pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/timewarp/" rel="tag"Time Warp/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/economy/" rel="tag"Economy/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/euro/" rel="tag"Euro/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/plants-manufacturing/" rel="tag"Plants/Manufacturing/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/hatchbacks/" rel="tag"Hatchbacks/a/pimg hspace="4" border="1" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/last_yugo.jpg" alt="" /br /br /em"Cao, nema viscaron;e"/em reads the piece paper affixed to the tailgate of the red Serbian hatchback, as a small throng of proud workers gathered around the car to bid it "Goodbye, no more" this week. After a 20-year run, the last Zastava Koral, #794,428, quietly made its way to the Zastava museum and the scrappy Eastern European automaker has wound down production on all but one of its models. The very last Zastava, a a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/24/2008-belgrade-auto-show-zastava-skala-55/"Skala 55/a, will be the last of its kind when it makes its way down the production line on November 20th. After that, the proud, tenacious people who have been working at the Kragujevac factory aren't sure of what the future holds. Zastava has long been linked to Fiat, and when the lines restart, the Zastava 10 will be badged as a Fiat Punto, which it is. br /br /Make as many Yugo jokes as you'd like, but Zastava has a long and fascinating history, and the company has managed to produce automobiles through several periods of war, even after the factory sustained bombings. The now classic Zastavas will live on; the company is working on setting up Skala 55, Koral In, and Florida In production lines in Africa and the Zastava 128 is still being produced in Egypt. In those climates, we figure they won't need to come with defroster grids to keep your hands warm when pushing.em br /br //em[Source: Zastava]pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/22/zastava-builds-the-final-yugo/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emZastava builds the final Yugo/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/22/zastava-builds-the-final-yugo/"Zastava builds the final Yugo/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:31:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/22/zastava-builds-the-final-yugo/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1372310/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/22/zastava-builds-the-final-yugo/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Rp7BZNEKfbEfu8r0Lb6b7w3YrDM/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Rp7BZNEKfbEfu8r0Lb6b7w3YrDM/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=CGtYtkuZ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=CGtYtkuZ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=DoC3rbjy"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=DoC3rbjy" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/S9AicIwEsrQ" height="1" width="1"/

BERLIN (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that 2009 will be "a year of bad news" for the economy, while a German regional bank announced it had secured Saturday up to 30 billion euros in state loan guarantees.

psource: a href=http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1861105,00.htmlTime Magazinebr //a/p p style=text-align: justify; David Roche, president of Independent Strategy, an economic consultancy in London, notes that throughout most of this decade quot;he world economy has been used to using $4 to $5 of credit for every $1 of GDP growth.quot; Even if this quot;profligate use of capital is halved,quot; Roche argues, quot;it still means credit expansion of 10% to 15% is needed to achieve real growth of 2% to 3%.quot; The problem: credit, far from expanding, is still contracting around the world — despite governments efforts to salvage the financial system. /p p style=text-align: justify; The result — a deflationary bust — is evident everywhere. On Thursday morning crude-oil prices — as good a barometer as any for global economic activity — plunged below $50 a barrel...../p

You've Got Supper has recently decided to move from a paid subscription service to a free service business model. With the economy heading into a direction which most are fearful the switch from a paid subscription to a free service is a differentiator between You've Got Supper and their competitors. With the economy being such a popular topic for many households, not just in the U.S but across the globe, a free service allowing people to control and get a grasp on how much they spend, cook and eat on weekly basis is greatly needed. (PRWeb Nov 22, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/dinner/recipes/prweb1646774.htm

LIMA (AFP) - Leaders of the Pacific rim are set to meet to chart ways to boost trade despite turmoil in the global economy, as aspiring powers China and Russia bid farewell to US President George W. Bush.

