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Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, BMW, Specialty, Racing

Formula DRIFT is recognized as the North American professional drifting championship series. Autoblog has been invited behind-the-scenes with GSR Autosport, and their driver Michael Essa, as the team builds, tests and campaigns an all-new V10-powered BMW 350R during the 2010 racing season. This is the fourth installment in our series (see Part I, Part II and Part III) as we follow the team throughout the development, testing and race season.

The wail of BMW’s V10 bouncing off the limiter at redline is deafening – especially coming out of two straight pipes – so it’s unlikely that anyone heard the steel lower control arm on the front right of the 350R shatter. Michael Essa, manning the M5-powered 3 Series, certainly didn’t. The run had been going well, just like the ones before it, when all of a sudden the BMW unexpectedly snapped off its line and careened directly into the tire barrier at speed. The incident would wreak havoc on our debut weekend at Formula Drift.

Continue reading GSR Autosport BMW 350R: Part IV – Our inaugural event begins with a drift, a snap and a shatter

GSR Autosport BMW 350R: Part IV – Our inaugural event begins with a drift, a snap and a shatter originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video game addiction is a serious problem in Korea, where kids are prone to staying up all night long to play. So the government is disabling internet connections for six hours per night for underage gamers. More »

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant will not play in L.A.’s final two games of the regular season due to the avulsion fracture on his right index finger.

L.A. plays the Kings on Tuesday and Clippers on Wednesday, which will be the eighth and ninth games missed this season by No. 24.

After Monday afternoon’s practice, Lamar Odom was asked if he thought Kobe’s absence would affect his rhythm in the playoffs.

“We know how good Kobe is,” Odom answered. “He won’t have a problem. I don’t care if he missed 50 games.”

Since its inception, Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District has elected only one Republican to represent it in the U.S. House. But an upcoming special election for the seat is drawing national attention, as Democrats risk losing the seat and are being forced to spend money on defense.

Oh yeah, one other thing: This is Barack Obama’s birthplace.

So why are Democrats now in danger of losing this seat? Well, it’s really a perfect storm situation for Republicans:

1. It’s a special election. There’s much more room for the unexpected in a special election. In this case, voters will be asked to vote by mail next month to choose a successor to Democrat Neil Abercrombie, who resigned to pursue his gubernatorial bid.

2. The ballot features 14 candidates of all parties on a single ballot. This means that several Democrats could split Democratic support to such a degree that the top Republican actually emerges with the single largest vote share. In fact, two strong Democrats, former Rep. Ed Case and state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, are both seeking their party’s nomination, in addition to many other candidates of both parties.

3. The Republicans have one strong candidate. Republicans made clear at the start of this cycle that they were going to support Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou for the seat, and the party coalesced behind him, pooling its resources. Mitt Romney is among the GOP figures supporting Djou.

4. Democratic infighting. The Democrats are not only splitting the vote, their supporters are turning on each other. David Dayen over at Firedoglake writes that the AFL-CIO has dropped mailers in support of Hanabusa that bash Case.

The DCCC dropped more than $47,000 there last week opposing Djou. I wonder how much more money this race will sap from the parties. And once this special election ends, it’s not even over. There is a regularly scheduled election this year (for which Djou, Hanabusa and Case have filed) to choose a full-term successor who will begin his or her term in January 2011.

Earlier today, the Dow hit 11,000 for the first time since September 2008, up 68% from 13 months earlier. That appears to indicate that Wall Street is pretty comfortable asserting that the U.S. is in the midst of a strong economic recovery. Yet, a report from Bloomberg today might suggest otherwise: investors are increasingly hedging their bets. Do stock traders believe in their own optimism — or do they smell a bubble?

Bloomberg reports:

The biggest rally in seven decades has left investors so skittish that even forecasts for a 30 percent surge in U.S. earnings are failing to keep them from hedging bets on equities.

The premium on options that insure against losses in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over those wagering on gains, known as skew, rose to the highest level since June 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Traders sought protection as shares rallied for six weeks, pushing a measure of momentum that compares stocks with their 50-day average to the most bearish reading in 13 months, according to Bespoke Investment Group LLC.

This news is a little troubling. If the market was in broad, unquestioning agreement on the strength of the U.S. recovery, then such hedging wouldn’t be as prevalent. Instead, investors are protecting themselves from a market reversal. They may not have faith in their optimistic forecasts.

