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2011 McLaren MP4-12C

McLaren Automotive today announced its global retail network that it will feature 35 retailers in 19 countries in 2011. The 35 retailers will start selling the new 2011 McLaren MP4-12C. McLaren says that it has plans to grow the network starting 2012.

North America (including U.S. and Canada will initially get 8 retailers. U.S. dealers will be located in the following cities: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa.

In Europe, McLaren will have 12 dealers spread out through UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland). The Middle East will get two while South Africa will get one.

Later in 2010, McLaren will announce an additional two retailers in the U.S., five in the Middle East and a network of four retailers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Click here to read more news on the McLaren MP4-12C.

Refresher: Power for the 2011 McLaren MP4-12C comes from a 3.8L V8 twin-turbo engine producing around 600-hp mated to a 7-speed Seamless Shift dual-clutch gearbox (SSG). 0 to 60 mph is expected to come in the low 3 second range with a top speed of more than 200 mph. Sales begin in early 2011.

2011 McLaren MP4-12C:

Press Release:

McLAREN AUTOMOTIVE CONFIRMS CITY LOCATIONS FOR ITS FIRST GLOBAL RETAILERS

Media Information
MTC, Woking, England

* McLaren Automotive global retail network to feature 35 of the world’s best car retailers in 19 countries in 2011; further growth planned from 2012
* McLaren Automotive’s first 23 retailers due to be confirmed ahead of MP4-12C’s global debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed
* Demand for McLaren brand underlined by over 2,500 prospects on www.mclaren.com, and over 500 retailers requesting the opportunity to represent McLaren Automotive
* Mario Micheli, McLaren Automotive’s new Commercial and Marketing Director, driving programme to present 12C at over 100 events in 2010

WOKING, UK (May 21, 2010) – McLaren Automotive today announces the city locations for its global retail network. Operating independently, but located at the heart of the McLaren Group, the company expects to confirm the names of the majority of its partners in these cities within weeks, with the remainder making up the launch network of 35 retailers confirmed through the autumn.

An initial eight retailers in North America (USA, Canada), 12 in Europe (UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland), two in the Middle-East, and McLaren’s South African representative are expected to be the first confirmed retailers in the company’s network, which begins selling the McLaren MP4-12C from spring 2011. A further 12 retailers will be announced through 2010, completing the initial line-up, including McLaren’s Spanish retailer, two further retailers in the USA, five more in the Middle East, and the company’s network of four retailers in its Asia-Pacific region.

McLaren Automotive can confirm that it will be represented by many of the world’s best automotive retailers in the following cities and markets:

* Europe: Birmingham, London, Manchester; Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich; Brussels; Monaco, Paris; Milan; Barcelona/Madrid; Zurich
* North America: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa; Toronto
* Middle-East / South Africa: Manama; Doha; Jeddah, Riyadh; Dubai, Abu Dhabi; Kuwait; Johannesburg
* Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong; Singapore; Sydney; Tokyo

Antony Sheriff, McLaren Automotive’s Managing Director, said: “This is a landmark day for McLaren Automotive as we confirm the locations of the first of our partners that will represent us around the world. It has been incredibly encouraging to experience the demand to sell McLarens from the world’s best car retailers – in every country in which we planned to launch and at the heart of all performance car markets.

“We have proposed sensible, but high quality, expectations from our preferred retail partners and have been amazed at some of the proposals presented by potential retailers: nearly half are building brand new flagship showrooms.

“There is clearly an appreciation of McLaren all around the world. Aside from the obvious Formula 1 links, we believe this is down to our strong business plan, our exciting and innovative product line-up, and a focus on what is best for the retailer – sensible investment, and attention to customer service and aftersales, both in how we treat the customer and how we design the car. We will offer the retailers a unique focus on the customer, supporting them far more than is typical after a sale has been completed. We have a phrase at McLaren that sums up our attitude and appeals to the retail business: sanity, not vanity.

“We will also develop a global network that has fewer retailers than our competitors, selling a smaller volume of higher quality cars with more useable technology and performance; almost the perfect scenario for experienced retailers of premium high-performance sports car,” Sheriff concluded.

High demand to represent McLaren; high demand to buy a McLaren
A unique combination of a premium sports car ‘designed around the driver’, focus on the customer, and McLaren’s unrivalled motor racing heritage in Formula 1, Le Mans, Can-Am, and Indy Cars, has attracted many of the world’s best car retailers to take up the opportunity of representing McLaren at the birth of its global car company.

Over 600 automotive businesses have been considered to be McLaren Automotive retailers; McLaren pre-selected 100 preferred partners to review, with a further 500 making direct approaches to McLaren following the announcement of the company’s business plans in September 2009.

