Category: News

Filed under: Budget, Japan, Hatchback, Mitsubishi, Electric, Quick Spin

We’re looking at a long, nearly straight, almost totally traffic-free downhill. We’d climbed up to the base of the Palm Springs to Idyllwild Ariel Tramway. Our goal was to see how fast Mitsubishi’s tiny i could go. We’re on the gas, and the teensy, turbocharged 660cc three-banger is giving us all its got. The speedometer ticks upwards, now cresting 100. In front of us is nothing but inviting tarmac. Deeper and harder we push and the numbers keep ticking up. 119, 120, 121 and then finally hitting 122. We felt we left a little on the table and could have probably achieved a terminal velocity of around 130. Maybe. 125 for sure.

Before you crime and punishment types climb upon your soapboxes, we should mention that the right-hand drive, JDM-only i reads out in kilometers per hour. Meaning that our top speed was almost 76 mph. And we stand by our assertion that we totally could have hit 80 mph.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2009 Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: Mitsubishi i is a good car with a bad name

Quick Spin: Mitsubishi i is a good car with a bad name originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sony has filed a fresh new FCC report that gives me visions of Terminator’s whole Skynet saga. For those of you who don’t recall, Skynet was an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators. Perhaps things aren’t that dramatic (for now), but with a name like “Home Information Device,” aka HID-C10, what would you think? Regardless, this is a new device that Sony is bringing to the market sometime in 2010. We don’t have a lot of information yet, but we believe this product is connected to TV as the Television Engineering Group in Sony are handling the FCC filing. It has 801.11b/g, but its Wi-Fi certification lists it in the category of “Display Device (eg. television, monitor, picture frame).” Wha? How can this be a Display Device? Maybe they label accessories like that, but if it was just a router I believe it would say so.

I’m confused. One theory I have is that this could possibly be some sort of emitter that works in conjunction with 3D active shutter glasses. If that was the case though, why would it be a seperate adapter? Is this the accessory that will come with Sony 3D TV’s? It’s possible because the confidentiality agreement on several key elements in the FCC report is labeled for May 31st, 2010. So this may or may not be at CES – perhaps a tease, or totally nonexistent. Another plausible theory is that this could just be another Wi-Fi adapter for a television somehow, perhaps one that would work with a broader range of TV’s so they can connect to the Sony Online Service, which we explored previously in a rather in depth article.

This information is a Sony Insider exclusive, brought to you here first.

The Oregon National Guard launched a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from Army Aviation
Support Facility #1 here on Dec. 14 to assist with the search for two missing hikers
on Mount Hood…

Leadership from The Lavern E. Weber National Guard Bureau Professional Education
Center (PEC) visited The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center
here to explore opportunities for collaboration between the two training centers,
Dec. 8…

Reservists face unique challenges that may be tipping their stress level over that
of their active-duty counterparts, a health affairs official said…

Lt. Gen. Harry “Bud” Wyatt, the director of the Air National Guard, visited the
148th Fighter Wing here today touring the facilities and meeting the
people…

Both the Army and Air National Guard missed their recruiting goals for November, but
Guard officials said the smaller numbers were intentional…

The Air National Guard’s top enlisted leader returned here this week after
visiting Air Guard members involved in Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica and in
Christchurch, New Zealand…

The following news release was received from Anastasia Tyler at Ancestry.com:

PROVO, UTAH – Dec. 15, 2009 – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, confirmed today that President Barack Obama and billionaire financial investor Warren Buffett are more than just political allies — they are actually related. The discovery, made by Ancestry.com family history experts, determined that the men are 7th cousins three times removed, related through a 17th-century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall.

The No.1 family history Web site revealed that Duvall, who immigrated to Maryland from France in the 1650s, is Pres. Obama’s 9th great-grandfather and Buffett’s 6th great-grandfather. Duvall arrived in America as an indentured servant. By 1659, he had purchased property in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which he later named “Middle Plantation.” According to historical records, Duvall belonged to a religious sect called the Jacobites, was a planter and merchant and was “conservative in his political life.” And while Obama and Buffett may not share the political views of their great-grandfather, Duvall’s servant-to-landowner life journey may offer clues into the successes of his influential grandsons.

