Category: News

Here is part 4 in a series of "Notes on the Making of A New Literary History of America," drawn from a talk given by co-editor Greil Marcus at the International Conference on Narrative in Cleveland last month. In a previous post (part 3, found here), Marcus talked about the deep continuities and themes that emerged, seemingly of their own accord, to lend structure to the book. In this post, he discusses instead a significant decision the editors made—inviting Carolyn Porter to write a single essay on both Absalom, Absalom! and Gone with the Wind—that shaped the book. Porter’s essay may be read here. Part 1 of the series is here; part 2 is here. The next post will conclude this series.

Photograph of the Pharr Plantation house near Social Circle, Georgia, built in 1840, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1937 for the U. S. Farm Security Administration. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

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It was a kind of accident that John Rockwell’s essay on Porgy and Bess, Carolyn Porter’s on Absalom, Absalom! and Gone with the Wind, and Adam Bradley’s on the meeting between Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes in Harlem fall together—and speak to and through each other. Certainly no one said, let’s put them together—not even to see what happens. We went through the history of the country, debated year by year, event by event, and those three emerged out of 1935 and 1936. Their particular dates—the premiere of the opera, the publication of the books, the encounter outside the Apollo Theater—came together as other possibilities were put aside. No one was thinking about race, let alone synchronicity, let alone the great social movement that would be the spine of the book. But making a single essay out of Absalom, Absalom! and Gone with the Wind wasn’t throwing cards up in the air—it was playing a hand.

We wanted writers to surprise us, to surprise readers, but also to surprise themselves, as they dove into the question they’d been asked. Did Carolyn Porter know, when she started her essay on Gone With the Wind and Absalom Absalom!, that both William Faulkner and Margaret Mitchell would describe their stories in the same way, in almost exactly the same words? People imagine the South, Porter quotes Faulkner as saying, as “a makebelieve region of swords and magnolias and mockingbirds that perhaps never existed anywhere”—even as, Porter says, he was “intent on understanding it, committed to getting at the truth behind the legend.” And Mitchell said of her book—her only book:

I have been embarrassed on many occasions by finding myself included among writers who pictured the south as a land of white-columned mansions

—in the book, Tara has no columns—

whose wealthy owners had thousands of slaves and drank thousands of juleps. I have been surprised, too, for North Georgia was certainly no such country—if it ever existed anywhere… But people believe what they like to believe and the mythical Old South has too strong a hold on their imaginations to be altered by the mere reading of a 1,037 page book.

Absalom, Absalom! was Faulkner’s ninth novel. He was a more than established literary figure. The book had a first printing of 6000 copies, while Gone with the Wind sold 1,700,000 copies in its first year. Porter notes that when Faulkner, working in Hollywood, heard that Mitchell had been paid $50,000 for the film rights to her book—readers were casting Clark Gable as Rhett in their imaginations before the producers did—Faulkner announced he expected $100,000 for his. He later tried to sell it to other screenwriters, for $50,000, playing up the sensationalistic angle: “It’s about miscegenation.”

But Faulkner was playing a different game, too. Porter begins with a conversation in Absalom, Absalom! between Mississipian Quentin Compson and his northern Harvard roommate Shreve McCannon: “Tell me about the South,” Shreve says. “What it’s like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.”

“Lacking the millions of readers Mitchell would command,” Porter writes, “Faulkner simply situated Quentin and Shreve as readers of the Southern past inside the covers of his novel, thereby representing an audience he knew his novel would never have.”

“An audience he knew his novel would never have”—that phrase rings down through all of American literary history, capturing the writer who knows it is his or her obligation to speak to everyone, fearing he or she will be heard by no one, and so creating characters to represent an audience he knew he would never have. But in that obscurity, that darkness, is safety—that is where the writer goes when he or she is afraid he or she may be afraid of the noise of his or her own words.

Gone with the Wind, Porter writes, was anything but a match for the South depicted in the works of the southern historians who, from the end of Reconstruction on, up to the 1960s, in essence won the Civil War for the Confederacy by rewriting it—and by playing on the racism of America, that legacy of slavery, as a whole. The fall of Tara and Scarlett’s return to it was, Porter writes, a Depression allegory—and the book had a “miraculous power to disrobe and then re-enshrine the South”; it “enabled its readers… to see through the sham of the aristocratic legend but to see it miraculously revived at the same time.” But “if it was a shared racism that enabled the nation as a whole to unite around the irresistible story of Scarlett O’Hara, it was the same racism that Faulkner set out to excavate in Absalom, Absalom! In the chaotic decades before the Civil War in northern Mississippi, a black and white marriage, an abandoned wife and a spurned black and white son who returns, unknowingly, to marry his white half-sister—it was a trap set for readers, and for the nation itself.

“What had not been faced prior to Absalom, Absalom! Porter says, “is the fact that at the source of the American Dream”—of striving, of opportunity, of nothing is impossible, of each American remaking and inventing him or herself as the nation itself was invented and made up, each individual standing for and embodying the nation itself, re-enacting its whole drama, its whole tragedy—“at the source of the American Dream itself lies slavery.” It was only on the backs of slaves that so-called, self-named Americans could affirm their uniqueness, their mission, their superiority over all the rest of the world and their fellow citizens as well—America, in Lincoln’s words, “the last, best hope of earth.” And that, too, with nothing left out, with no irony—with no scare quotes—was the language of the last entry in the book.

The first of nine images
Kara Walker created for A New Literary History of America’s final entry, “2008, November 4: Barack Obama is
elected 44th President of the United States.”