The 12C, the first in the company’s new range of ‘pure’ McLaren high-performance sports cars, goes on sale from spring 2011. Up to 1,000 12Cs will be manufactured and delivered in 2011. Of the 19 countries launching the 12C in 2011, the USA, UK, and Germany will be the company’s biggest markets. Between 300 and 400 cars are planned for North America, 400 to 500 for Europe, and 100 to 200 each for the Middle-East/South Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.

Initial demand for the 12C appears to validate McLaren’s strategy for a high-quality, performance-oriented and highly efficient sports car featuring Formula 1-inspired technology. Over 2,500 ‘prospects’ have registered ‘expressions of interest to purchase’ on www.mclarenautomotive.com .

Once the first retailers are contracted, McLaren will begin to deliver those prospects’ details to the retailers to take orders. With retailers adding their own contacts, demand for the McLaren’s first ‘pure’ high performance sports car is due to be high.

The first 12Cs will be delivered to customers in Europe, followed by a phased distribution to retailers in the Middle-East/South Africa, North America and Asia-Pacific. McLaren Automotive’s long-term strategy is to sell a range of around 4,000 high-performance sports cars per year that will account for between three and four percent of the annual global market for premium sports cars: a conservative target based on the 2003 market for luxury and performance cars.

Further retailers will be added in select mature and emerging markets from 2012 as McLaren moves to full production of its model line-up by the middle of the decade. McLaren Automotive’s aim is for its global network to remain smaller, more flexible, and more profitable than competitors’ networks. McLaren does not anticipate a global network of more than around 70 retailers, ensuring effective communication and logistics, and strong business relationships between McLaren and its retailers that will be of direct benefit to customers.

Formula 1 at heart: in design, build and show
The 12C will make its global public debut, alongside the company’s Formula 1 team, at the world-famous Goodwood Festival of Speed in southern England in July. McLaren Automotive will then present the 12C, and other core assets such as the car’s motor racing-inspired one-piece MonoCell carbon chassis, at a number of public, high-profile events through 2010. All McLaren retailers will also host 12C launch events for VIPs and prospects as part of the car’s 2010 world tour. Aimed at car enthusiasts and potential customers alike, McLaren Automotive anticipates presenting its first McLaren at over 100 events in the second half of 2010.

Mario Micheli, McLaren Automotive’s recently-appointed Commercial and Marketing Director, said: “McLaren is a name that resonates with motorsport fans around the globe: no other racing team can match our achievements and this means for many prospective retailers and customers, it is easy to understand our aspirations for the new sports car range. If you know McLaren, you will know we bring passion, commitment and an absolute ambition to succeed.

“However, launching a global car company will require engaging with more than just motorsport fans. That is why we are pushing ourselves and the new network to make a huge impact through global events. Whether you know McLaren or not, we believe it is vital that our prospective customers see the 12C, feel its quality, and meet our team behind its development in order to really understand the culture that drives everything at McLaren – to be the best,” Micheli concluded.

Uniquely, the full range of cars will be designed, engineered, developed and built within and alongside the home of the company’s Formula 1 cars at the award-winning McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) global headquarters in Woking, England. A brand-new manufacturing facility, the McLaren Production Centre, began construction adjacent to the MTC on March 1 2010. Within two months, its construction was already two weeks ahead of schedule.

Commitment to customer satisfaction
McLaren Automotive plans to repay the successful retailers’ commitment to bespoke McLaren dealerships with innovative technologies and processes aimed at delivering new levels of customer satisfaction in the sports car market:

* Intense focus on aftersales: McLaren Automotive and its retail partners will invest in the aftersales process, where it adds true value to the ownership experience. The ’sanity not vanity’ principle will deliver a focus on the customer by favouring heavy investments in training and diagnostic equipment over showroom ‘palaces’.
* Innovative construction: The 12C is constructed from a unique one-piece carbon fibre chassis, with bolt-on aluminium secondary structures that makes it stronger, lighter, more rigid and much easier to repair and maintain than other cars in the segment.
* A commitment to more effective repair processes: McLaren Automotive will be supporting retailers in stocking at least one spare part of almost every component. This will ensure immediate parts availability to speed up repair and minimize the time cars are off the road.
* Bespoke diagnostics: New desktop, remote, and dynamic diagnostic processes and equipment developed for McLaren Automotive will ensure more accurate and quicker diagnosis and resolution of issues.

