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This break, we learned that unlike Santa Claus, Tiger Woods doesn’t stop at three hos. None of Woods’ 16 or so alleged mistresses have been confirmed, but let’s just assume for a second that all these mistresses are in fact telling the truth and Tiger had literally dozens of women waiting for him to bring the ruckus.

If so, Woods is more ruthlessly efficient off the golf course than on it–at least until allegations of a romp in a sand trap surface. His diligence in keeping many affairs secret for so long while simultaneously being the most dominant athlete in the world is an achievement worthy of recognition.

Best (Alleged) Mistress: Holly Sampson

Needless to say, there’s a lot of competition here. There’s the prostitute who was engaged to someone else. The one a British tabloid called a “sex-addicted cougar.” The one who has appeared in four films whose titles included the word “MILF.” The Playmate and prostitute. The former Miss Universe. Jessica Simpson. The one who appeared on VH1’s “Tool Academy.” Tiger’s women come from all walks of life, from Vegas cocktail waitresses to prostitutes to nightclub managers to porn stars to…O.K., maybe not all walks of life, but a lot of them.

The best is Holly Sampson, an actress who appeared on “The Wonder Years” with Stanford alum Fred Savage. Later, she’d be in over 80 porn movies, including an upcoming one based on her night with Woods. A topless Sampson alleged an affair with Woods, adding “he has talent on field and he has talent in the bedroom.”

Sampson, like many of Woods’ women, was blond and blue-eyed, making some call him a self-hating Cablinasian. Those people underestimated Woods’ Rain Man-like genius. With mistresses who looked vaguely like his wife, Woods was able to travel freely. If you saw him out at a restaurant with a blue-eyed blonde woman, you would just assume it was his wife. Do you really know what his wife looks like well enough to call him out on it? Nobody wants to pull an Austin Powers, insisting that “it’s a man, baby!”

The Mark Sanford Award for Best Electronic Message: “I will wear you out.

Was this in an ad touting Woods’ incredible work ethic that allowed him to outlast other golfers physically and mentally, or was it a text message he sent to cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs? Parents: when you name your daughter “Jaimee,” this will happen.

Best Advertising Campaign: Accenture

Accenture had a good run with Tiger Woods, including such slogans as “The road to high performance isn’t always paved,” “It’s what you do next that counts,” and of course, “Strategy 80%. Exit Strategy 80%.”

Best Career Move: Turn Evil

Woods should stop trying to market himself as a suave good guy and embrace his role as a villainous playboy. In short, less Gillette, more Axe. Specifically, a brand of Axe guaranteed to get the stripper glitter out. Also, he should do Viagra ads that are basically reenactments of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’” video.

Woods should leave his wife, start hanging out with Charlie Sheen and bring at least two scantily-clad women everywhere. He should refer to other golfers as “cracka-ass crackas,” grow cornrows and put out a rap CD. He would be a mature, responsible family man who ditched his wife to become a selfish, childish jerk with immature friends. It would be like watching a romantic comedy in reverse.

Best Rumors: All

The car accident was a fraud to cover the damage Nordegren did to Woods’ face. Woods is in Phoenix having facial reconstruction surgery. Nordegren fled to a private Swedish island. Woods paid women to say he was good in bed. Woods had “crazy Ambien sex.” Nordegren will sign with Puma to spite Woods. Nordegren chased him down the driveway with a golf club, causing the crash. Woods was high when he crashed. Woods has a pill/sex addiction.

Woods’ marriage was a sham. Woods funded his mistress’ liposuction. Woods used bribery and threats to keep his mistresses quiet. He watched “Desperate Housewives” with one mistress. Tiger Woods spiked a story about his affairs by agreeing to appear on the cover of Men’s Health. Woods appeared standing behind Barack Obama as his caddy next to the headline “10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger” in the January 2010 issue of Golf Digest (O.K., that happened).

I can’t say whether these rumors are true or false–the debate never ends. The most private and famous athlete went from nobody knowing anything about him and assuming he is boring to nobody knowing anything about him and assuming that he is an Ambien-fueled sex monster whose wife left him looking like Harvey Dent.

Top Gear has rung in the 2010 with Richard Hammond’s review of the new Lexus LFA supercar followed by a lap of the Top Gear track by The Stig. You can check out both in the two videos posted after the jump – but be sure to do it quick before copyright infringements force YouTube to pull the video offline.

