And the winna is!

We ten, yes, ten entrants in this weekend’s contest. My thanks to all of them.

This week’s winner is…

Pam B

I will also send the prize Pam B doesn’t pick to TC Hazzard. Why not spread the love around.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to enter.

I’ll be emailing shortly for your address.

The Big Trip

Prius owner Linda Silas continues to document her trip from Texas to Washington and back. I think it’s a must read. Here are a few pictures from her journal just to whet your apetite.

We continue to wish Linda and Cathy safe and happy motoring.

auto sales slowing?

Vehicle sales seen slowing for August
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
The Associated Press

DETROIT — Auto-industry analysts predict a slowdown in vehicle sales in August, a trend due less to high gas prices than to a summer of heavily publicized discounts that thinned dealer lots and satiated consumers.

Analysts are predicting a seasonally adjusted sales rate of around 16.9 million vehicles in August, down from a near-record 20.8 million vehicles in July. The rate indicates what sales would be for the full year if they remained at the same pace for all 12 months. Full-year sales for 2004 were about 17 million.

General Motors is likely to report the sharpest decline when automakers release sales figures Thursday. GM was the first to let all customers pay employee prices in June and recently extended the deal through Sept. 30.

Other automakers will fare better. Merrill Lynch analyst John Casesa said Ford continues to draw customers with its employee-discount program, which began in July. In a note to investors, Casesa predicted Ford’s sales will be up 5 percent in August, thanks to a fatter inventory than GM’s.

Analysts predicted DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler Group will see a small increase in August after matching GM’s discount in July. Chrysler has said it will continue to offer employee pricing on some 2005 vehicles indefinitely.

After losing market share to the Big Three throughout the summer, several foreign automakers that didn’t offer employee discounts — including Nissan, Toyota and Honda. — should regain some share in August.

Toyota is seeing especially strong demand for its Avalon sedan, Scion brand and hybrid Prius, Casesa said. Prius sales were up 92 percent in July.

Bluto wants a pretty hybrid

From the Rocky Mountain Collegian…

OPINION
Wednesday August 31, 2005
Gas Prices are Crude
By Tim Waddingham
August 31, 2005

When I spend more money on a gallon of gas than I do on four beers at Sullivan’s on Thursday nights, something is wrong.

According to American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price for a gallon of gas across America was $2.60 as of last Friday, which is a 38 percent increase in the past year and a 13.9 percent increase in the past month alone. For those of you who are unaware, Sullivan’s bar offers four Coors Lights for $2.50 on Thursday nights.

This means that I can fill my body up with beer for cheaper than I can fill my car up with gas. Although I’m sure some people will find this extremely satisfying, the problem of gasoline prices remains.

…

Unfortunately, most hybrids lack creativity and are painful to look at. A perfect example is the Toyota Prius. Priuses get great gas mileage, but who really wants to drive a Prius? Have you ever seen a Prius? I think people would rather spend the additional money on gas so they can own a vehicle that actually looks like a modern car. The Prius, on the other hand looks like a life-sized hot-wheel, only lamer.

What we need is more fuel-efficient cars that get better gas mileage, or a whole new kind of energy source altogether. Even if the latter does not come about for years to come, we should at least begin the transformation from the useless, wasteful SUV’s to the more fuel-efficient, albeit ugly, hybrids.

As I mentioned earlier, I think it is ridiculous that I can get four beers at a bar for cheaper than one gallon of gas. Although I do take some solace in this, I also realize that Americans do much more driving than they do drinking. Furthermore, beer is something Americans will never be dependent on others for, so I can sleep well knowing there won’t be exponential increases in beer prices. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for oil.

Prius PD

Boca P.D. buys four Toyota hybrid vehicles
By Michelle Mundy
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Assistant Police Chief Edgar Morley doesn’t miss his Crown Victoria. His 2005 Toyota Prius gets better gas mileage — an estimated 20 more miles to the gallon.

And, it has enough space for his suitcases of gear, starts with the push of a button and at a little more than $20,000, the Prius also was cheaper.

