Category: News

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Dodge

The Dodge Viper is many things to many people. An object of unparalleled lust to some, a big-mouthed, truck-engined Corvette ripoff to others. And an ankle burner to still others. But no one ever thought of Dodge’s V10 quarter-mile thug as a serious track car. Until the Viper ACR showed up.

Lighter (especially in Hardcore Package guise) and producing ten times as much downforce as the “regular” SRT10 Viper, the ACR model set off some pretty big waves when the big-winged snake debuted (especially in the Nurburgring record community), even though most of the rippling came from the street-legal slicks. But never mind all that, the new 2010 Dodge Viper ACR is here, and it’s even better than the 2009 version.

Why? Well, it’s faster (top speed is now 202 mph) and quicker (it can reach said top speed a whole 14 seconds sooner than the 2009 model). How? Gearing, specifically 5th gear, which has been revised from 0.741 to 0.796. Also, the end caps on the giant wing have been revised, resulting in that higher top end. Some new colors, too. We have tons of videos of it rumbling/blasting around Laguna Seca for your perusal, after the jump. Hat tip to Ryan!

UPDATE: Looks like Dodge, the Viper ACR and driver Chris Winkler just broke the Laguna Seca single-lap record with a time of 1:33.944. Those of you with longish memories will remember that a Devon GTX (powered by a Viper motor) recently set the (now) old record at Laguna — 1.35.075. In other words, the new Viper ACR just beat the previous record by more than a second. Impressive. And yet another video, after the jump.

UPDATE 2: Gallery of images from the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR’s day at the track added.

UPDATE 3: Chrysler just twittered: “To honor Viper’s record-breaking lap at Laguna Seca, Dodge will rollout a Laguna Seca Special Edition Viper.” Now that’s planning product on your feet!

[Source: Red Letter Dodge]

Continue reading VIDEO: 2010 Dodge Viper ACR makes the rounds at Laguna Seca, sets track record

VIDEO: 2010 Dodge Viper ACR makes the rounds at Laguna Seca, sets track record originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Washington, Jefferson didn’t have birth certificates

Were not all the early presidents born of parents who were not American citizens [“Birther pangs,” Opinion, editorial, Nov. 20]?

Were not the parents of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison and James Monroe citizens of the British Empire when those future presidents were born?

Surely, everyone born before 1776 was originally a citizen of a country other than the United States.

— Stephen Lamphear, Burien

While professionalism has it that I reserve bashing the crap out of things, Erik Estavillo is really asking for it. Let’s face it, the guy is on a s…

 

read this – Treasury Yield Plunge Sends Warning – By RANDALL W. FORSYTH – Collapse in note yields suggests economic distress will keep Fed on hold well into 2010 or beyond. – Barron’s
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must read – The King Canute Economy – by Cynicus Economicus – What we are seeing … is the process of governments seeking to hold back and resist the fundamental change that has taken place. The change that I am referring to is that there is a massive redistribution of wealth, and that there is now a situation of hyper competition throughout the world … it is unstoppable. Nobody is going to put the 100s of millions of new workers back in a box – and there are still large reserves of labour ready to enter the market. …It is only when the economy is seen in this light that we can truly see the madness of government policies – whether the policy of China, the US or the UK. Each country is seeking to maintain an equlibrium that never actually existed. …  

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Read this – about hedge funds and principal reduction of mortgages – Wall St. Finds Profits by Reducing Mortgages – By LOUISE STORY – thanks Ira Artman – NY Times

The Touch2 has received an update in the form of a patch that speeds up resumes after sleep, so you use your phone as soon as its turned on rather than having to wait for some time…

"HTC Touch2 brings you the added value of being able to unlock your device with a convenient way. Your device will be more responsive to resume after “sleeping” to conserve power".

It’s availible for devices with WM6.5 builds between 21849 and 21874 (Settings->System->About Ex: “CE OS 5.2.21869 (Build 21869.5.0.82). The AKU version is 21869", so if it applies to you, head on over to HTC, and install it. (Note, it’s misnamed on the page).

In Washington, DC, the prevailing view these days is that unemployment is now the leading driver of mortgage defaults. This is one reason you can expect to see the next stage of the government’s attempt to rescue the housing market focus on saving jobs.

But a new study out of Amherst Securities indicates that negative equity is by far the best default predictor of defaults. If that view is correct, the fact that we are still producing mortgages that quickly slip into negative equity should be terrifying. And, in fact, much of the recovery in the housing market appears to be built on thinly capitalized mortgages subsidized by low loan-to-value FHA guaranteed mortgages and the home-buyer tax credit.

