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South Korea formally accused North Korea yesterday of torpedoing the Cheonan, after two months of pussyfoot investigations and diplomacy.

North Korea responded with more denials and counter-accusations (e.g. blaming the attack on friendly fire from the US) and this time threatened that “any retaliation would lead to an all-out war,” according to Global Times.

Kim Jong-il is playing this poker hand ruthlessly. His adversary Lee Myung-bak has already announced that retaliations would be limited to a ban on imports of sand and fish and would involve no military action.

Now war seems unlikely and sanctions may be off the table. What that means is that South Korea has a parasite problem.

Here’s What You Need To Know About The South Korea Economy >

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Filed under: Coupe, Opel, Vauxhall, Rumormill

As CAR magazine tells it, Opel (and Vauxhall) Calibra might be in line for a successor based on the Opel Insignia, better known as the Buick Regal in North America. Said to be operating under the project name New Calibra for the moment, there is much to be acquired and decided before such a couple has any chance of becoming a reality, but Calibra fans should at least be heartened by the discussion.

One of the first decisions would be to figure out if the car is really a new Calibra or better thought of as an Insignia Coupe. The Insignia is more than 13 inches longer than the last Calibra (which ended production in 1997), and as a proper four-seater, a two-door Insignia would probably appeal to a very different crowd than the Calibra. The Insignia is already offered in sedan, liftback and wagon formats.

Then there’s the matter of money: it’s said that Opel/Vauxhall would need to sell 30,000 every year before making money on the cars. With fewer in-house avenues for platform sharing, General Motors’ financial situation still requiring babysitting, and Opel probably about to be refused a loan from the German government, throwing another coupe into the mix might not be the go-to strategy. That said, leveraging the cost of such an endeavor while helping to augment Buick’s increasingly youthful image with a Regal coupe might not be such a bad move, right?

[Source: CAR]

Vauxhall Calibra coupe successor mooted – could a Buick follow? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Lester R. Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, is the author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, available at the Earth Policy website. The excerpt here, released this week, was adapted from Chapter 6, Designing Cities for People. Brown’s discussion of reorganizing cities seems increasingly pertinent as the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico worsens, reminding us of the costs of our reliance on oil.)

By Lester R. Brown

Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility, as well as increased air pollution and the health problems that come with it. Urban transport systems based on a combination of rail lines, bus lines, bicycle pathways, and pedestrian walkways offer the best of all possible worlds in providing mobility, low-cost transportation, and a healthy urban environment.

Some of the most innovative public transportation systems, those that shift huge numbers of people from cars into buses, have been developed in Curitiba, Brazil, and Bogotá, Colombia. The success of Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, TransMilenio, which uses special express lanes to move people quickly through the city, is being replicated not only in six other Colombian cities but in scores elsewhere too, including Mexico City, São Paulo, Hanoi, Seoul, Istanbul, and Quito. By 2012, Mexico City plans to have 10 BRT lines in place.

Beijing is one of 11 Chinese cities with BRT systems in operation. In southern China, Guangzhou officially opened its BRT in early 2010. Already carrying more than 800,000 passengers daily, this system is expected to serve one million passengers per day by the end of the year. In addition to linking with the city’s underground Metro in three places, it will soon be paralleled throughout its entirety with a bike lane. Guangzhou will also have 5,500 bike parking spaces for those using a bike-BRT travel combination.

In Iran, Tehran launched its first BRT line in early 2008. Several more lines are in the development stage, and all will be integrated with the city’s new subway lines. Several cities in Africa are also planning BRT systems. Even industrial-country cities such as Ottawa, Toronto, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Las Vegas, and—much to everyone’s delight—Los Angeles have launched or are now considering BRT systems.

Some cities are reducing traffic congestion and air pollution by charging cars to enter the city, including Singapore, London, Stockholm, and Milan. In London—where until recently the average speed of an automobile was comparable to that of a horse-drawn carriage a century ago—a congestion fee was adopted in early 2003. The initial £5 (about $8 at the time) charge on all motorists driving into the center city between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. immediately reduced the number of vehicles, permitting traffic to flow more freely while cutting pollution and noise.

In the first year after the new tax was introduced, the number of people using buses to travel into central London climbed by 38 percent and vehicle speeds on key thoroughfares increased by 21 percent. In July 2005, the congestion fee was raised to £8. With the revenue from the congestion fee being used to upgrade and expand public transit, Londoners are steadily shifting from cars to buses, the subway, and bicycles. Since the congestion charge was adopted, the daily flow of cars and minicabs into central London during peak hours has dropped by 36 percent while the number of bicycles has increased by 66 percent.

In January 2008, Milan adopted a “pollution charge” of $14 on vehicles entering its historic center in daytime hours during the week. Other cities now considering similar measures include San Francisco, Turin, Genoa, Kiev, Dublin, and Auckland.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who was elected in 2001, inherited some of Europe’s worst traffic congestion and air pollution. He decided traffic would have to be cut 40 percent by 2020. The first step was to invest in better transit in outlying regions to ensure that everyone in the greater Paris area had access to high-quality public transit. The next step was to create express lanes on main thoroughfares for buses and bicycles, thus reducing the number of lanes for cars.

