any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Now that the Lotus Evora has taken the world by storm, the British automaker’s motorsport department has put together an Evora Cup race car that will join the European race series for 2010. The Lotus Evora Cup will make its first public debut at the Autosport International racing car show in Birmingham, UK on the January 14, 2010.
The Evora Cup race car is designed to offer a level of performance that would make it competitive in GT4 racing. Power comes from a 4.0L V6 unit making 400-hp and a dry sump system for the high cornering situations. The engine is mated to a Cima six speed sequential paddle shift dog gearbox.
The Lotus Evora Cup race car will be eligible to compete in a variety of different national and international series. The Evora Cup race car will go on sale with a price tag of £120,000.
Click through for the press release for more info.
Lotus Evora Cup:
Press Release:
Lotus Evora Cup
Lotus Motorsport announces the Evora Cup race car together with an innovative European points based race series for 2010. The race car will make its first public appearance at the Autosport International racing car show in Birmingham, UK on the 14th January 2010.
The Lotus Evora is a highly acclaimed road car that incorporates many race car elements to give it incredible handling and performance. The Evora has a mid-engine layout, high-tech, super-stiff extruded and bonded aluminium chassis and double wishbone suspension all round. These elements mean that it is a relatively easy progression from the production car to a competitive race car.
The Evora Cup race car has been developed by Lotus Motorsport and is designed to offer a level of performance that would make it competitive in GT4 racing. The race car will be eligible to compete in a number of different national and international series, with options for endurance racing and sprint racing.
The Evora Cup show car is finished in Epsom Green with a Solar Yellow stripe down the centre. It is an evocative sports car that will offer a great platform to race in high level motor sport.
At the heart of the Evora Cup race car is a new 4 litre V6 race engine that boasts more than 400 PS and a dry sump system for the high cornering forces encountered during racing. The mid mounted engine is mated to a Cima six speed sequential paddle shift dog gearbox, which is designed for international motor sport.
The efficient Evora body has received a Dallara developed aero package, which includes a number of updated carbon fibre parts and significantly improves performance for racing applications, giving greater downforce and improved cooling.
“Performance through light weight” is a Lotus philosophy and the Evora Cup race car has been pared down to less than 1200 kg, which translates into a reduction of more than 200 kgs over the production car. This weight saving has been achieved by using high performance parts and materials and deleting parts not required for motor sport
The Evora Cup race car will come with adjustable motor sport dampers and six piston front brake callipers, with two piece aluminium belled brake discs. The car has an electrical cut off, fire extinguisher, traction control and is designed to have all the relevant FIA compatible motor sport equipment to race.
Claudio Berro, Director of Motorsport at Group Lotus plc stated, “Lotus has an enviable heritage of producing very competitive racing cars and we wish to continue this heritage with the Evora Cup race car. The company started by creating world beating racing cars and this is evident from the design of Lotus cars as the production cars have many racing car design features and perform exceptionally well on track.”
Claudio Berro continues, “The Evora Cup racing car is the first step along the route for Lotus Motorsport to realise its racing ambitions. I am looking forward to seeing the Evora racing this year in the Lotus Evora Cup competition and I am excited by the plans for 2011, where Lotus intends to introduce a pan European one make race series for the Evora Cup.”
The 2010 Evora Cup series will be a European event with points initially being awarded to competitors for entering races with the points values awarded relative to Evora finishing positions. There will be five points for attending any eligible national race meeting with five points awarded for the first Evora to finish down to one point for the fifth.
The series will then culminate with two Lotus Festivals, with provisional dates for Donington Park in the UK (16th & 17th October 2010) and the second at Vallelunga in Italy (21st and 22nd November 2010). All the competitors from around Europe will be invited to race at these festivals and there will be double points on offer. The championship winner will be the driver who accrues the most number of points from a maximum of 6 races over the 2010 season.
A prize fund of at least €100,000 will be available.
The final design and specifications will be presented at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010.
Drivers are invited to register their interest at the Lotus Evora Cup website: http://www.lotusevoracup.com
The Evora Cup race car will go on sale at £120,000 excluding taxes.
