Author: Serkadis

If you’ve just undergone a very distressing experience, try switching your lens on the world.

Okay! Here’s a quickie Buddhist tale to confound and inspire!

One day a very wealthy man took his son on a trip to the country to live a few days on the farm with a very poor family.

His goal: Teach his son a lesson about what it means to be poor.

Upon their return, the father asked his son, “So, what did you learn about what it means to be poor?”

The son answered, “I learned that we have one dog. They have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden. They have a creek with no end. We have imported lanterns. They have an abundance of stars at night. We have a small piece of land to live on. They have fields that go beyond sight. We buy our food. They grow theirs. We have walls around our property. They have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

“Yes, Dad,” said the son, “you showed me how poor WE truly are.”

The lesson to be learned: With an open mind— “NEW EYES”— you can create a NEW REALITY!

Bounce Back Assignment:

Today, stop reacting in the same old ways to whatever is getting you upset. Try viewing your life with “NEW EYES”!

Remember: We live in a world of 1,000,000 interpretations. Ask yourself: What else can this mean? What’s a positive gain in this pain? How can I grow from this? What’s something positive which can come from this in 1 month, 6 months, 9 months, 5 years! How am I a better/wiser person because of this? Who do I get to meet because of this?

Remember: There’s only one letter difference between CHANGE and CHANCE. Every CHANGE is a CHANCE to get something which is actually different/better. We cling to the familiar because it’s safe – but the only way to get something different/better is to leave the land of the familiar! Wishing you all happy traveling into the land of the unknown! xoxo Karen

Feeling challenged, stressed or depressed? Check out my book – THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK – which offers many proven, empowering resiliency psychology techniques – and has been praised by Anthony Robbins! Just click this line, right here right now!

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, Lamborghini, Luxury

What the image shows is a 2011 Lamborghini Murciélago mule on a testing run in Portugal. What the mule shows is a profile that looks like the remnants of a tryst between Miami Vice and Cannonball Run – a Testarossa-esque aspect with cheesegrater side strakes, to be specific. And that must mean that this is a Frankensteined body thrown together to confuse snappers, because there is no way the next Murci will have any such hindquarters… right?

Underneath whatever Reventón-inspired cues the super coupe ends up wearing, it is understood that the next Murci will secret a carbon fiber tub that replaces the current car’s steel spaceframe. That bit of F1 tech will could bring the car in under 3,300 pounds. Shifting will be courtesy a sequential manual, the top speed beyond 200 miles per hour and the price beyond $300,000.

[Source: CAR]

Spy Shots: Is the 2011 Lamborghini Murciélago set to get Testarossa strakes? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As the Center for Responsive Politics celebrates Sunshine Week this year, we commend the steps taken by the White House and Congress for greater government transparency. For instance, the administration regularly releases records of who is visiting the White House, the U.S. House now posts expenditure data online and it’s becoming the norm for congressional leaders to release the final legislative language online for 72 hours before bills are voted upon.

On the 2008 presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to pour increased sunshine into government’s inner workings and vowed to stand up to special interests. His administration has stood firm behind these pledges and worked to keep these issues front and center — including an executive order on his first day in office with new ethics rules, a later ban on lobbyists from serving on government advisory boards and a new rule to post contacts with special interests on federal agencies’ websites. However, it will take a lot more effort and creative thinking on Obama’s part to bring his promises to fruition, as the administration also discovers how hard it is to change a city that has operated by certain rules for decades, if not centuries.

Neither the White House nor Congress should rest on their laurels. Despite the good progress made via some specific steps, there remains much to be done. Drawing upon last year’s report card, here are a several matters that require attention this year:

Leadership PACs

No more guessing their sponsors, but looser rules for their funds.

Last year, the Federal Election Commission’s new requirement to mandate the disclosure of a leadership PAC’s sponsor was a big win for transparency. Before that, it had been at times impossible to determine the politicians behind many leadership PACs. However, even with increased transparency, leadership PACs themselves aren’t quite out of the woods.

The biggest weakness in current law is that — unlike normal campaign committees — there is no explicit ban on personal use of leadership PAC funds by politicians. This raises major ethical questions. In addition, contributors can give far more money to leadership PACs than to the sponsoring politicians’ campaign committees, which can help certain individual contributors court extra undue influence.

The loose rules surrounding this type of political action committee has led some to describe them as giant slush funds. According to an in-depth report by ProPublica, leadership PACs can spend more on travel and golf than they contribute to other politicians, a more typical use of such funds. New regulation should bring these committees closer in line with their campaign counterparts, with higher scrutiny and tighter restriction on expenditures.

