Top Gear Track Virtual Tour
Have a couple of minutes to kill before you go on your lunch break? Take a little tour of the famous Top Gear track “hosted” by none other than – The Stig.
The tour features Google Maps type functionality allowing you to get a birds-eye view of the track and the Stig’s view from a vehicle.
– By: Kap Shah
Redlight and speed camera provider Redflex is not having a great year. The company’s revenue has taken a hit due to massive opposition to these cameras, leading it to lose a major contract in the state of Arizona, while having many of its camera programs declared illegal. But things may be getting even worse. Reader Pwdrskir points us to some news coming out of a lawsuit that Redflex is dealing with from competitor American Traffic Solutions (ATS). The details of that aren’t all that interesting. However, as a part of that lawsuit, Redflex had to admit that its radar/speed cameras, despite claims to the contrary by Redflex were not certified by the FCC until 2008. That calls into question every ticket issued by those cameras from 1997 to 2008. And, as the article notes, it sounds like a lawsuit is already being planned in response to challenge the validity of those past tickets.
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The Khaki suit is a definite must have for summer when you’re required to show up in some kind of formal wear. Ralph Lauren Rugby ups the “formal” part by creating this cotton tuxedo suit. The jacket features contrasting silk twill detailing, notched collar with contrasting skull-and-bones embroidered silk twill lining, silk twill lapels, embroidered cuffs, welt pockets, and more. The pants have a standard-rise clean waistband that is adjustable. It has a flat front, straight leg and features silk twill taping at the side seams and is completed with unfinished cuffs. Both available at Rugby.
The AP says that thousands of pieces of undelivered mail from the early ’90s were recently found in a shed in Michigan, and a ex-mail carrier is now charged with stealing mail — the punishment for which is up to 5 years in prison.
There were 544 pieces of first class mail and about 3,000 pieces of junk mail in the shed, says the AP.
Apparently the man became overwhelmed sometime in the early ’90s and started hiding the mail instead of delivering it, according to investigators.
Every 25th day of May every year, Towel Day is celebreated in memory of Douglas Adams (1952-2001). Adams wrote “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“, a comedy series originally broadcasted on BBD Radio 4 in 1978.
The tribute was mostly based on the original quote that made a reference as “the greatness of towels” in Adams’ work.
According to Douglas Adams, there are 42 ways to use a towel. This was the first idea on which the date of the celebration be made. The first idea was 42 days after the death of Adams.
Interestingly, one of ways in which you can use a towel is to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, said to be a stupid animal that assumes if you cannot see it, it cannot see you.
People around the world are getting involved by carrying a towel on the 25th. Spreading the news would also be a good idea by uploading and tagging pictures.
The website TowelDay.org was established by Adams’ friends to spread news around the world. Fans worldwide are reminded annualy to bring their towels.
After the recognition of Towel Day in May 25, 2001, it immediately became a success and sites dedicated for the said event like IsItTowelDay.com immensely popped out.
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From the Banking Committee, they are Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Jack Reid (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).
From the Agriculture Committee, they are Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.).
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is heading the conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate financial reform bills. The House plans to announce its conferees after the Memorial Day holiday.
After failing to phone home one last time, we knew that the Mars Phoenix was through. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter gives us one last look at the little guy. More »
Phoenix – Mars – Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – Space – Technology
This week on TreeHugger, how ants and other animals will change our computers, cars and commute, we visit Maker Faire, buildings shaped like Nintendo DS, showers that heat their own water, and more! More »
TreeHugger – Nintendo DS – Games – Maker Faire – Best of Treehugger
WASHINGTON–The Obama family, finally, return to Sweet Home Chicago for the Memorial Day weekend.
The last time the family — Obama, first lady Michelle, Malia, 11 and Sasha, 8 — were back at their home on South Greenwood was over Valentine’s Day weekend 2009. Obama made two quick day trips last summer, not staying overnight.
If anyone thought that the Kenwood community would host a Chicago White House — and some people did — well, they were very disappointed.
I’m told the Obama family is planning a casual weekend with friends. President Obama will throw in some work; on Monday, Obama will deliver a Memorial Day address at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, near Joliet, about 50 miles south of Chicago.