A third innovative initiative in Paris was the establishment of a city bicycle rental program that has 20,600 bikes available at 1,450 docking stations throughout the city. Access to the bikes is by credit card, with a choice of daily, weekly, or annual rates ranging from just over $1 per day to $40 per year. If the bike is used for fewer than 30 minutes, the ride is free. The bicycles are proving to be immensely popular—with more than 63 million trips taken as of late 2009.

At this point Mayor Delanoë is working hard to realize his goal of cutting car traffic by 40 percent and carbon emissions by a similar amount by 2020. The popularity of this bike sharing program has led to its extension into 30 of the city’s suburbs and has inspired cities such as London to also introduce bike sharing.

The United States, which has lagged far behind Europe in developing diversified urban transport systems, is being swept by a “complete streets” movement, an effort to ensure that streets are friendly to pedestrians and bicycles as well as to cars. Many American communities lack sidewalks and bike lanes, making it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to get around safely, particularly where streets are heavily traveled.

This cars-only model is being challenged by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a powerful assemblage of citizen groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, AARP, and numerous local and national cycling organizations. Among the issues spurring the complete streets movement are the obesity epidemic, rising gasoline prices, the urgent need to cut carbon emissions, air pollution, and mobility constraints on aging baby boomers. The elderly who live in urban areas without sidewalks and who no longer drive are effectively imprisoned in their own homes.

The National Complete Streets Coalition reports that as of April 2010, complete streets policies are in place in 20 states, including California and Illinois, and in 71 cities. One reason states have become interested in passing such legislation is that integrating bike paths and sidewalks into a project from the beginning is much less costly than adding them later.

Closely related to this approach is a movement that encourages and facilitates walking to school. Beginning in the United Kingdom in 1994, it has now spread to some 40 countries, including the United States. Forty years ago, more than 40 percent of all U.S. children walked or biked to school, but now the figure is under 15 percent. Today 60 percent are driven or drive to school. Not only does this contribute to childhood obesity, but the American Academy of Pediatrics reports fatalities and injuries are much higher among children going to school in cars than among those who walk or ride in school buses. Among the potential benefits of the Walk to School movement is a reduction in obesity and early onset diabetes.

Countries with well-developed urban transit systems and a mature bicycle infrastructure are much better positioned to withstand the stresses of a downturn in world oil production than those that depend heavily on cars. With a full array of walking and biking options, the number of trips by car can easily be cut by 10–20 percent.

As the new century advances, the world is reconsidering the urban role of automobiles in one of the most fundamental shifts in transportation thinking in a century. The challenge is to redesign communities so that public transportation is the centerpiece of urban transport and streets are pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. This also means planting trees and gardens and replacing parking lots with parks, playgrounds, and playing fields. We can design an urban lifestyle that systematically restores health by incorporating exercise into daily routines while reducing carbon emissions and eliminating health-damaging air pollution.

Which ends first, the Canadian housing bubble, the Australian one, or the Chinese one? Here are some key stress-points in the Chinese housing economy:

The Street:

• Canada’s real estate prices have increased on average 40% [questionable, see below] in the last year while incomes have dropped.
• Canadian residential real estate is now worth more today than it was pre-Lehman. There are now more dwellings built in Canada (assuming, as the Canadian government does, that an average of 2.3 people live in each dwelling) than the population of Canada.
• Canadian consumers have racked up enormous debts while interest rates have been low over the past 20 months.
• Personal bankruptcies are at record levels now in Canada when interest rates are still at historical lows. # In Vancouver, people now spend 68% of their disposable income on housing. In Toronto, people spend 44% of their disposable income on housing. (Keep in mind that the China bears were complaining that it was unsustainable that some Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai were spending more than 30% of their disposable income on housing.)

The first and fourth points seem the most ominous, in our view.

UPDATE: Not sure how The Street calculated their average price change. Here’s the latest change in average price via CREA:

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NOTE: With state legislative sessions coming to a close, in the coming weeks Facing South will be offering reports on key policy decisions in Southern states. The following comes from the excellent weekly dispatch published by the Progressive States Network.

Session Roundup: ALABAMA

Alabama’s three month legislative session that
adjourned on April 22 was dominated by three issues — passing a state
budget, a controversial bill to bring a referendum on whether to make
electronic bingo legal and legislation to bail out the state’s popular
pre-paid college tuition program.

Budget, Tax and Revenue:  As with so many
other states, Alabama faced a large budget shortfall this year.  Based
on estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Office, the state’s general
fund faced a shortfall of about $600 million this fiscal year. 
But largely through the use of state rainy day funds and federal aid the
state received through ARRA money, major cuts in education, health and
services programs were avoided.

The legislature made their budget situation worse
by approving new corporate tax breaks (HB 260) in the name of subsidizing employers who
hire unemployed workers up to 50 percent of wages paid to new hires. 

