Bloomberg caught up with economist Joe Stiglitz who says the low rate environment suggests markets overvalued, that companies are making profits only off the back of laid-off workers, and that Wall Street is hyping up the economy purely to sell stock.
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CES, the annual consumer electronics event, officially kicked off today in Las Vegas, with crowds up from last year’s recession-shocked show but still below the go-go years of 2007 and 2008. And while tablets, 3DTV and new Android devices captured most of the headlines heading into the event, they weren’t the only action to be found.
Here are a few early surprises and observations from CES 2010:
Image courtesy CNET
Toshiba Cell TV: Based on the multicore Cell processor developed by Toshiba, IBM and Sony and used in PlayStation 3, the new high-end line of HDTVs from Toshiba has a number of other neat tricks up its sleeve as well. Among them: Upconverting native SD TV content to 1080p HD. While upconversion is old hat in Blu-ray and DVD players, Cell TV is the first commercially available HDTV to upconvert non-packaged media on the fly. That squealing you hear is coming from cable and satellite operators whose high-def digital tiers just got new competition. Added bonus: Cell TV also upconverts crummy Internet-delivered video.
Image courtesy OhGizmo!
Qualcomm Mirasol display: We’ve seen static mockups before but the unit on display here is a working prototype and it looks great. Unlike E-Ink’s black-and-white e-paper displays, the Mirasol reflective screen can display rich colors. It’s high refresh rate also allows it to support video, all while consuming very little power. Qualcomm says an e-reader with a Mirasol display will be commercially available in the U.S. before the end of the year but wouldn’t identify its partner. Whoever it is will have an opportunity to make a splash with digital newspaper and magazine publishers, who crave graphic capability not available on the Kindle or Nook. Advertisers will love the color and the ability to do click-through ads. A potential game-changer.
Image courtesy mydigitallife.info
Netflix is now a utility: Netflix has been embedding its streaming app on CE devices for a year or more. But it’s clear from the devices on display here that the app has become de rigueur on anything with an Ethernet port. Virtually every connected TV, Blu-ray player and broadband-enabled set-top box here has it.
Image courtesy coated.com
Cisco vs. Skype: LG and Panasonic showed an embedded Skype app on WiFi-connected HDTVs, bringing video calling into the living room. But something of a VoIP TV format war may be brewing between Skype and Cisco, which demoed its TelePresence videoconferencing platform for the home. All of a sudden there are two ways of doing video calling from your couch, and HDTV makers will have to decide which to embed.
Streaming video: 3D is supposed to be the big video story here but some of the most interesting announcements have been about streaming plain old 2D video to HDTVs and other connected devices. Announcements by Vudu, DivX and Rovi suggest an explosion coming in embedded streaming applications and streaming video channels coming to connected devices. Forget widgets — full UIs and streaming video program guides are becoming the new standard.
Editor’s Update: Also at CES, AT&T announced that it will be launching five Android handsets in the first half of 2010, as well as two handsets based on Palm’s WebOS.
At jkOnTheRun, you can also read about new wireless charging developments at CES, The new Palm Pre Plus and Pixi phones–exclusive to Verizon, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer’s keynote address, Samsung’s ebook device, HTC’s new phones, and HP’s new netbooks and notebooks.
El corazón del Abarth Grande Punto con kit Esseesse lo eleva hasta los 180 CV de potencia. Es el de mayor potencia de la marca de los que actualmente se pueden encontrar en un concesionario. Podemos diferenciar tres versiones diferentes de Abarth Grande Punto.
La primera de ellas es la que viene de serie, con un motor de 155 CV de potencia y las personalizaciones propias de la marca, que lo diferencian del Fiat de serie. La segunda de ellas, el kit assetto que incluye modificaciones estéticas que incluye llantas de 18 pulgadas y técnicas: discos perforados en las cuatro ruedas, pastillas de freno delanteras de altas prestaciones y suspensión rebajada en ambos ejes. Por último, el kit esseesse incluye las modificaciones del anterior más modificaciones en software de centralita, filtro de aire BMC, turbocompresor, inyectores específicos, logotipos para portón y un conjunto de embrague específico.