(Vada Mossavat/The Post) Assistant Boca Raton Police Chief Edgar Morley sits in one of the four Toyota Prius hybrid cars the department recently bought. The department is the testing ground for the possible use of hybrid cars in all city departments. The Prius, which cost around $20,000, gets about 20 more miles on a gallon of gas than the Ford Crown Victoria.

“This is the future,” Morley said. “These cars will be the norm, and I wanted to test them out.”

Morley researched hybrid vehicles for the department before it bought four new Toyota Prius hybrids for about $80,000. The cars don’t have to be plugged in to recharge and go back and forth between gas power and electric power.

Because the vehicles won’t be used for high-speed chases, they were given to two assistant chiefs, a captain and an investigator. They are being tested for other city departments as well.

“With the way the future looks for fuel prices, it’s definitely something we’re going to consider,” Deputy City Manager George Brown said.

Earlier this month, gas prices jumped 20 cents in one week and continue to climb closer to $3 a gallon. That has city officials pondering ways to save money. Brown said meter readers, code enforcement patrol officers and building inspectors use different vehicles for their jobs.

“Any place we can save fuel is important to the city for financial reasons and the environment,” Brown said.

It’s not the first time the city has looked at energy-saving vehicles. In the 1980s, Brown said they considered the compressed natural gas vehicle.

“But the technology was so much more expensive at the time, and the cost of adapting the vehicle and the gas compressing facility would have been too high. It did not produce any savings for the city.”

With the Prius costing around $4,000 less than Ford’s Crown Victoria, Morley said there’s an initial savings. The gas mileage is an extra bonus. He said he’s filling up the Prius half as often as his previous car.

An officer with all the gear also can sit comfortably. “It’s a deceiving little car,” Morley said about the size.

The police department started researching hybrid cars about a year and a half ago. It also looked at the Ford Escape before making a decision.

The department is a good testing ground for the technology because of the distance police cars travel and the fact that the engine runs a lot, Brown said.

“It’s good because that’s probably the litmus test for vehicle performance,” he said.

It’s possible, he said, that the city will buy more hybrid vehicles next year. It depends on whether or not vehicles need replacing.

“I do see expanding,” Police Chief Andrew Scott said of officers using the hybrid vehicles. “It looks like it was a smart move.”

Hydrogen dreams

Automakers steer fuel-cell cars to California roads
31 Aug 2005 00:26:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Leonard Anderson

BERKELEY, Calif., Aug 30 (Reuters) – Automakers outlined plans on Tuesday to introduce hydrogen-powered cars in California but said they had a long road ahead, despite strong support from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who dreams of a “hydrogen highway”.

General Motors Corp , Japan’s Honda Motor <7267.T> and Germany’s BMW are pursuing competing technologies to introduce new “zero emission” cars that run on fuel cells and do not pollute, said engineering and marketing managers for the three automakers.

BMW, however, may have a leg up to market a new car in California and Europe powered by a gasoline engine and a hydrogen fuel cell system. The German automaker plans to offer a limited number of the new model in its 7 Series in 2010, Wilhelm Hall, general manager of environmental engineering at BMW North America.

He spoke at a briefing for reporters on California’s efforts to persuade automakers to manufacture more environmentally friendly cars for California’s “hydrogen highway.”

BMW plans a production run of the new car “in the hundreds” in five years with sales aimed at fleet operators and individuals in Europe and the U.S., Hall told Reuters.

California drivers, battered by soaring prices at the gas pump, are snapping up new cars like Toyota’s <7203.T> gasoline-electric Prius hybrid combining smart looks and high miles-per-gallon.

PRIUS VS HUMMER

Hollywood celebrities have adopted the quiet Prius as a kind of environmental badge of honor, while plenty of gas-guzzling Hummers continue to roar over the state’s freeways where they are the object of envy and scorn.

California, which has paced the U.S. in implementing regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming, aims to promote the use of hydrogen fuel to reduce its dependence on oil while improving the environment.

The state’s “hydrogen blueprint,” one of Schwarzenegger’s favorite programs, calls for up to 2,000 hydrogen vehicles and 100 refueling stations by 2010 at an estimated cost of $54 million.

The fuel outlets would be concentrated in San Diego, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento.

Depending on the results of the first phase, California would aim for 20,000 hydrogen vehicles and 250 fuel stations.

