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Teachers at Bloomingdale High School in Valrico Florida lip-synch their way through Twisted Sister’s big ’80s hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and spoof their students in a video that’s gone viral on the web.

From Green Right Now Reports

Waste Management, Inc. today announced it participated in a $6.9 million strategic investment in MicroGREEN Polymers, Inc. as part of a Series B round of financing. Houston-based Waste Management joined Seattle-based WRF Capital, Northwest Energy Angels and other private investors in the funding.

MicroGREEN is a plastics company that uses patented technology to reduce the amount of plastic required for the production of consumer products, thereby significantly lowering raw material costs. The company said the new funds will be used to increase engineering, sales and marketing staff, and expand its commercial production capabilities for a wide range of consumer products.

Arlington, Wash.-based MicroGREEN said its Ad-air technology creates bubbles within solid-state plastics to expand the plastic and improve its functionality by creating an internal microcellular structure that is lighter in weight, more insulating, strong and highly reflective. The technology does not involve petrochemical blowing agents or volatile organic compounds in the manufacturing process, and is said to work especially well with recycled PET (rPET) – the world’s most recycled plastic, commonly used to create beverage bottles.

Later this year, MicroGREEN will begin offering a line of Ad-air enhanced rPET sheets in various gauges for converters to transform into consumer products and packaging. The company also plans to launch its first converted product – a low-density, thermally-insulating beverage cup that is recyclable and is itself made from recycled material. MicroGREEN is initially targeting consumer foodservice applications, which according to Global Industry Analysts will represent an over $16 billion market in the United States by 2015.

In a recent lifecycle inventory and analysis study of hot beverage cups conducted by Franklin Associates, Ad-air technology as applied to a recycled PET hot beverage cup has the lowest total amount of energy required to produce a hot beverage cup and the lowest total solid waste as measured in both volume and weight when compared to expanded polystyrene (EPS) and coated paperboard hot beverage cups, the two most commonly used in the market today.

Waste Management said the investment in MicroGREEN Polymers complements its recycling operations and will help the company meet two of its sustainability goals: tripling the amount of recyclables it processes by 2020, and investing in emerging technologies for managing waste.

“Investing in new technologies and companies, such as MicroGREEN Polymers, will enable us to extract more value from the materials we manage than anyone else in our industry,” Pat DeRueda, president of WM Recycling, said in a statement. “As North America’s largest residential recycler, we handle a growing stream of PET and other plastics that can provide the feedstock for Ad-air technology. This could create more value from the materials we recover at our recycling facilities every day.”

Rod Dreher mulls his bias toward declinism while evaluating Matt Ridley’s new book The Rational Optimist. Here’s a portion of Ridley’s argument:

But with new hubs of innovation emerging elsewhere, and with ideas spreading faster than ever on the Internet, Dr. Ridley expects bottom-up innovators to prevail. His prediction for the rest of the century: “Prosperity spreads, technology progresses, poverty declines, disease retreats, fecundity falls, happiness increases, violence atrophies, freedom grows, knowledge flourishes, the environment improves and wilderness expands.”

Dreher gloomily observes:

Well, I would certainly love to be wrong; neither I nor my descendants gain anything out of a world of decline. But it would be useful to go back and look at how 19th-century progressives expected the 20th century to be a wonderland of peace, prosperity and progress. Didn’t quite work out that way. I suspect the truth is that nobody knows anything about tomorrow, and that we can only make our best educated guesses based on history and the wisdom of experience.

Looking at the imaginings of past futurists is often pretty amusing. And Ridley’s projections of plentitude and prosperity seem to involve an extrapolation of the conditions of the past 200 years, whereby a greater and greater proportion of humanity has broken the shackles of the Malthusian trap. The reality is that for most of human history innovation was always immediately counter-balanced by population growth so that median wealth never increased. Only in the 19th century did a new social pattern and demographic dynamic emerge whereby prosperous individuals did not reproduce to a greater extent in keeping with their greater wealth. Rather, societies went through the “demographic transition”, and greater wealth for future generations became the new norm. There’s no reason that this doesn’t have to be a transient state between long epochs of Malthusianism, so I think assuming that the new normal is the normal forever more is a step too far.