Diseño exterior
Sus 4,04 metros de longitud desprenden olor a competición se mire por donde se mire. Todo comienza ensanchando los pasos de vía 6 milímetros. Observando la parrilla frontal ya nos podemos hacer una idea del tipo de coche que tenemos delante. El paragolpes delantero dispone de hasta 4 tomas de aire para refrigerar el potente turbo que se halla en el interior. Los faros antiniebla resaltan sobre un fondo oscuro (ver detalle), dando un aspecto más agresivo.
En los laterales podemos observar las pegatinas que recorren las puertas ofreciendo un aspecto más deportivo. Los cristales de las ventanillas y portón trasero están oscurecidas, lo que impide penetrar al sol en días calurosos. Sin embargo, y aunque la visibilidad es aceptable por el día, sólo echaremos de menos un poco de luz por la noche, cuando apenas diferenciaremos los objetos a través de éstos. Aunque le quiten deportividad, prescindiría de este tipo de cristales.
Los faldones laterales, en plástico negro, contrastan con el blanco de competición y sirven además para evitar las posibles rozaduras con bordillos y aceras. Un acierto sin lugar a dudas. Las llantas blancas de 18 pulgadas de diseño exclusivo dejan entrever los discos de freno perforados y las pinzas rojas. El tapón de gasolina queda mal sujeto cuando se está repostando. El anterior sistema de Fiat permitía colgarlo de un enganche sin dejarlo colgando (ver detalle).
Por detrás lo que más llama la atención son los tubos de escape cromados con salidas especialmente diseñadas para este kit y los pilotos con fondo oscurecido; la marca no quiere dejar ningún detalle al aire y nos deleita con un alerón, spoiler y un difusor en la parte inferior del mismo estilo que los faldones. Sin duda este coche no va a pasar desapercibido por las calles y carreteras donde pase.
Diseño interior y habitabilidad
Para los que nos montamos en un coche de la marca a diario, encontramos infinitos detalles que nos son familiares. Otros, por el contrario, se ven renovados o incluso añadidos para esta versión tan especial. En este caso los nuevos detalles son más predominantes que los de serie y apenas podemos sentirnos familiares con el salpicadero, asientos o incluso tacto de la dirección y de los pedales. Todo cambia para conseguir un coche de competición homologado para la carretera.
Al abrir la puerta nos encontramos con un embellecedor en la puerta donde se puede leer la marca. Las alfombrillas llevan personalizado el logo del modelo y todas las empuñaduras están acabadas en cuero con las costuras en rojo. La tela de los asientos y de los reposabrazos de las puertas delanteras y del espacio trasero son de ante, con un tacto suave y agradable.
Por lo general, los asientos de competición son duros, incómodos y en ocasiones estrechos, todo para conseguir que el cuerpo esté correctamente sujeto. En este caso las características no tienen nada que ver. Además de ser cómodos, son de un anchura apta para la mayoría de cuerpos, tanto anchos como estrechos; cumplirán su objetivo de envolventes. La personalización del logo del escorpión se observa en el centro del asiento. La única pieza que forma el cuerpo y el resposacabezas (ver detalle) no hace más que ponerlo a la altura del diseño de competición que inunda el habitáculo.
En el salpicadero se aprecia un efecto carbono (diferente al Fiat Grande Punto) desde el lado conductor hasta el pasajero, incluyendo la consola central y el cuadro de instrumentos. En el lado derecho se alterna este efecto con un blanco brillo, que no hace más que resaltar el contraste. Y si los coches del grupo son capaces de saludar y despedir al conductor mediante el logo (ver detalle), en este caso no va a ser menos, y un logo de Abarth aparece y desaparece de la pantalla del cuadro de instrumentos.
El tacto del volante, con un acabado en cuero y costuras rojas, no hacen más que incitar a mover la llave de contacto y engranar primera velocidad. La adrenalina está preparada para salir por los escapes con todo el control posible. Los mandos para la radio y otros dispositivos quedan en segundo plano. Sólo quiero arrancar y notar el tacto de las ruedas con el suelo, poder girar el volante y sentir que todo responde, que el coche va por su sitio por más que lo intento poner al límite. Hasta el tacto del freno de mano con empuñadura de cuero es agradable.
Falta un reposabrazos central delantero para poder descansar el brazo cuando se conduce en modo normal y para utilizarlo como guantera pequeña y albergar alguna salida de aire a plazas posteriores.
