Although gas prices have fallen dramatically since last summer, many automakers are still moving ahead with plans to introduce new electric vehicles. Chevy expects to roll out its Volt electric car by 2010, but you don’t have to wait that long to get your hands on a gas-free vehicle. So what can you buy right now, and what can you expect to see in the months and years ahead? Here’s a quick rundown. The Tesla Roadster, $109,000 Tesla Motors breaks the mold when it comes to electric-powered cars. Rather than being small and clunky, the Tesla Roadster looks like it came out of Lamborghini’s factory in Italy. That’s not surprising, since it’s assembled at the Lotus plant in the United Kingdom, with final assembly taking place at the Tesla factory in Menlo Park, Calif. With that pedigree, you’d expect the Tesla Roadster to be fast, and it is, jumping from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. The Tesla achieves its impressive power thanks to a 248-horsepower, 375-volt electric motor, which links to single-speed shifter and an innovative lithium-ion battery pack. The Tesla will run between 170 and 256 miles on a single charge, depending […]
WASHINGTON — In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counterterrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects. The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that’s churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush’s national security powers. Johnsen, who spent five years in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration and served as its acting chief, has publicly assailed ‘Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.’ Upon the release last spring of a secret Office of Legal Counsel memo that backed tactics approaching torture for interrogations of terrorism suspects, she excoriated the unit’s lawyers for encouraging ‘horrific acts’ and for advising Bush ‘that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.’ ‘One of the refreshing things about Dawn Johnsen’s appointment is that she’s almost a 180-degree shift from John Yoo and David Addington and (Vice President) Dick Cheney,’ said Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, […]
MOSCOW and BRUSSELS — As temperatures dropped below zero across much of Europe, the Russian prime minister instructed the head of Gazprom: ‘Cut it – starting today.’ The cut was ordered to punish neighbouring Ukraine, which Russia accuses of topping up its own gas supply by siphoning off energy meant for European consumers and sent through its pipelines. But Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-run gas company, said that it was European Union countries, including Britain, that would feel the effects of an increasingly bitter East-West energy row. ‘Gazprom has in fact cut volumes of transit gas to European customers. The Russian company has therefore placed under threat the delivery of gas to European countries,’ Naftogaz said in a statement. The EU meanwhile dispatched an emergency fact-finding mission to Ukraine after eight European countries reported a disruption of gas supplies following a smaller Russian cut last week. The taskforce of senior officials from the European Commission and the Czech Republic, which has just taken over the EU’s rotating presidency, will also hold crisis talks with Gazprom on Tuesday. EU foreign ministers, meeting in Prague on Thursday, will then assess levels of gas supply disruption and discuss possible […]
I have been following the Palestinian-Israeli relationship essentially all of my life, at various times, a private person, a journalist, a government official, and a futurist. Over that time it has become a ghastly kabuki, played again and again – a cultural meatgrinder. A possibly offensive image, which I use deliberately. I won’t go over the details; we all know the chorus. Watching what is going on now I just wish reality could be edited. All of this death, and injury goes nowhere. So how can this murderous ritual be ended? Can we finally agree that it will not be by any of the strategies tried over the last half century? That said let me state my goal: a functioning prosperous Palestinian state, in alliance with a prosperous Israel. When I think about this, it seems to me the power lies with the Palestinians. If I were a Palestinian leader, particularly if I had any secret aspirations to become my people’s historical person, this is the strategy I would pursue: I would very publicly announce that the Palestinians would disarm if an international observer corps was created to oversee this, and […]
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth, the Kremlin and the White House have been customers, but in the current economic climate, luxury crystal and ceramics are a hard sell, as Waterford Wedgwood conceded Monday. The company, which is based in Dublin and whose roots go back 250 years, makes and sells crystal vases, glasses and ceramic figurines and kitchenware. It made the ball that drops each New Year’s Eve in Times Square, and its crystal chandeliers decorate Windsor Castle. Waterford Wedgwood said on Monday that its 10 British units and 4 businesses in Ireland had been placed into administration, similar to bankruptcy protection in the United States, after running out of money and failing to find a buyer. The remaining subsidiaries, including those in the United States, Germany and Canada, remain unaffected. The auditor, Deloitte, was appointed as administrator of the troubled businesses, which employ 2,700, or more than half of Waterford’s 5,000 employees. The units will continue to operate until the administrator decides to sell, close or reorganize them. ‘I am disappointed that certain of the group’s U.K. and Irish subsidiaries have had to go into administration and receivership, but we remain optimistic that ongoing discussions will […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