Click here for more news on the Lexus LFA.

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

Follow the jump for the videos.

2011 Lexus LFA:

2011 Lexus LFA:

– By: Kap Shah

Palm has updated its support Web site with a confirmation of the Exchange/webOS calendar error and workaround previously discussed here:

Palm has discovered that the turn of the year 2010 has surfaced an issue that affects customers who use Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) to synchronize their calendars. Data remains intact on the device; however, this issue prevents the data from being displayed correctly in the Calendar application. It impacts all versions of webOS.

Customers synchronizing calendars using EAS are not able to see events from any calendar source on their webOS phone until they perform a manual workaround to correct the issue (see below for instructions). After performing the workaround, Calendar events from each source should display correctly.

This manual workaround may need to be performed again if the issue resurfaces. Palm is actively working on a software update and will provide a new version for download over the air as soon as possible.

The support article goes on to describe the year-shift workaround that others have found temporarily solves the problem.

We’re glad to see that Palm plans an OTA update to address this issue, and will let you know as soon as it becomes available.

by David Roberts

“Climategate” or “Swifthack” or whatever you call the hubbub about the stolen climate science emails seems to have faded from public discussion, as I expected it would. Every time a new one of these frenzies gets started, climate activists panic, climate skeptics crow that they’ve finally won, and then the whole thing fizzles. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Anyway, though, if you’re still interested, NRDC has put together a brief video responding to the fuss:

As the video says, the basics of climate science have been well-understood and accepted for almost a century now. Along those lines, check out this amazing video Andy Revkin unearthed. He intros it like so:

The basic idea, of course, goes back more than a century, but the real number crunching started in the 1950s, and even drew the attention of the filmmaker Frank Capra, who produced a series of television programs on science (in the post-Sputnik days when science was a high priority), that included “The Unchained Goddess,” a remarkable 1958 film on weather and climate. It contained a section on greenhouse-driven warming:

Check out Andy’s post to see an NYT article from 1956 on the work of scientist Gilbert Plass, who was remarkably prescient.

Anyway, suffice to say, it was only when the modern corporatist right’s political agenda was threatened that it suddenly decided the science was suspect. If our political culture had a memory longer than a gnat’s, we wouldn’t be taking them so seriously every time they come up with a new pseudo-scandal.

Related Links:

Time to bust the filibuster

Senate’s chief climate denier makes Copenhagen cameo

Overwhelming U.S. public support for global warming action

Online retailer Plemix.com is now offering the Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 for £474.44.  The much delayed handset was expected around November last year, but was most recently scheduled for release in early January.

The 8 megapixel Xperia X2 has been set to be released exclusively on Vodafone UK, but of note is that the phone no longer appears on the Coming Soon section of Vodafone’s online store, and is also not available in the store itself.

The Xperia X2 is significantly improved over its predecessor, with a larger screen, better keyboard and better camera, but the older generation Qualcomm processor it uses has not endeared it to many reviewers.

Via Softpedia.com

Las marcas se preparan para el salón de Nueva Delhi, parte del fenómeno en que se ha convertido el mercado asiático en materia de salones y de presentaciones. Esta vez, el rival a vencer por parte de Toyota con este nuevo vehículo, no es el Tata Nano, como podría pensarse al ser presentado en la India, sino el segundo coche más vendido en dicho mercado, el Maruti Swift, un coche basado en el famoso Suzuki Swift.

El Toyota Etios será un coche de rango medio-bajo, con un precio de unos 6.000 Euros. Con ese precio, bien podría desafiar al mismísimo Tata Nano, en su propio terreno, pero el Etios ofrece algo más para un cliente más exigente, a pesar de que el ahorro en materiales es evidente: menos insonorización que de costumbre, un solo limpiaparabrisas y asientos más espartanos. Hay que tener en cuenta que este Etios es para países emergentes(¿?) en materia de automoción.

Toyota mostrará dos variantes del Elios: el hatchback y el notchback (sedán), siendo el primero en lanzarse el primero de ellos, para ser seguido unos meses después por el segundo modelo. En cuanto a motores, no será poseedor de grandes potencias ni un prodigio de caballaje: un diésel 1.4 y un motor de gasolina de 1.2 ó 1.3 litros. El diésel será aprovechado del mismo motor que equipa al Yaris.

El Etios no sólo se comercializará en la India; también en Sudamérica y Rusia. Por ahora, no se tiene previsto que el Etios llegue a Europa.

