Author: Serkadis

A Chicago woman has joined the ranks of people ticketed in Orland Park for texting while driving since the law went into effect Jan. 1.

Mariela Chaldez, 18, 3840 Marquette Road, was charged with texting while driving and driving on a suspended license after she was stopped Feb. 4 in the 14900 block of Orland Square Drive, police said.

Chaldez was the 25th driver to receive a traffic ticket in the village for texting while driving, police Lt. James Bianchi said.

Since Chaldez received her ticket, Bianchi, who supervises the department’s traffic safety division, said five more tickets have been written.

The police officer who arrested Chaldez said in his report that he saw her texting on her cell phone.

According to the police report, Chaldez told the officer, “My phone would not stop vibrating so I checked my messages.”

After she was stopped for texting, a check of her license showed that her license was suspended.

Bianchi said it’s easy for officers to spot people who are texting on their cell phones.

“You just drive next to them,” he said.

He said officers clearly can tell the difference between a driver who is dialing a phone number and a driver who is texting.

A driver can dial a phone number pretty quickly, Bianchi said. But if the driver has his phone resting on the steering wheel and is typing away, “it gives it away.”

He said the practice of texting and driving clearly is dangerous.

People need to pay attention when they drive, but they often don’t, he said.

“Our goal, especially on our main thoroughfares, is to reduce crashes and the injuries they cause,” Bianchi said.

Chaldez is due in court March 2, police said.

Illinois is one of 19 states, along with the District of Columbia and Guam, that bans text messaging for all drivers.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO (AP) – Although he is definitely one of the best-known Chicagoans of all time, city officials have long made it a point not to perpetuate the memory of Al Capone.

But the name of the long-dead gangster recently showed up on a city historical marker designating the one-time sites of the Metropole and Lexington hotels, two Capone haunts on South Michigan Ave.

The city’s Department of Transportation is responsible. Department spokesman Brian Steele says the sign, which was put up late last year, is part of what he calls a Michigan Avenue “streetscape project.”

Both the Metropole and the Lexington have been replaced by condos, but both were regarded as architecturally significant. The sign deals more with the architecture than it does with Capone – but it does mention him.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

TUSCOLA, Ill. (AP) – Three California men are being held on $1 million bond each after their arrest on suspicion of hauling more than two tons of marijuana across eastern Illinois.

Douglas County State’s Attorney Kevin Nolan says Illinois State Police troopers arrested the men Monday night after finding 4,400 pounds marijuana in their semitrailer truck on Interstate 57 north of Tuscola. The town is about 30 miles south of Champaign.

Nolan says a drug-sniffing dog found the marijuana packed away among crates of vegetables.

Thirty-one-year-old Jesus Guzman, 35-year-old Eric Cabrera and 32-year-old Joshua Cornillez appeared at a bond hearing yesterday (Tuesday). They are from the Livingston, Calif. area.

Nolan says the men haven’t been charged yet. But he anticipates filing cannabis trafficking charges against them.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

COMMENT ON THIS STORY

At Schaumburg High School this afternoon, several teams of students will present their proposed campaigns to try to get fellow students to stop using the word “retarded” when talking about people with intellectual disabilities. 

Nine teams of students in Jessica Wienke’s Leadership for Life class will present their proposed campaigns today before a dozen judges, including some from the Special Olympics.

The competition is part of the Special Olympics effort called “Spread the Word to End the Word”. 

Special Olympian and Roosevelt University student Daniel Smrokowski recently talked with the Schaumburg High students and told them how hurtful the word “retarded” can be.  He says, “There’s no need to use this word because all we do is smile and love”.

Smrokowski says he doesn’t remember being called the “r” word, as he puts it, but he says his parents have told him of times they heard others use it against him when he was younger.

Teacher Jessica Wienke says the proposed student campaigns are very creative, including one group that “is doing ‘respect, rejoice, rejuvenate’, anything but retarded”.

She says, “high school kids and lots of people, in general, throw around ‘that’s so retarded’, ‘that’s so gay’ without really any thought to how that might affect people.  What (her students) really want to do is help people realize that that’s a slur”.

