Engadget: GM chief to drive Chevy Volt in search of $18 billion handout

Posted by on under gm exec, chevy volt, detroit free press, rust belt, abanded, chevettes, mile journey, senate hearing, camera crews, frugality, electric vehicles, bailout, private jet, wager, powertrain, malibu, prototype, gm, reminder, alg |


After arriving at the first Senate hearing by private jet, GM's Rick Wagoner is looking to feign innovation and a commitment to frugality by driving a Chevy Volt prototype to Washington and past the camera crews awaiting his arrival. The obvious stunt meant to reverse public opinion in GM's bid for bailout cash will put Wagoner behind the wheel of the Volt prototype for just a fraction of the 355 mile journey. Good thing too, because without the infrastructure required to support electric vehicles, Wagoner's Volt would only last about 40 miles on battery before the fuel burning engine kicked in to maintain enough charge to drive the powertrain. Instead, the GM exec will begin his journey from Detroit in a hybrid Malibu capable of just 24/32 MPG city/highway. We just hope that the Saturns and dilapidated Chevettes he sees abandoned along America's rust-belt provides the man with ample reminder of GM's previous failures to revolutionize from within. Oh, sorry Rick was that too mean?

P.S. The car pictured above is a non-functional 2011 Volt prototype that will be parked in DC upon Wagoner's arrival.

[Via Detroit Free Press]

Filed under: Transportation

GM chief to drive Chevy Volt in search of $18 billion handout originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: gm exec, chevy volt, detroit free press, rust belt, abanded, chevettes, mile journey, senate hearing, camera crews, frugality, electric vehicles, bailout, private jet, wager, powertrain, malibu, prototype, gm, reminder, alg

Engadget: GM chief to drive Chevy Volt in search of $18 billion handout

Posted by on under gm exec, chevy volt, detroit free press, rust belt, abanded, chevettes, mile journey, senate hearing, camera crews, frugality, electric vehicles, bailout, private jet, wager, powertrain, malibu, prototype, gm, reminder, alg |


After arriving at the first Senate hearing by private jet, GM's Rick Wagoner is looking to feign innovation and a commitment to frugality by driving a Chevy Volt prototype to Washington and past the camera crews awaiting his arrival. The obvious stunt meant to reverse public opinion in GM's bid for bailout cash will put Wagoner behind the wheel of the Volt prototype for just a fraction of the 355 mile journey. Good thing too, because without the infrastructure required to support electric vehicles, Wagoner's Volt would only last about 40 miles on battery before the fuel burning engine kicked in to maintain enough charge to drive the powertrain. Instead, the GM exec will begin his journey from Detroit in a hybrid Malibu capable of just 24/32 MPG city/highway. We just hope that the Saturns and dilapidated Chevettes he sees abandoned along America's rust-belt provides the man with ample reminder of GM's previous failures to revolutionize from within. Oh, sorry Rick was that too mean?

P.S. The car pictured above is a non-functional 2011 Volt prototype that will be parked in DC upon Wagoner's arrival.

[Via Detroit Free Press]

Filed under: Transportation

GM chief to drive Chevy Volt in search of $18 billion handout originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments


Tagi: gm exec, chevy volt, detroit free press, rust belt, abanded, chevettes, mile journey, senate hearing, camera crews, frugality, electric vehicles, bailout, private jet, wager, powertrain, malibu, prototype, gm, reminder, alg

Lifehacker: Times Extra Adds Outside Sources to New York Times [News Aggregation]

Posted by on under new york times news, york times news, times news, aggregation, new york times, news articles |

The New York Times launched a new version of their front page today, "Times Extra," that incorporates up to eight related or supporting blog posts and news articles from outside sources, including...
Tagi: new york times news, york times news, times news, aggregation, new york times, news articles

Wired: Gallery: 10 Years of the International Space Station

Posted by on under earth orbits, photo nasa, soyuz tma, minute spacewalk, solar array, crash pad, returning to earth, federal space, space shuttle, southeastern coast, careens, ultima series, atlant, bottom center, 10th birthday, brith, sci fi, michael fincke, frt, stabiliz |

: Photo: NASA

Floating 190 miles above the Earth's surface, the extraplanetary crash pad known as the International Space Station careens through the sky at an average of over 17,000 miles per hour, making almost 16 Earth orbits a day.

