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Hummers are for Horses: Artist reimagines the monsterous SUV [w/video] Gives “Futurama” a new meaning. |
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Infiniti EV to be built on Leaf platform, release scheduled for 2014 One more step in Nissan’s EV plan. |
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So, how much should the Chevy Volt cost? Is there a “right” price? |
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AutoblogGreen for 03.26.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Σύμφωνα με τις τελευταίες αναφορές η BMW φαίνεται να έχει καταθέσει πιστοποίηση καταχώρησης (aka trademark) 23 νέων ονομάτων. Αρχικά έχει κατοχυρώσει τα i1, i2, i3, i4, i5, i6, i7, i8, i9 και E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9 καθώς επίσης και τα M 50 d, Urbanic, Gran Coupe, Compactive και Compactive Tourer.
Με τις πληροφορίες να είναι ακόμη συγκεχυμένες η Μ 50 d θα διαθέτει έναν tri-turbo πετρελαιοκινητήρα, το Urbanic ένα στιλιστικό πακέτο (ή κάτι παρόμοιο), το Gran Coupe η τετράπορτη έκδοση της Σειράς 6 και το Compactive και Compactive Tourer ένα μικρό sport crossover όχημα βασισμένο είτε πάνω στην Σειρά 1 είτε πάνω στην Σειρά 3. Όσον αφορά την σειρά i πρόκειται για το νέο Project-i της εταιρίας που αποτελείται από αυτοκίνητα πόλης που θα κινούνται με εναλλακτικές πηγές ενέργειας και η σειρά E για τα eDrive μοντέλα της εταιρίας.
Yesterday we used some juvenile language to describe the selloff in bonds, possibly as a result over US debt fears, but also possibly because everyone is crazy to plow their money into the stock market right now.
Here’s how the WSJ describes the action today:
The move up in [yield] coincides with the impending end of the Federal Reserve’s program to support the mortgage market. The Fed has bought $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities, bolstering their prices and thus holding down their yields.
In just the past two days, the rate on 30-year Fannie Mae mortgage securities has risen to 4.5% from 4.3%. Once fees by lenders are tacked on, this means mortgage rates above 5%. Thomas Lawler, a housing economist, says some bigger lenders have already raised rates. Some were quoting 30-year mortgages at 5.125% Thursday morning, up from 4.875% earlier in the week, he said in a note to clients.
Concerns about the U.S. budget deficit are beginning to hurt the Treasury market, said Steve Rodosky, head of Treasury and derivatives trading at bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co. He said he is increasingly worried about the U.S. fiscal outlook.
There is this problem though of: why are people buying stocks if they’re concerned the US government is going to go bust? After all, if Uncle Sam runs into serious trouble it will create an economic crisis in America, and before we get to that, the government will tax the hell out of any profitable corporation. Fears of Greece-style calamity don’t quite work.
For some more perspective, here’s a month’s worth of 10-year not yields. The move is hard to miss.
Finally, we’ll throw in a gold chart, and note that if the bond selloff were really the result of debt fears, we’d likely see a little more on this front, no?
Instead the move has been pretty meh.
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Oracle has released the financial results for its past fiscal quarter and the numbers are encouraging not only for the company, which was already doing quite well, but for the economy at large. The enterprise-software manufacturer beat Wall Street expectations in both revenue and net income and said the recently closed Sun acquisition had less of… (read more)
Update #2: Chrysler has officially announced it is offering Letters of Intent to 50 arbitrating dealers to join its dealer network as full-line representatives. These are dealers whose contracts were rejected as a part of OldCarCo’s bankruptcy proceedings last year. The 50 dealers are in locations that offer customer service benefits and will have limited adverse impact on the dealers within our current network.
Update: It is now reported that 12 closed Chrysler Group dealerships were told by company representatives that they are to receive letters of intent beginning their reinstatement process.
In an abrupt change of company-policy, Chrysler made four dealers who had been previously terminated aware that they would be receiving letters of intent to begin their reinstatement process, according to the leader of a rejected dealers group. Just two weeks ago, the company said that it would not be reinstating any of the 400 dealerships that had signified their intent to arbitrate.
It is not exactly clear yet how many dealerships have been told that they would be receiving letters of intent, as Chrysler declined to confirm the news. Tamara Darvish, a co-leader of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights, a group who lobbied on behalf of rejected GM and Chrylser dealers said that three separate dealerships had notified her of Chrysler’s getting in touch with them regarding their receipt of letters.