The winning campaign will be used in the weeks to come to try to change attitudes among the entire Schaumburg High School student body.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says consumers should steer clear of refund anticipation loans while preparing 2009 tax returns.

Some tax-preparation firms offer the loans as a way to get money quickly. Tax filers get a cash advance based on their expected tax refund instead of waiting for the refund from the government. The loans are legal.

Madigan says it’s tempting to get fast cash, especially during tough economic times. But she says the costs outweigh the benefits.

The loans can include high costs and fees, which are deducted from the consumer’s tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service says more than 8 million Americans used refund anticipation loans in 2007, the latest year data was available.

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Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Aston Martin, Luxury

You might remember that we already posted quite a few photos of the Aston Martin Rapide, but apparently the British automaker thought that wasn’t enough. Dozens of new photos have been released of this fabulous four-door showing just about every detail and angle.

The photos also display the Rapide in a variety of colors. Feeling feisty? Check out the Rapide in Magma Red. Want something classically British? Go for Hardly Green. And if you’re in the mood for something more subdued, the Quantum Silver or Silver Blonde will surely do. You can view each of the colors in the high-res galleries below.

[Source: Aston Martin]

Pics Aplenty: Aston Martin Rapide shows its true colors originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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National Geographic (Ker Than)

King Tut may be seen as the golden boy of ancient Egypt today, but during his reign, Tutankhamun wasn’t exactly a strapping sun god.

Instead, a new DNA study says, King Tut was a frail pharaoh, beset by malaria and a bone disorder—and possibly compromised by his newly discovered incestuous origins. (King Tut Pictures: DNA Study Reveals Health Secrets.)

The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.

“He was not a very strong pharaoh. He was not riding the chariots,” said study team member Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at Germany’s University of Tübingen. “Picture instead a frail, weak boy who had a bit of a club foot and who needed a cane to walk.”

Regarding the revelation that King Tut’s mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, “Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase,” he said.

Scientific American (Katie Moisse)

The study revealed that King Tut’s parents were siblings, a trend which might have continued in Tut’s marriage. “There are rumors that Tut’s wife was his sister or half sister. If this is true we have at least two successive generations that had interfamilial marriages, and this is not a good thing,” Pusch says. “We see it quite often in royal families that they marry each other. They thought: ‘Better to stay close.’ I think we cannot judge from the insight we have nowadays.” Because only partial DNA was retrieved from the mummified fetuses, it is still unclear whether they were Tut’s offspring or just ceremonial offerings.

In 2005 Hawass performed a computed tomography (CT) scan to determine the cause of the boy pharaoh’s death. The scan revealed a fractured femur, which could have caused death from infection or from a blood clot. The present study revealed that juvenile aseptic bone necrosis—a disorder in which poor blood supply leads to bone damage—might have rendered Tut particularly vulnerable to physical injuries. “We know that this man had 130 walking sticks and that he used to shoot arrows while he was sitting,” Hawass says.

But the genetic analysis identified DNA from the malaria tropica (Plasmodium falciparum) pathogen, suggesting that Tut was also hampered by infection.

Times Online (David Rose)

With video.

Over a two-year period, until October last year, they analysed samples from 16 mummies from the royal tombs of Luxor, and used computerised tomography (CT) scans to determine whether they were related, or had genetic disorders or infectious diseases. Using genetic fingerprinting and blood group tests, the study confirms that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, the “heretical” pharaoh who tried to reform Egyptian religion and culture during his rule from 1351 to 1334BC. It also identifies some of his grandparents and great-grandparents for the first time and suggests that his mother was Akhenaten’s sister.

On the basis of other, less complete DNA evidence, Tutankhamun himself was the father of two children, both stillborn girls, whose remains were found in his tomb.

Brother-sister marriages were common in the 18th dynasty of Egypt (circa 1550 to 1295BC) but scans and genetic fingerprinting show that he suffered from several disorders as a result of his family history.

LA Times (Thomas L Maugh III)

By matching Tut’s DNA to samples from other mummies, the team was able to identify one — previously known only as KV55 — as the pharaoh Akhenaten and the probable father of Tut; another as Tiye, Akhenaten’s mother and Tut’s grandmother; and a third as a sister of Akhenaten who was probably Tut’s mother. . . .

