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When I visited my former college roommate in northern England last summer, one thing that stood out in my mind was the price of gas. My roommate did the math for me (since they sell it by liter rather than by the gallon) and it was about $10 per gallon. Can you imagine spending $150 to fill your tank?

Most of these high prices come from gas taxes, and the idea has been bounced around the US too. It isn’t a very popular idea here, but GM’s “Maximum” Bob Lutz thinks a higher gas tax would help. And this from the guy who declared global warming a “crock of shit”.

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Heidi is the next Joan Rivers! Heidi Montag-Pratt is only 23-years-old, but The Hills star tells PEOPLE Magazine she’s already “beyond obsessed” with perfecting her looks through plastic surgery.

In the Jan. 25 issue of the tab, the reality show star reveals that she went under the knife and had a shocking 10 plastic surgery procedures done in one day.

On November 20, Heidi checked into a Los Angeles clinic for a mini brow lift, Botox in the forehead, a nose job, fat injections in cheeks and lips, chin reduction, neck liposuction, ears pinned back, breast augmentation revision, liposuction on her waist and thighs and a buttocks augmentation. Heidi spent more than $30,000 on procedures, which were a surprise even for members of the celebrity’s family.

“I look way better and I’m way happier…my eyebrow lift just took my face to another level, made it a little bit more European-exotic. And for the first time, I have sexy ears!”

The Colorado native, who recently admitted sinking her life savings into her debut album, has no doubt that her three year addiction to cosmetic procedures stem from the fact that she teased as a child.

”[People said I had a] Jay Leno chin,” she told PEOPLE. “And when I watched myself on ‘The Hills,’ my ears would be sticking out like Dumbo! I just wanted to feel confident and look in the mirror and be like, ‘Whoa! That’s me!’ I was an ugly duckling before.”

Heidi also insists the surgeries were necessary for her career as the world’s next talentless pop tart.

“I’m competing against the Britney Spearses of the world – and when she was in her prime, it was her sex appeal that sold. Obviously, looks matter, it’s a superficial industry.”

Is Heidi done having plastic surgery?

“I’m just starting,” Heidi admits. “Let’s just say there’s a lot of maintenance. Nobody ages perfectly, so I plan to keep using surgery to make me as perfect as I can be. Because, for me, the surgery is always so rewarding.”

Heidi released her adeptly-titled debut album, Superficial, this week.

“Say something more,” the burly taxi driver demanded after I told him the name of the Dublin hotel where I planned to stay.

“Don’t you know where it is?” I inquired, wondering what he meant.

“You’re that Yank on the radio,” he responded. Then I knew.

Americans from the Midwestern heartland never think they have any distinguishing characteristic, linguistically speaking, let alone a defining accent. But several conversations about politics across the Atlantic for Morning Ireland prompted the voice recognition en route from the airport. And, as we made our way to the hotel, the driver provided his broach-no-opposition opinions on all matters political.

On that trip I discovered that semi-regular duty for the most popular radio news program in a small country means that you keep running into people eager to pose their questions and posit their views, mostly the latter.

This little-league case of vocal-cord celebrity began serendipitously in 2004 as a result of a Hesburgh Lecture for Notre Dame at Saint Patrick’s College in Dublin. Before the trip, a producer phoned about the talk (a disquisition on that year’s presidential campaign), and he and his colleagues got into the habit of calling to discuss American political events of potential interest to an Irish audience.

Enlightening as the encounter with a cabbie can be — one other listener upon meeting me unforgettably remarked, “You sound taller than you are” — the on-air segments for the program share certain similarities. With the five-hour time difference, we’re usually conducting these journalistic colloquies at around 3 a.m. in South Bend.

Wake-up call

Though this hour might be prime time for a night owl, it’s light-years different for an early bird with an internal clock perpetually set to 5 a.m. To be safe, a producer in Dublin calls a half-hour before every interview to make sure I’m awake, if not alert.

Radio, I here confess, is the only permissible medium for these productions. Broadcast central is the kitchen table, where (swaddled in robe and nightshirt) I struggle to string one semi-coherent word after another, while holding a telephone to one ear and glancing at my notebook to spot a phrase or point worth raising.

