Word is out that Gaga’s video Telephone, featuring Beyonce, will premiere this Thursday.
Speaking of Gaga, my dearest friend Nat created a brand new site called Lady Gaga Source. Click on the banner below to visit the site and don’t forget to bookmark the page!
As he campaigned for the Republican nomination in the suburban 8th House District, Joe Walsh’s mantra was he was “a tea party conservative first and a Republican second.”
That approach – reaching out to voters who feel angry and disenfranchised by the U.S. government, especially the people who participated in tea party protests last year – worked for Walsh when he handily won the GOP nomination Feb. 2.
It also earned him some attention this past weekend when he attended the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn.
Walsh, of Winnetka, teamed with two activists in the tea party movement and a conservative blogger, all from Illinois, on Friday to talk about his campaign strategy and the tea party movement’s impact on the Illinois primaries.
“I had a fairly receptive crowd,” Walsh recalled Monday. “They were incredibly curious to hear from me, how it felt to run and the things we did to win.”
The other panelists were Bruce Donnelly, a Barrington tea party activist who runs a political Web site called surgeusa.org, John Biver, the editor of championnews.net, and Tim Kraulidis, who leads a Joliet tea party group.
Because the Illinois primary was the nation’s first in 2010, Walsh claims the distinction of being the first tea party-backed candidate to win nomination this year.
“They wanted a candidate’s perspective,” Walsh said of the audience.
Walsh’s presentation wasn’t on the official convention schedule viewable at nationalteapartyconvention.com, nor was he listed as a featured speaker – although Biver, Kraulidis and Donnelly were featured on the Web site.
Walsh said it was a breakout discussion. He estimated about 200 people attended the talk.
Walsh admitted not getting as large a crowd as headline speaker Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor who was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Walsh will face three-term Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean of Barrington and Green Party nominee Bill Scheurer of Lindenhurst in the November general election.
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday. He was 77.
The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.
In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress.
One of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.
Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha’s growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion,” he said.
Murtha’s opposition to the Iraq war rattled Washington, where the tall, gruff-mannered congressman enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. On Capitol Hill, Murtha was seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters.
Born June 17, 1932, John Patrick Murtha delivered newspapers and worked at a gas station before graduating from Ramsay High School in Mount Pleasant.
Military service was in Murtha’s blood. He said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and his brothers in the Marine Corps.
He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.
Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
After his discharge from the Marines, Murtha ran a small business in Johnstown. He went to the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill of rights, graduating in 1962 with a degree in economics.
He served in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg from 1969 until he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.
“Ever since I was a young boy, I had two goals in life — I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corps and a member of Congress,” Murtha wrote in his 2004 book, “From Vietnam to 9/11.”
Murtha’s criticism of the Iraq war intensified in 2006, when he accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians “in cold blood” at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb.
Critics said Murtha unfairly held the Marines responsible before an investigation was concluded and fueled enemy retaliation. He said the war couldn’t be won militarily and such incidents dimmed the prospect for a political solution.
“This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people,” Murtha said. “And we’re set back every time something like this happens.”
In 2008, the Republican Party used Murtha’s words against him in TV ads aired less than a month before the election. The ads cited his criticism of the Haditha incident as well as his comment about “racist” voting tendencies of many western Pennsylvania residents. Still, Murtha handily won his 18th full term.
Murtha was a perennial target of critics of so-called pay-to-play politics.
He routinely drew the attention of ethical watchdogs with off-the-floor activities from his entanglement in the Abscam corruption probe three decades ago to the more recent scrutiny of the connection between special-interest spending known as earmarks and the raising of cash for campaigns.
Murtha defended the practice of earmarking. The money, he said, benefited his constituents.
Murtha became chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in 1989. The same year Paul Magliocchetti, a former subcommittee staffer, left Capitol Hill to found the now-defunct PMA Group.
The lobbying firm, which specialized in obtaining earmarks for defense contractors, was one Murtha’s biggest sources of campaign cash.
In 2007 and 2008, Murtha and two fellow Democrats on the subcommittee directed $137 million to defense contractors who were paying PMA to get them government business.
Between 1989 and 2009, Murtha collected more than $2.3 million in campaign contributions from PMA’s lobbyists and corporate clients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money.
