Officially Official2011 Jeep Compass shows off new
2011 Jeep Compass – Click above for high-res image gallery
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Chrysler has officially announced its 2011 Jeep Compass, complete with sharp styling derived from the pint-sized CUV’s big brother, the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
While the snappy sheetmetal is a galaxy-sized improvement over the old design Replica U Boat Watches, the real surprises come from the drivetrain. According to Jeep Where find Replica Raymond Weil Watches, the 2011 Compass will be able to kick out up to 28 mpg highway in all-wheel drive guise, which is some of the best fuel economy in the Crossover segment. Speaking of all-wheel drive Replica Philip Stein Watches, Jeep has honored the Compass with a Trail Rated model for those who want to put the tiny high-rider through its paces off road.
Jeep isn’t known for sticking its Trail Rated badge on vehicles that can’t do the deed, so odds are that the Freedom Drive II off road package-equipped Compass will be able to keep up with similarly capable metal from Jeep once the going gets rough. Skid plates, tow hooks, a full-size spare Buy Cheap Replica Blancpain Watches, 17-inch all-terrain tires, one-inch taller ride height and low-range capability are all part of the deal.
Under the hood Replica Ulysse Nardin Watches for sale, Jeep is offering the 2011 Compass with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with 158 horsepower and 141 pound-feet of torque, as well as a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 172 hp and 165 lb-ft of torque. Both engines are available with either a five-speed manual gearbox or CVT (a unit we’ve loathed previously). The 2011 Compass is available in three trim levels, each of which is configurable with front or all-wheel drive as well as the low-range equipped off-road package. Hit the jump to have a look at the full press release.
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[Source: Chrysler]
Man dies in train crash
A man has died after a freight train and car collided near Port Pirie A Lange & Sohne Replica Watches, on the Spencer Gulf in South Australia.
At about 9.45am the goods train, carrying lead and iron, hit the car at a level crossing on the Port Flinders Causeway off National Highway One Paul Picot Replica Watches, around seven kilometres north of Port Pirie.
A 47-year-old man from Weeroona Island died at the scene.
A second person Where find Replica Rolex Watches, a 67-year-old woman Replica Breitling Watches, was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious chest and leg injuries.
The crossing was only controlled by a stop sign.
National Highway One has been closed off to traffic Hermes Replica Watches, while emergency crews are at the scene.
The state’s road toll now sits at 21 Fake Corum Watches, compared with 24 at the same time last year.
2011 BMW X3 fills out, adds a dash of sport
2011 BMW X3 – Click above for high-res image gallery
Behold the 2011 BMW X3. It’s longer Where find Replica Roger Dubuis Watches, wider and taller than its predecessors How to buy Replica Omega Watches, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it looks remarkably similar to the last X3.
Naturally, BMW’s twin-kidney grille is affixed up front, but like the new 5 and 7 Series, it’s more upright and slightly larger than before. The lower air dam is slightly chiseled while staying true to BMW’s recent organic shapes, and the wider headlamps come equipped with “Corona Rings” and optional Xenon bulbs.
Viewed in profile, the outgoing X3’s slab sides have been augmented with a character line running aft of the front wheels and kicking up over the rear fenders, while an upswept D-pillar compliments the redesigned LED taillamps and subtle crease over the rear-mounted Roundel. All in, the new X3 (F25) is half an inch taller, 3.36 inches longer and 1.1 inches wider with a half-inch increase in ground clearance. In keeping with tradition, it’s a “lifestyle” vehicle first with no pretenses of hardcore off-roading.
Like the outside, the interior is a subtle evolution of its forebear, with a staid German style balancing functionality and form. The joystick-style transmission lever carries over from BMW’s most recent models, along with an 8.8-inch iDrive-controlled screen and a redesigned steering wheel with aluminum accents on the paddle shifters and lower spoke. With the rear seats set in place, rear cargo volume comes in at 19 cubic feet Jaeger LeCoultre Replica Watches, growing to 56.6 cubes with the 60:40 rear seats folded flat.
The entry-level X3 xDrive28i comes equipped with BMW’s naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six rated at 240 horsepower and 230 pound-feet of torque, allowing BMW’s best-selling ‘ute to sprint to 60 in 6.7 seconds – about a half second quicker than the outgoing model. Step up for the X3 xDrive35i and you’re basking in 300 hp and 300 lb-ft provided by BMW’s new single-turbo N55 inline-six. The 0-60 run clocks in at a claimed 5.5 seconds U Boat Replica Watches, with a top speed of 150 mph when kitted out with the optional Sport package.
