Rush Limbaugh= $400 million???

Who says radio is dead?

On the verge of the 20th anniversary of his conservative talk show, Rush Limbaugh has re-upped with Clear Channel Communications and the deal worth some $400 million to rant on through 2016 -- that's the next three presidential elections and everything in between.

Word of this phenomenal payday -- almost certainly the richest in radio and rivaling even that of even network TV stars like David Letterman -- comes from the New York Times, which interviewed Limbaugh for an article for the Sunday magazine published online Wednesday.

The Times' Brian Stelter reports that Limbaugh's $50 million a year paycheck is a hefty raise from his $14.4 million annual salary in an eight-year contract that ends next year.

Garbage in, Megawatts out- Gassification a GO

Easy viewing: Gasification plants that convert municipal waste into energy and by-products can be built squat and stackless, according to Canadian developer PlascoEnergy. This artist’s rendering shows the 400-metric-ton-per-day facility that PlascoEnergy plans to build in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Credit: PlascoEnergy

This week, city counselors in Ottawa, Ontario, unanimously approved a new waste-to-energy facility that will turn 400 metric tons of garbage per day into 21 megawatts of net electricity--enough to power about 19,000 homes. Rather than burning trash to generate heat, as with an incinerator, the facility proposed by Ottawa-based PlascoEnergy Group employs electric-plasma torches to gasify the municipal waste and enlist the gas to generate electricity.

A few waste-to-energy gasification plants have been built in Europe and Asia, where landfilling is more difficult and energy has historically been more costly. But PlascoEnergy's plant would be the first large facility of its kind in North America. The company's profitability hinges on its ability to use a cooler gasification process to lower costs, as well as on rising energy and tipping fees to ensure strong revenues.

PlascoEnergy's approval marked the latest in a string of positive developments for waste gasification projects in recent weeks. Last month, Hawaii okayed $100 million in bonds to finance a waste-to-energy plant using plasma-torch technology from Westinghouse Plasma, based in Madison, PA, that is already employed in two large Japanese waste processing plants. Meanwhile, Boston-based competitor Ze-gen reported the successful ramp-up of a 10-metric-ton-per-day pilot plant in New Bedford, MA, that uses molten iron to break down waste.

Most gasification plants work by subjecting waste to extreme heat in the absence of oxygen. Under these conditions, the waste breaks down to yield a blend of hydrogen and carbon monoxide called syngas that can be burned in turbines and engines. What has held back the technology in North America is high operating costs. Plasma plants, using powerful electrical currents to produce a superhot plasma that catalyzes waste breakdown, tend to consume most of the energy they generate. As a result, the focus of plasma gasification plants has been to simply destroy hazardous wastes. "There was really no thought of being able to produce net power," says PlascoEnergy CEO Rod Bryden.

PlascoEnergy started looking at gasification for municipal solid waste five years ago, when it determined through simulation that cooler plasma torches could do the job. "The amount of heat required to separate gases from solids was much less than the amount being delivered when the purpose was simply to destroy the material," says Bryden. PlascoEnergy tested the models on its five-metric-ton-per-day pilot plant in Castellgali, Spain (jointly operated with Hera Holdings, Spain's second largest waste handler). In January, the company began large-scale trials in a 100-metric-ton-per-day demonstration plant built in partnership with the city of Ottawa.

Here's how it works. First, bulk metals are removed, and the rest of the shredded waste is conveyed to a 700 ºC gasification chamber. Most of it volatilizes to a complex blend of gases and rises toward a plasma torch operating at 1200 ºC--well below the 3000 to 5000 ºC used with hazardous wastes. The plasma reduces the complex blend to a few simple gases, such as steam, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen, plus assorted contaminants such as mercury and sulfur; subsequent cleanup systems remove the steam and mercury and scrub out the soot before the syngas is sent to an internal combustion engine generator.

The waste that doesn't volatilize forms a solid slag and drops to the bottom of the gasification chamber. The slag is then pushed to another plasma torch, which drives off remaining carbon in the slag before the slag is cooled and vitrifies. The resulting glass can be blended into asphalt road surfacing or cement.

Under its deal with Ottawa, PlascoEnergy will cover the estimated $125 million that it takes to build the plant, which could be operating within three years, while the city will pay only standard tipping fees--on the order of $60 per metric ton.

Ze-gen plans to avoid the challenge of handling complex municipal wastes by focusing first on an easier-to-handle feedstock: construction and demolition wood wastes. The company has filed seven patents on its molten metal gasification technology and waste-to-syngas process, but the equipment itself is standard for the steel industry, which uses molten iron to catalytically drive off impurities from ore. Ze-gen's pilot plant processes wood waste using a standard electrically heated steel-industry crucible full of molten iron.

Ze-gen CEO Bill Davis estimates that a full-size plant just slightly bigger than PlascoEnergy's commercial plant will produce enough syngas to create 30 megawatts of electricity, but he says that the syngas is also of sufficient quality to be used in other applications. As examples, he cites synthetic gasoline, diesel production, and refinery applications.

Speech Prosthesis- not a pipe dream

Speaking out: Scientists at Boston University are designing a speech prosthesis that may one day translate thought into spoken word for people with certain speech-related disorders. The team scanned the brain of a paralyzed patient and found that, within the motor region of the brain involved in speech (between the red and yellow lines), certain areas light up (orange) according to various sounds that the patient mentally voices. Credit: Frank Guenther, Boston University

For more than eight years, Erik Ramsey has been trapped in his own body. At 16, Ramsey suffered a brain-stem injury after a car crash, leaving him with a condition known as "locked-in" syndrome. Unlike other forms of paralysis, locked-in patients can still feel sensation, but they cannot move on their own, and they are unable to control the complex vocal muscles required to speak. In Ramsey's case, his eyes are his only means of communication: skyward for yes, downward for no.

Now researchers at Boston University are developing brain-reading computer software that in essence translates thoughts into speech. Combined with a speech synthesizer, such brain-machine interfacing technology has enabled Ramsey to vocalize vowels in real time--a huge step toward recovering full speech for Ramsey and other patients with paralyzing speech disorders. The researchers are presenting their work at the annual Acoustical Society of America meeting in Paris this week.

"The question is, can we get enough information out that produces intelligible speech?" asks Philip Kennedy of Neural Signals, a brain-computer interface developer based in Atlanta. "I think there's a fair shot at this at this point."

Kennedy and Frank Guenther, an associate professor at Boston University's Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, have been decoding activity within Ramsey's brain for the past three years via a permanent electrode implanted beneath the surface of his brain, in a region that controls movement of the mouth, lips, and jaw. During a typical session, the team asks Ramsey to mentally "say" a particular sound, such as "ooh" or "ah." As he repeats the sound in his head, the electrode picks up local nerve signals, which are sent wirelessly to a computer. The software then analyzes those signals for common patterns that most likely denote that particular sound.

The software is designed to translate neural activity into what are known as formant frequencies, the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract. For example, if your mouth is open wide and your tongue is pressed to the base of the mouth, a certain sound frequency is created as air flows through, based on the position of the vocal musculature. Different muscle positioning creates a different frequency. Guenther trained the computer to recognize patterns of neural signals linked to specific movements of the mouth, jaw, and lips. He then translated these signals into the correlating sound frequencies and programmed a sound synthesizer to project these frequencies back out through a speaker in audio form.

