Author: Serkadis

Futures are now heading up, but here’s a little more perspective on yesterday’s big move.

The VIX from StockCharts.com:

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Google Street View is an interesting tool and a very useful one on some occasions. But, for the most part, the majority of people just use it to browse through familiar places or far-away cities. A latest addition to the product brings a bit more practicality to Street View. Local businesses are now marked in Street View imagery and users can … (read more)

Red Dead Redemption’s getting some pre-order freebies thanks to GameStop. The retail chain’s even released a video showing off the exclusive deadly assassin outfit those who pre-order are getting. Check it out after the jump.

Tesla Model S

We’ve heard about it before and Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk is reiterated it again yesterday. Musk said that Tesla will offer more models besides the Roadster and the Model S sedan in its ambitious plans for growth.

The Tesla Model S sedan is due out in 2012 and will sell for less than half the price of the Roadster at about $50,000, including a federal tax credit. Musk said that around the same time that Tesla launches the Model S, it will stop producing the Roadster and will come out with a successor in late 2013.

Click here to get prices on the Tesla Roadster.

He also said that more Tesla products are to follow including a crossover. Four-wheel-drive will also be offered on future Tesla vehicles. We’ve previously heard plans for a BMW 3-Series sized electric sedan by 2015 that is expected lift total annual production for Tesla to around 200,000 units a year.

Musk said that affordability of Tesla vehicles will increase with each new product and that by the time the third model arrives, the company’s vehicles are expected to be attainable for mainstream customers.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: AutoWeek

Another day, another Activision resignation. It’s not somebody from Infinity Ward, however. This time, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith is the one who stepped down from his post.

	Hey ladies: survey says it’s easier to get a guy if you get an eco-car first Go green!		Report: Ford Fusion Hybrid pays off quickest Takes just 5.6 years to pay off the hybrid premium. Then it’s all gravy.
	Lotus comes out swinging for lighter, more efficient vehicles Remove the pounds, reduce the gas required.	Other news: Better Place’s battery-swapping electric taxi test takes off in Tokyo Report: VW to shake up order of electric vehicles, mass-produced Golf coming first GM investing $890M in next-gen small block V8s, promises improved efficiency

AutoblogGreen for 04.28.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lexus Hybrid Bicycle Concept

Here is a new hybrid concept from Lexus called the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle. According to Lexus, the Hybrid Bicycle is a “design concept the captures the fundamental engineering and design values of the brand, but with two wheels rather than four.”

The concept coincides with the announcement of Lexus’ title sponsorship of the Great British Bike Ride, a four-day charity ride that will see hundreds of cyclists following a course from Land’s End to the home of English rugby at Twickenham.

Power comes from the pedal of the rider increased by help of the front wheel with a 240W electric motor, kept running by a 25.9V lithium-ion battery. The Lexus Hybrid Bicycle Concept has a choice of Eco or Power modes and, as with Lexus Hybrid Drive, there is an energy regeneration function that helps recharge the battery by capturing kinetic energy generated under braking.

Lexus says that “there are no current plans for the Lexus Hybrid Bicycle to become a production model.”

Lexus Hybrid Bicycle Concept:

– By: Kap Shah

Facebook is making a play for becoming the single handler of your online identity. With the new features and API tools it unveiled last week, the social network could potentially ‘infiltrate’ any website in the world, effectively taking over the web in a sense. And Mozilla has a very similar idea. It too believes that a univers… (read more)

When it comes to the PIIGS, Dr. Doom is in full-on doom mode.

Felix Salmon has some good notes on a PIIGS panel from the Milken Global Conference, which included Nouriel Roubini, who is in his wheelhouse when talking about sovereign debt crises.

Nouriel, of course, takes that kind of thinking to its logical conclusion, and kicked off the panel by announcing that it was just in time: “in a few days,” he said, “there might not be a eurozone for us to discuss.” There’s no way that Greece can implement the 10% spending cut it needs to do in order to stop its debt spiralling out of control at current interest rates — and even if it did, the economic effects would be disastrous.

Nouriel’s base case, then, is Argentina 2001: after all, Greece has a much higher debt-to-GDP ratio, much higher deficit-to-GDP ratio, and much higher current-account deficit than Argentina had back then. And if that’s the base case, there’s no way that Greek debt should be trading anywhere near its current levels.

