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A chance to look at the birth of the universe 3.5 billion years ago. What was there before Brahma's thousand yugas and farther back in time to creation of the universe.  How are such images taken by the Webb telescope? What is a light year and what does it mean to say that the images shown here are 13 billion light years away. Hint: A light year is how long it takes for light to reach us from the vaccuum of space far out in the skies. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. In one year it has travelled 6 trillion miles through the vacuum of space. For these most distant objects detected by the Webb telescope, the particles of light have traveled some 13 billion light years, traveling across space for 13 billion years. It tells what the distant objects were like 13 billion years ago.  The light of a thousand suns mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita is not just a metaphor. When on sees the immensity of space everything down here on earth looks insignificant before the Creator. ...

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Japan's car exports have grown in the last six years to double what they were before, growing to $40 billion. This includes a jump in export of SUV's vehicles. Just in the first quarter of 2018 the export of automobiles from Japan to U.S. is up by 10%. Japan is not keen on talking about this issue. President Trump is looking at negotiating a one on one trade deal with Japan instead of through the TPP agreement. as this is seen as a better way to address a $60 billion trade deficit. TPP is not a solution for the U.S. imbalance in trade with Japan as Japan already has no tariffs on imported cars. Yet other barriers exist that make it difficult for U.S. automakers. Ford exited Japan in 2016 and the U.S. has only 1% of the Japanese market. Japanese buyers stay away from American cars and prefer the smaller highly fuel efficient cars made in Japan by Japanese automakers. Perception of buying home made also exist. Other barriers also exist such as zoning and for setting up dealerships, unique safety standards. Japanese automakers make most of the sedans in the U.S. but export the SUV's from Japan. ...

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Electric vehicles (EV's) get a tax credit under the Biden Climate Bill also called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. To qualify for the tax credit of upto $7500 buyers of EV's have to meet income and other requirements. Only cars with final assembly in the US qualify for the tax credit which should help boost American EV manufacturing capabilities and technology. This removes the problem of automobile job losses for factories shipped overseas.  EV's must not be priced above $25,000 for 2 year used cars, and $55,000 for new cars. SUV's can go upto $80,000. Income limits (as AGI) are $300,000 for joint filers, 150,000 for single filers for new cars. For old cars it is $150,000 for joint filers and $75,000 for single filers.

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The unconventional style of Ford CEO Jim Hackett, who comes from a furniture maker in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is confounding some of the Ford management team. Mr. Hackett frequently alludes to a theoretical physicist Geoffrey West in his memos and uses terms such as "think phase" and "clock speed" that require some translation in Ford's management ranks. Ford's profits in 2018 are expected to lag Chrysler and GM in 2018. In one of his moves Hackett recently announced he was pulling Ford out of car manufacturing to focus on SUV's.

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GM will hasten plant closings as its cash situation deteriorates and it finds itself without access to credit, as the credit markets remain frozen in the global financial crisis that hit in late September. GM will hasten closing of Moraine, Ohio plant, Grand Rapids Stamping Plant to close December 2009, and Janesville, Wisconsin plant to close December 23, 2008. All 3 plants make parts for large and midsize pickup trucks. Accelerated plant closigs save money. The Janesville plant assembles GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe, and Chevrolet Suburban, all large SUV's. whos sales have fallen badly and precipitiously. And more than 40% of the parts produced at Grand Rapids went into large SUV's. Othe plant closings GM announced earlierinclude ending production of a truck lie in Toluca, Mexico, and ending production at an assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. All are part of the shift to cars, smaller cars, and crossover vehicles to respond to changing consumer preferences after gas prices went above $4 a gallon. ...

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GM's efforts to build its Buick and Cadillac brands in 2012-2014. The introduction of the new Buick SUV, the Encore, and the new Cadillac ATS models.

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Sales of Ford's best sellig pickup truck F-150 fell 31% in May, compared to May 2007, and sales of SUV's and pickup trucks dropped 24%. Its sad that it took so long for the American car companies to phase down from the large vehicle business and shift resources in a big way to smaller cars.