Senate Campaign Finance Filings

Save a tree, senators. File electronically.

This should be an easy fix, and it’s so necessary. Unlike members of the House and executive branch, senators still refuse to file their campaign finance reports electronically, slowing the release of names of campaign donors.

Why should the public be forced to wait until after an election to find
out which private donors foot the bill for the winner? Especially in an
age when senators are using Twitter while attending closed-door
meetings, posting regularly to their own blogs and supporting
environmentally friendly measures (filing electronically would save
six tons of trees a year), this is inexcusable.

Senators, getting an “A” in this subject is really easy: Pass S.482. This bill
would require members of the Senate to file their campaign reports
electronically, putting an end to this coy game. And although most
senators appear to be on board with e-filing, getting the bill passed
will mean defeating a poison-pill amendment that Sen. Pat
Roberts (R-Kan.) has introduced.

During the previous Congress, Sen. John
Ensign (R-Nev.) carried the water on this amendment, a blockade
disguised as a transparency measure that would deter nonprofits from
filing formal complaints questioning a senator’s ethics. The amendment
successfully killed the bill then, and during this Congress, it should
be taken up separately from the electronic filing issue.

527 Committees

There are at least 527 reasons why these shady committees need more sun.

527s lost their steam from previous elections, in large part because both Barack Obama and his 2008 presidential opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), spoke out against them. However, there’s still nothing on the books that would make these murky groups easy to track should they re-gain popularity in future elections. So-called 527 committees are allowed to use their funds only toward political activity and advertising that pushes their positions on particular issues. They are restricted from advocating for the election
or defeat of federal candidates, yet they often do so anyhow, either
because the issue is so obviously linked to the candidates or because
the group simply doesn’t abide by the law. And unlike political
committees that are overtly involved in elections (because they’re
allowed to be), 527 committees can raise unlimited donations, including
money directly from corporations and unions.

527 committees also file their disclosure reports with the Internal Revenue Service or in their home states, rather than with the Federal Election Commission. This means that the information is available, but not all in one place, and the IRS doesn’t provide any summary data for each 527 about how much it has raised and spent, in the way the FEC does for each federal candidate and PAC. This information should be disclosed, and the IRS should make it available. It should also track issue groups as they pop up under other sections of the tax code; right now there’s no way to monitor their activity in these other forms. And to improve its transparency mark in this area, the federal government needs to ensure that 527s are disclosing the full names of their donors.

Campaign Expenditures

Is your candidate charging his morning coffee and haircuts to his donors? It’s hard to tell.

From office supplies to advertising to catering and consulting, candidates and political committees are required to disclose how they’re spending their incoming contributions. But the generic and misleading options for describing expenditures almost encourage lawmakers to call a spade anything other
than a spade. Candidates are left selecting descriptions as vague as
“meeting” or as broad as “campaign expense.”

Many campaigns use software
to pick a description of how the money was spent based on a drop-down
menu that leaves no space for additional details. Donors who want to
know how their money was spent can’t really tell, and watchdog groups
fear that the vague and generic terms can mask conflicts of interest or
cover up inordinate and inappropriate spending. 

We’ve seen little improvement in expenditure transparency over the years and we’re not willing to grade on a curve for this one (or in any other area of transparency, for that matter). The Federal Election Commission should develop a list of acceptable descriptions so that one campaign’s “flowers” are not another’s “fund-raising expenses,” while requiring specific details. And, again, senators and Senate candidates should make their expenditure records available electronically, so that the public can hold politicians accountable for any abuses.

Bundling

Lobbyists aren’t the only ones; there’s a bundle of people raising big money.

The federal government gets props in this area for requiring candidates to disclose the lobbyists who have collected at least $15,000 in contributions for them, but lobbyists are just one group of bundlers looking to gain attention from — and access to — candidates.

Bundlers can be any type of well-connected supporter, as was clear when both Obama and McCain released information about the individuals collecting money for them — after a little prodding from the Center for Responsive Politics and other watchdog groups. The extent of the details released was at the campaigns’ discretion, and other than lobbyists, candidates aren’t required to share any information about their other bundlers.

The federal government could earn an “A” in this area in a hurry by enacting a proposal endorsed by Obama when he was a U.S. senator. In 2007, he pushed for a bill that would require the disclosure of all bundlers who raise more than $50,000. The bill never made it past committee. This legislation should be revived — and passed.

