrity endorsement of Smart Colon Cleanse.

How does Smart Colon Cleanse Work?

Because there is no ingredient list on the Smart Colon Cleanse website, we cannot answer this question for sure. However, most other “cleansing” products contain ingredients that will merely keep you on the toilet for several days.

Smart Colon Cleanse Conclusion

This Smart Colon Cleanse review finds Smart Colon Cleanse diet pills are not worth your time or money. There is no ingredient list, so you can’t be sure of what you are putting into your body. Do yourself a favor and choose a product that is honest with the ingredients it contains, one with proven ingredients included in the necessary amounts.

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Budget, Sedan, Europe, Hatchback, Ford, Canada

Did our friends in the great, frostbitten north just jump the gun by half a week and reveal the 2011 North American Ford Fiesta ahead of its upcoming LA Auto Show debut? Boy we kinda hope not. Well, specifically, we hope the the little five-door fire cracker we’ve come to know and love (largely thanks to the well-executed Fiesta Movement) doesn’t get this new grille. It’s by no means a deal breaker, but it’s just not as uncluttered and sharp looking as the Euro-Fiesta’s simple face. Meanwhile, the Fiesta sedan gets FoMoCo’s three-bar grille up front, and resembles a Yaris sedan everywhere else.

There are also some enormous chrome scoops/intakes fore of the front wheels where the fog lamps on the Euro cars used to reside. Purpose? No idea, but we have to imagine that fog lamps would have served a more purposeful purpose. We have to say that we hope the loss of the fog lamps isn’t an indication that the Fiesta is getting decontented for our market.

One of the reasons (admittedly of many) that we fell so head over heals for the Fiesta is that it provided big car sophistication in a little car package. American car companies have for decades been of the mind set that if you opt to buy a small car, you should suffer (quite literally) the consequences. The Fiesta looked to be a break from that mentality. Hopefully it still is.

There is a weird sliver of history that provides a silver lining. There is a longstanding tradition of releasing slightly different models in Canada than we get here in the U.S. This always struck us as weird since half of Quebec runs across the border to buy cigarettes in Vermont every week. Anyhow, remember the Pontiac Parisienne – a Chevy badged as a Pontiac with fancy seats that helped make Pontiac the number three selling brand in Canada for decades. Here’s hoping we get the full Euro-Fiesta south of the 49th Parallel.

[Source: Autoblog Espanol via Google Translate]

U.S. Fiesta unveiled early by Ford Canada? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Rosenberg — who has been getting into fights with other pundits left and right — digs in and argues that what we’re really looking at is a depression.

MORE ON THE DEPRESSION 

Last week, we received some classic guffaws when we responded to whether
or not the recession has ended with this: “We’re not convinced, but even if it is
statistically over, the depression is ongoing”.  

We were reprimanded by former Fed Governor Mishkin for breeding “fear”. 
The eyes were rolling among the Squawk Box crew and we were told to tell
that to Mr. Market, who has rallied more than 60% from the March lows
(“artificial” lows, we were told off camera).  After all, Mr. Market is so adept at
calling the economy – like the peak in late 2007, literally weeks ahead of what
the polite economics crowd dubs “The Great Recession”; or how adept Mr.
Market was in calling the 2001 tech wreck; or the three failed attempts at
predicting recovery over the past two years.  Mr. Market’s ability at calling the
economy, is shall we say, a tad spotty. 

In fact, even with the massive amount of stimulus in modern history, all the
economy could do was muster up a 2.8% annualized growth rate in Q3.  If that
number stands, it will go down as just about the poorest bounce off a
recessionary environment on record.  History, by the way, shows that 80% of
the time, the opening quarter of the recovery ends up being a pretty good
predictor over the extent of the economic pickup we see in the year that
follows.  So, that near 5% GDP growth backdrop being projected by Mr. Market
right now looks to be more than just a tad dubious. 

Now, as for calling this a ‘depression’, it is an attempt at providing a reality
check to Wall Street research forecasts of a robust recovery.  Practically
everyone thought the worst was over in 1930 but all we were in at that time
was the classic phase 2 of the triple-waterfall — the “reflex rally” that comes
on the heels of the “initial sharp down” to only then be followed by the long
and drawn out decline to the fundamental low.  The Great Depression didn’t
even receive that label until 1934 and by then we were well over a year past

the lows in both real GDP and the stock market. 
But it was a treacherous environment for the rest of the decade and despite
seven years of huge stimulus — and resource-misallocation distortions from
the FDR New Deal — the unemployment rate still finished off the 1930s at
15%; the CPI was still deflating at a 2% annual rate; nominal GDP had still yet
to re-attain its 1929 peak; and the next secular bull market in equities did not
commence for another 15 years.  Income strategies worked best even after
the S&P 500 hit bottom; and gold doubled in Sterling terms.  Equity rallies
came … and they went.  Volatility reigned.  What goes around comes around.    