Set for completion in 2011, it's been 10 years since construction first began on the ISS. The final version will double its current capacity of three residents to six and provide incalculable contributions to science. In honor of its 10th birthday, we've assembled some of our favorite photos from the space station's lifetime. Click through the gallery for a glimpse at one of the world's most impressive sci-fi realities.

Left:
Astronaut Piers J. Sellers moves along a truss on the International Space Station, while space shuttle Discovery is docked in July 2006.

: Photo: NASA

The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station with Expedition 18 on Oct. 14, 2008. Visible in the background is the southeastern coast of Tunisia (left), the Gulf of Gabès and the Isle of Jerba (bottom center). Top of the picture points northwest.

The Expedition 18 mission brought NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov to the ISS for a six-month stay that relieved two other astronauts of their posts.

Of particular note to Wired.com readers: Videogame icon and now space tourist Richard Garriott (known as Lord British in the Ultima series) tagged along on the expedition for 12 days before returning to Earth on Oct. 24.

: Photo: NASA

The International Space Station is seen here in front of the Earth's horizon, photographed from the space shuttle Atlantis as it moves farther away June 19, 2007.

During the departure and fly-around, the Atlantis crew got a look at the station's newly expanded configuration, which included the retraction of an old solar array and the unfolding of a new one on the starboard side of the station.

: Photo: NASA

During a seven-hour, 19-minute spacewalk, astronaut Scott Parazynski cut a snagged wire and installed homemade stabilizers to strengthen a damaged solar array. Parazynski is anchored to a foot restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System.

Mission STS-120 was flown by the space shuttle Discovery and delivered the Harmony module. The module, among other things, added 2,666 cubic feet of living space and completed the U.S. core contribution to the ISS.

: Photo: NASA

Best known for the insulation-foam scare after the Columbia tragedy, STS-118 found Endeavour with a puncture in its heat shield. Fortunately the fears that the exposed foam would lead to another catastrophe were needless.

Endeavour's orbital-maneuvering-system pods and vertical stabilizer are visible in this photo as it docks with the International Space Station. The mission successfully delivered its supplies and modules.

: Photo: NASA

On mission STS-122, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel works to replace a nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's ammonia cooling system.

Pictured in the photo is the exterior of the new Columbus laboratory, which Schlegel traversed during the six-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.

: Photo: Victor Zelentsov/NASA

The station's first female commander, Peggy A. Whitson, walks with cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko (center) and Malaysian space tourist Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who is also the first Malaysian in space.

The astronauts are wearing Russian Sokol launch-and-entry suits for Expedition 16. The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 10, 2007, and arrived at the ISS on Oct. 12.

: Photo: NASA

In this photo, the Expedition 1 crew members are still training for their upcoming mission a week-and-half prior to the Oct. 30, 2000, launch to International Space Station.

They are (left to right) Soyuz commander Yuri P. Gidzenko, Expedition 1 commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd and flight engineer Sergei K. Krikalev.

As the first residents of the ISS, it was this crew's job to unpack all the supply boxes and move in. They stayed a little over four months before returning to Earth.

: Photo: NASA

This view of Hurricane Felix was taken from the International Space Station on Sept. 3, 2007, with a 28-70mm lens set at 28mm focal length.

The ISS was located nearly over the coast of eastern Honduras when this image was taken. At approximately noon GMT, Hurricane Felix was moving west at 21 miles per hour. The sustained winds were 165 miles per hour with higher gusts making it a category 5 hurricane.

: Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA

Photographer Bill Ingalls has traveled the world as a photographer for NASA since 1989. Honored by United Press International as one of the top pictures of 2007, Ingalls' photo of the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft shows it being transported by train to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft launched two days later, bringing the Expedition 16 crew to the International Space Station.

: Photo: NASA

Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer, uses a communication system in the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station on July 17, 2008. The Russian module provides living quarters and life-support functions.


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Tagi: earth orbits, photo nasa, soyuz tma, minute spacewalk, solar array, crash pad, returning to earth, federal space, space shuttle, southeastern coast, careens, ultima series, atlant, bottom center, 10th birthday, brith, sci fi, michael fincke, frt, stabiliz

Wired: Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing — Fisker Reveals the Production Karma

Posted by on under nothing like the real thing, foot pounds, fisker, prototype, torque |

We didn't think it was possible, but the production version is even sexier than the prototype. And it produces a mind-boggling 959 foot-pounds of torque.
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Tagi: nothing like the real thing, foot pounds, fisker, prototype, torque