Antony Sheriff said: “Our business will succeed or fail on our ability to exceed our customers’ expectations – for technologically advanced cars, great quality and reliability, and excellent relations with their retailers. Our aims are simple: to offer the best cars and service ever seen in this demanding market.

“Therefore, our challenge has been to find retail partners with the same attitudes as McLaren – an absolute focus on being the best that is inherent in everything we do and a natural result of our successful motor racing heritage,” Sheriff concluded.

– By: Kap Shah

An artificial butterfly takes wing in a video from the Institute of Physics.

Why a robo-butterfly? Some robotics experts build buglike or birdlike machines, also known as entomopters and ornithopters, to serve as tiny airborne spies. Japanese researchers had a different purpose in mind: Harvard’s Hiroto Tanaka and the University of Tokyo’s Isao Shimoyama wanted to figure out how actual swallowtail butterflies navigate through the air.
You see, because the swallowtails’ forewings partly overlap their hind wings, they don’t have as m

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Filed under: Performance, Marketing/Advertising

McLaren Automotive has announced the 35 cities where the MP4-12C will be available when it goes on sale next year. Dealers in the 19 countries on the list are still being evaluated and at least 23 of them will be named by McLaren prior to the public debut of the new sports car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.

There are few surprises on the list of cities, with all of the usual suspects being represented including Paris, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. As you’d expect, the Middle East is over represented with seven locations, including two in Saudi Arabia. The UK isn’t left of the mix with one dealer each in Manchester and Birmingham, while those of us in the States will have to check out McLaren’s newest supercar in Tampa, Florida. Over 500 dealers have applied for the first 35 outlets and McLaren expects some expansion in 2012. Of course, that’s all dependent on demand, but with 2,500 prospects expressing interest in buying an MP4-12C so far, there could be a McLaren boom in the making.

[Source: McLaren]

Continue reading McLaren Automotive names first 35 cities to get dealers

McLaren Automotive names first 35 cities to get dealers originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 21 May 2010 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi A9 Concept

Following the success of the Mercedes-Benz CLS, many luxury automakers are now creating what is known as a four-door-coupe sports sedan. Porsche has its Panamera; Jaguar has its XJ; and Aston Martin has its Rapide. BMW is working on its own four-door-coupe sedan, which will be influenced by the new BMW Concept Gran Coupe and Mercedes-Benz is working hard to save its dominance over the market with the next Mercedes-Benz CLS in the works, which will be influenced by the F800 Concept.

Audi’s A7 four-door-coupe will be unveiled later this year, but a Spanish designer by the name of Dani Garcia, is wondering what if Audi went another route than building a model based on the Sportback Concept.

Known as the Audi A9 Concept, Dani Garcia’s version of an Ingolstadt-based four-door-coupe is inspired by design cues from the R8.

Hit the jump for the high-res image gallery.

Audi A9 Concept:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Dani Garcia (via Jon Sibal)

by Bonnie Azab Powell

(Watershed Media)In what is ostensibly a five-book review for the June 10 New
York Review of Books, journalist Michael Pollan has an epic essay charting the
emergence and character of the food movement. Or, as he puts it,
“movements.” They are unified, for now at least, by little more than the
recognition that industrial food production is in need of reform, “because its
social/environmental/public health/animal welfare/gastronomic costs are too
high.” (Pollan, of course, has been indispensable to the rise of this movement, even though he omits his 2006 best-seller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, from his
list of its catalysts—among them Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Marion
Nestle’s Food Politics.)

This collection is a “big, lumpy
tent,” says Pollan:

Where many social movements tend to splinter as time goes
on, breaking into various factions representing divergent concerns or tactics,
the food movement starts out splintered. Among the many threads of advocacy
that can be lumped together under that rubric we can include school lunch
reform; the campaign for animal rights and welfare; the campaign against
genetically modified crops; the rise of organic and locally produced food;
efforts to combat obesity and type 2 diabetes; “food sovereignty” (the
principle that nations should be allowed to decide their agricultural policies
rather than submit to free trade regimes); farm bill reform; food safety
regulation; farmland preservation; student organizing around food issues on
campus; efforts to promote urban agriculture and ensure that communities have
access to healthy food; initiatives to create gardens and cooking classes in
schools; farm worker rights; nutrition labeling; feedlot pollution; and the
various efforts to regulate food ingredients and marketing, especially to kids.

Yep, that about covers it. And those factions don’t always
play nicely together. For example, animal-rights activists can’t abide what I like to call
the “born-again carnivores”—the people (like me) who used to be vegetarians
but resumed eating meat once they could get it in good (or at least
better) conscience from small farms.

