Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Car Buying, Hatchback, Nissan, Electric

If you aren’t already on the list to purchase a 2011 Nissan Leaf, you’re officially out of luck. During a speech to the Detroit Economic Club today, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that the U.S. market allotment for the first year’s production of Leafs is already sold out more than six months before the EV even goes on sale. Nissan has now received 13,000 orders for the $32,780 electric car – quite impressive for a vehicle almost no one’s driven.

So far, the orders are comprised of refundable $99 deposits, so it will be interesting to see how sales and orders hold up once people begin getting calls from dealers. Prior to going on sale in 2008, the Smart ForTwo also received thousands of orders before deliveries began – and we all know how well that turned out. While the Leaf will undoubtedly be a much more pleasant and practical car to drive than the Smart, it remains to be seen how customers will react once they get used to the real world electric range.

Ghosn remains extremely bullish on electric vehicles and will be adding production capacity in both the United States and Europe over the next three years.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Carlos Ghosn: 2011 Nissan Leaf sold out originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you guys miss the amazing moment when you just opened up a Google page like you normaly do and suddenly see an Interactive game right infront of you? Do you miss spending office hours playing this game over and over and over again? Well now you can. Google has saved its first and most popularized interactive logo becouse of popular demand. You can now get it at www.google.com/pacman, It is said to be staying permanently so play all you want! You can start by clicking the insert coin box which originally was the Feelin Lucky box.

Have Fun Playing!

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Filed under: Aftermarket, SEMA Show, Classics, Ford

Vaughn Gittin Jr. is mostly known for his ability to pilot Ford Mustangs in a sideways – he currently leads the points race in the 2010 Formula Drift season – but over the last year the Maryland native has also been busy launching his own car brand, RTR, beginning with last year’s show at SEMA with the debut of the RTR-C Mustang.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Gittin will be following up the RTR-C with perhaps something even more impressive. In a collaboration with Team Need for Speed, the drifter/car builder will unveil another Mustang at the 2010 SEMA show dubbed the RTR-X. Based on a 1969 Mustang using a Dynacorn replacement body shell, the RTR-X will feature the 5.0-liter V8 from the 2011 Mustang GT and a one-off sub-frame from Art Morrison. You can follow the progress of the build until its debut at SEMA in November and even vote on the car’s livery over at SpeedHunters. Hit up the gallery below to see Gittin’s upcoming creation in more detail.

[Source: SpeedHunters.com]

Vaughn Gittin Jr. planning RTR-X Mustang for 2010 SEMA debut originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When a North Korean Submarine shot a torpedo that hit a south Korean ship and sunk 46 people. The South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak suspended all trade with North Korea for the attack. North Korea now has taken it’s own action by severing all links, escalating the standoff over accusations that the North sank a South Korean’s Ship.

North Koreans news agency also reported that North Korea would expel all South Koreans from a joint-industrial zone in Kaesong, near the border.
This also sparked the tension between the two separated countries, and just time will tell what can happen. The U.S also started to get ready for war as the tension grows. Barack Obama has also said that the U.S is in the favor of the South Koreans and has their full support and that they should start getting ready for a future battle. Pyongyang has denied any relation to the march incident and said that the South Korean President was listening to a report by an International team. This sparks strong vigilance and alert for both countries.

Related posts:

1. South Korea Accused North Korea for Firing Torpedo that Killed 46
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3. DPRK “Main Enemy” of South Korea

Filed under: Ford, Design/Style

While Volvo’s fate isn’t perfectly clear yet, it appears that everyone might have been best served by Ford severing ties with the foreign branches of its Premier Automotive Group: Aston Martin, Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar. True, Ford didn’t get to fully benefit from the labor it put into the cars those brands are unveiling to accolades right now, but it spared itself the continued financial and brain drain on its core brands.

It was a drain that was also felt by the company’s design arm, headed by J Mays. Referring to how thin The Blue Oval’s design resources were stretched, Mays called the efforts “an inch deep and a mile wide.” Part of it was that there were simply so many new models to keep track of, the other part being that so many of those cars had such vastly different requirements – an Aston couldn’t look like a Lincoln, and even though an Aston could use Volvo’s switchgear it shouldn’t look anything like S80 or an XF.

Now the team can focus on wrapping the company’s products and concept cars (like the Ford Start shown above) in the “Post-Kinetic” design language developed a few years ago. That, Mays says, is also easier because of Ford’s rationalization of its platforms – something that also could not have been as completely without selling the company’s PAG brands.

