BMW’s Turbo Steam Fuel Saving Concept

Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

MW engineers are working on a steam-powered auxiliary drive system that reduces fuel consumption by up to 15 per cent and boosts performance at the same time, the car maker said.

The ‘Turbosteamer’ concept applied to a 1.8 litre, four-cylinder petrol engine recycles the waste heat in the exhaust gases and cooling system.

In tests, the Turbosteamer produced 13 additional hp in performance with 80 per cent of the energy in the exhaust gases recycled, according to the manufacturer.

Milwaukee Ranked #7 in Overextended Sports Markets

The Business Journal:

The study by American City Business Journals, parent of the The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee, looked at 179 U.S. markets and analyzed the amount of personal income each region generates, among other factors, to measure the region’s adequacy for its current professional teams and any possible new ones in baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer.

Milwaukee’s total personal income of $75.7 billion, according to the report, is insufficient to support the addition of any more professional teams.

Political Observations From Michael Powell

via David Isenberg:

The Washington DC political process is more broken now than at any other time I’ve seen in my life. It has collapsed in on itself. I went home and asked my father [Colin Powell] if I was missing something, and he agreed with me that the process has collapsed into pure partisanship. The power of the incumbency has grown. People are not concerned with what’s right or what’s in the nations interest, they are purely interested in killing their opponents.

DRM Based Trusted Computing – Why We Should Care…

Slashdot:

“We’ve always know that Trusted Computing is really about DRM, but computer makers always denied it. Now that their Trusted Computing chips are standard on most new PCs, they’ve decided to come clean. According to Information Week, Lenovo has demonstrated a Thinkpad with built-in Microsoft and Adobe DRM that uses a Trusted Computing chip with a fingerprint sensor. Even worse: ‘The system is also aimed at tracking who reads a document and when, because the chip can report back every access attempt. If you access the file, your fingerprint is recorded.'”

BMW Audio Books

www.bmw-audiobooks.com:

Put on your seatbelt and prepare for highs, lows and plenty of twists and turns. BMW, in conjunction with Random House, brings you BMW Audio Books, a unique series of specially-commissioned short stories showcasing the work of some of the finest contemporary writing talent. Each gripping tale is yours to download for free and a new book will be available to download every two weeks. Listen to them on your MP3 player, your laptop or ideally, in the car. So sit back, hit play and enjoy the ride.

Thinking Different About the Car Sales Process

Robert Farago:

First, there were no cars. Why anyone selling an expensive product would want potential customers to contemplate a large number of them is beyond me; “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap” is programmed into us on the genetic level. Second, Phaeton customers were isolated, indoctrinated and, most importantly of all, relaxed. The average car dealer’s showroom is more uncomfortably exposed than a public urinal and less relaxing than a dentist’s chair.