That being said, it seems to me that we do truly live in a utopia in any objective terms when viewed from the 19th or early 20th centuries. The Dickensian lot of the poor no longer characterize the lower classes of the developed world, and obesity is actually a feature of the lives of the poor, as opposed to starvation. The period between 1800 and 1970 witnessed a massive shift in earning power to the working classes, and a closing of the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers. Infection has not been abolished, but it is no longer so deadly. Violence has decreased, despite the periodic outbreaks of industrialized genocide. And so on.

Utopia is always over the hill, and the new normal was the aspiration of the past, not the bliss of the present. But the past and the present and the future are actually instantiated simultaneously. Consider three airports which I have sharp experiences of. Dhaka airport is the past. John F Kennedy airport is the present. And Munich airport is the future. If you took a flight from Dhaka to Munich you would have thought that you’d been transported to utopia.

I don’t take these utopian dreams as an injunction toward complacency. Rather, we should appreciate all that modern science, technology and government has achieved, and be vigilant. Before we despair at all which might be lost, remember this famous chart:

Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier—you know, the guy who wants to sue tens of thousands of people for downloading his movie—has made two things very clear over email: pirates are morons, and let’s hope their kids are jailed. More »










Hurt Locker – Nicolas Chartier – AcademyAward – Email – Business

Not long after the release of beta 3, iPhone OS 4 beta 4 has landed on Apple’s Developer website.  Though initial reviews of beta 3 were largely positive, past versions (beta 2) have been plauged with bugs and issues that we can only hope aren’t present in beta 4.  If you have access to a Developer account, go get your download on and report back with your findings!

Update: Looks like beta 4 enables tethering for those heavy data users out there.  Upon installing, a popup can be found that directs users to call AT&T to set up internet tethering.  That being said, the nation’s second largest wireless carrier has openly nixed the idea of tethering until “better network performance” can be attained, so don’t get your hopes up.

Via Engadget Mobile

There are as many different types of boobs as there are shapes of women, and let’s face it — some shapes are nicer than others. While it’s true that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, when it comes to cleavage there are just some lines that must be drawn when a woman steps in front of a camera; it’s a harsh reality of life, after all. Without further ado, these are the 15 worst kinds of boobs — get to know your enemy.

The Bolt-Ons

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Nothing could be more terrifying than a hideous pair of bolt-ons suddenly appearing in your face as you’re minding your own business at the local 80’s night — except maybe seeing them at an awards show. One thing’s for certain here; while it’s true that money can buy just about anything these days, including fake breasts, Victoria Beckham has proven that it can’t buy common sense.

The Saggers

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Saggers are often cited as being every girl’s secret fear, which in the end is often realized due to the natural process of aging. In certain cases, saggers make their debut at an early age — and usually on women who don’t seem to realize the fact. Saggers don’t necessarily have to be large to earn the moniker, and be sure not to mistake a pair of saggers for pancakes. The problem with saggers is that they simply don’t make an effort to stay where you put them, and they certainly don’t belong in public spaces without a good bra.

The Tipped Scale

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Every kid learns at an early age, much to their surprise and befuddlement, that a girl’s pair of girls aren’t ever exactly the same. One is always larger than the other — it’s just usually by an amount so trivial that it can hardly be quantified. In extreme cases of cup-size disparity, you get the tipped scale. More socially savvy women who happen to be afflicted with this nuisance tend to pad a cup to balance things out, but some girls just go commando and wind up as examples in the blogosphere.

The Perpetual Nipples

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Some people like to think that a good bra can cover anything, but with a pair of glass-cutters like these things mounted up front and center, it’s difficult to imagine just keeping a wardrobe without holes worn through every piece. The perpetual nipples aren’t just unsightly and embarrassing though — they’re potentially dangerous, too. It only takes one of them to put an eye out in the wrong situation.

The Pancakes

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Not to be confused with saggers, the pancakes tend to be most evident on girls who are often told to eat something before they die of malnutrition. Pancake boobies are like fossils or ancient ruins — they’re evidence that there was once cleavage where there are now only sad, flappy, forgotten bags of nothingness.

The Widow Makers

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We like to call these widow makers because of their obvious potential to suffocate would-be victims of a smothering hug-attack by the wearers. We say would-be because the odds of a girl sporting these monsters of modern medicine ever snagging a man are worse than winning the lottery.

The Wreck

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The wreck is quite literal, since it’s usually due to a botched plastic surgery, and most closely resembles body-damage from a car wreck. Unlike a car wreck, botched plastic surgery is often irreparable, and let’s face it — a dented boob is quite a bit more unsightly than a dented bumper.

