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The web seminar will show you how to prepare a model for analysis, analyze it and then evaluate the results. It will also show you the ease with which you can conduct what-if analysis by simply modifying the geometry and viewing the results for the new model.

As Ram and Dodge travel down a different road, the Ram brand will move forward keeping the old ram’s horn logo while Dodge vehicles will simply get a logo saying “Dodge.”

Hoping to keep its sporty/youth oriented niche without the Ram pickups, Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles adopted the two red slashes of Chrysler’s SRT performance brand.

“It signifies our sporty character,” Gilles said. Most SRTs are Dodges.”

While the red slashes will appear on signs, advertising materials and owner’s manuals, the Dodge name will stand by itself in the new script without the two red slashes.

The first vehicle to sport the new Dodge logo will be the 2011 Charger and an upcoming 7-seat crossover that will replace the Dodge Durango.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Here’s the bottom line on the first speed tests of Android 2.2: without Flash 10.1, its browser handily beats all comers. But with Flash? It drops to the bottom of the heap. Ruh roh. More »

On Monday, May 17, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews erupted in anger at the oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. Matthews expressed his rage at the profits BP continues to reap as it fails to fix the growing environmental apocalypse.  Brad Johnson has the story and the video:

Matthews criticized the behavior of the Obama administration. Matthews wondered why President Obama doesn’t “nationalize that industry and get the job done” and noted that in the “brutal society” of China, “they execute people for this”:

It is maddening that our government is — everybody says, “Capitalism is great. Unbridled free enterprise is great.” Look at it!

The moral hazard created by privatized profit and socialized risk has allowed bankers to cripple our economy and energy companies to destroy our planet. Matthews concluded by calling out the “millions of people in the American right” who deny the threats of climate change and other environmental catastrophes from our dependence on fossil fuels:

Rush Limbaugh fired back, saying Matthews is “basically asking for a dictator” with his “delusional, deranged” commentary. Matthews has repeated his criticism of BP and the administration, telling Jay Leno on May 21 that President Obama is acting like “a Vatican observer here.” On May 19, Matthews asked for “Harry Truman to come back and do the job” — making reference to Truman’s seizure of the steel industry in 1952.

Transcript:

I have a hunch that the reason they don’t want to fix this mess down there is because they would admit who did it if they fix it. Nobody is down — if this was a nuclear bomb ready to go off, we would be down there. I am so angry — I don’t even want to talk about it. I get so mad at this oil company. Why aren’t they fixing it, first of all? …

You know, I have a suspicion — I will go back to it again — I don’t think they’re doing their best. I don‘t think there’s — the government is doing its best. Why doesn’t the president go in there and nationalize that industry and get the job done for the people? There’s a national interest in this, not just a BP interest. We’re letting BP fix a national problem.…

In China, it’s a more brutal society, a more brutal society, Kate, but they execute people for this. Major industrial leaders that commit crimes like this. Failure like this.

This is a serious, serious problem. It is not over. It continues to destroy a part of our planet, basically. Part of our habitat, our American habitat. And everybody just sits and watches television every night and says, “Oh, well, that‘s interesting.” And these guys are still drawing their paychecks, still making their profits. The oil industry has been ballooning in profits this year, and nobody is doing anything about it, except — what are we, the Vatican observers now? We just watch? It is maddening that our government is — everybody says, “Capitalism is great. Unbridled free enterprise is great.” Look at it! …

Millions of people in the American right who sit around and say there’s no such thing as mankind destroying his environment through climate change or whatever, there’s an example of what we’re doing right now. We can destroy our habitat on this planet, and it’s the only one we got.

