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Filed under: Aftermarket, Performance, Europe, Porsche, Earnings/Financials, Celebrities, Luxury

Word out of Germany is that things aren’t looking any better for Gemballa. The famed Porsche tuner is well on its way through bankruptcy after founder and CEO Uwe Gemballa suddenly “disappeared” in South Africa back in February. Judging by our less than trusty Google Translator, Auto Bild says that the company had trouble paying its employees and Uwe set up a shadow corporation with his mother as the sole stock holder just before pulling a Houdini. The article says that he was seeking investors in his new venture in Abu Dhabi and South Africa when the tuning legend vanished off of the face of the Earth.

With the founder missing and no leads to his whereabouts, South African police are beginning to suspect the worst. Likewise, the company has gone from being one of the world’s most renowned Porsche tuners to being raided by tax men and other law-enforcement agencies. Either way, we don’t expect to be seeing new Gemballa creations anytime soon, as the shop has apparently been shuttered after nearly 30 years.

[Source: Auto Bild]

Gemballa reportedly closes up shop, Uwe still missing originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 May 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WASHINGTON–Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan paid a courtesy call on Tuesday to Sen. Al Franken (D-Mn.), the former comic who joined the Senate just in time for the confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Franken used that to riff with Kagan during a photo op before their meeting on Tuesday.

Sotomayor broke her ankle just after she was nominated, so Franken told Kagan,” So you’re doing much better than her.”

He added, ” Yeah. Yeah. Doing much better than her.

And it was very strange for me, because I had actually watched, I think, every confirmation hearing that had ever been televised, not the whole thing, just a little bit, you know. And so here I was going to be — so to me, it was, like, a really big deal, as I can imagine it’s, like, going to be a big deal for..”

Said Kagan, “But now it’s sort of –“

Franken said, “Now it’s just old hat. …. But also, I’m not a lawyer, as you might know.”

Let’s pick up the transcript from here….

MS. KAGAN: I didn’t know that, actually.

SEN. FRANKEN: You didn’t?

MS. KAGAN: I didn’t. You played one on TV.

SEN. FRANKEN: I played one in a sketch. (Laughs.)

SEN. KAGAN: (Laughs.)

SEN. FRANKEN: But not in a — not even in a recurring series, you know.

Q (Off mike.)

STAFF: Thanks, guys, let’s go.

SEN. FRANKEN: So, you know, my — (inaudible) — to ask questions almost as a proxy for people who aren’t lawyers.

MS. KAGAN: Real people.

SEN. FRANKEN: Huh?

MS. KAGAN: Real people.

SEN. FRANKEN: Real people.

STAFF: Let’s go, guys.

SEN. FRANKEN: And I kind of thought that the —

STAFF: Guys?

Škoda lanza la nueva versión de su compacto más potente: el nuevo Škoda Fabia RS. Aprovechará el Salón de Ginebra para hacer el lanzamiento a nivel mundial de esta edición junto con el Škoda Fabia Combi RS, premiere mundial, con un motor TSI 1.4 de 180 cv con 224 km/h de límite (226 en el caso del Combi) y una aceleración de 0 a 100 km/h en 7,3 segundos, números de bólido.

Por primera vez, Škoda Auto monta un motor gasolina de cuatro cilindros con doble compresor que aparte de arrojar semejantes cifras en velocidad y aceleración ofrece un consumo de 6,4 litros a los 100 en ciclo combinado. A ver qué tal le sienta a la competencia, partiendo por debajo de los 20.000 €.

El Fabia RS tiene obviamente modificaciones estéticas, llantas de aluminio de 17” Gigaro diseñadas especialmente para este modelo, pinzas de freno en color rojo, cristales tintados y parachoques trasero rediseñado con doble salida del tubo de escape y un parachoques delantero específico con los faros antiniebla delanteros integrados que pueden incluir bien la función de giro Cornerlight bien la función de luz diurna con LEDs.

