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Filed under: Budget, UK, Celebrities

When fans tune in to watch (or torrent) tomorrow night’s episode of Top Gear, they’ll get to see Snatch director Guy Ritchie regale Jezza, Hamster, and Captain Slow with tales of his stint as the program’s Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car.

According to London’s Daily Mirror, which spoke to a source who attended the taping, it seems Ritchie wound up doing his best H.B. Halicki impression, killing four of the reasonably-priced crapboxes in his effort to set the fastest celebrity lap. Sloppy track conditions were to blame, says Madonna’s ex, according to the Mirror’s snitch.

Whether he actually succeeded in his mission to land atop the leaderboard will be revealed during Sunday’s broadcast, which, according to the tabloid, also sees the boys race airport equipment and bombard a ferry using hatchbacks as munitions. That, friends, sounds like some quality television.

[Source: Mirror.co.uk | Image: Dave Hogan/Getty]

Paper: Guy Ritchie wrecks four reasonably-priced cars on Top Gear originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kansas, US | Hunting and Taxidermy

On June 25, 1876 the five companies of the US 7th Cavalry under the command of Gen. George Armstrong Custer were annihilated by a force of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The following day, troops from the remaining companies of the 7th Cavalry discovered the carnage – 210 men lay dead, including their commander, along with dozens of horses. While no US Army soldier survived the engagement, one horse was found alive on the battlefield. The horse, named Comanche, had belonged Capt. Myles Keough, and had suffered no less than seven bullet wounds during the battle. Though he was heralded as the lone survivor of the battle, many historians believe that as many as 100 horses survived and were either captured or bolted.

After the battle, Comanche was transported to Ft. Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, and he was officially retired from service in April 1878. As part of his retirement, the commanding officer of the fort ordered that “a special and comfortable stall is fitted up for him, and he will not be ridden by any person whatever, under any circumstances nor will he be put to any kind of work.” The horse was also given the honorary title of “second-in-command” of the 7th Cavalry, and he lived out the rest of his days as a company mascot. When he died in 1890, he was the first of only two horses in American history ever given a funeral with full military honors. He was not buried, however; instead, his body was sent to the University of Kansas to be stuffed and put on display, where he resides today in the university’s Natural History Museum. In 2005, Comanche was moved to a new exhibit on the museum’s fourth floor after undergoing a complete restoration.

Kathleen Sebelius is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Photo courtesy of White House Media Affairs Office)

As you head towards finals and the holidays, there’s an important step you should take to stay healthy: get the H1N1 flu vaccine.

This year’s flu season is the worst in many years, and young adults have been especially hard hit by the H1N1 flu.  Who is in the age group most likely to get H1N1?  People under 25.  Who get so sick they need to be hospitalized?  Half of them are under 25.  And who is least likely to get a flu shot?  People under 25.

I am writing today to urge you to take H1N1 flu seriously, not just as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services who has read lots and lots of scientific studies saying this is a young person’s pandemic, but also as a mother of two sons who not long ago were sitting exactly where you are today.

I know it’s easy to believe that flu is something that only the very old or the very young need to worry about, that catching the flu is no big deal.  No flu should ever be dismissed as “just the flu.”  The regular, seasonal flu is responsible for 36,000 deaths every year—mainly people over 65.  But H1N1 mainly hits the young.  And even though most cases are mild, some can be quite severe.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 540 children and teenagers have died from H1N1 flu since April, and we are only at the beginning of the official flu season.  Some of them were perfectly healthy when they caught the flu.

So what can you do to protect yourself and people around you from flu?

Get vaccinated. It’s the most effective way to prevent the flu. The H1N1 flu vaccine is made the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, which has a decades-long safety track record.  And, it’s undergone more testing than other flu vaccines.

If you’re someone with a health condition like diabetes or asthma, the CDC says you should get vaccinated as soon as your community has vaccine available.  Other groups at high risk for serious complications include young children and pregnant women.  Also, people who care for babies under 6 months, health care workers, and emergency medical personnel should go to the head of the vaccination line.

