Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Sedan, Etc., Audi

Audi’s centennial celebration is winding down, but the German brand isn’t quite ready to switch off the lights. There’s at least one more big model debut planned for its 100th anniversary, and in just over a week Audi will pull the sheets off the all-new 2011 Audi A8. Although the uber-sedan will take the stage at the LA Auto Show in two weeks, the world will get its first official look on the opposite coast at Design Miami.

Audi has erected a special temporary art museum for the design show, providing a backdrop for the unveiling of the brand’s new flagship. According to Audi, the sedan will be surrounded by an exhibit from the Rubell Family collection called “Beg Borrow and Steal.” There will also be an installation called the “Light Light” made of LEDs and aluminum — a fitting tribute to the new A8’s aluminum structure and LED lighting. So far, all we have is images of the Audi pavilion and a few teasers of the sedan, so stay tuned for more next week.

Continue reading 2011 Audi A8 to debut November 30th at Design Miami

2011 Audi A8 to debut November 30th at Design Miami originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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 Canadian Dollars – The US in Real Terms – … In Canadian-dollar terms, US GDP is the lowest it has been since the first quarter of 1998. While significant inflation has yet to show  up in US CPI numbers, it is apparent that the US ‘growth’ of the past decade was largely a money-illusion. ... – Plan B Economics

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Welcome to the 2009 Worldwide Bull Market Rally – Mark Perry’s Carpe Diem Blog

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Charts: Betting Your Dollar’s Bottoming – by RANDALL W. FORSYTH – … Veteran technical analyst Martin Pring sees signs the Dollar Index may be on the verge of a rebound. In his weekly note to subscribers, Pring says the dollar has the potential to rally as it is “challenging” its downward sloping trend line while its rate of change is turning positive. At the same time, however, there also is a potential for the Dollar Index to break down as it has been moving in an ever-narrowing channel.  “The battle lines then, are at 77 on the upside and 74.4 on the downside,” Pring writes.  … – Barron’s

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Investors strategize for Fed’s exit from MBS market – By Julie Haviv and Daniel Bases –  Investors who reaped robust gains in U.S. mortgage-backed securities by piggy-backing on the Federal Reserve’s $1.25 trillion buying program are bracing for the end to the central bank’s support — and positioning themselves for a new round of profits as prices cheapen – Reuters

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2 interviews – Danielle Park Provides More Sense on Cents – we hare half way thorugh a aseclar bear market says Danielle – good thoughts on risk – Larry Doyle – Sense on Cents

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Carry Trade and market rallies – The Fed’s airheaded bubble orthodoxy – By Steven Pearlstein – … For many investors, in fact, the cost of money is effectively less than zero, as economist Nouriel Roubini likes to point out. If you borrow dollars at near zero percent interest in the United States, exchange the dollars for Thai bhat, and invest the bhat in government bonds paying 4 or 5 percent, you not only get the benefit of the interest rate arbitrage but you also gain when you sell the bond and exchange the bhat back into dollars that have since depreciated. Roubini calls it “the mother of all carry trades,” … – Washington Post

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How US investors can play the carry trade – Felix Salmon – has a list – When I wrote my blog entry on currency ETCs yesterday, I wasn’t aware of the various carry-trade products available on US exchanges. But after a very informative conversation with Morningstar’s Bradley Kay this morning, I’m now much more up to speed. And while there’s nothing in the US quite like the UK products, there are still a fair few carry-trade vehicles to choose from. – Reuters Blogs

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Picture du Jour: Plunging dollar erodes non-US investors’ returns – Posted by Prieur du Plessis – … The graph below shows the performance of US 10-year Treasury Notes since the beginning of March in both US dollar terms (red line) and euro terms (blue line). Whereas US investors are showing a poor return of -2.8% for the period, European investors are completely under water to the tune of -17.5%.  … – Investment Postcards from Cape Town 

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New York Fed Bringing Mortgage Bond Purchasing In-House, Halves External Managers – Submitted by Tyler Durden  – … has chosen to throw sand in the eyes of all those who claim its days of secrecy must end, and has decided to beginning purchasing the QE allocated portion of MBS/Agency bonds directly from the market using in-house personnel, and bypassing external managers. This way, most information leakage will be prevented, the Fed can buy (never sell) however many MBS it wants while disclosing whatever (if anything) it chooses, with nobody being the wiser, and 30 year mortgage rates continuing their inexorable creep to zero percent. – Zero Hedge

Filed under: Sedan, Rolls-Royce, Electric

Adding fuel to the rumormill fire, Autocar reports that a pure electric version of the Rolls-Royce Phantom could hit the streets within 12 months. Rolls’ parent company, BMW, has been getting heavily involved in EVs and the Phantom would be an obvious choice to launch its new drivetrain considering the price premium already tacked onto the brand’s offerings.