“It is very important to have more empirical data about this body,” said archaeologist Emily Teeter of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, who was not involved in the research. “The period is well documented [with artifacts] but not well understood.”

She said the demonstration that Akhenaten was probably Tut’s father also had “ramifications for Egyptian chronology.” Researchers had not known whether Tut’s father was Amenhotep III or Amenhotep IV, who took the name Akhenaten.

Science Daily

The researchers found that several of the anonymous mummies or those with suspected identities were now able to be addressed by name, which included KV35EL, who is Tiye, mother of the pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun, and the KV55 mummy, who is most probably Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamun. This kinship is supported in that several unique anthropological features are shared by the 2 mummies and that the blood group of both individuals is identical. The researchers identified the KV35YL mummy as likely Tutankhamun’s mother.

No signs of gynecomastia or Marfan syndrome were found. “Therefore, the particular artistic presentation of persons in the Amarna period is confirmed as a royally decreed style most probably related to the religious reforms of Akhenaten. It is unlikely that either Tutankhamun or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique. It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion,” they write.

Art Museum Journal (Stan Parchin)

King Tut Unwrapped, a two-part television program on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, February 21 and Monday, February 22, 2010 at 8:00 P.M. (ET/PT), presents the Egyptian Mummy Project’s latest findings.

The traveling special exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York (April 23, 2010-January 2, 2011) will feature a new gallery that describes how recent DNA testing provided information about the ruler’s cause of death and family history.

Discovery News (Rossella Lorenzi)

With helpful family tree diagram and an overview of some of the questions that the research was hoping to answer.

CNN has a video on its site but I couldn’t get it to work (could well be a local problem at my end).

And last but by no means least:

drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass press release)

The Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, will hold a press conference on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 11:00 am in the Cairo Museum to announce new discoveries surrounding the family of Tutankhamun and the cause of the young king’s death. Reporters from around the world have been invited to attend this important event.

The study on the family of Tutankhamun was conducted through the Egyptian Mummy Project (EMP) headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and a team composed of Egyptian scientists from the National Research Center, members from the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, and two German DNA specialists.

In the past, the EMP has conducted two further studies on ancient Egyptian mummies. The first project, which was carried out in 2005, performed a CT-Scan of the mummy of Tutankhamun. The study concluded that the king had died at the age of 19, but that contrary to earlier speculation, had not been murdered by a blow to the back of the head – Egyptian scientists revealed that the hole was created during Dynasty 18 in order to insert mummification liquid. Scientists also noted that the young king suffered a fracture to his left leg a day or so before his death. The EMP’s second project succeeded in identifying the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut from among remains found in KV 60 in the Valley of the Kings. These findings have been published in scientific articles.

Dr. Zahi Hawass and the scientists involved in the EMP’s latest study submitted an article to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), who approved of the study’s scientific method. The article will be published on February 17; the same day as the press conference.

The study was conducted inside two DNA laboratories which are under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities; one is located in the basement of the Cairo Museum, and another is in the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. These are the only two DNA laboratories exclusively aimed at the study of ancient mummies.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. His grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, “No change yet.”

We started off the week with both the stock and bond markets making a little change for investors: both improved. The folks on Wall Street, if there is such a thing anymore, reported that selling was pretty heavy, suggesting that locks picked up as agents took advantage of the intra-day price improvements. The Fed was in doing the usual buying ($11 billion net last week), as were money managers and hedge funds, and lower coupons tended to do a little better price-wise versus higher coupons. Bonds closed near the highs of the day (lows in rates), and the 10-yr went back down to a yield of 3.66%. Gold was up $30 an ounce… what is wrong with this picture? Currently the futures market is pricing in an 82% chance that the Fed keeps rates somewhere between 0% and .25% through the end of June.

For economic news today we have Housing Starts & Building Permits, Export Prices, and Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization. U.S. import prices rose 1.4% last month, mostly due to oil, and it was the sixth consecutive monthly increase. Export prices gained 0.8 percent in January after a 0.6 percent rise in December. And U.S. housing starts (+2.8%) rebounded more strongly than expected to their highest level in six months in January, while permits fell slightly (-4.9%) less than forecast. Starts for the volatile multifamily segment increased 9.2%. After this news we find the yield on the 10-yr back up to 3.70% and mortgages worse by about .125.

