Author: Serkadis

According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Fiat plans on cutting 5,000 jobs in Italy, slashing the number of car models and increasing production as a part of its new business plan.

The newspaper said that the cuts would affect about 15 percent of the 30,000 assembly line workers at Fiat. Overall, the cuts will affect four plants in Italy. The paper also said that the company plans on cutting the number of its models from 12 to 8, but will increase production in Italy by 50 percent to 900,000 units.

It said that Fiat will launch and produce vehicles in the United States seven models under Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo. This would bring U.S. production to 350,000 units.

Fiat had no comment on the report but is scheduled to release a new strategic plan for the years 2010-2014 on April 21.

It was reported yesterday that Fiat will take over Chrysler sales and service across Europe.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Detroit News

Ram truck brand CEO Fred Diaz says that Chrysler’s sales are up 51 percent this month from February. However, he said that Ram sales through Tuesday are trending about 10 percent below March of 2009, when the Auburn Hills automaker spent thousands per vehicle on rebates and other incentives.

Diaz said that incentives of up to $8,000 last year cheapened the brands and probably helped push Chrysler into bankruptcy.

He said that those days are over and Chrysler is focusing on rebuilding its image and credibility.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Free Press

Heads up. The dollar is now up 1.22% on the day, which as we noted earlier is a gigantic move when it comes to currencies. Jaw-dropping, even.

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The first of the limited 500 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition models will be auctioned of the highest bidder at Barrett-Jackson in Palm Beach, Fla., on April 3.

“The winning bidder will also be given the unique opportunity to tour GM’s Performance Build Center in Wixom, Mich., home of the hand-built LS7 and LS9 engines found in the Z06 and ZR1 respectively,” GM said in a statement. “The winner will also have the opportunity to watch the car going down the line at the famed Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Ky.”

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette.

“The Corvette Z06 Carbon will surely be an instant collectible,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Chevrolet Marketing. “For that reason, we see Barrett-Jackson as the premiere venue to sell the first retail Z06 Carbon.”

The auction continues Chevrolet’s tradition of offering exciting sports cars at Barrett-Jackson. At the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction in 2008, the first retail production 2009 Corvette ZR1 sold for $1,000,000. The first retail 2010 Chevrolet Camaro was also sold for $350,000 at a Barrett-Jackson auction last year. A couple weeks back, a limited edition Corvette Z06 (number 427 of 427 produced) brought in $200,000, all of which was donated to the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

Click here for our original post on the 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition.

2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition:

– By: Kap Shah

Software market research firm Flurry Analytics has posted some interesting information about where Apple’s iPhone stands in regards to the gaming market at large. The report also includes details about how the iPhone is stacking up in the mobile market against its two major rivals, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

In 2008, Apple’s iPhone OS accounted for only one percent of the overall gaming market, compared to 20 percent for other portable games, and 79 percent for console. 2009 saw a definite swing towards portable gaming overall, with Apple alone reaping about half of the benefit of that shift.

Apple’s overall share of video game software sales climbed to five percent in 2009, which represents an impressive 500 percent growth rate for the year. The general portable market, which seems to include not only the Nintendo DS and PSP, but also other mobile gaming platforms like cellular devices, grew by five percentage points as well, taking 24 percent of the market in 2009. The home console market, by comparison, dropped to just 71 percent. The numbers seem to indicate a growing portable market, of which Apple is currently taking the lion’s share.

According to Flurry Analytics’ estimates, using information from the NPD group, which details gaming revenue, the market overall took in $11 billion in 2008, and had a lightly less lucrative 2009, taking in only $9.9 billion. That means Apple’s take grew from $115 million in 2008 to somewhere around $500 million in 2009. With the introduction of the iPad in 2010, that number stands grow at an even faster rate as a whole new market segment is opened up to App Store gaming.

Zooming in on how the iPhone is doing relative to its two strongest competitors in portable gaming, the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable, we see an even more dramatic picture of tremendous growth. Where the iPhone accounted for only five percent of the revenue share of the three platforms in 2008, in 2009 it took 19 percent. That means that it surpassed the PSP, which fell from 20 percent to 11 percent market share year over year. The DS stayed strong at 70 percent in 2009, but that still represents a fall of 5 percentage points from 2008.

The PSP is in big trouble, but it also looks like Nintendo may only be doing better because it had such a hefty head start to begin with. Recently, Apple announced that its next generation portable console, the Nintendo 3DS, is set for release in the not-too-distant future, so that could help its prospects. The PSP, on the other hand, had a very disappointing year with the release of the PSP Go, which wasn’t very well received, and no plans have been announced about the device’s next iteration as of yet.

