Blog

We told you about Parker Liautaud, the 15-year-old who is trying to be the first to check in at the North Pole using Foursquare, as part of an attempt to raise awareness of the environment in the Arctic. If he makes it, he will win a special Last Degree badge from Foursquare, and become one of the youngest people ever to ski to the North Pole. But it turns out Parker has some competition: David Newman, the 44-year-old CEO of a British insurance company called Carole Nash, is also heading for the North Pole, and wants to be the first to check in via Foursquare. He even has some special gear — a smartphone tethered to a satellite phone — that will allow him to do so, a spokesperson for his team says (Foursquare has been cracking down on people who check in from places they aren’t actually at, in order to win mayorships or badges).

Like Parker, the British adventurer is also sharing the details of his arduous expedition (he is walking to the North Pole, while the teenager is skiing) via the web, including a Flickr group and a Twitter account for updates and regular audio podcast posts. Newman, who says he has been on several Arctic expeditions before, has joined up with a team of British and Norwegian explorers and is raising money for a group called Riders for Health as well as a brain injury treatment center.

Carole Nash CEO David Newman

Parker Liautaud’s quest has likely gotten more than a little support from his family: his father is Bernard Liautaud, who co-founded Business Objects and later sold the company to SAP in 2007 for almost $7 billion. His expedition is also being sponsored by General Electric. His competitor, however, says that his trip has been completely paid for without sponsorship (Carole Nash is apparently the largest motorcycle insurance firm in the United Kingdom). It’s not exactly Amundsen and Scott racing for the South Pole, but now at least it’s a contest.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Kenyai

Don Blankenship — the unapologetic CEO of Massey Energy, which owns the West Virginia mine where at least 25 coal miners died in an explosion this week — just ended the nearly two-week-long drought on his Twitter page.

“Thought it might help for those of you out there wanting information about the tragedy to use Twitter,” he begins.

First thing that comes to mind is the dignity, compassion, understanding, and expressions of the miners’ families.

Second, is the incredible courage effort, tireless work, and professionalism of Massey’s members.

Third, is the amazing effort on MSHA’s part to find the right path to rescue/recovery.

Fourth, is the work ethic and genuineness of Joe Manchin.

Fifth, is the huge number of supportive emails that I’ve received to which I could not possibly respond.

Sixth, the indignity of much of the media.

Seventh, the efforts of the rescue teams who are supporting us from throughout the industry.

Eighth, the response of local emergency services and community support groups and churches – positive.

Ninth, the tireless work of members of our spousal group and others to feed and make the families comfortable.

Meanwhile, rescue workers this morning are finally descending into the mine in search of four miners who remain unaccounted for. Those efforts had been delayed due to toxic gases that had built up in the mine.

T-Mobile UK’s HTC Desire has only been in buyers’ pockets for a week or so, but already the carrier is warning owners to be ready for an OTA update.  In a new post on the carrier’s support forum, T-Mobile says they are “aware that HTC is planning to release a new software update” and are working with the manufacturer to make sure owners have no issues receiving it.

“T-Mobile recently launched the HTC Desire and the phone has been very well received by our customers. We are aware that HTC is planning to release a new software update and we are currently working with them to provide an ‘over the air’ update for customers with an earlier version. The update will happen in the coming week and we’ll keep you posted on any developments as and when we have them.” T-Mobile UK

The exact details of what the update contains is unclear, though there has been talk recently about the Desire encountering last-minute issues that have potentially been the cause of delays for unlocked, SIM-free units.  The OTA update itself is scheduled to go out at some point over the next seven days.

NEW data on weekly jobless claims came out today, and initial claims rose back to 460,000 last week, while the four-week moving average ticked upward as well. Here’s the longer run picture:

Claims seem to have stabilised. Unfortunately, they’ve done so at a level well above pre-recession norms. The March payroll employment figures generated a lot of optimism about a potential turnaround in the labour market, but it’s difficult to reconcile sustained strong gains with this kind of performance.