GM is developing a demonstration car called the Sequel powered by a compressed hydrogen engine, said Al Weverstad, executive director of GM’s Public Policy Center.

Weverstad said GM will complete its engineering analysis on hydrogen vehicles by 2010, but no timetable has been set for production and marketing programs. GM is concerned about development costs, he said, but added: “We are confident we will get there.”

Honda has developed a hydrogen fuel cell demonstration car and also a car running on compressed natural gas that can be refueled at home.

Steve Ellis, manager of fuel cell marketing for Honda in California, said the company’s strategy for lower-emission cars moves from high gasoline fuel economy to gasoline-electric hybrids to compressed gas to hydrogen fuel cell models.

Quit complaining

And while I agree with the point here, stop complaining about the sticker, I do think it is interesting that now that hybrids can use the HOV lanes, it’s funny to see those who haven’t done a bloody thing to either carpool or save fuel, whine and mewl about those same carpool lanes.

It’s just sad.

COMMENTARY
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Needle points

Instead of just building freeway lanes for all drivers, transportation planners have focused inordinate efforts on car-pool lanes that reward people for commuting. Now, thanks to a new California law, and a favorable ruling from federal government transportation officials, owners of three hybrid (gas and electric) automobile models – the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Honda Civic Hybrid – are also allowed to drive on the lanes. But the beneficiaries of government privileges rarely are happy with them, so now hybrid drivers are angry that in order to cruise the fast lanes they must put big yellow stickers on their cars identifying them as clean air vehicles.

They are right. They shouldn’t have to have the burden of placing a yellow sticker on their cars. In fact, let’s just free the lanes and let all drivers use them anytime they choose.

The inconsistency of tax deuctions/credits

Talbott: Hybrid owners may, may not, be rewarded

August 31, 2005

Gas prices might soon top $3. People are frustrated and angry. Some are even yelling at gas-station attendants.

I’m no model of equanimity, but rising gas prices do not get my goat. In historical terms, I know, gas is still comparatively affordable. Besides, my family drives a gas-sipper.

We own a 2002 Honda Insight, a gasoline-electric hybrid. It looks goofy, like some cartoonist’s conception of a car from the future. Its contours — top to bottom — are designed to slice smoothly through the wind.

It rides on low-rolling-resistance tires and is boosted by a 10-horsepower electric motor. The electric motor is powered by a series of batteries that are continually depleted and regenerated through acceleration and braking.

The Insight’s three-cylinder engine (which, like much of the car, is made of lightweight aluminum) has 990 cubic centimeters of displacement. That’s about half the size of the engine on a new Honda Gold Wing, a luxury motorcycle. Though the Insight weighs about the same as a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, it has more power than the old Bug.

Still, our odd little car can get 57 mpg on the highway, even if we’re traversing the Continental Divide at 65 mph. Economizing has never been so much fun.

Alas, our car has an automatic transmission, which means it isn’t the most efficient vehicle on the road. The manual-transmission Insight does even better: 61 mpg in the city and 66 mpg on the highway, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

All of this is a long way of saying that I have a particular, personal interest in the recent passage of the federal energy bill. With his usual rhetorical flourish, President Bush signed the bill into law this month. The legislation is full of gifts to the energy sector, but it throws a few morsels to the average consumer.

Not surprisingly, the president emphasizes the incentives for conservation. He even makes them sound good.

“If you’re in the market for a car, this bill will help you save up to $3,500 on a fuel-efficient hybrid or clean-diesel vehicle. And the way the tax credit works is that the more efficient the vehicle is, the more money you will save,” Bush said.

“Energy conservation is more than a private virtue; it’s a public virtue. And with this bill I sign today, America is taking the side of consumers who make the choice to conserve.”

A $3,500 tax credit, incidentally, is much more valuable than a $3,500 tax deduction. A deduction reduces your taxable income, whereas a credit reduces the tax you owe.

Fabulous. So should we trade in our automatic Insight for a more-efficient stick shift? Probably not. The 550-page Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes 11 pages of rules outlining which cars qualify for a tax credit. The rules are complex, so it’s hard to predict the tax credit for a specific hybrid car.