On occasion, the odd hour can lead to moments of regret, sentences that defy diagramming or the intrusion of emotion. During late spring of 2008, in the pre-dawn morn after a full day of punditry, I got into a brief on-air kerfuffle about the purity of my political analysis. When I asserted my nonpartisan independence with gusto, saying I try mightily to be as fair as possible, one sensitive listener found the defense of my virtue worthy of comment.

“As an American living in Ireland,” the email began, “I am quite in tune with the rules of conversation here, which are quite different from those in the U.S. People do not cut off the interviewer in the brusque, inappropriate manner in which you did at the beginning of the interview.

“I was appalled at your initial reaction and comment, which would have been perceived as extremely rude and typically-American-in-a-bad-way here. Given the already strong anti-American feeling, your initial reaction surely added to the conviction here that Americans in general are rude and not at all gracious.”
Criticism, even at the upper decibel range, serves a purpose, and cools the creator’s temper. But, to be fair, responses aren’t always so thorny. Some are rosier and include thanks for my abandoning sleep to explain the intricacies of America’s democratic dance.

You still never really know what to expect when you hang up the phone. One day in the high season of the 2008 campaign, I got to my campus office later that morning to find a phone message from another Dublin-based radio outlet.

That day a channel-switching listener could have received an oral postcard from America both driving to work and driving back home sent from the same person — and probably wondered whether that disembodied speaker was the sole soul keeping up with politics across the Atlantic.

View from afar

Another time, a few hours after a report, a television producer with a charming brogue rang to ask if I might be the person who chattered away on Morning Ireland earlier. After providing positive identification, I heard these words: “Could you come to Washington this afternoon for an interview?”

At that moment (and 600 miles away), I concluded that American geography might not be a required subject in the Irish educational system. Yet as I slouch towards anecdotage, I’ve come to realize what my odd-hour radio days mean. Always unscripted, these extemporaneous exchanges have forced me to reconsider how others view America, our hopelessly complex campaign system and the utter unpredictability of politics.

Although my light-slumbering, long-suffering wife is certain to file a dissenting opinion, you might even say this trans-Atlantic talking is worth losing sleep over.

Bob Schmuhl is Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Professor of American Studies and Journalism at Notre Dame and director of the John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics & Democracy.

If you purchased Skype credit that expired prior to December 31st 2009 after 180 days of activity, you could be entitled to a $4 credit.

Basically, the plaintiffs in the case argue that the Skype policy of expiring credits after 180 days of inactivity violates various state law—including “gift certificate” consumer protection. Skype is all like “nahhh” and the plantiffs are all like “uh-huh!” But the bottom line is this—the parties have agreed on a settlement that would eliminate the 180 day policy and offer a $4 voucher to customers who had credits expire before the end of last year. Check out the statement below to review your options.

NOTICE OF PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION

If you are a United States resident who purchased Skype Credit that, on at least one occasion prior to December 31, 2009, expired after 180 days of inactivity, a proposed class action settlement may affect your rights. PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY.

* Plaintiffs Holly Barker and Brian Carness have filed lawsuits against defendants Skype Communications, S.a.r.l. (“Skype Communications”), Skype Technologies S.A., Skype, Inc. and eBay Inc., on its own behalf and as successor by merger to Skype Delaware Holdings, Inc. (collectively, the “Defendants”) challenging the Skype Credit expiration policy. Plaintiffs allege that Skype User Accounts and Skype Credit constitute “gift certificates” that cannot expire or be subject to inactivity fees under various states’ laws and that Defendants unlawfully applied the Skype Credit expiration policy against their Skype Credit balances after 180 days of inactivity in supposed violation of these various states’ laws, including applicable “gift certificate,” consumer protection and/or unfair and deceptive practices laws.