Next, Mark thoma posts a chart from the Atlanta Fed:

These data only go through the end of 2009, but the deterioration in the hiring rate during the recession indicates the nature of the growth in unemployment. Sackings rose, but the biggest problem was that the rate of exit from unemployment was so low. And because unemployment was mainly driven by a large decline in the hiring rate, the end to heavy lay-offs hasn’t meant a substantial decline in the unemployment rate.

Combine job losses sustained at a higher-than-normal level and continued weakness in hiring, and the outlook for a strong recovery for labour markets seems pretty poor.

Hello, I was told by a shi-tzu breeder that it would be ok to give my shi-tzu’s liqui-care p. for worms. I know this stuff is for horses, is this ok or not? Thank you. CO, Michigan

Dear CO,

If you’re a fan of my Ask the Vet blog, then you know I’m not a fan of giving dogs products made for horses and vice versa. So the short answer to your question is: no, giving your shih tzu a horse dewormer is NOT okay.

The long answer is that horse dewormers are way more concentrated than dog dewormers. The product you specifically mentioned, Liqui-Care P, is designed to be given at a rate of 6ml per every 100lbs body weight. For a 1,000 pound horse, that’s 60mls, easily doable with a large syringe. But for a 10lb Shih Tzu, that’s only 0.6ml, a small amount to have to be sure to measure correctly. And since this particular dewormer is a suspension—meaning it has to be shaken or stirred first because it has a tendency to separate—you have to be that much more careful when it comes to measuring.

My advice is to stick with a product specifically made for dogs and puppies. Most of the canine dewormers that contain the same active ingredient—pyrantel pamoate—are designed to be given at a rate of 5ml (one full teaspoon) per every 10lbs of body weight, a convenient amount to give to a small dog.

One other thing to think about: since pyrantel pamoate controls the roundworms Toxocara and Toxascaris and as well as the hookworms Ancylostoma and Uncinaria, why not use a heartworm preventative like Heartgard Plus or Tri-Heart Plus which not only controls these parasites but also heartworm, a much more deadly threat?

When you see a flock of birds flying in formation, it might seem like their group dynamics are fairly simple: The one out front leads the way. But does the same birds always take the lead in a group? And do the birds in the back follow the overall leader, or rather the middle managers in front of them?

To find out, Tamás Vicsek and colleagues strapped backpacks equipped with GPS sensors to pigeons for a study out this week in Nature. The lightweight trackers recorded the birds on both solo flights and group flight and measured their positions five times per second. Indeed, Vicsek found, birds fly according to the group pecking order, with the leader out front. When it changed direction, its direct followers would do the same in less than a second, and then the more junior members of the group would respond to the direction of those middle managers.

But there were surprises, too. Sometimes the lead bird wouldn’t fly out front; it may have been tired from leading the pack and needed some time off. So perhaps birds are like cycling teams, occasionally trading off who carries the taxing burden of leading the group.

For more details about the study—including why it’s not as obvious as you might think that the leading bird flies in the front of the group, and why left and right matter so much to pigeons—check out DISCOVER blogger Ed Yong’s post at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Related Content:
Not Exactly Rocket Science: GPS Backpacks Identify Leaders Among Flocking Pigeons
Not Exactly Rocket Science: Light-detecting backpacks record the complete migration routes of songbirds
80beats: “State of the Birds” Report, and is Climate Change Shrinking Avians?
80beats: To Read the Brain of a Pigeon, Scientists Outfit It with a “Neurologger”
80beats: Tiny Bird Backpacks Reveal the Secrets of Songbird Migration

Image: Zsuzsa Ákos

¿Cuántas veces ha visto una cucaracha en su hogar y ha vaciado un pote entero de insecticida para eliminar todas las cucarachas para siempre? ¿Cuántas veces ha visto un ratoncito invadir su hogar y ha recurrido a toneladas de veneno de ratas para evitar que cualquier ratón pise su hogar por los siglos de los siglos? ¿Cuántas veces ha usado cantidades excesivas de limpiadores para asegurar que las cosas queden más limpias y brillantes? Bueno, la realidad que el usar más no es siempre mejor. De hecho, el uso de excesivo de pesticidas y limpiadores caseros puede ser contraproducente y hasta poner a su familia en riesgo.

