In India, that is, from Tata Motors, the big dog in India for carmaking.
Yahoo News:

Tata planned the car years ago as a safer and more affordable alternative for the millions who often ferry families of four, plus baggage, on motorbikes and scooters.

"It's a dream come true," Ashok Singh, a constable with the Delhi Police, said at the show. "I look forward to buying that car. My wife will be really happy."

New cars are preferable to buyers in India, where the absence of an organized market for second-hand cars makes buying them a tedious and sometimes risky process.

Hmm.

From ScienceDaily:

“One possible explanation is through cholesterol’s important role in the inflammation process,” he noted.

“As you exercise, your muscles can become sore because they are rebuilding muscle mass. More cholesterol may result in a more robust inflammatory response. We know that inflammation in some areas, such as near the heart, is not good, but for building muscles it may be beneficial, and cholesterol appears to aid in this process.”

Riechman said that subjects who were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs while participating in the study showed lower muscle gain totals than those who were not.

“Needless to say, these findings caught us totally off guard,” he explains.

It appears that we know about as much as the human body's actual biochemistry as we do about the Earth's climate.

ScienceDaily:

By looking at how chimpanzees prepare their food, the research team discovered that one colony used stone tools to crack nuts, whereas another colony used wooden tools as well as stone. They found these methods of preparing food have spread 4000km from East to West Africa over the more than 100,000 years. The team also found this true of other techniques, such as grooming. The research suggests that behavioural variety is due to how chimpanzees socialise rather than genetics as previously thought.

Hmm.  Culture is not determined by biology.  What could it possibly mean?

Well.  Maybe.  In fruit flies.  (Pun/slur not intended. Really.)
Science Daily:

Among the team's discoveries is that male fruit flies, which typically court females, also actively court males when they are given a daily dose of ethanol. "We identified three molecules that are crucial for "ethanol-induced courtship disinhibition," Han said.

Another reason not to drink a six-pack a day.  Or, maybe a reason to drink that six-pack every day.  I'm trying to be open-minded and diversity-oriented, here.

And, anyone who's spent much time in a bar knows all about "ethanol-induced courtship disinhibition."  This, of course usually but does not always result in being "shot down," which is a major factor in "disappointment-induced ethanol disinhibition".

Who knew?

Kansas City Star:  Levee breaks in Nevada, 3,500 stranded

A canal levee ruptured early Saturday after heavy rainfall, pouring more than 3 feet of near-freezing water into about 800 homes and stranding about 3,500 people in their agricultural desert town, authorities said.

A 30-foot-long section of the Truckee Canal broke around 4 a.m. in Fernley, about 33 miles east of Reno, officials said. No injuries were reported.

Truckee River water flowing into the canal was diverted upstream and water in the canal was receding, said Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.

The area had gotten snow plus heavy rain on Friday as a storm pummeled the West Coast, raising a threat of mud slides and flooding in California, blacking out thousands of customers and blanketing the Sierra Nevada range with deep snow.

BBC News (via Fark):

The Agent . . . They operate like a footballer's agent: fixing deals, arranging contracts, smoothing out local difficulties. . .

The Banker Accessible online, face-to-face or via a personal hotline, the Banker is unique in the world of financial services for charging no APR, asking few if any questions. . .

The White Knight . . . the White Knight parent appears at little to no notice to resolve awkward situations. . .

The Bodyguard The primary function of the Bodyguard is to protect the client from a range of embarrassing social situations . . .

The Black Hawk . . . unique among helicopter parents due to their willingness to go to any lengths - legal or illegal - to give their offspring a positional advantage over any competition. . .

Go to the link above to read the entire taxonomy.

Iowahawk hosts some Iowa Caucuses.  (Warning.  This account may not be completely, totally accurate in all respects.  Sorry for the language, too, by the way.)  An excerpt:

7:31 PM: Jesus, what a disaster. The Huckabee people are speaking in tongues and accusing the Romney people of believing in dinosaurs. The McCain people have invited the network news people for their caucus in the garage, and that *censored*ing Tim Russert has his lighting man standing on the hood of (Iowahawk Wife )Tammy's Civic. I open up the garage door and shut off the garage power at the fuse box, figuring they'll get cold and go away.

7:42 PM: As if things couldn't get any worse, now the Democrats are coming upstairs to use the hall toilet because of the problem in the basement. The environmentalists only use one square of paper, and the others steal entire rolls. None of them wash their hands. I'm headed out on the deck to smoke another doob with the Thompson people, who seem to be the only sane ones here.

