Author: Serkadis

Heavenly Sword dev Ninja Theory has their own… theory regarding 3D gaming. According to studio co-founder Tameem Antoniades, it’s doable this generation but it will be limited.

Sempre é muito curioso ver quando uma pessoa tenta se superar em alguma coisa na vida, como as pessoas que tem algum tipo de deficiência. Quando um cadeirante por exemplo tenta dirigir é algo gratificante para a pessoa. Agora eu penso como seria a sensação de um deficiente visual ao dirigir um carro. E mais do que isso, em altíssima velocidade.

O cantor turco Metin Senturk, é cego desde os 3 anos e se tornou oficialmente o “motorista cego mais rápido do mundo“. Senturk chorou quando saiu da Ferrari F430 que pilotou no aeroporto de Urfa, na Turquia, com a ajuda de outro piloto que estava orientanto-o em outro carro próximo.

Segundo os representantes do Guiness Book que estavam presentes, a sua velocidade média foi de 292,89 Km/h, o que superou o recorde anterior de direção cega sem acompanhante, que era de 284 km/ de um executivo britânico. Senturk diz o seguinte sobre a experiência:

“Eu não acho que haja palavras para descrever essa sensação. Estou realmente feliz. Foi realmente difícil, como dançar com a morte”.

Imagens do piloto cego recordista mundial

Via | G1

It got some media attention this week, but Russia’s energy and defense deal with Venezuela — culminating in a showy joint press conference between Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez — probably deserves more of your attention.

Putin is not subtle. As you’ll see in the video below (courtesy of Russian state-funded network Russia Today) Putin comes right out and says: if the US won’t sell weapons to Venezuela, we will!

And of course, with Venezuela in dire straits economically, they have every reason to seek alliances with parties that will bother the US. Watch the whole thing.

Of course, there’s good reason to still believe that Russia itself is toast.

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We know little, but that we must hold to what is difficult is a certainty that will not forsake us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it.

To love is good, too: love being difficult.

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.

GOING THROUGH SOME CHALLENGES IN LOVE AND LIFE? Check out Prince Harming Syndrome – which has complimentary praise on the back cover from both Jon Stewart and Deepak Chopra! You can find out more about this book of mine by clicking this line, right here, right NOW!

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It looks like Dragon Quest IX isn’t the only new game in the franchise that’s getting an overseas release. A new trailer for Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 hints that the handheld game might also be headed outside Japan.

Quem é que nunca viu aquele filme que sempre passa na Sessão da Tarde, na Globo, o “Curtindo a Vida Adoidado“? É a história de três amigos que decidem matar aula e começam a se aventurar pela cidade com uma Ferrari 250 GT Califórnia 1961. Dessa vez, a estrela da vez será o famoso conversível!

Mas a Ferrari do filme é uma réplica da original, que na época foi encomendada pela Paramount. Ele possui um motor Ford 4.7 V8 e será leiloado na Inglaterra, com valor estimado entre 30 a 40 mil libras, algo entre R$ 80 mil a R$ 100 mil.

Segundo a empresa leiloeira, o carro se encontra em perfeito estado, e não do jeito que as pessoas que assistiram o filme pensam que possa estar. Se não entendeu o que eu quis dizer, basta ver o vídeo logo a seguir, de um trecho do filme. Realmente é uma pena ver um carro ser tratado desse jeito, ainda mais uma Ferrari.

Via | Motor Pasion

Los Angeles needs drastic budget cuts to avoid running out of funds AND reserves by June 30, according to the LA Times.

Mayor Villaraigosa’s last ditch effort to raise funds by increasing electricity rates has been stymied by city council. But if he doesn’t force the rate hike, the Department of Water & Power has threatened to withhold a $73 million payment.

Ah small town politics.

There’s a halfhearted attempt at compromise among the cities powerful interest groups. Councilman Richard Alarcon, the man pushing for a state-wide boycott on pre-crisis swaps, offered his vocal support for the first of four rate hikes. Of course Alarcon is supporting only the bare minimum to avoid default today, leaving the real problem for next month.