Channeling that power to the ground is a standard eight-speed automatic gearbox with wider spreads and taller cruising gears to keep fuel economy in check, while standard all-wheel drive splits torque 40:60 front-to-rear thanks to an electronically controlled multi-disc diff and a host of other gizmos.
The MacPherson front struts have been redeveloped along with the multi-link rear suspension, while an optional electronic damping control adapts to the road and driver inputs. Normal, Sport and Sport Plus modes are mounted next to the gear selector Replica Hamilton Watches, tweaking throttle response, transmission shifts, steering assist Graham London Replica Watches, DSC settings and suspension firmness.
The newest electronic system for the X3 is the Performance Control feature, which shuffles 80 percent of the torque to the rear under steady-state throttle. Like Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, the BMW’s system brakes the inside rear wheel and powers the outside roller to curb understeer and provide a more neutral driving feeling.
Production of the X3 will remain at BMW’s Spartanburg, SC plant and sales are set to begin towards the end of the year. Hit the jump for the full details and check out the positively massive gallery of images below.
Related Gallery2011 BMW X3
Rolls-Royce stays classy with the 2012 Phantom Ser
The task of trying to update the Rolls-Royce Phantom is like trying to update Mt. Everest – you can swap out a few boulders Movado Replica Watches, add some clouds and a new glacier Imitation Wyler Watches, but such moves are dwarfed by the simple grandiosity of the highest mountain on the planet. That’s why you’ll need to pay close attention to note the changes made on the Phantom Series II.
The “striking new front end” gets a revised bumper Replica Vacheron Constantin Watches, full/adaptive LED headllights and a rectangular LED array where there once was a round supplemental light. Moving on to the inside Replica Technomarine Watches for Cheap, the satellite navigation and infotainment system gets upgraded – it was the previous car’s only real weakness – and includes a larger Discount Replica Piaget Watches, 8.8-inch screen Replica Vacheron Constantin Watches, a new controller and a feature called “guided tours.” Sounds glitzy.
Under the skin, the old transmission gets traded for a new eight-speed automatic. Fuel economy gets a boost because of it, but you’re not really worried about that, are you? The changes also apply to the Coupe and Drophead models, too.
We gave the Phantom a once-over here in Geneva, so scroll through the above gallery for plenty of live images. There’s more info after the jump and several galleries of high-res stock photos for your perusal below.
Pagani supercars selling for double their million-
A few years ago, we brought you a report on the speculative values of Pagani supercars. Whether as investments or frivolous purchases, those with the means, it seemed, were paying well above list price to get their hands on one of the rarest supercars on (or off) the market. But that was just as the world was on the brink of financial collapse. Surely with the global economy still in the drink years later Fake Sinn Watches for sale, nobody’s paying those kinds of figures for something as extravagant as an exotic supercar… right?
Wrong. In fact Replica Rado Watches, it seems Replica Fendi Watches sale, the value for Pagani models has only gone up. According to Evo magazine editor-in-chief (and Zonda owner) Harry Metcalfe Fake Vacheron Constantin Watches, buyers with the means are paying as much as double the already grandiose list price to get their hands on a Zonda or Huayra. Apparently the white Huayra that Pagani displayed at the Geneva Motor Show never reached the Middle Eastern buyer who ordered it a year prior and was supposed to take delivery after the show Replica Baume & Mercier Watches, having flipped it to another buyer who was willing to pay him an astounding 1.8 million euros for the car. That’s $2.35 million in American greenbacks, or twice the 900,000 euro ($1.18m) list price.
Think that was an isolated incident? Hardly. A Zonda F Roadster (said to be the last ever made), a 2008 Zonda F coupe and a used Zonda C12S were all Roger Dubuis Replica Watches, according to Metcalfe’s sources, recently sold for double their MSRPs. So if you’ve been scrimping and saving every dime to get your hands on a Pagani, better keep saving.
Was Columbus Struck by Lightning
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Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas 516 years ago this month. For five weeks in 1492 Panerai Replica Watches, the mainmast of his Santa María was the tallest point on the Atlantic Ocean. Weren’t the wooden ships of the Age of Exploration susceptible to lightning strikes?