Un principio básico sobre el uso de pesticidas y limpiadores caseros de manera segurar consiste en leer la etiqueta primero! Al leer la etiqueta, encontrará la información necesaria para usar el producto de manera adecuada y minimizar la exposición a estas sustancias químicas. Asimismo, la etiqueta brinda información de primeros auxilios en caso de un envenenamiento accidental.

Mientras me he asegurado de leer la etiqueta cuando uso productos pesticidas, no estaba consciente de la necesidad de seguir las instrucciones de la etiqueta con el mismo cuidado cuando utilizo otros productos caseros comunes. De hecho, en un programa de televisión reciente ilustraron cómo cantidades excesivas de detergente para lavar ropa, en efecto, tiene el efecto opuesto al dejar la ropa luciendo apagada. Incluso, el jabón excesivo en la lavarropas puede acumularse y generar moho (hongos) en la máquina. El programa también recalcó la necesidad de leer el manual de uso para enseres eléctricos caseros para así maximizar su uso y eficiencia. Consejos similares también se aplican a otros enseres como lavaplatos, por ejemplo.

Por lo tanto, el vaciar un pote entero de pesticidas no eliminará las plagas. La manera eficaz de lograr este objetivo consiste en adoptar prácticas integradas para el manejo de plagas. [http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/ipm-sp.html] ¿Por qué no comenzar hoy mismo?

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

I’m almost too scared to tell you that the BioLite camping stove can burn anything. I don’t want to know what you’d shove in there. Still, the leftover heat can be used to power your gadgets—that’s good, right? More »

Looks like that rumored April 29 launch date (and possible April 25 announcement) for the HTC Incredible on Verizon is firming up quite nicely. Phone Arena scored this internal sheet from Best Buy Mobile, which clearly shows it launching three weeks from today. Now we just have to track down exactly what the darn thing’s made up of. [Phone Arena]

Remember the HTC MyTouch Slide–the phone all G1 using, physical QWERTY-loving folks have been holding out for?  Well it’s back.  This time the MyTouch Slide has surfaced via Radio Shack’s Direct2U system.  The only detail that can be seen from the screenshot is that the phone will be coming to T-Mobile.

The rumored specs are as follows:

• 1300 mAHr Battery
• MicroSD memory cardslot (accessible without battery removal)
• Optical trackpad with an integrated push button
• Camera with LED flash
• 3.5 mm Headset Jack
• QWERTY keyboard (4 row Slide-out)
• 320×480 screen resolution
• ARM11 processor

According to TmoNews the MyTouch Slide should be arriving on or around May 17th, which makes sense since it’s starting to show its face in inventory systems.  As the release approaches, perhaps we’ll start to see images of the phone that are better than what we saw back in January.

Until then, think you can hold out that long for a new phone?  Leave your comments below!

Via Engadget, TmoNews

I’m not sure Maine gubernatorial candidate Steve Abbott meant to couple his new campaign commercial, austerely titled “Prosperity,” with a video on streakers, but it appears he’s doing just that on his campaign website.

An episode of the “Streak to Win” web series, documenting a college varsity streaking team, appears on Abbott’s website under the video reader’s “staff picks.” Between the snarky dialogue, viewers will see a healthy dose of full frontal nudity.

No response yet from Abbott’s staff.

Update: Abbott Communications Director Felicia Knight said she first learned of the streaking video from TWI and said the campaign did not compile the video staff picks. “These are not our staff picks,” Knight said, adding that the campaign was “certainly not pleased” to find this content on its site.

Knight suspected that the “staff pick” was actually compiled by BlipTV, the video reader the Abbott campaign is using for their website. Knight’s suspicions were confirmed when she found the “Streak to Win” video listed as the number one video on BlipTV today.

“We are taking out the Blip embeds and adding YouTube,” Knight said, adding that this could serve as a warning to other people who are using BlipTV.

Screen shots after the jump:

KNOXVILLE — In light of the recent earthquake activity worldwide, does East Tennessee face any increased danger of having a quake?

