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Word on the street is that the 2011 Ford Mustang GT will pace the field for the 2010 Daytona 500 on Feb. 14. The new 412-hp 5.0L V8 Mustang will be specially prepared for Daytona with a Race Red paint scheme and Blue/White Lemans stripes, Ford Racing suspension, strut tower brace, mufflers and a special interior including lighted sill plates.

The model will be an actual production unit with an early VIN and will be offered for auction at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction on Jan 23. The proceeds over the MSRP of the car will go to help cure childhood diabetes through a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The 2011 Ford Mustang GT pacing the Dayton 500 will mark the first time in 40 years a FoMoCo vehicle took part in the event. The last FoMoCo to pace the Daytona was the 1970 Torino GT convertible.

2010 Detroit: 2011 Ford Mustang GT:

All Photos Copyright © 2009 Stephen Calogera – egmCarTech.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Mustang Heaven (via WOT)

Automotive supplier PPG announced today the MVP Business Solutions Conference for collision center owners and managers at the Paradise Point Hotel in San Diego, in an attempt to make the owners aware of the challenges of today’s automotive industry. The conference will be held on March 28-30 and is themed "Beyond Tomorrow".

This MVP conference will be truly unique. An important focus will be how to bring out the best from the employees that comprise the typical collision repair bus… (read more)

One moment it’s a table, the next it’s a fort…well, a fort that any dog would be happy to sleep in, at least. Sadly, the table fort is nothing more than a design concept. [Daily Shelter via boingboing]

Arc4life’s cervical linear traction neck pillow is one of the most popular neck pillows on the market today. It helps with a variety of symptoms such as neck pain, neck ache, stiff neck, herniated disc, bulging disc- it provides for a more comfortable and quality sleep.

The traction pillow really only comes in a medium or standard size. The dimensions are 20 inches by 26 inches. Well I won’t say that any longer, we now also offer a large size traction pillow (21″x33″) too. Unfortunately it does not come in a small because to make the “V” section we need more room and space for material. If someone is shorter than about 5’1” or has a very short neck we recommend the linear gravity small pillow. If someone is taller than 6’2” the large traction or large linear gravity may be a better support.

That being said, the majority will find that the standard size traction pillow will be the right fit for them. If for some reason it’s uncomfortable at first, start using the other side which is the support side.

Additional Reading Resources

• Need a Pain-in-the-Neck Cure? Arc 4 Life’s Soft-Yet-Effective, Polyester-Filled (Non-Memory-Foam), Cervical Linear Traction Pillow
• What Is the Best Neck Pillow for Someone with a Cervical Disc?
• The Cervical Traction Neck Pillow Can Reduce Snoring
• Neck Pain Relief Naturally with the Neck Pain Relief Kit
• I’m sore after using my new neck pillow for the 1st time

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief. Bookmark this on Delicious Stumble It!

Visit us on the Web at Arc4life.com

Andalusia’s state officials (Andalusia is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain) have signed an agreement with the Renault-Nissan alliance to promote the development of electric vehicles in the region.

The electric vehicle study will be based in the Andalusian Technological Park, where a series of simulations to define energy, charging stations and battery life necessities for the large-scale development of such a project will be performed.

The city of Malaga will provide in… (read more)

Bono, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Sting, and Christina Aguilera will be among the performers at this week’s mult-network Haiti Earthquake relief telethon.

Hope For Haiti, hosted by Golden Globe-nominated actor Clooney and Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, will air on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT @ 8 PM Friday, Jan. 22. More than 40 celebrities are expected to attend the event.

“We’re going to have a lot of great musicians — we’re putting them together as we speak, and then we’ll be able to release the songs on iTunes the next day, so that they’ll be a continuing ability to make money for several of the charities,” Clooney told E News! from the red carpet at the Golden Globes this weekend.

The PowerBuoy

In a surprising development, Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has announced that CEO Mark Draper is leaving the company  less than a year after taking the top position from company founder Dr. George Taylor, citing personal reasons.  AIM-listed OPT, which has developed the PowerBuoys generator, a water buoy that capture waves to generate electricity, has appointed Chief Financial Officer Charles Dunleavy to replace him.

Mr. Dunleavy, 60, joined OPT in 1994 and has served as CFO since 2001. He has been a company director since 1990. The Company says it will appoint a new CFO.

Last November OPT received A$66.46 million ($60.65 million) grant from Australia’s Resources & Energy Ministry to finance construction of a 19 megawatts wave power project on the Indian Ocean.

OPT has also deployed 10 PowerBuoys generators off Spain’s Atlantic Coast as part of a 1.39-megawatt project it’s developing with Iberdrola and is working on a utility-scale initiative with Lockheed Martin off the Oregon coast. Back in Europe, OPT is developing Wave Hub, a 20-megawatt project, in Cornwall, England.

