The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, according to three individuals briefed on the matter.

The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks a year ago. If the case is not filed Friday, they said, it will come Tuesday, shortly before a deadline expires for the housing agency to file claims.

The suits will argue the banks, which assembled the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors, failed to perform the due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost value.

Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as a result of the deals, […]

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New photographs taken of a vast glacier in northern Greenland have revealed the astonishing rate of its breakup, with one scientist saying he was rendered ‘speechless.’

In August 2010, part of the Petermann Glacier about four times the size of Manhattan island broke off , prompting a hearing in Congress.

Researcher Alun Hubbard, of the Centre for Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, U.K., told msnbc.com by phone that another section, about twice the size of Manhattan, appeared close to breaking off.

In 2009, scientists installed GPS masts on the glacier to track its movement.

But when they returned in July this year, they found the ice had been melting so quickly – at an unexpected 16-and-a-half feet in two years – that some of the masts stuck into the glacier were no longer in position.

Hubbard, who has been working with Jason Box, of Ohio State University, and others, said in a statement issued by the Byrd Polar Research Center that scientists were still trying to work out how fast the glacier was moving and the effect on the ice sheet feeding the glacier.

‘Although I knew what to expect in terms of ice loss from satellite imagery, I was still completely unprepared for the gob-smacking scale […]

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Tata Motors is taking giant strides and making history for itself. First the Land Rover/Jaguar deal, then the world’s cheapest car, and now it is also set to introduce the car that runs on compressed air.

With spiraling fuel prices it is about time we heard some breakthrough!

India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle.

The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets by August 2011.

The Air Car, called the ‘MiniCAT’ could cost around Rs. 3,475,225 ($8,177.00) in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels.

The cost of a refill would be about Rs. 85 ($2.00)

The MiniCAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued, not welded, and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators, etc.

There are no keys – just an access card which can be read by the […]

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A new poll (PDF) from the AngusReid Public Opinion group has found a dramatic increase in support for same sex marriage since last year, with nearly half (46 percent) of respondents now saying it should be made legal.

An additional 22 percent of survey respondents said they didn’t think full marriage should be permitted, but some form of ‘civil union’ would be acceptable. Just 23 percent said no legal recognition should be given to same sex couples.

The numbers represent a 10 percent increase in support for same sex marriage over a 2010 AngusReid poll. Even more hopeful to marriage equality supporters are the demographic findings: 68 percent of what the firm called ‘generation y’ favors legalizing same sex marriage, and 48 percent of ‘generation x’ agrees.

Older Americans proved less likely to answer similarly: the poll found that just one-in-four Americans born before 1979 would classify marriage as between two people, instead of between a man and woman.

The survey also found that nearly half (40 percent) of Republicans believe that gays and lesbians can be ‘cured’ through prayer to their deity, whereas 62 percent of Americans at-large believe that to be impossible.

Just 30 percent of those who did not know a single […]

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EASTPORT, MAINE — Eastport is used to being on the fringe of things – the easternmost city in the United States, a remote outpost of Maine’s poorest county, and one of the westernmost communities of the Bay of Fundy, home to the world’s most dramatic tidal swings.

But in recent years, this community of 1,600 has found itself at the center of an industrial enterprise that its people thought had abandoned them for good: harnessing the tides to generate electricity. Amid Eastport’s abandoned sardine factories and often-empty storefronts, engineers have been testing a new generation of tidal turbines that could power the region’s homes and businesses without having an adverse effect on the environment, fisheries, or the beautiful views of the forested islands of neighboring Canada.

‘It’s the Kitty Hawk of tidal energy,’ says Chris Sauer, president of the Maine-based Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), which has been testing its turbines in the surrounding waters for four years. ‘You can go anywhere in the world and people know about Eastport.’

Tidal power used to be extremely disruptive to the marine environment, as it involved damming a waterway and forcing the currents – and marine life – through conduits housing turbines. Under President Franklin […]

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