Category: News

Filed under: Motorsports, SUV, Hummer, Toyota

The 672.85-mile-long Baja 1000 race is over, and 328 starters were boiled down to just a handful of winners in various classes. The premier events were taken by Andy and Scott McMillin in the trophy truck category, in a modded Chevrolet Silverado. Andy won the race three years ago as a year ago as Robby Gordon’s co-driver, but this year beat the NASCAR pilot by three places. The motorcycle category went to the three-way team of Kendall Norman, Timmy Weigand, and Quinn Cody, who crossed the line about 45 minutes before the McMillin’s did.

Behind them, two legends of the race practically had the Stock Mini class to themselves: 20-time winner Rod Hall, along with Emily Miller, and Mike Winkel in a Hummer H3 took on Robert Ditner, Joe Nolan, Kez Ziesemer, and three-time winner Ivan Stewart in a 2010 Toyota 4Runner. Of three starters in the class, these two vehicles were the only ones to finish, and the issue came down to the last few miles: Hall’s Hummer suffered a long repair stop at mile 40 and he only passed Stewart’s 4Runner for first place just thirty miles from the finish.

While Stewart settles for second – and Hall gets his record-setting 21st class win – it’s a triumph for the truck and drivers to have finished the race at all. Congratulations to all involved

[Source: SCORE]

The Baja 1000 – and Hummer vs. Toyota – has been decided originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While U.S. commercial real estate fears are ubiquitous, some people are making big money from the panic.

Turns out that Bill Ackman’s Pershing Capital has already made $800 million in paper profits off of its debt and equity positions in the commercial real estate investment trust General Growth Properties (GGP).

Financial Times: “It is a classic good-company, bad-balance-sheet operation,” said Jeff Aronson, co-founder of Centerbridge Partners.

Mr Ackman began accumulating his GGP position in November 2008, said a person familiar with the fund. He spent $50m on stock – priced at under a $1 a share at the time – that is now worth $560m. He invested $100m in unsecured debt now worth $400m. Centerbridge holds $300m in GGP unsecured debt, purchased when it was trading for 30-odd cents on the dollar, a person familiar with the fund said.

Read more here.

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See Also:

• Distressed Commercial Real Estate Now 600% Larger Than 2006
• Commercial Real Estate Slide Kills City Budgets
• The Court System Deals The Commercial Real Estate Death Blow

The economy grew by just 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009, or 70 basis points less than the original estimate of 3.5 percent growth. The magnitude of the cut was in line with expectations.

The most closely watched portion of today’s news is likely to be the consumption component. The original estimate was for 3.4% growth in consumer spending, contributing 2.4 points to the GDP. This  seemed to indicate that consumer spending had picked up strongly. The revised number is just 2.9%, adding just 2.1 points to the GDP. Still, that’s not a huge pullback, and certainly not out of the range of expectations.

Today’s report also gives signals that consumer prices might not be increasing as rapidly as thought, which may give the Federal Reserve space too keep rates lower for even longer. The government had previously estimated that the price index for personal consumption had increased 2.8% in July through September. Now it says that increase was slightly lower, 2.7%. The core personal consumption measure, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 1.3% in the third quarter. The earlier estimate was 1.4%.

Of course, this is just the first round of revisions to the GDP numbers. The final estimate for third-quarter GDP will be published December 22. And, even then, it’s not really clear that GDP accurately reflects the state of the economy.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• GDP: +3.5%
• Tell Us Why The GDP Number Is Totally A Head Fake
• Shock GDP Report Ambushes The Bears (REV, TBL, GS)

The National Retail Federation has released a new report on holiday spending and while overall spending is expected to decrease, Black Friday shopping should increase by 16%.

A survey the NRF conducted showed 57 million people were “definitely” heading to stores this Friday in order to score hot deals.

No wonder Wal-Mart (WMT) is employing new tacitcs this year, so that nobody gets hurt or dies.

