Two long-awaited mini-series come to an end! Can you stand the suspense from not knowing what they are? If not, read on!

Air #4 by G. Willow Wilson (writer), M. K. Perker (artist), Chris Chuckry (colorist), and Jared K. Fletcher (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.

Air is still keeping me interested without really dazzling me, but it’s getting to the point where I may have to drop it. Usually I give books six issues to grab hold, and although I admire a lot about Air, there’s a lot that’s not working too. Blythe’s conversation with the masked priest who she thinks is Zayn works well, because we get some good insight into her character and what’s going on in the book. The transition to Mexico City and the new players in the game is awkwardly handled, though, and as the conspiracy grows quickly, it ironically becomes less interesting. I’m not sure if it’s a case of too much, too soon, because we’ve come very far from the weird premise of the first issue, but I also understand that doling out information in a work of serialized fiction is a delicate balance - too little and people lose interest; too much and it become overload. Air is veering toward overload, and it does seem like Wilson needs to slow down just a bit. There’s hardly enough time to process what’s going on, when suddenly we’re shifting continents and plot points and then, just as suddenly, there’s a weird flying machine on the last page. As much as the premise is intriguing, it feels like Wilson is desperate to cram too much plot into each issue.

Perker’s art has some problems, too. His figure drawing is fine, but too often he skimps on the backgrounds, giving the book a strange “nowhere” look. The text says we’re in Mexico City, but nothing about it feels like Mexico City (of course, I haven’t been to Mexico City, but there’s no sense of any place about the pages in Mexico) Perker certainly can do better - Cairo had a real sense of the city and the mysterious tunnels and passages under it - but perhaps the rush of a monthly book is not a good fit for him. Part of the weirdness of the book is that it takes place in “no place” - on bland airplanes - but that sense of unreality that comes from being on a plane shouldn’t extend to actual locations. It’s frustrating, because the first few pages, when Blythe is hallucinating about the winged serpent, work well and feature outdoor scenes that have a strong sense of place.

This is one of those comics that I really want to like. Four issues in, there’s a lot to enjoy about it. But I still have to think about dropping it, and we’ll see where the next two issues go.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#2 and #3, September and October): 8,777 (#2; rank: 194) and 10,061 (#3; rank: 195). That’s weird. A fairly big jump in orders from one issue to the next.

Ambush Bug: Year None #4 (of 6) by Keith Giffen (plotter/penciller), Robert Loren Fleming (scripter), Al Milgrom (inker), Tom Smith (colorist), and Pat Brosseau (letterer). $2.99, 23 pgs, FC, DC.

As usual with this comic, there’s nothing really here except tons of gags that are really funny if you know a little about DC comics (and your enjoyment of them increases the more you know) and are perhaps mildly amusing if you don’t know anything about DC. In this issue, Giffen rips Dan DiDio mercilessly, which is hilarious but sad when you realize how spot-on it is and how DiDio apparently doesn’t care. And I find it the height of irony that facing the page on which Ambush Bug says, “I guess I’m going to have to get used to a kindler, gentler DC Universe,” we get this ad:

Giffen obviously sees the idiocy of DC - why doesn’t DiDio?

Again, this is very funny if you’ve read DC, but probably less so if you haven’t. I like it, but it makes me sad, too.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#2 and #3, August and September): 14,627 (#2; rank: 135) and 13,477 (#3; rank: 150). As I’ve written before, this seems pretty good for an obscure character with no big names on the book. The Giffen factor?

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #4 (of 5) by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Ronda Pattison (colorist), and Jeff Powell (letterer). Back-up story by Joshua and Jonathan Ross (story/artists), Brian Clevinger (scripter), and Jeff Powell (letterer). $2.95, 27 pgs (22 for the main story, 5 for the back-up), FC, Red 5 Comics.

Atomic Robo sails merrily along, with the penultimate issue revealing some things (like who’s behind the big Nazi scheme) and, of course, featuring plenty of fighting. There’s not much I can say about it, because it’s just pure, unadulterated, comics joy. Clevinger continues to write wise cracks that flow easily from the action, Wegener continues to draw wonderfully, and it’s all hurtling toward a big-time conclusion. People who complain about all comics being gloomy are obviously not reading Atomic Robo. Maybe they should.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#2 and #3, September and October): 4,925 (#2; rank: 246) and 4,906 (#3; rank: 284). I guess that’s fine - it’s holding steady.

Bad Planet #6 (of 6) by Thomas Jane (writer), Steve Niles (writer), James Daly III (penciller), Tim Bradstreet (inker), Grant Goleash (colorist), and Jason Hanley (letterer). $2.99, 24 pgs, FC, Image/Raw Studios.