It’s unlikely that Congress will get to a climate change bill in 2010. Between financial regulation, another jobs bill, the summer hiatus, the fall midterms and necessary end-of-year tax reform (pre-2001 tax levels and the estate tax are scheduled to reappear in January 2011), there’s little time to debate, amend, conference and pass the most complicated and far-reaching energy legislation in American history.

But let’s talk about it anyway! Doug Elmendorf, the Congressional Budget Office chief, recently published five economic lessons about climate change on his blog. Most of the lessons are self-explanatory. For example, Lesson One: if you want to account for the negative externality of pollution, you have to price it, with either a direct tax or an overall cap. Good lesson. Lesson Four is more debatable: An efficient system for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions would probably lower overall GDP, employment, and households’
purchasing power.

Although estimates are very uncertain, most experts project that the long-term loss in gross domestic product (GDP)
from a policy like the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
(ACESA) would be a few percent, which is roughly equal to normal growth
in GDP over just a few years. Employment
would probably also fall slightly as production shifted away from
industries related to the production of carbon-based energy and
energy-intensive goods and services, and toward the production of
alternative and lower-emission energy sources, goods that use energy
more efficiently, and non-energy-intensive goods and services; workers
would follow those shifts in demand, but that would take time and
entail costs. The reduction in households’ purchasing power would
occur because resources would be devoted to achieving a goal not
included in measured income. CBO estimated that the loss in purchasing
power from the primary cap-and-trade program that would be established
by ACESA would rise from about 0.1 percent of GDP in 2015 to about 0.8
percent of GDP in 2050.

I’m torn on this point.

On the one hand, it makes sense that introducing a tax on pollution will have short-term costs. One of the costs will appear in monthly bills. Energy companies will pass along the higher cost of energy to consumers, and the government will probably promise rebates to lower-income families. But the rebate won’t cover all of the cost for all customers, and it shouldn’t. Richer families can afford slightly higher energy prices, and with an elevated debt burden the government should be prudent with its rebates. Another cost will be in employment. Faced with a new tax, some carbon-based energy produces might lay off workers. Demand will shift to lower-emission energy companies and the long-term impact could be a net positive energy jobs — especially if national renewable energy companies replace our demand for foreign sources. But you’d be crazy to expect payrolls not to change at carbon-heavy plants.

On the other hand, an energy bill with efficiency programs and guidelines will almost certainly have long-term cost savings — savings the CBO typically does not score. A McKinsey survey found that setting energy efficiency standards for appliances and upgrading the energy efficiency of new buildings could produce hundreds of billions of dollars in savings within a decade. On top of that, you have the incalculable impact of the United States leading an international effort to reduce greenhouse gases and diffuse and potentially devastating impact of climate change.

So you can see the climate change bill at least three ways: (1) it’s a big tax, (2) it’ a big investment, or (3) it’s a big insurance policy against catastrophe. Most Republicans will use the CBO numbers to make the first case. I fall somewhere between two and three.

Flashbacks, nightmares, the shakes….years ago they called it shell shock or battle fatigue, today they call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD and it’s affecting thousands of veterans returning home from war.

That’s why it’s the subject of a large scale Navy Conference in San Diego today.

Both the Navy and the Marines are actively studying PTSD – how to combat it, how to treat it – and how to move on. The biggest focus is on the notion of resilience and how some veterans are able to fend off symptoms of PTSD after traumatic events on the battlefield and others are not.

The marines are conducting their first forward looking research project on resilience and whether it’s in one’s genetic make-up or whether it’s something can be learned. The Navy says resilience is the process that allows you to thrive and go where you need to go.  With that in mind their study involves interviews and thorough medical examinations to see exactly who has resilience and who doesn’t and why.

Military leaders are also presenting demonstrations of new tools they are using to treat PTSD, many of which they say are highly effective.  One of them is a virtual reality computer system that uses video game technology to re-create the sights and sounds of the battlefield so that experts can isolate what might be bothering someone.

In addition military medical officials are also now able to use a brand new care management registry….an on-line data base of medical records.  It allows medical staff to track a patient from the date and location of their injury, either psychological or physical, all the way through their treatment.  They’re calling it a cradle to grave experience, and they insist it will also help treat others by better keeping track of what worked and what didn’t.

But perhaps the biggest change that many say is far more important than any new technology is a change in attitude among the military leadership.  The fact that the leadership is recognizing and taking ownership of these issues says one navy captain, is a very big deal.  It used to be where they would sweep this issue under the rug, now it’s out in the open and the focus of a major military conference, says Captain Paul Hammer.”We’re in an unprecedented time” says Hammer, where you have an all volunteer force carrying the burden.  Hammer says it’s important for veterans to seek treatment early so they don’t have to be impacted by PTSD for decades to come.

The popular belief that a specific diet can improve symptoms of children with autism has not been demonstrated. Eliminating gluten and casein from their diet does not produce any impact on behavior, sleep quality or bowel functions. The finding, which is the most comprehensive so far, will be presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia (USA).

About one in every 110 U.S. children  has ASD, which include classic autism and Asperger syndrome and other forms marked by difficulties in social interaction and communication.

The diet of autism has become based on the popular theory that some children have insufficient enzyme activity in the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in incomplete digestion of casein, a protein found in milk and other dairy products and gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and other grains. The use of so-called autism diet has become popular, with up to 27% of parents reporting their use and anecdotal reports praising. In the small group of children studied, “we have not seen a demonstrable improvement,” says study researcher Susan Hyman, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY.

The study was done on children who participated in at least 10 hours a week of intensive early intervention designed to make the group’s behavior as similar as possible. Children were placed on a strict gluten-free, casein-free diet. The method does not seem to improve the neurodevelopmental disorders symptoms.

