Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Plants/Manufacturing, BMW, Mini, Motorcycle, Racing

Owners and lovers of classic BMWs have what to be thankful for. The Bavarian automaker estimates that roughly one in ten units it produced through the 1980s are still on the road, accounting for some 600,000 classic cars and another 70,000 motorbikes… that it knows of. In order to service and repair all those vintage vehicles, BMW has expanded its Classic Center and opened it up to the public.

Previously known as the Historic Workshop, the classics department has until now been responsible for maintaining the factory’s own collection of classics. Now the enlarged division is opening up its doors for privately-owned vehicles, with services extending from re-manufacturing discontinued parts to factory certification and even sales.

In addition to the reborn BMW Classic Center, the company has launched a dedicated motorsport division for vintage Bimmers and Minis, offering race support services and even complete restoration of racing models for such events as the Oldtimer Grand Prix, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Mille Miglia and Le Mans Classic.

With the worldwide count of classic BMWs expanding each year, the Classic Center and Motorsport divisions promise to keep vintage models on the road and track for years to come. Full details are available in the pair of press releases after the jump, and photos in the twin galleries below.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading BMW opens up Classic Center to customer cars, establishes dedicated vintage racing division

BMW opens up Classic Center to customer cars, establishes dedicated vintage racing division originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blythe Solar Plant in California. Photo credit: First Solar.

This week, the effort by Texas oil companies to stop the implementation of California’s landmark climate and clean energy bill, AB 32, made national headlines. Not satisfied with their efforts to derail federal climate and clean energy legislation, oil giants Valero Energy and Tesoro, both of San Antonio, Texas, are funding a campaign to prevent AB 32 from going into effect until California’s unemployment rate goes below 5.5 percent.

A Field Poll released Tuesday showed that a strong majority of Californians support AB 32, the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act. Despite arguments by the likes of Valero and Tesoro that AB 32 will hurt the California economy, 69 percent of poll respondents said they believe that California can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and expand jobs and economic prosperity at the same time.

It’s not surprising that in these economic times, opponents of clean energy and climate measures are using economic arguments to overturn efforts to alter the energy status quo. But various academic studies have analyzed AB 32’s potential economic impact, and the most rigorous among them have shown that that the law will have a net positive impact on California job creation. Californians will save money by using products that are more energy efficient—like appliances that use less electricity and fuel-efficient cars—and will spend that money on other goods and services throughout the the state’s economy.

Additionally, California’s decades-long commitment to forward-thinking energy efficiency policies has resulted in substantial job creation. The most recent study of California’s green jobs, released in December 2009 by Collaborative Economics and Next 10, found that during the current economic crisis, green jobs in California grew by five percent between 2007 and 2008, even as total jobs dropped a percent.

When California legislators passed AB 32 in 2006, they determined that the state would reduce its GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. They then tasked the California Air Resources Board to figure out which clean energy measures would enable California to meet this goal in the most cost-effective manner while also maximizing benefits to the economy, environment and public health.

For other states that are considering clean energy and climate measures, AB 32 is a model in that it includes the vast diversity of possible climate and clean energy policies. Key AB 32 measures include the following:

*A 33 percent renewable portfolio standard, to be met by 2020.
*A “million solar roofs” initiative.
*Strict building and appliance energy efficiency standards.
*GHG emissions standards for passenger vehicles.
*A low-carbon fuel standard.
*A plan for high-speed rail between Northern and Southern California.
*A cap and trade program, in collaboration with other Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
*Many other measures in areas including land use, industrial energy efficiency, agriculture, forests, recycling and waste, and water.

Visit the California Air Resources Board website for more details about the measures included in AB 32.

Also, stay tuned for a new plan from the California Apollo Alliance to take California beyond AB 32. The California Apollo Program, to be published this spring, is a comprehensive economic strategy to rebuild California’s economy on the shoulders of the growing clean energy sector.

