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By Pat Cutler

Hunting is an old Southern tradition, especially during the holidays. Nothing says “Peace on Earth” quite like shooting something. I recently participated in a family quail hunt in the low country of South Carolina. I am a golfer, not a hunter. The only hunting I know how to do requires a ball retriever. Putting a weapon in my hands is akin to outfitting Barney Fife with an assault rifle.

Economic Commentary Jan 13 2010

E. Patrick Cutler
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This month, Girl Scouts around the US will kick off their annunal cookie sales. Some councils have already started, and some will be gearing up in the next few days. This is a time of year that most cookie-lovers look forward to because it means we can pick up a few boxes of our seasonal favorites. The Girl Scout Cookies are produced by two different bakeries, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Smart Cookies, so the distribution of the new cookies flavors varies by region and which bakery supplies cookies in your area. Samoas (Caramel de Lites), Thin Mints, Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties), Do-Si-Dos (Peanut Butter Sandwich), Trefoils (Shortbread) are available everywhere. Lemon Chalet Cremes, a lemon-filled cookie, and Lemonades, a lemon iced cookie, are back for another season but are available in different regions. Thanks-a-Lot, a chocolate-dipped shortbread cookie and the 100-calorie pack Daisy-Go-Rounds are also back from the ABC Bakery, while the Dulce De Leche shortbread cookies return from Little Brownie Bakers. One new cookie this year is called Thank U Berry Munch, light and crispy cookies with dried cranberries and puffed rice cereal in them. As much as I like the new cookies, I still think back to some of my favorites from years gone by and hope that some of them – like Lemon Coolers, Golden Yangles, Aloha Chips and Juliettes – will make a return!

While I’ll be on the lookout for Girl Scouts to support (and new cookies to try), I’ll also be baking my own at home as I do every year. Homemade Girl Scout Cookie recipes make it easy to have cookies any time of year and, since they tend to cost less than the boxed cookies, where only a percentage goes to the troops, you can donate the savings directly to your favorite group of Girl Scouts (and maybe encourage them to have their own bake sale) to support them.

When it last reported earnings, Intel (INTC) surpassed Wall Street’s expectations and issued a strong outlook for the rest of 2009. So investors had high hopes for its latest quarterly report. And Intel appears to have met them. Reporting fourth quarter earnings after market close Thursday, the company posted a profit of $2.3 billion, or 40 cents a share, compared with a profit of $234 million, or 4 cents a share, for the year-ealier period. Revenue was $10.6 billion, up from $8.2 billion for the same quarter in the year-ealier period.

A strong showing and one that blows the doors off consensus estimates that called for 30 cents a share in profit on earnings of $10.17 billion. Don’t forget these results include a European Commission fine of $1.45 billion and a $1.25 billion settlement agreement with AMD.

“Curb your enthusiasm [for Intel]” Bank of America analyst Sumit Dhanda told clients in a research note issued Wednesday which warned of a revenue miss from the chip behemoth. Curb your enthusiasm? Not likely after today’s results.

“Intel’s strong 2009 results reflect our investment in industry-leading manufacturing and product innovation,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in an earnings release. “This strategy has enabled us to generate unprecedented operating efficiencies while growing our traditional businesses and creating exciting new market opportunities, even in difficult economic times. Our ability to weather this business cycle demonstrates that microprocessors are indispensable in our modern world. Looking forward, we plan to deliver the benefits of computing to an expanding set of products, markets and customers.”

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2010, Intel expects revenue of $9.7 billion, plus or minus $400 million. Evidently, the PC market is back.

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El regreso del ‘pony car‘ de la marca americana se está beneficiando de nuevas ediciones limitadas que aumentan todavía más su atractivo, y varias de ellas echan la vista atrás a la historia del modelo. Hace unas semanas se confirmaba que el Camaro volvería a ser el coche de seguridad oficial de las 500 Millas de Indianápolis y se celebraba con su correspondiente edición especial. Hoy Chevrolet ha publicado los datos de la edición Synergy que recupera una tonalidad verde de los primeros Camaros.

Basándose en el Verde “Rallye” que formaba parte de la paleta de colores del modelo entre 1967 y 1969, el Verde “Synergy” viene a completar el trío de tonalidades del Camaro que hacen las delicias de los nostálgicos, junto con el Naranja “Inferno” de la edición Indy 500 y el Amarillo “Rallye” de la del film “Transformers”. El historiador especializado en el Camaro, Scott Settlemire, afirmó en su presentación que esos colores “definirán el Camaro 2010″, como ya lo hicieron en la primera generación.

