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  • Geely Posts 59% Sales Increase in 2009

    Geely, which currently has the highest chances to take control of Swedish manufacturer Volvo, posted a sales increase of 59 percent in 2009 to 325,413 units. Furthermore, December was the best month of the year, with figures up 108 percent to 43,446 units, according to just-auto.com.

    However, the export market was less successful for Geely, as the Chinese company sold only 19,000 cars outside its homeland, which represents 6 percent of the total sales. For the sake of comparison, Geely export… (read more)

  • Yahoo Adds Google AdWords Import Tool to Search Marketing

    Yahoo is definitely de-emphasizing its search engine, but it’s not giving up on search or the ad money it brings. With the Microsoft deal still in the air, Yahoo has finally updated its search advertising offering with two tools which should be greatly appreciated by the advertisers even though there is a sense that they should have bee… (read more)

  • How eBuddy’s Mobile Monetization Strategy Helped It Turn A Profit

    For the past four months, Amsterdam-based eBuddy has turned a profit, CEO Jan-Joost Rueb tells me, by offering advertising-supported services for free in combination with sales of a premium iPhone application.

    The company, backed by $11.5 million in venture capital from Lowland Capital Partners and Prime Technology Ventures, markets a Web-based social network and instant messaging aggregator that enables people to sign in to their service once and stay connected to people through various platforms in one single interface where all of them are centralized.

    It also offers a number of ways for people to use the service on their mobile phones, through a mobile web service, a Java-based messenger client and applications for iPhone and Android.

    (Keep reading if you want to try their premium iPhone app for free, by the way)

    Rueb informs me that the J2ME client in particular has seen phenomenal success, recently surpassing 50 million downloads. The free app is currently the most downloaded program as registered on GetJar, a one-stop shop for mobile applications, with more than 36.7 million installations (up from 10 million in March 2009).

    Its iPhone applications (a free one and a premium one that goes for $4.99) are also quite popular: in total, the apps have been downloaded 3 million times since their debut in the App Store. The free version was released in July 2009, the paid app late November 2009.

    eBuddy expected between 4% and 8% of its free app users to convert to the paid application, and says it is indeed currently hovering around a 6% conversion rate. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that its revenue from the premium app is thus about $900k, or $600k if you take into account Apple’s 30% cut. Conceivably, adding the revenue from ads on its free app, eBuddy is raking in around $1 million from its iPhone applications alone.

    If you’re keen on giving the premium app a whirl for yourself: the first 1,000 users who purchase eBuddy Pro from the U.S. App Store and follow the instructions on this promotion page will receive an iTunes gift card worth $5, i.e. the price of the app.

    In total, eBuddy has attracted about 100 million unique users, of which about a quarter uses the service at least once every month. These are heavy users: on average, 14 billion messages get sent via eBuddy per month. And don’t think all of them are using their cellphones: eBuddy’s Web application has seen 50% growth year over year, says Rueb.

    Still, its strategy of having a feature-limited, ad-supported app in Apple’s App Store alongside a paid premium one with more bells and whistles, has resulted in close to 50% of the company’s revenues now coming from its slew of mobile products. Advertising accounts for about 60% of that income, and 40% comes from app sales today.

    Rueb declined to share revenue numbers in greater detail, but said that the company has now been profitable on a net income basis for the past four months and is cash-flow positive, which means its mobile monetization strategy is clearly working out well for them.

    A bit of good news for BlackBerry users, finally: eBuddy expects to (finally) ship a custom client for the platform in the next couple of months.

    Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors


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  • CNBC’s Kilduff: $100 Oil in Next Six Months

    Jeff Poor
    Business & Media Institute
    Wednesday , January 13th, 2010

    It
    hasn’t been in the limelight recently, but it is coming.
    According to CNBC contributor John Kilduff of Round Earth Capital, we
    will soon see the price of reach $100 per barrel.

     

    On
    CNBC’s Jan. 11 “The Kudlow Report,” host Larry Kudlow
    asked Kilduff what it would take for the Obama’s administration
    to change its energy policy to allow for more oil exploration and
    drilling.

     

    “Oil
    is hitting a 15-month high at $83 a barrel and it was $30 about a year
    ago,” Kudlow said. “So, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
    rules drilling of oil and gas out of bounds for federal lands. No
    drilling. So, how high does it go before we go back to drill, drill,
    drill?    ”

    Kilduff confirmed he had
    forecasted a $100-a-barrel oil earlier this year and said that a
    vibrant Chinese economy will help prove him right.