“We’ve all watched Pres. Obama and Warren Buffett’s ongoing association, from Buffett’s official endorsement of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign to their sometimes differing views on economic policy,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “Like most family members, the President and Buffett may not always agree on everything, but this latest discovery confirming they are related may shed light on why the two seem to see eye-to-eye on many issues.”

The new-found connection between Pres. Obama and Warren Buffett is one of many fascinating discoveries Ancestry.com uncovered within the President’s family tree:

• German Roots – Earlier this year, Ancestry.com confirmed that Pres. Obama has German roots through his 6th great-grandfather Johann Conrad Wolfley from Besigheim, Wuerttemberg, Germany.
• Pres. O’Bama? – In 2007, Ancestry.com uncovered the President’s family history connection to Moneygall, Ireland. Pres. Obama’s 3rd great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney left his hometown of Moneygall for the New World, landing in New York harbor in 1850.
• Celebrity Connection – In 2007, Ancestry.con linked the leader of the Free World to one of Hollywood’s leading men – Brad Pitt. The family history Web site confirmed the two are 9th cousins.

For anyone interested in discovering who might be a long-lost relative or a famous figure in the family tree, visit www.ancestry.com.

About Ancestry.com Inc.
Ancestry.com Inc. is the world’s largest online resource for family history research. The company provides its more than one million subscribers with a digitized collection of over 4 billion records from around the world, along with search and collaboration tools that allow anyone to discover, preserve and share their family history. Ancestry.com users have created more than 12 million family trees containing over 1.25 billion profiles. For more information on Ancestry.com and its other family history resources, visit http://corporate.ancestry.com.

We’re not sure how much stock to put into correlations such as this one — especially since LOTS of charts have this dual-hump pattern over the last several years — but this is still some interesting commentary from Gluskin-Sheff’s David Rosenberg on the connection between monetary velocity and the stock market.

————

Chart 1 maps out the S&P 500 with money velocity (GDP/M1 ratio).  There is a
90% correlation between the two.  It is one thing to have the Fed pump liquidity
into the system but it is quite another for the liquidity to be re-leveraged into credit
and recycled into the economy.   

The Fed’s easing program is over two years old and the rampant Fed balance
sheet expansion 15 months old, and still to this day, what the commercial banks
have done (to Obama’s wrath) with all that liquidity is to keep it as cash on their
balance sheet to the tune of $1.2 trillion.  We’re not sure why Obama is as rankled
as he is because the banks are in fact lending out a good chunk of that Fed-
induced liquidity — right back to Uncle Sam (the banks now own a record $1.3
trillion of government securities).  

Back to the chart — there is obviously a close connection between money turnover
and the stock market.  But we can get periodic divergences as we did in the first
leg of the rally in 2003.  But the carry-through from 2004 to 2007 hinged critically
on that multi-year acceleration in money velocity.  If we don’t see the banks begin
to extend credit in 2010, it is hard to see the 2009 bounce from oversold lows as
being sustained in the coming year.   

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Rosenberg: We’ve Barely Begun The Deleveraging Process
• David Rosenberg’s Outlook For 2010
• Rosenberg: The Manufacturing Collapse Has Resumed

Earlier this year, we wrote about how outdoor clothing firm North Face was seriously overreacting in threatening a small parody clothing manufacturer run by an 18-year-old student creating clothing under the “South Butt” brand name. At the time, we were amused by the boy’s lawyer noting:

“I did try to explain with a great deal of candor to counsel for the North Face that the general public is aware of the difference between a face and a butt.”