Shockingly enough, the final issue of Bad Planet showed up in stores on Wednesday. Bad Planet, you’ll recall, was supposed to be a 12-issue series, but it’s been truncated to six, although the ending leaves the possibility of a sequel wide open. It’s a shame this was so delayed, because it’s a fun, goofy comic full of 1950s-science fiction wackiness, from the deathspiders that have greatly reduced the Earth’s population to the solution to humanity’s problem, which goes back to Nikola Tesla (doesn’t it always?). Daly does a fine job with the art, and although the story makes little sense on a macro level and I can forgive that, the fact that we cut away from important events (like Veronica’s flight to Washington) is weird and halts the momentum of the book. At his blog, Tim Bradstreet explains some of the reasons for the hiatus, and now that it’s “done,” maybe people will discover this book in trade. I can’t really say it’s a great comic, but the creators go hell-for-leather magnificently to bring us this wild tale, and that’s something we should all respect.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#4 and #5, November 2007 and April): 4,575 (#4; rank: 252) and 4,467 (#5; rank: 259). The delay hasn’t hurt this comic, as it has one below!

City of Dust #2 (of 5) by Steve Niles (writer), Zid (artist), Garrie Gastonny (artist), Brandon Chng (artist), Buddy Jiang (colorist), Leos Ng (colorist), Sixth Creation (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Radical Comics.

Radical was nice enough to send me this in the mail, so I get to read two Steve Niles books this week! Whoo-hoo!

I mentioned that the first issue of this had a couple of problems: it was too derivative, and the art was too murky. The art is a bit brighter in this issue, and just that small change makes this a better issue to read. The art (split between a few different people, although the styles are all similar) isn’t great, but the brighter tones of the book help the storytelling, at least. So there’s that.

Niles continues to tell a story of a dystopian future where imagination is a crime, and with the set-up out of the way, he can concentrate on what made the first issue interesting: the actual murder of some guy and the book that Philip Khrome found under the body. Khrome is, of course, under suspicion by the thought police (GBI, they’re called in the book) because he looked at the book, and he’s interrogated by the head dude, Agent Morgan. Niles does two interesting things with this comic: Khrome continues to be a “the system is right” kind of guy, which is far more interesting than someone who rebels instantly because he’s persecuted by said system. I still see a spiritual awakening for Khrome down the line, where he realizes that he’s been wrong all these years and people just need to read, damn it! Maybe that will happen, maybe it won’t. For now, it’s interesting to see Khrome trying to solve the crime without worrying about bringing down the system. The other thing Niles does is set up Morgan as Khrome’s nemesis and then subvert our expectations. It’s nicely done, and lets us know that things are not what they seem. Plus, Niles reveals the bad guys, and although they’re nothing special, it’s interesting how he ties them into the main theme of the comic.

This issue fleshes out the character of Khrome a bit more, gets us into the crime a bit more, and isn’t difficult to read because the art is too dark. Niles, who seems to have problems with endings, doesn’t have any problems with beginnings, and he’s set up an interesting murder mystery. There’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned murder mystery!

Sales figures for issue #1 (October): 8,981 (rank: 209). I have to think that’s pretty good.

Dynamo 5 #18 by Jay Faerber (writer), Mahmud A. Asrar (artist), Marcio Takara (artist), Ron Riley (colorist), and Charles Pritchett (letterer). Back-up story by Jay Faerber (writer), Joe Eisma (artist), Paul Little (colorist), and Charles Pritchett (letterer). $3.50, 27 pgs (20 for the main story, 6 for the back-up), FC, Image.

Over in Jay Faerber’s neck of the woods, Dynamo 5 gets a guest artist (Asrar draws only three pages) and a back-up story, but keeps trucking along. Scrap’s replacement team gets into a fight with a group of super-villains and doesn’t fare very well (as you can see from the cover). As usual, it’s simple kick-ass superheroing and supervillaining, but Faerber is able to do that so well that it feels fresh. Even the twist at the end, which comes from Superhero 101 class, hits us like a punch in the gut. It’s very hard to describe how good Faerber’s two ongoings for Image are (although Noble Causes is ending, it’s still around for now), because not every issue stands out as truly superb. There are stellar moments, but even those don’t show up all the time. If I wrote about the plot - supervillains collects other supervillains who match up well against the new Dynamo 5, said supervillains attack, said supervillains beat up Dynamo 5, something surprising happens at the end - you might think, “That’s the scenario of every superhero comic I’ve ever read!” Well, true, but as always, it’s in the execution. Faerber adds so many small touches that make this fun to read, like Timothy Lipinski going all gooey when he gets his people-killing armor back. Okay, that’s not really fun, but it’s something a slightly psychotic super-villain would do.