    “It’s
    making my $100-barrel oil on the first half of the year a lot easier to
    sit with Larry because we’re clearly on course for that for a
    variety of reasons, not the least of which is the China economic
    numbers which you discussed in your last segment with Mr.
    Holland.” Kilduff said.

     

    Kilduff urged preparation for higher oil to be more aggressive.

     

    “The
    good news is oil prices are up because there’s an absolute
    recovery under way,” Kilduff said. “The China story, as far
    as I can see it, is as real as a heart attack. And we better prepare
    for that.”

     

    Kudlow
    asked if we needed to rely on “windmills on Nantucket” as a
    new power source and Kilduff told Kudlow that wasn’t a good idea.
    But he also refuted the theory of peak oil.

     

    “Well
    if we do it will be very expensive, Larry,” Kilduff said.
    “And I have been opponent of the peak oil theory my entire
    career, not for the least of which reasons was that this
    morning’s announcement from McMoRan Exploration and several other
    companies who might have made the oil find of a decade in shallow Gulf
    waters. And it’s a real game-changer for the companies involved
    and it’s in a neighborhood that is going to be one of the biggest
    finds in decades.”

     

    Peak
    oil is a theory that there exists a point in time when the maximum rate
    of global petroleum extraction is reached. However,     a recent BusinessWeek article
    disputed this theory and Kilduff explained that when this idea was
    conceived, there wasn’t the technology to confirm such a theory.

     

    “With
    new technologies every day, Larry,” Kilduff said. “This was
    thigh problem with the peak oil theory from the beginning. How could
    you have the hubris to tell me that we had the knowledge and the
    science to help us find this oil? Our cell phones were as big as cars.
    Now they fit in your pocket, right? Now, the same thing goes for
    satellite technology that can find oil and new drills that can get to
    places without harming the lands anywhere near what we had in the
    ’50s and ’60s and ’70s.”

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  • Super Nova Sign Ericsson, Kral for 2010 GP2 Series

    Rookie lineups seem to become the new way to go for the teams in the GP2 Series lately, as Super Nova also confirmed it will field Marcus Ericsson and Josef Kral for the 2010 season of the aforementioned championship.

    It’s great for me to be in GP2 and with Super Nova. Because of their track record I’m sure they’ll have a very competitive car. You always strive to try to win so that’s what I’m going to do. It will be tough but we’re not here to finish second, said the 19-year old Ericsson, a… (read more)

  • Radical SRZero Electric Supercar Unveiled in Birmingham

    The Autosport International 2010 Show in Birmingham, not exactly the equivalent of the 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), would have passed virtually unnoticed by the automotive world if it weren’t for the Radical SRZero electric supercar, a vehicle built by Radical with the help of Imperial College London’s Racing Green Endurance team.

    The impressive green machine provides supercar-like performance figures: a top speed of 190 km/h with capability to accelerate from 0 to 60 … (read more)

  • Taxman using terror laws 15 times a day to spy on suspects

    Steve Doughty
    UK Daily Mail
    Wednesday , January 13th, 2010

    Taxmen are using anti-terror laws 15 times a day to
    snoop on those suspected of minor breaches of the rules, it was claimed
    yesterday.

    Officials at Revenue and Customs began more than 5,600
    investigations last year that relied on Labour’s controversial
    surveillance laws.

    Figures given to MPs yesterday show the number of cases
    in which taxmen have used the anti-terror powers has risen by 75 per
    cent in the past four years.

    The Revenue claims the powers are used only in cases where people
    are suspected of importing drugs, arms and other contraband, or in
    major VAT fraud investigations.

    But critics accused the body of using the laws to investigate minor breaches of income tax, VAT or tax credit rules.

    Full article here

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  • Carbon trading fraud in Belgium – “up to 90% of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities”

    Watts Up With That?
    Tuesday , January 12th, 2010

    From the Guardian:

    Belgian prosecutors highlighted the massive losses faced by EU governments from VAT fraud
    today after they charged three Britons and a Dutchman with
    money-laundering following an investigation into a multimillion-pound
    scam involving carbon emissions permits.

    http://nw0.eu/wp-content/uploads/HLIC/fa5fc1bf5e61f6fb5c13ae19224f8f6a.jpg

    The three Britons, who were arrested last month in Belgium, were
    accused of failing to pay VAT worth €3m (£2.7m) on a series
    of carbon credit transactions.

