Rare vehicles auctioned for millions in Italy

RM Auctions had its first auction at the Villa d’Este concourse in Cernobbio, Italy this last weekend. The auction featured a catalog assured to make a vintage car buff salivate. A plethora of rare, classic and historically important automobiles were offered for sale. Many of the cars went for multi-millions of dollars.

Anticipation is high

Several were excited for the auction to come around. Collectors were especially excited. Paul Lienert spoke before the event. He said, “The first-ever Villa d’Este sale will feature the crème de la crème of classic European hardware.”

Interest in the rare Ford roadster

The highlight of the sale was the rare 1965 Ford GT40 Works prototype roadster which collectors were excited about on May 21. In the 1965 Targa Florio, the vehicle was a works entrant. It was co-piloted by Sir John Whitmore and Bob Bondurant. Even though it was a top seller, it didn’t make as much as the event it anticipated.

Some vehicles cost millions to buy

There were a few top sellers. They sold for millions. The Ferrari 375 MM from 1995 was there. It sold for $4.8 million. The 1938 art-deco Talbot-Lago T150-C SS was there. It cost $4 million for a buyer. Almost $4 million was paid for the four-cylinder Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa. The 1959 Ferrari 250 California sold too. It was at $3.6 million. There was a 1947 Bugatti Type 57sc Atlante that sold for about the same price as the 1965 Ford GT40 roadster prototype. Both went for a little under $3 million.

The 1953 250 MM Ferrari was built specifically for Mexican collector Efrain Ruiz Echeverria and sold for $3 million. He drove it in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana.

Cost over a million for some

About $2.1 million was paid for the 1967 Lamborghini Marzal and $1 million for the 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero.

The millions mark was not for every auto

There were two Zagato-bodied Alfa Romeos which were from the 1960s and sold for $370,000 and $900,000. All totaled, the auction brought in about $32 million.

Articles cited

Autoblog

autoblog.com/2011/05/24/rare-classics-sell-for-millions-at-villa-deste-auction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29

Top Gear

topgear.com/uk/photos/rm-auctions-villa-d-este-2011-05-17

Edmunds Inside Line

insideline.com/ford/gt/ford-gt40-prototype-headlines-villa-d-este-auction.html

Democrat wins chair from GOP in special House political election

Democrat Kathy Hochul won what was a Republicans chair in the House in a special political election held Tuesday in N.Y.’s 26th Congressional District. Hochul’s opponent was Republican Jane Corwin. Hochul narrowly won, 47 percent to 43 percent. Jack Davis, once a Democrat but now a Tea Party member, earned 9 percent of the votes.

Changes in Medicare don’t get candidates support

Hochul was very clear about the Medicare changes being considered. Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chairman, suggested these changes. These changes aren’t supported by Hochul in any means. In last week’s debate with Corwin, who supports Ryan’s spending budget plans, Hochul said: “I will fight any plan that tries to decimate Medicare. That is something people in this district feel passionately about, and I do as well.”

The win was something Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Israel commented on: “Even in one of the most Republican districts, seniors and independent voters rejected the Republican plan to end Medicare.”

Getting Medicare changes through the system

Ryan’s Medicare redesign was passed by the House on April 15 with all Democrats four Republicans opposing. The proposed changes include federally subsidized premiums for private insurance, and would apply to individuals who are now younger than 55.

Obama praises Hochul victory

On Tuesday, President Obama made a statement praising the Hochul win. “Kathy has shown, through her victory and throughout her career, that she will fight for the families and companies in western New York, and I anticipate working with her when she gets to Washington.”

Argument from Republicans

The idea that victory was depending on Medicare reform issues was debated by House Republican Leader Eric Cantor. ”This race is about the truth that it’s a three-way race,” Cantor said. He said this to reporters.

Chair vacated in sex scandal

Hochul will take the chair vacated in the wake of Republican Rep. Chris Lee’s sex scandal. Lee had nothing left to do but step down in February. There were shirtless photos of him shown publicly after he sent them to a woman he met on Craigslist.

More special elections slated

Later this year, there will be two more special House elections held. One, to be held in July, will be to replace California Democrat Jane Harman. In Sept, an election will be held in Nevada to replace Republican Dean Heller. The chair vacated by John Ensign will be filled by Heller in Senate.

Information from

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/new-york-special-election_n_866074.html

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/43161820/ns/politics-capitol_hill

Chicago Tribune

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-pn-ryan-special-election-20110525,0,3908152.story

Great news for men who drink coffee

Guys who drink a lot of coffee can revel in their habit, guilt-free. Coffee may ward off prostate cancer. A new study has found that those who drink six cups of Joe per day or more have the least risk of prostate cancer, especially the deadliest forms.

