Free Republic

Click on the link to view the Beijing to Tianjin High Speed Rail link The Chinese are really up to something.

DETROIT — General Motors is in preliminary talks about a possible merger with Chrysler, a deal that could drastically remake the landscape of the auto industry by reducing the Big Three of Detroit automakers to the Big Two. The talks between G.M. and Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns Chrysler, began more than a month ago, and the negotiations are not certain to produce a deal. Two people close to the process said the chances of a merger were “50-50” as of Friday and would most likely still take weeks to work out. A merger would be...

The Toyota Prius, the car favoured by celebrities wanting to flaunt a green conscience, is to become bigger and more sporty, with a larger engine, quicker acceleration and a top speed of well above 100mph. The changes – coming at the expense of fuel economy and carbon emissions – will be incorporated in a new version to be introduced at the Detroit motor show in January. The decision risks denting the image of the Prius as one of the greenest cars on the road and will be seized upon by critics, who accuse the car’s owners of being smug and...

Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around. In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West. Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were. “Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia...

State transportation officials are poised to issue billions of dollars in debt to help speed road construction, a move that will keep Dallas-area projects on schedule for now but will do little to shore up the state's long-term road-funding crisis. The Texas Department of Transportation will likely begin issuing $1.5 billion in bonds within 60 days, pending the recovery of the nation's upended credit markets, and is taking steps to borrow another $6.4 billion over the next few years. Historic turmoil in the credit markets is already costing the department hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra interest payments each...

The family of a Jamaica Plain woman crushed to death in the 2006 Big Dig ceiling collapse will collect more than $28 million ... A spokesman for the Turnpike, Mac Daniel, said, "The tunnel collapse in 2006 was the result of a colossal failure of oversight by past administrations..." Investigations of the collapse showed that a string of failures - and, in some instances what authorities said was negligence - caused the collapse ... Concrete panels weighing 26 tons fell from the ceiling after the failure of bolts that had been secured with epoxy. The National Transportation Safety Board faulted,...

The state and federal governments will spend $13 million to improve passenger rail service south of Fredericksburg as part of a multiyear project to make trains faster and ease traffic in Northern Virginia. The money will be used to build a third train track on a three-mile stretch in Spotsylvania County to allow Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express passenger trains to avoid being stuck behind slow-moving freight trains. "States like Virginia have struggled for years to find ways to make rail service . . . a viable alternative to what seems like an always clogged Interstate 95 corridor," U.S. Secretary...

We've taken a good look at each of the three electric vehicle concepts that Chrysler took the wraps off of last week, plus one extra for good measure. For various reasons, none of these vehicles really seems quite ready for prime time - one is based on a Lotus sportscar chassis, two require huge battery packs and the last is limited to 25 miles per hour. Tough bring those to market. Still, Chrysler says it plans to launch one of them by 2010 in the U.S. with European delivery scheduled a bit later. We'll see. If that does happen, Chrysler's...

A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew. Nikolsky said the ship was anchored near the Somali town of Hobyo and that two other apparently hijacked ships were nearby. Hobyo is in the central region of Mudug, south of Puntland. It is a natural port and does not have any facilities.

September 27, 2008 The Tesla Brand of luxury electric vehicles is certainly capturing a lot of the limelight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight as the era of the EV dawns. The company has announced a state-of-the-art US$250(sic) assembly facility in the heart of Silicon Valley Silicon Valley . The facility will build a new US$60,000 five-passenger luxury sedan with exceptional perfroamnce and a lithium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium -ion battery pack capable of delivering 240 miles per charge. The first sedans are likely to roll off the assembly line in late 2010. The new plant will be able to produce at least 15,000 sedans – up to...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The chief executive of ethanol producer Poet sees U.S. ethanol producers potentially replacing nearly all the country's gasoline supply by 2030 on higher corn yields and the rise of fuel made from corn cobs, wood chips and switchgrass. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Poet has been flying below Wall Street's radar partly because it remains privately held through a collection of 10,000 equity partners, many of whom are Midwestern farmers. Still, the 20-year-old company looms large among ethanol makers in the corn belt with a targeted 2008 production capacity of 1.5 billion gallons, rivaling VeraSun Energy Corp. and...

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have reportedly demanded a ransom of $35m (£19m) to release the vessel and its crew.The pirates earlier warned against any attempt to rescue the crew or cargo of the MV Faina, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya. Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia's coast in recent months. A Russian Navy vessel is heading to the region and the US says it is monitoring developments in the area. A spokesman for the pirates, who gave his name as Jalal Jama Ali, told a Somali website...

Pirates have seized a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 19 off Somalia's coast, days after hijacking a Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with tanks, an international anti-piracy group said Saturday. The hijacking brings the number of attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia to 62 this year, or more than one every week. A total of 26 ships were hijacked, and 15 remain in the hands of the pirates along with 300 crew members.