Related posts:

1. US Court Rules Vaccine Cannot Cause Autism!
2. Signs of Psychosis Found as Early as in 12-year-olds
3. Flat Belly Diet For The Summer Of 2010

I loathe those neat little summary headlines that purport to tell you why things sold off–“Dow Drops 100 points on unemployment worries” and so forth–as if the journalist surveyed all the millions of people who bought and sold stocks and found out why they did what they did.  So any attempt to fully explain this morning’s ugly market behavior in terms of one factor or another is bound to be deeply flawed.

I think what we can say is that the market is as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  And no wonder.  Greeks are rioting again, casting serious doubts on the viability of this austerity plan. European leaders are still muttering about “wolfpacks” in the markets, which is usually the last refuge of desperate finance ministers taking unrealistic positions.  The euro has “relapsed“, falling back towards $1.20.  Jobless claims in the US rose unexpectedly last week, dampening the sense of forward momentum in the economy.  Mortgage applications are down, which means the housing market may retreat from any tentative gains now that the tax credit has expired. Financial reform is moving towards passage “with all the consistency and predictability of an old pickup with a busted clutch.”  And we seem to be hovering on the brink of deflation.

All of this raises the possibility of the dread “double dip” recession.  Worse, that recession was expected to come (if it did) when fiscal and monetary stimulus were withdrawn–not when a peripheral member of the eurozone ran out of borrowed money.  The parallels to the Great Depression are not perfect . . . but they’re certainly uncomfortable.  And if we do double-dip now, there’s a good possibility that we’ll eventually triple-dip, because all that extra money does have to be mopped off at some point.

Which of these factors is driving the markets down so sharply?  Frankly, any of them would be enough to trigger at least a little selloff.  At the moment, we seem to be in the middle of a highly imperfect

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600 light years away, in the constellation of Auriga, there is a star in some ways similar to our Sun. It’s a shade hotter (by about 800° C), more massive, and older. Oddly, it appears to be laced with heavy elements: more oxygen, aluminum, and so on, than might be expected. A puzzle.

The, last year, it was discovered that this star had a planet orbiting it. A project called WASP – Wide Area Search for Planets, a UK telescope system that searches for exoplanets — noticed that the star underwent periodic dips in its light. This indicates that a planet circles the star, and when the planet gets between the star and us, it blocks a tiny fraction of the starlight.

The planet is a weirdo, for many reasons… but it won’t be weird for too much longer. That’s because the star is eating it.

What WASP 12b may look like.

OK, first, the planet. Called WASP 12b, it was instantly pegged as an oddball. The orbit is only 1.1 days long! Compare that to our own 365 day orbit, or even Mercury’s 88 days to circle the Sun. This incredibly short orbital period means this planet is practically touching the surface of its star as it sweeps around at over 220 km/sec (130 miles/sec)! That also means it must be very hot; models indicate that the temperature at its cloud tops would be in excess of 2200°C (4000° F).

Not only that, but other numbers were odd, too. WASP 12b was found to be a bit more massive and bigger than Jupiter; about 1.8 times its size and 1.4 times its mass. That’s too big! Models indicate that planets this massive have a funny state of matter in them; they are so compressible that if you add mass, the planet doesn’t really get bigger, it just gets denser. In other words, you could double Jupiter’s mass and its size wouldn’t increase appreciably, but since the mass goes up, so would its density.

But WASP 12b isn’t like that. In fact, it has a lower density than Jupiter, and is a lot bigger! Something must be going on… and when you see a lot of weird things all sitting in one place, it makes sense to assume they’re connected. In this case it’s true: that planet is frakking hot, and that’s at the heart of this mess. Heating a planet that much would not exactly be conducive to its well-being. When you heat a gas it expands, which would explain WASP 12b’s big size. It’s puffy! But being all bloated that close to a star turns out to be bad for your health.

Astronomers used Hubble to observe the planet in the ultraviolet and found clear signs of all sorts of heavy elements, including sodium, tin, aluminum, magnesium, and manganese, as well as, weirdly, ytterbium^*. Moreover, they could tell from the data that these elements existed in a cloud surrounding the planet, like an extended atmosphere going outward for hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

That’s a long way from the planet. Any atom of, say, manganese that far from the planet would be caught in a tug-of-war between the gravity of the planet and the star… and the star would win. The gravity of the star is drawing material off the planet in a vast stream, or, in other words, the planet is getting slowly eaten by its star. If astronomers ever get around to giving this planet an actual name, I suggest Sarlacc^†.

This explains the peculiar high abundance of heavy metals in the star I mentioned at the beginning of this post; they come from the planet! But not for long. Given the mass of the planet and the density of the stream, it looks like it has roughly ten million years left. At that point, supper’s over: there won’t be anything left for the star to eat. In reality it’s hard to say exactly what will happen; there may be a rocky/metal core to the planet that will survive. But even that is so close to the star that it will be a molten blob of goo. The way orbits work, the way the dance of gravity plays out over time, the planet itself may actually be drawn inexorably closer to its star. Remember, too, the star is old, and will soon start to expand into a red giant. So the planet is falling and the star is rising; eventually the too will meet and the planet will meet a fiery death.

All in all, it sucks to be WASP 12b.

But it’s cool to be an astronomer! Only 15 years ago we had no idea that there were other planets orbiting Sunlike stars, and now we know of over 400, and a lot of them are really, really bizarro. When I was a kid I watched Star Trek and read a lot of science fiction, and I remember thinking that the planets in them were too weird; there was no way anything like them could actually exist.

Ha! The Universe, as usual, is smarter and more clever than we are. There’s a lot of strange out there, and the more we look, the more we find.

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^* Admit it: you didn’t even know that was an element.