Vía | Autocar

America’s toniest address is easier to get into than a Miami nightclub!

The White House Dinner Crashers had company. A third uninvited guest made it into The Obama’s State Dinner in honour of the Indian prime minister in November, the Secret Service said on Monday.

While there is no evidence the person had contact with the President or First Lady, a second security breach did occur at the Nov. 24 event, officials say. The still-unidentified person, who was not on The White House guestlist, traveled from a Washington hotel where the Indian delegation was staying and arrived at the dinner with the group, which was under the responsibility of the U.S. Department of State.

“This individual went through all required security measures along with the rest of the official delegation at the hotel, and boarded a bus/van with the delegation guests en route to the White House,” the Secret Service said this afternoon.

Aspiring reality stars Tareq and Michaele prompted a criminal investigation and a congressional probe of White House security after they attended the event without an invitation and rubbed elbows with President Obama and a number of other dignitaries.

by Clark Williams-Derry

NASA climate scientist
James Hansen has a new book out about climate policy, with excerpts in this
month’s issue of The Nation. And in my view, he’s got a pretty good policy
idea: tax carbon, and use the revenue to give out rebates in equal, per capita
shares to every U.S. citizen. It’s a twofer—the carbon tax helps drive down
emissions, and the rebate makes sure that it’s fair to middle- and lower-income
folks who’d otherwise bear the brunt of the tax.

If I were the globe’s
climate czar, Hansen’s tax-and-dividend plan is one of the top 5 to 10 ideas I’d
give serious consideration.

That’s the good news. 
The bad news is that Hansen has opted for the tone of a zealot: he doesn’t
merely extol the virtues of his favored policy, he actually lashes out at anyone
who prefers a slightly different alternative to his policy. Die-hard
environmental champions in Congress who support cap-and-trade instead of
Hansen’s carbon tax are, in Hansen’s view, merely representatives of a
government that’s lying to the people. Environmental advocates who’ve fought
for decades to protect the climate “have been in Washington a little too long.” 

Judean People’s FrontYou get the drift. Rather than turn his fire at the REAL enemies of a sound climate policy—the fossil fuel
industries that have stymied progress for decades —Hansen trains his fire at
his potential allies. The result: a circular firing squad that reminds me of
the scene in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, where the People’s Front of Judea declares its undying enmity for the scoundrels in
the Judean People’s Front. I’m sure the coal industry is
watching the spat that Hansen’s set in motion, and yucking it up big
time.

But what’s especially
nettlesome here is that Hansen opposition to cap-and-trade is based on two
fundamental misunderstandings. First, Hansen implies cap-and-trade and carbon
taxes are completely different systems. But (yes, I’ll say it for the
thousandth time)—they’re not!!! Economically, they’re really two peas in a
pod. Second, Hansen talks as if his carbon tax idea were completely
bulletproof—capable of passing both houses of Congress without getting watered
down. But that’s bunk!! For every potential weakness in a cap-and-trade
system, there’s a way to mirror that weakness in a carbon tax regime. The
problems that Hansen finds in the cap-and-trade bills being considered in
Congress are almost all about politics, not any “inherent” flaws in cap-and-trade.

Let’s look at Hansen’s
two misunderstandings in greater depth. 

First, economists are pretty unanimous in their belief that cap-and-trade and carbon taxes have very similar effects. In their ideal forms, they both put a price on carbon, which gives incentives for every actor throughout the economy to reduce carbon emissions. Economically, a carbon tax of $20 per ton has the exact same effect as a cap-and-trade system in which carbon permits sell for $20 per ton. More generally, at any given carbon price, there’s essentially no difference in the effect the two systems have on emissions. (To put us on record:  we like both cap-and-trade and carbon taxes, in large part because the systems are so similar—and can even complement one another.)

The real difference between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade—again, in their ideal forms—is in where they concentrate uncertainty. With carbon taxes, the government locks in the price of carbon, and the market decides how much carbon to emit. If fossil fuel prices fall, or the economy surges, or inflation runs hot, emissions can rise despite the tax. With cap-and-trade, on the other hand, the government locks in the carbon emissions, and the market decides what price carbon needs to be; ideally, emissions fall, slowly and steadily, no matter what happens to the rest of the economy. I tend to think of cap-and-trade as a variable tax: one that fine-tunes the price to guarantee a certain level of emissions.

