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NISSAN unveils new prototype electric car...

GreenOil — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:29:40 -0500

Nissan Motor Co. unveiled a new prototype electric vehicle Wednesday with batteries twice as powerful as conventional technology, aiming to take a lead in zero-emission cars.

Japan's third-largest automaker said the front-wheel drive, boxy-shaped car has a newly developed 80 kilowatt motor with advanced lithium-ion batteries installed under the vehicle's floor to avoid taking up space.

The laminated batteries, jointly developed with electronics giant NEC Corp., pack twice the electric power of conventional nickel-metal hydride batteries currently used in hybrid and electric cars, it said.

Nissan aims to start selling an electric car in the United States and Japan in 2010 and the rest of the world in 2012. It will have a new "unique bodystyle" that is not based on any existing model, the company said.

Martha Stewart As Shoe Bomber

GreenOil — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:33:42 -0500

The British government has turned the queen of American couture away from the island nation, without explanation. Attempting to enter the country in order to speak at the Royal Academy, the 66 year old celebrity has been flustered by the event, simply saying "Martha loves England and hopes this can be resolved and that she will be able to visit soon."

Whether Stewart has attained the notoriety of a Jihadi, and has fallen afoul of the UK Border Agency, we will never know. However, its kind of reassuring that for once, a celebrity of Stewart's stature, and prior convictions, would get a little War on Terror style security treatment. Its not such a long leap from Richard Reid to American housewares after all. It must have been Stewart's shoes.

Kitten stuck in Drainage Pipe Sucked to Safety by Plumber

GreenOil — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:43:12 -0500

Trapped Kitten Sucked From Drain Pipe With Septic Tank Vacuum

World tips Hollywood on its axis

GreenOil — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:24:39 -0500

Film executives are back home after Cannes, getting back to business as usual. Except things are not "as usual." The May 14-25 festival and market crystallized what many have suspected for a long time: The business has undergone fundamental changes in the past year.

--The acquisitions biz has shifted drastically.

--The funding world is completely different.

--Simultaneous with those shifts is Hollywood's new attitude toward foreign production. U.S. studios are aggressively looking to produce local-language projects for a particular territory or territories.

The studios may be Hollywood-based, but their conglom parents are thinking globally, which affects every business and creative decision. Click here for rest of article.

US Army Inspires New Suicide Bombers

GreenOil — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:38:29 -0500

An Evangelical Christian activist wearing a US military uniform was caught distributing coins with Gospel verses to Sunni Muslims in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, American government sources confirmed today. A Christian missionary who also happened to be an American serviceman, the soldier distributed coins with Arabic translations of Biblical passages that read "Where will you spend eternity?" on one side, and, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16", on the other.

According to a report in today's Guardian, US soldiers distributed the coins when they were searched as they entered Fallujah. To force this kind of religious propaganda upon Iraqis, under such circumstances, ought to be considered coercive. Imagine having soldiers pointing guns at you, and handing you coins instructing you to consider changing you're religion, as you are patted down. It's the epitome of coercive. Should it we therefore be surprised that Islamic militants consider American forces 'crusaders', eager to change more than just Iraq's government, but it's religion, too?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/30/usa.iraq

More Reasons to Hate Europe

GreenOil — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:58:18 -0500

Senator Barack Obama emerged as Europe's favorite candidate for America's presidency today when a poll conducted for Telegraph.co.uk gave him 52 per cent support across five of the world's richest nations, including Britain. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, received only 15 per cent of the vote in unprecedented survey covering Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.'

Smells like a Freedom Fries moment, doesn't it? Pretty soon, Gordon Brown will be looking to Naomi Klein to reorganize Britain's failing economy, Silvio Berlusconi will be asking Michael Moore to start a new television news franchise and Nicolas Sarkozy will be consulting with Noam Chomsky over whether he really should be deploying more French troops to Afghanistan. Europe really is cut to stereotype, a perfect mold for the mind of the Matt Drudges of the world.