El espacio trasero es algo justo como el de cualquier coche de este segmento y aunque 3 personas de estatura media caben con cierta facilidad, no recomiendo un viaje de más de 50-60 kilómetros porque pueden acabar hechos un cuatro. Dos personas es lo óptimo incluso una si es de estatura más alta a la media.
Dispone de un maletero de 275 litros con un portón amplio y de fácil acceso, sin muchos espacios muertos, lo que permite introducir bolsas y maletas sin complicaciones. No es un maletero grande ni pequeño, es óptimo para un coche compacto. En la parte derecha dispone de un altavoz (ver detalle).
A pesar de ser un coche exclusivo y orientado a la competición, para ser homologado para la carretera dispone de un equipamiento de serie de lo más completo, tanto para agradar al conductor y pasajeros como de seguridad en caso de colisión. Pero eso será en la siguiente y última parte de la prueba. Os esperamos.
Fotos | Javi Vicente y Jorge Rubio
The TV Channel slowly revealed a few write ups from an American website stating that Ambanis hand is allegedly involved in this assassination rising to Godavari Gas Basin issue. It also revealed that thousands of crores have changed hands to suppress the news of YSR’s assassination.
TV5 stated that a magazine by name ‘Exile’ has come up with detailed story on YSR’s assassination and alleged hand of Ambanis in it. And within a few minutes after showing this news in channel, the American website has downed the link, as stated by TV5
A school teacher said, “It’s pity but sounding like detective novel. Had the involvement of Ambanis is proven, Reliance hardly sees its place in Andhra Pradesh”.
“It’s a master plan of ‘big hand’ to divert people’s attention with Telangana issue. I feel that. Praful Patel said that he will bring out report on YSR’s death in the last week of November. The culprits must have got alerted and diverted the issue encouraging Telangana turmoil in Nov-Dec 2009 by manipulating CBI. They thought public memory is short. But media is there to awaken every minute”, says Ranganath, a cab driver.
The state is now burning hot with these new found suspicions and Reliance offices are getting closed down much before stipulated time from Thursday. We have to see if they will be opened tomorrow.
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Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, talks with The Globe and Mail about her work so far, the toll it takes on her conscience and the makeup of Canada’s highest bench After presiding over thousands of cases in a 29-year career on the bench, Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin has witnessed enough conflict and human suffering to leave the average judge inured. However, in a rare interview marking her tenth anniversary as the country’s top judge, Chief Justice McLachlin confessed that she still lies awake at night worrying about the impact of her judgments on those caught up in the machinery of justice. They are all really, really important issues at this level, the 66-year-old judge said. One does ponder them, and go back and forth agonizing about them. I must say, it is a preoccupying thing. A tough and efficient administrator known for choosing her words carefully, Chief Justice McLachlin said most of the significant Charter of Rights battles have already been fought, many before she became chief justice, leaving the court to deal mainly with subtle interpretations. In [the Charter’s] early years, the court did a huge amount of very good work laying down the basis, she said. We are just building on that. To my surprise, there are new Charter issues that come once in a while but not to the same extent. Chief Justice McLachlin also expressed surprise that the court has developed a reputation for defending press freedoms and free expression the sort of pattern that tends to emerge only after a serendipitous line of cases work their way to the top court. I’m often surprised when I look back and say, Oh, that’s interesting,’ she said. It wasn’t that we planned it that way, but people brought the cases forward, they were good cases, and the law developed as it did. In several of these cases, the court made a point of extending its rulings to bloggers and other new media, giving them a shield as well as new-found legitimacy. I have always wanted to be known as a good jurist, as a serious jurist We have to be realistic, the pre-eminent jurist said. When we are making these principles, they have to go forward as part of our law. They have to fit in the real world and that real world is one where we have emerging and different types of communication of fact. The cases that she said trouble her the most tend to involve human rights such as a 1993 case where the court ruled 5-4 against a B.C. woman, Sue Rodriguez, who wanted to be euthanized before a debilitating disease could rob her of all movement. It is the sort of decision that motivates her to bounce ideas off colleagues or take long, pensive walks. Sometimes, that is when all the things that have been percolating somehow come together, she said. You examine your conscience very carefully. Still, what she feared