PARIS — The electric car being developed by Bollore and Italy’s Pininfarina will be sold on the internet as well as through a network of local distributors, from December 2008, Les Echos reported. Bollore said in December it is creating a 50-50 joint venture with Pininfarina to develop a 100 pct electric car, to be marketed under the Pininfarina brand, with a total investment estimated at 150 mln eur. Bollore boss Vincent Bollore told the paper the idea is for customers to be able to lease the cars, which will come in several different colours, for around 500 eur per month, eventually becoming owners after 3 or 4 years. The paper said French users could claim a government grant of 5,000 eur of the total price of around 24,000 to buy the car. The four-door car will be manufactured at Pininfarina’s facilities in Turin, northern Italy, and will use a lithium metal polymer battery developed by Bollore. Bollore is also investing an extra 350 mln eur in two LMP battery plants in Brittany and Canada. Les Echos said Bollore is ready to invest directly in Pininfarina to help it through its current financial difficulties, although […]
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq– Three separate but related wars are being waged in this country now, and the third one, against Shiite extremists, is the most worrisome, according to the commander and senior staff of the U.S. Army division patrolling Baghdad. The first, against al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group that U.S. officials believe is foreign-led, is going well despite occasional spikes in violence, such as Friday’s dual bombings of Baghdad marketplaces. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is ‘frustrated’ but ‘not defeated,’ Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview last week. The second fight, against the domestic Sunni insurgency, has become dormant in many places in the past year, as about 80,000 armed men, many of them former insurgents, switched sides and came onto the U.S. payroll with groups that officers here call ‘Concerned Local Citizens.’ The third conflict, and perhaps the most vexing for U.S. commanders, is with Shiite extremist militias. More than two-thirds of U.S. casualties are caused by roadside bombs, particularly by high-tech anti-armor devices, planted by those groups. Overall, senior U.S. officers find the state of the wars unexpectedly good, and are allowing themselves to begin speaking […]
Biotechnology checks for bipolar depression and schizophrenia will soon be sold over the web, despite warnings from leading psychologists Plans to sell genetic tests over the internet so people can find out if they are at risk of developing mental illnesses have been denounced by leading UK psychiatrists. They say the technology is still primitive and is only likely to worsen individuals’ emotional and mental problems. The tests, which biotechnology companies will begin selling in a few months, will allow people to find out, by sending off a spittle sample, if they possess gene variants that increase their chances of suffering bipolar depression or schizophrenia. The information will help both patients and doctors, it is claimed. But scientists argue that selling these tests on the internet is dangerous. The technology is still in its infancy and cannot yet help make helpful diagnoses. ‘These tests will only worry, confuse and mislead the public and patients,’ said psychiatrist Professor Nick Craddock, of Cardiff University. ‘There is a long way to go before we have genetic tests that may be helpful to patients. Using tests at the moment is only likely to cause harm.’ This point was backed […]
The demise of California’s attempt at comprehensive health-care reform this week means that advocates of overhauling the health-care system will turn their focus back to Washington, several experts said yesterday, as an increasingly tough budget climate raises new questions about whether states can go it alone. When the plan championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D) went down to defeat in a legislative committee, so did hopes that successful reform in such a populous, influential state would bolster efforts elsewhere to cover more of the nation’s 47 million uninsured. While California is unique in some respects — it has a diverse electorate, a high number of uninsured and a history of occasional budget crises — experts said some of the same economic forces at work there threaten to slow or swamp similar proposals in other states. The slumping economy diminishes states’ tax revenue at the same time that spending demands increase as more people seek help from programs such as Medicaid, which serves the poor. And, unlike the federal government, state governments have to balance their budgets every year. ‘The failure of California’s plan pushes the focus about expanding coverage even […]
By any measure, Exxon Mobil’s performance last year was a blowout. The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent, to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries. Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007. The company also had its most profitable quarter ever. It said net income rose 14 percent, to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the last three months of the year. The company handily beat analysts’ expectations of $1.95 a share, after missing targets in the last two quarters. Like most oil companies, Exxon benefited from a near doubling of oil prices, as well as higher demand for gasoline last year. Crude oil prices rose from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year - the biggest jump in oil prices in any one year. ‘Exxon sets the gold standard for the industry,’ said Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer & […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
