Blog

Sorry folks, but those of you eagerly awaiting Max Payne 3 would have to wait about a full year more. Yes, you read that right. In the latest financial earnings and project report for Take-Two, the publisher

Filed under: Car Buying, Sedan, Acura, Audi, Suzuki

It’s best to aim high, right? While most of the automotive world (ourselves included) are busy comparing the rather wonderful Suzuki Kizashi with logical competitors like the Volkswagen Jetta – not to mention larger cars like the Honda Accord, Mazda6 and Ford Fusion – it seems the Japanese automaker itself has its sights set a bit higher… all the way up to the Audi A4 and Acura TSX, point of fact.

Called the “Kizashi Test Drive Challenge” incentive program, Suzuki is offering sport sedan buyers $100 if they test drive the Kizashi first and still end up purchasing either a 2010 Audi A4 2.0T or four-cylinder 2010 Acura TSX within 10 days of the test drive. The program ends runs through January 31, 2010. Says Koichi Suzuki, executive vice president of American Suzuki Automotive Operations:

With styling, performance characteristics, luxury features and a new advanced All-Wheel-Drive system on par with the Audi A4 and Acura TSX, we’re excited to extend this unique offer to consumers across the country, providing potential sport sedan buyers another reason to consider the all-new Kizashi-at a substantial savings. We’re definitely putting Kizashi’s premium without the premium moniker to the test.

Like we said, aim high. Read the full set of terms and conditions in the complete press release pasted after the jump.

Photos copyright (C)2009 Jonny Lieberman / Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: Suzuki]

Continue reading Suzuki’s Kizashi Test Drive Challenge offers $100 to Audi A4 and Acura TSX buyers

Suzuki’s Kizashi Test Drive Challenge offers $100 to Audi A4 and Acura TSX buyers originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Crossover, Hyundai

Hyundai just took the wraps off their all new 2010 Tucson CUV. A right-sized (i.e. compact) crossover designed in Frankfurt, Germany – as opposed to the California designed Sonata we saw yesterday – but still uses Hyundai’s new design language, the oddly named Fluidic Sculpture. Like the Sonata, the new bigger-yet-lighter Tuscon (61 pounds, to be precise) has been designed to convey a sense of motion. Of course, whether they succeeded or not is up to the beholder’s eye.

Hyundai feels that the compact CUV market is growing (as does the rest of the industry), however the small crossover buyer is changing. Used to be that when people shopped for say a Tucson, it was because they couldn’t afford an Excursion. No more. The new small CUV buyer expects a higher level of comfort and refinement from their little truck-like rides. If what Hyundai’s peddling proves true, the Tucson’s impressive list of standard bells and/or whistles fits this projected market to a tee (see the press release for the full lowdown).

The most impressive Tuscon attribute is in likelihood its frugal MPG rating. 23 miles per gallon in the city, 31 at highway speeds. In addition to the slight weight reduction, the Tucson achieves these numbers via innovations such as a switch away from parasitic hydraulic power-steering in favor of an electric system. There’s also an all new six-speed automatic that uses 62 fewer parts than the outgoing five-speed. Interestingly, the new slusher is built fully in house by Hyundai.

The engine of course contributes to the good-for-a-CUV mileage. The new Tucson comes with a 2.4-liter Theta II four-cylinder that produces 176 hp and 168 lb-ft of torque. You will notice that the Tucson does not come with the more powerful Gasoline Direct-Injection (GDI) Theta II that ships with the new Sonata. We asked Hyundai if a future iteration of the Tucson (say the 2011) would in fact receive the GDI motor. “That’s a logical conclusion.”

We also asked if the turbocharged GDI motor would make it into the Tuscon. “It would fit.” We then asked if we’ll see a hybrid version as the new Sonata will eventually show up in gas-electric guise. “No comment.” Then after a pause, “We all have to get to 35.5 mpg.” Finally, we asked if we’d see an all-electric version of the Tucson. We received another “No comment,” but Hyundai North America President and CEO John Krafcik did state that they will be selling an electric car in the States. As to when, “Not next year.” Read the press release, after the jump.