most about taking on her new role as chief justice in 1999 was that it might force her to reduce her caseload. She refused to sacrifice judging to the demands of administration. I have always wanted to be known as a good jurist, as a serious jurist, she said. I still sit on as many cases as anyone else. I think it’s important from a leadership perspective, and because I’m selfish. In just three more years, Chief Justice McLachlin will have served longer than all 15 previous chief justices in the 135-year history of the Supreme Court. And, with nine years left before her mandatory retirement date, she could set a record that will be extremely difficult to equal. Whatever happens, happens, she said. It has been a great privilege, one I could never have imagined in my wildest imaginings when I started out in law. Equally unimaginable, four of the nine seats on the court are occupied by women a development that has given the Supreme Court a unique status on the world stage. I think that’s a wonderful situation for the court to be in, she said. It gives encouragement to people who might otherwise feel they ought not to try for whatever it is they want to try for. In her early years, Chief Justice McLachlin often found herself wondering whether colleagues were parsing her statements with the subconscious thought, Is that her hormones or her woman-ness talking? That is no longer the case, she said. We just don’t think in terms of gender on this court. I don’t think it is for the men on the court, either. The toughest job a chief justice faces is shepherding nine fiercely independent minds toward unanimity. Many court-watchers believe that, in an effort to reduce the number of dissenting or concurring reasons, Chief Justice McLachlin applies pressure to her colleagues. I would never and have never gone to a judge and even suggested that they should not write a concurring opinion, she insisted. I wouldn’t do it. It’s not right. Instead, she tries to keep different factions talking to one another for months, if necessary. This may involve calling them back for a second or third conference to thrash out a case. I try to make sure there is an environment where everybody can be heard, where people want to talk to each other and listen to each other, she said. It’s amazing; gradually we narrow the issues. |
Noah is at the CES Palm press event right now: 2PM EST. Follow his twitter updates below! UPDATE: Live coverage ended at 3PM EST. You can still follow Noah’s live twitter updates from this post for his up to the minute thoughts from CES Las Vegas 2010.
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Article Tags: Andrew Neil, BBC, Headline Story, Met Office, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10
Oh this is good, really good. We did a story two days ago, UK Met Office’s enormously wrong weather predictions earn department big pay increases, and it turns out now even the BBC is questioning The Met Office’s weather forecasting record, and record salaries. And questioning surprisingly hard.
In this clip, Andrew Neal grills Met Office chief John Hirst.
The best line (4:08) of the video and perhaps of the year: “Since you can’t the summer or the winter right in your forecasts, why should we give any credence to your forecast to what the temperature will be in the 2050 or 2020, which is what you do.”
This is the BBC? Sound more like Fox News, and we love it!
Source: climategate.com
The latest build of Windows Mobile uploaded by Da_G bears a new name. The builds of WM6.5.5 have (as far as I’ve noticed) started from 235XX, and the latest is 23518. WM6.5.3 was the WMD branch, and is builds 28001 and above.
This latest release brings a few changes, notably the inclusion of Office Mobile 2010 (more detail on that here) and threaded email.
As far as I can tell, the “WM6.5.5” part is pretty much meaningless, but it’s nice to see the improvements in WM getting gradually developed.
It’s available for a variety of devices on XDA-Developers, including a Diamond ROM by me available here.
The TV Channel slowly revealed a few write ups from an American website stating that Ambanis hand is allegedly involved in this assassination rising to Godavari Gas Basin issue. It also revealed that thousands of crores have changed hands to suppress the news of YSR’s assassination.
TV5 stated that a magazine by name ‘Exile’ has come up with detailed story on YSR’s assassination and alleged hand of Ambanis in it. And within a few minutes after showing this news in channel, the American website has downed the link, as stated by TV5
A school teacher said, “It’s pity but sounding like detective novel. Had the involvement of Ambanis is proven, Reliance hardly sees its place in Andhra Pradesh”.
“It’s a master plan of ‘big hand’ to divert people’s attention with Telangana issue. I feel that. Praful Patel said that he will bring out report on YSR’s death in the last week of November. The culprits must have got alerted and diverted the issue encouraging Telangana turmoil in Nov-Dec 2009 by manipulating CBI. They thought public memory is short. But media is there to awaken every minute”, says Ranganath, a cab driver.