– By: Kap Shah
Apple and third-party developers have lost $450 million due to App Store piracy since the store launched in July of 2008, according to an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street. This number might seem shocking at first, but the buzz generated by this report is misleading—the estimate is based on questionable numbers and an optimistic assumption that pirates would otherwise buy the software they steal.
24/7 Wall Street starts off by looking at some more reasonable numbers, including an estimate from a Bernstein analyst that 510 million (17 percent) of the 3 billion applications downloaded from the App Store were paid downloads, and that the average application on the store costs $3. The report also says there are 7.5 million jailbroken phones and iPod touches, and that 40 percent of those use pirated applications (statistics from analytics firm Pinch Media). The leap comes when the report estimates that, for every one application downloaded legally, three are pirated.
The 75 percent piracy rate is based on a handful of developer accounts which have estimated piracy rates anywhere from 75 percent to 95 percent per application. TomTom’s GPS product is ranked second on The Pirate Bay, which is further used to back up this estimate. At a three out of four clip, the report says that 1.53 billion applications have been pirated at an average of $3 per unit, equalling $4.59 billion in lost sales.
The article is careful to point out that not all pirates would purchase the application if it had not been otherwise available for free. As a result, 24/7 Wall Street makes estimates that 10 percent of pirates would have purchased, resulting in in $450 million in lost sales.
Putting aside the exceptionally high 75 percent piracy estimate (which undoubtedly would not apply for most apps that aren’t wildly popular), a 10 percent purchase rate among pirates may also be too optimistic. The developer of Layers, Ben Gotow, has offered evidence that, while the piracy rate of his application is around 75 percent, his application is usually launched less than three times on a cracked device. Even though Gotow limits launches of a cracked copy to five times in a single week before it locks down, that average supports the idea that the pirate community downloads a high number of applications but rarely uses them.
Still, some developers have managed to convert their pirate friends into paid users by turning the cracked versions into trial versions of an app, which seems like a user-positive approach to dealing with the piracy problem.
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]
If you combine these four ingredients (can of white and dark chicken,
mayo, sriracha, and Bacon Salt), you will have a kickin’ chicken salad
that will make your mouth very happy. 
I’m sure it would taste even
better if the chicken were homemade roasted chicken. And used real
bacon bits. And maybe if I used Kewpie Mayo instead, it would be even
better. But for something I whipped up in about 5 minutes, no muss, no
fuss, I’m quite happy with the results. I had the chicken salad on
toast with shredded lettuce for dinner last night and happily had it
again for lunch today. I passed up having a McRib meal so I could have
this instead. If you know me, you know that’s saying something. 
Smaato Inc. have published the Smaato Mobile Advertising Metrics which for the first time revealed the Click Through Rate (CTR) Index by Handset operating system. The metrics are based upon 3 Billion ad requests served in the Smaato Network in December 2009.
The December performance numbers for the different handset types show a significant spread between the operating systems in regards to the CTR. Symbian phones had the highest CTR (161) compared to the averaged Index of 100, followed by Apple iPhone (119, with iPod Touch).
Following closely, Windows Phone Handsets perform above the average indexed at 100 placing the smartphone handset operating system in third place for in the Smaato Index.The Index consists of the average CTR of all devices and this number is set to 100.
This was followed by feature phones, then Android phones at 65, close to half as much as the Windows Mobile rate. Following far behind is Palm and Blackberry, with an index rate of 28 and 26 respectively.
In short, this means the odds of your ad being clicked on Windows Mobile is about the same as iPhones and iPod Touch’s, and 4 times as much as a Pre or Blackberry. While the distribution of an app may be better on the iPhone, the competition is also much more there, meaning it is just as viable to try an ad-supported app on Windows Mobile than the iPhone, and certainly much more when compared to RIM or Palm, where it seems you could never sustain a business based on ads.
Are you ready for ad-supported apps on Windows Mobile? Let us know below.
Thanks Matija for the tip.
The long-awaited Michigan Supreme Court hearing on McCormick v. Carrier was Tuesday. McCormick is the case that will hopefully change Michigan’s long-broken auto threshold law, Kreiner v. Fischer — and restore the rights of injured auto accident victims.