This hedging behavior could indicate that traders worry stocks are getting a little carried away. After all, a 68% return in a little more than a year is quite a rally. It could be that investors know they are enjoying the upside of an unsustainable bubble. If that’s the case, then they would want to continue to participate in the gains, but have some protection for when the market falls back to earth.

Yet, this data doesn’t necessarily indicate cynicism — it could just be smart investing. As mentioned, the market has increased a lot over the past year or so. Even if investors believe in the U.S. economy’s ability to sustain these gains, it’s prudent to take some action just in case they’re wrong. After all, if they really believed a market correction was looming, they would be shorting the market — not merely hedging their long bets. But if this trend continues, then it could indicate more and more stock traders are becoming skeptical that the rally can endure.

In anticipation of Google releasing earnings this Thursday, we decided to look at how the company has fared against Wall Street for the last four years.

As you can see below, pretty well! Google has only missed EPS estimates three times in the last four years, with the last miss coming a year and a half ago.

To beat the street later this week, Google’s EPS will have to be higher than $6.58.

Follow the Chart Of The Day on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chartoftheday

Join the conversation about this story »

 

How’s this for a followup to a serious buyout rumor? Palm’s Chief Technology Officer Mitch Allen is scheduled to speak on May 11th at "MDB Capital Group’s Bright Lights Conference." The topic: Palm’s IP and patent portfolio:

Palm’s Software CTO, Mitch Allen, will share his insights on Palm’s IP leadership and path of innovation where he has worked for the past decade. Mr. Allen has led the development of Palm webOS from conception to implementation.

If you find that interesting, get this: in the press release issued today, the firm hosting the event has a nice little line about Palm’s value: "we believe the value of Palm’s IP alone is worth between $8 -$9 per share." That’s an interesting little commentary on the roller coaster that has been Palm’s stock price (trading at around six bucks as of this writing) and the question of whether or not the market is undervaluing Palm’s patent portfolio. It could also potentially drive up the price for whoever buys them. 

Thanks Palmwebos!

 

Ron Paul talks about his place in the GOP and comments on Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Michael Steele.

Channel: CNN
Date: 04/12/2010

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General Motors announced today that it is doubling the size of the largest automotive battery lab in the United States to expedite the development of electric-vehicles for consumers. The Detroit automaker will invest $8 million to improve on-site testing of all current and new batteries, module and pack technologies by expanding the GM Technical Center Campus by 30,000 sq. ft to 63,000 sq. ft.

“GM is building on its commitment to lead the development of electric vehicle technology – from battery cell design to the charging infrastructure – and today’s investment furthers our work in this area,” said Micky Bly, GM executive director, global electrical systems, hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. “This addition will benefit consumers by helping us put cleaner, more efficient vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range, on the road more quickly and affordably.”

The facility is used by GM’s growing team of more than 1,000 engineers working on advanced batteries and electric-vehicles.

Make the jump for the press release.

Press Release:

GM Doubling Size of Most Technologically Advanced Automotive Battery Lab in the United States

o Bolsters GM’s leadership in automotive battery technology and electrically driven vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt
o $8-million expansion doubles size of Global Battery Systems Lab on the GM Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich., to 63,000 sq. ft.
o Improves on-site safety, charging, engineering and manufacturing testing capabilities for all current and new battery cell, module and pack technologies

WARREN, Mich. – General Motors is doubling the size of the largest and most technologically advanced automotive battery lab in the U.S. to expedite the development of electrically driven vehicles for consumers.

The $8-million investment will improve on-site testing of all current and new battery cell, module and pack technologies by enlarging the Global Battery Systems Lab on the GM Technical Center campus by 30,000 sq. ft. to 63,000 sq. ft. The addition will be located adjacent to the existing lab inside the Alternative Energy Center facility. Areas previously used for engine testing will be renovated for battery development, with construction beginning this month and scheduled for completion in the summer.

GM’s Global Battery Systems Lab began operations in January 2009 and became fully operational in May 2009. http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.brand_gm.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2009/Jun/0608_BatteryLab

It is used by GM’s growing team of more than 1,000 engineers working on advanced batteries and electrically driven vehicles. More than half of the current lab is dedicated to testing the electrochemical battery cells and their enclosures, known as modules. The lab’s remaining floor space is committed to evaluating completed battery packs.

