Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Aftermarket, Performance, SUV, Geneva Motor Show, Land Rover, Luxury

There were so many debuts at the Geneva Motor Show this year that a few new cars were bound to slip through the cracks. We happened to miss this custom Range Rover Sport from Hamann, probably because the 670 horsepower Tycoon Evo M was sharing the same stand. Named the Conqueror II, it follows up on Hamann’s first take of the Range Rover Sport that debuted a few years ago.

Benefiting from the RR Sport Supercharged’s new 5.0-liter V8, the Conqueror II packs 560 horsepower and 506 lb-ft torque thanks to a revised engine management system and a sport exhaust. The exterior gets the full Hamann treatment, with a full body kit, carbon fiber hood, LED running lights and forged 23-inch wheels. Interior modifications are relatively subtle (the snakeskin seats in Conqueror I are thankfully absent) and include the usual stuff like embriodered mats, plus aluminum and carbon fiber accents. Hit the jump for full details, and high-res photos can be found in the gallery below.

[Source: Hamann]

Continue reading Conqueror II: Hamann builds second rendition of Range Rover Sport

Conqueror II: Hamann builds second rendition of Range Rover Sport originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• 800,000 temporary jobs will lower the unemployment rate by several tenths of a percentage point in April and May (with lesser effects beginning in January).
• Around $14 billion in government spending could boost GDP by 0.1 percentage point in 2010Q1 and 0.2 percentage point in 2010Q2.
• The end of the program may cause GDP to fall by an equal amount in Q3 and Q4.
• Unemployment, too, may rise by an equal amount.

In fact, net unemployment is likely to increase as the census draws in thousands of discouraged workers, who are not currently included in the 9.7%.

But here's why the Census will have a worse effect than the BLS admits.

800,000 Census workers are 800,000 people who are not finding a steady job. They are nearly a million Americans who will not actually contribute to the GDP.

That wasn't a problem in 2000 or 1990, but it will be a serious problem in 2010.

Grosvenor's Richard Gold makes an apt comparison in the CS Monitor: "This is the government's version of the Olympics."

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See Also:

• Mass Layoffs Jump In January After Four Straight Months Of Decline
• David Goldman: Here's Why Unemployment Will Remain In Nosebleed Territory FOREVER
• Obama, Take Note Of Job Creation In New York City

StarCraft II Beta – Patch 4 notes(version 0.6.0.B14259B)
General
Korea
Added support to display the game rating information on the F10 in-game menu within the beta.

StarCraft II Beta – Patch 3 notes(version 0.5.0.14219B)

Balance Changes

TERRAN

Engineering Bay

Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
Infantry […]

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Article Tags: Christopher Booker

Neither of the main parties seems to have any idea how we are to meet the looming shortfall in power.

As the election approaches, two issues should transcend all others.

One, obviously, is what the parties propose to do about the £178 billion deficit in government spending. But another, equally terrifying – as this column has warned for years – is what is to be done to avert the fast-looming crisis in Britain’s electricity supplies. With 40 per cent of our generating capacity due to disappear in the next few years, as 14 of our major nuclear and coal-fired power stations are forced to close, how do the parties propose to keep Britain’s lights on and our computer-dependent economy functioning?

The energy policy of the Conservative Party appears to rest on four main pillars. The first is that electricity companies should not be allowed to replace those coal-fired power stations which help provide us with 35 per cent of our electricity unless new ones are fitted with a system to pipe off their CO2 emissions and bury them under the North Sea. The Government has allocated some £4 billion for four new plants to pioneer this unproven technology (to be paid for by all of us through electricity bills), but the Tories say that no new plants should be permitted unless carbon capture is already in place.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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Article Tags: Christopher Booker

Some of America’s top ”warmist” scientists are planning a counter-attack on the “climate sceptics”.

Some of America’s top ”warmist” scientists, demoralised at how their faith is being discredited, are planning a counter-attack on the “climate sceptics”, according to the Washington Times. “We’re not in a gentlepersons’ debate, we’re in a street fight against well-funded, merciless enemies who play by entirely different rules,” says Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University.