Continue reading LA 2009: Bye-bye boxy, hello 2010 Hyundai Tucson

LA 2009: Bye-bye boxy, hello 2010 Hyundai Tucson originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

A bunch of folks have submitted the story of Henrik Anderson, a Danish man who ripped a bunch of DVDs for personal storage, and then turned himself in, noting that even though Danish law says it’s okay to make a backup copy of content for private purposes, it also forbids circumvention of DRM, such as the DRM found on DVDs. We had avoided posting anything on the story until the Danish group responded, and while it missed the original deadline, it has now stated that it will not go after Anderson, so long as he’s only using the content for private use:

The main purpose of the rule is to ensure against abuse of films and music being illegally copied and distributed further. The Association of Danish Videodistributors certainly have no interest in suing consumers who like you have purchased legitimate products — quite the contrary.

Of course, if that were true, then wouldn’t the Danish Antipiratgruppen push to change the anti-circumvention law that makes this particular process illegal? After all, shouldn’t they stand behind what they claim?

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

PRESS RELEASE

Cibus Global and NEU Seed to Develop Potato Crop Protection and Performance Enhancement Traits for North America

San Diego, California (December 2, 2009) — Cibus Global, a pioneering plant trait development firm, today announced that it has partnered with Naturally Enhanced United Seed (NEU Seed), a potato grower cooperative based in Idaho, to develop and market improved traits in potato using Cibus’ natural smart breeding tool, Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS™). The collaboration will initially focus on enhancing crop protection tolerance and reducing blackspot bruising, with the aim of improving both productivity by reducing pesticide usage and the overall quality of potatoes available to the consumer.

Potato bruising costs the U.S. potato industry nearly $300 million a year* and NEU Seed estimates that 60 percent of this is attributable to blackspot bruise. In addition to yielding significant economic advantages for farmers and consumers through reduced waste, NEU Seed and Cibus have focused on newly developed traits that are expected to reduce usage of pesticides and improve the sustainability of potato production. Eventually the partners intend to collaborate on the development of other important traits to create healthier potato plants with improved quality attributes that will benefit the consumer and potato industry.

RTDS is an environmentally safe, trait development procedure that will use the potato’s natural process of gene repair to effect a precise change in the genetic sequence. By mimicking natural methods in a highly targeted way, RTDS technology avoids the introduction of foreign genetic material into plants. RTDS has been recognized by the USDA as a mutagenesis technique, and is therefore not subject to the regulations applied to transgenic (or GM) crops. Mutagenesis-derived crops and traits are produced around the globe in a number of food categories, including grains (rice, oats, durum wheat), vegetable oil crops (sunflower, canola, flax), beer ingredients (barley, hops, yeast) and seedless fruits (grapes, citrus fruits).

Cibus President Dr. Keith Walker said, “RTDS technology is revolutionary in that it enables the development in plants of valuable traits that enhance overall efficiency and product quality through a natural process. Globally, potato is a very important food crop, and Cibus is proud to work with NEU Seed and the potato industry to enhance production and quality for the benefit of farmers, processers and consumers.”

“Cibus offers the potato industry a naturally accelerated breeding process that will lead to new and innovative technology solutions for the farmer,” said Dirk Parkinson, potato grower and President of NEU Seed, from Saint Anthony, Idaho. “The RTDS technology offers North American farmers the ability to develop valuable traits through a carefully targeted process that mimics what occurs in nature. This directed and efficient approach allows for lower production costs and significantly enhances the overall quality of our product for our customers.”

* ”Preventing Potato Bruise Damage,” edited by Michael Thornton and William Bohl. College of Agriculture, University of Idaho. 1998.

Cibus
North America
Shawna Seldon
[email protected]
212.255.7541

Europe
Jonathan Birt
[email protected]
+44 (0)20-7269-7205

NEU Seed
Keith Esplin
[email protected]
208.243.1824

Notes to Editors:

About Cibus Global

Cibus Global (http://www.cibus.com/) develops advantageous crop traits with far-reaching implications in agriculture, alternative energy and product development. Through its proprietary Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS^TM), Cibus creates traits in a directed way with more precision than traditional breeding techniques and without the introduction of foreign genetic material. RTDS has proven itself in the laboratory with several different applications, as well as in initial field trials of Cibus’ first commercial crop, canola. Cibus’ products will be brought to market through a number of strategic partnerships; in September 2009, Cibus announced an alliance with Israeli-based Makhteshim-Agan to develop five crops for the European marketplace.