Why should anyone build a lot of new homes when there seem to be so many foreclosures looming, and how are foreclosures doing out there? Although percentage-wise filings dropped in January from December by 10%, Realty Trac reported that foreclosure filings were above 300,000 for 11th straight month. And versus a year ago they are up 15%. And home ownership here in the US is back down to 2000 levels: in the fourth quarter the percentage stood at about 67.2%.

While we’re on foreclosures, for those who like bleak news recent studies conclude that most efforts to modify loans with easier terms will delay, not prevent, the loss of homes to foreclosure. The studies, reported the WSJ, suggest that more waves of foreclosures will keep downward pressure on home prices in parts of the U.S. over the next several years. “…estimates that five million houses and condominiums on which mortgages are now delinquent will go through foreclosure or related procedures that put them on the market over the next few years. That would represent the bulk of the estimated 7.7 million households behind on their mortgage payments.” Of course the problem is largely concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada. Check it out:

PMI disappointed analysts yesterday by reporting a much wider-than-expected quarterly loss of $228 million versus 2008’s $181 million loss. The MI division suffered a net loss of $242 million versus the loss of $174 a year earlier. On the positive side, Fannie Mae approved PMI as a direct issuer of mortgage guaranty insurance, and the MI unit also obtained a waiver to continue writing new mortgage insurance business, even if it falls below the capital requirements of the Arizona state regulator. According the press release, PMI also said it is currently in discussions with Freddie Mac regarding approval of PMI Mortgage Assurance Co (PMAC) to transact new mortgage insurance business. PMAC is a subsidiary of PMI Mortgage Insurance Co, PMI’s main mortgage insurance company.

MGIC, ranked number 1 among MI companies, and who posted its tenth straight quarterly loss last month also made news. Its president sent a letter which discussed utilizing MGIC Indemnity Corporation (”MIC”), a wholly owned subsidiary, to support new mortgage insurance business. “MIC” (not to be confused with Rocky’s trainer who was told, “Cut me Mick.”) has been approved by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin (”OCI”) to concurrently write new business with MGIC beginning on April 1, 2010. “MIC will be the writing company for states with minimum regulatory capital requirements that do not grant MGIC a waiver to continue writing new business and MGIC will remain the writing company in all other states.” Same programs, same rates, same guidelines according to the president.

Wells Fargo Wholesale Lending will now accept any of the three following fee detail forms along with the Good Faith Estimate (GFE): Wells Fargo Fee Details Form, Calyx Point Initial Fees Worksheet, or Ellie Mae’s Encompass Itemized Fee Worksheet.

Wells’ wholesale also came out with a lengthy update for their broker clients. Included in it were Application Package Requirements (Minimum application package only: Good Faith Estimate, 1003, automated findings and fee details sheet, or those documents as well as the full credit package), a reminder that the Home Affordable Refinance Program is scheduled to end June 10th (this includes the Freddie Mac Relief Refinance Mortgage and Fannie Mae DU Refi Plus, and brokers need to follow Wells’ lock deadlines), a reminder about the new FHA appraisal process that began earlier this week, and to make sure that appraisal requests have the correct information, Imaging Best Practices, how to view tax transcripts, a note about the FHA Property Flipping Policy Changes, and information on approval designation for established Florida condo projects (established Florida condominium projects on the Fannie Mae Special Approval Designation list are eligible for financing with no condominium approvals required with certain restrictions.)

