FLIP Research Vessel - The best free videos are right here
The FLIP is a 355 ft open ocean research vessel designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 degrees, resulting in only the front 55 feet of the vessel pointing up out of the water, with bulkheads becoming floors.
Frail Amy Winehouse has been struck down by the deadly lung condition emphysema - and she could be in a wheelchair within a MONTH if she doesn't stop smoking crack cocaine, her dad revealed last night.
read more | digg story
A sad loss ...
ET breaks the news that comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure. The man who made famous the "seven words you can never say on television" passed away at 5:55 p.m. Sunday at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, his longtime publicist said. He was 71.
Carlin, who has had several heart attacks and a history of cardiac issues, went into the hospital this afternoon after complaining of heart problems.
Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business, and he had just finished his last HBO special in March, "It's Bad for Ya."
George Carlin's classic standup routine about the importance in our lives of 'Stuff'. This was from his appearance at Comic Relief in 1986.
RIP George
1937-2008
Due to the popularity of the last 56 Awe Inspiring Must See Creative Photographs post I thought I would do another bunch of creative photographs.
read more | digg story
By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin
Germany has been labelled the world's greenest country after it cut its energy use by more than any other state in 2007.
German use of oil, gas and coal in 2007 fell by 5.6 per cent compared with 2006, according to a new report from BP. Global energy consumption, driven by China, America and India, rose by 2.4 per cent in the same year.
The report emerged as the German government passed a new round of environmental laws designed to ensure the country meets ambitious carbon dioxide reduction targets.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the laws as "crucial for climate protection" and said they would help Germany reduce its 1990 level of emissions by 40 per cent come 2020.
The laws, which target high polluting lorries and make energy saving designs compulsory for homes built after 2009, should allow Germany to shave 35 per cent off 1990 emissions.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the extent of the laws was "the largest worldwide" and said that, with rising energy costs they amounted to "a money-saving programme, a piggy bank". He said Germany was looking at ways of cutting the final five per cent of carbon emissions to reach its 40 per cent goal by 2020.
Nonetheless, Germany's Green party and environmental campaigners said the package did not go far enough, and criticised the shelving of proposals to tie car taxes to how much individual models pollute.
Even the council of experts which helped advise the government while the laws were being drafted has said they do not take full advantage of emerging technologies.
The influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that German legislation was dispensing with "'native' energies like nuclear and coal, while favouring Russian gas and oil".
"The hens are doing the fox a favour by leaving the coop door open," it said.
But while the BP world energy report confirmed that Germany made one of the world's biggest cuts in nuclear energy last year, with use falling 16 per cent on 2006 levels, it also revealed that oil and gas use was slashed too.
Only coal consumption increased, as Germany's total energy use fell by 5.6 per cent.
The UK, where oil and coal consumption also fell, managed an overall reduction of 3.8 per cent, making it runner up to Germany in European energy reduction. The EU as a whole reduced its energy use by 2.2 per cent.
"Issues such as energy security, energy trade and alternative energies [are ] at the forefront of the political agenda worldwide," noted BP chief executive Tony Hayward. "Continued weakness in oil supply and increasing demand highlight the challenges we all face in maintaining secure energy supplies. "
Burma's latest human disaster is unfolding almost unseen by the outside world in the jungle-covered mountains of Chin State, far to the north of the Irrawaddy Delta where 134,000 people died last month.
The plague of rats happens twice a century when bamboo forests produce flowers and seeds, then wither and die for five years in a phenomenom locally known as mautam or bamboo death. Villagers believe the bamboo seeds are a kind of aphrodisiac for the rodents, whose numbers explode until all the seeds have been eaten. Then they turn on villagers' rice stocks, stripping ripening corn and paddy in the fields and even digging up seeds at night after farmers plant them.
The regime's generals will permit no food aid or humanitarian workers into affected areas of the strategically important region in a repeat of their callous refusal last month to permit emergency aid sitting in foreign ships off Burma's coast to be distributed to cyclone survivors.
Exiled Chin leaders say that villagers who are too weak to flee over the border with India have already begun to die. They fear that thousands more now face a lingering death in the deep bamboo forests where most of the state's million-strong population of Christian tribal people live far from roads or towns.
The Chin, one of Burma's many minority ethnic groups, are under the brutal rule of occupying soldiers from the Burma Army who terrorise civilians and sporadically fight Chin guerrillas. The soldiers have made the food shortage worse by stealing rice and forcing villagers to work as conscripted labourers. Cheery Zahau, 27, from the Women's League of Chinland, met William Hague and Gordon Brown in London this week to ask for British help.
She said: "The reports that are trickling out to India are heartbreaking. They tell of dehydrated children dying of diarrhoea and the poorest and weakest being left behind as stronger villagers start to escape over the border to where there is food. We don't really know what is happening deep inside Chin State where there are no telephones or roads. We fear that thousands will die if no help is made available."
Villagers roast rats they catch on sticks, but that food source rapidly disappears when the rodents have eaten everything in the village and move on.
In Mizoram State in India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, similar rat plagues in the last few months have also stripped fields bare after the flowering of the Melocanna Baccifera bamboo. Unlike Burma those governments have put work and food programmes in place to aid villagers.
Benny Manser, 24, a photographer from Aylesbury, slipped across the international border from Mizoram State last month to visit affected villages.
He said: "We saw stick-thin children and old women who hardly had the strength left to dig up roots to eat. Villagers were telling of vast packs of rats, thousands strong, which would turn up overnight out of the bamboo thickets and eat everything in sight."
Like high-performance SUVs that suffer from high curb weights and tall centers of gravity, front-drive sports cars are born under-equipped to navigate a cruel, unfair world. Asking the front tires to throw a wave of power to the ground and turn almost two tons of metal at the same time is expecting a lot. What are those back tires doing? Sitting on their steel-belted asses and enjoying the ride, that's what.
Needless to say, I slid into the 2009 Nissan Maxima's heavily bolstered seat with more than a little doubt. Faded is the 4DSC (four-door sports car) halo that shone brightly over the roof of the third-generation, 1989-94 model. For 2009, the 3.5-liter V-6 under the hood has been tweaked to 290 hp and 261 lb-ft, a noteworthy increase from the outgoing car's 255 hp and 252 lb-ft. But would this be a good thing? The last front-driver I piloted with this much power was the Chevy Impala SS, a car whose body twists about as readily as its torque converter.
