Category: News

Filed under: Convertible, Budget, Truck, Kia

Will they build it or won’t they? That’s the question we’ve all been asking since Kia showed off its funky Soul’ster concept earlier this year at the Detroit Auto Show. We’ve been hearing rumblings that there’s a solid push from inside the Korean automaker’s own ranks to put the little trucklet into production, and it appears that’s still the case.

Speaking to our friends at PickupTrucks.com at the LA Auto Show, Tom Kearns, Kia North America’s Chief Designer, said, “Kia’s internal design community is firmly behind building the Soul’ster. We’d like to see it happen. There’s no official decision to build it but it’s still possible.”

The base Kia Soul starts at $13,995, and though we have no idea what Kia might charge the Soul’ster if it were to make it to U.S. dealerships, the open-bed unibody would likely have its own little niche to itself as it figures to be significantly smaller and cheaper than vehicles like the Honda Ridgeline. Would it sell? Let us know what you think in ‘Comments.’

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

Kia designers reportedly still want Soul’ster built – is there a market for it? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More than five years ago, we wrote about a ridiculous lawsuit that involved a lawsuit against Cingular (now a part of AT&T) seeking to pin liability on Cingular for an accident caused by a driver who was talking on his phone. That lawsuit was tossed out as ridiculous (and again on appeal) with the court noting that the mobile phone operator was not at all responsible for what a driver did. Apparently, some folks are unaware of this case. Broadband Reports alerts us to the news that Sprint is being sued in a similar lawsuit. In this case, a woman was killed by a driver on the phone, and the woman’s daughter is claiming that Sprint should have warned people of the risks of driving while talking on the phone. Nice try, but chances are, this lawsuit is going to get tossed just as fast as previous ones.

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We tend to feel better when we get exercise, but could physical activity also help stimulate the brain? Newly published study results reveal a clear association between good physical fitness and better IQ test results.

The strongest associations were for logical thinking and verbal comprehension. And researchers noted that the key to the link with the IQ test was physical fitness, not strength. Plus, since researchers analyzed twins as well, they found that the link isn’t based on genes, but on environmental factors like exercise. The people in the study who were fit at 18 were more likely to go to college and secure better jobs.

Researchers noted that being fit means you have better heart and lung capacity, which gives your brain plenty of oxygen. Another mental advantage of exercise is that it reduces stress and anxiety.

The study, carried out at the Center for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation in Gothenburg, involved 1.2 million Swedish men in the military. The results were published in December in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More advantages of being physically fit

In addition to the possibility that being fit will may help make you smarter, being fit has some impressive physical advantages as you might have guessed. Studies have shown that people who are physically fit are less likely to suffer from heart disease or to die from other illnesses. Physical fitness can be determined by an exercise stress test, which measures your heart responds to exertion, such as walking on a treadmill.

Do you consider yourself physically fit?

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Could Exercise Make You Smarter?

While most of the other “gurus” preach about danger on the horizon, hedge fund manager John Paulson continues to defy conventional wisdom.

Reuters: Today our net long exposure is perhaps the highest it has ever been in our portfolio,” Paulson said during a luncheon presentation at the Japan Society.

“We still find a lot of compelling long investments on the equity side,” he said, citing specifically Bank of America, U.S. cable-television giant Comcast Corp, and Germany’s HeidelbergCement AG.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• BusinessWeek: John Paulson Has Become Mediocre
• Amazing: John Paulson Makes $50 Million In Five Weeks On A Gold Trade (DGC)
• John Paulson: We’re Making A Killing On Defaulted Debt

Global trade declined last month, with total shipments dropping 9% from October.  

This bad news could undermine the notion that we are in the midst of an economic recovery.

In fact, the number is higher than it was at the depth of the crisis last year—when shipments to the US dropped 7% from October to November.

The news jibes with data from JPMorgan, released last week, that global economic activity stalled out again in November.

Of course, some seasonal decline is expected at this time of year. Last year, however, the fall off in shipping just got worse and worse. Cross your fingers and hope that we’re not back on that sinking ship.

(source:Panjiva.com)

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As much as he doesn’t want people to pirate games, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello concedes that there’s a sizeable pirate market out there, and he wants to turn them into paying customers. How? By selling them

Filed under: Motorsports, Etc.