I’m not sure what’s up with the back-up story. It’s the tale of a private investigator who sets someone up, and it’s a clever little story, but I don’t know if Faerber is going to start a new series with the P. I. (who, interestingly enough, isn’t named, although the title of the story is “Dodge’s Bullets,” indicating that Dodge is either his first or last name). Either way, it’s a fun short story.

As Brian noted, prices for regular Marvel books (”regular” meaning 22 pages of story with no “extra” material) are going up to $3.99. Faerber himself stopped by to explain why Dynamo 5 is $3.50. Considering it’s as good, if not better, than any other superhero comic you can buy, isn’t it time you stopped hoping that Marvel will come to its senses with regard to pricing and checked this out instead?

Sales figures for the last two issues (#16 and #17, September and October): 5,014 (#16; rank: 241) and 4,792 (#17; rank: 287). I guess that’s fine - the drop is odd, but not huge.

Ex Machina #39 by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Tony Harris (penciller), Jim Clark (inker), JD Mettler (colorist), and Jared K. Fletcher (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC/WildStorm.

The frustrating thing about Ex Machina is that Vaughan is ending it with issue #50, but now we’re going to have to wait two years for that to arrive. I look forward to every issue, even weaker ones like this one, and now that Vaughan has hinted about where the book is going (he may have done this in interviews prior to this, but I don’t read interviews, so this is the first time within the comic he’s hinted about the book’s direction), I’m really looking forward to the end. But I have to wait so damned long!!!!!

As I wrote above, this is a weaker issue, mainly because Monica is such a dull “villain” to the point where she’s not one at all, really. Vaughan’s biggest weakness with this book is feeling that he has to put costumed weirdos in it, even if the book doesn’t necessarily warrant it, and building story arcs around them. Monica’s story could have been told in two issues, tops, but it was stretched out a bit, and that weakened it. Still, Kremlin’s a-doings and the way Vaughan turns the book toward the future help mitigate that a bit. I’m fascinated to see the rest of the series.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#37 and #38, June and September): 14,921 (#37; rank: 131) and 14,973 (#38; rank: 137). Holding virtually steady. Those who buy it are invested, man!

Ghost Rider #29 by Jason Aaron (writer), Tan Eng Huat (artist), José Villarrubia (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Marvel.

I said I wasn’t going to buy this anymore because last issue was $3.99 with a lousy recap of Danny Ketch’s career as Ghost Rider as the “extra” material. Well, I calmed down and decided to buy this, because I have been enjoying Aaron’s run on the title. Unfortunately, I might drop it anyway.

It’s not that this is bad. Aaron is writing a slam-bang action comic, and Huat’s art continues to look better than it has in the past. But it’s not as flat-out insane as Aaron’s first arc, when we had killer nurses and haunted highways and cannibals. It’s a fairly standard superhero comic, and although Aaron does it well, it doesn’t give me any reason to keep coming back. I suppose if I was more invested in the Ghost Rider mythos, it would be more powerful, but I’m not, so the actual story and writing have to be dazzling, and for the past few issues, they haven’t been. It’s certainly keen to see Danny and Johnny throw down, but beyond that, I don’t get the same sense of danger that I get, for instance, with Dynamo 5 and its big fight. It’s just two really powerful dudes smashing each other, and that’s tough to make interesting.

The end of the issue promises “more Ghost Riders,” as we learned last issue that there are several wandering the Earth. It will come out in December, which means the following month I usually think about culling titles. I doubt if this will make the cut. I miss the craziness of the first arc, which was truly and wildly awesome. Oh well.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#27 and 28, September and October): 23,402 (#27; rank: 105) and 26,993 (#28; rank: 102). A slight boost with the 4-dollar issue that I ranted about. I guess I suck.

Moon Knight #24 by Mike Benson (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Javier Saltares (layouts), Dan Brown (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Marvel.

I like how the past two issues have featured Bullseye on the cover, even though the first time Bullseye shows up in this arc is on the last page of this issue. I guess he’s just so freakin’ cool that Suydam had to put him on two consecutive covers!

