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Filed under: SUV, Technology, Crossover, Ford

Last summer, during a preview of what was coming from Ford in 2010, the company officially announced that a 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder Ecoboost engine would debut this year. Unfortunately, that’s about all we were told at that time. Like the 3.5-liter V6 Ecoboost, the four will be direct injected and turbocharged. We expect it will be rated somewhere in the 230-250 horsepower range, similar to a 3.0-liter naturally aspirated V6.

At a pre-Detroit Auto Show preview Friday morning, the 2.0-liter Ecoboost was again shown on a list of nine new engines that will debut this year, along with a new six-speed automatic for transverse applications. When asked, Ford officials told us that they were not ready to announce the product that the engine would go into. However, when we asked if it would be the new unibody Explorer, they smiled and repeated, “we’re not ready to announce that yet.”

Since the new Explorer is expected to be based on a platform derived from the Flex, it would make perfect sense to use this engine with the corresponding transmission. We’re also expecting the 3.5-liter Ecoboost that is already available in the Flex and other models to be the optional engine, potentially giving the Explorer an all-Ecoboost lineup.

[Images: Ford, KGP Photography]

Ford all but confirms four-cylinder Ecoboost for next Explorer originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a textbook case out of Japan of how not to maintain your credibility to global investors.

First, you prevent your ill finance minister from resigning, even though he’s obviously not up for the job. Then when you do let him resign, as Prime Minister Hatoyama eventually did, you embarrass his replacement.

Earlier this week, the new finance minister Naoto Kan made waves when he appeared to embrace a weak-Yen, Bernanke-ist approach to recovery.

But Hatoyama instantly slapped him down, scolding him for the comments.

So now investors have no clue where Japan stands. They just know that the country doesn’t have any kind of finance minister with any standing.

Not very well done.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Here’s The Real Reason Japan’s Finance Minister Resigned
• Japan’s New Kamikaze Finance Minister Is On A Mission To Blow Up The Yen, And Finally Let The Nikkei Surge
• Four Reasons Why Japan Could Be The Mother Of All Contrarian Bets In 2010

It’s still hard to believe a Republican could win in deep-blue Massachusetts, but if you’re interested in healthcare reform you must pay attention to the election that will take place on January 19th.

A new poll from PPP has GOP candidate Scott Brown leading Democrat Martha Coakley by 1 point.

How could a Republican win in a state that Obama carried by more than 20 points?

It’s simple. Republicans are motivated by the chance to pull a gigantic upset and torpedo healthcare reform. Democrats aren’t so motivated, so the conventional wisdom is that the makeup of the electorate will be way different than it was last election day.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Panicked Healthcare Lobbyists Descend On Massachusetts To Save The 60th Democratic Vote For Reform
• Upset In Massachusetts Special Senate Race May Be The Political Earthquake Of 2010
• New Poll Shows Healthcare-Killing Upset Potential In Massachusetts Senate Race

Could cellphone radiation actually be good for you and bad for you at the same time? It might, according to a group of researchers at the University of South Florida, who say that tests on mice suggest that long-term cellphone use might actually help fend off some of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. That, as you might have suspected, is the exact opposite of what the researchers expected to find, and they say that exposure to electromagnetic waves from cellphones could both prevent some of the effects of Alzheimer’s if the exposure is introduced in early adulthood, or potentially even reverse some of the impairment among those already memory-impaired. Needless to say, the tests are still in the earliest of stages, but the researchers are apparently planning on modifying the experiment to try to speed up the results, and eventually expand it to include tests on humans. Tests on mice still found cellphones to be an impairement while driving.

[Thanks, Antonio]

Study finds cellphone use may fend off effects of Alzheimer’s disease originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aircell may have skipped out on having a presence at CES this year, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is going on in the wide, wacky world of in-flight internet. The company confirmed to us via email that it’s planning a new video download service for 2010, a little something that’ll go by the name Gogo Video. PC World was able to sit down with Eric Lemond, director of product management for the company, and they found that the service will be a lot like the iTunes Video Store in function. Users will be able to tap into their onboard WiFi in order to suck down TV shows and film rentals, which will be available for viewing up to 24 hours from the time of purchase. The files themselves will remain on the laptop (as in, this isn’t just a streaming service), and while the exact launch date has yet to be nailed down, we are told that it will only be available for Windows laptops initially. Prices should range from $2 to $4 based on the programming, though we’re still waiting to hear what kind content partners will be signing on. Fret not, jetsetters — the unfriendly skies are about to get a bit more bearable.

