Cave News

Edge puts Ford in black as GM shows huge loss

At the first link below, the Associated Press reports that:

General Motors Corp. struggled to a $3.3 billion first-quarter loss, due in part to a weak U.S. market, a strike at a major parts supplier and plummeting sales of sport utility vehicles and pickups.

The nation's biggest automaker also cut its industrywide U.S. sales outlook for the year. The company disclosed earlier this week it was cutting production of some of its slow-selling trucks and SUVs.

By contrast, Ford Motor Company surprised the experts and posted a first quarter profit of $100 million. See second link below.

The surprising result might indicate that the long-troubled company is, as its executives have promised, back on the road to viability.

It is interesting that the $3.3 billion GM loss beat Wall Street expectations, and its share price rose while Ford stock dropped after showing a $100 million profit for the same period.

It was the Ford Explorer that carried Ford in the 90’s. Now it is the very popular Ford Edge (pictured) that is helping Ford Motor Company keep its head above water.

Link here and here.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright factor

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Volunteers needed for chocolate study

It’s gonna be a tough job -- but somebody has to do it.

Calling all chocoholics: British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.

British researchers recruiting volunteers willing to eat a bar of chocolate daily for a year, guilt-free and all in the name of science.

The trial starting in June will explore whether compounds called flavonoids found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease for menopausal women with type 2 diabetes.

Previous studies have suggested dark chocolate is rich in the beneficial compounds linked with heart health but experts note the high sugar and fat content of most commercially available chocolate might cancel out some of the advantages.

Link

Wright is wrong for Obama and superdelgates

Pressure mounts on Obama (pictured) to quell concerns among voters and superdelegates.

To the iconic scenes that dance in our mind's eye in this campaign -- alongside Hillary Clinton dodging sniper fire and Mitt Romney hunting big game -- we add another classic:

President Barack Obama has just been inaugurated, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is chasing him down, shouting his middle name -- with Louis Farrakhan at his side, for company.

Obama's challenge -- with key contests a week away, Pennsylvania's reverberations still being felt, and the good Reverend Wright apparently unable to shut his esteemed trap -- is to show that voters can see Obama as distinct from Wright, no matter how sharply his former pastor's words undercut his campaign message.

The above is typical of the media’s effort to put down the Reverend Wright who has become a thorn in the side of Barack Obama.

The more Wright talks, the worse things get for Obama and the more difficult it will be for the media to defend their chosen candidate.

Link

Paris has four times as many rats as people

The French capital has launched its annual effort to reduce the number of rodents roaming the streets.

They need a modern day Pied Piper to play a musical pipe and lead the rats into the Seine to perish by drowning.

Jean-Roch Gaillet, head of Paris police veterinary services, says:

Paris is good for rats because of the River Seine but there is also a lot of stagnant water which is a very nice place for rats.

People walk past the boulangerie at the end of the day and they see rats or mice running around inside the shop, near the food, and they are disgusted.

The Paris council has ten dedicated members of staff who deal with rats, mice and pigeons.

How can ten people control eight million rats as well as mice and pigeons?

Link

Informal writing creeps into teen school work

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a recent study, found that teens who keep blogs or use social-networking sites like Facebook or MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments.

It’s not all :) and nothing to LOL about.

The results of the study may give a :( to parents, teachers and others.

To the uninitiated, ":)" is a smile while ":(" is a frown and "LOL" is how texters say “laughing out loud.”

Teens who consider electronic communications with friends as "writing" are more likely to carry the informal elements into school assignments than those who distinguish the two.

Defying conventional wisdom, the study also found that the generation born digital is shunning computer use for most assignments.

About two-thirds of teens say they typically do their school writing by hand. And for personal writing outside school, longhand is even more popular - the preferred form for nearly three-quarters of teens.

That could be because the majority of writing is short - school assignments are on average a paragraph to a page in length.

Link

The worst of times at the New York Times

The ‘Gray Lady’ is up to her elbows in financial trouble.

The New York Times was nicknamed the "Gray Lady" for its staid appearance and style. In her heyday the “Lady” was regarded as a ‘newspaper of record’ because it was often relied upon as the ‘official and authoritative reference for modern events.’

In recent years, however, the Times has become editorially slanted to the liberal political left to the extent the paper has become the voice of the radical left-wing of the Democratic Party and as a result has lost much of its prestige.

Is the “Lady” now paying the price for her partisan editorial ways?

A report at the link below says:

New York Times' news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.

The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.

That means the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company's first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history.

It seems to be the worst of times for the New York Times.

Because of her extreme partisan editorial stance, she will get little sympathy from Republicans and moderate Democrats.

Link

Unintended consequence of soaring food prices

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Actor Blake loses court appeal but $30M judgement reduced

Actor Robert Blake (pictured) was acquitted of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley’s 2001 murder in a criminal trial.

Blake was later found guilty of wrongful death in a civil court and was ordered to pay $30 million to the estate of Bonny Lee Bakley.

Mr. Blake had challenged the jury's award in the civil wrongful death lawsuit, claiming the trial court made procedural errors and jurors committed misconduct.

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles found no jury misconduct and no reversible error by the trial court, but concluded that the $30 million in noneconomic damages awarded by the jury to Bakley's estate was excessive.

The court cut the judgement in half to $15 million.

The administrator of Bakley's estate may not consent to the reduction even though Blake filed for bankruptcy before the civil trial began.

Without consent by the Bakley estate to the reduction of the award to $15 million, the case will go back for a new trial on damages.

Blake is best known for his television role as a detective in "Baretta" and a convicted killer in the true crime film "In Cold Blood,"

Link

Will a divided party unify after a nominee is chosen?

An ABC News article at the link below reports that racial tensions threaten to divide the Democratic Party.

Tensions between the campaigns of rival Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are so uncomfortable some party leaders are openly concerned Democratic voters will not unify after a nominee is chosen.

Much of the tension is based at least in part on racial divisions -- and into the dynamic walked the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor.

Although some in the media are trying to downplay Pastor Wright’s ranting, his accusation that the U.S. government infected blacks with aids, and other outrageous comments, will haunt Barack Obama during the remainder of his campaign.

If Obama is the Democratic standard bearer, Jeremiah Wright will haunt the Illinois Senator until November whether the party unites or not.

Link