Author: Serkadis

Os tempos difíceis parecem afetar todos os setores da economia, e na indústria automobilística também não é diferente, onde algumas companhias estão sofrendo um pouco mais esse impacto, como é o caso da Lamborghini, que já informou uma queda de 38% nas vendas, o que gerou uma queda de 41% em receitas.

Especificamente, no ano de 2009 houve uma queda recorde no faturamento, onde de 2.430 carros vendidos em 2008, somente 1.515 foram vendidos no ano seguinte. Isso representou uma queda de US$ 654 milhões em 2008 para US$ 384 em 2009.

A companhia informou que continuará a investir em seus produtos no futuro, mesmo com o forte impacto negativo dos últimos tempos, mantendo um ritmo de um novo produto lançado por ano, o que inclui o lançamento recente do Gallardo LP570 no Salão de Genebra.

Via | Inside Line

Filed under: China, Crossover, Honda, Beijing Motor Show

The Honda Accord Crosstour has been less than critically acclaimed here in the U.S., but it’s far too early to tell if the bulky hatchback will resonate with customers. While it may be too early to declare the Crosstour’s success or failure here in the States, Honda may already be planning on introducing the hatchback/crossover/wagon to the transportation-hungry Chinese.

A new report from Gasgoo states that Honda is working with China partner Guangzhou Honda to build the Crosstour in The Land of the Great Wall. The Crosstour, which evidently carries the codename “Accord QE,” has reportedly been spotted testing in China, and the Asian news site proclaims that the Accord-based “lifestyle vehicle” is set to be introduced next month at the Beijing Auto Show.

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Gasgoo]

Honda to build Accord Crosstour in China? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There was some hubbub earlier this month when sex columnist Violet Blue discovered that one of her old columns for the SF Chronicle had been altered by the Chronicle’s online site, SFGate.com. She was upset that the changes implied the article said the opposite of what it actually said — and found it odd that, beyond that, all the links and comments were missing, and the story was now spread out over several pages. This resulted in some investigations, with venture capitalist Tim Oren pointing out that this appeared to be the work of a company called Perfect Market, a well-funded startup (funded, in part, by the Tribune Company), who had partnered with various newspaper sites to game Google’s search results. As Oren notes:

The keyword and ad-stuffed dead end pages apparently produced by Perfect Markets’s technology are isomorphic, from a search company’s point of view, to those created by more questionable tactics such as scraping. The intent is the same: to spam the index. This is the behavior that routinely gets questionable sites shoved to Google’s back pages, or banished altogether. One has to wonder just how long this type of abuse will be tolerated, simply because it’s being practiced by a recognized media outlet.

GigaOm also picked up on this story and in the comments to that article Ben Metcalfe did some sleuthing and revealed a bunch of newspapers all using this same highly questionable tactic.

Now, there are a few ironies here. First, with so many newspaper people (misleadingly) claiming that Google “steals” from them with Google News, to then find out that many of those same newspaper are trying to game Google with highly questionable tactics — basically proves that the newspapers are lying. They clearly want more Google traffic, and they’re willing to go to ridiculous lengths to get it.

Second, for all the talk of how no one can do investigative reporting without newspapers being around, it’s fascinating to see this story broken open by some bloggers and commenters — rather than any newspaper. That says something, doesn’t it?

In the meantime, it appears that Perfect Market is going into damage control mode, contacting GigaOm, and trying to spin the whole thing, by insisting that it’s really just trying to “delight our customers and users with innovative new content experiences.” The company also claims that it’s not “spamming” search engines but that it provides “contextual navigation to relevant related content and topics so the user can browse the publishers vast content library rather than creating dead ends.” Except, in this case, the “innovative new content experience” actually did lead to a “dead end,” rather than pointing to the original article, which included the proper details, links to other sources, and the comments and discussion that happened with the article.

While it’s certainly not as nasty as typical search engine spammers, it’s difficult to see this as anything other than an attempt to game Google by questionable means. Google has had no qualms about pulling high profile companies like BMW from its index in the past. It will be interesting to see if it will do the same with some of these newspapers who appear to be pushing the boundaries.

