Porsche Panamera

The Porsche Panamera - Love it or hate it, if in the luxury sport car market in the $90k-$160k market don't over look this machine. It truly is a engineering marvel from one of the most pretigious car companies out there that begs to be driven.

Clean Air Cab

At Clean Air Cab our mission is to make it affordable and convenient for everyone to go green. We plan to accomplish this by offering carbon neutral taxicab rides for less money than our local top competitors. Many people think it is expensive, bulky and time-consuming to go green. At Clean Air Cab our vision is to change that. We want going green to be more than just the right choice - we want it to be an easy choice and an inexpensive choice. That's right; at Clean Air Cab we are helping you go green for less. The traditional Taxicab produces 71.8 tons of CO2 per year compared to the 2010 Toyota Prius which produces only 24.7 tons. Offsetting our emissions by purchasing carbon credits, our taxicabs leave an invisible footprint; making Clean Air Cab Arizona's carbon neutral taxicab fleet. We also go one step farther by investing in local and global reforestation making our cabs carbon negative! Our entire fleet is composed of brand new Toyota Prius' and we have also partnered with a local company to offset the small amount of emissions produced by our vehicles. Clean Air Cab makes a conscious effort to choose vendors that are local in effort to support small business and our local community. We also create green jobs with opportunities for our employees to become savvy business owners through seminars and education tools that we provide. At Clean Air Cab we believe that Philanthropy is a way of life. We plant ten trees per month for each cab we have on the road and we also encourage our employees to perform volunteer work and give back to the community. Not only do we believe in helping the environment, we also believe in helping people. Our business model is to take care of our employees so we can make sure our employees take care of you. We believe in making business decisions that are win-win for everyone doing business with our company.
Our taxicabs will be hitting the streets of Phoenix this fall. At Clean Air Cab, while we believe in clean air, we also believe in clean cabs. Our brand new taxicabs will always be clean and fresh for your ride. We are proud of our service and we are also proud to be creating green jobs in the community. In these challenging economic times we are facing as a country, we feel creating new eco-friendly jobs and offering a premium service at a budget price are the best ways we can contribute to our community. We are proud and excited for the adventure that lies ahead of us as we prepare to launch our new company. Please show your support for our vision by voting for us below. Help us change the taxicab paradigm and create a "green" taxi revolution!

Lets help save the planet and get a ride from this company!
Location:
60 E Rio Salado Pkwy Ste 9000Tempe, AZ, 85281
Phone:
480-777-9777
Website:
http://cleanaircab.com/blog/

Urban Wildlife in Arizona

By Arizona Game & Fish Department
http://www.azgfd.com/

People who live in or visit Arizona can expect to see many species of wildlife. More and more often though, wild animals are venturing into areas where people live. Sometimes the wildlife becomes a problem, either by hammering on the side of the house, digging a den under the front porch, or eating all of your brand new landscaping plants. You can usually enjoy wildlife watching from a distance, but sometimes wildlife encounters involve conflict.
Preventing problems with wildlife is much simpler and less aggravating than dealing with the problems after they occur. Fortunately, taking a few simple steps can help you prevent many of the most common wildlife-related problems around your home. A number of proven methods can be used to solve the problem when it cannot be prevented. These web pages were developed to provide residents of Arizona with information about how to coexist with Arizona’s wildlife, especially in urban areas.

• Learn how to identify and live with mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, javelina, bears, bats, woodpeckers, raptors, and other animals.
• Get the answers to your wildlife questions: Frequently Asked Questions.
• Contact a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife control business.
• Learn more about Arizona's 13 species of rattlesnakes.
• Find out how to deal with injured, sick, or orphaned wildlife near your home.
• Learn more about Landscaping for Desert Wildlife:
  The following Web pages provide Arizona homeowners, landscapers and urban planners with basic information about selecting plants and designing landscapes that attract native birds and small animals.
  The Wildlife-friendly Garden
  Trees
  Tall Shrubs
  Small Shrubs
  Cacti and Succulents
  Flowers and Grasses
  Plant List for Planning
  Reading List

Very professional window cleaning service that is owned and opperated by my parents. They do anything from patio homes to multimillion dollar homes (some 15,000 sq feet) or even store fronts like Tommy Hilfinger, etc.

FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED serving the Cave Creek, Carefree, Scottsdale, Rio Verdre, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, and Glendale area since 1994. Call for a Free Estimate or e-mail them at clearpro@cox.net . Thanks everyone! www.clearpro.blogspot.com

Tom's Shoes

Shoes?

Before you buy another pair of shoes check out TOMS Shoes and support the cause! http://www.tomsshoes.com/

One for One

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about.

Thier Story
In 2006 an American traveler, Blake Mycoskie, befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created a company that would match every pair of shoes sold with a pair given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by caring TOMS customers.
Since our beginning, TOMS has given over 140,000* pairs of shoes to children in need through the One for One model. Because of your support, TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009.
Our ongoing community events and Shoe Drop Tours allow TOMS supporters and enthusiasts to be part of our One for One movement. Join us.

Why shoes?
Most children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or just getting around, these children are at risk.
Walking is often the primary mode of transportation in developing countries. Children can walk for miles to get food, water, shelter and medical help. Wearing shoes literally enables them to walk distances that aren't possible barefoot.

Wearing shoes prevents feet from getting cuts and sores on unsafe roads and from contaminated soil. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected. The leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted parasites which penetrate the skin through open sores. Wearing shoes can prevent this and the risk of amputation.

Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.
There is one simple solution...SHOES.

Four of the planet's six billion people live in conditions inconceivable to many. Lets take a step towards a better tomorrow.

http://www.tomsshoes.com/

Peering Into Porsche's Future

Peering Into Porsche's Future
BUSINESS BIZ COMPANIES PORSCHE, GM, TOYOTA, BMW, CHRYSLER, AUTOMOBILES, AUTOS,
Slate।com 19 Mar 2009 05:07 PM ET
The auto industry generates nothing these days that even remotely resembles good

General Motors is teetering on the edge of official (as opposed to undeclared) bankruptcy। Chrysler is apparently being run by the Italians. The Detroit car business itself is conducting a dog and pony show for Washington's auto task force against a background of Motown homes selling for a buck (which is just slightly less than Ford's current share price). Even former stalwart profit machines like Toyota and BMW are struggling with declining sales and collapsed leasing offers.

Of course, no matter how bad the industry gets, there's always shelter in the storm, a shining light in the midst of the malignant gloom: the coolest car company in the world, Porsche.
The brand—for which, as it was famously phrased in Risky Business, "there is no substitute"—has just about everything going for it, even as the wider world of personal mobility crumbles. Its owner base is passionate and devoted, and the automotive press renders routine and justified fealty. Due to its compact portfolio of four vehicles, all engineered according to the unimpeachable values of high performance, Porsche is seemingly impervious to downturns. Its competitive racing DNA is stupendous. And finally Crown Prince of Cool Steve McQueen drove a Porsche (several, actually) in that great, Zenlike cinematic tribute to the marque, Le Mans.
Unlike historic rival Ferrari, there's nothing trashy, exotic, or flamboyant about Porsche। The cornerstone of its reputation is the 911, the distinctive, minimalistic, rear-engined sports coupe that the company introduced in 1964 and has steadily refined ever since। It's as close to a thoroughbred as you can buy, right now for around $70,000। That's obviously luxury territory, but no one really thinks of the 911 as a luxury car. The whole point is that you could capriciously decide to take an offramp to the racetrack and switch from negotiating workaday traffic at the legal speed limit to turning laps at 180 mph. Even an at-the-time questionable foray into the SUV market with the Cayenne in 2003 couldn't damage Porsche cred. Just as Porsche had built the best sports car money could buy, so did Porsche build the finest performance SUV on the road—in fact, Porsche transformed the very idea of a "performance SUV" into something that wasn't a jeer-worthy oxymoron. Appearing this year will be Porsche's first-ever sedan, the Panamera. A bold evolution, it will probably be jaw-dropping and make the BMW 7-Series seem like a Chevy Malibu.

