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Filed under: Performance, Hatchback, Mini, Specialty, Design/Style

If you aren’t sitting down, you’ll want to grab a chair. According to MotoringFile, Mini is set to bring its World Championship 50 model to a neighborhood near you – at least if you happen to live within spitting distance of one of the few Mini dealers quick enough to raise their hand for one of the scant crop of cars headed to the United States. Originally, the company had no plans to bring any of the 250 special edition units to this side of The Pond, but demand was evidently high enough to warrant 50 of them making their way to the American market.

The World Championship 50 starts its life as a run-of-the-mill John Cooper Works, which means it packs 208 horsepower from a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder, brakes capable of stopping a 747 and a suspension that’s chock-full of race ready bits. The WC50 package adds in a unique Connaught green paint and different trim throughout the car.

Cool? Sure, but even Fonzie couldn’t command the $40,300 that Mini will reportedly be asking for the WC50. Yes, that includes destination fees, but there are plenty of cars out there for that kind of money that would embarrass the JCW around a track any day of the week. In other words, this one’s for collectors.

[Source: MotoringFile]

Report: Mini Cooper World Championship 50 headed for U.S. with brand’s biggest-ever price tag originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Twitter today, Seabreaze Capital manager Doug Kass announced:

That was after the market opened, and thus after a wave of generally positive retail sales announcements from various companies.

For his sake, we hope this trade works out better than it did the last time.

On February 8, he told Benzinga that the consumer remained ill and that: “Retail stocks should be shorted – perhaps even with impunity!”

So, how’s that trade done since then?

Here’s the SPDR S&P Retail Index (XRT). February 8 looks like the low. Hopefully he got off that trade a long time ago.

Join the conversation about this story »

Review: 2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid, who is it for?

There’s the Prius and there’s the Tesla. But for well-to-do eco-conscious consumers, there’s nothing in between. The S400 fills that microscopic middle ground in typical Mercedes luxury.

Spy Shots: Lamborghini Jota set to replace Murcielago in 2011

The Murcielago’s replacement is set to arrive next year and we’ve got the first shots of Lambo’s new big bull testing in Europe.

Ferrari takes wraps off new 599 GTO, quicker than an Enzo

It’s been teased and spied, and now it’s finally arrived. The Ferrari 599 GTO sheds a few pounds, gains a few ponies and takes out the automaker’s namesake around Fiorano.

Also of interest:

• Toyota exec in U.S. urged company to “come clean” on defects
• King For a Day? 312-HP Camaro V6 ends short reign of entry-level Mustang
• Spy Shots: Are you the Spyker D12 SSUV?
• One more bidder reported left for Hummer, but is GM listening?
• BMW to bring back 328 Kamm Coupé at Villa d’Este

Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 4.8.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As part of my ongoing Online Strategy Roundtables, this morning I worked with three new entrepreneurs, each at a different stage of validating who their customers are and building their businesses accordingly. Two have e-commerce businesses, which I love. In fact, my Forbes column tomorrow will discuss the shift from brick and mortar shops to e-commerce and how such businesses are so well poised for Web 3.0. Main Street America is changing as small business owners move online and get rid of the expensive real estate costs.

Sponsor

Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies and writes a business blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy. She has a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her three books, Entrepreneur Journeys, Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction, and Positioning: How To Test, Validate, and Bring Your Idea To Market are all available from Amazon. Her new book Vision India 2020 was recently released. Mitra is also a columnist for Forbes and runs the 1M/1M initiative.

Up first was Ellen Sinreich and her company Green Edge Workshops. Ellen is a consultant with expertise in sustainability and real estate. Based on her practice, she has designed some workshops that enable employees to develop strategies that will drive down a company’s carbon footprint. She is looking to reach mid market companies in her geographic region (New York), but to date has no customers.

Clearly this is a business that has yet to be validated. I believe Ellen is trying to reach too broad a market based on her experience. I recommended she narrows her value proposition to align better with her expertise by targeting companies that deal with facilities and building issues. She asked for advice on finding clients and unfortunately there is no obvious way to find clients when you are a consultant. What worked for me early on was using my personal network for referrals and I suggest she does the same to connect with her target market.

Later on, while discussing the Entrepreneur Journeys methodology, I also suggested that folks should read the Finisar case study in Entrepreneur Journeys Volume One to get a good feel for what it takes to get a business off the ground through consulting, and then build a product company through that process by getting close to customers, while generating cashflow all along. Finisar, for those of you who don’t know, went public in 2001 at a $5 billion market cap, and was largely a bootstrapped case study.

Danny Wong presented Blank-Label, an e-commerce site that allows men to co-create and custom design dress shirts at affordable prices. This site was launched five months ago and has seen a steady increase in sales but has not yet hit its stride. While Danny is well-versed in SEO traffic optimization, he needs to narrow his market to target the exact psychographic interested in being this involved in buying shirts- in other words, style conscious men. I recommend he target his PPC campaigns to the more fashionable zip codes across the country and to go slowly. I believe focusing all their efforts on the correct psychographic will make all the difference. This is a business for a small niche market, but definitely worth building.