The state is now burning hot with these new found suspicions and Reliance offices are getting closed down much before stipulated time from Thursday. We have to see if they will be opened tomorrow.
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According to a report today, a GM Executive is saying that the upcoming plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt’s price tag might not be as high as originally expected. Back when it was first announced, GM said that it would run a cool $40,000. I said that, although the vehicle’s 230 mile-per-gallon engine will give anyone without one green envy, that high cost prices out most Americans. But if the price does come down, that could capture a great deal more consumer demand — obviously great news for GM. But how low would the price have to come down to begin to make economic sense to American consumers?
Back when I first wrote about the Volt, I did a comparison between the Chevy Volt and the Toyota Corolla. I calculated how many miles you’d have to drive to take advantage of the Volt’s better gas mileage in order to justify its high price. I said that you’d have to drive 229,000 miles to break even. That led me to conclude that virtually no one will be driving a Volt for economic reasons.
But what about those who are willing to spend a little more on green technology — maybe we should compare it to the Toyota Prius. Let’s look at three price scenarios for the Volt and determine how many miles you’d have to drive during the life of your auto loan in order to save money by purchasing the Volt instead of a Prius.
First a few assumptions. I’m assuming a 60-month auto loan, where the borrower puts down 10% in either scenario and pays an interest rate of 7%. According to the Toyota website, the Prius starts at $22,400, which results in a cost of just under $400 per month under the assumptions explained. I’m using the current average price for gas of $2.665. I’m also ignoring plug-in charging costs for the Volt.
Volt Cost Scenario 1: $40,000 (base case)
Here, the Volt owner would have to pay $713 per month on the auto loan. So that makes the Volt’s payment around $314 more than the Prius’. It needs to make up that money in gas savings.
Under this scenario, the Volt owner would need to drive more than 7,750 miles per month (93,000 per year), before it becomes cost effective.
Volt Cost Scenario 2: $30,000
Here, the Volt owner would have to pay $535 per month on the auto loan. So that makes the Volt’s payment around $135 more than the Prius’. It needs to make up that money in gas savings.
Under this scenario, the Volt owner would need to drive more than 3,350 miles per month (40,200 per year), before it becomes cost effective.
Volt Cost Scenario 3: $25,000
Here, the Volt owner would have to pay $446 per month on the auto loan. So that makes the Volt’s payment around $46 more than the Prius’. It needs to make up that money in gas savings.
Under this scenario, the Volt owner would need to drive more than 1,150 miles per month (13,800 per year), before it becomes cost effective.
I think this shows that the Volt’s price will have to come way down in order for most drivers to consider it a good deal based on the better gas mileage for the life of the loan. Obviously, if the owner keeps the car well beyond the life of the loan, then the equation improves. It also improves if gas prices skyrocket. But for the Volt to look like a good deal during the life of the loan with gas prices stable, the average driver won’t want its price to much exceed $25,000. That would be a 37.5% price drop from the originally reported price. I’d be pretty surprised if the final price turned out to be that much lower. So I suspect that, even if today’s report is right and the price drops, the average consumer still won’t find the car that great of a deal from a financial standpoint since the price isn’t likely to decline that drastically.
Of course, I don’t mean to say that the any price decline won’t be welcome from consumers. Surely more people will buy a $35,000 Volt than a $40,000 Volt. But most of those buyers will still be wealthier Americans who care more about the green impact than the dent it makes in their wallets.
Unyielding job losses and a renewed government push to expand home buying dealt owners of rental apartments a savage blow in 2009.
Data complied by the real estate research company Reis Inc shows that the U.S. apartment vacancy rate hit 8 percent in the fourth quarter, an almost 30 year high. The drop in rents was the largest on record.
In the fourth quarter, the U.S. apartment vacancy rate rose 0.10 percentage points from the prior quarter, and 1.3 percentage points for the year. Tuscon, Arizona experienced the biggest vacancy rise for the year out of the 79 markets Reis tracks. But Jacksonville, Florida, which was already hard hit, ended the year with the highest vacancy rate in the country—14.4 percent.
