Chevy upgrading its 'Vette to take on Ferrari, Porsche

Chevrolet

When the all-new model, known to aficionados as the C7, debuts at the Detroit Auto Show next January, Chevy is clearly hoping to deliver the sort of sports car that can challenge global leaders like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News contributor

It?s long been known as ?America?s sports car.? But as Chevrolet gets ready to roll out the latest version of the Corvette, that?s clearly no longer good enough for the General Motors division.

When the all-new model, known to aficionados as the C7, debuts at the Detroit Auto Show next January, Chevy is clearly hoping to deliver the sort of sports car that can challenge global leaders like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini.

"We set out to build a world-challenging sports car with design, refinement, efficiency and drive engagement that is second to none," declared Tadge Juechter, the program?s chief designer.

The new model, as its code name signifies, will be only the seventh version of the Corvette since its debut in 1953. ?First seen in concept form at GM?s annual Motorama car show in New York City, the production ??Vette? quickly developed a following among those who wanted an alternative to the heavy steel land yachts rolling off Detroit?s assembly lines.

Though early models were more show than go, they were popularized in song and on such TV shows as ?Route 66,? a CBS series that followed two buddies cruising the back roads of the West in search of adventure.

By the late 1960s, models like the legendary Corvette Stingray had evolved into some of the more powerful automobiles ever produced in the U.S. But the twin oil shocks of the 1970s changed the automotive equation. ?Downsized Japanese automobiles challenged the Detroit mainstream, while European brands delivered sleek and more nimble alternatives to U.S. luxury and sports car buyers.?

While the Corvette could still deliver neck-snapping acceleration off the line, it couldn?t come close to matching the handling of a Porsche or Ferrari in the corners. At the other end of the price spectrum, Americans discovered nimble little Japanese models like the Mazda Miata and so-called rice rockets such as the Honda Civic.

The Detroit Bureau

Chevrolet reveals the heart of the C7 Corvette.

The GM division shifted gears with a fifth-generation Corvette introduced in 1997 and the even smaller, more nimble C6 that debuted eight years later, now about the size and weight of a Porsche 911 ? though still boasting the trademark small block V-8 that had powered Corvettes since the mid-1950s.

Despite such improvements, efforts by Chevy to sell its two-seater abroad gained little traction except among a few select fans who wanted something decidedly offbeat. ?But with Chevrolet today earmarked as GM?s lead brand globally, the automaker is clearly targeting its European rivals with the C7.

And that?s led to an assortment of rumors about what?s in store. ?Early in its development, there was speculation that Chevy engineers would shift to a Lamborghini-like midengine layout, or migrate to the sort of small, high-tech turbo or supercharged six-cylinder power trains favored by other European competitors.

As the development program heads for the finish line, spy shots have begun leaking out showing that the new Corvette won?t be nearly as radical as some had anticipated. ?The 2014 model appears to be roughly the same size as the current C6, although it?s expected to make use of new materials and advanced manufacturing techniques that will result in a sports car that?s lighter, more aerodynamically efficient and a lot more nimble.

Meanwhile, the new C7 Corvette will deliver even more power than before. Chevy this week revealed the next-generation LT1 engine, a 6.2-liter small block that is expected to make ?at least? 450 horsepower and 450 foot-pounds of torque ? 20 horsepower and 26 foot-pounds more than the outgoing LS3 V-8.?

AP file

This undated file photo released by General Motors shows a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette. When the all-new model debuts at the Detroit Auto Show next January, it will be only the seventh version of the Corvette since its debut in 1953.

If the new two-seater is indeed notably lighter than the outgoing Corvette, that would signify a major improvement in its power-to-weight ratio. ?For the moment, Juechter is only hinting that it will deliver zero-to-60 times of 4.0 seconds or less, ?and that is on the entry-level vehicle.? ?Chevy has yet to reveal what it has in store for the limited-edition Corvette Z06 and ZR1 versions.?

There may yet be some surprises, such as a small, high-tech power train option, more in line with the likes of Porsche or Ferrari, but that possibility ? along with a shift to a midengine layout ? appear likely to be on hold for the eventual C8 Corvette.?

The one other detail Chevy is confirming is that there?ll be an all-new ?crossed flags? logo appearing on the 2014 Corvette.