Personal Financial Disclosures

It’s nothing personal, officials. Just be more specific.

When lawmakers were trying to decide whether they’d get behind using taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street, the health of their own financial portfolios depended on the success of companies in the finance, insurance and real estate sector. Just how much of their money was at stake if the federal government
didn’t intervene to save these financial institutions was hard to tell,
however.

Because lawmakers disclose the value of their assets in extremely wide ranges, we can’t know their true value. And because they file their personal financial disclosure reports once a year and it takes time to process them, we are months behind in knowing whether lawmakers owned stock in the companies they’re overseeing.

But it’s not all bad: The House is required to post members’ reports online so that anyone not physically in Washington can obtain them. The Senate, however, has exempted itself from this requirement, allowing only those who are able to visit a Senate office building in Washington to see the forms (so, be thankful that CRP does that work for you!). For filings in the executive branch, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics makes it a little easier — it will send, by fax, mail or e-mail, copies of the disclosure forms for an individual official to any curious citizen who faxes in a request form for the information — and you can request them online.

Not only should the Senate, House and the government ethics office have to post reports online, they should require that those reports be filed electronically in the first place. And the public has a right to see these reports well before six months after the end of the reporting period. Otherwise, if your representative made a shady transaction in January, you won’t know about it until June 2011.

Lobbying

Some big improvements, but still more to do.

In this day and age, there’s no excuse for large online datasets of public records not to be downloadable and searchable, allowing users to play around with the numbers and make sense of them on a broad scale. 

As things are, if you want to download information about registered lobbyists and their clients from the Senate Office of Public Records, you will lose important details — such as the specific issues the lobbyist was working on. SOPR’s efforts are laudable, but the office still has a ways to go to make sure that the important connections among issues, agencies and lobbyists aren’t lost by clicking a “download” button. SOPR should also add a standardized way for lobbyists to report the issues or legislation on which they are lobbying, preventing them from providing only vague, general information about their activities.

Congress also made a valiant effort at additional disclosure by requiring lobbying firms and individual lobbyists that also make campaign contributions to report those donations to SOPR. Because the system is so new, however, it’s causing a few headaches for those of us who track this type of information and get it to the public in a digestible, understandable format. For one, lobbyists report the contributions semi-annually, rather than quarterly, making the datasets much bigger and increasing the chance that errors won’t be caught. We’ve also already noticed some significant problems with lobbyists misfiling the amount of money they contributed. Their reported donations to SOPR also sometimes don’t match the FEC’s contributions database, among other issues. And without any standardization of candidate, committee and lobbyist names, it’s hard to reconcile the datasets from SOPR and the FEC. Until these kinks are worked out, the additional data won’t help the public judge the extent of the influence that lobbyists wield through campaign contributions.

Encourage government officials to improve their grades for next year! Contact the appropriate offices and individuals using the information below. Demand that they support the public’s right to know about the government!

Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR)
(202) 224-0758

Senate Rules and Administration Committee (SRAC)
(202) 224-6352

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (HCOGR)
(202) 225-5051

Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (SHSGAC)
(202) 224-2627
 
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
(888) 912-1227

House Legislative Resource Center (HLRC)
(202) 226-5200

BMW has officially announced the pricing details for the new 2011 BMW 5-Series, which will be available at nationwide dealers later this June. Prices for for the new 2011 BMW 535i sedan will start at $50,475, while the 2011 BMW 550i will start at $60,575 – both prices include $875 destination and handling charges.

The 2011 BMW 535i is powered by the company new 3.0L twin-scroll turbocharged inline that delivers a maximum output of 300 hp and 300 lb-ft. The 2011 BMW 550i gets the 4.4L twin-turbo V8 making 400-hp. Both will be available with a choice of a 6-speed manual transmission, BMW’s new 8-speed automatic transmission, or new Sport Automatic 8-speed.

Check out a video of the 2011 BMW 5-Series in action.

Later this year, the BMW 528i will debut with a 240 hp inline-6 featuring lightweight magnesium-aluminum construction and VALVETRONIC throttle-less intake technology. Prices will be announced closer to launch date.

As on any other BMW vehicle, BMW Ultimate Service, $0 maintenance for the first 4 years or 50,000 miles, is included.

Hit the jump to see the full list of packages and options offered on the new 2011 535i and 550i.

Click here for more news on the BMW 5-Series.