So far, Guenther and Kennedy have programmed the synthesizer to play back sounds within 50 milliseconds--that is, almost instantaneously--from when Ramsey first "voiced" them in his head. This audio playback feature has allowed Ramsey to practice mentally voicing vowels, first by hearing his initial "utterance," then by adjusting his mental sound representation to improve the next playback. Jonathan Brumberg, a PhD student in Guenther's lab, says that while each trial has been slow-going--it takes great effort on Ramsey's part--the results have been promising. "At this point, he can do these vowel sounds pretty well," says Brumberg. "We're now fairly confident the same can be accomplished with consonants."

However, as there are four times as many consonants as vowels, it may take years for the team to decode all the sounds, not to mention string them together to recognize and produce fluent speech. Brumberg says that the team may need to implant more electrodes, in areas solely devoted to the tongue, lips, or mouth, to get an accurate picture of more-complex sounds such as consonants.

"The electrode is only capturing about 56 distinct neural signals," says Brumberg. "But you have to think: there are billions of cells in the brain with trillions of connections, and we are only sampling a very small portion of what is there."

The team has no immediate plans to implant Ramsey with additional electrodes. However, Guenther is also exploring noninvasive methods of studying speech production in normal volunteers. He and Brumberg are scanning the brains of normal speakers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As volunteers perform various tasks, such as naming pictures and mentally repeating various sounds and words, active brain areas light up in response.

Guenther and Brumberg plan to analyze these scans for common patterns, zeroing in on specific regions related to certain sounds, with the goal of one day implanting additional electrodes in these regions. The researchers say that decoding signals within these areas may help translate speech for people with disorders such as locked-in syndrome and other forms of paralysis.

"For patients with certain kinds of speech-related disorders originating in the peripheral nervous system, this approach is highly promising," says Vincent Gracco, director of the Center for Research on Language, Mind and Brain at McGill University. "There is the potential to provide a useful means of communicating for patients with no functioning speech, in ways that have not been explored."

Searchable Flash

Credit: Technology Review

The Web would be useless without search engines. But as good as Google and Yahoo are at finding online information, much on it remains hidden, or difficult to rank in search results. On Tuesday, however, Adobe took a major step toward opening up tens of millions of pages to Google and Yahoo. The company has provided the search engines with a specialized version of its Flash animation player that reveals information about text and links in Flash files. It's a move that could be a boon to advertisers, in particular, who have traditionally had to choose between building a site that's aesthetically pleasing and one that can be ranked in a Web search.

The new software is required only to index Flash files, not to play them, says Justin Everett-Church, senior product manager for Adobe Flash Player. Web surfers don't need to download a new Flash player, and content providers don't have to change the way they write applications. "For end users, they're going to see a lot more results and a lot better results," says Everett-Church. "The perfect result may have been out there but trapped in a SWF [Shockwave Flash file]. But now they can find it."

Currently, Google indexes nearly 71 million Flash files on the Internet (this number can be acquired by searching "filetype:swf"). These files have, to a limited degree, always been searchable. Before Adobe's announcement, search engines were able to look at a Flash file and extract static text and links from it. But they couldn't tell where on the Flash site the text fell--on the main page, for instance, or deep within the site--which made it difficult to evaluate its importance. Search engines would also miss moving text inside animations.

Adobe gave Google and Yahoo new Flash player technology that works in conjunction with the "spiders" that search engines use to index Web pages. (Microsoft, which has developed its own competitor to Flash, called Silverlight, is not publicly involved in Adobe's initiative.) Spiders are autonomous programs that browse through the Web in a systematic fashion. Adobe's new player allows these spiders to load Flash files, read the text and links, and click any buttons or tabs. This allows the spider to make inferences about the context in which a word or link occurs--something it couldn't do before.

"Previously, content providers have had to make a trade-off between using a SWF [pronounced 'swiff'] and searchability," says Everett-Church. But now, he says, Adobe hopes that more people will feel comfortable developing visually appealing sites without forgoing search rank.

nalysts agree that it's important to make more of the Web searchable, and Adobe's move is crucial. However, it's an intermediate step, says Peter Elst, a Flash platform consultant. While the move opens up more text and links to search engines, site designers should have "control over what exactly gets indexed and how it should be interpreted by a search engine," Elst says. With conventional Web pages, designers exert that control by adding metadata and tags that describe their sites. But, Elst says, that's not yet possible with the new Flash tools.

At this stage, says Elst, many Flash programmers are concerned about how Google and Yahoo will use their newly acquired information to rank sites. "As far as we know," he says, "the data that gets indexed is just a raw dump, and no context is applied, making it difficult to figure out how you can actually use this to do search-engine optimization and get higher page ranks."

Google has dropped some hints about how it will handle Flash searches. For instance, its spiders currently will not load Flash applications that use the language JavaScript, so those applications may not get indexed. But in the end, people and businesses that want to promote their websites may need to use trial and error to figure out how to build Flash sites that search engines will rank highly, adjusting their tactics as Google's and Yahoo's algorithms change. But then that's what they had to do with traditional HTML sites anyway.

MotiveMag on the new 911

Every so often a newcomer makes noise about toppling the Porsche 911 from its well-earned position in the sports car pantheon. And every so often the wizards of Weissach, Porsche's epicenter of engineering, respond by tinkering with the 45-year-old design just enough to ensure it remains the world's most engaging sports car.

The 911 seems an easy target, burdened as it is by a design locked in the iron grip of Porsche tradition and by an engine that should have been placed anywhere else but in the tail. But, just when some upstart figures it's got Porsche dead-centered, the 911 finds fresh legs and runs off, out of range of even the most avid hunters.

The newest 911 arrives in America in September, initially with a four-car lineup of rear-drive models. The Carrera Coupe and Cabriolet receive the smaller of the two new engines, a 3.6-liter horizontally opposed 6 with 345 horsepower, while the two Carrera S models are powered by a 3.8-liter variant of the boxer rated at 385 horsepower. Prices range from $75,600 to $96,800 for models with the standard six-speed manual transmission; add around $4000 for the optional seven-speed automanual gearbox (more on that in a few paragraphs).

Though it's built around the same architecture as the outgoing version, the new 911 gets a family of more powerful, more efficient six-cylinder boxer engines. Identical in size to the outgoing powerplants, the new engines are otherwise (to be redundant in the interest of accuracy) totally new, built from 40 percent fewer parts — which is totally cool if you're the production manager and cool, too, for the driver, who benefits from the more compact engine's reduced height and lower mounting points and, thus, improved center of gravity.

The entire powertrain is 22-percent more rigid (without chemical aids!) and 12 pounds lighter than before, and the sucks, squishes, bangs, and blows are far more controlled, efficient, and productive. Credit the first use of direct injection in a Porsche sports car engine, a high compression ratio, and reduced engine friction for the lowered fuel consumption, which measures between 12 and 13 percent on the European test cycle for both motors. And credit the same list for the increase in power, along with the contributions from a new electronic fuel pump (good for 3 hp), freer-flowing intake system, lower-pressure exhaust, more effective dry-sump oiling and, of course, the computer geeks who rewrite the software to make all these pieces work so well together. The 3.6's 345 hp represents a 6.2-percent increase in power, while the 3.8's 385 hp is more than 8 percent greater than before. Torque for both engines is up by about five percent, and the curve has been reworked for more accessibility and longer duration.