While the Corvette has always been a low-volume niche product, it is the halo brand for Chevrolet and takes on even more significance as the brand?s role grows for post-bankruptcy GM.

So, anticipate plenty of media attention in the weeks building up to the January auto show in Detroit, including a flood of spy shots and endless reports and speculation. ?This could be a critical moment for America?s sports car and a critical opportunity to take on the world?s best.

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Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/31/14782430-chevy-upgrading-its-vette-to-take-on-ferrari-porsche?lite

xbox live update

Imersiva Maximo: Cinema: Reality Vs Immersion

I applaud any efforts that the movie industry makes to look forward in developing technologies that will enhance and evolve the cinematic?experience.?But such developments should have a better-understood goal: immersion vs "reality"...

I agree with Bill Drummond?s assertion that the 19th century development that had more impact on subsequent music than any other was not musical but technological ? the invention of the phonograph in the 1870s. As he puts it:

?In 1876 to hear music, you had to play an instrument or sing yourself. If not you could listen to other people playing or singing. By 1892 Emille Berliner was selling records and his Gramophones to play them on. This was the moment when music could be contained within a physical object that could be bought and sold.?¹

Inherent to the birth of the recorded music industry was the notion that technology could offer us a perfect facsimile of an experience removed of the original?s temporal, spatial and contextual limitations.

Depiction of a gramophone fooling a dog into thinking he was listening to his original master.

The early film pioneers raved with equal enthusiasm about technology?s supposed ability to bring the ?real experience? to the audience, perhaps best exemplified through descriptions of audience reactions to the early Lumiere brother's projections such as that of George Reyes: ?"Suddenly a train appeared. Women cried out with terror. Men threw themselves to one side to avoid being run over. It was panic. And triumph."²

It is also arguable that what the film industry was in fact trying to bring to the audience was the ?unreal experience? through the advent of special effects, editing and animation. The recorded music industry similarly followed suit, releasing music that had never existed as a single live experience, and much of the media we consume through today?s entertainment devices cannot be considered an attempt to capture and transport realistic ?real-world? experiences to the audience. Even in television coverage that attempts to put us into the heart of a live event (live football matches, the BBC?s Glastonbury festival coverage), the aim is not to fool our senses into thinking that we are actually there, or else they would be avoiding impossible camera angles and cuts and might be presenting the experience as a constant point of view shot.

However, a large part of the focus in the development of film, tv, music and videogame technologies can still broadly be characterised as attempts to bring experiences, whether or not they are actually possible in our ?real? world, in an ever more sensorily believable way.

With regard to the film industry, while some of these developments have been both artistically and commercially successful (sound, colour, picture quality), others can either seen as failed diversions or cases in which the jury is still out (various historical movements towards ?3D?, Morton Heileg?s Sensoramas).

Morton Heileg was a man driven by a desire to create the Cinema of the Future as an activity in which multiple senses were stimulated in synchronisation in order to create the a more immersive entertainment experience.

The Sensorama was able to display stereoscopic 3-D images in a wide-angle view, provide body tilting, supply stereo sound, and also had tracks for wind and aromas to be triggered during the film. Heileg was unable to obtain financial backing for his visions and patents, and the Sensorama work was halted.

The Sensorama, from U.S. Patent #3050870

Heileg is rightly lauded as a visionary and thought-leader in Virtual Reality, and one of my heroes, but I believe that his failures are interwoven with misunderstandings that arise from our notions of ?immersion? and ?reality? in cinematic experience.

One definition of a truly successful ?immersive? experience is one in which we are so involved in the content that we temporarily forget about the interface (transmission device). Traditional cinema works because we?ve made an agreement with ourselves that for a couple of hours we can overlook that fact that we are sat in a chair watching flickering images projected onto a flat screen and listening to sound reproduction.

Author/ artist Frank Miller had a problem with the 3D in Avatar precisely because it impacted this agreement:

Watching AVATAR, I found myself uncommonly aware of the boundaries of the screen. It was as if I were watching it through a closed window, not allowed to open it and poke my head out and look around. I found this frustrating, and as much a reminder of cinema?s limitations as an expansion of its capability. For some reason, it doesn?t bother me when a horse exits screen right in BEN HUR, but it?s damn distracting to have a big blue Avatar guy jump right at me and get cut off by the movie screen?s edge. ?Hey!,? asks my snake brain, ?where?d he go??.³

A singular focus on driving cinematic technology towards ?reality? both misses what it is that makes cinema immersive in the first place, and only serves to highlight the complexities of defining ?reality? (complexities which of course have famously occupied philosophers throughout the ages).