————-

Press Release: Washington, October 20, 2009 – Retailers are about to embark on the holiday season of the serious bargain hunter. According to NRF’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday-related shopping, a 3.2 percent drop from last year’s $705.01.*

It comes as no surprise that the economy was an overriding theme throughout this year’s survey. Two-thirds of Americans (65.3%) say the economy will affect their holiday plans this year, with the majority of these consumers saying they’re adjusting by simply spending less (84.2%).** People will also be shopping for sales more often (55.0%), using more coupons (41.7%) and putting up last year’s decorations (34.0%). Many Americans will also make changes in gift-giving, planning to buy more practical gifts (36.0%), buying a joint gift for kids or parents (17.3%), and making more gifts (16.7%). Additionally, more than one-fourth of Americans (28.6%) say the economy is forcing them to travel less or not at all for the holidays.

“While last holiday season was filled with chaotic confusion, adjusting to uncertainty has now become routine for many Americans,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “This holiday season will be a bit of a dance between retailers and shoppers, with each group feeling the other out to understand how things have changed and how they must adapt.”

Americans’ eagle-eye on bargain hunting is adjusting the priorities of many shoppers. According to the survey, more than half of holiday shoppers say that sales and price discounts (43.3%) or everyday low prices (12.7%) will be the most important factor when deciding where to shop. Factors like selection (21.0%), quality (11.8%), convenience (4.9%) and customer service (4.4%) declined from last year.

Not surprisingly, the majority of holiday shoppers (70.1%) will purchase from discounters this year, though more than half (55.8%) will also shop at department stores. Grocery stores (45.0%), the Internet (42.4%), clothing stores (33.8%) and electronics stores (31.8%) will also be popular destinations. In addition, one in ten holiday shoppers (11.4%) will buy gifts or other holiday-related merchandise at thrift stores or resale shops.***

Retailers are compensating for soft sales this holiday season by cutting back on inventory. According to NRF’s Port Tracker report, released in September, traffic to the nation’s ports has scaled back to levels not seen since 2003.

“In anticipation of weak demand, many retailers scaled back on inventory levels to prevent unplanned markdowns at the end of the season,” said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. “Once the most popular items are gone, retailers won’t have anywhere to get them, so if there was ever a holiday season to buy early, this is it.”

Whether they’re shopping to get the best selection or trying to stretch out spending over a longer period of time, many holiday shoppers are starting early. According to the survey, 39 percent of Americans will begin their holiday shopping before Halloween, which is comparable to previous years.

As in previous years, three-fourths of Americans’ holiday budget will be spent on gifts. While spending on family members will decline by a slight two percent ($387.06 in ’09 vs. $395.15 in ’08), gifts for friends ($66.77 vs. $80.13) and co-workers ($19.26 vs. $22.63) will see double-digit drops. Americans also plan to spend about five percent less ($34.81 vs. $36.88) on “other” gifts for people like babysitters, teachers and clergy.

Candy and food spending may be one bright spot this year, with the average person planning to spend $10 more in that category than last year ($90.26 in 2009 vs. $80.28 in 2008). Spending on other non-gift categories like decorations ($40.75 in ’09 vs. $43.45 in ’08), greeting cards and postage ($26.77 vs. $27.39), and flowers ($17.05 vs. $19.10) is expected to drop.

“While the economic climate has shown some improvement from last holiday season, retailers are not out of the woods yet,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch. “With a variety of factors still up in the air, including uncertainty over job security, many Americans just aren’t buying into the talk of recovery.”

Though Americans were less inclined to purchase gift cards last season, the popular gifts retain their spot at the top of the list among gift recipients. According to the survey, 55.2 percent of adults would like to receive a gift card this holiday season, with clothing (48.8%), books and DVDs (48.6%) and electronics (33.2%) among other popular choices.

NRF continues to expect holiday sales to decline 1.0 percent to $437.6 billion.

PRESS AND ANALYSTS: For more insights from the survey, join NRF for a media briefing today at 1 pm ET with Phil Rist, BIGresearch Executive Vice President, and NRF’s Ellen Davis. Register now.