Catherine Wood Hill gave a heart-felt presentation of La Grande Dame, an e-boutique for plus-sized women that she started with her mom. Having launched a year ago, and with thousands of customers already, this business has been well validated. Their target is women between the ages of 30 and 55 who are looking for high-end designer clothes in sizes 14 and up.

I like it when a business is so tightly focused. This allows you to do so many things inexpensively through the Web. We discussed ways to fine tune customer acquisition so the business can scale faster. She said their PPC advertising has never yielded a good return on investment, so I suggested that she targets the most affluent zip codes in the country.

I also suggest she continues to do more PR and all the SEO marketing, blogging, Tweeting, etc., that she is already doing to reach more customers. I believe this has the potential to become a very large business. I did research on this segment myself when I ran Uuma, my personalized fashion company for busy, professional women which Ralph Lauren was interested in acquiring in 1999.

The roundtables are the cornerstone programming of a global initiative that I have started called One Million by One Million (1M/1M). Its mission is to help a million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond, build $1 trillion in sustainable global GDP, and create 10 million jobs.

In 1M/1M, I teach the EJ Methodology which is based on my Entrepreneur Journeys research, and emphasize bootstrapping, idea validation, and crisp positioning as some of the core principles of building strong fundamentals in early stage ventures.

You can find the recording of this roundtable session here. Recordings of previous roundtables are all available here. You can register for the next roundtable here.

Photo by Svilen Milev.

Discuss

The Sydney Prayer Breakfast is a new initiative happening for the first time this year at 7 am on June 4th, 2010 at the Shangri-La Hotel, and annually thereafter as a prayer gathering of Christians from all denominations to unite their hearts for Sydney. The intention is to call on our Heavenly Father for His blessing upon all the people of the city, to encourage believers in their trust and obedience to Him; and to be a light to fellow citizens. The speaker this year will be Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, and Australian singer Silvie Paladino will also be performing.

For registration ($50 per person), or for more information about the conveners of the Sydney Prayer Breakfast please visit their website at: http://www.sydneyprayerbreakfast.com.au

A wise woman and her young disciple were walking down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an angry man in a carriage drove haphazardly by the two, insensitively pushing the woman out of his way. She landed in a ditch filled with muddy water. The woman yelled after the man in the carriage, “May you have everything you want!” The disciple, surprised by the wise woman’s response, said: “I’m confused. Why did you say that to a man with such horrible behavior?” The woman replied, “Because a happy man wouldn’t have thoughtlessly pushed a woman into a ditch.”

Do you agree with this woman’s response? In my book The Bounce Back Book, I offer empowering strategies for embracing forgiveness and liberating yourself from anger and bitterness—even in the most challenging situations.

Here are 8 strategies to free you from your resentments starting today!

1. Say a Prayer
Whenever angry feelings about a person who’s harmed you enter your mind, tell yourself: “We are all good, loving souls who occasionally get lost.” Pray for this person to find their way back to a happier place—in the same way the woman in this story prayed for her offender.

2. Focus on Gratitude
Resist seeking happiness from the outside in. Instead, focus on gratitude exercises to bring happiness from the inside out. If you allow your self-image to be at the mercy of unpredictable events and unreliable people, your happiness will be forever on a chaotic roller coaster ride! Happiness must always be an inside joy! Whenever you are tempted to focus on all the ways the world has done you wrong, instead count your blessings by making a list of the five aspects of your life that you appreciate. It is good practice to purposefully end your day this way to keep focused.

3. to 8. – See the rest of these strategies over at OPRAH.COM! The above is excerpted from my new article posted over there – just nanoseconds ago! Read the rest by clicking this line here, right here, RIGHT NOW!

For more about THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK (praised by Anthony Robbins!) click this line, right here, RIGHT NOW!

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Remember those myTouch Slide pictures that leaked out in January? Details have been scarce since that time, but new evidence of the phone is beginning to spill out. First the myTouch Slide appeared in Radio Shack’s Direct2U system and now the device has been spotted on the FCC’s site.

The pictures from the FCC’s site resemble earlier photos leaked in January. The back of the Slide looks exactly like the original myTouch (HTC Magic) with the addition of a flash above the camera.

Speculation posted over at TmoNews suggest the Slide could drop May 15, 2010, but we know how carriers love to change these dates before launch. T-Mobile has invested a lot in their myTouch brand, so we truly believe this phone will get a big marketing push when it is released.

Not a lot is known about the specs of the device, but it is expected to be a mid-range phone running Android 2.1. It is rumored to have an ARM11 based processor like first gen Android phones, but it should be a newer Qualcomm model (like the 600 MHz MSM7227 used in the HTC Legend).