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If you want to get yourself all fired up…maybe fulfill a few liberal fantasies by foaming and frothing…read this.

At first I couldn’t. I could only manage to skim. I bookmarked it and tried again a few times.

The article is from Psychology Today and written by a San Francisco psychologist and psychoanalyst named Michael Bader, D.M.H. He basically says he “hates” Tea Party members and proceeds to compare attendees to his schizoid patients and mentally retarded people.

“…I hate these folks but I also understand them. And, well, uh, I also empathize with them. They share the same psychology as the paranoid patients I treat every day. The only difference is that the paranoid beliefs of the tea-party movement are political while those in my consulting room are of a more personal nature.

The causes and dynamics, however, are the same. And so just as I have empathy for my patients, I have come to have empathy for the tea-party’ers, even as I despise their influence and work hard to defeat their ideology. It’s crucial that progressives do likewise because if we don’t understand the ways that decent, god-fearing, and victimized people can come to espouse such a dangerous ideology, we won’t be able to fight them effectively…” (source)

But, a picture really is worth a thousand words…because as soon as I saw his, my anger diffused. He’s that guy.

Alright, so it didn’t dissipate all my annoyance. This is a guy that casually refers to Republicans as a racist community and a self-avowed far left fringe guy, yet he’s given this big article in a mainstream publication giving him credibility, and national exposure. Sad. And annoying.

I am totally allergic to some scents. Fake flowers, Obsession perfume and those pine tree shaped air fresheners make me break out in hives, get a headache and labor breathing if I remain in the vicinity. As much as I would never think to tell someone else to refrain from using these things, I also can’t imagine being forced to sit next to one of them all day every day…

“…Susan McBride, a civil servant in Detroit, won a $100,000 settlement from the city after officials failed to accommodate her allergy to perfume. McBride complained to superiors about a coworker’s perfume, claiming the smell made it difficult for her to breath. When managers did nothing to address the situation, McBride sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act and won.

In addition to paying the hundred grand, the city, as part of the settlement, will post signs asking employees to refrain from wearing “scented products, including but not limited to colognes, after-shave lotions, perfumes, deodorants, body/face lotions, hair sprays or similar products.” (source)

Being denied a workspace removed from the offending smell is one thing, but asking everyone to change hygiene products and rituals is another. I am assuming this woman proved that she was actually allergic and didn’t just dislike the scent…

I’m really vacillating on this one. $100,000 seems overly exorbitant because if she would have anaphylaxed,, I’m sure that would have been in the story… But, If she really was suffering and nothing was being done…

Blogging has been around for ages, by the web’s standards, and there’s not that much that the main blog hosting services or platforms can do to surprise or impress. Yet, for all their popularity and all their years of existence, the big platforms, Blogger, WordPress, still have their flaws. For Google’s Blogger, one of these has been themes.

There are plenty of stock themes to choose from, but, with millions of users, you can be sure that plenty of other people were using any of th… (read more)

	Scoripion King: 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty Power Stroke Diesel is cleanest ever How does an 18-25 percent fuel economy boost sound?		Report: Japan’s fuel cell market could grow 99-fold by 2025 Or it could not.
	Is the cause of runaway Prius stories … other runaway Prius stories? Watch out.	Other news: Tesla Motors battery pack goes to work… in a walk-in van Ingreenuity is Poet’s way to make ethanol more environmentally friendly DOK-ING XD concept, urban EV from Croatia

AutoblogGreen for 03.12.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article Tags: Headline Story, Paul Chesser, Video Link

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a state legislator go toe-to-toe on the climate change issue with an alarmist, but the Fox News affiliate in Salt Lake City caught that very thing on camera this week. On Wednesday after a student-led global warming rally at the legislature, State Rep. Mike Noel, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, found himself in the same room with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Here’s the full discussion, in which the skeptic Noel is surrounded by environoiacs, including one who kept trying to butt in:

You might recall last month the Utah legislature passed a few measures in opposition to placing limits on greenhouse gas emissions, including a recommendation to Gov. Gary Herbert that the state withdraw from the Western Climate Initiative.