Of course, there are ways of implementing cap-and-trade that make emissions uncertain. Price caps, poorly regulated “offsets,” and other loopholes can poke holes in the cap, weakening the guarantee of steady emissions reductions.

But that brings us to the Hansen’s other core misunderstanding: his apparent belief that his tax-and-dividend policy is immune from political compromise or troublesome loopholes: that somehow, both houses of Congress would agree to Hansen’s “perfect” policy, without any of the compromises that Hansen believes render current cap-and-trade legislation too weak to be worthwhile.

I have three responses to that:  Bull-pucky, the IRS, and France.

Bull-pucky first.  Virtually every problem that Hansen critiques in cap-and-trade could be injected into a carbon tax system. Worried that favored industries will get special treatment under cap-and-trade?  Well, congress could exempt big swaths of the economy from a carbon tax, or use tax revenues to create subsidies for favored industries. Worried about risky carbon “offsets”—like reforestation or sequestration projects that might not live up to their promise? Well, a carbon tax system could include refundable tax credits for risky carbon storage projects too. Worried that the cap is going to be set too high? Well, Congress could always set the carbon tax too low, or increase it too slowly, or not increase it at all. I could go on, but there’s no point: carbon taxes and cap-and-trade are such similar systems that even their loopholes match up.

IRS second. In their ideal form, carbon taxes are a bit simpler than cap-and-trade. By the same token, the ideal income tax form takes 3 minutes to fill out. But as anyone who’s tried to navigate an IRS instruction booklet knows, the tax code has a tendency to grow in complexity—sometimes for good reasons, but mostly because of the political impulse to provide special tax treatment to favored constituencies. I see no reason to believe that carbon taxes are magically immune from that impulse.

France third. It may not have made much news here, but the French supreme court just rejected France’s proposed carbon tax. The reason: according to Bloomberg News, “93 percent of all industrial carbon emissions in France would have avoided paying the full tax.” The French carbon tax was so riddled with loopholes that it ran counter to the principle of tax equality—and the French supreme court felt they had no alternative but to sink it. And if that sort of thing can happen in France, then it certainly can happen in the U.S. France’s experience suggests that carbon taxes are no more immune from politics than any other climate-protection system. Internationally, British Columbia’s carbon tax comes pretty close to being a model of transparency and comprehensiveness. But as Alan Durning argues, most of the globe’s carbon taxes—as important as they are—are actually quirky, and full of loopholes and favoritism. (Sigh.) That doesn’t make those taxes bad ideas, but does point out that carbon taxes are hardly immune from politics.

I have no idea if Hansen’s tantrum will have any effect on the prospects for climate legislation in the next year.  But I’m going to try to set a good example here, and put an end to the circular firing squad: carbon taxes are a good idea!! Hansen’s version of a carbon tax is a great one!! Congress should consider it!! If they were to pass it, the world would be a better place!!

But let’s not kid ourselves that scrapping cap-and-trade legislation now will automatically open up the field to Hansen’s pristine, un-game-able tax system anytime soon. The same federal legislators will still be there, with the same interests, and the same propensity to poke holes in any good idea that comes along—whether it’s cap-and-trade, a carbon tax, or any other awesome concept that a scientist-turned-policy-dabbler could come up with. In my view, the more energy we put into trashing our allies and their integrity, the more likely we are to end up in 2011 where we are today: with no federal climate pricing system whatsoever, and a fossil fuel industry that’s laughing all the way to the bank.

This post originally appeared at Sightline’s Daily Score blog.

Related Links:

Q&A: what will happen with climate legislation in 2010?

Sarkozy wants French carbon tax to take effect in July

France rejects carbon pricing policy

Think about it, in 2009 Marc Faber seems to have set himself up to be right whatever the U.S. economic outcome.

He's a well known bear and has frequently likened the dollar to toilet paper and U.S. economy to a basket case in the long term.

Yet when the U.S. defied skeptics and recovered by late 2009, stocks had one of their best years ever, and the dollar soared. Yet he at the same time was credited for the strong dollar/US market calls he adopted as a near-term view. The result? 2009 was a big win for Faber in the media and represents his genius as a professional forecaster.

That's because it's hard to imagine how it was even been possible for Mr. Faber to come out looking wrong in 2009, and his most recent apparent bullishness on gold, the dollar, and U.S. stocks underlines this. If the U.S. double-dips, he can point to his well worn long-term bearishness on the U.S. economic system. The long-term forecast is finally coming to fruition, etc. But if the U.S. economy continues to recover, likely delivering further dollar strength and stock market returns, he can blame the fed for delaying his long-term forecast while still staking claim to his nearer-term bullish call. At least that's how it appears to us.

