Author: Serkadis

EA’s announced that a pair of multiplayer maps will be available for download when Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is released.

Filed under: Sedan, Videos, Volvo

Click above to watch the video after the jump

It has been a very long time since Volvo has introduced an all-new sedan. Actually, the last all-new Volvo sedan was the S80, a model that debuted back in late 2006. That explains why we’ve been seeing the continuous unveiling of the new-for-2011 S60 over the past year, even though the official unveiling in Geneva is still over a week away.

To get prospective buyers primed up for the new S60, Volvo has launched a myriad of video teasers and pics of the highly anticipated midsize offering. The newest 90-second video includes drifter extraordinaire (and one-time Volvo test driver) Sam Hubinette as he takes the S60 off the beaten path and onto some fun-looking sand. Hit the jump to watch the video for yourself. We were already interested in trying out the 300 horsepower, 325 pound feet of torque T6 S60, and this video has done little, if anything, to quench that thirst.

[Source: Volvo via YouTube]

Continue reading Video: 2011 Volvo S60 driven by drifter-for-hire Sam Hubinette

Video: 2011 Volvo S60 driven by drifter-for-hire Sam Hubinette originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CHICAGO (WBBM) — An Evanston man – who has worked with children at a synagogue in Chicago and possibly on the North Shore as well – has been arrested on child pornography charges.

The Web site of 53-year-old Rick Mann says he is an actor and has done voice-overs for TV and radio commercials.

Mann is in federal custody on child porn charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Mann is not accused of having sex with minors.

His Web site says he is affiliated with several synagogues, teaching music at their Hebrew schools.

At Chicago Sinai Congregation, Rabbi David Levinsky told Newsradio 780 that Mann is employed part-time as a song leader, with duties that include teaching music and leading the children’s choir.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says investigators found hundreds of images, some of “adult men engaged in sexually explicit conduct with prepubescent boys.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Mann shared child porn on a computer network, using the screen name “Spaniell.”

Mann has a detention hearing tomorrow.

Steve Miller reporting

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Sony is finally turning around in the US LCD TV market after falling behind throughout most of 2009, according to iSuppli. In the fourth quarter of last year, Sony was the best performer with a 13.2% market share, a dramatic rise from 7.7% a quarter earlier. As we all know, price erosion in the LCD market has been rampant and Sony responded with great promotions and pricing schemes. As you may recall from the recent Executive Roundtable, Sony stated that in collaboration with Best Buy, they sold 12,000 BRAVIA TV bundles that included a PS3, one game and a Blu-ray movie late last year. It was the best bundle deal Best Buy has ever done and that Sony has ever done. Sony also mentioned one day record sales with another bundle during Fall of last year, where they sold a BRAVIA TV and a PS3 at SonyStyle for a great price, which helped Sony move three times more TV’s than the prior year.

Despite these initiatives and growth from the previous quarters, Sony ranked in third place based on sell-in numbers throughout 2009.

Vizio was the leading LCD TV brand in the US in 2009 – their shipments nearly doubled throughout the year at 5.9 million units, up 92.1% from 3.1 million in 2008. They were third place in overall sales ranking in 2008, and is Sony’s strongest competitor in the USA. During the US recession, Vizio has established itself as a price leader in the market for LCD TVs, and continues to offer attractive promotions that hurt the higher priced premium brands.

Another strength for Vizio is the fact that they are incorporating premium features in their products, such as LED backlighting, high framerate (120hz, 240hz, etc) technology, and Internet connectivity. When a consumer compares specifications between a Vizio and a Sony, and sees that the lower-priced Vizio has many of the same features, suddenly the word “premium” becomes a blur. Vizio also is preparing a very strong line-up of affordable 3D TVs that will most certainly disrupt pricing strategies for Sony and other premium brands later this year.

Samsung was the overall US flat-panel leader in 2009, which is a segment that includes LCD’s and Plasma sets. Samsung’s overall shipments were 6.6 million units in 2009, which is a 22.6% increase from the 5.4 million units in 2008. This contributed to a steady 18.4% market share, virtually unchanged from the year prior.