In addition, many people do not realize that simply being younger than 25 also puts you in a priority group to receive the vaccine.  So look into getting vaccinated at school or when you go home for the holidays. Check out the flu.gov flu vaccination locator to find the best place for you to go to get vaccinated quickly.

Stay home when you’re sick. If you do get the flu, there are things you should do to protect yourself and those around you.  College campuses—dormitories, classes, wherever a lot of people are indoors together—are places flu can spread. If you get sick, don’t go out, and don’t invite visitors in.

If you live on campus but your home is not far away, consider going home until you’re well to avoid spreading the flu.  If you live too far to go home, check to see if your college has alternate housing for ill students.

Seek medical attention immediately if you have diabetes, asthma, or some other medical condition and you notice flu-like symptoms.  You should also ask your health care provider about anti-viral medication.  If you already have flu symptoms, antivirals have been very effective at keeping flu from getting worse.

Even if you don’t have a chronic illness, if you have symptoms, and they get worse—your fever spikes, you have difficulty breathing or you’re breathing too fast, if you have chest pain—call a doctor or other health provider right away.

Make it part of your daily routine to keep flu from spreading. The H1N1 vaccine may not have arrived in your area yet, so keep doing the simple things everyone does to keep germs in check:  wash your hands, cough and sneeze into your sleeve, not your hands, and disinfect surfaces like computer keyboards and countertops.

Go to flu.gov.  Check out our self-evaluation link to help you understand if your symptoms are really serious.  There’s a flu locater for where vaccine will be in your community; tips on prevention, including videos that give you critical information you can use, even a section to help you know how to tell a flu fact from a myth on the Internet.  There are widgets, buttons, Public Service Announcements, and a Facebook page, so you can spread H1N1 information—not the virus—to people you know.

In addition, we just released a new video featuring students, young people, and others talking about why they chose to get vaccinated.  You can also tell us why you got vaccinated by submitted your own video at YouTube.com/group/TheFluandYou.

No one knows whether this wave of H1N1 will get worse, taper off, or be followed by another wave later in the season.  But we do know that preventing flu depends on all of us, and everyone will be safer if each one of us is serious about preventing and reducing H1N1 flu.

Kathleen Sebelius

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Ferrari, Specialty

Ferrari has stumbled upon one heck of a formula with its XX development programs. They’ve found that their most wealthy clients aren’t just willing to help Maranello develop new components for future supercars, they’re actually willing to pay for the privilege. And pay big, too – as in $2 million big.

The program started with the Enzo-based FXX, evolved with the FXX Evoluzione, and carries on with the Fiorano-based 599XX. So what’s next up Ferrari’s sleeve? A 458XX wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

If the outgoing lineup (and those that came before) can serve as any indication, the new mid-engined V8 sports car is poised to spawn numerous variations, including the requisite Spider, a new Challenge-spec racer, a replacement for the existing F430 GT2, a stripped-down successor to the 360 CS and 430 Scuderia, and, if this speculative rendering from Luxury4Play has its way, a 458XX as well. If and when it does come along, we’d expect it to look something along these lines – which is to say, “tasty.”

[Source: Luxury4Play]

Rendered Speculation: Ferrari 458XX developmental track-car originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve been waiting  and wishing for the first real snowfall here in beautiful PA.  Well…this morning I got my wish. 

I just love snow.  I think that it’s one of the most beautiful creations that God  gave us. I don’t like the cold part of it but you have to take the good with the bad. 

 
My 12 year old son heading back inside to warm up.