Visually, it's hard to call Nissan's latest top-dog sedan forgettable. It's almost four inches shorter than its predecessor, with half of that taken from inside the wheelbase. Combine that with an extra 1.5 inches of width and a decrease in height of a half an inch, and the new Maxima starts looking more aggressive on paper. But like the outgoing car, the new one's sheetmetal should be awfully polarizing. From high angles, the hourglass shape is flowing and attractive with an organic, wind-blown look to it. From other views, the car can look heavy and slightly confused.
Actual figures haven't been published yet, but the 2009 model is expected to sit right on top of the '08's 3600-pound curb weight. Nissan product specialist Pete Haidos says the desire to keep the weight off played a large role in keeping the front wheels driving the Maxima. But while it is lighter than the 3886-pound Pontiac G8, the Maxima is heavier than the Infiniti G35, which uses the same engine. Was sticking with front-drive really a weight-saving decision or one made to protect Nissan's luxury division?
The Maxima could very easily wear an Infiniti badge. Fully optioned, it actually offers more luxuries than a G35, including a heated and cooled driver's seat, a dual-pane glass roof, HID lights, a heated steering wheel, navigation with traffic reporting, two grades of leather, and a bevy of other features and gadgets. It even borrows a few rear suspension components from the M35. And unlike any current Infiniti sedan, the Maxima uses exhaust-side variable valve timing.
My first impressions behind the wheel put me more in the mind of near-luxury, performance-oriented front-drivers like the Acura TL than of mainstream sedans like the Toyota Avalon. The seats in the sport package use black leather accented with red stitching, and while they'll be slightly too wide for some drivers, they're well bolstered and even have adjustable thigh support. They're still comfortable even after a full day of driving. In my short time as a rear passenger, I was impressed with the back seats, too, which offer an option for a pair of more sculpted buckets. Thoughtfully, this available rear seat will still accommodate three if necessary, unlike the similar option on the last model.
But the real news is the Maxima's performance. Acceleration to 60 mph comes in the mid-to-high five-second range with a deep grunt of intake noise passed through an amplifier, a concept pioneered by the BMW Z4. Beyond that, the steering is the definite high point of the car's dynamic profile; The wheel itself is an attractive three-spoke design with a small diameter and a thick, leather-wrapped rim. I couldn't get confirmation, but expect to see it again when the 370Z debuts at the next Los Angeles show. The same goes for the Maxima's "twin orifice" (stop snickering!) speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering, which is similar to the system found in the current Z. A quick 15.2:1 ratio provides a direct feel with just the right amount of on-center weight. It's among the best I've felt from any front-drive sedan.
That impression is further enhanced by the surprising lack of torque steer. Compared with the old car, the new Maxima's engine is lower and uses six mounting points instead of four. The lowering of the engine allows the axle shafts to sit more horizontally, which, along with front control arms that are longer than the current Altima's, helps minimize the steering wheel's desire to twitch. Acceleration lags slightly off the line, an indication that the drive-by-wire throttle eases onto the power at a more controlled rate than a mechanical system would at full throttle.
Equally impressive are the Maxima's brakes, which now benefit from vented rotors at all four corners. The 12.6-inch front and 12.1-inch rear rotors, all squeezed by single-piston calipers, are effective at scrubbing speed. Three consecutive 70-0 mph stops result in minimal fade and little to no ABS intervention. Along the way, the pedal feels confident and linear without being grabby.
Mountain roads don't exhaust the brakes, either, and they also demonstrate the Maxima's newfound (or should I say re-found?) handling competence. The new body is 15 percent more rigid, while sport and premium models gain 17 percent more torsional rigidity by giving up the base model's 60/40 split folding rear seat. Instead, those models get a small pass-through cut into a steel panel that accounts for the extra stiffness. The suspension — struts and coil springs at the front and multi-link at the rear — incorporates lighter aluminum components and gets thick stabilizer bars at both ends. Sport-package cars get firmer dampers and 19-inch wheels wrapped in all-season tires or optional 245/40WR19 Bridgestone Potenza RE050 performance rubber.
With all the sport goodies added, the Maxima stays remarkably flat through corners, and while the tires start moaning early, they continue to stick; understeer only takes over if you really induce it. Getting this big front-driver to rotate, however, is a lost cause.
For how composed the Maxima remains through the mountains around Ojai, California, the highway route back to Los Angeles reveals its abilities as a long-distance cruiser. The dampers are firm yet forgiving and probably exhibit a better compromise than a G35's, which don't take so kindly to sharp impacts. With the cruise at 75 mph, the car settles in and the CVT spins the engine at just under 2500 rpm. But that brings me to the car's Achilles heel.
For the Maxima, Nissan's Xtronic CVT (the car's only transmission option) has been retuned, boasting over 700 shift algorithms that search out the optimal settings for any drive situation. In regular mode it acts like a conventional, shiftless CVT, while a gearshift-selected sport mode tells the transmission to imitate six gears that can be selected manually via column-mounted paddles. Its ability to hold the engine at its power peak makes it wonderful for city traffic, while its lack of gears lets the engine turn slower at highway speeds, delivering an estimated 26 mpg. But as much as Nissan engineers have tried to make this transmission sporty, it isn't.
Through tight uphill corners it's easy to confuse the CVT. Diving into a 25 mph corner that begs for third (pretend third) or even second gear, it won't drop below fourth. I get back on the throttle but the transmission has already committed to a ratio that isn't ideal. The engine bogs while the mysterious belts and pulleys below the hood talk the situation over and finally bring the engine back to life. In an Altima or a Murano this hasn't been a problem, but the Maxima is so wonderfully capable that the transmission just can't keep up. After a half-hour of such flogging, a familiar yet unwelcome smell enters the cabin; it's decidedly not the brakes, so I decide to back off the poor CVT.