Unfortunately, a more positive measure for
working families was defeated.  A broad-based campaign proposed
repealing the 4 percent state tax on groceries and over the counter
medications, while raising revenue by eliminating the deduction for
federal taxes paid by higher-income earners.  The constitutional
amendment (HB 1) received a  vote of 54-42 in the House of
Representatives, but the proposal fell just 9 votes short of the 63 votes
needed to bring the bill to the House floor for debate.

Electronic Bingo: The most controversial
bill of the year was one that would have let voters decide whether to
declare electronic bingo legal and set up a gaming commission. While SB 515 passed the Senate, it died without a vote
because the sponsor wasn’t able to find enough backing for the bill
among other House members. Opponents viewed the bill as bad public policy,
especially a provision where, if it had been approved by the voters the
Legislature could have revisited the bill to create rules for bingo
operations. During the time the bill’s fate was being decided, federal
authorities revealed an investigation into possible corruption in the
legislature involving the bingo bill.

Education:  One major bill that did pass
was to appropriate funds for the state’s prepaid college tuition program
(PACT).  The PACT program covers about 45,000 children.  The Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program ran into
trouble when the stock market collapsed last winter.  The program’s
assets, once valued at nearly $900 million, were heavily invested in
stocks, and their value plunged below $500 million.  However, despite
initial differences between the House and Senate over whether to
establish a cap for state university tuition increases, Senate Bill 162 will provide the program with a
total of $236 million over eight years, as it was signed
into law on April 30^th.

Transportation: A major transportation bill did pass the legislature
this session. SB 120, a proposed constitutional amendment that
authorizes the Alabama Trust Fund to make payments of $100 million each
year for 10 years for road & bridge construction, maintenance and
repair programs in the state’s transportation infrastructure. The
measure has been placed on a November ballot initiative. If approved,
the state will make an annual distribution of $25 million of the $100
million to cities and counties based on the state’s gasoline tax
distribution formula, $74 million to the Alabama Department of
Transportation (ALDOT) and $1 million to the Alabama Shortline Railroad
Infrastructure Fund.

Environment and Energy: The Alabama Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Energy
and interest groups worked to pass several bills pertaining to energy
and energy efficiency. Among the bills passed was HB 128 , which provides for the “Codification of
the Joint Legislative Committee on Energy Policy” and provides for an
ongoing state energy study and energy plan.  Additionally, SB 315 requires the adoption of the Alabama Energy
and Residential Codes to comply with certain federal energy and building
requirements.

Defeated Bills Included:

• Charter Schools: Legislators also
  defeated attempts to allow charter schools in the state (HB189 and SB202). 
• Health Care: Alabama joined 24 other states in rejecting bills (SB 233 and its companion, HB 47) calling for states to prohibit mandatory
  participation in the health care system established by the federal
  health care reform bill.
• Immigration: The best immigration
  news to come out of Alabama’s legislature this session is the fact that
  no anti-immigrant bills were passed. One highlight though was the
  passage of a bill, HB 432 to make human trafficking a crime in
  Alabama. The new law provides for much harsher penalties for the
  criminals and more protections for victims than were previously provided
  under kidnapping statutes.

Defeated Affordable Housing: Even though a
bill (HB 512) to create a state Affordable Housing Trust
Fund sailed in the House unanimously (91-0), it never came up for a vote
in the Senate. The estimated shortage in the number of affordable housing units
in Alabama totals about 45,000. Alabama is one of only 12 states that
has not established a housing trust fund as a strategy to address
housing shortages.

Session Roundup: KENTUCKY

Although the General Assembly met this year in regular session from
January-April, the session was overshadowed by negotiations over how to
resolve a $1.5 billion budget gap in 2011 and 2012.  Governor Steve
Beshear’s initial proposal to close the shortfall relied heavily on new
revenue from the expansion of gaming.  The House agreed to support the
increase in gaming revenue, but Senate leadership refused to consider
it.  A State Budget Director report shows that April 2010 revenues were
lower than in April 2009, suggesting that the projected deficit could be
growing – a gap that will be increasingly difficult to control without new sources of revenue.  Both houses issued their
own budget bills, but were unable to come to agreement, and the
legislative session ended on April 15 without a budget.

On May 12, Governor Beshear issued a revised budget proposal incorporating elements of
the House and Senate versions.  The new budget includes spending cuts of 3.5% in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012. 
The General Assembly will meet in special session, beginning May 24. 
There has been much attention on the $63,000/day cost of the special session, so
Assembly leaders and the Governor wanted to make sure an agreement on
the budget was in place to limit the special session to the minimum
length of five days. 

