Volvo debuts new safety features for cars

Volvo says it aims to completely eliminate all deaths and serious injuries among Volvo drivers and passengers by 2020.

By Richard Read,?Guest blogger / July 10, 2013

Volvo Cars Vice President Thomas Andersson, left, and Volvo Auto India Managing Director Tomas Ernberg pose for photographs during the opening of the company?s first showroom in Ahmadabad, India, earlier this year. The struggling automobile maker is introducing three new safety features to its cars, saying it hopes by 2020, it will eliminate serious injuries and deaths in Volvo cars.

Ajit Solanki/AP/File

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No doubt about it: Volvo has had a rough couple of years. After being sold to Chinese automaker Geely in 2010, the brand has struggled to regain its footing.

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Whether that's due to the shift in administration, a slowdown in research and development, lackluster quality scores, or a general lack of enthusiasm for Volvo vehicles is debatable. What we do know is that Volvo is one of a tiny handful of brands that's faring worse in 2013 than it did in 2012. As of June 30, Volvo had only sold?32,578 vehicles in the U.S., putting it 5.9 percent below last year's stats.

But we're not counting Volvo out just yet. (Heck, if Mitsubishi is still kicking, anything's possible.) For decades, the Swedish brand has based its reputation on safety, so it's only appropriate that snazzy safety features sit at the core of Volvo's planned comeback.

The automaker recently debuted three new safety features that should begin appearing on Volvo models in late 2014. It's all part of Volvo's plan to completely eliminate deaths and serious injuries for occupants of its vehicles by the year 2020. The features are:

Pedestrian detection in darkness
?Volvo bills this as a "world first", though Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota have all unveiled similar technology, incorporated into self-dimming headlights. Still, it's a great feature, and one that fits well with Volvo's reputation of being highly pedestrian-friendly. (According to a press release, Volvo's long-awaited animal-detection system should roll out soon after this.)

Road edge and barrier detection with steer assist
?We've seen plenty of lane-assist features that alert drivers when they cross over the center line. This detection system focuses on the edge of the road, helping to steer the car back toward center -- even on roads without markings on the outer edges.?

Adaptive Cruise Control with steer assist
?Many brands have unveiled Adaptive Cruise Control systems, but given their importance as safety features, adding one more automaker to the list seems like a good thing.?

These three features should debut on the 2015?Volvo XC90 during the latter half of 2014. For more info, check out the video embedded above and the two below.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/4-PKcY0EQNQ/Volvo-debuts-new-safety-features-for-cars

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Parting Schotts: Union women's hockey team announces 2013-14 recruiting class

Union women's hockey coach Claudia Barcomb announced her 2013-14 recruiting class Monday afternoon (I was with my son Steven and one of his friends at The Great Escape for the day and am just getting to this now).

The five players are Kathryn Davis, Alli Devens, Emily Erickson, Emma Pincott, and Eastyn Yuen.

Here is a breakdown on each player. The information is provided by Union hockey sports information director Jeff Weinstein.

Kathryn Davis
Height: 5-foot-7
Position: Defense
Hometown: Milton, Mass.
Previous Team: Lawrence Academy (Mass.)

Davis, an offensive defenseman out of Lawrence Academy, earned All-ISL honors last season, helping the Spartans finish the 2012-13 season at 9-9-5. She earned the team?s Defensive MVP award and also earned ISL Honorable Mention honors in 2012. Davis also played two seasons of junior hockey with the East Coast Wizards.

?Kathryn will greatly add to the depth of our defensive corps,? Barcomb said. ?She has the ability to be an offensive defenseman for us combining great skill with size. I think she?ll be very good for us.?

Alli Devins
Height: 5-foot-5
Position: Forward
Hometown: White River Junction, Vt.
Previous Team: The Westminster School (Conn.)

Devins served as team captain her senior year at The Westminster School, helping the Martlets to a 19-4-0 record in the Founders League. A four-year member of the varsity team, Devins finished her career with 17 goals and 27 assists, helping Westminster compile a combined record of 81-13-3 in four seasons. Devins was a three-sport athlete at Westminster, serving as captain of both the field hockey and softball teams.

?Alli is a power forward with great speed,? Barcomb said. ?I think she?ll end up being a solid penalty killer for us. She has a great work ethic and attitude.?

Emily Erickson
Height: 5-foot-4
Position: Forward
Hometown: Crosslake, Minn.
Previous Team: North American Hockey Academy

Erickson, a forward, played three years of junior hockey at the North American Hockey Academy, helping her team earn the 2013 JWHL League Championship with an overall record of 55-15-7. Her best offensive season came in 2010-11, when she recorded 40 points (13 goals, 27 assists) in 85 games played. She played two seasons of varsity hockey in eighth and ninth grade at Pequot Lakes High School, where she also served as team captain.

?Emily is a quick forward who can put the puck in the net,? Barcomb said. ?She?s strong on her skates and that will help her at this level.?