But the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has digested the rules and estimated the tax credits. The council predicts that that buying a new manual Insight — the highest-mileage car on the road — would give the buyer a whopping tax credit of zero. As in nada. Zip.

Why? Apparently, it’s because the manual Insight produces too many emissions. Though it qualifies as an “ultra low-emissions vehicle” (or ULEV), it pollutes slightly more than the Insight automatic, a “super ultra low-emissions vehicle” that is 90-percent cleaner than the average new vehicle.

But isn’t the goal to reward those who save gas, even if their emissions are only “ultra low” as opposed to “super ultra low”? Apparently not. The Lexus 400h hybrid will probably qualify for a $2,100 tax credit, even though it burns twice as much gas as the manual Insight. And the Ford Escape hybrid SUV will qualify for a $1,950 tax credit, even though it emits twice the volume of greenhouse gases as an Insight.

This is galling. But so is the impermanence of the tax credit. The energy bill’s incentives will be both confusing and short-lived. After Toyota sells its 60,000th Prius next year, for instance, tax credits for that vehicle will be gradually phased out.

Compare this quagmire of regulations with Colorado’s tax credits for hybrids. Here, it’s very simple. If you buy a 2005 Prius, you get a $3,434 state income-tax credit. And if you buy the 2005 manual Insight, you qualify for a $4,181 tax credit.

Colorado’s law actually encourages people to buy the most energy-efficient cars. The president says federal law does the same thing. Bush’s rhetoric once again varnishes the truth. He’ll get some mileage out of the charade. But he’s wasting our time and energy.

Reach Clint Talbott at talbottc@dailycamera.com.

Toyota and bio fuel in New Zealand

From car.co.nz...

Toyota supports bio fuel plan

Bio fuels must play an important part in any sustainable energy plan for New Zealand, according to the chairman of Toyota New Zealand, Bob Field.

He was commenting on the Government’s plan to introduce bio fuels for New Zealand motorists.

“While hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius represent the best technological link to a long-term sustainable energy future based on hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, traditional fossil fuels will continue to dominate for many years yet.

“Without strategies to reduce New Zealand’s dependency on fossil fuels, we will be increasingly vulnerable to international price pressures, security of supply and rising carbon emissions.”

Mr Field expects that widespread hydrogen fuel availability is up to 30 years away on new vehicles, and when combined with an average vehicle life of 20 years it would be at least half a century before the national fleet could be completely free of fossil fuel dependency.

“During that time the global fleet is expected to more than double, placing huge pressure on fossil fuel availability and world oil prices.

“The introduction of bio fuels to mitigate the adverse impact of fossil fuel usage in the transition to sustainable mobility is therefore a logical strategy for New Zealand, particularly if the bio additives are available locally.”

However, Mr Field said there needed to be a lot more consultation between the fuel and motor industries to ensure consumers had a clear understanding of their vehicles’ compatibility with the new fuels.

“Rising oil prices this year have accelerated the market trend away from large cars to smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, and this market-driven trend will make an ever greater contribution to mitigating the adverse consequences of our continuing dependency on fossil fuels,” he said.

Hack

Peter Bronson has been pathetically stirring up misinformed controversy in Cincinnati since the early nineties. I’m sure that when news which favors his political stances fails him, he reaches deep into his…bag of tricks, for columns like this.

You know, it’s one thing to go off on a riff, verbally smacking around someone, half for cathartic relief and half just for the humor’s sake, if you’re drinking with friends. But Mr. Bronson’s petulant little tirades tend to be humorless and frequently, relatively fact free as well.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Escape from reality in hybrid SUV
By Peter Bronson
Enquirer staff writer

As I watched the gas pump pass $30 like a stolen Corvette, I started thinking my next car might be the Birkenstock Edition of the Ford Escape hybrid, with extra-large Starbucks latte holders and satellite radio that plays only NPR stations.

Or maybe it will be that Toyota hybrid that is named after the dashboard saint of environmentalism – St. Prius.

Before Bronson starts wallowing in the sty of Limbaughesque wit he seems most (maybe only) capable of, there’s this.

