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There’s no doubt that the 2011 Mustang GT is one of the most potent ponycars to ever come from Ford, but to the Mustang faithful, a big part of its legacy will be how it takes to the aftermarket. The new 5.0-liter V8 seems to be off to a good start, with at least two different modified 2011 Mustangs already achieving ten-second time slips at the dragstrip.

The first to achieve the feat was JPC Racing, who had their 2011 Mustang out at the track within 24 hours of receiving the car. Using 4.56 gears, beefier upper and lower control arms, racing slicks and a 100 shot of nitrous, JPC’s ‘Stang nailed a best time of 10.96 seconds @ 125.75 mph. A short time later, the boys at Evolution Performance nailed a 10.88 @ 126.66 run using just 3.73 gears, a prototype cold air intake, Eaton Trutrac differential, D.O.T. approved racing tires and a 100 shot of nitrous.

While the numbers themselves aren’t all that impressive, the simplicity of the modifications and the brief time in which they were developed surely are. We can’t wait to see what the various tuners around the country can do once they have time to develop more parts for the new Mustang. You can watch both of the runs in the videos posted after the jump.

[Sources: Evolution Performance, StangTV]

Continue reading Videos: Tuned 2011 Ford Mustangs already in the 10’s

Videos: Tuned 2011 Ford Mustangs already in the 10’s originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 May 2010 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

Carol Driver
UK Daily Mail
May 24, 2010

DNA taken from millions of newborn babies is quietly being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent.

The blood samples, taken in heel-prick tests that check for serious conditions, can be accessed by police, coroners and medical researchers, Freedom of Information Act requests reveal.

Despite Government guidelines advising hospitals to destroy the DNA after five years, some facilities have kept them on file for more than 20 years – prompting fears that a covert database is being created.

Campaigners claim the 32-page leaflets – explaining that newborns’ DNA will be stored – handed to new mothers, does not constitute consent for hospitals to carry out further research.

Nor, they say, does it make clear the samples could be accessed by the police to identify people involved in crimes.

And, although the DNA of each child is stored anonymously, The UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, which oversees the use of samples, say they could be linked to hospital admissions and the child could be identified that way.

Full article here

(Photo: Getty Images)

Wasabi, the fiery sushi condiment has been shown to have an assortment of healing
benefits.

This member
of the cabbage family can do everything from help reduce the growth of bacteria that causes
cavities, increase circulation, and promote oxygenation of the
cellular tissue when topically taken to help you get
over a hangover, plump a sexy pout when applied to
women’s lips, and act as an aphrodisiac when consumed by men!

Historically, the potent plant was prided for its antimicrobial
properties and used by Japanese natives to protect from food poisoning.
It has also been proven as a natural antibacterial agent with a high
concentration of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, and phytochemicals,
which strengthen the body’s antioxidant defenses and aid the skin
against free radicals.

Its power transcends just ingesting, and wasabi has been shown as equally
beneficial when applied topically to the skin. Which, naturally, made
the skincare industry and its inexhaustible search for interesting
beauty-making ingredients take note.

Seduced by wasabi’s stimulating
nature, it has been added into a slew of skin care products and
included in facials and body treatments at spas across the country.

Want
to test out this stimulating face
food for yourself? Here’s how…

Make your own:

Wasabi massage oil: Combine ¼ cup vegetable oil and ¼ cup light sesame
oil in a small saucepan. Heat on low for 2 to 3 minutes or until warm
but NOT boiling or smoking. Immediately remove from heat and stir in ½
teaspoon wasabi paste. Be sure to use a wooden spoon since plastic can leach
out chemicals.

Cover and let cool for at least 1 hour. Add 5 drops of
vitamin E oil (you can pop a vitamin oil pill if you have one), and stir
until mixed in. Massage!

Buy it ready-made:

Take your wasabi therapy to go with Lather’s
Wasabi Hand Washes (you can even find the Lemongrass Wasabi Hand
Wash on board Delta Air Lines flights). Naturopathica
Green Tea Wasabi Mask helps to detoxify the face.

Find it at a spa:

The Lake Austin
Spa
Resort in Austin, Texas, stimulates its guests with the Wonderful
Wasabi and Green Tea Facial. You can even have your body wrapped in
the stimulating spice in Las Vegas at Treasure Island with its Wasabi
Ginger Wrap.