I've got a good idea that's how this entire election year is gonna go . . . our country is in fact Doomed.  I think I'm gonna switch from Thompson to Obama.  That way I can turn my brain completely off, too.

Captain's Quarters:

Some CapQ readers have pointed to the latest numbers from Zogby in Iowa as a harbinger of a Fred Thompson surprise for tomorrow's caucuses. In their daily tracking poll, conducted by traditional telephone surveys rather than on-line polls, Zogby shows a significant bump in support over the last three days -- enough to tie Fred with John McCain for third place:

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, gained a bit on Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. Huckabee cumulative three-day tracking total equaled 28% support among likely Republican caucus–goers, while Romney moved up from 25% to 26% support. Arizona Sen. John McCain remained in third place at 12%, tied with former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has seen a late-breaking surge. Among Democrats, 5% were yet undecided just three days ahead of the caucuses. Among Republicans, 6% were yet unsure.

Huckabee’s support spans all age groups, but he is particularly strong among voters under age 30.

. . .
And the biggest shame of that is that Thompson could still be the unity candidate. Given his track record on federalism, Thompson offered the complete conservative package -- smaller government, lower taxes and spending, pro-life, hard as nails on terrorism and only slightly less so on immigration, and the ability to charge life into the Reagan alliance that supports these ideals. He has been remarkably consistent, and the only real detriment would be his lack of executive experience and his inability to put together a real campaign.

Of all of the people running for President, the only one I think I'd be truly comfortable with, knowing what I know about all of them right now, is Thompson.  He seems to be running on the platform of "the only person who should be President is someone who doesn't really want the job."  That in and of itself is enough to get my vote, for now.  Of course, I'm not in Iowa, or New Hampshire, or South Carolina, or any of the early caucus/primary states, so I might not get the chance.

Our political process is well and truly f**ked up.

From Bill Whittle, at Eject! Eject! Eject!

We’ve spent a lot of time with John Boyd, because I and others believe his theories not only won the war, but if properly applied they might do the nearly impossible and win the peace as well.

If I understand this enigmatic and complex man correctly, he came to the conclusion that there was something beyond the Perfect Sword; something beyond even the Perfect Swordsman. Because as Sun Tzu pointed out, there is a level of warrior satori beyond even that. Beyond them both lay Swordlessness.

Swordlessness is not peace and it is certainly not surrender. Swordlessness uses nothing but the enemy’s sword against him. Perfect Swordlessness is a sublime victory so complete that there is no fight at all. It is over before it begins.

General Petraeus – just perhaps – is in the process of winning such a victory in Iraq. By brilliant diplomacy, deep understanding of the culture and the judicious use of gunpowder and money, it appears he has severed most of the Sunni tribes from al Qaeda and used them as “Awakening” peacekeeping militias against their former allies. General Petraeus is not fighting the last war; he is fighting the next one. He did not arrive there and just hope for the best. He observed. He oriented. He decided. And he acted. And then he observed again to see what effect he had. And again. And again.

This is not firepower. This is not attrition. This is, rather, an intelligent, delicate, sophisticated, maneuver-based strategy. A light, but sometimes deadly touch. Fingertip control. Water flowing downhill, into the cracks which our enemy cannot fill.

And while you can criticize the President for not taking a relatively unknown, low-ranking general and giving him the whole ball of wax sooner, you might also note that Gen. Creighton Abrams' radical change of strategy in Vietnam was implemented only after it was well and truly too late.

If this continues, Gen. Petraeus will have walked into the camp of the enemy and used his own sword against him. That is a profound species of victory.

God willing, the REAL "first draft of history."

Michael Totten, from Fallujah:

It has been months since the jihadists have been able to murder anyone in Fallujah. Only a few weeks before, however, a handful showed up on a street corner and handed out anti-American snuff films on DVD. Apparently they thought the local civilians would be impressed. They were not. They called the Iraqi Police, and the propagandists were taken away to the jail.

The main Jolan market was up ahead, but first we passed through a neighborhood that, unlike almost anywhere else in Iraq, received 24 hours a day of electricity.

Lieutenant Barefoot pointed up toward the sky. “See the electricity poles?” he said. I did, and I was amazed.

The neighborhood was wired properly as though it were part of a modern First World country. Gone all of a sudden were the hideously tangled rat's nest of wires and cables that make up most of Iraq's electrical grid.

In fact, electrical wire rat's nests are common in "Third World" countries, even ones much less troubled than Iraq.

Go and read Totten's full article at michaeltotton.com (there's pictures there, too).