2011 BMW 5-Series:

All-New 2011 535i and 550i Package and Option Pricing

Packages Active ventilated seat Package Convenience Package Cold Weather Package Driver Assistance Package Dynamic Handling Package Premium Package Premium Package 2 Sport Package Stand-alone options Metallic paint 8-speed Automatic Transmission Leather Dakota Nappa Leather 8-speed Sport Automatic Transmission Rear-view camera Stand-alone options (continued) Split fold-down rear-seat Heated front seats Park Distance Control Navigation system Head-up Display Satellite radio Rear-seat entertainment iPod adapter Smartphone integration Integral Active Steering Comfort Access Rear sunshades Multi-contour seats Ski bag 4-zone automatic climate control Active Cruise Control Night Vision with Pedestrian Detection

535i $2,950 $1,700 $1,050 $1,750 $2,700 $1,800 $4,900 $2,200 $550 NC $1,450 $2,450 $500 $400 535i $475 $500 $750 $1,900 $1,300 $350 $2,200 $400 $150 $1,750 $1,000 $575 $1,300 $150 $500 $2,400 $2,600

550i $2,950 $1,700 $1,050 $1,750 $2,700 Std. $2,800 $2,200 NC NC Std. $1,000 $500 $400 550i $475 $500 Std. Std. $1,300 $350 $2,200 $400 $150 $1,750 $1,000 $575 $1,300 $150 $500 $2,400 $2,600

– By: Omar Rana

Journalists exploiting sensationalist headlines that bend the truth aren’t anything new and the practice isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. At the same time, linking the latest hyped-up trend to, well, anything guarantees a popular article. That’s how you get a headline like, “Facebook ‘linked to rise in syphilis,’” despite… (read more)

Just take a look.

Join the conversation about this story »

I really really really wasn’t going to write this post, but so many people kept submitting it, I figured it needed to be done. The Telegraph has some ridiculous story claiming, without any actual evidence, that Facebook is “linked to the rise in syphilis.” Quite a claim. The evidence? Oh, that’s not included. There’s just some public health guy claiming that there’s evidence — without presenting any. About the only thing in the article is that (a) more people in this particular area of the UK seem to be reporting that they got syphilis (b) people in that area are also (marginally) more likely than in other areas to use social networking (c) at least some of the people who got syphilis mentioned that they have met sexual partners via Facebook.

So, yes, you have a bit of weak correlation combined with self-selected anecdotal bias. And that proves what? Uh, absolutely nothing. So, please, for the sake of the sanity of statisticians everywhere, please learn to practice safe statistics, where before you claim something is linked to something else, you actually use “protection” in the form of some real data.

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When 1.03 (qjnet/playstation-3/fat-princess-to-get-new-pork-for-free-patch-103-detailed.html) came in, Santa Monica and Titan Studios threw in the New Pork map for free. For 1.04 (qjnet/playstation-3/fat-princess-patch-104-coming-tomorrow-with-free-map.html), it was Brownie Town, also free. For the coming 1.05 patch, great news the guys

The World Urban Forum, a global event organized by UN-Habitat, began this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More than 21,000 delegates from around the world are meeting to discuss the role cities can play in sustainable development.

For the first time, more than half of the world lives in cities. This number will only grow, argues Anna Tibaijuka, Director of UN-Habitat: ”Just over half the world now lives in cities but by 2050, over 70 percent of the world will be urban dwellers. By then, only 14 percent of people in rich countries will live outside cities, and 33 percent in poor countries.” In addition,  these new urban dwellers are increasingly moving into slums. The worldwide slum population is expected to grow from one to two billion by 2030.

UN-Habitat argues that cities have the potential to be models of sustainable development.  However, if cities do not scale up and provide a range of services to new urban populations, they may fail to play a positive role in future human development.

UN-Habitat’s “State of the Cities” Report

In UN-Habitat’s new “State of the World Cities” report, a biannual review of world cities launched at the Forum, the organization says the world is moving into vast mega-city regions of more than 100 million people. The Guardian (UK) says these ”‘endless cities’ could be one of the most significant developments – and problems – in the way people live and economies grow in the next 50 years.”

The report says these mega-regions do offer some benefits. Report co-author Eduardo Lopez Moreno told The Guardian: “Research shows that the world’s largest 40 mega-regions cover only a tiny fraction of the habitable surface of our planet and are home to fewer than 18 percent of the world’s population [but] account for 66 percent of all economic activity and about 85 percent of technological and scientific innovation.” Cities drive wealth creation. 