I’ve just come from a sobering presentation in Copenhagen by Yuki Tanaka and others of the Japanese Institution of Transport Policy Studies. They have done detailed modeling of global transport emissions and how we can reduce them by 2050.They’ve done different scenarios, and have settled on pushing for keeping emissions at 2000 levels because they believe the lower scenarios are not likely to be achieved. I started off sceptically,
thinking “we’ll need to figure out how to do better than that”. But by the end of the presentation, overwhelmed by the robustness of their research, I can see why they made that decision.
Bear in mind this is in the context of rapidly growing economies in Asia and Latin America.
Key points:
To keep emissions just at 2000 levels will require:
– Cars: an enormous 60% shift of passenger traffic from cars to rail and bus. In cities 80% of remaining cars and 40% of light trucks will be electric by 2050.
– Aviation: half of all sub-1600km trips shift to high-speed rail systems, plus 20-30% fuel saving technology improvements in aviation. They do also include some shifting to technologies like
video-conferencing.
– Shipping: 30% reduction in emissions, largely through large scale engine replacement around 2020, when a disproportionate portion of the world’s fleet comes up for renewal
– Bikes: for short-distance trips there’ll be a substantial increase in non-vehicle transport – e.g. bicycles – helped by congestion charges and other traffic control techniques in all major cities.
– Rail: large scale electrification of railways and various substantial improvements in rail efficiency. There will be a doubling (yes!) of kms of rail lines in the world by 2050. They have also assumed that the power grid shifts largely to clean energy during this period.
The net extra investment needed above “business as usual investment” already expected is just under US$12 trillion, 54% in developing countries. And this just to keep at 2000 level emissions!
On the optimistic side, if we can ensure, with some tough government planning decisions that help ensure these investments pay a good return for pension funds, then it’s a huge financing opportunity.

Filed under: Motorsports, Citroën

Kimi Räikkönen is now a WRC driver. The Flying Finn will pilot one of two Citroën CR4 Junior Team cars with Kaj Lindström as his co-driver. It’s been in the works for a while, and from the sounds of it, no one appears to have any doubts that Raikkonen will do well there. Team boss Olivier Quesnel rates the ex-Ferrari pilot highly, saying, “What he did there in a S2000 was amazing,” when speaking of Kimi’s run in an Abarth in a Finnish rally earlier this year.

Even 2003 WRC title winner Petter Solberg puts Kimi in with a shout, commenting, “If he’s in a decent World Rally Car next season I think he could finish between third and fifth on some rallies.” This will put four Citroën cars in next year’s Championship, with returning title winners Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, Dani Sordo and Marc Marti, plus the junior cars of Räikkönen/Lindström and Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia. You can check out Citroën’s official release after the jump.

[Source: Citroën]

Continue reading Umlautfest: Kimi Räikkönen signs with Citroën Red Bull rally team

Umlautfest: Kimi Räikkönen signs with Citroën Red Bull rally team originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are a lot of distinctions, there are a lot of milestones, but few have actually won an award. For Nintendo, they took home three in one day. Shigeru Miyamoto received Japan’s Lifetime Achievement Award, while the

(This guest post originally appeared on The Oil Drum and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License)

In the past several weeks, we have seen many reports such as this:

Colonial Pipeline Limits Gasoline Supply Shipments for Cycle 70

Colonial Pipeline Co., which operates the largest pipeline linking U.S. Gulf Coast refiners and East Coast markets, will limit shipments of gasoline because orders exceed the company’s ability to deliver fuel on time.

The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company issued the requirement, known as an allocation, in a bulletin to shippers for the 70th cycle. The restriction applies to shipments on Colonial pipelines north of Collins, Mississippi.

Companies will be able to ship a pro-rated portion of their original nomination, based on their shipping history over the past year, according to Colonial.

With the assistance of Jane Van Ryan at API, I contacted to Steve Baker at Colonial Pipeline, to find out what is happening. I discovered the oversubscription seems to be related to refinery shutdowns in the Northeast.

Many of you will remember that Colonial Pipeline is the big pipeline that carries finished oil products from the Gulf Coast up to the Northeast part of the United States.

Map showing route of Colonial Pipeline

I live in the Atlanta area, so I remember when there have been gasoline disruptions because of inadequate supply. This has happened twice: once following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and again in September 2008, following two gulf hurricanes.

