British carmaker Lotus announced today the release of a commemorative edition of the Exige, dubbed S Type 72. The car has been built to celebrate the black and gold Lotus Type 72 livery which was driven by Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Jacky Ickx and won three Formula One Constructors’ Championships (1970, 1972 and 1973) and two Drivers’ World Championships (1970 and 1972).
The Lotus Exige S Type 72 is an evocative sportscar, combining cutting edge handling… (read more)
The 21st Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport to be held March 19-21, 2010, will be celebrating the Alfa Romeo Centenary, with more than 100 examples of the Italian marque taken to the Grand Prix circuit to be a part of several events.
Various important Alfa Romeo race cars will be featured at the event, including Alfa’s first genuine single-seater Grand Prix car, the 1931 P3 Tipo B monoposto, a 1932 model Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, as well as a 1963 TZ1 (Tubolare Zagato) ra… (read more)
The Christmas star or the Star of Bethlehem has a very special significance attached to it and hence it has got to be the most shining one, especially on the eve of Christmas. Keeping this in mind, Siemens has powered a LED-equipped Christmas Star called ‘Superstar’ that is supposed to be the largest in the world. This star will revolve and will give out a glow that is equivalent to 20,000 Christmas candles, and will yet consume electricity as much as a hair dryer would. This has been made possible with the 900 LED’s that makes the Christmas star energy saving.
The revolving attraction has been designed by the Munich multimedia artist Michael Pendry.
[Ecofriend]
As the U.S. becomes less capitalist, Libya is becoming more so.
Mark Mobius is investigating the country as his next potential frontier market.
Even if he doesn’t end up investing in the nation, stints to off the radar places like this at worst help Mr. Mobius maintain his emerging markets branding.
Mark Mobius via Investment Postcards:
After a long period of strained relations with the West, Libya has made considerable efforts since 2003 to normalize and improve diplomatic ties. These include abandoning its weapons of mass destruction programs and paying compensation to the families of victims of the bombings of Pan Am flight 103 (in 1988) and UTA Flight 772 (in 1989). As a result, most international sanctions against the country were lifted in 2004, and in 2006, the U.S. removed Libya from its state-sponsored terrorism list on which Libya had stayed for 27 years. Since then, Libya has attracted a wave of interest from international companies operating mainly in energy and construction. Our hotel was full of business people, particularly oil company executives and oil field employees working on the country’s extensive oil and gas deposits – Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa.
More importantly for us as investors, the government is moving to privatize state enterprises and develop a capital market. We visited the nascent stock exchange and were impressed by the good systems in place. Only a handful of stocks are listed now, but with many more state-owned companies in areas such as infrastructure, power and telecoms destined to be privatized and listed, we expect that the opportunities to invest in this market will expand. Since 2003, more than 100 government-owned companies have been privatized in the oil refining, tourism and real estate areas.
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Germany will have a dream team inside Formula One for the upcoming few seasons, just as McLaren secured their British fans an all-Englishman lineup for the next 3 years. Nico Rosberg was officially joined in the Mercedes GP lineup by 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher, as the announcement was made during a press conference earlier today.
Having Schumacher as a teammate is never easy, as past experiences have taught us that the German driver, when managed by Ross Brawn (as th… (read more)
You should save your receipts. I have a great system. I stuff them all into my back pocket. Then, before I wash my pants, I pull them out and let them gather in a pile on my desk. Then, as the pile spills over onto my keyboard, I throw them in the garbage. It’s not quite when I had in mind when I drew up the system. As with most tasks, getting organized is easier when you do it all digitally. It’s one reason why I’m starting to use ProOnGo Expense. It’s an application that makes it easy to save receipts while still throwing them away.
Mplayit, the worlds largest mobile app store has made a better way to view applications in the Android Market. Already selling apps for a number of different platforms such as Apple, Blackberry, Android get the Facebook treatment. Their website, http://mplayit.com is an application hosted on Facebook. This allows users to share and review applications among friends and the whole Facebook community.
Michael Powers the founder and CEO of Mplayit says “App discovery on Android is frankly a mess… and we’re bringing that know-how to the Android app marketplace.” The main page shows an “Apptivity Feed” (creative) that shows you which apps are being viewed or played. It also allows a collection of apps for your peers to see and the ability to share via twitter. For each app there is a description, image, comments, and some have YouTube videos describing the app.