Kreiner is a 2004 Michigan Supreme Court decision that interpreted the no-fault act’s “serious impairment of body function” statute. It establishes the precondition plaintiffs must meet before they can sue for non-economic damages in such a way that many people who suffer serious injuries and who miss months from work, lose their right to bring car accident claims.
Here are some of my thoughts as a personal injury lawyer, based on the hearing and how it will affect our law.
If the Republican Michigan Legislature in 1995 had wanted there to be “additional factors” as were judicially created in the Kreiner opinion, they certainly could have done so themselves when drafting the No-Fault Act. It was not for four justices on the Michigan Supreme Court to add hurdles and obstacles to recovery when plaintiffs suffer injuries in car accidents, such as:
* “Course or trajectory”
* “ Most but not all”
* “Self-imposed v. physician-imposed restrictions”
* Added language regarding duration, etc.
The issue of duration of an impairment was a big part of the discussion in Tuesday’s hearing. However, what the proponents of adding duration as a factor fail to acknowledge, is that a durational requirement is not present in the statute. Rather, duration should be but one of many considerations by a judge or jury when deciding if the serious impairment definition is met.
As I discussed in my blog about Plaggemeyer v. Lee, if an injury occurs for a very short period of duration, a judge should consider this in evaluating whether there was a threshold injury. Even Justice Cavanaugh got this part wrong in his dissent when he first wrote that there should not be an “added durational requirement,” but then went on to say that “most but not all” of Mr. Kreiner’s life was affected.
One thing was missing from Tuesday’s hearing, but it’s an extremely important point: The Kreiner threshold erodes the right to a jury trial by adding to the statutory threshold. It does so by making a judge decide if a plaintiff meets this judicially-created, ridiculously high standard, and dismissing plaintiffs’ cases inappropriately without allowing a plaintiff to argue before a jury how his or her life was affected.
There is still clearly a role for the trial court judge if an injury is trivial or clearly frivolous (“de minimus,” as our Legislature wrote when creating our no-fault law). In other words, where no reasonable mind could differ. But in all other cases, a jury can do just as good of a job and should be given the opportunity to do so.
It is worth noting that in the 30 years before Kreiner, there were 150 Michigan appellate court opinions regarding the threshold. In the five years since Kreiner, there have been 246 appellate court decisions. Of these, the plaintiff has lost 196 times.
The defense argument that changing our current law would add uncertainly, chaos or more appeals, is ludicrous.
It’s also worth mentioning that the 1995 statute defining serious impairment was not simply a
“codification” of Cassidy, as Justice Corrigan inferred in her questioning. Instead, the Legislature deliberately created a more relaxed threshold. Kreiner has made the serious impairment threshold far more restrictive than either Cassidy or DiFranco. How ironic that the plaintiff in Cassidy met the threshold with a fractured leg without surgery and a relatively short duration of actual impairment. Leo Cassidy’s injury was not nearly as serious as the injury and subsequent impairment suffered by Rodney McCormick.
All this should mean that if our current Court feels this new law was a return to Cassidy, or feels the statutory threshold was anything like the serious impairment threshold under Cassidy, that Kreiner must be completely undone.
It is not just plaintiffs’ attorneys who detest Kreiner. There is universal condemnation for it. Defense lawyers, and especially many trial court judges, want a change to Kreiner. And I think what makes everyone so angry about the Kreiner opinion is that it represents unacceptable, agenda-driven judicial activism of the worst kind.
It has come to highlight for both the bench and Michigan bar so much of what is glaringly wrong with our judicial system today. Again, the Michigan Legislature could have added additional factors or more wording to the definition of serious impairment of body function, but deliberately chose not to. That did not stop the Court in Kreiner from disregarding the plain, unambiguous wording of the statutory definition when it ruled.
We all lose under this politically motivated ruling. It’s worth noting that the independent State Bar of Michigan Negligence Law Section, a neutral group composed of well-respected plaintiff and defense lawyers, came out strongly against Kreiner in its own amicus brief filed in McCormick, as did a number of consumer organizations such as CPAN (Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault), which is made up of dozens of medical groups.