The take-rate on manual-transmission Maximas last year was somewhere around two percent, so don't expect Nissan to commit to a mid-cycle addition. A diesel Maxima is due out for 2010 and it'll use a traditional automatic. Pete Haidos also estimates that the diesel will run 30-35 percent more efficiently than the 3.5-liter gas motor and claims the 3.0-liter Renault powerplant has "the best NVH management of any diesel V-6." It should be worth the wait. Plus, that extra year will allow enough time for would-be buyers to save up the price premium it's sure to carry.
The Maxima isn't likely to steal many buyers away from enthusiast-focused rear-drivers like the Infiniti G35 or the BMW 328i, which will live in the same price range as the Maxima once sport and premium packages are added to the its estimated $29,000 base price; but a wide range of manufacturers — Buick, Acura, Lexus, and Toyota among them — should be worried. The Maxima represents the best combination of sportiness, comfort, and technology available in a front-drive platform. Its polarizing styling and the not-so-impressive CVT will likely be the only thing turning buyers away from the car, but Nissan is prepared for that. Want something more conservative? Buy an Altima. Something a little more emotional? Infiniti has you covered. The Maxima is for those who want a little taste of both.
Encryption and file-sharing technology have a long history together. Usenet servers, LimeWire, uTorrent, and many other applications and protocols have taken advantage of encryption technology to help give the end user an additional layer of security. In response to Sweden's new wiretapping law, The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde has announced the tracker’s intention to offer encryption services to its users.
Ball Girl Makes Incredible Catch
Turns out this is a fake, no real surprise I guess. Was hoping it was true but evidently it was an un-aired Gatorade commercial created by Element 79 that was never run.
There are two low-cost bus companies, now that offer service from Boston to NYC. Both leave from South Station and go to Penn Station. They are trying to compete with the not-so-famous- Fung-Wah $15/one-way.
The biggest complaint of the Fung-wah, besides the tires falling off, are the long lines, to get on the bus.
These two new companies are trying to follow, in their footsteps, but up the anti a bit.
First is Megabus.com 
The bus leaves on the half-hour, every hour, and seats start at $1.00, that's right $1.00, now here is the small catch, not all seats are $1.00 just a select few, but on average the seats are under $10.00
Next is BoltBus
The bus leaves on the half-hour, starting at 7:30am, and seats start at $15.00-$20.00. BoltBus, does offer Wi-Fi, and power plugs for laptops.
The way these companies are competing with Fung-Wah, is that you can register and reserve your seat online/phone, ahead of time. That way locking in some great fares, and most import not standing on long lines, in dirty China-Town.
More resons to try the new buses:
just posted today: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/06/fung_wah_bus_in.html
(Photo by Annie Tritt for The New York Times)
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
A crash involving a Fung Wah bus in New York’s Chinatown left a woman dead this morning.
The 57-year-old woman was on the sidewalk, getting ready to board the bus, when the bus was struck by a dump truck at 7:49 a.m., according to New York Police Department. The impact sent the bus onto the sidewalk where the woman was standing.
Others, including tow police officers, were treated on the scene for what were believed to be minor injuries.
Several other vehicles were also struck by the bus after it was hit, said Detective Chris Filippazzo.
People who answered the phones at Fung Wah’s offices in Boston and New York declined to comment.
The low-cost bus carrier, which shuttles passengers between South Station and Chinatown in New York, is popular among bargain-hunters but has had a history of safety problems, including a rollover on an Interstate 290 ramp in September 2006 that injured 34 passengers.
I saw a real good movie yesterday, by a new and upcoming director, Jieho Lee. i really enjoyed this movie. It reminded me of the movie Crash, which incase you didnt' know won Best Picture.
take a look The Air I Breathe
This guy writes more on Tequila than I knew there was to write! It is probably (hopefully) obvious to everyone that Cuervo is one step up from bum juice swill, but this guy goes into great detail about the different types of tequilas available, what they are best used for, and even gives example brands to try. I smell a Mexican night in my near future!
Read it here.
Seattle Dive Bar: Five Point Cafe
415 Cedar St
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 441-4777
2624 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75226
(214) 939-9900
Los Angeles Dive Bar: The Goat Hill Tavern
1830 Newport Blvd
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 548-8428
New York Dive Bar: Welcome To The Johnson's
123 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 420-9911
Las Vegas Dive Bar: Dive Bar
3035 E. Tropicana Blvd , Suite E & F
Las Vegas, NV 89121
(702) 579-4707
This bar is on this list because of the ridiculousness of their pretense. "Dive Bar - King of Bars". It's like when you tell the son of Ford Motor Co.'s CFO to create something "cool" or what "the kids will like" and he comes ups with a bar that has a really nice logo (Flames and Poker imagery) and serves filet mignon. I mean, I like that you have horrible live music, scheduled on the regular, but if "Dive Bar" is just a clever name, you suck at life. I'm just kidding, I don't like horrible live music - so provincial. On a side note, the bar is in the Walmart Shopping Center just off Tropicana, so you can bulk up on rollbacked Lamar Odom shirts for $0.88 after you get liquored up and it sounds like a good idea.
Portland Dive Bar: Shanghai Tunnel
211 SW Ankeny St
Portland, OR 97204-2706
(503) 220-4001
Atlanta Dive Bar: Gravity Pub
1257 Glenwood Ave SE
Atlanta, GA 30316
(404) 627-5555
San Francisco Dive Bar: Trad'r Sam
6150 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 221-0773
Trad'r Sam makes this list because the last time I went here, I got blind drunk and couldn't make it back to my friend's house only 3 blocks away. I ended up taking two cabs and it took me three tries to find a roach motel that had a vacancy. The good news is that I got laid and free continental breakfast, the bad news is that the evening cost me an arm and a leg and I ended up on the other side of the city. Thank you 4 Scorpion Bowls. The best way to describe this place is that the owner was probably gay (tropical) in the early 1980's, but then got married and had some kids and decided to fund his 401k rather than reinvest some money into the bar's interior. This place is also great if you like not being able to lock the bathroom door and you still pay with cash. Rude bartenders too...but who cares? Everyone here is drunk.