However, some cities are also contributing to the dramatic growth of sprawl, slums, and expanding income inequalities. The report authors contend:  “Cities like Los Angeles grew 45% in numbers between 1975-1990, but tripled their surface area in the same time. This sprawl is now increasingly happening in developing countries as real estate developers promote the image of a ‘world-class lifestyle’ outside the traditional city.”

Sprawl is symptomatic of a “dysfunctional city.” “It is not only wasteful, it adds to transport costs, increases energy consumption, requires more resources, and causes the loss of prime farmland.”

High levels of urban inequality also run counter to sustainability. “The more unequal that cities become, the higher the risk that economic disparities will result in social and political tension. The likelihood of urban unrest in unequal cities is high. The cities that are prospering the most are generally those that are reducing inequalities.” 

According to the report, cities with high levels of inequality include  New York, Chicago, and Washington, which were rated as less equal than ”Brazzaville in Congo-Brazzaville, Managua in Nicaragua and Davao City in the Phillippines.”  In the United States, “the marginalisation and segregation of specific groups creates a city within a city. The richest 1 percent of households now earns more than 72 times the average income of the poorest 20 percent of the population. In the ‘other America’, poor black families are clustered in ghettoes lacking access to quality education, secure tenure, lucrative work and political power.”

New Sustainable Cities Initiatives

To lay out a path for sustainable urban development, UN-Habitat has also launched the World Urban Campaign. “The World Urban Campaign is a platform for public, private and civil society actors to elevate policies and share practical tools for sustainable urbanization. The success of the Campaign will be measured by more sustainable urban policies at the national level and increased investment and capital flows in support of those policies.” 

The campaign will include the “100 cities” initiative, a potentially innovative bottom-up tool for identifying urban best practices. Citiwire writes: “100 Cities will employ user-friendly web 2.0 tools to invite nominations. Anyone in a city — a mayor or corporation, a public transit official, a neighborhood activist — will be able to nominate a promising new initiative or practice. A community-based bank, for example, could apply by showing ways it’s helping the poor defend their homes against flooding.” 

Other organizations have also announced the launch of major initiatives at the Forum. The American Planning Association (APA) announced its new “Sustaining Places Initiative,” a multi-year, multi-faceted program to “define the role of planning in addressing all human settlement issues relating to sustainability.”  The APA says: “Sustaining Places will examine both how places can be sustained and how places themselves sustain life and civilizations. Planning’s comprehensive focus is not limited to a building or a site but encompasses all scales and all forms of organization of human settlements, from rural areas and small town to cities and metropolitan regions.”

UNICEF highlighted its Child-friendly Cities program, a new initiative outlining local systems of governance that are committed to fullfilling children’s rights.

A High-Level Delegation from the U.S.

To demonstrate its new focus on cities, the Obama administration has sent a 50-member high-level delegation to the Forum, including Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Deputy Secretary Ron Sims. The White House is represented by Adolfo Carrion, Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. U.S. AID, State and Agriculture are also sending high-level representatives.

HUD Secretary Donovan said the Obama Administration understands that the U.S. has an “enormous stake in ensuring that countries across the globe usher in a new era of sustainable economic growth and development as well – opening new markets for green technology in American products; reversing the effects of global warming; and perhaps most importantly, ensuring that billions of families live not in despair, but in communities of choice, opportunity and hope.”

Learn more about the World Urban Forum’s agenda over the next week (large PDF).

Also, check out Next American City’s Buzz blog, which has been covering the World Urban Forum live from Rio, and earlier coverage of World Habitat Day.

Image credit: NASA

Contact: Joan Jewett
Phone: (503) 231-6121
FFS #R1BP, R1GP

CHENEY, WA. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior, has awarded two contracts totaling $612,648 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to Northern Management Services and Jenks, Inc., for improvements at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

Jenks, Inc. used the funding to provide materials to replace a 3-mile stretch of boundary fence to prevent the unintentional trespass of grazing animals from neighboring landowners. Northern Management Services (NMS) will engineer geothermal and solar systems to take advantage of existing renewable energy resources for the refuge. In addition, NMS will help the refuge decrease its energy use through the installation of insulation, light fixtures, solar tubes and the replacement of outdated windows and cooling units. These projects are expected to employ approximately 21 workers.

“We have been forced to use staff time to round up these cattle in the past, and this takes away from our stated mission at Turnbull,” Refuge Manager Dan Matiatos said. “The renewable energy and energy efficiency projects will definitely help us use less energy, improve the work we do and save the American public money.”