Why, then, have some industry observers questioned the sustainability of Porsche's business model? And why, for the past few years, has Porsche, the small German carmaker that makes perfect cars, been buying up chunks of Volkswagen, the large German carmaker that produces a mixed bag of rides both good and bad?

For starters, the deal, which has included some deft hedging, has thus far been pretty lucrative for Porsche। But on another front, Porsche has a looming problem because it doesn't do green. Although the company plans to introduce a hybrid Cayenne in 2010, the core of the brand is performance, and performance isn't about meeting more stringent emissions targets, as mandated in Europe and the United States (a major Porsche market).

Performance is about achieving the ideal power-to-weight ratio while consuming premium gas, developing 350 horsepower from a six-cylinder engine, and putting a tachometer rather than a speedometer in the middle of the instrument cluster because you don't really need to know how fast you're going when you know you can go really, really fast and want to max your redline। Who cares what's coming out of the tailpipe as long as it's accompanied by an exhilarating exhaust note?

Unfortunately, Porsche knows it can't get away with thinking this way forever. If it keeps flying solo, at some point in the not-too-distant future, it will be forced to re-engineer its cars for reduced emissions, an unappetizing proposition. Better to take over VW and satisfy emission requirement by making Porsche's lineup part of a much larger corporate fleet of vehicles.
Then there's the melodrama, dredged in Teutonic manufacturing, political and business tradition। Ferdinand Piech, who owns most of Porsche and is also effectively the chairman of VW, wants to merge the two companies. Porsche and VW already share a mountain of history. Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who designed the original Nazi-era "People's Car" that was later rechristened the Beetle and went on to become inarguably the most important vehicle since the Model T. The aforementioned Cayenne was jointly developed alongside a less-expensive sibling, the VW Touareg. Piech wants to use the highly profitable but ultimately constrained Porsche to take over VW, Europe's largest automaker, and create a manufacturing juggernaut.

Piech has both public and private critics। The German state of Lower Saxony, where VW is based, owns a smidgen more than 20 percent of the company as a means of ensuring that the definitive German carmaker will remain German. (Germany has modified the so-called "Volkswagen Law," but the European Union and Porsche still want to see it changed.) Previously, outside suitors had been barred by law from owning more than 20 percent of VW, but Porsche has been allowed to build up its stake to more than 50 percent and intends to obtain 75 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking has been fighting a running battle against Piech, a former ally, to sustain his legacy and prevent labor unions from interfering with his plans to make VW a leaner operation.

Rumors of Wiedeking's demise have thus far been exaggerated, which is important because he's a hero of auto-industry management. He plays in the same league as the current superstars of the profession, Nissan/Renault's Carlos Ghosn and Fiat's Sergio Marchionne, swashbuckling outspoken types from the lands of social democracy who make the CEOs of Detroit look like chastened schoolboys. Although he and Piech seem to have their differences, the fact remains that they're both in it for Germany; among other things, Porsche's initial buy-up of VW voting shares put the kibosh on any outside investors getting in on the action. The merger also bodes well for renewed competition against Toyota and a bolder push into the American market.
This is captivating, borderline Machiavellian stuff—exactly what Detroit lacks। But of course the Porsche-VW blending is predicated on a single overarching factor: unshakable pride in national carmaking prowess. The Germans may not have succeeded in their horrific plans for world domination, but they reinvented themselves as masters of motoring. Americans have come to see their homegrown auto industry as a joke. That would be unimaginable to the Germans, and they're the ones laughing now as they close in on creating the ideal car company, with mass-market profits bolstered by thrills behind the wheel.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29779227/