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By brandonwbarrios

Congressman to hold hearing into baseball and chewing tobacco

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) announced on Wednesday a congressional hearing on the use of chewing tobacco by young people, the health problems it causes and the influence of professional baseball players who chew tobacco.  

“Just because there’s no smoke doesn’t mean there’s no harm,” said Pallone. “Young people should understand the consequences of chewing tobacco. The best way to protect them against health damage is to get a better understanding of the extent of its usage, the health problems it can cause and the factors that influence its usage.” 

Read the rest here.

Sounds like a big waste of time and money.  I’ve never met anyone who is not aware chewing tobacco may cause cancer.  The concern is slapping a sticker on chewing tobacco like its done on cigarettes is not enough.  These extremists want more.  Next they should argue stickers be placed on donut boxes stating “May Cause Obesity”, if they haven’t already.

The extremists in our society are the statists of any political party that ignore our individual liberty while seeking ways to impose their beliefs and opinions on everyone.  They are proponents of a nanny state whose actions are outside the scope of law.  They ignore the natural rights outlined in our Declaration of Independence from the very aura they’ve come to represent – intrusive government.

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)

D.C. Office Phone: (202) 225-4671

New Brunswick Phone: (732) 249-8892

Long Branch Phone: (732) 571-1140

National Library of Israel’s Hidden “Stalag” Collection

Hidden out of public view in the National Library of Israel is a collection of “Stalag’s,” 1960s Nazi themed porno paperbacks written and consumed by Israelis

Part of the mission of the National Library of Israel is to secure copies of all material published in Israel.
Normally this is not a problem, and the collection of the National Library of Israel is unrivaled in the world for its collection of Hebraica and Judaica. But on occasion, collecting everything published in Israel makes for some awkward moments. Point in case, the library’s hidden collection of “stalag’s” or nazi themed porno paperbacks, created and written by Israeli authors and consumed by Israeli teenagers in the 1960s.
Stalag’s were a short lived phenomenon, only lasting a handful of years before being made illegal. Curiously, they reached the height of their popularity during the infamous Eichmann trial. Originally said to simply be translations of English authors, on closer inspection the genre seems to have been fully Israeli. Almost the only pornographic material available, it was purchased by teenagers, often the children of Holocaust survivors.
The plots usually involved female SS officers (non-exisitant in the actual WWII) hell bent on punishing a male, generally American or English, hero imprisoned in her Stalag of pain/pleasure. These books were also heavily influenced by the 1955 book “The House of Dolls” by K. Tzetnik, an anonymous survivor of Auschwitz who wrote about women prisoners forced into prostitution by the Nazi guards. Though received well in the 1950s, the book was later said to be fictional, and has since been recast and is thought of as a precursor to the “Stalag” books.
A particularly famous Stalag was “I Was Colonel Schultz’s Private Bitch” which caused such an uproar that all the copies of the books were confiscated by the police.
After two years of high popularity the stalag books were made illegal and largely disappeared from Israeli society , unless of course you go to the National Library of Israel where held in a back room, not available to the public (though accessible if you are a researcher) are copies of “I Was Colonel Schultz’s Private Bitch” and many other Stalags, examples of the many strange ways in which culture handles and mixes tragedy, violence and sex into new and strange brews.
A documentary about the Stalag books was recently Written & Directed by Ari Libsker.

Read more about National Library of Israel’s Hidden “Stalag” Collection on Atlas Obscura…

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Edited by: Dylan

by Auden Schendler

I’m reposting an essay I wrote in 2007 about another mine disaster. It’s relevant to what’s happening now in West Virginia.

In March 2007, I testified before a House subcommittee on energy and mineral resources about the impact of climate change on public lands. There were seven witnesses, and one was Robert Murray, founder of Murray Energy and owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah. This, as everyone knows, is the mine that later collapsed, burying six miners; then it killed three men who were attempting a rescue when the mine collapsed again.

Murray, who sat next to me, shouted most of his testimony as he reiterated one point: Carbon regulation of any sort would hurt poor working people and the families who depend on his coal mines for their livelihood. He said, “The unfolding debate is totally skewed and one-sided, and it is preoccupied with possible speculative environmental disasters of climate change. Few are giving adequate attention to the destruction that we will definitely see … for American working people from … climate change proposals that have been introduced in the Congress … ” Murray is apparently so adamant on this point that he used a press conference after the mine cave-in to continue his lobbying.