According to a report by the New Haven Register, Gregory Loles – the team principal behind the Farnbacher-Loles race team and its associated performance shop – has been fingered in an embezzlement scandal involving the St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church of Orange, Connecticut.

The church’s followers raised $6.3 million to fund a new building of which Loles was in charge of managing, and the Porsche dealer and racing magnate was also reportedly administering several member’s college and retirement funds, with one person claiming to have lost as much as $4 million.

The federal authorities are involved, but haven’t released a statement yet. Expect all the sordid details to be revealed in the coming days, so consider this developing…

[Source: New Haven Register via Axis of Oversteer via 0-60 | Image: Chris Graythen/Getty]

BREAKING: Farnbacher Loles principal reportedly embezzled church funds, investigation underway originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: LA Auto Show, Podcasts, Etc., Aston Martin, Audi, Chrysler, Dodge, Volkswagen

Click above for the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes, RSS or listen now!

Editor Chris Paukert has apparently been bitten by the podcasting bug, and he once again joins Shunk and Roth for Episode #156 of the Autoblog Podcast. We dive right in to reminiscence about the recently finished Los Angeles Auto Show. Moving on from there, we talk about Audi’s new A7 Sportback and its extreme gorgeousness, as well as the new A8 and all its massive awesomeness. Speaking of awesomeness, Shunk thinks that the $199,950 Aston Martin Rapide is one very attractive four-place supercar. Going to the other end of the spectrum, rumors about Volkswagen’s upcoming Jetta replacement gets some head scratches from us before we moved on to prognosticating about a unibody Dodge Dakota replacement. We wrap up a chewy hour-and-forty-five minutes by addressing some of your questions and calling it a night.

Don’t forget to check out our colleagues at Joystiq and Engadget, and let us know what you think of our podcast by dropping us an email at Podcast at Autoblog dot com, reviewing the show in iTunes, filling out our survey, or even leaving us a voicemail on our Google Voice line 734-288-8POD (734-288-8763). Thanks for listening!

Continue reading Autoblog Podcast #156

Autoblog Podcast #156 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Utah, US | Cultures and Civilizations

There are a number places which embody the ideas of long now thinking: Nuclear waste repositories, historical sites, and other long term structures are all excellent places to look for long now inspiration. But there is one facility, though hard to gain access to, which is an amazing example of long term thinking, and it is not what you might expect.

Welcome to the underground bunker where the Mormons keep their genealogical backup data, deep in the solid granite cliffs of Little Cottonwood Canyon, outside Salt Lake City. UT.

The Mormon Church has been collecting genealogical data from all the sources it can get its hands on, from all over the world, for over 100 years. They have become the largest such repository, and the data itself is open to anyone who uses their website, or comes to their buildings in downtown Salt Lake City.

While the Mormon Genealogical Archives don’t give public tours of the Granite Vaults where all the original microfilm is kept for security and preservation reasons, in special cases, (in this case to Steward Brand and Alexander Rose of the Long Now Foundation) access is granted.

The largest contaminate of their microfilm is, in fact, blue jean lint brought in by the workers! The archivists use microfilm mainly because there is not yet a longer lasting digital equivalent. However, they are also digitizing their holdings and collecting more and more information digitally for easier dissemination.

Upon entering the gate the first question comes up… “Why doesn’t anyone park near the entrance?” There is a good reason. It turns out that boulders occasionally cleave off the rock face above, caused by the freezing and thawing of water in the cracks of the rock. These boulders then come down the cliff and crush peoples cars. (This is an excellent lesson in long now thinking: anything under a rock cliff is on borrowed time.) No pictures were allowed beyond this point.

Once safely inside the building looks like just about any other office building. The only thing giving away the strangeness of the location was the curved corrugated metal ceiling and walls. Another difference from an average office building is that the design life of the archive is said to be “1000 years.” The facility was built in the 60’s (likely a product of cold war fear) so it is now about 45 years into its intended design life, and roughly sixty full time workers currently bustle about with microfilm, scanning in the front lateral tunnel near the daylight.