Rumored myTouch Slide specs include:

• 1300mAHr Battery
• MicroSD memory cardslot is accessible without battery removal.  It is a push to insert and push to remove design.
• Optical trackpad with an integrated push button.
• Camera with LED flash.
• 3.5 mm Headset Jack
• Slide-out 4 row QWERTY keyboard
• 320×48o screen resolution.
• ARM11 processor.

Leaked image of a myTouch Slide prototype.

Related Posts

• First images of the T-Mobile myTouch Slide
• MyTouch 2 “Slide” rumored to feature latest HTC Sense UI
• MyTouch Fender LE announces comeback tour
• HTC Desire spotted on Amazon for €419
• Select G1 users get special treat from T-Mobile

When folks learn that I work for Downtown Phoenix one of three questions follows without exception:

1) What’s with the glowing uterus in Civic Space Park? *

2) Can you get me free tickets to [fill in the blank]? **

3) When does CityScape open?

Let’s address that third question now.

In case the aggressive construction has eluded you, CityScape is a pretty big deal, both in size and its significance to Downtown. The mixed-use complex covers two lineal blocks in the heart of Downtown Phoenix and combines residential, office, retail, entertainment and public space with the total area of over 1,000,000 square feet.

As for when CityScape “opens,” the updated schedule is looking like this:

APRIL: Firms will soon be moving into the office tower at Central Avenue and Washington. Also, the construction team will complete an 80-foot long elevated pedestrian bridge crossing above Central and connecting to the new Patriots Square Park and CityScape’s retail by month’s end.

MAY: Gold’s Gym to open.

JUNE: Landscaping of Patriots Square Park to be completed.

JULY: Opening of hipster-friendly Urban Outfitters and Lucky Strike Bowling, plus Designer District, CVS pharmacy, Republic of Couture and Press Coffee.

SEPTEMBER: Oakville Grocery to open.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: Chef Aaron May to open a noodle bar and small Taqueria, La Grande Orange owners to open Public House, plus The Breakfast Club and a Sam Fox chop house to make debuts.

2011: BluBurger Grille and Cherry on Top yogurt to open.

Late 2011: 240-room Palomar hotel to open.

 Other answers:

*  ”Her Secret Is Patience” is public art and I happen to like ”her” very much, especially when lit up at night.

** I can’t get you seats to Lady GaGa, but if you become a Fan of Downtown Phoenix on Facebook your chances at winning cool stuff goes up exponentially

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Earlier today, Apple unveiled its iAd advertising platform as part of iPhone OS 4. Over the next couple of days pundits will rail about Apple competing with Google in advertising. As I explain in the previous post, “Clash of the titans: Apple, Google battle for the open Web,” there is a more fundamental, worldview war underway. Apple isn’t trying to compete with Google so much as make its mobile platform more appealing. The right approach is simple: Make lots of people rich.

Apple is building out a mobile platform around iPhone OS and extended services. There are right ways to make a platform more appealing, and Apple did just that with today’s announcement. Successful platforms share five common traits:

1) There are good development tools and APIs for easily making good applications.
2) There is at least one killer application people really want.
3) There is breadth of useful applications.
4) Third parties make lots of money.
5) There is a robust ecosystem.

The fourth of these characteristics is the most important. No matter how good the platform, third parties will only support it if they can make money. The classic competing example is Apple versus Microsoft in the 1980s and 1990s.

Apple retained tight control over its operating system, while Microsoft licensed DOS and later Windows. Microsoft’s approach allowed a huge ecosystem of hardware manufacturers, resellers and software developers to make money. Large businesses saved millions of dollars deploying PC hardware and software (instead of mainframes and terminals) and later generated revenue from new business processes and efficiencies. More third parties made more money supporting Microsoft’s platform than Apple’s. It’s the fundamental reason why the Macintosh lost the PC wars in the 1980s and early 1990s.

There is a sixth attribute that follows the other five: Scale. Once there is enough third-party support, the platform and extended ecosystem rapidly scales, such that it’s like a tsunami washing away any competitors. From that point, there no longer is choice. Developers will create software and consumers and businesses will buy into the platform. More for businesses than consumers, there also comes a point where it costs more to switch than to stick with the platform. This describes the state of Microsoft’s Office-Windows-Windows Server platform.

Apple’s app store/iPhone OS platform is remarkable for how quickly third parties supported it, how rapidly they made money from it and how suddenly there is scale — at least around applications. The hardware numbers are good but not great, nearly 86 million iPads, iPhones and iPod touches sold combined. There is no single reason for Apple’s mobile success although products and services released in 2001 are foundational to much of Apple’s late-Noughties gains.

Logistically, Apple started with the same platform approach that failed in 1980s and 1990s but reimaged it for the 2000s. Like Macintosh, with iPhone, Apple maintains tight control over hardware, software and services. But the company did much better offering an appealing platform for developers and mobile device buyers. Something else: No Microsoft monopoly. Apple didn’t have to compete with an entrenched incombent on handsets the way it did on personal computers. The phone market is highly fragmented (even among Nokia handsets).

