G.M Moves to ease Dealers' Clunker Program Woes

Original source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/21clunkers.html

General Motors said Thursday that it would begin advancing dealers the cash that they are owed from the government's "cash for clunkers" program, after the dealers complained of delays in getting reimbursed for rebates they gave to car buyers. Some dealers have pulled out of the program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, saying it was costing them too much time and causing cash-flow problems.

A dealers group in metropolitan New York said about half of its 425 members had stopped participating as of this week. "Our sales performance in the past two months has exceeded our internal forecast by over 60,000 vehicles, largely driven by the CARS stimulus program," said Mark LaNeve, vice president for United States sales. "We want to do all we can to provide customers with timely new-vehicle deliveries and dealers the liquidity they need to run their businesses."

The program has created a surge in demand since it began July 24, prompting G.M., the Ford Motor Company and Honda to increase production to replenish inventories on dealers' lots. G.M. this week said it would run some plants on overtime and call back 1,350 workers so it could build more vehicles. The program gives a credit of $3,500 or $4,500 to consumers who turn in an older car or truck with poor gas mileage and buy a new, more efficient vehicle.

Dealers give their customers the discount, then submit a 13-page application to the Transportation Department for reimbursement.

Building Block of Life Found On Comet

The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday. Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004. Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth two years later in a canister that detached from the spacecraft and landed by parachute in the Utah desert.

Frustrated Tweets: New Headache for Airlines

Indignant letters, e-mails and phone calls can still get results for unhappy airline travelers, but more are finding that if you really want to vent your frustrations, you can now be loud and fast and public. At least that's the buzz on Twitter, where airlines are discovering that fuming passengers who have been stranded, delayed or just plain piqued are increasingly letting their undiluted rage fly around the Internet, often from the confines of their cramped airplane seat.

Twitter and other fast-growing social networking websites like Facebook and YouTube have sprung up as yet another front in beleaguered airlines public relations battle. Although such sites have practical uses for airlines -- say, publicizing fare sales and flight information -- experts said the technology has put carriers on the defensive as they race to tame Twitter furies every day.

Global Warming Sparked by Ancient Farming Methods

Ancient man may have started global warming through massive deforestation and burning that could have permanently altered the Earth's climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

The study, published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews and reported on the University of Virginia's Web site, says over thousands of years, farmers burned down so many forests on such a large scale that huge amounts of carbon dioxide were pumped into the atmosphere. That possibly caused the Earth to warm up and forever changed the climate.

Lead study author William Ruddiman is a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a climate scientist. "It seems like a common-sense idea that there weren't enough people around 5, 6, 7,000 years ago to have any significant impact on climate. But if you allow for the fact that those people, person by person, had something like 10 times as much of an effect or cleared 10 times as much land as people do today on average, that bumps up the effect of those earlier farmers considerably, and it does make them a factor in contributing to the rise of greenhouse gasses," Ruddiman said.

Botanist Discover New Rat-Eating Plant

Botanists believe they have discovered one of the world's largest carnivorous plants in Southeast Asia. The giant pitcher plants were located in Palawan, central Philippines by a team led by UK botanist Stewart McPherson.

The second largest species, now called Nepenthes attenboroughii has been named in honor of the UK's world-renowned natural history presenter Sir David Attenborough.

The new discovery measures about 30 centimeters in diameter and are formed in the shape of a large cup, which McPherson says is full of water and acidic enzymes.

Prey is attracted by a sweet-scented nectar and once captured in the cup is prevented from escaping by the slippery, waxy leaves and, as a consequence, drowns.

McPherson discovered over 20 new varieties of pitcher plant on the trip and made two rediscoveries.

Whole Foods Caught in Health Care Flap

Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey is known for his tendency to shoot from the hip. This time, Mackey may have shot himself -- and his company's brand -- in the foot by getting too personal on the very public issue of health care reform which has sparked calls to boycott the grocer.

"Certainly when our customers tell us they are unhappy to extent that they are boycotting our stores, we are concerned," said Libba Letton, spokeswoman for Whole Foods. "We don't want them to leave us." Mackey wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal last week in which he outlined eight reform proposals that "would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone."

He also proposed less government control of health care. The provocative article sparked numerous calls to boycott the retailer and even initiated a dedicated "Boycott Whole Foods" page on Facebook, currently listing more than 13,200 members.