Currently, we have a situation that is not consistent with a plain-vanilla recession
but with a depression because depressions are associated with credit contraction
and asset deflation.  It is more than just about a mathematical contraction in GDP. 
In recessions, social change does not occur.  In depressions, they do.  Hence the
fact that in Halloween, the reason why sales-related items were so tepid was
because 30% of families made their own costumes.  

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Goldman: This Is What A Sub-Par Recovery Looks Like
• Saut: Ignore The Dollar, This Is Not The Market Top
• Why David Rosenberg Thinks Jim Paulsen Is An Embarrassing Perma-Bull

Alice Schroeder, Author, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (6 min.):

• The biggest surprise about Warren Buffett
• Schroeder: He’s almost like a kid
• Schroeder: He can’t handle any kind of volatility or people blowing up at him
• Buffett overcame a very rough childhood
• Alice’s falling out with Warren Buffett over the book
• Any signs of conspicuous consumption?  Any signs that Warren’s worth $38 billion?
• Schroeder: He collects businesses
• Judging Buffett’s bridge skills
• Read excerpts of The Snowball here >

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Alice Schroeder:
– Warren Buffett’s Secrets To Success
– How Warren Buffett Really Makes His Investment Decisions
– What’s Going To Happen To Berkshire Hathaway When Warren Buffett Departs

More Video: TBI Calendar Click HERE >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• It’s Hard To Make A Legal Living On Wall Street
• Why Is Warren Buffett Taking An $8 Billion, One Year Loan?

Google has started to roll out its upgraded search engine index Caffeine which is now live at one data center. Google announced that it would gradually introduce Caffeine to the main search engine after it closed down the sandbox which it set up for the project. There were no announcements at the time as when to expect the move to take place and, in fact, there haven’t been any announcement this time around either, but the company has confirmed that the roll-out is in progress.

The thing started with several people noticing changes in the search results rankings of their sites. The altered search results were coming from a single IP address which lead people to speculate that it could have something to do with Google’s upcoming search infrastructure update and that the company may be finally rolling it out. Turns out they were partially right, the results did indeed come from a data center running Caffeine, but Google is holding off on a wider release for the moment.

“So 209.85.225.103 does hit the Caffeine data center more often than other IP addresses, but it’s always been the plan that Caffeine would roll out at one data center (no more data centers will get Caffeine until at least January),” Google’s Matt Cutts explained.

“But I would avoid generalizing, at l… (read more)

By now, everyone and their cat knows gold is the hottest commodity on the planet.

EconomPic (via The Reformed Broker) has compiled an interesting chart of who is holding the most gold. And who happens to take the top position? None other than John Paulson and company:

Oh, and by the way: Paulson owns more gold than several major countries – combined.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Chinese Official: Dubai Crisis Is A Reminder To Keep Buying More Gold (GLD)
• U.S. Mint Runs Out of Gold Coins
• Paulson Starts A New Gold Fund (KGC, AU)

Published Nov. 27, 2009
Tri-City Herald – Arts in brief

Columbia Basin College’s choral and orchestra concert is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1 in the CBC theater. The concert features the CBC Concert Choir and Chamber Choir, both under the direction of Dave Cazier, and the CBC Orchestra, directed by Robert Burroughs.

The college’s jazz night starts at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 in the CBC theater and features the CBC jazz ensemble directed by Randy Hubbs and the jazz choral group Freeform directed by Dave Cazier.

Admission is free.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Filed under: Safety, Toyota

Last week Toyota publicly announced that it was recalling 3.8 million Avalon, Camry and Lexus ES 350 models on account of fears over unintended acceleration. The fix for Toyota’s sudden acceleration issue includes the reshaping and/or replacing of accelerator pedals, with replacement pedals reportedly arriving in April. As you’d probably guess, the massive recall has led to many customers calling dealers for additional info, but unfortunately dealers weren’t exactly prepared to respond.

Wards Automotive is reporting that Toyota didn’t inform its dealer body of the proposed changes, which apparently includes the reconfiguration of the floor of some models, before the announcement was made. The industry trade journal says that a Toyota spokesman told them that the severity of the situation meant there was no time to inform dealers first, though all dealers have been informed by now.

Wards spoke to a couple dealers who sound more than a little frustrated by the situation. Earl Stewart of Earl Stewart Toyota of North Palm Bay, FL reportedly called the situation “confusing” and “embarrassing,” adding that his dealership has been fixing floor mats the past few months without getting paid by Toyota for their work.