Shortly after the 2008 election, the FBI raided PMA’s offices as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
In a separate development in January 2009, FBI agents raided the offices of a defense contractor from Murtha’s district — Windber-based Kuchera Defense Systems Inc. — that had received millions of dollars in earmarks sponsored by Murtha while contributing tens of thousands to his campaigns.
A year later, Kuchera was suspended from bidding on government contracts because of allegations that it paid more than $200,000 in kickbacks to another defense contractor.
Around the same time, the House ethics committee was investigating the link between PMA-related campaign contributions and earmarks, but it had not named a subcommittee to look into possible violations by individual lawmakers.
Murtha’s critics recall the Abscam corruption probe, in which the FBI caught him on videotape in a 1980 sting operation turning down a $50,000 bribe offer while holding out the possibility that he might take money in the future.
“We do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested and maybe I won’t,” Murtha said on the tape.
Six congressmen and one senator were convicted in that case. Murtha was not charged, but the government named him as an unindicted co-conspirator and he testified against two other congressmen.
Murtha’s district encompasses all or parts of nine counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and embodies the region’s stereotypes of coal mines, steel mills and blue-collar values.
Constituents credited Murtha with bringing jobs and health care to the region, delivering hundreds of millions of dollars for local industry, hospitals and tourism.
Critics derisively nicknamed Murtha the “king of pork” and said he used his position on the defense subcommittee to win favors.
Murtha often delivered Democratic votes to Republican leaders in exchange for the funding of pet projects. He wasn’t shy about such deals, once saying that “dealmaking is what Congress is all about.”
In 2006, when the Democrats captured control of the House for the first time in 12 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi endorsed Murtha to become majority leader.
Pelosi, D-Calif., went on to be elected as the first female House speaker, but caucus members picked Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., as their leader.
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Hyundai
In its current form, the Hyundai Azera (known as the Grandeur outside the U.S.) has been around since 2005, and despite the new Sonata‘s push upmarket, Hyundai apparently still sees the need for another model to slot in between its new Camcord competitor and the Genesis Sedan.
Although a refreshed Grandeur was revealed for other markets late last year, judging by these latest spy shots, Hyundai is hard at work on a more thorough makeover, complete with an even more coupe-like roofline, Sonata-inspired fascia and chrome strip extending its way atop the front fender.
The four-wheel independent suspension is sure to remain, and Hyundai is likely to continue offering a choice of V6s – a 263-hp 3.8-liter or a 234-hp 3.3-liter – each mated to a six-speed automatic. We’d expect a small bump in output when the all-new Azera debuts late next year as a 2012 model.
[Images: CarPix]
Spy Shots: 2012 Hyundai Azera frolics in the snow originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
As hard (or easy) as it may be to believe, the education establishment in North Carolina is proposing new standards that would eliminate the teaching of any American history prior to 1877 to high school seniors.
Yes, really.
Of course, the people pushing these changes have a perfectly logical explanation…
<blockquote>We are certainly not trying to go away from American history," Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
, told Fox News. "What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day." read more »
Be wary be very wary. There are a number of gutless Republicans who would like nothing better than to be thought of as reaching across the aisle to find some sort of accommodation with the White House, so as not to be seen as the party of no. Any Republican who thinks that this may be a good idea has missed the entire message of the Conservative Republican revolution and the Tea Party movement.
Obamas sudden willingness to work with Republicans in a bi-partisan effort to resurrect health care from the legislative trash pile where it resides now, and deservedly so, should be viewed with extreme caution. An old Texas cowboy I was once with on a mining venture told me, Son, when youve got a rattler in the high grass around camp, youd best know where it is and that it bites.
The message we sent to the administration, both the Democrats AND Republicans in Congress, was NOT that we wished that benighted health care legislation to be repaired, fixed or otherwise incremented into law. The message we sent, are sending, and will continue to send, is that we want nothing to do with Obamas monstrosity at all. The Republicans who have been insisting that the entire stinking mess be scrapped and that we need to start over from scratch need to stick to their guns. What is wrong with health care is not our medical health system. American medicine is the finest in the world.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams – Pleased To Receive Treatment In The United States. read more »
The Dow heads into the red and is currently down around 60 points at the 9950 level. The NASDAQ and S&P are both down about 5 points each.
Commodities remain resilient, with crude oil staying afloat at $71.79 a barrel, up $0.60.