When you find an app you want, you can either scan the QR Code or have the link E-mailed to your phone. It’s definitely worth a look, I’ve already found some apps that I might have never seen in the market.
Sources: PR Newswire
Every year people are lost because others did not know how to help, don’t let this be you. Teach your children today how to respond if there is an emergency near them.
IMG: Sxc.hu
It is important to teach your kids when and when not to call 9-1-1. Share with them reasons they may call and make sure they know that this number is not something to joke around about. No calling just because they get grounded, etc. My son did that when he was 5 or 6 years old, his preschool teacher only told them to call 9-1-1 when they got in trouble.
Why call 9-1-1:
– a fire
– someone has got hurt badly
– someone is passed out
– someone is unresponsive
– stranger trying to come in the house
– kidnapping, etc
Make sure they know what falls under an emergency, but more important if there is someone in the family with some type of medical issue then they too should know how to help that family member just in case they need to help one day.
Imagine someone dropping to the ground from a heart attack. Would you kid know to drop a Bayer aspirin (low dose) under their tongue and to call 9-1-1? I discussed this with mine today after their dad started complaining about heart pain and shortness of breath. I now have a bottle of it in my purse.
Here’s a few stories of children thinking quickly:
– 5 year old saves her daddy’s life. This little girl called 9-1-1 when her dad went into a diabetic shock. When help came this little girl even looked out a window to make sure it was help and not just some random stranger, so as you can see she knew exactly what to do.
– 10 year old finds mom unconscious on floor, unsure what happened he quickly dials 9-1-1 and saves her life. He was given an award this past week. Congratulations not only to this boy but his mom.
– Two 10 year old girls save toddler from icy water – two little girls just saved a toddler that fell through the ice. One ran to call 911 and one got an adult to help her fish him out. It is important that children know that ice is very tricky and should be very careful on it or around it.
Hopefully your child doesn’t need to use any of these, but just in case wouldn’t it be nice to know they knew what to do?
Post from: Blisstree
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said he is “not sure we will ever have a table-games bill” come next month.
The state desperately needs the casino-related bill to pass in order to draw in more revenue and create 1000 new jobs.
Gov. Rendell yesterday upped the ante in his bid to balance the state budget, saying that without a table-games bill he would have to close the State Museum of Pennsylvania and some state parks in addition to laying off at least 1,000 more government employees.
The bill – the final unresolved part of the state budget the governor signed in October after a 101-day impasse – would bring in $250 million in license fees and taxes that Rendell said is necessary to keep the government running.
“I’m not sure we will ever have a table-games bill,” said Rendell.
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As we finish up the year, I’m really pleased with the progress the Startup Visa gang is making. I started thinking about, writing, and working on this on 9/10/09 when I wrote the post The Founders Visa Movement. One quarter later, we’ve:
Shortly after I started talking to people in Congress about this it became clear that this wouldn’t be a 2009 legislative issue given the massive financial and health care reform issues being worked on in Congress. So – we decided to use Q409 to “figure this out” with a goal of launching aggressively in Q110 with the goal of having this be part of whatever immigration reform activity happens next year, especially in the context of a renewed push for job creation activity in the US.
In addition to the Startup Visa OpEd that Paul Kedrosky and I wrote and published in the Wall Street Journal, several other high profile thinkers have written great essays on this issue.
The Startup Visa And Why The Xenophobes Need To Go Back Into Their Caves: Vivek Wadhwa (Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University) wrote a great piece in TechCrunch.
Immigrant Scientists Create Jobs and Win Nobels: Susan Hockfield (MIT President) wrote a WSJ OpEd that – while not talking directly about the Startup Visa – clearly supports that overall effort and also reinforces my belief that any graduate with an advanced degree from a US college or university should get a green card stapled to his diploma.
While there are plenty of other articles in the mainstream media swirling around, ones in CNN Money such as Want to create jobs? Import entrepreneurs does a good job of laying it all out.
Many of you have asked how you can get involved. Look for a variety of easy ways to do this in Q1. And – a huge thank you for everyone out there that has helped in any way so far. In the mean time, feel free to add to the Wikipedia page of American Startups with Immigrant Founders.
