It’s early on a Sunday morning in December. Motor City is covered in slush and ice as Jon Lauckner, General Motors’ vice-president of global program management, and a handful of colleagues board one of the company’s private jets, a Gulfstream bound for sunny Anaheim, Calif., to attend the 23rd annual Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS23). There, with thousands of enviro-car enthusiasts in attendance, Lauckner and a few key members of GM’s green team will be exhibiting the company’s latest advances in zero-emission automotive technology, and laying out its strategy and timeline for bringing these to market. GM was a founding sponsor of EVS, and has been attending for more than two decades. But this year is special. For the first time since 2002, when GM scrapped its Saturn EV1 electric-car project – an admitted strategic blunder that disappointed legions of fans and led to the company’s vilification in Chris Paine’s 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? – North America’s largest automaker will be reporting real progress on the development of a battery-powered vehicle for ordinary drivers: the Chevy Volt. And Lauckner, a plainspoken, mustachioed Michigan native, will have the privilege of delivering the good news. Frankly, GM needs some […]
The White House has acknowledged it recycled back-up tapes of e-mails sent over eight months of 2003, which may mean millions have been lost forever. The taped-over e-mails could include messages discussing the Iraq war and leaking of a CIA officer’s identity. The White House disclosure was forced by a lawsuit brought by private groups. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said there was ‘no basis to say that the White House has destroyed any evidence or engaged in any misconduct’. If the e-mails were not saved, the White House may have violated laws which require the preservation of documents that make up part of presidential and federal records. The possibility that some of the lost e-mails may have dealt with the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003 has fuelled interest in the case. The leak resulted in her resignation from the CIA and, three years later, the conviction of top White House aide Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. ‘Significant’ time period Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), one of two groups bringing the lawsuit against the White House, says […]
The Cleveland Catholic Diocese has revised its policy on sexual abuse of minors to discourage anonymous tips. In addition, the revised policy calls for diocesan legal officials to direct investigations of non-clergy. The old policy did not specify whether the legal office or individual church agencies would direct the investigation of church workers and volunteers. The diocese says the revised policy also adds less confusing language to encourage greater reporting of abuse and requires parishes and church agencies to show they are complying. But a critic says it returns the church to ‘the bad old days’ of cover-ups. ‘It is a legalistic document that is meant to cast a veil over their own behavior,’ said Cleveland lawyer William Crosby, who has represented abuse victims. ‘This makes me want to weep.’ Catholic officials said the policy, which took effect Tuesday, was last updated in 2003. Review Board Chairwoman Patricia Ritzert said one significant change was to replace ‘allegation’ of sexual abuse with ‘report suggesting sexual abuse’ of a minor. ‘Allegation’ appeared to suggest to some people that a certain standard had to be met before reporting abuse, she said, while ‘suggesting sexual abuse’ should […]
Detroit’s automakers rolled out multiple examples of their green futures Monday, promising that consumers will soon have a much wider array of alternative-fuel vehicles to choose from. General Motors – long the juiciest target for environmentalists – unveiled what it says will be the first commercially available plug-in electric vehicle, a concept Saturn Vue that it intends to have on sale by the fall of 2010. It will drive up to 16 kilometres on a a five-hour charge before its gasoline engine kicks in. GM also revealed a next-generation Vue two-mode hybrid, which will get 50 per cent better mileage than its current Vue hybrid – available for less than a year in Canada – at the second day of the press preview of the North American International Auto Show. And there was more: a Cadillac fuel cell concept called the Provoq that burns no gasoline at all and a futuristic Saturn all-electric car concept called the Flexstreme. Chrysler rolled three racy alternative-fuel concepts onto its stage Monday: a diesel hybrid Jeep dune buggy called the Renegade, a Chrysler luxury sedan that would run on a hydrogen fuel cell – the eco-Voyageur – and an all-electric, […]
Pope Benedict XVI has cancelled a visit to a prestigious university in Rome where lecturers and students have protested against his views on Galileo. The Pope had been set to make a speech at La Sapienza University on Thursday. Sixty-seven academics had said the Pope condoned the 1633 trial and conviction of the astronomer Galileo for heresy. The Vatican insists the Pope is not ‘anti-science’ – but in light of the protests they have decided it would be better for him not to attend. Galileo had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The Vatican says the Pope will now send his speech to La Sapienza, instead of delivering it in person. Landmark controversy Pope Benedict was in charge of Roman Catholic doctrine in 1990 when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he commented on the 17th-Century Galileo trial. In the speech, he quoted Austrian-born philosopher Paul Feyerabend as saying the Church’s verdict against Galileo had been ‘rational and just’. Galileo’s inquisitors maintained the scriptures indicated the Earth was stationary. Galileo, a devout Catholic, was forced to renounce his findings publicly. Fifteen years ago Pope John Paul II officially conceded […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