We must note that iSuppli bases their information on sell-in information, which is not point of sale information. Technically, “sell-in” isn’t even shipped. It’s any TV that Sony has taken an order for, including the ones still sitting in their own warehouse. The only source of POS information is the NPD, but Walmart, Costco and other major retailers do not report to them so their numbers are skewed as well.

Yet sentiment could be turning in this space, due to expectations of a sustained global rebound for world trade. One sign is that the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, which is an organization of ship owners that collectively bargains freight rates, is planning to try and push through rate hikes for U.S.-Asia routes in April.

Hellenic Shipping News: Effective April 1, 2010, WTSA carriers say they intend to raise dry cargo rates by US$300 per 40-foot container (FEU) and $240 per 20-foot container (TEU). Lines have additionally proposed that refrigerated cargo rates increase on April 1 by US$300 per FEU and $240 per TEU for U.S. West Coast cargo, and by $500 per FEU and $400 per TEU for all other cargo, including minilandbridge, inland intermodal and all-water shipments from the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts.

Moreover, in a recent note Charles de Trenck of the transport research firm Transport Trackers believes ship owners are preparing to bring laid-up ships back on the market due to increased optimism that shipping demand is coming back, even in the face of what remains a rather high orderbook of new vessels being built.

Charles de Trenck @ Transport Trackers: Alphaliner and others have noted vessels coming out of lay‐up, with the 10% of fleet in lay‐up mark breached. Our anecdotal sweep shows a mini‐flood of vessels coming out of lay‐up, with one broker suggesting most could be out of lay‐up in short order. This will pair‐up with new service and loop start‐ups. The risk is too much too soon, of course.

Thus, ship owners and managers with a ground-level view of global trade, plus massive skin in the the game of physically shipping goods (bringing a ship out of lay-up is a risky proposition), are starting to regain confidence in the current global rebound. That says a lot more than any pundit or analyst could since when ship owners get it wrong they get murdered (figuratively, usually).

Add my twitter for a filter of more research and analysis posts like this: @vincefernando

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CHICAGO (CBS) — Do you carefully watch where you step every time you get on an escalator? A 7-year-old suburban boy, whose first love is hockey, wonders if he’ll ever play again after a freak accident on an escalator at Midway airport.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine says it might have been preventable had the escalator at Midway, like those at O’Hare, met the most recent safety recommendations.

State of the art, when it comes to escalator safety, is a thin strip of brushes running up and down alongside the moving steel steps of an escalator.

“It’s a warning,” the injured boy’s family attorney said of the brushes. “If it’s not lubricated, your foot gets sucked in like that.”

That’s what happened to young Anthony Rosalia, who had come to Midway with his parents. Holding his mother’s hand, riding down this escalator which didn’t have those brushes.

Or, the family says, the slippery surface now recommended.

“We’ve inspected the escalator,” attorney Martin Dolan said. “And it’s our opinion based on that inspection that it was not properly lubricated, at a minimum.”

About a third of the way down, Anthony’s sneaker caught between the stair and the side, and literally ripped apart; the steel stair then cutting into his foot.

A doctor saw it happen, hit “emergency stop”, and rushed to help, or it could have been even worse.

“He has catastrophic injuries to his foot,” Dolan said. “It’s very likely there could be amputation of certain parts of his foot. He’s a little hockey player and he’s dealing with the fact that he may never play hockey again.”

Chicago’s Aviation Department spokesman says it’s the first accident ever on Midway escalators.

She points out that the escalators at O’Hare have already been fitted with the deflector brushes, aimed at preventing injuries.

Nationwide, thousands of children are hurt on escalators every year; most from falls, but many when hands, feet or clothing become trapped.

While the Department of Buildings’ report on this accident “found no violations,” Dolan says the city and its contractors dropped the ball.

“These are simple precautions to take particularly at a major airport in a major city with so many passengers every day,” Dolan said.

CBS 2 is told the first of the deflector brushes will be installed on escalators at Midway airport this weekend.