The Anime Special

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Prepubescent boys will ogle and lust after the anime special, but once they grow old enough to realize what things like “poor taste” and “sad pathetic attempts to feel more beautiful” are, they learn that there is such a thing as being proportional. Women who have this done to themselves are generally on the lower end of the porn-industry’s totem pole, but there are some pretty notable exceptions.

The Justin Bieber

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Calling girls who are flatter than boards Justin Biebers may seem a bit mean, but let’s face it, Justin Bieber deserves it. These women spend their entire lives self-conscious of their chestlessness in the starry-eyed belief that someday they may actually grow breasts. Sadly for them (and us) that doesn’t usually happen without surgical intervention, but every so often, one of them grows up to become a Hollywood starlet.

The Migrators

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Migrators may start out in a fairly standard placement in the morning, but they tend to go wherever they please as the day goes on. Women with migrators are usually the type to shun their bras, and even worse, think they have extremely desirable cleavage and try their best to show it off to as many souls as possible. Some people may also refer to these wandering nomads as “drifters.”

The Uniboob

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Alongside the dreaded bolt-ons, the uniboob is quite possibly one of the most frightening and emotionally disconcerting sights to which anyone can be exposed, period. Uniboobs are a genetic oddity, much unlike the more ubiquitous unibrow. While it’s possibly for a girl to be born with these things, it’s much more likely that when you see it, you’re seeing the erred judgment of a girl who couldn’t afford a good plastic surgeon.

The Balloons

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Balloons happen when a woman, on a misguided quest through Breast Augmentation Land, arrives at the point where she officially has the anime special and decides that it’s simply not enough. When a woman has breasts so outlandishly bulbous that they make small children think that the woman may actually float away, the woman has failed.

The Grand Canyon

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The Grand Canyon is one of America’s most celebrated natural wonders. It’s also a great name for a pair of ta-tas that are perennially miles apart. Women with the Grand Canyon are almost always deluded enough to think that they actually have some sort of desirable cleavage on their chest, when in reality all they really have is a set of (usually) fake breasts positioned so far apart that they look flat-chested.

The Blow-Up Doll

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Another surprisingly literal moniker for a seriously disturbing type of boobage — the blow-up doll occurs when a particularly trashy woman decides that regular breast augmentation just isn’t enough for her control-freak attitude; she needs to be able to pump up her assets on a moment’s notice, and what better way to do it than to use an actual pump? Women who go this far have to be able to live comfortably with nozzles on the sides of their fake breasts, as well as the fact that no man will ever want to touch or look directly at them again.

Moobs

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Last but not least; since, after all, breasts are aren’t just a female feature, but mammalian one, are moobs. Moobs are both dreaded and celebrated (celebrated when spotted in hilarious ironic glory at a public swimming pool, dreaded in every other circumstance), and from a purely numerical standpoint, are likely far more prevalent in today’s society than every other type of horrifyingly bad breasts on this list. Unlike the other breasts on this list, moobs are easily corrected with diet and exercise, as they can most often be attributed to a combination of fast food and World of Warcraft.

En el marco del Salón Ecológico de Madrid, del que os daremos cuenta en nuestra habitual cobertura de los salones, se presentará otro modelo de GLP que ya estaba disponible para los profesionales, se trata del Skoda Octavia de GLP.

El motor elegido para funcionar con GLP es el veterano 1.6 MPI de 102 CV, que sufre las modificaciones pertinentes (inyectores, gasificador, un depósito a mayores…) para poder funcionar con gas licuado de petroleo. Lo mejor de este modelo serán los consumos, puesto que según Skoda tendrá un consumo de 9,2 litros de gas a los 100 km y 7,1 l/100 km de gasolina.

Estas cifras pueden parecer elevadas, sobretodo en el consumo de gas, pero hay que recordar que el litro de GLP se encuentra en el mercado a unos 0, 60 €/litro de media, al no estar sujeto al impuesto sobre hidrocarburos. De momento desconocemos los precios que tendrá esta variante de gas, pero si sabemos que las emisiones son bastante contenidas y además que contará con dos niveles de equipamiento Easy y Collection.

El primero de ellos va destinado más bien hacia profesionales, como taxistas, puesto que el Octavia es un coche muy usado por este colectivo, y el otro nivel de equipamiento viene de lo más completo con tapicería de cuero, climatizador o llantas de aleación incluidas. Si queréis saber más sobre el GLP podéis ver la prueba del Chevrolet Captiva de GLP donde explicamos de manera pormenorizada este combustible alternativo.