Apple’s iPhone platform, on the other hand, is set to make some major leaps forward this year. There’s the very concrete and tangible benefit the iPad will have when it comes out early next month, compared to Nintendo’s vague plans regarding a new device somewhere on the horizon. Then there’s the near-certainty that Apple will be releasing a new iPhone in late Spring/early Summer, which should bring at the very least better processor power and graphics rendering for more impressive and ambitious games.

Therein lies Apple’s main advantage, besides its appeal to casual gamers: new hardware every 12 months, at least. The iPhone, iPod touch, and presumably the iPad, too, all get annual refreshes at the very least. And those refreshes often mean more muscle under the hood, which translates to more for game developers to work with. Significant performance updates to Sony’s and Nintendo’s platforms are few and far between.

The iPhone platform is still struggling to find purchase with core gamers, but I think the iPad, especially with its support for Bluetooth keyboards, might finally make significant inroads with that crowd. Watch for 2010 to be the year Apple dominates portable gaming.

Google is always expanding its product lineup, but at the end of the day, it still makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. As such, it’s always looking to come up with better tools for advertisers, even though it dominates the market. One interesting feature that is being released over the next few weeks is a new rep… (read more)

From the latest MMWR:

This figure speaks for itself, but two sentences from the Editorial Note deserve highlighting:

The 11.4% decrease in reported TB rate in 2009 is the largest single-year decrease ever recorded. From 1953 to 1993, the single largest annual percentage decrease in TB case rate was 11.1% in 1956

Since I started my ID career in these dark days — when we were all expecting (and some were experiencing) a cataclysmic increase in TB nationwide — all I can say is … wow.

And I’m not a bit surprised that these remarkable data have thus far received such scant media coverage, because stories about Infectious Diseases are so much more exciting when they go in the opposite direction.

This is just getting silly. The famous saying in the writing business is “write what you know,” but when “what you know” sues you for defamation, things get tricky. We’ve covered various stories of people suing (and sometimes winning) by claiming defamation in that a fictional character was “based on them.” This makes very little sense, as most characters that novelists write are loosely based on people they know… and exaggerated or composited with others. That’s how you create realistic believable fictional characters.

But what if you get beyond characters to actual locations?

Copycense points us to the news of a famous landmark Parisian fabric store that was used as a major set piece in a novel by Lalie Walker. Apparently, the store, the Marche Saint Pierre, was not at all pleased and has sued Walker for defamation, demanding €2 million in damages.

The author is “flabbergasted” and notes that she wrote the novel “from an affectionate point of view” in an attempt to pay tribute to the store.

But Village d’Orsel, the business which runs the Marche Saint Pierre, insists that the book — Aux Malheurs des Dames, a play on an Emile Zola novel set in Paris’s 19th-century department stores — tarnishes its image. For more than 60 years the multi-storey shop has provided customers with a wealth of materials at low cost from its building at the foot of the Butte, or hill, of Montmartre.

By describing a mysterious — and fictional — malaise afflicting the self-declared “kingdom of fabric”, it says the book gives a false impression of the Marche.

This is what we get in an “ownership society” where everyone thinks that they have full control over what others can say about them — even in fictional stories.

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Everyone is in debt right now!

As such, governments around the world are likely to be looking around for assets they can dump.

One asset that a lot of countries have: gold!

The March 2010 report from the World Gold Council is now out and it gives insight into who owns how much

See which countries have the most gold as a % of their reserves >

15. Venezuela: 360.8 tonnes / 36.8% of reserves

14. Portugal: 382.5 tonnes / 84.9% of reserves

13. Taiwan: 423.6 tonnes / 4.1% of reserves

12. ECB: 501.4 tonnes / 25.2% of reserves

11. India: 557.7 tonnes / 6.9% of reserves

10. Netherlands: 612.5 tonnes / 53.4% of reserves

9. Russia: 641 tonnes / 5.1% of reserves

8. Japan: 765.2 tonnes / 2.5% of reserves

7. Switzerland: 1040.1 tonnes / 27.1% of reserves

6. China: 1054.1 tonnes / 1.6% of reserves

Image: Associated Press

5. France: 2435.4 tonnes / 65.7% of reserves

4. Italy: 2451.8 tonnes / 64.9% of reserves

3. IMF: 3005.3 tonnes

2. Germany: 3406.8 tonnes / 66.1% of reserves

1. United States: 8133.5 tonnes / 70.4% of reserves

Do YOU only invest in gold? Maybe you should because…

Here’s Proof That Your “Diversified” Portfolio Is A Joke

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Filed under: Technology, Ford

When Ford’s Sync infotainment system went live in late 2007, the technology looked promising to us but we weren’t ready to bet the farm that customers were going to adopt it in large numbers. Two and a half years later, Ford and partner Microsoft are celebrating the two millionth Sync system installed, which happened to go into a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. The rate of Sync adoption is increasing over time too, as the two millionth unit was installed less than one year after Ford hit one million Sync-equipped vehicles sold.