Too late for Anthony, who still has nightmares, his mother says, and is now watching Olympic hockey on TV, hoping someday he’ll be able to get back on the ice.

CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall contributed to this report.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama argued Thursday that a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s broken health care system is imperative for the nation’s future economic vitality, clashing in an extraordinary live-on-TV summit with Republicans who want far more modest changes. “We believe we have a better idea,” declared GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander.

With the marathon policy debate available from start to finish to a divided public, Obama cast the health care crisis as “one of the biggest drags on our economy,” painting his overhaul effort as critical to the economic revival that’s even more pressing to many Americans.

“We all know that this is urgent,” he said.

Obama lamented the partisan bickering that has resulted in a stalemate over legislation to extend coverage to more than 30 million people who are now uninsured. “Politics I think ended up trumping practical common sense,” he said.

And yet, even as he pleaded for cooperation — and “actually a discussion, and not just us trading talking points” — he insisted on a number of Democratic points and acknowledged agreement may not be possible. “I don’t know that those gaps can be bridged,” Obama said. “If not, at least we will have better clarified for the American people what the debate is all about.”

His skepticism about reaching consensus was vindicated as soon as the first Republican spoke — in opposition to the mammoth bills that have passed the House and Senate. Alexander said Congress and the administration should start over and take small steps, including medical malpractice reform, funding for high-risk insurance pools, allowing Americans to shop out of state for lower-cost plans and expanding health savings accounts.

“Our views represent the views of a great many American people,” he said.

Disagreements were not always expressed diplomatically.

Alexander challenged Obama’s claim that insurance premiums would fall under the Democratic legislation. “You’re wrong,” he said. Responded Obama: “I’m pretty certain I’m not wrong.”

As with much in the complicated health care debate, both sides had a point. The Congressional Budget Office says average premiums for people buying insurance individually would be 10 to 13 percent higher in 2016 under the Senate legislation, as Alexander said. But the policies would cover more medical services, and around half of people could get government subsidies to defray the extra costs.

With such opposing positions well staked out before the meeting and no signs of them changing, the president and his Democratic allies prepared to move on alone. Politically, it would be an all-or-nothing gamble in a midterm election year for Democrats bent on achieving a goal that has eluded lawmakers for a half-century.

One option for Democrats is passing a comprehensive plan without GOP support, by using controversial Senate budget reconciliation rules that would disallow GOP filibusters. Alexander asked Democrats to swear off a jam-it-through approach, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., defended it. Obama weighed in with gentle chiding, asking both sides to focus on substance and worry about process later.

Polls show Americans want solutions to the problems of high medical costs, eroding access to coverage and uneven quality. But they are split over the Democrats’ sweeping legislation, with its $1 trillion, 10-year price tag and many complex provisions, including some that wouldn’t take effect for eight years.

The Democratic bills would require most Americans to get health insurance, while providing subsidies for many in the form of a new tax credit. The Democrats would set up a competitive insurance market for small businesses and people buying coverage on their own. Democrats also would make a host of other changes, which include addressing a coverage gap in the Medicare prescription benefit and setting up a new long-term-care insurance program. Their plan would be paid for through a mix of Medicare cuts and tax increases.

Another alternative if bipartisan agreement eludes Obama on Thursday is going smaller, with a modest bill that would merely smooth some of the rough edges from the current system. The Republican approaches, for instance, would help people now struggling with costs and coverage but probably not put the nation on a path toward coverage for all.

A month after the Massachusetts election that cost Democrats their Senate supermajority and threw the health legislation in doubt, the White House has developed its own slimmed-down health care proposal so the president will know what the impact would be if he chooses that route, according to a Democratic official familiar with the discussions. That official could not provide details, but Democrats have looked at approaches including expanding Medicaid and allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plans until around age 26.

The slimmer backup plan was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Obama himself hinted at a Democrats-only strategy. When asked by reporters as he walked to Blair House if he had a Plan B, he responded: “I’ve always got plans.”

