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Foi anunciado na última sexta-feira (23) pelo Procon-SP que após uma reunião entre a Toyota e a GEPAC (Grupo de Estudos Permanentes de Acidentes de Consumo), a montadora aceitou realizar o recall do tapete do Corolla em nosso país, depois de várias notícias a respeito do problema no acelerador que tem causado grandes transtornos no resto do mundo.

Há pouco tempo atrás, como medida de precaução, o Ministério Público de Minas Gerais proibiu as vendas do Corolla em todo o estado, e essa atitude poderia ser tomada por outros estados, terminando por suspender as vendas em todo o território nacional. Muito provavelmente, a Toyota decidiu a fazer o recall temendo que essa ação fosse tomada. Segundo Roberto Pfeiffer, diretor-executivo do Procon, isso foi uma vitória para o consumidor:

“O resultado da reunião foi satisfatório, pois mostrou a força da união dos órgãos de defesa do consumidor, que conseguiram garantir a preservação da segurança dos motoristas”.

Via | Carro Online

I was born and raised in Arizona and even though I moved away nearly seven years ago, I have always considered it my home. I love the beautiful sunsets, the sweeping desert landscapes, and the delicious Mexican food, and I…

You’ll have to wait a little bit longer before you can start deceiving your enemies in R.U.S.E. Ubisoft has announced that the multiplatform strategy game has been bumped back several months.

[JURIST] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday strongly criticized new attempts to impose UN sanctions on his country’s nuclear program. Ahmadinejad was in Uganda meeting with President Yoweri Museveni when he made the comments. The Iranian leader said that actions being taken by the United States and its allies in the UN Security Council are illegal and that his country will not accept any pressure. He also said that any evidence submitted by the United States and Britain for new UN sanctions amounted to “lies” similar to the claims made over nuclear weapons in Iraq which served as an impetus to the 2003 war. The UN Security Council has resumed meetings over a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, but the United States has indicated it will impose unilateral sanctions if UN sanctions are not finalized by May.
In September, Ahmadinejad denied that Iran had broken nuclear development regulations in respect to a newly-disclosed nuclear facility. The statement followed a press conference where US, British, French, and German leaders gathered for the G-20 summit said in a joint statement that Iran had violated the terms of agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by failing to disclose in a timely manner the existence of a nuclear facility. Under the terms of a 2003 protocol to Iran’s original IAEA Safeguards Agreement, Iran was obligated to disclose the existence of the plant prior to construction. In December 2006 the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium and broadened them three months later. The UN had previously ordered Iran to stop expanding its nuclear program by August 31, 2006. Iran has said it will completely withdraw from the IAEA if its “nuclear rights” are taken away.

Filed under: SUV, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Jeep, Off-Road

The Jeep Wrangler turns 71 next year, and the city of Toledo, Ohio wants to celebrate the anniversary. Well, let’s back up a bit: the first iteration of the Willys MB was penned in 1940. That would turn into the first Jeep, produced in the company’s Toledo factory, in 1941. And so next year is really considered the 70th anniversary of the Jeep Wrangler.

Not that one digit matters too much – the Jeep has been around, done its time, and deserves a proper bash. The Jeep Parkway Plant was torn down in 2006, and according to the Toledo Blade, city residents are working on a plan to create an off-road course as a birthday present and lasting playground with the requisite bogs and obstacles for the go-anywhere convertible.

A few small items still stand in the way, however – such as procuring the land, paying for the construction, and then letting the world know such a place exists. The city would like Chrysler to introduce the Wrangler’s interior refresh in Toledo to help with promotion, but no such commitment has been made yet. Nevertheless, both Toledo and the Jeep have gotten around larger impediments, so there’s still hope.

[Source: Toledo Blade]

Report: Toledo wants off-road playground on site of original Jeep plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It is important for one to get good rest and sleep during the night. However, most people find difficulty in sleeping due to the mattress condition. One of these problems could include your mattress being infected with mattress bugs without your knowledge. There is not much that you could do about it but the simplest method includes using a zippered mattress cover. The mattress cover dust mites as well.

When you use it, you are also using it to protect a bed mattress cover. These are important steps to manage bed bugs. It will help you to get enough rest as the bed bugs could cause irritation and distraction while you are sleeping.

Besides these, you will also find a lot of other products to help maintain the cleanliness and protect your mattress. Among them are the hypoallergenic mattress cover, zippered mattress covers, cotton mattress cover and even the twin waterproof mattress cover.