Fuente | Skoda

McMahon press aide Shawn McCoy dashed off a tweet last week about Rob Simmons’ stance on the Bush business and dividend taxes.

The Simmons’ camp cried foul, saying McCoy was misrepresenting the former congressman’s views. FactCheck.org, a respected and non-partisan group that monitors the factually accuracy of political speech, agrees.

To bolster his claim, McCoy cited Simmons’ criticism of millions of dollars in film and television tax credits that World Wrestling Entertainment received while McMahon was CEO. 

“Simmons’ campaign called the credits McMahon’s “own personal stimulus package.” But the Simmons camp said its issue wasn’t with the tax credits themselves. Instead, it criticized McMahon for campaigning against government “bailouts” while her former company was receiving millions in taxpayer dollars,” FactCheck states.

It’s the second time the McMahon campaign has been slapped by FactCheck for misrepresenting Simmons’ record.

 

Clothing lines clinched the number one spot as the major key player responsible for Target’s higher revenue from sales. Target’s profit clocked in at $671 million which is equivalent to 90 cents per share for the first three months of the year. Preceding year is at $522 million or 65 cents per share. While the giant conglomerate competitor Wal-Mart experienced an unexpected and alarming downfall in one of their discount stores last Tuesday, Target registered an augmentation of 2.8 percent. The rose of sales percentage was indexed in (Target) stores which are already opened for at least one year. Studies show that Wal-Mart loyal customers were found to be the ones more affected by the economic crisis felt by the nation in 2009. On the other hand, those who have been affected but have rather stable finances cling to retailers like Target for a number of considerations. With recession starting to retreat, consumers become wiser and opt to go to retailers and department stores for their needs. Unpredictably, credit card business performed better, taking into consideration the present fiscal predicament. This can be attributed to diminution in bad debt expense from the preceding year. Income from this group grew from $39 million to a whopping $111 million.

Related posts:

1. Wal-Mart 1st Quarter Soars, U.S. Same-Stores To Catch Up
2. Wal-Mart Paying $27.6 million to Settle a Lawsuit
3. GM reports first quarterly profit in almost three years

The fact that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) appears to be headed for a runoff doesn’t bode well for the incumbent’s re-election odds, according to history.

I consulted University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock, who co-wrote the definitive book on the subject, to confirm his study of runoff elections. Overall, whoever places first in a primary wins the runoff 71.8 percent of the time. (So far, looking good for Lincoln.) Things are even better for a Senate primary specifically — the Senate primary leader wins the runoff about 77 percent of the time. (Lt. Gov. Bill Halter beware.)

Not so fast. The odds of winning drop significantly when an incumbent is involved. If the incumbent is the leader in a primary race, he or she wins just 55 percent of the time. The premise behind this is if a voter is willing to vote against the incumbent once, the voter’s more likely to do it again in the runoff.

But that 55 percent applies to all primary races — and last night’s vote was a particularly close one. In an email, Bullock wrote that there are two factors important in the outcome of a runoff: the primary leader’s margin and whether the race is for statewide office. As of this morning, it appeared that Lincoln’s lead was two percentage points or less. The fact that it’s a statewide race means her prospects are even dimmer. So her chances are, by historical standards, likely considerably lower than 55 percent.

To sum it up, “things do not look good for Sen. Lincoln,” Bullock wrote in an email.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Yesterday, Yahoo! Inc. announced it would be acquiring Associated Content Inc., and the transaction would cost the search company an estimated $100 million.

Associated Content calls itself the “People’s Media Company,” and is a media outlet consisting of more than 380,000 freelancers publishing news, photos, video, and other content on subjects chosen by the site.

“Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content’s makes this a game-changer,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. “Together, we’ll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network. These are important aspects of building engaging consumer experiences on Yahoo!, and one of the reasons why we’re one of the most visited destinations online.”

Since Yahoo signed its 10-year search agreement with Microsoft last year, effectively bowing out of the search business, the company has been working on strengthening its other properties. This acquisition is a move toward having more of its own original content, which will give advertisers more opportunities to target users.

