WIRED review: Throwback Mustang Muscle Car Is One Boss Ride

 Review by Sam Smith


 Let’s get one thing out of the way: This is the best Mustang ever built. Which makes it one of the best muscle cars ever built. Which makes it one of the best cars ever built, period. Which means you should probably go out and buy one, even though it costs $41,000 — a big chunk of change for a Mustang.

For a normal person, the ordinary, 412-hp Mustang GT has absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s a $30,500 brawler that handles better than anything with a live rear axle has a right to. Best of all, it recalls that awesome time your dad hit up the ‘74 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen and got lost in the track’s world-famous Bog before drinking his weight in Schlitz and helping a rowdy mob set a Greyhound bus on fire.

Read the full review.

Federal Government to add electric vehicles to fleet

BY KEN THOMAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS via FREEP.COM


The government is adding some electric cars to its fleet. For the first time, the General Services Administration has asked automakers to submit bids to supply about 100 electric cars.

The request was part of an Obama administration plan outlined earlier this year to boost the number of green vehicles used by federal workers on the job.

Government fleet operators say it will let them learn how federal agencies can best use the vehicles. The bulk buying is happening as automakers release mass-produced plug-in electric hybrid vehicles and electric cars later this year.

Several automakers are expected to submit bids and the vehicles could begin appearing in the fleet next spring.


Read more: Government to add electric vehicles to fleet | freep.com | Detroit Free Press 

MLive.com - Granholm: Film incentives are about jobs, not tax revenue

Published on MLive.com : Friday, October 08, 2010, 2:11 PM

by: Jackie Headapohl 

Today is the two-and-a-half year anniversary of the Michigan film incentives and to mark the occasion, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholmattended the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council (MFOAC) meeting today to discuss the economic impact the film incentives have had on the state. 

“We are watching an entire new industry emerge in Michigan,” Granholm said.  “The number of productions being filmed in Michigan is increasing, we are creating jobs and attracting production facilities, and we are keeping our young people here in Michigan.  The incentives have provided important economic benefits for the state, while also helping to diversify our economy.”

The film incentives have come under fire as a recent Senate Fiscal Agency report said the incentives costs the state more money than it takes in from tax revenue generated by the film industry.

After the council meeting, the Free Press reports that Granholm said the film incentives weren't intended to create revenue for the state.

“The point of this was to add a whole new sector to our economy and create jobs,” Granholm said, after her farewell address to the Michigan Film  Office Advisory Council at Michigan State University. “The point of it wasn’t to make revenue for the state. That’s the question – do people want to see new sectors in Michigan that will keep young people here, because truly, that is priceless."

Several people spoke at the council meeting about their experiences in the film industry including,  Kurt Peters of Chow Catering in Clarkston, Michigan, which found its niche catering to the industry. The company is expecting it will put $400,000 back into the economy by the end of this year, purchasing propane, supplies and groceries from local businesses and has hired up to 25 workers during busy periods.

John James from Livonia, Michigan, a Teamster driver and transportation captain, also spoke to the council. He lost his job in March 2008 and was on the verge of losing his home before finding work as a driver on nine films. Without the work in the film industry, John says he would have been forced to leave the state to look for work.

“These incentives are more than numbers on a page; they are helping real people find jobs, keep their business running and stay in Michigan,” said Carrie Jones, director of the Michigan Film Office. 

Source- MLive.com

Wired - William Gibson Talks Zero History, Paranoia and the Awesome Power of Twitter

William Gibson

    From recession-proof military contractors cool-hunting secret, weaponized brands to “gear queers,” viral iPhones and Twitter darknets, William Gibson’s new novel Zero History examines the 21st century’s techno-cultural fetishes with a deceptively simple directive: The future is now.

Gone is the sci-fi pretense of an imagined future, and for good reason.

“All we really have when we pretend to write about the future is the moment in which we are writing,” the 62-year-old godfather of cyberspace told Wired.com by phone. “That’s why every imagined future obsoletes like an ice cream melting on the way back from the corner store.”

SEE ALSO:

Read an Excerpt From William Gibson’s New Novel, Zero History

Out Tuesday from publisher Putnam/Penguin, Zero History dissects our paranoid, post-9/11 information overload with an eye for imminent terror and immanent transcendence. Like Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Don DeLillo’s White Noise before it, Gibson’s new novel is not as interested in riveting plot points as it is in parsing an everyday life swarming with signifiers.

Its main characters — detail-obsessed Russian translator Milgrim, ex-rocker and taste-making detective Hollis Henry, and postmodern marketing mogul Hubertus Bigend — have been retrieved from the pages of Gibson’s previous novels Pattern Recognition and Spook Country to serve as ciphers through which the author’s hypercritical cultural examinations are executed.

Wired.com spoke with Gibson in a wide-ranging interview about Zero History, social networking, 9/11, fashionable militarism, brainy endeavors like Inception and The Century of the Self, smartphones and the cinematic adaptation of his sci-fi classic Neuromancer.

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/09/william-gibson-interview/#ixzz0yuAVqyAy


    

Bay City Times - Dow Corning hopes to shine at European solar conference

Dow Corning Solar Panels

(Via) - Michael Wayland | The Bay City Times

WILLIAMS TWP. — Dow Corning Corp. continues its global  solar energy push and will highlight two new products at a conference in Europe this week.

More than 20 officials from the Bay County-based corporation will gather in Feria Valencia, Spain, for the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition and the fifth World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion.

“We consider this to be one of the most global shows,” said Don Buchalski, senior market specialist for Dow Corning’s Solar Solutions Group, who is attending the conference. “We have people that will be there from Asia, the U.S. and Europe.”

The conferences occur simultaneously from Monday-Friday with exhibits through Thursday. More than 40,000 people from 100 countries are expected to attend, according to the conference’s website.

Read the FULL ARTICLE on MLive.com

Who's fighting for Main Street? Rick Snyder and Virg Bernero both say they will as next governor - AnnArbor.com

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder borrowed a page from the playbook of Democratic opponent Virg Bernero today, issuing a message to supporters in which he said he'll be a fighter for Main Street.

"I'm proud to announce that 'Main Street' continues to support our campaign," Snyder said in a statement. "The Michigan Retailers Association and the Associated Builders and Contractors have endorsed my candidacy. They join the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Association of Michigan and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce."

Rick Snyder, left, said today he'll fight for Main Street, a message Virg Bernero, right, is spreading on his Fighting for Main Street Tour.

"These organizations represent thousands of small businesses, standing together to support our vision of a revived, vibrant Main Street," Snyder said, adding he looks forward to working with them to revitalize Michigan's economy.

Read the whole article : Who's fighting for Main Street? Rick Snyder and Virg Bernero both say they will as next governor - AnnArbor.com

German research team develops printable batteries

A research team at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS) in Chemnitz, Germany, led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann, have developed a 1.5V battery that weighs less than a gram, is less than 1mm thick, and can be printed using a process similar to that used in silk screening.

The new type of battery is made of of different layers: a zinc anode and a manganese cathode, among others. Zinc and manganese react with one another and produce electricity. However, the anode and the cathode layer dissipate gradually during this chemical process. Therefore, the battery is suitable for applications that have a limited life span or a limited power requirement, for instance greeting cards. The battery contains no mercury.

The team hopes to have products using the method available by the end of the year.