AWEA Releases U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report

According to a new report by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), despite an ongoing recession and a dearth of national renewable energy policies, the U.S. wind industry broke all previous records by installing over 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity in 2009. This is enough power to meet the energy needs of 2.4 million homes. “Our annual report documents an industry hard at work and on the verge of explosive growth if the right policies—including a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES)—are put in place,” said AWEA CEO Denise Abode. “A national RES will provide the long-term certainty that businesses need to invest tens of billions of dollars in new installations and manufacturing facilities which would create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”

AWEA’s U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report states that approximately 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today and hold jobs in areas as varied as turbine component manufacturing, construction and installation of wind turbines, wind turbine operations and maintenance, legal and marketing services, and transportation and logistical services.

Texas leads the nation in installed wind capacity, followed by Iowa, California, Washington state and Oregon. States that added the most wind capacity in 2009 included Indiana, which added 905 MW of wind energy capacity in 2009, and Illinois, which added 632 MW. Thirty-six states have utility-scale wind projects.

This year, AWEA added sections to its annual report on manufacturing and workforce development. The U.S. wind industry has been criticized recently for a number of high-profile projects that planned to exclusively use wind turbines manufactured overseas. According to the AWEA report, 10 new manufacturing facilities came online in the U.S. last year, a slowdown from 2008. The total number of wind turbine component manufacturing facilities now operating in the U.S. is more than 200.

“In 2009, the U.S. wind industry lost considerable ground in terms of keeping the domestic manufacturing jobs it gained in 2007 and 2008 even though wind manufacturing—due to the size and weight of the components involved—represents the largest renewable sector potential for local production,” said Michael Peck, an Apollo Alliance board member and head of the MAPA Group, whose clients include wind manufacturer Gamesa. “Without a clear and consistent national climate and energy policy,  these jobs and factories have started to go overseas, a trend exacerbated by China and Europe, who have out-mandated, out-invented, out-deployed and out-exported compared to the U.S. model still perfecting outsourcing. The time is past urgent for the Administration and Congress to flip on the switch fairly quickly so that ‘green and clean’ doesn’t become ‘made somewhere else.’”

Click here to read some of the key findings of the AWEA report.

In other news …

*Intern at the Apollo Alliance! Apollo is seeking smart, organized, energetic people with strong research, writing and internet skills to intern with us this summer in our program and communications departments. Read the Program Intern job description and the Communications Intern job description. The application deadline is April 15.

*Read our newest clean energy success story about wind energy company Astraeus. Check out our new signature story, Michigan Wind Manufacturer Astraeus, Named after Greek Mythology’s Father of the Four Winds, Hopes to Father a New Generation of Wind Turbines, about a Michigan company that started out in 1965 as a tool and die shop and now plans to revolutionize the manufacture of wind turbine components using processes and materials that it hopes will reduce the cost of wind energy to the point that it is competitive with coal.   

On Twitter today, Seabreaze Capital manager Doug Kass announced:

That was after the market opened, and thus after a wave of generally positive retail sales announcements from various companies.

For his sake, we hope this trade works out better than it did the last time.

On February 8, he told Benzinga that the consumer remained ill and that: “Retail stocks should be shorted – perhaps even with impunity!”

So, how’s that trade done since then?

Here’s the SPDR S&P Retail Index (XRT). February 8 looks like the low. Hopefully he got off that trade a long time ago.

Join the conversation about this story »

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 4.8.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A wise woman and her young disciple were walking down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an angry man in a carriage drove haphazardly by the two, insensitively pushing the woman out of his way. She landed in a ditch filled with muddy water. The woman yelled after the man in the carriage, “May you have everything you want!” The disciple, surprised by the wise woman’s response, said: “I’m confused. Why did you say that to a man with such horrible behavior?” The woman replied, “Because a happy man wouldn’t have thoughtlessly pushed a woman into a ditch.”

Do you agree with this woman’s response? In my book The Bounce Back Book, I offer empowering strategies for embracing forgiveness and liberating yourself from anger and bitterness—even in the most challenging situations.

Here are 8 strategies to free you from your resentments starting today!

1. Say a Prayer
Whenever angry feelings about a person who’s harmed you enter your mind, tell yourself: “We are all good, loving souls who occasionally get lost.” Pray for this person to find their way back to a happier place—in the same way the woman in this story prayed for her offender.