Après des mois de négociations,Ford vient de confirmer avoir trouvé un accord pour la vente de Volvo au chinois Geely,accord qui devrait être signé d’ici mars.
Après l’accélération vécue ces derniers jours par le dossier Saab,c’est donc au tour de l’autre scandinave,Volvo,lui aussi mis en vente par sa maison mère américaine,de voir son sort se dessiner.
Ce matin déjà la télévision suédoise et le Financial Times annonçaient que les négociations pourraient aboutir aujourd’hui.Selon Ford,lorsque les dernières questions financières et administratives auront été réglées,Volvo passera entièrement sous le contrôle de Geely.Soit au deuxième trimestre de cette année.Ford en aura donc fini de ces interminables négociations,la vente de Volvo s’étant révélée bien plus complexe pour la firme américaine que celle de Jaguar et Land Rover à l’indien Tata.
Un joli cadeau de bienvenue à Geely: la nouvelle S60.Elle est à des années lumière de ce que Geely était capable de proposer jusqu'à aujourd'hui.
C’est l’air de rien une grande première,puisque c’est le premier constructeur occidental de renom à passer sous la coupe d’un industriel du nouveau géant économique chinois.Sur ce terrain,la politesse leur avait été grillée par l’Inde,avec Jaguar et Land Rover donc.L’inde dont on sous-estime souvent la montée en puissance en se focalisant sur la Chine.
Geely s’est imposé malgré les autres propositions en lice,notamment des cadres de Volvo et élus suédois.Pas étonnant puisque Ford en faisait son favori officiel depuis octobre.L’américain recevra donc 2 milliards de $ du chinois qui l’aideront bien dans cette période troublée pour lui.
Ceci dit,une fois de plus les génies de la finance américains ont fait fort; Volvo a été acheté plus du triple par Ford il y a 10 ans tout juste.Mais quand on voit l’état de délabrement des filiales de GM,comme Saab,ou celles qui ont disparu,Pontiac et Saturn (en cours),on ne peut pas jeter la pierre à Ford,du moins si on n’en a qu’une en main…d’autres ont fait pire et Volvo,fort d’une gamme cohérente et originale,n’est pas en miettes comme Saab.
On ne sait pas ce qu’il va advenir maintenant de la marque suédoise,Geely précisera certainement ses intentions dans les semaines et mois à venir.On imagine bien entendu que la méfiance sera de rigueur chez les employés de Volvo.D’une part,la vision de l’homme dans l’entreprise en Suède est à l’exact opposé de ce qu’elle est en Chine,et d’autre part,la délocalisation ne peut que faire planer son ombre sur l’avenir de la marque.
Le XC60,dernier SUV de Volvo,fait un carton.Comment la clientèle assez haut de gamme du sédois va-t'elle accueillir le passage de la marque sous l'étiquette chinoise?
D’un point de vue commercial non plus,pas de pistes.Volvo va-t’elle se concentrer sur de nouveaux marchés au premier rang desquels la Chine,ou sur ses marchés traditionnels? Par ailleurs,sur ces derniers marchés,comment sera vécue par la clientèle le passage de leur marque fétiche sous la coupe chinoise?
Excellente affaire potentielle en tout cas pour le chinois.Excellente parce que Volvo est une marque mondialement reconnue sur le segment « premium »,qu’on y pratique une culture de la qualité et de l’innovation dont on ne pourra que s’inspirer chez Geely qui a 30 ans de retard dans ce domaine,si ce n’est plus,excellente enfin pour le réseau de distribution bien implanté dans les pays qui comptent.Potentielle car Volvo n’est pas une grande habituée des bénéfices…
Coup dur au moral des suédois qui en deux semaines voient passer 75% de leur industrie automobile sous la coupe chinoise; Volvo et la moitié de Saab.Quant-aux 25% restants,on sera vite fixés maintenant.Si toutefois il en reste quelquechose dans 10 jours.
–> Retrouvez les dernières nouvelles de Saab ici
Nouveau: pour profiter facilement et rapidement des notifications de nouveautés sur le site,pensez à vous abonner via Twitter.Chaque modification,nouvel article ou nouvelle vidéo sur notre chaîne Youtube,fait l’objet d’un Tweet immédiat!