Pollan finds one common point on which all the various
movement splinters can agree: that the way our food system is organized and
supported in this country has led to an epidemic of ill health. First Lady
Michelle Obama’s various forays into food politics shows just that there is awareness of that fact occurs in very high places. But the food
movement isn’t just about tearing down the unhealthy, unfair, and unclean
industrial food system, says Pollan. It’s also about celebrating the communal and gustatory
pleasures of its opposite—and that’s what makes the food movement so appealing. Farmers
markets aren’t just outlets for organic kale; they’re the new informal
gathering places to meet and make friends. They make food shopping fun again, no longer a grim sprint behind a cold
metal cart through aisles of corporate logos.

In the final part of the essay, while discussing
political scientist Janet A. Flammang’s new book, The Taste for
Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society, Pollan takes aim at a
favorite target: the corporate message that cooking is a chore and convenience food can rescue us from it. Fast food and convenience food,
writes Flammang, along with other tactics to denigrate “‘foodwork’—everything
involved in putting meals on the family table,” have wrecked the critical social institution of
the family meal, and other important food rituals, such as the
breaking of bipartisan bread that used to occur in the Senate dining room.

Reclaiming
cooking and communal eating as worthy societal activities are just two goals
the various factions of the food movement can agree on. They’ll need to find
more common ground if they hope to persuade politicians—and the rest of the country—that theirs is a cause worth backing.

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Newly released data shows 265,000 homeowners are trapped in loan mod limbo, stuck in “3 month” trial loan periods for over 6 months, reports ProPublica.

That’s up from 100,000 in January. The lagging in decision-making by loan servicers damages homeowners credit, increases their mortgage balance, and prevent homeowners from saving up for a potential foreclosure.

I guess the best tactics for people who need to escalate their loan mods are using all the classic ones at Consumerist, maybe several in conjunction at the same time. Whatever it takes to get the attention of a decision-maker, or push the paper to the next level. EECB + fax ’em to death + public shaming, for instance?

Loan Mod Logjam Continues for 265,000 Homeowners; Failures Jump [ProPublica]

Well, here we go again with the difference between real copyright law and “file sharing copyright” law. Just as a court in the southern district of California has suggested that Rapidshare is not liable for infringing activities of its users, a court in the central district of California has come down hard on Isohunt, demanding the site wave a magic wand and delete all infringing links. Of course, since we don’t live in fantasy land where that’s possible, it basically means the site needs to be shut down. As with the original ruling against Isohunt, however, it appears the judge doesn’t quite understand the technology at play, and ascribes to Isohunt functionality that it has nothing to do with. For example:

Second, given the way in which
Defendants’ system works, when Defendants’ end-users download one of
Plaintiffs’ works, the end-users automatically and simultaneously
further distribute the work to innumerable others as a required part of
the download process; additionally, at the conclusion of the download,
Defendants’ end-users obtain an unprotected digital copy of Plaintiffs’
work that those end-users can further distribute indefinitely at will.

But, uh, that’s how BitTorrent works. Not IsoHunt. I don’t quite see how it makes sense to blame IsoHunt — which is basically a search engine — for the activities done by its end users and the technology of BitTorrent. The court also takes it as fact that the availability of unauthorized free copies must harm the market, despite no evidence to back that up. It’s faith-based rulings, based on Hollywood (on the heels of its best box office year ever) making claims with no facts, that the judge just accepted:

It is axiomatic
that the availability of free infringing copies of Plaintiffs’ works
through Defendants’ websites irreparably undermines the growing
legitimate market for consumers to purchase access to the same works.

But that’s wrong. It may cause harm, but it’s hardly irreparable. If the movie studios actually, you know, adapted to the changing market (as some are figuring out), they could actually do much better. Why does the judge suggest otherwise with no proof at all?

Finally, the court continues to live in the same fantasy land as the entertainment industry in thinking this injunction will actually slow down or prevent any file sharing:

Finally, the Court agrees that the public interest will be served
with a permanent injunction, since it will protect Plaintiffs’
copyrights against increased and unrestrained infringement.

Except, of course, it will do no such thing. Instead, those users will disperse to other sites, perhaps the same ones that the entertainment industry just helped advertise.

Finally, the actual injunction is incredibly broad and amounts to — as mentioned — demanding that IsoHunt and Gary Fung develop a magic wand to figure out if a link points to infringing material:

Defendants shall be
permanently enjoined from knowingly engaging in any of the following
activities in connection with the Isohunt System or any Comparable
System:

(a) hosting, indexing, linking to, or otherwise providing access
to any Dot-torrent or similar files that correspond, point or lead
to any of the Copyrighted Works;

(b) assisting with end-user reproductions or transmissions of any
of the Copyrighted Works through a tracker server, or any other
server or software that assists users in locating, identifying or
obtaining files from other users offering any of the Copyrighted
Works for transmission; or

(c) hosting or providing access to any of the Copyrighted Works.

