Month: March 2008

Fed May Buy Mortgages Next, Treasury Investors Bet

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March 24 (Bloomberg) — Forget lower interest rates. For the Federal Reserve to keep the financial markets from imploding it needs to buy troubled mortgage bonds from banks and securities firms, say the world’s biggest Treasury investors.

Even after cutting rates by 3 percentage points since September, expanding the range of securities it accepts as collateral for loans and giving dealers access to its discount window, the Fed has been unable to promote confidence. The difference between what the government and banks pay for three- month loans almost doubled in the past month to 1.69 percentage points.

The only tool left may be for the Fed to help facilitate a Resolution Trust Corp.-type agency that would buy bonds backed by home loans, said Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. While purchasing some of the $6 trillion mortgage securities outstanding would take problem debt off the balance sheets of banks and alleviate the cause of the credit crunch, it would put taxpayers at risk.

Read moreFed May Buy Mortgages Next, Treasury Investors Bet

US ‘deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’

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An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say.Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal.

submarine.jpg USS Montpelier crossing the Suez Canal, Feb. 2003

An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea.

The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to rally the support of Middle Eastern states for launching an attack on Iran. (A strike against Iran is the beginning of World War III – The Infinite Unknown)

Read moreUS ‘deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’

Consumers’ Right to Sue Weakening

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Upcoming Case Could Bar Public From Taking Drug Makers to Court

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For more than a century, the regulation of U.S. food and drugs has seen its share of challenges — from the filthy slaughterhouses of Upton Sinclair’s Chicago to the tainted Chinese-made blood thinner that recently killed at least 19 people. The regulatory shortcomings on display in 1937, when ethylene glycol killed 105 antibiotic consumers, were still glaring six decades later, when Vioxx users started having heart attacks.

But throughout the history of the Food and Drug Administration, and its precursor agencies, U.S. consumers could always bring the manufacturer of a faulty product to court. Now, with the FDA woefully underfunded in its key role of assuring the safety and effectiveness of foods and drugs, and with political ideologues in the agency pushing industry prerogatives, the White House and the courts may be on the verge of stripping Americans of the right to sue. This would take away the last option for those seeking protection from –or recourse for — faulty products.

Read moreConsumers’ Right to Sue Weakening

China – Drought

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RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service
Budapest, Hungary2008-03-20 15:16:03 – Drought – China

GLIDE CODE: DR-20080320-15931-CHN
Date & Time: 2008-03-20 15:16:03 [UTC]
Area: China, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Shandong, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,

!!! WARNING !!!

Description:

A number of regions in the north and northeast part of China were still fighting a continuous drought that could affect spring farming. Serious drought began to hit many big cities and prefectures of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north, including Hulun Buir, Baotou, Ordos and Xilingol, early this month because of reduced rainfall since December, the autonomous regional meteorological bureau said Thursday.

Different localities received a maximum of 20 millimeters of rainfall over the past four months, up to 70 percent less than the corresponding period of previous years, according to Li Yunpeng, official with the meteorological center of ecology and agriculture. The drought would continue in the region until the first springrain comes in mid April, said Li. Meteorological authorities called for measures to maintain soilmoisture for the upcoming spring sowing. A severe drought in the neighboring Hebei Province had affected 3 million hectares of cropland and left residents in some areas short of drinking water. It is the 12th consecutive spring drought in the province, which only received seven millimeters of rainfall on average since the winter, about 60 percent less than normal years.

Read moreChina – Drought

Water will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister

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The world faces a future of “water wars”, unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the International Development minister.The minister’s warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. “If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may become the subject of international conflict in the years ahead,” said Mr Thomas. “We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future.”

His department warned that two-thirds of the world’s population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025. The stark prediction comes after the Prime Minister said in his national security strategy that pressure on water was one of the factors that could help countries “tip into instability, state failure or conflict”.

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Read moreWater will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister

Russia’s NATO envoy: US military “arming ex-terrorists” in Kosovo

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Moscow/Brussels (dpa) – Russia’s firebrand envoy to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Thursday that US military aid to Kosovo amounted to arming “former terrorists.”Responding to news of US President George W Bush approval of military aid to Kosovo, Russia’s ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned that such a move could lead to “new terrorist clashes in the Balkans.”