This isn’t quite as excellent an issue as the last few, but it’s still very good. When last we left our favorite crazy superhero, Venom was about to eat his brain. Of course, he doesn’t, because that would be awkward, but there’s a big fight between MK and the Thunderbolts, and what makes it interesting is that Moon Knight doesn’t really win. It’s his book, after all, so the usual thing to do is make him superhuman and have him mop the floor with his adversaries, which is what writers of, say, the Caped Crusader always do. He does a fine job beating up on the Thunderbolts, but it’s not like he’s whipping them. He’s even in a bit of trouble until S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up. Isn’t that always the way?

As this is the penultimate issue of the arc, we get some set-up for the final issue. Jean-Paul still wants revenge, and Marc actually has to act human a little bit. Frenchie tells a story about his mercenary days, which helps illuminate, once again, a major theme of this book - the consequences of violence and how no one escapes. Marvel has spoiled the end of this arc in the solicitations, which annoys the hell out of me, but it’s still a bittersweet issue, as Marc knows he probably can’t get out of this. We’ll see exactly how this ends.

I guess Bullseye actually shows up next issue and does some ass-kicking. That’ll be nice.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#22 and #23, September and October): 26,380 (#22; rank: 94) and 25,216 (#23; rank: 111). Holding relatively steady, which makes me happy.

Pax Romana #4 (of 4) by Jonathan Hickman (writer/artist). $3.50, 28 pgs, FC, Image.

Pax Romana finally concludes, and it’s not quite as strong as Hickman’s first series, The Nightly News. Despite that book’s inevitably lackluster ending, it was ridiculously bold and a breath of fresh air both story-wise and art-wise. Pax Romana looks great, with that odd Hickman style that is gorgeous to look at, and the story is still compelling, but Hickman never quite pulls it off. It’s always been a 4-issue mini-series, but perhaps it could have used an extra issue, because the characters never quite gel and in order to get his philosophical ramblings into the book (don’t get me wrong - I like the philosophical ramblings), Hickman seems to have sacrificed some characterization and action. Like The Nightly News, Hickman has grand themes on his mind in this book, and one of the characters vocalizes them late in the comic. Overall, the idea of the book - sending people back in time to make sure the world doesn’t fall into barbarism - is fascinating, and although Hickman gets his major point about the nature of people across, he doesn’t manage it with the same flair that he brought to The Nightly News. Ironically, the end of this book probably works better than that earlier one, but the journey isn’t as strong.

Still, Hickman continues to be an impressive voice in comics, both with his astonshing artwork and in the themes he examines in his work. I hope he does more work, and I hope he speeds up a bit. Waiting for his comics is frustrating, to say the least.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#2 and #3, March and September): 4,794 (#2; rank: 239) and 2,889 (#3; rank: 300). Who says delays in books don’t hurt sales?

Scalped #23 by Jason Aaron (writer), R. M. Guéra (artist), Giulia Brusco (colorist), and Steve Wands (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.

Aaron focuses on Dino Poor Bear in this issue, as he rides around the reservation doing his “job,” which consists of giving drugs and guns to various people and collecting their money. It’s a typical issue of Scalped, in that Aaron captures the essence of dirt-poor living and things build slowly to two incidents of horrific violence that leave their mark on Dino. As we’ve seen, Dino will never leave the rez, but he still clings to the notion that he will, which makes his life, as sad as it is, a bit more pathetic. He’s not working toward anything, and he has a (relatively) clear head on his shoulders - think of the people who don’t have clear heads! Aaron has done a fine job showing the absolute despair the people on the rez live with each day, and by now, he doesn’t even make much of an effort - just by showing Dino go about his daily life is enough. Maybe, just maybe, Dino realizes in this issue that he has to change. But I doubt it.

I have read on-line that Scalped is a lousy representation of Native Americans. I don’t know if it is or not - I have not met many Indians, so I can’t speak to that. I do know that the reservations in Phoenix aren’t much better than the fictional one in this comic, so he’s onto something there. But that’s a topic for another day. I won’t say much about that, but I will say that whether or not Aaron is accurately portraying a Native American experience, he is accurately portraying a poor experience. The people in this comic are desperate, and they act desperately. They often act stupidly, but Aaron has done a nice job showing why they act this way. That’s part of why this book is so gripping.

Sales figures for the last two issues (#21 and #22, September and October): 7,029 (#21; rank: 216) and 6,964 (#22; rank: 241). This is why I switched to the single issues. Anything to do my part!

Uncanny X-Men #504 by Matt Fraction (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Justin Ponsor (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Marvel.

I appreciate Terry Dodson’s drawing style with regard to women, because he makes them a bit more zaftig than your usual comic artist, but what’s up with Emma’s waist on that cover? I know the fur is hiding some of it, but it looks hideously thin compared to her bust. Weird.