The plus side of being a caffeine fiend

Men who are addicted to caffeine might be excited to hear the good news, reports MSNBC. The Harvard School of Public Health just released a new study on it. It is good for health to drink a ton of coffee even though there may be some down sides. This was shown as the chance of getting prostate cancer was much lower with a man who drank coffee a lot. The study, according to CBS, followed 48,000 guys from 1986 to 2008 and gathered information about their coffee habits every four years. Those who drank six or more cups in a habit were not getting as many cases of prostate cancer. This was with all forms of the cancer.

Contrary outcomes from research done previously

The Harvard School of Public Health came out with a study about 30 years back that said the opposite of what results in the new study indicate. The research was flawed though. The research methodology was questionable. Patients who had cancer reported coffee details better in the research from years ago since patients were asked about coffee habits. This is known as “recall bias.” It makes it so early results are contaminated. In the research that has just been unveiled, guys who drank six cups of coffee per day or more had 60 percent less of a chance of getting prostate cancer and a 20 percent less chance of developing the deadliest forms of the disease. Those who drank three cups a day or fewer cut their chances by 30 percent, though it made no difference whether it was regular or decaffeinated coffee.

Conclusions unknown

The reason coffee could have an effect on prostate cancer is unknown, according to WebMD, however one of the leading theories is the presence of antioxidants. Several benefits, such as low risk of heart disease and cancer, have been shown to correlate with dietary antioxidants. There are other health benefits that have been connected to drinking coffee. It decreases the risk for gout, Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. One in six men is affected by prostate cancer making it probably the most common cancer in men. prostate cancer causes over 30,000 fatalities a year.

Information from

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/43065205/ns/health-cancer/

CBS

cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20063692-10391704.html?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.9

WebMD

webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20110517/coffee-may-lower-prostate-cancer-risk

Consumer protection bureau doesn't scare all cash advance lenders

The Dodd Frank Act, among other things, put consumer financial goods like credit cards and payday loans under the auspices of the CFPB, the government agency which is currently stalled in coming to life in Congress. Payday lending was one of the things that consumer supports were keen on getting under greater government oversight. Some were hoping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would regulate payday loan lenders out of existence. A payday lending firm is not scared in the least, and welcomes the bureau’s attention.

Good news from Advance America exec on company

Since the Customers Financial Protection Bureau would protect consumers from opposed goods such as payday loans, several consumer supports loved the idea of the bureau. Opponents have called for the product to be regulated out of existence and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seemed a good automobile with which to do that. The CFPB is welcomed by one cash advance business executive. William Webster, Chairman of Advance America Cash advance Centers Inc. has said he welcomes federal scrutiny, according to the Wall Street Journal. The business already discloses all of its practices meaning the government won’t be able to hurt it.

Hoping for Warren

The Huffington Post reports that Elizabeth Warren has been praised by Webster on record for getting the bureau set up and stopping overdraft fees from happening. Overdraft fees and payday loans are different goods though. Loan companies such as Webster will not have an issue with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looking into abuses in their companies. This is because they do not abuse anything and really disclose fees as they are intended to. Legislation should be made to work for lenders and customers, especially in online lending. This is what payday cash loan firms believe in. Webster believes that online lenders and overdraft loan programs should be getting more regulation than any other since they typically keep away from laws more than stores.

How the bureau is looking

The CFPB doesn’t have a clear future. The agency will have a hard time getting started with Congress around. There were already three bills introduced to slow the start of the agency or change the way it is directed. Any payday advance firms dreading the bureau opening its doors can rest easy, as the July 21 deadline to hire a director is a couple of months away, and given that Congress cannot choose if it should have one director or five, according to CNN, it may not start regulating anything for a while to come.

Articles cited

Wall Street Journal

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110513-712677.html

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/10/payday-loan-kingpin-praises-elizabeth-warren_n_859753.html?ir=Business

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/05/06/news/economy/cfpb_director/?section=money_latest

After years of baseball games, 74 year old Harmon Killebrew finally perished

Former Minnesota Twins All-Star Harmon Killebrew has succumbed to throat cancer. The pride of Payette, Idaho, 11-time MLB All-Star and 1969 American League MVP was 74 years old. The ambassador for the game of baseball ended his days peacefully while asleep in his Scottsdale, Ariz., home. He was accompanied in his last moments by wife Nita and their children.