Bob Hatcher, distinguished scientist and professor of structural geology and tectonics in earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will touch on this question when he presents this week’s UT Science Forum lecture.

Free and open to the public, Hatcher’s presentation — “Evidence for a 25,000-year History of Earthquake Activity in Eastern Tennessee” — will begin at noon on Friday, April 9, in Thompson-Boling Arena Dining Room C-D. Attendees are welcome to bring their lunches or purchase lunch at the Café at the Arena.

The UT Science Forum is a weekly event where leading science researchers share their discoveries and discuss the frontiers of their fields in a way that the general public can understand.

Hatcher’s research focuses on the question of whether there were large earthquakes in the East Tennessee seismic zone in prehistoric times and, if so, how frequently they occurred.

“The East Tennessee seismic zone is the second most active in the eastern U.S.,” Hatcher said. “It’s a large area. There are earthquakes that occur all the way from north of Knoxville into northwest Georgia into northeastern Alabama. One of the reasons we wanted to work in this area is to see if there have been prehistoric earthquakes of larger than a magnitude five, because magnitude five is the threshold of damage.”

With a research grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Hatcher and his team have found evidence of larger earthquakes in the area in prehistoric times, but have not yet determined the recurrence rate. He will present these findings in his discussion. In the video, Hatcher describes why his research is important to residents of East Tennessee and how it affects the area.

The UT Science Forum is sponsored by the UT Office of Research. Upcoming presentations include:

• April 16: Soren Sorensen, professor and head of physics and astronomy, presents “The End of the Universe.”

• April 23: Forbes Walker, associate professor of biosystems engineering and soil science, presents “Developing Conservation Agriculture Systems in Africa.”

• April 30: Suzanne Lenhart, professor of mathematics, presents “The Power of Optimal Control: From Confining Rabies to Improving CPR.”

For questions about the UT Science Forum, contact Mark Littmann, [email protected] or 974-8156, or Mike Clark, [email protected] or 974-6006.

—

C O N T A C T :

Bridget Hardy (865-974-2225, [email protected])

I am currently supplementing “Bug Check” and “Sr Flex” to my 17 yr old TB’s grain. I was also giving Rice Bran Oil as recommended by the Equine Hospital where he spent a week (for colic- like symptoms) without getting a definitive diagnosis. Periodically he still seems uncomfortable, looks bloated, and lies down a lot. He does tend to correct himself. I read the article in the last mailing I got about Omega 3 and 6 understanding that the Omega 3 don’t fight inflammation as well as the 6, is this correct and should I be looking for an oil that is higher in Omega 6 fatty acids to add to his grain? Also, I am considering Quiessence for a calming supplement. Can this be fed along with the “Bug Check and “Sr. Flex” without a problem? AL, New Hampshire

Dear AL,

I chose your question because I wanted to address a misunderstanding about Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. In addition, I want to touch on your oversupplementing question at the end, as I get these types of inquiries frequently. But first things first.

You’ve got the Omega 3 and Omega 6 actions backwards. Both are required for normal responses and healthy tissues but it’s the Omega 6 family of fatty acids that tends to increase the levels of inflammatory agents in the body and the Omega 3 family of fatty acids that tends to increase the levels of ANTI-inflammatory agents in the body. In responding to infection or healing a wound, some inflammation is required. But modern horse keeping has shifted the balance of these fatty acids too far towards the Omega 6 line, creating a chronic state of inflammation in the body. We recommend feeds and supplements that have a higher level of Omega 3s to restore equilibrium. So while rice bran oil is better than corn oil in regards to the balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids, canola oil is an even better choice. Fish oil is ideal though, not only because it contains nearly all Omega 3s but also because it has pre-formed DHA and EPA, two specific Omega 3s with proven beneficial effects in the body.

Now for your second question. You’re already supplementing your horse with “Bug Check” and “Senior Flex” and want to know if you can give “Quiessence” as a calming supplement. At first glance, I see no problem with giving supplements in the insect control, joint and calming categories. But let’s take a closer look at the active ingredients in each to make sure there’s no overlap.