Absolutely. Tall ships did get struck by lightning quite often, but just because a ship is struck by lightning doesn’t mean it will be completely destroyed. In 1852, British inventor Sir William Snow Harris published the first systematic study of lightning strikes on wooden ships. He collected data from 235 strikes on British navy vessels from 1793 to 1839. The damage typically consisted of “shivering” or splintering of the mainmast: Long shards of wood flew in every direction, sometimes wounding a sailor or knocking him off the deck. Sails and rigging might catch fire, requiring officers and crew to smother the flames with the aid of the rain and wind. None of the ships in Harris’ sample was recorded as being totally obliterated Replica Philip Stein Watches for Cheap, and the vast majority were repaired by their crews and continued sailing.
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More terrifying for the sailors was the possibility of individual harm. According to Harris, a sailor on an 1802 voyage who hid from a lightning strike near the mainmast was burned through five layers of clothes. A Mr. R. Mawgridge sent his account of a 1696 lightning strike on the galley Trumbull to the Royal Society. The bolt first struck the deck Where buy best Replica Patek Philippe Watches, knocking down two sailors (one of them “had one Side of him stupefied for three Days”) before traveling below. Mawgridge wrote that when the bolt traveled through his cabin, “a great weighty Nail was started out of said Ceiling, and fell over my Head, and lay upon my Pillow, and I thought my Head with the Lightning had been in a Flash of Fire.” The bolt exited through a wall, eventually burning the hair off of the head of a gunner and blistering his feet.
By the time Harris published his observations Fake Zenith Watches, protective lighting rods—sometimes called Franklin’s “thunder rods”—had been around for a full century. But lightning protection for sailing vessels was primitive, including prayers and the running of a length of chain from a mast to the waterline. If the chain did not connect with the ocean, dangerous electrical explosions could result. In 1820, Harris devised an improved method by affixing copper directly to the mast and running it through the ship into the water. The captain of the Beagle—the ship on which Charles Darwin made his famous voyage in the 1830s—was an early adopter. Despite being struck by lightning at least twice (surrounding the ship with a “blaze of fire”), the ship was unharmed. Even with success stories such as this, the British navy resisted fitting ships with state-of-the-art lightning protection until 1847.
Fortunately for modern explorers, large metal boats offer excellent protection from lightning strikes. Bolts continue to be a problem, though, for wooden and fiberglass boats. Lightning protection systems for these vessels, still using variations of Harris’ method, offer only partial protection, and some boaters fear they only attract more lightning. The most dangerous boats in a storm are small, mastless boats Where buy best Replica Hermes Watches, especially when the operator is holding a fishing rod.
For his part, Columbus managed to avoid bad weather for half of his voyages to the New World. On his final return, he twice jury-rigged a mast after it broke in four places during a storm on the Atlantic.
Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer.
FollowupToyota and Severinsky settle hybrid patent
2010 Toyota Prius – Click above for high-res image gallery
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Following on the heels of our earlier report about yesterday’s scheduled hearing between Toyota and Alex Severinsky at the International Trade Commission came word that the parties have settled. Neither side has released any details about the agreement – and they probably won’t. Toyota had previously been found guilty of infringing upon Severinsky’s patent Fake Burberry Watches, which centers around getting power to a vehicle’s wheels with a gasoline-electric vehicle using both high- and low current.
In all likelihood Where to buy Replica Jaquet Droz Watches, Toyota agreed to pay royalties to PAICE (Severinsky’s company) for all of the hybrids it has sold and will sell in the United States until the patent expires in 2012. This means that the threat of a ban on imports of Toyota hybrids has been lifted – at least until the next case.
In related news Replica Jaquet Droz Watches for sale, Ford has also settled with PAICE over hybrid patent issues. The details are confidential Wholesale Replica Swiss Movement Watches, but there’s a bit more information after the jump.
[Sources: Bloomberg Replica Jaeger LeCoultre Watches, PAICE]
Why Do So Many Baseball Players Chew Tobacco
Nick Swisher, No. 33, of the New York Yankees
A handful of players on both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies have played this year’s World Series with a wad of tobacco in their mouths. Have baseball players always used smokeless tobacco?
Yes. In the mid-19th century—baseball’s formative years—chewing tobacco was enormously popular in the United States. Early ballplayers likely chewed tobacco for the same reasons as other American men, but they soon discovered baseball-specific benefits. It spurs saliva production and lubricates the mouth in the dusty infield environment. When fielding gloves came into vogue in the 1870s and 1880s Replica B R M Watches, players moistened the leather with spit. Pitchers used the juice from a chaw to prepare the notorious spitball Replica B R M Watches for Cheap, which was widely permitted until 1920.