The NRF 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to the winter holidays. The survey polled 8,431 consumers and was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch September 30 – October 7, 2009. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch’s syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 8,000 consumers each month to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world’s largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry’s key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees – about one in five American workers – and 2008 sales of $4.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

###

* Using consumers’ intentions from early October coupled with actual spending data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, NRF has derived final estimates on per-person spending for the 2008 holiday season along with the years 2004-2007. Going forward, NRF will make it a practice of using the final estimates of per-person holiday spending each fall for the previous year, much like it does total holiday sales. Please contact NRF with any questions you have about the updated numbers or rationale behind the revisions.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Desperate Banks Trying To Cash In On Black Friday
• Apple Announces Black Friday 2009 Sale (AAPL)
• Wal-Mart Trying New Black-Friday Tactics So That Nobody Dies This Year (WMT)

Filed under: Motorsports, BMW, Earnings/Financials

Questionable past acquisitions aside, you don’t get to be as large and successful as BMW without having some business acumen. That assumption, however, is being cast into question as reports out of Germany suggest that the Bavarian automaker may have been duped in its sale of the Sauber F1 racing team.

Peter Sauber’s eponymous racing team joined the F1 grid in 1993, and raced for a dozen seasons independently before BMW bought the team in 2005. But earlier this year, the German automaker announced it would withdraw from the sport, leaving Sauber to look for a new investor. A mysterious Swiss finance firm called Qadbak Investments stepped up, and the sale was completed. Having missed the deadline to re-commit for 2010, however, Sauber was replaced by newcomer Lotus, but since Toyota vacated its position, Sauber has been waiting on the FIA to give them the go-ahead. And now we’re starting to understand the FIA’s hesitance.

According to emerging reports, it appears that Qadbak – which also recently acquired the Notts County football team in England and was supposedly backed by a couple of reclusive, wealthy Middle Eastern families – is little more than a string of shell companies for a convicted British fraudster based in Dubai. Apparently Russell King, the fraudster at the end of the Qadbak paper trail, was trying to tap into the shared F1 revenue streams split between the teams in the series. Having finished sixth in the constructors’ championship this season, the Sauber team would be entitled to a considerable slice of the pie.

The revelation raises more questions than it answers, but we’re expecting the whole picture to come into focus over the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

[Source: SonntagsZeitung via Axis of Oversteer]

REPORT: BMW hoodwinked by fraudster in sale of Sauber F1 team originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to make any progress in social networking without opening up the service to outside developers. Even Facebook, arguably the most closed off social network, knows this and has made the most of its Facebook Connect offering. Now LinkedIn is looking to do the same with the announcement that it has finally opened up the site with the launch of a series of APIs aimed at third-party developers and services.

“Starting today, developers worldwide can integrate LinkedIn into their business applications and Web sites. Developer.linkedin.com is now live and open for business,” Adam Nash, LinkedIn VP of search and platform products, wrote. “This is the beginning of a new set of opportunities for the LinkedIn platform, and we look forward to seeing the integrations that developers will launch in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned for additional enhancements over during the coming months as we learn and grow this platform together.”

The APIs have been a long time coming, having been announced more than two years ago. And this was made worse by the fact that the platform has been greatly anticipated by many developers. There are plenty of social networks out there and plenty of them have interesting API offerings for developers, but none of them has the data th… (read more)

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

It’s easy for forecasters and amateur statisticians to draw future market conclusions based on select past performance.  At every twist and turn of the credit crisis investors have compared and contrasted the current recession with those of the past. In a recent research report Goldman Sachs goes into the many similarities between 2003 and 2009 and the potential for 2010 to mirror 2004.  Goldman notes:

As the macro data flow has slowed to a trickle, the weight of the evidence still points to continued, but gradual, improvement. And beyond the data momentum, financial conditions remain supportive for equity risk generally, and for our tactical long positions as well.  2004 contained many similar challenges to what we face on the cusp of 2010: waning cyclical momentum, fiscal drag and exit policy fears.

Based on these similar macro themes Goldman draws some conclusions as to how to play the potential 2010 outcome based on the performance of various asset classes in 2004:

Clear direction emerges earlier in sectors and macro themes relative to the index. Cyclical sectors, and not defensives, were still the right places to be long in 2004, the energy sector was a clear relative outperformer from early in the year, and cyclical macro tilts such as Growth and CHICON (China cyclicals relative to Consumer cyclicals) break out on the upside from mid-2004. But in most cases, the overall returns over the year are in modest single digits with several intra-year ups and downs. If next year is anything like 2004 in this respect, then timing entries and exits nimbly will be as important as identifying the right places to be long and short.