As the chart below shows, even home buyers who took out mortgages as late as this year are finding themselves with negative equity at historically high rates. We’ve come down from the worst levels of the housing boom but we are still well above healthy levels.

In short, we may be witnessing a policy mistake of stunning proportions as lawmakers and regulators focus on job creation while ignoring the still problematic loan-to-value ratios in the housing market.

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Internet has become a transfer medium for a lot of new business models, some of which have failed and others which are thriving. In this environment, there is new service called GenApple, which boasts to be the ‘first information brokerage in the world’

With a business model similar to E-bay, GenApple facilitates the selling and buying of information. A seller of information offers some information either at a fixed price or a via an auction. The difference from E-bay is that GenApple will act as an Escrow – a third impartial party trusted by both seller and buyer:

1. GenApple will hold the offered information in a special ‘vault’ until the trade is concluded, and then let the buyer obtain it from the ‘vault’.
2. Similarly, GenApple will hold the payment money for the seller until the dispute period has passed, in order to facilitate refund in case of a dispute.

This new service opens a whole set of questions and possible security issues – since it deals with a commodity with different characteristics that physical objects:

1. Information can be abstracted from physical location
2. Information can be ideally copied many times without any loss and without any evidence that it has been copied
3. Information can be sniffed during transfer
4. Information can be accessed/destroyed/corrupted by a malicious attacker
5. Information can be instrumental to performing illegal activities while never physically being part of the illegal activity
6. The quality of information can be disputed or misunderstood

GenApple is still in beta, and is currently available for registration only for US based users – an interesting choice which may or may not have to do with US law enforcement agencies being fully capable of prosecuting users in case of trading of confidential information.

Still, the Pandora’s box of trading in information is open, and the security community needs to follow the development of this and other similar services with great attention.

GenApple has scheduled it’s launch for Monday – 30Th of November 2009. Just before the scheduled launch – on Sunday I’ll be talking to Mark Hanson – the founder and CEO of GenApple.

So while GenApple launches, tune in to Shortinfosec for the full transcript of the interview which will be focusing on fraud, encryption and external security!

Talkback and comments are most welcome

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Morgan Stanley expects 10-year yields to rise 220 bps in 2010 – Posted by Edward Harrison – … Realistically, if rates spike to 5.5%, it would be a blood bath for insurers, and probably for pension funds (and hence municipalities as well). Mortgage rates would skyrocket and this would stop any housing recovery dead in its tracks. That sounds like double dip and depression to me; this is not an early 1990s economic environment.   Ironically, 5.5% rates would sow the seeds of future 3.3% rates or lower. … –
Credit Writedowns 

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What the U.S. Long Bond Market Is Telling Us… – Brad DeLong summarizes Krugman on UST 10 year rates and comes to this conclusion of risks – … Bear in mind that this whole story requires that the demand curve slope the wrong way for a while–that if the prices for Treasury bonds fall carry traders lose their shirts and exit the market, and so a small fall in Treasury bond prices turns into a crash until someone else steps in to hold the stock… – J. Bradford DeLong Blog 

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Bills Yielding Zero as Stocks Soar Make Bernanke’s 1938 Moment – by Liz Capo McCormick and Daniel Kruger – … more on zero rates and appreciating stocks – lots of quotes – Bloomberg

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MBS Spreads to Widen, Rates to Rise in 2010: Smith Breeden – By DIANA GOLOBAY – Although demand should keep asset-backed securities (ABS) spreads tight into Q110, wider spreads in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) will follow the Federal Reserve’s exit of a major MBS purchase program in 2010, according to bi-monthly commentary by global asset management firm Smith Breeden Associates. … – HousingWire

Filed under: Sedan, China, Buick, Cadillac, GM, Misc. Auto Shows, Luxury

General Motors’ China’s sales are up 60 percent year-on-year, and The General wants to keep the momentum going at its Chinese outpost. Automotive News China reports that the Guangzhou Auto Show will play host to the unveiling of the market-specific Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT, the latter described as a four-door “coupé-like sedan.”

The Excelle XT will take a place between the Excelle and the new Regal. The Cadillac gets 3.0-liter and 3.6-liter engines with GM’s SIDI technology that also grace Australia’s new Holden Commodores. The luxury sedan, a lengthened version of our STS with a superior interior, will also be China’s introduction to OnStar.

[Source: Automotive News China – Sub. Req.]