“This project is exciting for us here at NMS, not only in that it keeps our employees busy and gives them a job, but that it focuses on alternative energy sources,” NMS project manager Larry Smith said. “Renewable and alternative energy seems to be the way things are going, and we want to be at the forefront of that modernization effort.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year gave $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. Of that amount, $280 million in funding goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“These ARRA funded projects help illustrate our continued commitment to both job creation and the reduction of dependency on traditional energy sources,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “If we can meet these goals and simultaneously advance the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service, everyone wins.”

The ARRA funds are part of a stimulus package that is an important component of President Obama’s plan to jumpstart the economy and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so the country can thrive in the 21st century. Under the ARRA, Interior is making an investment in conserving America’s timeless treasures – our stunning natural landscapes, our monuments to liberty, the icons of our culture and our heritage – while helping American families and their communities prosper again. Interior is also focusing on renewable energy projects, the needs of American Indians, employing youth and promoting community service.

“With its investments of Recovery Act funds, the Department of the Interior and its bureaus are putting people to work today to make improvements that will benefit the environment and the region for many years to come,” Salazar said.

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery.

Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force to work closely with Interior’s Inspector General to ensure the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency set by President Obama.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For questions, comments or concerns e-mail us at [email protected]. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

Congressional Contacts:
Senator Maria Cantwell (D)
Senator Patty Murray (D)
Congressman Adam Smith (D)

Photos:

Não é nenhuma novidade imaginar o preço de um supercarro como o Pagani Zonda, que custa alguns milhões de reais para nós, meros mortais. Mas, imaginaram o que acontece se um carrão desses se envolver em uma batida? Para termos uma noção, vamos citar o acidente que aconteceu há pouco tempo com o esse Zonda da foto, em um “test drive” não muito feliz.

Para o conserto desse carro, alguém terá que desembolsar US$ 450.000 (quatrocentos e cinquenta mil dólares) para que isso aconteça. A seguradora Aviva que é responsável pelos reparos do Zonda, informou que o custo de reparo deste supercarro é algo for do comum para uma seguradora. A porta-voz da empresa falou que “este é o maior pagamento de seguros que tivemos para o conserto de um automóvel particular no Reuno Unido”.

Um carro que só tem 10 unidades produzidas por ano, com detalhes feitos artesanalmente, não sairia barato de maneira nenhuma – agora, um conserto que custa mais do que uma bela casa? Vale a pena repetir, que esses valores citados foram apenas do conserto do carro. Custos que são altos até para os clientes de altos padrões do Zonda.

Via | Top Speed

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Toyota

There have been more than 80 lawsuits filed against Toyota in America alone since the Japanese company’s Dark Days began. A group of attorneys, representing personal and commercial clients for claims ranging from death to loss of resale value, will argue before a federal panel to have the suits consolidated into less than four score.

If they are granted that action, Automotive News is reporting that a panel will also need to decide where the cases should be heard. Toyota would like the gladiatorial jurisprudence to be set in California, while at least one attorney has also mentioned Kentucky (where Toyota has a factory that is among the defendants) and Louisiana as potential locales.

Fifteen jurisdictions are being considered, though, and the panel will settle the matter based on factors including convenience to the plaintiffs and defendants, and the expertise a jurist might have in such cases. A decision is expected in a few weeks on those matters. A decision on where Toyota emerges after all dust has cleared remains a long, long, long way off.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Report: Federal panel to weigh consolidation and location of Toyota lawsuits originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While many other publications busied themselves doing burnout in the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, the geeky folks at Inside Line decided to see just how much horsepower the new 5.0L V8 is providing the rear-wheels.

Inside Line’s findings:

With 250 lb-ft on tap at 2,000 rpm, torque starts out pretty strong. It then builds linearly and remains above 350 lb-ft from 4,150 to 5,500 rpm before tapering gently to the 6,850-rpm fuel cut. Peak numbers are 365 lb-ft of torque at 4,350 rpm and 395 hp at 6,600 rpm. All of these at-the-wheels figures were obtained in 4th gear on a Dynojet 248 chassis dyno and include a 3% SAE weather correction factor.

They say that the driveline loss for a solid axle-equipped car like the Mustang is typically 11-13 percent so we should have expected to see about 358-367 rear-wheel-horsepower from the 2011 Mustang GT..

The question now is, is Ford being conservative with its 412-hp flywheel rating – we definitely think so.

Hit the jump for the video of Inside Line’s Dyno Test.