When I inquired, I found out that there are really two parallel pipelines. One carries only gasoline products; the other carries distillate products. The line that is running short of capacity is the gasoline pipeline. (If only one is running short of capacity, it is not too surprising that it is the gasoline line. Distillate products like diesel fuel are now in very abundant supply; gasoline is at closer to normal levels.)

When I asked why demand was so high for gasoline pipeline capacity, one of the reasons mentioned was that shutdowns in refinery capacity in the Northeast were causing more demand for Gulf Coast gasoline. (If a refinery closes, it presumably will stop importing crude oil, and will also stop producing finished products such as gasoline and diesel. This supply needs to be replaced somewhere else.)

In checking in the news, I see two different refineries recently mentioned with shut downs:

Valero to permanently close Delaware City Refinery

This is a 192,000 barrel a day plant in Delaware. The story above indicates it was partially shut down early this year. No exact date for closing was given, but it sounds to be around the end of 2009, so the final shut down hasn’t really taken place yet.

Sunoco idling Eagle Point refinery, slashing dividend in half
The other refinery closing was that of Sunoco’s 145,000 barrel a day Eagle Point refinery in New Jersey. This may have taken place over a period of time, but did not finish until December 1, 2009. So at this point, we really haven’t really felt the full effect of these two refinery shut downs. Even so, gasoline distributors are putting in more orders for gasoline from the Gulf Coast, to help offset the expected decline in gasoline refined in the Northeast.

Another reason Mr. Baker gave for the high levels of orders is that the price of gasoline on the Gulf Coast is relatively inexpensive now. If given a choice between importing gasoline from the Gulf or gasoline from Europe, gasoline from the gulf is a getter deal. So perhaps European supply is a little on the short side, or the falling dollar makes what is available more expensive.

It is not too surprising that refiners are shuttering refineries in the Northeast. These are likely among the oldest refineries, and oil consumption in the East has been dropping for several years, as can be seen on the graph above. Profit margins have also been low.

Will the refinery shutdowns in the Northeast cause a gasoline supply problem? With supplies as adequate as they are now, probably not, but it is a situation to keep watching. There are several different approaches that can be taken to make up the shortfall caused by the refinery shutdowns:

1. Oil that would have been imported by the two refineries that are being shut down can perhaps be imported by other refineries in the Northeast, so the refined product will still be available in the Northeast. The amount of capacity being shut down amounts to about 20% of total refining capacity in “PADD1” (the East Coast), and production has recently been running at about 75% of capacity. If the remaining refineries run at close to full capacity, the other refineries could theoretically make up the difference–but it would be a stretch.

2. More refined products (rather than crude oil) might be imported from Europe.

3. If pipelines are full, ships could be used to transport gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

So there are options that can work, as long as everything is operating normally. The question is what happens when there is a shortfall, such as from a hurricane, or a supply disruption from Europe. Then it seems like there may be even more buyers dependent on the Colonial Pipeline for supply.

One thing that is annoying (to someone living in Atlanta, anyhow) is that if more customers want to use the pipeline than the total capacity, it appears that all of the orders are prorated by the same percentage. The problem I see with this is a place like Atlanta is not on the coast, so is 100% dependent on what we get from the pipeline. If Atlanta orders are prorated because someone in New Jersey would like to order more gasoline, we are stuck with getting along with whatever is available (and possibly long lines at gas stations, as with the two hurricane situations). If New Jersey or Baltimore or New York are “shorted,” they at least have the option of receiving shipments by sea, either from the Gulf Coast or from Europe.

I suppose with time, and the possibility with higher prices, this will all work out. But one doesn’t like to see Colonial’s gasoline pipeline already being utilized at of 100% of capacity, and orders being prorated, even before the two refineries that are being closed are fully off line. The system seems to have very little slack in it. Such systems are the ones most prone to disruption.