While we agree that Toyota was right in getting this information out to the public as quickly as possible, we’re surprised it didn’t first alert its dealer body. After all, the dealership is the public face of the company, and if customers call and dealers don’t have answers, it looks like the situation is anything but under control. The official recall notices for the Avalon, Camry and ES are expected to come by year end, while five other models, including the Prius, Tacoma, Tundra and Lexus IS 250/IS 350, will receive similar notices sometime in 2010.

[Source: Wards Automotive, sub. req’d]

REPORT: Toyota dealers caught off guard by pedal recall originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were saving up for a big splurge, this might be what you’ve been waiting for. Want to get started on that HD entertainment rig? Then you should…

This is being reported as the world’s first mini RC fuel cell helicopter to take flight, but that is debatable since in June 2008 I had previously talked about the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin, Germany creating an unmanned remote control mini helicopter powered by fuel cell.

But, nonetheless, the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) mini helicopter did take flight recently and performed better than expected. Now, I have talked about UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) which are basic fixed wing remote control airplanes powered by fuel cell many times over the past several years.

What makes RC hydrogen fuel cell helicopters unique is that they require more power for lift and maneuvering than do fixed wing aircraft. The mini FC helicopter was created by the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) where they took a helicopter that had previously run on lithium ion batters and swapped these out with a compressed hydrogen tank plus fuel cell (see the video on this same page).

The hydrogen tank was rated at 4,200 psi, the fuel cell at 1.75 kW and the mini helicopter is capable of carrying a 5 lb. payload. With a longer range and the capability of spending more time in the air, this would make such as aircraft ideal for military surveillance or police surveillance keeping friendly personal out of harms way while keeping track of enemy soldiers or criminals.

Like I had stated before this mini FC helicopter may also one day make it into the hobby marketplace just like battery operated versions that have already penetrated this market. The exception is that the fuel cell version will fly longer, at higher altitudes and with more payload than is possible with a traditional battery powered mini helicopter.

More good news for the economy:

Marketwatch: More businesses in the Chicago region were expanding in November, according to the Chicago purchasing managers index released Monday by the NAPM-Chicago. The business activity index rose to 56.1% in November from 54.2% in October. It’s the highest since August 2008. Readings over 50% indicate more firms said business is getting better than said it was worsening. The new orders index rose to 62.8% from 61.4%, an encouraging sign for future output and hiring. The employment index rose to 41.9% from 38.3%, indicating most firms are still shedding workers.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Goldman And Buffett To Small Businesses: We’re Here To Help! (GS)
• Small Businesses Could Face New Credit Squeeze
• Wal-Mart Supports Health Plan That Will Destroy Small Businesses (WMT)

Well, here we go again. Reports are coming out of India about new draconian copyright law changes that were apparently decided on between the government and the recording industry with little to no input from everyone else the new laws would impact. Among the concerns? The new law would significantly strip fair use (fair dealing in India) rights, to the extent that they are effectively useless. This seems to happen over and over again in different countries. The recording industry and copyright maximalists of course will all claim that it’s in an effort to “harmonize” the rules between countries, but harmonization is a codeword for a big game of leapfrog, whereby the industry pushes for more draconian laws in one country, and then demands that other countries need to “harmonize.” Of course, somewhere along the way, they also convince one or more of those countries to make their “harmonized” law even more draconian than others, and suddenly everyone else has to “harmonize” again, leaving open the opportunity to ratchet the laws up even more.

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Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Ford

Classic Recreations Shelby GT500CR – Click above for high-res image gallery

Earlier this month during SEMA, Oklahoma-based Classic Recreations announced that it had scored a licensing deal with Carroll Shelby to build a continuation version of the legendary Shelby Mustang GT500. At the time of the announcement, we didn’t know much about the car, aptly named the GT500CR, except that each would come with an official Shelby serial number and be included in the Shelby Worldwide Registry.

However, thanks to new information recently released by Classic Recreations, we now have the preliminary details for the GT500CR. Three separate models will be available, starting with an Intro model that comes standard with a 427ci V8, 150-hp nitrous system, upgraded suspension, power rack-and-pinion steering, Tremec five-speed manual transmission, Baer brakes, and more. One step up from that is the Performance package that also gets items like upgraded seats, larger rear wheels, and a coilover suspension system. At the top of the range is the Venom model, featuring an intercooled supercharger system that boosts the V8 to 780 horsepower, along with other performance upgrades. More details about the GT500CR can be found in Classic Recreation’s press release posted after the jump, and we’ve included the original renderings of the car in the gallery below in case you missed them the first time around.

[Source: Classic Recreations]

Continue reading Classic Recreations reveals specs of Shelby GT500CR Mustang

Classic Recreations reveals specs of Shelby GT500CR Mustang originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hepatitis C identification and care trends published in the December 2009 issue of Hepatology indicate a national, public health dilemma deserving of congressional action.

