Slim-Fast has issued a massive recall of all Ready to Drink (RTD) cans due to the possibility of contamination with Bacillus cereus, a microorganism which can cause diarrhea, nausea and/or vomiting. Consumers who have purchased Slim-Fast RTD products in cans are urged to discard them immediately and contact the company at 1-800-896-9479 for a full refund. Get more details.
John Mauldin, President, Millennium Wave Advisors, LLC (5 min)
Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei
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EFF filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit’s en banc review of Mohamed v. Jeppesen, a case brought by the ACLU challenging the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the government’s argument that the case had to be dismissed at the outset due to the state secrets privilege. The panel decision is now being considered by a larger, en banc panel of the Court.
EFF notes that the government has made the same dangerous and overreaching state secrets arguments in the domestic warrantless wiretapping cases handled by EFF. The brief begins:
This case is another in a set of post-September 11, 2001 cases in which the Executive, having made new and tremendously broad assertions of its unilateral power, seeks to prevent the Judiciary from adjudicating the lawfulness of those new powers. To do so, the Executive skews the relevant caselaw on the state secrets privilege, attempts to rely on a case in which the privilege was not even the basis for the decision and claims that the court must blind itself to credible, admissible, nonsecret evidence because the Executive has determined that it cannot confirm or deny a particular fact. Adopting the government’s position would abdicate the Judiciary’s Article III responsibility to adjudicate the constitutional and statutory limits on Executive authority.
Oral argument is scheduled in the case in San Francisco on December 15, 2009. EFF has been urging Congress to reform the state secrets privilege.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, HTC generally only produce high end devices (I can’t think of one that was deliberately low end apart from the HTC Tattoo), but that may well be about to change.
The latest set of devices to be leaked are all running on the Qualcomm MSM7227 platform (which given Snapdragon may well be a step back). MSM7227 definitely isn’t Snapdragon, as they are QSD8XXX. So, what is it then?
Well, according to Qualcomm themselves it “targets sub-$150 Smartphones with versatile, high-performance chipset supporting all leading mobile OS”. That includes WM, Android, BREW and even Symbian. Clearly then, this was never destined for high performance devices.
The main benefit of MSM7227 aside from the cost seems to be the ease of reusing tools and software for the MSM7200A chipsets that have been in almost every HTC device for the past few years.
So, are you looking forward to the day when Smartphones and “dumbphones” are indistinguishable in price, or would you prefer HTC to produce more devices like the HD2?
Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Auctions, Lamborghini
If you were shocked when Lamborghini unveiled a four-door in the form of the Estoque concept at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, then you know how enthusiasts must have felt when the Raging Bull took the wraps off the Espada in 1968. A four-seat Lambo? Shocking! But that’s what they did, and the Espada entered into the history books.
Powered by Lambo’s trusty 3.9-liter V12 that already appeared in the 350GT, 400GT and Miura, the Espada was the first Lambo to be offered with an automatic. In fact, it was the first automatic transmission – all two speeds of it – capable of handling that much power, and came on offer with the 1974 model. This model, however, was made in ’72 – making it one of the last Series II models made before the Series III came along – and is equipped with a five-speed manual, along with four-wheel disc brakes and a fully independent suspension: cutting edge stuff for its time.
It’s tan, it’s had one owner, and from the looks of things, it’s been kept in meticulous condition. The car’s up for grabs on eBay by Lamborghini Houston. Bidding at the time of writing is up to a modest $20,200 and the reserve price hasn’t been met yet, so if this is your idea of automotive heaven, stop on by and check it out.
[Source: eBay Motors]
eBay Find of the Day: 1972 Lamborghini Espada is tanfastic originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
So we all learned about Just Cause 2’s basic game mechanics in this earlier video (qjnet/playstation-3/just-cause-2-set-to-explode-in-march.html). Now it’s time to see what Rico Rodriguez can do when he gets
If you thought that author Sherman Alexie’s views on the Kindle were quintessential luddism, you haven’t seen anything yet. Reader JonMontgo alerts us to a rather stunning opinion by novelist and poet Alan Kaufman who goes into full rant mode, calling Google Books and the Kindle to be the end result of Nazism. It’s hard to read this and not wonder if someone flipped a bit somewhere. He goes on and on, making wild cognitive leaps that have no basis in reality. The basic summary is that Nazis used “high tech” methods to more efficiently exterminate the Jews, and thus, pretty much any modern technology that hasn’t been carefully reviewed to make sure it can only be used for good purposes, is a continuation of Nazi efforts. Furthermore, the Nazi’s hated books, and thus, these new technologies are really designed to kill books, and claims that paper books are killing trees are simply propaganda from people trying to destroy books. Seriously. Here’s just a bit:
Today’s hi-tech propagandists tell us that the book is a tree-murdering, space-devouring, inferior form that society would be better off without. In its place, they want us to carry around the Uber-Kindle.The hi-tech campaign to relocate books to Google and replace books with Kindles is, in its essence, a deportation of the literary culture to a kind of easily monitored concentration camp of ideas, where every examination of a text leaves behind a trail, a record, so that curiosity is also tinged with a sense of disquieting fear that some day someone in authority will know that one had read a particular book or essay. This death of intellectual privacy was also a dream of the Nazis. And when I hear the term Kindle, I think not of imaginations fired but of crematoria lit.