Well, now he may get the chance to explain that in court as well. Despite all of the publicity around those original threats, which resulted in many people trashing North Face for threatening this parody operation, North Face has apparently decided to still move forward with a lawsuit against the kid (thanks Jackie). Apparently, North Face has no sense of humor whatsoever. It’s really amazing that no one at North Face paid much attention to what was being said online about the company even in bringing the threat of a lawsuit. Now that it’s actually filed, the backlash may be an even bigger deal. While it is true that companies need to police misuses of their trademark, this was an opportunity for North Face to act cool about it (and, hell, why not just grant the kid a license). It would have made them look cool. Instead, they look like big corporate bullies, beating up on a kid who was having fun selling a parody line of clothing.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Bilbao, Spain | Extraordinary Flora

American artist Jeff Koons, famous for his large scale cartoony sculptures, was commissioned to create a piece to be displayed at Bad Arolsen in Germany in 1992.

The resulting creation was named “Puppy,” a 43-foot-tall living plant sculpture of a West Highland terrier. Koons utilized computer modeling to construct his outlandish version of topiary sculptures common to eighteenth-century formal gardens. Koons created the piece to inspire optimism and to instill, in his own words, “confidence and security.”

In a powerful example of how life doesn’t imitate art, as Puppy facilitated a potentially disastrous security breach at the Guggenheim Bilbao. A few days before its inauguration in 1997, the museum was nearly bombed by three ETA Basque separatists posing as gardeners working on the sculpture. In addition to their incognito dress, the men carried flower pots like those on Puppy filled with 12 remote-controlled grenades. A firestorm and pursuit ensued, claiming the life of policeman Jose María Aguirre, though their plot was ultimately foiled. The plaza in which Puppy currently resides has been renamed in honor of Aguirre.

After traveling the globe at exhibitions in Germany, Australia, and the United States, Puppy found its final home in Spain. While the original Puppy topiary sculpture is a part of the Guggenheim Bilbao’s permanent collection, media mogul Peter Brant and his wife, model Stephanie Seymour, commissioned Koons to construct a second, duplicate Puppy for their Connecticut estate.

The combination of its size and imposing reputation in the art world, as well as the live bedding flowers covering Puppy, the sculpture’s legend literally and figuratively continues to grow by the day.

In this morning’s Gartman Letter, analyst Dennis Gartman addresses the ongoing fiscal crisis that revolves around Greece:

The Gartman Letter: Moving to Europe, Greece is in trouble and the speech made yesterday by the rather overtly leftward leaning Prime Minister, Mr. Papandreou, was disconcerting to say the very least. At every turn, when the Prime Minister might have drifted toward the economic centre, he drifted farther and farther to the Left instead. Where Ireland seems intent upon dealing properly with its budgetary problems by cutting spending materially and raising taxes marginally, Greece instead is cutting spending hardly at all and is raising taxes almost solely upon the nation’s wealthy to confiscatory levels. This really is utter economic nonsense.

Speaking to the Parliament, Mr.Papandreou … whose family has literally “run” Greece as a fiefdom any number of times in the past…said that there shall be resistance to what he has called “tough and painful measures” to restore Greece’ position within the EU but he insisted the country’s international credibility depended on it. He said, unleashing a tirade of leftward leaning ideas,

There is pressure from our European partners, which is an opportunity for us to tackle problems that have been festering for decades…We are a government of reform, not a government that manages the status quo…We need to take tough and painful decisions, which will face opposition, but we will bring meritocracy and restore credibility.

The problem is that most of his program resolves around raising taxes on Greek wealth and Greek entrepreneurs. His program will play well to the public; it will play havoc with the Greek economy however {Ed. Note: Prime Minister Papandreou is the President of the Socialist International, and has been since ’06. His father was Prime Minister as was his grandfather, and they too were ranking members of the Socialist International for many years.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Abu Dhabi Will Use Its Bailout To Crush Dubai’s Leadership
• Desperate Greece May Pull Argentina’s "Kitchen-Sink" Move To Break Out Of Its Death Loop
• The Euro Breakup Will Be THE Story Of 2010, As Analyst Expects Ireland And Greece To Leave The Union

A health care experiment in Duncan, Oklahoma shows how small changes to behavior can elicit large cost savings when it comes to health care.