And guess what: Spain is worse than Greece, says Roubini. Ugh.

Now see who’s going to get pounded in a Greece collapse >

Read Felix’s full post here >

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See Also:

• Credit Default Swap Spreads Blowing Out In Greece, Portugal, And Poland
• Faber: It’s Time To Kick Greece Out of The Eurozone
• Thousands Of Greeks Haven’t Paid Property Taxes In Years, And The Government Can’t Make Them

(This guest post comes courtesy of the author’s blog)

Are the problems in the global economy really global or are they more localized?  Analysts at JP Morgan say they are local problems and should not derail the global recovery.  Unfortunately for the market bears, they’ve been spot on for well over a year.  JP Morgan says the current problems should be offset by the global rebound:

“Is it local or global? That is the question asked by investors trying to assess the impact of the rising threats to the rally in risky assets. Our view has been, and remains, that these threats—from Chinese tightening to the Greek debt crisis and the global offensive on banks—remain largely local and sectoral in impact. They are offset sufficiently by the global rebound in economic activity and company earnings, keeping intact the rally in risky assets. This has indeed been what we have seen so far this year and over the past 13 months in the global equity rally. The impact of these local fires has been largely the underperformance by the affected regions—Europe and China— without slowing the global rally in risky assets.”

They see the risks of contagion increasing, but remain long for now as the bullish forces at work should continue to overpower localized fears in the near-term:

“At some point, one such local shock will spread and become overwhelming enough to bring risky markets down. Remember that the subprime crisis started as a local shock. We surely do not want to downplay the destructive power of the risk we face, but, at the same time, in the other corner sit the even more powerful bullish forces of the business cycle, company earnings, and the zero return on cash. It is our judgment that while the threats of Greek contagion and regulatory/tax overkill on banks have intensified over the past month, the risk-bullish forces have gathered even more strength, keeping us overall long risky assets.”

JP Morgan has been largely ahead of the game in terms of their economic forecasts and other market participants have been forced to play catch-up over the last few quarters.  They see the recovery continuing into the back half of 2010 as the consumer recovers, industrial production increases and ultimately results in stronger than expected earnings growth:

“Our economists have kept their global 2010 growth forecast in a 3.3%-3.4% range since September. Over the period, the consensus has converged to our view. But the recent upside surprises on activity, and in particular in capital spending, retail demand, and industrial production, are inducing us to recognize clear upside risk, in particular in the US and Japan. Company earnings are looking even more impressive, with recent US earnings announcements already leading to a more than 10% upward revision to the 1Q consensus.”

What does this all mean?  It means JP Morgan sees the risk trade continuing to work favorably as the recovery continues.  Ultimately, they see the S&P 500 hitting 1,300 by year-end:

“The strength of the reporting season reinforces the case for staying long equities. We still see the S&P 500 at 1,300 by year-end but our risk balance has now shifted firmly to the upside.”

Source: JP Morgan

Read more market commentary at The Pragmatic Capitalist >

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The Zagato Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa is a race car, honouring 100 years of races and victories across the whole 20th century. The TZ3 Corsa is based on a mono shell carbon fibre tubular chassis, coupled with a tubular frame and a lightweight aluminium body. It boasts Technical Partners such as OMP and Pirelli.

Following Zagato’s gentlemen-driver heritage, the car has been commissioned by the Alfa Romeo Zagato collector Martin Kapp, during the Zandvoort Tribute to Zagato event, where more than 130 Alfa Romeo Zagatos were celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the brand.

Even the grandiose Quadrifoglio Verde was placed on the bodies of Zagatos of the Alfa Corse team numerous times. Among the most glorious moments is the victory of the Formula 1 championship of Juan Manuel Fangio, aboard his Alfa Romeo 159 bodied by Zagato, as well as the victorious Alfa Romeo 3000 CM bodied in 3 samples by Zagato.

Source: Lincah.Com – New Car and Used Car Pictures

New reports are coming in implying that Infiniti is developing a new compact crossover off a Daimler platform specifically for the European market. This is contrary to older reports that it is considering the use of Mercedes-Benz powertrain in future models.