This is not to say that Fung is blameless. Clearly, IsoHunt did some things that looked quite bad under the law. But that doesn’t excuse some of this ruling, which seems to go to ridiculous levels, way beyond what copyright law allows. None of this is a surprise given the earlier ruling or the proposed injunction, which included much of the same troubling language (including the bogus “axiomatic” statement). This isn’t to defend Fung or IsoHunt at all. But I do worry when judges get so hung up on how bad a site like IsoHunt must be that they make rulings that will cause trouble down the road for others. Below is the full ruling if you want to read through it:

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by Jonathan Hiskes

Courtesy Billg1 via PicasaHere’s a late Bike to
Work Day post. OK it’s a glorified retweet of Ezra Klein’s three-paragraph story about giving up his car in D.C., which is worth reading. Here’s the last
two-thirds:

The debate over auto ownership is unfortunately moralistic
when, in my experience, the realities of auto ownership are almost entirely
decided by infrastructure. Left for LeDroit, an excellent blog covering my
neighborhood, makes the point well in a recent post: Cities
and neighborhoods built before the advent of car culture tend to be pretty easy
to navigate without a car, and as you can see in the graph above, a lot of the
people who live in them tend to not own cars. Conversely, cities that were
built after cars became the norm essentially require their residents to own
cars and their residents comply.

In practice, this doesn’t feel like a decision imposed by
the cold realities of infrastructure. We get attached to our cars. We get
attached to our bikes. We name our subway systems. We brag about our short
walks to work. People attach stories to their lives. But at the end of the day,
they orient their lives around pretty practical judgments about how best to
live. If you need a car to get where you’re going, you’re likely to own one. If
you rarely use your car, have to move it a couple of times a week to avoid street
cleaning, can barely find parking and have trouble avoiding tickets, you’re
going to think hard about giving it up. It’s not about good or bad or red or
blue. It’s about infrastructure.

The point for sustainable
transportation types is that focusing on infrastructure—safe, pleasant bikeways—matters
more than focusing on individual behavior.

Bike to Work
Day is still helpful, though, for normalizing bike commuting. Bringing riders
together shows them—and others who see them—that it’s a common thing to do in a
lot of places, not a fringe activity.

For the record, I biked
in today, but I was only in it for the SmartWool sock giveaway in my
neighborhood. I’m not as hardcore as my friend Andrew, who was photographed at Seattle’s most dangerous biking intersection for a story on the dangers of biking in Seattle.

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Within two weeks of starting the tour in North America of its ‘360 Degree World Tour‘ Bono has been in an accident during a preliminary test which forced him to be admitted to a Munich hospital to undergo emergency neurosurgery, as confirmed by a spokesman for U2.

According to the spokesman of the Irish band, Bono, 50, suffered an accident during a test for North America’s ‘360 Degree World Tour‘, which begins on June 3 in Salt Lake City, Utah. U2 went through Europe over the last year, breaking sales records wherever they played.

“Bono has undergone an emergency surgery on his back caused by an injury during training tour preparation,” the representative, who added that the singer was taken over by Dr. Jorg Tonn and Dr. Muller Wohlfahrt “specialist neurosurgeons a hospital” in the German city of Munich.

When the doctors will determine Bono’s health status there will be issued a statement which will lead to how it’s going to affect the development of the tour. It is known as the first appearance in Salt Lake City, has been suspended.

After touring the United States and Canada, the Irish band is scheduled to return to Europe, with a first concert on August 6 in Turin, Italy. Then tour the old continent to anchor the end of September in San Sebastián and Sevill, Spain.

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Roy Oswalt(notes) has pitched brilliantly this season, like the 2001-02 version of himself. He’s delivered a 2.66 ERA, a 1.07 WHIP and 60 Ks in 61.0 innings. He’s completed at least six frames in every start and hasn’t allowed more than three runs — earned or unearned — in any game.

Nonetheless, he has a record of 2-6, because he pitches for the lowest-scoring team in baseball.

In fact, the Astros currently rank dead-last in runs scored (2.98 per game), batting average (.228), on-base percentage (.274), slugging (.321), hits (305), doubles (53) and homers (21). They were shutout by Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez(notes) on Thursday, as Oswalt lost again. In his last four decisions (all losses), these were the final scores: 0-4, 1-2, 0-1, 2-4.

