I agree. It is excellent news for those areas. If the being 2.5 had made cars that they could sell not only to the US but the rest of the world they may not be in the mess that they are currently in.

I doubt that the UAW will be too happy as these will be non union plants. It could also increase the pressure on the Big 2.5 as Nissan will be able to churn out more cars.

In some way I am not that surprised that the Europeans swept the board. The French have a reputation for quirky and stylish designs here in the UK. The Volvo's did well to get away from their boxy but safe image.

Well even though there are no American cars in the winners list, at least the Americans can hold out hope that there are no Japanese cars in the list. Yet.

Personally I am surprised that the Aston Martin DB9 did not win a category.

Even though the gifts are solely for the pets use it should be treated as tax evasion, and lets send any celeb who does not declare it on their tax return and pay tax on the gift as fraudsters. I guess a few might actually enjoy becoming the prison bitch.

If the dogs do not pay tax why do all the people who own movie and TV pet stars claim that exemption? The IRS would not stand for it. So why should a celebs dog be any different?

Well maybe next time they do a Grand Prix in London I will see if they can get the President of the Peoples Republic of Tooting to present the trophy.

They are going after the wrong target, the target should be Sony, though they could say that Apple and Dell incorrectly specified the batteries and therefore would be liable, but Sony should have warned Apple and Dell of any problems if the specs had drawbacks.

Targeting the customer may be a solution in the short term for METI but in the long run it will push customers away from Japanese companies. Why buy a japanese component product if you get fined by a Japanese Ministry if something goes wrong?

Yes power sockets in all seat and even ethernet, which would eliminate risks of wireless radiation, would give customers a reason to book with an airline. Many take laptops even on short haul and rather than sit there bored will work on the flight. You would only need a one meter cable from laptop to seat arm will suffice. Airlines with the service could get business from those that fo not offer it and even at a premium. They may say that there is no interest, but many are waiting to see what transpires before commiting themselves.

On the comment about ITMS selling in lossless format that would mean I would need an iPod with 1.4Tb to get all mine on, and 120 Gb would be great but since I use 192KBit I passed that milestone some months ago. I wonder if my iTunes collection will continue to exceed the iPod capacity?

Well they have already cracked the German and UK versions of the RFID passports, so I guess that these will be just as useless. So if they can be cracked so easily what was the purpose just to raise money in passport fees? or slip through some other stupid security law?

If they can be cracked then they can be faked. so the only if they notice a passport for a pack of razor blades. then odds are good that it is a terrorist! :-)

As a UK user who could benefit from this I am not impressed, I love listening to the BBC radio stations particularly BBC7, but until they get the rights sorted out for putting these out as a podcasts they will not get me to add a device that will eat up my iPod battery. I would prefer them as podcasts. If I wanted to get a portable DAB radio then I would get a purpose designed one, not a clip on for an iPod.

Whilst it may be an honest mistake, has anyone considered it could be the result of a disgruntled employee? Just about to be laid off and wanted revenge.