^† Yes, I know, Star Wars fanbois, that that would be a better name for the star and not the planet, since Sarlacc was the creature that did the digesting, and was not itself digested. But if the star were Sarlacc, the planet would have to be named Bobba Fett, and that’s just silly.

Artwork credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Word on the street is that Red Dead Redemption is banned in the UAE (qjnet/rumors/red-dead-redemption-banned-in-uae.html). Word from another, more specific street has it that the United Arab Emirates is not the only country scorning the game.

Google is launching something called Google TV. It brings regular TV and web video to your TV. Plus, Android apps. Apps! Live Updating More »

Britain’s newly-appointed Prime Minister, David Cameron, has reportedly agreed to release £200 million worth of funds to Scotland to allow it to set up large scale renewable energy based power plants.

Scotland had been demanding the release of these funds which were raised through the North Sea oil and gas industry and are being currently held by government regulator Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets). These funds have been kept aside for investments in green energy projects but the Gordon Brown government had refused the Scottish demands to release the same in the past. Now, there seems to be a good understanding between the new British government and the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, on this issue and the Treasury is said to be considering changing the rules pertaining to collection and distribution of these funds.

Funding for large scale renewable energy power plants in Britain has been a roadblock in the recent past. British Petroleum has slowly withdrawn from its plans to invest in wind energy generation in the country while Royal Dutch Shell sold off its stake in one of the world’s largest wind farms, the London Array — the project was rescued when the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar group bought stake in the project. The economic uncertainty and attractive investments opportunities abroad certainly did not help. (more…)

Okay. Think back to elementary school. Your buddy got a brand new toy for Christmas — the one you’ve been wanting for months. Your parents got you socks. Remember that feeling? That feeling of loss for something you never had? That’s called jealousy, friend. Now magnify that by a hundred.

Google just gave everyone at I/O the EVO 4G.

As Vic Gundotra put it: “To everyone watching back home on Youtube.. I’m.. I’m sorry? Register early next year!” Yeah, that includes me. Sad face emoticon here.

This continues Google’s (lovely) history of giving away handsets at events. At I/O last year, all attendees were given special edition, I/O-themed HTC Magics. At MWC 2010 in Barcelona, attendees of Google’s Developer events were given Nexus Ones. Devs were also offered the choice between a Nexus One and a Droid during IO registration — so unless Google’s going to make these devs hand over the goods, some folks might be going home with not one, but two free toys. Not a bad deal.

What do you get when you cross a car navigation system with a wacky mini robot? You get Carnaby [JP], a very special piece of hardware developed by Pioneer and robot venture iXs. The in-car robot may look weird, but it actually serves a good purpose: it makes car navigation systems more accessible for the elderly and those with hearing disabilities.

The way Carnaby works is pretty simple. As it basically is supposed to be a visual help, the insectoid will move up its left arm when it’s time to turn left and its right arm before you’re supposed to turn right. The closer you come, the faster it flaps its wings (and the robot’s eyes then start glowing, too).

Pioneer is currently thinking about how and when to commercialize the robot, but I am asking myself if you should drive a car if you have difficulties following the instructions given by regular navigation systems in the first place.

Here are two short videos showing Carnaby in action:

Via Node [JP] via Akihabara News

South Korea formally accused North Korea yesterday of torpedoing the Cheonan, after two months of pussyfoot investigations and diplomacy.

North Korea responded with more denials and counter-accusations (e.g. blaming the attack on friendly fire from the US) and this time threatened that “any retaliation would lead to an all-out war,” according to Global Times.

Kim Jong-il is playing this poker hand ruthlessly. His adversary Lee Myung-bak has already announced that retaliations would be limited to a ban on imports of sand and fish and would involve no military action.

Now war seems unlikely and sanctions may be off the table. What that means is that South Korea has a parasite problem.

Here’s What You Need To Know About The South Korea Economy >

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Filed under: Coupe, Opel, Vauxhall, Rumormill

As CAR magazine tells it, Opel (and Vauxhall) Calibra might be in line for a successor based on the Opel Insignia, better known as the Buick Regal in North America. Said to be operating under the project name New Calibra for the moment, there is much to be acquired and decided before such a couple has any chance of becoming a reality, but Calibra fans should at least be heartened by the discussion.

One of the first decisions would be to figure out if the car is really a new Calibra or better thought of as an Insignia Coupe. The Insignia is more than 13 inches longer than the last Calibra (which ended production in 1997), and as a proper four-seater, a two-door Insignia would probably appeal to a very different crowd than the Calibra. The Insignia is already offered in sedan, liftback and wagon formats.

Then there’s the matter of money: it’s said that Opel/Vauxhall would need to sell 30,000 every year before making money on the cars. With fewer in-house avenues for platform sharing, General Motors’ financial situation still requiring babysitting, and Opel probably about to be refused a loan from the German government, throwing another coupe into the mix might not be the go-to strategy. That said, leveraging the cost of such an endeavor while helping to augment Buick’s increasingly youthful image with a Regal coupe might not be such a bad move, right?

[Source: CAR]

Vauxhall Calibra coupe successor mooted – could a Buick follow? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Lester R. Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, is the author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, available at the Earth Policy website. The excerpt here, released this week, was adapted from Chapter 6, Designing Cities for People. Brown’s discussion of reorganizing cities seems increasingly pertinent as the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico worsens, reminding us of the costs of our reliance on oil.)

By Lester R. Brown

Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility, as well as increased air pollution and the health problems that come with it. Urban transport systems based on a combination of rail lines, bus lines, bicycle pathways, and pedestrian walkways offer the best of all possible worlds in providing mobility, low-cost transportation, and a healthy urban environment.