About NEU Seed

Naturally Enhanced United Seed (NEU Seed) was formed in November 2008 to develop and market potato cultivars with new innovative traits for growers, processors and consumers. NEU Seed is a cooperative of seed potato growers, based in Rexburg, Idaho, with a membership of growers from both Idaho and Montana. NEU Seed has entered into partnering agreements with Cibus Global and is seeking seed potato grower members from other seed producing areas of North America to join with NEU Seed to bring value added potato traits to market.

Cibus – Cibus Press Releases

See also other GMO Pundit posts on Cibus’ RTDS

• New technique
• BASF and CIBUS join forces
• RTDS

Despite warnings to the contrary, the increasing use of cell phones has not resulted in an increase in brain cancer (glioma and meningioma), show the results of a study looking at 60,000 people diagnosed with brain cancer over a 30-year period, from 1974 to 2003. The people were all aged between 20 and 79 years.

Researchers in Denmark found that the incidence, the number of brain cancer cases diagnosed, was the same at the end of the study as it was at the beginning, went down, or increased before the large-spread availability of cell phones.

Cell phones have been blamed for brain cancer in previous research, but with a very small increase. The National Cancer Institute has a page on cell phones and brain cancer, where there are explanations about why the fear exists and what types of radiowaves are emitted by cell phones.