Gold is up $12.60 to $1065.40. Silver is up $0.26 to $15.09 an ounce and has held there for awhile.
Save for natural gas and financials, almost all commodity futures are in the green.
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Istartedsomething.com noticed this cool concept UI by Barton Smith, an Australian designer, which shows what a location-based user interface would look like on a mobile device.
It seems to have elements to Zune and Android widgets and even TouchFlo3D.
It seems pretty lustworthy to me. What do our readers think? Let us know below.
Just an hour ago, FoMoCo took the wraps off of the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe and Convertible prior to their debut at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show later this week. We now have a videos of both models in action – so check them out after the jump.
Refresher: The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe and Convertible are powered by a 5.4L supercharged V8 making 550-hp (an increase of 10-hp) with a peak torque of 510 lb-ft. The new powertrain weighs 102 pounds lighter, resulting in a better power-to-weight ratio, improved fuel-economy, acceleration, handling and steering precision. Buyers can also opt for the SVT Performance Package to further enhance performance. For 2011, the Shelby GT500 gets an EPA-projected fuel-economy of 23/15 mpg (city/highway).
Hit the jump for the two videos.
Click here for our original post on the 2011 Ford Shelby GT500.
Click here to check your Auto Credit Score.
– By: Omar Rana
Dubai’s ultimate monument to its bubble, the Burj Khalifa, has been closed to the public. The issue is apparently technical.
Don’t miss: Why Dubai was the most obvious bubble ever >
—
AP: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The world’s tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.
Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa’s viewing platform – the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire’s owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building – including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower’s more than 160 floors – was affected by the shutdown.
The indefinite closure, which began Sunday, comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health.
The Persian Gulf city-state had hoped the 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa would be a major tourist draw. Dubai has promoted itself by wowing visitors with over-the-top attractions such as the Burj, which juts like a silvery needle out of the desert and can be seen from miles around.
In recent weeks, thousands of tourists have lined up for the chance to buy tickets for viewing times often days in advance that cost more than $27 apiece. Now many of those would-be visitors, such as Wayne Boyes, a tourist from near Manchester, England, must get back in line for refunds.
“It’s just very disappointing,” said Boyes, 40, who showed up at the Burj’s entrance Monday with a ticket for an afternoon time slot only to be told the viewing platform was closed. “The tower was one of my main reasons for coming here,” he said.
The precise cause of the $1.5 billion Dubai skyscraper’s temporary shutdown remained unclear.
In a brief statement responding to questions, building owner Emaar Properties blamed the closure on “unexpected high traffic,” but then suggested that electrical problems were also at fault.
“Technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors and the public will be informed upon completion,” the company said, adding that it is “committed to the highest quality standards at Burj Khalifa.”
Despite repeated requests, a spokeswoman for Emaar was unable to provide further details or rule out the possibility of foul play. Greg Sang, Emaar’s director of projects and the man charged with coordinating the tower’s construction, could not be reached. Construction workers at the base of the tower said they were unaware of any problems.
Power was reaching some parts of the building. Strobe lights warning aircraft flashed and a handful of floors were illuminated after nightfall.
Emaar did not say when the observation deck would reopen. Ticket sales agents were accepting bookings starting on Valentine’s Day this Sunday, though one reached by The Associated Press could not confirm the building would reopen then.
Tourists affected by the closure are being offered the chance to rebook or receive refunds.
The shutdown comes at a sensitive time for Dubai. The city-state is facing a slump in tourism – which accounts for nearly a fifth of the local economy – while fending off negative publicity caused by more than $80 billion in debt it is struggling to repay.
Ervin Hladnik-Milharcic, 55, a Slovenian writer planning to visit the city for the first time this month, said he hoped the Burj would reopen soon.
“It was the one thing I really wanted to see,” he said. “The tower was projected as a metaphor for Dubai. So the metaphor should work. There are no excuses.”
Dubai opened the skyscraper on Jan. 4 in a blaze of fireworks televised around the world. The building had been known as the Burj Dubai during more than half a decade of construction, but the name was suddenly changed on opening night to honor the ruler of neighboring Abu Dhabi.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two of seven small sheikdoms that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi hosts the federation’s capital and holds most of the country’s vast oil reserves. It has provided Dubai with $20 billion in emergency cash to help cover its debts.