The French publication L’Automobile said that the Daimler-Renault-Nissan alliance would enable Nissan to design a smaller CUV for Europe. The vehicle, which is named as the “DX” will be slotted under Infiniti’s current small crossover, the EX, enabling the brand to target BMW’s X1 and the forthcoming Audi Q3. Continued after the jump!

L’Automobile says that it’s possible that the crossover would ride on the same underpinnings as Mercedes-Benz’s A- and B-Class vehicles. Infiniti is believed to either approach Daimler for a four-cylinder engine for the Euro-only model or it could turn to parent Nissan for an economic engine.

To date, the Alliance has confirmed platform sharing to proceed only with its small cars. It’s probable that a certain design will be shared by the next-generation Smart ForTwo, ForFour, and the Renault Twingo. If the DX does get produced, it will be considered as an indication that Nissan is concerned about marketing the Infiniti brand in Europe.

Recently, the brand started installing turbo-diesel V-6 engines into its Euro-spec EX and FX crossovers. The new M that will be launched abroad is likely to receive the same engines. Infiniti added that it is likely to introduce a premium compact car, which will rival the BMW 1 Series, Lexus CT200h, and Audi A3. This model is expected to be launched years from now but it’s believed that it will be fitted with some components or designs that originated in Germany.

[via automobilemagazine]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Brazil’s laws concerning liability for online posting continue to haunt Google for no good reason. For years now, we’ve been hearing about lawsuits against Google in Brazil because of comments made on Orkut, Google’s social networking site that (for whatever reason) is mostly popular in Brazil. Brazil doesn’t seem to have a concept of safe harbors or of actually applying liability to those who actually did the actions. Instead, every time that someone does something mean on Orkut, Google gets blamed and fined.

Slashdot points us to the latest such case, an appeal of an earlier ruling against Google, where, once again, the judge found that Google should have magically stopped a supposedly defamatory message from being posted:

“By making space available on virtual networking sites, in which users can post any type of message without any checks beforehand, with offensive and injurious content, and, in many cases, of unknown origin, [Google] assumes the risk of causing damage [to other people],” judge Alvimar de Avila said.

Of course, that makes no sense. Does that mean webhosts are automatically responsible for any content that people put online? Claiming that just creating a place where people can post messages means liability for the provider creates huge chilling effects. It doesn’t make sense for any internet company to operate in Brazil if it has any user-generated component at all. The liability is way too high.

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Google is finally comfortable enough with its Google Earth web browser plugin to include in Google Maps. The new Earth View in Maps enables users to view a full 3D version of any location on Earth. Google has been making an effort to have as many 3D buildings as possible and plenty of cities around the world are now modeled in three dimensions.
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Cargraphic has provided several sketches as a sample of what to expect in the optics tuning that it plans to do on the upcoming Aston Martin Rapide.

The German tuning firm didn’t give an image of the front but it mentioned a spoiler on the front apron, side mirror caps and a rear diffuser. Cargraphic also intends for the Rapide to have its own set of GT-R 21-inch light alloy rims covered in 255/35R21 tires for the front and 295/30R21 at the back. Cargraphic will also offer the GT, I-10 and Sport rims, which will be offered in 20 to 22-inch dimensions. The Rapide will also be getting the high-grade steel flap on the exhaust that will be remote controlled and will come with a polished shield. Cargraphic calls this exhaust system as the “Stradvarius of mufflers,” which the tuner claims will result to delivering some extra horsepower out of the 6.0 liter V12 engine. Photo gallery after the jump!

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Article Tags: Lewis Page

Greenhouse experiments show reduced greenhouse effect

The world may not be doomed after all, according to top American dirt scientists. Soil-dwelling microbes, expected in climate models to go into CO2-spewing “overdrive” as the world warms, refused to do so in experiments.

According to a statement released this week by the US National Science Foundation, which funded the research:

Conventional scientific wisdom holds that even a few degrees of human-caused climate warming will shift fungi and bacteria that consume soil-based carbon into overdrive, and that their growth will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

This conventional wisdom now appears to be wrong, as research conducted by University of California ecologist Steve Allison have shown that in fact the carbon-eating microbes’ planet-busting activities are reduced, not increased, by warmth.