Anyway, this is much more like what I was hoping for when Fraction came on board the X-Men express. Brubaker isn’t even credited in this issue, so perhaps he’s completely off the book? Either way, Fraction isn’t quite back to form totally, but this is much better than the previous arc. Does Dodson make that much of a difference? Maybe.

Fraction almost completely ditches the annoying identifying(...)

Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream.

John, a long-time friend and a peer from the tech media world, asked me if I would sign on with his studio of talent and let them represent my then one-man effort, GigaOM.com, commercially. Naturally, I said yes. In the time that passed we had our ups and downs, successes and embarrassments. But we progressed and prospered together.

John now sits atop a gigantic company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents everyone from BoingBoing to mommy bloggers like Dooce. And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement.

Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship.

Now we have teamed up with the IDG Group to represent the sales of advertising on our properties — seven today, and many more in the months to come. IDG has a growing blog ad network and I look forward to working with them. Of course, we will continue to supplement their work with our internal sales team, which has been instrumental in selling sponsorships for both our events and specialized weblogs.

Sure we are parting company with our business partners, Federated Media, but we are not ending friendships that have spanned two bubbles, many magazines and countless memories. Thanks to John, Chas, Jason and everyone at Federated for being part of our dream, and for working tirelessly on our behalf.

Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream.

John, a long-time friend and a peer from the tech media world, asked me if I would sign on with his studio of talent and let them represent my then one-man effort, GigaOM.com, commercially. Naturally, I said yes. In the time that passed we had our ups and downs, successes and embarrassments. But we progressed and prospered together.

John now sits atop a gigantic company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents everyone from BoingBoing to mommy bloggers like Dooce. And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement.

Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship.

Now we have teamed up with the IDG Group to represent the sales of advertising on our properties — seven today, and many more in the months to come. IDG has a growing blog ad network and I look forward to working with them. Of course, we will continue to supplement their work with our internal sales team, which has been instrumental in selling sponsorships for both our events and specialized weblogs.

Sure we are parting company with our business partners, Federated Media, but we are not ending friendships that have spanned two bubbles, many magazines and countless memories. Thanks to John, Chas, Jason and everyone at Federated for being part of our dream, and for working tirelessly on our behalf.

IRVINE, Calif. - November 20, 2008 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft ®'s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King ™, has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability*, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This eclipses the previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in January 2007 by Blizzard's first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade ®. Wrath of the Lich King was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on November 13; Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand on November 14; and South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

In celebration of the launch, more than 15,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players. Several of these locations were attended by Blizzard Entertainment representatives, who met players and signed copies of the game.

"We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. ”Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we’ve created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead."

"After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the bestselling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year," said Bob McKenzie, GameStop’s senior vice president of merchandising. "In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country."

Prior to the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft’s subscriber population had grown to more than 11 million players, further strengthening its position as the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. More information about the new expansion can be found at the official Wrath of the Lich King website: www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/la-auto-show/" rel="tag"LA Auto Show/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/motorsports/" rel="tag"Motorsports/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/hybrids/" rel="tag"Hybrids/Alternative/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/green/" rel="tag"Green/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/nissan/" rel="tag"Nissan/a/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172978/"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/018111908_450.jpg" alt="" //abr / div align="center"span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"smallClick above for high-res image gallery of the Braille Battery Nissan Altima Hybrid/small/spanbr //div br /On display at this year's a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/LA-Auto-Show/"LA Auto Show/a is a Nissan Altima Hybrid racecar aimed at pleasing the eco-radicals of California, and the folks over at a href="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/11/19/la-2008-nissan-altima-hot-rod-hybrid/"Autoblog Green/a. The car was first released at the a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/SEMA/"SEMA/a Show in Las Vegas, but the LA crowd is really more up its alley. This Altima is a direct result of the team at Braille Battery pairing up with Nissan North America and Universal Technical Institute. The "Hot Rod Hybrid," as it's called, is a construction aimed at competing in the new hybrid/electric class of the Redline Time Attack series. There are also plans to give it a run in the 2009 Cannonball Run/One Lap of America event. We know the car will be in good hands, too. Driver Blake Fuller is experienced with both front- and rear-wheel-drive vehicles, as exemplified by his finishes in the Pike's Peak hill climb and Formula D drifting events. br /br /a href="www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172978/"img width="210" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="199" border="1" align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/015111908_opt.jpg" alt="" //aThe Braille Battery Nissan Altima Hybrid is constructed with great attention to detail. The green eco-friendly DuPont paint initially catches your eye, but the best part can be found once the car passes by you. The exhaust outlets are formed out of leaf silhouettes. No environmentally conscious element on this vehicle is left unturned, even the race seats are a new product from Sparco containing recycled materials. The roof is also topped with battery recharging solar cells. To help the car be competitive on the racetrack, the internal combustion engine is tuned to run on E85 ethanol while being boosted by a Vortech electric supercharger. All in all, it is an intriguing experiment. We look forward to seeing how the car fairs under the wear and tear of many Time Attack battles. More details can be found in the press release after the jump. Also be sure to take a gander at the gallery below for SEMA shots provided by Braille Battery, along with those we captured in LA.br /br /div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/"Braille Battery Nissan Altima Hybrid/a/strong/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172981/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/017111908_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172979/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/015111908_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172978/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/018111908_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172977/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/014111908_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid/1172976/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/11/013111908_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //a/divpa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/la-2008-braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid-time-attack-hot-ro/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emLA 2008: Braille Battery Nissan Altima Hybrid time attack hot rod/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/la-2008-braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid-time-attack-hot-ro/"LA 2008: Braille Battery Nissan Altima Hybrid time attack hot rod/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:29:00 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://braillebattery.com/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/la-2008-braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid-time-attack-hot-ro/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1377707/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/21/la-2008-braille-battery-nissan-altima-hybrid-time-attack-hot-ro/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ToPVX60mApud2lM51fb6YiHhfeA/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ToPVX60mApud2lM51fb6YiHhfeA/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=L2hL58G9"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=L2hL58G9" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=vG2qxbSB"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=vG2qxbSB" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/P76eoGHcjPQ" height="1" width="1"/

