Audi is one of the companies that are looking into ways to increase its business in the United States and the best way to do that is to offer the Americans the models they like the most. And a sedan seems to be the best idea when talking about the United States so Audi is reportedly planning an A3 sedan specifically for the local market.
According to the guys over at Inside Line, the A3 sedan is projected to arrive in the American market in 2012 and will be similar in dimensions w… (read more)
He is the overall leader in the 2010 Dakar Rally but, until yesterday, he was one of the few front-runners without a single stage win under his belt in this particular event. Obviously, we’re talking about Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, who completed the 238-km special from La Serena to Santiago in a little over 3 hours ahead of Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel.
Sainz’ 16th overall win in the Dakar Rally came at the right time for the Volkswagen racer, as his overall rival for the win… (read more)
By Joe Sharkey, Reporter, New York Times
Everybody wants to be connected, and most major airlines in the United States have made bets that in-flight Wi-Fi Internet service will be a profitable sideline, or at least a worthwhile brand enhancer.
As the year started, about 700 commercial airliners were outfitted with Wi-Fi by Gogo, a product of Aircell, which is by far the leading provider of airline Internet connections. That is roughly a quarter of the domestic mainline fleet, excluding regional jets.
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By Andy Atkins-Krüger, Contributor, Search Engine Land
In December, Hitwise released data showing that the top Google (GOOG) search term of 2009 was “Facebook” having moved up from position number ten in the previous year. Hitwise also wrote that Facebook took the number one spot on Christmas Day—a claim Barry Schwartz later investigated.
Facebook’s popularity surge reminded me of a conversation I had with a search engineer who had earlier worked at AltaVista when it was the number one search tool.
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By Douglas MacMillan, Reporter, BusinessWeek
Johnny Makkar is intent on buying a digital book reader. Yet he won’t consider any of the more than two dozen new devices introduced in recent months, many of them at the just-completed Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. For Makkar, a resident of Fairlawn, N.J., with a background in marketing, only two manufacturers will do, and one has yet to unveil a reader.
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The mess that NBC has created around its late-night talk shows continues to benefit comic online videos.
While Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien have been using their fight for joke fodder over at NBC–which is owned by GE (GE), but has just been bought by Comcast (CMCSK)–I think the best stuff has been coming from David Letterman of “The Late Show.”
And, in fact, the CBS (CBS) late-night talk show legend’s analysis of the situation–”Here’s the deal. Anytime there’s a big stink like this, and, believe me, here hasn’t been a big stink like this in years, it’s money. Don’t kid yourselves, it’s all about money–was spot on and funny too.
Broadcast television networks execs have always been a great foil for Letterman and this scandal is the gift that keeps on giving.
Here are a bunch of clips online now:
TOP TEN
OPENING MONOLOGUE
ANALYSIS
LENO VICTIMS UNIT
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By Daniel Rowinski, Reporter, Boston.com
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.
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By Therese Poletti, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch, Tech Tales
The mood seems to be brightening among Silicon Valley start-up companies.
The atmosphere last Friday night at the Crunchies, an awards show hosted by three popular and often competing tech blogs–TechCrunch, VentureBeat and GigaOm–was downright buoyant, especially compared with last year, and had hints of IPOs in the air.
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By Christopher Schanck, Blogger, Design By Gravity
Microsoft was kind enough to comment that Google (GOOG) will have a tough time selling both a phone and an OS.
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Are there any other websites like this, regarding other cities?
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Originally Posted by Ragarms
(Post 50002591) Ummm…
Didn’t want to spam a new thread, so maybe the mods in here can decide where it’s best placed. In the random photos section, or maybe a sticky of its own? I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before: 360o views – awesome. Just awesome. |
No matter how much you spend, there just doesn’t seem to be any clear way to future-proof your home theatre system. You can have the biggest HD screen on the block, but suddenly, if it can’t do 3D, it’s all but obsolete. With the rush of 3D content that’s under development in the gaming, TV and cinema worlds, 3D is set to become the new HD within the next couple of years – and with that in mind, Optoma has pulled the covers off its HD66 digital projector at CES – a US$699 home theatre projector capable of showing 720p content in 3D with a max image size around 300″…
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Conference play in the Pac-10 is two weeks old and here’s what is certain: nothing.