“Not only are lawmakers polarized, the parties’ constituencies are far apart,” said Robert Blendon, a Harvard University professor who follows public opinion trends on health care. “The president is going to use it as a launching pad for what will be the last effort to get a big bill passed. He will say that he tried to get a bipartisan compromise and it wasn’t possible.”

The summit was held at Blair House, the elegant presidential guest quarters across the street from the White House. Leaders of both parties spoke, with Obama steering the debate as moderator.

It wasn’t a grand, or even particularly comfortable, setting. About 40 senators, representatives and administration officials were crowded around a large hollow square table in a cramped room, perched for the six-hour marathon on wooden chairs with thin cushions. Coffee breaks had been ruled out, so the only pause in the action would come during lunch.

C-SPAN carried complete coverage, while news operations from cable networks to public broadcasting were making it the focus of their day.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Application deadline is May 5, 2010. Technical Assistance Conference Call is from noon to 1 p.m. on March 10, 2010

California Campus Compact, with support from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve America Higher Education, is pleased to announce the second phase of  our Social Innovation Generation: Student Leadership Initiative. This 15-month grant program encourages and supports change-making student-led service and service-learning projects that will not only aid those hardest hit by California’s economic crisis, but also help California emerge from the crisis with a more innovative, green and sustainable economic future.

Up to six successful applicants will be selected to receive one subgrant each of up to $10,000. The grant requires a 150 percent match (cash or in-kind). The grant period is from September 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011. Only one proposal per campus will be accepted. To be eligible to receive a grant, student leaders must work with their service-learning or student affairs center. Proposals must be submitted to California Campus Compact by a campus’s service-learning director or student affairs director. Read more information about the opportunity here.

Deadline to Submit: May 5, 2010 at 4 p.m.

The proposal deadline is Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 4 p.m. Please note that current California Campus Compact subgrantees are not eligible to apply.

Technical Assistance Conference Call: March 10, 2010 from noon to 1 p.m.

A technical assistance conference call regarding this grant opportunity will be held on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, from noon to 1 p.m. Please email Sheena Ansarinia to register for the call and receive the call-in number and password.

For complete application guidelines and instructions, a press release and other information about this grant opportunity, click here. If you have questions about this grant opportunity or wish to discuss a project idea, please contact Piper McGinley.

You may recall that, a couple years ago, Apple was sued over its implementation of caller ID technology on the iPhone. Some company claimed to hold a patent on the basic caller ID display technology from 1990. So, when Alimas wrote in to let us know about a guy who created a really simple caller ID app for Android called (simply enough) City Caller ID, who had to shut the project down after getting sued for patent infringement, I thought maybe it was the same patent (though, you would think the 1990 patent should have expired or be close to expiring by now). But, it turns out these are totally different patents on Caller ID technology. The patents are held by a company called Cequint (6,353,664 and 7,200,212) and were granted in 2002 and 2007. Yes, for caller ID functionality. It’s a database lookup. How the hell do you patent that? In this case, all the app did was take the phone number of the caller, and do a database lookup to figure out what city the call was coming from:

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Thomas Friedman was among the first critics to whale on Jim Chanos over his stance that China is “Dubai x 1000.”

Friedman’s been pretty roundly smacked for his take, but he’s getting some professional help from analyst Jonathan Anderson at UBS:

WSJ:

The latest to join in piling on Chanos is Jonathan Anderson, the respected emerging-markets economist for UBS and a longtime China watcher. In a report this week, Anderson deployed an impressive array of charts to make the point that “China looks nothing like Dubai.” While Dubai had rapid growth in bank lending and property deals for several years before its bubble burst, he says, China hasn’t had those symptoms until that last 12 months or so – and the government is already trying to cool things down.

Rather than looking like Dubai on a continental scale, China is having more of a “mini Dubai moment,” Anderson argues. Things are going to slow down this year, which means that “‘big China bears’ could easily look like heroes for a while during 2010,” he says, “even if their more dire predictions are proven very wrong at the end of the day.”

As far as sound bites go, it’s fair to say, “mini Dubai moment” has nothing on “Dubai times a thousand.” But to be fair, Chanos’ argument is more than a sound bite. In an hour-long presentation at Oxford University’s China Center on January 28, Chanos fleshed out his views. (You can watch a video of talk here or here.)