Aircell to start in-flight video download service later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi siempre intenta innovar para satisfacer a sus clientes más exigentes. La marca de los cuatro aros ha anunciado que hará estándar la tecnología de radio de digital en tres de sus modelos para 2011. Los modelos elegidos son el Audi A6, A8 y Q7, pero también estará disponible en el Audi A4, A5 y Q5 pero como equipamiento extra.

Filip Brabec, Gerente General de Planificación de Producto de Audi en América, ha declarado que esta medida responde a las exigencia del mercado actual:

Audi está dedicada a ofrecer a sus clientes las mejores opciones de entretenimiento y confort para hacer más amena la conducción. Los modelos de 2011 estarán equipados con la mejor ingeniería de transmisión por lo que es necesario ofrecer una tecnología digital en las radios de nuestros clientes.

Comparada con las radios tradicionales de AM y FM, la Radio HD ofrece alta calidad de sonido en canales FM y AM. Según iBiquity Digital Corporation, compañía encargada de la fabricación de las radios para Audi, hay más de 2000 emisoras de Radio HD actualmente. Esta tecnología está disponible para el 85% de los norteamericanos, es por esto que se hace necesario explotar este sector.

Para finalizar no hay que confundir las siglas HD con High Definition, HD en radio significaba Hybrid Digital, cuando la radio digital estaba en pañales, hoy en día es simplemente radio digital, pero ha mantenido la abreviación.

Vía | Autoblog

EARS, by that I mean EA Recordings, is prepping something that my interest your…well, ears. Over the next few weeks, the publisher will be releasing soundtracks featuring three of their big upcomers: Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad

OLED displays are already something beautiful, but this unnamed Japanese company, spied at CES, has taken the technology and turned it into some truly awe-inspiring artwork.

The individual panels seen in the video actually line up to form a flowing scene. The effect is kind of cool, popping into place only when the cameraman views it at the right angle. There’s also an elaborate fan toward the back of the booth that we glimpse momentarily, as well as a number of OLED flowers.

Like most things OLED, none of the stuff seen here is cheap. Purported asking price for the first piece is $100,000. The flowers go for a more modest $100 apiece.

Really, it’s only a matter of time before society comes around to the idea of moving OLED artwork and something like this is sharing space in a museum with a da Vinci, don’t you think? [OLED Info]

MATTHEW L. WALD
NY Times
Saturday, January 9th, 2010

The plan for broad use of X-ray body scanners to detect
bombs or weapons under airline passengers’ clothes has rekindled
a debate about the safety of delivering small doses of radiation to
millions of people — a process some experts say is certain to
result in a few additional cancer deaths.

The scanning machines, called “backscatter
scanners,” deliver a dose of ionizing radiation equivalent to 1
percent or less of the radiation in a dental X-ray. The amount is so
small that the risk to an individual is negligible, according to
radiation experts. But collectively, the radiation doses from the
scanners incrementally increase the risk of fatal cancers among the
thousands or millions of travelers who will be exposed, some radiation
experts believe.

Full-body scanners that are already in place in some airports around
the country and abroad use a different type of imaging technology,
called millimeter wave, that uses less powerful, non-ionizing radiation
that does not pose the same risk.

But those machines also produce images that are less clear. And in
the wake of the attempted bombing of an airplane traveling to Detroit
from Amsterdam on Dec. 25, the United States is turning to backscatter
scanners for routine security checks. Congress has appropriated funds
for 450 scanners to be placed in American airports. On Thursday,
President Obama called for greater use of “imaging
technology” to spot weapons and explosives.

Full article here

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Gloria Galloway
Globe And Mail
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott issued a release this week to say
he had been vindicated by the National Cancer Institute for making the
controversial claim that there is a link between induced abortion and
breast cancer.

And Mr. Vellacott may be right.