Associated Content will continue to run as it has been, with the same staff, but new people will be added to “augment platform development, programming, content programming and customer support.” Ultimately, the platform will move from being a U.S.-only entity to a global one.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
















Associated Content – Yahoo – Carol Bartz – Microsoft – Business

We’ve covered the ongoing fight over copyright termination rights lately, as it’s quickly becoming a big deal. While the whole concept shows part of how messed up copyright law has become, one element included to help artists (rather than just big companies) when copyright terms were extended, were opportunities for the original artists or their estates to “terminate” the assignment of copyright to a company. The details are highly technical and a bit of a mess, and the entertainment industry has worked hard for years to try to bury termination rights (most famously when the RIAA had a Congressional staffer — who was hired just months later to a high-paying RIAA job — slip some text into a bill in the middle of the night that took termination rights away from musicians, until musicians freaked out and Congress backtracked). Even so, the big entertainment industry companies have been fighting against every attempt at artists or their estates reclaiming their copyrights for years. The most famous case was the case over Superman’s rights — which concluded last year with the estate of Jerry Siegel winning back certain rights (while letting Warner retain other Superman-related rights).

The lawyer who represented the Siegel estate, Marc Toberoff, has been pushing content creators and their estates to understand (and make use of) termination rights for a long time. And it’s no surprise that we’re now seeing new efforts under way from musicians and others, including comic book artist Jack Kirby. Kirby, not surprisingly, is also represented by Toberoff, who isn’t just representing these artists in helping them get back their copyrights, but he’s apparently set up his own production studio to help make use of those copyrights once he helps the artists get them back.

Apparently, Warner Bros. (a frequent target of Toberoff) has had enough and has decided to sue Toberoff personally, claiming that… well… basically that he’s a jerk and a savvy business person, which I didn’t quite realize was illegal. Specifically, they seem to be claiming that Toberoff “manipulated” the creators of Superman, having them hand over a large percentage of the rights to the character if he was able to successfully manage the termination. Part of Warner’s complaint is that Siegel and Shuster had apparently signed agreements promising not to exercise their termination rights, but as I’m sure Warner’s lawyers know (they must know this, right?), you cannot contractually give up your termination rights, or all entertainment industry companies would require that in their standard contract.

Frankly, reading through the complaint — which you can read below — it looks like Warner is attempting to retry the Superman termination rights case that it already lost:

While I still think there are all sorts of problems with termination rights in copyright law, and have no doubt that Toberoff had plenty of reasons beyond helping artists get back their copyrights in agreeing to represent these artists, it is somewhat amusing to see Hollywood flail around so desperately to try to keep absolutely monopolistic control over these rights. Of course, if the copyright law that was in place when Superman was created was still in place, the character of Superman would no longer be covered by copyright at all today, but would, instead, be in the public domain. So, forgive me for feeling little sympathy for anyone involved in this tug of war over who gets to exploit the creation for more money.

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Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs

Rajiv Dube, the mind behind Tata Motors‘ move into the passenger car world, has decided to part ways with the company after 27 years. Dube joined Tata way back in 1983, and neither he nor the company are saying exactly why the long-standing exec decided to move on. Our guess is that after 20 years, retirement was sounding plenty tasty. Cars like the Nano and Indica hatchback can all pledge their allegiance to Dube’s market-minded approach to the automobile.

According to Automotive News, Dube’s position will be filled internally. S. Krishnan will now helm the premier car division while Girish Wagh will take on both small-car and passenger-car operations.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Ta ta, Tata: Tata Motors car head reportedly resigns originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 May 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yup, it’s another game where you shoot the baddies in the face. This time it’s set in Vietnam. Exciting.

We’ve written about Wynn Resorts (WYNN) before, both in this space and elsewhere. When we do, it always seems to have something to do with cheap or free housing.

Now along comes Linda C. Chen, Wynn’s newly minted chief operating officer for Wynn Resorts (Macau) S.A. We imagine it’s a pretty glamorous job, what with the grand opening of the Encore Macau, the company’s new all-suites hotel and casino. (Read Robin Leach’s take in the Las Vegas Sun.)

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Wynn is willing to guarantee Chen a salary of at least $1.5 million a year — for 10 years. Performance reviews, Chen’s employment agreement tells us, can increase her salary, but can’t reduce it. She also gets use of a car while posted in China’s special administrative gambling region. If she’s fired without cause, she gets up to four years’ salary (which would be a minimum of $6 million).