Robert Murray became the public face of the mine disaster, but he’s also an American success story, a free-market wunderkind and a darling of the right. “I am the founder of Murray Energy Corporation from a mortgaged home,” he told Congress proudly. “The United States of America is a wonderful country. Today, I have 3,000 employees working in the most depressed areas of the United States of America.” The mine disaster, and Murray’s position on climate change, can also be seen as American entrepreneurship gone bad; it’s the story of how one’s balance sheet slowly becomes corrupted by the drive to get more, or get it faster, or get it cheaper.

People have been working in the Crandall Canyon Mine for more than 60 years. In 1997, the company bought a longwall, an advanced piece of mining equipment, which dramatically increased production. But then the coal ran out. According to the industry newsletter, Coal & Energy Price Report, the mine was near the end of its life, producing 604,000 tons in 2006, down from 1.6 million tons in 2005. Production dropped by more than half in the last 12 months. Unwilling to just shut it down, Murray’s company embarked on a new plan to extract every last bit from the mine. According to an expert quoted by the Deseret Morning News, the Crandall Mine before the recent disaster was pulling out coal that should have been left standing to support the roof. The operators used a tactic known as “retreat mining,” where miners pull the remaining pillars of coal and collapse the mine behind them. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration may have allowed the mine to remove too much.

When he lobbies in Washington against any action dealing with climate change, Robert Murray stakes out a position in defense of the American working family; yet his own mines are notorious for safety violations. Crandall Canyon has received 325 citations since January 2004, 116 of them “significant and substantial,” according to the government. This year alone, inspectors issued 32 citations, 14 of them significant, and last month, inspectors said the mine violated a rule requiring the maintenance of two separate emergency escape passages in any given workspace. Ironically, MSHA found that this was one of the country’s safer mines, with fewer fatalities and fewer safety violations last year than the national average.

Murray’s other mine, in Ohio, also has a long history of safety violations, including five deaths in the last decade, according to a report by the Columbus Dispatch.

Carbon regulation could hardly hurt mining families more than killing off a member of the family. But Murray has painted himself as the friend of miners, showing his scars to say he is one of them. He presents himself as patriotic, humble and well intentioned. But speaking at televised news conferences during the Utah mine disaster, he appeared just the way I saw him in a Washington, D.C., hearing room—boastful, self-righteous, and arrogant.

You could say that Murray has fathered twin disasters. The underground disaster cost the lives of nine men and injured six others. The other disaster will occur in the atmosphere if his lobbying continues to be successful, and it will permanently affect the lives of the miners’ children. In both cases, Murray is doing what it takes to make his business flourish. Finished with the Crandall Mine, which he has now closed forever, Murray intends to begin retreat-mining the sky, pulling the very heavens down upon us all with the misguided sense that this is what his country wants of him.

Related Links:

Grist: hating on Don Blankenship before hating on Don Blankenship was cool

Coal barons to (finally) testify before Congress

Massey coal miner suspected safety problems might prove fatal

Looks like California has won the legal lottery that is the Toyota recall, after a federal panel selected the Central District of California as the place to hear an amalgam of class-action lawsuits against the Japanese car maker.

A couple weeks after hearing from attorneys representing all parts of the U.S., the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled today that federal Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, CA, will be the one to hear the dozens of lawsuits filed against Toyota in the wake of their recent recalls for sudden unintended acceleration.

Now that the judge has been picked, it’s time for a flock of legal eagles to fight it out for lead attorney positions. Judge Selna will be the one to select which lawyers get that distinction.

Speaking of their decision to go with Selna, the Multidistrict panel said:

Judge Selna’s 28 years of private law practice at the very highest levels and in some of the most complex cases leaves him well prepared for a case of this magnitude.

For now, all the class action suits — ranging from injury to claims of loss in resale value — are being pooled together, mainly because, in spite of their differing allegations, they all rely on the same evidence. Judge Selna can decide whether to keep the suits pooled or split them up into smaller lawsuits.

As for Toyota, they had actually requested California’s Central District when expressing their desires to the judge in March. The location is near their U.S. HQ in Torrance, CA, and the West Coast locale means shorter and less expensive flights for Toyota executives and attorneys flying in and out from Japan during the coming months.