Click here to get a price quote on the 2011 Ford Mustang.

Refresher: The 2011 Ford Mustang V6 is powered by the 3.7L V6 Ti-VCT making 305-hp and 280 lb-ft. The 2011 Ford Mustang GT is powered by a 5.0L 4-valve Twin Independent Variable Camshaft Timing (Ti-VCT) V8 engine producing 412-hp with a peak torque of 390 lb-ft. Transmission choices for both models include a 6-speed automatic with a 6-speed manual offered as standard.

2011 Ford Mustang GT:

Part 1:

Part 2:

2011 Ford Mustang GT:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Inside Line

Φαίνεται οτι η Βαρκελώνη είναι η αγαπημένη πόλη αρκετών αυτοκινητοβιομηχανιών αφού μετά την Audi που επέλεξε την πόλη για να φωτογραφίσει την S-Line έκδοση του νέου Audi A1 και η Alfa Romeo επέλεξε την Ισπανική πόλη για κινηματογραφήσει το πρώτο επίσημο promo video της νέας Giulietta. Οι τιμές στην Ιταλία έχουν ήδη ανακοινωθεί με την αρχική τιμή να αγγίζει τα €20.300 ενώ η κορυφαία έκδοση Quadrifoglio αγγίζει τα €29.000. Το video στη συνέχεια.

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A Federal Judicial panel tomorrow will start looking at whether more than 80 lawsuits against Toyota can be consolidated into fewer cases. It will also look at which court should handle the litigation process. About a dozen attorneys from across the country are expected to argue before the judicial panel in San Diego regarding the lawsuits.

Many of the lawsuits stem from incidents related to unintended acceleration (surprise!).

An attorney by the name of Richard Arsenault said that the legal complaints range from deaths from unintended acceleration to consumers claiming their vehicles have lost value since the recalls.

Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that consumers have reported 52 deaths from unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in the United States.

It was reported last month that lawsuits filed against Toyota could cost the company more than the $2 billion it is spending on its recalls.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

H General Motors σε συνεργασία με την κοινοπραξία Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation και την γνωστή εταιρία Segway μετά από 3 χρόνια εξέλιξης παρουσίασαν την δική τους πρόταση για το μέλλον των αστικών μετακινήσεων στο μέλλον. Το GM EN-V Concept είναι ένα φουτουριστικό διθέσιο όχημα το οποίο θα παρουσιαστεί επίσημα στην έκθεση της Σαγκάης σε 3 εκδοχές. Η επιλογή της πόλης δεν ήταν τυχαία αφού η Σαγκάη κατέχει το ρεκόρ των περισσότερων κατοίκων ανά τετραγωνικό αφού περισσότεροι από 20 εκατ. άνθρωποι ζούνε στην πόλη.

Το πρωτότυπο αποτελεί εξέλιξη του General Motors Segway P.U.M.A. και διαθέτει δύο τροχούς όπου ο καθένας διαθέτει από έναν ηλεκτροκινητήρα 3kW που τροφοδοτείται από μπαταρίες ιόντων λιθίου. Η αυτονομία του οχήματος αγγίζει τα 40 χλμ με τον χρόνο επαναφόρτισης των μπαταριών, που γίνεται μέσω απλής οικιακής πρίζας, να μην έχει ανακοινωθεί. Η τελική του ταχύτητα είναι της τάξεως των 40 χλμ/ώρα με το συνολικό βάρος του οχήματος να μην ξεπερνά τα 500 κιλά χάρη στην εκτενή χρήση carbon και Lexan.

Τεχνολογικά το όχημα διαθέτει ένα προηγμένο σύστημα car-to-car επικοινωνίας το οποίο βασίζεται στο GPS ώστε ο οδηγός να ενημερώνεται πλήρως για την κίνηση και να επιλέγει την διαδρομή με την λιγότερη κίνηση. Επίσης διαθέτει κάμερες και αισθητήρες που του επιτρέπουν να «αντιδρά» με το περιβάλλον και να αποφεύγει πιθανές συγκρούσεις. Το αυτοκίνητο θα παρουσιαστεί στις 1 Μαίου στην έκθεση της Σαγκάης. Περισσότερες λεπτομέρειες στις φωτογραφίες και στο δελτίο τύπου που ακολουθεί

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An artist by the name of Jeremy Dean created something called “Back to the Futurama,” a statement to the current American consumer culture, the auto industry and the economic recession. Dean figured that the biggest impressions he could make for his “Back to the Futurama” would be to turn a Hummer H2 into a horse carriage, and that’s exactly what he did.