While Ford has increased the availability of Sync in its vehicles at a torrid pace, the big question is whether customers really like the tech. The automaker says feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 80 percent of potential customers saying Sync improves their overall image of the company, while 70 percent say it makes them more likely to purchase a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury. Further, Ford says 87 percent of customers who use Sync are satisfied with how the system works and 88 percent would recommend the purchase of a vehicle with SYNC to others.

Sync is also making a difference on the used car lot, as Ford claims one-year-old vehicles equipped with the technology sell for $240 more than Ford without it. After two years, Sync-equipped vehicles are still worth $200 more. Part of the reason Sync is helping residual values is that Ford and Microsoft continue to improve the system. Upgrades like 911 Assist, Vehicle Health Report, iTunes tagging for HD radio and Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI) make Sync a great deal at $395. Hit the jump to read over Ford’s understandably brag-infested press release.

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading Ford wires up two millionth Sync system

Ford wires up two millionth Sync system originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Concept Cars, China, Hatchback, GM, Electric

Today General Motors unveiled a trio of EN-V concepts that showcase the automaker’s idea for a new global, urban mobility vehicle. Developed in conjunction with its partner in China, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., the EN-V concepts build on last year’s P.U.M.A. project that was developed with help from the balancing-on-two-wheels experts at Segway. Each of the three EN-Vs, which stands for Electric Networked-Vehicle, sports a different design. Why three? The various shapes demonstrate the flexibility of the electric drivetrain and are supposed to express three different characteristics: Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic) and Xiao (Laugh). Jiao (the bubbly blue one) was designed in Austrlia by Holden, Miao (the blocky black one) was designed at GM’s studio in California and Xiao (the streaky red one) was designed in Europe.

The EN-V concepts are GM’s solution for the congested urban centers in which we’re all likely to live by 2030. Their all-electric, two-wheel drivetrains take care of the emissions problem. They’re also fitted with the latest GPS, vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity and an array of sensors and cameras that allow fully autonomous driving. The effect of all this tech is less congestion on city roads and the virtual elimination of accidents. Zero emissions, zero traffic jams and zero accidents – the future’s looking bright!

Lithium ion batteries will take each EN-V up to 40 miles on a charge, which isn’t that hard considering they only weigh 1,100 pounds. And since they’re each less than five feet long, up to five times more of them can fit in a parking lot than your average car of today. Do they look as fun to drive as a Porsche Cayman? No, but driving a Porsche Cayman in a congested city center isn’t all that much fun anyway. If we all end up living on top of each other, these little electric runabouts might be the best way to go.

The EN-Vs will be on display at the SAIC-GM Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai beginning in May. Feel free to follow the jump for GM’s official press release that talks more about what our crowded future will look like and how the EN-V will help.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading GM unveils three futuristic, urban EN-V concepts

GM unveils three futuristic, urban EN-V concepts originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe has launched an upgrade for Flex Builder 3, and renamed the IDE as Flash Builder 4. At the same time, the Flash platform will provide an API for developers to integrate their projects with some of the major social networks on the web. Alongside Flash Builder, a new IDE has been rolled out for ColdFusion development with… (read more)

In December 2009, I had talked about research on using graphite and graphene by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Princeton University as potential ways to store hydrogen fuel.

Now, government and academia have teamed up again as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania are developing another way to use graphene for the storage of hydrogen.

According to the report, “…they’ve found a way to configure graphene that enables it to hold 100 times more hydrogen molecules than a single layer of the carbon-based substance.”

The trick is to use oxidized graphene sheets stacked one on top of each other in thin layers with enough space between them to hold the hydrogen molecules. The graphene-oxide framework will be a cheap way to store and release hydrogen at room temperature which is something that researchers have been struggling with over the years.

Storing hydrogen fuel inside the car, at the pump (for hydrogen on demand applications) or at a decentralized production center is one of the key elements in developing a robust H2 refueling infrastructure. If this research makes its way to commercialization this will spur rapid growth of hydrogen cars and infrastructure at the same time.