Dependiendo del color escogido para la carrocería podremos cambiar el color del techo, los spoilers y las llantas a rojo, negro o plateado. Mejoras tecnológicas en el chasis como el ESP, ABS y ASR junto con la tecnología exclusiva XDS hacen de este modelo un urbano muy equipado. Lo acompañamos de una galería fotográfica para que le puedas echar una ojeada.

Fuente | Škoda

Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) recent hit the Virginia International Raceway (VIR) to do some track testing on the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500.

Click here to get prices on the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500.

Vehicle Dynamics engineer Gene Martindale piloted the 2011 Shelby GT500 coupe equipped with the new aluminum 550-hp, 5.4L engine and the optional SVT Performance Package. Martindale brought in a lap time of 2:58.48, over eight seconds faster around VIR than the 2010 model. Ford says that the lap time is comparable to six-figure supercars.

Refresher: The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe and Convertible are powered by a 5.4L supercharged V8 making 550-hp (an increase of 10-hp) with a peak torque of 510 lb-ft. The new powertrain weighs 102 pounds lighter, resulting in a better power-to-weight ratio, improved fuel-economy, acceleration, handling and steering precision. Buyers can also opt for the SVT Performance Package to further enhance performance. For 2011, the Shelby GT500 gets an EPA-projected fuel-economy of 23/15 mpg (city/highway).

2011 Ford Shelby GT500:

2011 Shelby GT500 at Virginia International Raceway Grand West Course:

2011 Ford Shelby GT500:

– By: Kap Shah

Indrani, also known as Julia I. Pal-Chaudhuri, is  a 36 year old photographer reality star. Indrani is part of the highly regarded lens duo, Markus Klinko and Indrani. Indrani, publicized that she and Lindsay went out on a series of dates in Los Angeles. It has been stated that Indrani and Lindsay Lohan lately spent the night at Lindsay Lohan’s hotel room.

Indrani have commented to New York Post that she and Lindsay Lohan are spending a lot of time together. What adds to the intrigue is that Indrani never had a relation with any women before.

Indrani or Julia I. Pal-Chaudhuri have stated in admiration to Lindsay Lohan: “Lindsay is just somebody whi I find fascinating, gorgeous, and extremely smart, as well as super-hot…”

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Back from a week out of country, I confirmed a theory: the iPad makes a fantastic travel computer. So much so that I’m going to be selling my laptop. More »

Yves Guillemot had the floor in an investor briefing earlier, and the Ubisoft CEO put two of their top earners into the spotlight. Different they may be in time and setting, but Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter

The market’s tanking, yet there’s one major stock that just isn’t budging so far. Walmart beat analyst estimates, with 1Q profit rising 10%. Despite the market’s dip, WMT shares have held up extremely well so far today despite other early gainers falling into the red.

WMT holding all day…

Despite the market just dropping.

(Charts via Yahoo and Finviz, if you can’t see them visit here)

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Softbank, Japan’s fastest-growing wireless carrier, plans to embed a Twitter application on to the welcome screen of 14 upcoming cellphones in the hopes of driving mobile data adoption through the popular micro-blogging service.

Twitter is quickly becoming one of the most popular social-networking sites in Japan, reports The New York Times. The number of unique users surged there from 521,000 in April 2009 to 7.52 million in March, nearly catching up to Japan’s biggest social networking site, Mixi, which had about 10.8 million unique users in March, according to Nielsen Online Japan. Softbank’s founder and CEO Masayoshi Son is a living example of that phenoonon. As one of Twitter’s biggest fans, he urges all of his employees to tweet, and has claimed to have replied from his bathtub, using an iPhone protected by a Ziploc bag.

With prominent placement on the handset, the partnership will likely drive further adoption in the country because it will make discovering the application easy. Kevin Thau, Twitter’s mobile platform director said from a news conference in Japan: “We expect to start growing faster than ever here with increased awareness of Twitter. People tend to explore when they get new phones.”

Twitter’s launch with Softbank may be part of its decision to start making its own clients for phones. It recently launched one for Android and for BlackBerry following the purchase of iPhone client Tweetie in April. While the decision upset third-party developers, Twitter believes it is the best way to serve new users.