    European authorities believe the EU has lost at least €5bn to carbon-trading VAT fraud
    in the last 18 months. Europol, the EU’s law-­enforcement
    operation, fears the fraud will be used in other areas, especially gas
    and electricity trading markets, after criminals found VAT fraud was
    one of the most lucrative financial frauds.

    “Last month, the European police agency Europol reported that
    the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) had fallen
    victim to fraudulent trading activities over the past 18 months, worth
    €5 billion for several national tax revenues.

    It estimates that in some countries, up to 90% of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities.”

    Four charged with carbon trading fraud in Belgium
    http://www.risk.net/energy-risk/news/1585509/four-charged-carbon-trading-fraud-belgium

    Meanwhile here in the USA, carbon is trading for 10 cents a ton on the Chicago Carbon Exchange:

    Carbon trading fraud in Belgium – “up to 90% of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities”

    h/t to WUWT reader “Michael”

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  • Conflict of Interest? Intel Gives $250 Million Obama Charity in Midst of FTC Suit

    Jeff Poor
    Business & Media Institute
    Tuesday , January 12th, 2010

    Throughout former President George W. Bush’s two terms,
    left-wingers often accused him of being too tied into big business,
    which they claimed had influenced policy.  Remember the outrage over Blackwater ties to the Bush administration?

    However, now that a liberal is in the Oval Office, there’s not
    quite the same push for accountability when it comes to potential
    conflicts with big business.

    On Jan. 6, The Washington Post reported Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)
    and the Intel Foundation were making a sizeable contribution to
    President Barack Obama’s philanthropic campaign for STEM
    (science, technology, engineering and math) education that Obama
    launched in November.

    “Intel Corp., based in Santa Clara, Calif., and the Intel
    Foundation are committing $200 million in cash and in-kind support over
    10 years for expanded teacher training and other measures,” Nick
    Anderson wrote for the Post. “For instance, the company will
    offer an intensive 80-hour math course to help U.S. elementary school
    teachers, who are usually generalists, develop expertise.”

    On the surface, that may appear to be a good thing, until you learn
    that the Obama administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
    has a pending antitrust suit against the tech giant that will test the
    bureaucracy’s powers. Anderson omitted that important detail from
    his Post story.

    “The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s case against Intel
    Corp. (INTC) is likely to test whether the agency can resuscitate broad
    FTC powers that have been used rarely and viewed skeptically by the
    federal courts,” Brent Kendall wrote for Dow Jones Newswires on Dec. 17, 2009.
    “Instead of suing Intel in federal court for antitrust
    violations, the commission is bringing its case though an FTC
    administrative proceeding based on the Federal Trade Commission Act,
    which allows broader claims than federal antitrust law. A key provision
    of the act, known as Section 5, prohibits unfair methods of
    competition, and deceptive acts and practices in commerce.”

    The chip manufacturer has been targeted on all fronts
    for its alleged antitrust practices, by state attorneys general and
    even by the European Union. And recently Intel agreed to pay $1.25
    billion to rival company Advanced Micro Devices. However, the
    Post’s neglect and/or reluctance to tie Intel’s
    philanthropic endeavor to the Obama administration with the
    company’s antitrust problems seems to be part of a larger trend
    – one of which is the perception Obama administration gets too
    favorable media treatment, as polls have indicated.

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  • What type of jams are good?

    I occassionally like to put jam on my toast. What jams are good? I like strawberry but surely there’s a world of jams for me to know about. What jams do youse all like?

  • Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues

    Jo Piazza
    CNN
    Tuesday , January 12th, 2010

    James Cameron’s completely immersive spectacle
    “Avatar” may have been a little too real for some fans who
    say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing
    the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world
    Pandora.

    On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread
    entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of
    Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts
    from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope.
    The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator
    Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could
    continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.

    “I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me
    happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it
    made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed
    something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we
    could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to
    be depressed.”

    A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.