* Defendants deny that they did anything wrong whatsoever, and contend that plaintiffs’ claims are meritless. No court has decided which side is right, and both sides have agreed to resolve the cases and provide relief to the Settlement Class instead of litigation. There is a proposed settlement on behalf of a nationwide class of current and former United States resident purchasers of Skype Credit from Skype Communications, which, if approved, will provide that Skype Communications shall discontinue its Skype Credit expiration policy and implement a Reactivation Policy whereby Skype Credit will no longer expire after 180 days of inactivity, but rather be deemed “inactive” and subject to reactivation. In addition, Skype Communications, on behalf of itself and the other Defendants, has agreed to pay a Settlement Amount of $1,850,000 in full and complete settlement of the Released Claims, which shall include: (i) attorneys’ fees and costs and named plaintiffs’ incentive awards not to exceed $1,000 each, which collectively shall not exceed 25% of the Settlement Amount subject to Court approval; and (ii) availability, on a claims made basis, of an electronic voucher for $4.00 of Skype Credit per claimant from the Net Settlement Amount.

* If you are a member of the Settlement Class, your legal rights are affected and you have a choice to make right now: [CLICK TO ENLARGE]

[creditexpirationclassaction Image via Philip Bantz]

Michael Schumacher ya ha iniciado los test con un monoplaza de GP2 y que tendrá una duración total de tres días. Recordemos que debido a la nueva normativa, Schumacher no podrá probar más de 8 días el nuevo monplaza de Mercedes Grand Prix antes de que de comenzo el GP de Bahrain.

Bruno Michel, organizador de la GP2 Series ha dejado unas palabras sobre el piloto alemán, “Es un honor y un privilegio para nosotros que Michael Schumacher nos ayude a desarrollar nuestro coche. EL objetivo de las GP2 Series es preparar a jóvenes pilotos para la Fórmula 1. Este test será muy importante para el futuro de nuestros pilotos y será una confirmación de la gran competitividad del campeonato. Estoy convencido que su conocimiento e inigualable habilidad de conducción nos ayudarán a desarrollar un gran coche para la próxima temporada”.

Tal y como se puede ver, el Bruno Michel se deshace en elogios para Michael, y seguramente el alemán haría lo mismo con quien le ha permitido tener unos días de pruebas, aunque no sea con un Fórmula 1.

Related posts:

1. Michael Schumacher comenzará mañana los test de pretemporada
2. Michael Schumacher ya habría cerrado un acuerdo con Mercedes Grand Prix
3. Michael Schumacher no asesorará a Fernando Alonso

Filed under: SUV, Etc., Crossover, GM, GMC

Sometimes, we come across head-scratchers. What’s the meaning of life? Nancy Kerrigan’s anguished “Why?” Or most recently, “what is the point of the 2010 GMC Terrain?” The answer to the latter seems easy – it’s to sell, silly. It appears to be having some effect; GMC finished December 2009 four percent ahead of its 2008 numbers. We’ve driven the Terrain and find it virtually identical to its sister car, the Chevrolet Equinox. The biggest difference is that we find the GMC to be significantly harder to look at. The Los Angeles Times‘ auto pundit extraordinaire Dan Neil has gotten some seat time in a V6 Terrain and notes its stylistic hardships: “the Terrain looks like it has a a window air-conditioning unit attached to the nose.” Amen.

Other incongruities and letdowns crop up in Neil’s assessment, not the least of which is the entire vehicle’s raison d’être in GMC showrooms in the first place. After all, Neil notes, the Terrain is a relatively blatant example of GM’s historical practice of badge-engineering. Neil goes on to wonder aloud as to why General Motors bothers with a GMC version at all – especially when the money could have been better spent raising the vehicle up to excellent from a point that he contends is solidly mediocre. The majority of the automotive press has come away rather more impressed with the Terrain/Equinox package (heck, the Chevy was a finalist for the just-announced North American Truck of the Year award), and despite our misgivings about the GMC’s looks, we’ve found the platform to be quite competitive with its classmates.

Still, the badge-engineering issue with this vehicle is one we’ve discussed in-depth on our podcast, and it remains a nettlesome topic. But then again, no consumers appear to be concerned about it those issues, as both the Terrain and the Equinox are selling at a handsome clip.