ul lia href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/getaways/11/13/baden.baden/index.html?eref=rss_travel"American prudes and European nudes - CNN.com/abr/ It#039;s long been a frustration for me as a guide -- the difficulty of getting Americans into spas with naked Europeans./li lia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/19/piracy-somalia"Life is sweet in piracy capital of the world | World news | The Guardian/abr/ The entire village now depends on the criminal economy. Hastily built hotels provide basic lodging for the pirates, new restaurants serve meals and send food to the ships, while traders provide fuel for the skiffs flitting between the captured vessels/li lia href="http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=16489"Francesco Bonami defends his ldquo;40 years of Italian artrdquo; - The Art Newspaper/abr/ quot;Here there is an older culture, and it is ruled by two things, politics and television. Society is raped by both.quot; Francesco you just become my hero/li lia href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3477148/The-greatest-conspiracy-theories-in-history.html"The greatest conspiracy theories in history - Telegraph/abr/ 30 of them/li /ul

This guest post is written by Matt Rutherford, Web Strategist and technology producer for Charlie Rose. Matt focuses on the macro themes affecting the internet and the wider world.

In an intimate interview with Charlie Rose on PBS tonight, and available here, Stanford professor Larry Lessig reveals some profound views on copyright, remix culture, and the new hybrid economy that is emerging.

In particular, Lessig speaks out against the abolitionist movement growing against copyright:

My real fear is that the last 10 years have unleashed a kind of revolutionary attitude among the generation that will take over in 10 years. And it will be hard for them to distinguish between sensible copyright legislation and the kind that we’ve got right now. So my real fear is we’re going to lose control of this animal... I just want to reform [copyright] to make it make sense.

A reform of copyright is clearly overdue. We require a new form of regulation that takes into account the ease and speed of digital distribution and appropriation. Every week, books cross my desk clamoring for this change - some of which are certainly worth reading. And as Lessig explains on the show, it’s counterproductive to continue to criminalize kids for file-sharing, remixing and recreating with content. Copyright was established to encourage creativity, not stifle it.

Cultural Roots

Lessig thinks on a macro time scale. For him, the emerging “read-write creativity” seen on YouTube and elsewhere is actually a return to our natural cultural roots. Historically, man has always absorbed and re-created culture – the symbolic retelling of stories and re-interpreting of songs on the front porch. It is only the emergence of mass media in the last century that caused us to accept a passive relationship with culture.

What’s so extraordinary about the last four years is that they’ve demonstrated that the technology of the internet is giving us a chance to go back to the way culture has been from the beginning…Only the 20th century was a deviation from this. But from the beginning of culture, it was a normal thing for people to be able to create and recreate the most important parts of culture that were around them.

As evidence of this, Lessig cites the numerous Charlie Rose remix videos that are floating around the web.

I’ve seen some of these Rose remixes, and they are enormous. They’re fantastic. But I would hope, you know, eventually you could be in a position to say I want to encourage this, please. Please do it.

A lot of these remixes also come across my desk. In the spirit of research, here are a few of the best so far: Beckett, Kung Fu, nuclear weapons. They’re all superb. And yes, we do encourage this. As Lessig says, Please do it.

Hybrid Economy

There remains the fundamental question of how a ‘new’ copyright can maintain revenue. After all, despite the ease of pointing out the flaws in the current system, it’s quite another matter to propose a viable alternative. Lessig sees the solution, in part, coming from a new hybrid economy, one that combines the traditional commercial economy with sharing economies seen in Wikipedia, YouTube and elsewhere:

Businesses have begun to realize that the world is in part divided between commercial economies like buying and selling books, and sharing economies like Wikipedia where enormous value is produced for nothing, people are doing it all for free. The most interesting thing I think we’ve seen though in the last five years is the development of a hybrid economy where commercial entities are trying to leverage value out of these sharing economies or vice versa, sharing economies trying to leverage value out of commercial entities. And this hybrid depends upon the commercial entity showing the proper respect for the creation in the sharing economy, and giving space to it, encouraging it so that the sharing economy can produce enormous value that is beneficial to the people inside, and also to the commercial business.