Although not many people take notice of their mattress but it is true that the mattress that is in good condition and without any bed bugs could give you a better sleep. Without the little irritation and annoyance at night, you will find that sleeping becomes more relaxing and fulfilling.

Besides that, with these protections, you will also be able to maintain the condition of your bed mattress. If not, you will find yourself needing to buy a new mattress in a short period of time. This could be troublesome for today’s community as people would be busy on other more important things instead.

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Hey Hollywood, why are you evaporating my youth from a solid directly to a gas?

Stop it. OK? It’s a moral imperative.

Tip o’ the green jello to Swoopy. Mmmmm, Swoopy™.

Microsoft this week rolled out its CampaignReady suite of services, which is anchored by the Windows Azure-hosted TownHall. Designed for political campaigns, the suite works by letting candidates connect with constituents via TownHall, while Microsoft’s online collaboration and advertising tools help campaign workers communicate with each other and spread their messages. Especially for local or regional campaigns without the resources to build the specialized tools President Obama’s utilized, Microsoft’s pitch — a prepackaged solution that can be set up, torn down and paid for on demand — should be appealing. But Microsoft’s SaaS-plus-PaaS business model has legs beyond politics, and beyond Redmond.

As I describe in my column this week at GigaOM Pro, the combination of cloud services designed for and hosted on cloud platforms seems like a surefire strategy to secure PaaS (or even IaaS) adoption. By creating targeted applications designed specifically for use on their platforms, cloud providers can increase the likelihood of bringing customers into the fold (and can increase their profit margins) by letting applications help sell the platform instead of relying on the platform itself.

The possibilities are perhaps best exemplified by the number of Salesforce.com customers using its flagship CRM offering, which sits atop its Force.com platform — more than 72,000, according to the company. Presumably, it was positive experiences with the SaaS application that inspired 200,000-plus developers to build more than 135,000 custom applications that run on Force.com. It’s possible that Force.com could have attracted an equally large base as a standalone offering not intrinsically connected with Salesforce.com’s SaaS business, but unlikely.

The issue for most cloud providers is figuring out how to develop an application strategy to complement their infrastructural competencies. Microsoft, on the other hand, brought its decades of software experience with it when it launched Windows Azure. It developed its Pinpoint marketplace of third-party applications ready to run on the platform, it partnered with business-friendly ISVs like Intuit, and now it’s gotten into the SaaS act itself with TownHall. Azure has garnered its fair share of praise, and if Microsoft continues down the SaaS path, Azure could garner more than its fair share of customers and dollars. Read the full post here.

For more on cloud computing, join the GigaOM Network at its annual Structure conference June 23 & 24th in San Francisco.

Image courtesy of Janet Wall via PhotoExpress

Goldman Sachs has made the claim it lost money on Abacus.

In Senior Goldman Executives Approved the Paulson Deal; Goldman’s Spin Dodges the Big Question; “Fabulous Fab” Not Feeling So Fabulous I questioned if that was the case

Goldman claims it lost money on the deal. I am very skeptical of that claim given all Goldman’s side bets with AIG and others. Besides, who can say where one deal ends and the next begins when one is hedging massive pools of garbage?

On Saturday, emails noted by the Senate Subcommittee Investigating Financial Crisis Releases Documents on Role of Investment Banks suggest Goldman did not lose money, just as I suggested.

In one of the e-mails released today, Mr. Blankfein stated that the firm came out ahead in the mortgage crisis by taking short positions. In an e-mail exchange with other top Goldman Sachs executives, Mr. Blankfein wrote: “Of course we didn’t dodge the mortgage mess. We lost money, then made more than we lost because of shorts.”

In a second e-mail, Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, who also will testify on Tuesday, responded to a report on the firm’s trading activities, showing that – in one day – the firm netted over $50 million by taking short positions that increased in valued as the mortgage market cratered. Mr. Viniar wrote: “Tells you what might be happening to people who don’t have the big short.”

In a third e-mail, Goldman employees discussed the ups and downs of securities that were underwritten and sold by Goldman and tied to mortgages issued by Washington Mutual Bank’s subprime lender, Long Beach Mortgage Company. Reporting the “wipeout” of one Long Beach security and the “imminent” collapse of another as “bad news” that would cost the firm $2.5 million, a Goldman Sachs employee then reported the “good news” – that the failure would bring the firm $5 million from a bet it had placed against the very securities it had assembled and sold.

In a fourth e-mail, a Goldman Sachs manager reacted to news that the credit rating agencies had downgraded $32 billion in mortgage related securities – causing losses for many investors – by noting that Goldman had bet against them: “Sounds like we will make some serious money.” His colleague responded: “Yes we are well positioned.”