Al Verde “Synergy” le acompañan dos bandas de color Gris “Cyber” que están presentes sobre el capó y el maletero. Además, el color de la carrocería también se ha reproducido en la instrumentación y los paneles de las puertas en el habitáculo, para marcar el contraste con el Negro “Jet” de la tapicería, volante, pomo de la palanca de cambios y consola central.

Otros elementos específicos de la edición son las llantas de 19 pulgadas pintadas en Plata “Sterling”, un spoiler trasero y el paquete de equipamiento “Comodidad y Conectividad” que incluye puerto USB, conexión Bluetooth y arranque a distancia en el caso de poseer caja de cambios automática.

Con una producción de unidades limitadas entre febrero y mayo de este año, el Camaro Synergy Special Edition utiliza el motor 1LT 3.6 V6 con inyección directa y 304 caballos de potencia. Se puede unir a una transmisión de seis velocidades bien manual bien automática. El precio con el que saldrá al mercado será de 26.790 dólares (casi 18.500 euros).

Chevrolet Camaro Synergy Special Edition

Fuente | Chevrolet

A ratcheting up in the Google-versus-China fight: The White House has officially endorsed the search giant’s position.

Here’s White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today, per MarketWatch:

“We support [Google’s] action…in a decision to no longer censor searches that happen using the [Google] platform,” Gibbs told reporters. He added that “our concern is with actions that threaten the universal rights of a free Internet.”

I’ll leave it to geopolitical tea leaf readers to decipher whether the White House’s position on this means that much for Sino-American relations. But it’s not a huge surprise: The affectionate relationship between Google (GOOG) and this administration has been documented many times already.

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In addition to being know for its green efforts (solar panels and highly efficient servers) Google is possibly entering ther power business by applying for a license to buy and sell wholesale power.

"… are other non-utilities already in the power business. Usually other firms with similar heavy power needs.  … Google Energy subsidiary was formed in late 2009 … putting it into a stronger position to balance Google’s energy needs with its goal to promote the use of alternative energy for electricity generation … it will shop for the best sources of renewable energy to run its operations … stated goal is to become carbon-neutral."

Via:  ZDNet  LINK

Conan O’Brien will have no problem finding job offers should he decide to leave NBC over the late night announced by the network this week. The late night comedian, who joked on Monday’s Toniight Show that he’d like to “work in a classier business with better people, like hardcore porn,” might just get his wish.

Adult film giant Pink Visual has has offered Conan a position as a contract star for their features due to the current high demand for “tall, lean, pale, male ‘gingers’ that have a David Caruso kind of thing going on.”
The company says it “would be elated to have a personable, motivated self-starter such as yourself join our team of merry pornstars.” In fact, the porn purveyors already have a name in mind for Conan’s first feature. What do think of Conan the Boobarian?

If Conan isn’t interested in peddling his wares on camera, Pink Visual would love to have him on board as a “writer,” who they believe could “bring some much needed wit to the world of porn dialogue.”

(Since when does anyone care about “porn dialogue.?” It’s a skin flick, not a love story. A pornstar’s job is to suck peen and shut up — we don’t need you to be Flip Wilson!)

While the Lexus LFA may carry a hefty price tag of $375,000, it hasn’t stopped Toyota from selling out its new luxury supercar in Japan. According to reports from Japanese media, the entire allocation of 165 units have been sold out two months ahead of schedule.

Reports say that the application schedule to purchase an LFA was open from October 21, 2009 to March 21, 2010, but was wrapped up earlier yesterday after all the units were spoken for.

Out of the total 500 units to be produced, only 150 will make it to the United States. Toyota previously confirmed that it will not be making a profit on any of the LFAs sold.

Click here for more news on the Lexus LFA.

Refresher: Power for the Lexus LFA comes from a 4.8L V10 engine that makes 552-hp with a maximum torque of 354 lb-ft. Mated to a 6-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox, the LFA goes from 0-60 mph time of just 3.5 with a top speed of 202 mph.

2011 Lexus LFA:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Response (via WOT)

Jacob writes “It appears that American Reading has several trademarks on the term “100 Book Challenge,” and as such, has sent a cease & desist letter to the owner of the website LibraryThing.com (a social cataloguing site that also provides content and services to libraries) for having a user-created discussion group called “100 Books Challenge 2010” (and also for previous years).