The expansion will add capability in six areas, including:

* Safety and Abuse Tolerance. Powertrain test cells previously used for engine altitude testing will be retrofitted for crush, penetration, water immersion, overcharge, discharge and short circuit tests
* Buildup and Teardown. Reuse storage areas to prepare batteries before tests and provide secured rooms for supplier evaluation
* Manufacturing Engineering. Reuse space previously occupied by engine dynamometers to improve manufacturing processes, such as laser welding and cell stacking
* Charger Development and Integration
* Thermal Development. Radiant heat, thermal stability and thermal shock testing
* Battery Storage

“We’ve made the commitment to design, develop, validate and manufacture automotive battery technology in-house,” said Bly. “Consolidating these testing capabilities at the Global Battery Systems Lab will reduce costs, provide a competitive advantage, quicken the pace of development and ensure we will design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles.”

The Global Battery Systems Lab equipment and test automation systems are being integrated with GM’s global network of battery labs, including Mainz Kastel, Germany and Shanghai, China, to facilitate seamless data exchange and work sharing. http://www.gm.com/experience/technology/research/news/2009/csl_092409.jsp

The Global Battery Systems Lab recently received world-class accreditation from the ISO-certified American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), a nonprofit, public service group that evaluates the competency and capability of labs across all fields of testing. Auditors from the A2LA reviewed testing procedures and results, equipment calibration, operations documentation, personnel competency and the lab’s quality policy. The benefits of being an ISO-certified lab include: ensuring that data is accurate and avoiding expensive retesting from unreliable results.

The lab is equipped with 176 test channels and 49 thermal chambers duplicating extreme real-world driving patterns, hot and cold temperatures and calendar life.

This lab includes many environmentally conscious features such as a center hallway with high-efficiency LED lighting and a floor made from recycled tires. Approximately 90 percent of the electricity used for battery testing can be returned to the local energy grid for use by homeowners and businesses. The Global Battery Systems Lab received an honorable mention for Green Project of the Year by the Construction Association of Michigan.

Additional benefits offered by the Global Battery Systems Lab include a thermal shaker table for testing the structural integrity of the battery and electronic controls; a battery teardown area for failure analysis and competitor benchmarking; an integrated test automation system and improved Design of Experiments methodology – an information-gathering exercise that allows GM to perform more thorough battery tests more quickly.

In addition to battery labs in Warren, Mainz-Kastel and Shanghai, GM also has facilities dedicated to vehicle electrification in Honeoye Falls, N.Y., and the GM Technical Center’s Research Chemical Engineering facility.

GM’s battery lab network is part of a corporate battery research and development strategy that includes:

* Ramping-up “in-house” battery development capability by increasing the staff of GM’s global electric vehicle and advanced battery organization
* Becoming the first major automaker to manufacture an advanced lithium-ion battery pack in the U.S. at GM’s Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant in Brownstown Township, Mich., in January. http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.brand_gm.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/Jan/0107_brownstown
* Joining with the University of Michigan to create a new automotive advanced battery lab in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a specialized curriculum within U of M’s College of Engineering to develop automotive battery engineers
* Growing and establishing a robust lineup of battery suppliers and universities for cell development and manufacturing and battery integration expertise, including companies LG Chem, A123 Systems, Hitachi Ltd. and Compact Power Inc.
* Collaborating with government organizations and industry consortia, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, United States Council for Automotive Research, the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC and Electric Power Research Institute to advance the development of, plug-ins and electric vehicles, and the necessary electric infrastructure to support these vehicles

Energy alternatives and advanced technologies that reduce dependence on petroleum, improve fuel economy and reduce emissions are keys to developing sustainable transportation. GM is pursuing several options to best meet the varied needs of customers around the world – from advanced gasoline, diesel and biofuel technology to electrically assisted vehicles and, ultimately, electrically driven extended-range, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. GM believes that electrically driven vehicles, based on battery and hydrogen fuel cell technology, offer the best long-term solution or providing sustainable personal transportation.

Facts: Global Battery Systems Lab

Location

* Alternative Energy Center, GM Technical Center, Warren, Mich.

Timing

* Battery system test area opened January 2009
* Cell and module test area opened May 2009
* Phase Two scheduled to open summer 2010

Size

Total floor space: 63,000 sq. ft.