[Source: The Los Angeles Times]

Dan Neil on GMC Terrain: “No bark, no bite, but plenty of fleas” originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Right now, refilling your electric vehicle is quite a timely process. Even the best EV charging systems can take several hours to fully charge a depleted battery, and while this might be fine and dandy for commuter cars, it makes living with an electric car as a daily driver a bit more difficult.

But fast charging stations are coming, and could be a real game changer. Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade are teaming up their technologies to bring a “Level III” charging stations to the world later this year. These stations could charge an electric car in as little as 15 minutes. Now that’s impressive.

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by Tom Laskawy

The FDA’s new report on the safety of endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A is months overdue and there is still no sign of when or if the agency will release the report. Perhaps they are waiting for that piece of “smoking gun” evidence that BPA represents a clear and present danger to human health? Well, thanks to researchers from Peninsula College of Medicine in Britain, we just may have it.

In 2008, the group looked at data from the 2003-2004 US National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES) which included urinary BPA levels for the first time. The results:

[A] quarter of the population with the highest levels of BPA were more than
twice as likely to report having heart disease or diabetes, compared to
the quarter with the lowest BPA levels. They also found that higher BPA
levels were associated with clinically abnormal liver enzyme
concentrations.

At the time, even the researchers admitted the possibility that it was a statistical fluke. But the same team has now analyzed the 2005-2006 NHANES, which used an entirely different group of people, and guess what? The association between BPA exposure and heart disease in humans is as strong as ever (via Toronto’s Globe and Mail):

According to the new research, 60-year-old American males with the
highest amounts of bisphenol A in their urine had about a 45 per cent
greater risk of cardiovascular disease than men the same age with lower
exposures, confirming the results of a previous study on the topic
released in 2008 and based on a different sample of people.

This comes despite the fact that median BPA levels dropped by 30 percent between 2004 and 2006 to around 2 parts per billion. Even with the lower exposure, however, odds of heart disease were still significantly higher. Note that the researchers performed rigorous calculations to ensure that they isolated the effect of bisphenol A and weren’t getting correlations with other factors (you can dig into the statistics here).

It’s true that the earlier relationship between BPA and diabetes and BPA and liver function were less present in the new data. But Dr. David Melzer, the lead author on the study, believes this is a result of the lower human BPA levels measured. As he put it to me:

The 2005/6 data for the liver enzymes and diabetes are also
statistically consistent with the 2003/4, although not significant on their
own, probably because of the fall in BPA levels. Note that the new data do not statistically
contradict the 2003/4 data on diabetes or liver enzymes: overall they add to it
although the sample size is too small at these lower BPA levels to get a
definitive result for 2005/6 on its own.

Overall this clearly takes the hypothesis of a BPA—adult
heart disease association through to the level of evidence.
Given the obvious concern that BPA might be directly driving these health
effects, we now need to urgently clarify the mechanisms behind these
associations.

Indeed, Dr. Melzer believes his study is underestimating the effect of BPA due to the relatively small sample size—he believes further study will revise the effect of BPA on heart disease upward.

The Globe and Mail article offered this response from a spokesman for industry lobbying group the American Chemistry Council:

“The study itself does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship
between BPA exposure and heart disease,” commented Steven Hentges, a
spokesman for the group.

But what he doesn’t say is that the only way to “prove” that cause-and-effect, in other words to isolate BPA’s role beyond doubt, would involve conducting a controlled clinical trial, i.e. exposing humans to BPA and seeing who dies. That, of course, isn’t science, it’s homicide, which is why toxic chemical research is mostly performed on rats. And the evidence from rats on BPA, despite industry attempts at obfuscation, is already overwhelming.

These kind of population studies—analysis in effect of the natural experiment industry is performing on us—represents the best evidence we could reasonably hope to get. These results go far beyond what’s required by any meaningful precautionary principle. This is now about saving lives. Yes, as the scientists observe, more research is needed to understand the precise physiology through which BPA causes heart disease and to determine the risk factor with greater accuracy. But whether that increased risk end up at 30 percent or 60 percent or somewhere inbetween, the FDA now knows all it needs to know to conclude that even low exposure to BPA represents a serious risk to human health.