Allison developed a new climate model based on experimental results showing what happened in soils which had been warmed up artificially in greenhouses over a period of several years. There is an initial increase in microbial emissions, which has been the basis for existing models, but after a while the microbes “overheat” and their numbers – and CO2 output – plunge.

Click source to read FULL report from Lewis Page

Source: theregister.co.uk

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Article Tags: Tony Hake

One of the key scientists at the center of the Climategate email scandal has threatened suit against the creators of a video parodying the event. Lawyers for Dr. Michael Mann of Penn State University say the video “irreparably harms Dr. Mann’s personal and professional reputation.”

The video, launched last November in the wake of the scandal that saw some of the top climate scientists’ emails exposed, uses an image of Mann taken from Penn State’s website. Singing the refrain “Hide the Decline” which refers to one of the more controversial emails, the video is set to the tune of “Draggin the Line” by Tommy James and the Shondells.

Originally created by the operators of the website Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW), the video became a YouTube sensation and garnered over half a million views in five months.

In a letter from the lawfirm Cozen – O’Connor Attorneys, Peter Fontaine demands that all versions of the video be pulled from YouTube and other sites. Fontaine writes that, “The referenced video clearly defames Professor Mann by leaving viewers with the incorrect impression that he falsified data to generate desired results in connection with his research activities.”

Source: examiner.com

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Article Tags: Lawrence Solomon

Seeing countries around the world back away from their climate change commitments, and seeing his own electoral support crumble, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today that Australia will be shelving its cap and trade program for at least three years, until after the next election. “That will provide the Australian government at the time with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change,” he told the Australian press.

In recent weeks, Rudd has been embarrassed by decisions by the US and Japanese governments to put climate change on the back burner and alarmed by the growing opposition at home to climate change legislation. His once popular plans to cut back emissions by 5% by 2020, which were scheduled to begin next year, have been twice rejected by Australia’s Senate faced certain defeat in a third vote that was expected in several weeks.

Once the darling of the environmental movement, Rudd is now widely seen as ineffectual. A poll commissioned by the Climate Institute and the Conservation Foundation found that just 36% of voters saw Rudd as the best person to handle climate issues, and that 40% found no difference between his Labour government and opposition conservatives. Other polling shows the opposition gaining in the public opinion polls, as an increasingly skeptical public turns against the climate change orthodoxy.

Source: network.nationalpost.com

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The Telstra HTC HD2 has recieved a ROM update from HTC. The ROM version is 1.72.841.0.

As usual, no change log is available.

Get the ROM from HTC here.

This post was submitted by alamfour.

Chrysler, an industry leader in U.S. fleet sales, has announced that it will be implementing changes to its fleet sales mix in an effort to increase resale values. Chrysler plans to dramatically lower the proportion of its sales specifically being made to rental fleets – aiming to drop the number by more than half.

According to a report by Automotive News, Chrysler has big changes planned in regards to its long-time reliance upon low-margin fleet sales, particularly to rental car companies.

Chrysler’s top dealer executive, Peter Grady, delivered a speech during the 2010 NAFA Fleet Management Association expo earlier today. Grady acknowledged the automaker’s heavy reliance on fleet sales, but said the automaker is taking action and laying out a plan that aims to drastically cut back on fleet and rental car fleet sales.

“Our growth will come from large commercial and government markets,” said Grady.

Grady was referring to Chrysler’s need to retain a crucial and strong fleet sales element, but to shy away from the low-margin sales to rental car companies. As Automotive News explained, not all fleet sales are created equal – government and business fleet sales typically offer higher profit margins than the sales to rental car agencies.

Chrysler currently relies heavily on fleet sales, with 58 percent of its total February sales being sold to various fleet customers, according to documents obtained by Automotive News. Previously, Chrysler officials said that their optimal mix would include only 25 percent fleet sales.

Grady also mentioned during his speech that the first quarter was particularly heavy with fleet sales industry-wide, as many agencies replacing aging models with high mileage. Grady believes that the mix of fleet sales will begin to normalize and taper off for the rest of 2010 with about 2.1 of the estimated 11 million total vehicle sales in the U.S. being fleet-based.

Chrysler does plan, however, to use the late 2010 introduction of the new 2011 Dodge Charger to drive fleet sales with law enforcement departments nationwide.

References
1. ‘Chrysler exec: We’ll cap rental…’ view

Source: Leftlane