The great heave forward...  Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane   By John Garth  Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.  But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.      The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely...

September 24, 2008 Last week saw the one year anniversary of SSC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scleroderma ’s Ulimate Aero http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AERO becoming the fastest production car in the world at 256.18 mph, pushing past marks set by Koenigsegg’s CCR and Bugatti’s Veyron. It’s the first time the top speed record has stood for a whole year since McLaren’s F1 held it for seven years with 386.4 kmh (240.1mph). Now comes news that an Ultimate Aero EV (Electric Vehicle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle ) is in development. A 500 bhp EV is planned for late 2009 and a 1000 bhp 4WD EV is also under consideration. Now here’s...

MOSCOW — A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa — a bold hijacking that heightened fears about the surging piracy and high-seas terrorism. U.S. naval ships were in the area and "monitoring the situation," and a U.S. Defense Department official said Washington was concerned about the attack. "I think we're looking at the full range of options here," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. It was unclear whether the pirates who seized the Faina Thursday knew ahead of time it was...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets. The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days.

Massachusetts residents got a shock when state officials, at the peak of construction on the Big Dig project, disclosed that the price tag had ballooned to nearly $15 billion. But that, it turns out, was just the beginning. graphic Cost of the project Spiral of Big Dig debt Now, three years after the official dedication of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, the state is reeling under a legacy of debt left by the massive project. In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review...

Pirates off the coast of Somalia have seized a Ukrainian ship carrying T-72 tanks, an official has said. Ukraine's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing under a Belize flag to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. A report from Russia's Interfax news agency said earlier that the ship had a cargo of about 30 tanks, as well as spare parts for armoured vehicles. There has been a recent surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia. The country has not had an effective national government for 17 years, leading to a collapse of law...

The price of cheap petrol EVERY weekday morning, Zarhay Infante leaves home in the Caracas dormitory town of Guarenas shortly after 5am. If the journey goes well, she reaches her office in the capital, some 30km (19 miles) away, around three-and-a-half hours later. “Three years ago, when I started doing this,” Ms Infante says, “I could get to Caracas in 45 minutes on the motorway. But it gets worse every day.” This road congestion is tribute to an economic growth which, thanks to the rise in the oil price, has averaged around 9% a year since 2004. But it is...

In Washington these days, an 11-figure expenditure barely attracts notice.___ With Congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have finally secured Part One of their own federal rescue plan. A bill set to be passed by Congress and signed by President Bush as early as this weekend--separate from the controversial Wall Street bailout plan--includes $25 billion in loans for the beleaguered Detroit automakers and several of their suppliers. "It seemed like a lot when we first started pushing this," says Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, one of the...

Wed September 24, 2008Fuel-Saving Converter's Results Drive Optimism By Debbie Blossom Business Writer With today's fuel prices, a nationwide focus has shifted to vehicles that can squeeze more miles out of a tank of gasoline. And as American automakers push to produce cars and trucks sporting better gas mileage and fewer emissions, one local manufacturing company has created a fuel-saving converter that has proved it can produce better mileage while also helping improve air quality. At Blumenthal Cos., a 59-year-old Oklahoma City company that remanufactures engines, a tested converter that boosts fuel savings came about almost by accident as the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is asking the U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general to investigate the Regional Transit Authority's Euclid Corridor project. Kucinich wants to investigate whether the RTA's budget shortfall is linked to the project. The RTA this week announced major cuts to bus routes and is also seeking to increase fares. Kucinich, a Democrat, represents Ohio's 10th Congressional District.

NAIROBI (AFP) - Pirates on Thursday seized a Ukrainian cargo ship off the coast of Somalia while it was en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, a maritime official told AFP. The hijackers commandeered the Belize-flagged Faina to a yet unknown location, said Andrew Mwngura who runs the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme. "It was sailing from the Baltics and was expected in Mombasa on September 27," he added. "As usual, the pirates were armed on a speedboat when they seized the ship, but we do not know where they have taken it." Somali pirates often take...

The test pilot for the Cessna 162 SkyCatcher LSA prototype that crashed last week was spin-testing the airplane and put it into a cross-controlled, power-on stall, Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver told AVweb this week. "He got into a flat spin and couldn't recover," Oliver said. The airplane, which was one of several used in the test program, remained intact until it hit the ground. The spin testing started at about 10,000 feet, and the pilot bailed out safely at about 5,000 feet above the ground. The kind of testing it was undergoing was beyond what is required for the airplane's...

With the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel impacting costs for automobiles, trucks, buses and the overall economy, a Temple University physics professor has developed a simple device which could dramatically improve fuel efficiency as much as 20 percent. According to Rongjia Tao, Chair of Temple's Physics Department, the small device consists of an electrically charged tube that can be attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector. With the use of a power supply from the vehicle's battery, the device creates an electric field that thins fuel, or reduces its viscosity, so that...