Here’s the panel’s explanation:

Toyota maintains its United States corporate headquarters within this district, and relevant documents and witnesses are likely located there. Far more actions are pending there than in any other district.

California Court to Hear Toyota Suits [WSJ]

Toyota announced today that it has established a new SMART business process using existing product engineers, field technical specialists and specially trained technicians to quickly and investigate customer reports of unintended acceleration in Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles in the United States.

SMART, which stands for Swift Market Analysis Response Team, will attempt to contact customers within 24 hours of receiving a complaint of unintended acceleration to arrange for a comprehensive on-site vehicle analysis.

“Members are drawn from a group of 200 technical associates located across Toyota’s North American operations and will work in close partnership with Toyota and Lexus dealer,” Toyota said in a statement. “As part of the SMART program, dealerships will utilize structured business processes and materials to address owners’ concerns or reported experiences with unintended acceleration.”

“There has been a great deal of confusion, speculation and misinformation about unintended acceleration in the past several weeks,” said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota chief quality officer for North America. “We believe judgments should be based on reliable evidence, and our SMART business process is there to help provide information upon which such judgments can be made. As we did in two recent, much-publicized cases in San Diego, California and Harrison, New York, we will continue to work in close partnership with law enforcement agencies and federal regulators with jurisdiction over accidents whenever requested.”

Engineers from Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan are also expected to assist in some evaluations, as are specialists from other fields if warranted by initial findings, Toyota said.

– By: Omar Rana

Outspoken teen star Taylor Momsen — who plays Upper East Sider Jenny Humphrey on The CW’s Gossip Girl — will be noticably absent from the teen soap next season. A source close to the show confirms to Entertainment Weekly Gossip Guy Michael Ausiello that Momsen will be written out of an “unspecified number” of episodes of the show’s upcoming fourth season. Producers call Taylor’s exit “creative” decision, brought on by something “big” that happens in this season’s finale.

Sounds juicy…..

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is giving a speech right now at the University of Louisville about nuclear security. Its overall purpose is to build a domestic political constituency for “a vision of a world in which nuclear materials are not easily available and all states adopt responsible stewardship of all nuclear material.” To reassure jittery conservatives that this isn’t some dirty-hippie fantasy, she even donated a third of the speech to the importance of keeping the U.S. nuclear arsenal in order to play a “stabilizing role… as long as nuclear weapons exist.” But the subtext is simple: the Republicans need to ratify the New START nuclear arms-reduction accord with the Russians.

Anticipating GOP objections on missile defense or rogue-state proliferation, Clinton said she wasn’t suggesting New START in itself would lead to a change in Iranian or North Korean proliferation efforts. But she said that ratification would remove objections at the United Nations Security Council to placing “tough” economic sanctions on Iran (“as strong a resolution as we possibly can”) and would “boost our credibility as we ask other countries to help shore up the nonproliferation regime.” Ratifying the treaty can “persuade other nations to support serious sanctions against Iran.” In other words: if you vote against New START, you’re letting the Iranian regime effectively off the hook.

He may not be one of the big four included in the demo (qjnet/news/four-big-names-and-two-game-modes-to-be-playable-on-ufc-undisputed-demo.html), but that doesn’t mean Cain Velasquez is going to be left out of UFC Undisputed 2010. He’s still looking to snag that

Volkswagen’s merger with Porsche is facing some significant legal and tax risks, according to details from Volkswagen’s prospectus for last month’s capital increase. The risk contains of potential tax liabilities and hedge fund lawsuits alleging former Porsche executives manipulated markets during Porsche’s attempted takeover of Volkswagen last year.

The risks could force both companies to delay the merger or abandon it altogether.

A Volkswagen spokesman said that its plans to merge in 2011 “have not changed.” A Porsche spokesman said that the risks listed in the prospectus come from a legal document, which lists “ever possible risk.”

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

An article posted Friday on the website for The Times of London points out that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has submitted a sworn statement confirming that President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld all knew that innocent civilians were detained at Guantanamo:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.

While doing background research and reading that was inspired by this post and the ensuing comment thread at Emptywheel, I ran across a document that I believe outlines the Joint Chiefs policy that was cobbled together to justify the long term detention and interrogation of innocent civilians that was described in the Times article.