San Jose Dive Bar: Tres Gringos
83 S 2nd St
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 278-9888
You know what the world doesn't need? Another beach-themed bar not even near the beach. Rule No1: Straw awnings do not belong indoors.However the main reason why Tres Gringos is on this list is because they are able to bring a Mexican Dive bar straight out of spring break and into the nerdiest city in the world. It is even complete with a taco stand at the front, and plenty of taco resembling puke at the bathrooms in the back. The other reason it is on this list is the seriousness with which Beer Pong is both played and administered here. Beer Pong which normally belongs in the basements of fraternities and binge drinkers, is now brought into the public sector and it is drunken gold. The chaos after a few hours of beerpong at a bar on wednesday nights is unprecidented. If you are the kind of person looking for a few sips on a martini while chatting about how the nasdaq dropped 3 points, you'll probably want to steer clear.
Houston Dive Bar: The Proletariat
903 Richmond Ave
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 523-1199
This bar is a hipster mainstay, and a douchebag-who-thinks-he's-cool-mecca. Yeah bad service and bad environment were cool, like 5 years ago. In Los Angeles or New York. But Houston? Just go on and become that rancher that you were supposed to be. The next Elliott Smith is coming from the above cities, not Texas. People like me go to to Texas to eat ribs and ride mechanical bulls, so please figure out a way to live up to our expectations. Also, this bar looks like its about to fall apart, is super smoky, the black walls are disgusting and now I kind of want to go there and get in a fight, have a one-night stand, and maybe even break a bottle over someone's emo kid's head.
Chicago Dive Bar: Matchbox
770 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 666-9292
Miami Dive Bar: Zeke's Roadhouse
25 Lincoln Rd
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 532-0087
Austin Dive Bar: Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon
5434 Burnet Rd
Austin, TX 78756
(512) 458-1813
Ahh, Texas: Seedy, Racist, Loud and Raucous. Make sure you visit Ginny's on Chicken Shit Sundays. They convert a pool table into a giant bingo card and cage a chicken on top of it. Bar patrons are invited to buy numbers, and when the chicken shits on all 5 of your numbers, you win $100. This takes place every Sunday. Every other night of the week there is live (shitty) music. Good, cheap beer doesn't make up for the fact that I could care less if Texas were to secede from the U.S. This bar recently won an award for Austin's Best Budget Date Spot 2008.
Is your local dive bar gnarly? We want to hear about it. Regale us all with your best, worst, or dirtiest tale of the place here.
(Fortune Magazine) -- Let me tell you about Bill Gates. He is different from you and me. First off, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has always been something of a utopian. In his mind, even the world's knottiest problems can be solved if you apply enough IQ. Accordingly, Gates, who has been spotted on Seattle freeways reading a book while driving himself to the office, covets knowledge. It's as if he's still trying to make up for dropping out of Harvard, as he spends just about any spare waking minute reading, studying science texts, or watching university courses on DVD.
Some say his wealth and famous opportunism are reminiscent of the robber barons of yore. Yet here is a man who has set a goal to eradicate malaria. Rich as he is - his net worth is an estimated $50 billion - you can't call the man greedy when he has pledged to give back to humanity all but a tiny fraction of 1% of that fortune.
These traits only begin to explain why Gates, at 52, has chosen to redirect his efforts toward more altruistic pursuits. On July 1 he will step away from an operating role at Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to devote more time to philanthropy and other interests. The shift has been on his mind for nearly a decade, and it reflects some important experiences over his lifetime.
Like that seminal time back in 1968 when his mother, Mary, spearheaded an effort to install a used Teletype terminal in his school so that her already autodidactic junior high schooler could teach himself how to program a mainframe. There was his epiphany when he first met fellow billionaire Warren Buffett in 1991 - and realized that it quite literally pays to follow your curiosity beyond your own area of expertise.
And there's the poignant letter his mother wrote in 1993 to his fiancée, Melinda French, cluing her in to the Gates family credo: "From those to whom much has been given, much is expected." (Mary Gates would die the next year.) That letter, in turn, led to the self-conscious irony in the slogan he and his wife hit upon for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: All lives have equal value.
The genes, the IQ, the life of privilege, and the noblesse oblige have always been there. Given that background, it makes sense that he would turn his attention and wealth to the greater good. But there is a more selfish motive in the "retirement" of Bill Gates, and one that no one should begrudge him. For the first time since he quit Harvard to start Microsoft 33 years ago, Gates is going to have the time to indulge what his father calls his "world-class curiosity."
Gates' closest friends wonder how he will exploit this new freedom. "He doesn't know for sure where his mind is going to go," says Buffett, who has donated the bulk of his own $45 billion fortune to the Gates Foundation, largely because he believes his money will be used wisely and effectively. "Not only will it be fascinating, but I think it's going to be, for me, very satisfying to watch."
"He is one of the greatest business minds of all time, and you don't just shut that off," adds Nathan Myhrvold, the former head of Microsoft's R&D labs, who still kicks around ideas with his former boss via e-mail almost daily. "My guess is we have not seen the last business idea out of Bill Gates."
Bill Gates 2.0 will have three offices: one at Microsoft in Redmond, a second about 15 miles away at the Gates Foundation in downtown Seattle, and a third almost exactly equidistant between the other two (and much closer to home). In typical hyper-systematic fashion, Gates has allocated blocks of time to each location: a day in Redmond, two at the foundation, and two at the personal office, which he suspects will be his real "center of gravity." There will be a lot of overlap among his three roles. That's because the guy's greatest pleasure seems to be in finding connections among things he's interested in.
The biggest change, of course, will be in his workload at Microsoft, which will drop drastically. He'll remain chairman and weigh in here and there. "Other than board meetings and consulting on projects like Internet search technology, the only things I'll do are some company visits when I'm in developing countries," he says. "Or if there's some special award for someone at a company meeting, I'll come and present it. But that's about it." (For more on how Microsoft is coping with Gates' retirement, see the accompanying story.)