Previous Porsche sixes were renowned for their elastic powerbands, but this new engine takes the fun-per-rpm quotient to new heights due to such elements as "seven percent fewer rotary moved masses" (a reference to lower rotational inertia, not the worldwide fall-off in RX-7–club membership). The new six begins its song in a lower register, and when the throttle is pressed the muted bass crescendos into a roar of meticulously balanced explosions. Students of mechanical engineering should study its sonic profile so as to better understand how design can be transformed into emotion. The whipsawed soundwaves raise pitch as swiftly as the revs increase, which is swift indeed, but, even when every bit of power is unleashed, there's not a single shriek of stress or complaint about an overzealous throttle. Only the soft bump of the rev limiter reveals it's time to pay attention to the gears.

And attention is worth paying, because the new Porsche-Doppelkupplungsgetriebe twin-clutch automatic (PDK) is a vast improvement over Tiptronic S, Porsche's outgoing, and generally unloved, manumatic. Built by ZF, PDK successfully bridges the gap between workaday commuting and weekend track sessions, delivering a freshened level of performance, efficiency, and refinement.

Porsche pioneered this technology back in 1983 in its 956 racecar and won some races in 1986 with it in a 962, but it wasn't until recently that Porsche and ZF were able to refine the concept for mass production, ease of use, and comfort. PDK is 22 pounds lighter than Tiptronic; so efficient it requires no auxiliary cooler (except for a small oil chamber that cools the two integrated "wet" clutches); and has a very tall seventh gear for exceptional highway mileage. A range of shift strategies, initiated by the driver, vary from full automatic (and most fuel efficient) to full sport (when fitted with the optional Sport Chrono Plus package), which changes gears up to 60 percent faster than the torque-converting Tiptronic could manage. But perhaps the PDK's most revealing number is the Carrera S's 0-60-mph time: 4.3 seconds, a full 0.2 seconds quicker than the same car with a manual six-speed. Traditionalists won't be disappointed with the new car's six-speed manual, which has been reworked for crisper throws, but even those die-hards should consider test-driving a PDK-equipped 911 to see how rewarding automanual gear selection has become.

Porsche's styling department didn't stand by and watch this new 911 take shape without its own fiddles, most of which subtly yet effectively transmute a familiar presence into something fresh. The front bumper has larger air intakes, and the larger rearview mirrors are mounted with double arms, but it's the daytime LED running lights, brake lights, and now standard bi-xenon headlamps that give this generation of 911s its signature look.

Changes inside the cockpit include a new touch-screen Porsche Communication Management system and fewer buttons to figure out; a new three-spoke steering wheel that houses the PDK's shift switches at the apex of the lateral arms and the rim; and lots of new options, including a carbon-fiber sports bucket that is both comfortable and ideal for resisting the pull of high g forces.

Our first sample of those forces came at Porsche's famous Weissach test track. A new Porsche 911 Carrera 3.8 coupe throbbed quietly at track's entrance, an open door and carbon-fiber bucket beckoning. A young man who looked like last night's waiter on his way home from work walked up and asked, "So, are you prepared?"

This was a Porsche test driver?

As we approached the car, I mimicked the twist of a steering wheel to inform him I'd be the one doing the driving. He thought that was hilarious. Ach, but who could imagine such a thing? his laugh said as he climbed behind the wheel. I flashed him a sour look and retreated to where I was told to be, on the passive side of the cockpit.

I was tempted to make the young man understand the irony of the situation. I've been an acolyte of the Porsche faith for more than three decades, longer than he's been alive, and I've spent many hours on racetracks in 911s and countless other types of Porsches. And I believe Weissach, the epicenter of Porsche engineering, to be hallowed ground. I wanted to make him see why it was so excruciatingly frustrating to sit beside him, in the wrong seat, for my first taste of a new 911.

It was as though I'd finally gotten Angelina Jolie naked, but all I was allowed to do was study her tattoos.

I realized it was a management decision. Weissach is narrow and tough, and there's nothing to be learned from journos out there testing airbags (and I'd get my chance in the car the next day on the wild and woolly roads of Germany). But this youngster looked like he could be slinging schnitzel instead of flinging cars. If I couldn't be at the wheel, at least let it be an old hand, like Hurley Haywood.

Worse, I'd just signed a release absolving everyone of anything if something happened. I was at the total mercy of someone who undoubtedly never felt the bite of trailing throttle oversteer in its prime.

During our first lap together, this kid did little else but drone on about the new 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, guide me through the multitude of buttons and switches for various permutations of performance, grip, and climate, and suggest I admire such aesthetic and ergonomic embellishments as the color-coordinated seatbelts and new, larger touch-screen infotainment interface. All pertinent stuff, sure, but stuff I could get in the press kit. Was this guy a test driver or Porsche's new animatronic sales manual?

Slices of real life managed to slip through his narrative: The engine sounded divine. Like no other 911 engine before it there was no whine. PDK gear changes in full automatic mode were so smooth they were sensed rather than felt, and manual shifts were confirmed only by watching the driver thumb the steering-wheel-mounted switches, themselves a huge improvement over the wimpy buttons of Tiptronic. Plus, it was pleasant to rediscover how comfortable it is just to motor along in a 911, even one fitted with 19-inch wheels. Still, the driver was going so slowly I was tempted to catch up on some of the sleep I missed flying in the previous night from L.A.

Just as I was getting worked up (I've hit turbulence over Iceland that was more fun than sitting beside this human book on tape), he completed the first lap, braked to a halt, turned to me, and his eyes lit up like the 911's new LED brake lights. I thought he either was going to go completely off script (say, bust out of Weissach and race the polizei to the border), or we had arrived at that part of the movie he likes — the car chase in the third act.

"Now," he announced, "I vill show you ze new Launch Control, ze Sports Chrono Package, und ze effects of ze optional limited-slip differential."

And suddenly we were pushed forward with a turmoil of unrelenting force, the sort of physical displacement the rational person expects will lead to a bad end. Some primeval part of our brains still remember that, not long ago, 62 mph in 4.3 seconds meant a cliff, the suck of gravity, an uncertain landing...

To elaborate on that theme, achieving a similar measure of speed over time in the new 911 was no more complicated than jumping off a cliff, but the ease of doing so did little justice to the sophistication of the interceding electronics. Launch control withholds and then releases the powertrain's energy with the brutal efficiency of a short right to the chin — only it was our backsides, snug within the carbon-fiber sports buckets, that took the brunt of the hit from the 385-horsepower boxer. Launch control is, asking no pardon for the expression, a kick in the ass.

Before I could lift my eyes from the speedometer, we were approaching the braking zone for the Northern Curve at about a buck thirty. On our first lap the driver had revolved through this constant radius U-bend like the lazy waiter he resembled, but on this second lap, he channeled some inner fire and directed it through his right leg to alternately punish the two pedals with resounding slaps of shoe leather.

I appreciated the irony he was throwing back in my face. Maybe I wasn't dreaming my dream of driving Weissach, and maybe the guy shaved once a week, but he was damn quick, quicker than I'll ever be. And he was teaching me things that would have remained beyond my fumbling search toward the limits.

As we continued the fast lap, he demonstrated the miracle of Porsche brakes (larger now to rebut the more powerful engines), and the safety net provided by Porsche's stability management system. Even through corners that tried to pull the car offline, when lateral forces rose well above 1.2 g and the fluid in my inner ears sloshed violently, the 911 tracked as solidly as a rock rolling down a drainpipe. The recalibrated stability control is a marvel of communication. Instead of eliminating the fun by reducing the car's ability to approach its limits, the system guides the driver through a corner with slight, transparent nudges to maintain equilibrium. Those with enough faith in their skill can turn it off completely to appreciate fully the new 911's prescient feel for the road.

