Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Performance, BMW
The 2011 BMW M5 isn’t quite ready for showrooms yet, but our spies have recently spotted the grandaddy sport sedan out testing, this time in the hands of the Pirelli folks (hence the different wheel and tire packages).
We’re really growing quite fond of the M5’s shape in the F10 5 Series body, and we’re sure that the rumored 578-horsepower, twin-turbo V8 under the hood will put smiles on our faces as well. BMW has yet to confirm when we’ll actually see the production-ready M5, but we’ll eat our hats if the supersedan doesn’t make an appearance at this year’s Paris Motor Show. In the meantime, all we can do is lust, and you can do the same by clicking through our gallery of high-res shots below.
Gallery: 2011 BMW M5 Spy Shots
[Source: CarPix]
Spy Shots: 2011 BMW M5 strips away more of its camo originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Democratic lawmakers are pressing Gov. M. Jodi Rell to pull back her nine remaining judicial nominations. About 90 signed a letter Tuesday asking House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, not to allow a vote on the nominees.
With a legislative judiciary committee hearing on the Superior Court nominees scheduled for Friday, the Democrats are pressing the issue raised months ago by the committee’s co-chairmen, Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, and Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford.
Lawlor and McDonald say the state cannot afford the more than $2 million it would cost to hire the judges, which they say are unneeded, because the state’s judicial branch is in such a financial crisis that is closing courthouses and law libraries, and lacks adequate security and support personnel.
Rell vetoed a bill last year that would have given the judicial branch an additional $8 million to deal with its problems, Lawlor said. He said unless legislation is approved with Rell’s support to help the judicial branch, his committee will hold the Friday hearing that is its legal duty but will give the nominees negative reports when it sends them on for votes in the General Assembly.
Lawlor said the nominees are well qualified and he knows several personally but “they will not be approved by the House … until the budget issues are addressed.”
Tuesday’s letter asks Donovan to refuse to take up the nominations for a vote in the House until Rell relents. Donovan said he would discuss the letter with Rell as part of budget talks.
Rell’s office declined comment.
Lawlor said Rell could spare the nominees embarrassment by withdrawing their names now and submitting them again after the legislative session when the budget issues have been addressed.
Rell originally nominated 10 as judges but one of them, state prosecutor Brian Leslie, withdrew his name after a Sunday Courant column by Kevin Rennie said Leslie had been accused of “subverting” the prosecutor’s unit he was in when he was passed over for a promotion. Among Rell’s other nominees are her state budget director, Robert Genuario, and Public Safety Commissioner John Danaher.
House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said he thinks Democrats want to stall until Rell leaves office early next year and fill judicial vacancies themselves. Democratic leaders denied that.
Appalachian State has been selected to participate in the next Solar Decathlon on the Mall in Washington DC. …
… “A total of 45 teams submitted proposals for the competition. Only 20 schools were selected for next year’s competition and Appalachian is the only university from North Carolina selected to compete in the Solar Decathlon. ” …
Via Appalachian State University: Solar Decathlon 2011
According to my dictionary, a bohemian is “a creative person, as an artist or writer, who lives a free, unconventional life.” When bohemians gather, they tend to form ‘scenes’ — loosely knit societies that often coalesce around a meeting place; a salon, a club, a neighborhood or bar. Burning Man emerged from just […]
Posted by Michelle Manchir at 7:48 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD – Forget the three-day weekend, school kids.
An Illinois Senate panel today killed a measure that would have given local school boards the option of setting four-day school weeks. The House approved the measure last month to try to help financially strapped school districts save money. Lawmakers said the move could save on fuel for buses, particularly in large rural districts, and scale back their electric bills for school buildings.
“Kids in Chicago need to go to school eight days a week,” joked Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, head of the Senate Education Committee.
Under the proposal, students in school four days a week still would have been required to go to school the same amount of hours every year as children in school five days a week. That could have meant longer school days could or shorter summer vacations.
Major education groups, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union, opposed the measure. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley also turned thumbs down.
Sponsoring Sen. Michael Frerichs, D-Champaign, said he took up the issue when a school superintendent back home approached him about ever-increasing fuel costs. Large rural districts tend to have longer bus routes with students who live in farms miles away from their schools.
“This is something they’re being pushed into,” Frerichs said. “We ought to have the local school districts have a little flexibility.”
Opponents fought back, saying it would minimize the hours students spend in schools.