As of this writing, Governor Beshear has not
formally issued the special session order, but said he expects to add transportation plans for 2011-2016 to the agenda. 
These items could still be contentious.  House leadership has said that,
while the House approved $300 million in bonds for transportation in
the Governor’s original plan, members may be less receptive to it now
that funding for most other construction projects has been cut.  Also,
the House may object to the full $2 billion transportation plan for
2013-2016 proposed by the Senate.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Incentives:  In 2008, the General Assembly enacted a law (HB 2) creating a package of tax incentives
for renewable energy and efficiency projects. However, the state has not
been able to implement the programs due to a legal challenge based on
the fact that it was passed after midnight on the last day of the
legislative session.  This year, the General Assembly passed HB240, which repeals and reenacts HB2 as a way to
settle the legal dispute and enable the state to make real progress in
reducing global warming pollution and bring down energy costs.  The
law’s major provisions include:

• Creating the Energy Efficiency Program for
  State Buildings, with a provision allowing the program to move forward
  with low-cost/no-cost projects (based on projected energy cost savings)
  when appropriations are not available in a given budget year.
• Requiring that all public buildings for
  which 50% or more of the financing is provided by the Commonwealth meet
  “high-performance building” standards set by the Finance and
  Administration Cabinet.
• Creating the High-Performance Buildings
  Advisory Committee to inform the Finance and Administration Cabinet’s
  standards for “high efficiency buildings,” incorporating LEED, Green
  Globe, EnergyStar, and other recognized benchmarks and taking into
  account guidelines issued by organizations such as the U.S. Green
  Buildings Council, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
  and Air-Conditioning Engineers. 
• Requiring best practices in the field of
  energy efficient construction, such as utilizing life-cycle cost
  analyses for in developing construction plans for public buildings.
• Implementing reporting requirements that
  ensure transparency and make the program’s reports measurable.
• Making tax credits available for certain
  energy efficiency improvements, at 30% of cost.  The law limits future
  state liability under the program by capping the maximum credit at $500
  for single-family residences and $1,000 for multi-family and commercial
  buildings
• Creating an energy technology career track
  program to be organized by the state’s Department of Education and the
  Department for Workforce Investment.
• Empowering the Public Service Commission to
  evaluate energy conservation programs (or “demand-side management
  plans”) proposed by public utilities, including cost-recovery mechanisms
  funded through charges to ratepayers
• Creating a Center for Renewable Energy
  Research and Environmental Stewardship to provide leadership, research,
  policy, and technical assistance to advance the state’s renewable energy
  and efficiency goals.
• Creating the Kentucky Bluegrass Turns Green
  Program to provide funding to and to guide the development of public and
  private sector demand-side management programs.

Natural Gas Deregulation:  HJR141 directs the Legislative Research Commission
to open a case on retail competition in natural gas supply.  Advocates
have warned that the state should proceed cautiously in considering
deregulation of natural gas because of evidence showing the likelihood
that consumers’ energy costs will rise rather than decline.  Of
particular note is a pilot competition program in Columbia Gas service
territory.  During the program’s first eight years, consumers who have
participated have paid $4.45 million dollars more in gas costs over and
above what they would have paid had they chosen to remain with Columbia
Gas.

Setting Livestock and Poultry Care Standards: 
As originally filed, SB105 would have preempted local ordinances
defining certain industrial livestock production practices as animal
cruelty by creating a state Livestock Care Standards Commission.  The
House Agriculture and Small Business Committee amended the bill as HB398 to make the commission advisory to the state
Board of Agriculture, and to protect the ability of communities to
control and abate nuisances arising from concentrated animal feedlot
operations (CAFOs) and CAFO siting ordinances.

Care for Children with Autism:  The
General Assembly unanimously enacted HB 159, which increases the amount of coverage
health insurers must provide for autism spectrum disorders.  The bill
requires large-group and state employee insurance plans to provide
coverage in the annual amount of $50,000 for children with autism from
age 1 to 6 and up to $12,000 a year for older children with autism.

Labor and Workers’ Rights:  Not
much progress – or regress – was made on labor issues this year.  Two
pro-worker bills that passed included a job creation measure and a
workers’ compensation measure, including a Bid Preferences for
Kentucky Contractors (SB 45) and Workers’ Compensation Claim Guidance (HB 38), which updates existing workers’
compensation legislation and requires workers’ compensation guidelines
to remain current with the most recent medical and scientific knowledge
by continually updating the law’s reference to the relevant AMA document
as new editions are released.

Hospital Visitation Bill:  A significant
step for LGBTQ-friendly legislators and advocates was unanimous passage
by the House of HB 118.  The bill would allow any adult hospital
patient to designate another individual to be treated as a member of the
patient’s family with regard to visitation.  The bill died in the
Senate Judiciary committee, but the House’s vote was a strong statement
in the face of HB 440 – a bill that would have legalized
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
(see below).

Notable Progressive Defeats Included:

• Payday Lending:  HB 381 would have capped the interest rates that
  payday lenders can charge at 36% APR.  Currently, these predatory
  lending establishments are permitted to charge $15 for each $100 loaned
  every two weeks – subjecting consumers to a 390% annual interest rate
  and making it all but impossible for many low-wage workers to escape the
  cycle of poverty and bad credit and subjecting them to endless
  harassment from collection agents.  The bill was sent to the House
  Banking and Insurance Committee but did not receive a hearing.
  Legislators introduced this bill last year, but industry lobbyists were successful
  in making amendments that took out the substantive consumer
  protections and replaced them with the creation of a database to help
  check cashing companies better track their compliance with the existing
  law.
• Clean Energy:  Significant
  energy-related bills were introduced but that did not pass included a
  Renewable And Energy Efficiency Portfolio Bill (HB 3), which is expected to be reintroduced in the
  2011 Session.
• Alternative Schools:  HB 412 would have increased accountability and
  required data reporting for alternative schools.  It passed the House
  Education Committee on February 24.  Progress on the bill halted when an
  unrelated amendment was tacked onto it.  Governor Beshear is
  considering adding it to the agenda for the upcoming special session.
• Early Childhood Education:  HB 190 would have established a framework for
  expanding quality preschool for 3-and-4 year old children as funds
  became available. The bill passed the House 99-0 on March 3, but failed
  to pass the Senate.
• Restoration of Civil Rights:  HB 70, a bill restoring voting rights for people
  who have completed their sentences and parole for felony convictions
  passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate 