Lessig’s Big Idea

Lessig concludes the interview with his ‘big idea’. It is an inspiring, and elegant reminder that we are in the midst of an unprecedented social change. Just as the Gutenberg press facilitated the spread of the Protestant Reformation, fundamentally altering the course of Western civilization, so too is the internet beginning to spark tectonic changes, the breadth of which we don’t yet have the historical perspective to grasp. As Lessig explains:

I think the big idea, as every big idea is, is just one amazing step beyond where we are right now. And I think you think about the Obama campaign, something like Wikipedia, something like the stuff that’s going on on the Internet, the kind that I think of as read write culture. What it really is doing is reviving the sense that people can do something. Not the passive couch potato politics or couch potato culture, but that they can do something. We’re close to making it really effective. I think the next cycle, what you’re going to see in the way politics functions, will be unrecognizable, even from today. But when we’re there, it will be a revival of ideals, aspirations about democracy that will surprise us. The cynicism that we had in the 20th century will look very 20th century.

Larry Lessig’s interview on Charlie Rose was first broadcast on Friday 11/21/08 on PBS, and is available in full or in clips: Larry Lessig (full segment), Larry Lessig (clips). Matt Rutherford can be reached at matt@charlierose.com.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

liDell comes out with Mini 12 artist editionsliDeclining demand affecting notebook chassis makersliDell exceeds profit forecasts with cost cuttingliLeft 4 Dead game now available

Some drunk chick outside a party

Author: bureauinc Keywords: drunk white girl chick burnette's liquor part like rock star pissy pass out vomit ugly cnn news recession economy 50 cent kanye west russell simmons snoop dogg suge knight cranberry juice chevy imapala domestic violence gangs bloods crips beta club honor society Added: November 21, 2008

My, my -- how's this for truth in advertising? Palm InfoCenter has confirmed with a Palm spokesperson that the flagging outfit will be laying off an undisclosed amount of employees as the economy worsens and the firm attempts to keep that final nail from being slammed down on its coffin. According to the spokesperson, the company will undergo a certain amount of restructuring (sound familiar?) that will "result in company reductions in the US and internationally." Incredulously, the statement also included this gem: "The global economic downturn continues to dampen demand for consumer goods around the world, and the impact on the economic environment is worsened by our maturing Centro line and the length of time it is taking to ramp our new Windows Mobile products." We won't say for sure that it's actually taking some of the blame here, but it sure sounds like it. Now, if only it would take charge of its future...

[Image courtesy of DayLife]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm axes an undisclosed amount of employees, sort of blames itself originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

div align="center"a href="http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/7257/a-round-of-layoffs-at-palm/"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2008/11/11-21-08-palm-building.jpg" //abr //div My, my -- how's this for truth in advertising? emPalm InfoCenter/em has confirmed with a Palm spokesperson that the flagging outfit will be laying off an undisclosed amount of employees as the a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/tag/economy/"economy/a worsens and the firm attempts to keep that final nail from being slammed down on its coffin. According to the spokesperson, the company will undergo a certain amount of restructuring (a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/13/wsj-confirms-palm-layoffs-amidst-rubenstein-reorg/"sound familiar/a?) that will "result in company reductions in the US and internationally." Incredulously, the statement also included this gem: "The global economic downturn continues to dampen demand for consumer goods around the world, and the impact on the economic environment is worsened by our maturing Centro line and the length of time it is taking to ramp our new Windows Mobile products." We won't say for sure that it's actually taking some of the blame here, but it sure sounds like it. Now, if only it would a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/05/analyst-says-palm-burning-through-cash-like-its-going-out-of-st"take charge/a of its future...br /br /[Image courtesy of a href="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0bu9gEecUBc6U/610x.jpg"DayLife/a]pFiled under: a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/cellphones/" rel="tag"Cellphones/a, a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/handhelds/" rel="tag"Handhelds/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/21/palm-axes-an-undisclosed-amount-of-employees-sort-of-blames-its/"Palm axes an undisclosed amount of employees, sort of blames itself/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.engadget.com"Engadget/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:03:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/7257/a-round-of-layoffs-at-palm/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/21/palm-axes-an-undisclosed-amount-of-employees-sort-of-blames-its/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/forward/1380058/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/21/palm-axes-an-undisclosed-amount-of-employees-sort-of-blames-its/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/BBEYVW9KK8wwpOyR8-zdi2Wo8IU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/BBEYVW9KK8wwpOyR8-zdi2Wo8IU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=6d97yA7H"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=6d97yA7H" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=pBsLlVNX"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=pBsLlVNX" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/Lg-zARXTOgA" height="1" width="1"/