Questions were raised about the building’s readiness in the months leading up to the January opening.
The opening date had originally been expected in September, but was then pushed back until sometime before the end of 2009. The eventual opening date just after New Year’s was meant to coincide with the anniversary of the Dubai ruler’s ascent to power.
There were signs even that target was ambitious. The final metal and glass panels cladding the building’s exterior were installed only in late September. Early visitors to the observation deck had to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows caked with dust – a sign that cleaning crews had not yet had a chance to scrub them clean.
Work is still ongoing on many of the building’s other floors, including those that will house the first hotel designed by Giorgio Armani that is due to open in March. The building’s base remains largely a construction zone, with entrance restricted to the viewing platform lobby in an adjacent shopping mall.
The first of some 12,000 residential tenants and office workers are supposed to move in to the building this month.
The Burj Khalifa boasts more than 160 stories. The exact number is not known.
The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up on the 124th floor. Adult tickets bought in advance cost 100 dirhams, or about $27. Visitors wanting to enter immediately can jump to the front of the line by paying 400 dirhams – about $110 apiece.
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Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Europe, Videos, Ford, Racing
It wasn’t that long ago that Ford was selling a genuine supercar, one that made no excuses as it took on the world’s best. The Ford GT had one foot in the past and one foot in the present, with its ’60s GT40 good looks and somewhat more modern 5.4-liter supercharged V8. Altogether, some 4,000 or so GTs were built during its production run. Sadly that program ground to a halt in 2006 and nothing has come along from the Blue Oval to replace it. Still, the GT lived on as a great platform for tuners and racers.
One race team that has grown particularly fond of the GT is Matech Competition, and the Swiss team has already raced it to championships in FIA GT3 racing in Europe. The retro roadcar was never intended for racing, but like its forebearer, it is once again hunting Ferrari and Porsche racers on Europe’s most famous tracks. After successes in GT3, the GT has shown it might be ready to move up in class. While the small independent Robertson Racing has run a GT in the GT2 class of ALMS for a few seasons with mixed results, it’s Matech once again that will take on the next challenge – GT1.
For 2010, Matech has developed their GT1 version of the car that builds on lessons learned during the 2009 campaign when the team ran a prototype in the same class. Although similar in overall looks, Matech tells us that the two cars share no parts whatsoever. With an all-new formula for 2010, that’s not very surprising, but 2009 was a development year for the teams. After the jump you can read the press release regarding the car’s initial outing, and better yet, there’s a video of it in action. The clip is painfully short but will give you goosebumps when the car sprints away. Besides its wonderfully melodic tone, the car looks plain badass, definitely up to the challenge being brought by GT1 competitors like the Nissan GT-R, Reiter’s Murcielagos, Aston Martin DBR9s, Maserati MC12s, and our local boys the Chevrolet Corvettes. No wonder the clip is titled “Matech Symphony No.1.” Top tip, Johannes!
[Source: Matech Competition]
Continue reading Video: New Matech Ford GT for GT1 racing looks and sounds gloriously evil
Video: New Matech Ford GT for GT1 racing looks and sounds gloriously evil originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
“…Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha, the first veteran of the Vietnam war and one of the most powerful lawmakers in Congress, died Wednesday morning at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA, after complications from gallbladder surgery. Murtha was 77…” (source)
A whole bunch of you are sending in one of the first mainstream articles I’ve seen on patents that gets almost (but not quite) everything right. The Economist has a wonderful piece that clearly explains why patents are hindering, rather than helping innovation. It notes the difference between innovation and invention — and how patents quite often can hinder the former. It discusses how patent thickets get in the way of innovation, and the focus on using patents to force through massive cross-licensing deals simply adds transaction costs and reduces efficiency in the market. The solution to all of this put forth by the Economist is mostly the same thing we’ve been suggesting for years: bring back a real test for “obviousness” that gets rid of obvious patents — though, it falls short in not suggesting an independent invention test for obviousness. The only other areas where I’d say the Economist article falls short is (1) simply assuming that patents do work in pharma and biotech — when there’s evidence that’s not true, (2) assuming that a ruling in Bilski alone might clear up the obviousness issue and, finally, (3) its parting suggestion that programmers focus on copyright monopolies, rather than patents. Still, it’s about as good a piece on this subject as you might expect to see in such a mainstream publication.