Laurel House writes for Planet Green, where a version of this post originally appeared.

More on natural skin care:

• This,
  Not That, Skincare: Pimples and Pores
• 10
  Ways to Be a Sustainable Sushi Addict
• How
  to Go Green: Natural Skin Care
• Face
  the Facts: Homemade Face Masks Are Greener

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

The Audi A8 is already a nerd’s wet dream with more gadgets and technology than any baby boomer can handle. But Audi wasn’t done with the available option lists, though. Now buyers can order an HSDPA hotspot modem directly from the factory. Unlike other options — like Autonet — this system is polished and seemingly beautifully integrated into the vehicle. This is the future.

Autonet is GM’s and Chrysler’s high-speed provider of choice. This system is a bolt-on solution. The self-contained device, just needs power and a subscription to broadcast WiFi throughout the vehicle. But while it’s a one-size-fits-all solution, it’s a tad ugly and Audi doesn’t do ugly.

Audi’s system is integrated totally into the vehicle. From the press release.

Using the WLAN hotspot is remarkably simple. To activate Internet access with speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s, the driver merely needs to insert a data-capable SIM card into the Bluetooth online car phone. Alternatively, an Internet connection can be established via Bluetooth by using a compatible mobile phone with a SIM Access Profile. Any existing mobile phone contract can be used for this – often coupled with a flat-rate data plan.

So yeah, you just slip in a SIM card and you’re off. Hopefully Audi’s owner, VW, plans to offer this cross-platform rather than keeping it tied down to a $100k car. The world doesn’t need cars with Tegra-powered Google Earth navigation. But we need rolling hotspots and now.

Lost Finale bound to be complicated though there were some parts of the episode that were straightforward. The two and a half hour last episode brought closure on some big questions and to the story of the Oceanic 815 passengers. The episode gave touching flashes as the rest of them awakened to their island past. Jack, who was the last one to block his memories, arrived at Eloise Hawking’s old church and saw his father’s coffin. It was because Christian was really appearing to him.

The episode was made in a way to bring the survivors back together after they died. Living together made them overcome their issues and problems in life and coming back together once more to finally move on for good in death. At the end Jack learns to let go as he welcomes the friendship and love that he usually rejected on the island. His sacrifices saved the island and they were finally together on the other side, ready to move on. There were no final twists about the island and its nature which was the only incidication that the new leadership of Ben and Hurley have led to a new golden age. The last episode brings evertything back to the season to explain six side-flashes where Oceanic flight lands at LAX and everyone goes about their happy way is a way of showing – people waiting for afterlife still hang out until they will be ready to “let go”.

Related posts:

1. Watch Lost Finale – How did Lost End?: Lost Finale Updates
2. Lost has finally came to “The End”
3. 24 Ways to Celebrate ‘24′ Finale

Park it, Ashton! There’s a new Sheriff raising through the social ranks of Twitter, and professional prankster Ashton Kutcher doesn’t seem too pleased about his Tweetin’ crown being snatched by a pop princess.

Over the weekend, Britney Spears soared past Ashton in Twitter followers, netting nearly 10,000 more devotees than Mr. Demi Moore — one of the world’s first celebrity Tweeters and the first person to attract 1 million followers on the site. At last count, Britney had 4,951,801 followers to Ashton’s 4,942,273.

Spears only sporadically posts updates to her Twitter, and Ashton — an avid updater — hinted that he wasn’t happy at being asked about his fall from social networking grace at a recent press junket for his new movie with Katherine Heigl, Killers.

“2nd most pop Q ‘What do U think about Brittney [sic] having more followers than u?’” Ashton angrily Tweeted early Sunday evening. “Answer ‘I don’t care. Aren’t u suppose 2B a movie reporter?’”

Riccardo Ullio (above) just called  to tell me that he closed Lupe Taqueria — his Midtown Mexican restaurant — over the weekend. Beleza, his snacky cocktail bar next door that has been closed for the past three months, will not reopen as previously announced.

“Even though we were breaking even at Lupe, we could not get the bank to work something out on the loan,” Ullio said. Both properties will go into foreclosure.

Ullio also owns Sotto Sotto and Fritti in Inman Park.