When Obama was elected, he envisioned frequent visits back home that never materialized. In December 2008, then President-elect Obama said he expected to return “as often as possible, my expectation would be that, depending on what my schedule looks like, you know, we’re going to try to get back here at least once every six weeks or couple of months.”
It turned out that the first couple was so eager to embrace Washington — and get Sasha and Malia settled in a new school with new friends — that Chicago visits just never happened. Besides, the Chicago pals — of the Obamas and their kids’ friends — were just as happy to hang at the White House or Camp David, the presidential retreat. Last summer, Chicago buddy Marty Nesbitt and his family even rented a place in Washington for a short time just to be nearby.
The Obama home will be a historic site whether or not the Obamas ever live there full time again. Last January, I asked Mrs. Obama why they never came home. She said, “Just tell Chicago, ‘nothing personal.’ It’s kids.”
The Obama Valentine’s Day return did cause some tumult, Mrs. Obama noted. South Lake Shore Drive closed for their motorcade, and security officials restricted access to streets near the house. Mrs. Obama, who said she missed shopping at the Target on Roosevelt Road, added, “It’s really life and the fact that the kids have built a life here and that’s good and right now I want to encourage that life and not keep pulling them out. So it’s less our schedules than them. Who’s got kids? They dictate the weekend.”
When the Obamas get home, they will find the home next door empty; their former neighbors, Bill and Jacky Grimshaw, moved out after selling their place for $1.4 million, and the new owners planned extensive renovations before moving in. The bidding war the Grimshaws hoped for over their home never occurred. While federal representatives looked at the Grimshaw house, the government did not go ahead with a purchase.
Consumer sentiment is definitely healing. In May, Confidence climbed further, according to the Conference Board. The Consumer Confidence Index now sits at 63.3, up from 57.7 in April. It has increased for the past three months, as it dipped all the way down to 46 in February. This is the best consumer sentiment we’ve seen since March 2008. It also soundly beat economists’ expectations of 59.0. The report contains even more good news.
But before getting into that, here’s the miniature chart that the Conference Board provides:
This begins to show just how much confidence has risen recently. If this trend continues, we’ll soon hit pre-recession levels of confidence.
Speaking of pre-recession levels, that’s where the Conference Board’s expectations index stood in May. It rose to 85.3 from 77.4 in April. Of course, expectations prior to a recession aren’t necessarily impressive. Indeed, the confidence reading, though rising, is still weak by historical levels. So good times aren’t exactly here again for U.S. consumers, but they clearly feel a lot better than they had during most of the recession. And the expectations index shows their optimism.
Yet, the market today, and over the past few weeks, poses a nagging question: can this consumer recovery really take hold? The Dow is down 12% since its April high of 11,205. The housing market is also showing signs of weakness now that the government credit has ended. And that doesn’t even begin to take into account all of the instability overseas with conflict in the Koreas and sovereign debt crises plaguing Europe. So far, consumers haven’t let any of that get to them. But if those worries mount, they could begin to pull back again.
Conference Board – Consumer Confidence Index – United States – Economic – Economy
ModNation Racers (PS3, PSP), developed by United Front Games and Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (San Diego), brings an entertaining twist to classic kart racing, while empowering players of all levels to fully customize and design their entire racing experience. The second title in PlayStation’s PLAY, CREATE, SHARE series, ModNation Racers allows players to not only enjoy developer-made content, but unleash their imagination with easy-to-use editing tools to generate customized tracks, karts and characters that can be uploaded and shared with the ModNation community via PlayStation Network.
ModNation Racers’ user-friendly creation tools feature a simple interface and a robust menu of options to trick out tracks, karts and drivers with a variety of accessories. If players are not feeling creative, ModNation Racers also features a Story Mode with a humorous narrative and a wealth of pre-made characters, karts and over 25 tracks to try. Here’s a video review courtesy of IGN:
“We continue to deliver on the success of PLAY, CREATE, SHARE movement with ModNation Racers as the next title in the series started by LittleBigPlanet,” said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President, Product Marketing, SCEA. “Combining deep customization with solid kart handling, and online multiplayer options, ModNation Racers brings a creative and interactive kart racing experience to life. It’s a breath of fresh air in the kart racing genre only available on PlayStation.”