As for “well-funded”, a new study by Jo Nova suggests that, in the US alone, the $79 billion (£52bn) of state funding for pro-warming research in the past 20 years outweighs the money given to climate sceptics by 3,500 to one. As for Prof Ehrlich, he is best known for his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb which, as well as catastrophic climate change, predicted that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in the 1970s. He also forecast that by 1980 the average age of death in the US would be 42, due to pesticides. Sounds like just the man to restore our faith in true “science”.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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Every year International Forum selects a number of manufacturer’s products for design and this year Sony scored 9 awards, out of which I am a proud owner of 3 – Bravia ZX1, Cybershot TX1 and VAIO X. If you never heard of iF, here is a little history about it:

Since their introduction in the year 1953, the International Forum (iF) design awards have been a reliable indicator of outstanding quality in design. The iF logo, awarded by international experts, is trusted the world over and denotes proven design quality. 1,016 companies from 39 different nations competed for an iF product design award 2010, submitting a total of 2,486 products for adjudication by an international panel of experts. 778 products merited an iF product design award 2010, with 50 of them also selected to receive an iF gold award.

iF Gold Awards

BRAVIA ZX1 Series, ‘Ultra-thin LCD television

Owing to the extruded aluminum frame, which doubles as both chassis and housing, the ZX1 is the world’s lightest 40V-format LCD TV at 12.2 kg. By thinning the edges to an acute angle (9.9mm at its thinnest point) the designer has created an exquisitely light look suggestive of a piece of paper floating in mid-air. Its wireless functionality provides flexibility when placing the TV in any interior.
The product’s minimalist design has been perfected to minute detail: sleek back panel, discretely hidden wires and connectors, and the arm of the stand. This is a truly inspiring design evocative of new lifestyles built around the TV.

Cyber-shot DSC-TX1, Digital still camera

While maintaining the slimness of previous models, the DSC-TX1 achieves improved image quality and a movie recording function. Continuing the T series’ characteristic aluminum lens cover and stainless steel body, the model now features improved contour tapering on both ends, and a sleek front surface that curves up toward the lens, adding softness and appeal to the previous model’s thin, solid body. Available in five colors, the lens cover features a lustrous finish to beautifully enhance its distinctive smooth curved surface. The gold model in particular offers a metallic polish that shimmers along the curved surface.

iF Product Awards

X Series VAIO notebook PC

P Series VAIO mini notebook PC

CMT-DH70SWR / DH50R Micro Audio System

BDV-Z7 Blu-ray Disc Home Theatre System

HDR-CX520/CX505/CX500 Series Handycam camcorder

HDR-CX120/CX100/CX105E/CX106E Series Handycam camcorder

PCM-M10 Linear PCM Recorder

Winning products embraced all areas within Sony’s expertise including the HDR-CX520V Handycam camcorder, X Series VAIO notebook PC and PCM-M10 Linear PCM Recorder. Moreover, out of nearly 2,500 entries only 50 are given the coveted gold award for outstanding design. Highlighting the innovation and unique core of Sony’s design, the ZX1 Series BRAVIA television and DSC-TX1 Cyber-shot digital still camera were both awarded this year’s gold awards at today’s iF Design ceremony held at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, Germany.

Receiving the award on behalf of Sony Design, Tak Kawagoi, director, Design Centre Europe commented, “These iF Design Awards for our product design shows the innovation levels and ingenuity of our design teams across many product categories. Our designers always strive towards our corporate philosophy to ‘do what has never been done before’ and gold awards for the BRAVIA ZX1 TV and Cyber-shot TX1 digital still camera demonstrate the boundaries we are pushing for the integration of technology and lifestyle design.”

Sony product designers consider many elements when creating new products, from the edges of the materials, to the user-interface to the colours and finishes. Speaking of the choice in designing the colours for the gold award winning DSC-TX1 Cyber-shot digital still camera,  the designer commented, “The colours and textures you see on the DSC-TX1 enhance the beautiful curves of the camera body. That’s why the body is matte and the lens cover has a satin finish, for example. The surfaces gleam like jewelry and were designed with parties and glamorous events in mind.”

iF judges praised the winning gold award products, saying, “The Cyber-shot digital camera is extremely thin and delivers to the user not only pure photo-taking enjoyment with its minimally designed exterior, but also – thanks to the wide range of available colors – it is like a little piece of jewelery that you can wear and have fun with.” The BRAVIA ZX1 series TV was honored for its minimalistic appeal, “this flatscreen TV really does justice to its name. It is not only amazingly light, but it’s design is as minimalist as possible. Along with the sleek housing, the rear panel is a delight with all its cables and connectors hidden tidily away.”