The report is confined to apartment rental in cities. But to put this in perspective, 30 years ago people were talking about the death of cities. New York City had just recently narrowly avoided bankruptcy, government efforts at school integration were triggering white flight, air pollution was rising, blackouts and sanitation strikes were making the phrase “quality of life” sound like a joke, and crime was hitting terrifying levels. Back in 1979, New York was paralyzed with fear over the serial killings by the Son of Sam.
The dearth of apartment renters in 2009 came even as cities enjoyed historically low crime rates, growing green spaces, relative racial harmony, and well-run services.
Reuters tries to put a positive spin on things by mentioning that the supply on newly built apartments is declining. But even this is tepid.
“If we wanted to be hopeful about the situation, we might see a recovery by the middle of this year,” Reis director of research Victor Calanog tells Reuters. “If we don’t see any movement like that by the middle of the year, then it’s going to be a bad year again.”
The Wall Street Journal plays a similar analysis—the first half of the year is going to be bad—in a more dire way.
“Marcus & Millichap is to release a separate report on Friday that forecasts a further 2% to 3% drop in apartment rents over the next year, most of which will be concentrated over the next six months,” the WSJ’s Nick Timiraos writes.
This is bad news for commercial real estate, which includes apartment buildings, and the regional banks that supplied credit to landlords. And there’s a certain irony in all this. Commercial real estate has been cited by the Fed as one of its chief concerns, but it is government policy supporting home prices and keeping people in their highly mortgaged homes that is acerbating the problem.
As Calculated Risk points out, this could spiral into a larger problem. Rising vacancy rates and falling rents will lead to more losses for banks with heavy CMBS exposure. At the margins, more banks will fail. And as rents keep falling, renting becomes more attractive compared with owning, driving down home prices even further, perhaps forcing the government to increase its housing price support.
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So much for a New Year free of Mayhem! Actress-turned-leggings designer Lindsay Lohan has been accused of copying designs by two separate fashion mavens as she works to release her first complete collection of apparel.
James Lillis, designer of Black Milk Clothing, is crying foul over some shockingsimilarities between Lind’s “Diamond” leggings — which feature a signature triangle cutout at midthigh — and his own “Sheer Spartans,” according to Women’s Wear Daily.
On Wednesday, Fashionista.com outed one of LiLo’s geometric dress as a carbon copy of a Jen Kao dress she wore to a red carpet event just last month. Jen has responded to the copycat controversy with the following statement:
“While we are all well aware that being ‘mimicked’ or ‘copied’ has always existed in this industry, I think the evolution of it all has grown to an alarming level. It’s a shame to support the concept of taking advantage of designers who are still trying to develop a name and solidify the image of their design aesthetic.”
So far, no comment from Lindsay.
It’s too often that we read about a startup with an intriguing idea only to be completely turned off by the bland-looking design of their website. Granted, we don’t all have the Jedi-like abilities it takes to create a snazzy logo or website, so when we need something designed, we outsource it to a graphic designer – and there are tons to choose from.
In most cases, the company in need will look over a selection of designers, review portfolios, and pick one to come up with a design. But why only choose to employ the abilities of one designer when you can crowdsource the project and pick from an unlimited number of submissions from a vast community of designers?
The controversial but still successful crowdSPRING does just that.
Sponsor
Founded in 2008, the Chicago-based company is an online marketplace for creative services that connects small business in need of graphic design with freelance designers. The business creates a project, outlines the details and requirements of the design, sets a deadline and places a cash reward for the potential winner. Then designers submit their entries and once the deadline is reached, the company picks a winning design.
CrowdSPRING has recently been at the center of heated debates in the design community as some denounce the site for promoting “spec work” – a term used to describe work done without any guarantee of compensation. Sites like Spec Watch and NO!SPEC are attempting to raise awareness about spec work, pinpointing sites like crowdSPRING as unethical businesses.
“There is a certain irony in spec work,” writes Elisabetta Bruno on NO!SPEC. “A prospect requesting it is ultimately saying, ‘My project isn’t important enough to hire a professional who will take the time to understand my situation and goals and invest the time needed to create a suitable solution’.”
For providing their platform, crowdSPRING takes a 15% cut on all deals made through the site, but offers a money-back guarantee if a project receives less than 25 entires. If your project passes this number, you better be satisfied with the designs because you’re then “promising to pick a winner,” the site says.