The strategy worked in part by building in a direct mechanism by which developers could make money. Apple provided in App Store ways for developers to easily distribute software, to get paid for their apps and to protect them from rampant piracy. Flipped around, consumers can easily buy, sync and pay for the applications.

Until today, iPhone OS developers sold their applications or gave them away for free. The problem with free is free. How do developers make money from free stuff? With iAd, Apple will provide developers another way to monetize their applications, which will be more important to content publishers like the New York Times or to developers giving away stuff for free.

“These developers have to find a way to make some money, and we’d like to help them,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during today’s iPhone OS 4 launch event.

As I explain in the companion post, built-in advertising isn’t direct competition to Google. Apple’s iAd is confined to its mobile platform. However, Apple is offering developers even more ways to make money and on a platform already highly scaled. During today’s iPhone OS 4 event, Hasan Ahmad tweeted to me: “iAd demo — All Android developers just packed their bags and went for the iPhone.” If he’s right, they’ll be looking for the money.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

UC Santa Barbara mistakenly told 60 applicants they were admitted to next fall’s freshman class when, in fact, they remained on the waiting list for entrance, officials said Thursday. "It’s an awful situation and I feel really bad about it," UC Santa Barbara admissions director Christine Van Gieson said.

Because of a staff error in pulling names from computerized lists, families of the applicants received recruitment mailings intended only for those who had been admitted, she said. The 60 were among 2,400 on the school’s waiting list, an admissions tool that is being used extensively by the UC system for the first time. They can now choose to remain on that list but will not be automatically admitted because of the mistake, Van Gieson said.

UC San Diego experienced a much larger embarrassment last year when it sent a congratulatory e-mail to 28,000 students who had been denied admission. Within hours, the school apologized and the students remained on the rejected list.

— Larry Gordon

There may be some economic pollyannas starting to make appearances, but don’t count Fed chief Ben Bernanke among them. His exact quote the current state of things? “Far from being out of the woods.” Those aren’t the words of someone who’s feeling real good about the economy right now.

From the second link:

Bernanke said he expects the Fed’s easy money policies and a gathering recovery “will be sufficient to slowly reduce the unemployment rate over the coming year” from its current level of 9.7%. But he admitted that the jobless rate remains a major concern.

“The economy has stabilized and is growing again, although we can hardly be satisfied when 1 out of every 10 U.S. workers is unemployed and family finances remain under great stress,” Bernanke said.

The Fed chief also noted that bank lending continues to be weak and inflation expectations stable. Those observations should allow the central bank to continue to hold short-term interest rates near zero percent for what the Fed has called an “extended period” while keeping prices stable.

Swoopo, the crazy “entertainment shopping” site where users buy bids to compete against one another and lengthen the time until an auction closes — and often get absurdly low prices on consumer electronics goods — has spread to seven countries, facilitated more than 200,000 transactions, and inspired tens of behavioral economics academic papers over the last four and a half years. But in the face of increasing competition and slipshod copycats, the company named its third CEO, Frank Han, in February. Han, who came to Swoopo after founding eToys and running the Home Shopping Network’s online division, visited GigaOM this week to chat about where Swoopo is going next.

Han first shared with us the following facts:

• Swoopo hosts 250-300 auctions per day, split between global and local.
• The average final price of an auction is 71 percent off retail (of course Swoopo also makes money from the cost of bids).
• In one third of auctions, the final price is more than 90 percent off retail.
• The company loses money on 65 percent of auctions. “Our margins are nothing like Google’s, but better than Overstock,” said Han.
• The U.S. is the company’s largest market by far after launching a year and a half ago (the company started in Germany and was previously called Telebid).
• Swoopo has raised two rounds of funding, one led by Wellington Partners and one by August Capital. It has nearly 100 employees.

That the Swoopo model is so kooky has two bad side effects, said Han. First, that people assume it’s a scam. Second, that so many wannabes try to copy it. “Swipebids, Swoopee, Swoopuu, you name it,” said Han. And as a byproduct, potential customers sometimes expect the bad practices of some of those companies — such as “shill bidding,” when employees or robots compete against users to push up the price of and even win auctions. Other fly-by-night operations simply don’t mail out the products they get people to pay for. Han said he thinks the copycats and their alleged bad practices are significantly holding back his business. As a response, Swoopo this week launched a campaign called “Swoopo Naked” to try to educate its members and convince them it’s not ripping them off.