Which I never managed to do the next day on public roads. Pesky policemen and heavy traffic prevented the car from stretching its legs properly, and a light drizzle prevented me from trying anything stupid on the winding back roads, but despite the frustrating limits imposed by the interests of safety and self-preservation, it was clear the newest 911 retains the world's-best steering, superlative chassis kinematics, and pavement-gathering brakes. Once again, the 911 is ready to scoff at the challengers and run out of range.

2009 Corvette S Limited- exclusive for Japan

GM may have a host of activities planned in the U.S. to celebrate its centennial, but we like how the company is marking the milestone in Japan: with the special-edition 2009 Chevrolet Corvette S-Limited.

Essentially nothing more than a trim package, the S-Limited adds a few unique touches for the Japanese market, including split five-spoke alloy wheels clad in an aluminum gray finish, a rear decklid spoiler evocative of that on the ZR1, and chromed mesh inserts for the front grille, rear exhaust port, and side vents. Color choices for the S-Limited are, appropriately enough, limited; customers can choose either an arctic white or black exterior. Arctic white cars come with a white-on-black two-tone interior, while the black cars sport interior highlights in sienna.

Also limited are the S-Limited's production figures. Only 30 examples are slated for assembly - 15 in each color combination. Buyers interested in purchasing an S-Limited will have to plunk down ¥7,980,000 ($75,240). Considering basic Corvettes sticker at ¥7,130,000 ($67,226) in Japan, style and exclusivity apparently don't come cheap.

WCD-One Day, Six Exotics and Anyone Can Do It

There they are, lined up like exotic seafood entrees on the planet's most glorious buffet table: Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster, Callaway C16, Ferrari F430 Spider, Ford GT, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and Spyker C8. It's the sort of smorgasbord we all dream of facing — and there's nothing between you and the delicacies. Not even a sneeze guard.

"You know they're all rentals," says the anonymous-looking, Dockers-wearing guy. "I know," I respond. "I'm one of the guys renting them. Sort of."

With that he looks at me with a sort of envious incredulity, crosses the hotel parking lot and heads straight into the Westlake Village Hyatt where I'm sure he's going to spend the day listening to paper company product presentations. Sucker.

No PowerPoint presentations for me. Not today. Today I'm going to drive these exotics around the Southern California hills between Westlake and Malibu, thanks to the guys at World Class Driving (WCD).

WCD is set up as a club that maintains a fleet of between 10 and 14 exotics. That fleet then roves the country (by transporter) descending on locations where club members can drive the cars a half-day at a time along surrounding public roads, for the measly sum of $1,495.

There's no way that this is going to be a bad day.

Affordable Exotics
Head on over to your local Ferrari dealer and you can buy a new F430 for $211,525 — plus tax and license and whatever extortionate mark-up the dealer feels he can suck out of you. Or you can rent one from Beverly Hills Rent-A-Car for $2,500 a day plus $2 for every mile past the first 50. Um, of course you'll also have to pay for any gas the F430 slurps at the rate of 11 mpg in the city and 16 on the highway. Cede this to World Class Driving: There simply is no less expensive way to experience the latest exotic cars.

Last year World Class put together 83 driving events and it's on course to do as many as 140 (30 percent of which are corporate events for companies looking to motivate their employees) in the United States this year. The Westlake Village event counted as WCD's 53rd during the 2008 calendar year.

The cars themselves are always rotating in order to keep the latest stuff in the fleet — they usually rotate out after they've accumulated between 16,000 and 20,000 miles on their odometers, says WCD co-founder Jean Paul Libert. "We operate like a race team," Libert continues. "But because you're behind the wheel of an exotic doesn't mean you have to be an aggressive driver."

Who, me? Aggressive. Not with the waiver WCD had me sign promising not to do any burnouts or donuts or hard launches or any other speedy exhibitions. It also brought with it a $5,000 deductible should I do any damage to a car. "Hey," I thought silently to myself as that was explained to me, "If it looks like there's $4,500 damage to the car, I might as well go ahead, have some fun and total it."

Of course WCD reserves the right to not put traffic felons, drunks or hyperactive teenagers behind the wheels of its cars. And if you do something moronic during the drive, they'll yank you out and call you a cab.

Group Driving
With seven drivers and six cars in the driving rotation, I actually start the day riding shotgun with WCD's chief driving instructor Didier Theys in the rented Chrysler 300 being used to pace the pack. The Chrysler 300 may not be all that exotic, but how often do you get to ride with a Belgian legend who has driven CART Champ Cars and won both the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring?

Leaving the hotel, Theys sets a relatively swift pace in the under-tired and underpowered beige Chrysler. Rising up through Thousand Oaks toward the Mulholland Highway, he rarely has the 300 dipping below 35 mph as he speeds along with all the smoothness expected of a world-class endurance racer. But he never goes faster than 60 either. Still, that's enough to absolutely run away from the driver behind us in the Ferrari.

The truth is, when you drive in a group, you can only go as fast as the guy in front of you. And in my group, the slowest guy is really, really slow...like dead dog slow. I couldn't even have imagined it was possible to go that slow in a Gallardo.

And the Slow Guy becomes the recurring theme of the day and a topic of endless discussion — all strictly whispered behind his back, of course.

Perspective Dealt Here
But if Slow Guy is the day's obstacle, everything else is dang wonderful. Driving swiftly and smoothly, and well within these high-performance cars' limits, you do get a feel for each of their personalities. "I wasn't expecting the Ferrari to feel so nimble," says Jeff Kenney, 26, who brought along his brother, Casey, 24. "I was expecting it to be, well...I don't know what I was expecting. But it was better than I expected."

Jeff Kenney drives a modified S2000, so he's a guy who's used to a car with quick reflexes and likely expected that a car with quick reflexes would handle a lot like his Honda roadster. But expectations seldom line up perfectly with reality.

"Most of what I had heard about how Ferraris are, I had heard from guys who are hard-core Ferrari lovers," Jeff Kenney explains. "So I sort of discounted it. But the Ferrari was fun to drive. And it was easy to drive."

What World Class delivers is perspective. It's the nasty whack that comes every time the Gallardo's transmission is triggered and the heavy feel of its steering. It's how the Ford GT feels like the relatively large car that it is and rides like a Town Car compared to the other exotics. It's the scream of the high-winding Ferrari and Aston V8s in sharp contrast to the low-end grunt of the Ford GT's supercharged, large-displacement V8.

In sum, it is all about knowing by lunchtime that in your soul you're not a Lambo guy, but a Ferrari dude. It's knowing that while you'll never turn down a chance to drive an Aston Martin or get behind the wheel of a Ford GT, they're not the cars you'd empty your IRA to own. It's the difference between being an enthusiast and being someone who actually knows what he's talking about.

Plus, of course, it's a plain good time. "It's awesome," summarizes Jeff Kenney at the end of the day. "The most fun I've ever had."

Oh yeah, fun. In fact, Jeff Kenney paid for his brother Casey as a birthday present — and it's a hell of a birthday present. My brother got me bookends for my last birthday. They're no fun at all.