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It’s not surprising that chewing tobacco has become identified with baseball. Both pastimes came of age when America was trying to separate itself, politically and culturally, from mother England. Pipe smoking was the preferred tobacco delivery method in both regions until the 18th century Replica Swiss Movement Watches, when sophisticated Englishmen became enamored of snuff—finely ground tobacco powder that they inhaled through the nose. Americans rejected the pretentious culture of dainty boxes and started chewing tobacco instead. Charles Dickens, who visited the United States in 1842, referred to Washington as “the headquarters of tobacco tinctured saliva” and described a trial at which the judge, defendant, jury, and spectators all had their own spittoons. He also observed signs at a medical college requesting that students expectorate into designated boxes so as not to “discolour the stairs.” In the same year as Dickens’ visit, Americans played what was likely the first-ever game of baseball, in Manhattan.
The chewing habit hit its high-water mark in 1890, when the average American gnawed through more than 3 pounds of tobacco. At that point, baseball already had two professional leagues and a players’ union. But tobacco chewing faded quickly among the general population over the next decade Replica Oris Watches, after German microbiologist Robert Koch showed that spitting contributed to the spread of tuberculosis. Major cities passed anti-spitting laws and removed spittoons from public places just before the turn of the century. Cigarettes, whose retail price was halved by the 1880 invention of an automated rolling machine, surpassed chewing tobacco in popularity in 1918.
Ballplayers lagged behind in making the switch. Besides the utility of a little extra spit, many players were suspicious of smoking. Several trainers blamed fatigue and hitting slumps on cigarettes. The sudden decline of former batting champion and career .308 hitter Michael “King” Kelly—he hit just .189 in 1892 and was only able to play 78 games—was attributed to his longtime habit of smoking while patrolling the outfield. The rate of smokeless tobacco use among ballplayers did start to decline in the early 20th century Replica Free Gift Watches, but change was slow. There was even a resurgence of the practice starting in the late-1960s, after the federal government began touting the dangers of cigarettes. Smokeless-tobacco makers jumped on the opportunity by placing free tins of dip—a more refined product that doesn’t require chewing—in major league clubhouses. A 1999 study found that 31 percent of the league’s rookies used smokeless tobacco, compared with 6.5 percent of American males.
Professional baseball has made some efforts to curtail the use of chewing tobacco. The Minor Leagues banned it from ballparks in 1993, with fines ranging from $100 to $1,000. There’s no ban in the majors Imitation Chaumet Watches, however. Any such measure would require alteration of the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners. The union has so far resisted the move.
Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer.
The Granddaddy of Dumb Ideas
For someone who’s spent his life practicing the delicate art of diplomacy, Aaron David Miller can be pretty blunt. “The notion Palestinians are cooking up Replica Sinn Watches sale, for U.N. action on Palestinian statehood this fall, takes dumb to a new level,” he’s said. Though the former State Department adviser and Middle East expert feels for sovereignty-hungry Palestinians, he wants to dispel the myth that taking action—even destructive action—is better than doing nothing. So on Jan. 10, at the Slate/Intelligence Squared debate in New York, Miller will argue against the motion “The United Nations should admit Palestine as a full member state.” Read an interview with fellow naysayer Dore Gold here. Evaluate a counterargument by Mustafa Barghouti, who supports the motion, here.
Aaron David Miller
Photo by Dave Hawxhurst, the Wilson Center.
It can’t, won’t, and shouldn’t happen. Such are the sad prospects of the Palestinian plan to achieve statehood through membership in the U.N.
Right now, no idea Maurice Lacroix Replica Watches, particularly the semisacred principle of negotiations on the core issues Fake Paul Picot Watches for sale, such as Jerusalem and refugees, will bring Palestinians any closer to realizing their legitimate national aspirations for statehood. But neither desperation nor sympathy for a deserving cause should compel us to embrace and pursue bad ideas that might only make matters worse. And admitting the nonstate of Palestine to the United Nations—the granddaddy of dumb ideas—will do precisely that.
I should know. Having spent 20 years providing both very good and very bad advice on Arab-Israeli issues to half a dozen secretaries of state, I’ve come up with my fair share of doozies. These included inviting Yasser Arafat to the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum and encouraging then-President Clinton to believe he could negotiate a conflict-ending agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at the Camp David summit in July 2000.
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It must be something in the water that leads well-intentioned American mediators to assume that trying anything to keep the peace process alive—no matter how wrong-headed, risky, or dysfunctional—is better than not acting at all. This obsession with process over results, motion over movement, is the solutionist’s curse. Once you conclude that action is mandatory, no matter the cost, you begin to slide down a slippery slope. At the bottom of the hill, failure almost always awaits.