So here's the secret to forecasting success -- maintain an extreme, polarizing long-term view. Then adopt the exact opposite view, as a short-term trading idea, and blame governments for making it happen.

January 3rd, Commodity Online: In his first New Year comment on the price of gold, dollar and commodities investing, Faber said that the most interesting currency that people should invest now is gold as the US dollar is on a bearish run.

December 30th, CNBC: "My feeling is that the US market will outperform emerging economies in the first six months of 2010,"

December 30th, ABC Australia: Marc Faber thinks the low returns for cash and rising inflation may prompt investors to keep buying equities. "We could also have for a change a strong US dollar or a rebounding dollar and, at the same time, an outperformance of the S and P [Standard and Poor's 500 share index] vis a vis emerging markets," he added.

October 30th, Gold Speculator: Regarding the dollar he says, “well, it will go to a value of exactly zero eventually.” When pressed for a timeline he explains, “Looking at Mr. Obama and his administration it should already be there, but I think it will take roughly ten years until people really realize that the fiscal position of the US is a complete disaster.”

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Marc Faber: Treasuries Are For Idiots, Watch Out For A 10-20% Correction In Stocks Before Another Rally
• Faber: Dollar Will Rally 10% More, Stocks Will Keep Running Higher
• Marc Faber: Avoid The US Disaster, Buy Wheat, Sugar, Natural Gas, And Japan In 2010

A new year has arrived, and with it, a new list of resolutions. If “eating better” is on your list, experts say, there are a few items you can slip into to your diet that can improve your health and help you ward off certain diseases in 2010.

Katherine Tallmadge, national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian in Washington, D.C., says you can find these foods in most stores. Best of all, they’re high in benefits but low in calories.

Grains

Add oat, barley and rye to your daily diet. Doctors have known that oat can bring down cholesterol levels — but so can rye, which may become the new “in” grain for 2010. In a study in the current issue of the journal Nutrition, Finnish doctors found that men who had borderline high cholesterol could lower their numbers by eating dense rye bread.

The American Diabetes Association also recommends increasing your intake of dietary fiber and whole grain products, such as rye, to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. “Rye lowers cholesterol like oats do, and it evens out blood glucose for diabetics,” Tallmadge says. Read more…

For millions of commuters around the world, motorcycles are a compact and cheap way of getting around town in congested traffic. The Victory Vision is the absolute opposite – there’s only been a handful of production bikes ever made that are bigger and heavier than this 400-kilogram, 1740cc American behemoth. It’s built to eat up thousands of open-road miles with Harley-beating performance and buttock-coddling luxury – but in a surprise twist, this retro-futuristic mammoth can actually handle surprisingly well to boot. Loz Blain discovers how 10 days on one of the top five heaviest production bikes ever built can change your perspective on motorcycling in our video road test…

Tags: Luxury,
Motorcycle,
Victory

Related Articles:

• Victory’s Vision of the next all-American cruiser
• Snoxcycle – US$3000 motorcycle conversion for the snow
• Ducati Hypermotard voted the Best Design trophy winner of 2005 by the Motorcycle Design Association
• Buell XB9R
• Victory Vision 800 Concept promises a new era for American motorcycles
• The world’s lightest four-stroke 250 single engine

Maybe it’s better that most of us don’t remember every part of New Year‘s Eve (basically, from 5PM on). If you’re suffering from alcohol-induced amnesia, here are 25 happier Shooting Challenge shots to fill the void.

The placements…

Second Runner Up

Nikon D40x on tripod. AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm stock DX lens; F6.3; 8 seconds; Color corrected in camera raw. Motive: Stockholm cityscape with city hall in center.
-Andreas Hellqvist