The above document does not show the exact timing of those emails, perhaps on purpose. No doubt, timing, if appropriate, will be part of Goldman’s defense.

At best, those emails do not make Goldman look very good. At worst, Goldman will appear to be caught in a lie.

Regardless of what happens legally, I have a serious problem with a “bank” making 90% of its income trading its own portfolio, and screwing its customers in the process.

(This is a guest post from Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis.)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Now Fabrice Tourre’s Ex-Girlfriend, Fatiha Bouktouche, Is Getting Dragged Into The Case Against Goldman
• And Here’s Goldman’s Response To The Published Emails
• Goldman Suspected Of Dumping Crappy ‘Greywolf’ Bonds Into ABACUS Too

Alex, a graduate student studying human biology and evolution, writes, “As an undergraduate at I was fortunate enough to study On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Thompson. His synthesis of mathematics, classics and biology was an inspiration to me, and drove me to pursue science as a career. Though I am now studying to be a paleoanthropologist, my tattoo of an (idealized) ammonite fossil is a reminder to me of the material and mathematical processes behind all living things. Plus extinct cephalopods are more aesthetically appealing than hominin skulls.”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

First Sarah Palin, now Robert Boyce taking pot shots around things they barely understand
1) Solar and Wind take up too much land: If you just focus on rooftop solar and buffer land at airports, brownfields, wastewater treatment facilities, and military bases you could power the US almost 2 times over with just solar power. Wind turbines on the top of light posts are being tested by Wal-mart and that market alone could power 10% of the country. Everyone wants to extrapolate from today’s large scale projects instead of using their brain — Boyce is no different: http://www.ef.org/documents/EF-Final-Final2.pdf

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Legendary Boston-based Jeremy Grantham (of GMO) has published his quarterly letter.  You can read the whole thing here.

Grantham says he doesn’t know what’s going to happen with the market (too bad all forecasters don’t start with that admission!). What Grantham thinks probably will happen, however, is this:

The economy will recover more slowly than people want, and that will prompt “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke to keep rates too low for too long.  This, in turn, will make stocks go to the moon.

And that would be good news for stock investors. For a while.  Except that stocks are already overvalued, so when the effect of the Bernanke crack-hit wears off, there will be nothing left to support them.  And down they will come.

Grantham thinks there’s about a 50% chance of that happening–continued boom and then bust. There’s also about an equal chance of two other scenarios:

• Some event (e.g., China crash) breaks the animal spirits and the market breaks down NOW.  This will have one positive benefit, which is that it will stave off a future crash that will be much worse (21% chance).
• Economy has a strong and sustained recovery, interest rates rise, market falls modestly (30% chance)

Now, it’s worth noting (because if we don’t, one of you will) that, last quarter, Grantham was predicting a crash to happen about now and that he continues to stick to his “fair value” estimate of 875 on the S&P.  As he and others would be quick to note, valuation tells you almost nothing about what the market will do next.  And it appears that even Jeremy has been surprised by the strength of the rebound.

Here’s Jeremy:

If the economic recovery is slow and if unemployment drops slowly, then Bernanke will certainly keep rates very low, as he has promised in as clear a way as language permits.  In that case, stocks and general speculation will very probably rise from levels that are already overpriced.  And if they do, Bernanke will definitely not be concerned and has told us as much. 

There were some teasing comments from Bernanke at the lows last spring to the effect that the Fed might take the embedded risk of asset class bubbles more seriously, as many foreign central bankers have begun to, and very sensibly so.  But that hope has now been utterly squashed, and Bernanke has returned to the original Greenspan line: let the bubbles look after themselves. 

Even if we were to re-enter bubble territory in a way that would be obvious to anyone who can tell the difference between 15 P/E and, say, 28 P/E (35 of us at last count), he still will do nothing.  For he is now once again genuinely unconcerned with bubbles and even doubts their existence, as proven conclusively by his comments during this last one, the 100-year U.S. housing bubble, the breaking of which landed us in the rich and deep manure of 2009: “The U.S. housing market has never declined,” etc., etc.  No believer in the existence of bubbles could ever say such things.

If we get lucky and have a strong, broad, and sustained economic recovery, interest rates will probably rise before we reach real bubble territory.  As rates rise, the market will almost certainly settle down, and we will only have to deal with a substantially overpriced U.S. market and moderately overpriced global equities and risk premiums. 