Notable Conservative Bills Defeated Included:

• Lifting The Nuclear Power Plant Ban:  SB 26, which would have eliminated the current
  state prohibition on construction of new nuclear plants until a
  permanent waste disposal site is approved, was defeated.
• Immigration:  One significant win for
  progressive legislators was the defeat of HB 321, an anti-immigrant bill.  HB321 would have
  criminalized the hiring of undocumented workers by public agencies and
  their contractors, and it would have required those employers to
  participate in the federal e-Verify program.
• Entitlement to Discriminate Bill:  HB 440 would have amended the constitution to
  enshrine discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
  and to pre-empt local nondiscrimination laws.  The proposed amendment
  would have allowed discrimination as long as a person or organization
  claims their action is based on “sincere religious belief.”  The bill
  died in committee.
• Abortion Restrictions:  SB 38 and HB 373 passed the Senate (32-4), but died in the
  House Health and Welfare Committee.
• Criminalizing Pregnancy and Substance
  Abuse:  This bill (HB 136) would have criminalized the ingestion of
  controlled substances or alcohol by a woman while she was pregnant,
  based on the presence of such substances in the blood of the baby after
  birth. The bill died in committee without a hearing

The UAW was informed by General Motors Co. that union employees will no longer be paid to leave the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Officials who attended a recent meeting with UAW leaders told the paper that the company doesn’t intend to use such a program. Notably, GM has used up billions of dollars to urge the workers to quit. The WSJ reported that the UAW has been encouraging GM to mull another set of buyouts and retirement incentives that are comparable to programs that have pushed 66,000 hourly workers to leave since 2006. GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said that aside from launching a new buyout program, GM will use flexibility permitted under its UAW contract to adjust the volume of its manpower. GM has the ability to freely transfer workers from plant to plant as well as to hire temporary labor for short-term needs.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

From Green Right Now Reports

Honeywell and DuPont today announced a joint venture to produce a new environmentally safer refrigerant for use in automotive air conditioning systems. The new refrigerant has 99.7 percent lower global warming potential (GWP) than the current refrigerant, the companies said.

Current automotive air conditioners use hydrofluorocarbon HFC-134a, which is rated at a global warming potential of 1430. The European Union’s Mobile Air Conditioning Directive requires that, starting in 2011, all new vehicle models use a refrigerant with a GWP below 150, and by 2017, all new automobiles sold in Europe will be required to use a low-GWP refrigerant.

The new refrigerant developed by DuPont and Honeywell has a GWP of 4, which is 97 percent less GWP than the new regulation requires, according to the companies

Under the agreement, DuPont and Honeywell will share financial and technological resources with the intent to jointly design, construct and operate a world-scale manufacturing facility for the new refrigerant, known as HFO-1234yf. The product meets European Union regulatory requirements for lower GWP refrigerants for automobile air conditioning systems. DuPont and Honeywell said they developed the product jointly but will market and sell it separately.

The companies plan to begin supplying the refrigerant in the fourth quarter of 2011 in time to meet the European Union regulatory requirement.

Noted free marketer Larry Kudlow is now on record demanding European leaders straight-up guarantee all sovereign bank debt now.

Others are talking about a new Plaza Accord so that global governments can systematically step in to help the euro, and devalue their own currencies against it.

Whatever it is, the market is pushing European leaders to the test again today, a day ahead of the weekend.

So do we get some great meeting of the minds this weekend?

Use the comments to share your thoughts.

Join the conversation about this story »

Today at Google I/O Vic Gundotra made a big revelation. Last year, Google was activating 30,000 Android phones a day. The past February, that number jumped to 60,000. Today, Google is now activating over 100,000 Android phones a day.

Android was the second best-selling smartphone this quarter, Gundotra says. They are only behind RIM — and yes, ahead of that other rival. Gundotra also pointed out the stat from AdMob that Android was first in terms of web and app usage among smartphones.

And that’s not all. Gundotra also announced that there were now over 50,000 apps available for the platform. And there are some 180,000 developers working on the platform.

There are now over 60 compatible Android devices from 21 OEMs in 48 countries. The devices are spread across 59 carriers.