Jack Trotter, a sophomore forward, has been an important contributor for the men’s basketball team so far this season. (CHRIS SEEWALD/The Stanford Daily)
Rather, very little. It’s been long presumed and now established that the Pac-10 is nothing short of awful this season. There’s a legitimate possibility that just one team — the conference champion, which earns an automatic bid — will receive a spot in the NCAA Tournament. For the first time in history of the poll, no Pac-10 team was ranked in the coaches’ top 25 this week. There is no alpha dog. Cal and Washington were supposed to assume those roles, but the Bears lost at home to a poor UCLA squad and the Huskies are currently last in the conference with a 1-3 record. Unlike the Big East (or even the football side of the Pac-10), where good teams mercilessly beat up on each other, the Pac-10 features mediocre squads struggling to rise above. It’s a curious conference where, it appears, nearly everyone has a shot, because no one has distinguished themselves.
Enter Stanford (8-7, 2-1 Pac-10), perhaps the hardest team to get a read on. Since the season began, the Cardinal has had its fair share of close losses that could easily have gone the other way. A last second running jumper led to a two-point loss to Oral Roberts. Stanford came within a made free throw of knocking off Kentucky, currently the No. 2 team in the country. The Cardinal then went on to lose by a single point to Oklahoma State and went to the wire with Northwestern. It wasn’t until Stanford squeezed out a win over USC that a close game went its way. But flip those losses and the country would be buzzing about one of the nation’s most surprising teams.
Of course, that cannot happen and there are reasons why Stanford lost those games. First, the Cardinal has struggled with its free throw shooting all year, a problem that has directly contributed to many of its losses. Second, Stanford is a young team still trying to find its way — at the beginning of the season, only senior Landry Fields was a truly known quantity.
Even now, the lineup includes Fields, a former walk-on, a transfer from Santa Clara by way of Foothill and two first-year starters who are both filling the shoes of long-time Stanford players. The reserves are career backups and current and former walk-ons.
So why is Stanford, a team widely predicted to finish last in the Pac-10, currently tied for the conference lead and sitting with a winning record?
First, Fields has fulfilled the potential inherent in him since he first stepped onto the Farm and in his final season, has become the quintessential veteran leader. He is second in the conference in scoring, rebounds and steals, but he’s also eleventh in assists.
Second, sophomore Jeremy Green has become one of the best sharpshooters in the nation. He single handedly helped the Cardinal stay close against Northwestern — he’s taken over 100 three-point shots, but drains 43.4 percent of them. As a shooting guard, that rate would be good as an overall shooting percentage; to be that efficient from long distance alone is eye opening.
And no one will fault the Cardinal’s effort — they’ve taken all the doubts and transformed them into a positive. It’s a high-energy squad that makes up for gaps in talent with its relentlessness. Sophomores Jack Trotter and Andrew Zimmermann, for example, hounded UCLA’s Reeves Nelson throughout last weekend’s contest and held the acclaimed freshman to just eight points.
The issue for the Cardinal is that outside of Fields and Green, it’s never clear who will pick up the scoring slack. Trotter and Zimmermann have shown the ability to score in the low teens, but neither one does with much consistency and both have occasional issues with rebounding. Drew Shiller is draining over 47 percent of his takes from behind the arc, but he can also disappear for games at time. Point guard Jarrett Mann leads the conference in assists per game and backup Da’Veed Dildy is a lockdown defender and good ball handler, but neither has developed a good shot.
It adds up to this: there are few constants with the Cardinal, but someone will generally step up and fill a void and not every contribution is necessarily through scoring. Coach Johnny Dawkins — who completely undressed John Calipari, one of the country’s preeminent coaches, in Cancun — has had success optimizing his talent and compensating for off-days.
And yet with all the uncertainties, it remains hard to project how Stanford will do on a given night. But if the Cardinal can beat a good Washington State team and underperforming but talented Washington squad, both on the road, its frame should further come into focus.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attended yesterday the opening of Cobalt Technologies’ biobutanol plant in the state, an opening which in the governor’s opinion will help Cali meet greenhouse gas reduction targets under AB 32 and our Low Carbon Fuel Standard. And this is only the beginning…
"Cobalt shows us that what is good for the environment can also be good for the economy. In fact, within the next few years, Cobalt has plans to build an even larger plant tha… (read more)
Senior author Dr. Tamara Horwich, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study involved 401 patients with an average age of 56, with type 2 diabetes and advanced systolic heart failure.
The study participants were tracked for 14 years in a comprehensive heart failure management program.
The study, published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure, suggests in patients with both advanced heart failure and diabetes, use of metformin is safe, and may be associated with better heart failure survival.
"The diabetes drug metformin previously carried a ‘black box warning’ from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration against its use in treating diabetes in heart failure patients," Horwich said in a statement.
"In fact, many medications commonly used to lower serum glucose levels have theoretic or demonstrated adverse effects on heart failure. As a result, many physicians have been reluctant to use metformin and other similar medications to treat this patient group."
