America’s best-selling cars and trucks are built on lies: The rise of fake engine noise

Stomp on the gas in a new Ford Mustang or F-150 and you’ll hear a meaty, throaty rumble — the same style of roar that Americans have associated with auto power and performance for decades.

It’s a sham. The engine growl in some of America’s best-selling cars and trucks is actually a finely tuned bit of lip-syncing, boosted through special pipes or digitally faked altogether. And it’s driving car enthusiasts insane.

Fake engine noise has become one of the auto industry’s dirty little secrets, with automakers from BMW to Volkswagen turning to a sound-boosting bag of tricks. Without them, today’s more fuel-efficient engines would sound far quieter and, automakers worry, seemingly less powerful, potentially pushing buyers away.

Softer-sounding engines are actually a positive symbol of just how far engines and gas economy have progressed. But automakers say they resort to artifice because they understand a key car-buyer paradox: Drivers want all the force and fuel savings of a newer, better engine — but the classic sound of an old gas-guzzler.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/americas-best-selling-cars-and-trucks-are-built-on-lies-the-rise-of-fake-engine-noise/2015/01/21/6db09a10-a0ba-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html

S.F. supe, London Breed, calls out black community on gun crime

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed has a pointed message for the African American community regarding gun crime: “When you know your kids are involved in this violence, let’s turn them in.”

“I know it’s not popular to say,” Breed told the crowd Monday at the King Day observance at Yerba Buena Gardens. But, she said, it’s essential “to save their lives and somebody else’s life.”

Her remarks came just days after four young African American men were gunned down in a stolen car at the corner of Laguna and Page streets, part of the Hayes Valley neighborhood that Breed represents on the board.

“If we are going to change the problems, we have to look inside our own homes and see if we have problems with our own children,” Breed told us of her tough-love stance.

Breed, who is African American and grew up in San Francisco’s public housing, speaks from personal experience — one of her brothers, who was drug addicted, is in prison for robbery and other crimes, and her younger sister died of a drug overdose a decade ago.

“When my brother was selling drugs and doing his thing out there (on the streets), my grandmother found some drugs and flushed them down the toilet,” Breed said. “She’s like, 'This is not what’s going to happen in this house.’”

Social service programs and more police are part of the solution to break the cycle of violence, she said. “But we need to stop it completely, and part of that means holding ourselves accountable.”

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-supe-London-Breed-calls-out-black-6028273.php

Police use patrol car to stop pit bull rampage in California

A police officer in California resorted to hitting two pit bulls with his patrol car to stop a neighborhood rampage in which the dogs attacked several people, including a city sanitation worker, and charged a woman pushing two children in a stroller.

One pit bull was killed and the other captured when the San Mateo officer rammed the dogs with his vehicle Wednesday, The San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/15eVWCi).

http://news.yahoo.com/police-patrol-car-stop-pit-bull-rampage-california-185647102.html

Obama to pass on meeting netanyahu during washington visit

Source: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned trip to Washington in March is kicking up a diplomatic dust storm in the nation's capital.

On Thursday, the White House said President Barack Obama would not meet the prime minister when he comes to the U.S. to address a joint session of Congress. The official White House explanation was that Netanyahu's visit fell too close to the Israeli election and the Obama administration wanted to avoid the appearance of taking sides.

"As a matter of longstanding practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.

But the timing of Netanyahu's visit also gave the White House a convenient means of retaliating against the prime minister for his decision to accept an invitation from Republican leaders to address Congress. GOP lawmakers and Netanyahu worked out the arrangement without consulting with the White House or State Department, only alerting the Obama administration a few hours before the Israeli leader's trip was made public.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_NETANYAHU

Sheldon Silver, New York Assembly Leader, Is Arrested on Graft Charges

Source: NY Times

The speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, was arrested on federal corruption charges on Thursday and accused of using the power of his office for more than a decade to secure millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks and then covering up his schemes, according to court documents.

Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served as speaker for more than two decades, is accused of a range of corrupt dealings that capitalized on his official position. They include using his position to obtain corrupt payments misrepresented as referral fees from a law firm, funneling state research funds and other benefits to a doctor who in return referred asbestos claims to the law firm where the speaker worked, and secretly helping real estate developers win tax breaks.

In recent years, a steady parade of lawmakers in Albany have been charged with corruption, and the complaint against Mr. Silver outlines a capital culture rife with back-room dealing, where money and influence shape public policy for the benefit of private agendas.

Mr. Silver, 70, surrendered to agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation early on Thursday in Lower Manhattan, and the charges were announced at midday by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html

American soldiers will deploy to Ukraine this spring

American soldiers will deploy to Ukraine this spring to begin training four companies of the Ukrainian National Guard, the head of US Army Europe Lt. Gen Ben Hodges said during his first visit to Kiev on Wednesday.

The number of troops heading to the Yavoriv Training Area near the city of L'viv — which is about 40 miles from the Polish border — is still being determined, however.

The American training effort comes as part of a US State Department initiative "to assist Ukraine in strengthening its law enforcement capabilities, conduct internal defense, and maintain rule of law" Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Vanessa Hillman told Defense News.

After meeting with commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Anatoliy Pushnyakov and acting commander of the National Guard Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Kryvyenko during his visit, Hodges said he was "impressed by the readiness of both military and civil leadership to change and reform."

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/land/army/2015/01/21/ukraine-us-army-russia/22119315/

DEA secretly tracked Americans’ calls for over a decade, court document reveals

Source: Washington times

A new document reveals that the U.S. Department of Justice secretly kept track of Americans’ calls to foreign countries for more than a decade to track drug trafficking and other criminal activities.

The new database of stored calls was described in a filing Thursday in the case of a man accused of conspiring to unlawfully export goods to Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.


official said in the filing that the agency, which operates under the Justice Department, has long used administrative subpoenas — not federal court orders — to collect the metadata of U.S. calls to foreign countries “that were determined to have a demonstrated nexus to international drug trafficking and related criminal activities,” the Journal reported.

Although the court document only refers to outgoing calls, sources familiar with the program say it also collected data on incoming calls.





Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/17/dea-secretly-tracked-americans-calls-for-over-a-de/

'It's pork or nothing', French mayor tells pupils

A mayor in France has stirred up a hornet’s nest by deciding Muslim pupils at the local school will not be given an alternative meal to pork. The mayor has justified his stance by claiming it's in the name of secularism.

Another week in France and another row has broken out surrounding secularism or laïcité as it’s is called.

After town halls were told to remove nativity scenes because they were against the principle of “laicïté” one mayor in the south of France has used the same argument to justify “a pork or nothing” policy in his school.

From January 1st pupils in the little town of Sargé-lès-Le Mans in the Sarthe department of north-western France will not be offered a substitute meal if they don’t eat pork.

This will affect the 15 Muslim pupils in the school who cannot eat pork because it against the dietary rules of their religion. Eating pork is also against the rules of the Jewish religion but it is not believed there are any Jewish pupils at the school.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20141210/its-pork-or-nothing-french-mayor-tells-pupils

Note this predates the Charlie massacre.

Anti-French Protests in Niger Kill 10 as Rallies Hit Africa, Middle East, Asia

Source: Wall Street Journal

Protests in Niger left 10 people dead as rioters torched churches, wrecked bars and blocked several major roads during two days of demonstrations against a French magazine cover depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The violence was the latest in a wave of anti-French protests that has swept parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia after Charlie Hebdo lampooned Islam in its “survivors” issue published after the Jan. 7 attack on its Paris offices.

Although largely peaceful, some of the protests, led mostly by young men, have turned violent.

Coming just a week after dozens of world leaders joined a massive procession in Paris to condemn terror attacks and show their support for freedom of speech, the protests underscore the challenge France faces in defending long-held values without fueling resentment among Muslims, many of whom regard the Charlie Hebdo cover as blasphemy.


Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-french-protests-in-niger-kill-5-as-rallies-hit-africa-middle-east-asia-1421531073

The Streets of San Francisco Are Covered in Human Shit