One thing to keep in mind is that this study, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was done on adults and not children, so it makes no claim as to whether cell phones have an effect on the brain in children. As well, although the period was over 30 years, it could be that the time from when cell phones really became popular hasn’t been long enough to study the long-term effects.

~~~

Image: PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

No Brain Tumors with Cell Phones: Study

Gran Turismo 5 is still quite a while away, good thing Polyphony Digital managed to work up something good as a reprieve. On December 17th, the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge will be available for download

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Hatchback, Mitsubishi, Specialty, Electric

While Mitsubishi didn’t unveil any new vehicles at the LA Auto Show today, company president Osamu Masuko did announce the latest step in his company’s plan to bring plug-in vehicles to North America. The vehicle – well, one of them – is an all-electric i-MiEV plastered with Best Buy’s Geek Squad logo. The electronics giant will start using them in January (after they’re shown off at CES) at some Geek Squad locations in California. Details have not yet been totally worked out, but the Geek EVs will start with a fleet of four vehicles and then expand and rotate to other stores over the course of three years. Most likely, the i-MiEVs will be doled out in pairs and the probable early cities where these vehicles will make house calls include Chicago, New York, Portland and San Francisco.

Best Buy plans to use the i-MiEVs just like any other fleet car, with the exception that they will be right-hand drive. Best Buy’s Senior Vice President of emerging business, Rick Rommel, told AutoblogGreen that the idea is to learn “how these will fit into a Geek’s daily life.” The plug-in vehicle tests with Geek Squad are unrelated to how select West Coast Best Buy stores are selling electric bikes. That said, Rommel admits that the key thing is that Best Buy likes to conduct new experiments, and these EVs fit into that general concept.

Live photos copyright (C)2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Best Buy Geek Squads to start testing Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Best Buy Geek Squads to start testing Mitsubishi i-MiEV originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

If one were to read Engadget or Gizmodo, one would get the impression using a Windows Mobile phones was a form of cruel and  unusual torture which left every device carrying the OS at a disadvantage.

The latest release of Consumer Report’s Wireless survey, which polled more than 50 000 users in many US cities, seems to put a lie to this belief.  While the ubiquitous iPhone scored first with 74/100, the Windows Mobile powered HTC Touch Pro 2 scored a very respectable 71/100, while the HTC Imagio and  Samsung Omnia took up a strong third place with 70/100.

The Palm Pre, often held up a  model of what Windows Mobile should be, failed to score very well at all, and the very successful Blackberry scored the lowest amongst smartphone, with the BlackBerry 8830 for Verizon, the BlackBerry Curve 8330 and BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for Sprint all pretty much leaving their owners unsatisfied.

Now all of this does not mean Windows Mobile does not have room to improve, but often the OS does not get credit for the great strengths it does have, especially compared to its competitors. Examples include the UI, which is often called dated, but is miles ahead of the awful imitation of DOS which is the Blackberry OS or the breath of applications, which while not 100 000, have more diversity than the iPhone, and certainly far exceeds that on the Pre. Examples abound, but as this survey clearly shows, Windows Mobile does not deserve to be bashed to the degree it is currently.

Do you feel Windows Mobile is getting a bad rap unfairly?  Let us know in the comments.

I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO TEST THE NEW PRODUCT FROM BETANCOURT – THEIR PREWORKOUT ANDRORUSH CHEWIES.

HERE IS THE LINK

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=120738531

 

I ALSO HAVE RECEIVE A GREAT WEALTH OF PRODUCTS FROM DR. DENNIS SANDLER M.D MYHERBALSUPPLEMENT.COM (NOT THROUGH THE FORUMS, THIS WAS A PERSONAL CONTACT) WHICH I WILL BE TESTING UPON COMPLETION AND WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES. THESE PRODUCTS LOOK AMAZING!! AND CANT WAIT TO GIVE YOU THE GREAT INSIGHT ON THEM. AS FOR NOW BETANCOURT IS MY MAIN FOCUS! KEEP ON THE LOOKOUT GREAT THINGS COMING. DOUBLE T SPORTS GLUTACENE REVIEW AS WELL SINCE I WON A FREE BOTTLE THEY DID A GIVEAWAY OF 250. AND I WONT PALO ALTO LABS ANABOLIC EDGE BOTTLE GIVEAWAY (THESE ARE NOT LOGGED THINGS BUT I WILL PROVIDE REVIEWS AFTER COMPLETING OTHERS AS TO NOT AFFECT ANY PRODUCT RESULTS.)  NEW VIDEO TONIGHT, SORRY I HAVE BEEN SICK SO ITS BEEN HARD TO DO EVERYTHING I ALSO HAVE QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED ALONG WITH PICTURES. LOOKING TONIGHT AROUND 10 EASTERN TIME

The article reviewed here is ‘Patterns and Changes in Prescriber Attitudes Toward PDA Prescription-Assistive Technology’ by Arun Vishwanath and colleagues. The authors look at the characteristics of ‘early’ and ‘late’ adopters of PDA prescription-assistive technology. Their interest in attitudes is explained in the introduction when they cite research suggesting that attitudes towards new technology is correlated with adoption of this same technology.