Now I’m as irritated with the self-righteous as anyone. Maybe more so. The idea that Prius owners can be painted with such a broad brush is the lack of facts that might make Mr. Bronson’s otherwise tepid slaps, somewhat humorous. Of course, a lack of information and wit is what’s hallmarked the few columns of Bronson’s I’ve forced on myself.

I think they come with one of those stubborn John Kerry bumper stickers as standard equipment. (“Hillary or Else!” available on 2008 models.)

Again, it’s not funny because it’s not true for all Prius owners and, it’s not funny. So wer’re left with an impotent bully just barking out other’s peoples jokes.

Honda makes hybrids, too – a new species that you get by crossing a gasoline-sipping Civic with an electric golf cart. Pretty soon, everyone will drive hybrids. It’s the car of the future, the headlines say.

Relics that drink fossil fuels like frat boys on spring break are so over, we’re told. In Tomorrowland, cars will run on big suitcase-sized Energizers.

Once again, it’s not based in reality. SUV are selling, so I read, all over. The big American cars, like Mr. Bronson’s Escape, are selling all over. So why be insecure about the rising popularity of fuel efficient vehicles? Why? Who the hell knows? It’s not even important. The really deep question here is, why is it a bad thing to want a fuel efficient vehicle?

“Two days, 1,400 miles, 110 mpg, 1 tank,” the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.

“Gas prices fuel hybrid sales,” say headlines everywhere.

But there’s a different story if you pick up a copy of Car & Driver, which has been writing about automobiles since a “hot car” was a British MGB with less horsepower than a John Deere riding mower.

Here’s where we get to the outright obfuscation.

All is not absolutely perfect in Hybrid-topia.

Car & Driver columnist Brock Yates says it’s time to “talk a little reality.” He reports that “a Prius owner would have to drive at least 66,500 miles annually for five straight years, or gasoline would have to soar to 10 bucks a gallon, to equal the cost of operating a cheaper, conventional Corolla,” which costs $3,000 less.

Edmunds, the auto research site, calls the Prius “the most fuel-efficient and earth-friendly sedan on the market,” but also says “real-world driving results in lower mileage than the window sticker suggests.”

Ahh, the Edumunds report. Now that is some in-depth editorial work. Real investigative journalism one can really be proud of. The Edmunds report has been covered, I dare say, hundreds, perhaps thousands of other papers and on radio and television. But Bronson had to go to the venerable folks at Car & Driver to get the inside scoop?

Note also, none of the first two claims Bronson starts the above with are refuted. At least not by anything Bronson bothered to include in his editorial (nor in real life). But he’ll wrap himself in the legendary expertise of Car & Driver as though they were.

And there’s that battery problem, which should set off alarms for anyone who has force-fed Rayovacs to flashlights and remote-control robots.

Nobody seems to know for sure how long hybrid batteries last or keep full power.

Our first red herrring. No, no one knows how hybrid batteries last. Primarily because the useable life of the vast majority of them out here has arrived yet. Hybrids have been in this country for about seven years now. The manufacturers stand behind them for ten years. Thus far we have not seen a major failure. That’s pretty good. Taking into consideration that many of the people who bought hybrids early on have driven them extensively that’s even better.

But what’s really irritating about Bronson’s point here is, it invalidates itself.

“Although the warranties are for eight years or 100,000 miles, battery replacement will cost $5,300 for the Toyota and Lexus hybrids, and the Ford Escape replacements run a whopping $7,200,” Yates writes at www.caranddriver.com .

So, we don’t by experience how long the batteries last but so far, there have been no problems and the manufacturer stands behind them for a long time, but, for some reason the replacement cost of the batteries is supposed to be meaningful.

Sigh.

Then Bronson quotes C&D for battery prices. Yikes! That’s a lot a money we’re supposed to slap our head and exclaim. Well, maybe not. Once again, Mr. Bronson’s determination to get the latest information has led him astray of reality. Sadly for Mr. Bronson’s case the price for the Prius batteries, right now, is about $3000. And, given that I’m not worrying about replacing those batteries out of my own pocket for at least seven years or 100k miles, I know the price will be much less then (as the price has dropped considerably in just the last few years).

So what’s the point? Good question.