It's on the Bucket List
After a day with World Class Driving, the bottom line about what the club offers is this: You go to your grave being able to say you drove some really exotic cars. When your friends start bench racing, you'll be the one who can say, "Well, when I drove the Gallardo, I was really impressed by how it bit coming out of tight turns." When you hear others wistfully dreaming about some day driving an Italian thoroughbred like the F430, you can chime in and let them know that it's really better than they even imagined. Go ahead, rub it in.

It can even go on your tombstone. There are, after all, worst epitaphs than "He once drove a Ferrari."

In short, it satisfies your curiosity. And that sort of satisfaction is cheap at $1,500.

Fitzy's Wicked Pissah Red Sox 2008 Mid-Season Review

As I sit here and watch Manny Delcarmen try and piss this lead away against the Rays, it only reminds me how important all the nonsense I said in this video really is. Well, sorta. Whatever.

Just friggin' watch it!



Happy 4th everyone, and GFY!

Cheers,

Fitzy

PS - Suck it, Skanks!

IT Guy vs Dumb Employees

Kudos to the Macdaddy for pointing out this gem. I call it an obvious fake, but its done well.


IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees - Watch more free videos

Batmobile to lap UK's Silverstone cicruit alongside Toyota F1 car

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, England — Hollywood will hit the tarmac Thursday at Silverstone when the new Batmobile from the upcoming summer blockbuster The Dark Knight joins the Toyota TF108 for an exhibition lap around the circuit.

The lap will be thanks to a recent partnership between Panasonic Toyota Racing and Warner Bros. Toyota's vehicles — as well as the overalls of drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock — will also be covered with special The Dark Knight artwork.

The iconic Batmobile will be on show at Silverstone, and fans can have their photos taken with the Bat-Pod and the Toyota F1 racers during this weekend's British Grand Prix.

This promotion is not without precedent: David Coulthard promoted Superman Returns by sporting a red cape on the podium after the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix.

Christian Bale will play the Caped Crusader in theaters starting July 18 in the U.S. and July 25 in the U.K.

What this means to you: Too bad the Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 that will be seen in the movie isn't joining the Batmobile for a lap at Silverstone. — Mike Lysaght, Correspondent

The Mole says "stay in the market while others are fearful"

Equity mutual fund flows Year Event Fund Flows 2000 Market High UP $309 Billion 2002 Market Low DOWN $28 Billion 2006 Last Strong Market UP $159 Billion 2008 May YTD Down Market DOWN $16 Billion Source:Investment Company Institute

NEW YORK (Money) -- Question: I have a pretty vanilla investment portfolio and an advisor who tells me to stay the course every time I call him while freaking out about the market. This money is my nest egg. I invest conservatively with mutual funds not individual stocks/ bonds. In other words, should I stay the course or freak out and sell?

The Mole's Answer: Though I typically write about advisers that fall short in servicing their clients, this time I'm going to have to squarely agree with your adviser. Any decision made while freaking out is rarely the right one.

Let's start with some data. When it comes to investing, human nature is not our friend, and will consistently lead us to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. The chart to the right shows how investor funds have flowed into stock mutual funds so far this decade.

Notice how we poured money into the stock market after the great years and panicked and sold after declines. A clear pattern of buying high and selling low, something I'm pretty sure investors didn't consciously set out to do.

Buying something on sale is the first thing we'd do if we were shopping for almost anything else, from electronics to a house. That logic is conspicuously absent when it comes to the stock market. For whatever reason, we'd rather return them at a lower price than we bought them for.

A recent study in the Journal of Banking and Finance, states that our ability to consistently time the market poorly costs us roughly 1.5% annually in returns. The study's authors, Geoffrey C. Friesen and Travis R.A. Sapp, note that investors in both actively managed funds and index funds exhibit poor investment timing.

If only retailers had it so good

Think of your favorite retail store. Whether it's Macy's (M, Fortune 500), Target (TGT, Fortune 500), or even Buy.com, we are usually more inclined to buy something we want when the retailer has a sale. In fact, on the biggest shopping day of the year, the Friday after Thanksgiving, there is the annual ritual of people standing in line for hours in the hopes of scoring that great deal when the store opens at 5:00 a.m. While I might be willing to confront the flaws in the practices of some of my fellow planners, I'm not nearly so willing to confront these crowds.

Imagine that one day your favorite store had a "we've doubled our price sale," followed by a "50% off sale." We'd all shake our heads at the absurdity of getting in line to buy at the first sale, only to then rush back and return the items at 50% of our original price.

It sounds silly, yet that's exactly what most of us do in our investing. And we do it with a lot more money than what we would spend at any store.

Why your adviser seems good

One of the roles of a good adviser is to provide some focus and discipline in your investing. In a forthcoming issue of The Review of Financial Studies, a paper points out that we advisers generally do a poor job of staying the course. Its authors, Daniel Bergstresser and Peter Tufano of the Harvard Business School and Johan Chalmers of the University of Oregon, found "no evidence that, in aggregate, brokers provide superior asset allocation advice that helps their investors time the market."

Your adviser is doing you a great service by advising you to stay the course. In doing so, he is trying to protect you from your own human instincts, which will almost certainly fail you.

My advice: While I know that I don't know what the market will do over the next six months, there are some things I do know.

• I know that we will consistently buy high and sell low if we react to our emotions.
• I know that money coming out of stock mutual funds is often a sign that the market will turn around.
• I know that the market has rarely lost money over periods of ten years or longer.
• I know that these are the times that try investors' souls and separate the speculators from the investors.

So my advice is to stay the course. Your planner seems to be one of the good ones as he is offering this advice with full knowledge that this is not what you want to hear.

Pick an asset allocation that is right for you and then stick with it like glue. Remember the wisdom of Warren Buffett, "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

Strabucks hits the wall- will close 600 stores

The news that Starbucks (SBUX) will close 600 stores and lay off as many as 12,000 employees is not only the news that Wall Street was waiting for. It is inevitable. One thing I’ve learned from my 24 years following retailers for Fortune is this: Every retailer that expands across the U.S. hits the wall on growth eventually. And every retail entrepreneur, no matter how talented, is eventually exposed as more romantic dreamer than disciplined operator.

All the greats have hit the wall. Bernie Marcus, who started Home Depot (HD) with Arthur Blank in 1978, used to have a wall—literally—outside his office that he called “The Wall of Shame.” Hanging there were framed press clippings about Home Depot—all stories that predicted that the home-improvement retailer’s go-go growth was approaching an end. One of my Fortune stories hung on that wall, and Marcus loved to say that I should be embarrassed to be there. Guess what? The skeptical journalists turned out to be right. In 2000, Bob Nardelli swooped into Home Depot from General Electric (GE), then paid for the sins of the company’s over-expansion. Home Depot is still struggling under current CEO Frank Blake, and the stock is down 41% in the past year.

Investors in Wal-Mart (WMT) saw growth stall as well. In 1996, four years after founder Sam Walton died, I wrote a story about Wal-Mart’s flat stock and the uncertain path to expansion. It took a major innovation, Wal-Mart’s supercenters, and a few missteps (like selling fashion-forward apparel) before Wal-Mart got its mojo back. Today, Wal-Mart, hitting the sweet spot of consumer demand by guaranteeing low prices, is the best performer on the Dow, up 19% in the past year. IBM (IBM) and Chevron (CVX), the only other gainers, are up 14% and 17% respectively.