Maybe, just maybe, there's something to it, that Americans might learn a thing or two from. Italy, for example, is threatening to throw out all of it's gypsies, to god knows where. But Italians would still vote for Obama. Britons are the most spied on people on earth, and even approve of their lack of privacy, yet would still vote for Obama. Could it be that the Europeans have figured out how to have it both ways, and we're too retarded to follow suit?

PAPER: Vision of devastated America in wake of nuke attack...

GreenOil — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:26:25 -0500

Washington is laid to waste. The Capitol is a blackened, smoking ruin. The White House has been razed. Countless thousands are dead. This is the apocalyptic scene terrorists hope to create if they ever get their hands on a nuclear bomb. The computer-generated image was posted on an Islamic extremists' website yesterday.

US Military Admits to Record Suicide Level

GreenOil — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:29:26 -0500

More American soldiers committed suicide in 2007 than ever. Breaking every conceivable historical record,sources within the US defense establishment see the toll climbing even higher in 2008. With 115 suicides in 2007, up 102 from the previous year, 2008's end of year statistics stand to be exceedingly grisly.

What's causing this sudden upsurge in suicides? According to to the US military, a third of all suicides take place on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, leading experts to conclude any number of possible factors: extended tours of duty, combat shock, or disasters taking place at home due to soldiers'prolonged absences.

Thus far, the military's response has been to educate soldiers about the stresses of their responsibilities. Mental health workers have also been deployed in large numbers. Unfortunately, for as much help as these efforts might be, they have done little to stem the rising number of self-inflicted fatalities.

Something seems missing from the list of possible diagnoses. Could it be the war? Could it be the kinds of ethical dilemmas US soldiers are confronted with today? In all probability, yes. The collapse of any kind of seriously moral clarity, justifying what's become a war without end, is enough to drive anyone to despair.

China to Take Revenge on Sharon Stone

GreenOil — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:00:14 -0500

Responding to the American actress' comments at Cannes that the recent earthquake to hit Sichuan was a karmic response to Chinese colonialism, the government in Beijing is rumored to be considering a boycott of Sharon Stone's films.

Though not explicitly stated, the story, carried by Variety on Wednesday, insinuated as much. Speaking to leading Chinese actors, it was clear that some more formal move against Stone is afoot, and that, as usual, Chinese artists are serving as government mouthpieces.

"This actress does not deserve our attention. The best way is to ignore her. I will never watch her films in future," said thesp Liu Wei, while fellow actor Lu Qilong accused Stone of lacking respect.

"Sharon Stone's remarks made all Chinese people and the world shocked and angry. She does not respect the Chinese people, as well as people's lives. Sichuan's earthquake affects everyone's heart," said Lu.

There's no doubt that Stone stuck her foot in her mouth. Call it a very big foot, at that. The lesson: A country's citizenry must always be distinguished from it's state, especially in authoritarian countries like China. Condemn the government, but leave the people it oppresses out of it.

Sharon Stone Goes Jerry Falwell

GreenOil — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:40:36 -0500

There is no doubt that China deserves the most brutal of condemnations for its occupation of Tibet, and subsequent crackdown this Spring. Tibet is indeed China's Palestine. However, as it is with any conflict, critics of China's policy towards the country can sometimes be guilty of awful rhetorical excesses. Such was the case with actress Sharon Stone, who was caught telling a television camera that the tens of thousands of Chinese killed in the country's recent earthquake might have died because of the country's 'bad karma' over Tibet.

Sharon Stone's oral carelessness is precisely the kind that give human rights activists a bad name. Stone should either apologise to the survivors of the Chinese earthquake, or stop sounding off like a liberal version of Jerry Falwell, eager to see signs of divine morality at play in the wreckage of such sites as the Twin Towers, and the collapsed cities of Sichuan. To listen to Stone's deplorable and surprising spiel, click here.