Science Daily

Scientists have developed a new method to determine the age of ancient mummies, old artwork, and other relics without causing damage to these treasures of global cultural heritage. Reporting at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they said it could allow scientific analysis of hundreds of artifacts that until now were off limits because museums and private collectors did not want the objects damaged.

“This technique stands to revolutionize radiocarbon dating,” said Marvin Rowe, Ph.D., who led the research team. “It expands the possibility for analyzing extensive museum collections that have previously been off limits because of their rarity or intrinsic value and the destructive nature of the current method of radiocarbon dating. In theory, it could even be used to date the Shroud of Turin.” . . . .

Rowe and his colleagues used the technique to analyze the ages of about 20 different organic substances, including wood, charcoal, leather, rabbit hair, a bone with mummified flesh attached, and a 1,350-year-old Egyptian weaving. The results match those of conventional carbon dating techniques, they say.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Adobe is reporting strong financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2010 with both revenue and income at higher-than-expected levels. Adobe brought in $858.7 million in FQ1 2010, which ended on March 5 for the company, a significant jump from the previous year, above what analysts expected and above the company’s own goals … (read more)

In response to our post about FIFA threatening Kulula airlines in South Africa over its advertisment jokingly declaring itself the “unofficial national carrier of the ‘you-know-what’,” JJ sends over the news that Kulula has put together a new ad that looks similar to the old ad, but which changes the text to the even more ambiguous: “Not Next Year, Not Last Year, But Somewhere in Between” to avoid saying the dreaded “2010.” The artwork in the ad is similar to the original, but clarifies that each thing that you might interpret as being about the World Cup is actually about something else. For example, the vuvuzelas (horns) are “definitely, definitely golf tees” and the guy who looks like he might be playing football is actually just a “man putting his right foot in, his right foot out and shaking it all about.” Small versions are below, but be sure to click through for the larger versions:

Original ad

Latest ad

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Υπήρχε περίπτωση να βγάλει αγωνιστικό η BMW και η Mercedes να μείνει με σταυρωμένα χέρια; Αποκλείεται. Έτσι παρουσίασε το νέο της αγωνιστικό για το πρωτάθλημα του GT3. Το Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 Race Car διαθέτει νέο αγωνιστικό bodykit που περιλαμβάνει νέο μπροστά προφυλακτήρα με μεγάλες εισαγωγές αέρα, αεροδυναμικά βοηθήματα κατασκευασμένα από carbon, νέο καπό με εισαγωγή αέρα, νέες ζάντες, νέο πίσω προφυλακτήρα με ενσωματωμένο διαχύτη και μία τεραστίων διαστάσεων πίσω αεροτομή.

Από το εσωτερικό έχει αφαιρεθεί οτιδήποτε το περιττό όπως ο κλιματισμός, οι multimedia ανέσεις και το δεύτερο κάθισμα. Η κεντρική κονσόλα έχει αντικατασταθεί από μια ολοκαίνουργια κατασκευή από carbon που διαθέτει όλα τα κουμπιά ελέγχου ενώ έχει τοποθετηθεί ένα αγωνιστικό bucket κάθισμα, αγωνιστικό τιμόνι, σύστημα πυρόσβεσης, roll cage και μία LED οθόνη πολλαπλών ενδείξεων. Μηχανικά ο 6.3 λίτρων κινητήρας της AMG θα παράγει κοντά στα 600 άλογα. Το αυτοκίνητο θα κάνει το ντεμπούτο του στις πίστες την άνοιξη του 2011. Φωτογραφίες και δελτίο τύπου στη συνέχεια.

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Filed under: Hatchback, Mitsubishi, UK, Electric

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV isn’t getting any cheaper as availability expands beyond Japan and the next market to get the lil’ electric runabout will be the United Kingdom. Including the 17.5 percent value added tax, the i-MiEV will run British buyers a cool £33,699 before a £5,000 government subsidy. That equates to about $50,500 at current exchange rates, and even bearing in mind the UK’s inflated auto prices, it still seems well above the pre-subsidy price in the low $40K range in Japan.

On the EU test cycle the range estimate has dropped from the 100 miles measured in Japan to only 80 miles and real world results will likely be less than that.

Even with an electrical operating cost of about $214 for 12,000 miles of annual driving, it’s going to take a long time
to come out ahead financially. The standard gas engined i is not available in the UK, but the sub-compact Colt starts at just £8,999. On the other hand, early adopters are helping to subsidize the future, if they can afford the present.