2. Focus on Gratitude
Resist seeking happiness from the outside in. Instead, focus on gratitude exercises to bring happiness from the inside out. If you allow your self-image to be at the mercy of unpredictable events and unreliable people, your happiness will be forever on a chaotic roller coaster ride! Happiness must always be an inside joy! Whenever you are tempted to focus on all the ways the world has done you wrong, instead count your blessings by making a list of the five aspects of your life that you appreciate. It is good practice to purposefully end your day this way to keep focused.

3. to 8. – See the rest of these strategies over at OPRAH.COM! The above is excerpted from my new article posted over there – just nanoseconds ago! Read the rest by clicking this line here, right here, RIGHT NOW!

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Dowding Industries of Michigan hopes to revolutionize the manufacture of wind turbine components. Photo credit: Dowding Industries

When Jeff Metts, president of Michigan-based manufacturer Dowding Industries, attended the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference in Los Angeles in 2007, he was unsure if his company, which started out as a tool and die shop in 1965, would find a role to play in the new clean energy economy. The company, which employs 160 workers, had already reinvented itself once in 1997, moving away from manufacturing machines for the auto industry and toward the manufacture of construction equipment.

But Metts was surprised and invigorated by what he saw at the AWEA event. “Everybody had a look in their eye like this might work,” he said. “And being from Michigan, we had the idea that we could do this better than anybody else.” Shortly thereafter, Dowding built a new facility in Eaton Rapids specifically for wind manufacturing, where it plans to revolutionize the manufacture of wind turbine components using processes and materials that it hopes will reduce the cost of wind energy to the point that it is competitive with coal.

Metts compares today’s wind turbines to the automobiles of 1964: “When I was a kid, you would never take a car with high mileage on a long trip. Now, you wouldn’t think twice. That’s where the automotive companies have come over the years.” And that is where wind manufacturers still have a long way to go. According to Metts, wind turbines are being manufactured on machines that were built during World War II and are ripe for improvements to make them lighter, more efficient and less costly.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and the state’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG) were thinking along just these lines when they decided to designate a portion of Michigan’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for clean energy advanced manufacturing grants. They set aside $15.5 million in ARRA State Energy Program funds to support small manufacturing firms that seek to diversify into renewable energy manufacturing and have sound plans for producing the next generation of renewable energy systems.

“We want to position Michigan as a leader in this next generation of manufacturing,” said Amy Butler, Bureau of Energy Systems director at Michigan DELEG. “We have a knowledgeable and talented workforce; we have the manufacturing infrastructure; we have a long history of manufacturing in a next generation technology mindset; we have a lot of universities; and we also have a great workforce training system. With all of those assets together, it was perfect.”

In December 2009, DELEG awarded its Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing (CEAM) grants to five Michigan manufacturers, including a $7 million grant to Astraeus Wind Energy Inc., a partnership of Dowding Industries, and another Michigan company, MAG Industrial Automation Systems.

Metts said that Dowding’s approach to wind energy was to study where in the manufacturing process the company could make improvements. The company realized that by developing a specialized, state-of-the-art machine to manufacture large wind turbine components, it could significantly reduce the time it takes to manufacture them. In collaboration with MAG, Dowding designed a machine that will manufacture a wind turbine hub in 4 and ½ hours—a major breakthrough when contrasted with the 22 to 30 hours it currently takes using existing technology. Dowding estimates the new machine should be in operation by October 2010.

Astraeus has more wind manufacturing improvements in the works, including using carbon fiber rather than fiberglass to produce spar caps, which are wind turbine blade center beams, and eventually entire wind turbine blades. “It’s not a new technology, it’s a transfer of technology out of aerospace into the wind energy business,” Metts said. MAG currently manufactures aircraft wings and fuselage components from carbon fiber. Metts says wind turbine blades made from carbon fiber will be more durable, 30 percent lighter, and create 15 percent more energy than blades that are currently in use.

Additionally, Astraeus plans to use automation technology that will make wind turbine blades more uniform, and there is the potential for the company to use fiber optics on the blades to enable wind farm operators to quickly and easily assess their condition.

These are just the types of advances DELEG had in mind when it created the Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing Grants. “We believe that within Michigan, there is this spirit of doing things better, and we believe that in certain activities the manufacturing can be done more efficiently. When we’re talking about advanced manufacturing, we’re talking about best in class,” said Robert Jackson, section chief of DELEG’s Green Practices Section.