If, however, the economy only limps along, which seems more likely to me, then we run a very real danger of a third dangerous bubble in stocks and in risk-taking in general.  For in that event, Bernanke will definitely keep rates low quarter after quarter and speculation will surely respond.  Again?  Yes, I’m afraid so.  In that environment, Bernanke will do nothing to let the air out gently.  His lack of anti-
bubble action is pretty much guaranteed. 

The end of such events is always hard to predict, but usually bubbles break for almost any reason when they are big enough.  Of course, the larger the asset bubble, the bigger the shock to the economic and fi nancial system.  Now, Greenspan was lucky enough to inherit Volcker’s good work, and that gave him a base from which he could launch or blow a huge equity bubble; he also had the advantage that the country’s balance sheet was in excellent shape.  Even Bernanke inherited a reasonably solid position from which to fund a second bailout.  But a third time?  It is hard to work out where the resources would come from to resuscitate the economy if a real shock were to be delivered by another collapse of a major asset class. 

The key problems here are the Fed’s refusal to see the risks embedded in asset class bubbles and the willingness of both the Administration and Congress to tolerate this dangerous policy.  Heck, they recently reappointed him!  Yes, the Congressional natives were restless, but in waiting for a third crisis to kick him out, they may be too late to avoid the major-league suffering caused by his blind spot. 

Should unemployment linger at high levels, which I think is likely, and I get these things right better than half the time (I believe about 52%), then we had better hope that something lucky turns up to break the speculative spirit. 

This is perverse, but so is Bernanke. 

What could go wrong, preferably in the next few months?  Some combination of the following: an unexpected second leg down in house prices and a continued rise in the level of defaults, leading to a crisis at Fannie, etc.; a wash-out in commercial real estate and private equity caused by refunding problems (along the lines of Goldman’s and Morgan Stanley’s recent real estate fund wipe-outs) that result in a chainof major defaults in properties like Stuyvesant Town; a crisis in the euro where Portugal or Spain or Greece, or all three, default and strange things start to happen; a rapid rise in commodity prices, despite the anemic growth of the developed world, which, with the same caveats, I also think is quite likely; competitive devaluations leading to a serious trade war; or my colleague Edward Chancellor’s favorite, two or three wheels falling off of the Chinese economy, which today acts as the main prop to global growth.  Okay, enough. 

We all know that there is plenty that could go wrong.  Some combinations would be enough to break the market but still leave the economy limping along.  This would be far better than having the market rise through the fall of next year by, say, another 30% to 40%, along with risk trades similarly flourishing and then all breaking.  The possibilities of this happening seem nerve-wrackingly high.  The developed world’s financial and economic structure, already none too impressive, would simply buckle at the knees.

And, briefly, let me give you my reasons why this rally running through next fall is not at all out of the question. 

In October we enter the third year of the Presidential Cycle, the year every Fed except, of course, Volcker’s, helped the incumbent administrations get re-elected.  Since 1932, there has never been a serious decline in Year 3.  Never! Even the unexpected Korean War caused only a 2% decline.  Even when Greenspan ran amok and over-stimulated the first two years instead of cooling the system down – which he did twice, having not suffered enough the fi rst time – he stimulated Year 3 as well.  The result was that we entered Year 3 in October 1998 and Year 3 in October 2006 with horribly overpriced markets, and still the market went up, and by a lot.  The overpricing in October 1998, by the way, was so bad that our 10-year forecast was down to -1.1%; in October 2006, by a nerve-wracking coincidence, our 7-year forecast was -1.0%. 

If the market  is 1320 by this coming October (up 10% from today), our 7-year forecast will again be -1.0%.  (Please hum the Jaws theme here.)  Do not think for a second that a very stimulated market will go down in Year 3 just because it’s overpriced … even badly overpriced. 

So far it has had 19 tries to go down since 1932 and has never pulled it off.  We can, of course, hope that this time will be exceptional.  Even in the best of times, though, overpricing is only a mild downward pull.  Its virtue is that it never quits.  Eventually it wears the market back down to fair value.

So what do I think will happen?  That’s easy: I don’t know.  We have been spoiled in the last 10 years with many near certainties – mainly that real bubbles would break – but this is definitely not one of them.  Not yet anyway.  (However, I am still willing to play guessing games despite the fact that “I don’t know.”  So here, as Exhibit 1, is my probability tree.) 