This time of year, you see a lot of “best of the decade” or “best of the year” lists, and of course we take part as well.
Among the most striking we’ve seen is this one at China Daily on the Top 10 Real Estate Debacles Of 2009.
The funny thing about it is that China’s property market is experiencing a monster boom.
A list from the US would be all about the various commercial real estate deals gone bad — Stuy-Town, The Union Square W, etc. — but there it’s all about the toll of a country that’s gone mad, building as much property as it can, as fast as it can.
So the stories are about peasants lighting themselves on fire to protect their homes, or, of course, the infamous Chinese apartment building that just fell sideways, because the construction was so shoddy.
Anyway, if you have the time, you really should read through the list of stories >
(Image via ChinaDaily)
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Any type of surgery has its risks, even so-called minor surgeries. But some surgeries are riskier than others and even more so for certain groups of people.
Seniors, those aged 65 years or older, often undergo surgery for various ailments that have either been neglected over time or have developed over the years. And, as 
the population ages, more surgeries will be done in that age group. According to a study just published in the Archives of Surgery, every year, approximately two million seniors have abdominal surgery.
Abdominal surgeries, any type of surgery that involves the abdomen, are particularly risky for seniors, say researcher from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. The researchers were looking at complication and death rates of 101,318 seniors who underwent common abdominal procedures such as cholecystectomies (gall bladder removal), hysterectomies (removal of the uterus) and colectomies (removal of part of the colon).
Seniors often have multiple medical problems, which could add to surgery risk, and the researchers point out that the seniors may also have a lower ability to tolerate the stress of surgery and any complications that may result. For this reason, the researchers found a complication rate and death rate of:
~~~
Image: PhotoXpress.com
Post from: Blisstree
Q: I have been told by my mother and others that under no circumstances should seafood be stored directly on ice, but rather that there should always be a barrier (i.e. fish in plastic bags nestled on ice; fish on metal tray on ice), since direct contact with ice/water will degrade the texture of the seafood.
Yet I often encounter seafood placed directly on ice in markets or at the fishmonger. Can you clear this up for me?
Sent by Catherine
Filed under: Motorsports, Mercedes-Benz
All clearances given, the BBC is reporting that Michael Schumacher is officially a driver for the Mercedes-Petronas F1 team. The deal is understood to be a one-year agreement, with Schumacher being paid £6.2 million ($9.82M U.S.) and having an open door at the end of the year to carry on if it all works out.
Mercedes is said to have its eye on Sebastian Vettel when his contract is up in 2012. Theoretically then, if Michael remains Michael behind the wheel, he could drive for the Three-Pointed Star and collect trophies, and perhaps Championships, until then. That’s an immense theoretical, however: Prost and Lauda took time off, came back, and won the whole show again; Jacques Villeneuve, well, not so much.
And as much as Ferrari respects the times it had with Schumacher, we have a feeling Luca di Montezemolo has already called Alonso to tell him, “You know what you have to do…” On the other hand, if Alonso doesn’t work out at Ferrari, and Michael does well and only has a one-year deal with Mercedes…
[Source: BBC | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]
He’s Back: Schumacher reportedly signs with Mercedes-Benz F1 for 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
I used to write a blog called Offbeat Homes, which was awesome fun, especially at Christmas because I’d highlight kooky crazy gingerbread homes. I sort of miss that so I thought I’d post one of the coolest organic homes I featured in years past – the gorgeous organic GingerLotus by one of my old school favorite architects Michelle Kaufmann.
If you’ve got some free time today or tomorrow then this is a special and fun project made with organic goods, and beautiful lines, much like Kaufmann’s real homes were.
If you don’t have quite so much free time on your hands than some good, and still gingery cooking projects include…
PS – if you’re interested in seeing those kooky gingerbread homes I mentioned, then no worries, because I’ve gathered them up below. You will be blown away by these tiny structures so take a look!
Post from: Blisstree
Digital Inspiration is an oft-linked blog here at Lifehacker, and its author is a very savvy digital worker. That said, Amit Agarwal learned a lot about safety precautions when both his Gmail and Google Apps accounts were hacked into.