Read more at The Oil Drum…

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Valero’s Refinery Shutdown Means The Real Economy Sucks (VLO)
• The Fragile Recovery Of The Oil Services Sector
• More Signs Of A Natural Gas Apocalypse (UNG)

PCMag has reviewed the Samsung Code SCH-i220, and while the device is under-featured compared to the latest and greatest on other carriers, on Metro PCS it’s the best smartphone available, and at $1499 over 2 years including an unlimited voice and data plan, the best value for money by far country-wide.

They conclude:

Obviously, the Code is no iPhone. There are many smartphones better than the Code, but they all cost a lot more. If you’re shopping for a MetroPCS phone, you’re probably not in the market for a more expensive carrier. With unlimited talk time, messaging, and data, the iPhone 3G costs $3,698 over two years. The Code costs $1,499, thanks to Metro’s super-cheap plans. Even comparable phones on T-Mobile and Sprint are much more expensive; the HTC Snap on Sprint is $2,499 over two years with an unlimited plan, and the HTC Dash 3G on T-Mobile is $2,259.75. You don’t buy the Code instead of a more highly-rated smartphone; you buy it because otherwise, you’d never have been able to afford a smartphone.

In the context of MetroPCS’ lineup, the Samsung Code is the carrier’s only phone for power users or avid Web browsers. Metro’s BlackBerry Curve is expensive and doesn’t work in all MetroPCS cities, and the Code simply eradicates the Samsung Finesse on features and performance. If you’re looking to step up to a multipurpose phone but you’re short on cash, the Code is the best choice.

Read their full review here.

Years ago I used to make crochet Christmas stockings and they were a big hit at the time. Since it is time for some new stockings I thought I would make them from fleece material this year. I found it easy, inexpensive and fun to work with fleece and make a few beautiful, and personalized, stockings.

Kathy Zengolewicz

Here is what you will need to get started:

• 2 rectangles 10” x 15” red fleece
• 1 rectangle 14” x 3 ½” white fleece
• Matching thread
• 2/3 yards of red satin ribbon
• rotary cutting mat or scissors
• ruler

First you will need to enlarge the pattern on your printer or copy machine to measure 14” long by 8 ½” wide. Place the rectangles of red fleece right sides together. Place the stocking pattern on the fleece and cut it out

Making a ½” seam, sew the sides and bottom of the stocking together. Press the seams open and turn the stocking right side out.

Fold the white fleece in half widthwise, right sides together and sew a ½” seam down the 3 ½” side. Press open.

Cut a scalloped edge onto the white fleece. Place right side of sewn white fleece inside sewn red stocking. Align the top raw edges and seam of white fleece with the back seam of the stocking. Use a ½” seam allowance to sew the cuff to the stocking.

Pull the white cuff out of the stocking. Create a loop with the red satin ribbon for hanging. Sew a strip of ribbon across the front of the stocking. Trace the name of the person who will receive the stocking with glue and sprinkle with white crystal glitter.

For a copy of the stocking pattern, please visit http://www.domesticbuzz.com/templates/stocking.pdf

Enjoy!

Post from: Blisstree

Fleece Christmas Stocking

The PlayStation brand is a line of video game consoles created and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, occupying the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations. It has become one of the largest investments Sony has ever gambled on (well, except for the whole pre-Pascal Sony Pictures Entertainment thing) and its been what I consider to be an enormous part of the overall Sony experience. Countless consumers, in almost one way or another, have used a Playstation product. It’s funny to think though that the brand itself turned fifteen years old on December 3rd – it doesn’t seem that long to me. Happy Birthday! Check out SCEI’s cool Playstation 15th anniversary site (JP).

The original PlayStation, released in December 1994, was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices, which has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to program PlayStation games and applications), “PSone” (a smaller version of the original) and the PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card). It was part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, competing against the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. By March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PSone had shipped a combined total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first video game console to reach the 100 million mark. It was an enormous success and a giant leap from the Nintendo, Sega, etc experience most of us had fed on for nearly a decade.