Some of the most innovative public transportation systems, those that shift huge numbers of people from cars into buses, have been developed in Curitiba, Brazil, and Bogotá, Colombia. The success of Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, TransMilenio, which uses special express lanes to move people quickly through the city, is being replicated not only in six other Colombian cities but in scores elsewhere too, including Mexico City, São Paulo, Hanoi, Seoul, Istanbul, and Quito. By 2012, Mexico City plans to have 10 BRT lines in place.

Beijing is one of 11 Chinese cities with BRT systems in operation. In southern China, Guangzhou officially opened its BRT in early 2010. Already carrying more than 800,000 passengers daily, this system is expected to serve one million passengers per day by the end of the year. In addition to linking with the city’s underground Metro in three places, it will soon be paralleled throughout its entirety with a bike lane. Guangzhou will also have 5,500 bike parking spaces for those using a bike-BRT travel combination.

In Iran, Tehran launched its first BRT line in early 2008. Several more lines are in the development stage, and all will be integrated with the city’s new subway lines. Several cities in Africa are also planning BRT systems. Even industrial-country cities such as Ottawa, Toronto, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Las Vegas, and—much to everyone’s delight—Los Angeles have launched or are now considering BRT systems.

Some cities are reducing traffic congestion and air pollution by charging cars to enter the city, including Singapore, London, Stockholm, and Milan. In London—where until recently the average speed of an automobile was comparable to that of a horse-drawn carriage a century ago—a congestion fee was adopted in early 2003. The initial £5 (about $8 at the time) charge on all motorists driving into the center city between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. immediately reduced the number of vehicles, permitting traffic to flow more freely while cutting pollution and noise.

In the first year after the new tax was introduced, the number of people using buses to travel into central London climbed by 38 percent and vehicle speeds on key thoroughfares increased by 21 percent. In July 2005, the congestion fee was raised to £8. With the revenue from the congestion fee being used to upgrade and expand public transit, Londoners are steadily shifting from cars to buses, the subway, and bicycles. Since the congestion charge was adopted, the daily flow of cars and minicabs into central London during peak hours has dropped by 36 percent while the number of bicycles has increased by 66 percent.

In January 2008, Milan adopted a “pollution charge” of $14 on vehicles entering its historic center in daytime hours during the week. Other cities now considering similar measures include San Francisco, Turin, Genoa, Kiev, Dublin, and Auckland.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who was elected in 2001, inherited some of Europe’s worst traffic congestion and air pollution. He decided traffic would have to be cut 40 percent by 2020. The first step was to invest in better transit in outlying regions to ensure that everyone in the greater Paris area had access to high-quality public transit. The next step was to create express lanes on main thoroughfares for buses and bicycles, thus reducing the number of lanes for cars.

A third innovative initiative in Paris was the establishment of a city bicycle rental program that has 20,600 bikes available at 1,450 docking stations throughout the city. Access to the bikes is by credit card, with a choice of daily, weekly, or annual rates ranging from just over $1 per day to $40 per year. If the bike is used for fewer than 30 minutes, the ride is free. The bicycles are proving to be immensely popular—with more than 63 million trips taken as of late 2009.

At this point Mayor Delanoë is working hard to realize his goal of cutting car traffic by 40 percent and carbon emissions by a similar amount by 2020. The popularity of this bike sharing program has led to its extension into 30 of the city’s suburbs and has inspired cities such as London to also introduce bike sharing.

The United States, which has lagged far behind Europe in developing diversified urban transport systems, is being swept by a “complete streets” movement, an effort to ensure that streets are friendly to pedestrians and bicycles as well as to cars. Many American communities lack sidewalks and bike lanes, making it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to get around safely, particularly where streets are heavily traveled.

This cars-only model is being challenged by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a powerful assemblage of citizen groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, AARP, and numerous local and national cycling organizations. Among the issues spurring the complete streets movement are the obesity epidemic, rising gasoline prices, the urgent need to cut carbon emissions, air pollution, and mobility constraints on aging baby boomers. The elderly who live in urban areas without sidewalks and who no longer drive are effectively imprisoned in their own homes.

The National Complete Streets Coalition reports that as of April 2010, complete streets policies are in place in 20 states, including California and Illinois, and in 71 cities. One reason states have become interested in passing such legislation is that integrating bike paths and sidewalks into a project from the beginning is much less costly than adding them later.

Closely related to this approach is a movement that encourages and facilitates walking to school. Beginning in the United Kingdom in 1994, it has now spread to some 40 countries, including the United States. Forty years ago, more than 40 percent of all U.S. children walked or biked to school, but now the figure is under 15 percent. Today 60 percent are driven or drive to school. Not only does this contribute to childhood obesity, but the American Academy of Pediatrics reports fatalities and injuries are much higher among children going to school in cars than among those who walk or ride in school buses. Among the potential benefits of the Walk to School movement is a reduction in obesity and early onset diabetes.

Countries with well-developed urban transit systems and a mature bicycle infrastructure are much better positioned to withstand the stresses of a downturn in world oil production than those that depend heavily on cars. With a full array of walking and biking options, the number of trips by car can easily be cut by 10–20 percent.

As the new century advances, the world is reconsidering the urban role of automobiles in one of the most fundamental shifts in transportation thinking in a century. The challenge is to redesign communities so that public transportation is the centerpiece of urban transport and streets are pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. This also means planting trees and gardens and replacing parking lots with parks, playgrounds, and playing fields. We can design an urban lifestyle that systematically restores health by incorporating exercise into daily routines while reducing carbon emissions and eliminating health-damaging air pollution.