* Pack testing and development – 14,400 sq. ft.
* Cell and module development – 17,400 sq. ft.
* Technical support – 2,000 sq. ft.
* Phase Two – 30,000 sq. ft.

Benefits

* 40 cyclers (serve as treadmills for batteries)
* 80 test channels (available for individual battery tests)
* 33 thermal chambers (duplicates extreme temperature conditions)

* Pack testing

* 32 cyclers
* 96 test channels
* 16 small thermal chambers

* Cell and module testing

* New humidity-controlled walk-in chambers
* New airflow benches to provide specific temperatures and levels of humidity to test air-cooled battery packs
* New coolant chillers to cool or heat liquid-cooled battery packs

* Environmental control capability to allow for test correlation and repeatability

* Walk-in test cells for battery pack, module and cell crush, penetration, water immersion, overcharge, discharge and short circuit tests.

* Phase Two
* Safety and abuse tolerance testing

* Laser-welding and cell-stacking development tests to improve manufacturing processes

* Manufacturing engineering

* Charger development and integration
* Thermal development tests for radiant heat, thermal stability and thermal shock

– By: Omar Rana

Mike has written that "Give it away and pray is not a business model," however, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good way for Artists to live.

Business models can emerge from "give it away and pray." When I gave Sita Sings the Blues away, the audience created modes of sharing and revenue streams I hadn’t thought of. Many fans, on their own initiative, set up  screenings and house parties, and sent me donations. Now that I know this is possible, I could call it a "business model" that could be replicated by offering screening kits and guidelines. But the audience may be coming up with new ideas and wanting to engage in new ways I can’t predict or imagine. Last year’s business model can’t describe next year’s zeitgeist; "give it away and pray" is eternal.

Because I surrendered any commercial monopoly on the film (truly gave it away with copyLeft rather than "sort of gave it away" with no-commercial-use and no-derivatives restrictions), it has been incorporated into some amazing creative projects I could never have imagined. Bill Cheswick’s every-frame-of-a-movie poster and Star Simpson’s MonkeyLectric bike wheel display are just two examples. If I hadn’t given the film away, I wouldn’t have even known about these amazing projects, let alone been part of them.

"Give it away" means expecting nothing in return, so whatever does return is also a gift. "Pray" means letting go of the results and trusting that giving is the right thing to do even if nothing comes back. This isn’t a business model, because it’s not about business; it is about Art, and Love. Economists may not be concerned with Art and Love, but Artists have to be, or else they stop being Artists. Of course Artists can be concerned with business as well. Art and commerce can be fully complementary. I pay a lot of attention to business models (that’s why I read Techdirt). But I can forget that I am an Artist, especially when "give it away and pray" is so often dismissed. 

It’s easy for me to exalt "give it away and pray", because so much came back to me so quickly in the case of Sita. We can analyze this material success and derive useful business models from it. That’s quite valuable, but it’s only part of the picture. If we forget the "give it away and pray" part, we regard audience gifts as commodities, which degrades the artist, the community, and the artist-audience relationship.

We never know what the world will bring us. Adhering to a business model may make us feel secure, but the most exciting possibilities and opportunities are in the space of not knowing. In Art, unlike Business, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re doing it right.

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Breaking a week-long silence, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the Senate floor this afternoon to weigh in on last week’s explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia. In sum, the minority leader reveals that (1) mining is dangerous, (2) he’s praying for the affected families, and (3) nothing else. The comments are a full two sentences long:

While we were in recess, the people of West Virginia experienced a very difficult mine safety experience. Our neighbors in West Virginia, like Kentucky, are big coal producers, and we’ve had our share in the commonwealth of Kentucky over the years of mining disasters and our hearts and prayers go out to our neighbors in West Virginia as they attempt to recover from the latest tragedy in what is obviously a very dangerous profession and that is the mining of coal.

We also witnessed a great tragedy overseas, the death of the Polish President …

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of the biggest recipients of Massey campaign cash has remained largely reticent in the wake of the disaster. Still, while all eyes have been on West Virginia, several Massey-owned projects in Kentucky have continued to accumulate safety violations like those that were cited at the West Virginia mine prior to the disaster. For example, the Freedom Mine #1 — a Massey-owned project in Pike County, Ky. — has run up 66 safety violations in the seven days since the explosion. Twenty-three of those were deemed “significant and substantial,” indicating that they are “reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness.”