A Florida man named Scott Weires has canceled the order for his long-awaited Nissan GT-R. Why? It's not that he was disappointed in the car's performance credentials, far from it. The problem is that the GT-R is equipped with a 'black box', similar in theory to the kind found on airplanes to help determine what went wrong in case of an accident or breakdown. By the end of 2012, car buyers won't have a choice as to whether their new car is equipped with a 'black box,' or Electronic Data Recorder -- they will be federally mandated to carry one....

The days of finding "free" parking in downtown Fort Worth — that’s when there’s money left on the parking meter you’ve been stalking — could be coming to an end. City officials have replaced 50 parking meters at Sundance Square with ones that have sensors that reset the meters to zero when a car leaves, even if there is time left. "If there is found money when you pull into a meter, they should let you keep it," said Scott Otness, an Arlington resident who works in Sundance Square. The sensor meters are not meant to penalize patrons, said Peter...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets. The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days. The industry’s case has been helped by the fact that Michigan and Ohio, the two states most dependent on the car industry, are key swing states in the November 4 presidential election....

WILL ROBOT-DRIVEN AUTOMOBILES SAVE US FROM GLOBAL WARMING? The Asphalt Jungle: PC Rider - "Let me drive your car, Dave. I can feel it, Dave" The skinny-tie crowd is getting serious about fully automated cars. You see, robot-driven automobiles are going to help save us from global warming. The notion, as outlined in a recent article in BusinessWeek, is that by turning over all driving control to an autonomous "car-bot" (the article quotes a GM engineer who says "they are more polite than people"), crashes will become all but nonexistent-allowing automakers to create super-lightweight vehicles (i.e., minivans with the weight...

In Washington these days, an 11-figure expenditure barely attracts notice. With Congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have finally secured Part One of their own federal rescue plan. A bill set to be passed by Congress and signed by President Bush as early as this weekend—separate from the controversial Wall Street bailout plan—includes $25 billion in loans for the beleaguered Detroit automakers and several of their suppliers. "It seemed like a lot when we first started pushing this," says Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, one of the...

Daimler is preparing to sell its remaining minority stake in ailing US carmaker Chrysler to private equity group Cerberus, in a move that would mark the final act of a 10-year-long combination. The German premium car group on Wednesday confirmed it was in talks with Cerberus, which bought the majority of Chrysler more than a year ago, about a sale of Daimler’s 19.9 per cent stake in the US company. Daimler declined to comment on further details and did not give any explanation about the reasons for a possible sale. Cerberus said it approached Daimler about a deal, but said...

...the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to $22 billion... It will not be paid off until 2038. Big Dig payments have already sucked maintenance and repair money away from deteriorating roads and bridges across the state, forcing the state to float more highway bonds and to go even deeper into the hole. Among other signs of financial trouble: The state is paying almost 80 percent of its highway workers with borrowed money; the crushing costs of debt have pushed the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which manages the Big Dig, to the brink of insolvency;...

Disturbing details are emerging from that train crash in California: Engineer Robert Sanchez called back to the conductor that the first signal was flashing yellow … and then no other communications. The train would then run two more lights, a solid yellow and a red signal … never did the train slow and never did the engineer or the conductor pull the emergency brake. The railroad investigators are blown away that, 1.) the engineer blew thru all the signals and the switch (I am told you’d either have to do it on purpose or be disabled); and, 2.) that the...

Bill Heard Enterprises, which was the 11th largest automotive dealership group in the country in 2007, will close the doors of all its locations today. Thirteen Chevy dealerships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas will close today... The company — which dubbed itself “Mr. Big Volume” — points to credit problems and the down economy for the closings. After clearing more than $2 billion in revenues in 2007, the group’s CEO, Bill Heard Jr., pointed to customers’ inability to secure loans.

This is a strange and scary story. It’d be a thriller of a Tom Clancy novel or a Hollywood movie, but it’s real. Take a deep breath, then check it out… A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of...

Nobody saw it coming. The school bus had stopped on U.S. 301 in Citra to let three or four students step off. Suddenly, Jamar Williams and 20 others from North Marion high and middle schools were knocked around or thrown to the floor. A semi had struck the bus from behind. The vehicles lurched forward and erupted in flames. "It just hit. It happened too fast," said Jamar, 14. "It was just so smoky it was hard to see. "I just remembered from television, stay calm in these situations and don't panic," he said. "That's how people get killed." Despite...

As metro Atlantans sputtered through another day of long lines, spot shortages and panicked buying at the gas pumps, the federal government on Tuesday waived the region’s smog-busting gasoline requirements in an attempt to boost supplies. But Gov. Sonny Perdue, who requested the waiver, does not expect it to solve the region’s overall gas shortage. That could take up to two weeks as refineries in the Gulf of Mexico continue to ramp back up after two hurricanes.