For those that remember, 2004 was an extraordinarily mundane year for equities following the excitement of 2003.  Volatility slowed to a trickle and equity returns were closer to the historical norm.  Goldman believes this, combined with a weaker economy, will make for a much more challenging investing environment:

But in each case, the overall returns over the year are in modest single digits with several intra-year ups and downs. If next year is anything like 2004 in this respect, then timing entries and exits nimbly will be as important as identifying the right places to be long and short. And, with recent momentum at our backs, we do think that culling winners even at modest returns, may be in order.

Of course, as I’ve often pointed out, it’s fairly foolish to based ones investment decisions based on one data point out of hundreds.  In my opinion, the current deleveraging process is unlike any recession the modern economic world has ever seen and that means the outcomes are unpredictable based on past data.  The challenges ahead of us are numerous and the differences between the business based recession of 2003 and the consumer based recession of 2009 are staggering.   But who am I to say that the almighty Goldman Sachs is wrong?

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Check Out Hedge Funds’ 50 Favorite Stocks
• Prechter: Everyone Is Bullish Now, So 2010 Will Be A Year Of Horrible Market Declines
• Saut: Market Keeps Pushing Higher Despite A "Cacophany Of Crybabies"

Not everyone is happy to wave styli a fond farewell, and I certainly do not look forward to the placing the first finger marks on my HTC HD2 after  have just wiped if for the nth time today. 

There is currently two capacitive styli – Teno Pogo Sketch and Dagi Transparent stylus.  The above video pits them head to head against each other on a HTC HD2.

The video crowns the Dagi Transparent Stylus the winner, for its more precise stylus-like control, vs the more finger-like use of the Teno Pogo.

Do any of our readers intend using a stylus on their HD2? Let us know in the comments.

Filed under: Recalls, Safety, Crossover, Dodge

Roughly 85,000 2007 Dodge Nitros are being recalled for a windshield wiper issue. Use of the delay settings could lead to the wiper not working at all in any setting. The recall is expected to begin this month, and dealers will repair the wiper mechanism and software for free. For further information you can read the press release after the jump or contact the NHTSA.

[Source: NHTSA]

Continue reading Dodge recalling nearly 85k 2007 Nitro models over failing wiper concern

Dodge recalling nearly 85k 2007 Nitro models over failing wiper concern originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve pointed this out over and over and over and over and over again, but whenever a government puts together a big database of info on people — the data gets abused. The latest example, found via Michael Scott is the news that a police chief in Iowa has been suspended after he supposedly revealed data that he never should have had in the first place, supposedly handing out information on someone’s driving record and criminal history, despite having no legal reason to even have that info, let alone distribute it to anyone. So why do we keep assuming that governments won’t abuse such data collections?

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Sophie writes,

“I’m a French girl with an old Ikea lamp. I customized it with some English fabric from Liberty. If it interests you, you can see it here.

The most hardcore goldbugs always advocated buying pure, physical gold — not mining stocks, and certainly not ETFs that represent a claim on some gold ingots held in a vault somewhere in the UK.

But the problem for physical gold fans is storage, and there’s no obvious answer for that.

One solution could be bank safety deposit boxes, but check this out: HSBC is tired of all these gold fans, using their safety deposit boxes to store a few gold coins, and they’ve given them the heave-ho.

WSJ: HSBC has told retail clients to remove their small holdings from its fortress beneath its tower on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. The bank has decided retail customers aren’t profitable enough and is demanding those clients remove their gold to make room for more lucrative institutional customers.

That move, of course, is creating headaches for companies in the physical gold business.

“I have never seen any relocation like this,” says Jonathan Potts, managing director of FideliTrade, the parent company of the Delaware Depository Service Co., which has two warehouses in Wilmington. FideliTrade’s two vaults have been filling up at an unprecedented pace, in part because it is taking in metal that has been ejected by HSBC.

Dealing with the fallout from HSBC’s decision has become a full-time job for David Norris, executive vice president of GoldStar Trust Co., a Canyon, Texas-based retirement-account trustee, which organizes metal storage for its clients.