Click source to view Video Link, this is a “street fight”, and we even have a “Green” guy with a long beard telling it how he “thinks” it is, as fact! The trouble for him there is a “Climate Realist” who stands his ground and also tells him how it is, as fact! I made it 40-30, game point to the “Climate Realist”.

Source: spectator.org

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As Facebook and Google battle it out to become the gatekeepers to your online identity, Mozilla is proposing an alternative, rather than having an online site or service provide you with identity features, why not have your browser play that role. The idea was first explored a few months ago, and the first steps are now … (read more)

The book publishing business really does seem to be going through the same process that the recording industry went through not so long ago. That is, it’s crying about all the doom and gloom. Layoffs are rampant, and there are all sorts of concerns about how the industry is going to survive. Yet, as with the music business, if you step back and look around, you realize the actual book business is thriving. Jason Pinter has written up a post pointing out that this is, perhaps, the most exciting time, ever, for book lovers. That’s because a lot more people are talking about and reading books, and there are all sorts of exciting developments in the book world (and, also, he notes, in the movie business based on books). These sorts of things are important to remember. As we’ve seen in the music business: more music is being made and enjoyed than any time before, and more musicians are able to make money from their music than at any time in history. Yes, some of the big companies in those industries are going through painful transition periods, but if you take a step back and look at the actual market, things are quite exciting and healthy.

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Article Tags: Gerald Warner

It looks as if the tottering IPCC has just made its biggest mistake yet. Twenty-four hours after the announcement of an “independent” inquiry into certain aspects of its activities it is possible to make a considered assessment of its significance. By any reasoned analysis, it is not only a whitewash but one in which the paint is spread so thinly as to be transparent.

First, who appointed this review body? Those two iconic standard bearers of climate science objectivity, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC head (still!) Rajendra Pachauri. There is nothing like being judge in your own cause – it secures a less damaging verdict. Ban Ki-moon is the clown who, on a visit to the Arctic last September, despairingly proclaimed that “100 billion tons” of polar ice were melting each year, when the sea-ice around him had just extended itself by half a million square kilometres more than at the same time the previous year. Pachauri, among many other solecisms, is also the buffoon who denounced criticism of the IPCC’s absurd claims about melting Himalayan glaciers as “voodoo science”.

Then there is the review’s terms of reference. It has four remits: to analyse the IPCC process, including links with other UN agencies; to review use of non-peer reviewed sources and data quality control; to assess how procedures handle “the full range of scientific views; and to review IPCC communications with the public and the media. So, most of its activity will relate to reorganisation of the IPCC’s propaganda operation and how it can be beefed up.

Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

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Article Tags: Carbon Trading

A CARBON credits company, Prime Carbon, has been found guilty by the Federal Court of Australia of making misleading green claims.

Prime Carbon is a private company that produces and trades carbon credits created through soil enhancement and carbon sequestration programs.

Justice Jeffrey Spender found it was in breach of the Trade Practices Act between July 2008 and last December by claiming an association with the National Stock Exchange of Australia that it did not have.

He also found that between July and December 2008 Prime Carbon had made misrepresentations concerning the National Environment Registry. Those claims included that the registry was regulated by the federal government, which it is not, and that the registry had an arrangement with the Chicago Environment Registry, which it does not.

The court orders follow action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and its sole director Kenneth Bellamy in December. Mr Bellamy was found to have been knowingly involved in the misleading conduct.

Click source for more

Source: smh.com.au

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Mozilla has released the first beta version of the upcoming Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 codenamed “Lanikai,” Beta 1. The biggest update in 3.1 is the move to the Gecko 1.9.2. rendering engine, the latest iteration also used in Firefox 3.6. Other than that, all of the changes focus on existing features and are mostly bug or stability fixes. Though it is labeled as a b… (read more)

Fitch Ratings slapped a negative outlook on Vietnam’s credit rating today, though maintained the nation’s sovereign BB- score. A negative outlook means that there is risk of a future downgrade for this MAVINS nations. Fitch is most concerned with Vietnam’s depreciating currency, the dong, and the risk of rapid inflation.

Business Week:

“The ongoing divergence between the black market Vietnamese dong and the market clearing spot rate continues to point to depreciation pressures,” Fitch said. “Without a strong policy tightening backed by significant balance of payments support, confidence in the Vietnamese dong is unlikely to be restored.”