In the likely scenario that the city goes bankrupt in June, two possibilities emerge — the same options on offer in Greece: indentured slavery or strategic default.

Clearly, no help is coming from the state of California.

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Filed under: Aftermarket, Smart, Specialty

Any press release dated April 1 is a potential disinformation landmine, but news of Smart’s latest attempt to make the ForTwo enticing seems legit. The diminutive Smart ForTwo has fallen on its face in the North American market, down 61 percent this March versus last year, and judging from the latest bit of groundbreaking marketing from Smart’s UK outpost, the word is out that there’s not much “there” there.

Adding stickers and interior customization options to a car that’s having a tough time in the marketplace is the auto sales equivalent of adding a cute kid to the cast of a failing sitcom. Smart has gone there by collaborating with Germany’s Timo Wuerz to design new foil stickers for the ForTwo’s Tridion safety cell. Patterns include skylines, stars, and flowers. Everybody w00t as you tweet the news. Brabus has been sucked into it, too, affixing its name to a carbon fiber-look applique package for the interior. There’s a Brabus LED daytime running light package as well, that’s actually a functional option.

Stickers can’t do a thing about the dismal driving experience the thing exhibits in U.S. trim, though. At least it’ll look extra trendy parked nose-in to the curb somewhere. Press release posted after the jump.

[Source: Smart]

Continue reading Stuck in Park: Smart trying to rejuvinate brand with… foil stickers

Stuck in Park: Smart trying to rejuvinate brand with… foil stickers originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc.

Happy Easter from all of us here at Autoblog. We’ll be here on the usual weekend schedule here, providing your expected automotive fix all day. We’re very flattered that you put on your Sunday best for today’s visits, though. If you’re celebrating Easter, enjoy the day spent with family and friends, and as always, please drive safely during the day’s travels.

If you’re not celebrating Easter, let us also wish you a Happy Opening Night. Don’t forget to set your fantasy lineups. Anyhow, enjoy the day, gang. And remember – the deep candy discounts begin tomorrow. That means have melted (but still delicious) Reese’s Eggs in the glovebox for the next two weeks or so.

[Image: riptheskull | CC 2.0 license]

Happy Easter from Autoblog originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Cadillac, em uma tentativa de melhorar mais o tratamento de seus clientes, contratou os serviços de consultoria da grande rede de hotéris Ritz-Carlton, para que possam descobrir o segredo de vender para os clientes em potencial. A Ritz-Carlton presta também serviços de consultoria para outras empresas, ensinando como se comunicar e interagir com esses clientes.

Essa “reciclagem” está concentrada nas redes de concessionárias da Cadillac, e terá início com uma série de reuniões regionais a partir de abril. O vice presidente da Cadillac, Kurt McNeil, diz que a mudança de comportamento e tratamento aos clientes de luxo é somente o “início de um processo” que se estenderá durante o ano de 2010.

Um exemplo da interação desejada pela companhia é citado pelo vice presidente de marketing, Don Butler, quando um funcionário acompanha seus clientes até o carro enquanto segura um guarda chuva para eles quando está chovendo. Butler diz que isso é “algo simples” e “são coisas que não custam muito dinheiro“.

Via | Left Lane

Each year the US Postal Service produces a set of commemorative stamps to bring awareness to a different social issue. This year shelter animals are getting the spotlight! This special set of stamps features photos by photographer Sally Andersen-Bruce of animals that were all adopted from a shelter in New Milford, CT. The stamps are part of a campaign called Stamps to the Rescue, with Ellen DeGeneres as the spokeswoman, that seeks to raise awareness about adopting pets from shelters.

The stamps will be issued in a special ceremony on April 30, but you can pre-order a set now at StampsToTheRescue.com, plus you can read about each of the animals featured on the stamps.

A venda de automóveis na China está sendo bastante satisfatória para várias empresas, como é o caso da GM, que mostrou um salto de 68% nos resultados das vendas de março, o que também representa um novo recorde de vendas da montadora.