Now, to be sure, there are reasonable concerns about the electronic trail we leave in using technology. And there are concerns about who really “owns” the digital book you access, and how much control you have over it as well as how much data you send back. But comparing it to the Nazis and concentration camps? That goes way overboard. And yet, Kaufman hasn’t just leapt off that board, he’s done so gleefully, in great detail:
The Nazis often were, by their own lights, well-intentioned idealists working for a better tomorrow. And their instrument was modern technology, aspects of philosophical and aesthetic modernism and the old religious concept of supercession implicit in the Christian notion of progress. Jews were outmoded, useless, they said. Most high level Nazis, like Himmler or Heydrich or Eichmann, did not feel visceral hatred towards the Jew. Rather, they looked upon them coldly as something that simply needed to disappear so that the new life could get on its way. And the means by which they sought to do so was first through a propaganda campaign that portrayed Jews, in Wagnerian terms, as a drag on the visionary energies and bursting vigor of the new Aryan man, and then by the implementation of this decision to eliminate Jews through ever more sophisticated state corporate and scientific technological means. And yet, during the war crime trials at Nuremberg, while Nazi Jurisprudence was tried and hanged, Nazi technological attitudes were not put on trial.The victorious Allies did not mandate that technology, which had been turned to such murderous ends, must pass an ethical standard review from an international body, like a UN of technology. No such body of decision came about. To the contrary, even while the war crime trials of Nazi chieftains were in session, American and Soviet governments were recruiting high-level Nazis to their intelligence services, military armaments industries, and space programs. So that, while in jurisprudence terms Nazi social and political values were delivered a blow, the Nazi fascination with technology merged seamlessly with that of their conquerors: us.
Normally, I would just call Godwin’s Law, and move on, but this is just beyond bizarre. Automatically assuming that all new high tech is a straight line from the Holocaust is just sickening and delusional beyond pretty much any level of standard luddism.
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In case you're skeptical about U.S. government employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), here's a reminder -- ADP's private payrolls data has lined up reasonably well with it.
In some cases, ADP's data has recently shown a more positive trend than the governments.
No data set is perfect, thus the more data points that roughly line up, the more one can be confident that the indicated direction is indeed the real underlying trend.
And while the employment situation remains challenging for many Americans, it's pretty rich to argue that the overall unemployment trend hasn't improved. It has, and more than one data set shows this.
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2009Dec7: “the last ten years have been the warmest period in the 160-year record of global surface temperature, maintained jointly by the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Similar results are revealed in the independent analyses made by the United States National Climatic Data Center and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies” (Met Office).
Reference: Met Office http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20091208b.html
Image Description: see case description. Image Location: Met Office http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20091208b.html Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.
With bullion prices at all-time highs and world-class gold discoveries becoming ever more elusive, the investment industry is gambling increasingly sizeable sums of money on major mines-in-the-making. A recent example of this new trend involves Exeter Resource Corporation (TSX.V: XRC) (NYSE-A: XRA). Specifically, a handful of top-tier investment banks snapped up the high-flying mining junior’s CDN $57.5 million equity financing last month in less than 24 hours.
Of Exeter’s war chest, a sizeable amount is being used to develop one of the world’s largest gold discoveries in recent years. The Caspiche gold/copper deposit in Chile is a veritable monster that weighs in at 33.7 million gold ‘equivalent’ ounces. (This ‘equivalent’ metric involves silver and copper by-product metals that are valued using baseline prices of US $12 for silver and US $2.00 per pound for copper, while US $800 is used for the gold valuation). Stated another way, Caspiche boasts an inferred resource estimate of 19.8 million ounces of gold, 40 million ounces of silver and 4.8 billion pounds of copper.
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The Twelve Lays of Christmas
The French Letter gospel singers preach free love, Fair Trade, and safe sex.
Filed under: Truck, Chrysler, Dodge
The Dodge Dakota — as we know it today — will go away in 2011, but looking at current sales of the mid-size pickup, it may as well be dead already. Chrysler has only sold 10,000 Dakotas this year, with an anemic 663 units cleared in November. But while the Dakota is selling poorly (it’s not helped by being too close in price to the much more capable Ram), it doesn’t necessarily mean that the enigmatic pickup won’t live on in another form.