A banda de rock americana ZZ Top chega ao Brasil na próxima quarta-feira (19) para dar início à sua primeira turnê no país. O grupo será recepcionado em grande estilo por uma carreata de carros antigos liderada pelo ZZ Cruiser, o Chrysler PT Cruiser tunado (veja galeria de fotos ao final da matéria), em homenagem à visita do ZZ Top.

O veículo, tunado em homenagem à primeira turnê que a banda ZZ Top fará no Brasil, poderá ser visto na entrada do Via Funchal, local onde acontecerão os shows do ZZ Top em São Paulo, nos dias 20 e 21 de maio.

O ZZ Cruiser teve seu projeto de autenticidade assinado pelo ex-piloto Emerson Fittipaldi e foi apresentado ao público pela primeira vez durante a quinta edição do Salão do Carro e Acessórios, realizada em abril.

O veículo seguirá para os Estados Unidos e entrará para a coleção de automóveis customizados e Hot Rods de Billy Gibbons, vocalista e guitarrista do ZZ Top. A banda encerra sua turnê brasileira no dia 23 de maio, na cidade de Porto Alegre.

PT Cruiser mostra seu lado rocker

O projeto ZZ Cruiser foi concebido por Sandro Marcasso, restaurador e customizador, numa parceria entre a Chrysler do Brasil, a Alive Concerts e o escritório Fittipaldi. Uma das principais mudanças ocorridas com a tunagem é a pintura, que valoriza o design retrô do PT Cruiser e também faz referência ao estilo dos Hot Rods das décadas de 30, 40 e 50. Há a presença de dois tons, chamados de saia e blusa, nas cores vermelho e preto.

A faixa divisória do veículo, por sua vez, foi estilizada a partir do logotipo da banda, formado pela junção de duas letras “z”. Foram mantidas as rodas aro 17” e incluídos novos sistemas de som. No interior, as capas dos bancos receberam o emblema da banda e o painel ganhou a inscrição ZZ Cruiser.

A idéia de tunar o PT Cruiser em homenagem ao ZZ Top não surgiu à toa. O guitarrista e vocalista da banda, Billy Gibbons, é considerado um dos maiores entusiastas e colecionadores de automóveis customizados e Hot Rods do mundo. Sua coleção inclui veículos originários de todos os países nos quais o ZZ Top realiza turnês, comumente utilizados para estampar as capas dos discos da banda. Com o ZZ Cruiser, o Brasil também estará representado.

Fonte: Maxpress

The Karate Kid is an upcoming 2010 martial arts film remake of the epic 1984 film of the same name. Directed by Harald Zwart, the remake stars Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith) and Jackie Chan. Principal photography for the film took place in Beijing, China; filming began around July 2009 and ended on mid October. The Karate Kid will be distributed by Columbia Pictures theatrically in the United States on June 11, 2010. Unlike the 1984 movie, The Karate Kid, the 2010 remake does not feature the modern interpretation of karate, which is from Okinawa. Despite its title, the new film focuses on a boy learning kung fu in China. Chan has told interviewers that film cast members have been referring to the movie as the Kung Fu Kid, and he believes the film will only be called The Karate Kid in America, and The Kung Fu Kid in Asia.

The plot bears many similarities to the original Karate Kid film, with some notable differences. Twelve year old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) is the most popular kid in Detroit until he and his single mother (Taraji P. Henson) move because of a pivotal career change made by his mother. In their new home of Beijing, Parker falls for a young school student named Mei Ying. Both children find it hard to form a solid friendship with each other because of their cultural differences and because Ying’s father does not approve of their relationship. To make matters worse, this attraction makes him the enemy of the infamous bully leader, Cheng, who gives Parker the nickname of ‘The Karate Kid’ due to his severely limited knowledge of Karate, hence the title of the film.