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Marc Faber: Gold Is Never Going Below $1000 An Ounce
• SocGen Analyst: Our Governments Are Insolvent, Gold To $6,300! (GLD)
• The "Tungsten-Filled Gold Bar" Conspiracy Gets Discussed On CNBC (GLD)

Banks around the world still haven’t recognized half of their losses according to the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

There could be $1.5 trillion in bad debt remaining on their balance sheets, and losses on these bad loans still threaten the solvency of many institutions.

Bloomberg: Banking systems “remain undercapitalized” in many advanced economies with “far from normal” financial conditions, Strauss-Kahn said in a speech to the conference. The IMF said in September that banks may have $1.5 trillion in toxic debt remaining on their books, which may hurt credit markets and stifle the global economic recovery.

“Probably a little more has been disclosed in the U.S. and a little less in Europe, but it’s almost half and half,” Strauss-Kahn said. “So, we still have a long way to go.”

And from his original, prepared text

IMF: …the financial sector is still in bad shape. It will continue to need more capital as asset quality deteriorates. In this environment, imposing tougher standards now could jeopardize the recovery. Do we want to force the patient to exercise before she can even get out of bed?

Read the whole thing >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• IMF: Another Bailout Will Destroy Democracy
• Now The IMF Says China Is Enemy #1
• IMF: Dollar Carry-Trade Creating Bubbles Around The World

Goldman Sachs (GS) is out with a new overview of the hedge fund industry, examining several aspects of what funds are doing.

For example, it notes that while hedge funds have generally “re-risked”, they also continue to diversify their holdings.

You can see here, for example, that the density of the average hedge fund’s top 10 holdings has been falling all year.

As for what they’re buying and holding, here’s a list of the “stocks that matter most” to hedge funds.

• Pfizer
• Bank of America
• Apple
• Microsoft
• JPM
• Citigroup
• Google
• Qualcomm
• Mastercard
• WMT
• Cisco
• Schering-Plough
• Yahoo
• Intel
• EMC
• Oracle
• XTO
• EBAY
• Pepsi
• IBM
• Wells Fargo
• Transocean
• Hewlett-Packard
• CVS-Caremark
• Visa
• Morgan Stanley
• Schlumberger
• Target
• Liberty Media
• Monstanto
• Thermo Fisher
• Conocophillips
• GE
• Procter & Gamble
• Anadarko
• Exxon
• Freeport-Mcmoran
• Research in Motion
• Ford
• Amgen
• McDonald’s
• Johnson & Johnson
• United Health
• Barrick Gold
• Apache
• Wellpoint
• Gilead
• Walgreen
• Teva
• Union Pacfic

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Phibro To Hedge Funds: Who Wants In? (OXY, C)
• What The Heck Is CareFusion? (CFN)
• Jeff Saut: Even If Stocks Are A Bubble, Everyone Has To Keep Buying

China’s top banking regulator has warned banks to make sure they comply with capital adequacy ratio (CAR) requirements, or else face strict sanctions.

The regulator is worried that bad loans due to rampant lending may end up being far worse than expected, eroding bank’s capital bases and creating a Chinese financial crisis in the future.

Some suspect that the regulator is even preparing to increase Chinese capital requirements even further, despite having already increased bank’s required CAR to 10% from 8% at the end of 2008.

WSJ: A spokesman for China Construction Bank Corp, one of the Big Four state lenders, said the banking regulator “is considering imposing stricter capital requirements for lenders” next year, and the bank is closely monitoring the situation. Hu Changmiao said his bank “isn’t yet sure” whether the CBRC will decide to raise its capital requirement and if so, by how much, because the regulator “hasn’t issued any written notices.”

A CBRC spokesman said there “won’t be any sudden changes” in banks’ capital requirements. He denied a media report saying the regulator will require major state-owned banks to have a capital adequacy ratio of 13% from next year.

A 13% CAR would be an extremely restrictive measure for Chinese banks, compared to just 8% not too long ago. While such an action would increase the buffer banks have against potential loan losses, it would at the same time likely require Chinese banks to cut back lending growth substantially and raise new capital. (as was th fear today in Asian markets)

Less liquidity is clearly bad news for Chinese asset markets which have been driven by liquidity and where investors use future liquidity (capital flows) as their reason for buying. It would also put the brakes on China’s economic rebound, which right now the entire world depends on.