“To give former terrorists weapons for the war against terrorism appears at least amusing if not worse,” the Interfax news agency quoted Rogozin as saying from Brussels.

Read moreRussia’s NATO envoy: US military “arming ex-terrorists” in Kosovo

Blackwater ‘Blood Money’ Angers Iraqis

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At least two Iraqi families of victims killed by Blackwater security guards in September tell ABC News they have refused compensation offered by the company.

blackwater_ali_excl_080207_ms.jpgThe father of a 9-year-old boy, who says his son was one of the 17 civilians killed when Blackwater guards, escorting a diplomatic convoy, opened fire at Baghdad’s Nisour Square on Sept. 16, says he is trying to file a lawsuit against the company. He told ABCNews.com that Blackwater offered him $20,000 through an Iraqi prosecutor, but he refused the money.

Another Iraqi who lost both his wife and son in the incident says he too has refused the company’s offer of compensation of $20,000 for each victim.

Read moreBlackwater ‘Blood Money’ Angers Iraqis

RFID tech turned into spy chips for clandestine surveillance

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An employee looking to steal confidential information from his employer sneaks into what should be a secure back room after hours. He pulls charts and files from a top-level financial meeting and slides them into his briefcase before heading back out.What the insider doesn’t know is that his shoes picked up hundreds of tiny radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that had been scattered across the floor. As he passes by an RFID reader near the front door of his office building, security will be alerted that he had accessed a secure area. The evidence is all over the soles of his shoes.

Sound a little like a scene from a James Bond movie? It’s not.

Nox Defense, an arm of SimplyRFID Inc., said it has created an invisible perimeter-defense system designed to track things and people in real time — all without their knowledge. The system that is made up of several technological pieces — RFID chips the size of grains of sand and an RFID and video camera surveillance system.

Read moreRFID tech turned into spy chips for clandestine surveillance

Silver Shortage gets Worse, Price Drops Again!

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Silver 6 Months

(If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it)

Three more major silver dealers are reported to be out of silver today: The U.S. Mint, Kitco, and Monex. This, on top of the major dealers yesterday, Amark, Perth Mint, CNI Numismatics, and APMEX, all reported sold out. Further, nearly all of Canada is reported to be out of silver, from Vancouver to Toronto.

This is unprecedented, and is a perfect case of market manipulation in the paper market at COMEX and other futures exchanges to see silver prices continue to drop down to below $17/oz. today. Paper promises can be created endlessly, but real silver cannot.

This is NOT a case of the dealers getting spooked, and selling out to the refiners just in time, at peak prices. This is a case of the public buying up the stock at coin shops across the world ever since gold hit $1000/oz.. That event finally sparked a little of the public’s buying of silver and gold. Thus, the typical coin shop flow of silver to the refiners just stopped in the last few weeks, and especially the last two days.

This is NOT a case of the public creating a top with ‘everyone’ in silver, because nobody’s in silver yet. In 2006, only $1 billion was spent on investment silver, which is 0.007% of the $13.5 trillion of money in the banks. As I have long reported, the silver market is so small, there is no room for new investor demand, not even 0.1% of money could be spent on silver, because that would be $13 billion, which would push silver prices to $200/oz., and we are seeing only the tiniest beginnings of that.

Read moreSilver Shortage gets Worse, Price Drops Again!

Silver Shortage: 19 dealers reported “Sold Out”

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(SOLD OUT!!)
Silver Stock Report

You know me, I don’t send out two emails in one day, so this must be important. Since my email earlier tonight, where I reported that 5-6 major silver dealers (Amark, Tulving, 2 in Vancouver, my local dealer, NWT Mint) are “out of inventory”, 13 more reports came in, saying that the dealers were out of silver inventory. Some of these names are big names in the business, Scotia bank, the Perth Mint in Australia, CNI Numismatics in LA, APMEX says they have some items, but are looking to buy.