This is a Wonk Room repost by Brad Johnson.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] unanimously in United States v. O’Brien [Cornell LII backgrounder] that the question of whether a firearm is a machine gun must be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt and is not a sentencing factor to be considered by the judge by a preponderance of the evidence. The court held that the type of firearm used in perpetrating a crime was an element of the crime under mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. The government had attempted to extend the sentence of the respondents under 18 USC s. 924(c) [text], which sets a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years for using a machine gun during a crime. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that such a determination should be made by a jury. In doing so, the court relied on statutory interpretation outlined by the Supreme Court in Castillo v. United States [opinion, PDF; Cornell LII backgrounder] in interpreting a previous version of s. 924(c), creating a circuit split. The First Circuit held that the amendment to the statute had not altered the holding of Castillo. In upholding the decision below, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained:

Th[e] structural or stylistic change … does not provide a “clear indication” that Congress meant to alter its treatment of machineguns as an offense element. A more logical explanation for the restructuring is that it broke up a lengthy principal paragraph, which exceeded 250 words[,] … into a more readable statute. This is in step with current legislative drafting guidelines, which advise drafters to break lengthy statutory provisions into separate subsections that can be read more easily. … These points are overcome, however, by the substantial weight of the other Castillo factors and the principle that Congress would not enact so significant a change without a clear indication of its purpose to do so. The evident congressional purpose was to amend the statute to … make [it] more readable but not otherwise to alter the substance of the statute. The analysis and holding of Castillo control this case. The machinegun provision in [s.] 924(c)(1)(B)(ii) is an element of an offense.

Justice John Paul Stevens filed a concurring opinion, and Justice Clarence Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment only.

Respondents Martin O’Brien and Arthur Burgess made a failed attempt to rob an armored car in 2005, using a firearm that the FBI alleged had been modified to operate as a fully-automatic weapon. The court heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] in February. Counsel for the petitioner, the US government, argued that the language of the statute requires a judge to make the determination. Counsel for the respondents argued that such a result is foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s statutory interpretation jurisprudence.

Press Release:Wireless and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones), today announced the LG Fathom™ will be available in Verizon Wireless business sales channels beginning May 27 and online and in Communications Stores beginning June 3. The ultimate on-the-go office, the LG Fathom redefines productivity with Windows Phone power, stylish design and smart global capabilities for making voice calls in more than 220 countries and accessing data in 200 countries, 110 with 3G speeds.

Key features:
* Sleek slate blue case takes customers from Monday meetings to Friday outings
* Large 3.2" touch screen with Improved Touch Experience and vibration for tactile feedback
* 1 GHz processor
* Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard with simultaneous touch screen capabilities
* microSD™ slot for up to 16 GB of memory
* Wi-Fi® enabled (802.11 b/g/n)
* Bluetooth® 2.1 capabilities with support for the following profiles: headset, hands-free, dial-up networking, stereo, phone book access, basic printing, basic imaging, object push for vCard and vCalendar, file transfer, and serial port
* Built-in MP3 and WMA music player with music library, repeat and shuffle features, as well as stereo sound via headset or Bluetooth
* Windows® Media Player 10 Mobile and video player for WMV, MP4, and 3GP formats
* USB mass storage for file transfer between microSD card and PC
* One-touch speaker phone and speaker-independent voice commands
* Text to speech and voice-activated dialing for up to 4,000 entries

Additional lifestyle features:
* Dedicated task manager key for quick access to mobile Task Manager
* Windows Mobile Device Center and ActiveSync allows users to synchronize Outlook®, Office® and contents from Microsoft Exchange Server® to keep personal information organized and updated
* View and edit with Excel® Mobile, OneNote® Mobile and Word® Mobile or view important presentations with PowerPoint® Mobile
* Scroll, zoom and view rich PDF content with Adobe® Reader LE
* Global roaming frequency automatically switches from CDMA/EVDO to GSM/UMTS depending on geographic location
* VZ Navigator® capabilities – Receive audible turn-by-turn directions to millions of points of interest and share the directions with others
* VZ Navigator Global capabilities – Get turn-by-turn directions and maps in English while navigating through more than 20 destinations such as Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This easy-to-use application also marks distances in miles or kilometers and finds restaurants, gas stations, banks/ATMs and other popular spots using the Local Search feature
* Wireless manager enables and disables wireless connectivity for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular network
* Luminous sensor designed to adjust LCD backlight brightness depending on light conditions
* Proximity sensor instantly locks touch screen buttons while talking on the phone
* Text and send clear images and fun animations through Flash User interface support
* International charger plus up to four different adapter clips for multi-country use
* 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera and camcorder that includes:

• Five different camera resolutions and three different video resolutions
• Macro Mode for detailed, up close pictures
• Panorama for three guided, sequential shots
• Continuous shot for up to six consecutive photos
• Scene mode for auto, portrait, landscape, sports and night settings
• Image editor with zoom, rotate, resize, crop, added frames and stamps
• Customizable brightness, white balance, shutter sounds and color effects and a self-timer
• Choose between mute and unmute to record video with or without sound
• Optimize video quality with normal, fine or super camcorder settings
• Video recording time up to one minute for sending or up to one hour for saving

Pricing and availability:
The LG Fathom will be available in business sales channels beginning May 27 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores nationwide and online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning June 3 for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.

LG Fathom customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access. Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access. Business customers interested in the LG Fathom can contact their Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative at 1-800-VZW-4BIZ.

For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com

Via Engadget.com

When it comes to news we pick up from Famitsu, there’s really no guarantee that the heat in Japan will blow over to the West. Knights Contract, however, was very quick to get a European and North

Poor Wendy Greuel, she’s down to the last few hundred bucks in her officeholder account and needs your help to pay some personal office expenses, phone bills and mostly her lawyer-treasurer Stephen Kaufman — the man who connects the dots for so many local and state politicians, unions and special interests.

If you got $500 or $1,000 to throw away, former Mayor Richard Riordan will be hosting a “reception” at 6 p.m. Tuesday for Wendy at his Riordan’s Grill around the corner from his Pantry restaurant downtown. You could be a sponsor yourself for $5,000 and that might even buy you more than the 90 minutes allotted for the anointed next mayor of LA.

Wendy does need your money. She’s raised $688,181.22 for her officeholder account over the last decade but spent even more

$878,382.25, according to city ethics records.

With running for citywide office and the heavy demands of signing off on tepid audits and out-of-date financial advice to deal with the city budget, her fund-raising has fallen off — only raising $25,750.00 last year for her personal slush fund while spending $27,491.67 .

Most of that money — $16,259.56 — went to Kaufman, the election and campaign finance law expert who like the small coterie of insider fund-raisers and political consultants provide the points of connection for money and influence to find each other. Nearly all our city elected officials and even some well-connected wannabes like Mitch Englander, who expects to inherit Greig Smith’s seat without any questions being asked, turn to Kaufman.

City records show Kaufman Downing LLP, his former firm, got paid $1,169,355.66 over the years for their services to city campaigns and officeholders. Even in these tough times, business is picking up for his new firm, Kaufman Legal, which hauled in

$417,050.50 from these same sources.

Even as he was providing his services to the elected officials, Kaufman boasts on his website that he also provides related service to many organizations,
committees & businesses. Among those he cites are Assembly Democratic Caucus,
Conservation Action Fund, California Labor Federation, Central City
Association of Los Angeles, Clear Channel Outdoor, Democratic National
Committee, IBEW Local 11, IBEW Local 18, Los Angeles Area Chamber of
Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Los Angeles
Dodgers, Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SEIU Local 6434,
SEIU Local 721, Sierra Club, United Firefighters of Los
Angeles City, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Women’s Political
Committee, Working Californians.

Who says business and labor and environmentalists and politicians don’t mix?

It’s not at all clear what services Kaufman actually does because those don’t have to be reported online beyond saying Wendy’s officeholder account paid him $14,384.56 on Jan. 1 for “professional services” through March 31.

Nice work if you can get it, I’m sure, with so much more to come.

Since becoming mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa has spent $294,177.35 from his officeholder account while raising $259,425.00.