Since Phantom owners tend to be driven rather than drive and rarely use their luxo-barges for long road trips (that’s what the jet is for), the decision to offer an EV Phantom makes sense on many levels. Given the size and mass of the Phantom, the bulk of the batteries wouldn’t affect performance or comfort, and cost… well, that’s not an issue when you’re dealing with $300,000+ vehicles. In spite of that, Rolls-Royce may end up only leasing the initial batch of electric Phantoms in small numbers just as BMW has done with the MINI E.

[Source: Autocar]

REPORT: Electric Rolls-Royce Phantom could arrive within a year originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every so often, internet pontificators try to come up with ways to “kill Google.” It’s a silly game, but in an oddly timed move, three people (who have all put forth “how to kill Google” ideas in the past) all suddenly published similar ideas, yet again. Jason Calacanis, Mark Cuban and Tom Foremski all posted similar ideas about how certain sites (such as the top sites in the top search results) could all choose to opt-out of Google and, say, join another search engine like Bing. It’s one of those ideas that sounds good for about 5 seconds. And then you actually think about it. First, the numbers being tossed around concerning how much it would cost, say, Microsoft, to convince most of these sites to opt-out of their number one driver of traffic is significantly higher than what’s being mentioned in these articles. Many of these sites rely on Google traffic to make a ton of money, and they’re not going to throw that away easily. At least in Calacanis’ plan he suggests Microsoft offer “50% more than they make in Google referrals” which certainly beats Cuban’s idea that many sites would opt-out of Google for $1,000.

Here’s the thing, though. Most of those sites worked hard to get to the top of Google for a very good reason: they understand the value of being easily findable. As such, they also recognize that it makes little sense to make themselves less findable at almost any price. Getting anyone to opt-out first (other than suicidal sites like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.) is going to be nearly impossible. Who would want to risk that? Because the instant they opt-out, someone else would take their place. Quickly. And decisively.

There’s value in being found these days, and to be found you need to be easily findable from anywhere if someone’s looking for you. Not only would traffic decrease, but so would basic reputation. Even if Microsoft pays you a ton to drop out of Google, people are going to search for your business in Google and when they can’t find it, they’re not going to care how much Microsoft paid, they’re going to think you’re a small-time nobody. The best strategy these days, as most web site operators know, is to be as widely available as possible. Opt-ing out of Google because someone pays you some money is a lot more costly than just the lack of traffic.

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If there was ever a contest for blurriest photos taken post-haste, this image of a Motorola CLIQ look-alike, rumored to be called Motus, takes the cake. There isn’t much to be said or gathered about the Motus so far, except that it looks like a CLIQ with a flat keyboard and no D-pad for navigation. Said to be coming out in Q1 2010, rumors also peg this device as packing Android 1.6 and a 5 megapixel camera, so it’s not as if anything terribly special is going on. Unfortunately, the image is far too blurry to really make out the left side of the keyboard and what the bright yellow spot is. Maybe image stabilization should be standard on camera phones now.

Thanks, Vitala!

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Traditionally, the natural sciences have been divided into two branches: the biological and the physical sciences. Today, an increasing number of scientists are addressing problems lying at the intersection of the two. These problems are most often biological in nature, but examination through the lens of the physical sciences can yield exciting results and opportunities. For example, one area producing effective cross-research opportunities centers on the dynamics of systems. Equilibrium, multistability and stochastic behavior–concepts familiar to physicists and chemists–are useful in tackling issues for living systems such as adaptation, feedback and emergent behavior.

Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences discusses how some of the mysteries of the biological world have been solved using tools and techniques developed in the physical sciences. It presents five major challenges that must be addressed before further research at this intersection can be conducted effectively. This additional research will advance our understanding of fundamental questions of science, as well as significantly impact public health, technology and stewardship of the environment.

Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences recommends several ways to accelerate progress in the field. Many of these recommendations are directed towards those administering the faculties and resources of our great research institutions, making this book an excellent resources for academic and research institutions, scientists, universities, and federal and private funding agencies.

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, BMW, Motorcycle

Valentino Rossi drives the BMW M3 GTS – Click above for high-res image gallery

After securing his record ninth MotoGP title, there’s little doubt that Valentino Rossi is the fastest man on two wheels. And BMW has acknowledged the Italian rider’s speed by awarding him a brand-spankin’-new M3 sedan.