Chart via the WSJ.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Trip Proves That Obama’s "Nice Guy" Foreign Policy Has Been A Flop
• China Begs Banks To Cut Back On Lending
• China: The Vampire Squid Of Commodities

“Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.” ~ Aesop

The human body is our vessel to carry us throughout our days.  Are we more than that, though?

Recently, I was asked by a good friend, Carla Birnberg (aka MizFit around here) to join in an appreciation of the whole human body – our wholeness is what makes us who we are. 

This all began when Mish, from Eating Journey, wrote about loving who we are…today.  (Mish:  You are a brave woman, and that is a wonderful thing to see!)

So, this is me – exposed.

That's the outer me.  Just like each of you, though, I am much more than what you see here.

I AM my legs.  They are used for walking, for running, for kicking, and for playing.  

I AM my smile.    That feeling of joy from just tipping my cheek bones up, from the corners of my lips pointed skyward.

I AM my eyes.  To see the beautiful sunsets.  To see those I love – my wife, my kids, friends.

I AM my heart.  Love.  Connection.  Feeling.  Truth.

I AM me. 

Life is funny.  This is me, recently.  It is not me today, though.  Perhaps I'm a couple of pounds more today.  Perhaps I'm also a little more deeply grounded, too, though.  Perhaps I'm not comfortable showing the real outside appearance today.  Perhaps I'm not always comfortable showing the inside me, too.  Perhaps I see that this picture represents me at my best.  Perhaps "best" is relative. 

None of us are perfect. 

We are not fast enough, or smart enough.  We don't have enough friends.  We have too much weight around our midsection.  We are too emotional.  We don't show enough emotion.  We look the other way when bad things happen.  We yell at our children.  We are mean to our spouse.  We sometimes just don't care.

Been there?

And all of us are perfect.

We are who we are, today.  In this moment, this is us.  We are living and breathing.  We are human.  We are perfectly human.  With all the challenges that go with that, and all the joys.  We are our body, our mind, our spirit.  It is us…each of us, at this moment.  It is what we have.  All of it. 

"I find that when we really love, accept and approve of ourselves exactly as we are, then everything in life works." ~ Louise Hay

Celebrate YOU! 

Love YOU!

Each of you are amazing!  In so many beautiful ways, you are all shining examples of living beings.  Human life, living here on earth.  Wow! 

And that is so much more that just skin deep. 

Celebrate LIFE!

Special Note:  Celebrate the success of several others who have exposed their bodies, and see the beauty that is there.  YOU are all brave and amazing!

Mish, MizFit, Roni, Kate, Heather, Ron, AJ, Manic Mama, Mary, KatieP, Cynthia, Hilda

Want to participate in a competition worth almost US$1000? Read on!

There has been a lot of discussion about the concept of information aesthetics lately, mostly focusing on the seemingly rapid rise of misplaced attention to “pretty, flashy mash-ups of something or other“, in the press and on some (hmm hmm) online media. Despite these disagreements, I do hope we can all agree on some sort of visualization spectrum, with on one side the functional, expert-geared field of “information visualization”, and on the other, that of the intriguing, visually persuasive “data art”. I personally do believe we should not focus on defining such a hard divide, as there already exists an overlapping subfield in between where all the exciting things currently happen. Potentially, and maybe egoistically, I would propose this subfield could be labeled with the name of this blog. However, for the purpose of this competition, this issue is not even of much relevance.

While we keep discussing the necessity of theoretical frameworks, start dozens of vizblogs with endless “best-of” lists, and criticize the best practice of data visualizations, we seem to have lost the attention to a parallel universe, which no-one really recognizes the need to write a manifesto for. A field that is potentially more prevalent than all visualization “tools” and “artwork” put together. I mean those data visualizations that are neither “eye candy” nor “useful”, neither “beautiful” nor “functional”, neither “art” nor a “tool”, neither “user-satisfactory” nor “effective”, and neither stimulating the “heart” nor the “brain”. The challenge of this competition is thus for you to find the most “ugly”, “useless” and “disfunctional” data visualization online. It sounds easy, but can be more difficult than you might think.