[crunchbase url=”http://www.crunchbase.com/product/android,http://www.crunchbase.com/company/google” name=”Android,Google”]

If you can wade through the terrible puns in this article about Hot Chick-a-Latte, a new coffee shop in Denver, you’ll learn that it employs hot chicks to serve coffee in their underwear, which has to be the best and worst idea in a long time. It’s good because it follows a successful business model (Perky Cups, also in Colorado, among others), and it might revitalize the lackluster storefront it’s housed in, because hot chicks do get people out of the house. It’s problematic because once the appeal wears off for everyone who isn’t a perv with no impulse control, fights involving boiling water start happening. Plus, they could drive off female business, since I doubt a whole lot of girls will find the OMG BOOBS gimmick as appealing as guys do. Then again, Hooters is doing OK, so I guess picking a side isn’t a huge financial risk these days.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Happening Now: Reporters are on the scene of Lindsay Lohan’s scheduled probation status hearing at the Beverly Hills Courthouse, where the troubled star is expected to be a no-show because she is stuck in France. The “Mean Girl” had been partying and campaigning for new gig at the Cannes Film Festival before her passport mysteriously disappeared.

The judge is expected to issue a warrant for Lindsay’s arrest if she misses the hearing, and as recently as Wednesday, the star was in a desperate race against time to get back to the City of Angels before her 8:30 AM court deadline. According to RadarOnline.com, Lindsay sent out an email begging friends to send her a private plane. Without a passport, that would be the only way for her to travel internationally. Here’s a copy of Lindsay’s cry to pals:

“I need my friends, and people I work with to PLEASE help me get on a private plane tomorrow by at least 5 PM. This is such a horrible thing that’s happened to me and extremely unfortunate. My passports been stolen and the day before my court hearing. I would never ask such a thing, but if there’s anything that I could ever ask of anyone, it would be to help me with this. I must get back on a jet to LA tomorrow. If anyone has planes leaving Nice/Cannes at any time after 11am when I get my passport, please, please, let me know if you can help me. God bless All my love Thank you, Lindsay Lohan….”

At least she’s got a nice tan to match her new orange jumpsuit….

Email #1:

I am currently seeing a girl who I like to invite over to my place to have some fun.

She often follows through, but at the last minute she flakes or attempts to make changes to my plans. Recently, she’s done this 3 days in a row.

I don’t get angry, but I don’t budge when she asks me, for example, to go out of my way to meet her downtown to hang out with her and her gay friend at the last fucking minute.

I told her that I couldn’t make it, and that I needed two weeks’ notice before we changed any plans from here on out.

At this point, I’m going to be super lazy at responding to her texts.

What do I do to straighten this thing out?

Ed

What we know: Girls flake when your alpha gravity pull is weak. She’s keeping her options open. Think of flaking as a whoreschach test of your mettle — the more you acquiesce to her flakiness, or seem to tolerate it, the more beta you appear. She’s flaked on you three days in a row? This means you attempted to set something up repeatedly in the teeth of three straight disses of your masculinity. Rat-a-tat, alpha down flat! Remember, your time is always worth more than her time. Why behave as if just the opposite is the working premise?

As for not meeting her downtown with her BGBF, well, that’s the minimum threshold of expected spine-stiffened behavior. Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard.

Here’s what I recommend: Stop trying to make plans with her. That should be step number one. It sounds like she’s still texting you out of the blue, so that means she wants to keep you active in her pool of prospects. How does it feel being a third stringer to a disrespectful ego-inflated bitch? Not very alpha, eh? Good. Now take that feeling and turn it into beneficial asshole game. Don’t respond to her texts for a week. When you do respond, keep it short and serrated:

“Hey blabby girl, gotta go. talk later.”

Of course you won’t be talking later. Wait another week. Ignore any of her texts in the interim. After that (if she’s still texting), text her back with this (ignoring whatever was the substance of her text):

“Drinks at 8 at X. Be there by yourself. yr buying 1st round.”

If she balks, don’t reply. Think of this as the textual equivalent of a backturn. Write her off, or, if you’re a particularly cheeky sort of fellow, fuck around with her everytime she texts in the future:

“Still texting? Come over. I got a new couch I want to fuck you on”

“You’re annoying”

“Stop wasting my text plan”

“gay”

“titty fucking. love it or hate it?”

***

Email #2:

I’ve been seeing this girl for a year. We live together and I’ve still got hand. Her during sex two weeks ago: “If you hit me this time use your left hand, the left side of my face hurts from last time.” I’m still flirting with other girls near her, etc.

Two days ago she tells me that a guy that used to be really mean to her when they worked together emailed her out of the blue (apparently they never hooked up) . He said when they worked together three years ago he actually liked her. She wanted to know what she should write back. My antenna tingled. I played it cool and insinuated he was a weirdo but she still wrote him back a short message.

She didn’t say anything else about it. Last night we were at a bar and she was blowing up with texts. I checked her phone and it was the guy. He isn’t very slick, but since she seems to be eating it up, I’m concerned. He is already hinting he’ll come visit her this summer (we’re going to be in separate cities). I’d like to squash this, any suggestions for my next move?

Other facts: This guy is 2,000 miles away now so they haven’t done anything yet. She is leaving in a week and will be gone for the summer. Right now, she doesn’t know that I know this guy been texting her.