They selected 244 clinicians  from an American academic tertiary care children’s hospital representing different professions but accounting for 90% of prescribers in the inpatient service. This high percentage suggests that the sample is likely to be representative of the inpatient prescribers. The prescribers had recently undergone training in the use of the PDA software. Commercial software was used and supplied by the company producing the software. Hospital and staff-owned PDA’s were used with the software and all PDA’s used in the course of the study were inspected to ensure that they met specific hardware standards. These standards in turn would ensure that the software was appropriately ‘responsive. Details of the training were given.

Assessments of clinician’s attitudes towards the technology before and after implementation were assessed using a Likert-scale questionnaire. The authors then state that the questionnaire design and administration was conducted by an external company that had previous experience with this type of research. Regarding the various tools that were used pre and post-implementation, the authors write that

‘All the measures used in the study were valid measures drawn from prior technology acceptance research and modified to suit the clinical context‘

I wasn’t sure of the type of validity that was being referred to and how the previous research tools were modified.  They also wrote that

‘All multi-item measures were reliable and achieved an acceptable alpha level‘ (alpha greater than 0.85).

A number of questionnaires were used and most used closed-questions but one gave the option for open-ended responses. Although I might have missed this I couldn’t find a clear definition of early and late adopters but the authors state that these groups can be distinguished on the basis of the results of a ‘five-item measure of the clinician’s attitude twoards PDAs, and a measure of the clinician’s likelihood to adopt the PDA within the next year’. Under the statistical analysis the authors write that

‘The data were analy(s)ed using the combination of multivariate techniques…..Segments were derived by applying a two-step clustering algorithm. The resulting segments were validated statistically using t-tests (Boneferroni adjustments) and theoretically compared to the EA and LA profiles suggested by diffusion theory‘

This excerpt is quite information dense and contains lots of different and complex statistical processes which would involve judgments as to their suitability. I would be interested to learn more about the analysis that took place at this stage. The use of the Boneferroni adjustments reflects that multiple comparisons were taking place on the dataset and that relationships were being explored rather than primary hypotheses tested. Another question I asked on reading this section is what was diffusion theory and why was it being used in this analysis?

The difficulty that I had with this analysis was that it led to the stratification of the sample into early and late adopters of the technology. I  would argue therefore that it is difficult to know how to apply this term in an intuitive way. For instance if I were to ask if a person were a late or early adopter I would need to refer to their exploratory statistical analysis of this group – I would argue that it becomes difficult to translate into other populations. If this is the case, then I would add that it means I don’t really know how meaningful this is to me. While intuitively we might know what early and late adopters of the technology might be this statistical meaning is very specific and defined by several layers of abstraction. If as a result I just say that early adopters are people that adopt the technology soon after its advent and late adopters otherwise, I will perhaps be able to apply this knowledge to other scenarios but as a result of the above arguments my conclusions may be markedly inaccurate.

Taking into account the previous arguments there are a number of observations that the authors have made about their groups of LA and EA’s. They identified the EA group as significantly younger than the LA group and tending to be residents rather than attending. On a number of measures the researchers found that after the intervention there were still significant differences between the EA’s and LA’s in their attitudes towards PDA’s. Essentially even after training early adopters generally had more positive attitudes towards PDA’s than late adopters.

In conclusion, I found it difficult to conceptualise the constructs of EA and LA’s. Even so, I could see that here was a method to create potentially useful categories on the basis of the statistical analysis and to identify significant associations which could then be used qualitatively. What I found interesting and to some extent predictable is that with interventions, people within one category tended to remain in that category. Perhaps this suggests that to have any impact particularly with attitudes there should be a sustained intervention, that such impact should be intended and that the systems have some advantage over contemporary systems. It is difficult for me to extrapolate further other than to say that attitudes do not necessarily have a direct translation into behaviours and triangulation can be helpful. As for the clinical utility of the PDA’s, this is a topic in itself and will be dependent on the hardware and software as well as the setting. Rapid changes in technology can also have an impact on the application of such studies.

References

Vishwanath A, Brodsky L, Shaha S et al. Patterns and changes in prescriber attitudes toward PDA prescription-assistive technology. International Journal of Medical Informatics. 78. 2009. 330-339.

Podcast

You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast).

TAWOP Channel

You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link

Responses

If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail [email protected]

Disclaimer

The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

Filed under: Safety, Technology

