As part of the huge $787 billion “economic stimulus” created in Washington last winter, Congress OK’d a tax credit of between $4,200 and $5,500 for Americans who purchase an electric vehicle.

Some controversy arose as to which vehicles, exactly, qualified. The IRS recently ruled any electric vehicle qualifies for the subsidy, so long as it is road-worthy.

That means the model in question needs to have side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts, and be capable of going at least 15 to 25 mph. Meet those requirements, combine the federal credit with similar incentive plans in many states, and many a creative subject of the realm has discovered the government will now pay virtually the entire cost of acquiring a new … golf cart.

“We thought Cash for Clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic,” The Wall Street Journal editorialized on Oct. 17.

“The purchase of some models could be absolutely free,” Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma enthused. “Is that about the coolest thing you’ve ever heard?”

The IRS also has ruled there’s no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, the Journal reports, inspiring some enterprising investors to stock up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later on.

Full report

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People will need to consider turning vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

Times Online

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Almost two years ago, Barack Obama told the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle that anyone who wanted to open a new coal-burning electrical plant would get “bankrupted” by his policies.

Now, they may not even get the coal to burn, thanks to the EPA.  The Washington Times’ Amanda Carpenter reports that the agency has held up scores of surface mining permits in an action that will get the attention of coal-producing states — and their Senators.

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Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones.

The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice.

Writing in Nature journal, a team showed that monopoles gather to form a “magnetic current” like electricity.
The phenomenon, dubbed “magnetricity”, could be used in magnetic storage or in computing.

BBC

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Here’s a story from Westminster, Colorado that will shine up your day: Police say 34-year-old degenerate Kevin Salyers sexually assaulted a young girl at the local Wal-Mart, then tried to flee.

Wheelchair-bound Cameron Aulner was working at a table in the front when he heard someone yelling to stop the creep from leaving. Despite his injuries from falling off a roof, Cameron tackled the perv and held him down till cops arrived.

True Crime Report

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