Meanwhile, Swoopo fits nicely into the current trends around impulse buying and commerce driven by gaming dynamics — Woot, Gilt Groupe, Groupon and the rest. Han indicated that the company may introduce products similar to those other sites. He said he expects Swoopo to split off into multiple brands and aggressively pursue partnership and distribution deals to extend its reach. The company, which has mainly focused on global expansion until now, also lacks all the extensions of the modern web service — mobile versions, widgets, applications on social networks — so you can expect those are coming, too.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

What Twitter Airfare Sales Tell Us About Real-Time E-Commerce

The UK’s Daily Telegraph declares today that cows are “absolved” of causing global warming with nitrous oxide. This proclamation came after a study in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia found that grazing cattle can actually reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas. While the authors caution that the study shouldn’t be seen as necessarily applying to other areas of the world, its results add to last month’s work from UC-Davis researcher Frank Mitloehner. Mitloehner determined that livestock farming is responsible for a truly meager portion of America’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and that blaming animal agriculture for global warming isn’t supported by reality. His revelations have even caused United Nations researchers to retool their 2006 estimates of global greenhouse gas sources.

Despite the growing body of evidence to the contrary, some still are swayed by the notion that we need to “go veg” to save the planet. This week San Francisco supervisor Sophie Maxwell, herself a vegetarian, proposed a resolution to declare Mondays “Vegetarian Day” and “encourage” businesses and schools to offer veggie options. The measure passed unanimously, but as the San Jose Mercury News reports, even city residents are blowing it off as simply another ridiculous “only in San Francisco” gimmick:

To some in San Francisco, Meatless Monday is a welcome reminder of the small part that residents play in solving a larger problem. Others, however, were left asking for Supervisor-Free Fridays.

"It seems the supervisors would have better things to do—like deal with the budget," said resident Buzz Bense, 61, as he enjoyed a pork sandwich at Memphis Minnie's, a lower Haight barbecue joint. …

Glen Pritchard, about to dive into Minnie's pastrami special, said he cares about larger issues—the environment, animal welfare—but thinks the city's do-gooders can go too far. …

"People will talk about it for a month, then it'll go away," said Kegan Riley, 28, as she flipped hot dogs at the Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

Let’s hope the next hard-to-swallow idea out of San Francisco gets widely panned as well. Like a tax on soft drinks, for instance.

Filed under: Motorsports, Videos, Honda, Motorcycle

It’s not at all uncommon to see Honda two-wheelers at a local track day event. After all, the Japanese company is the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles, and its VFR, CB and CBR line of sport bikes have become synonymous with reliable performance. It’s just as likely that you’ll encounter one of Honda’s motorcycles, in most cases a Gold Wing, when touring across the United States.

Naturally, it’s significantly less common to see a CBR criss-crossing the country, and, perhaps even more so, a Gold Wing on the track. But that’s not to say it can’t be done. In fact, Honda’s luxo-barge is well known to be a nice ride through the twistier bits that often connect those long, barren straightaways to the more sparsely populated cities across America.

That said, a rider scraping up his (or her, of course) knee pucks aboard a Honda Gold Wing isn’t the kind of thing you expect to see every day. And that makes the video pasted after the break all the more impressive. Not too shabby, if we do say so ourselves.

[Source: Bikerpunks.com]

Continue reading Video: Dragging a knee on a Honda… Gold Wing?

Video: Dragging a knee on a Honda… Gold Wing? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dowding Industries of Michigan hopes to revolutionize the manufacture of wind turbine components. Photo credit: Dowding Industries

When Jeff Metts, president of Michigan-based manufacturer Dowding Industries, attended the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference in Los Angeles in 2007, he was unsure if his company, which started out as a tool and die shop in 1965, would find a role to play in the new clean energy economy. The company, which employs 160 workers, had already reinvented itself once in 1997, moving away from manufacturing machines for the auto industry and toward the manufacture of construction equipment.

But Metts was surprised and invigorated by what he saw at the AWEA event. “Everybody had a look in their eye like this might work,” he said. “And being from Michigan, we had the idea that we could do this better than anybody else.” Shortly thereafter, Dowding built a new facility in Eaton Rapids specifically for wind manufacturing, where it plans to revolutionize the manufacture of wind turbine components using processes and materials that it hopes will reduce the cost of wind energy to the point that it is competitive with coal.

Metts compares today’s wind turbines to the automobiles of 1964: “When I was a kid, you would never take a car with high mileage on a long trip. Now, you wouldn’t think twice. That’s where the automotive companies have come over the years.” And that is where wind manufacturers still have a long way to go. According to Metts, wind turbines are being manufactured on machines that were built during World War II and are ripe for improvements to make them lighter, more efficient and less costly.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and the state’s Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG) were thinking along just these lines when they decided to designate a portion of Michigan’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for clean energy advanced manufacturing grants. They set aside $15.5 million in ARRA State Energy Program funds to support small manufacturing firms that seek to diversify into renewable energy manufacturing and have sound plans for producing the next generation of renewable energy systems.

“We want to position Michigan as a leader in this next generation of manufacturing,” said Amy Butler, Bureau of Energy Systems director at Michigan DELEG. “We have a knowledgeable and talented workforce; we have the manufacturing infrastructure; we have a long history of manufacturing in a next generation technology mindset; we have a lot of universities; and we also have a great workforce training system. With all of those assets together, it was perfect.”

