REPORT: BMW builds E34 M5 Convertible, keeps it secret for 20 long years

Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Performance, Europe, BMW

BMW E34 M5 Convertible - Click above image for high-res gallery
Amongst M Division cognoscenti there rages an eternal debate concerning what's the best ever BMW M car. To the casual Bavarian-enthusiast the answer is quite simple: E39 M5. However, strong cases can be made for both the E30 M3 and the OG E28 M5, which featured the M1's race-bred 3.5-liter straight-six. In fact, there's a whole subculture of folks thatSource: Autoblog RSS Feed

New animated BlackBerry theme Waterfall

The latest theme from Bplay is looking very nice. It’s an animated theme called Waterfall that features running water and a tropical bird flying around your homescreen.

Also, remember how we posted saying that OS 5 is breaking themes? Well Bplay are now including a warning message on their themes saying: “IMPORTANT NOTICE: Themes may not function properly on BlackBerry Storm 9500 and 9530 devices that have upgraded to BlackBerry OS 5.0.”

Hopefully this gets resolvedSource: BlackBerryCool RSS Feed

Bright Automotive announces eSolutions, army plug-in hybrid contract

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Bright Automotive

Bright IDEA PHEV - Click above for high-res image gallery
Bright Automotive is proud of the work they've done on the IDEA van, but the company has always intended to make the vehicle just one method of bringing greener transportation to the masses. As we learned from Bright's VP Corporate Strategy, Michael Brylawski, the company will also offer plug-in hybrid conversions and, this week, Bright announced Bright eSolutions, Source: AutoblogGreen RSS Feed

Is Venture Capital a Form of Private Equity, Or Vice Versa?

The Private Equiteer submits:

A recent reader asked, why do I keep differentiating between private equity and venture capital, especially if venture capital is just a form of private equity. Well, in the strict sense, venture capital is private and it is often structured as equity, ergo, venture capital is private equity. (With that same definition, a $100 investment into a friend’s lemonade stall may also qualify as private equity.)

However, when I refer to private equity, Source: Seeking Alpha RSS Feed

Asus’ New ESC 1000 Is A Desktop Supercomputer

By Andrew Liszewski

The company that introduced the world to the netbook with their EEE is now introducing a system at the other end of the performance spectrum.

The Asus ESC 1000 is essentially a desktop supercomputer with a speed of 1.1 teraflops thanks to a 3.3 GHz Intel LGA1366 Xeon W3580 server processor, 960 cores inside three Nvidia Tesla c1060 graphics processing cards coupled with a Quadro FX5800 GPU. The system also includes 24GB of DDR3 1333 MHz RAM, a 500GB SATA II Source: OhGizmo! RSS Feed

Moms Take A Leap With Food Business

MyCentralJersey.com:

The blip in the economy didn’t stop two friends — Pinky Kaur and Charan Singh — from plunging into the restaurant business and opening a Panchero’s Mexican Grill on Sept. 15.

Singh, a former human resource specialist and stay-at-home-mom, and Kaur, an advertising representative for IndiaPost newspaper, have been friends for more than four years.

“I started a business because I wanted to secure my kids’ future,” said Kaur, a mother ofSource: Business Opportunities Weblog RSS Feed

Quick Spin: Myers Motors NmG - redefining fast and small for the future

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, Business of Plugging In

Meyers Motors NmG - Click above for high-res image gallery
It's ironic that the NmG we got to take for a spin during the Business of Plugging In conference in Detroit last week might be the last one-seater that Myers Motors ever makes. The company is getting ready to focus on building the NMG2, a wider, more practical version of the easily-identifiable all-electric NmG. Since theSource: AutoblogGreen RSS Feed

Honda Racing finally puts NSX out to pasture as SuperGT tweaks regs

Filed under: Motorsports, Japan, Honda, Specialty

The Honda/Acura NSX has had a good run. The mid-engine supercar developed with input from the legendary Ayrton Senna first hit the market in 1990 and didn't cease production until 2005, giving it one of the longest production runs in the business. But even after Honda stopped selling the NSX, it was still being campaigned in Japan's SuperGT racing series. No more, says Honda, as the 2010 regulations switch exclusively to the useSource: Autoblog RSS Feed

The internal battle at Bloomberg

Jeff Bercovici of DailyFinance.com writes about the greater significance of Bloomberg’s proposed acquisition of BusinessWeek — the internal machinations at Bloomberg over strategy.

Bercovici writes, “But the significance of the purchase is much larger than the numbers would suggest — even if Bloomberg insiders aren’t sure yet exactly what that significance is. One thing they do know is it signals a victory for that faction of the management hierarchy that thinks BloombergSource: Talking Biz News RSS Feed

Fancy an eRoll-up or a bit of Nookie?