The opposite will be true at the foundation. Gates' official title, which he shares with his wife and father, is co-chair, but his real role will be as the organization's chief strategic thinker. And Gates is teeming with ideas, especially about things scientific. Unlike most benefactors, he doesn't merely want to eradicate malaria and AIDS; he wants to understand the nuances of immunology. He wants to learn about what happens on a molecular scale when a plant's genes are altered to improve hardiness. He insists on knowing the precise legal reasons women in developing countries are robbed of their estates when they become widowed.
"Here's how Bill thinks," explains Myhrvold. "He is always interested in looking at big systems in the world and understanding them at every level that he can. As an example, I got this e-mail from him today as part of this whole discussion on corn prices and crop yields and shortages resulting from ethanol production, and at the end Bill says, 'I really need to understand phosphates more.'"
Another big part of his new job will be to make more public appearances and do more arm-twisting of governments and corporations to do more for the world's poor. "I'm uniquely able to reach out to the big companies, to ask them not just to write checks but to offer more of their innovative power," Gates says. "There's a big category of my time for talking to drug companies, cellphone companies, banks, and technology companies, as well as talking with other people who are lucky enough to have superbig fortunes about how they want to give those back to society."
That does not translate to fundraising - on the contrary, the foundation plans to exhaust its $100 billion endowment by the end of the century. Gates is talking about setting an example for the plutocracy. Jeff Raikes, the former Microsoft executive who was just appointed CEO of the foundation, thinks that effort could have as much impact on the world as the works of the foundation itself: "He has an incredible opportunity to help shape the thinking of other multibillionaires by getting them to think about the process, the structure, the best practices."
Gates takes pains to stress that even in his more active capacity, "I'm not the CEO of the foundation. Jeff will be the CEO." That's simply not what he wants to do with his time. "Even today people at the foundation get lots of e-mail from me, but after Sept. 1 they'll get a lot more, because now I'll be able to take courses, read more, meet more smart people, and have better ideas."
In his younger years, Gates' gimlet-eyed idealism manifested itself in stubbornness and self-righteousness, an unusual boldness, and a tendency not to suffer fools. Most people who have worked closely with him can recall more than one instance in which he reacted to a comment or idea by standing up and hissing, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life."
He hasn't lost that inclination toward intellectual arrogance. But in his philanthropic work, the shoe is sometimes on the other foot. He's not, after all, a microbiologist or a geneticist. Moreover, with age and maturity, Gates has become much better able to acknowledge what he doesn't know or when he's wrong.
"The classic CEO needs to be right, or rather needs to appear to be right more than he needs to actually be right - and that's not Bill," says his pal Myhrvold. "Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time. If your idea of exploration is to always know where you are and to be inside your zone of competence, you don't do wild new shit. You have to be confused, upset, think you're stupid. If you're not willing to do that, you can't go outside the box."
And that explains the third dimension of Bill Gates' new life - giving that "world-class curiosity" some room to run. His reading and learning have always been systematic. It's his nature. His father and sisters recall how young Bill would refuse to leave his room to come to the dinner table because he was too busy "thinking." But for many years, as he built Microsoft, his field of vision was of necessity rather narrow. One of the most important experiences that jostled him out of his single-mindedness was his first meeting with Buffett, on July 5, 1991. As Gates tells the story:
My mom called me at the office to come out to Hood Canal for a Fourth of July barbecue because she wanted me to meet Warren Buffett. And I said, "Mom, I'm working." But she insisted. So I took a helicopter so I could spend my couple of hours there and then get back quickly and work on software.
Then I met Warren, and I thought, "Oh, wow, this guy isn't just about buying and selling stocks and businesses. He is thinking about how the world works." And he asked me questions that I always wanted somebody to ask me, about why hadn't IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) been able to do what we had done, and how software gets priced, and why does one company have a defensible position. He wanted to understand the dynamics of the industry. To me it was way far away from, "What is your company worth?"
Then he explained to me about how Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) had not only changed things in its business, but how it had an effect on newspapers because they thought of their advertising differently than individual local stores had. And he talked about how banking really worked in terms of credit risk. The whole time all I could think was, "Hey, I'll be smarter about running Microsoft after I talk to this guy." And so I stayed the whole day.
Ever since then, Gates has tried to make more time to broaden his knowledge, and his capacity to absorb ideas has served Microsoft and the foundation well. But now reading, learning, and blue-sky brainstorming will be considered an integral part of his job description, and no doubt they will yield something.
Think of his third office, the one equidistant from Microsoft and the foundation, as the billionaire-adult equivalent of his own room. It's a place for him to spend time exploring his own ideas, and occasionally trying to find an appropriate entity to pursue them, whether it be Microsoft R&D or someone at the foundation or one of the foundation's many corporate and nonprofit partners. He'll focus on ideas related to his philanthropy, but he also will spend a lot of time with the staff of Ph.D.s and inventors at Intellectual Ventures (IV for short), Nathan Myhrvold's Seattle-based skunkworks for discovering patentable new technologies. Previously IV hosted brainstorming sessions for foundation scientists, and Gates is an informal member of a group of IV partners and investors with more general interests that meets regularly. He plans to participate even more frequently after July 1.
"I'm not going to create a company," Gates vows. "The foundation is the top priority. But there are some other things that I might help along. The scientific brainstorming with Nathan's group has led to a new nuclear energy startup, and I'm a funder and advisor to that thing. It won't be a huge amount of time, but the truth is, cheap energy that's environmentally friendly is a breakthrough that is more important for the poor than the rich. And the poor need fertilizer, more reliable seeds, and better agriculture too. They can't cut back their eating, because that's called starvation. So I'm investing in that."
Myhrvold loves the irony of it all: "It's so funny: Here's a guy who never went to class when his poor dad was paying the Harvard tuition, and now the sheer love of learning has sucked him back in, hard-core. It's not like he needs a job. It's not like he's thinking, 'Oh, that would look good on my résumé.'"
It's too early, of course, to judge the legacy of Bill Gates. He's only 52. His kids aren't even out of elementary school. And he has only just stepped away from Microsoft, a company that once put IBM in its place, and which some would say is the most significant company to come along since General Electric (GE, Fortune 500).
Nor do we really know what - or even whether - Gates thinks of his place in history. As outgoing Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer puts it, "The Gateses by nature believe that the unexamined life is the one that's worth living. They don't like to talk about themselves. It's all about rational responsibility, not grand idealism."