In December 2009, DELEG awarded its Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing (CEAM) grants to five Michigan manufacturers, including a $7 million grant to Astraeus Wind Energy Inc., a partnership of Dowding Industries, and another Michigan company, MAG Industrial Automation Systems.

Metts said that Dowding’s approach to wind energy was to study where in the manufacturing process the company could make improvements. The company realized that by developing a specialized, state-of-the-art machine to manufacture large wind turbine components, it could significantly reduce the time it takes to manufacture them. In collaboration with MAG, Dowding designed a machine that will manufacture a wind turbine hub in 4 and ½ hours—a major breakthrough when contrasted with the 22 to 30 hours it currently takes using existing technology. Dowding estimates the new machine should be in operation by October 2010.

Astraeus has more wind manufacturing improvements in the works, including using carbon fiber rather than fiberglass to produce spar caps, which are wind turbine blade center beams, and eventually entire wind turbine blades. “It’s not a new technology, it’s a transfer of technology out of aerospace into the wind energy business,” Metts said. MAG currently manufactures aircraft wings and fuselage components from carbon fiber. Metts says wind turbine blades made from carbon fiber will be more durable, 30 percent lighter, and create 15 percent more energy than blades that are currently in use.

Additionally, Astraeus plans to use automation technology that will make wind turbine blades more uniform, and there is the potential for the company to use fiber optics on the blades to enable wind farm operators to quickly and easily assess their condition.

These are just the types of advances DELEG had in mind when it created the Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing Grants. “We believe that within Michigan, there is this spirit of doing things better, and we believe that in certain activities the manufacturing can be done more efficiently. When we’re talking about advanced manufacturing, we’re talking about best in class,” said Robert Jackson, section chief of DELEG’s Green Practices Section.

Other CEAM Grants went to a roofing company that has developed solar shingles using multicrystalline cells that produce more power and can be installed in less time than earlier versions, and a machining company that is manufacturing gearless, next-generation wind turbine systems, among others. Each company that received a grant had to document how it would create jobs, source from local suppliers, and contribute to the state’s goal of generating 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Each grant recipient also had to show it had secured commitments for additional project funding so that DELEG could be sure its grants would leverage further private and public resources for the clean energy manufacturing sector.

Metts believes that these grants and the technological advances they are supporting have the potential to bring manufacturing jobs back from places like China and Europe to states like Michigan. “This is a great country,” Metts said. “And I think a great country has to have a very strong manufacturing base and a very strong agricultural base. We create things, we make things, we feed people. I think we can be the leaders in this [renewable energy] industry, and I think it’s extremely important that we take the lead in what we can be the best in the world at. I think that’s where we need to go.”

More Information

Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth

Astraeus Wind

Here are some of the stories we’re following today on PolitiCal:

The California Chamber of Commerce has pulled an ad critical of Jerry Brown after Brown and his wife pressured members of the chamber board.

Three Republican candidates have launched new political ads — but aren’t spending much money to put them in front of voters.

Tax collections for March came in almost 6% above earlier projections.

And it looks like Ronald Reagan just isn’t the polarizing figure he once was.

Get the latest on these stories and more from the world of California politics on PolitiCal.

StockMapper [stockmapper.com] (note: works only during U.S. markets are open…) is an online stock heat map, representing the performance of all common stocks listed on the NYSE Euronext. The heat map renders the individual percent changes in market value for more than 1,800 U.S. and non-U.S. stocks. Users can filter the stock quotes by logical groupings such as geographic region, industry and major indices. The map can also be sorted by ticker symbol, price change, volume or market capitalization. Upon selecting an individual stock group a “bridge bar chart” appears of the price change and trading volume of all stocks in the group.

Interestingly, StockMapper was originally designed as a non-interactive map of the market to be shown on a number of exterior data displays outside of the NYSE’s Wall Street building.

See also STOC, NYTimes Financial Treemap, Vredit Crisis Visualized, SmartMoney Map and LabEscape Treemap.

Whether you want to be entertained while helping animals, meet a new furry friend or learn about caring for the furry friend you already have, the coming days and weeks are full of activities for Southern California animal lovers. We’ve got the details on a number of upcoming events; if you think
we’re missing something, let us know by leaving a comment or tweeting
the details to us @LATunleashed.

Thursday, April 8 (that’s today, kids!), the Voice for the Animals Foundation presents its seventh annual Stand Up for Animals event, an evening of comedy with proceeds benefiting the group’s work on behalf of animals, at The Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. This year, Stand Up for Animals might be even more special than usual — it honors animal advocate and actress/comedian Lily Tomlin and other "Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In" stars including Jo Anne Worley, Arte Johnson, Gary Owens and producer George Schlatter. Other notable comedians featured in the show include Rainn Wilson ("The Office") and Debra Skelton (MADtv). Award recipients include Dick Van Patten, Paul Jolly of the Petco Foundation and the City of West Hollywood. Event begins with a reception and silent auction at 6 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit VFTAFoundation.org.