This comes in the wake of much pressure from Congress and the GM reinstatements. GM announced the reinstatement of 661 dealerships earlier this month; more than half of the dealers who had originally been cut by them. Out of the 789 closed Chrysler dealerships, less than 400 petitioned for reinstatement.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)
With the IMF deal basically agreed to, and the Euro back on the rise, today we’re going to try to accomplish what we almost did yesterday — resume our big risk-aversion rally, while selling out of the dollar.
For the most part, everyone that’s not the dollar is up (with a few exception) at this hour.
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Este es el reciente roadmap de AMD para su linea de procesadores de escritorio.
YouTube is working on a major redesign, perhaps the biggest the site has seen, and you can imagine it’s a daunting task for a site this large and complex. The redesigned site has been in testing for a few months now and, though things are moving forward, every change is put through its paces thoroughly. The latest big change to go live is a revamped c… (read more)
El gigante Taiwanes Asus, a salido a presumir que ellos hasta hoy son la empresa que con mayor velocidad a integrado USB 3.0 en toda su nueva linea de productos y no solo en las placas madres.
“Somos los primeros en el mundo en introducir USB 3.0 a través de nuestros ordenadores portátiles, a saber, la Serie N”, dijo Jerry Shen, CEO de Asus. “Somos también los primeros en ganar la certificación USB-IF, logrado en nuestra placa base premium P6X58D. Creemos que USB 3.0 tiene un papel fundamental a la hora de ofrecer la experiencia definitiva para una nueva generación de usuarios con conocimientos multimedia. Con USB 3.0 , todos pueden disfrutar de compartir datos más rápidamente y hacer copias de seguridad ultra rápidas “.
Hasta el día de hoy esta es toda la gama de hardware de Asus con soporte USB 3.0:
– Motherboards
P7P55/P7P55D/P7P55D-E Series (Intel P55 chipset)
P7P55 WS SuperComputer (Intel P55 chipset)
ROG Rampage II Series/Rampage III Extreme (Intel X58 chipset)
ROG Maximus III Series (Intel P55 chipset)
P6T/P6TD/P6X58 Series (Intel X58 chipset)
P7F7-E WS SuperComputer (Intel 3450 chipset)
P7H57/P7H55 Series (Intel H57/H55 chipset)
P5G41T-M/USB3 (Intel G41 chipset)
P5P43TD/USB3 (Intel P43 chipset)
M4A89 Series (AMD 890GX/890FX chipset)
M4A88/M4A87 Series (AMD 880/870 chipset)
M4A77 Series (AMD 770 chipset)
M4A785 Series (AMD 785G chipset)
M4A78 Series (AMD 780 chipset)
M4A79 Series (AMD 790FX chipset)
– Nettops
Eee Box 1510U/1210U
– Notebooks/netbooks
N Series notebooks
Eee PC 1018/1015/1016
– Placas PCIe
U3S6
Recientemente apareció en Amazon.de el nuevo modelo de netbook/tablet de Asus a 499 euros, estamos hablando de la Eee Pc T101MT que se había anunciado hace un mes atrás.
Esta netbook trae una pantalla giratoria multi-táctil de 10.1″ (como se puede apreciar en las imágenes) así como un Intel Atom N450 a 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Intel GMA 3150, Win 7 Home Premium y pad multi-táctil.
La Asus Eee PC T101MT cuenta también con webcam de 0.3 megapixeles, altavoces estéreo, 10/100 Ethernet, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth, un lector de tarjetas SD, una batería que proporciona hasta 6,5 horas de autonomía y como frutilla del postre (por si no alcanzaba con la pantalla multi-táctil), ASUS ha integrado un sintonizador de TV.
Wikipedia is getting ready to launch a redesign that has been in the works for several months now. The new theme, dubbed Vector, is much more pleasing to the eye than the current design, but is also more ergonomic and focuses on several things that should make the site easier to use. The new theme will be rolled out next month. The edit box is also g… (read more)
Νέο promo video έδωσε η Audi μέσω του Audi TV για το νέο Audi RS5. Με ατμοσφαιρικό V8 κινητήρα 4.2 λίτρων με 450 άλογα και 43 κιλά ροπής, το RS5 κάνει τα 0-100 χλμ/ώρα σε 4.6 δευτερόλεπτα προτού αγγίξει τα 250 χλμ/ώρα όπου ανέρχεται η τελική του ταχύτητα που περιορίζεται ηλεκτρονικά (η Audi μπορεί να βγάλει τον περιοριστή και η τελική να αγγίζει έτσι τα 280 χλμ/ώρα). Η μέση κατανάλωση του μοντέλου ανέρχεται στα 10.8 λίτρα/100 χλμ.
