The General Motors Corporation reported a stunning second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion on Friday because of a dramatic decline in United States sales and charges for job cuts, plant closings and the falling value of trucks and sport utility vehicles. ... And in a move that symbolized the end of the S.U.V. era, Mr. Wagoner said that G.M. had begun a “strategic review” toward a likely sale of its Hummer brand.
A Qantas Airways Ltd. Boeing Co. 747 carrying 365 passengers and crew made an emergency landing in Manila after a fuselage section came off, leaving what a U.S. safety board said was a 5-foot hole.
No one was injured on the aircraft, which was on the Hong Kong-to-Melbourne leg of a flight that originated in London, Qantas said in a statement on its Web site. The crew, flying at 29,000 feet, made an emergency descent to 10,000 feet before diverting to Manila, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement.
From the fine folks that brought us "get perpendicular" about perpendicular magnetic recording for hard drives, here's a piece about how big a terabyte is.
With a Surge in Iron and Steel Prices, Thieves Are Stealing Metal Manhole Covers - NYTimes.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:26 pm EDT, Jul 23, 2008
Francis McConnell is a field supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, but lately he is acting more like an undercover police officer.
Several hours a day, five days a week, he stakes out junkyards. Pretending to read a newspaper, Mr. McConnell sits near the entrances and writes down descriptions of passing pickup trucks and shirtless men pushing shopping carts.
His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100.
Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate - NYTimes.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:23 pm EDT, Jul 23, 2008
The ethanol industry, until recently a golden child that got favorable treatment from Washington, is facing a critical decision on its future.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.
Mr. Perry says the billions of bushels of corn being used to produce all that mandated ethanol would be better suited as livestock feed than as fuel.
Hero Complex | “WarGames” back in U.S. theaters for 25th anniversary | Los Angeles Times
Topic: Miscellaneous
12:09 pm EDT, Jul 18, 2008
On July 24, there’s a great chance to revisit director John Badham’s cerebral 1983 thriller “WarGames” at theaters across the country . Those theaters will also be showing new interview footage with cast and crew and a preview of a new sequel “WarGames: The Dead Code,” a direct-to-DVD release being made available on July 29.
Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power - NYTimes.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
4:17 pm EDT, Jul 17, 2008
A shift away from fossil fuels would make the United States a leader instead of a sometime rebel on energy and conservation issues worldwide, Mr. Gore said. Nor, he said, would the hard work of people who toil on oil rigs and deep in the earth be for naught. “We should guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced by impacts on the coal industry,” he said by way of example. “Every single one of them.”
“Of course, there are those who will tell us that this can’t be done,” he conceded. “But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, ‘The Stone Age didn’t end because of a shortage of stones.’ ”
Ewa sucked into storm and lives to tell - National - smh.com.au
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:00 pm EDT, Jul 17, 2008
A German paraglider survived lightning, pounding hail, minus 40-degree temperatures and oxygen deprivation after a storm system sucked her to an altitude higher than Mount Everest.
Ewa Wisnierska, 35, passed out due to a lack of oxygen and flew unconscious for up to an hour covered in ice after reaching an altitude of 9947 metres - near the cruising height of a jumbo jet.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday issued a ruling requiring updates of some planes' fuel systems _ a change which carriers say could potentially cost millions of dollars.
Not all vehicles have the space and design that allow this process to happen easily. Luckily, it is the most gasoline-hungry cars that do. Pickups, SUVs, vans, and the like represent about 80 million vehicles, with mileage of perhaps 13 to 16 miles per gallon. Converting these should be our first priority. The instincts of conservationists have been to improve what is already pretty good—compact cars with decent fuel efficiency. Our national priority to decrease the amount of oil-based energy dictates that we go after the low-mileage part of the fleet first.
Estimates show that converting these vehicles to dual-fuel operation, even with electricity providing no more than 50 miles of driving range between daily recharging, could cut petroleum imports by 50 to 60 percent—a stunning opportunity.