Category: Entertainment
Released: Nov 21, 2008
Price: $4.99

Description:
The Wonderful World of Peanuts on your iPhone! Here is a great way to keep in touch with your favorite Peanuts characters. Browse and choose from a huge selection of great images. We have all your favorites: o Charlie Brown o Snoopy o Linus o Lucy o Woodstock o And more! Change your background daily � let your iPhone stand out and be fresh and different all the time. Charlie Brown and his friends look forward to being featured on your iPhone.

Website: http://funmo.com
Support Website: http://funmo.com

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: Peanuts Wallpaper

PlayStation Nation,
This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year’s campaign is dubbed ”Entertainment Unleashed” and for good reason.
The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second ”tease” executions. Hopefully, you’ve seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing on building facades across a city.

This weekend, we’re excited to reveal what triggered the excitement. The spot begins with a guy creating a LittleBigPlanet level on a building wall and from there, the PS3 takes on a momentum all its own, spreading amazing entertainment content uncontrollably from building to building throughout the city. The ad prominently features not just LittleBigPlanet but also two other PLAYSTATION 3 exclusive titles — Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. And we’ve also highlighted PS3’s Blu-ray capability by featuring Blu-ray movies like The Dark Knight, showcasing PS3’s unrivaled leadership as both a gaming and multimedia entertainment experience.
PLAYSTATION 3 offers unrivaled game content, with not just one platform-defining game, but an array of groundbreaking games across virtually every genre throughout the year that are pushing the envelope of creativity and sheer gameplay.
And at the end of the spot, you’ll see that all this great exclusive content has literally been unleashed on the city and its residents. I know our fans will appreciate spotting some of your favorite games across the cityscape.

This week marks an important milestone for the PS3. And one of the things we’re most excited about as we head into year three is the tremendous adoption and excitement found on PlayStation Network. This year alone, we’ve added great new features you guys have been asking for like a service to deliver High Def movies and TV shows that you can rent or buy and store directly on the PS3’s hard drive; a robust trophy system that lets you compare your gaming prowess with others as well as help you discover everything about the great PS3 games you’re playing; and of course, the groundbreaking Home service, which is just around the corner for all. All of this and a lot more has resulted in more than 14 million active PlayStation Network accounts – a very rapid expansion of a service that we have equally aggressive plans for in the future.
So with its tremendous growth and adoption, we thought it was time to give the PlayStation Network its own moment in the sun with a TV spot that sings its praises. This PlayStation Network ad will also make its debut this weekend. The ad is a metaphor and itself depicts the relentless spread of the PlayStation message from user to user. We’ve featured various ways you can ”Download/Play/Connect.” Great downloadable games like Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, PAIN, Wipeout HD and Echochrome. Free online gaming and downloadable levels with games like LittleBigPlanet. Human connection and community via Home. And downloading great movies like Hancock directly to your PS3 and then sharing it with your PSP.