Lately it feels like you turn your back for a minute and up pops another ebook reader and today is no exception.
AUO have announced a 6” flexible e-paper display which is claimed to be unbreakable and uses Sipix Microcup technology to enable the screen to be bent like real paper and display 16 levels of grayscale with 33% reflectance and a 9:1 contrast ration. Some impressive facts if you wish to bend it as you read it!
They have also announce the first 20” EDPSource: Booksellers Association RSS Feed

Mercedes-Benz S400 HYBRID Awarded TUV Sud Environmental Certificate

Following in the tradition of its non-hybrid S-Class brethren, the new Mercedes S400 HYBRID has been awarded an environmental certificate by the technical inspection authority TÃV Süd. Other Mercedes models that have received the award include the A-, B-, C-, E- and GLK-Class models. To arrive at their final decision, technical inspection authority TÃV examined more than 40,000 individual processes, all of which helped went towards the construction of an eco-profile for the model. InSource: eMercedesBenz RSS Feed

Tokyo Preview: Toyota Mark X enters second generation

Filed under: Sedan, Japan, Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota

2010 Toyota Mark X - Click above for high-res image gallery
Here in the U.S., if you want a rear-wheel drive sedan from Toyota, you'll have to buy a Lexus. That's not the case in Japan. There the motor buying public can opt for the Mark X, the second generation of which will be revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show this week. Based on the same rear-wheel-drive platform as our own Lexus GS, the new Mark X gets a redesigned exterior Source: Autoblog RSS Feed

Txtr eBook due for a December debut

Txtr eBook due for a December debut

Txtr, a new eBook was just announced at a book fair in Germany. It has the same name than the company making it, and should be in retail in Germany in December. Unfortunately, this eBook will cost almost $500, which is way more than the 6' Kindle. On the technical side, content can be uploaded to Txtr via USB, WIFI or proprietary short-range wireless protocol. In the meantime, the Kindle will land in Germany next week. Good luckSource: Technopress RSS Feed

Kansas newspapers calls for end to ethanol subsidy

Filed under: Ethanol, Legislation and Policy

It's no secret that ethanol is a controversial fuel. There are numerous arguments against the use of corn-derived alcohol as a fuel, both economic and environmental. The federal and some state governments have been subsidizing corn ethanol production for many years, but the 2007 energy bill mandated a huge increase in production of both corn and cellulosic ethanol.
The subsidies were intended to be a carrot to stimulateSource: AutoblogGreen RSS Feed

VIDEO: Vette versus Impreza at the scariest track day ever

Filed under: Videos

Click above to view the video after the jump
We know two things about this video: 1) The in-car camera is mounted to a Subaru Impreza WRX modified by Canadian tuners Lachute Performance and 2) We've thankfully never been to a track day like this.
From what we can tell, the Lachute crew is drawing a bead on one of the Corvettes and right around the four-minute mark (after several scary passes and slides), the Impreza gets clipped by one of Chevy'sSource: Autoblog RSS Feed

Real Soccer Stadiums Have Grass Surfaces

The New York Times' Goal blog has the this story on the installation of the natural grass field at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ, future home of the MLS New York Red Bulls.
How can they possibly make it work in such a climate?!? They are installing a SubAir system that helps control the moisture in the turf and can keep it warm as well in freezing temperatures. It is what the Broncos use in Denver and has been installed in the beautiful grass fields at the new MLS stadiums in Salt Source: The Oregon Economics RSS Feed

H2 Olympics power: BC Transit gets first fuel cell bus with Ballard stack

Filed under: Hydrogen

Over two years ago, we first learned the British Columbia Transit was planning to acquire 20 fuel cell-powered buses for use in the Whistler area ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The first of those buses was recently delivered to the transit company with the rest arriving over the coming weeks and months. The 20 bus-fleet will be the single largest deployment of hydrogen-fueled buses in the world. The buses are built on chassis supplied by ISESource: AutoblogGreen RSS Feed

Fiat-Chrysler electric car confirmed

The Fiat-Chrysler alliance is working on a joint electric car, making use of Chrysler’s know-how in electric engine technology. The news has been confirmed by Alfredo Altavilla from Chrysler, and is the first open recognition of the project.

Fiat will officially present its plans for the future of the Fiat-Chrysler partnership on November 4th, when hopefully we will have full knowledge of the Fiat group models headed for the US, and an idea of how the electric car willSource: EuroCarBlog RSS Feed

Should the Markets Get Giddy When the Dollar Weakens?

Here’s an interesting snippet we found in the bowels of Tom Lauricella’s nice Journal piece focusing on yesterday’s market action:

Over the long term, a declining dollar is usually a negative for U.S. markets, because it makes them less attractive to foreign investors and drives up inflation by making imports more expensive. In the short term, as seen in Tuesday’s markets, the dollar’s decline has been giving a lift to U.S. stocks. In part that’s because it helps inflateSource: MarketBeat RSS Feed

Spy Shots: 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 caught playing in the rain

Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury

The car that authored the "four-door-coupe" terminology - and a great deal of Internet debate and dictionary definition checking - will introduce its second act toward the end of 2011. Unsurprisingly, the new model (which is expected to wear a 2011 designation), will look much like the current model. That's the way it goes with genre-defining things most of the time.
Perhaps it is just our eyes, but in the spySource: Autoblog RSS Feed