ST

Sounds like you’ve got an ingenue on your hands. This type of girl will coordinate the attentions of multiple men in order to ensure she gets access to the maximum amount of resources. Think Carla Bruni. (Until recently, that is. Poor Carla has hit the wall badly, so she will no longer be playing her game of roll out the cock carpet.) When a girl starts waxing soap operatically to you about some random dude out of the blue, it means one of two things — she’s coaxing a jealous reaction out of you so you’ll give her more attention and love, or she’s musing about cheating and/or leaving you and her inner thoughts are tumbling out of her like a burp from a colicky baby.

First, this was a moment when you shouldn’t have played it cool. A bit of the ol’ ultrabadass would have done more good. No girl I’m dating for a year is going to get my permission, either directly or indirectly, to email an interloping male admirer. The way to answer your girlfriend’s head games is with the dread of loss:

“Hey, great idea, you email your hard-up stalker, and I’ll email my ex-girlfriend. Sound like a plan?”

She’ll get the idea.

Unfortunately, she emailed him, and the result was an extended textplay. (If you remind yourself that wordplay to women is like a handjob to men, you’ll be a little less tolerant of your girlfriend’s phone blowing up with texts from another man.) What were you expecting? Girls live for this sort of multi-headed male attention. Your operating assumption from this point forward should be that she will cheat with him if they ever get together. And that she is completely untrustworthy. You may want to run the Door Pattern on her before she leaves on her trip. I wouldn’t confront her about the texts, as this will only make you appear a jealous low-value lover. I’d just insinuate that the upcoming time apart would mean a lot of exhilarating freedom for the two of you, and that any funny stuff that you find out about means you are out the door for good.

~~~

ST emailed me a followup a few days later, after I had already written my reply to his first email above:

Well R, it looks like this is definitely over. She sent him an eight paragraph email. I had four words, “I’m kinda
seeing someone.” Then there was an entire paragraph about meeting up after she leaves for the summer. She’s been extra careful about her phone and now never leaves it around. But strangely she is acting sweeter toward me than ever. I’ve never had so much PDA and baked goods, what’s up with that?

It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s like seeing a wrecking ball arc toward a building: there is time before it happens, but it will definitely happen.

In any case, any ideas for a good way to break this off with a bang?

Me: “Your operating assumption from this point forward should be that she will cheat with him if they ever get together. And that she is completely untrustworthy.”

Called it. Am I good or what?

I’m not surprised that she is piling on the PDA and feminine sweetness now that her gig is about to blow up. I wrote about this phenomenon in this post about a girl whose best fuck I had with her occurred the day before we broke up.

The afternoon before the breakup we had the best sex ever.  She orgasmed freely.  There is something about breakup sex that brings out the animal in women.  Perhaps it is the only time they can completely sever their emotions from sex and just let their vaginas take over with a man they trust.  Or maybe it’s a last hurrah.  I felt used for my body.

I’ll add that guilt can drive a woman to feminine accommodation of the man she has cheated on, or is thinking of cheating on. Particularly if she has had second thoughts and decided that you are a higher value male than the long distance lover. Anyhow, the way I would initiate breakup sequence is with maximum pain and humiliation inflicted. By that I mean, get caught fucking another girl. When your beloved lashes out in fury and anguish, calmly reply:

“I thought you were OK with this. After all, this chick isn’t the only whore I’m fucking.”

***

Email #3:

Hey…..I’ve been a long time reader of yours and wanted to ask a quick q. – I apologize if you have addressed this issue already…I just couldn’t locate the relevant post. Anyhoo here goes:

When a girl you are flirting with mentions/boasts about previous erotic encounters with alphas  e.g “And then I met this total hottie in Paris who blew my mind” or “This reminds me of that argentinean tango dancer I had a fling with once”, how is one supposed to respond? Should it be completely ignored or should one maybe try to counterattack by casually mentioning real or even fictitious encounters with hot girls?

Thanks for your time

D

Classic beta bait. Subconsciously, this is one ploy that a girl will use to take the measure of your manhood. If you show any indignation, hurt, or jealousy, you fail. If you attempt to counterattack with your own hot lover tale, you risk looking try-hard. The way to handle these “alpha male ex machina” (AMEM) shit tests is either through humor or disregard.

“And then I met this total hottie in Paris who blew my mind…”

“You slept with a gay man? Damn, must’ve been a helluva dry spell.”

—

“This reminds me of that Argentinean tango dancer I had a fling with once…”

“Wow, I’ve gotta poop.”

—

“This reminds me of that Argentinean tango dancer I had a fling with once…”

“Use em and lose em, that’s my motto too!”

—

You could parry the AMEM with an AFEM of your own, as long as you do it right. For example:

“This reminds me of that Argentinean tango dancer I had a fling with once…”

“Hey, if we’re gonna trade sex stories from our past, I’ve got a really good one for you. So there was this cute girl and her mom, and a camera hidden in the closet behind a peephole…”

Filed under: Reader Mailbag

The Infiniti Essence concept was one of the most dramatic show cars to come from the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, and it looks as though the radical two-door’s styling will be making the transition to production car.