[Source: Mitsubishi]

Continue reading Mitsubishi announces UK pricing for i-MiEV, £33,699

Mitsubishi announces UK pricing for i-MiEV, £33,699 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

Payam Pakbin, an EPA grantee and scientist at USC, has recently begun to investigate a controversial topic in air pollution science: coarse particles.

Coarse particles are relatively large, ranging in diameter from 2.5 – 10 micrometers. They come from sources like windblown dust, pollen and fungal spores—which, unlike the combustion sources that produce fine particles, are often extremely difficult to control.

Though there have been preliminary studies on the health effects of coarse particles, there is still a lack of definitive evidence.

EPA scientists are working to bridge this gap in understanding. Until there is a scientific consensus on the health effects of coarse PM, regulations to control it as an isolated pollutant cannot be developed or implemented.

Scientists like Pakbin and his advisor, Costas Sioutas, are beginning to tackle this scientific question and its accompanying challenges. Because coarse PM levels vary significantly over seasons and space, estimating the extent to which people are exposed is very difficult.

By sampling in 10 locations across the Los Angeles Basin once per week for an entire year, Pakbin and Sioutas were able to observe how coarse particle levels changed over space and time. This information is critical to health researchers who need accurate estimates of coarse PM exposure in order to determine the long term effects on human health.

Pakbin found that in the urban locations where pollutants mostly come from the same sources, there was little spatial variability. This suggests that a single, central monitor may be adequate for estimating the amount of coarse PM exposure in a given region. This finding is a boon for health researchers who may now be able to rely on cheap data from central monitors that already exist.

The LA Basin study area makes this work especially significant, Sioutas explained.
“One in 18 Americans lives in the LA Basin,” he said, “this makes our research extremely relevant.”

Pakbin and Sioutas believe that their findings will be relevant to other regions in the U.S. with air quality characteristics similar to the LA Basin.

Data from the study has already been shared with the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Air study, where associations between coarse PM and health will be assessed by expert epidemiologists.

The work was presented Monday at the 2010 AAAR conference and has been accepted for publication in the journal Aerosol Science and Technology.

For more information on Pakbin’s research, visit

About the Author: Becky Fried is a science writer with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research. Her OnAir posts are a regular “Science Wednesday” feature.

This is a guest post by Mike Rohde. We hired Mike to illustrate original art for REWORK. Each one of the 90 essays in REWORK is accompanied by an illustration that captures the key message of the essay. We asked Mike to share the illustration process with you here on Signal vs. Noise. This post is part 2 of a 2-part series.

In part 1 of 2 of Illustrating REWORK, I wrote about the start of the project, generating concepts and capturing them as pencil sketches for review and approval. In part 2 of 2, I’ll go into depth on the process of converting those pencil concept sketches into final production art for the book.

Inking

Using batches of approved pencil sketches, I began inking illustrations for the book. Batching was important for inking the illustrations, as I could get into a groove and knock out multiple pieces at a time. It also provided a consistency of style, important with such a large group of closely related illustrations.

When I live-sketchnote an event, I listen to a speaker and capture ideas in real-time, using only a gel pen and a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. On the REWORK project I had the luxury and flexibility of taking a more methodical approach to the final illustrations for the book.

Chances were high that I’d see late, last-minute changes in the publishing process and I wanted the ability to make those changes quickly. Rather than inking each illustration as a complete unit, I inked multiple elements separately which were scanned and stitched together in a layered Photoshop document.

First, I created a variety of separate elements on a single spread for multiple illustrations, then used the elements which worked best after scanning the entire page into Photoshop. –Photo by Brian Artka.

Here’s a photo of the final illustration, printed in REWORK. This photo shows how various elements were scanned and stitched together in Photoshop to create a single, unified illustration. –Photo by Brian Artka.

Near the end of the project, I had to make changes to a few of the illustrations. Being able to quickly sketch a few elements, scan and drop them into the Photoshop master file made updates much easier.

Approval and Delivery

Once a batch of inked illustrations were completed in Photoshop, I would export lower-res versions of the pieces as JPG files, and post them to the Basecamp project for Jason’s review. Basecamp’s handy ‘View all of these images at once” feature allowed Jason to scan an entire batch and approve or suggest tweaks.

Here’s a sample batch of illustrations posted to Basecamp for review and approval. Note the PSD file attached to the comments above for backup. Jason was able to click individual illustrations in the grid or select “View all of these images at once” below the images for detailed review.

More…