Joe Lieberman Versus Democracy

GreenOil — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:06:15 -0500

If only the Connecticut Senator believed in democracy. If only Joe Lieberman valued freedom of speech. If only his interest was in protecting Americans, rather than using threats against them for his own personal benefit. Wasting scads of taxpayer dollars by demanding that Google's online video service You Tube delete all of it's 'terrorist-produced' content, including videos that simply mentioned terrorist groups, though the California-based company complied with some of Lieberman's demands, it did not meet all of them. "While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone's right to express unpopular points of view," Google fired back this week.

The times they are indeed a changing. As the Bush era finally winds itself down, so must it's politics of fear, one which neo-conservative bogeymen like Joe Lieberman ought to pay more attention to. The fact that Google did not completely cave in to the Senator's anti-democratic demands are themselves a sign of a changing political environment in which, five years ago, American firms like Google would have willingly exchanged their principles and freedoms in exchange for 'security'. This does not mean that You Tube should not be reprimanded for cooperating with some of Lieberman's requests. However, given how much we, as Americans, already lost to this moral midget, its still a bit of progress.

Scientology is a Cult

GreenOil — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:55:59 -0500

The City of London ought to be re-branded the City of Scientology. Or so its recent decision to have it's law enforcement officials arrest a fifteen year old kid for calling Scientology a cult. The next thing you know, it will be promoting Shariah, (Islamic law), as the best way to discipline local Muslims, even if they're not religious, and prefer to live under British civil law.

London's absurd decision comes at a very difficult time in British political life in manners concerning faith. Subject to ten years of Evangelical hectoring by Tony Blair, who wanted to destroy the UK's secular consensus and bring God back to public life, and an Islamic revival amongst Britons of south Asian and Middle Eastern decent, London has decided to promote its own third way and promote Scientology as though it were a religion.

If there was ever a sign of Britain's illiteracy when it comes to religion, it is the decision to punish a teenager for having the temerity to take on a Hollywood pyramid scheme like Scientology. The fifty-six year old cult is exactly that, and it shows no sign of crossing the bridge and becoming a religion either. Besides, what's the point in being recognized as a religion, anyway? That it might sound less pejorative than being called a cult? The difference between a religion and a cult is that a cult is another way of explaining why religion is bad

An ironic situation, isn't it? The fact that London's city government is even wading into this discussion is itself problematic, and ought to be condemned. The civil servant that's behind this useless and stupid affair ought to be removed from his position, and sent back to university, where they can be reminded, once again, of why its of the utmost necessity to emphasize democracy over all forms of religion - including American cults like Scientology. Anything less than this will be a betrayal of British values, and a waste of taxpayer money.

To read more about this affair, the Guardian has an excellent overview.

Bush’s signal to Israel, military action against Iran during last two months in office if Obama elected

GreenOil — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:03:35 -0500

Bush’s visit to Israel signaled a message to Israel that was totally suprising. Israeli’s newspaper HAARETZ.com had this to say:"This was an all-clear signal to Israel, a warning to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, and an announcement to the Democratic Party's leading presidential candidate, Barack Obama, that Bush will make use of his authority until his last day as president to shape a belligerent policy toward Iran. If Obama is elected rather than Republican candidate John McCain, whose positions are identical to those of Bush, the outgoing president is liable to take military action even during the two and a half months between the elections and the inauguration of the new president".

The New Iraqi Crude

GreenOil — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:03:45 -0500

On a day in which the only news coming out of Iraq was a higher than average death toll, The Daily Telegraph reported that the conflict had begun producing something other than body counts. Almost exactly five years after the country was first invaded, a British government official told the London newspaper that he expected foreign oil companies will now "get their first deals in Iraq before the end of the month," specifically, contracts to access the ten percent of global oil reserves owned by the Iraqi government. Anticipating deals with American, UK, Dutch and Australian companies to service the country's five major oil fields, it is estimated that Iraq could produce as many as ten million barrels daily under the right circumstances. Heavily surveyed over the course of the past five years of military occupation, British firms such as BP told the Telegraph they feel confident of their ability to exploit the Arab country's immensely rich natural resources.

Link to the Article