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In case you missed my post last week, I want to remind you that as of today Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM are now available for Xbox LIVE members with child accounts. If you have a child account over 13, and you get parental approval, you’ll be able to have access to these applications. Be sure to set Automatically log in or Remember me when setting up the application for the first time, otherwise you will be prompted for parental permission every time you launch the application.  Enjoy and thanks for your patience.

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Bugatti, Misc. Auto Shows, Middle East, Design/Style, Luxury

As with any other business, in the automotive sphere, it’s mission critical to recognize on which side your bread is buttered – particularly in lean times like these. Bugatti may be losing money on each Veyron it builds, but that doesn’t mean that company strategists don’t know how to earn a crust. Need proof? This month’s Dubai Motor Show finds the supercar builder unveiling a trio of special edition models in one of its most important markets.

The Middle East triumvirate will consist of the Veyron Nocturne, which features “galvanized side windows” that add continuity to the polished aluminum body panel accents, and there are also polished wheels and a “black nanocoated magnesium dashboard” with a center console rendered in galvanized platinum. Just five examples will be built.

Bugatti will also show its Veyron “Sang d’Argent” and a topless Grand Sport “Soliel de Nuit” model for those that like a little sun and sand in their hair. The former of which employs a silver metallic finish and alloys nicked from the Grand Sport and the latter incorporates “country coded” colors that include a silver metallic lower and an impossibly deep upper blue finish and a Havanna interior with quilted seats.

If you’re interested, well, have your accountant’s accountant ring up Bugatti, and summon your garage keeper to ensure you’ve got some extra room available in the first quarter of 2010 for when you take delivery. Oh, and you’ll have to liberate anywhere from 1.45 million euro ($2.1M USD) to 1.65 million euro ($2.5M) from your chaise lounge cushions for the privilege. Not up for it? Well, you can at least check out our high-res images below and the official press release after the jump.

[Source: Bugatti]

Continue reading Bugatti honors Dubai with three special editions Veyrons

Bugatti honors Dubai with three special editions Veyrons originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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But Several Bright Spots Stand Out in Recent California Court Decisions

SACRAMENTO — California has been listed first in the “watch” category of a national legal reform group’s annual “Judicial Hellholes” roundup of states where it’s especially likely — and risky — to be sued.

The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) in making its announcement today said California is “on the cusp” and may in the future “fall into the Hellholes abyss or rise to the promise of equal justice under the law.” The ATRA review focuses on meritless lawsuits and laws that tilt the playing field in favor of plaintiffs’ lawyers.

“It’s hard to dispute the California ‘watch’ classification,” said Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) President John H. Sullivan. “But over this past year there have been some positive court decisions, plus promising rule-making work going on by court administrators that holds promise of improvements in key areas such as asbestos litigation, faster trials, and overall court efficiency.”

“With the state facing a projected $20 billion shortfall by mid-2011 and forecasters projecting a double-digit unemployment rate into 2012, now is the time for state legislators, who really drive the litigation climate, to enact changes that will allow courts to be more efficient, improve the civil justice system for all litigants, and attract and retain business investment in the state,” he added.

Two California Supreme Court rulings provide examples of how the system is becoming more balanced:

• In November, the Court for the first time endorsed a cap on punitive damages, ruling 5-2 that anything more than a one-to-one ratio between compensatory and punitive damages would be unconstitutionally excessive (Roby v. McKesson, filed 11/30/2009).

• The Court last year gave manufacturing companies much-deserved protection against over-reaching product liability suits when it ruled that companies do not have to warn experts about products the experts are trained and hired to work with (Johnson v. American Standard, Inc., filed 4/3/2008).

Meanwhile, Sullivan said, state lawmakers will have a chance in the upcoming legislative session to make changes to put the state back on track to economic recovery. They could start by bringing balance to California’s class action law. They could also enact a law to bring the state’s judicial interest rate on appealed judgments up to date.

As Sullivan said: “These and some similar changes would make California a more attractive place for business investment which, in turn, will provide much-needed jobs for Californians.”

Read the full ATRA report at www.atra.org.

Contact: John H. Sullivan
916-443-4900
[email protected]

The UN climate negotiations are getting more tense by the day.  Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo De Boer, reflecting on his work today, noted that “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” in reference to the Heads of State who will be arriving over the next 48 hours with a view to a political agreement being reached.