When we launched the PS3 two years ago, we said we would deliver on the most advanced next generation console that would offer ten years of entertainment value. We are committed to that promise and remain confident that we’re now just scratching the surface on PS3’s potential.
We hope you like these new ads and look forward to your feedback and continued support for PlayStation.
Enjoy!
Peter
PS: Killzone 2 is real and it’s spectacular…


More...

via Games Industry


Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first day on sale.

According to the developer, sales eclipsed the 2.4 million the previous expansion, The Burning Crusade, achieved on its first day - making Wrath of the Lich King the fastest-selling PC game of all time.
"We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

"Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we've created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead."Retailers worldwide held extravagant midnight launch events for the expansion pack, with more up to 2000 people attending the opening at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street in London.

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It's raining in the Middle East and bloggers are taking to their keyboards to register their thoughts at the change in climate.

We kick off our round up with Stilettos in the Sand from Saudi Arabia, who writes:

We are in for heavy rain. It has rained quite hard in other parts of the Sandbox, but we've gotten only a few drops and sprinkles, here. Rain is good. We look forward to it and relish it. A good rain cleanses everything and turns the trees green and lush - so much prettier than the tan and gray we are so used to and it controls the dust. If it is overcast all day today and we finally get some rain you will hear no complaining from me!

Our second stop is in Libya, where Khadija Teri welcomes the rain too. She notes:

The rains have finally come, accompanied by lightening and thunder. The weather is cooler and the dust has settled. We'll see how treacherous the roads are today. Usually the first big rains bring on flooding because the drain systems in the roads are clogged with sand and garbage. But never mind - no one expects anyone to be on time in weather like this.

Speaking of treacherous roads, Seabee, from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is happy that this year rain wasn't blamed for road accidents, but that the drivers were.

Here's a picture taken by Seabee showing the dark clouds which gathered in Dubai's sky:

When the first drops fell from the sky, Seabee predicted that the rain will be blamed:

Woke up this morning to a strange darkness, peered out and saw gray clouds and wet ground.
We had the first rain of the season.

So here's a prediction.

Tomorrow's papers will report chaos on the roads, including multiple crashes.
The rain will be to blame.
Motorists will be exonerated. Driving inappropriately in the conditions will not be the cause.
The rain dunnit.

Kuwait too had a change in weather and intlxpatr, who reports that the mornings are chilly, posts this picture of the light fluffy skies which have gathered in the sky, signaling some rain:

From Israel, Dr Savta also reports nicer weather.

Lately the weather has been beautiful. Yes, even those couple of days of rain were beautiful. The heat of the summer is gone and it’s still warm enough to go out without a sweater. If it were only like this all year round!

But for one Israeli mother, A Soldier's Mother, the rains summon a different feeling. She writes:

Now, the rain means Elie and the soldiers are probably wet; the winter means they may be cold; the summer means they are hot and likely uncomfortable. I've always loved thunder and lightning, the power of the storm fills me with awe. But the world of wind and rain is less friendly when you have a son outside in it.