    Full article here

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  • Some good things about the British economy

    To make a change from the usual introspection about how we are doomed, here are some of the good points about the British economy:

    + Output of British manufacturing reached an all-time high in 2007, in real terms.

    + The UK is the world’s 6th largest manufacturer with strong positions in certain key industries, e.g. a 15% global market share in Aerospace.

    + The UK is the world’s 2nd largest defence manufacturer. An industry which employs 300000 and is worth $10 bn in exports a year.

    + The UK has the 3rd largest automotive industry in Europe, with total sales of around $18bn and accounting for 11% of the UK’s total exports.

    + Eleven of the top 100 global Aerospce&Defence companies are based in the UK, amounting to $40bn of annual sales.

    + The UK has the 4th largest refining industry in Europe. UK petrochemicals generated $50bn in 2007.

    + Specialised chemicals were a $10bn industry in 2007, with a trade surplus of $400m.

    + 25% of UK exports in 2006 were high-tech goods, compared with 22% in the USA, 15% in France and 11% in Germany.

    + UK automotive output was near an all-time record high in 2007, and automotive exports were at an all-time high with a total value of around £20 billion.

    + The UK is the largest European recipient of FDI, indicating that foreign investors are keen to invest in UK manufacturing.

    + The UK has 0.9% of the World’s population, but 5% of global GDP, which makes UK output her head five times the World average.

  • Got Fascism? : Obama Advisor Promotes ‘Cognitive Infiltration’

    Marc Estrin
    The Rag Blog
    Thursday, January 14, 2010

    RELATED: Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate Conspiracy Groups

    Cass Sunstein is President
    Obama’s Harvard Law School friend, and recently appointed
    Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory
    Affairs.

    In a recent scholarly article, he and coauthor Adrian Vermeule take
    up the question of “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures.”
    (J. Political Philosophy, 7 (2009), 202-227). This is a man with the
    president’s ear. This is a man who would process information and
    regulate things. What does he here propose?

    [W]e
    suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of
    extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of
    extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting
    either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously)
    will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting
    doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such
    groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.)

    Read this paragraph again. Unpack it. Work your way through the
    language and the intent. Imagine the application. What do we learn?

    • It is “extremists” who “supply” “conspiracy theories.”
    • Their “hard core” must be “broken up” with distinctive tactics. What tactics?
    • “Infiltration” (”cognitive”) of groups with
      questions about official explanations or obfuscations or lies. Who is
      to infiltrate?
    • “Government agents or their allies,” virtually (i.e.
      on-line) or in “real-space” (as at meetings), and
      “either openly or anonymously,” though
      “infiltration” would imply the latter. What will these
      agents do?
    • Undermine “crippled epistemology” — one’s theory and technique of knowledge. How will they do this?
    • By “planting doubts” which will “circulate.” Will these doubts be beneficial?
    • Certainly. Because they will introduce “cognitive diversity.”

    Put into English, what Sunstein is proposing is government
    infiltration of groups opposing prevailing policy. Palestinian
    Liberation? 9/11 Truth? Anti-nuclear power? Stop the wars? End the Fed?
    Support Nader? Eat the Rich?

    It’s easy to destroy groups with “cognitive
    diversity.” You just take up meeting time with arguments to the
    point where people don’t come back. You make protest signs which
    alienate 90% of colleagues. You demand revolutionary violence from
    pacifist groups.

    We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI. There the
    agents are called “provocateurs” — even if only
    “cognitive.” One learns to smell or deal with them in a
    group, or recognize trolling online. But even suspicion or partial
    exposure can “sow uncertainty and distrust within conspiratorial
    groups [now conflated with conspiracy theory discussion groups] and
    among their members,” and “raise the costs of organization
    and communication” — which Sunstein applauds as
    “desirable.” “[N]ew recruits will be suspect and
    participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each
    other’s bona fides.” (p.225).

    And are we now expected to applaud such tactics frankly proposed in a scholarly journal by a high-level presidential advisor?

    The full text of a slightly earlier version of Sunstein’s article is available for download here.

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  • Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List

    LIZETTE ALVAREZ
    New York Times
    Thursday, January 14, 2009

    The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public.

    Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy.

    Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.

    “Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks,
    introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent
    traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he
    shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a
    myth.”

    Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when
    he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to
    Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name
    “was on the list,” she recalled.

    The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.