I do not know if they’ve sent a similar letter to other sites that have a “100 Book(s) Challenge,” such as another social cataloguing website called GoodReads..”

There are certainly questions about whether or not there’s any likelihood of confusion here. I have a lot of trouble seeing how any such confusion would result. It also seems like the term is being used in a descriptive way (it is in fact, a 100 books challenge), which you would think would help qualify as fair use. But, of course, just going through the process of fighting such a claim is expensive and probably not worth it for a site like LibraryThing.

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Two wells in the Texas Panhandle that exceeded expectations have sent shares of Denver’s Forest Oil Corp. to a 52-week high.

AP: Forest Oil said crude production from its most recent wells in the Granite Wash has been so prolific it may equal assets that were sold in West Texas as the company narrowed its focus on tight-gas and shale formations.

“Our Texas Panhandle Granite Wash program continues to exceed our expectations, not only from the extremely high gas rates, but also the strong liquid components associated with these wells,” H. Craig Clark, president and CEO, said in a statement.

Both wells have produced the equivalent of 37 million cubic feet per day of gas and oil.

Forest Oil Corp shares climbed $2.39, or nearly 9.5 percent, to $27.51 Thursday, after trading as high as $28.72.

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See Also:

• John Kilduff: Oil To $100 In The Next Six Months
• America’s Growing Fuel Glut Could Torpedo Oil Prices

At CES this past week, Google executive Andy Rubin said that the next version of the Nexus One phone will be for the enterprise. It could have a physical keyboard.

Our bet is that Google Apps will be tightly integrated into the Nexus One enterprise phone. Google syncs every Android phone to a Google account. The next step seems logical. Sync Google Apps with the Android.

Sponsor

With Google Apps integrated, a customer could assign employees a Nexus One smartphone that is tied centrally to the account. As described on Ars Technica, each device could have its own Google Voice number. The smartphones could be then distributed to employees. Billing would be centralized and the employees would have a managed suite of applications for email, messaging, calendering, contacts and more.

In the end, Google may be the winner simply also by offering features that are as available on the Nexus One as on a Blackberry device. A core Google strategy is to develop features that cut across the consumer and enterprise. That’s apparent in a feature announced today that allows Blackberry users to search email and contacts with a new Google application. You can perform the same function on a Nexus One.

But he Nexus One has a long way to go before it can really compete with the Blackberry or the iPhone.

With that in mind, here are some security features that would make the Nexus One more compelling for the enterprise.

Hardware Encryption

Without hardware encryption, the Nexus One will never meet enterprise security standards. The iPhone and the Blackberry both have this necessary feature.

Remote Data Removal

A lost smartphone is a vulnerable smartphone. The Android does not support the capability to erase data remotely. Like encryption, this is a must have feature for the enterprise.

Security Settings

The Blackberry has the ability for corporate IT to lock down a device. This relates to remote data wiping. The Android needs this corporate security capability for it to be enterprise ready.

Application Signing

The iPhone requires application signing. The certificate can be pulled at any time by Apple. This helps protect against rogue applications. Android devices do not require a trusted authority sign the certificates.

It’s Still Early

We know little about what is planned for the Nexus One. But we can’t expect it will have huge appeal in the enterprise. It’s so new to the market. The OS is still quite nascent in its development. Even with a Google Apps integration, enterprise managers will have to see how the OS and its security features measure up before giving it the green light.

Discuss

As much I like to organize and take care of my gear, I’m not overly obsessive about it. Maybe I would be if I had this Laptop Case and Organizer sold by Frontgate. For $129 you get a neoprene gadget bag that accommodates a laptop up to 15″ in size. If that doesn’t grab you, maybe the web of elastic straps to hold phones, cords, chargers and what-have-you will. Even external drives and some thin point-and-shoot cameras ought to be wrapped in loving care by webby bands. There’s also a padded shoulder strap for carrying if you’d rather not use the cut-out handle.

I’d have to see this in person before buying, but it looks to offer some basic protection while also organizing gear. The Red Ferret Journal says that the case is also TSA-friendly for travel — that makes sense as you can unzip the entire bag and open it flat.

Foreclosure data tracker RealtyTrac released its final 2009 foreclosure statistics today. The results, as you can probably imagine, are ugly. The U.S. had 2,824,674 foreclosed properties. That’s a 21% increase from 2008 and a 120% increase from 2007. Yet, the results vary widely on a state-by-state basis. You may be able to guess a few of the worst-hit states, but the depth of their pain is rather astonishing.