This has allowed him to take billionaire Eli Broad to lunch, pay for his cellphone use and his LA TImes subscription, reimburse Jeff Carr and others for various expenses, spend $3,280.09 for a fund-raiser at the Jonathan Clubs pay $2,000 for Sparkletts and nearly $5,000 for Arrowhead water, presumably because he and his staff don’t like what DWP serves up anymore than the rest of us.

Kaufman did just fine as well with Kaufman Downing getting $90,277.12 and Kaufman Legal taking in $23,702.04. That adds up to $124,000 or nearly half of what was donated to his officeholder account.

You might ask why but that is protected by attorney-client privilege.

This isn’t kids’ games these people are playing, just a fraction of all the millions that come from people and businesses who want all kinds of favors and advantages for their largess.

Money is the name of the game and the return on contributions is often in the range of 100 times or more what the politicians got. It’s all brokered through a narrow circle of operatives that include the lawyers, political operatives and strategists, fund-raisers, lobbyists who pimp the system.

The beauty of it all is the politicians write the rules and appoint the people who enforce them so only fools could ever get caught doing anything wrong and if they do, they just set up a legal defense fund and raise more money.

I’m not going to bore with by reprinting all the provisions of LA Municipal Code SEC. 49.7.12.  OFFICEHOLDER CONTROLLED FUNDS.

Suffice it to say, it allows just about anything except what is expressly barred by state law by in SEC. 3: (a) Expenditures in connection with a future election for elective City office; (b) Membership in any athletic, social, fraternal, veteran or religious organization, (c) Supplemental compensation for employees for performance of an act which would be required or expected of the person in the regular course or hours of his or her duties as a City official or employee.

While the complex provisions of city ethics law are a nightmare for ordinary citizens who seek city office, draining their energy and limited resources, they are no problem when you have Kaufman aboard since he probably helped write most of them.

It’s not like the City Ethics staff doesn’t audit the filings but the standard language found in the review in February of Greuel’s officeholder account is this: “The (Greuel) committee did not have any findings that auditors concluded were material.”

It’s not all that easy digging out information about officeholder accounts. You have to go to the City Ethics page, click campaign/elections, click Search Expenditures, and put in the name of the person paid, like Kaufman Legal or Kaufman Downing, and the name of a candidate like Janice Hahn to find out she’s paid him more than $100,000 over the years.

Then, you have to look for which payments came from her officeholder account and look for the little six- or seven-digit number of the account to plug in to the Committee I.D. box when you search just so you can see she paid him $12,683.01 from her officeholder account.

If you want to know how much she’s raised for her officeholder account, go back to where you started but click on Search Contributions, pick out the official, plug in their Committee I.D. so you can learn Janice has raised a total of $677,483.34 for her slush fund during her time in office.

While I’m being so helpful, you can read more about what Kaufman says about his firm:

Among the
ballot measures he cites are Yes on Measure R (2008
County Transportation
Measure), Yes on Measure J (2008 L.A.
Community College
District Bond Measure), Yes on Proposition R (2006 L.A. City Term
Limits & Ethics Reform Measure), Yes on Proposition O (2004 L.A. City Clean
Water Measure).

Among the organizations,
committees & businesses he cites are Assembly Democratic Caucus,
Conservation Action Fund, California Labor Federation, Central City
Association of Los Angeles, Clear Channel Outdoor, Democratic National
Committee, IBEW Local 11, IBEW Local 18, Los Angeles Area Chamber of
Commerce, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Los Angeles
Dodgers, Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SEIU Local 6434,
SEIU Local 721, Sierra Club, United Firefighters of Los
Angeles City, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Women’s Political
Committee, Working Californians.

File this one under the “not a surprise” category, but a Morgan Stanley Research survey has uncovered that nearly 17 percent of Verizon’s customers show interest in the iPhone and would probably switch if the device finally came to Big Red.  This is more interest than AT&T’s customers have in the next iPhone, which stands at about 14.6 percent of their customer base.  Katy Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst, believes that if the interested 17 percent on Verizon were to switch to an iPhone, this would mean around seven or eight million more iPhones sold every year.  We know that Steve Jobs and Apple love money, so we’re sure that they would like to bring the iPhone to Verizon as soon as possible.