Courtesy of our long-term sponsor FusionCharts, the 2 winners will each receive a FusionCharts Developer Bundle, worth US$499. Fusioncharts specializes in interactive Flash charts, gauges and maps, and is used by companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Dell, HP, GE, and many more. The Developer bundle comprises one license each of FusionCharts (animated Flash charts for web apps), FusionWidgets (data visualization widgets for dashboards), PowerCharts (interactive charts for specialized domains) and FusionMaps (interactive online maps).

You can participate by sending an email to ugly at infosthetics.com. The email should include a 600x600px .jpg image of the respective visualization, a direct link to the webpage containing the visualization, a title and short description (100-word max), and your name and email address (which will not be posted). Entries should be received before Wednesday 2 December, 12am (CET). The jury consists of FusionCharts staff and infosthetics. Any questions can be asked below.

Please note submissions proposing the complete collection of past infosthetics posts are permitted, but not really encouraged. 🙂

Images above were sourced from Many Eyes and Worst Visualization Gallery. Sorry, could not help picking 2 beautiful ones, negating my own rules… Further inspiration includes The Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics and The Pentagon Information Graphics Machine.

With Twitter getting back in shape in the past few weeks, even though visitor numbers are still down, it’s time to play one of Silicon Valley’s most popular games again. No, it’s not ‘how is Twitter going to make money’ but ‘when will Twitter be sold’. In the past, there have been plenty of interested parties and plenty of rumors, but cofounder Biz Stone assures us, again, that the company is not for sale and won’t be for the foreseeable future. It may, however, be headed for an IPO if it has to, an option which is preferred to selling the company.

“The point is, we want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO’s the way to do that, then sure. We don’t have it checked off on the calendar yet,” Stone told Reuters at an entrepreneurship event in the UK. “We are definitely not interested in selling the company,” he added. “If an IPO’s the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.”

Twitter has always denied that it has any plans to sell, especially now that the product has taken off, growing more than 10 times year over year. But now that the business side of the service is showing signs that it may be picking up, with search deals with Microsoft and Google, premium accounts by the end of the yea… (read more)

We have written earlier on HTC Touch Pro’s being used by the military to enable them to be more efficient, but here is a story of the other side of the coin – the very same phone being used to save lives instead.

Patients who have chronic wounds and may be immobilized can now receive treatment in their homes by experienced clinicians who collaborate remotely with certified wound care specialists miles away. Wound Technology Network is using wireless technology services from AT&T* and empowering healthcare professionals with smart mobile devices to diagnose and prescribe treatments for patients with chronic wounds anytime, anywhere.

Under a two year agreement with AT&T, Wound Technology Network will equip its clinical staff including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants across South Florida and Southern California with HTC FUZE(TM) smart mobile devices when providing care in patient’s homes. Clinical staff will use the devices to access an application developed by iVisit, which creates videoconferencing tools for mobile devices and PCs, and speak live with a wound care specialist at Wound Technology Network’s tele-health center who will assist them to assess their patients’ wounds and perform the necessary treatment. To aid in the treatment process, clinical staff will also capture images of the patient’s wounds using the HTC FUZE(TM) and transmit the images to the wound care specialists to upload onto an electronic medical record which is immediately faxed to the patient’s primary care physician.

Until now, immobile patients and often those with chronic wounds relied heavily upon transport services for access to treatment, which often accounted for delayed diagnosis, prolonged hospital visits, and unnecessarily high treatment costs. Now having clinicians equipped with smart mobile devices, immobile patients have access to expert specialists for real-time diagnosis and treatment.

“Here at Wound Technology Network, we recognize that consistently delivering the highest quality wound care is difficult, but with the help of AT&T, we are able to deliver all the advantages of physician based services while we are treating patients in the comfort of their home,” said George Pollack, Chief Technology Officer. “Not only are our specialists able to deliver on-site quality care in real-time, they are able to aid in significantly minimizing the healing time of patients and the overall cost of their treatment.”

Mobihealthnews via FuzeMobility.com