Bush takes a look under the hood

On Friday, President Bush took a look under the hood of two plug-in electric cars at the White House, including an electric pickup truck by Phoenix Motorcars.
Bush made a short speech to reiterate his State of the Union Address saying: “I firmly believe that the goal I laid out, that Americans will use 20 percent less gasoline over the next 10 years is going to be achieved, and here’s living proof of how we’re going to get there.
Along with the truck, a Toyota Prius was also on display.
The Prius on display had a high-power lithium-ion battery made by A123 Systems. It can power the car for about 40 miles and recharge in five hours. The white truck, made by Phoenix Motorcars, uses a different kind of high-powered battery made by Altair Nanotechnologies. The battery has a range of 130 miles and can be recharged in about 10 minutes with a rapid-charging unit or trickle-charged overnight with its onboard charger.
Watch video here
Read the New York Times article.
Via Treehugger.

Reaching out to the lost

I love this…

80-90% of deaf American’s do not attend church.
Here’s a real practical way to reach out to them.

Brian Sims of Brentwood Baptist Church (Brentwood, TN) is making church special for the deaf. In fact, Brian has created a church service exclusively designed for deaf people. It is called Brentwood Baptist Deaf Church.
Here are a few ways the church is reaching out to the hearing impared in their community:

  • Installed 30 speakers in the floor so that the congregation can literally feel the music.
  • The entire room is on a loop system which allows a deaf person with a hearing aid to tie into the sound system with the flip of a switch.
  • Each seat has a direct line of sight to the stage.
  • The seats are 30″ wide instead of the standard 18″ wide which gives congregants more space to communicate with sign language.
    Awesome! Maybe we can get my sister Kara to come and start a sign language ministry at encounter.

    Via: Churchrelevance.com

    • Nation of Islam leader bids farewell

    Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivered what he called a farewell speech Sunday night in Detroit. Farrakhan is battling prostate cancer, and will turn the movement over to others.
    Guess Farrakhan wasn’t too interested in the Oscars to give his speech on Sunday night.
    I don’t blame him.
    Hear the full report from NPR.