DFU NOTE: Because of the technology that produces "clean" diesel, diesel vehicles may well make a comeback in the United States. Coal, of which we have an enormous supply, could be an important part of attaining energy independence. Joe Biden says NO to coal. Another good one from the walking gaffe machine. I thought the messiah was in favor of clean coal. Maybe this is the kind of stuff that gets Biden removed from the ticket. Stand up, Chuck. Biden - "No coal plants here in America" at the end of this video From the article on greencar.com: Both indirect...

video here.

The House has made it veto-proof clear: The controversial pilot program allowing big Mexican trucks to cross the U.S. border and travel into the country must end. The Senate has yet to act, though. And Mexico and its U.S. big-business allies are ramping up their efforts to block the repeal, including a renewed warning by Mexican officials to retaliate against U.S. exports if the program is abolished. Mexican Embassy officials say the year-old pilot program has been a positive development for both countries, allowing Mexican and American drivers to deliver goods across the border. Before, Mexican truckers were allowed to...

To understand what it’s like to work on the railroad — the Long Island Rail Road — a good place to start is the Sunken Meadow golf course, a rolling stretch of state-owned land on Long Island Sound. During the workweek, it is not uncommon to find retired L.I.R.R. employees, sometimes dozens of them, golfing there. A few even walk the course. Yet this is not your typical retiree outing. These golfers are considered disabled. At an age when most people still work, they get a pension and tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments — a sum...

A young man was stabbed in the chest while travelling through northern Ontario on a Winnipeg-bound Greyhound bus Sunday afternoon -- less than two hours after passengers say the attacker was put on board by members of the Ontario Provincial Police. The victim -- identified by witnesses as an Asian male in his mid-20s -- was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive. Police arrested the suspect near the town of White River, just moments after the driver allowed him to get off at the side of the highway. "We don't know why he was with the police or...

September 22, 2008 Later this week FusionMan Yves Rossy will attempt the first solo jet-propelled flight flight across the English channel. Using a new single jet wing he unveiled in May, and which has already been tested over the distance (Rossy flew 35 kilometers in ten minutes during the test – an average 210 mph). The event will be broadcast live by National Geographic national geographic Channel in 165 countries and will also be streamed live online. Check out the image gallery – quite simply amazing. Good luck FusionMan! We’ve previously covered Rossy’s exploits here, but he's done so much...

Making another step forward in recovering from Hurricane Ike, Metro officials announced late Sunday that the light rail will run on a regular schedule Monday and that HOV lanes on I-45 North will be reopen in the morning. ... Meanwhile, power outages across much of the city prompted Houston police to extend the citywide curfew until further notice. Curfew hours are from midnight until 6 a.m. "The purpose of the curfew is to protect the lives and property of all residents as law enforcement and other officials respond to emergencies and engage in recovery activities related to this disaster," the...

Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce with Fitzgerald+CO advertising raising nationalawareness for alternative fuels with the help of Willie Nelson’s BioWillie® Premium Biodiesel. Atlanta, GA, September 22, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce, copywriters with Fitzgerald+CO in Atlanta, are two guys on a mission to change the way Americans view alternative fuels. At 10 p.m. EST tonight, they will depart from SoHo in New York City on “Willie Run ‘08”, the first-ever non-stop, cross-country trek powered entirely by Willie Nelson’s own BioWillie® biodiesel. “I know the trip sounds crazy, but it’s more important now than ever,” said Bristow. “We’re...

Excerpt - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - British Airways has suspended its flights to Pakistan because of security fears after a bloody suicide truck-bomb blast at a hotel in Islamabad on the weekend, an airline spokesman said on Monday. ~ snip ~

On a recent trip to the Black Hills, I discovered a way to get better mileage. Whenever I was able to buy gas with no ethanol in it, I got a full 20 percent better mileage. I put this to a calculator and found that using gas laced with ethanol caused me to use 17 percent more gas. So, we pay taxes to support the ethanol industry; we pay more to use ethanol because of poorer mileage, which also causes us to put more hydrocarbons into the air — not to mention the pollutants put into the air distilling the...

Porsches and Stockholm constitute a love affair.

An automotive revolution is coming -- but it's traveling in the slow lane. High oil prices have accomplished what years of pleas from environmentalists and energy-security hawks could not: forcing the world's major auto makers to refocus their engineers and their capital on devising mass-market alternatives to century-old petroleum-fueled engine technology. With all the glitzy ads, media chatter and Internet buzz about plug-in hybrids that draw power from the electric grid or cars fueled with hydrogen, it's easy to get lulled into thinking that gasoline stations soon will be as rare as drive-in theaters. The idea that auto makers can...