So it’s tough to blame him for today’s news. The Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales reports that Oswalt has requested a trade.

The July 31 trading deadline is more than two months away, but one of baseball’s best pitchers has asked to be put on the market.

Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt, a three-time National League All-Star, has asked owner Drayton McLane Jr. to be traded, a source said Friday.

Oswalt is under contract for $15 million this year and $16 million in 2011. The following season he has a $16 million team option or a $2 million buyout. Despite the 32-year-old’s stellar track record (3.21 career ERA), his pricetag will obviously scare off a few teams. 

According to an earlier report from ESPN’s Jayson Stark, the potential trade destinations that interest Oswalt are St. Louis, Texas and Atlanta. But if he’s requesting/demanding a move, then presumably he’s open to other options. Considering the abysmal run-support situation in Houston, Oswalt’s fantasy value is almost certain to increase (though if he heads to the Rangers, the league change and home park will complicate things).  

Ed Wade was born for this moment, Astros fans, so you’re in good hands. Let’s deal.

—

Photo via US Presswire 

Sexual fetishism in a quail (Coturnix japonica) model system: test of reproductive success.
“In the present study, the authors explored the reproductive consequences of fetishistic behavior in a previously developed animal model of sexual fetishism (F. Köksal et al., 2004). Male domesticated quail (Coturnix japonica) received sexual conditioning trials in which a terrycloth object (the conditioned stimulus [CS]) was paired with the opportunity to copulate with a female quail (the unconditioned stimulus). Approximately half of the male quail came to copulate with the CS object and were considered to have developed fetishistic behavior. Each of the male quail was then tested with a female quail, whose eggs were incubated to determine rates of fertilization. The CS object was present for 30 s before and during the copulation test. Fetishistic male quail were slower to achieve cloacal contact with the female quail and showed less efficient copulatory behavior. However, they fertilized a greater proportion of eggs than nonfetishistic male quail. These results are unexpected from previous studies of the relationship between reproductive success and copulatory behavior and are discussed in terms of how fetishistic behavior directed toward an inanimate object may modify male-female interactions.” Photo: flickr/ingridtaylar Related content:
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Filed under: Europe, Crossover, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Rumormill

According to Mibz.com, the Suzuki SX4 won’t be pimped to just Fiat anymore (see: Sedici), Volkswagen is getting in on the act. Going after the small end of the market, VW is reportedly set to take advantage of its new 19.9 percent share of Suzuki and swiping the lovable little SX4 as the basis of a new model tentatively dubbed Rocktan.

Positioned as a city-sized crossover, the Rocktan theoretically slots in between the similarly tiny CrossPolo and Tiguan, though this is all unconfirmed at this point. Power will apparently not be from Suzuki, but rather from VW, likely the 1.4-liter TSI gasoline engine and 1.6- and 2.0-liter TDI diesels. This could be mere grist for the rumormill, or we could soon see a Nissan Juke-sized VolkZuki. For now, all we’ve got are dreams of another flavor of the friendly SX4.

[Source: Mibz.com]

Rendered Speculation: Suzuki SX4-based VW ‘Rocktan’ conjured up originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 21 May 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by David Roberts

Imagine you’re 15 years old. You and your best friend have just gotten stoned for the first time, you’re laying around his rec room. Your shoes are off, the sun is shining through the windows,  you’re listening to metal albums. You start to notice that in every song there’s that one part: The Awesome Part. The music accelerates, or crescendos, or shifts suddenly, and you look at each other and say, “That. Was. Awesome.” Then, because you’re stoned, you vow to some day make an album of all awesome parts. Just awesome parts, strung together by mad kickassology scientists into a tapestry of pure ***ing awesomeness! Then you go back to munching on Cheez-Its.

Except these five guys from Rhode Island went and did it. Fang Island’s eponymous debut is an album of all awesome parts, a sound they hilariously describe as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” I would call it joyous metal, and I won’t lie: it’s an acquired taste. It can be overwhelming, like doing keg stands with Gatorade. But I can’t get enough.

Consider this song, “Sidewinder.” It starts as a speedmetal chug. About 1:35 in, it becomes a triumphant chant. Then at around 2:15 it becomes a melodic riff, and then at 3:00 … the harmonized twin-guitar attack! To top things off, around 3:45, a towering metal squeal. All awesome parts. Turn it up.

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It might take a month to wrap up any amendments on the financial bill for U.S. major banks but mere act of the Senate to start lobbying on it has triggered an increase in the financial stocks as seen on Friday’s trend.