Read more at WSJ >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• If Chanos Thinks China Is Dubai ‘Times One Thousand’, Then Who Will Be Their Abu Dhabi?
• Thomas Friedman Tries To Give Short-Selling Advice To Jim Chanos
• Chinese Columnist Accuses Jim Chanos Of Sabotaging The Nation’s Mobile Phone System

Triste noticia la que nos acaba de llegar. General Motors acaba de anunciar hace escasos minutos el cierre de la prestigiosa pero poco rentable marca Hummer. Hoy mismo vencia el plazo concedido para que la compañía china Tengzhon Heavy Industrial Machines confirmara la compra pero por lo visto el gobierno Chino no le ha dado el visto bueno.

Tras esto, podriamos decir que el cierre de Hummer es inminente y con ello se sumaría a las marcas ya desaparecieron de GM, Saturn y Pontiac. Por el momento se rumorea que otras compañías estarían interesadas en adquirir la marca pero por el momento son meras expeculaciones.

Related posts:

1. General Motors podría vender Hummer
2. La marca Hummer ya es oficialmente china
3. Hummer incrementa su gama de modelos

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Geneva Motor Show, MISC

Ferrari may have claimed the name Italia with the new 458, but rival Modenese exotic automaker Pagani is hoisting the Tricolore flag with a new special edition Zonda.

Presumably the last iteration of the hyper-exotic Zonda before the new C9 hits production, the Tricolore edition honors the Italian air force aerobatics team, known as the Frecce Tricolori. Based on the exclusive Zonda Cinque, the Tricolore is constructed from a special carbon-titanium weave left bare but for a clear blue lacquer. Red, white and green stripes run up from the nose along the top of the car’s surface, passing by the unique vertical fin air intakes.

LED running lights are also unique to the Tricolore, of which only one example will be built and sold at a whopping 1.3 million euros, or about $1.75M in American funds. The Tricolore is slated to be unveiled at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, so stay tuned for in-the-carbon photos, but in the meantime, you can check out the images in the high-res gallery.

[Source: Pagani]

Geneva Preview: Pagani Zonda Tricolore is a ground-bound air force tribute originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week’s EU PlayStation Store update is chock full of PS3 and PSP goodness, but the update list from Sony is a bit strange. The God of War III demo is, strangely enough, not listed, although it’s already

After the rumor-fest surrounding Apple’s mystery device was stanched the moment Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, a new trend has emerged; SDK Mining. This is the art of digging through the iPad’s operating system to uncover clues about hitherto-undisclosed functionality.

Since the iPad and iPhone SDKs are so very close in core functionality, SDK Miners have been trying to unearth something (anything!) we didn’t already know about the iPad. I suspect most people simply glance over these reports, shrug, and move on without comment. After all, we’re a bit tired of tablet rumors by now, right? But looking at some of the comments in the articles (linked below), there are some people who take it all very seriously indeed. And that’s probably a mistake, as I’ll explain shortly.

Before I do, here’s a quick rundown of what we think we know so far from the SDK Mining that has happened in the last five weeks.

January 29

Engadget confirmed that the OS SDK contained support for Video Calling, File Downloads, SMS and even Handwriting input;

We’re told that there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and — most importantly — run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. That means you’ll be able to chat and do other things at the same time, which could mean there’s at least some type of multitasking going on here.

Engadget’s Nilay Patel adds in an update;

…there’s a spell checker with multiple dictionaries and user-added entries (huzzah!), much richer text support for apps, the ability to selectively draw to external displays (using the VGA or component adapters, we’d imagine), location-aware ads in Maps and possibly other programs that use the Maps API, file upload ability in Safari, a modifiable cut / copy / paste menu, and, most interestingly, prototype support for a “handwriting keyboard.” Maybe we’ll see some stylus action on this thing after all.

In all, Patel lists no fewer than 18 new discoveries, though many of them are pretty dry and technical.