Για να δώσει μια αίσθηση υπερστροφής στο τετρακίνητο τερατάκι της, η Audi τοποθέτησε ένα κεντρικό διαφορικό το οποίο έχει κατανομή 40:60 (μπρος — πίσω) και είναι ικανό να μεταφέρει έως και το 70% στον μπροστά άξονα και 85% στον πίσω σε περίπτωση που χρειαστεί. Το αυτοκίνητο θα βρίσκεται στην αγορά της Γερμανίας την άνοιξη με αρχική τιμή τις €77.000. Video και φωτογραφίες στη συνέχεια.
We’re all familiar with the many reasons why patent holders try to file their lawsuits in East Texas — a notoriously “patent holder friendly” court, such that the it remains (far and away) the most popular court for patent lawsuits. However, in recent years, there has been some effort underway to get cases that obviously don’t belong in East Texas to be moved elsewhere, with some success. However, to deal with this, we’ve seen a variety of tactics from patent holders, including suing lots of companies in a variety of places so that “any place” is better than somewhere else and picking a random tiny local East Texas company to sue along with all the big companies, just so you can claim “hey, the lawsuit belongs in East Texas.”
Apparently, another tactic is to move your “operation” from wherever it was to East Texas just before filing the lawsuit — so you can claim that you’re actually based there. That happened in a recent lawsuit, and the company being sued tried to have the venue moved, claiming that the “move” to East Texas was “a sham” designed solely to set the venue. However, as Joe Mullin notes, East Texas’ most famous judge for patent cases, Judge Ward, is having none of it, suggesting there are plenty of other reasons a company might “move” to East Texas right before suing over patent infringement:
“[Defendant] argues that [plaintiff] moved its location from Ann Arbor to Longview as a sham concocted simply in anticipation of this litigation. . . . [A] business opens its doors in a particular location for a number of considerations, including the cost of rent, market profitability, cost of doing business, and tax benefits. The Court declines to scrutinize litigants’ business decisions in order to determine whether opening an office in a particular location has a legitimate business purpose or is merely a ‘tactic . . . to manipulate venue.’
If you want to make some quick money, now might be a good time to set up a business that helps “small companies” quickly “set up offices in East Texas,” because I get the feeling it’s about to become a booming business…. for the tax benefits, of course.
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O βελτιωτικός οίκος B&B αποφάσισε να βελτιώσει το νέο Scirocco R της Volkswagen για αυτούς που τα 265 άλογα δεν του είναι αρκετά. Με 3 πακέτα βελτίωσης το Scirocco R μπορεί να φτάσει μέχρι τα 362 άλογα. Αναλυτικά, το 1ο στάδιο περιλαμβάνει επαναπρογραμματισμό της ECU που ανεβάζει την ιπποδύναμη στα 310 άλογα με 41 κιλά ροπής διαθέσιμα από τις 1.900 σ.α.λ με την τελική ταχύτητα να αγγίζει τα 275 χλμ/ώρα.
Το 2ο στάδιο διαθέτει επίσης νέα εξάτμιση, νέο φίλτρο εισαγωγής, αντλία υψηλής και άλλα μπεκ ανεβάζοντας την ιπποδύναμη στα 320 άλογα με 43.5 κιλά ροπής διαθέσιμα από τις 2.000 σ.α.λ με την τελική ταχύτητα να αγγίζει τα 279 χλμ/ώρα.
Τέλος το 3ο στάδιο εκτός από τα παραπάνω διαθέτει νέο turbo της B&B, αγωνιστική εξάτμιση , και εισαγωγή αέρα με την ιπποδύναμη να αγγίζει τα 362 άλογα με 48 κιλά ροπή διαθέσιμα από τις 2.600 σ.α.λ με την τελική ταχύτητα να ξεπερνά τα 280 χλμ/ώρα. Οι τιμές και τα αναλυτικά χαρακτηριστικά του κάθε πακέτου στη συνέχεια.
There were stories circulating this week that somehow super-grifter Sarah Palin’s “alternative reality show” Baked Alaska was somehow going to end up on the Discovery Channel. 
The same channel that has given you “Planet Earth” and “Life“, shows featuring the undeniable power of the evolutionary process, was going to give you someone who thinks the first Kentucky Derby winner rode a Jesus-Horse.
But alas, you cannot schedule Sarah Palin before or after “Mythbusters” so Discovery shuttled her off to lesser-light TLC, the network that brings you such quality programming as ‘Hoarding: Buried Alive‘, ‘Little People, Big World‘, and the Duggars 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and Counting. And it’s great that Palin can come to TLC and save the network because the Duggars are just about out of cipherin’ digits to figure out how many they’ve done birthed.