“I think kids belong in school,” said Sen. Maggie Crotty, D-Oak Forest. “I’ve had one policeman call and say that you’d have kids on the street and most likely unsupervised.”
LiveScience:
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, which began erupting on Wednesday, April 14, has been churning out volcanic ash that’s electrified with lightning. Credit: Olivier Vandeginste.
It’s The Garden State vs. The Garden State as kept socialites Teresa Giudice and Dina Manzo, of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey, take on the self-assigned guidos and guidettes of MTV’s breakout smash Jersey Shore. During an otherwise tight-lipped promotional interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, the gals with big hair and even bigger attitudes sounded off the rowdy twentysomethings of The Shore — which has far surpassed Jersey’s edition of The Real Housewives franchise in popularity since premiering last November.
According to Dina and Teresa, Snooki, Sitch, and The Gang are a bad influence on children.
“I’m not too big of a fan of everything they are doing,” says Teresa — a mother of four, who famously flipped a table during a profanity-ridden tirade on last May’s season one finale showdown. “I want to teach my daughters especially, I have four of them, to have good morals and to respect themselves. I mean, I had a shore house and I never made out with another girl in the hot tub. You should respect yourself and respect your body.“
Although Teresa and Dina acknowledge that the drunken antics displayed on the show is sometimes a reality of being young and carefree, neither woman can fathom why Jersey Shore has single-handedly sparked an influx of “Joisey”-inspired series, including The Style Network’s Jerseylicious and Oxygen’s Jersey Couture.
“I have met a couple of them. They are very nice people but I just think that young America needs to be a little but more responsible, and us as well, with what’s been on television,” Dina added. “We shouldn’t be telling our kids, ‘Listen if you get drunk and go in a hot tub and make out you’ll get your own TV show.’ That’s my feeling towards it.”
Agree or Disagree?
The second season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey will premiere on Bravo May 3.
Filed under: Motorsports, Spy Photos, Hatchback, Aston Martin, Racing
Aston Martin announced its intent to race a lightly modified Rapide at this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour race, and what has to happen before that? Testing. Here is the black beauty with slicks and perspex windows caught measuring its mettle on that very track before doing the real thing in May.
The marque has taken class wins the last two years with its Vantage coupes, but it would still make for quite the hubbub if it pulls off the same in a 4-door hatch. All of a sudden, matte black as a production color really doesn’t seem so bad. Have a look at it in the gallery of high-res photos below.
Spy Shots: Competition-spec Aston Martin Rapide spotted testing on ‘Ring originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
By Anne C. Mulkern
Two rival trade groups seeking congressional help for the ethanol industry launched advertising yesterday to promote themselves and bash one another. Growth Energy Inc., which represents U.S.-based corn ethanol producers, seeks to maintain supremacy at home, while the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, or UNICA, wants to tear down corn ethanol’s benefits in order to grab a larger share of the U.S. market. The campaigns’ same-day launch was coincidental, the groups said. The lobbying efforts likely are eyeing the same legislative target, one analyst said. “Senator Kerry is now saying that they’re going to have an energy bill in the next three weeks,” said Ken Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, referring to the climate bill that Kerry is crafting along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Ethanol groups, Green said, “want to turn up the heat on what’s in this new energy bill and how it treats ethanol.” Click here to read more…
When Audi unveiled the new 2011 RS5 at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the company wasn’t sure whether or not the model will make it to U.S. shores. Following a little rumor earlier this month that the 2011 Audi RS5 has been confirmed for the U.S., Inside Line reports that the high-performance coupe has indeed been approved by the higher-ups for the stateside.
Click here for pricing on the 2010 Audi A5.
“We have voted on it and the car is coming over definitely. But,” a product marketing contact from Quattro GmbH said. However, he said that “it will be more than a year out from the start of deliveries in Western Europe.”
Refresher: Power for the 2011 Audi RS5 comes from a 4.2L naturally aspirated V8 making 450-hp and a maximum torque of 317 lb-ft. Mated to a standard 7-speed S tronic, the 2011 RS5 goes from 0-62 mph in 4.6 seconds with a top speed of 155 mph (electronically governed).