Read moreSilver Shortage: 19 dealers reported “Sold Out”

Jobless Claims Jump by 22,000

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WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of newly laid off workers filing for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in nearly two months, providing more evidence that the weak economy is drying up jobs.The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless benefits totaled 378,000 last week. That was an increase of 22,000 from the previous week and was a far bigger jump than had been expected.

The four-week average for new claims rose to 365,250, which was the highest level since a flood of claims caused by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The current economic slowdown, which many economists believe has already turned into a full-blown recession, is starting to show up in the labor market in terms of higher layoffs and weaker hiring numbers.

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A worker prepares the walls for a new home at the Huntington Homes modular home factory in East Montpelier, Vt., Tuesday, March 11, 2008. The troubles in housing with falling sales and prices in many parts of the country have acted as a drag on the overall economy, contributing to a serious slowdown that many analysts are worried could push the country into a recession. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Read moreJobless Claims Jump by 22,000

“We’re in a crash,” …

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Stock Veterans Granville, Stovall Predict More Losses

March 17 (Bloomberg) — Joseph Granville and Robert Stovall, octogenarians who’ve seen every financial market downturn since the 1950s, say the current one may be the worst and is far from over.

Granville, born in 1923, remembers his banker father’s bad moods following the stock-market crash of 1929. The younger Granville began his career at defunct brokerage E.F. Hutton in 1957, quit in 1963 to begin publishing a weekly newsletter and wrote nine books on investing.

“We’re in a crash,” Granville, 84, said in a telephone interview from Kansas City, Missouri, where he lives and works. “This is the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve studied every bit of history all my life.”

U.S. stocks plunged to the lowest since July 2006 today after JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s purchase of Bear Stearns Cos. for less than a 10th of its market value sent financial shares falling around the world. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index neared a so-called bear market drop of 20 percent from its Oct. 9 record.

Read more“We’re in a crash,” …

Fluoride, Aspartame And Agenda 21 (Video)

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“Fluoride causes more human cancer, and causes it faster, than any other chemical.”
– Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, US National Cancer Institute


YouTube

More on Aspartame: HERE

More on Agenda 21: HERE

More info on fluoride:

– Dr. Dean Burk Former Head Of National Cancer Institute Research: ‘Fluoridated Water Amounts To Public Murder On A Grand Scale’ (Video)

– ‘The Great Culling: Our Water’ (Documentary – Trailers)

– Non Organic Foods That Contain Upwards Of 180 Times The Fluoride Level Of Tap Water

– Guinness Made In Dublin Brings You FLUORIDE!

– Dr. Paul Connett: The Case Against Water Fluoridation – The Truth About Fluoride (Video)

– Fluoridegate (Documentary)

– 25 Studies Prove That Fluoride Reduces Your IQ

Read moreFluoride, Aspartame And Agenda 21 (Video)

Health Professionals Call for End to Water Fluoridation

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Over 1,600 Professionals Call for an End to Fluoridation of Drinking Water

An historic moment in the battle against water fluoridation

It took about forty days for a dedicated team working with the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) in several countries and across North America to achieve an historic moment in the battle against water fluoridation.

On August 9, 2007, FAN released a Statement signed by over 600 professionals calling for an end to fluoridation and a call to legislators in fluoridating countries to hold hearings to determine why, after the release of the landmark National Research Council report in 2006, aggressive promotion of fluoridation continues.

UPDATE: 1,675 signers to Professionals’ Statement as of 4-18-08.
If you are a professional, add your name to the Statement.

As of April 18, 2008:
Signers by-degree: Listed only once according to their highest degree (often a difficult call to make).

