GM dealers tired of hearing about 2011 Chevrolet Volt? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?		LA 2009: Ford Focus BEV update These might be the most in-demand Fords around.
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AutoblogGreen for 12.09.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China is once again using winks and nods to signal to the market that it will ease back its ultra-stimulative economic policies.

Reuters: The headline theme of the Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Monday, was continuity: the government once again vowed to maintain the stimulus spending and accommodative monetary stance that it adopted last year to cushion the blow of the global financial crisis.

Beneath that headline, though, Beijing offered a smattering of signs that it will gently pull on the reins.

It said that new investment projects would be "strictly controlled," implying that capital spending, which has been the biggest contributor to overall growth this year, will ease as the government slows the pace of approvals.

The top leadership also insisted that it would enhance policy flexibility, opening the door to a more pronounced shift to tightening at a later date.

Sounds pretty spineless... but according to 'a person' this time they might have more concrete measures to back their words:

Sydney Morning Herald: China's banking regulator plans to slow new lending to between 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) and 8 trillion yuan next year, a person familiar with the matter said. The China Banking Regulatory Commission's recommended range compares with 8.9 trillion yuan of new local-currency loans in the first 10 months of this year. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Reuters: Increases in bank' reserve requirements could come as early as the start of the second quarter, while the central bank will probably raise interest rates by about 54 basis points during the second half of next year, he estimated.

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See Also:

• China Executes Rogue Trader
• Cnooc Doubles Down On Oil And Gas Production Off South China Sea
• New 3x Leveraged China ETFs Let You Super-Punt The Ultimate Bubble

If you’re an investor — or interested in being an investor — in the uber-speculative world of gold mining stocks, you’re highly encouraged to read this analysis from MineWeb, on the failure of many major gold miners to soar or spin off substantial cash, despite the boom in the yellow metal.

Gold producers are finding it increasingly difficult to generate profits, which are increasingly complicated to express under dazed modern accounting rules. But no gold miner can escape from the challenge that generating free cash flow is now agonizingly difficult. Free cash flow is simply operating cash flow, less cash laid out on capital expenditure.

Since the start of 2007 (and excluding the fourth quarter of 2009), eight of the world’s Tier I gold stocks — – AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick (ABX), Goldcorp, Newmont (NEM), Yamana, Kinross, Harmony, and Gold Fields —  have generated negative free cash flow of USD 3.2bn (for the first nine months of this year, in line with rising bullion prices, generation of free cash flow has been positive to the tune of USD 1.1bn).

Cash flow deficits have been financed by raising fresh equity, to the tune of USD 10.1bn, raising fresh debt, and selling assets. These eight gold companies have been determined, however, to create a lively impression, paying an astonishing USD 2.7bn in cash dividends over the period. Cash has often moved around in circles, rather than from profitable gold mines to shareholders.

Given the belief among so many in the gold world that cash is mere worthless paper, it’s a wonder these companies would go through such trouble to borrow cash, and then distribute it to shareholders. Why not just pay dividends by sending out envelopes containing gold flecks, and skip all the nonsense.

Regardless, it is pretty shocking looking at a company like Newmont (NEM), over the past 5 years, and seeing how lackluster its performance has been. Only with the latest gold surge has it really made much of a power move, and as the article notes, it’s still not anywhere its highs of just a couple of years ago.

Combine the free cash flow problems at the majors, with the .com-like IPO mania from junior miners without real businesses, and you have a situation in which investors need to proceed very cautiously.

Read the whole story at MineWeb >>

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See Also:

• Money Pours Into Tiny Speculative Miners As "Peak Gold" Looms
• Barrick Gold: Here’s Why We Eliminated Our Gold Hedges, Just As The Marked Started To Peak (ABX)
• Did Barrick’s De-Hedging Call The Top In Gold? (ABX)

Last year, we wrote about a case brought by a woman named Julie Riggs against MySpace. The complaint itself is somewhat of an amusing read (“At this point Plaintiff was literally seething with anger to the point that she was now consumed by it”). The main issue was that Riggs had created a website that tried to determine which celebrity profiles on MySpace were real and which were fake. She was upset (among other things) because (1) there were fake profiles on MySpace (2) MySpace later did something similar itself and (3) MySpace deleted her profile. After we wrote about the case, we received an angry email from Ms. Riggs telling us we “missed the point” and that MySpace “stole” her idea — and that we needed to get our story straight. She never explains how coming up with the same idea is illegal, of course. Also, my favorite: “What can you expect from site such as yours though.” Indeed.

Unfortunately, it appears that the district court also “missed the point” and did not get the story straight, because as Eric Goldman points out, it has dismissed the lawsuit. However, in this case, it may actually be true that the court missed the point. As Goldman notes in his discussion of the ruling, the court seems a bit confused about how Section 230 of the CDA works, and may have dismissed parts of the case for rather confused reasons. Riggs has appealed, so hopefully the Appeals Court fixes the problems (but still dismisses it). However, again as Goldman notes, this is taking place in the notoriously nutty Ninth Circuit, which often has a problem with reading Section 230 the way everyone else reads Section 230. Hopefully, they get this one right.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 —
full exif & map — nearby photos

odd assemblage of carved stones

What am I?