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=488a1d84796c7a5300f14aafmaxX=444maxY=192" border="0" alt="janetandarthurNYT.jpg" title="janetandarthurNYT.jpg" width="444" height="192" /As you recall, back in July, we happily made an offer for the digital operations of the New York Times Company (NYT)./p pWe offered a massive price--$1 billion--and proposed an innovative deal structure that would avoid the need for annoying shareholder approvals, jillion-dollar legal fees, egregious tax hits, etc. (In short, the NYT would acquire us, and then spin us and NYT Digital out--see details below). We explained how we would run the standalone NYT Digital and how the proposed transaction would benefit New York Times shareholders, who have since been obliterated. /p pWell, we are pleased to say that, despite the global market carnage, our offer remains in effect! Alas, in light of the impending depression and recent developments at the New York Times Company, we must mark our offer to market./p pIn July, when we made our offer, NYT's stock was at $12. Now it's $6. Also, the New York Times Company is now running on fumes. So now we're probably looking at a number in the $400 million range./p pWe're still stoked about this opportunity, though./p p(One thing we do need to discuss is your a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/cash-crunch-at-new-york-times-nyt-400-million-due-in-may"cash crisis/a. Back in July, you seemed to be awash in the stuff, and we were counting on this to take care of our post-merger working capital needs. Now, we may have to ask you to draw downa href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/cash-crunch-at-new-york-times-nyt-400-million-due-in-may" your remaining $400 million credit line/a before the banks wake up and cut it off. We would advise you to do this anyway, by the way. The Red Sox stake would probably work, too, as long as we could liquidate it in a timely fashion.)/p hr / pstrongOur Original Offer For The New York Times Company (July 25, 2008):/strong/p pAt its charming new stock price of $12, the New York Times Company (NYT) has an enterprise value of about $2.85 billion. As a href="http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jul2008/pi20080725_458084.htm"BusinessWeek's Jay Yarow notes/a, after you back out all the non-core stuff, that means that the New York Times itself--the paper and the digital assets--are valued at about $750 million. That's less than half of what CBS just paid for CNET./p pSo we have an offer for the New York Times Company: We'd like to buy New York Times Digital from you.* Not the venerable paper or printing plants. Not the gorgeous building you own in midtown Manhattan. Not your share of the Red Sox. Not the regional papers. Not the Boston Globe. Just New York Times Digital--the Martin Nisenholtz division that gets zillions of unique visitors a month./p pHow much are we willing to pay? $1 Billion./p pThat's right: A 33% premium over what the entire emNew York Times/em division is valued at right now--just for the web site! Not a bad price, given our collapsing economy. And especially not bad considering that we think the newspaper industry is hosed./p pWhy do we just want the web site?/p pWell, in truth, we'd like the whole thing, but the New York Times won't survive in its current form, and we're not thrilled about the idea of losing our shirts. We're also not eager to be vilified by the labor unions, newsroom, and Columbia Journalism Review for doing what needs to be done to save the business. So here's what we're going to do instead./p ol listrongSign a contract with you that allows us to reprint all New York Times content for three years./strong This will give us some time to build our own news organization, one unencumbered by the various cultural, economic, and contractual baggage that is currently preventing you (and other papers) from saving yourselves.br //li listrongImmediately make offers to the 20% of your journalists and editors that we think can make the transition to digital (24/7 real-time blogging)./strong These folks won't be hard to find, given that some of them are writing excellent blogs already. (Andrew Ross Sorkin, Floyd Norris, David Carr, Joe Nocera, Gretchen Morgenson, Brian Stelter, Saul Hansell, Paul Krugman, Landon Thomas, and a few dozen other folks jump to mind.) By the way, we don't mind if these folks continue to distribute their stuff in the paper, too, so don't worry about losing them. In fact, that would be great exposure for us.br //li /ol pWhy will we only be making offers to 20% of your staff? Because the economics of the online business won't support any more than that. And because 20% of your folks are probably accounting for at least 80% of your pageviews and readership anyway./p pSo how about it, Janet and Arthur? strongspan style="text-decoration: underline;"$1 Billion./span /strongMore than a third of the current enterprise value of your entire company--just for the web site! You get to keep the paper, the building, the Red Sox, the Boston Globe. It's the deal of a lifetime!/p hr / p*N.B.: We're actually much more excited about this offer than we were abouta href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/12/announcing_our_friendly_takeover_offer_for_cnet" the one we made for CNET a few months back/a. Truth be told, we just couldn't get that excited about CNET. But The New York Times? We f***ing LOVE the New York Times!/p pHere's how we propose structuring the deal:/p pWe just raised $1 million, so that means we only need another $999 million to close. Raising the money shouldn't be a problem, but who needs that hassle. So here's what we'd like to do instead:/p pWe'll agree to let you acquire us for, say, $100 million of New York Times stock. Then, in a simultaneous closing, you can spin us and New York Times Digital out as a separate public company--via a special dividend to shareholders. (You can load us up with enough debt to make the numbers work, and then we'll convert it to equity)./p pSound good? We think so. We look forward to hearing from you./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/5WAOlOrg9qvXEQJQUE7uHa7yq_E/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/5WAOlOrg9qvXEQJQUE7uHa7yq_E/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=EMz0hqca"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=EMz0hqca" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=52Q1K403"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ufgNpauW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=BxfkMmxw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=BxfkMmxw" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=oztpKBzC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ItlRzLeh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=sK8qsOqV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=7BOvGSuo"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/rqZ8azVWLKw" height="1" width="1"/

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Last year at Sony's annual executive roundtable in New York, Sony Electronics' president and COO Stan Glasgow told reporters gathered there about the company's forecast for the holiday (grim but not disastrous), how the imploding electronics retail market is affecting Sony and its product roadmap for 2009 and beyond.

There's still no sign of the iTunes/Zune-style store that Glasgow (seated at the head of the table in the photo to the right) said the company was looking into at this same meeting in 2006. Sony president of consumer sales Jay Vandenbree told Wired.com after the roundtable that Sony had no plans to launch such a store in the coming year.

Instead, he said, Sony will add "solid" audio feature to their portable hardware, and that the company's next-generation portable audio designs w