• 237 PhD’s (includes DSc, Doctor of Science)
• 222 Dentists (DDS, DMD, BDS)
• 208 MD’s (includes MBBS)
• 202 DC’s (Doctor of Chiropractic)
• 199 Nurses (RN, BSN, ARNP, APRN, LNC)
• 94 ND’s (Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine)
• 45 Lawyers (JD and LLB)
• 32 RDHs (Registered Dental Hygienist and RDHAP)
• 28 Pharmacists (Pharm.D, B. Pharm, DPh, RPH)
• 27 Acupuncturists (LAc – Licensed Acupuncturist, and, MAc -Master Acupuncturist)
• 18 DO’s (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine)

Signers include:
• Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine, 2000
• Raul Montenegro, PhD, Right Livelihood Award 2004 (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), President of FUNAM, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, National University of Cordoba, Argentina
• The current President and six past Presidents of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
• The Board of Directors, American Academy of Environmental Medicine
• Three members of the National Research Council committee who wrote the landmark 2006 report: Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards (Hardy Limeback, PhD, DDS; Robert L. Isaacson, PhD; Kathleen M. Thiessen, PhD)
• Two advisory board members of the UK government sponsored “York Review”
• Theo Colborn, PhD, co-author, Our Stolen Future
• Chris Bryson, author, The Fluoride Deception
• Three officers in the union representing EPA professionals in DC
• Ken Cook and Richard Wiles, President and Executive Director, Environmental Working Group (EWG)
• Vyvyan Howard, MD, PhD, newly elected President, International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE)
• Magda Aelvoet, MD, Former Minister of Public Health, Leuven, BELGIUM
• Peter Montague, PhD, Director of Environmental Health Foundation
• Ted Schettler, MD, Science Director, Science and Environmental Health Network
• Stephen Lester, Science Director, Center for Health, Environment, and Justice
• Lois Gibbs, Executive Director, Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, Goldman Prize Winner (1990), Falls Church, VA
• Pat Costner, retired Senior Scientist, Greenpeace International
• Ron Cummins, Director, Organic Consumers Association
• Sandra Duffy, Board President, Consumers for Dental Choice
• Joseph Mercola, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, http://www.mercola.com, Chicago, IL
• Leo Cashman, Executive Director of DAMS (Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome)
• Sam Epstein, MD, author, “Politics of Cancer” and Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition
• Jay Feldman, Executive Director, Beyond Pesticides
• Prominent members of the Collegios Medicos, Puerto Rico
• FIVE Goldman Prize winners (2006, 2003, 1997, 1995, 1990)
• Gary Liss and other leaders in the Zero Waste movement
• Lynn Margulis, PhD, a recipient of the National Medal of Science
• Environmental leaders from over 30 countries, and
• Legendary folksinger, songwriter and activist, Pete Seeger
• Doug Everingham, former Federal Health Minister (1972-75), Australia

The over 1,000 signers represent a remarkable coming together of those concerned about fluoride and those concerned about mercury issues; doctors practicing conventional medicine and those pursuing alternative treatments and the public health and the environmental health communities. All believe that public health policy should be determined honestly with full attention paid to sound science and to ethical principles.

According to Dr. Paul Connett, the Executive Director of FAN, “What we are seeing here is the judgment of professionals across the world, not trapped by a ‘fluoridation belief system,’ that the information on the health effects contained in the National Research Council report of 2006, together with a growing number of peer reviewed studies showing that fluoridation has only weak or no benefits, leads to one conclusion: the meager benefits do not outweigh the serious risks and fluoridation must be stopped.”

Connett adds, “Now our task is to get health officials, regulators, and the media to exercise due diligence in this matter and seriously examine the information presented in the Professionals’ Statement. Fluoridation will only end in the US when officials in the Oral Health Division of the CDC are forced to defend, under oath, their zealous promotion of this practice. They appear to be oblivious to its ineffectiveness and the dangers it poses to the American people – and people in the handful of other fluoridated countries.”

To this end, FAN has organized an ONLINE ACTION PETITION to Congress allowing citizens to add their support to the Professionals’ Statement and the call for new Congressional Hearings.

August 9, 2007, was an historic day for this movement because it marks the day when those who promote fluoridation can no longer claim that they represent a single “authority” on this matter. Over 1,000 professionals have seen through their hollow rhetoric and are demanding an end to this outdated practice. August 9, 2007 marked the beginning of the end of fluoridation worldwide.

Connett concludes, “The Professionals’ Statement is the rock on which we will build the rest of our campaign.”