There are a few different ways you could try to determine which states were the worst — depending on what measure you use. If you want to compare total foreclosures, then California ranked #1, with 632,573 foreclosed properties. Florida followed with 516,711. Arizona was a distant third with 163,210 foreclosures.

But since California and Florida are pretty highly-populated states, it isn’t necessarily fair to call them the worst, in my opinion. I’m more interested in how many foreclosures each state had per housing unit. That levels the playing field. Luckily, RealtyTrac provides that data as well. Now the worst state is Nevada, with a whopping one foreclosure for every 10 properties. Arizona follows with one foreclosure for every 16 properties. Florida is right on its heels with one foreclosure for every 17 properties.

And yet, not all states had it so bad. Some states actually had fewer foreclosures in 2009 than in 2008 and 2007. Nebraska actually had 42% fewer foreclosures in 2009 than in 2008, and 49% fewer in 2009 than in 2007. The other solid performance came from North Carolina. The state had 16% fewer foreclosures in 2009 than 2008, and 2% fewer in 2009 than in 2007. Six other states had fewer foreclosures in 2009 than in 2008, but all the rest had more foreclosures in 2009 than in 2007.

Flirting with 3 million foreclosures nationally in one year is pretty awful. That’s one in every 45 properties in the U.S. But at least 2009 experienced some housing demand. The government home buying incentives and low mortgage interest rates towards the end of the year did manage to conjure up (or at least pull forward) some demand for buyers. So those foreclosures didn’t all become excess inventory.

Yet, I worry that some home buyer fatigue may set in for 2010. In a recession this deep, there are only so many Americans left who have the interest and financial audacity to purchase a home, after the large number who purchased last year. So I have my doubts that this year’s housing demand can stack up to 2009. But I certainly hope that this is one of those times I’m wrong.

Haleh Esfandiari

Zahra Rahnavard waving to supporters during a campaign rally for her husband, Mir Hussein Moussavi, at Haydarniya Stadium, Tehran, June 9, 2009 (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

It is entirely appropriate that two women have become the iconic symbols of Iran’s protest movement. Thanks to cell phones and the Internet, millions of people around the world saw footage of the blood-soaked face of the young Neda Agha Soltan, as she lay dying on a Tehran street, shot by security forces during a peaceful demonstration. But even before last June’s rigged presidential election, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, had gained international renown as the first woman in Iranian history to campaign alongside her husband—making speeches of her own and taking a strong stand on controversial social issues.

Ms. Rahnavard has caused a stir, but also set an example. An author and educator in her own right, she was the first female chancellor of any Iranian university—she directed Alzahra University in Tehran from 1998 until 2006—and has served as a political advisor to former president Mohammed Khatami. During the campaign, she was outspoken in calling for reform and also courageously endorsed the demands of the One Million Signatures campaign, a women’s rights movement whose leaders have been attacked and arrested by the Iranian authorities.

Following her example, the wives of the other candidates began to appear on the campaign trail as well. Women were active in the campaigns of the two leading opposition presidential candidates; and when hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets after Ahmadinejad was, improbably, declared the winner, women marched alongside the men, braving assaults and intimidation from the riot police, paramilitary forces, and knife-, club- and chain-wielding goons the government sent after the demonstrators. As an activist friend wryly told me, “They treated us equally. They beat, clubbed and arrested us just like the men.” (In a sign of the growing weight of the women’s vote, President Ahmadenijad—his legitimacy in serious doubt—sought to mollify this constituency by nominating three women to his cabinet, though parliament confirmed only one of them.)

Women have in fact been at the forefront of resistance to an intrusive state ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. In the early years of the revolution, they resisted the new regime’s attempt to force them out of the workplace and universities. They found subtle ways—such as showing a bit of hair and wearing shorter robes in pastel colors—of challenging the restrictive dress code the government imposed on them in the name of Islam. They refused to stay segregated, whether in the university classroom or in taxis. Today, more women than men win admission to universities in competitive state-wide examinations, and this trend has so alarmed some members of parliament in recent years that there has been talk of legislation to impose quotas: affirmative action in the interest of men!