Which ends first, the Canadian housing bubble, the Australian one, or the Chinese one? Here are some key stress-points in the Chinese housing economy:

The Street:

• Canada’s real estate prices have increased on average 40% [questionable, see below] in the last year while incomes have dropped.
• Canadian residential real estate is now worth more today than it was pre-Lehman. There are now more dwellings built in Canada (assuming, as the Canadian government does, that an average of 2.3 people live in each dwelling) than the population of Canada.
• Canadian consumers have racked up enormous debts while interest rates have been low over the past 20 months.
• Personal bankruptcies are at record levels now in Canada when interest rates are still at historical lows. # In Vancouver, people now spend 68% of their disposable income on housing. In Toronto, people spend 44% of their disposable income on housing. (Keep in mind that the China bears were complaining that it was unsustainable that some Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai were spending more than 30% of their disposable income on housing.)

The first and fourth points seem the most ominous, in our view.

UPDATE: Not sure how The Street calculated their average price change. Here’s the latest change in average price via CREA:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOTE: With state legislative sessions coming to a close, in the coming weeks Facing South will be offering reports on key policy decisions in Southern states. The following comes from the excellent weekly dispatch published by the Progressive States Network.

Session Roundup: ALABAMA

Alabama’s three month legislative session that
adjourned on April 22 was dominated by three issues — passing a state
budget, a controversial bill to bring a referendum on whether to make
electronic bingo legal and legislation to bail out the state’s popular
pre-paid college tuition program.

Budget, Tax and Revenue:  As with so many
other states, Alabama faced a large budget shortfall this year.  Based
on estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Office, the state’s general
fund faced a shortfall of about $600 million this fiscal year. 
But largely through the use of state rainy day funds and federal aid the
state received through ARRA money, major cuts in education, health and
services programs were avoided.

The legislature made their budget situation worse
by approving new corporate tax breaks (HB 260) in the name of subsidizing employers who
hire unemployed workers up to 50 percent of wages paid to new hires. 

Unfortunately, a more positive measure for
working families was defeated.  A broad-based campaign proposed
repealing the 4 percent state tax on groceries and over the counter
medications, while raising revenue by eliminating the deduction for
federal taxes paid by higher-income earners.  The constitutional
amendment (HB 1) received a  vote of 54-42 in the House of
Representatives, but the proposal fell just 9 votes short of the 63 votes
needed to bring the bill to the House floor for debate.

Electronic Bingo: The most controversial
bill of the year was one that would have let voters decide whether to
declare electronic bingo legal and set up a gaming commission. While SB 515 passed the Senate, it died without a vote
because the sponsor wasn’t able to find enough backing for the bill
among other House members. Opponents viewed the bill as bad public policy,
especially a provision where, if it had been approved by the voters the
Legislature could have revisited the bill to create rules for bingo
operations. During the time the bill’s fate was being decided, federal
authorities revealed an investigation into possible corruption in the
legislature involving the bingo bill.

Education:  One major bill that did pass
was to appropriate funds for the state’s prepaid college tuition program
(PACT).  The PACT program covers about 45,000 children.  The Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program ran into
trouble when the stock market collapsed last winter.  The program’s
assets, once valued at nearly $900 million, were heavily invested in
stocks, and their value plunged below $500 million.  However, despite
initial differences between the House and Senate over whether to
establish a cap for state university tuition increases, Senate Bill 162 will provide the program with a
total of $236 million over eight years, as it was signed
into law on April 30^th.

Transportation: A major transportation bill did pass the legislature
this session. SB 120, a proposed constitutional amendment that
authorizes the Alabama Trust Fund to make payments of $100 million each
year for 10 years for road & bridge construction, maintenance and
repair programs in the state’s transportation infrastructure. The
measure has been placed on a November ballot initiative. If approved,
the state will make an annual distribution of $25 million of the $100
million to cities and counties based on the state’s gasoline tax
distribution formula, $74 million to the Alabama Department of
Transportation (ALDOT) and $1 million to the Alabama Shortline Railroad
Infrastructure Fund.

Environment and Energy: The Alabama Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Energy
and interest groups worked to pass several bills pertaining to energy
and energy efficiency. Among the bills passed was HB 128 , which provides for the “Codification of
the Joint Legislative Committee on Energy Policy” and provides for an
ongoing state energy study and energy plan.  Additionally, SB 315 requires the adoption of the Alabama Energy
and Residential Codes to comply with certain federal energy and building
requirements.

Defeated Bills Included:

• Charter Schools: Legislators also
  defeated attempts to allow charter schools in the state (HB189 and SB202). 
• Health Care: Alabama joined 24 other states in rejecting bills (SB 233 and its companion, HB 47) calling for states to prohibit mandatory
  participation in the health care system established by the federal
  health care reform bill.
• Immigration: The best immigration
  news to come out of Alabama’s legislature this session is the fact that
  no anti-immigrant bills were passed. One highlight though was the
  passage of a bill, HB 432 to make human trafficking a crime in
  Alabama. The new law provides for much harsher penalties for the
  criminals and more protections for victims than were previously provided
  under kidnapping statutes.

Defeated Affordable Housing: Even though a
bill (HB 512) to create a state Affordable Housing Trust
Fund sailed in the House unanimously (91-0), it never came up for a vote
in the Senate. The estimated shortage in the number of affordable housing units
in Alabama totals about 45,000. Alabama is one of only 12 states that
has not established a housing trust fund as a strategy to address
housing shortages.

Session Roundup: KENTUCKY

Although the General Assembly met this year in regular session from
January-April, the session was overshadowed by negotiations over how to
resolve a $1.5 billion budget gap in 2011 and 2012.  Governor Steve
Beshear’s initial proposal to close the shortfall relied heavily on new
revenue from the expansion of gaming.  The House agreed to support the
increase in gaming revenue, but Senate leadership refused to consider
it.  A State Budget Director report shows that April 2010 revenues were
lower than in April 2009, suggesting that the projected deficit could be
growing – a gap that will be increasingly difficult to control without new sources of revenue.  Both houses issued their
own budget bills, but were unable to come to agreement, and the
legislative session ended on April 15 without a budget.