US Special Envoy Todd Stern spent a good portion of his day informally negotiating with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).  The US is in a continual position of defending President Obama’s mitigation targets of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 when IPCC data suggests deeper cuts (25-40 percent) and from a different baseline level (1990).  US officials put on a full court press today putting out the word that there are “different pathways” to reach the same scientific goals and their targets are as ambitious as any brought to Copenhagen.  When pressed on the issue of whether Obama’s announced negotiating position is indeed a final position, Stern stated that he is “not anticipating any further changes to mitigation reduction targets but there are other programs in the Congressional bills beyond the direct targets that would reduce emissions significantly further.”  I spoke with a colleague at the World Resources Institute, (the former employer of Jonathan Pershing, a key negotiator for the State Department) on this matter who notes a study finding that additional potential emission reduction programs under the Waxman-Markey bill (from which the current 17 percent position originates) beyond the stated cap target could actually get the US 33 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.  National Renewable Energy Portfolio standards are an example of an additional policy measure that can achieve further reductions.

China on the other hand, is under pressure to “put pen to paper” in the international compliance context.  The China mitigation pledge is to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45 percent by the year 2020, compared with 2005 levels.  Carbon intensity, China’s preferred measurement, is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP.  By and large that target appears to be a satisfying starting point for the US and others, although there is certainly pressure for more.  More relevant to the informal negotiations today, the US wants some measure of international review and auditing processes and agreed upon methodologies for commitments by all countries.  China and the US are not yet there on a political deal that encompasses a shared vision of monitoring, verification and reporting.

Thrown into the mix are the continued G77 demands on climate finance and setting a deadline for a legally binding agreement in 2010 to firm up the political deal anticipated here in Copenhagen.  President Obama’s calls to some African leaders yesterday and their return to the negotiating table appear to signal that piece of the puzzle can come together at the end of the day.  The negotiations are now focused on taking the various negotiation text pieces as far as possible with a deadline for working groups to report to the Plenary by tomorrow morning with results.  At that point, the horses will begin trotting into town….and there is plenty of water (and now snow!) in Copenhagen.  Stay tuned.

Google is enhancing its recently introduced Fusion Tables data management tool, which is labeled as a Labs project, with the release of a dedicated API. The API will enable users with dynamic data sets to update them without having to log into the Fusion Tables site or having to manually add the new data. This way the various visualizations and tables the users have created will always have the latest data available.

“In Fusion Tables, you can share all or part of a table with other people… By merging your data with other people’s shared tables, you can see the whole picture in one place, discuss the data in embedded comments, and mark up the data with your collaborators,” Anno Langen, Jayant Madhavan and Rebecca Shapley from the Google Fusion Tables Team wrote.

“With the new Fusion Tables API, you can update and query your dataset in Fusion Tables programmatically, without ever logging in to the Fusion Tables website. The API means you can import data from whatever data source you may have, whether a text file or a full-powered data base,” they added.

Google launched Fusion Tables as a cloud-based tool for visualizing, merging and collaborating on data regardless of its origins. It originally enabled users to upload tabular data sets o… (read more)

After some signs that consumers were starting to catch up on their credit card bills, charge-offs are back on the rise!

Reuters: Capital One Financial Corp and Discover Financial Services reported that credit-card charge-offs rose in November — a sign that consumers remain under stress.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate — debts the company believes it will never collect — for U.S. credit cards rose to 9.60 percent in November from 9.04 percent in October.

In another regulatory filing, Discover said its charge-off rate rose to 8.98 percent from 8.54 percent after two months of declines.

JPMorgan’s charge-offs are up as well.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• CHART OF THE DAY: The Amazing Spiraling Mortgage Delinquencies
• Credit Corrosion Continues With Bank Delinquencies At A Record
• Best Buys Sees A Stingy Consumer This Christmas (BBY)

After suffering $12 trillion in losses to their investment portfolio over the past two years, you might think that Americans would be hesitant to keep pouring money into the markets.

Couple that with the fact that many Americans completely missed the stunning rally of 2009 and the signs that we might be headed for massive inflation that could wipe out many investment gains. This should be a recipe for Americans spending their dollars instead of risking them to inflation or further declines in buying power.

But that’s not what’s happening at all. A survey from IBM last month found that a larger percentage Americans are surprisingly cutting back on spending than on investing in their portfolios. The poll found that 27% of investors are contributing less, while 35% plan to spend less on holiday gifts and travel. Fourteen percent plan to increase investing, and 8% plan to spend more on holiday shopping.