First Runner Up

The morning after. The image here is a stereographically projected panorama consisting of 90 separate exposures. As you see it’s not complete, I had intended it to be 360° by 180°, however by the time I got to just over the houses, I lost all feeling in one of my fingers and decided to go have a pizza instead. This is also why my bag and parts of the tripod is visible on the ground; I couldn’t grip the camera to shoot a straight-down shot. (Temperature at the time was somewhere around -20°C) Gear used: Canon EOS 450D camera, Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens at f/7.1 (I shot in apperture priority mode, so shutter times vary), Manfrotto 190xprob tripod with a 804RC2 three-way head. (For you who want to get started in shooting so called planet panoramas, this head is not a particularily good choice because it doesn’t give you 180° freedom up and down, but you can flip the camera mount plate to put the entire camera “backwards” and so shoot straight up.) The images were converted from raw to 900×600 size jpegs and then stitched in Hugin. Incidentally, if you do the math you’ll find that quite a few of the images are not overlapping by a whole lot which caused the autopano sift-c routine to misalign quite a lot of it. Total time to find control points to fit it all together was around four or five hours. To be fair, this is a failed picture, but it looks rather nice, so perhaps you’ll enjoy it too. Next time I wait til it’s a little warmer 🙂
-Staffan Thomen

Winner

Photo taken on new year’s eve. It’s apparently underexposed (said my camera) with 1/2000s with my 5DmkII at ISO6400 with my trusted 50 mm lens at f/1.4. This is a handheld shot taken for fun with no clue what might turn out. I kinda like the sparks of iron flying. I increased the contrast and black levels in lightroom 3b to get rid of some of the noise.
-Øystein Alsaker

Thanks to everyone for entering. New Shooting Challenges are announced every Wednesday, and we need/appreciate your participation!

Dear Readers, have you ever cast your eyes longingly and lovingly upon those gorgeous hanging pot racks and wished with all your heart that your kitchen and / or budget could handle one? Can you just imagine how a pot rack would transform your kitchen ambiance as well as show off your cookware and to top it off, create a neat and tidy storage solution? The wait is finally is over!

Enclume, the foremost manufacturer of top of the line pot racks and kitchen furnishings sought out consumer focus groups to find out which features they would like to see in Enclume’s kitchen creations. The feedback from consumers like YOU is the motivation for the new RACK IT UP!! series. What is so amazing about this company is that they actually LISTEN to the customers out there and considered what people wanted and needed. Enclume responded with RACK IT UP!

“Now virtually everyone can enjoy the same benefits with RACK IT UP!, Enclume’s all-new value-priced pot rack collection. It was designed by consumer focus groups representing families in middle-America homes, condos, townhouses and apartments. The focus groups demanded low cost, good looks, a variety of sizes, strong construction, quick assembly, and the fastest, easiest installation possible.”

RACK IT UP! racks are made with the same attention to detail, quality materials, easy installation and long-term service that has made Enclume the most respected name in the industry over the last 35 years and why they are considered absolutely the best.

And the most exciting news YET, get ready for this… the Enclume RACK IT UP! pot racks range in price from $24.99 – $99.00! That’s an unbelievable value price for this quality product.

Choosing the right Enclume product.

Enclume has a fabulous website which highlights all their products making it easy to choose the right size, model and material for your needs. Click on each product to see the specifications and how it would fit and look in your own home.

Do you have a wide square kitchen? Perhaps one of the ceiling pot racks would work best for you. There are 5 to choose from in various sizes and styles.

Do you have a narrow galley-type kitchen? Perhaps one of the 5 wall pot racks also in several sizes and styles would fit your tastes.

Do you have a small space that you think won’t handle a pot rack? Just take a look at these beautiful, sturdy, yet lightweight racks!

Don’t forget to check out the Enclume RACK IT UP! Videos, they are very helpful and informative.

OK, you’ve looked at these fantastic products and you’ve decided on the one that will best show off your kitchen, but now you may question, “This is great, but I’d have to hire a contractor.” Nope! Think again! RACK IT UP! racks are designed to be installed quickly and easily with a minimum of effort and with no prior experience required. Hardware and tools are included with the RACK IT UP! of your choice.

Our family has decided on the Bookshelf Pot Rack because we have a narrow galley kitchen with a low ceiling. The rack assembled easily and installed just as easily. The Enclume Bookshelf Pot Rack is so sturdy that it holds all the pans we wanted, even though they are heavy cast iron. The change in the look of our kitchen is stunning! We are thrilled with having the pans accessible and stored in one place. We will update you with before and after pictures of our RACK IT UP! installation and kitchen transformation!

Enclume is offering FREE shipping on all their RACK IT UP! products!

Enclume Design Products, Inc. • 24 Colwell St. • Port Hadlock, WA • 98339
phone: (360)385-6100 • fax: (360)385-6156 • toll free (877)362-5863

Disclaimer: The product was provided for review purposes.