On May 12, Governor Beshear issued a revised budget proposal incorporating elements of
the House and Senate versions.  The new budget includes spending cuts of 3.5% in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012. 
The General Assembly will meet in special session, beginning May 24. 
There has been much attention on the $63,000/day cost of the special session, so
Assembly leaders and the Governor wanted to make sure an agreement on
the budget was in place to limit the special session to the minimum
length of five days. 

As of this writing, Governor Beshear has not
formally issued the special session order, but said he expects to add transportation plans for 2011-2016 to the agenda. 
These items could still be contentious.  House leadership has said that,
while the House approved $300 million in bonds for transportation in
the Governor’s original plan, members may be less receptive to it now
that funding for most other construction projects has been cut.  Also,
the House may object to the full $2 billion transportation plan for
2013-2016 proposed by the Senate.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Incentives:  In 2008, the General Assembly enacted a law (HB 2) creating a package of tax incentives
for renewable energy and efficiency projects. However, the state has not
been able to implement the programs due to a legal challenge based on
the fact that it was passed after midnight on the last day of the
legislative session.  This year, the General Assembly passed HB240, which repeals and reenacts HB2 as a way to
settle the legal dispute and enable the state to make real progress in
reducing global warming pollution and bring down energy costs.  The
law’s major provisions include:

• Creating the Energy Efficiency Program for
  State Buildings, with a provision allowing the program to move forward
  with low-cost/no-cost projects (based on projected energy cost savings)
  when appropriations are not available in a given budget year.
• Requiring that all public buildings for
  which 50% or more of the financing is provided by the Commonwealth meet
  “high-performance building” standards set by the Finance and
  Administration Cabinet.
• Creating the High-Performance Buildings
  Advisory Committee to inform the Finance and Administration Cabinet’s
  standards for “high efficiency buildings,” incorporating LEED, Green
  Globe, EnergyStar, and other recognized benchmarks and taking into
  account guidelines issued by organizations such as the U.S. Green
  Buildings Council, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
  and Air-Conditioning Engineers. 
• Requiring best practices in the field of
  energy efficient construction, such as utilizing life-cycle cost
  analyses for in developing construction plans for public buildings.
• Implementing reporting requirements that
  ensure transparency and make the program’s reports measurable.
• Making tax credits available for certain
  energy efficiency improvements, at 30% of cost.  The law limits future
  state liability under the program by capping the maximum credit at $500
  for single-family residences and $1,000 for multi-family and commercial
  buildings
• Creating an energy technology career track
  program to be organized by the state’s Department of Education and the
  Department for Workforce Investment.
• Empowering the Public Service Commission to
  evaluate energy conservation programs (or “demand-side management
  plans”) proposed by public utilities, including cost-recovery mechanisms
  funded through charges to ratepayers
• Creating a Center for Renewable Energy
  Research and Environmental Stewardship to provide leadership, research,
  policy, and technical assistance to advance the state’s renewable energy
  and efficiency goals.
• Creating the Kentucky Bluegrass Turns Green
  Program to provide funding to and to guide the development of public and
  private sector demand-side management programs.

Natural Gas Deregulation:  HJR141 directs the Legislative Research Commission
to open a case on retail competition in natural gas supply.  Advocates
have warned that the state should proceed cautiously in considering
deregulation of natural gas because of evidence showing the likelihood
that consumers’ energy costs will rise rather than decline.  Of
particular note is a pilot competition program in Columbia Gas service
territory.  During the program’s first eight years, consumers who have
participated have paid $4.45 million dollars more in gas costs over and
above what they would have paid had they chosen to remain with Columbia
Gas.

Setting Livestock and Poultry Care Standards: 
As originally filed, SB105 would have preempted local ordinances
defining certain industrial livestock production practices as animal
cruelty by creating a state Livestock Care Standards Commission.  The
House Agriculture and Small Business Committee amended the bill as HB398 to make the commission advisory to the state
Board of Agriculture, and to protect the ability of communities to
control and abate nuisances arising from concentrated animal feedlot
operations (CAFOs) and CAFO siting ordinances.

Care for Children with Autism:  The
General Assembly unanimously enacted HB 159, which increases the amount of coverage
health insurers must provide for autism spectrum disorders.  The bill
requires large-group and state employee insurance plans to provide
coverage in the annual amount of $50,000 for children with autism from
age 1 to 6 and up to $12,000 a year for older children with autism.

Labor and Workers’ Rights:  Not
much progress – or regress – was made on labor issues this year.  Two
pro-worker bills that passed included a job creation measure and a
workers’ compensation measure, including a Bid Preferences for
Kentucky Contractors (SB 45) and Workers’ Compensation Claim Guidance (HB 38), which updates existing workers’
compensation legislation and requires workers’ compensation guidelines
to remain current with the most recent medical and scientific knowledge
by continually updating the law’s reference to the relevant AMA document
as new editions are released.

Hospital Visitation Bill:  A significant
step for LGBTQ-friendly legislators and advocates was unanimous passage
by the House of HB 118.  The bill would allow any adult hospital
patient to designate another individual to be treated as a member of the
patient’s family with regard to visitation.  The bill died in the
Senate Judiciary committee, but the House’s vote was a strong statement
in the face of HB 440 – a bill that would have legalized
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
(see below).