I’ll never forget how inspired I was by President Clinton’s comment shortly before Camp David, that trying and failing is better than not having tried at all. That’s a noble sentiment, quintessentially American. But on reflection, it’s more appropriate for a high-school football team; it certainly isn’t a substitute for the foreign policy of the most consequential nation on earth.
Americans aren’t alone with their illusions.
In the world of Israelis and Palestinians, too, good judgment seems to have gone the way of the dodo. An Israeli prime minister continues to believe that the status quo with the Palestinians is manageable and preferable to taking any risks to change it; and that the continuation of settlement activity is not only politically warranted but wise.
A Palestinian president seems to think that the pressures of the Arab Spring/Winter and the impossibility of negotiations require a push for faux unity with Hamas and faux statehood at the United Nations. And he realizes, as does every other Palestinian I’ve talked to, that both measures will fail.
The Palestinians have thus shed one set of pipe dreams for another. They are quite right in concluding that this Israeli prime minister with this Israeli government can’t or won’t meet their core requirements on Jerusalem Replica Michele Watches, borders, refugees Replica Piaget Watches for Cheap, and security. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu has recently insisted on a fifth requirement: that Palestinians accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. And they have rightly assessed that President Obama has no intention in 2012 of taking any risks on an issue that can only hurt his re-election campaign.
So instead of banking on an arena in which they currently have no leverage (negotiations), Palestinians have shifted their efforts to another in which they believe they do: the court of international opinion. Here they imagine they can gain admission to international organizations, and pressure—perhaps even sanction and isolate—Israel and the Americans.
But they’re wrong.
First, the Palestinians cannot succeed in gaining admission to the U.N. as a member state. We’ve already seen a trial run in September and October. The United States will veto, and has already persuaded others on the Security Council to oppose Abbas’ petition. Nor does winning by losing seem to have gotten much for Palestinians so far, except a UNESCO admission which prompted the United States to cut off the program’s funding. The big news for Palestinians in recent months wasn’t the U.N. initiative at all, but the Israeli-Hamas prisoner release which won the Islamists far more credit than Abbas’ speech in New York.
Second, if Palestinians are going to pick a fight with the United States and Israel, it ought to be one that either gets them something tangible, increases their leverage, or creates problems in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. The U.N. gambit did none of these things; instead, it just made it easier for Israelis to claim that it is the Palestinians who aren’t serious about negotiations. Third, sovereignty is designed—even as a symbol—to convey power, or at least to provide a foundation or launching pad for it. Statehood isn’t supposed to be a window through which the world sees weakness and fecklessness. But right now, that’s the Palestinian story. Prime Minister Fayyad has done a remarkable job in state and institution building, but his competence has only alienated the rest of the government—especially Hamas, which sees him as a threat to its authority. Meanwhile Hamas runs Gaza Replica Piaget Watches, Israelis control at least 30 percent of the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority has no say in managing the borders, water, or air space of the territory left over. What we now witness is a Palestinian Humpty-Dumpty: a fractured nonstate.
Does anyone want to see such an entity admitted into the United Nations? The symbolic conferral of autonomy may temporarily boost Palestinian morale, but it will solve nothing and could even entrench the Israelis deeper in their demands. Nobody can look at the Palestinians today and not be both sympathetic and empathetic to their cause. They’ve suffered long enough and should have an independent state. But it will not come via the U.N., not this way.
Negotiations between empowered Israelis and Palestinians willing and able to pay the price of a settlement (and most likely brokered by an American mediator prepared to be fair, reassuring and tough when necessary) would remain the only possible path to a solution, if there was one. But right now, there isn’t.
Milan 2007BMW finally unveils the F800 GS
click above image to view more pics of the BMW F800 GS
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If all of the above sounds good to you, we hope that propping yourself 34.6 inches above terra-firma doesn’t give you vertigo replica watches, although you can get an inch lower with an optional seat. Regarding the questionable ‘bird-that-just-got-knocked-in-the-head’ look of that front end, well… that’s BMW Motorrad for you. They’ve been giving their bikes that one-big, one-small eye quizzical face for a few years now and we’re getting used to it. We could also get used to venturing off the beaten path whenever we feel like it, so we’re genuinely pleased to see BMW offer this model for sale here in the States.
[Source: BMW]
Related GalleryBMW F800 GS