Eideard

When production of the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano kicks off this fall, 40 percent of the energy that powers General Motors’ Orion Assembly Plant will come from methane captured from a nearby landfill site. This use of the landfill gas will reduce GM’s energy costs by $1.1 million a year and cut the amount of greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere.

Use of landfill gas is one of several methods GM is using to lessen the Orion Assembly Plant’s environmental impact. Others include: lighting system upgrades that will save an estimated 5,944 megawatts of electricity per year while also slashing CO2 emissions by 3,676 metric tons and an upgraded paint shop that’s heated by natural and landfill gas and uses approximately half of the energy (per vehicle) of the outdated paint shop that it replaced.

Maureen Midgley, GM’s executive director of global manufacturing engineering, says that these modifications will enable the Orion Assembly Plant to “reduce greenhouse gas production by about 80,000 metric tons at a full three-shift capacity.” That’s roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions from 14,000 vehicles.

Hey, every little bit helps. Don’t discount GM’s “radical” conversion to energy [and cost] savings. There is no doubt that the loans to GM that brought them back from near-extinction included a lot of ear-bending and arm-twisting about entering the 21st Century.

Good sense and economics often isn’t sufficient to modernize politicians or capitalists.

A 10-year study has revealed that the electron is very spherical indeed.

To be precise, the electron differs from being perfectly round by less than 0.000000000000000000000000001 cm. To put that in context; if an electron was the size of the solar system, it would be out from being perfectly round by less than the width of a human hair.

The Imperial College team behind the research, which was conducted on molecules of ytterbium flouride, used a laser to make measurements of the motion of electrons, and in particular the wobble they exhibit when spinning. They observed no such wobble, implying that the electron is perfectly round at the levels of precision available, reflected in the figure above…

The next step is to up that precision level even further, using new methods to cool the molecules to extremely low temperatures and control their motion. The results are important in the study of antimatter, and particularly the positron — which should behave identically to the electron but with an opposite electrical charge. If more differences can be found, it could help to explain why far less antimatter has been discovered in the universe than predicted by theory.

Keep on rockin’. Just imagine what sort of rotation could be achieved with spheres like this as the contact points in a bearing race?

Chancellor Keesling coming home from Iraq

A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current “insensitive” policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide.

A letter signed by 11 senators — 10 Democrats and one Republican — urges the president to “take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence” to families of troops who killed themselves.

The policy, which goes back several presidents, has been the subject of protest by military families. CNN first reported in 2009 about the family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, who killed himself while serving in Iraq.

The family set up a wall to pay tribute to Keesling in their Indiana home. Along with his uniform and the flag from his burial service, a space was left for the expected condolence letter from the commander in chief. It never arrived.

Upset when they learned a suicide did not merit a letter from the president, Keesling’s father, Gregg, wrote to the president and the Army chief of staff requesting the policy be changed.

At the time, a White House spokesman said the administration was reviewing the “inherited” policy.

Keesling has argued that his son’s suicide was a result of what he was exposed to during war and deserves to be considered caused by battle. The letter never arrived.

The letter to the president this week seeks again to reverse the policy. The senators note that the Pentagon has worked hard to try to eliminate the stigma of mental health injuries and to lower the suicide rate…

“Unfortunately, perpetuating a policy that denies condolence letters to families of service members who die by suicide only serves to reinforce this stigma by overshadowing the contributions of an individual’s life with the unfortunate nature of his or her death,” the letter says. “It is simply unacceptable for the United States to be sending the message to these families that somehow their loved ones’ sacrifices are less important.”

It doesn’t seem to matter if our leader in the White House is a compassionate conservative or a compassionate liberal – there hasn’t been anyone in that office with common sense or compassion enough to care about the families of someone whose death took place while toiling for this nation as a member of the American military.

It takes some kind of barbaric reasoning to inflict further loss upon those who were close to someone who felt they needed to take their life.

UPDATE: We won that one. Obama changed administration policy, today – 6 July 2011.

In 1919, he was a greedy multimillionaire who didn’t want to see his family get its hands on the vast fortune he’d amassed as a lumber baron. But in 2011, Wellington R. Burt is the sort of generous benefactor who usually exists only in daydreams — the long-lost relative you never met who leaves you millions of dollars.

With the conditions of a strange will — which barred any money from his estate being distributed until 21 years after the death of his last grandchild — having been met, 12 of Burt’s descendants split a fortune estimated at about $100 million. By 5 p.m. on Monday, each of those 12 became instant millionaires after Saginaw, Mich., County Chief Probate Judge Patrick McGraw ordered full distribution of the estate by that deadline.

It took 20 attorneys working together to get it done, and Citizens Bank Wealth Management, the estate’s trustee, paid out the fortune on Monday…

His last grandchild died in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2010 that a group of Burt’s descendants began the legal proceedings to reach an agreement to disburse his fortune. Thirty of them applied to claim a piece of that pile of money, but genealogical research whittled them down to the lucky group of 12.