Jeremy, 33, went out and bought a used Hummer H2 cashing out close to $15,000. With the help of some mechanics, Jeremy dismantled the vehicle, took out the engine and everything else he didn’t need to make his Hummer H2 horse carriage.

Jeremy says that the project was inspired by the Great Depression, at a time when people could no longer afford gas for their vehicles and hitched them to horses, creating “Hoover Carts.”

“I was fascinated by the Hoover Cart story and the image I saw in my mind of the re-imagined vehicle, this ultimate coping mechanism, and it seemed to me then, as it does now, a monument to the absurd, as only something utilitarian done in prolonged crisis can be,” Jeremy says.

His 1,800-pound car made its public debut in Central Park, pulled by two horses named Diesel and Dean.

We give it two big thumbs up.

Check out to videos of the project after the jump.

Hummer H2 Horse Carriage (Hoover Cart):

Futurama: HUMMER deconstruct:

Futurama: Hummer:

– By: Omar Rana

Camp Supports Year-round Research in Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

Contact: Joan Jewett
Phone: (503) 231-6121
FFS #R1GC, R1GD

HONOLULU, HI. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior, has awarded two contracts totaling $306,424 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to Northern Management Services, a maintenance and general contracting company based in Sandpoint, Idaho. The projects will employ eight workers.

The company will install a modern solar panel array at the Laysan Island research facility located within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and replace the deteriorating living quarters tents. The new solar array will be used to power systems critical to researcher survival, leaving the existing system for secondary power needs.

“We are more than 800 miles from Honolulu, and these systems are absolutely vital to our survival,” Laysan Island project lead and Biological Science Technician Cindy Rehkemper said. “The extreme weather at Laysan Island makes these systems very difficult to maintain, and we have been fortunate they have lasted as long as they have.”

“We have extensive experience with these types of projects, and this ARRA funded project keeps us going,” Northern Management Services project leader Bert Wallace said. “Work is work, and we are in the business of building stuff.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year gave $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. Of that amount, $280 million in funding goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“These projects are aimed at maintaining and sustaining the important work done by the Fish and Wildlife Service scientists in the remote Pacific Ocean,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “This funding will improve working conditions and decrease the inherent dangers of working at a facility such as Laysan Island.”

The ARRA funds are part of a stimulus package that is an important component of President Obama’s plan to jumpstart the economy and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so the country can thrive in the 21st century. Under the ARRA, Interior is making an investment in conserving America’s timeless treasures – our stunning natural landscapes, our monuments to liberty, the icons of our culture and our heritage – while helping American families and their communities prosper again. Interior is also focusing on renewable energy projects, the needs of American Indians, employing youth and promoting community service.

“With its investments of Recovery Act funds, the Department of the Interior and its bureaus are putting people to work today to make improvements that will benefit the environment and the region for many years to come,” Salazar said.

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery.

Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force to work closely with Interior’s Inspector General to ensure the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency set by President Obama.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For questions, comments or concerns e-mail us at [email protected]. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

Congressional Contacts:
Senator Daniel Akaka (D)
Senator Daniel Inouye (D)
Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D)
Congresswoman Mazie Hirono (D)

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Earnings/Financials

New Zealanders are being given a chance to invest in the creation of the country’s home-grown supercar. Hulme Supercars Limited is proposing an IPO with share lots offered for as little as $NZ 1,000 ($701 U.S.) that will make the nation part of some future Hulme CanAm tradition, should there be one. A buyer of the LS7-powered car itself would need at least $699,000 more to take one home, so $1,000 for a piece of the company that makes it might not be all bad.

The money will be used to put the car into series production for world markets. If you’re interested, you can request a prospectus by e-mailing or writing to Hulme. The offer is only open to New Zealanders, though, so all of you international barons will have to wait for the scraps if there are any left over. Hat tip to Darren!

[Source: NZ Classic Car]

Hulme Supercars to launch Kiwi IPO, playing national pride trump card? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zalbin is a Hepatitis C drug in development that could lead to the highly desired monthly or bi-monthly dosing.

Human Genome Sciences reports hepatitis drug study

The Associated Press March 24, 2010

ROCKVILLE, Md.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. said Wednesday a midstage study of the potential hepatitis C treatment Zalbin showed a monthly dose of the drug candidate could be as effective as a weekly dose of the standard treatment.

Continue reading this entire article:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EL00D82.htm