Not to be outdone, last week SunTrust released a large number of updates to its customers. SunTrust updated its guidelines for properties purchased at auctions (the fees used to calculate the final bid price are referring to fees paid by the borrower, not the seller of the property), and that condos bought at an auction will now follow current SunTrust Condominium and PUD Approval Requirements. SunTrust revised its Non-Permanent Resident Alien policy, along with its “Fraud Prevention Certification Guidelines (incorporation of the update for the verbal VOE, and updated the inclusion of the 2009 tax returns).
The company announced that the K-1 and K-3 visa classifications are no longer acceptable. For non-permanent resident alien borrowers who have an un-expired visa and are changing employers at or after loan application, a valid EAD card must be obtained, and listed the requirements that borrowers applying for Permanent Resident Alien Status must have.
Starting yesterday, SunTrust Mortgage updated its Declining Markets Index, adjusting some pricing & LTV’s, moving some counties around, and spelling out the criteria for future updates. The investor also updated their Agency Affordable Lending Product Description, followed HUD’s guidance on flood insurance, and will be implementing the changes outlined by HUD for all non-AUS and AUS transactions.
Of much interest, however, is that SunTrust updated its “Ineligible Appraiser and Appraisal Company” list, not for publication, its “Ineligible Settlement Agent” list, which can be found here; also check out  Fannie’s list of approved condo projects:

March 1 is right around the corner, and Fannie Mae begins requiring the submission of electronic appraisal reports and their addenda in the MISMO XML standard for all loans requiring an appraisal report. Fannie Mae is said to support the conversion from other XML standards to MISMO XML. At some point around the middle of the year Fannie Mae will be enhancing the loan delivery file, and anticipates being able to accept delivery data in the most current MISMO XML file format. The 2000-Character Loan Delivery File format will continue to be supported for a sufficient period of time for lenders to transition to the new format, which will be phased in.

A woman and a man are involved in a car accident on a snowy, cold Wednesday night: it’s a bad one. Both of their cars are totally demolished, but amazingly neither of them is hurt. God works in mysterious ways.

After they crawl out of their cars, the man is yelling about women drivers.

The woman says, “So, you’re a man. That’s interesting. I’m a woman. Wow, just look at our cars! There’s nothing left, but we’re unhurt. This must be a sign from God that we should be friends and live in peace for the rest of our days.”

Flattered, the man replies, “Oh yes, I agree completely, this must be a sign from God! But you’re still at fault… women shouldn’t be allowed to drive.”

The woman continues, “And look at this, here’s another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn’t break. Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune.”

She hands the bottle to the man.

The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks half the bottle and then hands it back to the woman.

The woman takes the bottle, puts the cap back on and hands it back to the man.

The man asks, “Aren’t you having any?”

The woman replies, “No. I think I’ll just wait for the police…”

Rob

For archived commentaries, check www.robchrisman.com,

In a move reminiscent of the warranty extension Apple offered to MacBook Pro owners affected by NVIDIA-gate, the Mac maker announced this week that it would offer a similar consideration to some MacBook owners whose hard drives are crashing. Eligible models (black and white MacBooks sold between May 2006 and December 2007) affected by the problem will be repaired at no cost.

On the support page created to describe the problem and the resulting warranty extension, Apple doesn’t mention which brand of hard drives are affected by name, which could mean that the problem doesn’t lie with the hard drives themselves, but with some other system components. Another indication that this is indeed the case is that all capacities of hard drive are also affected.

If you’re wondering whether or not you have an affected unit (Apple says only a “small percentage” of users will experience problems), it’s very easy to identify. Your MacBook will just stop working altogether, and any attempts to boot it will result in a screen that displays a folder icon with a question mark over top of it, as in the image below. As someone who’s seen this screen many times while fixing up old PowerBooks, I can tell you it isn’t a heartening experience.

Apple describes what you should do if you’re greeted with such a screen:

Please take your MacBook to the Apple representative most convenient for you:

• Apple Authorized Service Provider – Find one here.
• Apple Retail Store – Set up an appointment with a Genius.

If Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider confirms that your hard drive is affected, Apple will replace it with a new hard drive. You will need to have the original OS installation discs that were shipped with your product in order to re-install your operating system, other applications, and any backed up data.

If you need assistance finding the best service option in your area, you may contact Apple Technical Support for more information.

It sounds like any data you may have stored on the drive will be irrevocably lost if this does happen to you, so if you have one of the affected models and you haven’t yet implemented any kind of backup system, you should probably consider doing so.