Buffett, who knows him as well as anyone, says the notoriously competitive Gates will have to find new ways to judge his accomplishments rather than by market share or in dollars. "He'll be competing with his own standards," Buffett says. "In the end, he is going to want people to look at the Gates Foundation 100 years from now and say, 'This guy did it the way it should have been done.'"
With all he did at Microsoft, Gates has a tough act to follow. "Bringing personal computing to billions has totally changed the world, and it's changed it, net-net, way for the better," says Myhrvold. "So even before you look at what his foundation has done for Africa or for the poor, he's already done more for the good of the world than essentially anyone else in our lifetimes."
Melinda Gates isn't at all surprised by Bill's transformation from feared empire builder to enlightened philanthropist. "I think the foundation, because it's not all about business and competition, allows other dimensions of Bill's personality to come out," she says. "He's incredibly funny and has an unbelievably wry sense of humor. He also can be very emotional when he sees the pathetic living conditions of so many people. He's a genuinely nice guy. I think more of what I see at home and what we see inside the foundation will come out. That will be a really nice thing for him and for the world."
To which her husband would likely say, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life."
Just kidding. 
BERKELEY, California -- For most people, photographing something that isn't there might be tough. Not so for Trevor Paglen.
His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.
In taking these photos, Paglen is trying to draw a metaphorical connection between modern government secrecy and the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Galileo's time.
"What would it mean to find these secret moons in orbit around the earth in the same way that Galileo found these moons that shouldn't exist in orbit around Jupiter?" Paglen says.
Satellites are just the latest in Paglen's photography of supposedly nonexistent subjects. To date, he's snapped haunting images of various military sites in the Nevada deserts, "torture taxis" (private planes that whisk people off to secret prisons without judicial oversight) and uniform patches from various top-secret military programs.
The nearly vertical streak in this image shows a satellite called Keyhole 12-3 crossing the sky near the constellation of Scorpio.
While all of Paglen's projects are the result of meticulous research, he's also the first to admit that his photos aren't necessarily revelatory. That's by design. Like the blurry abstractions of his super-telephoto images showing secret military installations in Nevada, the tiny blips of satellites streaking across the night sky in his new series of photos are meant more as reminders rather than as documentation.
"I think that some of the earliest ideas in the modern period were actually from astronomy," Paglen explains. "You look at Galileo: He goes up and points his telescope up at Jupiter and finds out, hey, Jupiter has these moons."
More significant than the discovery itself, Paglen says, was the idea that anyone with a telescope could verify it and see the same exact thing that Galileo saw -- an idea Paglen is trying to re-create in his own photographs.
"It really was analogous to a certain kind of promise of democracy," says Paglen, who sees a similar anti-authoritarian premise running through his own work.
Paglen says his most recent project is the culmination of close to two years of trial-and-error experimentation with astrophotography, untold hours of fieldwork and analysis, an ongoing collaboration with amateur astronomers, and many nights in his Berkeley backyard and at California's Mono Lake.
"Lacrosse/Onyx II Passing Through Draco (USA 69)" shows the transit of another surveillance satellite.
To capture his images, the researcher and "experimental geographer" employs a motorized mount with various combinations of telescopes and digital and large-format film cameras. Paglen uses spy-satellite data compiled by Ted Molczan -- a renowned amateur astronomer profiled by Wired magazine in 2006 -- to predict where a given "black satellite" will be in the sky. Then he decides how he wants to compose the image.
"I'll find where a star will be in the compositional plane," he says. "Then I'll use one telescope, which is attached to a webcam, to focus on that star."
With the help of a computer program that controls the mount of the telescope and keeps it focused on the heavenly body, Paglen says he can get the telescope to swivel with the Earth's rotation.
He then uses another telescope attached to a high-end digital camera for his deep-sky shots, similar to the rig he used for his desert shots.
"I'll see the satellite in the sky, kind of know where it's going to be in the frame, then I'll open the shutter and take a long exposure of the satellite passing through."
Paglen's initial interest in the government's so-called "black projects" took shape while combing through U.S. Geological Survey archives of satellite prison photos in 2002. He noticed that many of the photo frames of prison sites were missing or, in some cases, heavily edited.
"I thought: What the hell is this? We still have blank spots on maps? We've mapped the whole structure of the cosmos and the human genome, so what's this all about?" Paglen said.
Eventually, those blank spots led Paglen to other covert subjects and turned a hobby into a full-time job -- one with a decidedly political stance.
"For a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge," Paglen notes. "So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it -- something that was very aggressive and dangerous -- and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence."
Ultimately, the satellite photos are an attempt to critique that attitude. While the budget for black military operations has more than doubled in the last 10 years and the government continues to espouse the virtues of secrecy, it can't prevent interested amateur astronomers from calculating the orbital paths of spy satellites.
"The National Reconnaissance Office cannot classify Kepler's laws of planetary motion," Paglen says. "They just work ... and they're unbelievably accurate."
 |
| Growing cartilage: A cartilage cell grows on a textured surface coated with carbon nanotubes. Credit: Thomas Webster |
The key to coaxing cells to regenerate might be to make things a little rough for them. Thomas Webster, a bioengineer at Brown University, has been developing implantable materials with nanoscale textures to mimic the roughness of living tissues.
Now, his team has found that cartilage cells can adhere to and grow more densely on a surface covered with carbon nanotubes, particularly when they are also exposed to electrical stimulation. Webster believes that surfaces incorporating carbon nanotubes, which are not only textured but are also electrically conductive, could be a promising strategy for designing cartilage implants.
Cartilage has limited ability to heal itself, so loss or injury to the cushioning tissue is a major health problem. Many research labs have developed materials that mimic the properties of cartilage, as well as scaffolds that can be seeded with cartilage cells outside the body and then implanted at the site of cartilage loss. But one of the key problems is getting a patient's native cartilage, a spongy and rather inert material that lacks its own blood supply, to attach to and integrate with an implant.