In these perilous economic times, the layoff memos often follow a familiar refrain: “We have cut costs by 20 percent. That gives us an additional year’s runway. Or two.” But while yes, companies can cut costs and prolong their survival, when it comes to startups, just because they can doesn’t mean they should.

I’m speaking here of venture-backed startups, which represent a small minority of companies. The sole purpose of most companies is to create a steady income stream for their owners and operators — in other words, survival. Venture-backed startups, on the other hand, are created with the sole purpose of a successful exit.

Why growth is crucial

Whether that exit comes in the form of an acquisition or an IPO, in the meantime, the lifeblood of any startup is growth, be it in terms of customers, usage, revenues or profits. Under most economic conditions, an IPO is impossible without revenue and profit growth, and we are unlikely to see that change any time soon. From an acquisition point of view, stagnant companies are valued at low multiples of revenue, say 1x-2x. And while popular meme suggests that flat is the new growth — given the downturn in the economy, the argument goes, even keeping revenues flat is sufficient — this argument does not apply to startups.

By definition, startups are supposed to be attacking nascent market opportunities and unsaturated markets, and as such should be able to grow even during a downturn. If a startup cannot find growth in this environment, it’s a clear message that the market opportunity might be better served by an established company. Of course, growth in profits or revenues are far better than just growth in usage, but even growth in usage is better than stagnation on all three fronts. There is at least the possibility that a company with strong usage growth might one day be attractive to an acquirer with a good monetization engine.

It’s no fun to work at a startup that isn’t growing. Stagnation leads to low morale, with people sitting around waiting for the axe to fall. Rather than let the company become a zombie, management would be doing their investors and employees a favor by pulling the plug and returning the remaining capital to investors.

Why VCs often don’t put companies out of their misery

Founders and executives have a lot of emotional capital invested in their companies, so when it comes to making the ultimate decision, their reluctance is understandable. What’s surprising is how often VCs let companies turn into zombies. The reason for this is a subtle misalignment of interests between VCs and their investors. As long as a startup still appears to be, on some level, alive, VCs can carry the company on their books at the valuation set by the last round of financing. Once they pull the plug, the fund will receive pennies on the dollar, a loss that has to be recorded on the books and doesn’t look good when the firm goes to raise their next fund. Every VC portfolio, therefore, has its fair share of zombies.

Another contributing factor is excessive preference overhangs. Investors receive preferred stock with the right to get back their invested capital ahead of common shareholders in an exit; in some cases they have the right to receive a multiple of their invested capital ahead of common shareholders. The total amount that investors need to receive before common shareholders can participate in an exit is called the “preference overhang.”

If a company has raised so much capital that any realistic acquisition will be below the overhang, then common shareholders stand to receive nothing from the sale — and company management has no incentive to look for such an exit. In such cases, it’s important for the VCs and management to agree to restructure the preference overhangs to make such exits attractive to management. Otherwise the company is destined to become a zombie.

Every startup founder and employee has to consider three possible outcomes: success, failure and zombiehood. Success is much better than failure, but quick failure beats wasting years of your life on a zombie. If you are a company founder, and you are considering layoffs to extend the runway (perhaps on the advice of your venture investor), you should look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are cutting away your growth opportunity and just choosing a lingering death over a quick one.

Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix and Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures. Disclosure: He is also an investor in Giga Omni Media, parent company of GigaOM.

In these perilous economic times, the layoff memos often follow a familiar refrain: “We have cut costs by 20 percent. That gives us an additional year’s runway. Or two.” But while yes, companies can cut costs and prolong their survival, when it comes to startups, just because they can doesn’t mean they should.