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People are excited about the arrival of the iPad (or at least, some people are), but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a little more apprehensive about what the device could mean for AT&T’s wireless 3G network. In an official FCC blog posting at Broadband.gov, Director of Scenario Planning Phil Bellaria and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Deputy Chief John Liebovitz expressed that concern.
Bellaria and Liebovitz didn’t specifically mention AT&T by name, but it seems fairly obvious who they’re talking about in the FCC blog post last week, especially given that the iPad so far only has one official carrier in the U.S.:
With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing, or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy.
The blog post also recalls a time not too long ago when AOL’s unlimited internet usage plan caused connection and service problems, and how that time mirrors our own:
The congestion problem circa 1996-97 revealed an intense latent demand for Internet access. Similarly, wireless network congestion today reveals intense demand for wireless broadband. Widespread use of smartphones, 3G-enabled netbooks, and now, perhaps, the iPad and its competitors demonstrate that wireless broadband will be a hugely important part of the broadband ecosystem as we move ahead.
Finally, Bellaria and Liebovitz leave off with the conclusion that AT&T and other mobile broadband providers must expand their spectrum offerings to ensure that a similar congestion problem doesn’t happen again. No doubt, AT&T is taking steps to galvanize its network (which it knows is in trouble already) against the demand increase it has to have anticipated as a result of the iPad’s introduction, but will it be enough?
This problem is one that affects the fundamentals of mobile communication in this case, unlike before with AOL’s home Internet access issues. Even though it doesn’t make as much sense from a profitability perspective, AT&T has to make every effort not only to anticipate demand, but to over-prepare for the iPad’s release. If there’s one lesson the telecom should’ve learned from its ongoing iPhone usage problems, it’s that half measures will only continue to exhaust the patience of its subscribers.
I realize that a just-in-time approach to bandwidth probably makes more financial sense, but surprise everyone by taking a slightly longer view, AT&T. Presumably the next-gen iPhone will be available on your network, too, as an exclusive or otherwise, so factor that into the estimates of what you’ll need to provide for the iPad’s launch. Stay just one step ahead of the game instead of two steps behind and maybe you can go some of the way towards improving your terrible reputation.
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
How AT&T Will Deal With iPad Data Traffic
In the aftermath of Toyota’s recent quality defects, local dealerships have started to pull ads from local ABC afilliates.
Why?
AFP reports that the advertising giant says the affiliates had been running “excessive stories on the Toyota issue.”
What a great, productive response!
It only affects local affiliates. National branding ads will remain.
Don’t miss: Our guide to destroying $21 billion of shareholder value and decades of your reputation >
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Later this week, General Motors will take the wraps off of the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado and the 2011 GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups, but it seems like GM couldn’t wait to give us some details ahead of launch and announced today that its lineup of 2011 heavy-duty pickups will have B20 biodiesel capability.
For those of you not familiar with B20, the fuel is a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent conventional diesel, which helps lower carbon dioxide emissions and lessens dependence on petroleum (helping you save planet Earth).
GM said that its Duramax 6.6L turbo diesel engine has been substantially upgraded to include B20 capability.
“B20 capability in our new heavy-duty trucks is the latest addition to a growing number of alternate fuel options offered by General Motors,” said Mike Robinson, vice president, Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. “We are seeking different paths to fuel solutions in order to maximize efficiency, reduce emissions and minimize the dependence on petroleum.”
We’ll have more details for you when the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups are unveiled later this week.
Follow the jump for the press release.
Press Release:
General Motors Announces B20 Biofuel Capability For New, 2011 Duramax 6.6L Turbo Diesel
GRAPEVINE, Texas – GM announced today that its new lineup of heavy-duty diesel pickups will have B20 biodiesel capability. B20 fuel is a blend of 20-percent biodiesel and 80-percent conventional diesel, which helps lower carbon dioxide emissions and lessens dependence on petroleum. The announcement was made at the National Biodiesel Conference.
GM’s new Duramax 6.6L turbo diesel engine has been substantially revised to include B20 capability, as well as meet strict new emissions standards effective this year. The new Duramax will power the redesigned 2011 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups, as well as the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans. Chevrolet will unveil the 2011 Silverado heavy-duty trucks at the Chicago Auto Show on Feb. 10.