Related Links:

FDA on BPA: Our hands are tied

Food giants pile on salt to tart up flavorless dreck

[UPDATED:] FDA’s food safety blogger doesn’t think meat safety is a problem

Conde Nast, the titanic and tottering publishing giant, is offering $10,000 every quarter to the employee with the best idea about improving the company. This idea is getting snarked all over the place (John Kolbin’s Observer piece is pretty funny) but I can’t seem to muster much cynicism about this idea. In fact … I think it’s a great idea.

Congratulations, Si Newhouse! Somebody give this guy $10,000!

Last year, you might remember the company paid McKinsey consultants
millions of dollars to skulk the hallways of 4 Times Square and perform
a pre-mortem of its finances. The whole media world could smell the
rot. But Conde needed McKinsey to diagnose the gangrene publicly and recommend exactly what Conde would have done anyway: Announce a 25% cut across the company.

Tapping your in-house resources to actually get new ideas seems like a better use of company money. Ten thousand dollars means very little to Conde Nast as a company and very much indeed to a Conde Nast employee not used to receiving a 20% salary bonus in exchange for a memo. A sweet incentive unleashed upon a smart media company is a potent combo.

My biggest concern isn’t that this move seems desperate (really, who cares at this point?). My biggest concern is that there’s no guarantee that Conde will reward the right ideas. Indeed the simplest ideas — including: Charge for more online content; Change the New Yorker and Vanity Fair websites to promote their amazing blogs; Keep mag covers glossy but change to thinner paper in the books you send out to subscribers to cut down on production costs — are probably better than the revolutionary-seeming ideas that might catch Si’s eye.

Joseph Roxlyn Jewett Pleads Guilty to Giving Kickbacks to Carpenters’ Union Boss

Joseph Roxlyn Jewett, of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty to giving a kickback to the former leader of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (“MRCC”), United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today.

The former union boss had engineered the use of Jewett’s company as a consultant on a deal involving the construction of a casino that was funded by the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund.

During a hearing before United States District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow, Jewett admitted that in May 2006, Jewett promised to give Walter Ralph Mabry a one-third interest in an $800,000 investment.

Mabry was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund and Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the MRCC.

Jewett promised Mabry the one-third share of the $800,000 investment because Mabry had asked the investment manager of the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund to use Jewett’s company, J&R Ventures, as a consultant on a pension fund investment in a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi that had been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

Based on his guilty plea and conviction for giving a kickback to a fiduciary of a labor union pension fund, Jewett is facing a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Based on calculations under the United States Sentencing Guidelines included in the Plea Agreement, Jewett is facing a sentencing guideline range of between 18 and 24 months in prison.

Jewett also has agreed to forfeit $157,000 in funds derived from the kickback scheme.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena, James Vandenberg, the Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor, Office of Investigations–Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and Regional Director Paul C. Baumann of the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

Andrew Arena, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation said, “Embezzling union resources and accepting kickbacks systematically robs union monetary assets and decreases benefits to all members. The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate these cases with our law enforcement partners.”

James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge for the Chicago Regional Office of the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General said, “Pension related kickback schemes by consultants to union affiliated benefit plans compromise the retirement accounts of union members. This office will work aggressively with our law enforcement partners to investigate crimes that undermine the financial well being of these pension funds.”

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General–Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, and the Employee Benefits Security Administration. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David A. Gardey and Assistant United States Attorney Phillip Ross.

Tomorrow Project Runway returns to the city that started it all – New York. They are also merging fashion and technology with the introduction of HP TouchSmart PCs and HP TouchSmart tm2 notebooks to help bring their creations to life. Contestants will, for the first time in the history of the series, have the option to use computers to sketch designs and inspire their work. Throughout Project Runway’s seventh season, expect to see designers alternate between traditional sketchpads and pens for HP PCs  that give them greater freedom to experiment with design mock-ups for each challenge. HP is no stranger to the fashion world since they were instrumental in involving Vivienne Tam and her Digital Clutch netbook. Can’t wait to see if these design gurus even know how to operate a computer not just a sewing machine.