Coinciding with earlier reports, the Detroit News says Chrysler is contemplating a unibody Dakota to replace the current model. A more fuel efficient car-based platform could yield better efficiency, especially when paired with a turbocharged four cylinder with direct injection. The car-based truck probably wouldn’t be a hauler but it would still have a functional bed similar to the Honda Ridgeline, and AWD would likely be an available option. Fred Diaz, the new head of the Ram brand, told the DN that the Pentastar is looking both at Fiat and from within its own stable of vehicles for any platforms that could help make the unibody Dakota a possibility, adding, “The emphasis is going to be on getting a vehicle that is still true to the Ram brand image and also gets excellent miles per gallon rating and at an attractive price point.” Chrysler was reportedly already working on a unibody Dakota when money troubles forced the idea to the back burner.
While we like the idea of a fuel efficient pickup that can do most of the things that a body on frame truck can do, we’re wondering if the truck-buying public will embrace the idea. The best example of a unibody pickup, the Honda Ridgeline, has been anything but a massive commercial hit and midsize trucks are already a dying breed, with only five percent of the overall vehicle market. But if Chrysler wants to make Ram its own brand, we’re guessing that the Pentastar’s truck company is going to need more than one vehicle.
[Source: Detroit News]
REPORT: Chrysler still considering unibody Dakota replacement originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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“Yahoo isn’t happy that a detailed menu of the spying services it provides law enforcement agencies has leaked onto the web.” That’s how WIRED’s Threat Level blog put it when describing Yahoo’s recent effort to censor its own law enforcement compliance guide off the Internet using a bogus DMCA takedown demand.
The trouble all started when Yahoo stepped in to block a FOIA request for its law enforcement compliance “price list” (i.e., what it charges to law enforcement and spy agencies when responding to requests for information about Yahoo users). Shortly thereafter, a copy of the document, entitled “Yahoo! Compliance Guide for Law Enforcement,” appeared on Cryptome.org.
Here’s where the bogosity begins in earnest. Yahoo sent a formal DMCA takedown notice to Cryptome.org, demanding the removal of the compliance manual. In the letter, Yahoo’s lawyers allege that posting the manual infringes Yahoo’s copyrights (the only proper basis for a DMCA takedown), as well as claiming that it’s a trade secret (absurd for a marketing document) and that posting it constitutes “business interference” (huh? informing customers about Yahoo’s disclosure practices “interferes” with business?).
This should earn Yahoo a place in the Takedown Hall of Shame (we’ll be updating our list of inductees soon). Posting the compliance manual is a clear fair use. Consider the “four factors” that courts examine in fair use cases: (1) publication is clearly for a transformative purpose (criticism, public debate); (2) publication does not harm the “market” for the original (since Yahoo doesn’t sell copies of the manual); (3) the nature of the publication is factual, not highly creative; and (4) while the whole manual was published, that was necessary for the transformative purpose. And, perhaps most important, a federal court has already ruled in favor of fair use on nearly these same facts, when Diebold Election Systems was sued for trying to censor embarrassing internal documents off the Internet using bogus DMCA takedowns.
This brings up another important point: the DMCA does not require service providers to comply with bogus takedown notices. The DMCA offers a “safe harbor” from money damages for copyright infringement, but you only need a “safe harbor” if the activity in question might be infringing in the first place. Where (as here) the activity is clearly not infringing, a service provider doesn’t need the DMCA for protection, and can just deposit takedown notices in the trash (as YouTube did a few months ago in the face of another obviously bogus takedown notice).
Scratch one game off the PS3 exclusivity list. Tecmo has just made it known through a press release that their upcoming third-person shooter, Quantum Theory, will be heading to the Xbox 360 console as well.
Many patients with health insurance think that when they go to a laboratory their doctor sends them to for blood work or other tests, the lab is surely in-network. After all, the doctor is in-network, right? No. It’s a puzzling maze that the best of us get trapped inside at times.
I’ll give you a personal example. According to one rather crazy insurance rule of my specific plan, I can have blood drawn at my doctor’s office and sent to Lab A that’s not in network and it will be covered 100%. However, if the doctor sends me downstairs to the same Lab A, then it’s out of network since the doctor’s office didn’t draw the blood themselves. I spent nearly an hour on the phone with my insurance this morning to figure that one out.
It gets even worse since most specialist offices are sending patients out to labs (often in the same building) to get blood work. Have you noticed that only general physicians tend have in-office labs these days?
So, before you go to your next doctor’s appointment that may involve lab work, some tips for you:
Do you think that last tip is a bit too cautious? It’s not. I’ll give you a short version of my story. My health insurance plan is changing on January 1. I called my insurance in November to ask why two of my lab visits were out of network. I was told that was a mistake and that the lab I was going to was an in-network lab. I asked twice: “Are you sure? I’m going back there for another visit.”
