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The Transportation Department signaled Wednesday that it planned to be more aggressive in forcing airlines to address common traveler frustrations, proposing a wide range of consumer protections. They come on top of earlier rules limiting how much time passengers can sit on planes on the tarmac.
Nuclear option on the oil spill?<br />U.S. says no thank you
The chatter began weeks ago as armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico: What about nuking the well?
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Last month, when Steve St. Angelo, a longtime executive at Toyota in the United States, traveled to Japan, it was an eye-opening journey.
Heaviest users of AT&T<br />phone data will pay more
They spend hours watching video on their phones, downloading songs, browsing the Web, sending photos to friends and generally using mobile devices as full-fledged computers. They are the data hogs.
Commencement Weather
Last week when I picked up my regalia, I was warned that the fabric’s dye could run if the temperatures were warm or if it rained. Thankfully, it looks like our chance for rain during Commencement will be minimal. Highs should be reasonable as well, near 76°F (24°C). (With any luck, I’ll wear the white dress sitting in my closet.) Skies during commencement should be partly cloudy, with clouds increasing overnight. The chance for rain will also increase overnight and into Saturday as a shortwave moves through. The chance for rain will continue through Saturday night into Sunday as a weakly unstable air mass continues over the region. Temperatures through the weekend should remain comfortable with highs in the mid-70s, and lows in the 60s. A weak cold front will pass through Sunday night, followed by drier conditions and a more stable synoptic setup through the beginning of next week. And thus concludes my last Tech forecast as an MIT student. Good luck to the Class of 2010!
Study cited for health-cost cuts overstated upside, critics say
In selling the health care overhaul to Congress, the Obama administration cited a once obscure research group at Dartmouth College to claim that it could not only cut billions in wasteful health care spending but make people healthier by doing so.
Obama selects Kagan, former HLS dean, for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the nation’s 112th justice, choosing his own chief advocate before the Supreme Court to join it in ruling on cases critical to his view of the country’s future, Democrats close to the White House said on Sunday.
A trillion dollar bailout for Europe, with doubts attached
Like the giant financial bailout announced by the United States in 2008, the sweeping rescue package announced by Europe eased fears of a market collapse but left a big question: Will it work long term?
Finland’s 100,000-year plan to banish its nuclear waste
It is, in the words of the Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen, “a place we must remember to forget.”
Post-mortem of Wall St. plunge puts focus on computer trading
Investigators seeking an explanation for last week’s brief stock market panic said Sunday that they were focusing increasingly on how a broad decline of blue-chip stocks might have set off an uncontrolled response from new high-speed trading networks.
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MOSCOW — Twin methane gas explosions killed 12 coal miners and trapped 80 underground in western Siberia under conditions so dangerous that officials called off all rescue operations for fear of sending additional men to their deaths.
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LONDON — After one of the most passionately contested elections in decades, Britain faced the stalemate of a hung Parliament on Friday, with no party likely to command an outright majority despite significant gains by the opposition Conservatives and damaging losses for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Cool Weather Now
Below normal temperatures have arrived early this week and will continue for a few days. A strong cold front moved through New England Saturday night, which brought strong northwesterly winds on Sunday. These winds have ushered in much cooler air over the region, bringing low temperatures almost near freezing. The highs have been 5-10°F below normal and not welcoming for warm-weather fans. The good news, however, is that a gradual warm-up is expected and temperatures should reach the upper 60s by the weekend.
Dow’s rapid fall of 1,000 points rattles traders, terrifies investors
A bad day in the stock market turned into one of the most terrifying moments in Wall Street history on Thursday with a brief, 1,000-point plunge that recalled the panic of 2008.
The oil spill: tackling questions of liability, cleanup, & consequences
On the evening of April 20, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 17. Two days later it sank in 5,000 feet of water.
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As its legal troubles mount, Goldman Sachs is losing a big corporate client: the American International Group.
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In a controversial change to a longstanding policy concerning the practice of female circumcision in some African and Asian cultures, the American Academy of Pediatrics is suggesting that American doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial pinprick or “nick” on girls from these cultures if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision.
A messy situation
Weather plays a pivotal role in disaster responses. As we witnessed with the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, wind patterns can disperse ash into the upper atmosphere causing severe travel disruptions. Modeling the ash cloud is an incredibly hard job to do with accuracy due to uncertainties in the ash plume itself and the limited predictability of the atmospheric flow. Likewise, winds have played a critical role in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. High winds and waves in the days after the oil spill stymied cleanup efforts. Forecasted winds out of the south will continue to transport the oil slick slowly toward the coast of Louisiana.
In Washington, Toyota’s problems lead to a new appetite for car safety
In the new world of auto regulation, cars could be required to have “black boxes” to record crash data and be able to stop even with the engine at full power. Automakers could be ordered to recall defective vehicles immediately and pay safety fees to cover the costs of federal oversight.
Cancer society criticizes federal panel as overstating risk
A dire government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society, which says government experts are overstating their case.