In the same report, Huberty goes on to say that she believes that when Verizon finally does get the iPhone, AT&T won’t lose as many customers as most of us think since most are locked into family contracts which would be extremely expensive to break.  Would any of you AT&T customers switch to Verizon if they got the iPhone at some point?  Tell us your thoughts!

The Spanish government has just moved to support its banking system again, forcing four major banks to combine in a bid to save their existence.

The move targets Cajastur, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo, Caja Extremadura, and Caja Cantabria, according to Cotizalia.

It comes just hours after Spain’s €530 million bailout of CajaSur.

The merger is not a full one, but brings four of Spain’s largest banks into a loose conglomeration. Assets under management for the new firm are valued at €135 billion.

Details are scarce of what the final agreement, negotiated by the Bank of Spain, will look like, but it appears banks within the agreement will maintain significant autonomy.

At the moment, this looks like a move that intends to provide capital support to weaker links within the grouping, though information is limited.

Check out just how bad the situation is in Spain here >

Join the conversation about this story »

Se acaban de dar a conocer nuevos detalles e incluso un nuevo vídeo en el que podemos ver al nuevo Jeep Gran Cherokee 2011. Un todoterreno con un diseño robusto a la vez que moderno en el que podemos ver la nueva línea de la gama 2011 de Jeep.

Entre los nuevos detalles, debemos de destacar indescutiblemente la nueva suspensión independiente que sofrecerá un mayor confort a la vez que efectividad en la carretera. A continuación os dejo con el vídeo y las imágenes oficiales publicadas:

Related posts:

1. Jeep Grand Cherokee 2010
2. Jeep Patriot Overland, imágenes oficiales
3. Recreación del Audi Q7 2011

Ford’s a little slow from the line, but the automaker made clear today that it wants to win the electric car race. The company announced that it will invest $135 million in its engineering and production effort for its next-generation electric-hybrid vehicles. That will include plug-in vehicles, to compete with those planned by GM and Nissan. The move shows a renewed effort on the part of Ford to be a leader in green autos.

Ford offers a few hybrid models already, including versions of its Focus compact Fusion mid-size* vehicle and Escape SUV. But it doesn’t plan to release a plug-in vehicle until 2011, with its Focus Electric. The car’s introduction will likely be a little anticlimactic, since the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf plug-ins will already be on the road at that time — both expected to hit the market in late 2010. Ford’s new initiative won’t speed up its timeline, as the new vehicles the investment is intended for won’t go into production until 2012.

This news closely follows Toyota’s announcement last week of an investment in and partnership with electric carmaker Tesla. While it’s tempting to compare the two initiatives, they’re actually pretty different. Ford already has an electric car in production, so the $125 million investment announced today is supplemental to its current effort. It’s an investment in becoming an electric car leader — not just another player. Toyota, on the other hand, just announced $50 million investment in Tesla, which would include a partnership that allows Toyota to leverage the electric vehicle maker’s experience and expertise.

With GM and Ford showing a clear intention to produce mass market electric vehicles, it makes you wonder where the other U.S. automaker — Chrysler — stands on electric. Between its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram brands, there’s not a hybrid to be found. In fact, the only car it offers that’s even close to the subcompact style most electric vehicles would take is its Dodge Caliber.

If consumers end up liking electric vehicles, then that will be a major problem for Chrysler. It hasn’t diversified itself much beyond the meaty, gas-guzzling vehicles embodied by its sports/muscle car options and trucks. Indeed, in the “Coming Soon” section of the Dodge website, rather than a fuel-efficient plug-in, it shows its “Nitro Detonator,” which it advertises as having “a road scorching 260-hp 4.0L V6 engine” and “aggressive 20-inch aluminum wheels.” From that description, it sounds like it would get even fewer than the 22-mpg (highway) that the current Nitro SUV gets.