[Source: Ward’s Auto]

Life much easier for Ford designers in a post-PAG world originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Romenesko we learn that a judge in Wyoming has issued a temporary restraining order against two local newspapers, barring them from reporting about a trip by the local community college’s president to Costa Rica, saying that the report was stolen… and that publishing the info could cause the college to lose federal funding. At issue is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prevents colleges from revealing private info about students (a good thing). But here it’s clearly being misused. Yes, the report may include some student info, but that should not, in any way, bar publishing a story about what happened. Furthermore, that the document was leaked shouldn’t bar publication either. If that were the case, there would never be any whistleblower stories out there, or stories like the one about the Pentagon Papers.

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Tesla Motors Co-founder, Chairman, CEO – Elon Musk

After Tesla Motor and Toyota Motor Corp. announced last week that they take over the former NUMMI factory in Fremont, California, the United Auto Workers urged the two automakers to hire union workers.

While nothing was confirmed at the time of the announcement, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk recently said that “hiring former NUMMI workers is a priority” for the company. Musk, who answered the question during the taping of a Southern California public radio program, said that “It is always easier to hire from the neighborhood” than to recruit workers from out of the area.

Musk said that Tesla has already hired a number of people who had previously worked at the factory when it was jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota.

He said that the company anticipates 1,000 people to come back to work when it starts building the Tesla Model S sedan in 2012. When everything is up and pumping, employment at the plant should increase to nearly 5,000 workers, who will build both Tesla and Toyota’s smaller, more affordable electric-vehicles.

Toyota will purchase $50 million of Tesla’s common stock issued in a private placement.

Photo Copyright © 2009 Kap Shah – egmCarTech.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Edmunds Green Car Advisor

Marc Faber gave a presentation at the Mises Institute Conference in Manhattan today, and Andrew Mellon at BigGovernment.com (via The Daily Crux) was on hand to take notes.

Among his points:

• Central banks will never tighten monetary policy again, merely print, print, print
• Bubbles used to be concentrated in 1 sector or region in the 19th century, but off of the gold standard this concentration has ended
• “The lifetime achievement of Greenspan and Bernanke is really that they created a bubble in everything…everywhere.”
• “You have to ask what they were smoking at the Federal Reserve,” during the housing bubble, as prices were increasing by 18% annually when interest rates started to steadily rise in 2004

As for the top one, it seems extreme, but we’re beginning to believe that, as both the ECB and the Fed are probably both in loosening mode, and markets are predicting rate cuts in Australia. Maybe “never” is strong, but we’re certainly inclined to think rate hikes won’t be coming for a long long time.

Read more at BigGovernment.com >

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Quick heads up, people. ModNation Racers has now been released into retail for both the PSP and PS3, so now you can start playing, creating, and sharing, plus all the other stuff you can do in the

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Oracle & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Visit the Resource Center for the latest in whitepapers, tools and webcasts.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

A reminder for folks that tomorrow, Wednesday May 26th, at 9am PT/noon ET, we’ll be holding the next webinar in our IT Innovation series, What IT Needs To Know About The Law. I’ve been working on the content for this webinar with Dave Navetta and Larry Downes, and it’s shaping up great, covering many of the issues we talk about here on a regular basis. In fact, there’s so much good stuff, that we’re down to figure out what we’re leaving out — perhaps to revisit at a future date. Either way, it should be chock full of good info that will be useful for any IT person, so don’t miss it. Sign up now, and stop by tomorrow with questions ready. As with our past webinars, this one will be interactive. We’ll be taking questions from attendees throughout the webinar. Please join us.

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Although Geithner’s trip to Beijing may have moved the country closer to a yuan revaluation, it may be too little too late.

Michael Pettis went on Bloomberg today to discuss the need for an immediate revaluation.