“The consumer buying behavior has fundamentally changed,” IBM research Suzanne Duncan said, according to a Dow Jones report. “They have become longer-term in orientation, both with how they view retailers and their financial providers.”

What’s behind this enthusiasm for investing? Much of it may just be ignorance. The survey found that investors don’t know much about basic finance despite increased attention to financial news. Only half of those polled knew that Ben Bernanke is the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

These findings are in keeping with long standing research showing that investors are ignorant to a startling degree. They mirror the broader findings that researchers have uncovered about widespread public ignorance. Although some solipsistic media types will likely say that journalists are to blame for not educating the public, the truth is probably that many people are simply ineducable.  What’s more, they overestimate the own knowledge, which means they aren’t rationally ignorant. They are ignorant of their ignorance. It’s ignorance all the way down.

Instead of knowledge about finance, investors and consumers use a far more personal set of heuristics to make decisions. Investors don’t know or care much about the financial stability of their brokers or the performance of their investments. They make decisions on the relationship they have with a firm and their broker

Similarly, consumers make purchase decisions based on relationships with retailers rather than a deep knowledge about products.

This will no doubt frustrate those who are enthusiastic about investor education or consumer advocacy. But reality often frustrates plans to improve people.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Great News: If You Didn’t Panic, Your 401(K) Is Now Above Water
• Greenspan: Bernanke Is Out Of Bullets, Now Inflation Is The Big Risk
• Watch Meredith Whitney Explain How She’s Bearish But That She’s Been "Trading Bullish"

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In August 2009 I had talked about how Daimler had stated that they would be starting serial production of their Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell vehicles this year. Now, promises of building fuel cell cars have been a dime a dozen over the years but Daimler has made good on its promise by starting production on the first 200 FCVs on December 14, 2009.

The Mercedes B-Class F-Cell will be the first fuel cell vehicle to go into serial production. Sure, General Motors is in the process of building 200 FCV test cars for their Project Driveway program. And, sure again, Honda is in the process of building 200 Clarity vehicles for lease at $600 per month for 3 years with an uncertain future after that.

But, Daimler has decided to go full steam ahead with their hydrogen car, beating the 2015 timeframe that many other automakers have given for the serial production of their FCVs. In September 2009, I had talked about how Daimler and seven other large companies had signed on to the H2 Mobility Plan for Germany in erecting hydrogen fueling stations for the upcoming cars that will be rolling out.

The Mercedes B-Class F-Cells will likely be rolling out in Germany first, with a few going to California as well, which already has some semblance of a Hydrogen Highway fueling system in place. The Daimler B-Class F-Cell uses a next generation fuel cell, a 10,000 psi compressed hydrogen tank and has a range of around 250 miles.

There has been no word yet on the price of the Daimler FCV when it rolls off the production line in 2010. If Daimler wants the B-Class F-Cell to be a success, which they surely do, they will need to make it affordable and serviceable locally.

Pre-Budget Report
The Disability Alliance launched their ‘Tackling Disability Poverty’ manifesto to coincide with the Pre-Budget Report. (09 Dec)

In their response to the Pre-Budget Report, Mencap have expressed disappointment with the lack of long-term funding to support people with learning disabilities. (09 Dec)

Age Concern and Help the Aged have responded to the Pre-Budget Report, calling for protection of care services as a necessity. (10 Dec)

Crossroads and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers have criticised the lack of an additional Christmas payment for carers in the Pre-Budget Report. (10 Dec)

The English Community Care Association has stated that the Pre-Budget Report fails on the criteria of outcomes and value for money. (10 Dec)

Care
Carers UK has welcomed the Department of Work and Pensions’ plan to support carers in paid work. (07 Dec)

Counsel and Care have announced that their annual conference in January 2010 will focus on how high-quality and personalised care can be delivered most effectively. (09 Dec)

Carers UK have called for clarification from the Government, with the Second Reading of the Personal Care at Home Bill, over how it will work and how it will help carers. (11 Dec)

General
Alzheimer’s Society has responded to research into developing a drug that could protect against the disease, calling for greater funding for dementia research. (11 Dec)

Comscore has released some numbers for the US smartphone market that makes for some interesting reading. The numbers, which reflect devices owned by users rather than market share, shows that Windows Mobile still has a pretty significant installed base of around 7 million smartphones in US, only moderately less than the 9 million iPhones in the US and that Apple only overtook Windows Mobile in the last 2 months, after the introduction of the iPhone 3GS and the cheaper iPhone 3G.