Obama’s Government will take a dip on long standing financial policies which seemingly shield major banks for quite a while. As the country checks back on the 2008 recession and also see the Euro plunge at current times, financing banks poses as the backdrop of the pictures.  There haven’t been enough securities for consumers and investors from these elite banks where mortgages interest rate and terms left U.S. economy in shambles.

Not long after Obama calls for an overhaul, Greek PM made it well-known last week that Wall Street banks will be under thorough probing whether it contributed to the worst debt crisis of Greece.

In the vote of 59-39, the Senate’s task is to come up with changes that will strike more balance between financing banks and consumer rights which will eventually influence national or even global economy.

For the meantime, several arguments on the specifics are not yet settled in the Senate such as the suggestion to create a $150 billion collection from leader banks to be used in salvaging closure of financial institutions.

Related posts:

1. Fake risk levels, US banks should be monitored highly.
2. U.S. Banks Get Linked To Greece Debt Crisis
3. Obama calls for Wall Street reform

Regresamos con una prueba del un SUV, ya hemos probado varios modelos 4×4 desde un atípico Chevrolet Captiva de GLP hasta el Citroën C-Crosser, pero esta vez me voy a un modelo que se sitúa más cerca de los premiums que de los SUV generalistas, y que acaba de incorporar un nuevo motor diesel.

Se trata del Mazda CX-7 que hasta ahora sólo lo teníamos disponible en el mercado con un propulsor gasolina, (el 2.3 de 260 CV) algo que lastraba las ventas de este SUV. Con la llegada del nuevo motor 2.2 CRTD de 175 CV, tenemos un SUV con una estética muy cuidada, unas buenas prestaciones y sobretodo un motor diesel con lo que ello conlleva en cuanto a consumos.

La llegada de este motor, se suma a una serie de cambios que llegan con la versión que se puso a la venta a finales de 2009, entre los que podemos destacar cambios exteriores o un nuevo sistema para reducir gases, el denominado Sistema de Reducción Catalítica Selectiva (SCR). Por tanto vamos a centrarnos en el motor de este CX-7, su comportamiento y sus consumos y emisiones.

Motor y prestaciones

Como comentamos antes, la novedad mecánica principal es este motor de 2,2 litros (2.184 cc) que entrega una potencia de 173 CV, es un motor conocido dentro de la marca japonesa, también disponible en otros modelos con una variante de 185 CV. Lo mejor de este motor es la fuerza con la que empuja a este CX-7, puesto que sus 400 Nm de par, se notan y hacen que en el comportamiento del SUV no se note ni su peso ni sus medidas.

El motor empieza a responder desde las 1.700 r.p.m., pero sin duda donde mejor se mueve es entre las 2.000 y 2.500 r.p.m., y el empuje se mantiene con fuerza hasta las 3.500 r.p.m., pero tiene poca respuesta a bajas vueltas. Este motor va asociado a un cambio manual de seis relaciones, un cambio muy preciso y con una palanca corta que se encuentra en una posición muy cómoda para engranar las marchas y es bastante elástico (sobretodo la sexta), contando con una primera que se hace muy practica para su uso off-road, si bien es cierto, que el uso fuera del asfalto no es una de sus virtudes.

Comportamiento

En comportamiento es cercano al de una berlina, me ha sorprendido que si tenemos en cuenta el tamaño del CX-7, en el momento que te pones al volante sorprende por el aplomo del vehículo, al contar con un chasis muy bien calibrado y cuyo punto fuerte son las carreteras.

Incluso, lo hemos metido por zonas de curvas bastante rápidas y constantes cambios de apoyo y la respuesta ha sido muy buena para tratarse de un SUV de 1,8 toneladas de peso.

En comportamiento por ciudad, se comporta bastante bien, tenemos una buena visibilidad y sobretodo un punto elevado de visión y su motor hace que se mueva de forma bastante ágil, quizás sus medidas no son lo más indicado pero la cámara de visión trasera facilita las cosas al aparcar, eso sí, debería de contar con un sensor delantero que sería muy útil para maniobrar.

La dirección también ayuda a ese comportamiento, con tacto preciso pero bastante asistida. Y sin duda otra de las características donde destaca es en confort de marcha, puesto que es un vehículo pensado para la carretera que mima a los ocupantes y el confort abordo es muy bueno, siendo un vehículo práctico para realizar viajes, puesto que en el interior del habitáculo apenas tendremos rumorosidad, pese a que su motor suena a diesel y se nota, pero cuenta con una buena insonorización interior.

Para frenar este Mazda CX-7, cuenta con cuatro frenos de disco de prácticamente el mismo diámetro para las cuatro ruedas, siendo ligeramente mayores los delanteros, estos frenos detienen sin problemas a este SUV.