We’ve got the stoplights in our neighborhood timed pretty well, but it’s pretty painful when you’re at a foreign intersection and have absolutely no idea when the light will turn green. We shift our vehicle into Neutral and give our left foot a break at a stoplight that we know is long, but at uncharted lights, we occasionally keep our clutch foot to the floor.

One designer by the name of Damjan Stankovic decided we should wait no longer, so he designed an innovative-looking “Eko” stoplight that offers an easy to read indicator that shows how much time the light has until it turns green. The idea has some merit. If you want to conserve fuel and reduce CO2 emissions, you could turn off your engine during truly long lights. (We wouldn’t, but you could). If drivers were able to see the light from far away, they could also let off the accelerator early and save a little strain on the brakes. We can think of one big issue, though: drivers trying to time the turn from red to green.

What do you think? Would a red light timer be a good thing, or would it be a recipe for disaster? Give us your take in ‘Comments.’ Thanks for the tips, Spyros and Jared!

[Source: Yanko Design]

Ready, Set, Go! Clever stoplight concept counts down to green originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

In September, before Sony officially launched its PSP Minis line of games, Sony Europe’s Zeno Colaco hinted at the possibility of popular Minis titles making

 

The Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Are Getting Richer; The Good Old Days Are Now –
Chart 1 … shows the percentage of all U.S. households owning various household appliances in 1971 and 2005, and the percentage of poor households (below the official poverty line) owning those appliances in 2005. The data show a significant improvement in living standards between 1971 and 2005 

Chart 2 … In other words, to purchase those 11 basic household appliances in 1973 would have taken … 3.4 months working full-time at the average hourly wage in 1973. To purchase those same eleven appliances in 2009 would have only taken … 1.1 months.   Mark Perry’s Carpe Diem Blog

————

Get Ready for Half a Recovery – by GRETCHEN MORGENSON – … Mr. Shepherdson’s 2 percent estimate for gross domestic product growth next year is roughly half what he would normally expect for a solid economic recovery. And a crucial reason is the fact that bad assets on personal and institutional balance sheets are the equivalent of a ball and chain strapped to the economy, he says. … – NY Times

————

A treatise on inflation – Consumer-driven Deflation? Not Even Close – Paco Ahlgren – Ahlgren Multiverse Blog 
…
So this brings us to four final questions (as well as their answers, which I am thrilled to provide at no extra charge):
1.     If the Fed is going to (attempt to) hold down long-term rates by using printed money to buy Treasuries, isn’t that going to cause downward pressure on the value of the currency? (Yes!)
2.     And as the dollar loses value, won’t U.S. creditors be reluctant to loan us more money – or even to hold existing American debt? (Yes!)
3.     And won’t that necessarily mean rising interest rates? (Yes!)
4.     So how, exactly, is that going to keep long-term Treasury rates lower? (It won’t!)
————

Japan facing harsh realities of deflation – It may sound like a wonderful concept – you wake up every morning and things are a bit cheaper than before. Your money is worth just a bit more. And that is (sort of) the situation in Japan currently. The chart below shows Japan’s negative inflation rate. – Sober Look Blog

I figured out that parenting is how I chose to fill my time between high school graduation and retirement. People have different hobbies, mine just happens to be giving birth.

My name is Marye Audet and I have blogged for b5media for almost three years now. You may know me from Baking Delights or Kettle and Cup because that is usually where I am. However, I have been given the opportunity to write for the parenting channel, I think someone thinks I have a little experience in this area… I am not quite 50,  newly single after a 30 year marriage, and the very proud mom to eight of the most incredible kids on the planet…perhaps in the entire universe. But wait! That’s not all! I  also have a fantabulous son in law who I like to keep around for comic relief and three of the most adorable grandkids ever.  I think that my life is a reality show in the making but so far we have not been discovered.

I homeschool, and have homeschooled since 1989.  We live in a large and rambling historic home in need of restoration, have been raising dairy goats but I think that part of my life is about to be history, and we have chickens. I like to grow my own food when I can, and pretend to be independent.

So, what am I going to blog about? Do you really have to ask? I have experienced everything from new baby diaper spontaneous explosion  to adult children moving back home. Parenting-R-Us.  So the first thing on the agenda is to introduce you to the cast of characters:

Cast:

• Erin- 27, married, creative  (husband Jon, kids Amanda, Gabe, and Bella), her life reminds me that there is hope for the rest of them…
• Chris – 24, Air Force, Middle East, very missed
• Matthew – 17, 3rd semester of college, serious and focused
• Ethan – 16, about to start college, plays 6 instruments or so and has a band
• Shiloh – 13, wants to be a medical examiner, she is tres drole
• Sean – 11, every family needs a quiet genius, Sean is ours. Pocket protectors anyone?
• Nick – 9, artistic, free spirit… hair to the middle of his back. Samson is his Bible hero.
• Kyrie – 6, Princess, diva,call it what you will this little girl has a unique blend of  moxie-chutzpah  (non-conformist but gutsy audacity).
• Me – I am trying to navigate mid-life with as much humor and optimism as my medications will allow…(o.k.. not really. I am only on one medication but it was too good of a line to not use.)