Process Energy’s #1 Mine, also in Pike County, has been cited with seven violations in the last week, with three falling into the S&S category.

One wonders to what extent the workers in those mines appreciate McConnell’s offering of prayer, in lieu of a commitment to try to prevent the next big blast.

Cuando iPhone irrumpió en el mercado, Apple abrió una brecha de dos años con respecto a sus competidores en el mercado de los smartphones para usuarios no profesionales. A los tres años podemos dar el terminal por igualado y – en mi opinión – superado con varios teléfonos basados en Android: Milestone, Nexus One, algún HTC… pero antes de verano tocaba mover ficha a Apple y nos hemos encontrado con iPhone OS 4.0 y iPad. La pregunta esta vez es si han marcado la diferencia y cuanta ventaja han sacado al resto del mercado en lo que a experiencia de usuario se refiere.

En móviles soy bastante escéptico, no creo que vayan a conseguir repetir la hazaña. Más bien creo que lo que es razonable esperar es que Apple mueva ficha hacia el mercado corporativo e intente arañar mercado a RIM y también que amplíe la gama a más de un terminal por generación: no se puede crecer indefinidamente en este mercado sólo mirando a los usuarios más avanzados. Lo interesante está en el iPad. El resto del mercado llevaba tiempo anticipando el lanzamiento de un tablet de Apple, esta vez no ha habido un factor sorpresa como el de hace tres años. Quien más quien menos tenía preparado su proyecto: Microsoft y HP con Slate, Joo Joo, Nokia y muchos más en el año de regreso de los tablets.

Pero lo más interesante es que hayan filtrado al NYT que Google también sacará su tablet basado en Android. Justo en un momento muy oportuno, iPad ha hecho el grueso de ventas a los fans de Apple y tiene que empezar la cuesta más difícil, la de los usuarios que necesitan un argumentario más fuerte para la decisión de compra. ¿Qué hacen desde Google? Apuntar a que su sistema que ya compite de igual a igual en los móviles estará pronto en un tablet también y que, por tanto, es de esperar que esta vez Apple no tenga tanta ventaja como con iPhone. Claro que una cosa es anunciar un producto y otra que la gente lo tenga en sus manos y vea realmente su potencial… y ahora mismo tenemos a miles de compradores de iPad compartiendo su descubrimiento de la nueva era frente a un puñado de opciones más o menos vagas de tabletas táctiles.

PD: Apostaría a que Adobe estaría muy feliz con seguir mejorando su versión de AIR para Android para que pudiese adaptar las aplicaciones a un uso táctil.

German heavy equipment builder Liebherr (literally translated, in case you were wondering, as “love man”) recently filmed a stunt for the German TV game show “Wetten Dass?” (Wanna Bet?). Did you know that an excavator, controlled by an operator with no sense of self-preservation, could climb a sixty-five foot tall vertical tower? Did you know it could then do a headstand atop the tower? Yeah, neither did I.

Enjoy the Vivaldi (a little culture for your Monday afternoon) and don’t sweat the fact that you probably don’t speak German. Insanity is a universal language.

Source: Hooniverse

Husk Power Systems is close to securing a $1.5 million financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private investment arm. The funding is expected to be finalized at a meeting in May and follows last month’s $375,000 investment by the Acumen Fund.

We first learned of Husk Power from Lynn Tabernacki of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., (OPIC), one of the company’s inaugural backers, with $750,000 invested in the company. The Shell Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Royal Dutch Shell, also put some money into the startup.

Husk Power plans to use the new investments to deploy up to 100 of its new plants across India over the next year, Reuters reports.

The company, launched by a group of MBA students at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, has developed an inexpensive electricity-generation system that turns rice husks into biogas to fuel mini power plants.

It’s unclear what equity stake the IFC will take in the company following its investment.

 

Android 2.1+ Along with the update to Android 2.1 comes enhanced Exchange ActiveSync support. This is great news for business users, especially the enhanced security features. There is one thing that was bothering me about it, though, and even caused me to take my work e-mail off of my phone: the Exchange lock screen. On my Sprint HTC Hero with 2.1, having my work e-mail on my phone means that instead of a pattern unlock I had to use an alphanumeric password. This quickly got annoying, especially considering the phone locks when the screen goes off.