Bug Check—diatomaceous earth, garlic powder, brewers yeast, soybean oil, thiamine and grape seed meal in a distillers grain base

Senior Flex—glucosamine; chondroitin sulfate; MSM; Ester C; Yucca; Vitamins A, D and E; and Lactobacillus acidophilus in a rice bran base with mineral oil

Quiessence—Magnesium and Chromium in a distillers grain base with salt and wheat mids

I don’t see any overlap of active ingredients here that would concern me. Remember, it’s not the number of supplements you give a horse but the ingredients in them that matter, especially when combined with the hay and grain he’s already getting. So a horse getting a full serving of grain and just one supplement (say a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement) may be oversupplemented while a horse getting a thoughtful selection of products to meet specific needs (like yours) is getting only what he needs with three or more supplements.

The proposed Telangana state would require re-allocation of two of India’s largest rivers.

The push to create a new state in southern India has caused concern about how current water resources would be divided, Al Jazeera reports.

Following decades of protest and recent agitation by independence activists, India’s central government started the state-formation process in December 2009 that would section off the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. But the new state could change the allocation of the state’s two major rivers, the Krishna and the Godavari, and cause tension in the area, according to several news reports from the region.

Farmers from both regions who spoke with Al Jazeera were already thinking about what the new state would mean for them.

One farmer, Shankar Reddy, who cultivates four acres in the Andhra region, had a strong crop this year, but said he’s looking toward an uncertain future.

“I’m worried,” Reddy told Al Jazeera. “There is talk of stopping the water to us. That would be disastrous as we rely on the river. We can’t just depend on the rain. We need this water source.”

Across the river in Telangana, the problem is a current shortage, not an anticipated one.

Kas Ghani Muthai owns four acres, but can farm only one and a half now because of drought and poor water supply infrastructure. The last rains came in June 2009, and the region does not have the irrigation canals its neighbor does.

“When Telangana is formed we will get all of the water,” Muthai said to Al Jazeera. “Our water should not be going to the Andhra region.”

Unequal allocation of resources is one reason many in Telangana desire their own state. The Krishna River enters Andhra Pradesh through Telangana and forms most of the border between the two regions. Yet, Telangana’s share of the water is less than 12 percent, according to the Times of India. The same case holds for the Godavari. Telangana is allocated less than 20 percent of that river even though 70 percent of its catchment lies in the region.

As a new state, though, Telangana would negotiate for no less than double those amounts, according to a Telangana activist speaking to the Times of India.

To complicate matters, some leaders from the third region of Andhra Pradesh – Rayalaseema – propose to unite with Telangana if it becomes independent to guarantee a source of water.

“It is in our interest if Rayalaseema is merged with Telangana. Otherwise, we won’t have any water in case Telangana refuses to share,” said J C Diwakar Reddy, a member of the state legislative assembly, to the Indian Express.

A decision on Telangana’s fate most likely will not come until next year. A committee formed by the ruling Congress party to study the issue will submit its report by December 31, 2010.

Source: al-Jazeera, Times of India, Indian Express

A group of 3,000 national and grassroots companies are taking part today in a new national advertising campaign calling for swift action on energy and climate legislation. These businesses, including the groups American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) and the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), range from national brands — like Google, Nike and Timberland — to mom-and-pop companies.

That’s from a press release from American Businesses for Clean Energy.  Here’s more on this groundswell of business support for action on climate change and clean energy jobs:

Appearing in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina and Florida, the print ad, titled “A Question of American Leadership,” calls on Congress to enact bipartisan climate and energy legislation that “…increases our security and limits emissions, as it preserves and creates jobs.”

The ad unites a broad spectrum of American businesses, faith-based groups, national security organizations, labor unions and environmental NGOs who believe that strong action on climate and energy legislation can lead to an improved economy, job creation and energy security.

The organizations appearing on the ad represent more than 11 million American jobs and the companies have combined 2009 revenues of over $2.5 trillion.