With European trade going down the hole, either China or America will have to pick up the slack. America can’t afford a bigger trade deficit, Pettis says (1:30), and would be forced to launch a trade war. (via PragCap)

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Wow. After being down huge in early trading, with the indices off over 3%, on all the same fears, the market did a big comeback in the final hour of trading. The modest down day in most of the indices was a big win for the bulls

Here’s the scoreboard:

Dow: -22.82
S&P 500: +0.38
NASDAQ: -2.60

And now, some of today’s top stories:

• As noted above, the big comeback is huge. Investors live to see another day — a day that, perhaps, will include some kind of new quantitative easing measure in Europe, or maybe even a move by our Fed. A big winner today was Goldman Sachs, which ended up over 4%. See some of the key trades of the day here >

• During this morning’s big selloff, the March Case-Shiller got lost in the shuffle, but it was weak, showing further signs of a possible double-dip in housing. New York in particular seems vulnerable to further declines.

• The BP situation continues to get more tense. The company is expected to try its top-kill method tomorrow, in its desperate bid to halt the leak. See pictures of beleaguered Grand Isle, LA here >

• Germany continues to invite short-sellers, as it expands measures aimed at curbing short sellers. Funny how that works, no?

• Tensions on the Korean peninsula heat up, as the North decides to cut of all relations with the South. Here’s a look at possible war scenarios >

• Gold never succumbed to the flight-to-liquidity trade, edging up over $4 during the trading day. Oil on the other hand is below $70.

Join the conversation about this story »

2010 Mitsubishi Lancer

TrueCar, a new car price search site, recently completed a study that shows the brands that have the highest concentration of younger buyers. The study showed that Mitsubishi, Mazda and Volkswagen have the youngest customers, while brands like Buick, Lincoln, Cadillac and Mercury produce eight of the 10 models with the lowest percentage of buyers under 34.

The study also identified the beast deals on models for buyers that are between the 18-34 range.

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer.

Mitsubishi topped the list (18.3 percent) with the Lancer and the Eclipse. Mazda came in second (18 percent) with the Mazda3 and the Mazda6 being the most popular amongst buyers in the 18-34 range. Volkswagen came in third (17.6 percent) with buyers flocking towards the Jetta and the GTI.

Hit the jump for the list and check out TrueCar’s full study here.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: TrueCar

Im sure you want to know the real story of Ronald Defeo’s life. Its nothing new for the town of Amityville to see thousands of people visit their town to hunt demons and ghosts. It has a rich history and beauty are overshowered by Kathy Lutz and George who are the last to have stayed at 112 Ocean Avenue. It was them who told about a living terror in the house. Its not just the most famous hunted house in the country but also popular movie and novel.

Now to give you the chills, six members of the DeFeo family were killed in that house before they moved in to live there. Stories tell that until this very day it is being haunted.

Ronald DeFeo jr purchased that house in 1965. To mention when he bought it, he also got a boathouse on the Amityville River. He had four children and a beautifull wife. Everything seemed so perfect like in a story book.

Reports say that Butch, the son of Ronald DeFeo in November 13, 1974 grabbed his riffle killed his parents including his younger brothers and sister one after the another while they were sleeping.

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walter williams

Walter E. Williams is a syndicated columnist and an author known for his libertarian views. Williams works as a professor at George Mason University.

On an article last May 18, 2010, Williams gave his sentiments regarding immigration in the United States. In the 7 billion people in the planet, would each and every individual have the God-given rights to live in the U.S.?, he asked.

Libertarianism is a theory in politics that gives maximization of liberty of an individual all through his/her thoughts and actions. Libertarians have viewpoints that ranges from minarchist (or a minimal state) to anarchist.

Williams pointed out that most people, and even libertarians, would agree that not everyone has the right to live in the U.S.

Williams said that there must be certain conditions in which a person must meet to live in the United States. But the question of whom the task of setting of the conditions would be given to emerged.

According to Williams, there are three ways that a person becomes an illegal immigrant: entering without authorization and/or inspection, staying inside the country or state beyond the authorized period after illegal means of entry or by violating the terms of legal entry.

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Filed under: GM

When the now-retired General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz joined us on the Autoblog podcast, he told us that he was looking to get on some company boards. Not even a month into retirement, Maximum Bob has added yet another notch to his belt, accepting a position at fuel injection supplier Transonic Combustion. The company, which has offices in Camarillo, CA and Bloomfield Township, MI, is working on more efficient fuel injection systems.

Lutz hasn’t yet made any public comments about his new board role outside of a prepared statement that reminds us that “for the foreseeable future the internal-combustion engine will remain the dominant propulsion system for automobiles, and there is still a lot of room to improve its efficiency.” Beyond his board job with Transonic Combustion, Lutz is working on a book that we’re desperately interested to get our hands on.