Sony will be exhibiting at this year’s Milano Salone Internationale del Mobile, showcasing its future design vision at what is the most creative, lifestyle-oriented platform in the world. Kawagoi added, “The Milan exhibition will be a demonstration of the strength of our creative energy, so this timely recognition from International Forum Design perfectly represents the importance we bestow on our design and how forward-thinking we intend our designs to be.”

Source

By Claire Ngozo LILONGWE, Mar 5 (IPS) As they slept soundly on the night of Feb. 28, a family of four was killed when their house collapsed over their heads in Malawi’s southern district of Chikhwawa.

Christopher Ganizani, 27, his wife Grace, 29, and their children Rymon, six, and Christian, who was only nine months old, were buried alive under the rubble of their house, according to Chikhwawa police spokesman Sunday Ngulube.

"The house, made of unbaked mud bricks, buckled under the intensity of the heavy rains that have been falling in the area recently," he explained.

Heavy and stormy rains started hitting the area last month. They followed a drought the district experienced since October, a time of the year when the country usually receives rain. Chikhwawa is one of the districts in the country facing harsh effects of climate change, according to a 2010 Government of Malawi report to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Malawi has experienced extreme weather events, the report states, ranging from droughts in the 1991/92 growing season to floods in the 1996/97 season and flash floods in 2000/01. Such extreme weather events "clearly show that there are large temporal and spatial variables in the occurrence of climate-related disasters and calamities", according to the authors of the report.

This has caused irreversible damages to crop and livestock production. In Chikhwawa and Nsanje districts, farmers have been forced to plant more than twice because crops were destroyed, while others did not plant at all by mid-February, according to the report.

Ganizo Nyandoro, 39, a subsistence farmer from Chikhwawa, says she has stopped growing maize, the country’s staple food. "With the unpredictable weather patterns, I have had to start growing drought-resistant crops and early maturing crops because the rains the country is getting at the moment are no longer conducive to growing maize," she told IPS.

Nyandoro says she now grows cassava, sweet potatoes, cotton and rears goats. "For the past eight years, as far as I can remember, my area has been affected by droughts and floods. Most people in my community are moving away from growing maize," she added, explaining that her community still buys maize after selling the produce from their farming activities. "We are so used to eating the staple food that we have to buy it."

Malawi’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture, with up to 85 percent of the country’s 13.1 million citizens relying on the land for their livelihoods. Like in other southern African countries, the harvest of staple crop maize has dropped severely. In Malawi, president Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also the country’s minister of agriculture, said he expects a 30 percent reduction this year, down from last year’s maize production of 3.7 million metric tonnes.

Throughout the country, communities are highly vulnerable to different climate risks, including flooding, shorter rains, dry spells, late rains, drought, strong winds and hail storms, according to a September 2009 study conducted by Bunda College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi.

"Floods and drought were mentioned by all vulnerable communities as being the most climate change risks affecting their adaptation efforts," noted Dr. David Mkwambisi, one of the researchers.

He says, as a result, crops die before maturity, crop are damaged by floods and there is soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, siltation of fields, shortage of water, loss of land and reduction in yield. Loss of productive land has led to lower family income, hunger, diseases and malnutrition.

Those that are already disadvantaged will suffer most from the effects of climate change. "Although all households are affected, the most affected households are female-headed households, child-headed households, the physically disabled and the elderly. Since impacts are high and adaptive capacity is low, the communities are highly vulnerable," explained Mkwambisi.

Communities have tried their best to devise resourceful ways to cope with and adapt to the adverse impacts of extreme weather events. They have started to diversify crops, adjust the timing of farm operations, change tillage practice, store grain, irrigate, use indigenous genetic resources, utilise wetlands for winter production and raise smaller livestock, especially goats.

"Off-farm strategies include food rationing, casual labour, selling household assets and migration. Other options related to rural livelihoods include shifting homes to higher ground, hunting small animals, gathering and eating wild fruits and vegetables," said Mkwambisi.

Such local level interventions have been supplemented by initiates from government and development partners, he adds, such as food and material donations, shallow well and borehole installation, construction for bridges and irrigation schemes, provision of medicine and other drugs.