Of course, it’s unknown whether the American consumer will embrace the electric car. But clearly, Ford today raised its bet today, as Toyota did last week. Meanwhile, not everyone must be convinced, however. Chrysler isn’t even in the game.

*Correction

Filed under: Crossover, Hatchback, BMW

It appears that BMW may have overestimated the U.S. market appeal for high-end versions of the 550i Gran Turismo, and executives now acknowledge that the six-cylinder 535i probably should have been available at launch. It’s not unusual for an automaker to launch an all-new model by shipping mostly loaded, top-level versions in order to absorb the maximum number of dollars from early adopters, but sometimes that approach backfires if the market isn’t ready for the new vehicle.

Case in point is the 5GT, of which BMW has apparently sold fewer than 1,200 units in the U.S. since the launch of the polarizing people mover late last year. Interestingly, BMW has found that more women than expected have bought the model, while its less-than-stellar fuel consumption has hurt sales in a still-weak U.S. economy. Gran Turismo sales are apparently ahead of projections elsewhere, but those other markets launched with both gasoline and diesel inline-six engine choices.

Given that the 5GT is best suited as a road trip machine, it might make sense for BMW to install the 3.0-liter diesel from the X5 and 335d as an alternative to the twin-turbo V8. So far BMW has not indicated any plans to offer a diesel GT in America, but the less costly 535i GT is still slated to arrive in the Fall.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Report: Slow early sales have BMW thinking 5GT should’ve launched with six-cylinder originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 May 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

by Agence France-Presse

The Tesla Model SNEW YORK—U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors is firing
on all cylinders and gearing up for greater things after partnering with top
carmaker Toyota.

On Thursday,
Toyota announced that it’s taking a $50 million stake in Tesla. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tesla has a few
hundred employees and is expected to go public at some point down the road.

“The
announcement is path-breaking and historic,” said University of
California-Berkley professor Harley Shaiken. “It gives Tesla considerable
credibility.”

“Toyota is
very conservative,” he added, so the announcement is good “for
investors and Tesla—they can take that to the bank.”

Toyota’s
investment in Tesla follows German luxury carmaker Daimler’s stake a year ago
of “more than 5 percent” in the electric carmaker, a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, and
a $31 million tax break from the state of California.

Flush with cash,
Tesla on Thursday announced it bought a closed factory near San Francisco that
up until last month had housed a joint venture between Toyota and General
Motors that was churning out Toyota Corolla and Tacoma vehicles, with a
production potential of 500,000 units per year.

If Tesla can
hire the plant’s 4,500 former workers, it would “get their experience, and
their trouble-shooting capabilities,” in addition to Toyota’s knowhow in
large volume sales, said Shaiken. The Toyota stake and plant acquisition make
Tesla’s initial public offering “more likely and significantly more
valuable,” he added.

However,
Edmunds.com auto industry analyst Michelle Krebs warned that Tesla’s eventual
move to an IPO is still uncertain, especially in such an unpredictable stock
market that has been falling since the start of the month.

“They need
to time [to get the IPO] right with the market,” Krebs said, noting that
Tesla is not alone in wanting to go public: General Motors and Chrysler came
back from bankruptcy last year and also intend to sell more of their shares on
the market.

According to
U.S. press reports, Tesla would be the first auto company to go public since
Ford did so in 1956.

Founded in 2003
by South African Elon Musk, a cofounder of online payments giant PayPal, Tesla
already manufactures the Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports car that
sells for more than $100,000 and gets nearly 250 miles on a single charge.

The company also
plans to unveil in 2012 a “Model S” five-passenger sedan powered by
lithium-ion battery packs capable of between 160 and 300 miles per charge, with
an anticipated base price of around $50,000.

With Toyota,
Tesla plans to develop other electric models, hoping to break out of the luxury
car trade and into mass production.

In the long
term, auto industry experts said, the Tesla-Toyota partnership could rival
other carmakers.

General Motors
plans to launch the hybrid Volt, which runs on batteries but also has a
gasoline motor in case the batteries lose their charge.