This issue is also at the heart of the negative reaction towards Peter Jackson?s decision to preview a section of his new film, The Hobbit, at 48 frames-per-second (compared to cinema?s traditional 24 fps). For Jackson, as well as other cinematic technophiles such as James Cameron, faster frame-rates represent the future of cinema. However what was interesting was the nature of the public?s negative reaction to the footage in which many viewers complained that the scenes were ?too real?. In general, this has been interpreted as meaning that such viewers found the footage too reminiscent of non-cinematic material that is often shot at 30fps or above. Do audiences just need time to come round to the new technology, as Jackson has stated? Or once again, is the singular drive of technology towards an ill-defined realism costing the artistic experience that which it most cherishes ? its power to immerse.⁴

As someone with a strong interest in the future of entertainment, I have a great deal of sympathy for Jackson when he says ?I personally believe in using technology to improve cinema and not to think that we peaked in the 1930s?⁵. Such devotion to the development of cinema technologies is essential in defining the immersive entertainment of tomorrow. But if immersion is the goal, let?s avoid the trap of getting stuck in a ?faster, better, more real? approach, and develop our technologies to best serve that special experience in which we temporarily forget about the medium and allow ourselves to inhabit the content. Surely that has always been the real goal?

1 It is well worth a full listen or read the Bill Drummond's full talk to BBC Radio 3 in 2009 regarding the past, present and future of the music industry. Transcript here.

2 "From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: A History of Cinema Exhibition in Britain Since 1896" by Stuart Hanson (2007)

5 Empire Magazine, October 2012

Source: http://edcookson.blogspot.com/2012/10/cinema-reality-vs-immersion.html

larry brown

The Year of Motherhood: Discovering our City

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This post was written by contributor Jamie Ivey.

Not long after we moved to Austin I discovered a blog written by a mom in town that had made a list of all the things to do with your kids around Austin before they go off to kindergarten.? It was her own little mom/child bucket list for around town.? I mean the truth is that when my kids go off to school I lose about 40 hours a week with them that I would have normally had with them when they were not yet in school.? I remember being challenged to actually do the things in my city that people write about and encourage tourist to do.

It was then that I made my own little fun list of things I wanted to do with my kids and this month we were able to scratch some of those things off of our list.? It worked out perfectly for us to be on Fall Break this month, so I was able to do fun stuff with the kids during the day when most kids around us were still in school.? What I discovered was that my kids were eager to see new sights around our town as well.

This challenge forced me to get out of my mommy comfort zone and do new things with my kids.? If we are all honest, sometimes it?s just easier to do the things we always do with our kids, rather than trying new stuff.? This challenge forced me to think outside the box and not just go to our normal play ground on a day we have together, but yet find a new one to go to and explore something new.? We visited a museum that we had never been to, climbed a ?mountain?, and visited a new pumpkin patch that we had never been to.? This challenge was fun for me and also stressful (because I had to plan), but it was so much fun!? It?s a joy to see your kids experience something for the first time and have so much fun!

This month we focused on discovering our city, and next month is for serving our city.? I have always wanted our family to serve together, but each year I feel as though I have that one kid that will ruin it for us all.? I either have a child that?s too young, or one that will surely lose their mind and throw a massive fit during our time of serving.? This year I?m determined to serve our city somehow together as a family.? This shouldn?t be hard to find somehow to serve, but the hard part will be to make us actually do it.

I would love to hear from you about this!? How do you serve your city that you live in?? Do you volunteer as a family?? I need tips!? I want my children to love to serve, but sometimes I just don?t know how to do that well as a family.? Leave your comments HERE for me about this!

About Jamie
Jamie lives in Austin with her husband, Aaron, who is the worship pastor at The Austin Stone Community Church, and their four kids. She?s passionate about loving her husband, following Jesus, talking about adoption, and trying to be the best mom she can be to the four cutest kids in the world. She loves family nights, reading a good book, and could eat Mexican food three times a day. You can find her blogging at DreamingBigDreams.net, or on twitter @jamie_ivey.