This is of course not reflected in the attitude of the blogosphere, who has relegated the OS to irrelevance ages ago.

Another indicated that mindshare seems to have little to do with market share is that Android installed base is only around 1 million, with Windows Mobile installed base 7 times larger. Even Symbian has a larger share in US than Android, and unexpectedly between July and October 2009 grew its installed base by 24%, compared to only 14% for Android. 

Also not reflected by the blogosphere is that the real king of the US smartphone world is RIM’s Blackberry, with 41% of the installed base, and more that 50% growth over the last 8 months.  This indicated clearly that there are more than one route to market success, and ones that do not just rely on iTunes integration and 100 000 apps.

The Windows Mobile installed base itself saw 5% growth over the 8 months.  Obviously this is much less that the 42% the market itself grew, it is still highly significant that the current generation of devices in the US, such as the Touch Pro 2 continue to win converts.

Spare a thought for Palm, who’s webOS sales and installed base were not large enough to break out.

See the raw data here.

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Misc. Auto Shows, Middle East

Over the past several years, we’ve seen no end of photos of high-end cars with bright chrome and gold finishes coming out of the Middle East and Russia. Until now, none of those have come that way from an automaker’s paint shop. However, you just knew that couldn’t last, and alas, Mercedes-Benz has created a special version of its new SLS AMG supercar for the 2009 Dubai Motor Show.

Fortunately, Mercedes has decided to forgo the shiny route and applied a matte gold finish dubbed “AMG Desert Gold” to the gull-winged SLS. The badging and trim bits like the three-pointed star also go from the usual chrome or silver to a deep back look, as do the wheels. The overall appearance is actually quite much easier on the eyes than the mirror-finished gold appliques we are used to seeing. At this point the show car is a one-off, but Mercedes has said that if there is enough interest (read enough checks with sufficient zeros) the desert gold paint will be offered through the AMG PERFORMANCE STUDIO program.

Joining the gold SLS on the Dubai stand is a special 30th anniversary “Edition 79” G55 AMG KOMPRESSOR SUV. This one gets a matte grey finish that is normally only offered on the SLS. The Edition 79 comes with a 507-hp supercharged V8 under the hood for quick blasts across the sand. In proper high-end limited edition fashion, only 79 examples of this old school Benz will be built with all of them headed to the mid-East.

[Source: Mercedes-Benz]

Continue reading Mercedes-Benz SLS goes from zero to gold in seconds for Dubai show

Mercedes-Benz SLS goes from zero to gold in seconds for Dubai show originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pernahkah kita mendengar seseorang membeli obat di Apotik sebanyak setengah dari jumlah yang tertera dalam resep dokter ? Ungkapan “nebus obat separo” atau “nebus obat setengah”, boleh jadi mengandung dua pengertian. Pertama, mungkin pasien beranggapan obat yang diberikan oleh dokter terlalu banyak. Kedua, mungkin harga obat dalam resep terlalu mahal. Atau tidak cukup uang untuk membeli semua obat yang tertulis dalam resep saat ambil obat di apotik. Menurut pengakuan pasien, alasan terbanyak adalah faktor kedua, yakni: obat mahal banget.

Lantas, bagaimana reaksi dokter ketika mengetahui pasiennya hanya “nebus obat setengah” dari yang diresepkan ketika si pasien berobat lagi ?

Beragam ! Ada dokter yang mengganti resep dengan obat merk lain atau dengan obat generik tanpa mengorbankan fungsi dan kualitas obat. Ada yang berujar bahwa sebenarnya harga obat tidak semahal perkiraannya. Ada yang berusaha mencari tahu ke apotik. Ada pula yang bereaksi tidak menyenangkan sembari berkata: “ harga obat memang mahal, mau sembuh apa tidak ?” 

SALAH SIAPA ?

Menanggapi fenomena “nebus obat setengah resep” tidak cukup dengan menyalahkan pasien dan dokter secara sepihak. Di luar itu masih ada pihak lain terkait pelayanan medis, yakni apotik dan produsen obat. Dengan kata lain, fenomena “nebus obat setengah resep” yang disebabkan mahalnya harga obat, merupakan lingkaran nan kompleks. Pada artikel ini, kita akan sedikit menguak dari sisi si empunya kompetensi penulis resep, yaitu dokter.