Frankly, anyone who reads this 64-page opinion based upon a clear, unambiguous, plainly-worded and quite short legislative definition of serious impairment of body function knows Kreiner is a bad decision. If the judges and even the defense lawyers hate Kreiner and what it stands for, it seems the only entity that truly likes the Kreiner decision is the insurance industry.
This is because it effectively gives them immunity that goes far, far beyond what the Michigan Legislature ever intended when they created the Michigan No-Fault Act and then again when they enacted the amendment, 1995 PA 222. The insurance industry argued years ago that with less third-party claims, Michigan residents would save substantial money on insurance premiums.
Since Kreiner, insurance premiums in Michigan have gone up. Even the Michigan Insurance Commissioner has filed an amicus brief arguing Kreiner was wrongly decided.
Kreiner has caused cynicism and disgust amongst lawyers and judges. It has deprived hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of completely innocent people who have been seriously injured through no fault of their own.
It has not lowered insurance rates for Michigan drivers.
It’s time for a change.
– Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in serious car and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance no-fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the largest reported jury verdict for an automobile accident case in Michigan in seven of the past 10 years, including 2009, according to published year-end verdicts and settlements reports.
Related information:
Michigan Car Accident Legal Resource Center
10 Lessons for Michigan Attorneys Handling Car Accidents
Help for Michigan Truck Accident Lawyers
Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Southfield, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with an auto accident attorney. We can help.
De ce exista concursuri de genul celor ca e-album.ro,e-castig.com,versu.ro,iPremii.com ?
Unul dintre cei care au comentat pe blog,a trimis un mail firmei de hosting care tine site-ul e-album.ro cerandu-le explicatii.Iata raspunsul lor:
“Daca legea ne permite de ce sa nu ne facem de cap:
Domain Name: e-album.ro
Registrar: Globe Hosting srl
Whois Server: http://pwhois.rotld.ro/static
Referral URL: http://www.globehosting.com
Am contactat Globe Hosting explicandu-le despre activitatile care se deruleaza pe site-urile inregistrate la ei;acesta a fost raspunsul:
“Buna seara,
Cu mare drag am lua masuri, insa nu putem bloca siteurile acestea fara o sesizare scrisa de la autorizati. Legea nu ar fi de partea noastra.
Cu stima,
******************************
Alina RAD
Sales Department”
“Am tot incercat,insistat…acelasi raspuns:
“Buna seara,
Atata vreme cat un client nu face spam, isi plateste serviciile, legea nu ne da voie sa il suspendam, fara cererea din partea autoritatilor.
Cu stima,
******************************
Alina RAD
Sales Department”
Atat timp cat nu exista o legislatie in domeniu,aceste tepe vor continua sa apara.Si mai trist este faptul ca,nimeni nu poate lua masuri,pentru ca asa este in Romania : se fura legal,tepele sunt la putere !!!
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Multi dintre proprietarii de bloguri de confrunta cu o mare dilema: cum sa afle numarul real al vizitatorilor de pe site-urile lor ?
In acest scop au aparut mai multe site-uri de contorizare.Dintre toate variantele,eu recomand doar 3 :
1. www.statcounter.com
+ e gratuit
+ nu m-a dezamagit niciodata
– nu poti afla foarte multe detalii despre cei care te viziteaza dupa o anumita perioada de folosire,pentru ca e free si …nu putea fi perfect
2.www.histats.com
+ e gratuit
+ ofera toate detaliile despre vizitatori (gen ip,browser,locatie,cuvant de cautare folosit,site-uri de pe care au venit vizitatorii)
– au fost zile cand pur si simplu a cazut,sau a ramas in urma cu contorizarea cateva ore
3.Google Analytics
+ e gratuit
+ contorizare foarte buna
+ nu cade
+ ofera detalii complete despre vizitatori
Mai sunt si altele dar dezamagitoare:
1.www.trafic.ro
– costa (10 euro pe an parca)
– nu contorizeaza corect traficul
2.www.gtopstats.com
+ e gratis
+ contorizeaza traficul destul de bine
– pica destul de des;ca de exemplu acum (e picat de 2 zile)
3.www.wta.ro
+ e gratis
– cu contorizarea nu sunt foarte sigur
– detalii incomplete despre vizitatori
Related posts:
Oh, you’ve found it! Your dream home. You made an offer before you left the building and now you need to get ready for settlement. But is the house as good a deal as it seems it is? Are any surprises lurking behind the walls? Time to call a home inspector. A good home inspector can help you figure out all the problem areas with the house you are planning to buy so you can make an informed decision. Here are ten things your inspector should check:
Is there something you wish a home inspector would have checked into when you were buying your house?