Source: http://inspiredtoaction.com/2012/10/the-year-of-motherhood-discovering-our-city/

dont trust the b in apartment 23

Black Moth Super Rainbow At The Stage (JIPSY PHOTOS)

Black Moth Super Rainbow returned to Miami Tuesday night for a performance at The Stage on the night before Halloween -- so, as expected, there plenty of costumed concertgoers. A couple of weird Cobra Juicy masks were in the crowd, and coincidently there were lots of animal theme costumes, not sure why... but interesting nonetheless.

The band played and I hung around for a few tracks, but what really excited me were their spinoff act, The Casket Girls, who opened. With just couple of singles out, this three piece band is more my tempo: sad, yet sweet, there's something about them that's pretty infectious. Check them out for yourselves here at casketgirls.org.

It was a good night to be out at The Stage. Great weather in Miami for October. There were tasty Zignum shots being poured out in the back courtyard of the venue, and I found a new band to obsess over! -- Jipsy

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/black-moth-super-rainbow-the-stage-miami_n_2053088.html

Alex Karras

Eating in Columbus ? Baked Eggs with Tomato and Spinach ...

Eggs baked with cream, tarragon and a compote of tomatoes, spinach and garlic are a simple vegetarian dish that feels luxurious and is infinitely tweakable. Recipe below.

Columbus, Ohio is a city that invites walking, from German Village up through downtown, Victorian Village, Short North, the University District and beyond. Which is fortunate, because it also encourages overindulgence at just about every turn. Wonderful, inventive food options abound, from locavore breakfast spots to taco truck tours and the best small batch ice cream I?ve ever eaten.

I visited Columbus for the first time last fall on a press tour, a guest of Experience Columbus, a non-profit organization that promotes the city as a travel destination. The tour was orchestrated by Weirick Communications, a Columbus-based tourism marketing firm. The city utterly charmed me, and not just because of the food. So a couple of weeks ago, Marion and I visited. It was her first time there, and she was as taken with the city as I was.

Before going, I contacted Amy Weirick and asked her if she could suggest a few restaurants I hadn?t tried. Instead, she sent us a two-page itinerary of places for food, drinks, art and shopping with only one repeat from my original trip. A little full disclosure here: Experience Columbus also picked up the check at a number of our stops. But we would have been thrilled with the choices even if they hadn?t.

Our first night in town, we started at Curio at Harvest, a dark, homey, curio-stuffed cocktail bar in German Town. The friendly bartenders served us inventive, expertly made cocktails while we waited for our table at Harvest Pizzeria next door. Above you see my rum-based Jack?s Sparrow, with Swedish Punsch, bitters, lime and all spice, and Marion?s gin-based The Dillinger, with Cocchi Americano, cucumber, dill, lime and agave.

Harvest Pizzeria perfectly reflects the intensely locavore mindset that shapes much of the Columbus food scene. Owner Chris Crader could tell us exactly where the key ingredients of our pizzas had come from, often stating the distance they had traveled in minutes rather than miles. The mushroom pizza, with Athens county mushrooms and Gouda made ?about 20 minutes from here,? is some of the best pizza we?ve ever eaten. And it was facing off that night with the Ohio Double Bacon pizza with fresh mozzarella and roasted red pepper. We bookended the pizzas with a kale Caesar salad (Get it? Kale, Caesar!) with toasted hazelnuts, which Marion dubbed brilliant, and apple pie made by Chris?s mother.

We were instructed to ?Save room for yakitori!? at Double Happiness, a ?thoroughly modern bar? with small plates of Asian bar food. Unfortunately, we were so full of pizza that we could only manage cocktails. The drinks were served with a side of lively, friendly conversation with fellow patrons, a regular feature throughout the visit. A recurring theme of these spontaneous conversations was a love of the city. The tone was never civic booster in flavor?it was just sharing their excitement of being there. Many of the people had moved away at some point?for school, career, family or whatever?and had returned.