With close to 3,000 members, the nonprofit and nonpartisan ABCE is comprised of a diverse group of businesses that support Congressional action to pass clean energy and climate legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Christopher Van Atten, a spokesperson for American Businesses for Clean Energy said:  “This ad push brings together the best of American businesses large and small to send a clear message to our leaders in Washington: We need action on climate and clean energy starting today. The businesses that are part of ABCE represent a range of views and regions, and we stand united behind the need for comprehensive clean energy legislation that will create jobs, unleash innovation and make our nation more secure, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.”

The ad may be viewed and downloaded http://www.climatead.org/.

Nearly 50 percent of American tax filers will pay no federal income taxes in 2009. Half of them earn too little and the other half receive tax credits — the Earned Income Tax Credit, child-care credits, subsidies for college and savings — worth more than their tax burden, according to the Tax Policy Center. Many of these people still pay federal taxes, such as payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and state and local taxes.

Some criticize the fact that half the country is effectively exempt from the scourge of April 15, but there is a political and economic component to this Zero-FIT (federal income tax) phenomenon. If the Zero-FITs are a political problem, they are also a political creation. When moderate and conservative pols are reluctant to announce new spending programs for fear they will look like socialists, they execute these spending programs  through the tax system. If most of these programs flipped to the spending side of the ledger, suddenly millions more Americans would owe federal income taxes. For example, the EITC — President Ford’s initiative — is now a $50 billion program, maybe the largest component of our welfare system, and yet our politicians don’t even have to call it spending. (The exemptions and deductions carved into our Swiss cheese tax regime are called tax expenditures. When the government spends a dollar, it’s an expenditure. When it leaves a dollar in the hands of private earners, it’s a tax expenditure.)

As a result, this creates an interesting civics problem. The Zero-FITs’ federal taxes are earmarked for mandatory programs Social Security and Medicare. So 50 percent of the country is not contributing to the part of the budget that electeds actually control. With half the country currently shielded from the burden of funding a defense and discretionary budget, there are serious questions to ask about how that changes the politics of taxing and spending.

The even more interesting question that spans economics and morality is whether a tax code that exempts half the country is just. The New Yorker’s John Cassidy argues from a moral perspective that wealth is a social creation whose marginal utility declines with income, which supports the philosophy of a progressive tax system.

From an economics point of view, it’s important to consider disproportionate tax burdens in light of disproportionate earnings. The top 20 percent of US tax payers account for two-thirds of all federal tax revenue, according to the Tax Policy Center’s 2009 analysis of President Obama’s budget. The top one percent accounts for 23 percent. This are extraordinary numbers, but equally extraordinary is the unbalance of wealth that has developed over the last generation. The top one percent soaked up two-thirds of the income gains of the 2000s, so that in 2007 their share of pre-tax income was the highest since the late 1920s. In 2007, the top one percent took home 23 percent of US income — the same percent as their projected share of federal taxes under current law.

Is it wrong that half of Americans pay no federal income tax? It is a difficult question. There is an interesting hazard involved with exempting half the country from paying for the discretionary programs it votes for. But that hazard exists partly because politicians have run spending programs through the tax system to shield themselves from critics of big government. The economic question is wrapped up in morality: do we think it is fair to raise the tax burden on the rich simply because they are rich? Utilitarian egalitarianism says yes. But utilitarian egalitarianism is no relief for conservatives who prefer a broader, flatter tax system that mitigates the tax punishment of earning more income.

This debate won’t be resolved today, but it’s important to juxtapose the falling tax burden on the lower 50 percent with the falling tax burden on the top 10 percent. In 1988, President Reagan’s last year in office, the top 10 percent, 5 percent and 1 percent of income-earners paid total effective tax rates of 27%, 28% and 30%, respectively. Under 2009 law, these groups will pay the feds closer to 22%, 23% and 26% of their income — across the board, an approximate difference of five percentage points. Any way you slice it, tax burdens have slid, and they will have to go up soon.

(Nav Image Credit: Howdy I’m H. Michael Karshis/Flickr)

Back in December, we told you guys about two Naruto titles going to the portables (qjnet/news/more-naruto-going-portable-and-multiplatform.html). One of them, Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive is heading for the PSP, while the other, Naruto Shippuden: Ninjutsu Zenkai! Cha-Crash!