The publication, which is a 298 page pdf file, can be found here. The document is titled “Joint and National Intelligence Support to Military Operations”. I have not read the entire document, but my attention was directed to Appendix G through my initial Google internet search on the term “mobile detainee review and screening teams”. Appendix G is titled “Joint Exploitation Centers” and has this graphic at the beginning:

Moving down to section 4 of this appendix, titled “Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center” we find the description of the responsibilities of the centers…

b. Responsibilities. Service component interrogators collect tactical intelligence from EPWs and ECs based on joint force J-2 criteria. EPWs (i.e., senior level EPWs) and ECs are screened by the components; those of further intelligence potential are identified and processed for follow-on interrogation and debriefing by the JIDC to satisfy theater strategic and operational requirements. In addition to EPW and ECs, the JIDC may also interrogate civilian detainees, and debrief refugees as well as other nonprisoner sources for operational and strategic information. The JIDC may identify individuals as possessing intelligence of national strategic significance; these persons may be relocated to a strategic exploitation center for longer-term interrogation.

Acronyms present here: EPW = enemy prisoner of war; EC = enemy combatant; J-2 = intelligence directorate of a joint staff; JIDC = joint interrogation and debriefing center.

There is a lot packed into this small paragraph. We start with normal interrogation and debriefing of enemy prisoners of war and enemy combatants, but somehow these same joint interrogation and debriefing centers are supplied with civilian detainees and even refugees [don’t refugees have special, protected status under the Geneva Conventions?] to interview, and then, somehow, from among these various groups interviewed, the JIDC “may identify individuals” who are sent for longer term interrogation (i.e. to Guantanamo) if the JIDC decides that they posses “intelligence of national strategic significance”. There seems to be no restriction that the long-term detainees only come from the EPW or EC groups, so innocent civilians could end up in Guantanamo under this policy, just as Wilkerson has documented.

The policy outlined in the document is official, as we see in the preface that “The guidance in this publication is authoritative”. The preface also notes that the document is a revision of 1996 and 1998 documents, so it appears that this policy document is another example of Bush-era “after the fact” justification/documentation providing official policy to authorize crimes already committed.

Hi there,
Greetings from New Orleans, where it’s not quite hot yet, the French Quarter Fest is raging, and all around the Lower Ninth Ward, the idea of sustainability and locally-grown vegetables is sprouting up like a mess o’ collard green seedlings.
Please take a minute to read the repost below and vote for a friend of […]

Our weekly series of “What can you buy in…” brings us to Cincinnati today. The city along the Ohio River has been pummeled by decreasing home values — like most homes in the U.S. — and is presently showing a 14.4 percent year-over-year drop in home values. Let’s take a look at what you can buy in Cincinnati these days for a mortgage between $1,000 and $4,000.

(Note: These monthly mortgage payment figures are based on a 30-year fixed loan, using the current Ohio mortgage rate, with a 20% down payment. Estimated taxes and insurance are not included).

Monthly mortgage of $500-$1,000/month:

This home at 815 Suire Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45205 (below) has a low monthly payment and has been recently remodeled.

> See more West Price Hill real estate
> See Cincinnati home values

*****

This sweet little home at 6118 Benneville St, Cincinnati, OH 45230 (below) has a great price tag and lots of yard in both the front and back and a shed behind the house.

> See more Mt. Washington real estate

*****

Monthly mortgage of $1,000-$2,000/month:

This newer townhome at 5313 Reserve Cir, Cincinnati, OH 45230 (below) has all the modern details and is located 10 minutes from downtown.

> See more Mt. Washington real estate

*****

Built in 1906, this 4-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home at 2625 Perkins Ln, Cincinnati, OH 45208 (below) has stained glass windows and a lovely fenced backyard.

> See more Hyde Park real estate

*****

Monthly mortgage of $2,000-$4,000/month:

The perfect porch can be found at 2448 Observatory Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45208 (below) and with summer coming up, you’ll be all set. The interior of the home has impeccable detail work and was built in 1895.

> See more Hyde Park real estate

*****

This gorgeous home at 8 Far Hills Dr, Cincinnati, OH 45208 (below) has been almost entirely rebuilt. Inside the home is full of light and the kitchen could rival many on Dueling Digs.