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The pandemic brings together companies in three countries U.S, Italy and France with the merger of Fiat Chrysler with PSA. Fiat Chrysler is owned by the company Exor owned by the Agnelli family in Italy. PSA is owned by the Peugeot family in France. In addition the government of France and Dongfeng Motors in China have stakes in PSA.  During the 2008-2009 crisis Chrysler merged with Fiat with the help of the Obama administration which pursued a policy of promoting small cars. Instead the merger saved jobs but led to the PR effort for small Fiat cars and the focus on the Jeep Cherokee and SUV's like the Dodge Ram. Today one hardly ever hears about small Fiats from Fiat Chrysler that was the basis for government help on the merger. 

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Indian Navy has expanded to 140 warships and technology modernization with domestically produced ships. About another half of that 140 will be added and produced inside India in the next few years. This effort to build the Indian Navy comes with the need to ensure freedom of the seas for open navigation. Much of the world's trade happens for raw materials and manufactured goods through the shipping lanes including the seas in the Indian Ocean and adjoining region. Indian Navy is showing the results of this effort as it protects the oceans in its region in 2024 in the interest of all nations. The US is supporting India's effort with flow of new technologies. The French are also supporting India's efforts and president Macron is in India this week. He will attend the Republic Day celebration as a special guest in New Delhi on Jan 26, after an unprecedented road show in an open SUV in Jaipur today with prime minister Modi.

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Using low sulfur diesel fuel Mahindra's SUV and trucks can better gas mileage than competitors who make hybrid vehicles. Mahindra will start exporting from India in 2009 with 45000 vehicles sales target for 2010.

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Another problem complicating sales of pickup trucks and larger suv's is that as prices of this type of used vehicle have dropped precipitiously these owners are out of equity and find it harder to come in for trade-in and purchase of new vehicles. So 1 72% zero interest plan is being offered by GM to counter this. GM has hired Citigroup to help it sell the Hummer brand.

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Its the CAFE for the whole fleet that really matters and this has not changed. This lets companies like Toyota and Ford sell hybrids as a fashion statement and then turnaround and sell gas guzzling SUV's because the low CAFE's for their whole fleet lets them do it. Its and outdated energy policy from the time when gas cost $10 a barrel. Leonhardt makes a point that is getting more coverage in the media.

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GM's management decisons in the last 20 years have failed to put innovation and making courageous decisions right up front. Instead its management with the support and acquiescence of its board favored the status quo and stuck too long with what worked at the time like the SUV's that it had invested in, and refused to take any bold decisions in favor of fuel efficiency. ANd it starved new projects like Saturn of resources.

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Steep discounts continue to hurt profits at GM by eroding margins. Profits were $300 million lower because of discounts. With special gains GM's profit was $3,687 per vehicle in North America, without the gains it was $1,653 per vehicle. Ford made $2,806 per vehicle. Emerging markets showed adrop with the car market in China cooling off. One of GM's joint ventures with SAIC Motor in China saw a decline in sales of 32% in the 1st quarter. Chairman Akerson said the challenge facing GM was to reduce incentive costs, and cost cutting to counter rising commodity costs that pushes up the cost of finished parts. On car buying patterns, Akerson says its not all about smaller cars as the smaller fuel efficient SUV's are also attracting buyers, and the smaller cars are better equipped and have higher prices.

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Mario Balotelli, the soccer star who played for Marseille decides to go back to his hometown of Brescia, Italy. Along the way turning down offers to play for Flamengo in Brazil or impossible sums of money for playing on a Chinese team. His mother cried when she heard that he was coming back. He was once the only black player on the Italian team when he scored the winning goal against a stunned German team by going from one end of the field to the other. 

His offer from Brescia is 4.4 million dollars but that was enough for him to come home, accepting the offer at once. Even while playing for Milan he preferred to commute the distance and stay in Brescia. 

He will no longer be alone as the only black player on the soccer field. Brexcia is now extracommunitaria as they say in Italy, a multicultural city with 19% of its citizens from other backgrounds. Many players from West Africa are now playing in the Italian league.  

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Tax changes for autombiles as part of a"fiscal correction" were announced by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. The base excise tax on most goods manufactured in India was raised from 10% to 12%. The excise tax on larger cars with gasoline engines above 1.2 litres or diesel engines above 1.5 litres was raised to 24% from 22%. The customs tax on imported cars and SUV's over $40,000 and gasoline engine over 3000 cubic centimetres, or diesel engine over 2500 cubic centimetres was increased to 75% from 60%.