MedEncentive has been developing a web-based cost containment program that claims to have already achieved substantial results.

What's most interesting about this program is that it doesn't force anyone to do anything.

Health Care Blog: There the City of Duncan has put its employees (and their providers) into a system that incents (but doesn’t mandate) physicians to practice according to accepted guidelines, and incents (but doesn’t mandate) patients to read information prescribed by their physicians about their treatments (and tests them about it). The system then asks each party to rate the other.

It sounds simple and frankly, compared to much in health care, it is. The system is supplied by MedEncentive, an Oklahoma City firm led by the charming and engaging Jeff Greene. While I remain fascinated by MedEncentive’s program (and FD MedEncentive has sponsored the Health 2.0 Conference in the past), it’s perhaps grown a little more slowly than Jeff and other fans might have liked—given the scope of the problem.

But the results have been impressive in reducing costs (mostly by reducing hospitalizations) and increasing patient involvement. Yesterday MedEncentive released a five year retrospective. The key finding?:

City of Duncan costs for the most recent year was 8.6% less than five years ago prior to implementing the Program, which is 34.9% less than the projected costs. The resultant four year savings equates to an 8:1 return on investment. (emphasis added)

Read more at Health Care Blog.

Check out how this cost containment program works via MedEncentive's report here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• How Health Care Reform Opponents Take Advantage Of Silly Facebook Games
• How Health Insurers Are Using Facebook Games To Block Healthcare Reform
• Health Insurers Caught Paying Facebook Gamers Virtual Currency To Oppose Reform Bill

In case you missed my post last week, I want to remind you that as of today Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM are now available for Xbox LIVE members with child accounts. If you have a child account over 13, and you get parental approval, you’ll be able to have access to these applications. Be sure to set Automatically log in or Remember me when setting up the application for the first time, otherwise you will be prompted for parental permission every time you launch the application.  Enjoy and thanks for your patience.

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Bugatti, Misc. Auto Shows, Middle East, Design/Style, Luxury

As with any other business, in the automotive sphere, it’s mission critical to recognize on which side your bread is buttered – particularly in lean times like these. Bugatti may be losing money on each Veyron it builds, but that doesn’t mean that company strategists don’t know how to earn a crust. Need proof? This month’s Dubai Motor Show finds the supercar builder unveiling a trio of special edition models in one of its most important markets.

The Middle East triumvirate will consist of the Veyron Nocturne, which features “galvanized side windows” that add continuity to the polished aluminum body panel accents, and there are also polished wheels and a “black nanocoated magnesium dashboard” with a center console rendered in galvanized platinum. Just five examples will be built.

Bugatti will also show its Veyron “Sang d’Argent” and a topless Grand Sport “Soliel de Nuit” model for those that like a little sun and sand in their hair. The former of which employs a silver metallic finish and alloys nicked from the Grand Sport and the latter incorporates “country coded” colors that include a silver metallic lower and an impossibly deep upper blue finish and a Havanna interior with quilted seats.

If you’re interested, well, have your accountant’s accountant ring up Bugatti, and summon your garage keeper to ensure you’ve got some extra room available in the first quarter of 2010 for when you take delivery. Oh, and you’ll have to liberate anywhere from 1.45 million euro ($2.1M USD) to 1.65 million euro ($2.5M) from your chaise lounge cushions for the privilege. Not up for it? Well, you can at least check out our high-res images below and the official press release after the jump.

[Source: Bugatti]

Continue reading Bugatti honors Dubai with three special editions Veyrons

Bugatti honors Dubai with three special editions Veyrons originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

But Several Bright Spots Stand Out in Recent California Court Decisions

SACRAMENTO — California has been listed first in the “watch” category of a national legal reform group’s annual “Judicial Hellholes” roundup of states where it’s especially likely — and risky — to be sued.

The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) in making its announcement today said California is “on the cusp” and may in the future “fall into the Hellholes abyss or rise to the promise of equal justice under the law.” The ATRA review focuses on meritless lawsuits and laws that tilt the playing field in favor of plaintiffs’ lawyers.

