The News Of …

Motor Trend magazine has named the Tesla Model S it’s Car of the Year. The magazine’s staff selected the all-electric plug-in luxury car out of a field of 11 finalists that included models such as the Ford Fusion, Porsche 911 and Hyundai Azera.
It is the first time the magazine’s Car of the Year award has ever gone to an all-electric car.
Just being electric wasn’t enough to earn the Model S the prize, though.
Ed Loh, Motor Trend’s editor-in-chief on Monday said that (with eleven finalists) it was a strong field this year. But in the end there was no question about who the winner was. “The vehicles that placed second and third didn’t get more than three
votes. But it was a unanimous decision for the Tesla Model S.”
“At its core, the Tesla Model S is simply a damned good car you happen to plug in to refuel” – editor-at-large Angus MacKenzie wrote in an article about the award.
Motor Trend calls the Model S “as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce” to drive fast while having the cargo and passenger capacity of an SUV.

Tesla Model S.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season could be poised to take an ugly turn.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger left Monday night’s game with an injury to his passing shoulder after getting sandwiched by Tamba Hali and Justin Houston on a third-quarter sack against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Backup Byron Leftwich took over under center and helped the team grind out a 16:13 win in overtime.
Big Ben left the field about one minute into the second half. ESPN’s cameras showed him being taken away in a golf cart in the bowels at Heinz Field with his jersey and shoulder pads removed.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said following the game that Roethlisberger was being medically evaluated at a local hospital. ESPN reported he suffered a shoulder sprain.
Roethlisberger (who mentioned he’d been dealing with rotator cuff issues in training camp) has always been susceptible to nagging injuries but has missed just four starts due to injury in the past seven seasons.

Ben Roethlisberger.

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The search engine has replaced the multicoloured Google logo on its homepage with an illustration depicting Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker.
Rodin (born in Paris in 1840) is widely believed to be the founder of modern sculpture.
A traditional sculptor who eschewed the predominant figure sculpture tradition of the times, Rodin’s work was initially unpopular, but gained momentum over the course of his life until he was a world-renowned artist by the time he reached his 60s.
Born into a working-class family, Rodin failed three times to win entrance to the Grand Ecole art college in Paris.
His rejection was a significant setback, and after his sister died five years later. When he was 22, he turned away from art, briefly joining a Catholic order.

Auguste Rodin and Google.

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Mitt Romney has called President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his re-election. Shortly afterwards, the Republican presidential candidate delivered a concession speech to his supporters, thanking his family and campaign.
A number of major media outlets have declared President Barack Obama winner of the Presidential Election 2012 – according to their projections. Millions nationwide and worldwide are awaiting Obama’s acceptance speech.
A live stream of the speech can be seen via the link at the bottom of this article, although as votes are still being counted in numerous states, and Republican candidate Mitt Romney has not yet conceded defeat, it may be a while until the speech is given. But as soon as Obama’s victory is confirmed officially, which seems almost certain right now, the president’s acceptance speech can be watched online live and will be shown through live stream via the link below.
Right wing and left wing media outlets, such as CNN and Fox News have declared Obama victor by their independent projections. But with numerous swing states too tight to call the Romney camp were still waiting to get confirmation from those polls before conceding.
At 00.45 p.m. ET President Obama was projected by CNN to have confirmed 303 Electoral College Votes. And Romney only managing to gain 203 Electoral College Votes.

Barack Obama.

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Elizabeth Warren (the Harvard professor and self-styled “cop on the beat” who protects consumers from Wall Street) left Washington last year after failing to gain enough Senate support to be confirmed as director of the new consumer financial protection agency she championed.
Now, as if in a sequel, Warren will return to the U.S. capital having been remade into a senator herself just as Congress prepares its first revisions to the landmark Dodd-Frank Act enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
As a senator, Warren gains both a bully pulpit and a vote, both powerful tools in the debate over whether and how to re- regulate banks and bankers. And it comes with a secret weapon as well – the unofficial prerogative of a senator to single-handedly place “holds” on legislation or nominations.
The question in Washington is whether Warren will come back as the same partisan warrior she was when she left, or whether she will adopt the milder manner needed for deal-making and legislating.
“The issue is whether her strong views will be tempered by the need to get things done” – said Ernest Patrikis, a partner at White & Case LLP and a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York lawyer. “It is one thing to criticize; it is another to become an effective legislator.”