Request help now as tax season gets underway

Under normal circumstances filing a tax return can be time consuming and confusing. But for military personnel and their families tax season only adds to the stress of trying to maintain a sense of normal life.

To help them at least in a small way, the Illinois CPA Society is offering free preparation of personal federal and state income tax returns through its Military Service Tax Preparation Project, offered in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service.

The project matches families with CPA volunteers throughout the state who can guide them through tax benefits, exclusions and extensions that are unique to members of the armed forces.

Who qualifies for free personal income tax return filing assistance?

Illinois residents who are claiming combat pay on their 2009 taxes qualify for assistance, that is residents who are members of the U.S. Armed Forces having served in a combat zone or qualified hazardous duty area within the 2009 tax calendar year, or who are members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving in a contingency operation.

When and where is assistance available?

This is a year round service available throughout the State of Illinois, but it’s best to request a volunteer CPA as early as possible in the tax season. A spouse or family member — son, daughter or parents — can request assistance for military personnel still overseas.

How does the program work?

Once basic information is provided to the Illinois CPA Society, military personnel and/or family members are matched with a CPA volunteer in their area. Contact information is shared so volunteer CPAs and individuals filing their taxes can make arrangements to work together to complete the tax returns.

Who do I contact for more information or to request assistance?

More information can be found in the Consumer Section of the Illinois CPA Society’s Web site, icpas.org.

To ask questions or request assistance, contact Jill Wiles, Community Service Manager at 312-993-0407, extension 277 or via e-mail at [email protected].

The Military Service Tax Preparation Project is designed to help those who don’t have a relationship with a CPA and who would otherwise have few resources for financial advice and information on IRS guidelines for military personnel.

With the professional expertise of a CPA, the tax filing process can be less overwhelming, and military members and their families can benefit from their knowledge and experience.

About the Illinois CPA Society

The Illinois CPA Society, founded in 1903, is the fifth largest state CPA society in the nation, with more than 24,000 members. It is the premier professional organization that represents CPAs in Illinois.

During its over 100 years of existence, the Society has advanced the highest ethical and financial standards of the profession, and has been a leader in educating the public on financial issues.

For all the customer teams competing in the 2010 Group N championships around the world – either the ones competing in the World Rally Championship, or the ones focusing on a national championship only – Prodrive has today announced the unveiling of its new Subaru Impreza N2010, its latest FIA specification group N rally car.

The Impreza N2010 uses the new larger 33mm air restrictor, introduced by the FIA to help balance the performance of Group N and the unrestricted Super2000 rally cars. In… (read more)

Three stories in the press over the last few weeks, have given South African’s unusual concerns about swimming off Cape Town’s beaches, surfing around the estuaries of Eastern Cape Rivers and canoeing in the Umgeni River.

Sharks Around Cape Town Beaches

A Zimbabwean man holidaying in Cape Town was killed, when he was attacked by what is believed to be a great white shark at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town.

Ninety three shark attacks, 12 fatal, were reported in the Eastern and Western Cape beaches in the last 18 years compared to only 19, with one death, on KwaZulu-Natal’s beaches. The shark nets installed there have reduced attacks by 99%, since the 1960s, when attacks were a frequent occurrence. But nets are not suitable for Cape beaches because of rough seas, the presence of whales and seals and the type of sharks.

Read more of this story »

Will the solution to the last financial crisis cause the next in a wave of sovereign debt defaults? Economist Nouriel Roubini and the World Economic Forum are the latest to sound the alarm.

Over the last two years developed countries kept their economies afloat with a flood of borrowed money. Now investors are getting nervous about sovereign debt levels, forcing some nations to make a painful choice: stop borrowing, cut spending or raise taxes — or craft some combination of the three.

Roubini and co-author Arpitha Bykere write in Forbes:

In 2009, downgrades and debt auction failures in countries like the UK, Greece, Ireland and Spain were a stark reminder that unless advanced economies begin to put their fiscal houses in order, investors and rating agencies will likely turn from friends to foes.

And in its Global Risks 2010 report, ahead of the annual meeting in Davos later this month, the WEF also notes:

In response to the financial crisis, many countries are at risk of overextending unsustainable levels of debt, which, in turn, will exert strong upwards pressures on real interest rates.

Greece may be the biggest trouble spot in the near term, if credit default swaps are any indicator. The Financial Times notes that Greek CDS now indicate a higher probability of a default in the short-term than in the longer term — a reversal from a week ago — following comments by the European Central Bank President that the country won’t be getting any special treatment.