In the mid-1990s, women flocked to support the reform-minded administration of President Mohammad Khatami, accounting for, in part, the large majorities by which he won his two terms in office. With the One Million Signatures campaign, launched in 2006 and aimed at collecting a million signatures for a petition protesting discriminatory legislation against women, the women’s movement entered a new phase, implicitly calling for a revision of laws rooted in the basic principles of Islam. Arrest, trial, heavy fines, and imprisonment have not deterred the leaders of this campaign, who come mostly from the broad middle class and have gone to small towns and villages as well as the large cities to collect signatures.

The participation by women in the latest series of protests marks another notable development. Women have shown themselves ready to do what had generally been regarded as ‘men’s work.” Despite the risk of beatings, injury, arrest, even death, they have continued to take a leading part in protests and demonstrations. The demonstrators’ chant, “we are men of war,” has changed to “we are men and women of war.”

When I was held in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin Prison in 2007, I was questioned at length about the women’s rights movement; my two interrogators seemed alarmed and befuddled by it. They certainly feared its potential: how else to explain the harsh way in which officials have dealt with the women collecting signatures for a simple petition? But my interrogators also told me they feared a backlash if they used excessive force to disperse female demonstrators.

That was three years ago. Now, the gloves are off. The sight of tens of thousands of women marching alongside men in demonstrations last June seems to have unnerved the authorities. Under the increasingly brutal regime of Ahmadinejad’s second term, Iranians have seen young and middle-aged women clubbed, dragged across pavements, and hustled into vans by police and official thugs in plain clothes. Rahnavard has steadfastly condemned the brutality of the security forces.

Only last week, mothers of young men and women who have disappeared in prisons or other government black holes, and who have been gathering every Saturday in a Tehran park to demand news of their loved ones, were beaten and arrested by security men. They have since been released but some may be asked to appear in court. Such scenes are now seared into the memories of Iranians; they will come back to haunt the regime for years to come.

Filed under: Car Buying, Marketing/Advertising, Chevrolet, Ford, Hummer, Mazda, Mercury, Saab, Subaru, Toyota

After one of the worst years ever for the auto industry, which automakers do you think came out of 2009 with an unsullied reputation? Consumer Reports just published its 2010 Car Brand Perception Survey and the results are a bit perplexing. Naming the manufacturers that slipped last year would probably be a piece of cake, but try to guess which ones came out ahead of their 2008 rankings.

Before you try to guess, here are the ground rules. According to CR, “The scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: Safety, quality, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environmentally friendly/green.” Further, “The scores reflect consumers’ total perception level of a brand across those categories, and not the actual qualities of the brand’s individual vehicles.”

The overall top brands in the rankings were the usual suspects for the most part. Toyota was tops (guess CR readers haven’t heard about that sticky gas pedal thing), followed by America’s sole avoider of bankruptcy, Ford, then Honda. Somewhat surprisingly, Chevrolet placed fourth – bankruptcy be damned. Carmakers improving by the largest percentage over last year were an equally mixed bag. Chevy and Ford improved quite a bit, but the company posting the biggest gain was Subaru, which mirrored the success it had on the showroom floor in 2009.

Perhaps even more interesting were the bottom brands. Not surprisingly in these green-leaning times, Hummer scored the lowest as a brand, followed closely by GM problem-child, Saab. The Swedish firm was actually tied, though, with Ford’s forgotten brand, Mercury, and shockingly, recent Ford divestiture, Mazda. Dropping the most this year were luxury brands like Porsche, Lexus and Lincoln. How Porsche and Lexus dropped so much is a bit of a mystery, but Cadillac droppng 15 points was a real head-scratcher considering the success of the CTS.

The complete survey is an interesting read, as are the full rankings. The top scorers in each category is particularly revealing. Before you click the source link below, though, try to guess where your favorite brands placed. You might be as surprised as we were.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

Toyota tops in CR brand perception study, Subaru, Ford, Chevy make gains originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally, the City of Light lives up to its name, thanks to artist Michel de Broin’s 7.5-meter disco ball suspended 50-meters above the Jardin du Luxembourg. It’s even more impressive in action and up close.

It took artist Michel de Broin 1,000 mirrors to construct the disco ball for his Nuit Blanche project, and spotlights positioned throughout the city to make it sparkle.

The main purpose of the giant mirror ball—other than having a raging citywide disco throwdown—was to simulate a starry sky normally obscured in urban areas by ambient artificial light. If stars these days look halfway as festive as this, I’m getting the heck out of NYC, pronto.

[Michel de Broin via Lifelounge via NOTCOT]