ModNation Racers’ single-player career mode tells the tale of Tag, an inexperienced racer given the opportunity to compete in the world famous ModNation Racing Championship. Players with the PS3 system will dive into the ModSpot, the game’s central hub, showcasing each game mode including career, online, creation, and more. In the ModSpot, players can check out the community’s top Mods and Karts, enter Hot Lap tournaments, play the Top Tracks voted on by the community, and socialize with other racers. ModNation Racers also delivers Career Central mode leading players to beat the computer and unlock more content for creation.
Players of all ages will keep coming back for more ModNation Racers with an infinite number of customizable possibilities for cars and drivers. Players can CREATE unusual and unique racers by resizing character features such as eyes and ears, applying different skin designs and colors and trying on different apparel options. With kart creation, players can choose between dozens of body types, from school buses to sports cars and customize with an array of parts, ornaments, decals, and paint jobs.
In just minutes players can build a track or spend hours perfecting it with the same tools the developers used to design the game. By simply driving, players build a track that is laid out behind them. Players can create tunnels, bridges and hairpin turns as well as alter the terrain and morph the land to form mountain ranges, lakes, and more. With auto-complete, players can finish their track at any point during the building process and instantly populate it with obstacles and scenery. Whether a player builds a track covered in weapons or a narrow road for pure racing, the depth of track creation in ModNation Racers truly offers players a unique racing experience.
ModNation Racers features multiplayer options for both the PS3 and PSP systems. The PS3 system version includes split-screen racing with up to four players offline and two player split-screen online. Players also have the option to go online and battle against 11 other players on the PS3 system version. The PSP system version allows up to six players both online and offline. Through PlayStation Network, players can SHARE their creations with the rest of the world and interact with the community on the platform by uploading racers, karts and tracks online for others to experience.
As we said in this post, Volkswagen announced today the takeover of Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. (IDG), more exactly, the German manufacturer will take a 90.1 percent stake including the brand name rights and patents.
The stake will be acquired by Audi’s Italian subsidiary Lamborghini Holding S.p.A, while the remaining shares will remain in possession of the present owner family Giugiaro. For those who don’t know, Volkswagen had a successful cooperation with IDG for many decades and the partnership created important vehicles such as the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco or the Audi 80. Italdesign Giugiaro was founded in Turin by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani in 1968. Currently, the company generates sales of over €100 million and has a workforce of some 800 employees. “With this shareholding in Italdesign, we are participating in one of the most renowned design and development companies with one of the richest traditions in the automobile industry. Italdesign is the flagship for creative Italian automobile design and has been instrumental in shaping the face of the automobile industry worldwide. As the creator of the Golf I, Giorgetto Giugiaro laid a new foundation for Volkswagen design in the 1970s,” said Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen.
Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots
Sex and the City ladies sizzle in hot shades on the red carpet during Monday night’s red carpet premiere of Sex And The City 2. With fashion playing the sixth major character (of course, NYC is the fifth) in the SATC franchise, all eyes were on the dresses as the stars of the show stepped out for the premiere of the hotly-anticipated sequel at Radio City Music Hall in New York City overnight.
Sex And The City 2 sashays into theaters this Friday, May 27.
Looks like Netflix has decided to go with Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM for all upcoming Netflix-ready devices. If all goes according to plan you shouldn’t even notice the DRM being there, but we all know how well DRM has worked in the past.
Netflix already uses PlayReady for its Mac and Windows PC instant streaming services, so both companies already have a convivial working relationship. More importantly to end-users, I don’t recall any big DRM dust-ups vis-à-vis Netflix streams.
This announcement also confirms a host of new Netflix-ready devices. The press release mentions “Internet TVs, Blu-ray disc players, home theater systems, video game consoles and other devices.” What could “other devices” mean? Something like Google TV, or maybe the Boxee Box? A Netflix-equipped Google TV could do well for itself.
Netlfix says the move to PlayReady DRM will make it easier to get content providers (movie studios and the like) to supply a steady stream of, well, content. If there’s one complaint against the Netflix streaming service is that there’s not as wide a selection of content as there is with disc-based Netflix. That should begin to change with this move.
The first devices making use of this new DRM should hit stores early this summer.
Needless to say, your ability to stream Netflix on your Xbox 360 (or PS3 or Wii) won’t be negatively affected by this transition.