Three years ago, the Saskatchewan MP helped to bring an American
doctor and activist to Parliament Hill to tell Canadian women that
abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. It turned out that the
doctor, Angela Lanfranchi, was speaking from a defined religious point
of view that had little apparent basis in science.

And, at the time, the link between the procedure and the disease had
been discounted by the National Cancer Institute in the United States,
the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (and their
U.S. counterparts), as well as the Canadian Cancer Society and the
Canadian Breast Cancer Network.

But a study released last fall (available here but only for a fee)
by the respected Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle
by a number of distinguished cancer experts including Louise Brinton,
the chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch of the
National Cancer Institute lists induced abortion as being
“associated with an increased risk for breast cancer.”
Background documents further suggest that it increases the risk of the
disease by 40 per cent.

Full article here

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Nichola Saminather
Bloomberg
Saturday, January 9th, 2010

The Asia-Pacific airline industry group is protesting the
introduction of full-body scanners at airports, saying it treats all
passengers as potential terrorists, the Australian newspaper reported.

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said there is insufficient
evidence about the effectiveness of the scanners and automatic
explosive detection systems to justify their use, the newspaper said.

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HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
Jerusalem Post
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

The US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but
is still preparing its military for that possibility, America’s
top uniformed officer said Thursday.

“We’ve looked to do all we can to ensure
that conflict doesn’t break out there, while at the same time
preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand
might occur,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy.

Mullen had been asked whether the US military was stretched too thin
to take further action in trouble spots beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We’re very hard-pressed right now” because of the
two wars, he noted, but added that it is primarily ground troops that
have been deployed, and “the likelihood that our ground forces
would have to go somewhere in these kinds of numbers in some other part
of the world, or even in the same region, I think is pretty low.”

Full article here

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Mark Henderson
London Times
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

The secretive attitude of food companies towards nanotechnology
research risks starting a consumer backlash against products that could
improve health and reduce waste, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

Nanomaterials that are 800 times finer than a human hair have the
potential to deliver foods that are very low in fat and salt and
packaging that changes colour when food is spoiled because of the
strange properties of molecules at such a small scale. Their
development, however, has also raised safety concerns because their
effects on humans are poorly understood.

These fears have inspired a culture of secrecy about nanotechnology
in the food industry because it is worried about a repeat of the GM
crop safety scare, according to a report from the House of Lords
Science and Technology Committee. This lack of transparency could
encourage exactly the sort of mistrust that companies hope to avoid.

The committee also found significant gaps in scientific
understanding of the toxicology of nanomaterials, which need to be
addressed urgently with new research so that they can be regulated
effectively.

Full article here

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La marca SsangYong acaba de lanzar una serie de promociones en diferentes modelos para comenzar el año con buenas ventas. Además, han confirmado que uno de sus mejores modelos, el SsangYong Rodius ha tenido muy buenas ventas durante las pasadas fechas navideñas.

Estas promociones nos presentan descuentos de hasta 6.500€ en el SsangYong Kyron dejando su precio en 18.990€. A continuación os dejo con el listado de promociones que sólo estarán disponibles durante este mes de Enero:

• Actyon desde 17.250€. Descuento promocional de 2.500€.
• Actyon Sports desde 19.990€. Descuento promocional de 1.600€.
• Kyron desde 18.990€. Descuento promocional de 6.500€.
• Rexton II desde 26.900€. Descuento promocional de 7.000€.
• Rodius desde 18.490€. Descuento promocional de 6.130€. Además regalo de un equipo integrado multimedia DVD en toda la gama.

Related posts:

1. SsangYong ofrece descuentos durante el mes de Septiembre
2. El SsangYong Rodius contará con navegador de serie
3. SsangYong C200 estará en el Salón de Barcelona

AFP
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Stun gun maker Taser wants to help parents, not with jolts of
electricity but with a tool which allows parents to effectively take
over a child’s mobile phone and manage its use.

“Basically we’re taking old fashioned parenting and
bringing it into the mobile world,” Taser chairman and co-founder
Tom Smith said at the Consumer Electronics Show here, where the Arizona
company unveiled the new product.

“Because when you give your child his mobile phone you
don’t know who they’re talking to, what they’re
sending or texting, all of those things,” Smith told AFP.