– By: Omar Rana
Source: Inside Line
Oh my! The folks at BGR have gotten their hands on a BlackBerry 9670. Apparently there’ll be more details about the CDMA-based, clamshell device coming soon, but for now there are plenty of pictures to sift through. [BGR] More »
The real changes for the 2011 BMW X5 xDrive35i come under the hood, where the X5 now gets BMW’s most current gasoline-fired engines and the company’s eight-speed automatic transmission. Additionally, the 2011 X5 will now be offered with technologies already available on many other BMW models. Get the details and our driving impressions by clicking here.
Today we are joined by none other than General Motors’ Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. After an hour of peppering Bob with questions about his career, we come away better informed as to where the man stands on the industry’s future, how GM will fare, his favorite concept cars, what he plans to do in his retirement, and – pivotally – how to get your wife to let you buy a MiG fighter jet. Enjoy!
The 6.2-liter V8-powered Ford Raptor managed a pretty stout 326 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque on the Hennessey dyno. That performance equals a 19.5 percent loss from the flywheel to the rear wheels. Click here to watch the video, which includes a zero-to-60 time of less than eight seconds.
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Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 4.20.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Far away from all the hubbub of China vs. Google, a Chinese company has made a silent albeit important acquisition. The company being acquired is Echolane, one of the top solution providers and consultants for many cloud-based technologies including Salesforce.com. Echolane has been bought by a Chinese technology company called hiSoft which is one of the leading IT outsourcing companies in the world. Founded by Salesforce.com alumni, Echolane will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of hiSoft.
With this latest acquisition in the cloud-based technology, it is clear that Chinese companies know where the future lies and are trying to get ahead of the game. They might not beat Google or Microsoft when it comes to offering cloud-computing, but with globally dominant outsourcing, they’ll probably be involved in the process somewhere in between. With this ever increasing reliance on Chinese companies for outsourcing, would the US ever be able to confront China on any technology issue? Let’s just say Google had deep enough pockets to accept the consequences of walking out of China, but would small and mid-size companies be able to afford to do so? I don’t think so.
With every such move, it’ll just get harder for US to sever technology ties with China. On the other hand, China has proved again and again that when it comes to technology, the world needs them more than they need the world. With Baidu and AliPay, China doesn’t need Google or PayPal, but these global internet giants still dream of establishing themselves in the huge Chinese market and capture billions of dollars of potential revenue.
Few folks have been as wrong about climate science as Marc Morano and Dr. Roy Spencer. So it’s no big surprise to see this laughable screaming headline on ClimateDepotted:
Morano apparently couldn’t spend 30 seconds on Google to find the link to Spencer’s post on his new memoir, The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the Climate Scientist who Wrote this Book. [Okay, I may have changed the subtitle a little bit, but it’s Spencer who insists on using unintentionally ironic titles for his novels, like Climate Confusion.]
For those who don’t follow the professional disinformers closely, Spencer (and John Christy) famously made a bunch of analytical blunders and spent years pushing the now long-overturned notion that the satellite data didn’t show significant warming (see “Should you believe anything John Christy and Roy Spencer say?“). Now Spencer is claiming that “When properly interpreted, our satellite observations actually reveal” that the climate system is insensitive to carbon dioxide. Yes, well, he has the secret recipe for properly mis-interpreting satellite data.
But it’s the leeches stuff that shows he also can’t even be bothered to spend 30 seconds using Google to check his own analogies. Here’s the screen capture before he edits it:
So many whoppers, so little time. First, of course, it is simply basic physics that carbon dioxide traps heat — that’s why they call it a greenhouse gas (see, for instance, Exclusive new analysis by climatologist Ken Caldeira explains “the burning of organic carbon warms the Earth about 100,000 times more from climate effects than it does through the release of chemical energy in combustion”).
Second, that human activity is responsible for most (if not essentially all) recent warming is also pretty straightforward physics (see “What percentage of global warming is due to human causes vs. natural causes?“). If you want to understand why scientists are so certain that CO2 is such a big driver of our climate, you should watch Richard Alley’s lively talk AGU video, explains “The Biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History.”
Third, to falsify basic climate physics you can’t just float your own unproven idea — you would actually have to come up with a mechanism that would negate the well-understood warming from all that carbon dioxide. Good luck.
Fourth, the analogy to leeches, of course, shows how little effort Spencer puts into checking what he writes. I actually thought it was pretty well known that people are still using medicinal leeches. Google will quickly lead you to a bunch of popular articles and peer-reviewed medical studies. Here’s the “European medical leech” entry in Wikipedia:
Medicinal leeches are now making a comeback in microsurgery. They provide an effective means to reduce blood coagulation, relieve venous pressure from pooling blood (venous insufficiency), and in reconstructive surgery to stimulate circulation in reattachment operations for organs with critical blood flow, such as eye lids, fingers, and ears.