Sure, you can drop $549.99 for the myTouch 3G Slide at Best Buy (that’s full retail, in case you were wondering), but for those not looking to spend their life savings, Walmart has opened pre-orders for the Android-powered device. Though it’s $20 higher than T-Mobile’s price, Walmart’s $199.99 price skips the mail-in rebate. The remaining question is whether the device will ship in time for the June 2nd launch date. Anyone planning a purchase?
Via TmoNews
Peter Elson was an influential Sci-Fi Illustrator with his works appearing in numerous paperback Sci-Fi novels. His art and concepts depicted vast space environments, giant spaceships, aliens, astronauts, and other out of this world creations. A lot of the science fiction art, games, film, and more can be attributed to some of his drawings which are now owned by his sister after he died of a heart attack in 1998.
Continue reading for more images.
Spanish wind turbine builder Gamesa and San Diego wind farm developer Cannon Power Group have teamed up to start building a wind farm South of the Border to supply clean power to a quarter of a million households in both California and Mexico from 500 MW of power by 2015. Cannon says the site’s potential capacity is ultimately 1,000 MW.
The location’s wind production peaks when demand for electricity is highest; from mid-afternoon to early evening. Typically wind production peaks at low demand hours.
Cannon and Gamesa have signed a 10-year exclusivity agreement and will collaborate on further wind farms that Cannon has plans to develop in Baja California (Mexico) with Gamesa supplying some development assistance and the wind turbines. (more…)
The word around the campfire this morning is that AT&T is planning to unveil an HTC branded Android phone called the Aria on June 7th. Yeah, the same day Steve Jobs and Co. take to the stage at WWDC. The handset is said to be running Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI. Aside from that, everything else remains a mystery. Good luck to AT&T if they really do plan on announcing anything handset-related that day. Something tells us it might get lost in that day’s news.
The wheels seem to be coming off Shia Laboeuf’s top pick — oil exploration company InterOil (IOC).
The stock is now down 40%+ from its recent peak, and the company’s latest press release today hasn’t helped matters.
When the market sees a non-announcement like that, the interpretation is usually “the company is trying to say something, anything to bolster confidence and stop the stock’s collapse.” And that certainly seems to be the interpretation today.
The two specific data points the company announced in the release, moreover, aren’t particularly encouraging.
Here’s the first:
InterOil has received the first payment from Mitsui to fund the Front End-Engineering and Design (FEED) of its proposed joint venture condensate stripping plant.
That’s positive, in a way, but it’s also expected. Also, the word “payment” creates a misleading impression of the Mitsui transaction. As we noted when InterOil first announced its deal with Mitsui, what Mitsui is essentially doing is lending InterOil money to continue to move forward with its plans for a possible plant. If InterOil eventually actually builds the plant, then Mitsui’s loan will be converted into an unspecified amount of equity in the project. If the plant is not built, however, InterOil will have to pay the money back. So, for now, this “payment” is best viewed as a loan.
The second item in the press release is this:
The Antelope-2 horizontal well has achieved its 1,000-foot (305 meter) objective.
This refers to a horizontal test well the company has been working on to better establish the size and prospects of the oil-and-gas resource it has discovered. The results of this test were first due in March, then in April. And now, at the end of May, as the details in the press release explain, the test hole has apparently met some initial distance objective–but the drilling will continue and the actual test results are still a ways away:
InterOil has completed its objective of drilling horizontally ~1,000 feet (305 meters) in the Antelope-2 well and onsite activities are currently drilling ahead. To date, InterOil has drilled 1,040 horizontal feet (317 meters) outside the 5 ½ inch casing. InterOil believes that the well bore stability and drilling conditions warrant further extension of the horizontal section. The Company intends to drill as far as possible with the current drill bit assembly. Logging and well testing will begin promptly following completion of the horizontal section. The horizontal well is designed to determine the condensate-to-gas ratio at the bottom of the reservoir. This ratio will assist InterOil in the final FEED design of the proposed condensate stripping plant.
Now, a skeptic would suggest that one reason you might keep drilling after you “complete your objective” is because you haven’t yet found what you are hoping to find. So some of the stock’s reaction to this latest press release may be additional concern that the Antelope test won’t reveal results that are as promising as the company expects.
In any event, the farther the stock drops, the more dilution existing shareholders will have to take if/when InterOil decides to raise more cash through additional equity issuance. The market therefore continues to await the results of that test….
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