The German automaker is a sponsor of the motorbike racing series, providing organizers with safety cars and other vehicles, and even using it to debut the new X6 M crossover earlier this year. And every year BMW gifts a car to the rider who proved the fastest in qualifying over the course of the season. Rossi’s won the “M Award” five times now, but before he drove off in his new V8 sports sedan, BMW gave him a rare opportunity to sample the new hardcore M3 GTS.

So what did the fastest man on two wheels think of the fastest Bimmer on four? Quite a lot, apparently, as the multiple world champion said he wants to be first on the list when the M3 GTS goes on sale next year. That’s quite a glowing endorsement, and all it cost them was a test drive. Click on the thumbnails below for a high-res image gallery.

[Source: BMW M Division]

Valentino Rossi samples the BMW M3 GTS, drives away in M3 sedan originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not many major retailers would take their online store offline for more than a day to conduct planned maintenance. That’s what Burlington Coat Factory did this week, allowing its main web site to go dark for nearly 36 hours as the company performed a major software and hardware refresh, which included an upgrade to an Oracle app server, according to Storefront Backtalk (link via The Server Room) .

Although the outage was planned, the site displayed a message saying “The Burlington Coat Factory site is temporarily unavailable. Please check back later.”  Burlington Coat Factory web supervisor Jack Follansbee said the messaging on the site” could clearly have been better,” but said the extended downtime was a necessity.

“We needed a full 24-hour outage to do the upgrade,” Follansbee told SB. “Wednesday is actually the lowest revenue day for our Web site.”

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

Merrill Lynch downgraded several semiconductor names this morning citing unfavorable cyclical trends and a normalization in inventory restocking.  The semis are tanking 3.5% on the report and many investors fear the inventory restocking that has powered much of the fundamental strength in the sector could be slowing.  The Merrill analysts wrote:

“We are downgrading our view on the sector given unfavorable indications from our cyclical framework. In particular, our industry model suggests that following a period of rapid replenishment of inventory and normalization of semi shipments to true consumption levels, inventories in the supply chain are approaching a level suggesting a modest overshoot versus equilibrium levels. While we see limited risk to near-term estimates, we think the longer this persists the greater the risk of a correction in the supply chain. Barring a sharp upturn in the global economies, this, in our view, renders the risk reward associated with ownership of chip stocks unattractive.”

Notable Calls has more details:

In some ways, the firm thinks the current backdrop reflects a striking contrast to the conditions that prevailed at the time of Merrill’s upgrade. Specifically, at the time, supply chain inventories were at abnormally depressed levels, economic forecasts were poised to improve but as yet depressed, and indications of an inflection in electronic demand had just started to manifest themselves. Fast forward two quarters, and the picture looks completely different. To wit economic growth forecasts have trended higher, as have expectations of electronic demand growth, and supply chain inventories are perking above what they’d consider to be a normal equilibrium level. Last but not the least, sentiment around growth prospects for the group has also seen a marked improvement. Simply put, the ideal mixture of investor skepticism coupled with the potential for sharp upward revisions – which served as potent fuel for the semiconductor rally – no longer prevails. This then begs the question: What is the incentive to own chip stocks, esp. on the heels of a spectacular move up (SOX +83%) over the last 12 months?

For those looking for real world confirmation of the potential inventory adjustment being forecasted by Merrill’s industry model, the firm would point to indications from the Asia PC supply chain suggesting a material downward bias to desktop forecasts in the near-term. In particular they note that their Taiwan Hardware analyst Tony Tseng is now projecting ~flat Q/Q growth in PCs (desktop motherboards and notebooks included) into Q4. Merrill notes that it represents a sharp downward revision (esp. on the motherboard front) vs. just a month ago, in turn suggestive of slowing momentum in the PC space – the lynchpin for semiconductor industry growth. Serving as further corroboration of waning momentum are resale trends out of Asia distribution suggesting recent monthly sales trends that have been solidly below seasonal. Importantly, they’d note that above seasonal trends in the distribution data in late 2008/early 2009 had served as a harbinger of the cyclical upturn, thus, in Merrill’s view, underscoring the importance of the data.

Last but not the least, for those looking for a smoking gun, Merrill has one: namely, foundry utilization. Using TSMC utilization as a loose proxy for trends in overall foundry utilization rates, they’d note that a sale of the SOX every time TSMC’s utilization rates hit 100% would have put you on the right side of the trade in short order. As counterintuitive as this might sound (after all isn’t tighter capacity great for chip ASPs etc.?), the fact is that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. When it comes to foundry utilizations, 100% seems to be the magic number, simply because “sold out capacity” – esp. in the face of an improving perception around the economy and by extension end demand – is often a catalyst for double/excess ordering in the supply chain. After all who wants to be caught short on semiconductor parts, which average a paltry $1.00-1.50 in ASPs, when demand is improving?