The general conclusion is that the line of least resistance is a market move in the next 18 months or so back to the old highs, say, 1500 to 1600 on the S&P, accompanied by an equivalent gain in most risk measures, followed once again by a very dangerous break.  If that happens, rates will still be low and thus diffi cult to use as a jump starter, the financial system will still be fragile, and the piggybank will be more or less empty.  It is remarkably silly for the Fed to allow, even encourage, this flight path.  It is also remarkably silly for investors to be so carefree, given their recent experiences.  Fortunately, there are several less likely outcomes that collectively, I hope, are equally probable. 

We are definitely playing with fire and need some luck.  The best kind of luck would be that Bernanke gets bitten by a Volcker bug.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Jeremy Grantham: Sucker’s Rally Almost Over
• Ex-Bear Jeremy Grantham Now A Snorting Bull, Says Stocks Going To Moon
• Grantham: You Should Buy Now Even Though Market Could Tank

[JURIST] Thousands gathered in cities across Spain Saturday to protest the impending trial of crusading National Court judge Baltasar Garzon on charges he exceeded his jurisdictional authority with his investigation into alleged war crimes committed during and after the Spanish Civil War under the hardline regime of General Francisco Franco. Protesters rallied in Madrid and many other cities, chanting in support of Garzon and holding up flags of the pre-war Republican government ousted by Franco. Late last week Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement that sanctions against Garzon “risk undermining the EU’s collective credibility and effectiveness in seeking justice for current human rights crimes.” Garzon is also facing charges of bribery over money he received for seminars conducted in the United States.
In March, the Spanish Supreme Court charged Garzon with abuse of power based on Garzon’s 2008 ordered exhumation of 19 mass graves in Spain. The purpose of the order was to assemble a definitive national registry of Civil War victims, despite a 1977 law granting amnesty for political crimes committed under Franco. Earlier this month, Garzon appealed the charges, alleging that the indictment issued by Spanish Supreme Court judge Luciano Varela was politically motivated, compromised judicial independence and sought to impose a specific interpretation of the 1977 law. Garzon is widely known for using universal jurisdiction extensively in the past to bring several high-profile rights cases, including those against Osama bin Laden and former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Duke Energy of North Carolina is a diversified electric company that that still relies on fossil fuel operations, but the industry giant is also embracing sustainable energy (perhaps egged on by another sustainability-minded utility operating in the Southeast, Progress Energy).  Duke is into wind power in Wyoming, and last year the company announced that it will build between 100 and 400 mini solar power plants throughout North Carolina over the next two years.

Duke launched the program last October with four installations, and this week they announced plans for ten new solar power installations at schools, government facilities, and private businesses.  Among the advantages Duke sees in distributed solar is the idea that people can see the installations during the course of their day, and familiarity will foster a better understanding of solar energy’s potential for growth.  Now, if only Duke could do something about that pesky U.S. Chamber of Commerce…

(more…)

UPS " … put 200 additional hybrid electric delivery trucks to work in Austin, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Minneapolis and Louisville. … had 50 of these vehicles in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix; … another 20,000 low-emission and alternative fuel vehicles throughout its fleet … In all, about 1,000 of the fleet is hybrid while the rest are low emission types."

" … will cut its fuel consumption by 176,000 gallons annually, compared with putting an equivalent number of new diesel trucks on the road. .. reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is about 1,786 metric tons, …"

Via:  Smart Planet  LINK

One of Hollywood’s most memorable kisses took place between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in the 1946 film Notorious. What’s noteworthy is that it happened during the years of the Hays Code (1930-1968) when “scenes of passion” were extremely restricted and kisses were limited to seconds. To get around the regulations, director Alfred Hitchcock cleverly filmed Grant and Bergman exchanging a series of interrupted kisses as Grant answers a telephone call. So each kiss takes just moments, but the entire scene is nearly three minutes. Submit your photograph or artwork to the Science of Kissing Gallery and remember to include relevant links. The Science of Kissing debuts January 2011.

Here’s a little more out of the Dell camp following last week’s insane smartphone leak of the Thunder and Looking Glass, along with the Streak (Dell Mini 5). The roadmap we’ve obtained shows a few new items, including the "Sparta" netbook tablet and "Athens," a 0.9-kilogram "true netbook", both of which appear to fall under the 11-inch category or so, with an ARM processor, optional 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth. There’s also the LG Pro, which looks to be the 7-inch Looking Glass with a high-definition screen and digital TV.

Also note that the Streak appears slated for T-Mobile (confirming an earlier report) and Vodafone, and a Chinese version is in the works as well.

Judging from the roadmap, we could see the Streak as early as next month, August for the Sparta, and the Athens in the fall — let’s just hope Dell doesn’t let such sexy Android hardware fall by the wayside.