And then there’s the house:

“Wynn Macau has agreed to purchase Ms. Chen a home in Macau costing approximately $5.4 million (US) (the “Macau House”).”

We haven’t done much house-hunting in Macau, nor do we know just which house Chen is getting, but that sounds like a pretty nice place, to judge by what’s online. Even nicer — and not mentioned in the 8-K summary that accompanied Chen’s contract when it was filed on Monday — “Wynn Macau shall provide improvements to the Macau House as approved by the President of [Worldwide Wynn],” the subsidiary of Wynn Resorts that employs Chen.

And then the truly nice part: If Chen plays her cards right, the house is hers free of charge, or awfully close to it.

If she’s fired without cause, for example, or leaves for any of a list of “good” reasons after a change in control, she gets the house for a buck. That’s $1 U.S. (Good reason, it’s worth noting, includes a reduction in her salary.)

Otherwise, she pretty much has the option to buy the house at an attractive discount to fair market value: Wynn gets the house appraised, and she gets to knock 10% off that price for each year she’s worked under her contract. Yes, if she makes it the end of the 10-year contract, that means she gets the house for nothing. Or, as the contract puts it:

“On February 25, 2020, Employee shall have the right to purchase the Macau House for the Purchase Price (defined below); provided that the Employee is still employed with Employer (it is expected that the Purchase Price on such date will be $0 (US)) …”

There is a flip side to this homey arrangement, however. If Chen is fired for cause — which includes committing a felony or “the willful destruction by Employee of the property of Employer … having a material value” — Wynn can essentially put the house to her, forcing her to buy it and deducting the cost from severance or other amounts it owes her.

Even then, she gets the 10%-a-year discount. With a deal like that — if we were the betting sort — we’d put money on Chen for the finish.

Image source: banspy via Flickr

So you dropped somewhere north of $90,000 for your new 2011 BMW X6 M but want it to look a little more aggressive than it does so you can stand out from the crowd. Well, AC Schnitzer is here to help.

The BMW tuner is offering a bunch carbon fiber modifications ranging from a front spoiler, rear roof spoiler, rear wing, and rear diffuser. You can also get extra design elements for the front skirt and a chromed front grille, carbon Bonnet Vents (Buick style) with a chromed centre web. AC Schnitzer is also offering its Bonnet Top of made of carbon with a plexiglas panoramic window through which you can see your engine.

Click here to get prices on the 2011 BMW X6 M.

When it comes to wheels for your X6 M, AC Schnitzer is offering its long range of shoes ranging from 20-inches to 23-inches.

AC Schnitzer says that it is currently working on performance upgrades with a delimiting the Vmax and a sports exhaust and will provide more details on that soon.

Click through for the press release and the high-res image gallery.

AC Schnitzer BMW X6 M:

Press Release:

Powerful and sporting:
The X6 M by AC Schnitzer with “Motorsport Genes”

Pure dynamism with powerful lines – unmistakeably the “motorsport gene”: evident at first sight in the BMW X6 M. And the X6 M by AC Schnitzer is even more powerful and sporting.

The Aachen-based tuning specialist is currently working on a performance upgrade which, in combination with delimiting the Vmax and a sports exhaust, will bring a further perceptible increase in the power of the X6 M. And if that’s not enough, you can also opt for the carbon fibre AC Schnitzer engine styling. Even without a performance upgrade, the acoustic and visual attraction will be enhanced by the AC Schnitzer sports rear silencer with two chromed “Sports Trim” tailpipe trims in right/left combination.

AC Schnitzer not only gives the BMW X6 M more power, but also a tailored race outfit of carbon. Front spoiler, rear roof spoiler, rear wing, rear diffuser and design elements for the front skirt and chromed front grille give the X6 M an impressive and muscular appearance. As an option, the carbon Bonnet Vents with chromed centre web complete the sporting look.

A real highlight is the new AC Schnitzer Bonnet Top of carbon with plexiglas panoramic window through which the engine is permanently visible.

For the X6 M – 1.98 metres wide as standard – AC Schnitzer has adapted the FALCON wheel arch extensions so that the BMW body gains an extra 40 mm width each side.

The already sporting interior ambience of the BMW X6 M has been refined further in the Aachen works. The instrument panel conversion – speedo and rev counter with AC Schnitzer logo, white dials, red pointers and red lighting – gives the X6 M a speedometer display up to 360 km/h. The carbon interior trim and the AC Schnitzer steering wheel spokes in new “black Exclusiv” design and the AC Schnitzer aluminium cover for the i-Drive system controller, aluminium footrest and pedal set, and velour foot mats, round off the interior package.