Nissan next year
hopes to market the all-electric Leaf.

After
pioneering hybrid vehicles with the Prius but falling behind in fully electric
cars, Toyota will now have access to Tesla’s “control system, the
electronics that control, cool, and manage the battery, and the electric flow
between the battery and the powertrain,” said Edmunds.com “green
car” expert John O’Dell. And that’s something Daimler already was after,
he noted.

Related Links:

In wake of Gulf spill, should this be the summer of energy reform?

U.N. study calls for economic changes to save biodiversity

10 ways to kick the offshore-oil habit

The Inkia inPad is a shameless iPad clone right down to the bezel and name. We first spotted the clone a few weeks back but hardware details didn’t accompany the pictures. Basically, a Chinese manufacturer got our attention by photocoping the iPad and installed Android. But we’ve kind of lost interest now that we know what’s on the inside.

It seems both the WiFi-only inPad 701 and the 3G-equipped inPad 702 are powered by the 600Mhz Rockchip RK2808 that’s found in many Chinese clones. They will be available with either a 128MB or 256MB of RAM and 4GB or 16GB SSD. Both models will also sport 2 USB ports, a MiniHDMI, a 2200mAH battery, and WiFi. Still interested?

Pricing and availability still isn’t available, but we kind of don’t care. The device seems woefully underpowered and probably won’t provide an iPad-meets-Android experience. Ping us when someone does that.

I’ve just noticed a smattering of articles that have tackled the idea of the ‘crack baby’ which became popular during the worrying emergence of crack cocaine during the late 80s. It turns out that babies exposed to crack in the womb weren’t necessarily massively brain damaged tragedies as the stereotype had it, but the concept has remained with us.

This is despite the fact that we have solid research to show that while those exposed to cocaine in utero do show some differences from other kids, the effects are undesirable but actually quite small.

This is from The New York Times last year:

Cocaine slows fetal growth, and exposed infants tend to be born smaller than unexposed ones, with smaller heads. But as these children grow, brain and body size catch up.

At a scientific conference in November, Dr. Lester presented an analysis of a pool of studies of 14 groups of cocaine-exposed children — 4,419 in all, ranging in age from 4 to 13. The analysis failed to show a statistically significant effect on I.Q. or language development. In the largest of the studies, I.Q. scores of exposed children averaged about 4 points lower at age 7 than those of unexposed children.

In tests that measure specific brain functions, there is evidence that cocaine-exposed children are more likely than others to have difficulty with tasks that require visual attention and “executive function” — the brain’s ability to set priorities and pay selective attention, enabling the child to focus on the task at hand.

Cocaine exposure may also increase the frequency of defiant behavior and poor conduct, according to Dr. Lester’s analysis. There is also some evidence that boys may be more vulnerable than girls to behavior problems.

But experts say these findings are quite subtle and hard to generalize. “Just because it is statistically significant doesn’t mean that it is a huge public health impact,” said Dr. Harolyn M. Belcher, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician who is director of research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Family Center in Baltimore.

A piece from City Limits Monthly tracked how the myth arose. It’s probably the best account I’ve read of the cultural currents that promoted the concept to front page news and keep it afloat even today.

And just last month The Washington Post talked to some families of kids labelled as ‘crack babies’ now that they have grown up into adults finding that, well, many have done alright.

Link to NYT on ‘The Epidemic That Wasn’t’.
Link to great City Limits analysis (via @maiasz)
Link to WashPo piece (via @sunshinyday)

Binyamin Appelbaum of the NYT tries to simply things for me:  ”Broadly speaking, there were two ways for the federal government to respond to the financial crisis. The Obama administration chose more regulation.”

And that is bad news because regulators and their political overlords like bailouts with taxpayer money rather than market discipline. But shrinking the banks, while superficially appealing, is no magic bullet — as this Italian study argues:  ”A world with only small and domestic banks is no safer. The key benefit of multinational banks – being able to mobilise funds across countries – could still be extremely useful for maintaining stability in times of distress.”