However, the analysis shows using metformin to treat diabetes in patients with advanced, systolic heart failure is not only safe, but may also play a role in improving outcomes compared to conventional diabetes care, Horwich said.
Hordes of USC football fans are lamenting the departure of head coach Pete Carroll to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. They are left behind with the threat of impending NCAA sanctions and the bitter taste of the Trojans’ worst season since Carroll arrived in 2001.
What makes it sting is that USC fans actually believed that “Big Balls” Pete might be the modern college football enigma — a coach who is perfectly content to ignore NFL opportunities and stay loyal to a university. When Carroll was asked whether he would consider retiring at USC, he responded: “I am prepared to do that. That’s the way I look at it, like this is the last job I’m ever going to have. I approach it that way.”
Pac-10 teams up and down the west coast are celebrating the apparent end of the Southern California dynasty. Adding insult to injury, SI.com reported on Monday that USC is currently engaged in a lawsuit stemming from a former assistant coach’s allegations that team doctors were irresponsible with painkiller prescriptions. The plaintiff’s civil suit claim is supposedly in the seven-figure range.
While the thought of obnoxious, bandwagon USC fans crying on each other’s shoulders may not garner any of your sympathy, there is a lesson to be learned from Carroll’s exodus.
The message rings loud and clear — college football coaches do not care about their players, schools and fans as much as they would like you to think. The same ambition that makes them great recruiters and motivators leads their eyes to the big stage of the NFL.
The recent decade has proven that an NFL coaching gig is still the ultimate goal for successful college coaches. Carroll follows in the footsteps of Butch Davis, Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino — a group of coaches who had Super Bowl dreams, but never even won a playoff game in the pros.
It seems that except for a select few, most notably Bob Stoops of Oklahoma, the luster of building a lasting and successful college football program has faded. No one wants to be Joe Paterno or Bobby Bowden anymore.
The unfortunate reality for Stanford football fans is that every win brings an NFL team closer and closer to offering Jim Harbaugh a deal he cannot refuse. Harbaugh has orchestrated a miracle turnaround at Stanford. With success comes national attention and rumors that Harbaugh will join his older brother John as an NFL coach.
Don’t be fooled by Harbaugh’s recent contract extension and declaration of loyalty:
“My resolve and future proudly remains as head coach at Stanford University . . I’m a Stanford man.”
These comments should be taken about as seriously as a headline in the Stanford Flipside. First of all, Harbaugh is most definitely a Michigan man. He played quarterback for the Wolverines and idolizes legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler. And if you think he wouldn’t ditch the Farm for an NFL head-coaching job, look up at the ceiling — it says “gullible.”
There’s no reason to be mad about Harbaugh’s misleading statements — in fact, they’re in our best interest. It’s crucial that recruits believe that Harbaugh will be around for their entire college careers.
Stanford fans have a choice to make. We can be like Ed Helms’ character, Stu Price, in “The Hangover.” We can spend every moment of our waking lives fearing that we’re going to get dumped. If you’ve seen the movie, you know that this approach doesn’t work out.
Or we can accept the inevitable — Jim Harbaugh’s time as the head coach of Stanford football is coming to an end in the near future — and enjoy the time we have left.
Make sure to appreciate Harbaugh’s red-faced rants at officials and questionable 4th down decisions. He’ll be leaving the Farm before you know it.
Jack Duane just got himself into a duel with Wyndam Makowsky over Harbaugh’s honor. Wish him well at jduane “at” stanford.edu.
You good old PC does not offer Bluetooth? really a well no worries this Tiny USB Dongle will help you out and for less the $3 it will not break the bank either.
We all know Bluetooth USB adapters and often they big ugly and useless, but not this one. It is small and useful. It is compliant with Bluetooth V2.0 and V1.2 and about 3 times faster then the old Bluetooth V1.2 adapters.
Go check out this Tiny Bluetooth USB Adapter Dongle
On Monday, my colleague Dan Bohm wrote a column criticizing the recent firings of three prominent college football coaches as just another example of how modern sports are “too soft.” While I agree with Bohm’s argument and have no problem with a coach showing a player a little tough love (this column has previously called out Stanford intramural sports for contributing to the softening of its students), we need to ask ourselves if these coaches are the men we want raising the next generation of adults.
I obviously do not condone locking players in storage closets, making players crawl on sun-scorched Astroturf until their hands are burnt or physically assaulting players, but I believe there are worse things for players to be subjected to.
Like their coach deserting them for more money.
The hottest trend in college football since the spread offense has been coaches skipping out on the final years of their contract to take a job at a more prestigious program. What message does that send to their players?