The wheelarches of the X6 M by AC Schnitzer can be filled with 20″, 22″ or imposing 23″ AC Schnitzer wheels in Type IV BiColor, Type VII silver, black or BiColor, or the AC Schnitzer forged alloys Type V or forged racing rims Type VIII BiColor. In combination with the 275, 315, 295 or 335 tyres, it’s easy for the driver in the cockpit to transfer the engine power to the track, and at the same time provide external evidence of the “motorsport gene” of the X6 M by AC Schnitzer even when stationary.Overview for Press Release No. 05/2010

X6 M by AC Schnitzer (E71)

Basic car: BMW X6 M

Engine: AC Schnitzer carbon engine styling optic

Exhaust: AC Schnitzer sports rear silencer with chromed “Sports Trim”
tailtrims (left / right)

Aerodynamics:

AC Schnitzer front spoiler, carbon
AC Schnitzer design elements for front skirt, carbon
AC Schnitzer front grille, chromed
AC Schnitzer bonnet top, carbon with acrylic glass panorama window
AC Schnitzer bonnet vents, carbon
AC Schnitzer chromed centre bar for bonnet vents
AC Schnitzer wheel arch extensions
AC Schnitzer rear roof wing, carbon
AC Schnitzer rear wing, carbon
AC Schnitzer rear diffuser, carbon

Interior:

AC Schnitzer instrument displays
speedometer conversion up to 360km/h, rev counter both with
AC Schnitzer Logo on tachometer, white background – black disposed,
red needles, red illuminated
AC Schnitzer carbon interior “black Exclusiv”
AC Schnitzer steering wheel insert, carbon “black Exclusiv”
AC Schnitzer carbon cover for automatic gear knob
AC Schnitzer aluminium cover for i-Drive system controller
AC Schnitzer aluminium foot rest and pedal set
AC Schnitzer velours floor mats

Wheel/Tyre sets

FALCON: AC Schnitzer Lightweight Forged Wheels Type V
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 22 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 10,0J x 22″ offset -10 with tyres 335/25 R 22

AC Schnitzer Wheels Type VII silver, black and BiColor
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 20 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 11,5J x 22″ offset -10 with tyres 335/25 R 22

AC Schnitzer Racing Forged Wheels Type VIII BiColor
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 20,5 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 11,5J x 22″ offset -10 with tyres 335/25 R 22
front: 11,0J x 23″ offset 30 with tyres 315/25 R 23
rear: 12,0J x 23″ offset -12 with tyres 315/25 R 23

Wheel/Tyre sets: AC Schnitzer Wheels Type IV BiColor
front: 10,0J x 20″ offset 34 with tyres 275/40 R 20
rear: 10,0J x 20″ offset 15 with tyres 275/40 R 20
front: 10,0J x 20″ offset 34 with tyres 275/40 R 20
rear: 11,5J x 20″ offset 22 with tyres 315/35 R 20

AC Schnitzer Wheels Type VII silver, black and BiColor
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 30 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 10,0J x 22″ offset 5 with tyres 295/30 R 22
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 30 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 11,5J x 22″ offset 23 with tyres 335/25 R 22
AC Schnitzer Lighweight Forged Wheels Type V
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 31 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 10,0J x 22″ offset 3 with tyres 295/30 R 22
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 31 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 11,5J x 22″ offset 23 with tyres 335/25 R 22

AC Schnitzer Racing Forged Wheels Type VIII BiColor
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 29,5 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 10,0J x 22″ offset 8,5 with tyres 295/30 R 22
front: 10,0J x 22″ offset 29,5 with tyres 295/30 R 22
rear: 11,5J x 22″ offset 23 with tyres 335/25 R 22
front: 11,0J x 23″ offset 35,5 with tyres 315/25 R 23
rear: 12,0J x 23″ offset 33,5 with tyres 315/25 R 23

– By: Kap Shah

Afghan insurgents attacked today the U.S. Central Command base in the prison of Bagram, which left five soldiers wounded, NATO sources reported.

Spokesmen of the Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) explained to reporters in Kabul that the rebels used rocket launchers, grenades and automatic weapons against the giant military installation, about 45 miles north of Baghdad.

Bagram base also serves on the Pentagon as a center of torture and imprisonment of suspects since November 2001.