REPORT: New Chinese-market Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT to debut in Guangzhou originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives – … a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States. … – NY Times

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The Young Are About to Get Shafted – Terry Savage – For years, I’ve been predicting America’s greatest divide would be generational warfare. Now, those predictions are coming true.  Even though I find myself on the far side of the divide, here’s a warning to those under age 50:  We older grownups outnumber you—and we vote! So beware of the new financial burdens we’re about to impose on you. – MoneyShow.com 

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Banking Fix Made Easy With Six Simple Steps: Roger Lowenstein – Bloomberg

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Liquidity, OTC Market and TBTF Banks – Rortybomb – … So dealers hedge. Constantly. The cheapest way for dealers to hedge is internally … TBTF banks don’t want (and given the times we live in, I might even say “allow”) these products to trade openly because they make excess rents by keeping the market opaque for competitors. … – Rortybomb Blog
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The Coming Deficit Disaster – By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN – The president says he understands the urgency of our fiscal crisis, but his policies are the equivalent of steering the economy toward an iceberg.  – WSJ Opinion

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT STOPS PROPPING UP THE HOUSING MARKET? – … According to Annaly Capital Management, these programs are having an especially profound impact on the housing market.  As we’ve often argued, many of these programs are nothing more than grandiose wastes of taxpayer dollars and do nothing more than kick the can down the road while adding substantially to the debt burden of the future … – The Pragmatic Capitalist

It was reassuring to hear the Federal Reserve admit today that its efforts to spur on an economic recovery by keeping interest rates law could fuel a new speculative bubble.

The zero interest rate policy “could lead to excessive risk-taking in financial markets,” according to the minutes released this afternoon of the Fed’s closed-door meeting earlier this month. Fed officials think the current likelihood of a bubbl is “relatively low,” however.

The Fed certainly doesn’t think the economy is about to come booming back. Fed policymakers said it could take “five or six years” for the economy and the labor market to be consistently healthy. But there outlook for this year is a bit brighter: they are now expecting the economy to contract just 0.5% versus the older forecast of a contraction from 0.6% to 1.6%. Of course, the meeting took place before the today’s revision of the third quarter GDP numbers.

Here statement:

 

fomcminutes20091104

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See Also:

• FOMC Minutes: More Jawboning About Inflation, Fed Expects Next Move To Be Up

Remember Alan Ralsky? The “spam king” came to be well known online in 2002 after agreeing to a profile in the Detroit Free Press, where he bragged about all the spamming he did and the huge house it had bought him. The folks on Slashdot decided to do something about Ralsky, and started signing him up for all sorts of snail mail marketing offers, so his real life mailbox was overflowing with ads. The humor-impaired Ralsky apparently couldn’t see the irony, saying he was going to sue the people involved. He never seemed to actually get around to that. Instead, while it took quite some time, law enforcement started investigating Ralsky. While he had loudly insisted that the CAN SPAM law wouldn’t impact him, the FBI disagreed. Last year, he was finally indicted. Earlier this year he entered a guilty plea and has now been sentenced to four years in jail for his spamming and fraud activities — reported in the same Detroit Free Press that ran that original profile of him. Maybe he should have avoided bragging about the mansion that spam built.

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While it’s one thing to be updated with the theatrical launch of Tron Legacy, details have been pretty scarce about its accompanying video game. Than…

Filed under: Motorsports, China, SEAT, Diesel

If you would have told us ten or twenty years ago that diesel would come to dominate motor racing, we probably would have laughed in your face. But since Audi charted new territory by dominating Le Mans with its R10 TDI, the competition benefits of burning oil is beyond reproach. Not satisfied to let diesel power dominate endurance sportscar racing, however, sister company SEAT picked up the mantle last year in the World Touring Car Championship with the Leon TDI.

As it turns out, running on diesel came to be a liability for SEAT as the WTCC reformatted the rules to reduce diesel’s advantage. But the Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Touring Car Company) pulled together, rallied its team and went on to dominate the World Touring Car Championship for the second year in the row, clinching all three of the series titles this past weekend in Macau – China’s closest approximation of Monaco and the final round in the championship.

SEAT won the manufacturers’ title, outpacing rivals BMW by three small points and outshining Chevrolet (with their new Cruze-based touring car) and Lada. SEAT’s main shoe, Gabriele Tarquini, clinched the drivers’ title ahead of his teammate (and defending champion) Yvan Muller. As if that wasn’t enough, privateer Tom Coronel drove his gasoline-powered Leon to secure the Independents Trophy as well, making it a resounding triple victory for SEAT and its WTCC crew. Details in the press release after the jump and photos in the high-res image gallery below.

