General Motors Corp., which popularized the 7,800-pound Hummer, may begin selling a mini-car more than a foot shorter than anything else it markets in the U.S. to win back buyers deterred by record fuel prices. GM may bring the production version of the Chevrolet Beat to the U.S., people familiar with the plan said. The car, which would normally be reserved for markets such as Asia and Latin America, gets as much as 40 miles a gallon, a fuel efficiency topped in the U.S. only by hybrids. The possible American introduction of the Beat would be one step in a fleet downsizing and shift away from fossil fuel-based vehicles that the people said is already under way at Detroit- based GM. Resigned to $4-a-gallon gasoline and stricter pollution rules, the largest U.S. automaker has recognized that its response must go beyond the mothballing of large truck plants, the people said. ‘This is a very big change for GM,” said John Wolkonowicz, an analyst at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. ‘They have no choice. There’s never been as rapid a shift in consumer demand in the history of the auto industry.” GM, turning 100 this year, […]
AIDS drugs have so improved the survival prospects of people with HIV that death rates among the recently diagnosed in industrialized countries have become comparable to those never exposed to the virus, according to a newly published European study. Medical records show that, before 1996 – when combinations of antiviral drugs became available – the death rates for HIV-infected patients were 41 times that of people of comparable age in 10 European nations and Australia. Death rates fell dramatically by 1997, to 31 times the norm, and continued dropping until they reach six times the norm by 2006. That’s still a substantial increase in risk of death from HIV, but it takes into account patients who were diagnosed long ago and have been switching from one drug regimen to the next to stay alive. It also includes those who contracted the virus through sharing of needles, and who live with a variety of health risks related to their drug use. The picture is brighter for those who were infected more recently and have been treated with the latest generation of drugs. Among a sub-group of HIV-positives – those diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection since […]
Americans are the world’s top consumers of cannabis and cocaine despite punitive US drug laws, according to an international study published in the online scientific magazine PLoS Medicine. The study, released Monday, revealed that 16.2 percent of Americans had tried cocaine at least once, and 42.4 percent had used marijuana. In second-place New Zealand, just 4.3 percent of study participants had used cocaine, and 41.9 percent marijuana. The research was conducted at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, based on World Health Organization data from 54,068 people in 17 countries. Rates of participation differed from country to country, and researchers noted uncertainty over how honestly people report their own drug use. ‘Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world,’ a PLoS statement said. A vast majority of survey participants from the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand had consumed alcohol, compared to smaller percentages from the Middle East, Africa and China. The data also revealed socioeconomic patterns in drug use. Single young adult men with high income had the greatest tendency to regularly use drugs. Drug […]
We’re number 16 … in world happiness. Feel the joy. The United States ranks ahead of more than 80 countries, but below 15 others in happiness levels, according to new World Values Survey data released in the July issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. The World Values Survey (WVS) is the work of a global network of social scientists who perform periodic surveys addressing a number of issues. The latest surveys, taken in the United States and in several developing countries, showed increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries for which substantial time series data was available. Researchers responsible for the analysis, from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR) in Ann Arbor, say the overall rise in reported happiness is due to greater economic growth, democratization and social tolerance. Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS’s 2000 survey. ‘Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global […]
BAGRAM, Afghanistan – The continued strengthening of Taliban militants and the expansion of U.S. and coalition troop footprints are part of the reason that foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan topped those in Iraq for the second straight month, according to troops and analysts. In June, at least 45 international troops – including 27 Americans – were reported killed in Afghanistan. In Iraq, 31 international troops – including 29 U.S. troops and one each from Georgia and Azerbaijan – died in June. The number of insurgent attacks in border regions of Afghanistan has increased by some 40 percent over last year, the Pentagon said in a report last week. Particularly in southern Afghanistan, the militant group has launched major operations, including an attack on the Kandahar prison that freed more than 800 prisoners. The Pentagon report forecast the attacks to continue at that pace or even increase. June has been the deadliest month for coalition troops since the invasion in 2001 dislodged the Taliban regime. Col. David E. Geyer, the commander of Task Force-Med at Bagram air base, said he wouldn’t have numbers available for a few days on how many patients were treated in June. But he […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
