Jonathan Rauch/theAtlantic: Electro-Shock Therapy
. . . improvements were being incorporated as fast as they could be conceived; the battery would be on its second generation in January, its third in June. “It’s incredible,” Turner said. “The design they’ve come up with for thermal changed 10 times before they delivered the first battery.”

It looks like GM's going to make their production runs on schedule in 2010 - less than two years - putting them on track to "paint on" those solar cells. Oil? We don't need no stinking oil.
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Photo © General Motors @ iCar.com

From the Wall Street Journal,

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Global-Warming Study Weighs Impact of Human Action

By GAUTAM NAIK

May 15, 2008; Page A10

A new study says humans have changed the world's environment more by warming the climate than by directly encroaching on habitats.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, also establishes a link between climate change and narrower, continental changes such as the earlier spring flight of butterflies in California, the earlier release of pollen in the Netherlands and the increased growth of pine trees in Mongolia.
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An international team of over a dozen scientists, led by Cynthia Rosenzweig of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University in New York, showed very strong indications based on studies done on a continental scale.

In other news,

[Image: Automobile Magazine, 25 Most Beautiful Cars]
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Friends and me were standing in the driveway when my dad pulled up in one of those '63 split-windowed, 327 'Vettes. It was summer of 1965, and by the time our drool had hit the ground, the old man had flipped me the keys, and as he was walking away said: "Be careful with that thing. It's got a little shimmie at around 125." (It did).

Somedays that's the way I feel about this Country: it's got a little vibration at higher speeds. Some folk think we need to change the tires. I think we need a complete overhaul. The story below reminded me of that this morning.
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David Bailey/Reuters: GM offers all U.S. union workers buyouts or retirement
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp will offer buyouts or early retirements to all 74,000 U.S. hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers in a sweeping deal with the union intended to clear the way for GM to hire lower-cost replacements.