Then I found Lockpicker [market link]. It allows you to set your unlock pattern, add your Exchange e-mail account, and then enable Lockpicker. From the developer:

I just whipped an app together that disables the Exchange lock screen as soon as the server has enforced its policy by using a background service and an observer on the system setting. This requires no polling, scripting, etc. and survives reboots/enforcements.

So there you have it. That’s all you do and the app does the rest. This has made my life just that much easier. There is also a donate version [market link] if you would like to help support the developer. Note: Your IT department might not be too happy with you if you use this. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The unibody Honda Ridgeline is likely to be killed off after the 2011 model year. Introduced in 2005, the Ridgeline shares the same chassis components as that Acura MDX SUV and was one of the few unibody pickups ever made available for sale in the United States.

“There will be a model-year 2011 Honda Ridgeline but we haven’t announced anything beyond that,” Honda spokeswoman Christina Ra said.

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Honda Ridgeline.

Demand for the Honda Ridgeline never approached that of traditional, full-sized, body-on-frame trucks from the Big 3 domestic automakers. After a minor refresh for 2009, Honda planned no other significant changes

Sales of the Honda Ridgeline hit their peak in 2006 at 50,193.

“It’s a very nice concept, a very nice car. But the sales aren’t so successful,” executive vice president Koichi Kondo said of the pickup in 2008.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoWeek

On rare occasions, a player and an injury are perfectly paired. This is one of those times:

Chipper Jones’(notes) side is still sore, and now so is his back. The Braves third baseman has missed three games with a strained right oblique muscle, and when he tested it with some swings in the batting cage Sunday, his back tightened.

[…]

"I took some swings lefty and couldn’t really extend on anything," Jones said. "Then I turned around right-handed and took about 10 swings and my back locked up."

Everyone else can just stop getting hurt right now, because Chipper has mastered the art. You really can’t do it any better. This latest injury could be his masterwork.

It’s your move, Nick Johnson(notes). Whaddya got?

More injury notes, just so jeepers creepers has something to read: Brian Roberts(notes) has been placed on the 15-day DL with an abdominal strain. Julio Lugo(notes) is the placeholder for the Orioles, but fantasy owners can obviously do better. … Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez(notes) is officially day-to-day after leaving Sunday’s game due to hamstring tightness. He reportedly isn’t sure whether he can play in Tuesday’s game against the Mets, but this doesn’t yet sound like a long-term problem. … Ian Kinsler(notes) "did baseball activities in cleats" on Sunday, but he could only run at half-speed. The ankle remains an issue. Texas manager Ron Washington has suggested that he’d like Kinsler to get 20 rehab at-bats before the second baseman rejoins the Rangers. … According to various unnamed friends, David Ortiz’s(notes) wrist might not be entirely OK. His reaction: "Don’t pay attention to that crap." Papi is just 2-for-18 thus far. … Grady Sizemore(notes) will miss Cleveland’s home opener due to "mid-back tightness," but he’s "feeling much better than [Sunday]," according to his manager. … Terry Francona suggested that Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) (ribs) will need a couple days off, but the outfielder managed to avoid serious injury in this collision. … And just in case you didn’t hit the link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution above: Chipper is expected to return to the Braves’ lineup on Wednesday, following his magnificent double injury.

—

Photo via US Presswire

SAS introduced a social media analytics program today that will compete against the major metrics players such as Radian 6 and WebTrends. The new service shows once again how blogs and social networks are deeply influencing marketing, customer support and product groups within the enterprise.

The SAS Social Media analytics service is different than many of the social technologies we look at in our coverage. It’s a hosted service that SAS builds for the client. The client develops the parameters for what they want to analyze. Rules are established that then server as the framework. Results are viewed through a web page that SAS sets up for the client.

Sponsor

Most of the services we see are delivered as a SaaS solution. For example, Salesforce.com went live recently with Chatter that integrates Twitter, Facebook and other services. But SAS is a company with analytics at its core. It will take about a year for the company to build up the IP, the data, for specific market verticals. After that time, down, the road, it’s a service that could be delivered from the cloud.

But the learning behavior may be its key differentiator. Mark Chaves, product manager, SAS, said the service can be optimized to learn, based on inputs. For example, the sentiment analysis can be changed to reflect what has been learned. With most services, the sentiment analysis parameters are defined within the application and can not be altered.