If your machine has already had this problem, and you’ve already paid out of pocket to get it fixed or replace your drive, you can contact Apple Technical Support and inquire about a reimbursement process. No word on whether that extends to at home HD replacements, which is how I would’ve tried to solve the problem, but if you haven’t kept your old faulty drive, I highly doubt it would. Mostly I expect this will apply when people have taken their machines through official Apple repair channels to correct the problem.

The extension period covers affected Macs three years from the date of purchase, for this specific problem alone, or until August 15, 2010, whichever comes last, so you still have about six months in which your HD can fail and you’ll still be covered. It may seem like an arbitrary window, but Apple does include a caveat that it will be evaluating the repair need on an ongoing basis and extend that deadline if circumstances require.

Anyone experienced the symptoms Apple is describing with this model MacBook?

Developers and publisher are already starting to drop hints about what wares they’re going to show off at E3. Square Enix is going the opposite route by revealing what might not make it to the yearly expo.

The online video market is continually evolving and, despite its growing audience, event the biggest companies are still trying to figure out how to actually make money from this. Not that that’s stopping anyone and the latest battlefield seems to be the UK. After a failed attempt by the major broadcasters in the country to create their version of Hulu, and after H… (read more)

Filed under: Buick, GM

The Buick lineup was all but dead just a couple years ago, but the past year has been a bit of a boon for the struggling marquee. In the second half of 2009, General Motors added the LaCrosse to the Buick lineup, and for the most part early returns have been positive. The Buick lineup gets even more interesting in the next couple months as the 2011 Regal enters the product mix. There are also reportedly plans for a crossover that slots under the Enclave and a Cruze-sized sedan in the next 12 months as well. But what’s missing? John Cafaro, director of design for Buick and Chevrolet, thinks the Tri-Shield could use some more products to signify the brands new youthful image, and a coupe may be just what the doctor director ordered.

In an interview with Automotive News, Cafaro reportedly described his role in the recreation of Buick as “being a zealot for getting Buick more youthful, more spirited and probing ideas for coupes, more expressive vehicles.” Cafaro also insists that Buick needs more products to be competitive, even with the upcoming small sedan and crossover.

We’re wondering from where Buick could get a coupe in the General’s current product portfolio, and we have come up with a good option: a rear-wheel-drive drive coupe based off of the Chevrolet Camaro platform. Probably wishful thinking, right? But at the very least adding another vehicle to the Zeta platform would likely go a long way toward paying for tooling and keeping the line in Oshawa busy. Hopefully we’ll find out in the next 12 to 18 months.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Buick considering coupe to stoke youthful image? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For years, we (and certainly plenty of other people) have pointed out that monopolies, like patents and copyrights, don’t drive innovation — competition does. In fact, having monopolies does the opposite of driving innovation, since the monopolists have fewer reasons to innovate and upgrade since they’re not fighting against competitors. This point is made quite clear in an admission by Mike Beltzner, the director of Firefox at Mozilla, in an article at Slate discussing how much browsers have been innovating lately:

“Were there not other competitors who were just as interested in making Web browsers faster, I don’t know if we’d be able to find the gains that we can find,” he said. “Now it’s a game of one-upping each other.”

Imagine if instead of thinking that way, the concept of a browser had been patented way back when? Does anyone honestly think that we’d have as innovative a web world as we do today?

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THQ CEO Brian Farrell has laid out more details regarding the company’s new games. According to Farrell, new entries in the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises will be shown off at this year’s E3. Blue Tongue’s de Blob

The limited number of Sharia scholars has meant the same
group of men are on various advisory boards which has led to criticism
that people can go “fatwa shopping” and that scholars are in it for the money.

Not so, says Harris Irfan, head of Islamic products at
Barclays Capital.

“We’re not out fatwa shopping,” he said at the Reuters
Islamic Banking and Finance Summit. “We want to work with the
scholar who’s willing to say ‘no’ (to non-Sharia products)”

A study last year by Funds at Work, a consultant for the
fund industry, looked at scholars’ engagement by financial firms
in the Gulf Arab region. It found the top 10 scholars hold about
46 percent of all available positions in the region.

Internationally, excluding the Gulf, the top 10 scholars —
out of 70 active outside the region — hold 58 percent of board
positions.