With the bullies constantly throwing him to the ground, and with no one else to turn to, the outlook for Parker’s new life looks bleak until he meets Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who makes a deal with the bullies’ kung-fu master that if they let Dre train they can fight Dre in the upcoming tournament. A quirky mentor and a kung-fu master in secret, Mr. Han teaches Parker kung-fu through unconventional, yet effective techniques to help make life in his new home an easier affair and hopefully stand up to the bullies. It involves training in places such as the Great Wall of China. The entire plot eventually builds up to a grand finale with Dre Parker battling against Cheng and his allies in a large scale Martial Arts Tournament.

The film will contain homages to the original film, including a variation on the famous fly catching scene in which Chan’s character ends up swatting it instead of using chopsticks; the theatrical trailer shows this scene with the original movie’s theme “You’re the Best” playing.

What are cognitive biases?

In essence, they are the way humans come to incorrect conclusions. You think you’re right, but you actually have no idea. Barry Ritholtz recently published a presentation, released by the Royal Society of Account Planning, states the following:

“Such biases are thought to be a form of ‘cognitive shortcut,’ often upon rules of thumb, and include errors in statistical judgment, social attribution, and memory. These biases are a common outcome of human thought, and often drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. The phenomenon is studied in cognitive science and social psychology.”

Basically, you shouldn’t go convincing yourself that you have your best interests at heart. Check out how  society ultimately judges itself. Across business disciplines — notably investing, but not solely — cognitive biases are extremely important.

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That’s all, folks!

Feeling egotistical? So are these guys:

Here Are 12 Media Big Shots Giving Speeches At This Year’s Commencement Ceremonies

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As one of our readers, you are among the most tech-savvy folks online, and if that savviness extends to either developing web content or managing it, we want to hear from you!

GigaOM is hiring. We’re looking for a senior-level WordPress developer and a Junior Webmaster, both full-time positions, as well as a project manager to work on a contract basis. All three require working out of our offices here in San Francisco.

Find out if it’s you we’re looking for to join our rapidly growing team — the required skills and experience for each position are laid out here. If so, we hope to you from you soon!

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Featuring:
Fred Krupp, President
Steve Cochran, Director, National Climate Campaign

Will the oil disaster in the Gulf help or hinder the passage of an historic climate and energy bill? What are the prospects for winning bipartisan support? What can we expect to hear from the bill’s opponents?

Listen to this discussion:

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Imagine you’re sitting at home, tethering your phone to your laptop, enjoying what you believe to be free internet access as part of a promotional offer.  Then weeks later, you open your mailbox, and are greeted with an $18,000 cell phone bill with charges for said internet.  Believe it or not, it happened to Bryan St. Germain in 2006.  According to the report, Verizon Wireless offered St. Germain a two-year promotional offer of free internet access, which had just ended when his son used the phone to tether to his computer. 

Verizon offered to cut the phone bill in half prior to sending it to collections, but it now considers the remaining balance “uncollectible.”  The company added that cases of that nature are “exceptionally rare.”  I would certainly hope so.  At the end of the day, the bill has been waived, but the good news comes with a bit of a caveat: since the charges were posted to the account in 2006, the bill was sent to collections, thus damaging his credit.

Via AP News (image via CDN)

How heavy is too heavy to serve hot wings at Hooters? Cassie Smith, a pretty 20-year-old who works at one of the chain’s Detroit restaurants, says she was put on “weight probation” by her bosses — although most people walking beside her on the street wouldn’t consider the blonde overweight.

Cassie, who is almost five foot, eight inches tall and weighs 132 pounds, claims her supervisors and two female Hooters reps from the company’s Atlanta headquarters told her she would need to slim down if she wanted to keep the waitressing job she’s had for the past two years.

“These women proceeded to explain to me that I had 30 days and they would give me a free gym membership, and if I didn’t improve within those 30 days I would be separated from the company. If I improved a little bit I would get 30 more days, and if I improved completely they would leave me alone,” Smith said.

I was horrified. I was completely heartbroken. I was humiliated.”

Cassie — who is a size X-Small, mind you — has hired an attorney to represent her in a possible weight discrimination lawsuit against Hooters.

“I don’t want other girls to have to go through this. I don’t want anyone to have to go through this. If I could’ve gone back and not worked there for two years to take back that feeling, I would do it.”