Released in 2000, 15 months after the Dreamcast and a year before its other competitors, the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube, the PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, and is backwards-compatible with most, if not all, original PlayStation games. It has also been released as a media center configuration and also, like its predecessor, a slimmer redesign. On November 29, 2005, the PS2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took “9 years and 6 months since launch” to reach the same benchmark. It is the most successful console in the world, having reached over 140 million units in sales as of July 20, 2008. I haven’t seen a number since 2008 of how many its sold overall but I imagine it must be up sharply because it only costs $99 as of March of this year..or less.

It is the most popular console in the series, but the PS3 most certainly has the capacity to reach similar figures. It’s hard to tell if Sony will ever stop manufacturing the PS2, because theoretically they could bring it to retail by 2012 for less than (the equivalent of) $50 today easily..

Released on November 11, 2006, the PlayStation 3 is the third and current iteration in the series. It competes with the Xbox 360 and the Wii in the seventh generation of video game consoles. It introduces the use of the Sixaxis wireless controller along with other features, such as Blu-ray Disc and being also to see in Full High-definition resolution. It has access to an online store that sells games, movies, and other multimedia content. The PlayStation 3 is most certainly the most varied unit of the home consoles, by being offered in 20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, 160 GB, 120 GB, and 250GB configurations, with the last two being the current models. As for December 5th, 2009 Sony has sold 27.3 million PS3’s according to vgchartz.com.

Of course there was several Playstation Portable (PSP) units –

Released in March 2005, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was Sony’s first handheld console. The console utilizes an new proprietary optical storage medium known as Universal Media Disc (UMD), which can store both games and movies. It contains 32MB of internal flash memory storage, expandable via Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. It has a vast library of games and movies available to play on UMD and also can download games off the Playstation store. The first major hardware revision, the PSP Slim and Lite was released in September 2007, with a further revision adding additional features (such as a microphone and upgraded screen) being released in October 2008. As of December 5th 2009, 53 million PSP units have been sold according to vgchartz.com.

The PSP Go was released in October 2009. It differs from the original PlayStation Portable in several ways, most notably the absence of a UMD drive, with all content having to be purchased and downloaded from the Playstation Store. The PSP also adds Bluetooth functionality, and uses smaller Memory Stick Micro cards rather than the PRO Duo. It retains the same brilliance in display like the regular PSP but its display is slightly smaller. The PSP Go is 43% lighter and 56% smaller than the original PSP.

What’s your favorite Playstation moment of all time? Mine was probably beating Metal Gear Solid 1..

Filed under: Celebrities

Minnesota Vikings All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson – or “Purple Jesus” as he’s known to Vikings fans – is one of the fastest men in the NFL. Turns out, he’s also one of the fastest men on a certain suburban Minnesota freeway, where police clocked him and his (model unknown) BMW going 109 mph in a 55 mph zone. Oops!

For his part, Peterson claims it was just, “A little ticket” and that he was not going as fast as the cops said he was. However, Minneapolis police spokeswoman Molly Anderson said that Peterson was indeed pulled over after police recorded him going 109 mph. Anderson states that Peterson was given a citation and allowed to drive away after what she described as a “routine traffic stop.” Must be nice being the savior for an entire state. Go Pack, go!

[Source: Associated Press | Image: Hannah Foslien/AP Photo]

Vikings RB Adrian Peterson flagged for going 109 mph originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For children, snow days are magic. It is like someone waved a wand and turned that dreary rain to fluffy bits of fun. For a busy mom, the sight of snow brings a momentary feeling of wonder and then…Oh, no! Snow. Wet boots. Wet gloves. Tracks on the floor. Runny noses. Icy driveways. Cars to sweep off and sidewalks to shovel. School delays or even closings. While all of those things are pretty much inevitable, you can manage them a bit better if you are already prepared for snowy days at home.