After that, things fell quiet for a while, until just this week.

February 20

9to5Mac reported discovering a set of icons in the 3.2 SDK it believes are “pretty definitive evidence” for video calling functionality in a future iPhone or iPad device.

Image by 9to5Mac

It also found strings of code that refer to iChat, too, but didn’t speculate further. It did say;

While it is possible that Apple brought code over from its Mac telephony products, it is unlikely that they also built icons and compressed them into the iPad SDK for such a product if it weren’t being built for future release.

February 23

MacRumor’s Arnold Kim added to the fresh wave of SDK Mining reports with this graphic of the icons used in the video chat functionality;

Image by MacRumors

Kim writes;

It seems Apple built in API support to test to see if your iPad had a Front Facing Camera, Zoom and a Camera Flash. The front facing camera would, of course, be used for video chat, while Zoom and Camera Flash are often requested features for the iPhone’s camera.

Given the size of these buttons, they were intended for use on the the iPad’s screen rather than the iPhone. We’re not sure why these features were dropped…

And finally, just today, MacNN brings us news of (wait for it) advanced wallpaper options.

Image by MacNN

Well. Be still my beating heart. From MacNN;

In the current iPad simulator, users can now set separate lock- and homescreen wallpapers, reflecting the iPad’s ability to keep wallpaper active while navigating icons. In case the difference doesn’t matter, another button applies the same wallpaper to both screens.

The Disappointment of SDK Mining

While it’s fun to poke-around in the code (in the absence of an actual iPad to play with, it’s the next best thing!), SDK Mining often leads to disappointment. An operating system — even a ‘small’ OS like the one found on the iPhone or iPad — is hugely complex. It’s the end-product of years of development. In that time, as hardware and software prototypes came-and-went, functionality was added and removed, supported and dropped, many times over. This is common to any OS development process.

We need to be careful when reading breathless reports of “hidden” functionality in the iPad (or iPhone) SDKs. In the reports above, the code references camera features, proving that, at some point, Apple’s developers seriously explored that functionality. That doesn’t mean a camera is guaranteed to appear on the iPad. (For instance, just because I once learned how to ride a bike, it doesn’t guarantee I’ll become an avid cyclist.)

So let’s enjoy the speculation — but not get too worked-up over what it might mean. After all, it might never happen.

EAST PALO ALTO, California — The plane carrying three Tesla Motors employees that crashed in a residential area last week had been flying about 50 feet (15 meters) above the ground when it struck power lines and a power line tower, a federal report confirmed late Wednesday.

But the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report into the Feb. 17, accident did not address what could have caused the aircraft to hit the electrical equipment.

The Cessna 310R went down in fog in an East Palo Alto neighborhood shortly after takeoff about 8 a.m. All three aboard were killed and the fiery aircaft wreckage damaged homes and cars, but no one on the ground was injured.

Investigators say a full investigation is expected to be completed in five or six months.

“Examination of the accident site revealed that the airplane struck power lines and a power line tower about 50 feet above ground,” the report said.

In an apparent reference the fog, it added that “instrument meteorological conditions prevailed and an instrument flight plan was filed.”

The report included information from people who saw the crash, but did not disclose names.

“One witness, who was walking on a levee near the accident site reported that she observed an airplane ’suddenly appear from the fog’ left of her position. The witness stated that she continued to watch the airplane fly in a level or slightly nose up attitude from her left to her right at a low altitude until it impacted power lines shortly after,” the report said.

Tesla earlier identified the victims as Doug Bourn, 53, a senior electrical engineer with Tesla; Andrew Ingram, 31, an electrical engineer; and Brian Finn, 42, a senior interactive electronics manager.

The NTSB said the aircraft was flown by a “commercial pilot” but didn’t further identify him.

The plane was registered to Air Unique Inc., a company owned by Bourn.

Vicky Tuite, who worked with Bourn at Tesla before leaving the company in 2008, said he also was a flight instructor and offered a class for aspiring pilots at the company.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Typically the market loves when Bernanke is talking because he offers soothing comments about cheap money.