“It’s hard to dispute the California ‘watch’ classification,” said Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) President John H. Sullivan. “But over this past year there have been some positive court decisions, plus promising rule-making work going on by court administrators that holds promise of improvements in key areas such as asbestos litigation, faster trials, and overall court efficiency.”

“With the state facing a projected $20 billion shortfall by mid-2011 and forecasters projecting a double-digit unemployment rate into 2012, now is the time for state legislators, who really drive the litigation climate, to enact changes that will allow courts to be more efficient, improve the civil justice system for all litigants, and attract and retain business investment in the state,” he added.

Two California Supreme Court rulings provide examples of how the system is becoming more balanced:

• In November, the Court for the first time endorsed a cap on punitive damages, ruling 5-2 that anything more than a one-to-one ratio between compensatory and punitive damages would be unconstitutionally excessive (Roby v. McKesson, filed 11/30/2009).

• The Court last year gave manufacturing companies much-deserved protection against over-reaching product liability suits when it ruled that companies do not have to warn experts about products the experts are trained and hired to work with (Johnson v. American Standard, Inc., filed 4/3/2008).

Meanwhile, Sullivan said, state lawmakers will have a chance in the upcoming legislative session to make changes to put the state back on track to economic recovery. They could start by bringing balance to California’s class action law. They could also enact a law to bring the state’s judicial interest rate on appealed judgments up to date.

As Sullivan said: “These and some similar changes would make California a more attractive place for business investment which, in turn, will provide much-needed jobs for Californians.”

Read the full ATRA report at www.atra.org.

Contact: John H. Sullivan
916-443-4900
[email protected]

The UN climate negotiations are getting more tense by the day.  Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo De Boer, reflecting on his work today, noted that “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” in reference to the Heads of State who will be arriving over the next 48 hours with a view to a political agreement being reached.

---

US Special Envoy Todd Stern spent a good portion of his day informally negotiating with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).  The US is in a continual position of defending President Obama’s mitigation targets of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 when IPCC data suggests deeper cuts (25-40 percent) and from a different baseline level (1990).  US officials put on a full court press today putting out the word that there are “different pathways” to reach the same scientific goals and their targets are as ambitious as any brought to Copenhagen.  When pressed on the issue of whether Obama’s announced negotiating position is indeed a final position, Stern stated that he is “not anticipating any further changes to mitigation reduction targets but there are other programs in the Congressional bills beyond the direct targets that would reduce emissions significantly further.”  I spoke with a colleague at the World Resources Institute, (the former employer of Jonathan Pershing, a key negotiator for the State Department) on this matter who notes a study finding that additional potential emission reduction programs under the Waxman-Markey bill (from which the current 17 percent position originates) beyond the stated cap target could actually get the US 33 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.  National Renewable Energy Portfolio standards are an example of an additional policy measure that can achieve further reductions.

China on the other hand, is under pressure to “put pen to paper” in the international compliance context.  The China mitigation pledge is to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45 percent by the year 2020, compared with 2005 levels.  Carbon intensity, China’s preferred measurement, is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP.  By and large that target appears to be a satisfying starting point for the US and others, although there is certainly pressure for more.  More relevant to the informal negotiations today, the US wants some measure of international review and auditing processes and agreed upon methodologies for commitments by all countries.  China and the US are not yet there on a political deal that encompasses a shared vision of monitoring, verification and reporting.

Thrown into the mix are the continued G77 demands on climate finance and setting a deadline for a legally binding agreement in 2010 to firm up the political deal anticipated here in Copenhagen.  President Obama’s calls to some African leaders yesterday and their return to the negotiating table appear to signal that piece of the puzzle can come together at the end of the day.  The negotiations are now focused on taking the various negotiation text pieces as far as possible with a deadline for working groups to report to the Plenary by tomorrow morning with results.  At that point, the horses will begin trotting into town….and there is plenty of water (and now snow!) in Copenhagen.  Stay tuned.