So, I didn’t stump anyone in my previous “Fairly Dirty
What am I? Quiz”, and probably won’t this time either, but while
in the back gardens
behind the Nishimura
Stone Lanterns workshop, amid the bounty of photogenic
beauty of 800 years worth of stone carvings, I came across the above
assemblage of stone (granite, I assume) whose purpose, like many of the
pieces I encountered that day, seemed mysterious to me.

It sort of looks like a bench, but it’s much smaller than that… maybe
8″ (20cm) tall.

What is it?

Google Groups may not be the most glamorous service the Internet giant runs, but apparently its one of the most popular. It enables users to easily setup and manage groups around topics or interests and access them through the discussion forums or receive updates by email. Now Google has integrated Groups with Apps, one of the most obvious product marriages the company has ever made. Companies and schools can now create and manage groups within the Premier and Education Editions of Google Apps.

“Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of Google Groups to Google Apps Premier and Education Edition users. Google Groups is one of our most widely used applications, enabling everyone from the local hiking club to the family next door to create mailing lists and discussion forums,” Rajen Sheth, senior product manager for Google Apps wrote.

“Now employees within a company can create groups for their departments, their teams or their projects. Employees can use these groups as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients,” he added.

Users can keep update through the usual means, either by visiting the group and going through the threads or by opting to receive updates in thei… (read more)

Here it is in all its glory -- Goldman is forecasting no Fed rate hikes until 2012. That means over two more years of ultra-low interest rates. It's counter-consensus and well below what the market expects.

Do we hear a freight train coming?

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See Also:

• Dear Goldman: Welcome To Your New Neighborhood!
• John Stossel: Why Goldman Sachs Is Good For America (NWS, DIS, GS)
• Are We Wrong About The Suckiness Of Goldman’s Lobby Art?

Eco Factor: Concept cellphone powered by thermoelectric and piezoelectric devices.

In an era where smart phones are dominating the cellphone market, industrial designers are working on concepts that have a simple feature set, but make use of futuristic technology to get powered by renewable sources of energy. The Zeri Phone by industrial designer Paul Frigout is one such cellphone that gets powered by a thermoelectric and piezoelectric system.

(more…)

A Gazprom spokesman on Monday dismissed concerns that a growth in the production of shale gas would pose a threat to the company’s foreign sales, voicing the gas giant’s first comment on the prospect.

After gas prices surged last year and early this year, many European gas companies have begun studying the U.S. technology for producing shale gas, which may be a cheaper source of fuel.

“The speculations that shale gas is cheaper than the Russian gas are not true,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said in an interview with Russia Today television.

Read more at Oil & Gas Eurasia >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• What Advances In Horizontal Drilling Mean For Shale Oil (UNG, USO)
• Shale Is A "Game Changer" For Natural Gas (UNG)
• Something Smells Funny About Shale Gas (CHK, UNG)

We’ve recently started rethinking our stance on garlic powder.

It’s always seemed to us like a poor substitute for the real thing, and something we can throw in when we don’t feel like going through the trouble of peeling and mincing. But a few situations have come up recently that have made us wonder if we’ve been a little too quick to judge.

What’s your opinion?

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So you bought a new Memory for your HP Pavilion Laptop. The next thing to do is go to a computer technician and pay them to install your new laptop OR you could try this instructional guide instead.

Here’s a video from jamesrchultz of youtube on How to Install RAM in the HP Pavilion Dv6809wm (Or any Laptop Computer with DDR2 Memory).

I thought it would be interesting to show you how to install your RAM in the HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop.

This instructional video could save you a couple of dollars.

Watch the video, and let me know your thoughts about it below!

For those of you who cannot watch the video, here is the text summary:

James begins by showing a turned off HP Pavilion Laptop. He then flips over the laptop to show the bottom side of the laptop.

James starts by removing the battery first. He shows how to remove the battery by pushing the battery latch.

After removing the battery, he then explains where the RAM Expansion cover is located, it is at the center and not at the right left side which is where the Hardisk is located. He also mentions other HP Pavilion Entertainment PC parts like the wireless card, BIOS battery and the CD/DVD Drive.

He unscrews the screws to remove the cover of the RAM Expansion.

He proceeds to remove by pulling the connector away from the RAM. He loosens both sides of the connector to release the first RAM. After the RAM is removed, RAM Expansion slot connector is about 30 degree angle. He mentions to be careful not to touch the gold pins.

After removing the first RAM. The second RAM is showed. Again he lifts the RAM Expansion slot connector by 30 degree angle and proceeds to loosen both sides of the connector to release the second RAM.

That’s how you remove the RAM.

To install the RAM, install the RAM expansion module into the connector at about 30 degree angle until it’s fully inserted. Then press both down at both sides of the module until it latches. James mention the RAM’s notch. The notch on the RAM and the connector should be aligned.

To install the second RAM follow the same steps. James put’s the cover back on and he then proceeds by screwing the RAM Expansion cover. Note: Don’t forget to put the battery back.