Doh!
It is downright bizarre that both Morano and Spencer are proud of an analogy that is so anti-scientific on both ends it actually makes the exact opposite point from the one they are trying to make.
Fifth, and this is a truly egregious whopper, Spencer argues that because “nature is gobbling up 50% of what humanity produces” it is somehow “logical” that “nature — that life on Earth — has actually been starved for carbon dioxide.” Presumably by “nature” he means natural land and ocean sinks (as opposed to the atmosphere). Yet he is way too clever a guy to be unaware of the fact that “The global oceanic sink removed 26% of all CO2 emissions for the period 2000-2008.” In short, of the CO2 which Spencer asserts “nature — that life on Earth” is “gobbling up,” half is going into the ocean and acidifying it, helping to render it inhospitable to marine life (see discussion at Nature Geoscience study: Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred).
So Spencer is blatantly misrepresenting the most basic understanding we have of the “natural” CO2 sinks. There is little doubt that the staggering amounts of CO2 we are pouring into the air aren’t our “friend” — especially if we listen to Spencer and his fellow disinformers and keep doing nothing to restrict emissions.
Caldeira has made exquisitely clear that “carbon dioxide is the right villain.” He says, “I compare CO2 emissions to mugging little old ladies…. Carbon dioxide emissions represent a real threat to humans and natural systems.”
As for Spencer, he keeps getting debunked as fast as he can print his global warming blunders. Back in 2008, I wrote about RealClimate’s multiple takedowns. RC utterly skewered one Spencer dis-analysis — misanalysis doesn’t seem a strong enough word for what he did (see RC’s “How to cook a graph in three easy lessons“). RC calls it “shameless cookery.” If you like semi-technical discussions, then I strongly recommend the post.
Spencer of course was wrong — dead wrong — for a very long time, which created one of the most enduring denier myths, that the satellite data didn’t show the global warming that the surface temperature data did. As RealClimate explained:
We now know, of course, that the satellite data set confirms that the climate is warming , and indeed at very nearly the same rate as indicated by the surface temperature records. Now, there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes when pursuing an innovative observational method, but Spencer and Christy sat by for most of a decade allowing — indeed encouraging — the use of their data set as an icon for global warming skeptics. They committed serial errors in the data analysis, but insisted they were right and models and thermometers were wrong. They did little or nothing to root out possible sources of errors, and left it to others to clean up the mess, as has now been done.
So after that history, we’re supposed to savor all Roy’s new cookery?
That’s an awful lot to swallow.
Amazingly (or not), the “serial errors in the data analysis” all pushed the (mis)analysis in the same, wrong direction. Coincidence? You decide. But I find it hilarious that the deniers and delayers still quote Christy/Spencer/UAH analysis lovingly, but to this day dismiss the “hockey stick” and anything climatologist Michael Mann writes, when his analysis was in fact vindicated by the august National Academy of Sciences in 2006 and subsequent independent research.
Michael Mann himself recently wrote of Christy and Spencer:
A few years ago, independent teams of scientists got a hold of their satellite data and after repeated questioning of them about their methods found that there were two critical errors in their algorithm. One of them was a sign error in the diurnal correction term, the other was an algebraic error. Once those errors were corrected by other scientists, the Christy and Spencer claim that satellite data contradict surface evidence of warming evaporated.
Once some serious climatologists look at Spencer’s latest work, it will no doubt turn out to be another great global warming blunder.
As we celebrate Mustang vs. Camaro Week and in anticipation of our upcoming comparison tests of the latest V-8 and V-6 versions, we dove into our archives and plucked out pictures of Mustangs and Camaros past. Then we zoomed in and cropped the photos to make identification a bit of a challenge. Here’s where the fun begins: Take a look at this picture and tell us what you see.
Guessing the model is the easy part—say either Mustang or Camaro and you’ve got a 50-percent chance of getting it right. Year and trim level are where it gets tough, so let’s see what you’ve got. If you get it exactly right—year, model, and trim—you might win a C/D T-shirt, but only if you read these rules first. Post your answers in the comments below. And remember: We can’t contact you to tell you you’ve won unless your commenting persona was registered with a legitimate e-mail address. So make sure yours was.
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