Hooters stands by it’s remarks about Cassie’s weight, arguing that federal law permits them to judge appearance as part of employee efficiency — as is similar practice with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and the Radio City Rockettes.

Linda Mcmahon, the former WWE CEO and wife of wrestling icon Vince McMahon, is a Republican Senate candidate and is claiming that she fed Blumenthal Vietnam Story to New York Times. Linda Mcmahon claims she fed the New York Times their current story about Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal’s exaggerated Vietnam service or Blumenthal Vietnam Story, as stated by the DailyCaller.com.

It appears that Linda Mcmahon claims a blog post on her website brought the information about her opponent’s military service to light. Also, Linda Mcmahon took the post down after handing the story off to the NY Times. The Blumenthal Vietnam story has been reported by Kevin Rennie, who has confirmed that the Blumenthal Vietnam story was “fed to the paper by the Linda McMahon Senate campaign.”

See more of the news linking Linda Mcmahon to Blumenthal Vietnam issue…

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Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Performance, Japan, Suzuki, Specialty

Shelby Cobra. A mere mention of the beast is enough to send enthusiasts’ hearts aflutter and cause the minds of those lucky enough to have piloted such a beast to reel with fast-paced memories. Unless, of course, you are talking about the untold gallons of fuel the (up to) 7.0-liter V8 engines of these venomous snakes guzzle.

But does it have to be that way? Is is possible to have your cake and eat it too? Well, that depends on what exactly you are looking to recreate. If you’re feeling a real need for speed and nothing but a fire-breathing monster will do, we have bad news for you. But, if you just want to look like you’re piloting a vintage race car, you may be in luck.

In standard form (which isn’t very cheap at over $40,000 U.S. or £27,724), the so-called Baby Cobra from Japan is powered by a tiny 660cc engine (yes, that’s less than a tenth of the size of the original 427 cubic incher with fewer than half as many cylinders) yanked from a Suzuki Cappuccino microcar.

A hefty options list can reportedly drive that price much higher into the stratosphere, but something tells us even the turbocharged, 720cc mill with 158 horsepower will still post significantly improved fuel efficiency over its forebearer. Yes, it’s completely ridiculous… and yes, we’re completely smitten with it.

Better get yours now before Shelby’s crack legal team gets wind of this thing…

[Source: Baby Cobra via Auto Express]

The Kei to a Good Time: Pint-sized Shelby Cobra replica from Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 May 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[JURIST] The International Crisis Group (ICG) [official website] on Monday accused Sri Lankan security forces of war crimes [report text] during the last months of the Sri Lankan civil war [JURIST news archive]. The ICG claims that the violence of the 30-year civil war, which ended one year ago this month, escalated in January 2009 leaving thousands more dead than projected by the UN:

The Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeatedly violated international humanitarian law during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the many years of conflict, the scale and nature of violations particularly worsened from January 2009 to the government’s declaration of victory in May. Evidence gathered by the International Crisis Group suggests that these months saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths. This evidence also provides reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible. There is evidence of war crimes committed by the LTTE and its leaders as well, but most of them were killed and will never face justice.

The ICG went on to state that it had acquired enough evidence supporting allegations of shelling civilians, hospitals, and environmental facilities to warrant a independent inquiry by the UN on war crimes in Sri Lanka during the law months of the civil war. The Sri Lanka government denies these allegations and claims that no civilians were killed during the final months of the war. The UN has yet to comment on the report.

In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] reaffirmed his plan to set up a UN panel [JURIST report] to investigate allegations of human rights violations during the civil war. Earlier that month, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa [official profile] rejected [press release; JURIST report] Ban’s plan to appoint a panel of experts to look into alleged rights abuses in the island nation’s civil war, saying it “is totally uncalled for and unwarranted.” The ICG report gives further validations to an independent UN inquiry into Sri Lankan war crimes. Sri Lanka has faced numerous allegations of human rights violations originating from incidents that took place during the final months of the civil war by both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [JURIST news archive].