I’m speaking here of venture-backed startups, which represent a small minority of companies. The sole purpose of most companies is to create a steady income stream for their owners and operators — in other words, survival. Venture-backed startups, on the other hand, are created with the sole purpose of a successful exit.

Why growth is crucial

Whether that exit comes in the form of an acquisition or an IPO, in the meantime, the lifeblood of any startup is growth, be it in terms of customers, usage, revenues or profits. Under most economic conditions, an IPO is impossible without revenue and profit growth, and we are unlikely to see that change any time soon. From an acquisition point of view, stagnant companies are valued at low multiples of revenue, say 1x-2x. And while popular meme suggests that flat is the new growth — given the downturn in the economy, the argument goes, even keeping revenues flat is sufficient — this argument does not apply to startups.

By definition, startups are supposed to be attacking nascent market opportunities and unsaturated markets, and as such should be able to grow even during a downturn. If a startup cannot find growth in this environment, it’s a clear message that the market opportunity might be better served by an established company. Of course, growth in profits or revenues are far better than just growth in usage, but even growth in usage is better than stagnation on all three fronts. There is at least the possibility that a company with strong usage growth might one day be attractive to an acquirer with a good monetization engine.

It’s no fun to work at a startup that isn’t growing. Stagnation leads to low morale, with people sitting around waiting for the axe to fall. Rather than let the company become a zombie, management would be doing their investors and employees a favor by pulling the plug and returning the remaining capital to investors.

Why VCs often don’t put companies out of their misery

Founders and executives have a lot of emotional capital invested in their companies, so when it comes to making the ultimate decision, their reluctance is understandable. What’s surprising is how often VCs let companies turn into zombies. The reason for this is a subtle misalignment of interests between VCs and their investors. As long as a startup still appears to be, on some level, alive, VCs can carry the company on their books at the valuation set by the last round of financing. Once they pull the plug, the fund will receive pennies on the dollar, a loss that has to be recorded on the books and doesn’t look good when the firm goes to raise their next fund. Every VC portfolio, therefore, has its fair share of zombies.

Another contributing factor is excessive preference overhangs. Investors receive preferred stock with the right to get back their invested capital ahead of common shareholders in an exit; in some cases they have the right to receive a multiple of their invested capital ahead of common shareholders. The total amount that investors need to receive before common shareholders can participate in an exit is called the “preference overhang.”

If a company has raised so much capital that any realistic acquisition will be below the overhang, then common shareholders stand to receive nothing from the sale — and company management has no incentive to look for such an exit. In such cases, it’s important for the VCs and management to agree to restructure the preference overhangs to make such exits attractive to management. Otherwise the company is destined to become a zombie.

Every startup founder and employee has to consider three possible outcomes: success, failure and zombiehood. Success is much better than failure, but quick failure beats wasting years of your life on a zombie. If you are a company founder, and you are considering layoffs to extend the runway (perhaps on the advice of your venture investor), you should look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are cutting away your growth opportunity and just choosing a lingering death over a quick one.