But until such adaptation methods kick into gear, the adverse effects of climate change continue to wreck havoc on the lives of people in the country. In Nkhotakota in central Malawi, a 35-year-old pregnant woman, Grace Rajab, and her seven-year-old daughter, Alice, died in early January after lighting struck them during a storm. Grace’s son Henry sustained serious burns during the accident, which happened as the family was sitting down for dinner.

In December last year, stormy conditions displaced 500 families in Dedza, also in central Malawi, while another 177 families were left homeless and two people were injured by storms in lakeshore district Salima. Last November, seven people were injured and 25 houses collapsed during a powerful hailstorm that hit another lakeshore district, Mangochi.

Imagine your troubles floating away with the clouds.

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Video by Sitaniance

Case-mate, who is one of our sponsors, have a new collection of HTC HD2 cases. The ones I find particularly interesting, given the sleek looks of the HTC HD2, is the Barely There cases, which are made of impact resistant flexible plastic and only covers the back and corners of the HTC HD2.  The case however also comes with a full-face screen protector to provide all-round protection.

The video above shows the mirror version of the case in action, and Nightfire123 on XDA-Dev published this brief user review of the matt version.

He notes:

For me it was clear that I have to protect the camera and still have a sleek design.

The case itself comes in a plastic box with some micro fibre cleaning cloth and a screen protector.
There are no edges or burrs that could hurt the HD2. The whole case is covered with a rubber finish just like the HD2, but I don’t think as resistant (no scratches yet).

There are also some bad points I want to mention. If you want a case that you put on once and never/only a few times pull off, this is your way, but if you do it like me pull it off every day to put in a cradle you have to face some scratches on the original rubber on the hd2.

The screen protection is not so good; after two days there are a lot of scratches on it, so maybe I’ll peel it off.

It does fit the screen nicely however and there are no issues with the proximity sensor

I have to say that this is in my opinion the best way to protect the camera and to save the smart design of the beloved HD2.

See some of Nightfire’s pictures after the break.

Click for larger versions

The Case-Mate Barely There case is £17.99 at Inkino.co.uk here.

Article Tags: Doug L. Hoffman

There have been a rash of bogus reports in the news media about rapidly rising sea-levels supposedly caused by global warming. Sea-levels are notoriously hard to measure on a global basis since land also rises and sinks due to tectonic activity. With historical records mostly unreliable how can we tell if current conditions are normal for Earth 14,000 years after a deglaciation? A new report, based on calcium growths in caves on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, says that sea levels around 81,000 years ago were higher than today. Higher sea-levels imply less glacial ice and warmer temperatures than today as well. Even more interesting is that this occurred during a warm period called marine isotope stage (MIS) 5a, which was more than 30,000 years after the Eemian interglacial ended and glaciation had resumed. This could mean that current theories about how ice age glacial periods start are wrong.

Scientists have long made a strong connection between Earth’s climate and sea-levels. Warmer climate means less glacial ice and higher ocean water levels. This means that during glacial periods, often called ice ages, sea-levels drop because more water is trapped in glacial ice. Scientists know from paleoclimate records that the end of a glacial period occurs quickly and is accompanied by wild swings in climatic conditions. But because the buildup of large amounts of glacial ice depends on precipitation it was thought that descent into a new glacial period was a more gradual affair. A report in Science, entitled “Sea-Level Highstand 81,000 Years Ago in Mallorca,” authored by Jeffrey A. Dorale and colleagues, not only claims that sea-levels were higher than modern levels during ages past but that there have been significant swings in sea levels after the last interglacial warm period ended.

Source: theresilientearth.com

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Article Tags: Meetings

CHICAGO, IL USA – What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, global warming “skeptics” were dismissed as being a fringe group of dissenters from “the overwhelming consensus” of scientific opinion. Now, their critics are admitting that the science is far from settled and that global warming is not the crisis it was once made out to be.

Recent months have seen the collapse of international negotiations for a global warming treaty in Copenhagen, revelations of scientific fraud committed by a leading climate research organization, and demands for the resignation of the chairman of the United Nations’ global warming panel. British and Canadian newspapers are declaring the end of the global warming “fraud.”