Meanwhile, other retailers suffer. Blockbuster (BBI) yesterday announced that it was abandoning plans to acquire troubled Circuit City (CC). Another sinking stock: Sears Holdings (SHLD). As I told you last week, chairman Eddie Lampert admitted that he’s made mistakes managing this combination of Sears and Kmart. One of his errors was loading up on inventory ahead of the consumer-credit collapse. That’s a retail classic.

As for Starbucks, Howard Schultz, who built the company from a tiny Seattle-based chain, is now swimming in uncharted territory. After downplaying the threat of cannibalization for years, he now has to deal with the reality of it. It’s a complicated challenge. By removing breakfast items, among other products, to focus on Starbucks’ core proposition—the coffee experience—he’ll find it difficult to lift per-store sales. Meanwhile, McDonald’s (MCD), a standout performer throughout the downturn, is ramping up its beverage offerings. McDonald’s stock is up 13% during the past year. Starbucks is down 40% and at just below $16, it’s trading at its lowest level since 2003.

Management turnover compounds Starbucks’ problems. In January, Schultz fired his top operator, CEO Jim Donald. (See my recent interview with Donald and two other ex-CEOs in “Lessons of the Fall.”) And since he assumed the CEO role six months ago, Schultz has lost other key managers. One is former U.S. president Launi Skinner, who was considered a potential CEO successor and made Fortune’s Most Powerful Women to Watch list last year. Skinner just landed as president and COO at 1-800-Got-Junk, a hot little privately held outfit that calls itself the world’s largest junk removal service.

From $4 lattes to junk retrieval. Doesn’t that say something about the direction of the economy?

Big 3's Auto Sales down 20% in June over last year

DETROIT — American car buyers became very discouraged in June. Beaten down by high gas prices and other contributors to growing household financial stress, they bought 18 percent fewer vehicles than a year earlier. As a result, General Motors' year-to-year sales plunged 19 percent; its biggest competitor, Toyota, posted a 20 percent loss and Ford Motor sales dropping a shocking 29 percent compared to a year earlier. Toyota's sales are down 7 percent for the year and Ford's are down 14 percent.

Analysts attributed at least some of the sales woes to supply constraints. Those who were in the market wanted more small cars than could be built by an industry still trying to catch up with consumers' desire to downsize. The Ford Focus was among the models that became supply-constrained in June.

June sales for the U.S. auto industry were 1.19 million units compared with 1.46 million vehicles during June 2007. The June results left the industry's first-half sales at just 7.41 million units, a dismal performance during what was one of the most disruptive periods in the history of American car manufacturing and sales.

The light-vehicle sales pace for the year now is running at an anemic seasonally adjusted 13.7 million units, auto executives estimated.

The June results left industry executives still searching for the bottom of a market that has fallen further and faster than anyone could have foreseen before gasoline prices skyrocketed to an average of $4 a gallon by the end of June from $3 a gallon at the beginning of 2008.

"The auto consumer is under a lot of pressure and stress, which is manifesting itself in uncertainty toward big purchases," said Jim Farley, Ford's executive vice president of marketing communications. "It's a difficult situation, and we think it's going to persist for many months to come and possibly longer."

Overall, U.S. consumers continued to flock to small cars. Sales of the Toyota Prius hybrid remain constrained as Toyota ramps up manufacturing. The company sold fewer than 12,000 Prius units in June, down about 25 percent on an adjusted basis from sales of nearly 18,000 units in June 2007.

Ford sold 33,000 units of its Focus subcompact in May but only 18,000 in June. Company executives said that inventory levels of only about a 20-day supply of Focuses, in Ford and dealer stocks, meant that many consumers either couldn't obtain a Focus or couldn't get the style or option levels they wanted.

American consumers are seeking out four-cylinder engines wherever they can find them. Sales of the smallest Toyota-brand cars, for example, the Corolla and Yaris, rose by an adjusted 4 percent and 30 percent in June, respectively.

What this means to you: If you're like most Americans and care more about fuel economy right now than anything else, you may have trouble buying what you want — at least at the price you want. — Dale Buss, Contributor

The Sexiest Weather Girls in the World

With global warming and El Niño tossing hurricanes, snowstorms and tornadoes around every other day, we need a calm, reassuring and sensuous hand to guide us through each day's forecast. To show our appreciation for the gorgeous women who tell us which way the wind blows, Asylum has spanned the globe and rounded up the sexiest weather girls.

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Xikar Incline lighter

The new Incline lighter from Xikar offers cigar smokers a simple, yet attractive butane lighter at a reasonable price. The Incline is for the smoker who wants a reliable butane flame but doesn't necessarily need another elegant lighter to take on the town.

The Incline offers smokers little in frills, but that is to be expected given the $29.99 price tag. The flame height is adjustable, either with a fingernail or coin, and a see-through window on the side of the lighter shows the fuel level.

Housed within the durable casing is a single jet flame that ignites easily and dependability thanks to Xikar's Rapid Fire technology.

The Incline is perfect as a secondary flame that can go anywhere — such as the golf bag, the boat or the car. Its fair price, too, means you won't have to worry if your golfing buddy forgets to return it to you by the 18th green.

Man Rescues 375-Pound Bear From Drowning [Pic + Video]

A drowning 375-pound bear was rescued from the Gulf of Mexico after fleeing from a neighborhood into the surf.

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6 'Shorts' From Early Pixar [Videos]

Here they all are, arranged chronologically for your flossing and viewing pleasure.

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The Next Reggie Bush

Amazing kid.. He's an 8 Year-old in this movie.

Spain Celebrates European Title

Spanish supporters celebrate in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, after Spain won the Euro 2008 European Soccer Championships final match against Germany that took place in Vienna, Monday, June 30, 2008.

click below for some good pics

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How To Turn A Hot Chick Into A Geek

Getting a hot chick to go out with you is a difficult thing and countless books, websites and TV shows have covered the topic. So let's say you follow the advice to the letter and, shockingly, it works. Now you're a geek going out with a super hot chick and the two of you have absolutely zero in common. Let's change that, let's turn her into a Geek

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Rolls Royce Phamtom Coupe

Wafting down a poplar-lined French motorway at 100 mph, the 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe's unique Power Reserve meter informs you that fully 90 percent of the 6.7-liter V12's 453 horsepower is still available, should you need it to whisk past a dawdler.

There's virtually no audible engine noise. The crisp, speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering is perfectly on-center. The seat is comfortably deep and plush, yet supportive. And an XXL-sized 26.4-gallon fuel tank means a cruising range of 400 miles.

The fact that it takes about $125 these days to fill that big tank Stateside is likely of little concern. (It costs 150 euros — over $300 — in France!) After all, you've already spent $400,000 to be seated behind this immense, leather-wrapped steering wheel.

The 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom is the most personal sporting coupe one can own. You choose your coupe's exterior color from among 44,000 possible selections. You specify an interior trim from one of six luscious veneers like Rosewood, Elm Cluster or Mahogany Flare (Piano Black is soooooo boring, darling). You select interior upholstery from eight sumptuous leather options. ("We only use bull hides," Andrew Monahan, the leather shop foreman declares. "Their leather is not stretched.") You even choose between a conventional painted hood or one in gleaming stainless steel.

And that's just the start.