Regardless of these criticisms, crowdSPRING has continued to grow, claiming that over 47,000 designers use the site in over 150 countries, and that more than 6,000 contests have been completed.
The company has even attracted large brands like Italian pasta company Barilla, which has created a contest calling for a unique new pasta shape with three $1,000 payouts.
A milestone for Samsung is their new series of camcorders that include built-in Wi-Fi and DLNA connectivity. The new S‑Series has 3 models and are also the highest‑performing full-HD camcorders in Samsung’s history. They all incorporate Samsung’s unique new Victoria Engine processor and a cutting-edge 1/2.3‑inch BSI (Back Side Illumination) CMOS imaging sensor which combine to yield outstanding image quality and low-light performance.
Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Sedan, Plants/Manufacturing, Cadillac, Canada, Luxury
Early next Tuesday morning, Cadillac will unveil a concept version of its new XTS flagship at the Detroit Auto Show. A report from Canada’s CTV now says that production of the XTS will begin at General Motors‘ Oshawa, Ontario assembly plant in early 2012. Rumors of a Cadillac to be produced at the plant east of Toronto first began circulating last July. The XTS will join the Chevrolet Impala and Camaro as well as the new Buick Regal at the facility. The XTS is expected to be based on the Epsilon II platform but with all-wheel-drive.
The addition of the Cadillac and the Buick could necessitate an extra shift at the factory which would likely result in 750-1,000 of GM’s previously laid-off workers being recalled. Last year, GM closed an adjacent Oshawa factory that had been building full-size pickup trucks.
[Source: CTV]
Report: Cadillac XTS production to start at Oshawa in early 2012 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history, but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits — resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.
Now, in a paper appearing in the Jan. 7 edition of Science Express, researchers describe a method for pinpointing these preferred regions within the human genome that offers greater precision and resolution than ever before, and the possibility of deeply understanding both our genetic past and present.
“It’s clear that positive natural selection has been a critical force in shaping the human genome, but there are remarkably few examples that have been clearly identified,” said senior author Pardis Sabeti, an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and an assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. “The method we’ve developed makes it possible to zero in on individual genes as well as the specific changes within them that are driving important evolutionary changes.”
Positive natural selection is a process in which advantageous traits become more common in a population. That is because these traits boost an individual’s chances of survival and reproduction, so they are readily passed on to future generations. Identifying such traits — and the genes underlying them — is a cornerstone of current efforts to dissect the biological history of the human species as well as the diseases that threaten human health today.
“In the human genome, positive natural selection leaves behind very distinctive signals,” said co-first author Sharon Grossman, a research assistant at Harvard University and the Broad Institute. Yet earlier methods for detecting these signals are limited, highlighting relatively large chunks of the genome that are hundreds of thousands to millions of genetic letters or “bases” in length, and that can contain many genes.
Of the hundreds of these large genomic regions thought to be under positive natural selection in humans, only a handful have so far been winnowed to a precise genetic change.
“Finding the specific genetic changes that are under selection can be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Grossman.
Sabeti, Grossman, and their colleagues wondered if there might be a way to enhance this genomic search. Because existing methods for detecting natural selection individually measure distinct genomic features, the researchers predicted that an approach that combines them could yield even better results.
After some initial simulations to test their new method, the research team applied it to more than 180 regions of the human genome that are thought to be under recent positive selection but where the specific gene or genetic variant under selection is unknown.
The researchers’ method, called “Composite of Multiple Signals,” or CMS, enabled them to dramatically narrow the size of the candidate regions, reducing them from an average of eight genes per region to one. Moreover, the number of candidate genetic changes was reduced from thousands to just a handful, helping the researchers to tease out the needles from the haystack.
“The list of genes and genetic loci we identified includes many intriguing candidates to follow up,” said co-first author Ilya Shlyakhter, a computational biologist at the Broad Institute and Harvard University. “For example, a number of genes identified are involved in metabolism, skin pigmentation, and the immune system.”
In some cases, the researchers were able to identify a specific genetic change that is the likely focal point of natural selection. For example, a variation in a gene called protocadherin 15, which functions in sensory perception, including hearing and vision, appears to be under selection in some East Asian populations. Several other genes involved in sensory perception also appear to be under selection in Asia. In addition, the team uncovered strong evidence of selection in East Asians at a specific point within the leptin receptor gene, which is linked to blood pressure, body mass index, and other important metabolic functions.