Anand Rajaraman is a co-founder of Kosmix and Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures. Disclosure: He is also an investor in Giga Omni Media, parent company of GigaOM.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/66702?ns=guardianpageName=Politics%3A+Darling+ready+to+admit+taxes+must+risech=Politicsc3=The+Guardianc4=Economic+policy%2CAlistair+Darling%2CPoliticsc5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Allegra+Strattonc7=2008_11_22c8=1122290c9=articlec10=GUc11=Politicsc12=Economic+policyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FEconomic+policy" width="1" height="1" //divpThe chancellor, Alistair Darling, is preparing to admit that tax will need to rise after the next election as borrowing projections emerged showing the public finances in a worse state than previous estimates had shown. Darling will say that "adjustments" will have to be made, though it is unclear whether these will be slated for 2010 or 2011. /ppYesterday the Treasury refused to deny reports that its officials were putting borrowing in the region of pound;120bn - much more than the pound;90bn many thought Darling would announce in his pre budget report on Monday. /ppTreasury officials are reported to have described the effect the pound;120bn would have on the economy as a "mammoth shock" as tax revenues continue to plummet and the costs of increased unemployment are borne by the state. /ppOn Monday, Darling will have to show the government has a strategy for controlling annual borrowing to soothe international markets and remove conditions that might otherwise see the Bank of England feel the need to raise interest rates. /ppLast night it emerged that the chancellor was preparing to admit the government would raise taxes in order to bring the public finances under control. It is still thought the government will announce the heavily trailed fiscal stimulus package of tax cuts and increased public spending./ppThe admission by the chancellor on Monday may also serve to claim for the government some of the intellectual territory the Conservative leader staked this week when he ended a year-old commitment to match Labour party's spending plans for the year 2010-2011. Explaining his position on Tuesday, David Cameron said he believed the British people would be suspicious of tax cuts and public spending programmes without obvious funding./ppIt is not clear what form the tax rises might take but a Treasury aide described as "rubbish" a suggestion that VAT might rise from 17.5% to 22.5%./ppThis week the prime minister's efforts in tackling the economic downturn were reflected in improved polling figures, leading to speculation that No 10 was gearing up to call an election./ppSpeaking on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme yesterday, Gordon Brown refused to be drawn on his improved standing and batted away talk of a election, saying that all speculation could be "discounted"./ppDowning Street has been quick to nip the rumour in the bud, with ministerial special advisers briefed this week by senior No 10 aides that an election was not "remotely on our minds". /ppThey are keen to prevent a rerun of last summer which saw Brown's political standing damaged by his decision not to call an election after weeks of speculation./ppPressure was piled on the Treasury team drawing up Monday's plan by confirmation yesterday of poor October public sector net borrowing figures. Public sector net borrowing increased in the last month by pound;1.4bn. Borrowing was pound;3.1bn higher this year than in October 2007./ppThe figure for public sector net debt rose to pound;640.9bn or 42.9% of GDP largely down to the government's takeover of Bradford Bingley at the end of September. Net borrowing has reached pound;37bn already - nearly as much as the pound;43bn forecast by the Treasury for the whole of the year. Government spending was higher than in the same month a year ago./ppThe prime minister and chancellor have said in the last few weeks that they favour a fiscal stimulus package to help galvanise the British economy. If as expected it is announced on Monday, this could increase public sector net borrowing by pound;15bn-pound;30bn./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/economy"Economic policy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/alistairdarling"Alistair Darling/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Politicscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660288112201400459684"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Politicscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660288112201400459684" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83383?ns=guardianpageName=Environment%3A+San+Francisco+Bay+to+be+electric+car+capitalch=Environmentc3=The+Guardianc4=Travel+and+transport+environmental+impact%2CAlternative+energy+%28Environment%29%2CCarbon+emissions+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironment%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news%2CBusiness%2CTechnology%2CMotoring+%28Technology%29%2CGreen+technology+%28Technology%29c5=Motoring%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CClimate+Change%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Living%2CCorporate+ITc6=Bobbie+Johnson%2CAlok+Jhac7=2008_11_22c8=1122138c9=articlec10=GUc11=Environmentc12=Travel+and+transportc13=c14=h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FTravel+and+transport" width="1" height="1" //divpOfficials in California have unveiled ambitious plans to turn the San Francisco Bay area - home to 7.6 million people - into one of the world's leading centres for electric vehicles./ppIf it succeeds, the strategy will see billions of dollars poured into a power infrastructure that will turn the region away from fossil fuels and persuade millions of people to switch to green transport technology./ppThe plan, which will see the bay area become the first region of California to switch its transport systems entirely away from traditional fuels, is being supported by local government as well as the state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger./pp"California is already a world leader in fighting global warming and promoting renewable energy," he said. "This partnership is proof that by working together we can achieve our goals of creating a healthier planet while boosting our economy."