Have It Your Way
Ordering a bespoke automobile as you would a custom-tailored Saville Row suit remains a way of life with Rolls-Royce, as it has for decades. You still can personally select many key, handmade elements of your 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe. If you want to specify a special color, type of leather or rare wood, Rolls-Royce is happy to comply. Rolls-Royce doesn't make many motorcars, so the ones it does make are created slowly and most often to an individual order. The assembly line moves just seven times each day.

Rolls-Royce set a sales record last year with 1,010 units sold (557 Phantoms, 200 extended-wheelbase limousines and 253 dropheads). That's about one-tenth of Bentley's current volume, so if you're looking for serious exclusivity, then you want a Phantom saloon (in either regular or extended wheelbase), a Phantom Drophead (Britspeak for convertible) or especially the new Phantom Coupe.

Rolls-Royce has a long history of desirable grand touring automobiles that harks back to the Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental in the early 1930s. Usually built on a shorter wheelbase, these sporty coupes, cabriolets and close-coupled sedans were fitted with a tall axle ratio for high speeds and generally carried lighter coachwork (in aluminum or fabric) to encourage fast touring. Today, the born-again Rolls-Royce works ensconced in spacious, environmentally friendly (400,000 trees have been planted nearby) digs in Goodwood, England, and is meticulously assembling its huge cars by hand, while an assembly line is being readied for a new, smaller Rolls in 2010.

Meanwhile, the 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe — derived from the 101EX concept car unveiled at the 2006 Geneva Auto Show — is just entering production, and it's quite different from the bigger Phantoms that have been built since BMW bought Rolls-Royce in 1998.

Better Buy Stock in Reynolds
Based on the Phantom sedan, the Coupe shares the same all-aluminum space frame that's built in boxed sections and painstakingly hand-welded to 0.0004-inch tolerances. The Coupe's wheelbase is 9.8 inches shorter than the sedan, and the suspension has anti-dive and anti-lift geometry. The springs and rear dampers are stiffer, and a thicker rear antiroll bar tunes out some of the understeer.

Meanwhile there's more boost for the speed-sensitive, power-assisted rack-and-pinion, and the sensation is heightened by a thick-rim sport steering wheel. The brakes are massive (with 14.7-inch rotors and twin-piston calipers in front, plus 14.6-inch rotors in the rear with single-piston calipers), and they haul this big baby down smartly and repeatedly without fading. Goodyear run-flat tires on 21-inch cast-aluminum wheels (there are two forged wheel options) eliminate the weight of a spare, yet this short-wheelbase coupe still weighs 5,798 pounds, the same as a Phantom sedan and even 22 pounds more than the convertible.

The 48-valve, 6.7-liter V12 — set well back in the chassis for a desirable 49 percent front/51 percent rear weight distribution — delivers 453 hp at 5,350 rpm and 531 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm and gets this heavyweight car to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. This engine also develops some 75 percent of its power at just 1,000 rpm, accounting for the turbinelike smoothness that's long been associated with Rolls-Royce cars. Depress a discreet sport button on the steering wheel and the transmission holds gears longer and quickens kickdown, while throttle response is more aggressive, too.

A Matter of Style
Chief designer Ian Cameron has done a fine job of differentiating and updating this handsome hardtop. Up front, the contemporary Rolls-Royce grille seems even more massive, perhaps because the Coupe's rectangular LED parking lights have been reduced in size and the circular headlamps have been enlarged to recall the proportions of old. The heavy A-pillars, high waistline and bluff corners would appear even more gigantic were it not for a sculpted reveal that arcs gently from front to rear, accented by the extended front door handle and kissed with an elegant swirl behind the front wheel opening that's reminiscent of a 1930s fender line.

The Coupe's enormous rear-hinged "suicide" doors produce a graceful, uninterrupted line at the A-pillar, aiding torsional rigidity and also adding immeasurably to this car's mystique. It does take a bit of practice to slither smoothly inside and maneuver around that big steering wheel. You discover the drill is to first sit gracefully, then swivel your legs around together through about 45 degrees in a fluid, regal arc.

More importantly, the wide, forward-facing coach doors facilitate an elegant egress, especially for a lady in a long dress. The doors can be closed via a pushbutton that's discreetly hidden in the front quarter light. The rear seat is fine for a short trip to the opera, but you wouldn't want to be there for hours.

Roadworthy
The Phantom Coupe is surprisingly sporty for its size. Passing maneuvers on the old, tree-lined two-lane thoroughfares of Bonaparte's France are a snap. The Coupe scuttles around the vehicle in front of you and is back in line before you can mutter, "God save the Queen." The brakes are like the proverbial giant hand.

Asked for more speed, the V12 revs quickly, and a hint of a powerful trill breaks its usual impassive silence. Hammer this car into a tight turn, and yes, you'll get some tire squeal and body roll, but the Coupe will grip the tarmac and carry on.

That said, it's not designed for tight twisties. A typical Coupe buyer owns a Ferrari or another exotic in his fleet for that purpose. Long sweepers, arrow-straight byways or the Alps? Bring 'em on. This car puts the "Grand" in Grand Touring. It's all about the journey, and when that's completed, it announces regally: "You have arrived."

If You Have To Ask...
Although the price of the 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe has not yet been announced, it's thought to be in the vicinity of $400,000. That's a staggering sum for most people, but wealthy Rolls-Royce owners possess multiples of everything: stately homes, private clubs and cars of all types, so they are accustomed to what they perceive as being the best.

And when you buy this car, the whole process is all about selecting the best. You're getting hand-matched wood veneers, matched leather hides and cashmere blends selected by acknowledged experts. "Our leather actually breathes," coos Andrew Monahan in his leather shop. "It has particular warmth to it."

If you want to personalize your car with embroidery or marquetry, Rolls-Royce will do it cheerfully. No color choice is beyond consideration. "We make each car the way the customer wants," says Tom Purves, now CEO after years as BMW's chief executive in North America. Each car is polished for five hours and driven on the road for an hour before being cocooned for delivery.

Judging from stares and waves of passersby, there's nothing subtle about the 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe. That's what you're paying for.

Amazing 2 Year Old Skateboarder! watch!

shredordie.com — This kid is only 2 years old but he can already ride a skateboard pretty well. Imagine where he'll be when he's 6!

See more skate, snow, surf, and moto videos at Shred or Die

The Dark Knight Got A New Poster!

By Kellvin Chavez on July 1, 2008

Reader's 'Santi, Peter and Alfredo' sent us a new poster for Christopher Nolan's epic upcoming film The Dark Knight. According to the readers the poster is from the films viral marketing campaign for the film.

Check out the poster below.

The Dark Knight opens July 18th.

The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan with star Christian Bale, who returns to continue Batman’s war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker (Heath Ledger), who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

Dark Days in the Home of Fireworks

China's Fuses Facing Fizzle: Shipping Dangers Limit Ports For Fireworks Exports

A WORKER assembles fireworks in June at Southern Fireworks ManufactureÂ’s factory in Liuyang in Hunan province, China. As Americans celebrate their Independence Day, the Chinese industry that provides more than 80 percent of AmericaÂ’s fireworks is in crisis. Chinese ports and most ships are increasingly unwilling to handle their dangerous cargo. The result: a fall of at least 30 percent in overseas shipments this year. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP / June 19, 2008)

By WILLIAM FOREMAN

Associated Press

July 1, 2008

LIUYANG, China

Chen Tiezhong will likely spend the Fourth of July worrying about the future of his sprawling fireworks factory. China, where fireworks were invented, is running short of ports from which to ship the dangerous cargoes abroad.