Sendo um pouco mais específico, a GM vendeu em março 230.048 carros na China, uma diferença de 41.502 veículos a mais que no mesmo período do ano anterior. Esse aumento também continua constante, e esse é o 15º mês consecutivo de bons resultados.

As vendas do primeiro trimestre inteiro aumentaram 71% e um total de 623.546 veículos vendidos. Apesar da China também ter enfrentado a crise nas vendas em 2009, o resultado coneguiu se manter em uma situação favorável para a companhia, enquanto a demanda de novos carros somente cresce no terrítório asiático.

Via | Left Lane

The two lucky winners of the Watson the Cat coaster giveaway are Robin (comment #6) and Katklaw777 (comment #323). I’m sure these cute coasters will bring a smile to your face every time you reach for your beverage!

Thanks to the folks at Medium Control for another great giveaway!

Article Tags: Fred Singer

Editorial by S. Fred Singer, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project.

ClimateGate Whitewash

There is now a desperate effort afoot by assorted climate alarmists to explain away the revelations of the incriminating e-mails leaked last year from the University of East Anglia (UAE). But the ongoing investigations so far have avoided the real problem, namely whether the reported warming is genuine or simply the manufactured result of manipulation of temperature data by scientists in England and the United States.

The latest report is by the British House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee, which largely absolved Philip Jones, head of UEA’s Climate Research Unit and author of most of the e-mails. How can we tell that it’s a whitewash? Here are some telltale signs:

Source: wattsupwiththat.com

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Article Tags: Book, Claude Allègre

PARIS—More than 400 French climate scientists want science minister Valérie Pécresse to take a clear stand against the country’s most vocal climate skeptic, geochemist Claude Allègre of the Institute of Geophysics of Paris (IPGP). On Wednesday, the group sent Pécresse a letter denouncing Allègre’s latest book, L’imposture climatique (The Climate Fraud), and asking her to express confidence in the climate research community. Allègre was science minister from 1997 until 2000.

The book—a series of interviews with journalist Dominique de Montvalon—includes a harsh attack on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which Allègre calls a “mafia-like system” that propagates a “baseless myth.” Climate scientists and journalists at several newspapers have argued that the book is riddled with errors, distortions of the data, and outright lies.

The dispute has played out for 2 months in raucous TV and radio debates and countless op-eds. French scientists say it’s time for the government and several prominent lab directors to take sides. The group also takes aim at IPGP Director Vincent Courtillot, another global warming skeptic. Allègre and Courtillot have made “false accusations” and “have forgotten the basic principles of scientific ethics, breaking the moral pact that binds every scientist to society,” Wednesday’s letter says. Pécresse has yet to address the letter directly, but on Wednesday, she told the newspaper Libération that she wants the Academy of Sciences to organize a debate about the issue.

Source: news.sciencemag.org

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Article Tags: Bring It On

The proper channels have failed. It’s time for mass civil disobedience to cut off the financial oxygen from denial and skepticism.

And we be many, but you be few.

Source: weblog.greenpeace.org

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Article Tags: World Temperatures

The amount of sea ice covering the Arctic dramatically increased last month, reaching levels not seen at this time of year for nearly a decade.

Returning ice – after years of declining cover – has astonished climate scientists who blamed unusually cold weather over the Bering Sea.

Researchers said they recorded the most ice in March since 2001 – and that the cover is approaching long-term average levels for the first time in ten years.

The scientists who released the data stressed that last month’s rise was part of yearly variations in ice cover and could not be taken as a sign that global warming is coming to an end.

But sceptics argued that the findings undermined ‘alarmist’ claims that the North Pole could be free of summer ice by 2013.

The unusual trend last month is revealed in figures published by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

In a typical year, Arctic ice cover peaks in mid-March and starts to fall as milder weather arrives.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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Having some 500 plus zombies was fun, but this number just won’t cut it anymore for the sequel of Dead Rising. Capcom’s just not happy with a small legion of undeads anymore, and so for Dead Rising

Beating yourself up for missing the Squad Rush multiplayer mode bcause you didn’t place your pre-order for Battlefield: Bad Company 2? You don’t have to anymore; it’s now open to the public.