But they can’t hear him say it today because all the cameras are focused on the silly bipartisan healthcare summit at Blair House.

Bernanke is being drowned out.

The Dow is now down nearly 185!

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Let’s Take A Look At The Commodities Getting Slammed
• 10 Stocks Getting Whacked This Morning
• DOW PLUMMETS 160 ON OPEN

I’ve talked about this before but I haven’t talked about it in a while and there is an update in regard to converting cars, trucks or vans to run on hydrogen gas. Now, converting an internal combustion engine (ICE) to run on hydrogen is not quite as clean out the tailpipe as a fuel cell, but it is close.

Some of the companies that I’ve talked about in the past that specialize in converting ICE vehicles into H2ICE vehicles include Quantum Technologies and Intergalactic Hydrogen, both in the U. S.

I’ve also talked about a British company, Revolve (formerly Roush Industries) that have converted a couple of Ford Transit-based vehicles to run on compressed hydrogen gas. And now, they are looking for more business.

Revolve says they can handle about 20 hydrogen conversions of transit vans per month. Fleet vehicles will be the most likely candidates since the UK hydrogen highway is in the beginning stages of development.

The estimated prices for hydrogen conversions of ICE vehicles is $30,000 and up for Intergalactic Hydrogen, $60,000 and up for Quantum Technologies and around $69,000 for Revolve to convert a transit van.

Devin Schaeffer is pretty proud of the spruced up Eddie’s, a downtown Arlington Heights restaurant that’s been a landmark for decades on the north side of the tracks.

Of course, when you’re talking about a business that’s about 60 years old, it takes more than a coat of honey beige paint to bring it up to date and up to code.

Schaeffer and her partners – family members and her boyfriend, Aaron Lee – took down a wall, installed new floors and ceilings and expensive things like plumbing and wiring and a new kitchen. Eventually they put more than $500,000 into the building at 10 E. Northwest Hwy. during a year of remodeling that culminated with the opening in November.

There are two things Schaeffer did not mess with – the gorgeous bar in the middle of the main room, and the fish fries.

OK, she did add a bit to the back of the bar and she installed purse hooks, which she said are very popular with the ladies, who are an important part of Eddie’s clientele.

But she dares you to find anything different about the fish. The batter is the same, the oil is the same, and on Wednesdays and Fridays a man named Francisco still comes in to fry the catch, when it’s all you can eat for $10. The main drawback is you might have to wait an hour for your food.

Eddie’s, which opened in 1949, has had rocky times in recent years since offspring of the original owners sold it in 2006. It’s had a few owners and has been closed much of the time before it was purchased by Barbara Schaeffer, Devin’s mother.

Hot items on the new menu include tuna melt with apple wood bacon for $4.49 and the barbecue pulled pork sandwich for $4.99.

Devin Schaeffer was thrilled when one young lady enjoying a pub-crawl called her mother to report she was at Eddie’s and got a dose of nostalgia over the phone.

She thinks she has come up with a combination of decor and entertainment to keep regulars and newcomers happy.

The decor includes a stone tile floor, six televisions, sports logos and pictures of icons like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, not to mention works by local artists, apparently de rigueur these days in Arlington Heights restaurants.

The dining room can be used for private parties for up to 80 people when the dart teams aren’t tossing. It’s particularly appropriate for coed wedding showers, said Schaeffer.

Entertainment at Eddie’s includes live acoustic music from the 1980s and ’90s on Saturday night; trivia on Thursdays; and karaoke coming soon. The restaurant is closed Mondays during the winter.

A back door makes it easy to park in nearby garages or on the street, said Schaeffer.

“A lot of people feel good that this establishment is back up and running and comfortable – a good hangout for everybody,” she said.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

It’s not just the equities that are tanking today. Commodity futures are taking their fair share of a beating as well. Here are the five hardest hit so far today:

Heating Oil: $1.9873 / -3.20%
Crude Oil: $77.81 / -3.15%
Sugar: $23.64 / -3.11%
Oats: $217.00 / -2.91%
Coffee: $129.60 / -2.08%

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See Also:

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