To construct a more cell-friendly surface, Webster's team used carbon nanotubes, which have a rough surface and also readily conduct electricity. The researchers mixed the nanotubes into sheets of polycarbonate urethane, an FDA-approved polymer. When they cultured cartilage cells on these sheets, the cells grew more densely on the roughened surface versus on a smooth polycarbonate surface.
Cells grew even faster when the nanotubes were electrically stimulated, although it's not clear why. "Most people believe it's changing the membrane potential of cells," Webster says, which would increase the number of calcium ions--an important cellular signal--flowing into the cell.
Why do cells seem to like rough surfaces? Webster believes that the nanostructures change the surface properties of a material, helping it attract proteins that cells stick to. His work creating a nanostructured surface for bone implants has been licensed by a startup company called Nanovis, which hopes to take it into human trials. Webster's team has also shown that cells of vascular tissue can adhere better to nano-textured surfaces, which could be used to design better vascular stents. He believes that carbon nanotubes could be incorporated into materials used to make cartilage implants.
But Jennifer Elisseeff, a tissue engineer at Johns Hopkins University, is skeptical that the current study, in which cartilage cells were grown in a single layer, has any relevance yet for cartilage regeneration. "Cartilage really needs a 3-D scaffold," she explains, and it can be difficult to translate how cells behave on a flat surface to how they behave in a three-dimensional tissue. Webster's team is currently examining whether cells grown in this way are functionally active as cartilage cells and whether they can be combined into multiple layers.
You already know we love BMW’s latest incarnation of its marvelous M3, this time with a mammoth, 414-hp V-8. As displayed by its ferocious test numbers and three comparison-test victories, it’s simply one of the most fun and involving cars currently on sale.
But until now, all the cars we’ve driven have been equipped with a six-speed manual as we’ve waited for the brand new seven-speed, double-clutch automated manual developed with Getrag to arrive. (BMW calls it M DCT, for M Double-Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic.)
First Double-Clutch Transmission That Can Handle 9000 RPM
Available as a $2700 option on all M3 coupes, sedans, and convertibles, M DCT is the first double-clutch transmission that can handle engine speeds up to—thank-you BMW—a screaming 9000 rpm. M DCT adds about 45 pounds, according to BMW; our 3630-pound test car weighed in 30 pounds heavier than our last manual M3 coupe.
The M DCT gearbox uses two oil-cooled, wet multi-disc clutches and operates much like other transmissions of this type, such as VW/Audi’s DSG/S tronic. One clutch engages the even gears, and the other handles the odds plus reverse. Since only one clutch is engaged at any given time, the transmission anticipates and preselects the next ratio; a gear change simply requires one clutch to release while the other engages, which means the M DCT transmission can shift quicker than a manual transmission, and it drastically reduces the power interruption between gears. Overall, first gear with M DCT is actually slightly taller than in the manual, but the rest of the ratios are shorter.
The double-clutch arrangement also enables quicker and smoother shifting than in single-clutch automated manuals, such as BMW’s own SMG found in the previous M3 and the current M5 and M6. If you’ve ever driven an SMG car, you know what we’re talking about. Even with various iterations and improvements, the current seven-speed unit found in the M5 and M6 leaves large, head-bobbing gaps in power between shifts, rendering it somewhere between annoying and unusable in full-automatic mode.
As with SMG, M DCT has a staggering 11 settings—five in automatic (D mode) and six in manual (S mode)—that determine how aggressive the shifts are, with the most brutal manual setting only available with the stability control off. Settings of four or higher mean satisfying throttle blips accompany downshifts, while one through three yield nearly imperceptible gear changes. Manual shifting is accomplished via steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles (right for upshifts, left for downshifts) or the shift lever on the center console.
Thankfully Blessed With Superb Launch Control
In case you ever get your hands on an M3 equipped with M DCT, you need to know how to experience one of the best features: launch control. Omitted from U.S. versions of the M5 and M6, launch control is thankfully now included in the M3.
With stability control switched off and the transmission in the most aggressive setting, simply push and hold the shift lever forward and a checkered flag appears in the dash display to let you know you’re in launch-control mode. At that point just flat-foot the throttle and the revs rise and hold. Using the cruise control stalk, that rpm hold point can be adjusted between 4600 and 6100 rpm to tailor the launch to the particular surface. With your foot still flat on the floor, let go of the shift lever and it executes a perfect, clutch-dump launch every time. In this mode it also upshifts automatically through the first five gears.
One caveat: M DCT won’t allow multiple, successive launches in this manner. During our runs, it required three- to five-mile cool-down runs before allowing another attempt.
But Is it Quicker?
After scouring the test results for some useful conclusion, the answer is “not really.” The M DCT car hit 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, cleared the quarter-mile in 12.7 at 113 mph, and achieved 150 mph in 26 seconds flat. Compare that to the six-speed manual’s numbers of 4.3, 12.8 at 113, and 24.3, respectively. If you zoom in even closer and look at each 10-mph increment, the two cars tradeoff which one is quicker until 120 mph when the manual starts pulling away.
Still No Replacement for the Manual
The M DCT gearbox is no doubt a technical marvel, but we don’t yet prefer it to a traditional manual.
First off, the throttle response from a standstill is annoyingly lazy. Most times we found ourselves pushing the pedal about halfway down just to get a reasonable response. When attempting to merge into busy traffic, we often used so much pedal as to hit the kickdown switch on the floorboard to get the M3 moving. And then once the clutch finally engages, you get too much acceleration and often, wheelspin. This slow clutch engagement is disconcerting and we all agree that it’s far quicker and more predictable to get a swift, predictable step-off in the manual version.
Second, when accelerating hard, there’s a fair amount of lag between the time you pull the shift paddle and when it actually upshifts. On an aggressive shift from first to second, you have to shift around 7200 rpm—nearly 1000 rpm early—to get it to change gears before the engine hits the 8400-rpm limiter. We never had this issue with SMG in the M5 and M6, and after hitting the limiter multiple times, we yearned for the manual. And when it finally does shift, it often slams into gear so violently as to upset the car.
We found the downshifts to be quicker and more acceptable, although wide-open-throttle, two-lane passing maneuvers at 55–60 mph (a seven-to-two downshift) were a bit slower than we would have liked as well.