He access the BIOS( Basic Input and Output system). You can access this Setup Utility by pressing F10 when the HP logo appears. Note: On other versions you might press F2 to access the BIOS. If you have a Bios password, enter it.

In the BIOS Main page, you will see the Total Memory where you will see the RAM installed without booting the OS.

Hope you enjoyed this HP Pavilion Entertainment PC part guide and get the value of saving money you would pay for a technician to install the RAM. Feel free to share this family, friends, and co-workers

In this special 343rd episode, posted on the 343rd day of the year, I interview some of the team members at 343 Industries who are responsible for all things Halo at Microsoft Game Studios.

Host: Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson (Xbox LIVE ) (Twitter)  

Bonnie Ross – General Manager, 343 Industries

Justin Korthof – Community Manager, 343 Industries

Jon Goff – Community Manager, 343 Industries

Kevin Grace – Managing Editor, 343 Industries

Eric Nylund – Author

Jeremy Patenaude – Content Creator, 343 Industries (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com)
Jacob Benton – Content Creator, 343 Industries (Formerly of AscendantJustice.com)

Josh Holmes – Executive Producer, 343 Industries

Frank O’Connor – Franchise Development Director, 343 Industries

Get the show now! You know you want to.  
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) Listen in iTunes? Submit a review
[RSS] Add the Major Nelson Blogcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3).

[MP3] <—– Download the show

Format:
1:28:58, 34.4 MB, (MP3)

Click the player below to stream this show to your browser:

Links to some of the things mentioned in this episode:

http://halo.xbox.com
http://www.bungie.net

http://www.twitter.com/HaloWaypoint

http://www.facebook.com/HaloWaypoint

Eco Factor: Low-emission car powered by a hybrid engine.

Land Rover has announced that the company is developing a new Range Rover Sport Hybrid that will emit just 100g/km of CO2 and will have an all-electric range of 20 miles. Five prototypes of the vehicle will be launched next year ahead of a 2012 sales launch.

(more…)

Prior to the financial crisis, “global imbalances” — primarily large American budget and trade deficits financed by foreigners — were considered a potential trigger for a coming global financial crisis.

But the nightmare scenario scenario of foreign investors’ shifting preference away from the dollar forcing devaluation or interest rate hikes didn’t happen.

In fact, U.S. debt securities were snapped up by international investors during the height of the crisis.

So, can we forget about scary “global imbalance” caused-crises?

Nope.

Free market think tank AEI hosted an event on the the subject, “Global Imbalances: The Next Crisis?” featuring University of Virginia economist Frank Warnock’s assessment of the the continued threat.

“As it turns out we did have a crisis but not the global imbalances crisis,” said Warnock. Yet Warnock’s research on American debt says that imbalances remain important. Reserve accumulation and global investors’ preferences could more likely prolong, rather than end, financial imbalances, he says.

SEE WARNOCK’S PRESENTATION WARNING ABOUT GLOBAL IMBALANCES>>>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• John Mauldin: Here’s Why Our Massive Debt Mountain Will Kill Us In The End
• RBS: The Debt Timebomb Is Ticking And Must Be Defused
• The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default

The latest Google Chrome build, 4.0.249.30, has just been upgraded to the Beta channel on all platforms. This new beta release is an important milestone as it marks the first betas available for both Mac and Linux users which have been waiting more than a year to get to try a fully-baked Chrome on their machines. The biggest news for existing users though is the new Extensions Gallery which also went live along with the beta releases. The beta versions for the two platforms and full extensions support were the three most requested features the Chrome development team received.

For those who have been checking out the dev channel releases the Beta doesn’t bring any surprises and is very similar to the builds we’ve been seeing for the past couple of weeks with just a few bug fixes. This was to be expected, as the team worked to get the browser to beta quality and focused on bug fixing and stability rather than new features. If you’ve been running any of the 4.0.249.xx builds, you basically already have the beta installed.

If you’re updating from the latest beta version which launched more than a month ago, the latest beta comes with quite a few bug and stability fixes, but not so much in terms of features apart from a couple of new HTML 5 features.

However, this latest launch is a big one as it m… (read more)

Even as the BLS and the administration are trying to cover up the real state of unemployment affairs using assorted semantic gimmicks of just what it means to be unemployed, and as companies provide adjusted EPS numbers, while actual earnings continue to collapse, the true barometer of spending, provided by the Financial Management Service, tax withholdings (net of refunds), continues to paint the truest picture of just what is really happening with both America’s consumer and the corporate world. And it ain’t pretty. On a rolling 12 month basis, individual tax withheld has dropped by nearly 8% YoY, from $1.42 trillion to $1.31 trillion, while company witholdings are down a whalloping 64%, from $274 billion to just under $100 billion!

Read the whole story at ZeroHedge >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Ken Rogoff: Housing, Unemployment Will Get Worse Before They Get Better
• Here’s Why The Unemployment Survey Has Been Wrong All Year
• Gartman: Here’s Why The Unemployment Arithmetic Must Be Wrong

Tonight, someone will be named the Season 6 Top Chef – are you excited? Will one of the ambitious Voltaggio brothers rise to the top? Or will Kevin and his elevated comfort food take home the win? Answer our poll below and tell us who you’re rooting for.

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