> See more Hyde Park real estate

Posted by John Byrne at 4 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley and his wife saw their income fall for the third straight year in 2009, according to tax returns released this afternoon by the mayor’s office.

 

The Daleys’ net income for last year was $175,240. That’s down from $183,992 in 2008, $238,190 in 2007 and $363,647 in 2006.

The majority of their 2009 income came from the mayor’s salary, plus about $11,500 earned on investments.

Daley took 15 unpaid days off last year, which cut his gross pay by $8,883, about 4 percent of his city budgeted $216,210 salary, spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said. The unpaid days were six furlough days, three government shutdown days and six unpaid holidays.

The mayor has said he plans to take 29 unpaid days this year. Non-union city workers are taking 24 unpaid days off this year as Daley tries to balance the city budget during a recession.

 

Daley also deferred $38,874 toward retirement savings and about $1,787 toward health benefits, leaving Daley with a net income from the city of $166,667.

Daley and his wife, Maggie, claimed a $3,000 capital gains tax credit — the maximum allowed — after selling investments at an unspecified loss. Heard declined to provide specifics on what investments they sold.

 

Maggie Daley stopped working in 2007, which has played a role in the couple’s diminishing income. She had been paid $50,000 in 2007 and $100,000 in 2006 as a consultant for the Academy of Achievement, a Washington-based non-profit, scouting locations for the academy’s annual conferences of outstanding graduate students.

 

Property taxes on the couple’s South Loop home were $13,640 in 2009, up from $13,175 in 2008. Taxes on their Michigan vacation home went up to $20,871 from $20,137 the year before, Heard said.

 

The Daleys reported charitable donations of $8,070, down from $11,000 in 2008.

 

The couple is eligible for tax refunds of $7,779 from the federal government and $561 from the state.

 

Though there is no requirement that he disclose his tax returns, Daley typically does each year. Reporters are given an opportunity to see tax documents shortly before the April 15 filing deadline, but are not allowed to keep copies of the returns.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it has charged an Inglewood woman with felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor animal endangerment for allegedly leaving her dog in a parked car for hours with the windows rolled up.

A concerned citizen noticed that the dog, a German shepherd mix, seemed to be in distress inside the vehicle belonging to Eloisa Asuncion Zapata, 40, which was parked on Robertson Boulevard in West L.A. Police were dispatched and broke the vehicle’s window, but the dog was already comatose. It later had to be euthanized due to heat stroke, according to the district attorney’s office.

Zapata was released on $21,564 bail and is to be arraigned April 26. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

"Studies have shown that a healthy dog, whose normal body temperature ranges from 101 to 102.5 degrees, can withstand a body temperature of 107 to 108 degrees for only a short time before suffering brain damage or death," Deputy District Attorney Debbie Knaan, who oversees all of the district attorney’s prosecutions for animal abuse, said in a statement. "Reports stated that [Zapata’s dog’s] body temperature was 107.5 degrees when it was taken to the vet."

Knaan said she hopes the case will help to raise pet owners’ awareness of the dangers of leaving animals in cars unattended. Last fall, the district attorney’s office launched a campaign to draw attention to the issue; the campaign’s poster, shown above, can be downloaded in English and Spanish at the district attorney’s office website.

Although this recent case involved a dog allegedly left in a car with the windows rolled up, it’s important to remember that animals can suffer heatstroke even in a car whose windows are left open a crack. In 85-degree weather, for example, temperatures inside a vehicle can reach 120 degrees within half an hour, even if a window is cracked.

Should you see an unfortunate pet locked in a car during your travels, the Humane Society of the United States advises you to "alert the management of the store where the car is parked. If the owner does not return promptly, call local animal control or the police department immediately."

— Lindsay Barnett

RELATED:

Dog dies in parked car while owners attend ‘American Idol’ audition

SEWARD, Alaska — A rescue center in Alaska has taken in an orphaned baby seal that was still in the womb when a hunter killed its mother on Easter Sunday.

The Alaska SeaLife Center says a subsistence hunter killed the pup’s mother in a village on Nelson Island in the Bering Sea. The hunter then realized there was a live pup inside the seal and successfully delivered it.

The hunter’s daughter found a hot line for the Seward rescue center and called to report the incident.

Guided by center staff, a village teacher helped transport the pup to the local airport, and the animal was flown to Anchorage.