Now Killebrew is in Hospice over Mayo Clinic from the past

Monday, a statement was released by Killebrew. It said that the esophageal cancer is in advanced stages so the Mayo Clinic can no longer help. Killebrew stated that he would spend his final days in Hospice care. He did not learn about his cancer for long. Six months before, he declared it.

How ‘The Killer’ got his enthusiasts

Pitchers were never comfortable facing the 5-foot-11, 220-pound Killebrew as he swung mightily from the right-hand side of the plate. Harmon “The Killer” Killebrew had huge arms and hands. The power in his hits was something every person wanted to see. He led the American League six times, once as a Washington Senator and five times as a Minnesota Twin, in home runs while leading the RBI only three times in his 22 year career from 1954 to 1975 where he had 573 home runs making him number 11 on the all-time list. The official Major League Baseball logo is believed to be of Killebrew’s powerful swing.

“He hit line drives that put the opposition in jeopardy,” former Washington Senators scout Ossie Bluege once said. “And I don’t mean the infielders. I mean the outfielders.”

Most followers liked the soft-spoken nature that Killebrew showed.

“No individual has ever meant more to the Minnesota Twins organization and millions of fans across Twins territory than Harmon Killebrew,” Twins president Dave St. Peter said. “Killebrew’s legacy will be the class, dignity and humility he demonstrated each and every day as a Hall of Fame-quality husband, father, friend, teammate and man.”

Jeff Idelson is the Baseball games Hall of Fame President. He even said, “It’s ironic that his nickname was ‘Killer,’ as he was one of the nicest, most nice individuals to ever walk the earth.”

Information from

Associated Press

nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/43062969/ns/sports-baseball/

Baseball Reference

baseball-reference.com/players/k/killeha01.shtml

Boston Globe

bo.st/iLkYND

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

startribune.com/sports/twins/122004519.html

‘We’re here to love and help one other,’ said Killebrew

youtube.com/watch?v=GV9oEeKhI6s

Mississippi river crests as most detrimental is finished for Memphis

The American southeast is being battered by the Mississippi river, which has been swollen and flooding for several weeks. The worst is over for Memphis, Tenn., as the river has crested in the Music City. There are other areas which still face significant danger, though.

Homeless people

More than 1,000 individuals have been rendered homeless, however some of the greatest landmarks in the state of TN have gone untouched. BBC reports that Music City’s Beale Street district wasn’t hurt by floodwaters at all. The Mississippi has not harmed Graceland, the estate that was the home of Elvis Presley in his later life until his death in 1977. One of the officials of the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, the county Memphis is located in, was quoted as saying people would be willing to “charge hell with a water pistol” to keep Graceland safe. Flash floods in the Memphis area are a significant concern, reports CBS. About 1,300 homes were evacuated because of this fear. The water will take a while to recede.

Flooding after storms are over

After the snowfall near record on the East Coast of the United States, the Mississippi river has gotten very high. However, the floodwaters near Memphis recently crested at 48 feet, less than 10 inches shy of the record set in 1937. Though the most detrimental of the danger is coming to an end in Memphis, there is considerable danger left for the rest of the cities and states along the path of the Mississippi river. There have been issues with the flood in the rest of the Mississippi river system and river delta. Still, precautions are still being taken. Pressure on the New Orleans’ levees should be relieved by the Bonnet Carre Spillway, states MSNBC. The Army Corps of Engineers just opened it up. Measures are being taken to prepare for the water going in that direction, although floodwaters are going through the delta already.

Floods compared to history

The Christian Science Monitor reports that even though the flood amounts are bad, they are not as bad as the floods in 1927 killing hundreds and costing millions. There is more than 2,000 miles of levees which were constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to the 1927 floods. The water always has to go someplace though. That means the Mississippi water has to flood someplace else when the spillways are opened. It is expected that 900,000 acres of Arkansas farmland will become flooded as the water moves toward the Gulf of Mexico and spillways are opened along the way.

Information from

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13337548

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/42973616/ns/us_news-environment/

CBS

cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/09/travel/main20061138.shtml

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0509/Mississippi-River-nears-crest-in-Memphis-but-concern-shifts-south

Kutcher takes over for Sheen on sitcom

According to TMZ, Ashton Kutcher has signed on to replace Charlie Sheen in the cast of "Two and a Half Men." Sources indicate that the previous "That 70s Show" and "Punk’d" star has signed a contract that will pay him between $625,000 and $900,000 per episode, just over half of what Charlie Sheen reportedly earned. The ninth season of "Two and a Half Men" may return as a reboot around mid-season or as late as this fall.