The researchers also localized signals to regions outside of genes, suggesting that they function not by altering gene structure per se, but by changing how certain genes are turned on and off.
While the findings in the Science paper offer a deep glimpse of evolution’s handiwork, the researchers emphasize that further studies of individual genetic variations, involving experiments that explore how certain genetic changes influence biological function, are necessary to fully dissect the role of natural selection and its impact on human biology.
“This method allows us to trace evolution’s footprints with a much finer level of granularity than before, but it’s one piece of a much larger puzzle,” said Sabeti. “As more data on human genetic variation becomes available in the coming years, an even more detailed evolutionary picture should emerge.”
As I write this, it’s about -15 C outside where I live in Boulder, and even the snow looks like it’s shivering. So I’m not sure if I’m happy to share the grief or feel badly about the weather for folks in the UK, who generally don’t get (metric, I suppose) tons of snow. But then I saw this image from NASA’s Earth observing Terra satellite:
Holy Haleakala, that’s gorgeous! I won’t say I’m exactly glad they got lots of snow, but still, wow. Sorry, my anglic friends, but your suffering has produced this stunning beauty.
The image was taken on January 7, 2010 at around noon local time. The image above has 1 km pixels, but you can also grab the image in higher-res 500 meter and 250 meter versions, too.
So, I’m back from Spain by way of Indiana and the cold (at least in Indiana) harsh reality of my return is setting in: not much is different. Sure, the songs I hear on the radio or drifting out from open dorm doors aren’t acoustic covers of “Ayo Technology,” an erstwhile number-one-hit in Spain, but I can handle that. I may not be able to handle the reemergence of that Imogen Heap song that refuses to die, now as the hook of a mediocre R&B song–thank you Andy Samberg and Jason Derulo–or Britney’s newest effort to stay shocking with her, “look at me! I want to fuck two guys!” anthem that is “3”. Also Ke$ha. I can’t handle that.
Let me revise my previous assertion: not much is different, but what is different refuses to leave me alone. It’s the minute changes that fight what otherwise might be an all-too-easy fall back into familiarity. Stern Late Night has a new name that’s almost as hip as its new tables and dimly lit atmosphere, which is either there to encourage the ambience of slick night spot or to reduce the obviousness of how drunk/high its patrons are. I live on the other side of campus from my old “home(s)” of Wilbur and Stern and so everything I walk to, I must walk to backward. What is really different? There are 1600 more people on this campus since the last time I was here, none of whom I have ever had the chance to meet. 1600 others, some of whom I knew, are gone. Both those numbers will only grow in the years to come. And that matters. Because with those leaving goes their knowledge of this place–the good and the bad.
Institutional memory is short in a place with a rapid turnover. At businesses short on employee training, say Wal-Mart or Mcdonald’s, that doesn’t matter much. Little continuity means less chance that a sense of belonging will develop, which in turn makes any sort of organized effort to maintain traditions or fix apparent issues much less likely. That’s fine for a place concerned solely with continuing to exist, but Stanford ought to be more than that. We learn things here and in four years, we as students ought to feel like we belong here, like we are a part of something that is bigger than just us, bigger than just our classes. If there are things we want to stay the same, we should conserve them. If there are things that need changing, we should do that too.
If we don’t, someone else will. A place short on institutional memory is a place with an identity vulnerable to assault. Be it by misguided attempts at radical reform or close-minded attempts to push conformity, all it takes are small, gradual steps that add up slowly until the place we know now disappears. How much of what I thought was normal will be gone by the time I graduate? How long would it take to make this place feel unrecognizable enough that finding my old haunts will be like sifting through a reconstructed archeological dig site?
In the coming weeks, in this space, I’ll be looking for things about this place I love, things that I want to stay the same no matter how many years pass after I leave and for things I see now and wish were different. As the weather turns “bad” and pushes us toward introspection, I hope you’ll do the same. While you do, please find something better to listen to than innuendo so obvious it would make Madonna cry foul. And Ke$ha. Don’t listen to her. You’ll already have made Stanford and the world, a better place.