China's fireworks industry provides 98 percent of America's overall needs, and 80 percent of the pyrotechnics needed for professional displays. But the U.S. fireworks business stands to lose $25 million to $30 million this year because of lost orders, says Julie Heckman, executive director for the American Pyrotechnics Association.

A Missouri firm says it backed out of some shows because of the shortage. Meanwhile, some Chinese factories are being pushed close to bankruptcy.

"Our factory will be forced to close, whether we want it or not," said Chen Tiezhong at his sprawling 500-employee operation in Liuyang in central Hunan province.

His factory is one of 900 around this small city that is known as China's fireworks capital. Most of the factories are far from town, tucked safely away among the farms in surrounding hills and valleys.

Chen rattles off a litany of woes: micro-thin profit margins, rising labor costs and soaring prices for raw materials.

Now, the closure of some Chinese ports to fireworks may be the final straw.

In February, a blast at a fireworks warehouse led to a ban on fireworks shipments at the southern port of Sanshui, Guangdong province, which previously handled 20 percent of China's pyrotechnic exports.

Then, in late March, officials stopped fireworks shipments at Nanshan, another Guangdong port, after inspectors found explosives that had been declared as something else.

Guangdong may not allow fireworks shipments to resume, because the province is trying to shift its economy to more sophisticated goods.

Adding to the industry's woes, China has ordered major ports such as Shanghai and Hong Kong to suspend shipments of explosives as part of tightened security ahead of August's Beijing Olympics.

"It's been extremely difficult," Chen said. "There is simply no way out even if we're willing to pay 10,000 yuan RMB [more than $1,400] extra for each container."

In China, 30 to 40 percent of fireworks for overseas customers have not shipped, forcing many of the country's 7,000 factories to curtail or even stop taking overseas orders, said Liu Donghui, the secretary-general of the China-based International Fireworks Association.

On the U.S. end, 10 percent to 15 percent of orders didn't show up, said Heckman.

China ordinarily sends 9,000 shipping containers of fireworks a year to the U.S., she said, and the shortfall "is by far the most difficult challenge the U.S. firework industry has had to face."

Matt Sutcliffe of Premier Pyrotechnics, Inc. in Richland, Mo., realized six weeks ago that he would run short and have to cancel some shows. He said he contacted every company he knew to pick up the slack, but "No company that I talked to said they could take additional shows."

Heckman said this year's shortage would probably go largely unnoticed by Independence Day spectators because retailers and pyrotechnicians will be sharing their stockpiles.

"As competitive as this industry is, we bleed red, white and blue, and we'll do anything to try to make certain each community gets their Fourth of July Independence Day show," she said.

Liuyang's factories alone produced $1 billion worth of fireworks last year, some $430 million of it to meet overseas orders, the association's Liu said.

Chen's Southern Fireworks Manufacture Co. includes a cluster of long single-story concrete buildings. Inside, women sitting at concrete tables paste together rocket tubes with labels in Russian. Some stick fuses into loaded fireworks and bind them together.

Most of the work is done by hand because machines can overheat or throw sparks, Chen said.

"It's getting harder and harder to find people who will do this work," Chen said. "They think it's too dangerous."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Best Goals of Euro 2008 in Photos

Fernando Torres, broke through off a brilliant feed from Xavi Hernandez in the 33rd minute. Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, at 38 the oldest player in the competition, charged from his net when he saw that defender Philipp Lahm was beaten on the right side.

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The moment a kayaker risks his life by plunging 120ft down a waterfall

By Jane Fryer
Last updated at 7:50 AM on 01st July 2008

Fancy a gentle paddle down the Thames? Or a splash about in the Norfolk Broads? Or maybe something a bit more bracing?

Like a 120ft vertical drop, straight down the front of a churning, thundering, pounding waterfall into a jagged mess of rocks, froth and vegetation, with just a fibreglass kayak and a jaunty coloured helmet for protection?

Perhaps not. Extreme kayaking may not be everyone's cup of tea but, extraordinarily, it is becoming more and more popular as adrenalin junkies further their quest for a high-octane thrill.

Enlarge

Jaw-dropping: Professional kayaker Pat Keller is a tiny dot on the La Paz waterfall in Costa Rica as he goes over the top and plunges 120ft

And as these amazing photographs - taken by professional photographer Lucas Gilman - show, there's now a whole extreme kayaking world out there.

In one photo, professional kayaker Pat Keller is a tiny green dot on the La Paz Waterfall in Costa Rica as he plunges 120ft straight down the cliff face at a speed of 300ft per minute.

Death-defying: Keller risked his life to perform the stunt on the Brazilian waterfall but emerged with only one injury - a broken hand

Fellow thrill-seeker Ben Stookesberry launches his bright orange kayak into the thundering waters of the 70ft Lower Mesa Falls, Idaho, in the U.S.

In another, fearless Jesse Coombs battles the same waterfalls - man pitted against the almighty force of nature.

'Every time a kayaker goes over a waterfall of more than 40ft, there is a good chance of injury and even death,' says Gilman, who has snapped kayakers in remote spots from Brazil to India.

Enlarge

Conquering nature: Fellow kayaker Jesse Coombs, runs the 70ft-tall Lower Mesa Falls on Henry's Fork River in Idaho

Just taking the photos can be risky - more often than not, the perfect spots for taking pictures are damp, dangerous and alive with snakes, leeches, insects and, occasionally, bandits.

'It's not a pleasure cruise,' he says. 'It's hot, humid and usually in a country that doesn't have hospitals readily available.

'To get the best shot, you have to get to the best location to shoot, which my be in the base of a gorge.

'You have to rappel in [abseil] and battle slick rocks, snakes, bugs - these are places people don't usually want to go.

'I have been known to rappel 100ft into an unknown gorge to get a decent view and I have also been held up in Chiapas Mexico by knifepoint while trying to trek out of the jungle and find a road. They robbed us and let us go.'

Enlarge

Taking the plunge: Photographer Lucas Gilman captures Ben Stookesberry as he too sets off down the Lower Mesa Falls

Every shot he takes involved meticulous planning because the window of opportunity allows no room for failure.

'I try to pre-visualise the shot and usually shoot with two cameras - one acting as a remote - so I have a horizontal and vertical view of almost every situation,' he says.

'There's no second chance with these - you can't ask a guy to go run that 100 footer again.'

Enlarge

Paddler: Jesse Coombs runs the 70 foot tall Lower Mesa Falls near Ashton, Idaho

And just in case you're still tempted to try extreme kayaking, spare a thought for the fearless Keller who swooped down the La Paz Waterfall in his lime-green kayak.

He was delighted to escape with only a broken hand - which snapped on impact after his amazing dive.

Enlarge

Daredevil: Ben Stookesberry rappels 210ft through thin air in Veracruz, Mexico, after deciding the waterfall looked too risky to kayak down

World's Sexiest Parties: 13 Global Hot Spots You Can't Miss

If you're traveling all the way to Europe or Hong Kong, you don't want to waste your time sipping a watery local beer while missing all the booty shaking babes. Our international crib sheet will tell you where to go, what to wear, what to order at the bar, and what sexy people you're likely to meet...

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UK space rocket revealed

A prototype of what will be the UK's largest space rocket has been unveiled, ahead of a planned September 2009 launch.Creator and Salford University academic Steve Bennett hopes 'Nova 2' will take paying passengers into space by 2013.

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