    After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every
    airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly
    shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more
    aggressively on the way home.

    “Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone
    is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs.
    Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they
    don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through
    security without being frisked.”

    Full story here.

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  • Pat Robertson Disgusts me

    During a broadcast on his Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr Robertson suggested the Haiti’s earthquake was divine retribution.
    He said Haiti had sworn a pact with the devil when it freed itself from French colonial rule.
    The White House said the comments were completely inappropriate.
    "It never ceases to amaze, that in times of amazing human suffering, somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid," Mr Gibbs said.
    "But it, like clockwork, happens with some regularity."
    Mr Robertson, an 80-year-old former presidential candidate, made the comments on Wednesday on his programme, "The 700 Club".
    "They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal," the televangelist said during the broadcast.
    "Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other," he added, comparing Haiti to its more prosperous neighbour, the Dominican Republic.

  • Police Believed McCanns Faked Maddy Kidnapping

    ‘Portuguese police
    believed Madeleine McCann died in her family’s holiday flat and that
    her parents faked her abduction, a court heard yesterday.     Kate
    and Gerry McCann faced former detective Goncalo Amaral across a
    courtroom as he tried to overturn a ban on his book that claims their
    daughter is dead.

    One senior detective told
    the hearing in Lisbon that police made the McCanns “arguidos”, or
    suspects, in the case after concluding Madeleine died accidentally and
    her parents covered up the death by inventing a kidnapping.’

    Read more…

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  • How Big Is Haiti?

    Haiti formally known as the Republic of Haiti basically is a country which covers one-third of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola.

    Haiti also comprises of a number of tiny islands like La Gonave, La Tortue, Les Cayemites, etc. Initially a French colony, Haiti became the first ever independent black republic. Seeing the French Revolution, the gens de couleur asked the stately government for expanded rights. Through the 19th century, Haiti was governed by different presidents, most of them serving a short period only as president.

    According to the census conducted in the year 1982, the total population of Haiti was estimated to be 5,053,792, having an average population density of 292.7 per square kilometre. The census report of 1982 also stated that the total area of this region was 27,750 square kilometres.

  • Climategate Scientist Received Over Half A Million From Obama Stimulus Package

    ‘A leading scientist
    involved in the climategate scandal received over half a million
    dollars in federal economic stimulus funds from the Obama
    Administration last Summer, it has been revealed.

    Professor Michael Mann of
    Penn State University, currently under investigation by the institution
    itself for his role in massaging climate data and hijacking the peer
    review process to advance the myth of anthropogenic global warming, was
    awarded a grant of $541,184 by the government in June 2009.’

    Read more…

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  • Support the Gold Peak workers and Chinese labour rights groups in their struggle for labour rights

    On 28 April 2009, on the occasion of the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, GoodElectronics reported about the ongoing struggle of Chinese cadmium poisoned workers, addressing their (former) employer Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd for compensation and redress. GoodElectronics called upon Gold Peak and its subsidiaries to listen to the concerns and demands of the affected workers and take appropriate steps to resolve the lingering conflicts. Moreover, GoodElectronics called upon electronic brand name companies sourcing from Gold Peak to look into the issues raised by Gold Peak workers and Chinese labour groups and to put their policies regarding supply chain responsibility in practice.

    Since then, Gold Peak has made some little steps towards its workers, but the overall picture is still rather grim. It is now time for Gold Peak to structurally improve its labour record. Gold Peak should ensure that the management of its respective subsidiaries engages upon meaningful negotiations with its workers and their representatives on the basis of equality and transparency, in order to resolve disputes over wages, benefits and compensation packages

    Gold Peak batteries are used in all types of toys and electronics products. GoodElectronics is also addressing buyers of Gold Peak products.

    Join GoodElectronics in their call to Gold Peak: http://goodelectronics.org/urgent-a…

  • Blair Froze Out Iraq War Dissenters

    ‘Tony Blair froze out anyone with
    concerns about the Iraq war and was not challenged on the issue by a
    Cabinet that had been “conditioned” to accept that Saddam Hussein had
    weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq inquiry has been told.

    Lord Turnbull, who as Cabinet Secretary
    was Britain’s most senior civil servant, said that Mr Blair largely
    surrounded himself with those who would not disagree with him, while
    those who did have concerns were given almost no time to discuss the
    issue.’

    Read more…

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