While I never made it to Lupe, I always enjoyed the tropical cocktails and the healthy snackums at Beleza.

Will you miss these restaurants?

Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

AOL News
May 24, 2010

Almost half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer because they contain vitamin A or its derivatives, according to an evaluation of those products released today.

AOL News also has learned through documents and interviews that the Food and Drug Administration has known of the potential danger for as long as a decade without alerting the public, which the FDA denies.

The study was released with Memorial Day weekend approaching. Store shelves throughout the country are already crammed with tubes, jars, bottles and spray cans of sunscreen.

The white goop, creams and ointments might prevent sunburn. But don’t count on them to keep the ultraviolet light from destroying your skin cells and causing tumors and lesions, according to researchers at Environmental Working Group.

In their annual report to consumers on sunscreen, they say that only 39 of the 500 products they examined were considered safe and effective to use.

Full article here

How about this for a tax cut: If you take the president’s request for $159 billion of supplemental war spending and send it to American taxpayers instead of Afghanistan, you could make every American’s first $35,000 completely tax free for one year.

Yes, Rep. Alan Grayson’s War Is Making You Poor Act is a gimmick. No, nobody will vote for it. That’s for the best, because supplemental spending is necessary to keep our soldiers safe, nourished and effective. But as an effort to shine a light on budget games and to force Americans to see war spending on par with domestic spending, it’s a smart piece of PR (via Wonkroom)

GRAYSON: So I believe that the thing we need to do is to
take that $159 billion that the President has set aside – we’re not
saying he has to stop the war, we’re not giving a cut-off date for the
war – we’re simply saying you need to fund that out of the base budget
of $549 billion. And we take 90 percent of that and give it back to the
American people.

And I think most people would be surprised to learn that
that is so much money that we’ve been spending on the war in
Afghanistan and the war in Iraq that every single taxpayer in America
will be get his first or her first $35,000 of income completely tax
free.

Watch it:

It was one week ago today that Gameloft unveiled ten HD games for Android handsets.  It was almost immediately pointed out that there were problems with finding and loading games onto various handsets.  Gameloft quickly and quietly pulled the links down.  Today sees the developers giving it a second attempt.  Head to gameloft.com/android-games/ and download games like Assassin’s Creed, Modern Combat, NOVA, and Hero of Sparta for your Android phones.

Thanks to Dave for the heads up!

Might We Suggest…

• Gameloft Offering 10 HD Titles for Android
  

  Just in time for their tenth anniversary, Gameloft has announced the availability ten high-definition 3G games for Android and other smart phone platforms. According to the press release, Gamelof…

In his latest weekly note, fund manager John Hussman introduces readers to what he calls “Aunt Minnies” of the market.

Over the years, I’ve noted that certain subsets of market conditions – occurring together – are associated with very specific outcomes, such as oncoming recessions, abrupt market weakness, strength in precious metals, and so forth. Such indicator subsets, or Aunt Minnies, are essentially “signatures” that often have very specific implications. In medicine, an Aunt Minnie is a particular set of symptoms that is “pathognomonic” (distinctly characteristic) of a specific disease, even if each of the individual symptoms might be fairly common. Last week, we observed an Aunt Minnie featuring a collapse in market internals that has historically been associated with sharply negative market implications.

Of the 3257 issues traded on the NYSE last week, 2955 declined and just 275 advanced. The S&P 500 has now abruptly erased nearly 8 months of progress. Moreover, we observed a “leadership reversal” with new 52-week lows flipping above the number of new 52-week highs. Our broader measures of market action deteriorated to a negative position as well. Historically, we can identify 19 instances in the past 50 years where the weekly data featured broadly negative internals, coupled with at least 3-to-1 negative breadth, and a leadership reversal. On average, the S&P 500 lost another 7% within the next 12 weeks (based on weekly closing data), widening to an average loss of nearly 20% within the next 12 months – often substantially more when the Aunt Minnie occurred with rich valuations and elevated bullish sentiment.