Saturday, April 10, the L.A. Department of Animal Services hosts mobile pet-adoption events at Fred Hesse Jr. Memorial Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd. in Rancho Palos Verdes, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and at the Canoga Park Petco location, 6615 Fallbrook Mall Ave., from noon to 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 10, spcaLA invites potential "foster parents" to learn about its fostering program from 10 a.m. to noon at its South Bay Pet Adoption Center, 12910 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne. "Foster parents" are needed to care for puppies and kittens that are too young to be adopted, as well as older dogs and cats with special needs. More information at spcaLA.com. (The L.A. Department of Animal Services offers a similar program for underage puppies and kittens; more information on that program is available at the department’s website.)

Saturday, April 10, spcaLA hosts PAWS to Read at the Hermosa Beach Library, 550 Pier Ave., from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Through the PAWS to Read program, children practice their reading skills by reading to a decidedly nonjudgmental audience: certified therapy dogs. Beginning and independent young readers up to age 12 are eligible to participate; the program is free, but advance registration is recommended. More information at spcaLA.com.

Saturday, April 10, Long Beach pet store Chewsy Dog Boutique presents a doggie fashion show (um, Furshion Show, if you’re inclined to use the event listing’s terminology) featuring the pet-friendly designs of Ruby & Bee from 2 to 4 p.m. More information at Chewsy Dog’s blog.

Sunday, April 11, the L.A. Department of Animal Services hosts mobile pet-adoption events at Moorpark Park, 12061 Moorpark Ave. in Studio City, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and at the Santa Monica Kiehl’s cosmetics store location, 1516 Montana Ave., from 1 to 5 p.m.

Upcoming:

Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, America’s Family Pet Expo returns to the Orange County Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair Dr., Costa Mesa. The event features informational displays on dog breeds, adoptable animals, pet-themed vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides and demonstrations of activities such as dog grooming, K-9 police dog work and dock-diving dogs. Tickets are $12, $10 for people over age 60, $6 for children ages 6-12 and free for children 5 and younger. More information at PetExpoOC.com.

Saturday, April 17, the Volunteers of the Burbank Animal Shelter and Sunny-Dog Ink present its PAWStronomical Pet CPR Event at Burbank’s Woodbury University Auditorium, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Presentation includes information on how to properly perform rescue breathing and CPR on a pet, how to help a choking animal, disaster preparedness tips for pets, how to check a pet’s vital signs and more. Event also features pet-themed vendors and a chance to meet adoptable pets. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12 if purchased in advance; if purchased on the day of the event, they’re $20 for adults and $10 for children. Proceeds benefit the Volunteers of the Burbank Animal Shelter. Presentation begins promptly at 10 a.m. and ticket booth closes the day of the event at 9:45 a.m. For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit PAWStronomical.com.

Saturday, April 17, the L.A. Zoo invites its Safari Club supporters to its Sunset Safari from 6 to 8 p.m. Beginning at 6 p.m., Safari Club members will get an up-close look at the Brazilian giant otters that debuted at the zoo last year, and have a chance to experience other wildlife species. From 6:45 to 8 p.m., guests are invited to enjoy cocktails, a buffet dinner and live music. More information at LAZoo.org.

Sunday, April 18, local rescue group New Leash on Life presents its fifth annual Nuts for Mutts 5K walk-a-thon in conjunction with the Calabasas Rotary Club and the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. The walk-a-thon is a fundraiser for New Leash on Life’s work on behalf of needy pets in the L.A. area and includes pet-themed exhibits, children’s activities, a canine fashion show, a dog training clinic and more animal-related activities. The walk begins at 8 a.m. at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road, and continues through the hills of Calabasas. Well-behaved and leashed dogs are welcome to participate. For more information or to register, visit NewLeash.org.

Saturday, April 24, spcaLA hosts PAWS to Read at the Redondo Beach Public Library, 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Participation is free; sign-up begins at 9 a.m. at the Children’s Information Desk. More information at spcaLA.com.

Saturday, May 1, eyewear company Kaenon Polarized presents SUP for a Pup, a sample sale of surf apparel, accessories and equipment to benefit rescue group A Wish for Animals. (If you’re wondering — we certainly did — what the "SUP" of the event’s title means, it’s an acronym for Stand Up Paddle, a type of surfing.) Visitors will find deals on surf gear and meet adoptable pets; entertainment will be provided and Wahoo’s Fish Taco will be on site with food and beverages. Event takes place at Kaenon Polarized’s Newport Beach store, 864 W. 16th St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information at SUPForAPup.com.