Add a mentally challenged dog (he had major brain damage when we found him, no lie), two cats (Chipotle and Snowball; Snowball is black and brown tortise-shell calico. Kyrie named her) and a fairly odd bunch of friends and you really do have the makings for some pretty unique blog posts.

You aren’t going to want to miss a minute..I promise.

image: Marye Audet

Post from: Blisstree

And What’s your Hobby??

Filed under: Concept Cars, LA Auto Show, Coupe, Hybrid, Sedan, Performance, Crossover, BMW, Luxury

BMW took advantage of California’s proclivity for greenwashing to give its ActiveHybrid models their North American debuts at the LA Auto Show. Just for good measure they also brought along the incredible Vision Efficient Dynamics sustainable supercar concept. While we know a great deal about BMW’s first true hybrid, the X6 ActiveHybrid, from our first drive, we still had to admire its incredible combination of horsepower and technology, even if the mileage isn’t really spectacular enough to warrant a truly green halo.

The BMW 7 Series ActiveHybrid is a mild hybrid with the electric motor filling one of three roles while in motion. It alternates between being a motivator, a generator and a booster depending on load and demand. It can go 37 mph on the motor alone, it gets 20% better overall mileage than the straight gas engine, and it does the 0-60 trot in just 4.7 seconds thanks to its 455 horsepower and 515 lb-ft of torque. BMW’s Peter Miles did add one bit of information to the Active 7 equation when he announced pricing. The regular wheelbase model will start at $103,125 while the long-wheelbase “L” model will start at $107,025.

The last car in the BMW eco show was the Vision concept. And never before has the phrase, “last but not least,” been more appropriate. This thing looks like it could have come out of Minority Report, yet it has so much real world promise. We’ll never see this car in production, of course, but don’t be surprised to see many of its elements in future BMW models. We’re still trying to decide whether we’d take this or the swoopy e-tron concept next door at Audi’s stand, but why not have both?

Check out our gallery of live shots from LA by clicking below, or the official 7 Series pricing press release after the jump.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading LA 2009: BMW ActiveHybrids get North American debut; 7 Series model priced from $103,125

LA 2009: BMW ActiveHybrids get North American debut; 7 Series model priced from $103,125 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Even China — which is obviously embarking on a long term plan to dump dollars, and move its reserves into hard assets — is unnerved by the surge in gold.

Telegraph: Hu Xiaolian, the vice-governor of the central bank, said Beijing would not buy gold indiscriminately.

“We must keep in mind the long-term effects when considering what to use as our reserves,” she said. “We must watch out for bubbles forming on certain assets and be careful in those areas.”

China announced this year that it had quietly doubled its gold reserves to 1,054 tonnes, the world’s fifth largest holding. India has also joined the rush, gobbling up half the IMF’s gold sale.

Gold dipped modestly today, though it remains above $1200.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Goldman: Gold’s Headed To $1450
• Here’s The Real Peak In Gold
• Amazing: John Paulson Makes $50 Million In Five Weeks On A Gold Trade (DGC)

 

 

Because of a snafu at our email vendor, 5 posts were not included in yesterday’s email digest.  Here they are if you wish to check them out:

Market Related: Paolo Pelligrini MUST READ, Krugman on Taxing Speculators, Another Lost Decade?

Political Influence and Government: Foodstamps Interactive Chart, Geithner Yields, Bernanke, AEI on GSEs, Triparty Reverse Repos, PPIP Private Label MBS, Jim Rogers on Geithner

Pick of the Day – 2 incredible charts – For Subprime, is it Deja Vu all over again? – By Paul Jackson 

RESPA sites; Lend America gone; Conjecture on Fed commercial mortgage program

The Garrett, Watts Report (The party, after you left, Dec. 2009)

===== 

As always you can read everything at http://mortgagenewsclips.com/  plus the site’s Google search makes a great research tool for the thousands of mortgage related posts and articles there.

I’ll make this as my first Alias model… (i hope.. 😛 )

Seems.. kind of easy…. :S

With the clock counting down the last few weeks before the holidays, there is no time like the present to start picking up some holiday presents! The best thing about baking gifts, or food gifts, is that they’re usually a little bit more useful than another sweater with a reindeer on it, so there is no harm in picking out something for yourself while shopping for others.

• The Baking Bites Cookbook is at the top of my gift-giving list this year. It’s great for bakers of all ages, foodies and fans of this site. It also makes a great hostess gift for parties.
• When you already have your copy of my cookbook,  other good reads include The Ungarnished Truth and The Sweet Life in Paris, both very entertaining foodie nonfiction. As for cookbooks, try to take a peek at your recipient’s book case, then browse through some of the books I’ve mentioned throughout the year to find one that seems like a good fit. There are so many to choose from!
• A kitchen scale is a great gift if you don’t already have one. The EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Scale is lightweight, easy to use and measures from a single gram to 11-lbs, making it extremely versatile.
• When it comes to baking pans, I always recommend the Baker’s Edge pan as a great gift. A really nice bundt pan will always be well-received, too, but novelty pans like mini donut pans and cakesicle pans are fun to work with, as well.
• A copy of Julie and Julia on DVD should make any foodie happy. Add a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in case they’re inspired to try some of the recipes themselves!

(more…)