Emma Pincott
Height: 5-foot-3
Position: Goaltender
Hometown: Vernon, British Columbia
Previous Team: The Edge School for Athletes

Pincott, a goaltender, played three seasons at The Edge School for Athletes, finishing the 2012-13 season with a 2.10 goals-against average and .915 save percentage. She was a JWHL North Division All-Star in 2013 and earned Canadian Sport School Hockey League MVP honors in 2012. Pincott was also an invitee to Team Canada?s U18 Goalie Camp in 2012.

?Emma is a quick goalie who works really hard and has earned the attention of Hockey Canada,? Barcomb said. ?She will add to the depth of our goaltending.?

Eastyn Yuen
Height: 5-foot-3
Position: Forward
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Previous Team: Shaftesbury Prep

Yuen, a forward, played two seasons of Midget AAA hockey with the Winnipeg Ice and played the 2012-13 season with the newly formed Shaftesbury Titans Prep School hockey team, where she recorded 34 points (16 goals, 18 assists) in 54 games. She was a Team Manitoba finalist in 2011 (top 25) and 2012, earning recognition as one of the top players in her league.

?Eastyn as an all-around solid player with good hands and good speed, combined with great vision and an understanding of the game,? Barcomb said.

Follow @slapschotts on Twitter. Follow @dgazettesports on Twitter.

Source: http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2013/jul/08/union-womens-hockey-team-announces-2013-14-recruit/

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Leaked Gitmo 'baseball cards' had little value: WikiLeaks trial witness

By Ian Simpson

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Secret files on Guantanamo Bay detainees dubbed "baseball cards" that a soldier leaked to WikiLeaks had little value for U.S. enemies since it was available publicly, the prison's former top prosecutor testified at a court-martial on Tuesday.

Testimony about the files came as the defense for Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, sought to show that much of the information Manning is charged with leaking was publicly available. The leaked files include assessment briefs for more than 700 inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Retired Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, Guantanamo Bay's chief prosecutor from 2005 to 2007 at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, testified for the defense that five briefs he reviewed had nothing that was not available from public sources such as books, movies, or court or Pentagon records.

"Other than creating embarrassment to the country, I don't see that the enemy could gain any advantage to gaining access to the detainee assessment briefs," he said under questioning by defense lawyer David Coombs.

Davis said the briefs were known flippantly at Guantanamo Bay as "baseball cards" since they provided such information as biographical background, religious affiliation and extremist links. Of the five briefs reviewed, four of the detainees were released in 2004 or 2005. One is still being held, Davis said.

CROSS EXAMINATION

Under cross examination by prosecutor Captain Joe Morrow, Davis said the assessments were prepared for security officials, not prosecutors, and he had not dealt with them for several years. He also said he had never been a security official or an authority on classification of materials.

The United States set up the Guantanamo Bay prison to hold foreign suspects after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to pursue the al Qaeda network behind the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Rear Admiral David Woods, who commanded the prison in 2011 and 2012, testified for the prosecution last month that the release of the briefs was a serious threat to national security.

Manning, a native of Crescent, Oklahoma, is charged with leaking more than 700,000 classified files, combat videos and State Department cables while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. The charges include espionage, computer fraud and, most seriously, aiding the enemy.

Manning could face life in prison without parole if convicted of aiding the enemy.

Another defense witness, Cassius Hall, a security expert with the Army Intelligence and Security Command, testified that he had examined 102 war log reports leaked by Manning. Hall said he had found related information in news reports for 62 of them.

A second security witness, Charles Ganiel, a specialist with the Army's Test and Evaluation command, reviewed 125 leaked State Department cables. He testified that all but two of them had corresponding public information.

Under prosecution questioning, Hall said adversaries of the United States could use leaked information. Ganiel testified that the classified material remained government property.

The defense has sought to portray Manning as a naive but well-intentioned soldier who wanted to show Americans the reality of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The prosecution rested last week after five weeks of testimony, some in closed session.

The trial is scheduled to end by August 23.

(Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leaked-gitmo-baseball-cards-had-little-value-wikileaks-173211283.html

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Froome se consolida l?der con dos minutos m?s de ventaja sobre Contador

antena3.com ?|? Francia ?|?Actualizado el 10/07/2013 a las 18:51 horas

El corredor alem?n Tony Martin, del Omega Pharma-Quick Step, se ha adjudicado la und?cima etapa del Tour de Francia del Centenario, una contrarreloj de 33 kil?metros entre Avranches y Mont Saint Michel, por delante del brit?nico Chris Froome (Sky) y del belga Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil).

Tony Martin, que se impuso con un tiempo de 36 minutos y 29 segundos, aventaj? en 12 segundos a Chris Froome y en 1:01, a De Gendt. Froome consolid? su jersey amarillo como l?der de la clasificaci?n general. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) y Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) fueron el 13 y 15, a 2:12 y 2:15 de Martin.

Source: http://www.antena3.com/noticias/deportes/toni-martin-gana-crono-mont-saint-michel_2013071000243.html

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