Month: November 2016

Alfa Romeo

An unlikely wedding of segments come to life in Alfa Romeo's new Stelvio, a Giulia sedan-based SUV coming to the world next year with either a mere 280 hp (208kW) from the 2.0-liter Ti version, or a raucous, flame-throwing 505 hp (377kW) from the Quadrifoglio top edition, shown here.

Which brings up questions. Existential questions. Comedian Stephen Wright asked years ago: "If you were in a car that could travel at the speed of light and you turned on the headlights, would they work?" Similarly, even though the world has turned to SUVs for automotive salvation, are those buyers—or even a meaningful segment of those folks—asking for thoroughbred sports car-level performance? And when is 500 hp not enough? Turns out Alfa Romeo sees a niche there and has thrown a veritable kitchen sink's worth of go-fast at it, too.

Deric Lostutter, as seen in July 2016. (credit: Deric Lostutter)

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Kentucky approved Deric Lostutter’s motion to plead guilty to two of four counts in a hacking case that has been stretched out over four years. As a result, he could face years in prison.

In July 2016, prosecutors formally accused Lostutter of hacking a Steubenville, Ohio high school football team website, as alleged retribution for shielding teenager rapists. Lostutter was indicted on four counts, including conspiracy and making a false statement to the FBI. 

Presumably, this means that counts two and three, which cite the notorious anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, will likely be dismissed as part of a plea deal.

Enlarge / Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Gel. (credit: Getty | Miami Herald)

The Federal Trade Commission will no longer turn a blind eye to bogus or misleading claims by homeopathic drug makers, according to an enforcement policy statement the commission released Tuesday.

Makers of over-the-counter (OTC) homeopathic drugs and products that claim to cure or treat ailments will now have to clearly disclose in their advertisements and labeling that: 1) there is no scientific evidence that they are effective, and 2) that any claims of effectiveness are only based on homeopathic theories, which are not accepted by modern medical experts.

In its statement, the FTC asserted that it has long had the authority to crack down on false and misleading claims. That includes in the decades after the Food and Drug Administration allowed homeopathic products to go on the market without demonstrations of their efficacy. “Nevertheless, in the decades since the Commission announced in 1972 that objective product claims must be substantiated, the FTC has rarely challenged misleading claims for products that were homeopathic or purportedly homeopathic,” the agency noted.

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Honda

Loyal Honda sports fans, rejoice: the new Civic Si will hit the street in 2017. Honda revealed the new Si ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show, hot on the heels of the also-new Civic Type R announcement staged at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) show in Las Vegas. With both the Type R and Si announcements, Honda seems to be back in the compact high performance wars.

Where Civic Si machinery of the past had been normally aspirated since the 1990s, this new wave of Si power comes through turbocharging, with a greater accent on high levels of torque rather than the blisteringly high revs of the VTECs of yore. The Si will get a 1.5-liter, turbocharged DOHC four-cylinder engine with variable cam timing for both intake and exhaust sides. Performance options will include active dampers and steering, a limited-slip differential and higher-performance tires.

Enlarge / That'll do, pig.

It turns out that pigs make arbitrary decisions for some of the same reasons humans do. They get moody and peevish, and they allow those feelings to dictate judgement. By subjecting pigs to a series of experiments involving chocolate candies and uncomfortable beds, a group of UK researchers determined that pigs have some of the same psychological blind spots as humans.

Scientists have long known that humans suffer from cognitive biases that stem from our fundamental personalities interacting with more transient moods. University of Newcastle neuroscientist Lucy Asher and colleagues explain in a Biology Letters paper that pig personalities can be grouped into two groups: proactive and reactive. Proactive pigs tend to be extroverted, inflexible, and optimistic, while reactive ones are neurotic and easily affected by their environments. The researchers did personality tests on 36 pigs to determine whether they were proactive or reactive and then put them in a variety of situations where they had to make split-second decisions about whether to seek out a hidden treat.

Here's how it worked. For several days in a row, the pigs were given a dish with a false bottom that contained three delicious chocolate candies. The dish would always be put in the exact same spot. At the same time, the pigs were given a similar dish with much-loathed (among pigs) coffee beans under the false bottom. The disgusting coffee dish was also placed in a distinctive spot. After a while, the pigs learned to make a beeline for the dish in the chocolate spot and ignore the dish in the coffee spot. (Both dishes had been coated in sugar, so they smelled the same.) These learning sessions also gave the researchers a sense of how quickly the pigs would move toward the dish if they felt optimistic about finding a hidden tasty treat.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. (credit: FCC)

The Federal Communications Commission has deleted every major item from the agenda of its monthly meeting, apparently submitting to a request from Republicans to halt major rulemakings until Donald Trump is inaugurated as president.

Republicans from the House and Senate sent letters to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler yesterday urging him to stand down in his final months as chairman. The GOP pointed out that the FCC halted major rulemakings eight years ago after the election of Barack Obama when prompted by a similar request by Democrats.

Wheeler's office hadn't said whether it will comply with the request, but today it announced the deletion of all items that were originally scheduled to be presented and voted on at tomorrow's meeting. The FCC said the items "remain on circulation," which means they can still be voted on, but a vote doesn't appear likely.

Silhouette of wind power stations over the sea at sunset. (credit: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)

Each year, the International Energy Agency spends months preparing an analysis of the global energy economy and where it's heading. The report takes into account economic, technological, and policy developments, and it tries to project the trends that will drive our energy use for decades. This year's report suggests that a combination of economics and policy will drive an explosion in renewables, making them the largest power source built between now and 2040.

The report, however, was written at what in retrospect is obviously an awkward time: after the Paris Agreement but prior to the election of Donald Trump. As such, it's not clear how relevant some of its assumptions are, and its authors are steadfastly refusing to comment on what changes the US election might bring about.

The IEA's work is based on a massive computer model that factors in most major aspects of the world's energy economy, from basic issues like price and supply to more complicated issues like the expected lifetime of certain infrastructure. The model allows its researchers to plug in different assumptions or constraints—like limiting atmospheric carbon levels to 450 parts-per-million—and see how the globe responds.

A California judge said Wednesday that he is going to dismiss the pimping and other charges that California's attorney general levied against the Backpage.com CEO and two of its former owners.

Carl Ferrer, 55, was charged (PDF) with pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping in connection to online advertisements posted on the online ads portal. California's attorney general, Kamala Harris, alleged that advertisements amounted to solicitation of prostitution. Ferrer and co-defendants were accused of making millions in profits off the backs of women and children forced into sexual servitude. The charges were brought as Harris—who decried the site as "the world's top online brothel"—was running for a US Senate seat, which she won last week.

In his defense, Ferrer argued that the First Amendment protected him from the charges, that he is not responsible for ads posted by third parties on the website, and that the Communications Decency Act prevents him from being liable for ads posted by third parties. Ferrer, who was the subject of a three-year joint criminal investigation by authorities in Texas and California, also argued that neither he nor two Backpage controlling shareholders facing conspiracy charges had any "knowledge" of illegal ads.