I was assured that the lab I was going to was an in-network lab. Not so. I found out today that it was really out of network after all and I’d have to pay for all the visits. The person I was talking with was looking at my future coverage plan, not the current one. Of course, when I complained that I had been given the wrong info, I was reminded of the telephone disclaimer about benefits being paid at the time of processing, not based on the phone call.
I was told I’d have to appeal in writing, but I insisted on speaking to a supervisor who may or may not take care of me. I’m still waiting on that call.
Do you find it difficult navigate through the swamps of in-network or out-of-network services?
(Image via stock.xchng)
Post from: Blisstree
Filed under: Saab, Earnings/Financials, Rumormill, Geely
Just about every time an automaker decides to sell one of its brands, Chinese automaker Geely comes up as one of the potential suitors. Geely executive Lawrence Ang has reportedly told Automotive News that the reason Geely has been present at a lot of negotiating tables is because it wants to grow in part through acquisitions. And while the Chinese automaker has yet to finalize any big-ticket buys, it appears to be the front-runner for Ford’s Volvo unit.
Earlier in the year, Geely looked into purchasing the Saab brand, but talks reportedly broke down after Koenigsegg presented what appeared to be the winning bid. But now that Koenigsegg has dropped out of the Saab sweepstakes, the door is open again for Geely. Is the Chinese automaker interested? Ang reportedly gave reporters at a shareholder event the ambiguous “who knows?” as an answer, but he also acknowledged that the company is investigating buying opportunities which have presented themselves during the automotive industry downturns in Europe and the States. Geely is also reportedly interested in purchasing parts and engines, which could be possible if General Motors decides to disband Saab if an adequate bid doesn’t present itself by year-end.
While Geely appears to be close to purchasing Volvo and is perhaps in a good position to pick up Saab for a song, the automaker is also looking to increase its presence in its home market. Automotive News is reporting that Geely will increase spending by up to 43% in hopes of increasing sales from 300,000 in 2009 to over 400,000 next year.
[Source: Automotive News – subs req’d | Image: AFP/Getty]
REPORT: Even while pursuing Volvo, Geely again mulling bid for Saab? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the themes of 2009 was that collection societies around the world went nuts trying to charge for anything they possibly could, while also trying to increase the rates they could charge. Remember how one collection society wanted to charge a woman because she put on music for her horses? Or how about the woman who worked in a grocery store, who was told to stop singing while stock the shelves, or the store would have to pay a performance fee. And, of course, we had ASCAP trying to claim that ringtones were performances, and mobile operators needed to pay up — beyond the license fee that was already paid on the recording.
SOCAN, up in Canada, has been no exception, pushing for drastically increased rates that cover new places as well. But the most ridiculous may be the one sent in by a few people (Jesse was the first) about how SOCAN is trying to get buskers — street musicians — to pay a performance fee if they perform in SkyTrain stations in Vancouver. SOCAN is claiming that TransLink, the transit authority for the trains in Vancouver should be paying up to $40,000 in performance fees for all the buskers singing in stations, and TransLink’s response is to pass those fees on to the buskers.
Of course, many musicians actually got their start as buskers, and built up their performance chops that way, but SOCAN is about to put them out of business by making it pretty damn costly to busk where it often makes the most sense. Nice work, SOCAN, in harming the very musicians you’re supposed to be helping.
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(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)
Few things have been more predictable in recent months than the rallies that occur every time Ben Bernanke opens his mouth. Like clockwork, the market moves higher every time the Chairman speaks as he gives the market exactly what it wants to hear. Today’s comments are no different:
What is odd about this is that Bernanke has been so fantastically wrong about everything for so many years. What warrants this extreme confidence in Bernanke? Bernanke missed the greatest economic bust in the last 75 years. Some argue that he helped us avoid the second Great Depression. Of course, regular readers know I think that is simply preposterous as the Second Great Depression was never on the table. All Bernanke has done is rehash a monetary policy approach that Alan Greenspan admitted was a failure. There is little to no evidence in Bernanke’s history that leads me to think he will be correct this time. The market is nearsighted and I believe this love affair with Bernanke is nothing more than a Tiger Woods like fling. We can only hope the long-term repercussions aren’t nearly as severe as they will be for Woods….
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Weak November sales are most likely the catalyst for the mass selloff of Zales Corporation (ZLC) stock today.
Same store sales were down 18.6% for November compared with last year. Currently, the stock is down 22% to $3.89 a share.
Reuters: The Dallas-based chain, which is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the accounting practices that led it to restate its 2008 and 2009 earnings , gave no update on those proceedings. However, it said it did not believe the probe “will have a material effect” on its financial results.
I guess diamond’s aren’t forever after all.
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John Mauldin, President, Millennium Wave Advisors, LLC (4 min)
Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei
More Video: TBI Calendar Click HERE >
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