Other CEAM Grants went to a roofing company that has developed solar shingles using multicrystalline cells that produce more power and can be installed in less time than earlier versions, and a machining company that is manufacturing gearless, next-generation wind turbine systems, among others. Each company that received a grant had to document how it would create jobs, source from local suppliers, and contribute to the state’s goal of generating 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Each grant recipient also had to show it had secured commitments for additional project funding so that DELEG could be sure its grants would leverage further private and public resources for the clean energy manufacturing sector.

Metts believes that these grants and the technological advances they are supporting have the potential to bring manufacturing jobs back from places like China and Europe to states like Michigan. “This is a great country,” Metts said. “And I think a great country has to have a very strong manufacturing base and a very strong agricultural base. We create things, we make things, we feed people. I think we can be the leaders in this [renewable energy] industry, and I think it’s extremely important that we take the lead in what we can be the best in the world at. I think that’s where we need to go.”

More Information

Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth

Astraeus Wind

StockMapper [stockmapper.com] (note: works only during U.S. markets are open…) is an online stock heat map, representing the performance of all common stocks listed on the NYSE Euronext. The heat map renders the individual percent changes in market value for more than 1,800 U.S. and non-U.S. stocks. Users can filter the stock quotes by logical groupings such as geographic region, industry and major indices. The map can also be sorted by ticker symbol, price change, volume or market capitalization. Upon selecting an individual stock group a “bridge bar chart” appears of the price change and trading volume of all stocks in the group.

Interestingly, StockMapper was originally designed as a non-interactive map of the market to be shown on a number of exterior data displays outside of the NYSE’s Wall Street building.

See also STOC, NYTimes Financial Treemap, Vredit Crisis Visualized, SmartMoney Map and LabEscape Treemap.

Filed under: Convertible, Sedan, Bentley, Rumormill, Luxury

The current Bentley Azure may have only been in production for four years, but the platform that underpins it goes back to 1998. Developed back when both Bentley and Rolls-Royce were under Vickers ownership, it’s the same platform that formed the basis for the Arnage saloon and Brooklands coupe. But with the introduction of the Mulsanne – as we reported back in September – the old platform is set to be retired altogether.

Now that Bentley is concentrating its efforts on the Mulsanne, the Azure is reportedly the next to be discontinued. But if you’re super-wealthy and looking for a way to shuttle yourself and your company around the Riviera in open-air opulence, fret not, because a replacement is on the way.

According to new reports, however, the next-generation Azure (or whatever name Crewe selects for the model) may gain a couple of doors. If so, it would – not withstanding the likes of the Maybach Landaulet or Jeep Wrangler – bring back the long-dormant body-style of a four-door convertible, thus separating itself from the Rolls-Royce Phantom DropHead Coupe with which it will be competing.

[Source: BurlappCars.com]

Bentley Azure ending production… to be replaced by four-door convertible? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slashdot points us to a story of a kid who is got his mom charged with harassment over his Facebook account. While the Slashdot version (and the opening of the news article) make this sound like it was filed over posts from his mom on his profile, the details suggest something quite a bit different. This isn’t him being upset that his mom wrote stuff on his wall (hell, he could just block her or unfriend her), but about her apparently hacking into his account, changing his password and posting “slanderous” things as him. That seems a lot more like hacking and unauthorized access, rather than “harassment.” Update: According to some, the son had left a computer where he was logged in, and the mother access his account that way.

But, alas, it appears that in Arkansas, where this is taking place, is one of those states that has passed some sort of cyberbullying/cyberharassment law that make it illegal “to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause.” These laws tend to be way too broad, and risk criminalizing very minor activities (basic trolling, for example). So while it seems clear that, if the son’s story is true, the mother clearly deserves some form of legal punishment, it’s still troubling that the choice here was to use a harassment law, rather than a hacking law.

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Misc. Auto Shows, Alfa Romeo

Particularly astute (and Alfa-fanatical) readers may have noticed something missing from the Geneva Motor Show last month. With Alfa Romeo celebrating its centenary this year, the stoic Italian brand was reported to be commissioning three of Italy’s finest design studios to produce concept cars for the brand. But cool though they were, only two showed up at the Geneva Palexpo: the Pininfarina 2uettottanta and the Bertone Pandion. We chalked it up to an error in the initial reports, but now it seems like we’ve discovered what happened to the third.