Saturday, May 1, farm animal sanctuary Animal Acres hosts its Compassionate Cooking Extravaganza from noon to 5 p.m. at its Acton facility, 5200 Escondido Canyon Road. Presenters including vegan chef and cookbook author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau will teach students how to make vegan cheese from scratch, prepare raw foods and create delicious dairy- and egg-free desserts. Tickets are $50 and must be purchased in advance. For more information or tickets, visit AnimalAcres.org.

Saturday, May 8, the L.A. Zoo invites visitors to celebrate Mother’s Day with an informative presentation about motherhood in the animal kingdom. The event begins with a reception at 10:30 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. presentation by naturalist and zoo docent Joleen Lutz. Docent-led walking tours showcasing the zoo’s most interesting mothers and their offspring begin at 11:45 a.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12, plus the price of zoo admission; tickets for zoo members are $10 and $5 for children under 12. For more information or to make a reservation, visit LAZoo.org.

Sunday, May 23, Best Friends Animal Society holds its annual Spring Super Adoption Festival at Westchester Park, at the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and Manchester Avenue in Westchester, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hundreds of pets from area animal shelters and rescue groups will be on hand to meet potential adopters, and the event will give special attention to senior pets, which are often overlooked in favor of younger animals. (Take it from us, kids: Adopting a senior pet is great, particularly if said pet is already house-trained!) More information at BestFriendsEvents.net.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will open its newly restored 1913 Building with a brand-new "Age of Mammals" exhibition beginning July 11. The exhibition traces the history of evolution "from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the rise of humans — within the context of epochal changes in the Earth’s geology and climate," John Harris, the Natural History Museum’s head of vertebrate studies and chief curator of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, told our sister blog Culture Monster. Visitors will get to see specimens like the Simi Valley mastodon, a saber-toothed cat and a brontothere (a species with possibly the most rock ‘n’ roll-sounding scientific name: "thunder beast").

Ongoing:

Through Earth Day, April 22, 2010, secondhand-clothing store chain Buffalo Exchange and the Humane Society of the United States jointly host Coats for Cubs. Animal lovers are encouraged to clean out their closets (or parents’ and grandparents’ closets) and donate any real-fur items found there (including fur trim, accessories and shearling) back to the animals. Of course, it’s too late to give the fur back to its original owner, but it can still be used as bedding for orphaned and injured wildlife — and it doesn’t do your conscience any harm, either. Fur in any condition is accepted and can be taken to any Buffalo Exchange location. (If you’d like to claim your fur donation as a tax deduction, you’ll need to mail it directly to the Humane Society rather than dropping it off at Buffalo Exchange; mailing information is available at HSUS.org.) More information at BuffaloExchange.com.

The Origins skin care store at The Shops in Mission Viejo has partnered with the Mission Viejo Animal Services Center to offer free mini-facials, gifts with purchase and a chance to win a $100 Origins shopping spree in exchange for items donated to the animal services center. Taking Origins up on this offer is simple: Just head into the retail store located on the second level of The Shops in Mission Viejo and drop off an item on the animal services center’s wish list. Wish-list items include blankets, towels, newspapers, heating pads, unused collars, bottles for unweaned kittens and dog and cat toys. More information at MissionViejoLife.org.

— Lindsay Barnett

Don’t miss an event: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Lily Tomlin is set to perform at a fundraiser for animals Thursday at The Comedy Store. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

This is iPhone OS 4 running on an iPhone 3GS. Even though it’s not finished, it’s surprisingly usable—not nearly as slow as iPhone 3 beta running on iPhone 3G last year. More »

Out of all the things I love about the BlackBerry Messenger, I can do without the ridiculous spam. This time it wasn’t a virus, it was a false message that is supposed to be from RIM. If RIM really wanted to contact you, don’t you think they’d pin or email you as they do for your OS updates?

This is the message as it went across:

Hello, greetings from RIM (Research In Motion) proprietors of BlackBerry. This message is to inform all of our users, that our servers have recently been really full, so we are asking for your help to fix this problem. We need our active users to re-send this message to everyone on your contact list inorder to confirm our active users that use BlackBerry Messenger, if you do not send this message to all your BlackBerry Messenger contacts then your account will remain inactive with the consequence of losing all your contacts.

We apologize for the inconvenience but this is the only way possible to resolve this problem. Sincerely Research in Motion. For more information visit:

www.blackberry.com/inactiveusers

A good practice to keep is to ignore such messages, only allow people you trust and value on your BlackBerry Messenger, and if you delete those who spam you, it also helps alleviate the escalation of such spam. If you receive such a message, you can try conveying to the naive contact that it’s a hoax and it’s spam, or you can delete them. Also if you are wondering if such a message is true, there’s always the snopes online base for common hoaxes and spam. Snopes has a great writeup about this hoax, and its variants beginning with Hotmail and ending with the BlackBerry Messenger, thanks to Barbara “The Hoax Diamond” Mikkelson

[via: Snopes]

You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…

This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Messenger Assaulted By Spam Again

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