So, not surprisingly, he remains quite negative…

On last week’s selloff, we did shift about 2% more of the Strategic Total Return Fund’s assets toward precious metals (now at a still very small 4% exposure), with about 4% of assets in utility shares, and about another 3% in foreign currencies. The bulk of the Fund’s assets, of course, are in Treasuries, with a duration of just under 4 years – primarily in straight, intermediate-term Treasury bonds. Most likely, we will have numerous opportunities to shift our investment positions to reflect a longer-term outcome of inflation and generally rising interest rates in the second half of this decade. For now, credit fears are likely to boost demand for default-free government liabilities, holding down inflation pressures and prompting (ultimately incorrectly) less eager demand for commodity-related securities.

Contra Hussman’s view, here’s Deutsche Bank on why a groundwell of bullish data will send stocks higher >

Join the conversation about this story »

Google cubre uno de los puntos oscuros que mantenía – sobre todo siendo una empresa que se posiciona mucho en “lo abierto y la transparencia” – como es la comisión que cobra por la publicidad AdSense. Para la inmensa mayoría de soportes declara que es un 32% de los ingresos, siendo un 68% de lo que paga el anunciante para la web que integra los anuncios con tecnología AdSense. En el caso de integración de buscador, la comisión por la publicidad en él es del 49%. De momento no han hecho públicos los datos para la publicidad en feeds RSS o en la web móvil.

Comparado con lo que cobran otras agencias de publicidad online se podría decir que “no está mal”, pero hay que tener en cuenta que estamos hablando de una publicidad por objetivos y que tiende a priori a la máxima eficiencia, por lo que no es comparable a lo que cobra una agencia de publicidad display que consigue anuncios en modalidad CPM. Último apunte, los soportes con mucho volumen suelen negociar condiciones bastante más ventajosas (hay quienes presumen de arañar por encima del 80%).

Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

Owen Bowcott
London Guardian
May 24, 2010

Popular concern about climate change has declined significantly, following this year’s harsh winter and rows over statistics on global warming, a survey has found.

The numbers of those interested in where Britain’s electricity comes from have also slipped back, according to a survey commissioned by the energy company EDF, demonstrating what appears to be growing consumer complacency in an era of electric-powered gadgetry.

At the same time resistance to building new nuclear power stations appears to be slackening. The results of the YouGov poll, based on a sample of 4,300 adults questioned during the week after the general election, show that interest in climate change fell from 80% of respondents in 2006, to 71% last year and now stands at only 62%. Only 80% say they are interested in where electrical power is made, down from 82% the previous year.

Other recent polls have recorded a similar drop in public alarm about the imminence of climate-triggered disaster. The number of climate change agnostics – those unsure whether human activity is warming the planet – has risen from 25% in 2007 to 33% now.

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

Lewis Page
The Register
May 24, 2010

Amateur astronomers believe they have located the X-37B US military unmanned spaceplane, which was launched into orbit on a classified mission a month ago.

According to the authoritative skygazers’ site Heavens-Above, the X-37B is in an orbit angled up 40 degrees from the Equator, meaning that it passes regularly over all nations between southern Europe and South Africa and corresponding portions of south Asia, Australia, Latin America and much of the USA. The little spaceplane is at a height of approximately 400km above Earth.

The X-37B is operated by the US Air Force and its mission, budget and other particulars are classified, or “black”. Nonetheless, various facts about the project are known as it began life as a NASA programme.

The X-37B takes off inside a fairing atop a normal disposable launch stack, in this case an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral a month ago. It is much smaller than a space shuttle, but like the shuttle has delta-shaped wings which should offer similar “cross range” abilities during re-entry – that is the X-37B could potentially make a landing somewhere well off its orbital track.

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Chris McGreal
London Guardian
May 24, 2010

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons.

The “top secret” minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them “in three sizes”. The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that “the very existence of this agreement” was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of “ambiguity” in neither confirming nor denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa’s post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky’s request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week’s nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

Jeff Poor
Newsbusters
May 24, 2010

At first, Michael Mann, a Penn State professor and a central figure in the Climategate scandal, but best known for his discredited “hockey stick graph” didn’t like being mocked in a YouTube video. Now Mann is alleging he’s a victim of hate groups. 

On ABC’s May 23 “World News Sunday,” a segment from anchor Dan Harris alleged that threatening e-mails Mann received were part of a “spike” in violence aimed at the global warming alarmist community.

“The ongoing oil spill crisis in the Gulf is keeping the debate over climate and energy very much in the headlines and that debate is becoming increasingly venomous with many prominent scientists now saying that they are being severely harassed,” Harris said.