[Source: SEAT]

Continue reading SEAT dominates with second consecutive World Touring Car Championship

SEAT dominates with second consecutive World Touring Car Championship originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What a whirlwind weekend! It all started Thursday with an ISVMA board meeting followed by dinner at Jim’s Steakhouse in Peoria, IL. Imagine my surprise when the waitress read off our three choices for entrees: ribeye steak, orange roughy, or Chicken a la Lydia!

Then it was Friday, and time for the Equine Neurology Wet Lab at a local mixed practice clinic. A “wet lab” is a hands-on teaching experience where veterinarians work in small groups with real patients, receiving one-on-one instruction by the facilitator to improve their clinical skills. We were thrilled to be able to bring in world-renowned Dr. Stephen Reed as the instructor.

I arrived back to the convention center just in time for the Welcome Address, Keynote Speaker, a few awards, and an opening reception in the Exhibit Hall. My favorite exhibit this year was Chesire Partners, who brought a remote control bird on a tricycle and startled attendees!

Illinois puts on an incredible state veterinary convention, so in addition to sitting in on a few of Dr. Reed’s equine neurology talks (herpesvirus, EPM, Wobblers), I also went to presentations on supplements in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine track and communication in the Business Practices track. But that still left a second Business Practices track, Exotics, three Small Animal tracks, three small animal wetlabs and a Vet Tech program. There’s just no way to get to them all!

For me, though, the highlight of Saturday (and in fact, the whole convention) was the ISVMA Annual Meeting, where the current president, Dr. Shelly Rubin, gave an address and turned over leadership of the organization to the new president (me!) What made this year’s installment particularly poignant was that Oprah (yes, Oprah Winfrey) heard about her personal veterinarian’s retirement and sent a taped message about how much she appreciated Dr. Rubin over the years.

During my president’s address, I thanked my husband, who had kindly informed me beforehand that his new title is the “First Gentleman.” As only the second female president of the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association in its 127-year history, I am actually the first married female president (and youngest, but we don’t have to discuss age).

So the next year will be a busy one for me–attending regional meetings as well as national meetings on behalf of ISVMA, presiding at board meetings, reviewing the budget of the Association, developing a strategic plan, naming volunteers to committees, and so on–but it will be a fun one. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep writing blog answers as long as you keep sending in those questions!

Dr. Gray Installed as President of ISVMA

Facebook says it has created a dual-class stock structure.

Startups sometimes take this step before an IPO.

In a statement, however, Facebook says “this revision to the stock structure should not be construed as a signal the company is planning to go public.”

“Facebook has no plans to go public at this time.”

In instances where the creation of a dual stock struction does precede an IPO, the idea is to create one class of “super-voting shares” for the company to own, and one non-controlling class for the public markets.

This enables holders of those “super-voting” shares (likely management or the VC investors) to maintain voting control of the company while selling some economic stake to the public.

Facebook says it changed the stock structure “because existing shareholders wanted to maintain control over voting on certain issues to help ensure the company can continue to focus on the long-term to build a great business.”

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As folks gather around Thanksgiving dinner, Tekken-atics will have one more thing to be thankful for – Namco Bandai follows up on a promise and will…

Filed under: Hatchback, Nissan, Electric, Quick Spin

Nissan has gone into a back room, pulled out its Ouija board and decided that the time is right to make a huge bet. The Japanese automaker, along with its partner Renault, wants to be the world leader in pure electric vehicles. Even though you can go buy an Altima hybrid right now, the company didn’t develop its own gas-electric technology (the sedan uses Toyota tech). This time around, Nissan believes the future belongs to vehicles without an internal combustion engine (ICE) and is preparing to put its own foot forward. It’s way too early to know for sure, but Nissan’s gamble could pay off handsomely. Toyota leads the hybrid race, General Motors and others are adding plugs to vehicles with liquid-fueled engines, but no major automaker has claimed the pure EV pole position. If everything goes right, Nissan will be that automaker.

The flagship vehicle for the automaker is, of course, the Leaf EV hatchback, which was unveiled in August and recently made its North American debut in Los Angeles. We were on hand to take a Leaf mule out for a short (very short) spin and heard directly from Nissan how this unique-looking EV will secure Nissan’s place in the auto industry as tremendous changes take place in the coming years. Follow us after the jump to learn about Nissan’s wager and find out if the Leaf has got the potential to (silently) propel the company to the top.

Photos copyright (C)2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: Nissan Leaf the tip of mass market EV spear

Quick Spin: Nissan Leaf the tip of mass market EV spear originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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