According to the official, five soldiers were wounded and seven insurgents were killed during the attack on Bagram, whose enormous airport is used by aircraft of the United States and NATO.

The assault continued with sporadic firing of rockets and light weapons outside the base.

One missile hit inside the base, causing minor damage but no insurgency broke into Bagram, according to NATO. Helicopter gunships flew over the base.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, reported that 20 of their fighters attacked the base on the east and west flanks and four of them detonated explosives belts in front of the enclave.

That attack came just hours after the United States and NATO register a black day yesterday with the death of eight soldiers.

Six soldiers, five Americans and one Canadian, were killed in a car bomb attack claimed by rebels caused a total of 18 killed in Kabul.

Two other soldiers were also killed in the restive southern territory, which rose to 210, including 130 Americans, the number of occupants killed since the beginning of the year in Afghanistan, according to a count of the independent website icasualties.org.

Related posts:

1. Taliban Attacks Bagram Air Base
2. An attack against NATO in Kabul kills 18 people
3. Attack on U.S Consulate in Pakistan

KNOXVILLE — Do you know what is in your drinking water? A study by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor may have you thinking twice the next time you fill up that glass of tap water.

Larry McKay, an earth and planetary sciences professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, sampled eight community water supply sources in East Tennessee and found concentrations of viruses and bacteria linked to human feces that could potentially cause waterborne disease.

The study, “Viruses and Bacteria in Karst and Fractured Rock Aquifers in East Tennessee, USA” is published in the electronic version of “Ground Water” and will appear in a special edition of the journal, “Pathogens and Fecal Indicators in Ground Water” later this year.

McKay surveyed samples of raw water from eight wells or springs throughout East Tennessee. Half of the water sources were considered high-risk for fecal contamination and the other were considered low-risk, based on previous data. McKay primarily sampled wells and springs in karst aquifers, which are made of limestone, because they are commonly used as water sources in the region and have a reputation for carrying bacteria.

“Karst aquifers have long been recognized as having high susceptibility to fecal contamination because they have features, such as sinkholes and caverns, which act as pathways for rapid flow and transport of contaminants,” McKay said.

The water samples were analyzed for fecal bacteria, E.coli and coliforms, Bacteroides and infectious viruses.

All of the high-risk water sources contained E.coli, coliforms, Bacteroides and infectious viruses. One of the low-risk water sources had E.coli and coliforms; half had Bacteroides; and three-quarters had infectious viruses. All of the wells and springs sampled in the study are used for public water supply, but the water is treated before being distributed, so the contamination measured in the study doesn’t represent a direct risk to consumers. However, these results shed light on a potential health hazard for part of the Tennessee population.

“The real concern is for the numerous small non-community water systems and household wells, where local residents typically drink groundwater that hasn’t been filtered or disinfected,” McKay said. “It’s likely that many of these residents are being exposed to waterborne fecal contamination, both bacterial and viral, but it isn’t clear how big a health risk this represents. Local and regional research is needed to assess the health impacts.”

McKay noted waterborne fecal contamination affects people in varying degrees; some people may have no symptoms while others may become seriously ill or even die.

McKay worked with Alice Layton, Gary Sayler and Dan Williams from the UT Center for Environmental Biotechnology on the East Tennessee water quality study, which has ended. The group currently is involved in a large, multi-university study that investigates the links between contaminated water and disease occurrence in rural villages in Bangladesh. The researchers hope to take some of what is learned in Bangladesh and apply it to problems in Tennessee.

—

C O N T A C T:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, [email protected])

Stand Up To Cancer, a 2008 multichannel TV fundraiser that helped raise more than $100 million for cancer research, returns in September.

Evening news anchors Katie Couric (CBS Evening News), Diane Sawyer (ABC World News Tonight), and Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News) are coming together for the third annual Stand Up to Cancer Tele-A-Thon to raise money and awareness for a new model of cancer research.

The star-studded show will air at 8 PM ET/PT Sept. 10 on ABC, CBS NBC, HBO, Discovery Health, E!, MLB Networks, and The Style Network.

Now that the whole controversy has blown over, Tiger Woods has made his comeback. EA Sports really stood by their man (qjnet/news/tiger-finds-a-true-bff-in-ea-sports-tiger-woods-pga-tour-online-game-to-push-through.html) in his time of crisis, so now, the PGA hotshot can go back from