Past the front lateral tunnel one steps through double doors, and a large bank vault style door, into one of the 750 foot long tunnels going back into the archives. These are all connected by lateral tunnels holding impossibly long rows of skinny microfilm drawers. The infinite repetition and forced perspective reminds one of the “we need lots of guns” scene from the matrix. Each drawer is numbered with a simple set of digits, the film number, given in order of collection, and is indexed “in an Oracle database” according to the lead archivist, though this begs some questions about the long term viability of such database software.

The real highlight of the Mormon Genealogical Archives is the reservoir. In the deepest tunnel, through a door, is the only part of the facility where one can see exposed rock. A small cement wall is built up here to trap the water dripping from the micro cracks in the rock above. The narrow long hallway filled with water from a slow drip reminds one of the Fremen water caches of Frank Herbert’s Dune. The water itself, having dripped through the huge filtration system that is the mountain, is cold and quite tasty.

The facility, while impressive, has its share of engineering difficulties. It has already had to relieve water pressure under the floors and walls, and allow it to drain. (Another big Long Now lesson: don’t think you can keep the water out, it’s far better to accept it will come through, and just route it.) Giant air movers keep the space ventilated, but at a large energy cost, another potential issue with the long term design.

Regardless, the Mormon Genealogical Archives are an inspiration for long now thinking and in showing the Archives the Church was both helpful and open. At the very least, new allies in the long term.

In conjunction with the Long Now Foundation. Modified from original text by Alexander Rose at the Long Now Blog.

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

Headhunting firm Spencer Stuart is without doubt on the speed-dial lists of bailed-out firms, having placed chairmen, CEOs, Chrysler Group LLC, and board members for AIG, Citigroup Inc., Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and GMAC. Then they flew over General Motors so that Ed Whitacre, Jr. could heli-drop in. Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that GM has chosen Spencer Stuart to assist it in locating a permanent CEO to take up the position from Whitacre.

GM’s list of requirements makes it clear they’re looking for someone bionic, having “extensive global, manufacturing and turnaround experience.” The new person should also have solid credentials working with Asia, since GM believes it will move more metal over there than in the U.S. next year, and the prospective bigwig doesn’t need to come from within the auto industry’sranks.

No national preference has been put forth for the new CEO, only that he or she be “global minded.” Perhaps the most important proven attribute they can bring: the ability to restore morale. It’s an impressive list, but that’s frankly the kind of CEO we would expect GM to require anyway, regardless of its economic and market position. And it does kind of make us wonder if Alan Mulally could simultaneously run two carmakers…

[Source: The Wall Street Journal]

REPORT: Spencer Stuart tasked with finding new GM CEO originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We had Harvard professor Ken Rogoff on TechTicker today.  Ken’s the dean of financial crises…

President Obama today unveiled several initiatives aimed at rebuilding the nation’s job market. Unemployment hovers at 10% as of November.

But our guest, top economist and noted bear Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University, forecasts more headwinds. “It’s hard to see the kind of robust recovery that’s really going to generate the 10, 11 million jobs that we need to get back to where we were before it started,” says Rogoff, also co-author of a new book, “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.”

While admittedly surprised by November’s stronger-than-expected jobs report, Rogoff predicts employment “comes back very slowly” and the unemployment rate will remain elevated for several years. 

Rogoff and co-author Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland make the case that the “this time it’s different” argument doesn’t hold water, based on financial history. Too often boom periods are marked by excessive accumulation of debt and overspending, whether by consumers, banks or the government. Sound familiar? Indeed. And Rogoff says the current economic rebound is “eerily similar to average [recoveries] of past post-war crises.”

In a one-on-one with Aaron and Henry, Rogoff offers a muted short-term forecast for the U.S. economy:

• Jobs: Rogoff forecasts American worker incomes won’t return to peak levels until late 2011.
• Housing: The government is propping up the sector and real estate in fact still is declining “gently,” Rogoff says, not improving.
• The stock market: Many investors have been caught off guard by the rally since the March lows. But Rogoff says markets often return to peak levels two or three years are a crisis, as investors opt for riskier investments amid near-zero interest rates.