The service reminds us a lot of what we see emerging in data analytics for the enterprise. The SAS service imports data from internal and external sources. It can archive and analyze more than two years of information from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, discussion forums, blogs and other sources. It is designed to provide a form of predictive analytics that can be applied, for example, to develop marketing strategies such as brand development.

Some of the other features include:

• Analyzes structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources.
• Quantifies influence, forecast future volume of social media conversations, and then predict their impact on the business.
• Multiple language support.
• Web-based dashboard.

SAS Social Media Analytics platform shows how deep social technologies are filtering into the enterprise. It’s important to identify data from social networks as additional data points that when integrated can provide insights, for instance, into campaigns and CRM environments.

The SAS offering reflects the DNA of the company. The focus is on data analytics. That seems like a logical approach. Social networks are producing data at an exponential rate. The SAS offering reflects how it is becoming more of a science to analyze the information from these networks and how its outcomes affect the entire enterprise.

Disclosure: SAS paid for a train ticket and hotel room for Alex Williams to attend the the SAS Users Conference in Seattle.]

Discuss

Today, the Federal Reserve announced the retirement of Brian Madigan, a longtime Fed economist, an architect of many of the emergency lending programs during the worst of the Great Recession, and the current director of the division of monetary affairs. Replacing him is seasoned Fed economist William English. The role is structurally important. The monetary affairs division advises Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and the Federal Open Markets Committee on monetary policy, and the monetary affairs chief generally drafts the FOMC notes. But as a Fed economist, English’s public paper trail is rather short; he has not published any papers since 2003 or given any recent speeches.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) restated his commitment to immigration reform during a Las Vegas immigration rally that attracted about 6,000 people this Saturday. “We’re going to come back, we’re going to have comprehensive immigration reform now,” Reid said, according to a Reform Immigration for America press release. “We need to do this this year. We cannot wait. I’ve got 59 Democratic senators, all but three would support this, I want a handful of Republicans, a few Republicans, let them step forward.”

Feet in Two Worlds, an immigration blog, posted a wrap-up today of Reid’s speech at the rally. (And here’s a video of Reid during the rally.)

At the rally, Reid tried to find middle ground, simultaneously outlining a path to citizenship and talking about protecting American borders. Under his proposed legislation, to gain legal status immigrants would pay “a penalty and a fine, people will have to work, stay out of trouble, pay taxes, learn English.” In his prepared remarks, Reid also tied immigration reform to the economic recovery, saying,

“It is about jobs.  It is about getting people back to work, getting our economy back on track and helping it grow.”

Some analysts questioned if Reid’s speech was primarily directed at strengthening his Hispanic constituent base, as he faces a difficult election fight this fall. Hispanics helped put Nevada in the Democratic column in the last election, though that could change if Democrats fail to make immigration reform a priority.

Reid seems to be stepping up as another leader in the push for comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate. “Immigration reform has the same features of justice health care did,” Reid said in a interview with Las Vegas TV station.

Reid’s speech has garnered the most media attention so far, but the Las Vegas rally is just one of six other Rally for America immigration protests that took place around the country that same day, also featuring senators and House members.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) assured rally participants of his commitment to reform when he spoke during Saturday’s Chicago rally. “It is time to say to our government — stop dividing our families,” Durbin said. “It is time to say to the voices of hate — stop dividing America.”

The political reasons for Reid’s stand on immigration are clear, according to Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly:

Reid’s motivations are hardly a secret. The senate leader not only has a genuine interest in the issue, but he’ll also need considerable support from fast-growing Latino communities in Nevada if he has any chance of keeping his job…

If Dems are looking for wedge issues that might improve their midterm prospects, [immigration] might do the trick.

None of this has been ignored by the right. Just like the Washington Monthly, the Right Side News reports on Democrats’ use of immigration as a political strategy.

Those wonderful Democrats, now scared witless they are going to be mauled politically at the polls this coming November, have to move as quickly as possible to get those millions of illegal aliens citizenship and, even more important, get them registered to vote so they can vote for the dems who secured their citizenship while overlooking the fact that they are criminals. Remember, Latino voters were crucial to President Obama’s win in 2008.

Whether or not Democrats support immigration reform because of November elections, the reassurance from Reid and Durbin comes at a good time — but activists are going to expect more than words. “The commitment we received from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was unequivocal,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, in a press release today. “While the words spoken by Sens. Durbin and Reid are welcomed, they must now be backed by actions.”