Scholars can earn up to $150,000 per project and it can take
four to six months for a Sharia-compliant project to be
developed. For the scholar, that can mean between four to six
weeks of work on a project.

It may look cushy but often these same scholars will work
for nothing to help develop standards for the industry.

And, with an average 20 advisory board positions — which
could require at least two meetings a year, typically requiring
travel — the work stacks up.

“At their age, that’s quite impressive,” Irfan says of the
scholars’ stamina.

He said conflicting rulings can come from different scholars
— reinforcing the ‘fatwa shopping’ accusation — when
institutions are not upfront with the scholar about all the
details.

“(One influential scholar) calls himself The Doctor,” Irfan
said. “He’ll say ‘if you come to the doctor with an ailment and
only tell me one part, I can’t treat you. You have to tell me
everything’ and he’s right.”

PEORIA — The $32 billion company that puts the Peoria area on the world’s financial map got its start 100 years ago with the deed to a bankrupt tractor plant and a dozen employees.

Caterpillar, based in East Peoria, is easily the area’s biggest employer with more than 16,000 local workers.

But it’s also 44th in the Fortune 500, employs more than 90,000 people around the world and serves as a bellwether for the economy because its construction and mining equipment is so widely used.

“Over the years, our first plant along the banks of the Illinois River has been the birthplace for many of the products that have made us the company we are today,” Caterpillar CEO-elect and Vice Chairman Doug Oberhelman said. He has been picked to replace outgoing CEO James Owens.

Cat got its start when Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, Calif., chose East Peoria and the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing plant as its base east of the Rockies.

Holt was looking at Minneapolis but a young Peoria businessman named Murray Baker steered Holt toward a relatively new tractor plant owned by the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Company, according to Caterpillar archivist Nicole Thaxton.

Pliny Holt, the nephew of Holt’s founder, came to the Peoria area to check it out, and loved it.

“I spent last Sunday in Peoria, Illinois investigating the plant of the Colean Manufacturing Company and I must say that I am more than enthused with the location of this plant for our Eastern Manufacturing business,” Pliny Holt wrote in a letter dated July 1, 1909.

Holt Manufacturing took the deed to the plant on Feb. 16, 1910 and started work as Holt Caterpillar Company right away.

A group of investors bought Holt and another manufacturer, C.L. Best Tractor Co., in 1925, and merged them into Caterpillar Tractor Co.

Caterpillar employment reached more than 110,000 and revenue topped $51 billion in 2008 before the recession cut sales and led the company to lay off workers.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Filed under: Japan, Recalls, Toyota

In a press conference on Wednesday in Tokyo, Toyota Motor Company’s president Akio Toyoda (grandson of the company’s founder) revealed new details of his plan to reform the automaker’s quality standards. Toyota has been beset by a trio of high-profile recalls, two of which involve unintended acceleration caused by either floormats or a sticking accelerator pedal and another having to do with the brakes on the 2010 Prius hybrid.

In addition to heading up what’s being called a Special Committee for Global Quality, Toyoda remarked that his company will also establish a “chief quality officer” for each geographical region in which the company’s vehicles are sold. Those officers will each have a seat on the committee led by Toyoda, which holds its first meeting March 30. New local technical offices will also be opened to help better investigate customer complaints, the goal reportedly being to have an on-site inspector there within 24 hours after a complaint is made.

In addition, Toyoda reaffirmed the automaker’s commitment to outfit all of its vehicles with a brake-override system. This system would prevent acceleration if the gas and brake pedals were applied at the same time. Finally, the Japanese automaker also plans to make better use of onboard data event recorders in its vehicles. Like the black box in an airplane, these devices record critical data the seconds before an accident happens.

His third time speaking to the press in less than two months, Toyoda also confirmed that he would not be attending a February 24 Congressional hearing before the House Oversight Committee. Instead, Yoshimi Inaba, president of Toyota’s operations in North America, will appear on behalf of Toyota to answer the U.S. government’s questions. This will be the second of four Congressional hearings related to Toyota’s recent recalls, and while Toyoda does not plan to attend any himself, he is planning a trip to the U.S. to speak directly with workers, dealers and suppliers.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req. | Image: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty]

Akio Toyoda outlines quality reform, won’t attend U.S. hearings originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WOODSTOCK — A Wonder Lake man received permission to hug his mother before he was led away today to begin serving seven years in prison for his sixth drunken-driving conviction.