Agarwal’s not entirely sure about how his accounts were broken into, given that he had strong passwords on them. After a few moments’ panic and some back-and-forth with the Google team, he regained control over his accounts. If he had to go through it again, he’d wish he had a whole bunch of backup and verification procedures on hand. Here’s one item that jumped out at us, despite having gone through a similar experience, as something neither we nor most Google/Gmail users probably have ready:
#3. Take a paper and write down the following information about your Google Account. You will need this to verify your identify to Google in case someone else takes over your Google Account and the secondary email address associated with your account.
* The month and year when your created your Gmail / Google Account.
* If you created a Gmail account by invitation, write the email address of the person who first sent you that invite for Gmail.
* The email addresses of your most frequently emailed contacts (the top 5).
* The names of any custom labels that you may have created in your Gmail account.
* The day/month/year when you started using various other Google services (like AdSense, Orkut, Blogger, etc.) that are associated with the Google account that you are trying to recover. If you’re not certain about some of the dates, provide your closest estimate.
Be sure to read the full Digital Inspiration post for more tips and advice on preparing for, and recovering from, hacked Google accounts, and share your own hack/spam recovery experiences in the comments.
More information [Digital Inspiration]
Bloomberg: “If you start having serious problems credit wise with the likes of Spain, then the issue for the euro’s credibility and its pricing against other currencies becomes a much bigger issue,” O’Neill said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio in New York today.
Thus it's interesting that Russia and China are now investigating the Canadian dollar as a U.S. dollar alternative.
Business Week: Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said China, with the world’s largest currency reserves of $2.3 trillion, may be poised to buy Canadian dollars as it seeks to shield its reserves against the U.S. dollar’s decline.
“It does not surprise me that China and Russia would take greater positions in the Canadian dollar than they have previously,” Flaherty, 59, said during an interview in his office in Ottawa. “I would expect countries looking around the world to invest in market currencies that are reliable.”
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Crude oil futures neared $75 a barrel ahead of an expected decline in U.S. oil inventories, Bloomberg reports.
China makes another move to ensure energy supplies, signing a deal with Venezuela to help develop offshore oil fields, in the WSJ. With Iraqi elections looming, the country has another chance to put its oil wealth at the service of its citizens, writes a former oil minister in the WSJ.
Who was really to blame for the meltdown in Copenhagen? China, without a doubt, says Mark Lynas in an insiders account of how Beijing sabotaged the climate summit, in The Guardian: The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful deal so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame.
In any event, the Copenhagen Accord is coming under increasing fire, with the very developing countries who helped draft it now criticizing the agreement, in the FT.
The real lessons from Copenhagen werent in the summit, but in Denmarks ability to chart a new energy course, writes Tom Friedman.
If cleaning up the electricity sector is so hard, why not target oil instead? By focusing on the transportation sectorand expanding the use of alternative fuelsthe rich and poor world alike would benefit, in Foreign Policy.
Copenhagen didnt kill the chances of the climate bill in the U.S. Senatethe health-care debate did. Thats the take from both sides of the aisle (except the always optimistic John Kerry) in Politico.
The clean-tech sector regroups after the disappointment of Copenhagen. Luckily, there are plenty of local, state and national clean-energy policies that could be more important than vague global agreements, in the WSJ.
And the Copenhagen fiasco amounts to a stay of execution for coal-fired utilities, which seem undervalued by the market, in the WSJ.
Finally, Whole Earth founder Stewart Brand talks with Yales Environment 360 about the new generation of environmentalists and the allure of nuclear power.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems to think job growth will return when the snow has melted and the birds are chirping again.
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AP: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he believes it’s reasonable to expect “positive job growth” by spring and that people should have confidence about an improving economic climate.
In an interview broadcast on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Geithner also said he believes many banks around the country still have work ahead of them to regain the public’s faith. He said, “They need to work very hard to shore it up” and said he wasn’t certain that “all banks get it.”
Geithner’s stewardship of the Treasury has come in for criticism on occasion. He said Wednesday, “I think most people would say the economy actually is strengthening now going into the end of the year,” but that the key is to regain lost jobs.
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