(pic from here)
Τον περασμένο Σεπτέμβρη ο πασίγνωστος οδηγός της F1 Jackie Stewart πήρε ένα Pagani Zonda S για test drive αλλά για κακή του τύχη κατά την διάρκεια του test drive τράκαρε το αυτοκίνητο κοντά στην πόλη Aberdeen της Σκωτίας. Με τις πληροφορίες να είναι συγκεχυμένες για το πως έγινε το ατύχημα, οι ζημιές που υπέστη το αυτοκίνητο ανέρχεται στις €336.000 περίπου όταν όλο το αυτοκίνητο κοστίζει €560.000. Αυτό έκανε την Aviva, την ασφαλιστική εταιρία που ήταν ασφαλισμένο το αυτοκίνητο να στείλει το αυτοκίνητο στο εργοστάσιο ώστε να επισκευαστεί
Σύμφωνα με τον εκπρόσωπο της Aviva «Αυτό που έγινε με το συγκεκριμένο αυτοκίνητο είναι διαφορετικό από αυτό που κάνουμε συνήθως. Αν και το αυτοκίνητο υπέστη σοβαρές ζημιές η Aviva αποφάσισε να στείλει το αυτοκίνητο στην έδρα της Pagani στην Modena της Ιταλίας, ώστε να επισκευαστεί. Και συμπλήρωσε: » Αυτό είναι το μεγαλύτερο πόσο που έχει δώσει οποιαδήποτε ασφαλιστική εταιρία στην Αγγλία για την επισκευή ενός ιδιωτικού αυτοκινήτου.»
Videos και φωτογραφίες από την επίσημη παρουσίαση του νέου της supercar έδωσε στη δημοσιότητα η McLaren. Το παρόν στις εγκαταστάσεις του Woking της Αγγλίας, έδωσαν και τα δύο της αστέρια από την F1, Lewis Hamilton και Janson Button καθώς και ο πρόεδρος της εταιρίες Ron Dennis. Η MP4-12C εφοδιάζεται με έναν 3.8 λίτρων V8 κινητήρα απόδοσης 600 ίππων με 60 κιλά ροπή. Φωτογραφίες και video μπορείτε να δείτε στη συνέχεια.
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mil. sq. mi.
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mil. sq. km.
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|
|
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||
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Boreal Forests
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6.4
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16.6
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Other Forests
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12.8
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33.2
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||
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Source: The World Bank 1996
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||
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||
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Country
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Total forest area (millions of ha.)
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Percentage of global forested area
|
|
|
||
|
|
764
|
22
|
|
|
566
|
16
|
|
|
247
|
7
|
|
|
210
|
6
|
|
|
134
|
4
|
|
|
116
|
3
|
|
|
113
|
3
|
|
Nordic countries
|
53
|
2
|
|
All other
|
1239
|
36
|
|
|
||
Among birds, insect-eaters like the wood warblers are migratory and leave after the breeding season. Seed-eaters (e.g., finches and sparrows) and omnivores (e.g., ravens) tend to be year-round residents. During poor cone years, normal residents like the evening grosbeak, pine siskin, and red crossbill leave the taiga in winter and may be seen at residential bird feeders.
Fire, which removes the lichen from the ground, can severely impact caribou but favours moose, which browse on the advance growth (new saplings) that emerges after the fire. As human populations encroach on this remote forest area, they increase the frequency of fires, and caribou populations decline.
As far as we know, all current climate and numerical weather prediction models grossly overestimate evapotranspiration from the region.
EMC2 recently created a buzz in the fusion underground by reporting on its Web site that a series of experiments was able to “validate and extend” earlier results reported by the late physicist Robert Bussard. The company is now using a $7.9 million contract from the
“No B.S. and no excuses,” Nebel told me over the weekend. “If it looks like we have a problem with this, we’re going to tell them.”
But if IEC fusion actually works, Nebel wants to be ready to commercialize the technology. “Generally what you want to do is have one machine operating, one machine being built, and one machine designed,” he said. “We want to be in a position that if we have good results from WB-8, we can hit the ground running.”
That’s what the contributions being sought under the umbrella of the
The EMC2 Fusion Web site sports a picture of a 100-megawatt WB-D fusion demonstrator, which looks like a cube about 20 feet on a side. Nebel said the eventual design may not look like the picture, but he does believe the best path to success leads to relatively small-scale reactors rather than the mega-reactors envisioned by ITER’s backers.
Nebel can’t yet predict whether his path will pan out. Some experts say the equations of plasma physics suggest that Wiffle Ball devices can never produce more power than it consumes, and that IEC research is destined to lead to a dead end. But so far, Nebel sees no reason to stop moving ahead. “It’s been quite a trip on this thing,” he said, “and I have a feeling this is going to continue.”
The EMC2 WB-8 has more flanges.