GM already leads in the marketing of FlexFuel vehicles capable of running on E85 ethanol with more than 4 million vehicles on the road today. Like ethanol, biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable fuel made primarily of plant matter – mostly soybean oil. In pure form, biodiesel lowers carbon dioxide emissions.
“The 2007 federal energy bill mandates increased biodiesel production and more states and municipalities are requiring it,” said Robinson. “Biodiesel production is growing and GM is excited and ready to satisfy demand with our new B20 capable Duramax 6.6L engine.”
Estimates by National Biodiesel Board indicate about 700 million gallons of the fuel were produced in 2008 – up from about 500,000 gallons in 1999. Market fluctuations caused production to decrease in 2009, but it expected to rise with more mandates and the availability of approved vehicles, such as the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty trucks.
Validated and approved fuel
Extensive testing and validation was performed on the Duramax 6.6L using B20 that meets ASTM International’s standard D7467, which covers biodiesel blends between B6 and B20.
“True biodiesel is created through transesterfication and that’s what the Duramax 6.6L is designed to use,” said Coleman Jones, GM biofuels implementation manager. “Strict testing and validation was performed to ensure the new engine is B20-capable, however approved biodiesel is the only way to guarantee engine performance and longevity.”
The Duramax diesel is covered by GM’s five-year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty.
To make the Duramax 6.6L and its fuel system compatible with B20, GM upgraded some seals and gasket materials to withstand the ester content of biodiesel and included an upgraded fuel filter that includes a coalescing element. It improves the separation of water that may be present in the fuel, because biodiesel can attract and absorb water. Also, additional heating of the fuel circuit was added to reduce the chance of fuel gelling or waxing that could plug filters.
The Duramax 6.6L’s diesel particulate regeneration system features a downstream injector that supplies fuel for the regeneration process. This greatly reduces potential oil dilution, important with using biodiesel. Downstream injection saves fuel and works better with B20 than in-cylinder post injection.
Square Enix has a lot to be thankful about for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009. Other companies may be experiencing losses, but the Japanese publisher’s profits are on the rise, thanks in no small
Robin Roberts’ Interview with First Lady to air on Tuesday Morning, Feb. 9
Dr. Richard Besser to also Interview Cabinet Secretaries Leading Efforts
to Increase National Awareness
“Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts interviews First Lady Michelle Obama in conjunction with the unveiling of her administration-wide campaign to combat childhood obesity. With one-third of the nation’s children estimated to be overweight, the First Lady’s goal is to help solve the problem in a generation. Robert’s interview will air on “GMA” on Tuesday, February 9. Additionally, “GMA” will report on the initiative on Wednesday, February 10 and Thursday, February 11 as ABC News’ Dr. Richard Besser interviews the three Cabinet Secretaries serving in leadership roles on the childhood obesity policy: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Portions of the interviews will also air on “Nightline” later this week.
The Emmy Award-winning morning news program, featuring the anchor team of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Sam Champion and Juju Chang, airs live Monday through Friday from 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. ET on the ABC Television Network. Jim Murphy is the senior executive producer and Tom Cibrowski is the executive producer of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The Tea Party movement seems to have found their head racist.
That’s the conclusion drawn by “unbiased journalist” Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.
And although I agree with her that making African-Americans take a literacy test as a means to keep them from voting was shameful, it is a thing of the past and she needs to get over it.
Tom Trancredo, on the other hand, makes an excellent point.
I, like Mr. Trancredo, have been advocating for years that people should be required to take a basic civics test before being allowed to vote, and I would add the requirement that the potential voter must not only have knowledge of where a candidate stands on particular issues, but if the candidates’ prior voting record reflects his or her current political rhetoric.
Click Here to read the rest of this entry and to see the video of Rachel Maddow’s comments
Filed under: Border Security, Borders, Demo-gogues, Fear-mongering, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Malicious Media, Marxists, Media, Media Mind Manipulators, MSM (Main Stream Media) Liberal, MSNBC (Mentally Stunted Nonsensical Bull Crap), Muddled Media, News, Politics, Race Card, Sarah Palin, Video Tagged: mainstream media, MSM, Rachel Maddow, racists, TEA Party, Tea Party Nation, Tom Tancredo 