[Source: Detroit Free Press | Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]

Report: Bob Lutz signs on for board duty at fuel-injection startup originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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U2 singer Bono left the hospital on Tuesday in Munich (Germany) after undergoing emergency surgery on his back, but the injury forced the Irish band to postpone the entire North American stage of his 360 Tour. This implies that the band will not perform in Glastonbury, one of the biggest live music events of the annual pop calendar.

Bono must follow a recovery process at least eight weeks and the band’s manager, Paul McGuinness, told Reuters the 50 years old singer “feels very badly” by the changes in the tour, which will affect more than one million followers.

“It is obviously a serious injury and the recovery time of Bono is a big problem for the U2 360 Tour 2010, and unfortunately has demanded the postponement of 16 shows” in the U.S. and Canada, said.”These shows are divided between the 3 June in Salt Lake City and July 19 at the Meadowlands stadium, in New Jersey.

The earliest possible date for the return of Bono, according to the website of the band, it would be August 6 in Turin, Italy. Thus, the remaining appointments would continue as planned, if there are no further setbacks.

Joerg Tonn, a neurosurgeon who has treated Bono, the singer described the situation as a “sudden-onset disease, which caused a temporary partial paralysis.” The injury occurred while the singer was training in preparation for the tour.

“The surgery was the only treatment option for complete recovery and to prevent further paralysis. Bono is now much better with full recovery of mobility.”

The development of the tour in 2009 allowed the band to win $ 109,000,000, according to the music publication Billboard.

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Slashdot points us to yet another in a very long line of stories about patents holding back key, potentially life-saving, research. This story involves a biotech firm, StemCells, that is making a legal threat to a hospital doing research on brain diseases in children. Because of the threats, the research has been shut down for three years:

With his research stymied, “all the money has shifted from the lab to the lawyers,” said Schwartz, who said he believes the cells may hold deep secrets to such devastating conditions as autism, brain cancer and neurological disease.

What’s really annoying here is that the doctor doing this research at the hospital had developed the technique himself with some others at the Salk Institute, but they chose not to patent it (perhaps following in the footsteps of Jonas Salk himself, who when asked about patenting the polio vaccine replied: “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”). Of course, StemCells jumped in and patented the technique themselves, and then went after the doctor in the midst of his research.

Apparently, “promoting the progress” doesn’t include saving kids from deadly brain diseases.

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Tampa Bay, excluding the playoffs the past three seasons, has hired the former star of the Detroit Red Wings Steve Yzerman as Executive Director.

Yzerman served as vice president with the Detroit Red Wings, the only team for whom he played during his illustrious career that has opened the doors of the Hall of Fame. He recently led Canada to the conquest of the Olympic gold medal in his role as Executive Director for the Vancouver Games.

Last month, the new owner of the Lightning, Jeff Vinik, fired coach Rick Tocchet and general manager Brian Lawton after the team had missed the playoffs for a third straight season.

Yzerman had little hope of access to the post of Director General in Detroit in the short term because two of its executives, Ken Holland and Jim Nill, seem to have long term contracts.

“I love my work and my contribution to this organization,” said Yzerman earlier this month after eliminating the Red Wings in the second round of the playoffs.

Yzerman, 45 years old, from Cranbrook, British Columbia, has become one of the best players of the complete history of the NHL. He won the Stanley Cup three times and remains one of the most popular figures in Red Wings, where he has long been the captain.

In the Lightning, Yzerman inherits a team that finished the last season with a record of 34-36-12 and has changed coaches three times in two years.

Since the conquest of the Stanley Cup in 2004, the Lightning has not passed the first round of the playoffs.

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This questionable move by author Joe McGinniss stuns all his fans including the people who live around. He now lives next to Sarah Palin the person who is McGinniss subject in his book he’s working on.

And to keep everyone updated Sarah Palin made a post in Facebook.

Joe announced to Todd that he’s moved in right next door to us. He’s rented the place for the next five months or so. He moved up all the way from Massachusetts to live right next to us – while he writes a book about me. Knowing of his many other scathing pieces of “journalism”…we’re sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he’s penning. Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?

Its nothing new that McGinniss is accused of plagiarizing material and deceiving sources but still he remains his best selling carrer is doing good. Still all of these accusations have not yet been confirmed. Many know that he has a very aggressive style and sometimes make use of unorthodox tactics. Definetely moving next door to his subject fits his descriptions.

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