Word: richters
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...Chris Richter, senior research analyst for CLSA, a Hong Kong-based brokerage house, says smaller players are starting to build electric cars because the playing field is fairly level. EVs are not as complicated to manufacture as hybrids, and the market is in its infancy. Toyota, for all its success with the Prius, has said it could launch EVs in the U.S. by 2012, but has not announced plans to introduce them in Japan. "If you're third or fourth, you'll never beat Toyota or Honda head on," says Richter. "But you can beat them if you change...
...Consumers, though, are still wary of electric vehicles because of their limited range and the time it takes to replenish batteries. "You go out for the day and you don't want to get stuck," says Richter. A full charge for the i-MiEV takes 7 hours; a quick charge of 80% takes 30 minutes. Mitsubishi's development group wanted to ease concerns by making a car with a range significantly greater than the average daily commute of about 25 miles (40 km) in Japan's urban areas. But until charging stations become prevalent in cities, worries will remain. "Infrastructure...
...Giorgio Napolitano, the 83-year-old President of the Republic, arrived in L'Aquila on Thursday and quickly and publicly demanded to know why several modern buildings had been so utterly destroyed by an earthquake that was not a record setter on the Richter scale. "People need to search their consciences," Napolitano said...
...architectural retrofitting standards are by now accepted practices in the developed world. Italy, a G-8 country - and host of the next summit of industrialized countries, in July - has been exposed before for lagging behind on antiseismic safety. In 2002 an earthquake that registered just 5.5 on the Richter scale brought down an elementary school in the small southern Molise region, killing a teacher and 27 children. That school collapsed even though it was built after new national standards were imposed following the quake that killed more than 2,500 people in the southern town of Irpinia in November...
...remains to be seen whether the buildings that were destroyed, which include a hospital and at least one school, were constructed according to the national seismic standards that were implemented after the Irpinia tragedy. The last major Italian earthquake, which measured 5.5 on the Richter scale, struck in San Giuliano di Puglia in the southern region of Molise in 2002. A teacher and 27 children were killed in that quake after a school collapsed. In February, five people were found guilty of negligence, including the town's mayor, whose daughter was one of the victims. (See pictures of an earthquake...