That’s not including disposal fees. Somewhere in the bowels of the EPA, bureaucrats are probably already scheming up an entire Superfund SWAT team to give hybrid owners a nasty shock for dumping dead batteries.

Seriously, is this funny?

Some emergency medical technicians are worried that hybrid wrecks might require Hazmat suits to avoid electric shocks and battery-acid burns.

I would love to see the source for this. The POG has posted numerous articles on the training for emergency crews in case of a rescue in a hybrid. While the challenges are different, they are in no way more dangerous than in a “standard” vehicle.

Of course, in Bronson’s world, this is not only a laughable ecological disaster but a suicide mission for police and fire crews.

A car dealer told Yates: “This is a feel-good purchase. Hybrids are a statement about the environment, and they simply do not square with reality.”

Hey Pete, by any chance was that “a car dealer” a GM dealer? Just asking?

Toyota’s research found that hybrid buyers want bigger “badges” to tell the world, “Look at me, I am a virtuous environmentalist.”

I have to tell you, as someone who does a lot of reading on hybrids (you know, it’s kind of part of the job) I don’t recall ever seeing a Toyota research paper that said that. Oh, is that a joke? I get it.

Saving fuel.

That’s hilarious.

Buyers go on waiting lists for a Prius because it’s as distinctive as a computer mouse on wheels.

Perhaps in Bronson’s world. I think the rest of the country might be motivated by $70+ a barrel oil. But hey, we’re not all wealthy op-ed writers in Cincinnati. So maybe I’m just being picky.

If they want to spend more to feel more eco-special than the rest of us, while others prefer the power-rush of a 425 horsepower Dodge Troglodyte pickup, so what? But spare us the preachy attitude that makes everyone else feel like social outcasts whose cars belong in the highway smoking section.

Well, I can only speak myself, not the hundreds of other Prius owners that read here but as far as I can tell, none of us care what Bronson spends on fuel. If he wishes to bathe in it, go right ahead (one wonders what possbile smell could be enhanced by gasoline, cheap gas, I’m sure, as premium is probably “french” or something). So this whole pretend pissing match he thinks exists, exists only the ignorance of small minded columinsts and Detriot flacks.

I guess I’ll pass on that hybrid Ford for now. But it does have a good name for a vehicle that lets environmentalists drive guilt-free SUVs: “Escape.”

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8301.

I’d forward this to Mr. Bronson as I have with a few other writers who wrote something I felt the urge to comment on, but I question whether his response could possibly rise above the articulate piece above. So I’ll spare him the grief and me the tedium.

You know, I would have no problem whatsoever if Bronson just said he hated hybrids and at least condescended to give us an actual reason, not a bunch of half-truths. Or maybe if he just said, “I hate them and I can’t tell you why.” But to just belittle something like a fuel efficient vehicle because it’s fuel efficient seems pointless to me. Add a lack of humor and I have to wonder why he even bothered.

Weekend Contest

Sorry for the delay but more importantly, thanks to all of you who entered. I;ll picking a winner and announcing their name tomorrow.

Diesel vs. Hybrids

Then again, maybe it won’t. From the aptly named Red Herring…

Diesels May Challenge Hybrids

GM says more U.S. cars could be powered by high-mileage diesel engines, but Toyota is betting on hybrids like its Prius.
August 29, 2005

New power train technology could bring diesel engines to the mainstream U.S. passenger car market, a General Motors representative said Monday, potentially giving motorists a high-mileage alternative to hybrid gas-electric vehicles.

“Diesel fuel is always going to be more efficient than gasoline,” said John Pinson, group manager for diesel engine research at General Motors who was speaking at a power train panel at the Infineon Technologies North America Media Day in Sonoma ,California .

Mr. Pinson added that diesel fuel is 12 percent more energy efficient than gasoline, so cars get more miles per gallon. While diesel has been widely accepted in Europe, nitrogen oxide emissions have kept it from being more common in North America .

A new non-sparking combustion technology, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), could improve fuel efficiency while reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, Mr. Pinson said, making diesels greener than gasoline cars.

‘Diesel is always going to be dirtier than hybrid engines.’
-David Hermance,
Toyota

Read the rest of this entry »