And that was just our first night. We had dinner the next night at Alana?s Food and Wine, where Chef Alana Shock?s daily changing menu focuses on local, seasonal ingredients. Her impressive r?sum? includes working at Emeril Lagasse?s original restaurant in New Orleans. I had an Ohio Proud beef short rib on pumpkin polenta; Marion?s non-vegetarian surprise (yes, it?s listed on the menu that way, and no, they won?t give you a hint) turned out to be a Flintstone club-sized pork chop with pur?ed parsnips. We took a coffee tour with Columbus Food Adventures, with caffeinated stops at Cafe Brioso, where Jeff Davis roasts his own beans in-store; Stauf?s Coffee Roasters, where we learned the cupping practice roasters use when buying beans; and Luck Bros? Coffee House, where they shared tips on home brewing. We had a restorative breakfast of bigos, a Polish cabbage stew, from Hubert?s Polish Kitchen in North Market, the city?s wonderful year-round farmers market. We had a filling, delicious lunch at the bar at the Surly Girl Saloon?motto: Eat, Drink, Rock, Raise Hell.

We went off the official itinerary grid too, revisiting some spots from my first trip. We had stellar hot dogs at Dirty Frank?s Hot Dog Palace, pictured above (also created by the owner of Surly Girl). There were late night scoops of ice cream bought at the mothership of Jeni?s Splendid Ice Cream and consumed walking past closed Short North boutiques. And there were amazing Sugar Daddy?s blondies picked up on the way out of town.

The one official repeat on the itinerary was Pistacia Vera, a light-filled patisserie in German Village that smells like butter, sugar and coffee. They are rightly known for their sweet, airy macarons in many flavors and hues. We sampled some of those, of course, but we also wanted something a little more substantial. After all, it would be at least an hour before we had a chance to eat again. So we split an order of tomato Proven?al baked eggs. Even before our first bite, I knew I had found an inspiration for a dish to cook.

This recipe is as much about technique as it is an actual recipe. Baked (or shirred) eggs are based on the classic French dish oeufs en cocotte, eggs baked in individual buttered baking dishes milk or cream and served with salt and pepper at the table. They can be as simple as that and be delicious. Baked eggs lend themselves to all kinds of variations and dressing up, though?with fresh herbs, cheese, bits of ham or bacon or even store bought salsa. And for serving weekend house guests, they?re actually easier to get to the table all at once (and still warm, thanks to the oven-heated ramekins) than making plain fried eggs for everyone. Best of all, serving them in individual baking dishes makes them seem special.

Here?s my recipe. I encourage you to improvise and make it your own. But be careful to not overwhelm the eggs with too much volume of other ingredients. The finished dish should be eggs with something, not something with eggs.

Baked Eggs with Tomato and Spinach
Serves 2

For tomato spinach compote:
1 medium tomato
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped baby spinach (about 1 ounce)
1 medium clove garlic, minced
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)

For eggs:
butter
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons cream (or milk)
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
tomato spinach compote
1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

Special equipment: Individual baking dishes or large ovenproof ramekins

Preheat oven to 325?F with an oven rack in middle position.

Prepare the compote. Blanch the tomato by dropping it into a medium saucepan of boiling water. After 10 seconds, remove with a strainer and set aside to cool slightly. Empty saucepan and return to burner (turned off) to dry. Core and peel tomato, scoop out the seeds using your fingers and gently squeeze out any liquid from the tomato. Then dice the tomato; you should have about 1/2 to 3/4 cup.

Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium low flame. Add tomato, spinach and garlic to pan and toss to combine and coat with oil. Season with salt and pepper and add chopped tarragon. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside. When it has cooled slightly, drain in a fine mesh strainer, pressing lightly with a wooden spoon to remove some of the liquid.

Prepare eggs. Lightly butter two small baking dishes. Break two eggs into each dish, being careful to not break yolks. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of cream over each dish (this will help keep the eggs from drying out). Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of Parmesan over each dish. Divide tomato spinach compote between the two baking dishes, carefully spooning between egg yolks. Sprinkle the fresh tarragon over eggs.

Bake? 12 to 16 minutes. Check the eggs after about 10 minutes baking time. Rotate the dishes if the eggs aren?t cooking evenly. When done, the whites should be completely set?not jiggly in the center?and the yolks beginning to thicken but not hard. (I found out just how unevenly our oven heats up?one dish was done about three minutes before the other.) The eggs will continue to cook after being removed from the oven. Remove from oven and serve immediately, with toast?or croissants or rolls. Don?t forget that the baking dishes are hot?put them on a saucer or plate to serve.