This one: When an opportunity presents itself to add a few more zeroes to your bank account, by all means go ahead and stab in the back an institution that gave you a chance.
The most glaring example is the case of Brian Kelly at the University of Cincinnati. In his fourth season at Cincinnati, Kelly had his preseason unranked Bearcats sitting at a perfect 12-0 and a date against the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. On the cusp of the most important football game in the history of the school, Kelly decided to leave. Just packed his bags and hightailed it to his new higher paying coaching gig at Notre Dame.
Predictably, Cincinnati was systematically dismantled by Florida, 51-24.
When a coach goes on a recruiting trip, he tries to sell the player on the program. “Hey five-star recruit, I want you to be part of the (insert school name) family. Here at (school name), we don’t look at you as just a player, we treat you like a brother and a son.”
Sounds good. Until Pete Caroll bounces to the NFL before the NCAA doles out sanctions for alleged violations by Reggie Bush and Joe McKnight.
Sounds good. Until Rich Rodriguez signs a contract with Michigan, refuses to coach West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl and then refuses to pay his buyout clause to WVU.
Sounds good. Until Bobby Petrino, only six months after signing a 10-year contract with Louisville, leaves the Cardinals to coach the Atlanta Falcons.
These are the coaches who are supposed to be shaping young men into strong adults?
Even if these coaches were not role models and father figures for the players, there is still an ethical reason for honoring their contracts. When a university signs a coach to a multiyear contract, it is taking a gamble. No matter how bad a coach turns out to be, the university still must pay the contract (or pay a ridiculously high buyout).
Either way, the coach is guaranteed a set amount of money regardless of performance. In turn, the coach tells the university, no matter how good he turns out to be, he will continue to work for the university at the agreed upon rate, for the agreed upon time.
Apparently these coaches play by a different set of rules. And by that, I mean no rules.
Is it really any wonder there are players like Brandon Marshall and JaMarcus Russell — me-first, money-hungry, locker room detractors — in the NFL? Where do you think they learned their selfish behavior? From their me-first, money-hungry college football coaches.
With all due respect, a bruise from a coach’s punch will fade away. The lessons players learn from their coaches do not.
Mike Lazarus is honoring his contract with the Daily’s Ink Bowl team despite interest from the NFL. Congratulate him at mlazarus “at stanford.edu.
The first work created for Volkswagen by its new creative agency, Deutsch LA, premiered yesterday during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV. According to Volkswagen, the 30-second spot reportedly debuted a new approach to the Das Auto tagline and positioning, and is also the first step in a much larger campaign destined to increase model awareness.
"With its size and reach, the Super Bowl is the ideal stage for Volkswagen to debut the new campaign to nearly 100 million vie… (read more)
After being turned down by Mike Riley, Jack Del Rio and (maybe) Jeff Fisher, and with their head coach search beginning to look fairly comical, Troy brought back a former golden boy: Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin, USC’s old offensive coordinator. That in turn prompted laughs from many. Kiffin’s well-publicized spats with Al Davis and the entire SEC, along with a dubious record as a head coach in both the NFL and college, have prompted a none-too-flattering image. Which is all good, except it means nothing. Kiffin’s hiring is a tactical move.
Why? He’s bringing some serious backup. His father, Monte, his defensive coordinator at Tennessee, is assuming the same responsibilities at USC. Monte Kiffin is one of the preeminent defensive minds in the history of football. He literally created an entire scheme (the Tampa 2) and is compensated accordingly — he was the highest paid assistant at the college level last year. But that’s not all. Ed Orgeron, Kiffin’s associate head coach, will also be coming back to USC, where he previously served as the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. All three have head coaching experience at the collegiate level. And then there’s Norm Chow, one of the top offensive coaches in the country and a quarterback guru, who may leave UCLA to go back to USC — ESPN reported as much, but the Bruins have said that nothing is certain yet — where he will regain his old position of offensive coordinator.
Chow and Monte Kiffin are longtime members of football’s elite. So why is Orgeron such a pain? Because back in the Trojan glory days of the early and mid-2000s, Kiffin and Orgeron formed one of the most potent recruiting duos in all of college football — they put together the No. 1 rated class in 2003 and 2004. In their only season at Tennessee and after getting a late jump on recruiting, they scored the No. 8 class. What does this mean? In the short term, that USC is likely to hold onto the recruits that they were in danger of losing after Pete Carroll left — Kyle Prater, the No. 2 wide receiver in the country, was planning on enrolling early, but opened up his commitment after Carroll’s departure. Now? He’s back on board and will soon be starting classes at USC. In the long term, it indicates that Troy’s ability to attract five-star talent won’t be going anywhere. In fact, recruiting may actually improve from its recent, still-excellent level. And that No. 7 ranked class Kiffin was putting together at Tennessee this year? Expect it to be gutted by the Trojans.