The first major international meeting of global warming “skeptics” since Copenhagen, Climategate, and other extraordinary developments will take place in Chicago on May 16-18, 2010. It is the fourth such conference convened by the nonprofit Heartland Institute and scores of allied organizations, and it promises to be the largest and most consequential yet.

More than 70 of the world’s elite climate scientists and economists, including two former NASA astronauts and scientists from 15 countries, are scheduled to speak at the event, which is open to the public. Among the confirmed presenters are climate scientists Dr. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama at Huntsville and economists Dr. Robert Mendelsohn of Yale University and Dr. Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

Source: oregoncatalyst.com

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Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Plants/Manufacturing, Chevrolet

No matter which side of the Mustang/Camaro divide you fall on there’s no arguing that Chevrolet’s reborn entrant in the pony car wars has been a hit. It’s been less than a year since production of the 2010 Camaro began at General Motors’ Oshawa assembly and the 100,000th example rolled off the line this week. The milestone car was reportedly an inferno orange SS.

Ever since last June, the Camaro has been outselling its chief rival,, the Mustang, despite the Mustang’s refresh at around the time of the Camaro launch. Ford, however, left out one important aspect in the 2010 redesign, the powertrains. That oversight has been addressed for the 2011 model year, and the Ford vs. Chevy battle begins anew next month. That’s when 2011 Mustangs will start rolling off the line with power on par with the Camaro, along with the significantly better interiors that carry over from 2010. We’ll be watching this horse race very carefully over the rest of this year. Hat tip to Henry!

[Source: Camaro5]

Report: GM builds 100,000th Chevrolet Camaro originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday Apple announced the arrival date of its much-ballyhooed tablet, the iPad. It will have a staggered release throughout April, beginning on the 3rd in the U.S. Once it does arrive, we’ll see what effect it has on the mobile landscape. But right now, Apple has other things to worry about if it wants to keep its newly minted status as a leading mobile device company.

The recent threats are at least twofold, one of immediate concern and one potentially dangerous down the road. First, there’s Android’s continued growth in terms of mobile marketshare, compared to Apple’s shrinking slice of the pie. Second, there’s Sony’s potential expansion of its mobile operations into direct competition with the iPhone.

Web analytics firm Quantcast released figures this week that show iPhone OS is still the dominant force in terms of mobile web usage, but the trend is working slowly against it. It lost 3.2 percent of its market share last month, while RIM and Google’s Android both gained ground. Over the past quarter, Android has gained a whopping 44 percent, while Apple has lost between five and 10 percent during the same period.

That’s only market share percentage, though. Apple is still showing positive growth in terms of mobile users and pageviews, but Google is just doing it that much faster. Which should be worrying to the current king of mobile web. The Nexus One may have been a relatively innocuous volley in the ongoing war, but Google is gaining steam, and quickly.

Another competitor is said to be waiting in the wings, too. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony is gearing up to offer an iPhone competitor that could have one key advantage: the ability to play PSP and PlayStation games downloaded directly to the advice. That would be in addition to music, video and e-book content that it would also offer for sale through digital distribution.

Sony is not inexperienced in the cell phone market, and it already has a successful digital distribution framework operating as the PlayStation Network store. A PSP with smartphone features could be a very attractive proposition for young customers just entering the market.

Long story short, Apple has enjoyed a lengthy head start in the mobile web generation of smartphones, but after many, many failed attempts, a few competitors are beginning to realize exactly what it will take to catch up to Cupertino. And at this crucial point, Apple is focusing on jumpstarting a brand new market that many aren’t sure even has much potential.

The danger is that the iPhone isn’t being given sufficient attention thanks to the iPad’s imminent launch. If the next generation iPhone only gets some minor incremental updates, like the iPhone 3GS did, then I will seriously begin to question Apple’s sense of prioritization. Resting on its laurels for another year won’t help the company widen the closing gap between it and its competitors, whether or not the iPad succeeds.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Is an iPhone- and Android-Only World the Best We Can Do?

We can’t help but expect retailers to break the street date for a huge release like Final Fantasy XIII, and that’s just what happened in the Netherlands.

Tecmo Koei has confirmed that Hokuto Musou will be punching faces in Europe under the Fist of the North Star title. The ultraviolent and gore-drenched action game has been set for release this Summer.