Source: http://www.blue-kitchen.com/2012/10/31/inspired-by-columbus-again-baked-eggs-with-tomato-and-spinach/

t p zynga Tropical Storm Sandy W S

Salisbury News: Groovie Goolies Monster Mash Music Video

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Source: http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2012/10/groovie-goolies-monster-mash-music-video.html

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World stocks gain, storm-hit Wall Street re-opens

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares and the euro edged up on Wednesday as a storm-hit Wall Street began trading after its two-day closure and investors looked ahead to economic data later in the week.

In early trading the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.6 percent at 13,187.23 points, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.4 percent to 1,417.75 points.

However, with transport into and around New York City limited and wide-scale power outages making it hard for many traders to work from home, volumes were expected to be thin.

Investors were also standing back from the markets ahead of some major data releases, including October surveys of manufacturing activity in China and the United States on Thursday and the monthly U.S. jobs report on Friday.

Caution has also increased over the tight U.S. presidential election race as Tuesday's vote nears, with traders trying to assess its implications for resolving the fiscal problems facing Washington, which could stall the economic recovery.

"Until we get to the other side of the election, the other side of payrolls and the other side of this mess in New York, the market is going to think twice about taking risk of any significant size," said Ned Rumpeltin, head of G10 FX strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.

The euro rose 0.3 percent against the dollar to $1.2990, its strongest in nearly a week, though still within the $1.28 to $1.32 range seen since mid-September.

The MSCI world equity index was up 0.2 percent at 329.80 points; it remains on track for its first monthly loss since May but has gained over 10 percent so far this year.

EURO OUTLOOK CLOUDED

The outlook for the European single currency was clouded by uncertainty over when Spain may apply for a bailout - a move that would allow the European Central Bank to buy its bonds - and over whether Greece will agree to more austerity measures and reforms. But the euro gained support on Wednesday from some improving economic data across the region.

Euro zone inflation eased as expected in October thanks to slower growth in energy prices, while German retail sales rose in September at their fastest pace since June 2011, reinforcing a view that private consumption will remain a pillar of support for the economy.

Consumer spending in France also inched up 0.1 percent in September, rebounding from a 0.8 percent fall in August, though most analysts had expected better.

However, unemployment is still an unfolding disaster in the euro zone, with 146,000 more people joining the ranks of the jobless, which have swelled to 18.49 million, or 11.6 percent of the workforce of the 17-nation currency bloc.

"The euro-zone unemployment rate looks set to rise further, placing more pressure on struggling households," said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.

European stocks did manage to add to their solid gains for the month thanks to some good earnings reports, though uncertainty over the reaction on Wall Street to the economic impact of super storm Sandy was also keeping many investors sidelined.

The FTSE Eurofirst index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,107 points, bringing its gains for the year to date to over 10.5 percent after five straight monthly rises.

Germany's DAX index gained 0.6 percent, due in part to strong profits by airline Lufthansa, but London's FTSE 100 fell following an 18-percent share price drop for oil and gas firm BG Group after it said it did not expect its production to grow at all next year.

COMMODITIES STEADY

In the oil market, the after-effects of Sandy on the U.S. east coast were still being assessed, with reduced fuel demand expected as roads and airports remain shut, even as refineries in the region slowly resumed operations.

"We may have a rapid return of supply, but the demand will be slower to recover," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp.

Brent crude for December delivery was up 30 cents at $109.38 a barrel, while U.S. crude for December rose 57 cents to $86.25, still on track for the biggest monthly loss since May.

Trading of oil, natural gas and other commodity futures and options run by the CME Group at the NYMEX world headquarters in New York resumed on Wednesday, but the U.S. Energy Department has delayed its weekly petroleum inventory report by a day to Thursday.

Gold inched up 0.6 percent to $1,720 an ounce, but it, too, is on course for its biggest monthly decline since May, at more than 3 percent.

Mitsui Precious Metals analyst David Jollie said gold was likely to remain in a narrow range in the near term due to uncertainty before next week's U.S. election.

"People are not keen to add risk to their portfolios ahead of that," Jollie said.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer and David Brough; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-gain-storm-hit-wall-street-opens-141535549--finance.html

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