Notable Progressive Defeats Included:

• Payday Lending:  HB 381 would have capped the interest rates that
  payday lenders can charge at 36% APR.  Currently, these predatory
  lending establishments are permitted to charge $15 for each $100 loaned
  every two weeks – subjecting consumers to a 390% annual interest rate
  and making it all but impossible for many low-wage workers to escape the
  cycle of poverty and bad credit and subjecting them to endless
  harassment from collection agents.  The bill was sent to the House
  Banking and Insurance Committee but did not receive a hearing.
  Legislators introduced this bill last year, but industry lobbyists were successful
  in making amendments that took out the substantive consumer
  protections and replaced them with the creation of a database to help
  check cashing companies better track their compliance with the existing
  law.
• Clean Energy:  Significant
  energy-related bills were introduced but that did not pass included a
  Renewable And Energy Efficiency Portfolio Bill (HB 3), which is expected to be reintroduced in the
  2011 Session.
• Alternative Schools:  HB 412 would have increased accountability and
  required data reporting for alternative schools.  It passed the House
  Education Committee on February 24.  Progress on the bill halted when an
  unrelated amendment was tacked onto it.  Governor Beshear is
  considering adding it to the agenda for the upcoming special session.
• Early Childhood Education:  HB 190 would have established a framework for
  expanding quality preschool for 3-and-4 year old children as funds
  became available. The bill passed the House 99-0 on March 3, but failed
  to pass the Senate.
• Restoration of Civil Rights:  HB 70, a bill restoring voting rights for people
  who have completed their sentences and parole for felony convictions
  passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate 

Notable Conservative Bills Defeated Included:

• Lifting The Nuclear Power Plant Ban:  SB 26, which would have eliminated the current
  state prohibition on construction of new nuclear plants until a
  permanent waste disposal site is approved, was defeated.
• Immigration:  One significant win for
  progressive legislators was the defeat of HB 321, an anti-immigrant bill.  HB321 would have
  criminalized the hiring of undocumented workers by public agencies and
  their contractors, and it would have required those employers to
  participate in the federal e-Verify program.
• Entitlement to Discriminate Bill:  HB 440 would have amended the constitution to
  enshrine discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
  and to pre-empt local nondiscrimination laws.  The proposed amendment
  would have allowed discrimination as long as a person or organization
  claims their action is based on “sincere religious belief.”  The bill
  died in committee.
• Abortion Restrictions:  SB 38 and HB 373 passed the Senate (32-4), but died in the
  House Health and Welfare Committee.
• Criminalizing Pregnancy and Substance
  Abuse:  This bill (HB 136) would have criminalized the ingestion of
  controlled substances or alcohol by a woman while she was pregnant,
  based on the presence of such substances in the blood of the baby after
  birth. The bill died in committee without a hearing

The UAW was informed by General Motors Co. that union employees will no longer be paid to leave the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Officials who attended a recent meeting with UAW leaders told the paper that the company doesn’t intend to use such a program. Notably, GM has used up billions of dollars to urge the workers to quit. The WSJ reported that the UAW has been encouraging GM to mull another set of buyouts and retirement incentives that are comparable to programs that have pushed 66,000 hourly workers to leave since 2006. GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said that aside from launching a new buyout program, GM will use flexibility permitted under its UAW contract to adjust the volume of its manpower. GM has the ability to freely transfer workers from plant to plant as well as to hire temporary labor for short-term needs.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

From Green Right Now Reports

Honeywell and DuPont today announced a joint venture to produce a new environmentally safer refrigerant for use in automotive air conditioning systems. The new refrigerant has 99.7 percent lower global warming potential (GWP) than the current refrigerant, the companies said.

Current automotive air conditioners use hydrofluorocarbon HFC-134a, which is rated at a global warming potential of 1430. The European Union’s Mobile Air Conditioning Directive requires that, starting in 2011, all new vehicle models use a refrigerant with a GWP below 150, and by 2017, all new automobiles sold in Europe will be required to use a low-GWP refrigerant.

The new refrigerant developed by DuPont and Honeywell has a GWP of 4, which is 97 percent less GWP than the new regulation requires, according to the companies

Under the agreement, DuPont and Honeywell will share financial and technological resources with the intent to jointly design, construct and operate a world-scale manufacturing facility for the new refrigerant, known as HFO-1234yf. The product meets European Union regulatory requirements for lower GWP refrigerants for automobile air conditioning systems. DuPont and Honeywell said they developed the product jointly but will market and sell it separately.

The companies plan to begin supplying the refrigerant in the fourth quarter of 2011 in time to meet the European Union regulatory requirement.

Noted free marketer Larry Kudlow is now on record demanding European leaders straight-up guarantee all sovereign bank debt now.

Others are talking about a new Plaza Accord so that global governments can systematically step in to help the euro, and devalue their own currencies against it.

Whatever it is, the market is pushing European leaders to the test again today, a day ahead of the weekend.

So do we get some great meeting of the minds this weekend?

Use the comments to share your thoughts.

Join the conversation about this story »

Today at Google I/O Vic Gundotra made a big revelation. Last year, Google was activating 30,000 Android phones a day. The past February, that number jumped to 60,000. Today, Google is now activating over 100,000 Android phones a day.

Android was the second best-selling smartphone this quarter, Gundotra says. They are only behind RIM — and yes, ahead of that other rival. Gundotra also pointed out the stat from AdMob that Android was first in terms of web and app usage among smartphones.

And that’s not all. Gundotra also announced that there were now over 50,000 apps available for the platform. And there are some 180,000 developers working on the platform.

There are now over 60 compatible Android devices from 21 OEMs in 48 countries. The devices are spread across 59 carriers.

[crunchbase url=”http://www.crunchbase.com/product/android,http://www.crunchbase.com/company/google” name=”Android,Google”]