According to reports, Zagato – not ItalDesign Giugiaro – will be rolling in to the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este this year with an Alfa Romeo concept of their own. Reportedly named the TZ3 Corsa, it follows the path of the original TZ1 and TZ2 (pictured above) which Zagato built on the basis of the old Alfa Giulia. Sources say it’s made up of a carbon-fiber frame, with the 4.7-liter V8 from the 8C Competizione providing motivation.

If it looks half as good as the Perana Z-One (and twice as nice as the less fortunate Ferrari 550 GTZ Barchetta), we could have a real stunner on our hands. We have a feeling we won’t mind the wait.

[Source: OmniAuto.it (translated) | Image: Brian Snelson via CC2.0]

Zagato reportedly to unveil new Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corsa concept at Villa d’Este originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lantech IPES-2208F-67 is a 8 10/100 Base-TX + 2 100FX Managed Industrial Switch with 8 PoE injectors. The full SNMP management features are including QoS for 4 queues, 801.q VLAN, IGMP snooping and query mode as well as SNTP and SMTP.

Equipped with DC 48V redundant input power, Lantech IPES-2208F-67 is able to feed each PoE port up to 15.4Watts with IEEE 802.3af PoE standard. It also supports relay contact to connect with alarm system, which can immediately notify of power failure and/or port down events. In case of events, Lantech IPES-2208F-67 will immediately send an email to pre-defined addresses and send trap to stations.

Lantech IPES-2208F-67 supports our Pro-Ring system including X-Ring, which is able to find an auto-recovery-path within 10ms up to 250 Lantech Industrial Switches and Dual-Homing feature ensures two X-Ring groups with redundant back up when connected to a backbone switch. Pro-Ring also provides Couple Ring, which is to ensure network recovery protection between two X-Ring groups. Furthermore, it can set back-up masters in X-Ring to ensure the most secure network.

IPES-2208F-67 is designed to meet with critical network environment with IP67 enclosure and M12 connectors for protection against immersion in water. It passed several tests under extensive Industrial EMI and Safety standards. Besides 1.2KVA Hi-Pot abnormal test, it also passed stability testing such as Free fall, Shock, and Vibration. For more usage flexibilities, IPES-2208F-67 supports wide operating temperature from -40°C to 75°C.
Lantech IPES-2208F-67 is the best to be used in any critical industrial environment where needs PoE functionality.

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Schönberg, Germany, March 2010
Nutrichem, a medium-sized company in the food industry with a domestic and international customer base, has been developing, producing, and packaging specialised dietary products for over 30 years. Production is primarily concentrated on liquids and powders.

Nutrichem and their specialised products demand the highest quality standards at every stage in the production process. High-performance, state-of-the-art production facilities help to guarantee the highest quality product. Forward planning, development and production, as well as attention to fault prevention are essential elements of Nutrichem’s quality policy. This attention to detail covers everything from product formulation and raw material selection and involves meticulous inspection at every stage of the operation. Nutrichem comply with all directives for medicinal products, GMP rules, and milk production and are an ISO 9001 certified company.

To satisfy the requirements of their quality management systems, Nutrichem already uses magnets and conventional metal detectors. In the search for the optimum technological solution for the inspection of products in aluminium foil packaging Nutrichem decided to install two RAYCON product inspection systems from S+S, with the ability to detect contaminants and other quality defects.

RAYCON product inspection systems utlise X-ray technology and are used for final inspection of packaged products. Aluminium packaging and metallised films are no problem for X-ray scanners. Even misaligned or misplaced products will not result in errors and with the S+S unit it is also possible to inspect two parallel product lines simultaneously. For rejection of out of specification product a pusher is used for cartons and a reject flap for bags.

RAYCON product inspection systems guarantee optimal image processing at a very high throughput rate of up to 600 products per minute. Operating with a low X-ray power of only 50 KeV, RAYCON is certified for food and food ingredients in compliance with EC directive 1999/2/EC, and requires no special installation provisions.