The phone application, called “Mobile Protector,” allows
a parent to screen a child’s incoming and outgoing calls and
messages, block particular numbers and even listen in on a conversation.

Full article here

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John C. Hayes
Chicago Tribune
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

WASHINGTON — – The government has promised
more and better security at airports after the near-disaster Christmas
Day, but privacy advocates are not prepared to accept the use of
full-body scanners as the routine screening system at the
nation’s airports.

“We don’t need to look at naked 8-year-olds and
grandmothers to secure airplanes,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah,
said Friday. “Are we really going to subject 2 million people per
day to that? I think it’s a false argument to say we have to give
up all of our personal privacy in order to have security.”

The balance between privacy and security tilts after each major
terrorism incident in favor of greater security. But in the past
decade, privacy advocates have been successful in blocking or stalling
government plans for more searches.

A conservative freshman in the House, Chaffetz won a large,
bipartisan majority last year for an amendment to oppose the
government’s use of body-image scanners as the primary screening
system for air travelers. He was joined by the American Civil Liberties
Union, which said the scanners are the equivalent of a “virtual
strip search.”

The pro-privacy stand does not follow the traditional ideological
lines; Republicans and Democrats have united on the issue now and in
the past.

Full article here

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John C. Hayes
Diagnostic Imaging
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Since the attempted explosion of an airliner as it was
landing in Detroit on Christmas Day by an alleged terrorist from
Nigeria, global air safety experts have been scrambling to enact new
safety measures. A quick answer has come in the form of whole-body
scanners that use low-level radiation to allow screeners to see through
clothing to identify hidden weapons or explosives.

These things have been around for a while, but, outside of a few
pilot locations, haven’t really gained much attention until now.
Given the circumstances of the Detroit incident, we shouldn’t be
surprised that airports all over the world are rushing these systems
into use.

Most of the press has been concerned with privacy issues—the
systems essentially strip passengers naked—and focused far less
on health safety matters. Still, the safety issue is starting to engage
the public. Recent news reports have suggested the new scanners are
basically safe. But a more nuanced look at the question suggests the
answers are not yet all that clear.

There are two technologies in use in the U.S.: Backscatter
technology uses x-rays delivering less than 10 microrem of radiation
per scan, equivalent to the radiation one receives inside an aircraft
flying for two minutes at 30,000 feet, according to the American College of Radiology.
Another approach relies on millimeter-wave technology, which uses radio
waves in the millimeter-wave spectrum. Two rotating antennae cover the
passenger from head to toe with low-level radiofrequency energy.

The ACR said it was not aware that either of the scanning
technologies that the Transportation Security Agency is considering
would present a significant biological threat for passengers screened.
Indeed, ACR chair Dr. James Thrall was quoted on ABC news as saying,
“the individual x-rays themselves are very low energy. And unlike
the x-ray spectrum that we use in medicine, the backscatter x-rays
don’t really penetrate to the organs in the body.” Click here for the article.  

Full article here

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Forbes
Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul wants to see if the valuations of the Federal Reserve’s transactions were fair.

Steve Forbes: What precisely will your bill on auditing the Fed do and not do? Let’s just clear that up.

Paul: As a matter of fact, it’s a pretty weak bill when you think about it.

Forbes: It seems pretty mild.

Paul: But from their viewpoint it is horrendous because we know what
they’ve been doing. You know? And they don’t want us to
know what they’ve been doing. The big argument has always been
they don’t want transparency because they’ll lose their
independence. And independence means secrecy. If they lose their
secrecy then the people and the Congress won’t know what
they’ve been doing. Who gets bailed out at what price? … I
put an explicit statement in there that we have no intention of
monitoring monetary policy even though I have different views. But, you
know, when you think of it, Bernie Sanders was a cosponsor in the
Senate. He and I don’t see eye to eye on the market. But we see
eye to eye on transparency. So we wouldn’t agree on monetary
policy, but we agreed on this bill. But in order to clarify that
Bernanke would say, “Well what we don’t need is Congress
coming in the day after we have a FOMC meeting and finding out who said
what and why because everybody would be hesitant.” And one of the
arguments is, “If Congress had anything to do with this,
they’d keep interest rates too low too long.”

Full article and video here

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