Source: fluoridealert.org

(It is scientifically proven that Fluoride causes all kinds of diseases including cancer. Yet the government does nothing about it, because the Fluoride is put there intentionally to cause disease and Fluoride is used for Mind Control.
The Nazis found this out and used it, the Russians have used it in their prison camps and the U.S. seems to have turned into a big prison camp too. – The Infinite Unknown)

Interview with Dr. Russell Blaylock on devastating health effects of MSG, aspartame and excitotoxins

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Mike: I’m here with Dr. Russell Blaylock, and I’d like to explore some of the more advanced aspects of some of the things you are working on. Dr. Blaylock, I think readers know the basics of both MSG and aspartame, but can you review what you’ve already written about excitotoxins? Dr. Russell Blaylock: I have three books. The first one is the excitotoxin book, “Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills,” and the latest one is “Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life.” The third one is “Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients,” which is directed at nutritional treatments for cancer. It contains some material about aspartame and MSG.

Excitotoxins have been found to dramatically promote cancer growth and metastasis. In fact, one aspartame researcher noticed that, when cancer cells were exposed to aspartame, they became more mobile, and you see the same effect with MSG. It also causes a cancer cell to become more mobile, and that enhances metastasis, or spread. These MSG-exposed cancer cells developed all of these pseudopodians and started moving through tissues, which is one of the earlier observations from cancer.

When you increase the glutamate level, cancer just grows like wildfire, and then when you block glutamate, it dramatically slows the growth of the cancer. Researchers have done some experiments in which they looked at using glutamate blockers in combination with conventional drugs, like chemotherapy, and it worked very well. It significantly enhanced the effectiveness of these cancer drugs.

Mike: Wasn’t there some research that came out recently that supports all this by establishing a correlation between leukemia and aspartame?

Dr. Blaylock: Yes. This Italian study was very well done. It was a lifetime study, which is very important with these toxins. They fed animals aspartame throughout their lives and let them die a natural death. They found a dramatic and statistically significant increase in the related cancers of lymphoma and leukemia, along with several histological types of lymphomas, which is of interest because H.J. Roberts had written an article saying that there was a significant increase in the primary lymphoma of the brain.

When you look it up in the neurosurgical literature, there is a rather significant rise in the incidents of what used to be a rare tumor. We’re seeing a lot more of the primary lymphoma of the brain, which is a little different than lymphomas you see elsewhere. When you look back at the original studies done by the G.D. Searle company, they found lymphomas as well as primary brain tumors and tumors of multiple organs. All of this correlation shows that we’ve got a powerful carcinogenic substance here. It is either acting as a co-carcinogen or a primary carcinogen. Most likely, it’s the formaldehyde breakdown product.

What the Italian study found is that if you take these same animals and expose them to formaldehyde in the same doses, they developed the same leukemias and lymphomas. If you look back at the Troker Study conducted in Spain a couple of years ago, what they found was when they radiolabeled the aspartame, they could actually see formaldehyde binding to the DNA, and it produced both single and double strand DNA breakage.

We know that when formaldehyde binds to DNA, it’s very difficult to remove it. It will stay there for long periods of time. What that means is if you just drink a single diet cola today, or sweeten something with NutraSweet, you’re accumulating damage every day. Eventually, you’re going to produce this necessary pattern of DNA damage to initiate the cancer, and once you develop the cancer, the aspartic acid component of aspartame will make the cancer grow very rapidly. You’ve got a double effect; it’s causing the cancer, and it’s making the cancer move very rapidly.

Mike: Given all this evidence, how has the industry managed to suppress this information and keep this chemical legal in the food supply?

Read moreInterview with Dr. Russell Blaylock on devastating health effects of MSG, aspartame and excitotoxins

Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range

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The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it’s the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.

The Air Car caused a huge stir when we reported last year that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.

And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.

Read moreAir-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range

World’s First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer

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This six-seater tax, which should be available in India next year, is powered entirely by a tank filled with compressed air.

India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets in August of 2008.

Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air at 4350 psi. Drivers also will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car’s built-in compressor to refill the tanks in about 4 hours.

Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores, especially considering its all-glue construction. But that doesn’t mean the major automakers can write it off as a bizarre Indian experiment – MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

By Matt Sullivan
Published in the June 2007 issue.

Source: popularmechanics.com