To fight a recession, you have to spend and loosen monetary policy. To fight investor fears, you have to save and tighten monetary policy. What happens if you try to accomplish both? BusinessWeek reports:

Strikes are planned in Greece, laborers in Spain have balked at lower jobless benefits, and Irish workers have taken to the streets to protest the cutbacks.

One solution is gradual tax hikes as soon as 2011, Roubini argues. Another is painful spending cuts, as George Magnus, a Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank, wrote yesterday in The Financial Times. Governments, he argued:

should raise the pensionable age, tackle public sector pension arrangements, and blaze a trail towards higher labour force participation and phased retirement patterns.

Gaming bids goodbye to another gear in the big machine, sad day, indeed. Daisuke Gori, the voice of Heihachi Mishima and countless other characters in gaming and animé, passed away last Sunday. Initial investigations yield that the

Scaredy over at HoFo took a look around Industry Canada’s Certification and Engineering pages and found a couple new approved devices. First and most interesting: the P121EWW – that’s the CDMA Palm Pixi Plus to you – cropped up back on December 14th, WiFi and all. Both join the standard CDMA Palm Pre and the original CDMA Pixi, already in the system.

Second and also interesting, the GSM variant of the Palm Pre was also approved – the P100UNA on December 2nd, to be exact.

If the above devices to appear on carriers in Canada and aren’t just up on IC for approved roaming purposes, it does sort to throw the clean division of webOS devices off-kilter. We know plenty of Canadians who would prefer a GSM Pre to the CDMA one that’s currently offered on Bell. As for the CDMA, WiFi-enabled Pixi Plus – we suspect Bell customers will be pleased, Sprint customers miffed, and Verizon customers nonplussed that big V’s exclusive is apparently US-only.

Thanks to Kyle for the tip!

At least that’s Nate Silver’s read on the latest polls out of the Massachusetts Senate race.

Silver has done a series of posts to suggest that maybe things aren’t so bad for Martha Coakley — and he does have a reputation for always finding the silver lining for Democrats in the data — and this is his meta chart of the latest polls.

As you can see from the thick yellow line, there is a bit of an uptrend for Coakley. If you also factor in the possibility of a Hillary Clinton-in-New-Hampshire moment (when female voters swung wildly her way in the primary, delivering her a surprise victory over Barack Obama), there’a a reason to believe it’s not quite over yet.

Anyway, in a day this won’t matter ad we’ll actually have an answer.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Martha Coakley Falls To 40% On InTrade
• Brown Is Now The Favorite In Massachusetts Senate Race
• Insurgent GOP Senate Candidate In Massachusetts Has Amazing $1 Million Night Online

By Haig Simonian in Zurich

Published: January 18 2010 13:17 | Last updated: January 18 2010 13:17

SPONSOR

Swiss Re said on Monday that it would release at least SFr300m ($292m) of capital by transferring a block of US life reinsurance business to Berkshire Hathaway, the US financial group controlled by Warren Buffett.

The Swiss reinsurer, in which Mr Buffett has a stake, did not reveal any specific use for the capital released, but said it believed it could invest the money more profitably elsewhere.

George Quinn, chief financial officer, said in a conference call that the transaction was not expected to have significant impact on profitability. Analysts broadly welcomed the release of capital and potential balance sheet strengthening.

The Swiss group last year lost its place as the world’s biggest reinsurer and is still recovering from a testing period during which it posted heavy losses because of writedowns on investments and the severe impact of two disastrous structured credit default swaps for an unnamed client.

The group, which last year switched chief executives, has since then adopted a much more cautious investment strategy but may have lost out on growth opportunities, analysts said.

Mr Quinn disputed that the business being transferred was entirely unprofitable, but conceded that profitability had been “marginal”. He said the group had identified the block, all written before 2004, as unsatisfactory in subsequent profitability reviews, and for the past two to three years been considering options for transfer or divestment.

“While the historical performance of the underlying block has been mainly positive, the business does not meet Swiss Re’s return hurdles,” the group said in slides to investors.

“It’s a small piece of portfolio management, but it’s not life-changing for the firm”, said Mr Quinn.

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A stampede is coming to Salado this spring, 1st Annual Renewable Energy Stampede & Green Living Fair : is brought to North Central Texas by organizers with over 25 years experience in renewable energy and healthy green living and 10 years of fair …

John Boswell, the musician and producer of the wonderful Symphony of Science remixes, has created a new one, the fourth in the series: The Unbroken Thread. It features our man Carl Sagan, with David Attenborough and Jane Goodall. I like this one quite a bit.

I hope Boswell keeps making these. They’re very well done! The music is pleasant, the meaning is deep, and the words, of course, are beautiful and something everyone should hear.