/ppGlobally, cars generate about 20% of the world's output of carbon dioxide and California's cars account for 40% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing around 1m petrol cars with electric cars by 2015, as is proposed under the new plans, will make a big difference./ppAt least $1bn is expected to be spent on improving green transport infrastructure to make the bay area - encompassing the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, as well as Silicon Valley - the leading centre for electric vehicles in America, and potentially around the world./ppThe electric transportation company Better Place will build a network of kerbside charging points across cities in the area and create the equivalent of filling stations, where electric car owners will be able to replace their flat batteries for fully charged ones. With a full charge on one of Better Place's batteries, a typical car will be able to travel 100 miles, ideal for commuting around urban areas. /ppThe local government will also work to harmonise standards across the region so that drivers of electric vehicles can travel the length and breadth of the bay area without worrying about finding the right kind of charging station./ppMost users of the Better Place system would pay a monthly subscription for unlimited access to the company's services. Visitors with electric cars could also use the charging points for a one-off fee./pp"You can plug in any car," said Jason Wolf, the California business manager at Better Place. "In California, everyone who's bought Teslas, everyone who has bought plug-in hybrids or electric cars that are not in tight relationship with us, will be able to plug into our network."/ppSpeaking at the launch yesterday, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, said: "If we're going to get serious about advancing climate-action plans, we've got to get serious about getting into the business of alternative transportation."/ppCalifornia, the world's eighth largest economy, has some of the most progressive climate-change legislation. The state aims to reduce greenhouse gas levels to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050./ppThe plans will put California on a footing with other countries leading the attempt to introduce electric cars, including Israel, Denmark and Australia. Last month, the Britain pledged pound;100m to speed the commercial introduction of electric and low-carbon road transport to the country./ppWolf said the first cars in the California scheme would be deployed in 2010./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/travelandtransport"Travel and transport/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/alternativeenergy"Alternative energy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/carbonemissions"Carbon emissions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climatechange"Climate change/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/motoring"Motoring/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/greentech"Green technology/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Environmentcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660402112201400459684"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Environmentcountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227317660402112201400459684" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/economy/" rel="tag"Economy/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/videos/" rel="tag"Videos/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/smart/" rel="tag"SMART/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/suzuki/" rel="tag"Suzuki/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/motorcycles/" rel="tag"Motorcycles/a/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/haya_smart.jpg" //abr / div align="center"emstrongsmallClick above to watch the video of a stunting smartabusa/small/strong/embr //div br /Stunting on a Suzuki Hayabusa is crazy in its own right, but stunting in a smart fortwo? Now that takes some real effort. While the bike's got the power to wheelie all day long and its dual front discs are more than powerful enough to raise the rear tire just as far as your guts allow, that's not really the bike's intent. Still, it's much more suitable for the activity than the smart fortwo with its lazy 70-hp three-cylinder and skinny tires, right? Well, maybe not. Take a good look at a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/"the video after the break/a for visual proof that the smart, when properly equipped, makes a fine stunt ride. Of course, in this situation, properly equipped equals a major horsepower infusion via the aforementioned Suzuki Hayabusa, along with some major front brake modifications. Seriously, ever see a smart fortwo perform a tail-whip? Neither had we, until today.br /br /[Source: a href="http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/2008/11/hayabusa-powered-smart-car-video"Autofiends/a]pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emVIDEO: Hayabusa-powered smart , or... a rolling death-wish on skinny tires/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/"VIDEO: Hayabusa-powered smart , or... a rolling death-wish on skinny tires/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:28:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/2008/11/hayabusa-powered-smart-car-videoRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1378496/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/video-hayabusa-powered-smart-or-a-rolling-death-wish-on-sk/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nHoJebQWPT-NuKL4ruWxbR6XwPc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nHoJebQWPT-NuKL4ruWxbR6XwPc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=zvv2OJNC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=zvv2OJNC" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=Dm1mNE4d"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=Dm1mNE4d" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/9nW7Xd2CH-Q" height="1" width="1"/

The markets are crumbling, job security is a thing of the past and your house is probably worth less than you paid for it. But for thousands of Britons this weekend, the promise of economic salvation could well lie at the end of a racetrack.