According to Autocar, Infiniti will style its next-generation G37 Coupe after the Essence show car. Inside sources say a “sizeable” amount of the Essence’s design will make it into the next G Coupe, including the concept’s bold wheel arches and crisp lines.

The Essence was powered by a twin-turbo 3.7L V6 mated to a hybrid drivetrain — developing a very un-hybrid like 590 horsepower — but that configuration will likely be toned down for the next G37. Instead, expect a hybrid system derived from the unit earmarked for the M35 hybrid. The means the G Coupe will likely come packing a 3.5L V6 and an electric motor generating a total of 360 horsepower.

A diesel-hybrid is also said to be under consideration, but the idea is quickly losing favor. The United States in Infiniti’s largest market and has proven to be largely opposed to diesel-powered vehicles. Still, the idea could gain traction for the European market.

References
1. ‘Infiniti Essence to…’ view

   

Source: Leftlane

WASHINGTON – Ditching its past cautious tone, the nation’s top scientists urged the government Wednesday to take drastic action to raise the cost of using coal and oil to slow global warming.

The US National Academy of Sciences urged the government on May 19  to take drastic action to raise the cost of using coal and oil to slow global warming. More specifically it called for a

BlackRock’s Vice Chairman Bob Doll spoke with Betty Liu of Bloomberg Television this morning on where the market was heading. Doll thinks this correction is over, but that we may move sideways for a while.

• 0:20 After the correction, we will see a bull market rally, so long as things stabilize, particularly in Europe
• 1:00 We are now at the end of the correction, price wise, and we now need to be repairing damages
• 1:40 We underestimated the impact of European contagion
• 2:15 We may go sideways before we emerge from this

Join the conversation about this story »

Large Hadron Collider physicists have heard the voice of the “god particle,” the Higgs boson, and it sounds a bit like a child’s music box. Lily Asquith, a physicist searching for the Higgs boson–the elementary particle believed to give everything in the universe mass–is using more than her eyes. With artists and other physicists, she started the LHCsound project to hear subatomic particles. New Scientist reports that the idea arose from a conversation between Asquith and percussionist Eddie Real:
“I was actually doing impersonations of different particles and trying to get him to develop them on his electronic drum kit.”
They decided to use real data about particles (and theoretical data for the yet unseen Higgs) to make some noise. In the process that Asquith calls “sonification,” the researchers match, for example, the particle’s momentum and energy to pitch and volume. The project’s various simulations demonstrate that Higgs won’t be auditioning for Glee anytime soon. Still, Asquith believes that physicists might use her particle music as an analysis tool, since human ears can detect small differences in a sound’s direction (within around three degrees) and frequency (around 0.3 percent). The aim of the project is to combine each particle’s data from the LHC’s ATLAS detector into …

We’ve written about Skyfire before. Plenty of times, actually. It’s the smartphone browser that, by way of data-compression proxies (and tiny wizards), can chew through Flash video and other Rich media formats on Android, Windows Mobile, and S60 handsets. Thus far, Skyfire has been an entirely business-to-consumer operation.

Today, Skyfire makes the good ol’ jump to business-to-business with the launch of Skyfire Rocket.

Rocket comes in two parts: Rocket Device Client and Rocket Cloud Platform.

To my understanding, Rocket Device Client is essentially a white-labeled version of Skyfire 2.0. Debuted on Android just weeks ago, Skyfire 2.0 differs from versions prior in a few major ways: it’s build on WebKit, only video data is sent through Skyfire’s data conversion proxy, and that happens only once the user specifically selects a video to view from the “Skybar”.

The Rocket Platform, on the other hand, is for carriers and manufacturers who want what Skyfire has to offer, but want it in their own browser. In other words, Skyfire is licensing out the video streaming, data compression, and content recommendation tech they’ve built to any third-party willing to cough up the dough.

It’ll be interesting to see how this one goes. Smartphone platforms tend to come with their own browsers, with OEMs and carriers only supplanting the built-in offering when it’s.. well, when it’s pretty terrible. Will this see enough adoption to warrant its creation?

Filed under: Concept Cars, Motorsports, Hybrid, Europe, Porsche, Racing

Porsche made an impressive showing at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring this year with its 911 GT3 R Hybrid. But don’t think for even one power-boosted second that its hybrid initiative was a one-time affair for the Stuttgart-based automaker. Not, at least, if the latest reports from Germany prove accurate.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, mere days after the conclusion of this year’s race, Porsche is already preparing to campaign a competition-spec version of the 918 Spyder at the Ring next year. The 918 Spyder concept debuted just a few months ago at the Geneva Motor Show to rave reviews. Derived from the same program that gave birth to the 917, 911 GT1 and RS Spyder, the 918 Spyder packs 718 horsepower of combined output, 90 miles per gallon and a simulated Nordschleife lap time of 7:30, making it an ideal machine to contest the grueling endurance race. We’ll just have to wait a year to find out whether it lives up to its promise or falls victim to arch-rival BMW.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport (translated)]

Report: Porsche 918 Spyder to contest 2011 Nürburgring 24 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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