Still, Barclays thinks the downgrade is ridiculous. There’s still confidence in the dong, trade data is improving, the nation’s financial position is manageable, and the central bank is actually tightening policy ever so quietly:

Economist Prakriti Sofat @ Barclays Capital:

First, we do not believe domestic confidence in the VND has deteriorated, although the currency remains weak. When the State Bank of Vietnam devalued the currency in early February, spot VND did not immediately jump to the top end of the new band, as was the case in previous devaluations, which suggests underlying pressures were not that stretched. Also the grey-market rate is currently trading fairly close to the official rate, indicating improved FX demand-supply dynamics. The closure of the bulk of the gold trading floors ahead of the official 30 March deadline is also helping.

Second, the trade deficit has improved since the start of the year. The deficit was USD1.8bn during January-February 2010, versus FDI disbursements of USD1.1bn and healthy remittances inflows ahead of Lunar New Year in February. For 2010, we expect FDI disbursements to be USD11bn and remittances of USD7bn, which should more than cover the trade deficit.

Third, Vietnam’s external position remains fairly healthy, with external debt amounting to roughly 30% of GDP and the bulk being multilateral and bilateral loans with long maturity profile. Short-term external liabilities stand at USD4.4bn as of Q3 09, according to World Bank data. Fitch reported that FX reserves were USD16bn in October – suggesting a cover ratio of nearly 4x. By comparison, Indonesia’s short-term external debt was USD29bn as of Q3 09, according to World Bank data, versus FX reserves of USD62.3bn – a cover ratio of 2.1x.

Fourth, the central bank is tightening policy quietly. It removed the 12% interest rate cap on medium- to long-term loans in late February. This implies an effective tightening in policy, with newswires indicating that lending interest rates have risen as high as 19%. The current policy move will be supported by previously announced tightening measures that took effect in January. These include a halving of the government interest rate subsidy for medium- to long-term loans to 2pp; eliminating he subsidy for short-term loans; and a decree that only 30% of short-term deposits can be used for medium/long-term lending, from 40% previously.

Fitch might be missing the fact that Vietnam’s long-term prospects are very bright. For Vietnam, the economic pie is highly likely to grow substantially over time, which means a lot of near-term problems could be eventually solved by the simple benefits of rapid economic growth.

Add my twitter for more investor-related analysis like this: @vincefernando

(Via Barclays Capital, Prakriti Sofat, 12 March 2010)

(H/T GH)

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See Also:

• Faber: A China Crash Would Destroy Most Commodities
• BHP: China Commodity Strength Will Tear Even Higher
• Asian Development Bank: Bernanke’s Move Is Awesome For Asia

Today, the Washington Post — apparently because there were no members of the Kagan family available — has an Op-Ed from Howell Raines castigating journalists for not calling FoxNews what it is, a right-wing propaganda operation 23:54/7.

This will not set well with alleged media critic Howard Kurtz as it will take away from his Tiger Woods/Eric Massa-related twitter time.

…some say a distinction must be made between Fox’s opinion shows (O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity) and its news programming.

Well, I say this Mr. or Ms. “Some” is a real asshole, which must be why Kurtz respects their opinion.

A distinction between the opinion shows as O’Reilly, Beck, and Hannity and the news programming?

Which is what?

Fox & Friends, where every morning is three hours of agenda setting on right-wing talking points? Where it is a legitimate for interviewees to appear as pimps for faked news stories (no correction for that yet, right?).

Or perhaps it’s just the rest of the “fair” and “balanced” “news” programming, like Megyn Kelly’s finding a broad swath of the public constituted by four white people at a retirement community?

ReCoila’s ability to design and build Custom Reels has been recognized with the design and manufacture of some very large reels for applications in the booming Aquaculture industry in Australia. This particular reel pictured below is of galvanized steel construction and accommodates 2,500 metres (2.5 kilometers or over 8.000 feet) of 38mm / ½” i.d. hose !!! If you need custom built reels – talk to us.