Kevin M. O’Reilly, 48, asked Judge Sharon Prather for leniency, arguing that prison time would jeopardize his adult son’s college education, his ability to pay back child support and his plans to get married.

“I have a lot to lose over this,” O’Reilly said. “I will lose everything.”

But Prather responded that he still had a serious alcohol problem despite judges giving him opportunities to deal with it after past cases.

In the most recent case, jurors deliberated for less than 30 minutes in September before convicting O’Reilly of driving drunk in June 2006.

O’Reilly had been driving in the wrong lane on East Wonder Lake Road, forcing a sheriff’s deputy to pull to the side of the road to avoid him, authorities said.

O’Reilly refused to submit to field sobriety tests but police found a water bottle that contained a liquid that smelled of alcohol in his car.

The majority of O’Reilly’s prior convictions happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he received two years of probation and periodic in-patient treatment after being convicted of felony drunk-driving in Lake County.

Prosecutor Ryan Blackney asked Prather to sentence him to between 10 and 15 years in prison, arguing that his past sentences had been relatively light. O’Reilly faced between six and 30 years in prison; probation was not an option.

Defense attorney Patrick Walsh requested between six and eight years in prison, pointing to four friends and family members who attended court in O’Reilly’s support. He also pointed to the facts surrounding the 2006 incident.

“If we look at this, there’s very limited evidence of bad driving,” Walsh said. “There’s very limited evidence of impaired driving.”

Defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal after Prather announced the sentence, and an appellate public defender was appointed.

Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

The St. Louis Gateway Arch Design competition organizers announced that nine teams will participate in the second stage of the competition. Some 49 teams initially submitted proposals. The goal of the competition is to create a park at the base of the Gateway Arch that will be viewed as iconic as the Arch itself. The winning site design must “honor its immediate surroundings and weaving connections and transitions from the city and the Arch grounds to the Mississippi River, including the east bank in Illinois” (see earlier post).

The nine teams moving to the “semi-finals” include: 

• Behnisch Architekten, Gehl Architects, Stephen Stimson Associates, Buro Happold, Transsolar, Applied Ecological Services, Limno Tech, Herbert Dreiseitl, Arne Quinze, Peter MacKeith, Eric Mumford
• FIT (Fully Integrated Thinking) Team – Cecil Balmond-ArupAGU, Doug Aitken Studio, HOK Planning Group, HOK
• Michael Maltzan Architecture, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Richard Sommer, Buro Happold
• Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Steven Holl Architects, Greenberg Consultants, Uhlir Consulting, HR&A Advisors, Guy Nordenson and Associates, Arup, LimnoTech, Ann Hamilton Studio, James Carpenter Design Associates, Elizabeth K. Meyer, Project Projects
• PWP Landscape Architecture, Foster + Partners, Civitas, Ned Kahn, Buro Happold
• Quennell Rothschild and Partners and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Vishkan Chakrabarti, Buro Happold, Atelier Ten, and Nicholas Baume
• Rogers Marvel Architects and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Urban Strategies, Local Projects, Arup
• SOM, BIG, Hargreaves Associates, Jaume Plensa, URS
• Weiss/Manfredi, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Mark Dion

According to the competition organizers, stage two involves the development of complete teams capable of executing the project, submission of paperwork, and a jury interview. This stage will narrow the field to four or five finalists.

Stage three, conducted over the summer, will include a 90-day design concept competition “to explore the finalists’ design approach and test their working methodology.” 

The new design is a requirement of the National Park Service’s General Management Plan, which was developed with extensive public input over an 18‐month period and approved in November of last year. The competition is sponsored by the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation, which includes National Park Superintendent Tom Bradley, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, community leaders from Missouri and Illinois, academics, architects and national park advocates. Financial contributions to the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation are being coordinated by the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation, a public charity with more than $140 million in charitable assets.

Learn more at the competition Web site.

Image credit: Bustler