WASHINGTON — Thwarted by President Bush in their efforts to expand federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are now debating whether to overturn federal restrictions through executive order or by legislation when they assume full control of the government this month. Both President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have made repealing Bush administration restrictions announced in 2001 a top priority. But they have yet to determine if Mr. Obama should quickly put his stamp on the issue by way of presidential directive, or if Congress should write a permanent policy into statute. The debate is not academic. Democrats who oppose abortion say such a legislative fight holds the potential to get the year off to a difficult beginning, even though the outcome is certain given solid majorities in both the House and the Senate for expanded embryonic stem cell research. ‘It is a very divisive issue, and it is a tough way to start, said Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat from Nebraska. ‘You don’t want to stumble out of the box. In addition, many of the Democratic gains in Congress, particularly in the House, have come in more conservative areas, with strategists […]
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jeremy Kennefick and Geoffrey Gailey are both new science teachers, one a career-changer, the other fresh out of graduate school. Both are teaching in high-poverty districts, where the needs are greatest. And both are surrounded by a rare level of support – financial incentives, mentors, and groups of other new teachers to consult with as they grow in the profession. It’s no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year. ‘We desperately need more qualified … science and math teachers, because of retirement,… overcrowded classrooms … and people teaching out of [their] field,’ says Angelo Collins, executive director of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) in Moorestown, N.J., which offers fellowships for teachers in these […]
Italia’s famed sports-car design house will cease to be countries only remaining contract manufacturer. The announcement is part of a framework agreement that the company is in the final stages of negotiating. Pininfarina has had some hard times over the past years. Amidst loosing its losing its CEO, Andrea Pininfarina in a traffic accident back in August, the company faced a huge loss last year. Now creditor banks have approved a financial rescue for the company that saved it from the equivalent of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the U.S. Currently Pininfarina builds the Alfa Romeo Brera coupe and Spider and the Ford Focus coupe-cabriolet, but the company’s production lines are running far below their capacity. The company will fulfill its existing contracts which expire in 2011 and will not seek any new manufacturing orders. Instead, the company will focus exclusively on building electric cars. In 2010 it will commence production of the B0 electric car. The little EV was developed with Bolloré, a French industrial group. Bolloré provides the lithium-metal polymer (LMP) battery pack that sits under the floor and the supercapacitors that gather and store energy recovered during braking. The cars will be […]
An emergency ‘Plan B’ using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary. The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This ‘geoengineering’ approach – including schemes such as fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate algal blooms – would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions. What has worried many of the experts, who include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as a Nobel Laureate, is the failure to curb global greenhouse gas emissions through international agreements, namely the Kyoto […]
MOSCOW/KIEV — Russia cut off the gas to its neighbor Ukraine on Thursday after a contract dispute but increased supplies to other European states to try to reassure customers worried about possible disruption. The European Union, which receives a fifth of its gas from pipelines crossing Ukraine, and the United States urged further negotiations to resolve the dispute and said all supply commitments must be met. Energy firms in Germany, France, Poland, Romania, Austria and Italy said they had not yet seen any drop in supply. Europe has enough gas stockpiled to manage without Russian gas for several days, though not weeks, analysts said. The row could raise new doubts about Moscow’s reliability as an energy supplier and fuel suspicions in the West — already running high since Russia’s war with Georgia last August — that the Kremlin bullies its pro-Western neighbors. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the target of fierce criticism from Moscow over his drive to take Ukraine into the NATO alliance, said he wanted to resume talks with Moscow to settle a row over payment arrears and gas prices for 2009. Yushchenko said in a statement he believed a compromise deal with Russian […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