Elizabeth Warren.

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Barack Obama was elected to a second presidential term Tuesday, defeating Republican Mitt Romney by reassembling the political coalition that boosted him to victory four years ago, and by remaking himself from a hopeful uniter into a determined fighter for middle-class interests.
Obama (the nation’s first African American president) scored a decisive victory by stringing together a series of narrow ones. Of the election’s seven major battlegrounds, he won at least six.
“While our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up” – Obama told a cheering crowd of supporters in his home town of Chicago early Wednesday morning. “We have fought our way back. And we know in our hearts that, for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”
He said he intends to sit down with Romney in the weeks ahead to talk about how the two can work together.

Barack Obama.

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Two tiny villages in northern New Hampshire kicked off the 2012 election by casting the first votes early Tuesday.
President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each won 5 votes in Dixville Notch, and in Hart’s Location Obama won with 23 votes, Romney received 9 and Libertarian Gary Johnson received 1 vote. The towns have enjoyed first-vote status since 1948.
Meanwhile, Romney was taking his nearly six-year campaign for the presidency all the way to Election Day, making last-minute plans to visit two vital battlegrounds on Tuesday, while Obama held a nighttime rally in Iowa Monday.
The event (which is expected to be the last official campaign stop of the president’s political career) was held in the same state where a 2008 caucus victory jumpstarted his road to the White House.
The president was photographed weeping as he spoke before a crowd of 20.000 supporters, telling them “this is where our movement for change began.”

Obama and Romney.

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In 2011, Austin’s sixth annual Fun Fun Fun Fest moved from the city’s small, tucked away Waterloo Park to Auditorium Shores, a sprawling greenspace along Lady Bird Lake downtown. Well – theoretically green—the ground cover had worn such that the dirt underneath was turned up, and thousands of feet created massive clouds of dust that hung thick around boots and heads. But instead of complaining or leaving or demanding refunds, most fans in attendance used the conditions to develop a fashion movement of every variety of face bandana, such that the whole place looked like a convention of creative train bandits. This year, the grass was newly planted, but many people were continuing the trend as of opening afternoon on Friday, wandering through relatively clear air with faces covered in solidarity.
By Saturday, though, the bandanas were a little more utilitarian, as Friday night had drawn more feet to the fest than in any previous year’s first night. Fun Fun Fun 2012’s second day didn’t have the glitz of a raving, hair-cutting Val Kilmer – although director Terrence Malick’s crew was spotted toting gear in what looked like a baby carriage – but did have plenty of the music that everyone came for.

Fun Fun Fun Fest.

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Even earnest Taylor Swift isn’t completely immune to a few friendly jabs from her country music brethren.
On Thursday night’s CMA Awards, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley took the opportunity as the night’s hosts to poke fun at Swift’s notorious love life in their opening monologue.
“Brad and I were backstage talking about what a strange year this has been” – Underwood began.
“Just look at sports, I can’t keep track of all these trades” – Paisley quipped.
Underwood pointed out that Tim Tebow is now playing for the New York Jets and the two bantered before steering the conversation toward the “Begin Again” singer.
“The greatest trade of the year had to be the Kennedy family. They somehow traded Arnold Schwarzenegger for Taylor Swift” – Paisley deadpanned. “I mean, what they got for that …”

CMA Awards.

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Singer Mitch Lucker of the metal band Suicide Silence died Thursday morning in Orange County following a Halloween motorcycle crash. He was 28 years old.
Lucker crashed around 8:55 p.m. Wednesday night in Huntington Beach – according to a press release from the Huntington Beach Police Department. He was driving a black 2013 Harley Davidson motorcycle and hit a light pole, according to the release, flinging him from his bike. His motorcycle kept going down the street and hit a Nissan pick-up truck, but those inside that vehicle and nearby trick-or-treaters avoided injury.
Lucker was transported to UCI Medical Center, where he later died.
The cause of the collision remains under investigation – according to police – including whether alcohol was a factor.

Mitch Lucker.

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