NVHR: New Data Finding Fewer than 1 in 5 Hepatitis C Patients Receiving Antiviral Therapy is ‘Wake-Up Call’ for Washington

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — New peer-reviewed data finding that fewer than one-fifth of the nearly 4 million Americans infected with chronic hepatitis C virus have received anti-viral therapy in recent years should be a wake-up call that Congress needs to move urgently on bipartisan legislation to support new state-based detection, research, and surveillance efforts, the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) said today.

The NVHR warns that without congressional action, millions of Americans infected with chronic hepatitis C virus – particularly African Americans – are at serious risk of developing cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure and will add billions of dollars in unnecessary costs to our health care system every year.

Continue reading the entire article:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nvhr-new-data-finding-fewer-than-1-in-5-hepatitis-c-patients-receiving-antiviral-therapy-is-wake-up-call-for-washington-72130697.html

Most of the controversy surrounding Google Books has been quieting down lately, but it’s not all smooth sailing now that a revised settlement has been agreed upon. While the copyright issues regarding orphan books have been addressed, European countries are still very much against the idea that the task of preserving the world’s books in digital form should fall into the hands of any one private company. A plan to start a pan-European digitization process has been around for a while now, and several projects have been started or planned, although none have reached their intended goals so far. The EU is not giving up though and officials have agreed to create a committee to put things into motion.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand told a local newspaper of the plans in an interview and also argued the need for a state-backed project. He said that the first step was getting everyone on board and getting everyone’s opinion on the matter. “The committee will be asked to bring together national views and draw up a joint position,” Mitterrand told Journal du Dimanche.

The main argument for the project is that the effort is much too important to be left to the whims of a private company. Of course, the fact that this certain company is American only makes it worse, though … (read more)

Scientists from Rockefeller University uncover some insights into the Hepatitis C genome that suggests new avenues for weakening this insidious virus.

Multitasking may be Achilles heel for hepatitis C

November 23, 2009

(PhysOrg.com) — Hepatitis C, a formidable virus that affects 130 million people worldwide, is nursing some pretty impressive bruises. By knocking out sections and subsections of one of its proteins, scientists reveal weak spots in the virus’s armor and gain new momentum for developing drug targets for sufferers of the disease.

Despite its tiny genome, the hepatitis C virus packs a mean punch. The virus is a microcosm of efficiency, and each of its amino acids plays multiple roles in its survival and ability to sidestep attack. But new research from Rockefeller University suggests that this fancy footwork and multitasking could be the key to bringing down the virus. The work, which focuses on a once-ignored protein, provides insights on how drug therapy for sufferers of the disease might be improved.

The protein, NS2, which is one of the 10 proteins that make up the hepatitis C virus, gained momentum as a plausible drug target in 2006, when Charles M. Rice, head of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease, and his team solved the structure of its protease domain.

Continue reading the entire article:
http://www.physorg.com/news178227669.html

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for natural gas, a glut of global gas is starting to make its way to U.S. shores.

In a global natural gas report, Goldman Sachs says they expect LNG imports to grow 42% in 2010. See the highlighted area in red, below.

Goldman: We expect US LNG imports will increase in 2010, though we do not expect an “inundation.” For 2010, we expect US LNG imports to rise to about 1.7 Bcf/d from 1.2 Bcf/d, reflecting the increase in liquefaction capacity and greater exports of Russian gas to Europe. While this represents an increase, it does not represent the “inundation” of LNG for which others have argued.

Whatever one may want to call it, 1.2 to 1.7 represents a 42% growth in imports.

While imported gas is a tiny fraction of the U.S. market, such a sharp increase in imports will only prolong the pain for natural gas investors, such as those in the ETF United States Natural Gas (UNG), or investing indirectly through companies such as Chesapeake Energy (CHK).

In fact, we already have proof of this growing import trend:

Bloomberg: Murwab, a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, carried the first shipment to the U.S. from the Persian Gulf nation since June 2008. Its cargo, enough to heat about 9 million homes for a day, added to the largest gas inventories for this time of year since at least 1994, Energy Department data show.

…

“We have more gas than we know what to do with in the U.S., we have more waterborne gas floating around the world’s oceans that doesn’t have a home,” Stephen Schork said in an interview from Villanova, Pennsylvania. Prices this winter will “gravitate toward, and remain closer to $4, rather than $7” for each million Btu, he said.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Ex-Enron Trader Built Giant Caverns To Hoard Natural Gas (UNG)
• China Entering Winter With A Severe Natural Gas Shortage (UNG)
• Russia And Ukraine Avert A Natural Gas Crisis (UNG)