The recipients range in age from 19 to 94 years old, and live in eight different states; only one lives in Michigan. The lucky dozen have succeeded where six children, seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren could not. That group either was banned from receiving a large inheritance by Burt’s will, or died in the 92-year waiting period before an agreement was finally reached.

RTFA for the details. He does not sound like he spend too much time being a nice guy. He cut out his home town because they raised taxes [remind you of anyone?] and cut out one of his daughters because she dared get divorced.

Still – an interesting tale from the days when the great American fortunates were being made. Generally by people just as creepy as Wellington R. Burt.

Police believe they are close to catching a burglar nicknamed Goldilocks who breaks into homes, eats the owners food and then takes a nap in their beds.

Essex Police have been encouraged by the public response since they launched an appeal for information about blond-haired Jesse Dobinson, 19, who has gone missing.

He was still at large on Friday.

Detective Inspector Simon Anslow, who has also released a photograph of Dobinson, said: We called him Goldilocks as we believe he has not only eaten his victims food, but also slept in their beds…He added: It is distressing for the victim to come home and find their food has been eaten and that someone has been in their personal space.

Within a few days, police claim he twice broke into a house in Wickford, Essex, helped himself to food, had a brief sleep and then stole electrical goods.

He is then said to have returned a third time and, on being disturbed, shot his victim in the chest with a BB gun.

The unemployed teenager from South Woodham Ferrers is also wanted in connection with a knifepoint robbery in the same town…

Dobinson is described as slim, clean-shaven, 5ft 3in tall and with short, straight hair.

Time to act like a bear.

Pakistan needs to to understand that anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make their problems disappear, according to Hillary Clinton.

Her warning came as US officials said documents seized during the raid to kill Osama bin Laden suggested the al-Qaeda leader and his aides were considering striking a deal with Pakistan to guarantee them a safe haven.

In return, the terror group would have reined in terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.

Mrs Clinton, the US secretary of state, became the first member of the Obama administration to visit Pakistan since the death of bin Laden…

After meeting President Asif Ali Zardari, Mrs Clinton also met General Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistani military, and General Shuja Pasha, director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency. A US official described the meetings as “difficult”…

Mrs Clinton, looking stony-faced at a press conference afterward, said: “This was an especially important visit because we have reached a turning point. Osama bin Laden is dead but al-Qaeda and his syndicate of terror remain a serious threat to us both.”

“America cannot and should not solve Pakistan’s problems. That’s up to Pakistan. But in solving its problems, Pakistan should understand that anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make problems disappear,” Mrs Clinton said.

“Anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make problems disappear”? Why not?

Seems to work in the little minds of some members of the Kool Aid Party and other right-wing Republican religious sects. Why shouldn’t the same effect carry over into a theocratic nation led around by the nose by ultra-nationalist parties and dedicated, demented sectarian religious bozos? Did I mention Israel?

Toilet reserved for Mugabe

When the call of nature comes, it cannot always be denied. Few have answered it in such an unfortunate fashion as Alois Mabhunu.

While on duty at a trade fair the Zimbabwean police sergeant simply could not hold on and allegedly dashed to the nearest toilet – disastrously, as it transpired, a toilet specially reserved for President Robert Mugabe.

Mabhunu’s relief was thus shortlived. He was arrested and has languished in jail for two weeks on suspicion of invading the presidential privy…

Under the headline “Never Use Toilet Reserved For President!” VOP’s website reported that Mabhunu was on duty at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds during its official opening by Mugabe and Jean-Louis Ekra, the president of Afreximbank.

“Mabhunu, due to the call of nature, rushed to the toilets reserved for Mugabe and his guest Ekra, but was stopped by other officers guarding the toilets,” VOP said. “…He was arrested the following day on 7 May after a report was made to Mugabe’s security men and to senior police officers in the city.”

Mabhunu, a murder detective, is in police detention at barracks on the outskirts of Bulawayo. The legality of the case against him was challenged by Beatrice Mtetwa, one of Zimbabwe’s leading human rights lawyers.

“There has to be a law saying the toilet is the president’s, but this was a public one,” she said. “They will have had to issue a proclamation in the government gazette specifying it. I bet they didn’t do that.”

Mugabe’s personal space – and reputation as father of the independent nation – are fiercely protected. Several motorists are said to have been assaulted by his security personnel for not giving way to the presidential motorcade.

Insulting the president is punishable by up to a year in jail. Even if the insult is generated by your digestive tract. Apparently.

The close-knit community on the Mediterranean island of Malta could be on the verge of a fundamental change that may affect the very fabric of its society. In a referendum on Saturday, the citizens of this deeply Roman Catholic country will decide whether to introduce divorce.

Malta is the only country – apart from the Philippines and the Vatican City – where divorce cannot be carried out. Instead, people must either become domiciled abroad or, if one of the parties is not Maltese, they could apply for a divorce in their own country. That divorce can be recorded in Malta.