Consumos

En el apartado de consumos, sigue la tónica dominante en el segmento. Este motor 2.2 CRTD de 173 CV no destaca por un consumo excesivamente bajo, pero es lo suficientemente racional para un SUV de estas características. El consumo medio que homologa es de 7,5 litros a los 100 km, nosotros de media en autopista a velocidad legal rondamos los 6,5 l/100 km. El consumo medio durante la prueba en recorrido por ciudad (30 %) y carretera (70%) rondo los 8,5 litros a los 100 km.

En el apartado de emsiones, destaca la incorporación del Sistema de Reducción Catalítica Selectiva (SCR), que se encarga de reducir las emisiones en un 40% de óxidos de nitrógeno (NOx), quizás os suene menos conocido que el CO2, pero que son también emisiones nocivas para la atmósfera. Estas reducciones se hacen gracias al uso de un spray, (AdBlue) a base de urea acuosa, que genera una reacción química reduciendo de esa manera las emisiones contaminantes.

Comportamiento Off-road

Antes de hablaros del comportamiento off-road, tenemos que dejar claro que, como la mayoria de los SUV del mercado, no está orientado cara un uso campero, al CX-7 le gustan las carreteras y es donde mejor se defiende. Si salimos del asfalto nos vamos a topar con varios problemas, lo primero son las ruedas con llantas de 19″ y neumáticos orientados hacía el uso en carretera.

Por otra parte, tenemos que recordar que no tiene reductora, sino un sistema de reparto de tracción automático que envía la tracción al tren trasero en caso de falta de agarre. Esto es una pena, porque el CX-7 cuenta con una buena altura libre del suelo y con unos buenos ángulos, por tanto donde mejor se va a defender es por pistas no asfaltadas o zonas de difícil agarre, (no hemos podido probarlo por nieve, -demasiado buen tiempo- ).

Pero esto pasa en la mayoría de los SUV, porque muchos de ellos ni siquiera llegan a pisar zonas complicadas más allá de zonas o caminos sin asfaltar, por tanto para la mayoría de los usos el Mazda CX-7 responderá bastante bien, también podrían haberlo dotado de un control de descensos que es un elemento que si incorporan otros modelos de la competencia y que siempre es una ayuda.

Después de hablaros del comportamiento del CX-7, y del motor diesel de 173 CV, en la segunda parte de la prueba hablaremos del diseño tanto exterior (muy propio de Mazda) como del diseño y habitabilidad interior, así como la calidad de los acabados.

Fotos | David Taboada
Agradecimientos a Borja por la colaboración en la prueba

Pac-man 30^th Anniversary is commemorated today, May 22! Can you still recall the early years of Pacman game where you have to insert coin on the slot machine to start playing the Pacman game?  Insert coin is one of the earlier means to play Pacman game. Now, we can enjoy Pacman free online… that’s how Pacman game reached its Pac-Man 30^th anniversary! As a matter of fact, as the technology advances and in the existence of internet, enjoying Pacman free online is one of the trends. To cite, “Google Pacman” is a Google logo that allows one to play pacman in remembrance of Pac-Man 30^th anniversary. Try visiting a Google site.

From insert coin-Pacman game to Pacman free online, isn’t it  a real evolution? Pac-man 30^th anniversary is more than remembering the evolution of the Pacman game, it also means for everyone to enjoy and play Pacman!

Pacman game is an arcade game developed by Namco. It was first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Pacman game was widely accepted in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pacman game is considered to be one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of the 1980s popular culture… from insert coin method to playing Pacman free online!

Know more of Pac-man 30^th anniversary. After the conventional insert coin method, enjoy now the pacman free online or you may try the “Google Pacman”.

Related posts:

1. PacMan 30th anniversary: Google PacMan game
2. Pac Man 30th Anniversary: ‘Insert coin’ for two player pacman free online game
3. Pac-Man 30th Anniversary: Play Pacman Free Online in “Google Pacman”

Google does a great job paying homage to holidays and other special events with their Google doodles, but this one may take the cake. In celebration of the 30th anniversay of Pac-Man, the Google logo has been transformed into a fully-playable game of Pac-Man. Seriously, just hit up the main Google Search page and wait for it to load up!

Tags:
culture,
games,
google,
google doodle,
google pac-man,
html 5,
pac man,
pac-man,
pac-man 30 anniversary,

Six weeks, and over 100 hours of footage shot on several Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs culminates in this remarkable, 4-minute time lapse of a Space Shuttle launch. [Air&Space via Planet5D] More »