Curiously Harris makes no mention of the real violence in the form of eco-terrorism that has come from the environmental left or Greenpeace repeatedly targeting the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Chris Horner, by stealing his garbage on a weekly basis, as his Web site points out. Instead, this “severe harassment” ABC warned about were e-mails from fringe Internet elements sent to Mann.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/05/24/hit-job-abc-news-attempts-align-climate-change-white-supremacists#ixzz0orRWiEc5

Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

Raf Sanchez, David Rose
London Times
May 24, 2010

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who triggered the MMR vaccine scare, has been struck off the medical register.

After nearly three years of formal investigation by the General Medical Council (GMC), Dr Wakefield has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct over “unethical” research that sparked unfounded fears that the vaccine was linked to bowel disease and autism.

Parents were today advised that it was “never too late” to give their children the triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella, as the case drew to a close.

The decision marks the culmination of the longest medical misconduct hearing in the GMC’s 150-year history, which has been going on since July 2007.

Full article here

According to a recently published report, world death rates for children under 5 have dropped significantly between 1970 and 2010.  The study, which included data from over 187 countries, sounds encouraging, but it seems that child mortality is still not a thing of the past; it is expected that, worldwide, 7.7 million children will die this year.  On the other hand, as bleak as this sounds, it is still an improvement from 1990’s figure of 11.9 million.

It would seem that, on average, world death rates have dropped by 2 percent a year since 1990; and even in areas where the average American would expect to hear about the worst child death rates, such as Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East, there have been declines as much as 6 percent a year.

Health experts have stated that the reason behind the drop could be vaccines, Aids medicines, better pneumonia and diarrhea treatments, vitamin A supplements, more education for women, or bug nets for beds to prevent malaria.  In short, the consensus among experts seems to be that the global efforts to help save children have started to pay off not only better, but also faster than was expected.

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Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

Vincent Fernando, CFA
Business Insider
May 24, 2010

BP’s (BP) chief operating officer announced on Friday that the company could deploy its ‘top kill’ solution to the Macondo oil leak as soon as tomorrow (Tuesday).

The company will pump special drilling mud to the leaking well’s blowout preventer, followed by cement aimed at sealing the well and stopping the flow of oil. According to Rigzone, while this technique is well established in the industry, this will be the first time it is done at a depth of 5,000 feet, which can present unique challenges.

BP will be an interesting stock to watch this week based on the potential for success. The stock kept falling through last week, showing little expected enthusiasm about this latest repair attempt priced-in.

There’s also a lot of good things happening for BP, despite the horrible situation in the gulf.

Rigzone:

BP brought seven major projects onstream in 2009, including three projects that came online ahead of schedule. In the GOM, BP ramped up production at Thunder Horse to more than 300,000 boe/d. Thunder Horse is now the largest single producing field in the GOM, bumping up GOM production from 240,000 boe/d in 2007 to more than 400,000 boe/d in 2009.BP also started production at Dorado and King South in May 2009, and Atlantis Phase 2 in Q4 2009.

…

BP reported two major projects started up in Q1 2010. The major participated in the start-up of Great White in the GOM. The field came online in late March 2010… BP also started production onshore Canada. The Noel project started exporting and selling gas earlier this year.

See the full company-specific analysis for BP at Rigzone here, then check out how the trade is open for both BP and Transocean (RIG) here.

Keep checking here for updates on how BP’s top kill goes >

Note: The author does not own securities related to BP or RIG, but investors he speaks or works with may.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-could-end-the-spill-today-2010-5#ixzz0orERyIJS

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

AFP
May 24, 2010

Senior British officials, including new Foreign Secretary William Hague, arrived in Afghanistan Saturday with a warning that Britain wants to withdraw its troops as soon as possible.

Hague, Defense Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell are set to meet President Hamid Karzai in their first visit to the country since a new coalition government took power in London this month.

Hague described Afghanistan — where around 10,000 British troops are helping fight a Taliban-led insurgency well into its ninth year — as “our most urgent priority” in comments released from London as the party touched down.

In an interview with The Times newspaper before arriving in Kabul, Fox made clear the visit would focus on speeding up the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, and that no new troops would be deployed.

Full article here