The downgraded the following names:

• Intel (INTC): To Neutral, from Buy.
• LSI (LSI): To Neutral, from Buy.
• Microchip (MCHP): To Underperform, from Neutral.
• Marvell (MRVL): To Neutral from Buy.
• Maxim (MXIM): To Underperform, from Neutral.
• National Semi (NSM): To Underperform from Neutral.
• Power Integrations (POWI): To Underperform, from Neutral.
• Texas Instruments (TXN): To Neutral from Buy.

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See Also:

• Today Was A Win For The Bulls!
• Dell Blows Quarter, Stock Tanks (DELL)
• Ballmer: Windows 7 Flying Off The Shelves (MSFT)

WATER INTOXICATION, WHICH CAN LEAD TO HYPONATREMIA IS A SERIOUS MEDICAL CONDITION WHICH RESULTS WHEN SOMEONE DRINKS TOO MUCH WATER TOO QUICKLY. WATER INTOXICATION DOWNS THE CELLS OF THE BODY IN FRESH WATER. IF A LARGE AMOUNT OF FLUID IS CONSUMED OVER A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME, THE CELLS WILL BEGIN TO SWELL BECAUSE THE KIDNEYS CANNOT PROCESS THE WATER QUICKLY ENOUGH. THE WATER STARTS TO DILUTE THE ELECTROLYTE LEVELS IN THE BODY AND IF ENOUGH WATER IS CONSUMED THE CELLS COULD ACTUALLY BURST. A LOW LEVEL OF ELECTROLYTES CAN RESULT IN AN IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT, BRAIN MALFUNCTION AND COULD LEAD TO SEIZURES AND DEATH. THE CONDITION IS EASILY TREATABLE IN EARLY STAGES BY INJECTING ELECTROLYTES INTO THE BODY AND LIMITING WATER CONSUMPTION UNTIL THE BODY HAS BEGUN TO PROCESS THE EXCESS. WATER INTOXICATION IS ALSO CALLED WATER POISONING, BECAUSE IT ACTS ON THE BODY LIKE A TOXIN. A PERSON USUALLY DOES NOT ENOUGH WATER TO RESULT IN WATER INTOXICATION , BUT SOMETIMES WHEN JUDGEMENT IS IMPAIRED BY HEAT STROKE, DRUG USE OR STRESS A LARGE AMOUTN OF WATER MAY BE CONSUMED TOO QUICKLY. WHEN COMBINED WITH SITUATIONS LIKE DRUGUSAGE AND HEAT IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO TELL IF WATER INTOXICATION WAS THE CAUSE, MAKING TREATMENT DIFFICULT. PLEASE WATCH YOUR WATER CONSUMPTION AND YOUR ELECTROLYTE LEVELS.

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a grim report today revealing that nearly one in seven households with mortgages is behind on payments or already in foreclosure.

Last year, only one in 10 were behind. Two years ago, the number was just 7.3%.

We’re now in what is clearly the second leg downward of the mortgage mess. While the early days of the mortgage crisis were driven largely by people saddled with complex mortgages they couldn’t afford to pay, now even homeowners with relatively sane mortgages are running into trouble as unemployment soars into the double digits.

In a rising housing market, joblessness doesn’t necessarily trigger defaults. In those situations, jobless homeowners can sell their homes and pay off the mortgage. But with the home market still ailing and prices still falling in many areas, jobless homeowners are forced into short-sales and defaults.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mortgage Applications Plunge To 12-Year Low
• Third Quarter Mortgage Delinquencies Hit New Record AGAIN
• Mortgage Applications Plummet To Nine-Year Low

Sony Ericsson has us scratching our heads just one day after we spent some time with its new XPERIA X10 smartphone. During our lunch meet-up, SE told us it was hoping to work with U.S. carriers in getting the X10 into the pockets of Americans on the cheap. We’re still hoping that SE will make this happen, but a new rumor would see the X10 retail for a whopping $879 when it hits the market during the first quarter of 2010. We know that SE is hoping to get back on the relevance map and turn a profit while it’s at it, but a sky-high price tag on a device that failed to knock our socks off probably isn’t going to cut it with consumers.

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The following is a list of the articles that appear in the November 2009 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter. If you are already a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue. Not a subscriber already? Subscribe now and get access to this issue as well as access to our online archive of back issues, industry research reports, sample MTAs, legal opinions, sample forms and contracts, government documents and more!