Couples can apply for a legal separation thought the courts, or seek a Church annulment – a complex process that can take up to nine years…

According to the Labour opposition leader Joseph Muscat – who is in favour of divorce – two legal separations a day pass through the Maltese courts. On top of this, the courts regularly record foreign divorces.

With at least 95% of a population of more than 400,000 being Roman Catholic, divorce has never made it past the strong religious beliefs of the Church, politicians and the public itself. But that might be about to change. Last year Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, an MP with the Nationalists, presented a private member’s bill along with Evarist Bartolo, an MP with the opposition Labour party…

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando…thinks the current system is unjust. “Malta is the only country in the world which doesn’t have divorce but does recognise those obtained abroad. Therefore, if you have the means you can get divorced but if you don’t, then you can’t.

“This, to me, is unjust and unacceptable.”

Mr Orlando sees the referendum as more than just a vote on divorce – for him it’s a debate on the Church’s role in society and the amount of political and social influence that it carries in Malta.

“I appreciate the fact that the Church should be allowed to exercise spiritual influence, but I can’t accept a situation where the Church also wields political and administrative power,” he says.

Some parishioners say they have been told by their priests that they will be denied Holy Communion and confession if they vote for divorce, he continues.

“The local Catholic Church is going to suffer, even after the referendum.”

I hope there’s isn’t anyone out there who expected the Catholic Church to be any more willing to enter modern society – in Malta – than it is everywhere else in the real world. Individual freedom to choose, to live, is not allowed the flock by its shepherds.

UPDATE: The referendum passed. Bravo, Malta!

A great-grandmother selling do-it-yourself asphyxiation kits by mail said on Thursday she was ordered from her house at gunpoint by federal agents who raided her home and seized cartons of documents, computers and sewing machines.

Sharlotte Hydorn, 91, told Reuters about a dozen agents in flak jackets from the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service arrived at her San Diego-area home at about 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday, and ordered her outside, shouting, “Come out, or I’ll shoot.”

“I had guns in my face. I thought, ‘I’m dying on my feet.’ … I didn’t know what to say,” she recounted, sitting inside a sprawling three-bedroom ranch house still strewn a day later with papers and boxes.

They presented her with a 37-page search warrant signed on Tuesday by a U.S. magistrate and proceeded to comb through her house for nearly 11 hours, leaving the dwelling in disarray when they left, she said…

A copy of the search warrant shown to Reuters indicated Hydorn was under investigation for alleged conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion and the “sale of adulterated or misbranded medical device.”

Hydorn made headlines after one of her mail-order customers from Oregon, Nicholas Klonoski, 29, described by his family as suffering from depression but otherwise healthy, used one of her kits to take his own life in December.

Her product consists of a plastic hood that closes around the neck, and tubing that connects the hood to a tank of helium or other inert gas users must supply for themselves.

Hydorn says her so-called “exit kits” are intended to help terminally ill people end their lives with dignity in their own homes, though she has acknowledged she performs no background checks or screening of individuals who order the apparatus.

She sells them for $60 each, including shipping and instructions, under the brand name GLADD, which stands for Glorious Life and Dignified Death.

Perish the thought the law, the government, politicians, priests and police should allow someone to choose to end their own life – without harming another human being, simply making a choice and receiving a bit of assistance from another thoughtful human being.

They disgust me with their fears and rules requiring government approval to die.

Photo taken a year-and-a-half after the earthquake
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Seven scientists and other experts were indicted on manslaughter charges on Wednesday for not warning residents before a devastating earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009.

Defense lawyers condemned the charges, saying it’s impossible to predict earthquakes.

Judge Giuseppe Romano Gargarella ordered the members of the national government’s Great Risks commission, which evaluates potential for natural disasters, to go on trial in L’Aquila on Sept. 20.

Corriere della Sera’s web site and other Italian media quoted the judge as saying the defendants “gave inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” about whether smaller tremors felt by L’Aquila residents in the weeks and months before the April 6, 2009 quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.

Swarms of much smaller temblors had rattled L’Aquila in the months before the quake, causing frightened residents to wonder if they should evacuate…

Golly. I didn’t realize you needed advice from the government on whether or not to leave or stay if you feared an earthquake.

“As we all know, quakes aren’t predictable,” said Marcello Melandri, defence lawyer for defendant Enzo Boschi, a scientist who heads the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. In any case, Melandri contended, the panel “never said, ‘stay calm, there is no risk…”‘

Many of the structures that collapsed in the 2009 quake were not properly built to standards for a quake-prone area like the central Apennine region of Abruzzo. Among the buildings which cracked and crumbled was L’Aquila’s hospital, just as it was struggling to treat about 1,500 injured.

Nobody inside the hospital, which was built in the 1970s, was killed or injured in the quake.

As far as Berlusconi is concerned, blaming anyone and everyone else for the horrors of this disaster also serves to distract people from his inaction and lack of aid since the earthquake took place.

He hopes.