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

San Diego-based Adventrx Pharmaceuticals (AMEX: ANX), which reduced its workforce to just five executives and announced plans last March to “substantially end” its drug development and business operations, sprang back to life today. The company says it has submitted a new drug application, or NDA, to the Food and Drug Administration for ANX-530, a formulation of the anti-cancer drug vinorelbine the company has developed.

Adventrx says ANX-530 is its proprietary emulsion formulation of vinorelbine chemotherapy that is intended to reduce the incidence and severity of vein irritation and blistering associated with intravenous delivery of the approved drug Navelbine. Adventrx says it acquired ANX-530 in 2006, and its NDA includes data from a clinical bioequivalence study. The company holds exclusive worldwide rights to its formulation of the drug, except in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

In a related announcement, Adventrx says it plans to fund the commercial launch of ANX-530 at least partly from $19 million in gross proceeds raised through the private placement of convertible preferred shares of its stock with institutional investors. The offering is expected to close by Thursday.

In a statement issued by the company, Brian Culley, the principal executive officer of Adventrx, says, “ANX-530 has the potential to offer important benefits to cancer patients, and we look forward to working with FDA towards its approval. The ANX-530 NDA submission is a key step in our strategy to create valuable products that improve the performance of currently approved drugs.”

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Socialtext has announced record quarter-over-quarter bookings growth in 2009, bolstered by social computing’s growing presence in the enterprise.

It’s important to note that Socialtext is reporting record bookings, not record revenues. The company does not disclose its actual revenues. It’s hard to to give Socilatext a lot of credit without knowing how its revenues fared. Further, the year ahead may be one of the most challenging for the company as competition is only getting more fierce.

Sponsor

Socialtext is one of the most established companies in the Enterprise 2.0 space, dating back to 2002 when it got its start as a wiki provider. In recent years, the company has diversified, adding a microblogging platform and collaborative tools such as SocialCalc, its collaborative spreadsheet application. Socialtext said it now has 6,500 customers, compared to 4,000 in 2008. The company also said it set a record for the number of companies that renewed contracts.

Jive Software may be one of the biggest competitors for Socialtext. Microsoft will be pushing hard into the enterprise market this year with Sharepoint 2010. Google, Cisco, IBM and a host of new players are also fighting for the same piece of the pie.

But, overall, the Soclaltext news is more real proof that social computing did get the attention of the enterprise in 2009, and that the year ahead should be another record year for the overall market.

Discuss

We learned earlier this morning that Spyker plans on rebuilding Saab around the 9-3, 9-5, and 9-4X models if it acquires the brand from General Motors. Also waiting in the plans in the Aero X, which could be a possible production model if resources are available.

“I love that car, and it deserves to be built,” said Spyker CEO Victor Muller. “It’s got true ‘Saabishness’ in it. It’s one of the best designs of the past five years.”

GM has extended the Dec. 31 deadline to sell or shutdown Saab until Jan. 7, giving Spyker additional time to come up with financing to buy the brand. A final proposal from Spyker is expected Jan. 7.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: PistonHeads

To all the reasons to worry about the rapid rise in government debt in the wake of the financial crisis, add another: It’ll stunt our growth.

In a new paper presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard study the link between different levels of debt and countries’ economic growth over the last two centuries. One finding: Countries with a gross public debt debt exceeding about 90% of annual economic output tended to grow a lot more slowly. For advanced countries above the 90% threshold, average annual growth was about two percentage points lower than for countries with public debt of less than 30% of GDP.

The results are particularly relevant at a time when debt levels in the U.S. and other countries at the center of the financial crisis are rapidly approaching the 90% threshold. Gross government debt in the U.S., for example, stood at 85% of GDP in 2009 and will reach 108% of GDP by 2014, according to IMF projections. The U.K.’s gross government debt stood at 69% of GDP in 2009 and is expected to reach 98% of GDP by 2013.

“If history is any guide,” the rising government debt “is very troubling for the U.S. and other advanced economies,” says Ms. Reinhart.

The relationship between government debt burdens and growth is even stronger for emerging-market economies, Ms. Reinhart and Mr. Rogoff find. For countries above the 90% threshold, average annual growth was about three percentage points lower than for countries with public debt of less than 30% of GDP. The countries above the threshold also experienced much higher inflation: prices rose more than twice as fast as in countries with small debt burdens.