The plan for Ashton Kutcher

Angus T. Jones and Jon Cryer will continue to play their roles. That means Jake and Alan can be coming back. Some suggested that Ashton Kutcher might replace Sheen as Charlie Harper in "Two and a Half Men." This isn’t true; all that is known is that he will be living in the Malibu beach house with characters Cryer and Jones.

Kutcher entered the arena late in the game

The replacement of Sheen on "Two and a Half Men" has meant lots of rumored actors and actresses. Hugh Grant, Jenny McCarthy, Matt Dillon, John Stamos and Sheen's recommendation Rob Lowe were all rumored. Because of "creative differences," Grant didn't get the part even though as of May 11, he had almost won it, reports the Huffington Post.

Kutcher made the deal with Chuck Lorre, the "Two and a Half Men" creator, and CBS. He said things such as "What’s the square root of 6.25? Two and a half," on Twitter to his 6.7 million fans that viewed. Lorre and "Two and a Half Men" producers look forward using Kutcher’s massive Twitter fan base to help promote the show.

Disputes from Charlie Sheen

Kutcher's job isn’t something Charlie Sheen has talked about. The "Sheen's Korner" video podcast may continue while Charlie Sheen has to finish his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sheen may end up in "Entourage" also. He has also expressed interest in getting his "Two and a Half Men" job back, claiming that he is now willing to apologize for his comments against the show and Chuck Lorre.

Articles cited

Hollywood Report

hollywoodreporter.com/news/sources-confirm-ashton-kutcher-will-188048

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/12/ashton-kutcher-joins-two-and-a-half-men_n_861389.html

TMZ

//bit.ly/kFGmDp

‘What’s the square root of 6.25? Two and a half.’

youtube.com/watch?v=GlVUcEr7I2E

Ford debuts new Focus ST after seven-year absence

Ford is currently testing a new Focus ST that will debut in The United States. The ST is the sport version of the Ford Focus, and it can have a sport suspension and far more powerful motor. This one may be worth the wait, but it can be out fairly soon. The ST can be at dealerships by 2012.

When the United States gets to see the new Ford Focus

A performance version of the Ford Focus, the Focus ST, is currently undergoing worldwide testing to stoke demand for the auto before it debuts in late 2011, according to USA Today. There will be good suspension and horsepower from the care. Ford has dispatched about 60 prototypes to various areas, including a few in the United States, to undergo testing and to promote awareness of the new car. There are black spots on silver with the car in photos that have been seen. You may have even seen the new Focus ST if you saw a Focus lower to the ground that has great turning and is oddly colored.

About the engine

The motor in the new Focus ST isn’t known. It is the same as other Focus automobiles. Until 2004, the Focus SVT was sold in the U.S. It had a 2.7 liter, five-cylinder motor that put out 227 horsepower, according to MotorTrend. Other focus models have 2.0 liter inline four cylinder engines. The Focus ST will only be different in that it can have the Ecoboost version with direct injections. The ST is rated to generate a tooth-rattling 246 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque. There may also be Electric Power Help on the Ford car. It can have racing suspension to help. It is expected that it will cost in the upper Ford model range in cost, although it hasn’t gotten priced yet. The most expensive Focus, according to the Ford website, is the Titanium package, which costs just less than $23,000.

London calling

The United States may be excited to have the performance Focus. It isn’t the first Ford has made though. The ST is a performance-oriented compact automobile as a hatchback, making it a European vehicle that several want. Wikipedia states that the Focus ST has been accessible since 2005 in Australia and Europe with its five cylinder 2.5 liter motor. Soon the ST will hit international markets while the Focus itself is being re-released by Ford as an international model. The new Focus on sale in London is the same automobile for sale in Melbourne and Los Angeles. The British love the Ford Focus, although it sells well in The United States too. Top Gear explains the United Kingdom has made the auto one of its best-selling automobiles. In Britain, it was the third best in 2010. Other Ford Vehicles do well too. The Ford Fiesta was on top.

Citations

USA Today

content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/05/ford-starts-us-testing-of-powerful-focus-st/1

Motor Trend

wot.motortrend.com/new-ford-focus-st-test-mules-force-76643.html

Ford

ford.com/cars/focus/features/#page=FeatureCategory1

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Focus_%28International%29

Top Gear

topgear.com/uk/photos/uk-top-ten-cars-of-2010-2011-01-07?imageNo=0