• Set up a portable drying rack in a spot close to the door and put a piece of plastic under the rack to protect your floors. Put a boot tray under the rack or close by. As people come in the door, have them put their wet things on the rack and their shoes on the tray. Have dry socks and a towel to mop up snow blobs on hand.
• Create a comfort station complete with cocoa in an insulated jug with a spout and soup in a second jug, crackers, marshmallows, cups, spoons, napkins and bowls in an area that allows for easy clean up. This alleviates a lot of traffic through the kitchen and a lot of requests for cocoa ten minutes after everyone but one person turned down the offer.
• Put together an activity bin of snowy day activities and crafts for your kids. Consider adding things they can do if the power goes out because of ice on the lines.
• Make sure you are prepared for bad weather with fresh water, powdered milk, a loaf of frozen bread or ingredients to make fresh bread and a few spare rolls of toilet paper so you can avoid the dangerous last minute rush to the store that people in less snowy areas tend to do.
• Check to be sure your generator or other alternative power source is ready to go at a moment’s notice. (Don’t forget safety. Leave that generator outside and make sure it is ten feet from the house before you fire it up!)

What do you do to get ready for Winter weather?

Photo: Rodolfo Belloli/SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Prepare a Home for Snowy Days

Slipknot and Simon & Garfunkel may be too far on both sides of the spectrum, so why not go for somewhere in between? Three more tracks from Green Day are hitchin’ a ride into Rock Band soon,

Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Europe, Videos, Lamborghini

While not quite as in your groin face as Samuel L. Jackson’s Snakes on a Plane, the following video is as honest in its title to content ratio. Yes, a camera crew in a helicopter follows two Lamborghini Gallardos (one hardtop and one Spyder) up and down Pacific Coast Highway and through some of the Southland’s best canyon roads. Nearly perfect, right?

Well, there’s an issue or two. First is the thumping, blasting “butt-rock” soundtrack. Second, that soundtrack is annoying and obscures the glorious fury of the Gallardo’s 5.2-liter V10 — a motor that can make a four-year-old to burst into tears when cranked from a cold start (true story — we saw it happen in person). Truly, a beast of an engine.

Had it been our video then, we would’ve killed the royalty-free-Nickelback soundtrack and instead stuck mics on the Lambos as if they were pincushions. Then we’d have tailed the two blue bulls to Kanan Dume Road. Why Kanan? Tunnels — three of them. Not to get all David E. Davis on you, but you really haven’t lived until you’ve heard Lambo’s V10 at 8,250 rpm in a confined space. Glorious. With that said, make the jump to watch the video.

Continue reading VIDEO: Helicopter chases two Lamborghini Gallardos around Los Angeles

VIDEO: Helicopter chases two Lamborghini Gallardos around Los Angeles originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atlus certainly beefing up the workforce. The publisher was spotted hiring PS3-Xbox 360 programmers (qjnet/playstation-3/atlus-hiring-ps3-xbox-360-programmers.html) back in October, and now they’re in “mass-recruitment” for debuggers. Clearly, they have a lot of stuff

This week’s weekend pet links cover a lot of different and fun blog posts and articles. From contests to enter to news and freebies, check out this week’s round-up!

~ New Airline Programs for Pets at Web Vet

~ Doggone Christmas Giveaway at PetsitUSA

~ A Contest for the Kitties at PetsitUSA

~ Three Surprising Dog Accidents at The Pet Insurance Blog

~ Convenience Store Dog Gets Banned from His “Job” at Dogster Blog

~ Free Issue of Good Bird Magazine at Best in Flock

~ Greenies Coupon for Stocking Stuffers at Embrace Pet Community

~ Winter Survival for the Green Dog at Raise A Green Dog

~ Treats on the Internet at YesBiscuit!

~ Disco Christmas at Smartdog’s Weblog

~ Paws and Effect Holiday Gift Guide at Paws and Effect

~ Top Ten Pet Gadget Gifts at Petside

~ Smart Ways to Help Shelters at Romeo the Cat

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

Weekend Pet Links