Photo: SXC
Post from: Blisstree
Unser Nachbar, der Terror-Pinkler
Jahrelang sterben bei Familie F. die Pflanzen im Garten. Ein Film bringt ans Licht: Ihr Nachbar Peter M. hat jahrelang auf das Grünzeug uriniert.
VON OLAF WUNDER
|
Bilder aus einer Überwachungskamera, wie man sie nicht alle Tage sieht: Es ist tiefe Nacht. Peter M. tritt leicht bekleidet vor die Tür, guckt sich flüchtig um und, als wäre es das Selbstverständlichste von der Welt, pinkelt seelenruhig in Nachbars Vorgarten. Beinahe Nacht für Nacht. Er ahnt nicht, dass er dabei gefilmt wird. Unbeteiligte, die sich die Videos angucken, klopfen sich auf die Schenkel und lachen sich schlapp. Gar nicht amüsiert sind Dieter (62) und Rosemarie Friebel (59). Denn der Mann ist ihr Nachbar. Und es ist ihr Vorgarten, in den er pisst. Schauplatz Farmsen: Ein Nachbarschaftsstreit der besonderen Art. Etwa 15 Jahre ist es her, dass Peter M. mit seiner Familie in das Reihenhaus zog. Höhepunkt der Auseinandersetzung ist ein Ereignis vor etwa einem Jahr. “Da habe ich beobachtet, wie Peter M. mit seinem Auto beim Einparken den Wagen eines anderen Nachbarn rammte und * als wäre nichts geschehen * in seiner Wohnung verschwand", sagt Rosemarie Friebel. “Ich musste dann als Zeugin gegen ihn aussagen. Seither redet der kein Wort mehr mit uns." Schon lange davor bemerkte das Ehepaar Friebel, dass Büsche und Sträucher im Vorgarten unerklärlicherweise verwelkten und abstarben. “Ein Hibiskus sah plötzlich wie von der Sonne verbrannt aus." Zwei Jahre lang pflanzte Rosemarie Friebel immer wieder neue Büsche an. Aber auch die überlebten nicht lange. “Schüttet uns jemand Gift in den Garten?" Sogar eine Bodenprobe hat Rosemarie Friebel genommen, dann aber darauf verzichtet, sie untersuchen zu lassen, als sie erfuhr, wie teuer so eine Analyse ist. Jetzt ist das mysteriöse Pflanzensterben aufgeklärt. “Eines Tages fanden wir eine CD in unserem Briefkasten. Ein Nachbar muss sie uns zugespielt haben", sagt Dieter Friebel. “Als wir sie abspielten, trauten wir unseren Augen nicht." Zwölf Filme, aufgenommen zwischen dem 28. Oktober und dem 5. Dezember. Und sie alle zeigen, wie Nachbar Peter M. vors Haus tritt und sich über den Pflanzen der Nachbarn “erleichtert³. Nur die Uhrzeit variiert * aber es ist immer nachts. Voller Empörung stellen die Friebels ihren Pinkel-Nachbarn zur Rede. Die MOPO und ihre Rechtsanwältin Dr. Christiane Yüksel sind dabei. Erst leugnet M. alles: “Ich? In Ihren Garten? Das ist eine Lüge!" Von hinten kommt seine Ehefrau, die offenbar tatsächlich ahnungslos ist: “Mein Mann macht so was nicht …" Als ihr dann aber Bilder aus den Überwachungsfilmen gezeigt werden, dreht sie sich wortlos um und geht. Ihr Mann schlägt die Augen nieder. “Ja, ich war’s." Warum? “Weiß ich auch nicht." Weswegen er denn seine Nachbarn so hasse? “Wegen des Grillens", sagt er nur. Die Friebels hatten sich beschwert, weil der Rauch zu ihnen rübergezogen war. M. räumt ein, dass es eine “Schweinerei" sei, in den Garten des Nachbarn zu urinieren: “Es tut mir leid." Pflanzen im Wert von mehreren hundert Euro sind seinem Urin zum Opfer gefallen. “Wenn ich heute daran denke", so Rosemarie Friebel, “wie oft ich mit den Fingern über die Blätter gegangen bin und mich darüber gewundert habe, woher die Flüssigkeit kommt, dann wird mir schlecht." |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JKw59SfeVgDer "Terror-Pinkler": Nachbar Peter M. Tür an Tür mit dem Feind: links wohnt das Ehepaar Friedel, rechts der "Terror-Pinkler". Dazwischen der kleine Vorgarten, dessen Pflanzen regelrecht im Urin des Nachbarn ertrinken. Der Boden ist urinverseucht.