O Audi R8 V10 foi eleito o Carro de Melhor Performance de 2010 na cerimônia de entrega do World Car of the Year Awards, realizada no Salão de Nova York (New York Auto Show). É a segunda vez que o R8 recebe o prêmio de Carro de Melhor Performance, pois a versão com motor V8 foi contemplada em 2008.

O Audi R8 V10 foi desenvolvido em cooperação com a quattro GmbH e destaca-se pelo desempenho excepcional. O motor V10 em alumínio, feito grande parte a mão, segue a tradição da Audi nas pistas de corrida. O propulsor aspirado produz 530 Nm de torque a 6.500 rpm e tem potência máxima de 525 hp, atingida a 8.000 rpm. A potência específica é 100,9 hp por litro, e a relação peso-potência é de 3,1 kg por cavalo.

O motor 5.2-litros FSI possui injeção direta de combustível. A alta taxa de compressão 12.5:1 permite a performance inigualável e eficiência no consumo de combustível. O sistema de lubrificação a seco, outra tecnologia das pistas de corridas, garante que o fornecimento de óleo seja mantido mesmo com a aceleração lateral máxima de 1,2 G.

Desde o início do World Car of the Year Award, a Audi foi nomeada com vários prêmios em diferentes categorias:

2005 – Audi A6 – World Car of the Year

2007 – Audi RS4 – World Performance Car
Audi TT – World Car Design of the Year

2008 – Audi R8 – World Performance Car
Audi R8 – World Car Design of the Year

2009 – Audi R8 V10 – World Performance Car

Fonte: In Press

Before you go getting all excited about seeing that 9,300 applications were added to the Android Market last month, know this: There’es a lot of fluff in there. It is always great to see that you are able to customize applications by adding skins, but should we really count each of the dozens and dozens of skins as an application in the market? Does anyone really need that many adult-style applications? And beyond that, do we need to continue and add another application, instead of adding content to the original?

In mid-March we reported that the Market had hit 30,000 applications, and the numbers will  rise and rise. While, yes, we are indeed seeing some quality applications being added to the Market (See our weekly AndroidCentral Editor Picks of the Week for examples) we can all agree that playing the numbers game is, at best, a game. Let’s go for quality over quantity. [via Electronista]

A roundup of economic news from around the Web.

Congress and Deficits: Stan Collender looks at the problem facing Congress in trying to reduce the deficit. “Take a deep cleansing breath before looking at this just-released poll from the Economist/YouGov and ask yourself what you would do if you were a member of Congress facing this situation. In question 23, almost two-thirds — 62 pecent — of those responding said that they wanted to cut spending to reduce the budget deficit rather than raise taxes. But just three questions later, the only area of federal spending that a majority — 71 percent — was willing to cut was foreign aid. More than 70 percent were against cutting every other of the areas mentioned and more than 80 percent were against cutting 9 of them. Reductions in the 2 programs where cuts could have the largest impact on the federal government’s bottom line — Social Security and Medicare — were only supported by 7 percent of those responding and, therefore, were opposed by 93 percent.”

Housing and Inflation: Mike Bryan on the Atlanta Fed’s macroblog posts a chart looking at housing’s effect on inflation. “The diffusion index below is the 12-month diffusion index for the CPI. Specifically, it shows the proportion of the CPI market basket that rose more (+) or less (–) during the past 12 months than during the prior 12 months. So diffusion index values below zero indicate that the majority of the CPI is rising less rapidly than a year ago while values above zero indicate the opposite. On both a weighted and unweighted basis, the CPI 12-month diffusion index is below zero—and has been since last April. Conclusion? It’s not just the housing sector that is driving the recent disinflation trend.”

Financial Constraints: Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Monika Schnitzer write on voxeu look at why poor countries don’t catch up. “How can poor countries stop playing catch up? The question continues to puzzle economists. This column argues that the innovative and productive activities of domestic firms in emerging markets are inhibited by financial frictions. Financial reform policies will be most effective if they target the vulnerable small and young domestic firms, and those in the service sector.”

Compiled by Phil Izzo