GM says RIP to SUV

This post is brought to you by ? Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM ? ? “Love your work. Change your world.” Once upon a time those gasoline-slurping SUV’s fairly flew out of the auto dealerships, but with gas prices hovering at $4.00 a gallon, people are looking at the big ol’ gas hogs and thinking, “Just say no.” Which, if you happen to be a major auto manufacturer that has relied on those gas hogs for a big chunk of your revenue, poses a bit of a problem. Today GM announced that it was deep-sixing its longstanding love affair with the SUV, as described in this Wired article . The company’s announcement that it is embracing compact cars, shutting down four truck plants and possibly even dumping Hummer shows GM — and, by extension, Detroit — realizes fuel prices aren’t coming down and SUVs are a dead-end. It’s a fundamental change of direction for the world’s largest automaker, which has for more than 10 years counted on pickups and SUVs to provide the bulk of its sales — and profits — while all but ceding the passenger car market to Japan and Europe. Oh sure, it doesn’t take the existing SUV’s off the road (though gas prices are taking care of some of that), but hey, progress is progress. And unless you happen to work in one of the truck plants GM is shutting down, this is excellent news. —

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GM says RIP to SUV

T. Boone Pickens voices alternative energy support

This post is brought to you by ? Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM ? ? “Love your work. Change your world.” In another indication of the momentum building behind alternative energy development, T. Boone Pickens, a man who made his billions in the oil biz, recently voiced his support for alternative energy. …Pickens, who heads the $4 billion BP Capital Management hedge fund, also voiced some support for alternative energy development, saying a half-trillion dollars a year is leaving the United States economy to buy oil. Pickens said solar power technology is “almost there,” and there could be “corridors” of wind power developed from Texas through the Great Plains and west to California. …Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Thursday, Boone Pickens’s support for alternative energy sources will help build the case for energy diversification in the United States. “T. Boone Pickens’s support is important in that oil industry players, not just non-oil energy companies, will begin or expand alternative energy source research and development,” Langan said. “Granted, leadership support doesn’t carry as much weight when oil is at $30 or $40 per barrel, but it does now, given what we know $100 oil can do the U.S. economy and U.S. wealth.” —

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T. Boone Pickens voices alternative energy support

Power-generating clothes

This post is brought to you by ? Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM ? ? “Love your work. Change your world.” Out and about and need to charge up your iPod? Just plug it into your…shirt? Could happen, if this new technology has anything to say about it. Someday, your shirt might be able to power your iPod just by doing the normal stuff expected of a shirt. Scientists have developed a way to generate electricity by jostling fabric with tiny wires woven inside, raising the prospect of textiles that produce power simply by being stretched, rustled or ruffled by a breeze. The research, described in the new edition of the journal Nature, combines the precision of nanotechnology with the elegant principle known as the piezoelectric effect, in which electricity is generated when pressure is applied to certain materials. —

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Power-generating clothes