“Sunt doi oameni pe care intamplarea sau norocul ii pun fata in fata: ea, arhitecta, are un baietel, el, ziarist, are o fetita, de care trebuie sa se ocupe o saptamana, cat timp fosta sotie isi sarbatoreste noul mariaj. Amandoi, grabiti, se cunosc, intr-o zi ploioasa, cu multe obligatii de dus la capat, avand, mai ales grija celor mici, recurg la o solutie salvatoare: vor avea cu randul grija de copiii. Dar fetita se pierde, umbland dupa o pisica, un proiect este distrus, astfel incat disputele se tin lant. Ajunsi la sfarsitul zilei, cei doi parinti inteleg cat de neasteptat de minunata a fost totusi aceasta zi incurcata!”
Related posts:
Do you read the web comic Tree Lobsters? It has lots of good skeptical and critical messages, and it’s pretty funny. This panel is from a particularly good one; click it to see the rest.
And who knew Jenny McCarthy had a chitinous exoskeleton?
Important news out of Jordan: the Kingdom has passed the Renewable Energy Law. This law sets into a motion a series of clean energy mandates. The Renewable Energy Law has been specifically designed to increase investment in clean energy sectors. In …
Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas has been slapped with a felony weapons charge in connection to the recent gun scandal that left him suspended indefinitely from the team. He has been charged with carrying a pistol without a license outside a home or business after allegedly pulling the firearm on teammate Javaris Crittenten over an unsettled gambling debt.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Back in the 70s, the robots were coming for our crappy manufacturing jobs. Now, it seems, they’re coming for our crappy table service jobs. Korean company ITM Technology has developed a restaurant concept around a cute little robot that fulfills the role of a waiter – it takes orders from customers, either verbally or through a touch screen, then relays them to the kitchen, and brings the food out when it’s ready. Robo Cafe eliminates ordering errors, reduces staffing costs dramatically for restaurant owners, and even brings the boss all the tips. It’s probably not going to be nearly as interesting to Tiger Woods, though…
Tags: Kitchen,
Robot,
Robotics,
Touch Screen
Related Articles:
Sergio Marchionne’s dinner speech was the target of protestors at the Automotive News World Congress on Tuesday evening.
In a dramatic display, the protestors carried white balloons and a banner, and upon release of the balloons one protestor, Teamsters Union member Matteo Colombi, commenced to distribute flyers to the crowd that read “The Fiat/Chrysler Bailout Bandit. Tell Chrysler: Stop Killing Good Jobs.” It also referred people to the website ‘www.carbuyersbeware.com’. Colombi’s protest came in the wake of Chrysler’s decision to use non-unionized car haulers; a move that will save the company about $10 per car, or $10 million total.
Another protestor made her way on stage and began ranting about how a defective Chrysler product caused her mother’s demise. “My mother died because of a defective Chrysler product,” the woman said. The banner hung from the ceiling read “Fiat-Chrysler: Damaged When Delivered?”
Marchionne was more than apologetic to the crowd for the interruptions.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Free Press