OBAT IRASIONAL DAN MAIN MATA

Mengacu pada pedoman Badan Kesehatan Dunia (WHO) pada 1987, pemakaian obat yang rasional adalah yang memenuhi kriteria sebagai berikut:

1. Digunakan sesuai dengan indikasi penyakit
2. Tersedia setiap saat dengan harga yang terjangkau masyarakat luas
3. Diberikan dengan dosis yang tepat
4. Diberikan dalam interval waktu yang tepat
5. Lama pemberiannya tepat
6. Obat yang diberikan harus efektif, aman, dan mutunya terjamin.

Faktanya, masih banyak pemberian obat irasional, terutama terkait “indikasi”. Sudah menjadi rahasia umum bahwa sebagian dokter memberikan obat kepada pasien tidak melulu berdasarkan “indikasi penyakit”, tapi terselip “indikasi lain”. Apa saja “indikasi lain” di balik indikasi penyakit ? Bentuk dan nilai nominalnya beragam, diantaranya:  bonus, kredit nota (CN), kontrak peresepan, uang transport, persentase resep, dan masih banyak lagi istilah yang digunakan sebagai bentuk main mata antara produsen obat dan dokter.

Pelbagai bentuk  “kerja sama” antara dokter dan produsen obat, semuanya dibebankan kepada pasien. Ujung-ujungnya bisa ditebak, yakni harga obat makin melambung. Belum lagi adanya kecenderungan dokter meresepkan obat mahal, dan bahkan ada yang terang-terangan mengarahkan pasien untuk membeli obat di apotik tertentu.

Beberapa teman sejawat bertutur: “ gimana mas, kita gak minta tapi dikasih, masa mau ditolak ”. Yaaaaa, tolak aja. Apa sulitnya bilang tidak. Toh uang begituan gak bakalan bikin kaya. Malah membuat dokter berada pada posisi bak hamba sahaya yang dikendalikan pihak lain.

dr. Djoko Santoso, SpPD K-GH PhD dalam artikelnya yang dimuat di beberapa koran, berjudul Terjerat Pemakaian Obat Irasional, menyebutkan bahwa harga obat di Indonesia tergolong paling mahal di kawasan Asia Pasifik. Pada paragraf kedua, beliau menuliskan:

Hasil penelitian Health Action International (HAI) Penang pada 1995 terhadap 22 jenis obat yang paling banyak digunakan di 29 negara Asia Pasifik membuktikan bahwa harga obat di negeri kita tercinta ini memang yang termahal di kawasan ASEAN. Pemicunya, pemakaian obat di Indonesia tergolong tidak rasional.

UPAYA JALAN KELUAR

Banyak artikel telah ditulis para ahli guna mereduksi mahalnya harga obat di Indonesia. Undang-undang dan peraturanpun telah dibuat untuk mengendalikan harga obat agar terjangkau tanpa mengurangi kualitasnya. Apa daya, tanpa langkah nyata yang sungguh-sungguh dan berkesinambungan, segala upaya menurunkan harga obat hanyalah angan-angan belaka.

Bagi kita para dokter, upaya ikut membantu mengendalikan harga obat dapat dilakukan dengan mudah, yakni dengan memberikan obat rasional dan yang tak kalah penting adalah tidak menerima pemberian dari pihak manapun yang berpotensi melambungkan harga obat.

Semoga bermanfaat.

:: :: :: posting menggunakan WLW :: :: ::

Posted in Artikel, Health, Informasi, Kedokteran, Kesehatan, Opini, Renungan Tagged: Apotik, Dokter, Obat, Resep

24/7 Wall Street places its bets on 12 2010 mega-deals.

“There are no transactions on this list that do not make immediate strategic sense. Some of the companies are weak enough so that a buyout will be necessary for them to remain viable businesses. Each deal was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the transactions most likely to close and 1 representing the least likely…”

See the deals >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• 10 Brands That Will Disappear In 2010
• The Biggest Losers Of The Decade
• 10 American Industries That Will Boom In The Next Decade

We got quite a surprise when we split open this spaghetti squash – inside were sprouted seeds! Has this ever happened to you? Did you eat it?

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