However, the taller seventh gear does allow the engine to run about 200 rpm lower than sixth gear in the manual, which could marginally improve real-world highway fuel-economy numbers. In Europe, the double-clutch M3 gets slightly better fuel-economy figures but U.S. EPA ratings remain at 14 mpg city, 20 mpg highway for either transmission. However, automatics generally get worse fuel economy, so parity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We saw 20–21 mpg on a relatively flat, couple-hour highway slog.
For sure, the automatic mode—other than the lazy clutch engagement on step-off—is much improved over the SMG and now perfectly acceptable. Keep it in one of the less aggressive settings and the shifts are so smooth you might miss them unless you’re paying close attention. And, unfortunately, there’s a strong demand for automatics in high-performance sports cars. But—other than the launch control feature—we think it’s far easier and more satisfying to exploit the M3’s excellent dynamics with a traditional manual, which was not necessarily what we expected.
EHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe
PRICE AS TESTED: $69,425 (base price: $61,325)
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 244 cu in, 3999cc
Power (SAE net): 414 bhp @ 8300 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 295 lb-ft @ 3900 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 7-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 108.7 in Length: 181.8 in Width: 71.0 in Height: 55.8 in Curb weight: 3630 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 4.3 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 9.9 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 26.0 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.9 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.7 sec @ 113 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 161 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 147 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.96 g
FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 14/20 mpg
Since its introduction as a 2006 model, the Bentley Continental Flying Spur has delighted the well-heeled with immense performance, supreme refinement, and seemingly boundless customization. Naturally, for 2009, Bentley has done to the Flying Spur what any rational ultraluxury brand would do-given it more performance, more refinement, more customization, and, at $180,395, more bottom line.
That sum represents the standard Flying Spur, which enters '09 with a new front fascia and rear bumper, a retuned suspension, a new adaptive cruise-control system, acoustic side and rear glass, and trilaminate undertray and wheel-arch liners, the last two combining to achieve a 5 db reduction in interior noise. Inside, the Flying Spur now offers a rear bench seat with electrically adjustable outboard seats and a $6900 Naim audio system with 15 speakers and an 1100-watt amplifier.
Still spurring the all-wheel-drive Spur is a 6.0L twin-turbo W-12 good for 552 hp and 479 lb-ft. Bentley estimates 0 to 60 in 4.9 sec and a top speed of 195 mph. Want more speed? Then go for the new $204,795 Speed, whose dark-tinted front grilles, wider tail pipes, and split-spoke 20-in. alloys distinguish it from its gentler sibling.
Essentially a four-door version of the Continental GT Speed that made its debut last year, the CFS Speed gets a more potent version of the W-12 that, due to reduction in internal losses, produces 600 hp and 553 lb-ft, all of which means 0 to 60 in only 4.5 sec and a top speed of 200 mph. To complement its extra oomph, the Speed sits 0.4 in. lower than the standard CFS, uses stiffer springs and dampers, larger anti-roll bars, an upgraded Bosch 8.1 stability-control system with Dynamic mode, and the aforementioned dubs, which frame optional $16,500 carbon ceramic brakes. Those snazzy stoppers save roughly 22 lb per wheel and boast monstrous 16.5-in. front discs that could easily serve a pair of Thanksgiving turkeys. Further, the Speed sports a front subframe bolted directly to the frame (versus a rubber-mounted one for the standard car) that, with help from a retuned Servotronic steering system and stiffer rear bushings, delivers quicker, sharper turn-in and better sense of the road through the new three-spoke steering wheel. The ride is still more of a glide, but it's noticeably firmer and better suited for taming a twisty road.
After learning the price of the Speed, a friend described it as a "total waste of money." Then we went for a spin. And then another. He smiled and laughed in utter amazement. Owners, no doubt, will smile and laugh all the way to 200 mph.
DEARBORN, Michigan — Ford Motor said Friday it will delay by two months the introduction of the redesigned 2009 Ford F-150, because an industry-wide fall-off in demand for full-size pickups means dealers likely will take longer to sell down inventories of the current 2008 model.
Ford also confirmed plans to replace the current Focus compact in North America with a new European-designed model in late 2010. The second-generation European Focus, known internally as C346, will be a truly global project, with production sourced in Germany, Spain, Russia, China, India and Argentina, among other locations. Production for North America will likely be sourced from Mexico, according to suppliers familiar with Ford's plans.
Ford confirmed the next-generation Focus "will be common with Europe, South America and Asia Pacific." It said the 2011 Focus will achieve "excellent fuel economy...through new highly efficient direct-injection engine technology and a new advanced six-speed transmission."
The current U.S. Focus, which carries the internal code C170, dates to early 1999. It received a substantial face-lift for model year 2008, but its basic underpinnings were designed and engineered more than 10 years ago.
The new European-designed Fiesta subcompact, another global Ford vehicle, is slated to go into production in Mexico in early 2010. Ford has been displaying versions of the car at auto shows around the world.
While the U.S. launch of these new small cars is still 20-30 months away, Ford is taking some immediate — and sometimes drastic — steps to slash production of large trucks, SUVs and sedans, while scrambling to increase production of smaller vehicles.
The company on Friday said it will make substantial cuts in North American production in the third and fourth quarters, most of which involves assembly of larger vehicles.
It said production of the redesigned 2009 F-150 will begin in August in Kansas City and in September in Dearborn, about two months later than originally scheduled. SUV and heavy-duty truck plants in Michigan and Kentucky will get drastic cutbacks, as will a plant in Chicago that makes the full-size Taurus and Sable sedans, as well as the new 2009 Lincoln MKS.
Regarding the changes, Ford CEO Alan Mulally observed: "We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand. In the near term, we are adjusting production to the actual demand — increasing small cars and crossovers and reducing large trucks and SUVs. For the long term, we are moving fast to introduce more small cars, crossovers and fuel-efficient powertrains — including more hybrids — and we will adjust our manufacturing facilities to match our updated product lineup."
What this means to you: As old as it is, Ford's U.S. Focus is attracting many more customers this year, in large measure because it is one of the most fuel-efficient models in the company's North American portfolio. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent
.
Posts
All Comments
