plant

General Motors today announced the opening of an assembly plant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. GM opened the power-train plant with local venture partner UzAvtosanoat.

According to the automaker, facility is GM's first engine plant in the Central Asian country. The plant is tasked with producing more than 225,000 new fuel-efficient Ecotec 1.2L and 1.5L engines for use in GM small passenger cars.

The new plant will produce finished machined components such as cylinder heads, cylinder blocks, and crankshafts. The plant has been equipped with the latest technology and has the flexibility to switch between production of engine … Read more

This is definitely not your average Ford Explorer rolling down the lines at the Chicago Assembly Plant. The bright red, full-size re-creation is made of 380,000 Lego bricks.

Ford today announced the unveiling of the Lego Explorer; a lifelike replica that took 2,500 hours (about three and a half months) to create.

The Legoland Florida-edition Explorer debuted in Chicago, but will soon be headed to the new 150-acre Legoland Florida theme park just outside Orlando.

According to Ford, the vehicle will be loaded onto a trailer with transparent sides so motorists can see the Lego Explorer on its … Read more

Though it's a sad comment on humanity, apps that play sound effects (preferably crude ones) are a popular source of entertainment. It's in our DNA. I'll bet that early cavemen invented the whoopee cushion before they mastered fire.

But if your sound effect needs are beyond the scope of your garden variety flatulence app, there's an excellent and free piece of software out there called SoundPlant that allows you transform any Mac or PC into a custom soundboard.

Honestly, the idea for this How To came to me as I was walking through my local Halloween … Read more

A nuclear plant in Marcoule in southern France suffered an explosion earlier today.

According to France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the explosion at the plant occurred in a furnace used for melting radioactive scrap metal. Earlier reports from the BBC suggested the fire occurred in a storage space for radioactive waste. In a statement on the matter, France's nuclear safety regulator, the French Safety Authority (ASN), said that one worker died and that four other people were injured, including one person who "suffered deep burns."

Local news site Le Midi Libre was first to report on … Read more

Talk about a flashback to the early 2000s. Tower defense (TD) games are still kicking strong, and just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Symphonic Tower Defense rolls around.

Symphonic Tower Defense is a rhythmic tower defense game by FrozenFire and JonSandness and is currently featured on Newgrounds as one of the top most played games on the site. In true Plants vs. Zombies style, Symphonic takes a linear, multilane, music-driven approach to the tower defense genre.

The title draws its inspiration from the once-popular Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series. Those who recall the golden … Read more

Drug companies have long used plants to produce pharmaceuticals--and tobacco plants, perhaps ironically, have been explored for their potential role in fighting such things as cancer, cavities, scorpion venom, and more.

The latest big news, announced at a press conference in London this morning, is that U.K. regulators have, for the first time, approved a human clinical trial of a monoclonal antibody produced using genetically modified tobacco plants.

Monoclonal antibodies are made from identical immune cells that have been cloned from a unique parent cell to fulfill a specific role. The roots of this idea, which date back more … Read more

Today on the show, we discover that Windows Phone 7 does have a life in the wild -- at least one phone does, anyway. Also, Plants vs. Zombies are taking over the world and BT, Steve, and I are headed for a Tetris showdown. RIM continues to try to defend its co-CEO setup (why!?) and fans rage, rage, against the dying of the cheap Netflix plans. We direct them elsewhere: toward the studios who want so much for streaming content in the first place.

The Supreme Court today rejected a global warming lawsuit against five big power companies, its most important environmental ruling since 2007 and a victory for the utilities and the Obama administration.

The justices unanimously overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that the lawsuit now involving six states can proceed in an effort to force the coal-burning plants to cut emissions of gases that contribute to climate change.

In a defeat for environmentalists, the Supreme Court agreed with the companies that regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the clean air laws.… Read more

The 2012 Ford Focus and Explorer models will have quieter cabins thanks to new laser inspection technology.

Ford today announced it is investing $100 million to install robotic plant laser inspection technology to better attach doors and other large panels to vehicles. A tighter fit equals less cabin noise, Ford said.

The new laser inspection will be used at the at Michigan Assembly Plant and the Saarlouis, Germany, plant, both plants build the 2012 Ford Focus. And then at the Chicago Assembly Plant, which builds the 2012 Ford Explorer.

According to Ford, robots are programmed to recognize any minute deviations … Read more