Plus, stay tuned for Rogoff’s thoughts on how to create American jobs and “make work” programs (such as those proposed today by Obama on highway, bridge and infrastructure projects). 

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Ken Rogoff: Banks Profit By Levering Up On Implicit Taxpayer Guarantees
• The Ken Rogoff Study That Tim Geithner Refuses To Read
• Rogoff: The Worst Is Over? Are You Kidding?

NBC Universal is probably wishing that people didn’t remember stuff from a few years ago right now. The folks over at the National Journal dug up NBC Univeral’s vehement opposition to the AOL/Time Warner merger, which used all sorts of arguments that I would imagine NBC Universal would prefer were not used against its pending merger with Comcast. The letter, sent to the FCC in July of 2000 included this point:

“Given the size and scope of the proposed merged company, AOL/Time Warner will have both the ability and the incentive to discriminate against unaffiliated content providers such as NBC.”

Furthermore, NBC Universal was quite worried about how that deal would impact net neutrality and asked the FCC to make clear net neutrality principles if it allowed the merger to move forward, asking the FCC:

“to establish firm principles of non-discrimination in the treatment of unaffiliated content providers in the broadband services marketplace”

Of course, Comcast is now very much against that concept.

Not surprisingly, the letter was signed by NBC Universal’s General Counsel, Rick Cotton, who has a long history of sticking his foot in his mouth in saying things he later regrets — such as his still hilarious quote about how corn farmers were being harmed by movie piracy, and who was a major source for the bogus Hollywood propaganda piece on 60 Minutes. Still, you have to imagine that he now regrets that letter — and the fact that reporters have now brought it back to light.

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Japan’s getting Final Fantasy XIII next week, but it seems some people just couldn’t wait to find out how the game fares in the eyes of reviewers. Just recently, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu’s review of the game’s

I have a bunch of smaller thoughts today, so I figured I’d write them up rather than focus on any particular topic. I’m pretty sure I have… wow, shinny object… some kind of undiagnosed ADD.

Google Goes after the Work at Home Scammers

A few months back, I wrote about the Google Work at Home Scam. Companies were using Google’s good name to try to seem reputable and trick people into giving them money. I noticed this morning that Google is going after them. They found a great example of one of the scammers using a site that looks like a newspaper site from a Los Angeles. At least we might see the end of it soon.

Last Week to take Advantage of CollegeAdvantage’s free $50

It’s the last week to get your free $50 from CollegeAdvantage and it only takes a few minutes. It expires on December 15th, but let’s face it, if you don’t do it today, it will probably get pushed aside during the craziness of the holidays, right?

The CrunchPad JooJoo looks cool, but…

Also from CNet, this moring, I read about the JooJoo web pad. It’s pretty close to what a friend and I thought would be a big hit… in 1998. For those who don’t know about it, it used to be the CrunchPad developed in collaboration with TechCrunch, but that relationship somehow desolved. The product itself is just a big 12″ screen that’s almost like an iPhone, but it only browses the web. You can have it in your home for $499.

CNet noted that there isn’t much of a market for such a device. It’s not made for students, businessmen or any demographic they could think of. It costs more than a netbook, but does less since it’s limited to browsing the web.

I’ve been thinking about it, and really something like this may be the next step for a company like Palm. They could put their new WebOS on it so that it can do more than just browse the web. They also could use their partnership with cell phone companies to provide more connectivity than just WiFi. If they could get it down to a Palm Pixi-like price of $25, subsidized by a monthly subscription it could work… as long as the monthly subscription is closer than $10 than $40. I don’t know if this is a price where it becomes profitable to Palm, but it would push their WebOS platform out there to a new set of people, which may sell cell phones and applications in the future. I’m going to get crazy and suggest that perhaps it could sync with my WebOS phone and bridge the gap between my home computing experience and my mobile computing experience.

Why Palm and not Apple? Well, Apple is rumored to come out with one of these as well. However, I think Palm’s WebOS is better suited for the new resolution since the web technology it’s built on is designed with diferent screen resolutions in mind. More importantly though, the multitasking ability of the WebOS would allow it work much like a full fledged computer. Also WebOs should be getting Adobe Flash soon and that’s becoming key for using several websites effectively.

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