Quality Australian Hose Reel Manufacturer

ReCoila is a wholly Australian owned company. Our manufacturing facility is located in the industrial precinct of Kings Park, in the western region of Sydney, NSW.

We have been manufacturing quality hose reels for 25 years, servicing both domestic and international markets. Our range of reels includes composite spring rewind hose and cable reels, fabricated steel reels in powder coated finish, stainless steel and aluminium with hand crank, and motorized versions.

Industry leaders – The best products at cost effective prices
ReCoila as a manufacturer offers an extensive range of Australian made hose cord and cable reels, this range is supplemented with selected products from renowned quality manufacturers in the USA and Europe to bring you the most comprehensive range of hose, cord and cables reels.

Our stringent in house testing ensures all products meet the quality that you expect from ReCoila whether it be an Australian made reel or manufactured elsewhere and distributed by us. Our aim has always been to design and manufacture the best reels available at a cost effective price.

We continue to lead the way in design, innovative ideas, functionality and reliability of our products and utilize state of the art manufacturing methods setting the standards for others to follow.

ReCoila is committed to continued quality and engineering excellence, balanced with price competitiveness to supply YOU with the best hose reels available.

Hence we proudly say… “ENGINEERED CONFIDENCE”

This family of SMT LEDs is packaged in the industry standard PLCC-4 package with additional heat sinking capability enabling it to be driven at even higher current. These SMT LEDs have high brightness and reliability performance and are designed to work under a wide range of environmental conditions.

This high reliability feature makes them ideally suited to be used under indoor full color signs application conditions.

To facilitate easy pick & place assembly, the LEDs are packed in EIA-compliant tape and reel. Every reel will be shipped in single intensity and color bin; except red color to provide close uniformity. These LEDs are compatible with reflow soldering process.

Its wide viewing angle at 115° together with the built in reflector pushing up the intensity of the light output makes these LED suitable to be used in the interior electronics signs. The full black body of the LED provides extreme contrast enhancement for fine pitch and short viewing distance full color display.

Cambridge Sensotec is delighted to announce that it has been appointed distributor for Status Scientific Controls. Status offer an outstanding range of portable and fixed gas detectors and gas monitoring control panels which are designed and manufactured in the UK. Status products are widely used and respected in industries throughout the world and use the very latest gas detection technologies. Status detectors products are fully IECEx and ATEX approved and include products for use in both hazardous and non-hazardous areas.

Cambridge Sensotec manufactures and distributes a wide range of portable and fixed gas analysers and detection equipment from manufacturers including Dilo, Witt Gas, HiTech, Viamed, Orbitec and Vandagraph. Products include the Rapidox range of gas analysers, toxic, oxygen and explosive gas detectors, ATEX approved monitors, welding gas analysers, modified atmosphere (MAP) testing equipment and instruments to monitor medical and diving breathing gases.

Cambridge Sensotec was founded in 1996 near Cambridge, England and is fully ISO9001 certified. It sells worldwide through an established distributor network.

E2S, the leading European manufacturer of audible and visual warning devices for use in hazardous areas, has added the Hootronic to its BEx family of explosion proof sounders and beacons. ATEX approved for use in Zones 1, 2, 21 and 22, BEx Hootronic electronically creates traditional warning sounds such as a bell, siren, hooter or buzzer. While widely used for more than 100 years, the reliability, performance, maintenance and running costs of electro-mechanical devices has always been a concern. Using the latest in SMD class D amplifier technology and digital to analogue conversion, the Hootronic faithfully replicates, user-selectable from one product, all these sounds with the reliability, performance and functionality of a modern electronic sounder. Three stages are provided, enabling a further two remotely selectable sounds to be configured for each primary sound if required. Sample audio clips of each sound can be played from the E2S web site, www.e2s.com/x65-hootronic.htm.

With output levels of up to 117.5dB at 1 metre, the Hootronic surpasses the performance and effectiveness of the outdated electro-mechanical device it replaces. A volume control enables the output to be matched to the operating environment. It is continuously rated, operates from 24VDC, 115 or 230VAC, the inrush start-up and operating current consumption is low, it requires no maintenance and is sealed to IP66/67. A very large termination area aids installation and gives room for multiple cables if required.