Technology Transfer Tactics,
Vol. 3, No. 11 (pp 161-176) November 2009

• Recipients of ARRA funds grapple with onerous reporting requirements. Research institutions that went into overdrive to get a piece of the government’s unprecedented, $787 billion stimulus package, approved in February, are now grappling with onerous reporting requirements they must comply with or risk losing the funds
• Firms springing up to fund patent infringement litigation. Patent holders — including technology transfer offices — don’t have to make the difficult judgment call about whether to spend often-scarce resources on defending their assets in infringement cases. A new option has emerged in which a third-party essentially foots the bill for that litigation, in exchange for a cut of the proceeds
• Measuring economic impact of tech transfer more art than science. What’s the best way to assess the performance of a technology transfer operation? The answer really depends on who wants the information
• Get familiar with new terrain to capitalize on international opportunities. Markets may be down in the U.S., but TTOs can find ample licensing opportunities abroad
• Heard in the Hallways: Last month in San Francisco, more than 1,000 LES members convened for the organization’s annual meeting, and TTT was on-site. Here are some observations and ideas gleaned in both sessions and hallway conversations
• Boot camp plays central role in shaping entrepreneurial culture. When it comes to promoting an environment that’s conducive to research commercialization and innovation, some schools stand out as exemplary in taking an aggressive, active role in shaping an entire culture of entrepreneurialism. The University of Maryland is one of those schools, and its Technology Start-Up Boot Camp plays a critical role in shaping that culture
• Guest Commentary: Consider the strategic implications of trade secrets

Scott Totzke, RIM’s vice-president of BlackBerry security, recently spoke with the press about the potential of the DDOS attack by hackers using BlackBerry devices to target wireless networks. The thought is that because the BlackBerry is essentially a smaller PC, it could be used in a similar manner to overload networks.

But is this really a big concern? I have to agree with Ronen at BerryReview, that someone stealing personal data with an application seems like a bigger concern. All you have to do is build an application that accesses user data, and sends it back to the company’s servers. If they wanted to, a company could use the data on your BlackBerry for malicious purposes.

It seems like only a matter of time until someone in Nigeria figures out how to submit a malicious app into Mobihand. While App World might have a vetting process that looks at what the app is accessing, I can guarantee you the Mobihand network isn’t diligent enough to catch something like this.

Remember, Mobihand are the same people who sell NetworkACC, a bogus application that claims to speed up your mobile network. Not only is the app bogus and a waste of money, but I bet you eMobiStudio are gaming the review system because their app is filled with 5 star reviews. Mobihand have such a weak review system that anyone can write a hundred positive reviews about their app.

We can only hope that if a malicious app shows itself, the good people at BlackBerry Cool, BerryReview, CrackBerry, etc. will find out and spread the word not to download it.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009

Chip giant Intel has a bit of a reputation for being a trademark bully at times, threatening or suing many companies just for having “intel” in their name somewhere — including a travel agency and a jeans company. Now, before anyone brings it up, yes, as a trademark holder the law requires you to enforce your trademark against infringement, lest it become considered “generic” (such as xerox machines, kleenex tissues, aspirin and other brand names that became generic). But, the key in all of those generic situations was that the use was applied to things that directly competed with the original brand’s products. People referred to other tissues as “kleenex” and it stuck. Intel’s lawyers seem to go out of their way to find potential infringement where there obviously is none at all.

Paul Alan Levy alerts us to the latest such case, where Intel has sued the operators of the Mexico Watch newsletter, because its domain is LatinIntel.com. Of course, the reason for that is that it is using the commonly accepted abbreviation of “intel” as short for “intelligence.” It’s common shorthand, especially within government circles, to refer to gathered intelligence as simply “intel.” The owners of the site explained this to Intel, and in return were given a boilerplate explanation about trademark law, insisting that since Intel’s trademark is so valuable, it still has to stop others from using it — even if they’re in a totally different business, which is an interesting interpretation of trademark law, and one not supported by the courts in most cases.

More importantly, no one is going to look at LatinIntel.com and confuse it for the world’s largest computer chip maker. No one is going to look at that site and wonder how come they can’t order a Centrino processor. There’s simply no confusion at all. Even worse, it appears that Intel’s lawyers dragged out this situation far too long. They first contacted the site back in 2007, and the site’s owner responded with a clear explanation of why the name was not infringing. Since then, there have been periodic bursts of contact from different Intel lawyers (it apparently seems to change each time), followed by months of silence, before a new group of lawyers starts pestering the site again. Finally, after more than two years of this back and forth, Intel sued Mexico Watch, even though it’s not even close to competitive and any “moron in a hurry” (as the popular trademark test notes) would clearly know the difference between a site about Mexican politics and a company selling microprocessors.

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