The gamble is on Kiffin’s abilities as a coach, as he has not yet proven to be a great head man. But he was wildly successful as a coordinator and certainly has the potential to lead. Let’s also acknowledge that Oakland is where NFL futures go to die and Tennessee had a couple of stars but otherwise generally mediocre talent when Kiffin took over and he still got them to a bowl game and a winning record, despite playing in the ever-difficult SEC. That run included a near-victory over eventual champion Alabama in one of the Crimson Tide’s two toughest games of the season. Now, he is at home at USC with a plethora of talent to work with at a school that will do nearly anything to win. And it wasn’t too long ago that the Trojans brought in an NFL retread with a murky record to coach the program, who also happened to be their fourth choice.
The most curious aspect of the move is that ostensibly, USC would want a clean leader in light of the Athletics Department’s continued investigation at the hands of the NCAA. Kiffin, who has had his own battle with ethics complaints, does not fit that mold. All bets are off if USC is sanctioned. But if they aren’t and the program proceeds as usual, it should be fine — even if it takes Kiffin a while to pan out and mature. Or if he doesn’t at all, he has still assembled a staff that will keep USC afloat and prospering both on and off the field.
How does this hurt Stanford? On game day, they’re competing with Monte Kiffin, whose defenses could be flat-out scary with USC’s athletes. Chow, if he does go back to Troy, will have a nice little pet project in the uber-talented but underachieving Matt Barkley. Simply put, having Kiffin and Chow together as coordinators is just about as close to a dream team as possible.
In terms of recruiting, the Cardinal may not be hit as hard as other Pac-10 schools. Their talent pool is different, if only because of academic restrictions — Stanford can’t go after a lot of the players that USC can, although there are the occasional crossovers, like Tyler Gaffney in 2009 and Jordan Zumwalt in 2010. The issue is mainly with USC’s continued ability to be the best recruiters in the conference.
This all said, Stanford doesn’t inherently have anything to fear. Since Jim Harbaugh took over, they’re 2-1 against Pete Carroll coached Troy and no one would put Kiffin even close to his predecessor’s level, no matter his assistants. But for those who were hoping that USC’s coaching turmoil would prompt seasons of mediocrity from the program, let’s make it clear: that is not going to happen.
Wyndam Makowsky is just keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. Ask him what he really feels about USC at makowsky “at” stanford.edu.
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Ferrero, the Italian maker of Kinder chocolate eggs and Nutella spreads, looks set to rule itself out of the bid battle for Cadbury, strengthening Kraft’s chances of sealing a £10.5 billion-plus takeover.
Ferrero declared in mid-November that it was interested in a possible bid and was believed to be talking with Hershey, the American chocolate maker, about a joint offer.
But the privately owned Italian group has reportedly dropped talks with Hershey and has decided not to bid.
A source close to the situation told Reuters that Ferrero would not be proceeding with a bid. A second source close to Ferrero told the news agency that the company had also broken off talks with Hershey.
On their own neither it nor Hershey have the financial resources to buy the whole company and neither have publicly listed shares to offer as a currency.
Michele Ferrero, the head of the Ferrero family, is said to be have been lukewarm about bidding for Cadbury all along, because he wanted to keep the business independent rather than involve other investors.
It was his sons, Pietro and Giovanni, managing directors of the family business, who were thought to be more eager to do a Cadbury deal.
Ferrero could not be reached for comment this morning.
Last week, the Swiss food group Nestle ruled itself out of bidding for Cadbury, at the same time as it bought Kraft’s frozen pizza business for $3.5 billion.
Yesterday, Cadbury executives poured scorn on Kraft’s £10.5 billlion cash and shares offer, calling it derisory and pointing out that Kraft’s management team, led by the chairman and chief executive Irene Rosenfeld, had consistently over-promised and under-delivered.
In response, Kraft today raised its earnings guidance for 2009 from $1.97 to least $2 a share.
The American company said that its increased guidance “reflects strong operating gains as well as a significant increase in marketing investments versus the prior year”.
Ms Rosenfeld said: “As we complete our turnaround we’re delivering high-quality earnings growth, despite the difficult earnings environment … We’re well positioned to deliver sustainable top-tier performance, with or without Cadbury.”
Kraft has until next Tuesday, January 19, to raise its offer, now worth about 760p per Cadbury share.
Cadbury investors are seeking about 850p and Kraft may inject more cash into its offer to appease its own investors, such as Warren Buffett, who had objected to it issuing too many new shares.
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