SeaLife Center staff members met the pup, now called Maxwell, at the Anchorage airport and drove him to Seward on Monday.

Staff members say the pup has responded well to food and care, but his condition is still considered critical.

"Maxwell was close to full-term, and everything looks fairly normal," said Pam Tuomi, a center veterinarian. "But pups that have never received antibodies from their mother’s milk are at higher risk for infection, so we will keep Maxwell in quarantine and monitor him closely for the next few weeks."

The nonprofit SeaLife Center is Alaska’s only permanent facility licensed to house stranded marine mammals and seabirds for rehabilitation, a release from the center said.

Staff members choose a theme each year for naming animals admitted there, and this year the names are related to caffeine.

"We hope to give Maxwell a second chance at life as a wild harbor seal," said Brett Long, the center’s husbandry director.

— Associated Press

Stay up-to-date on animal news: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Alaska SeaLife Center / Associated Press

The Economist writes that straw buildings may be making a comeback, even if use of the material breaks local building codes. Straw may be an ideal building material for some types of buildings– it can be embedded with other materials to create adobe or stucco. It’s a great insulator. It’s often a waste material so can be recycled for low-cost. Additionally, straw buildings are highly earthquake-resistent because the material is inherently flexible and absorbs seismic energy better than steel, brick or glass. 

In some areas, the benefits of using straw may not be realized because local building officials prevent its use. The Economist points to Californian officials who recently tried to dump heavy fines on Warren Brush, owner of a non-profit farm, for building straw-bale buildings on his property. “The problem is that California’s building codes make no provision for the use of straw. And Mr Brush has many defenders—among them several university scientists and David Eisenberg, the chairman of the United States’ Green Building Council’s code committee.”

Perhaps with all the support from the USGBC, more local officials will see the utility of making low-cost earthquake-resistant material widespread. The Economist writes that straw has beaten other materials in earthquake tests. “A year ago, a test conducted at the University of Nevada’s large-scale structures laboratory showed that straw-bale constructions could withstand twice the amount of ground motion recorded in the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994.”

It’s the combination of materials that make straw buildings highly resilient. Straw building begin with a foundation of gravel contained in plastic bags covered with soil mortar. ”The walls are made of tightly packed straw bales held together with bamboo pins and lined with fishing nets. These are then coated with a clay-based plaster. Aesthetically, the final product is similar to stucco or adobe.”

Complicated work can also be done with the material. One structural engineer was able to create a two-story, three bedroom house with the straw mix. Additionally, in areas where there aren’t rules against using straw, there’s been a growth in projects, including a new post office in suburban Albuquerque and a Quaker school in Maryland.

Read the article and an indepth article from BuildingGreen.com on applying straw building material. See HOK’s LEED Gold straw bale building.

Also, check out a new book on Shigeru Ban’s Paper Architecture. Ban has also faced a range of permit challenges, but has created stable, sustainable large-scale buildings out of paper.

Image credit: HOK / Inhabitat

Filed under: China, Audi, Mercedes-Benz

For the first time ever, Audi has managed to outsell Mercedes-Benz in global sales for the first quarter of 2010. Some of the European press are treating it like the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, but before we break out our Mayan calendars and go all 2012 on you, here are the hard numbers: Audi sold 264,100 vehicles worldwide between January and March while Mercedes sold 248,500 units over the same time period. For what it’s worth, BMW has yet to release its final first-quarter sales figures.

Audi has repeatedly signaled its desire and intent to become the world’s leading luxury car brand by 2015, which would mean passing both of its German rivals, the aforementioned Mercedes-Benz and BMW, along with Japanese automaker Lexus. Plus, Audi offers a pretty compelling lineup of vehicles with which to do battle with those formidable competitors.

According to Autocar, the biggest single contributor to Audi’s passing of Mercedes-Benz is the Chinese market, where Audi sells twice as many vehicles per year as Mercedes-Benz. In fact, one out of every five Audis built is sold in China. Considering how rapidly the Chinese market is expanding, Audi is certainly finding itself in an enviable position. Time will tell if it’s able to maintain that growth in the face of constant pressure from its German and Japanese rivals.

[Source: Autocar]

Report: Audi outsells Mercedes-Benz globally for first time in Q1 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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